The Mate That Wasn't Mine novel Chapter 85

Chapter 85

TESSA POV

Gravel crunching underfoot, we are soon walking past some long green fields, topped with rolling hills. Eventually some other, taller, mill like buildings

appear. Each with a le

painted on the side in red.

“Do you want to know what all these places are?” Maxiin checks. I give them a cursory study, but I already know it’s a blank. The only thing my heart and wolf leap to is holding my hand.

“No, sorry.”

“Do you want to know what they mean to o you? I found out some other things too. About your past, your family?”

I shake my head no. Maxim drops his hand from my shoulder, to take mine. I immediately wrap my other hand around his, both my hands surrounding him. Maxim plants a kiss to the top of my head and whispers. “Tomorrow then?”

“Yes please.”

Right now, I don’t know what more information I can handle. It is almost too much. The Alpha and Luna are dead. Ravenbow is going to shift on its axis. Once Remy knows Maxim is alive, how long before he claims him for more royal duties?

The bells continue to ring behind us, shattering the calm night with their eagerness to proclaim the future.

The buildings look pleasant enough, maybe I had classes there? Whatever Maxim has discovered about my family can wait too.

“You don’t think I’m a coward?”

“No. I think both of us have been through enough for one day.”

“Good plan then.”

“It is indeed, because you’ll definitely have to stay the night with me now,” he grins, picking up the pace, even though a limp is clearly starting to impact his gait. To keep up I’m verging on a silly trot, continually sneaking glances up at his face. A mixture of pained concentration and devious amusement.

“By the way, you weren’t really getting a choice on that one,” flashing me one of those mind–melting grins.

There are no easy jokes flying from my lips. I’m just smiling. That’s all I can do. Spend the night with him? Damn right. Absolutely, one hundred percent, beyond any shadow of doubt I will be in his arms tonight.

“Are you happy then? With all that’s happened?” I murmur. “Because everything you had back there, your career, reputation. Warden Marshall said-”

Maxim stops walking and spins to face me. His bloodied and bruised face is stern, amber eyes boring into my soul. “No more doubt Tess. It stops.”

“I’m only trying to-”

“No. You need to try something brand new. Listening to me. Believe my words. Because I am telling you right now, there will not be a single day, an hour in my life where I am not grateful for every bit of madness you brought my way.”

Goddess he is so serious. His words have so much force it strips my language away. I’m left looking up at him dumbstruck, Has he always had this power over me? Those furiously burning eyes are able to make the entire world boil down to how my small hand feels, captured and claimed in his.

“I don’t listen to you?”

“Rarely,” he harrumphs in return, raising a doubting dark eyebrow.

“Why?”

1/A

14:51 Tue 17 Jun –

Chapter 85

“Beats me,” he shrugs. “I’m full of good ideas-” before a sharp intake of breath and a wince stops him in his tracks. “Okay Hot far to go now. I ment actually need this arrow taking out soon.”

“Here, lean on me,” his arm back around my shoulder, a little heavier than before as we approach one of the huge buildings, My eyes are feet on the stick, poking out of the flesh of his thick thigh. I did that. I hurt him. I blush harder when I mentally congratulate myself for not hitting anywhere near the

belt.

Maxim notices my gaze, but simply shakes his head and keeps smiling. Walking quietly I cannot help my mind replaying everything that happened. What

Hale said. What Maxim shouted back.

Curiosity gnaws away at me, alongside the burning heat on my cheeks. At the same time, the adrenaline that powered me through the cliffs and insanity of the last half hour is ebbing. It leaves me feeling adrift, tender, exhausted, even with Maxim walking beside me.

I force out my question. “Maxim…When you shouted, that you did not lie?”

“I said, to be accurate, it was never a lie.”

“But…you told me…explained how we started out with

nothing? It was all a deception?”

We come to a stop outside some random building with a huge ‘E‘ on the side. Maxim looks up at the gray stone walls and grins. “Just so you know, we have spent a lot of time against this wall,” his devious amber eyes shining with emotion, threatening me with knowledge I desperately want to know more about.

Releasing my shoulder he wraps his arms around my back. My hands come around his neck. A dance of precisely zero movement, just staring straight at each other.,I’m tired and hungry, he’s beaten and bloodied.

But he’s utterly perfect all the same.

“I said Tess…that it was never a lie, because from the moment we met, there was something. Just because neither of us knew exactly what the something was, doesn’t mean it didn’t exist.”

My lips thin, mainly because I’m trying to stem tears.

“I have lied and deceived about a lot of things in the past Tess. But from the moment I met you, quiet, soulful little wonder you are, you’ve had a hold on me. I think it terrified you, but to me, that’s just more proof that we were never a lie. We were just waiting to become the truth.”

“Goddess, how do you talk like that so easily?”

Maxim keeps his nose against mine, breathily slowly. “You’ve said that to me before. Exactly that. When I told you I loved you. When you thought I needed to hear the same kind of words back-”

“I don’t want to argue,” I add softly, stroking the back of his neck with my hands. My wolf curls with pleasure at making our mate tingle and goosepimple under our touch.

“You said that too. And yet here we are, little firecracker of mine, still being difficult,” teasing me into smiling against him, his thumbs slowly stroking up and down my back, sneaking under one of the armoured plates. “I don’t need to hear you say anything. Just keep looking at me with gorgeous eyes and I know what you’re saying.”

Maxim’s amber eyes flicker at the edges with shards of lime green, both of us smiling at each other in our gentle, non–dancing hold. I dare not move for fear of knocking the arrow shaft that remains as much an inconvenience as my thick layers of armour.

we’re

“Hale, before he lost his mind, told me once, how loving someone, mate or not, is to willingly, readily put their life before yours. Without question.” He pulls me closer, his bloodied nose softly brushing against mine. “And I will Tess. Every single time. And you’ve saved my life twice now. Sol good.”

“I love you. I can’t remember anything but I already know my idiotic, shy self won’t have told you enough times how much I love you.”

“Say it a few more times then if you like,” he whispers, continuing to kiss my damp cheeks so tenderly. How am I ever going to stop these tears of happiness from falling? “I love you. I love you Maxim.”

Chapter 85

“Any more?”

“I love you more than I am capable of describing. Both versions of myself. The shy, scared girl and this half–brained foot 1 am now

“Tess…” he warns but I know what I mean.

“I couldn’t face going to that exile place without you. I couldn’t do it. When your friends arrived to say you were in trouble, I was waiting to tell you the plan had changed. Because there isn’t any version of me that wants to be apart from you.”

“You’ve got to stop crying, don’t spoil those beautiful brown eyes” using his thumb to wipe away my half–smiling sob of happiness. “I can’t kiss you when you’re crying,” but he’s smiling. The lop–sided grin that makes my heart skip.

“Tell me something. Tell me what used to happen out here?”

It is his turn to flush a little. That’s all I need to know. I give his neck a little tug, stand on my toes and kiss him.

He seizes me in return, my back pressed against the wall, his torso against mine. My hands clutch his dark brown curls, wishing this armour could somehow vanish from my body. He hasn’t touched nearly enough of me

Only for him to yelp in pain. The arrow shaft hit the brick.

“Fucker!” he gasps, stepping back from me..“Shit, shit shit!“.