The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate

"A moon blood once traded her Fae power for her wolf. Not until she returns to the heavens is the Fae power restored."

"Only the purest fated ties can pull one soul back from death. You were crossing death’s doors and the First Wolf King’s soul found yours, yanking it back to the mortal realm. Your soul and your wolf’s are bound to his, healing. Nature correcting what was once taken."

The room was frozen. Outside of Maelor, whose eyes widened for a split second, and Nightspire, whose pokerface faltered for a moment, his eyes moving from Dexmon, to Fin, then to Serena.

Fin’s hand opened at his side. Slowly. As if he’d been holding something invisible and just realized he could let go.

"The First Wolf King’s mark is what pulled you back. But the Dragon King’s mark timed exactly right, is why you are standing here right now."

Dex’s jaw locked. He couldn’t look at Fin. If he did, he would have to acknowledge that both of them had saved her. That neither could have done it alone. The thought sat in his chest like a coal he wasn’t ready to hold yet.

"Your tie with him spans multiple lifetimes. A severing that intertwined is fatal. Death by soul severing kills the soul for good and is a very painful way to die, as you learned."

Serena shuddered at the memory. She’d had painful experiences, but that one topped them all.

Fin felt the shudder through their matebond before he saw it, and his throat bobbed. He remembered the sensation on his own body through their matebond. Even before she was marked, he felt the pain like it was his own.

"When you broke the bond, there was nothing to sever on his side. He marked you again before the bond was altered permanently. Only under that specific criteria are you alive today. "

"The Fae power awakened on death’s door, is now with you as a mortal. You have them both to thank."

Serena inhaled sharply at that, swallowing the lump that always formed in her throat when she thought about the chain of events that led up to severing her matebond to begin with. And the mortifying story after she passed out that Elara had, unfortunately, given her a play-by-play of. The most recent detail was being hosed off in the shower naked. Every time she learned more about that day, she wanted to crawl in a hole and hide.

Fin felt a spike of embarrassment through their matebond so potent it almost made him grin knowing exactly what it was from. He bit the inside of his cheek. Now was catastrophically not the time.

"Warnings for you. The High Emperor of Orosia is aware of your power, and the clock has started."

The lake behind them flared with a map. It zoomed out from an aerial view, the water’s surface hardening into a luminous, topographic projection of Skardos and the lands beyond, borders and territories glowing.

Aeron leaned forward, eyes tracing the borders with the hunger of a man who had spent decades waiting for a map that moved.

"The Scrolls of the First Accord, held by the Gamma, shall point. An artifact will be retrieved for each. The High Emperor is also in search of these. Do not let him get to them first under any circumstance."

"If you do not obtain the artifact of measure, he will secure a decisive advantage. Drakenfell, Nightspire, and Shadowclaw will fall within ninety days. A fate worse than Frostborne will repeat across every dominion of Skardos."

The number landed across the room like a blade hitting stone. Serena could feel tension radiating from both Fin and Dex through both matebonds. Identical reactions of calculation and resolve.

"Those who accompany you for these will be putting their lives in danger. You will not succeed alone. Choose wisely."

Gavriel’s brow twitched. He and Dex have been walking into stupid odds together since they were fourteen. This was nothing.

The map shifted, pulling east, past the Draken coast, until it settled on a landmass none of them wanted to see. Orosia. The lines around it pulsed red. It then moved to the Crythian Expanse and then to the Isle of Eldoria.

The voices spoke again.

"A message to the First Dragon and Wolf King Incarnates. Assess the offensive combat skillset of the Dragon Queen. In wolf form, she must relinquish command to her wolf, whose instincts and battle craft will exceed her own."

Serena’s stomach dropped. Great. Lovely. Because she had a wolf form that was so accessible.

But when she caught the expression on Elara’s face, she decided to fake confidence, giving Elara a look that translated roughly to: we’ll figure it out. Elara returned one that translated to: will we though.

Dex’s eyes flicked to Serena, not bothering to hide his absolute disdain to the entire task. But his attention was the cold focus of a commander already calculating the battlefield ahead.

"Dragon Queen Incarnate, be warned, death waits for you."

Serena rolled her eyes, not bothering to hide her irritation. A here we go again, expression on her face. Alaric watched her and exhaled through his nose.

Dex also caught the eye roll. His mouth twitched once. Gone before it formed. She had just been told she might die and her first instinct was irritation. He recognized it because it was his.

"Your power is bound to the High Orosian Emperor and the tether has been growing stronger. If it remains, he will forge a portal to your side. You will be alone and forced to battle him and will fall by his blade."

