The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 78

Chapter 78: Dad? DAD. We’ve Done This Before. Haven’t We?

Dexmon opened his eyes.

The ceiling swam.

It was familiar. He knew this ceiling. The same that had watched him sleep since he was six years old, carved with the sigils of every Drakenfell king who came before him. He’d stared at it after his first kill and after his first shift.

His mouth tasted like something chemical and sweet. He tried to swallow and his throat locked, muscles spasming around nothing.

He turned his head and the room tilted sideways, hard, and his stomach rolled with it.

"You’ve been unconscious for a few hours," Alaric said, voice calm.

Dex squinted. Alaric sat in the chair beside his bed, legs crossed, a book open on one knee.

The doors of Dexmon’s chambers opened, and King Tiberon entered.

He hadn’t slept. Dex could tell by the way his father moved, controlled but heavy, a machine running on discipline and nothing else.

Tiberon looked at Alaric first.

"Status."

"He just woke," Alaric said.

"What happened?" Dex asked, sitting up.

"That," Alaric said, "is a question I’d very much like to hear you answer."

"Where’s Agnes?" It came out before he could think. Automatic.

Alaric’s hand stopped mid-page.

"Interesting," Alaric said. He closed the book and removed his spectacles.

Then he looked at Dex with clinical curiosity.

"Say that name again."

Dex opened his mouth. Closed it. Something moved behind his eyes, a pressure that built and then receded like a tide pulling back from shore. Agnes. He’d asked for Agnes. Why had he asked for Agnes?

"I don’t..." He shook his head. "I don’t know why I said that."

"Mm."

"I don’t know, Alaric."

"I heard you the first time." Alaric stood and poured water into a glass. "Drink. Your kidneys have been processing something we haven’t identified yet."

Dex took the glass, drinking greedily. He was parched.

"Agnes is in custody," Tiberon said, not gently. "She was arrested yesterday. Every mage-librarian in the castle is working on your blood as we speak. Whatever she did to you, it involved dark magic. Beyond that, we’re still identifying the compound."

Dex stared at him. "She was arrested?"

"For what she did to you, yes. Among other things." Alaric handed him a second glass of water. "Keep drinking."

"What other things?"

"That is an evolving list."

Something behind Tiberon’s eyes went cold and still in a way Dex didn’t understand.

"What do you remember?" Tiberon asked.

"About what?" Dex was having a hard time remembering anything. "I had lunch with Agnes.... What day is it?"

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