The Mate That Wasn't Mine novel Chapter 39

Chapter 39

MAXIM POV

Under the shower I give myself a talking to. A reminder that this is dangerous ground. This cannot turn into a see–saw back and forth of getting her hopes up and dashing them. That would be cruel.

I close my eyes and let the water travel down my body.

Kai and Silas finally asked today, in the dusty, miserable cattle cart of armored stock. “So…what’s happened to our lovebirds?” Silas opened with, dodging a black shoulder shield I flung his way. “I might have to sleep with Allette just to keep the tables spirits up.”

“Go for it. Tessa’s just stressed out about the call–ups.” I lied quickly.

“But you won’t go to the front?” Silas tuts. We sat sorting through a train delivery of black armoured uniforms from the industrial sector. It’s taken almost a week to go through and finally finished up today.

I’m just grateful it wasn’t more bodies.

“She might, if she stays on top of archery, Hale will use her. Prove his mate bond theory right,” Kai states.

I glared up at my factually accurate friend. “And Hale will use me. Risking my ass alone in some wretched corner of the industrial or farming zones.”

Maybe I should start with just what I did after she finally showed me the vile, forced mark on her skin. Exactly how things went down.

The morning after she confessed everything I headed to see Warden Marshall. He was eating his breakfast with the black and white haired Badger but didn’t give a shit.

I just stood in front of the pair staring until he flew his spoon down into his sloppy beige porridge. “Outside then,” he barked.

“I should make you do log presses, just for being such a fucking clown,” he snaps, his pale blue eyes full of ice. “This way now.”

Walking together, anyone who saw us would assume that’s where I was heading. Poor, silly Maxim. Punished again. Just can’t keep his mouth shut.

They have no idea.

With the log in sight, halfway across the furthest field Marshall says “So?”

“That Luca character disappeared, went to prison, exile, somewhere. But the whole village clammed up about him. Like he never existed. But he was linked to the dead mercenary I went to track in the summer.”

“Perhaps the whole village is a poisonous little hub.”

“Send me,” I offer immediately.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. What else was said?” Marshall says, scribbling as usual.

“She said her family are strange. Tessa was known as a bit of a mute in her village. Malva, a first year healer should be able to corroborate?”

“What about this Luca character? We know he’s bad news but what’s his tie to her?“.

Without hesitation, I dive in. “He’s just an ex. Clingy fucker. That’s why she left that note. It’s why he’s writing to her now. There isn’t any secret plan to

reunite. She’s scared of him.”

Tessa didn’t exactly seem terrified, but this version beats the truth. To Warden Marshall, Luca isn’t her mate, he didn’t bite her against her will.

If I tell Marshall the full truth, not only will my own lie be exposed, but I won’t get sent out on the mission I need to break the fuckers neck.

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Chapter 39

Well, now she has you, he mocks. Marshall still takes pleasure in deflating me. Even now,

Itilt my chin up, as serious as the grave. “That’s right. She does have me”

He raises his eyebrows, a flicker of amusement in his cold features. “Sure about that? A mate bond isn’t always enough to beat…bestory??

My heart rate accelerates. If I wasn’t jigging my way in and out of death’s jaws for men i canriot trust, then maybe, Tessa and I maht have had a char something this year.

Instead I stood in a field trading gossip like a sneaky rat.

Tonight is a chance. A real chance.

The fact I’m still under this shower giving genuine thought on what to say to her proves that. But then I have spent an awful lot of the past four weeks pondering that anyway.

That damn cat, Pawful or whatever they call it, his feline judgement makes me feel slightly less mad when I mutter to myself. I’m even fetching the furred devil chicken back from the dining hall.

Kai observed Tessa shooting a few days ago and confirmed she was a completely dominant force, even in the landmine challenge. Against the wind, smaller targets, quicker pulleys. So she is safe here. With or without me.

I’m proud of her. The plan is working. Hurdles have been dashed over with the grace of a dainty forest deer. Now if only I’d had pants on when she came in the door. The last ten minutes feel like an act of monumental stupidity.