At that revelation, Fin’s heart slammed painfully in his chest. His focus tunneled onto Serena. He had no true measure of her skill with a blade. But he heard Hyran’s mindlink in that Fae throne room and he knew she lost a fight. That’s how her and Dexmon met.

But even if she had some skill, it’d be nowhere near the level a trained king would bring to the field.

He drew a slow breath, letting the weight of it settle through him, his resolve hardening like tempered steel.

The fire still roared, but the voices seemed to be waiting for Serena’s response.

She took a breath. "Is it possible to accomplish this task without shifting?"

Hyran’s gaze sharpened on her. She was already looking for alternate routes, secondary options, tactical workarounds. Good. He would have been worried if she hadn’t.

"Your wolf is necessary. If you do not train with her, the chance of her failing is also high. Her skill is stronger than your own, yet not in the measure required. Even with preparation, luck must be on her side."

"The Dragon King Incarnate and First Wolf King will both be able to retrieve artifacts if you perish."

Fin’s entire body rejected the sentence. His shoulders locked. His neck corded. His hands closed into fists so tight the tendons stood out across his forearms. The ancestors had just told him there was a contingency plan for her death, and he wanted to burn the contingency plan, the basin, and the concept of contingency to the ground.

Dex’s wolf surged, speaking through him so his voice was no longer singular. "She is unable to shift and her wolf isn’t healed."

"She will be able to shift before the next moon, but it will be painful. Her wolf will be weak, but the first scroll must be completed by then. It is too early, yet the only choice."

The chamber went cold. The kind of silence that falls when every person in a room processes the same threat at the same time and none of them like the math.

Fin’s eyes closed for one full second. When they opened, they were calm.

"We are finished. You may resume your complicated personal arrangements."

The fire shrank back down to the regular dim glow. No one moved for a moment, carrying the weight of everything that had just been spoken.

Serena’s eyes landed on Dexmon, with genuine concern for his well-being. His torso was a map of wounds, some half-healed by the pink magic Serena had pushed into him, others still open, blood drying in dark lines across his ribs.

Her eyes burned red. "Dex, you’re hurt."

Three words that unmade him. Every ounce of composure he’d rebuilt since fighting with Fin collapsed like wet paper.

He crossed the distance before anyone could stop him, hands finding her face.

"I missed you so goddamn much." His voice was wrecked, and he pulled her into a kiss before he finished the sentence.

It wasn’t gentle. It was the kiss of a man who had been chained, tortured, nearly killed, and had spent every second of it thinking about her. He kissed her like he was confirming she existed. Like the last time he’d touched her had been underwater in a nightmare, and he needed to overwrite that memory with something that tasted like her and not like drowning.

Serena’s hand was bleeding still, and went on his chest, not intentionally. He pulled her in so quickly that’s where it ended up, and her blood seeped into him, healing his skin in real time. She didn’t notice.

Dex groaned at the sensation, and she thought it was a groan of pain.

Her concern bled into him through their matebond. He leaned into it like a man leaning into a campfire after a week in the cold.

He pulled away just to say, "Don’t worry baby, it doesn’t hurt that bad. Just when I breathe."

It didn’t hurt at all actually. The Drakenfell Alpha bloodline healed quickly. The wounds were basically gone, and they looked worse than they felt. He could have done a backflip if the situation called for it or fought Fin Shadowclaw again.

Gavriel pressed his lips together so hard they went white. He was fighting for his life not to laugh. Hale tilted his head, squinting at Dex’s torso.

If milking your injuries was an art form, Dexmon Drakenfell had no problem painting the Sistine Chapel.

Aegon:Tell her a bath would help.

He let out a pained noise again and felt her worry wash in even more. That worry tasted like devotion, and he was going to drink every drop of it, pleased she was focusing on him and only him. He deepened the kiss, pulling her closer, one arm locked around her waist, the other cradling the back of her head like she was the most valuable thing he’d ever held. Which she was.

Aegon:Lean on her a little more.

Dex: You are diabolical.

Aegon: I am efficient.

Fin saw. Their matebond delivered Serena’s emotions in real time: guilt, relief, tenderness, concern for Dexmon.

His pupils blew wide, the hazel swallowed entirely by molten gold in under a second. Gavriel saw it and stepped back.

Xeon lost it.

Xeon:NO.

The word was a detonation inside Fin’s skull, his wolf ripping forward with a violence that bypassed every checkpoint Fin had ever built.

Fin:Xeon, STOP—

Too late.