The Mate That Wasn't Mine novel Chapter 100

Chapter 100

TESSA POV

Iwake up around five, my wolf fizzing with nevous energy.

There is no going back to sleep. My brain is busy replaying my embarrassment. Mainly the moment I had to meet Alpha Remy’s keen gaze and confére i had found out nothing.

Not one clue where Briggs is.

I roll out of bed, stretching and dressing, grabbing my bow and arrow.

Today might be a day off the skills tests but some practice might help banish the torment of my mind goblins.

I take my long copper hair into sections, twisting each one up in thick braids that weave in and around the back of my head with the fina one appearing like a headband.

A little blush rises as I wonder if Maxim would like it. Would he unravel it slowly, twisting it around his hand and guide me to him. Guide me to kneeling, guide me onto the bed…Goddess I want him home.

Allette’s baby news left me so dumbstruck I don’t e

even know who was eavesdropping.

I really need to fire some arrows. Maybe when my shoulders muscles are screaming better ideas will pop up.

The rising sun gradually takes over a beautifully dusty pink sky. Firing arrow after arrow doesn’t give me the clarity I’m chasing. Dozens of armoured Wardens and infantry men stride past me before the bells. They’re heading to the packhouse, through the royal tunnels, past the Cliff, towards the Exile grounds.

Alpha Remy really wants his loose ends tied up.

I keep firing whilst the line of men snake along the path. Every shot

The instant the bells ring out for breakfast I run towards Allette

who the father is?

feels like a waste, it’s never felt that way before. My wolf is still prickly too.

saccommodation. She’ll be awake now. I can try to be more supportive. Maybe discover

I picture her and Silas, Kai, Briggs, maybe one of those thick–necked husky infantry types. Even Donlon or Remy. Then I feel like a judgemental bitch and shake off the thought.

Knocking on her door, “Allette! Open up!” When she doesn’t answer I just abandon restraint and bang relentlessly.

“Hey, hey, fucking hell it’s still early,” her next door neighbour, a sleepy–looking, blonde groaned from behind me, clutching her doorframe. “She’s already left.”

“Who with?”

“The girl rolls her dark eyes and rubs at her forehead. I’d guess Malva, the healer girl? You know that annoying EHHGGHHH sound,” doing a perfect impersonation of her nasat wailing.

Shit.

Thanking her, I flee and sprint across the gravel. Beyond the packhouse and towards the gray, cavernous hallways of the Healers.

When I last encountered Malva here I slammed her head into the table. I’m not against a repeat of that happening.

The place is quiet, large vaulted ceilings see my boots hitting the cold stone floor echo. My wolf urges me to focus. I attempt to remember Malva’s generic floral scent. At least it will be the freshest scent in this place if nobody else has arrived.

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Chapter 100

Finally my woll picks up something like Jasmine, I stride down the long, omply rows of dark wooden tablex Burner, rüber ver stacked haphazardly underneath. Turning the corner, the huge storeroom beckons. But the scent goes beyond,

It leads down a cobwebbed, miserable corridor, dozens of similar little rooms with dark teak doors. Only to stop at the sound of coisa

“Look, we’ve all made mistakes. You should have just come to me about it sooner. You’re lucky I overheard you last night

“I’ve got time to decide.”

“You don’t. You really don’t. Even just a rumour could sink you…”

Allette sounds unsure, her voice softer and quieter than I’ve heard before. “How do you know how to make this stuff then?”

Malva laughs, a cold, callous noise that I’ve heard a thousand times before back home, “You’re not the only girl to have a bit too much fun in her first year. It’s an easy enough recipe for a Healer. I’m top, you know. Warden Bea kept marking me down for attitude! But you don’t see that dusty bitch around anymore do you?”

“I never asked for your help-”

“You think you’re going to qualify top of the Blades saddled with a baby? What use are you to the Alpha then!”

“It might work out. Maybe. I don’t know!”

That’s enough for me to hear. Twisting open the door I stride in and find Allette with her arms crossed, Malva stood before her, bright green eyes holding out an offering of two lurid red pills.

“Get the fuck away from her,” I snap, offering out my hand to Allette.

“You’re not in charge of me Tessa!” Allette snaps back, rejecting my reach.

Malva offers with a sickly smile. “I’m just saying there’s a deadline on these things. I mean, there are other concoctions for later on, but then you’d be in so much more pain. Why not just sort it out now? You’d be able to still compete today. Like it never even happened.”

Allette looks up to the ceiling, pale as a ghost. I turn to the smug Malva. “So what do you get out of this?”

“What?”

“You’re after something. You’ve stolen from the stockroom again, broken the rules, again. You shouldn’t have helped Hazel last month, reporting you for this could be your final strike. You won’t be on top of anything. Not even first soup–slopper for the next years students when I tell Alpha Remy.”

“Nobody will believe a word you say Tess,” Malva smirks. “Princess Hazel is looking for an excuse to get rid of you. So are others.”

“Hang on, is your boyfriend Fraser competing today?” I counter, not fully believing my own words.

“Oh Goddess,” Allette gasps. “Beta Fraser!” as Malva flushes bright, raging red. The scheming bitch..

Together we are a mishmash of gold and beige. Allette, always so slender and chic, her uniform paired with a twist of gray silk in her black hair and smartly rolled sleeves. Malvas hugs her curves too tightly, like she’s requested the size too small.

“Come on,” I bark, grabbing Allette’s hand, dragging her from Malvas handful of poison. “Get off me! Stop it Tessa!” she shrieks, reaching behind her hip for a weapon.

Malva walks past us struggling, quickly lights a bunsen burner and throws the red pills into a dish above. They vanish in acrid smoke.

“Good luck today Allette, have fun on the scrapheap. Think I’ll go update my best friend about all this drama now,” she smirks, before her boots clop quickly past us, heading down the stone gallery back into the sunlight.

Leaving Allette and I fighting for control. Just as I grab one wrist, a blade is thrust against my throat without even a heartbeat of consideration. I surrender, hands up high.

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Chapter 100

“She was trying to help!” Allette hisses, her gray eyes wide and Tearful. “I needed those pills!”

“Really, sounded like she was messing with you. It might have done nothing more than make you fall today and let Fraser an

“IT’S MY CHOICE!” Allette hisses, pressing the blade into my throat a little tighter. “So keep out of it!”

“know it is! But I’m your friend, aren’t I?”

Her face wrinkles up, gray eyes looking everywhere but into my eyes. “I’m on my own! We would be on our own!”

Slowly wrapping my hand around hers, easing the pressure of the curved blade around my throat. “Well I’m here. if this future, this pregnancy isn’t what you can handle right now, I’ll get the right help for you. But not Malva, Please.”

Something about Malva is rotten and distorted. She’s lost her family, her village. She could be capable of anything. Maybe she’s the one who knows more than she has been letting on?

After a minute’s pause Alfette mumbles “I think I’m just so scared, so fucking terrified of everything that’s happening to me, I jumped at the idea of pretending it never happened. But…then I keep thinking…What if this baby is the greatest thing I never do?”

She steps back and roughly wipes away at her brimming eyes. “So…I don’t know, I guess I’m going to have to get used to everything changing.”

“Changing in a good way. You’ll still be effortlessly cool of course.”

“Obviously,” she sniffs, a dry chuckle escaping at my poor joke.

“Go on. Go win today and show everyone you’re a legend in the making. I’m going to stop Malva degrading your reputation to Princess Hazel.”

“How?”

“Hitting her over the head? I’ll think of something,” I grin before we share a hug. Her spiced scent fills my nose and I wish, to the point it hurts in my chest. Goddess I wish I’d done this for Irene.