The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 658

Chapter 658: She Hit Him Like Lightning

Vesper let out a cold chuckle. "Get the hell out of my cell."

That did it.

Lucian moved.

No warning. No wind-up. One second he was standing six feet from her and the next his hand was around her throat and her back was against the stone wall, her manacles pulled taut and her feet off the ground.

He didn’t squeeze. The hand was a frame. A display case. A way of holding Vesper Willow’s face at the exact height where she had to look into his eyes. He leaned in close enough that she could see the gold flooding his irises, the pupil narrowing to a slit that wasn’t human, the muscle in his jaw jumping with the rhythm of a man holding back something.

When he spoke, his voice was not singular, his wolf braided with his own.

"You spit on her. You sat in a cell you earned and spit on a woman who came to set you free. You called her a whore. You laughed. You think this is amusing. She might have come down here with compassion. I am not her."

His grip tightened. Vesper’s breath shortened.

"Tristan is done being your weapon. River is done being your target. You don’t touch her. You don’t practice blood magic. You don’t go near Tristan or River in any way, through any channel, by any method. And you show respect." He let that settle. "Consider this your first and only warning. Our next conversation won’t have words. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Vesper gasped.

He released her and she fell to the floor.

"Say her name. You know what it is."

Vesper’s mouth trembled. Her eyes were wet and furious.

"River."

"Full name and title."

There was a long moment of silence.

"River Aelindor, Crown Princess of Aelindris."

He turned without a word.

The door closed behind him.

The corridor was empty. Quiet. The palace was holding its breath the way palaces did when something seismic had happened in their lower levels and the vibrations hadn’t reached the upper floors yet.

✦✦✦

AELINDRIS PALACE - EAST WING

Lucian was following River’s scent trail like a compass following north.

Her emotions were flooding into his chest and he did not like them. She was afraid but not for herself. Lucian could tell the difference. This felt closer to anxiety, like a clock was ticking, and fear of what happened if she wasn’t fast enough. Life-or-death urgent.

Lucian turned the corner.

She ran into him. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

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