The Mate That Wasn't Mine novel Chapter 64

TESSA POV

Luca closes the gap between us. Silently tracking me. Out here in the middle of nowhere, I’m surrounded by darkness. The brightest thing about Luca and this shitty patch of earth are his worn, scruffy brown leathers.

Escape isn’t happening. I cannot even shift, not with the vile rag of wolfsbane still tied round.my neck.

“Well Tess? I think I might be owed an explanation. Don’t you?”

I shouldn’t blush, but I can feel my cheeks heating up all the same. I’m remaining quiet for now. Mainly because I have a feeling Luca knows exactly what happened in Ravenbow.

His unfaithful mate.

Luca does a peculiar little stretch, his neck tilting to the right, cracking the cartilage. Or trying to keep his temper in check. My ilence is pissing him off.

“Don’t start playing the silent games with me Feisty. That’s not what I’ve come out here for.”

This harsh man I do not know. This is not the steady, fiercely loyal Luca from my childhood.

My wolf offers an idea. It rolls around in my mine like a bead on a drum.

If we are still free by dawn, I might have a chance. A sharp stick to his neck could do it. Grab his machete from him. Rip off the rag from my neck, hide long enough for the wolfsbane to wear off. Then I can shift and get the hell out of this place. Anywhere.

But only if we are still out here.

So I need to talk. But not about anything that’s going to anger him. Or make him think we are some kind of beautifully reunited dream.

I chose this miserable existence away from Alpha Hale, but I never ran from Maxim. Here, alone and scared I miss the warmth of his adoration. I left Ravenbow to answer the questions bubbling up inside me.

I didn’t leave Maxim for this. For Luca.

I hate the way I can imagine my loves face falling should he ever hear about this. He doesn’t deserve the carnage that is so deeply entwined around me.

“I’m not playing any games. I’m just scared.”

Luca’s dark eyes glare, making the heat of my cheeks spread down to my neck and chest. “Look at me Tess.”

“I am,” I stammer back. How will I make it until dawn?

Luca’s patience is already wearing thing. “So I scare you now? You really believe that?” but he can’t say it without sounding like he wants to break my

neck. Just like before he bit me.

“I don’t want to be. I want to know about you,” trying to divert back to the scowling madman in front of me.

The fire torch crackles between us. Up above some bird of prey lets out a piercing cry. In this stupid burnt orange dress and boots I feel useless. I want armour, my training uniform. Something to feel like I’m not just Luca’s prisoner.

“But, aren’t you a leader of the rebels now? Why did you disappear in the first place?”

Luca does not flinch, his rugged cheekbone highlighted by the fiery torch. His dirtied, rough hands don’t stop flexing. If his temper were to snap I would have no defence. No salvation. Just an anonymous death in the countryside.

“Do you really think you are in a position to insist on anything Tess? Do you know how close you came to being hurt today?”

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Chapter 64

When I stay quiet he takes another step forward. The fire torch is uncomfortably close to my face, making me squint.

“Talk to me. Stop this.”

But to talk about Ravenbow is to discuss Maxim. I don’t know if I can explain our fake relationship without my body language betraying how little of it was truly fake.

“Fine. I’ll just take you back,” gruffly reaching for my hand once more but I’m too quick. Shit. I need to stay out here. I need him to talk.

My wolf rallies, a little shot of courage forcing me to stand up straighter. “You marked me Luca. Against my will!”

It is his turn to look away in shame, quickly tying his long black hair up and out of his eyes with a length of thin leather. I don’t think this is going how he expected. But maybe he isn’t the only one to have changed over time.

“Matebond revelations can get a little…excited. Why weren’t you happy to be mated to me?”

My brain panics. But this isn’t the time for spinning a lie. The truth is real enough.

“I was terrified. Because I knew you before you left… I didn’t know you that night when the bond clicked, you were so different. You still are.”

“Fucks sake,” he murmurs grittily, finally looking away from my face, lifting the fire torch up high, surveying the scrubland around us. “Will you listen to me then Tess? If I build you a fire now, will you sit with me and listen?“–

For the first time his voice is softer, more earnest. The Luca I recognise.

“I will,” replying without fear in my voice for the first time. This is my chance. Build a fire. Talk. Talk as much as necessary until the sun rises.

I had to stand completely still and wait whilst he pottered around me, huge lumps of wood dumped and set alight in front of me.

“Sit,” he barks. There is nothing soft to sit on, just the hard ground. I notice he does not. He stood, watching me from the other side of the fire. My stomach twists with nerves. He’s still riled. Pacing like a panther and hating every second.

“Well?”

Taking a deep breath I start with, “So…You became a rebel?”

“Yes. Alpha Hale took my wolf, my home, my pride from me. I want him dead. What else could I become?”

“He exiled you?”

Luca nods.

