The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate

Serena had stopped protesting somewhere around the second hallway. Two guards stepped aside as they passed. Neither commented.

His jaw was tight. His pulse was hammering against her palm.

The second her boots hit the floor, her spine straightened. Shoulders squared. Chin level.

Yes, they kissed on the lips before that war room meeting. That was an accident. A hiccup. A momentary lapse and she was not going to let one kiss dismantle the entire framework.

He didn’t give her the chance.

"Baby, I was so worried about you." His voice cracked on the last word, splintering the easy confidence he’d worn in the war room like armor. The sound of it hit somewhere behind her ribs and stayed there.

Dex:Shut up.

He picked her up again, carrying her to their bed with the urgency of a man who did not trust the universe to leave her in one place for more than thirty seconds. He laid her down, settling his weight over her, forearms braced on either side of her head.

"Serena, I need you to mindlink me when you get here."

"I need you next to me at all times, actually," he said against her skin. "New rule. Non-negotiable. Effective immediately."

He stiffened above her.

The words hit the air like a glass hitting stone. They sounded worse spoken aloud than they had in her head, and they had sounded catastrophic in her head. She and Elara had rehearsed this for forty minutes. Elara had given her bullet points and a contingency script for three different emotional responses.

Dex didn’t move for a long second.

"You do realize I feel you through our matebond, right?" He pulled back just enough to look at her, and his eyes were bright with a warmth that had no business being there while she was actively trying to end things. "I can feel every single thing you’re feeling right now, Serena. And none of it says friends."

She didn’t know why she said that. Of all the things she had practiced, of all the carefully worded, Elara-approved lines designed to convey emotional clarity, brunch was what came out of her mouth.

She wanted to dissolve into the mattress.

"Yeah, no." He was grinning now, the devastating, lopsided grin that made her brain short-circuit on a good day. "You don’t want that either."

And gods help her, she kissed him back. Instantly. Automatically. Like her body had received a memo her brain never approved. Her fingers tightened in his hair, pulling him closer when she should have been pushing him away, and the sound he made against her mouth undid something fundamental in her resolve.

"Dex, I value your friendship, platonically," Serena tried again, the words coming out between breaths, mangled beyond recognition from what Elara had told her to say. The original line had been I value what we have, and I think protecting it means redefining it. What came out was the verbal equivalent of tripping down a staircase while holding a tray of fine china.

"Platonically," he repeated.

"You want to be platonic."

"With me."

"While lying underneath me."

"The positioning is perfect for this conversation." His thumb traced the line of her jaw, and she shivered. He felt it. She knew he felt it, because the corner of his mouth twitched. "Because your mouth is saying platonic, and your body is calling you a liar."

"Your body has been outvoting you since the day we met."

Aegon:It is absolutely true.

Aegon:I am helping. She is underneath us, in our bed, and used the word platonic. She does not know what that word means.

"Okay," he said. "Let’s hear it."

"The rest. Elara clearly coached you. I can tell because you said I value your friendship and you would never say that on your own. You’d say something shorter. Definitely funnier." He propped his head on his hand. "So give me the whole speech. I want to hear what she told you to say."

"Elara didn’t tell me to say this."

She exhaled through her nose and looked at the ceiling. Her throat was tightening, the humor draining out of the moment faster than she wanted it to, because underneath the stumbling and the panic and the catastrophically botched delivery, there was something real.

"I can’t keep doing this to you," she said quietly. "To either of you."