The door knocks quietly, insistently. “Maxim, we really need to talk,” filters through.

Shit. So preoccupied with my own worries, I didn’t even remember she had something important to tell me. “Coming now.”

Tessa hasn’t dazzled me with a sense of humour but I swear to the Goddess i heard her mutter, “not again?” to herself.

Smirking, I slam the shower off and quickly wrap a towel around my waist. Shoving my brown, sopping mess of hair backwards I declare from inside the bathroom. “I’m here. Listening.”

“No, seriously. Something’s happened tonight.”

The tone of her voice kills the fun side of me itching to tease. Now, I’m worrying if someone tried to hurt her, maybe some Beta stumbling across her on the archery field? Marshall? So I grab another towel and rag my hair through it enough to stop dripping too badly. I’m really listening.

Swinging the door open, Tessa is unchanged. Still in her muddy training gear, hair in thick copper rivers almost to her elbows. Her chocolate brown eyes do a quick sweep. Taking in my damp figure from my toes upwards, before settling on my eyes.

“Can anyone hear us in here?” she whispers.

“No, even right outside, you’d only hear murmurs.”

“Then…” she breathes and closes the gap between us. Her nose is on the verge of touching my upper chest. Her arms are folded. The barrier against anything foolish from me. My still–damp brown hair drips down onto my shoulders, cold rivers spindling down my back and chest.

“Luna Sabrina? You wanted to know if she is in danger? Well she was drugged out of her mind tonight and thought she was twenty years old again.”

“You sent me to shower when you had that information!” is my immediate reaction. I place a hand up against the doorframe, hand curled against my forehead. “Tell me everything.”

Together we stand. Whispering in the dimly lit bedroom, the bathroom doorway framing us like a portrait as she looks up into my eye explains everything. I hate the bit where Remy doesn’t believe her insistence it was drugging, not illness.

oftly

“You did everything right. Keeping her safe from onlookers, getting her back to the packhouse in one piece.”

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Chapter 39

“She was so giddy and light. Talking about love, happiness, about being like a butterfly

That harmless little word sparks a tremor of fear in my gut. Shit. I need strong curse words for the way my stomach is dropping this moment.

“Did she say any names?”

“No names at all. She

remember what she had eaten, drank. Anything at all. Her pupils were crazy big. She knew who she was, just that the was Sabrina from over twenty years ago. No knowledge of Remy and Hazel, at all! She didn’t even seem pleased to see Alpha Hale

How in hell do I discover Luna Sabrina’s dating history without getting my throat slit? Specifically, when the fuck did Luna Sabrina and Warden Donlon first meet.

Tessa whispers gently, “So, you believe me then, about the almonds, the drugging?”

“I do.”

Tessa’s face is pure, straight concentration. If she’s thinking, she’s scowling with full eyebrow action like a mystic peasant. It’s refreshing compared to the over–styled show–pony style of woman I’ve known before now.

“The scent just vanished within a minute. So I think she had only just taken whatever was laced with it.”

It’s time to make a list of our trustworthy people. It’s going to be short. Tiny. But we need to start delving.

“Tessa, you know about those kinds of drugs don’t you?”

Her brown eyes widen, “Me? Why me?”

Her arms unfold, to rest on her hips in annoyance. I sniff with derision, “Because you’re from the farming district and absolutely know about poisonous things.”

Her brow creases, a blush rising up her cheeks. “I wouldn’t know how to prepare it. I’d recognise the mushroom variety I think. But to make it that powerful…She genuinely, completely saw herself as a twenty year old. I’ve no idea how you would do that.”

“Hypnotism? Manipulated into thinking about a different time in your life. It wouldn’t just magically happen from eating a weird cake. It must be suggested,” I muse, pride fluttering as she nods in agreement.

Only for her to ruin it. “We need to go to a Warden with this. They can investigate. Or the Alpha?”

“We can’t say anything Tessa.”