It feels like walking into a trap but I continue anyway. “So you committed a crime? Where did you go all those years ago? The whole village just shut

down about you.”

Luca stared hard. His head tilting to the right, jaw clenching. “I want to know why you went to Ravenbow without me.”

“You had been gone for two years!…” but the way his eyebrows furrowed together and fists balled suggested I change route. “My archery was good enough. All that practicing we did, it worked,” my voice rising with excitement. “I was top of the class as well! I was flying up the ranks.”

He gives me a soft smile of pride. “Course you were Feisty.” and despite the nerves I smile back at him. Months and months of my life spent alongside him in the clearing, chatting about nothing important. Setting and resetting targets for hours at a time.

“I had to leave the village. I couldn’t stay any longer, it was suffocating me.”

“Was it really that bad?” his voice softening. More like the teenager I remember. Concern and protectiveness oozing through his words.

“You know it was. My family…,” looking away from Luca and into the blinding light of the fire. “…I didn’t talk to them, they didn’t talk to me. I worked on the farm and I got bedding and food. They did their shifty meetings and kept me out of the loop.”

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Chapter 64

“Shit you haven’t eaten anything yet have you?” he suddenly interrupts. “SAMSON BRING IT OUT NOW!”

The huge Samson is on waitress duty, waiting to be summoned? Before I can wrap my head around it Luca launches into quick chatter.

“They never told you why I left?”

“No.”

“I didn’t commit a single crime, you know. Well, not before I was exiled anyway,” shrugging and thrusting his hands into his pockets. He’s still standing. unable to relax. I wonder if that is his restless, trapped wolf.

Conversation pauses whilst Samson shuffles over, watching me the whole time. He hands Luca a beautifully carved bow and quiver of arrows. The same style as the one he gave me. It’s so pretty it’s almost enough to not grimace at his porcine stench.

I still take the thick cup of soup from him. It’s the first thing I’ve eaten in almost twenty–four hours. If I’m going to get away at dawn, I’ll need my energy. Samson doesn’t say a word. Just nods formally at Luca and strides back to the camp.

“What happened then?”

For the first time Luca moves towards me. I hold my breath as he unsteadily lowers himself to sit beside me, the bow and arrows in front of us, just avoiding the fire.

“I had a side trade going on. Working with your parents actually. Turns out, in the right kind of soil, you can grow some seriously powerful hallucinogens. The kind of shit people want to pay a lot of money for.”

I think I might be sick.

“Mushrooms?”

“Yes.”

“So…the regular crops I helped plant, grow and harvest…”

“Your father was just keeping up appearances. His money came from our supply.”

“Who did you sell them to?”

“Fae and humans mainly. Your mother had some contacts from the old days, they lapped it up. I should have stuck to them. Getting tangled with the Warden was where I went wrong. About a year before my arrest.”

It might be the soup but I am fighting back a retch. “Which Warden?”

“I don’t know for sure, but the fucker left the money in the same place every time. I wrapped the mushrooms inside whatever he requested. Blade handles for the first six months. Then he wanted more. The money Tess…fuck it would have set us up forever.”

“You were so young, we weren’t even mated-”

“But I knew! Didn’t you? Didn’t you always know we would be together?” his voice picking up, a frantic, annoyed tone escaping. Thankfully he is in too big a rush to let me struggle to explain.

“The worst part about the cunt setting me up was not knowing if my bond would still kick in…when I got out and crossed the mountains…Fucking hell, I was so relieved. But I took it too far. I hurt you. Scared you,” picking up the bow and examining it under the firelight.

He slowly takes my empty soup cup and places it by his feet before returning to the bow, testing its tension as we always did before practice.

I can’t help but watch, my head matching his, tilting to the right idly.

“It’s just like yours isn’t it?” he whispers, “Take it,” before pressing it into my hands.

19:06 Fri, 13 Jun

Jun

OA

Chapter 64

I stare down and feel a thousand memories surging up to the surface. The green clearing, our silly homemade targets. Sitting in high trees talking, and firing arrows. Over and over. Wondering why he was happy to hang out with an awkward misfit like me.

Blinking slowly, tiredness is hitting me hard. I can’t fall asleep. I won’t get the dawn escape I need.

Then I feel Luca gently unpicking the braids in my hair, removing the pins and giving the braids little shakes to relieve the plaits into wavy curls.

“I’ll get it right this time, Feisty,” he murmurs. I should ask what he means, but I cannot take my eyes from that bow. The emblem of my teenage years. My happiest times with my dark–eyed, mysterious, best friend.

“Luca?” I murmur softly.

“I know you made some poor choices up at Ravenbow. But I’m here now Feisty…you can forget all about that place…” his voice floating away as the wooden bow and fire merge into a sleepy, blurring haze.

And miraculously…I do.