The Mate That Wasn't Mine novel Chapter 96

Chapter 96

MAXIM POV

Three months have flown. Tess swiftly regained her place at the top of archery. Fighting with Vigo for the top spot of scent tracing.

Regaining her memory hasn’t suddenly turned her into a social butterfly. She’s still Tess. Deep brown eyes filled with a thousand thoughts that she chooses not to share. Coupled with a shy smile that flashes every so often to our group. Flashes almost constantly in our room.

But her blushes are now, more often than not reserved only for me. Normally when I say something filled with blatant desire. Or grab her close when she least expects it. Because those blushes are always accompanied by her breathing out my name.

My little Pagano. Hopefully to be the mother of littler Pagano’s but I know she has something in her soul she wants to prove first. She’s got a fire in her. The way she still trains harder than anyone else. She wants to prove every single person in Ravenbow wrong.

It doesn’t stop me kissing her stomach and whispering that she needs to stop stealing my shirts because it drives me and my wolf wild. Skirting her 335 cheeks so seductively, it’s impossible to think a clear, clean–minded thought in our comfy, cosier room. She argues she hates the plain white underwear and nightwear. My suggestion to just walk around naked at all times is not taken up.

Goddess, her pink cheeks combined with her copper, fiery hair and brown eyes stirs something inside me every time.

I think it’s been around two weeks since I put someone’s face through a dining hall table too. But I keep my ears sharp. Especially around the first years. Remy has already made a public apology to all of them. Explaining his fathers mania had forced his and my hand. He knelt and offered any man a strike at him in vengeance for what happened.

/I wish you’d told me about this part of the plan/ I grumbled at him, reluctantly copying his action. Remy was protected by reputation, there was no guilt attached to beating the fuck out of me.

Would you have done it/

/Not a fucking chance/ forcing Remy to dip his head down as he hid a chuckle. /We’re dead!/

It started off with chatter about how best to behead me. Allette loudly suggested castration at least three times a smile playing on her high–cheekbones and cloudy eyes. However to my suprise the gaggle of first years, all sporting thin scars from the kettle somewhere upon their body simply muttered acceptance of our apology and walked away.

I love waiting for her outside the scent–tracing barn each evening. Inhaling the hay–sweet air and hoping she’s managed to best Vigo. It’s fifty–fifty at the moment between the pair. He’s one fierce bastard. That plain, silvery appearance hides a skilled, ruthless hunter. But too selfish. He did hurt my mate out of competitive spite after all.

Perhaps he can be a candidate for Warden Marshall’s special brand of training. The one I survived somehow because I recognise a lot of myself. Too good for real friendships, too strong and independent to need any help. I scribble that idea down. A bit of scribbling makes it look like I’m actively listening to yet another shitshow of a meeting.

Because while Tess trains, I still serve Remy. Dressed in black, my beard restored to its previous magnificence, I listen in meetings, offer ideas. Guard the humongous Alpha.

Thankfully, Remy is slowly starting to let go of the reins, delegating responsibilities. Not to me. I’m not here for policy and power. I’m just Remy’s guard and sounding board. His man in the shadows. As lovely as Tess is when she says I’m more than an assassin, it’s also exactly what I am trained for. For a damn good reason.

The rebels are slowly being tackled. Of course I was proved to be right. Catching the rebels off guard in smaller groups. No more massacres or taunting notes. Ended before their little sage green coloured pills can take effect. Kai and Silas returned from their first missions a little wiser. Less paranoid. They’ve seen the world and taken action in it as Betas.

Guerilla groups are sweeping through the industrial and mining zones. Following the notebooks, we have names and safe houses. They are slowly being rooted out. Alongside pamphlets explaining how Alpha Remy chooses to believe a person’s crimes are not their wolf’s crimes.

We also now know the memory altering ones are white, pasty capsules. Sage green for boosting a wolf’s ferocity. A salmon pink one is pure poison.

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Chapter 96

Outright death, Entire swathes of farmland have been torched for playing host to the particular species of mushrooms, Tess did not react at h. village being reduced to ash.

