The Mate That Wasn't Mine novel Chapter 94

Chapter 94

TESSA POV

Maxim soaks in everything I have to say. There is no mockery or astonishment as time wears on. Just a steady, sincere ear Every so often the hand

But there are no more tears to cry. Hot now, around my waist holds the a little tighter. Especially when I tell him about my family’s demise.

“It’s taken them generations to shape Ravenbow into what they wanted,” he murmured. “For your family to be the last group standing, they must have been so brave. So strong. You should be so proud of where you came from,” gently tucking some stray curls of mine behind my ear.

“What am I honouring them with though?”

“How do you mean?”

“Now I know, am I meant to take some kind of stand? Quit the pack and climb up the mountains and stake a claim on them like a madwoman?”

“I mean…you could,” Maxim offers.

“Or, if I keep working at archery, if I become an expert in it and pass on that knowledge, is that betraying their memory? Is being part of Ravenbow okay if they’re the ones who took it all in the first place?”

Maxim takes a moment to ponder. “It’s a tough one.”

I sigh and nuzzle my head into his shoulder for a moment. Enjoying his scent, the steady beat of his pulse, planting a tender kiss into his neck. I already know that I would have been too shy to do that before. Not anymore.

“Any ideas yet?”

Maxim shifts, adjusting me in his lap. “The only way I can reason it, is…if we had a daughter, put in your position. I wouldn’t want her life to be spent in vengeance, or sadness for that matter. I’d just want them to be happy.”

Trying my best not to overreact to the idea he has just considered us having a family one day I try to keep focused. “Happy in the place, the system that killed you? In theory?”

Maxim nods firmly. “No matter what happened to me. We all get one go at this. Why should pain travel downhill, down the family line?”

“You’d haunt your children. You’d demand vengeance.” I joke gently, getting myself a gentle squeeze and a kiss on the head. I’m talking about multiple children now without realising.

“Tess, I’d find peace. If they were happy. Before you, yeah I’d be rattling bones and making paintings fly off walls until someone had my killers neck cut. But not anymore.”

“Why?”

He exhales deeply, his nose continuing to nuzzle into my hair. “Because to see someone you love so sad and alone would be like torture. And I know that. feeling very well Tess. Just that month we spent not talking is enough for me to know what an utter fucking waste of time being miserable is.”

I blush and look down at my lap. I remember. The memories are right there, fresh and painful. How impossible it was to not look at him. A vain attempt to act like he didn’t have every single one of my heartstrings playing a tune just for him.

“So what, I should just be happy?”

Maxim kisses nearby my ear. “Would that really be so bad?”

“Are you happy?”

“Only when I’m holding you.”

Chapter 94

He says it so fervently I think the freshly healed part of my brain just melted. His hand gently cups my jaw, stroking my check. “I swear Teis, the rest of the time I am one irritable bastard. If Remy sends me another mind link I’ll send myself to exile. Unless you fancy going on a rebel killing mission with

me?”

“Is he requesting you to do that. You’re leaving?”

“No. Hes not decided anything yet. But Hazel went and made herself some pills. Hook then off her. I thought we could be friends. But she just wants someone to hurt. It won’t be me.”

“She wanted me to try them. It said “re–set” in her translation so she tried to suggest it was a good thing to try.”

That was the wrong thing to say. Maxim gripped me even tighter, his jaw clenched angrily, “She is becoming dangerous.”

*But I’m okay. She hasn’t hurt me.”

“You are? You’re not upset by what she tried?”

“Like you said, she is lashing out. Her whole world has changed.”

“Hmm. You’re a kinder person than me.”

“I did smash Malva’s head into a table.”

“That was long overdue. You get bonus points for that,” sweeping my hair back to reveal my neck, planting kisses until a sigh escaped. “Proud of you.”

1 smile, dazed and in love. Sitting on him like this reminds me of the train journey we first met on. I can remember every sensation. The excitement, fear and overwhelming awe at being in this strangers sphere.

Now we’re sitting together, not another person around for hundreds of metres. Night has fallen, I’ve spoken for so long. Maxim continues stroking my

cheek.

I swallow and force myself to say what’s in my head. “I’m better than okay, you know.”

He stares at me, whilst my wolf silently urging me to keep going. “I don’t want lonely, sad vengeance for my lost family. That’s not going to change anything now.”

His voice is low, a determined rasp and a vow.combined. “I can make you happy Tess. I swear. It’s all I want. I will give you the life you deserve.”

“We deserve.”

He gives a soft sniff and places a kiss to my cheek. “Hmm. I’ve already overachieved. I found you. Little heathen of mine.”

There is nothing to do but fight off the blush and heat that rises every time he talks to me this way. When I look down he gently tilts my chin back up, half a grin playing on his roughly stubbled cheeks.

“Men from the industrial gutters, who have done nothing but lie, cheat and kill, don’t get mates, bliss and demonic cats.”

“My memory is fine now, you’ve got to stop hating our poor cat.”

His booming laugh is enough to make my stomach flip, earning me a series of kisses up my neck that have my stomach flipping the other direction for entirely different reasons.

“Poor cat, the things eaten better than me for weeks,” he grumbles, our cuddle turning into a push and pull battle that only ends when I laugh and he claims a kiss.

Who knows, perhaps Remy, the kinder, more thoughtful version of his father, might be the Alpha to change Ravenbow for the better.

Plus nothing is set in stone. If Ravenbow proves not to be for us, we can leave. We can change, grow together. I should have left that farm years before. t allowed myself to wait for life to come to me.

Chapter 94

The more I think about it, the more Maxim is right. My family, my true, loving, absent family would want me to be happy. They would rejoice in my mate bond for a start. The idea of hunting rebels, destroying any trace of the pills they made, out in the wild with Maxim sounds good too.

“Let’s be happy here then, in Ravenbow. It might take time, for the gossip to stop, the comments.”

*They’ll stop. Every single one I catch saying anything will be smashed into a table. Warden, Beta, first year. They’ll soon learn.”

“Maxim…” I murmur, wrapping my arms around his neck. I shouldn’t love how protective he is, but at the same time, it’s everything. It’s someone in my corner. Someone who believes in me and now all I want to do is worship him in return.

“You have no idea what saying my name like that does to me,” he growls lowly, his grip tightering on my waist. “Hmm,” I say lightly, using my toes to kick off my boots, watching them fall onto the ground with little kicks of my dangling toes.

Maxim’s brow furrows with curiosity, watching me closely. “What’s hmm?”

“Just remembering something. I think it’s important,” placing a hand to my forehead a little dramatically.

“What?”

I stand up before him, leaving him sat on the log. Then I quickly haul off my beige and gold jersey, throwing it to the floor before shoving down my pants. Before I lose my nerve I unfasten and abandon my bra, despising the plain white material. That girl is gone.

My wolf whoops for joy at seeing the hunger in his eyes. Then my handsome mate licks his lips and a burning dizziness covers me from head to toe.

My nipples are hard under the cooler night air. I want him. I want everything we can be together. This is my happiness.

Maxim tilts his head to the side. “Tess?”