The Mate That Wasn't Mine novel Chapter 70

Chapter 70

Chapter 70

MAXIM POV

It doesn’t matter how many miles I’ve trudged since entering that den of grim women. My skin is crawling and I didn’t even get onto the yellowing bed. Tessa’s never did that. Her bite felt like dynamite, sparked and unleashed into my bloodstream.

Maybe the pale waifs canines went a bit deep.

Or my wolf is struggling with being bitten by different women. Deep down, it’s because that bite wasn’t from Tess. I cannot imagine even a mate’s bite giving me the same rush of bliss.

But seeing as Alpha Hale put me on a deadline there is nothing to do but trudge onwards wiht my thoughts. I chose to stay at Ravenbow, to help Remy. Evidence will steer Hale out of his spiral of violence. Proof will show we need to reach out and heal, not punish further.

The sun was high in the sky, ten miles from the nearest train station, strolling to the site of the last real recorded skirmish. There was no point going to any of the earliest battle sites despite probably being safer. I need fresh meat, so to speak. Fresh enough to look at the skin anyway.

Ravenbows dead were returned on the trains to be handled and blessed. Adorned with herbs by the healers before being sent on their way to the next life. The rebels just stacked theirs up against a bank of trees, face down. Primitive fuckers.

Withdrawing my blade, wishing I had something to clamp over my mouth for the upcoming stench, something felt off. There are no clouds in the sky. The grass is bright green and healthy. No signs of recent campfires or even anyone else walking through this area.

I stand taller, narrowing my eyes. Maybe it’s just the fear one of these bodies could be Tess’s. Just overthinking and stressing myself out for no reason.

Slowly turning around, I ask my wolf to help assess the following breeze. Apart from a lingering waft of decay there isn’t much else.

Still, my skin is prickling, my wolf edgy. The trees shake and loudly rustle with each gust but there’s something else.

‘Not safe‘ waves like a red flag across every thought.

Turning around I look out across the horizon and stifle a curse word. A lump of men at least twenty strong is walking this way. Their cheap brown leathers match the matted, stained material slung across the pile of bodies.

I made a quick decision. Brandishing my blade, I roughly slash through the leather jackets of each of the corpses, already abandoned to rot stomach down, guts slowly spreading out across the grass.

I want to gag at the smell released but the sight of the long, ugly scar tissue from the nape of the neck down the full length of the spine is the proof I’ve been looking for. Even though the skin is beginning rot and liquify, there’s enough visible to inform the Alpha with conviction.

Donlon was going well beyond the packs exiling procedure.

That much damage with silver disrupts the connection to our wolves. Our former Warden was ripping out men’s spiritual bonds then turning them out into the wild, angry and frustrated. Knowing one day they could band together and fight back.

I know I’m good, but I can’t take them all on alone. That’s suicide. There is nothing else to do but hide. A tall, broad oak tree calls my name. I clamber up in an instant, the wide, reliable boughs allowing me to vanish from view, hidden amongst the thick leaves.

From ten metres up in the air, just to the side of the clearing, I look down the hill. The rebels arrive, climbing upwards and begin exploring the grassy area. They spot where I’ve cut open the leather jackets.

“He’s slashed up the back of half a dozen leathers,” one exceptionally thin, tall lunatic shouts. Goddess the smell. Is this what happens to men who lose the connection to their wolves? Their own Goddess–blessed scent turns to swine?

Voices I cannot see due to the leaves below shout back. “Fucker. Then he can’t get back to Ravenbow. Find him. NOW! I’ll join in a second!”

I move silently around the top levels of the tree, trying to spot the leader. At least I can return with a description. Unwashed imbeciles probably won’t cut

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12:39 Sat 14 Jun au

Chapter 70

It.

Only to spot a woman wearing a burnt orange dress, fantastically wild copper hair billowing. Smiling broadly at a black–haired man. Giving him a hell of a smile actually, wide and joyful.

The kind of giddy beauty I’d shredded my heart over more than enough times since she left.

My Tess. Yet I can only presume the man she is smiling away at is Luca. Her mate. Dressed in scruffy brown leather, hair like a neglected caveman.

With a shaky sigh, I drop my gaze down and squeeze my eyes shut. Disappointment crushes me with violent force, leaving me hollow. I was a fool after

all.

Even so, my wolf urged me to keep watching the rebels. Luca’s men had scattered around looking for me. I should have been checking I was not visible but I forced myself to watch Tess. Probably for the last time.

For I won’t demand her heart. Not if she’s happy here.

Slowly, like the clearing of mist, the clearer reality became.

My wolf was right. Whatever Tess was smiling about, it wasn’t him. She has mud across her forehead. Tension oozed, his fists closed.

“Shift, come on Tess, shift and run,” I urged in a desperate whisper.

When that fucker threw a blade at her I almost fell straight out of the damn tree. Scrambling along the thick bough, my legs wrapped precariously for balance, shedding leaves not caring about keeping my position secret.

Tessa ran, Goddess she tried, but Luca was too quick, firing an arrow through her shoulder before leaping onto her like a true predator.

He’s a dead man.

Ready to put my own arrow straight through the bastard, I waited for the moment to strike. Only he was on top of her. Holding her mouth. She fought like a lioness, up until the point her arm snapped like a twig and her entire body sagged, a lifeless lump splayed underneath him.

From my perch I couldn’t quite see if she was dead or unconscious. Either way I wanted to be sick. Luca roughly snapped and removed the arrow in her shoulder.

Then he strolled over to a gray rucksack and returned with rope.

He slowly bound her around the ankles. Then around the tops of Her arms. At least he didn’t try to bind her wrists seeing as one now rested at a sickeningly wrong angle.

Seething, white–knuckle gripping the branch, I am forced to watch his hand linger on her bare calf. I saw every fucking second. He’s talking to her about something. The jabber of the deranged. Beyond her bare leg, caressing, heading further up her thigh before a rebel called him away.

Together with my wolf we make a promise. None of these men will live to see another sunrise.

Near–blind with rage, I’m forced to wait. I need to see how many men there are. I know I’ve only got nine arrows and a blade on me.

Tess is left on the ground, abandoned. Luca shouts and rants. Demanding they check the caves, fan out One of his thugs heads towards Tessa’s resting body.

I draw my bow, holding my breath. Except he gently feels around the sickening lump halfway up her forearm. With ashy brown hair, and a slender facehe reminds me of Kai. He can’t be more than eighteen, too young to have been stripped of his wolf already?

I watch him carefully manipulate her bones back into line. He stares at the binding but dare not remove it. Instead he takes off his jacket and puts it over her resting body.

He might live. Maybe.

12:39 Sat, 14 Jun Gu G

Chapter 70

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Finally Luca calls off the search and they all tramp back. I’ve gradually worked my way closer to the group, moving through the branches without being spotted.

I watch as they light a fire, their equipment is slung a few metres behind. Bottles of hooch and dry bread appear. Luca shrugs when asked about when Tess will wake up.

“I gave her enough chances. It’s better this way,” he grunts.

The skinny, wet–lipped one produces some freshly killed rabbits, skewered straight through, over

the fire.

“No prompt though, where the fuck will her memory land?”

“Not a clue, but if this one goes well. I can just keep giving her these,” shaking a pill bottle, “and keep her. No more prompts, stories or having to explain. Just a fresh start. If her wolf causes bother…well we all know how to fix that. Then give her another batch of pills….”