When I remember all the bottles of rattling pills I took out of Luca’s bag that night I shudder. Thank fuck Hazel never got hold of those, Thank fuck naza stays in her room to be honest:

I haven’t spoken to her since that day I ripped those homemade concoctions out of her hands. She summoned me though. Several times. She even commanded Warden Marshall to track me down and ask me to her room. It remained a no.

Messing with Tess’s mind is not on the list of things I’ll tolerate. She crossed a line. Remy has asked me to relent, reminding me she doesn’t have any friends but I stand firm. Tess comes before Alpha Remy and always will. A resolve as immovable as the mountains that rise up in the horizon.

It’s why I’ll never be a Warden. I’ll always

wear black, always be in the shadows.

In recent weeks Hazel has started receiving guests. Remy informs me Malva is apparently one of her new friends. I just tell him to make sure the doubled up rota of guards around the royal tower doorways search her every single time.

Malva might not be smart but the unpredictable Hazel certainly is.

“A nominee needed for leading bladework,” Remy remarks, his pen tapping onto the wooden table, snapping me out of my daydream. Removed from the dining hall we sit in the throne room, a table stolen for the purpose. It’s quieter, more private than the main packhouse and it’s warrens of offices and spiral staircases.

“Didn’t Kendrick run bladework last year?” Warden Bolton asks, checking down a list. Completely bald, shined to a high polish, it might be the first time I’ve ever heard him speak.

“He won’t be participating. From today.” Remy answers and my ears prick up.

“Oh. Oh I understand. I would suggest Warden Alton.”

“Warden Alton?”

A sudden shuffling and drop of a pen makes us all look his way. “Yes Alpha!” followed by mutters of agreement from the other dozen men around the table.

Remy is getting sharper. He is brisk and to the point. “You

are

happy to lead Bladework? The files are ready to review?”

“Yes Alpha, thank you,” he replies with a tremor in his voice. A looming tall, black–haired sleek fox of a man. His green eyes shine with joy at his promotion. I’m here to study the other Warden’s reactions to these changes.

Thinning down the men who might not have always served his father with true loyalty is always tricky.

Kendrick just had too many associations with Donlon. He isn’t the first Warden to leave the ranks. They were offered the chance to retire in any district of their choosing by Remy. Told to consider it a reward. Nobody has been pushed from the cliffs.

I doubt Remy will ever use that device during his reign. The entrance is now blocked up from the public’s side. The huge, backbreaking boulders were shaped and rolled by the same Betas who used to work for Donlon.

The men who created so many sad, lost, resentful exiles. All of the scowling, faces lines with cruelty. Dressed in filthy dust–covered tunics, each with a blood red sash across the chest, they were unavoidable for a few weeks. Tess wouldn’t even look their way.

Once again, after their task was complete, they were gathered in the throne room and told to choose a district and live out a peaceful life. Such generosity from Alpha Remy annoyed me. I told him so at the time.

“Maybe where they go, the rebels will soon follow and they can destroy each other,” he offered with a shrug.

“Let us hope so,” I murmured sourly.

Positions agreed, the big meetings are finally done for the day. Fresh air is required. Like so many other days I find myself sat with the Alpha. Resting on

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Chapter 96

the ledge of the wall outside the packhouse. Watching the world go by whilst we share some fruit.

“I need to ask you something.” Remy sighs. “You’re not going to like it.”

My heart immediately jumps to Tess. Whenever Remy asks me something, my first thoughts are for my mate.

“Why not?”

“You’re going to be on the road. Could be a while.”

“How long?”

“As long as it takes,” Remy answers. “And it’s got to be quiet.”

“Why?”

Remy offers me another wedge of orange before switching to the silence of our mindlink. People continue to stride past, unable to eavesdrop.

/All those men you were against releasing. The Exilers and the Warden’s who had links to Donlon?/

I know where this is going. I swallow and nod anyway. Tess is going to be so upset but insist this is the role I was born for.

/l want you to…finish the job./