The Mate That Wasn't Mine novel Chapter 58

No Ads

Chapter 57

Chapter 57

TESSA POV

The bells signalling the start of the skills test were welcome relief. Sat dressed and waiting for nothing but nightfall was only eating away at try nerves. The more I think about funning away the more I conjure images of it going wrong.

Being found, dragged back, interrogated. Grabbing my bow and arrow the sting of the fresh, cold rain against my face was a welcome slap of realness The stone packhouse and its high towers, soaked and monstrous, is even darker. The red stonework is even closer to the shade of blood.

Instead of the main figureheads, we had Warden Gray overseeing, a man of shrewd, mouselike features. Forever sniffing whilst scribbling onto his clipboard.

The only person outside with an umbrella while the rest of us got drenched.

One of the men whispered. “Thought he won the fight?”

“Doesn’t look like it,” another man replied.

“Fuck off, I’m fine,” snaps back. The voice is Briggs. I don’t look his way. Instead I focus on the severe, umbrella wielding Warden.

“Fire and retrieve until the bells ring. Don’t think this rain is a chance to slack off!”

I leave Briggs behind. He cannot keep up with me anyway. The track up to the targets soon turns into a muddy quagmire. Mud up to my knees, leather boots close to ruined. If I thought my body ached before, the mud added a whole new level.

Time wears on, whilst lapping and passing Briggs, his face grow sterner. Spitting onto the mud with annoyance. Allette should certainly stay away from him. His broad, friendly features are mutating. His limp drags his entire body, jerking left and right. Worse of all, he no longer has his balance and his arrows miss the targets completely.

By the tenth overtake, it is clear he is hating every second. And no longer a contender.

When the bell goes for lunch, I sprint to the packhouse, shedding splodges of mud along the gravel. As soon as Allette walks in, trying to squeeze out the rain from her headscarf I grab her elbow. “Briggs is injured. He’s got a limp.”

“Oh no!“” she gasps. “But…what’s going to happen to him now?”

“No, you did the right thing yesterday.” My words didn’t stop her gray eyes from searching around edgily. We tucked ourselves away behind the column on the other side of the room.

A few ancient female Wardens and Healers were displeased at our taking their usual table but for today, it was worth it. Their wrinkled scowls could not

disperse us.

“What now? Do we hide every day? Are Kai and Silas going to be after me too?” Allette groaned. “I will apologise but…”

“Allette he is at the bottom of archery. If his wolf cannot overcome the damage and limps this afternoon, he’ll get cut. He’ll be leaving.”

“Maybe that is for the best then,” Allette nods firmly. I have to agree. His temper bubbled too close to the surface. Outraged at matters that had nothing to do with him. As for Kai and Silas, hopefully they apologise to Maxim today. Clearly I was not the only one who couldn’t handle what happened to

Irene.

I am aware it makes me a hypocrite. I despise Briggs‘ unwanted judgment of my matebond with Maxim. Loathe the way he keeps trving to suggest I can be free of him.

Except I am still cursing myself for not doing exactly that to Irene. I should have barged in. Demanded she tell me the truth and worked out a better way to rid her of Isaac. Just like Briggs tried with me.

My self–loathing does not improve in scent tracing. For the first time I stand next to the silver–haired, mute Vigo. Waiting in the rain he simply shuffles to

1/4

Chapter 57

the side.

1

Sensibly I know I should conserve some energy. There is no point using everything I have to come top in a now–irrelevant competition. My name will be scrubbed from their clipboards tomorrow.

“He’s glaring at you.” Vigo whispers. The softness of his voice makes me flinch with surprise.

“I know.”

“Are you okay?”

I stare up into his porcelain, calm features. “I’m…no actually I’m a bit scared he might do something”

“Then set off before me, I’ll follow and make sure he isn’t going to hunt you down. Goes his own way”

“But what about the win?”

Vigo smirks, pushing a long wedge of soaked hair behind his ears. “It will make winning even better if I have a head start.”

I roll my eyes but I’m grateful all the same.

The scent challenge is all different kinds of fruits. Has Maxim had a hand in this? The very idea makes my heart stutter. The scent of plums, oranges, apples and pears is going to be all over the mountainside. Caught upon the wind for hours.

I strip off on the other side of the barn, in the stall next to Vigo. It takes everything to keep my eyes down, away from Briggs’s fury. When the bells ring and we set off I sprint with all my might. No looking back. Fearing the moment we are concealed in the treeline, Briggs might use his huge jaws and massive black form to take some revenge.

But he doesn’t. Instead Vigo appears at my side, his silver wolves lean and powerful. Shorter fur, displaying ridges of strength across his wolf’s frame. Chancing a look back, it is clear Briggs‘ wolf carries the same injury.

He really will be getting cut.

There is nothing I can do now but compete as Vigo and I seperate.

Now there is no Irene or Briggs. I cut a lonely figure dashing across the mountainside, slipping down wet shale banks, fighting the mud. But I finished joint top with Vigo, returning four scented amulets each. A bittersweet end.

Finishing first means I able to get changed and leave the barn before Briggs even makes it back. Avoiding any trace of Kai and Silas, not that they appear in the Dining Hall I eat with Allette in our little side corner again.

“I cannot believe this weather,” she groans. “It’s going to be over by tomorrow at least. I’m still damp from this morning.”

“Still top though?” I grin.

“Well of course,” she smirks.“Best blades in the pack.”

“I’m going out to practice tonight. I’m already soaked through,” gesturing at my damp hair and wet beige and gold clothing. “Try and get back to normal.”

Allette nods. “Be safe okay?“)

When Allette leaves I smuggle some morsels of food. Not enough to be suspicious but at least I’ll have breakfast in the morning chicken for Pawesome. I hope Maxim looks after our multicoloured menace.

d roll and some

Walking back to Block E, I’m slow. Steady. Tingling from head to toe. I want him to be there. So badly. I want to kiss him, tell him that he has changed my life.That he has made me braver. Made me want more than I ever knew I could wish for. I want my own life.

I don’t think there is a way to tell him how many thoughts are rampaging through me.

Chapter 57

Laying on the bed, I have nothing to do but rack my brains and wait for my time to leave. I’m in thick, leather boots. To try and disguise my scent have stolen yet another of Maxim’s blue shirts.

I tell myself he doesn’t need them now.

Lignore the way it feels like taking a memento. That would be too depressing. To have what Maxim has given me reduced to a shred of material.

I need to form a life outside of Ravenbow. Outside of my strange, criminal family. Memories are bubbling up in my dreams. Maybe it’s the comfier mattress. Or Maxim’s scent. But the past, or something resembling it, is charging headlong towards me.

The death rattle of Oliver and his crushed neck has expanded my hidden memory.

Not only was that horrible sound present at the time my tiny body was lifted away but I remember the surroundings more. Maybe I’m just imagining things. But there was a mountain range in the background.

I remember because when my tiny arms flailed, the strange u–shaped cliffs, with clinging ivy up one side, completely bare white rock on the other. So unique.

Yet so completely forgotten about until now. The mind is a vault. Lockable with enough willpower. Or trauma.

Luna Sabrina has been living two lives, completely unaware. Or when she went back to her younger self, did she know she had returned before? Did Donlon build upon lie after lie, or was every encounter like a blank page for her?

What if those mushrooms could send me back to the moment in my life I have no answers for?

Dangerous thoughts for dangerous times. I clutch the rucksack to my chest and take some long soothing breaths. I want Maxim’s arms around me. The way it felt last night, to fall asleep with his warm, safe adoration.

Goddess I am in love with a beautiful lie. Hopelessly and completely. If only there wasn’t the truth.