The Mate That Wasn't Mine novel Chapter 33

Chapter 33

MAXIM POV

From hero to zero. The speed with which I found myself locked in an orange perfumed room with nothing but increasingly uncomfortable underwear was rather depressing. The next stage should have been ditching the pants completely, not watching her fasten them quicker than lightning.

She vanished around the corner, her beautiful copper hair signalling farewell. I had the door resting on its latch, ready to head out the instant the coast became clear. The interviews were over, within minutes I’d be back by her side.

Holding her hand, suggesting we maybe head back. Suggesting a shower as a fabulous idea?

Except it didn’t.

Wardens like to gossip like old women it turns out. And when they think there are no students or Beta’s around, they just talk openly, ditching the mindlink. All of which I can overhear.

“That last couple though?”

“Hmm. I think the Alpha felt sorry for the poor bastards. Not a good match at all,” another gruff voice agreed. “Unless she’s meant to bring his temper into line.”

“He had a scrap with Pagano on the first day back I heard.”

My brain has gone from annoyed to curious in an instant. Vainly I’m kind of hoping they’ll say something nice about me. Maybe suggest Tessa and I work well in comparison.

“Maxim? Well he just pisses everyone off,” the Warden grunts in return. With that bitter little inflection to his voice I’m fairly sure it’s the Badger. Or Warden Brock as he prefers.

I’m almost offended. But then I remind myself that when you’re the best, you should be making more enemies than friends. And despite current appearances, I am the best at what I do.

“That Rook guy annoyed the Alpha talking shit in a steam room.”

“Did he? Idiot.”

“More steam room gossip suggests his girlfriend broke up with him a few days ago. He was complaining. Loudly.”

“You’re spending way too much time in the steam room,” Warden Brock chuckles deeply. “We need to work out the source of the rumours though. It could be dangerous for-” before the conversation ends.

Dropped like a guillotine. The scurrying of feet of stone is followed by silence for half a moment. Then a thick clumping sound. Bigger feet. The guy might as well be walking with hammers on his boots.

It’s got to be Alpha Hale.

I’m dead if he catches me snooping. So of course, my head is clamped to the door, trying to quickly work out a way to silence the thunder of my pulse in my pressed ear. Why is there never a glass or a stethoscope on hand for such snooping situations?

“Father? You wanted to see me?”

Oh, it was the slightly smaller Prince Remy. Stilla hulking behemoth in his own wrapped up in a quieter, more thoughtful personality.

“Donlon,” is rasped back. The level of hate in his voice is unreal.

right. White blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, just like his father, all

“What about him?”

Chapter 33

“You were right,” Alpha Hale growls in return, his voice laced with furious menace. I don’t have to be able to see our leader to know how he will b standing right now. Feet parted, arms folded, nostrils flaring. Every kind of physically dominating trait comes naturally to him, Prince Remy only has the physique so far.

“What are the next steps? Where’s our proof coming from?”

“I don’t have to prove anything. I cap

kill the fucker tonight.”

men here think he’s their surrogate father. They’ll riot. Or aid the rebels.”

“No, Dad, you can’t. He’s got allies. Half th

I almost make the messed–up situation in my pants worse when one of the pair slaps their hand or shoulder against my door. I jump back so fast I’m silently spinning on one foot like a desperate flamingo.

“Don’t remind me. I almost lost you.”

There’s a silence that aches on. Something private, hurtful is being remembered by both parties and I’m here. No different to a cheap voyeur.

Prince Remy breaks the silence, his voice so close to the door I dare not breathe. “So the mate interview was a bust?”

“Course it was. He’s filled everyone’s head that this Darnell girl is some secret spy. She’s not even sent a single letter home or talked to anyone outside her squeaky clean circle.

So she knew the guy in her village, so did everyone for ten miles of him. She told us, she didn’t conceal. She was so nervous her eyes never left the ground.”

I knew it wasn’t a real interview. My fists clench at the way he disregards Tessa. Not one mention of her archery, her skills. He just sees the shyness and not the fire.

“She’s mated to that cocky prick Maxim, who pounced on Hazel last year? What if he’s a loose cannon, he’s one of Donlon’s lap dogs too,” Remy muses.

Fucking hell, eavesdropping is basically just a waking nightmare where everyone just slates you. I’m half tempted to swing open the door and announce, “I saw Donlon spread open your mothers lap, what does that make me now?”

But that wouldn’t be wise.

Alpha Hale takes a moment. “No. Because when we finally let loose on Donlon, it’s a sweep up job. All his allies will need to go. Including people like him. And unfortunately, people like him aren’t easy to replace.”

“Need to go?” Prince Remy checks, my own throat clenching tightly at the implications.

“You know what I’m saying son. This is the life of an Alpha. People fuck you over, you don’t just take out the leader, you get the whole root system or they just keep coming back. Like this shitty rebel group out in the farming district. The whole lot need burning in their shitty wooden huts. There is nobody! can trust now. Even your mother…”

“How is she, I mean…”

“The blackouts…I don’t know son. She hasn’t had one for so long only for them to start up again. So don’t stress her with this Donlon news.”

Remy’s voice is a hurt whisper, our heads must be only inches apart. “But you found her up at the cliffs that time-”

The bells clang and interrupt whatever else they’re trying to say. “I’ve got a council meeting now but we’ll talk soon. Yes?”

Shit. More people? I’ve got to get out of here. Turning around to face my small prison, there is a fireplace but I’m not shimmying up any chimneys. Instead I’m eternally grateful for the stained glass window. High arched, as wide as my shoulders. As quietly as possible I move a chair and start work on unlocking the casement.

It is only when the lead–lined black widow finally swings outwards that I exhale. Running my hands through my messy brown hair, I try to shake out the tension that conversation has just lumped upon me.

14.17

nu, 5 JunOGM

81%0

Chapter 33

The whole top tier of Ravenbow is shifting. Alpha Hale is under threat. Sides will need to be chosen. It’s an all in gamble as to pick the wrong side will surely mean a swift, no doubt painful end.

Alpha Hale talks about loyalty, but I’ve been around long enough to know that loyalty is not an instant lifelong attachment to some symbol or person.

After clambering my way out of the window I’m concealed within the circular towers erupting at different heights out of the vast stone packhouse, its dark gray and blood–red layers clear and foreboding.

Concealed up here, I study people milling around outside, heading towards the dining hall, couples hand in hand. The bladework boards are being hammered by some practicing first–years no doubt desperate to beat Allette.

All of them, they have no idea.

If Donlon falls, I’m falling too. It will be too late to tell Alpha Hale the wool has already been pulled from my them out for. There has to be a way to play this.

eyes

without admitting to sins he would rip

One where as few people die as possible. Shit I think I might need to tell Tessa. She might have some clearer thinking than me on this one.

At allowing myself to think of her my wolf sends a bolt of warm, curdling heat through my stomach. A lack of mate bond doesn’t stop a wolf being a sap

then.

Despite everything I’ve overheard, I am still on a high. I’m happy. There’s a buzz about my brain, a lightheaded silliness that can only spell trouble. It’s Tessa. It’s that huge leap forward we both took.

With other women that would have just been the starter, an amuse–bouche. Some kind of pre–show sip of champagne. But there is something in Tessa’s tentative, hesitating handling of her trust that tells me I can’t rush this. I think every step we take together is a first for her.

At least if I ever need to make her laugh I can inform her she has given me one of my firsts. A girl has absolutely never made that happen to me before. I have self–control.

So she’s got a past. I’m not squeaky clean, I just concealed better. You can hide an awful lot of secrets in the industrial zone. When I applied they ran the necessary checks but dead people don’t talk. So my reputation is my own construction.

Following Tessa and the path we’ve both set ourselves upon feels like a ship entering murky, dangerous fog. I cannot see the road ahead. I’m resting on something new and untried. The Tessa I held today, the one I kissed and suggested I might one day maybe consider dying for is leading me somewhere strange and intoxicating. Not waking me up, more like putting me under a trance. She’s so annoyingly out of reach in so many ways.

So whilst I do not have any particular loyalty to Alpha Hale, it would be a lie to say I have none to my fake mate. I chance a glance up at the horizon and noticed the puff of smoke from the train approaching. That’s unusual. Kai would know just how unusual but even I know they don’t arrive on an evening.

Something hits the back of my head.

“What the hell!” I hiss, trying to keep my balance in the nook where the tower meets a section of packhouse roof. My arms flail outward, assuming a pigeon or some other flying rat had tried its luck on me. Only to realise the gutter in front of me held a small, round pebble.

Fear bubbled up, fast and quick, just like when I had to stand by the bed of my first kill and decide just how hard I was going to press on his throat.

“Pagano get your ass down here now!” hisses a familiar voice. Of course. Just as Tessa wants to drag me into the murky, sensual otherworld, Warden Marshall is here with the flashlight and bleach to keep me in the real world. Shit he’s got the Badger with him too, Warden Brocks black and white stripes luminous under the darkening evening sky.

I scramble down, clinging onto the slender grips provided by gaps in the centuries old, crumbling walls. All the while trying to prepare excuses in my head. “Warden Marshall, good evening, I don’t know if you saw an arrow fly up there but-”

“Save it. Follow me. Now,” he snaps. His watery blue. “Tonight you pick a side, Maxim.”