The Mate That Wasn't Mine novel Chapter 81

Chapter 81

Chapter 81

MAXIM POV

/Remy! Remy what the fuck is going on!/

What the hell is the point of having a mind link if the one person I’m meant to be able to communicate with won’t help?

[REMY!/

Chilled fear raced up to the tip of my head. What if he’s hurt? Dead?

Am I part of the Alpha’s deranged clean up operation? His white–clad huge figure is never more than a few paces ahead. Close enough to see his fists are

clenched

Not a chance to talk to Kai or Silas.

Stealing all the moonlight, Hale resembles a living statue, storming across the gravel with murderous intent.

My peripheral vision tells me Kai and Silas are unphased. I’m just another captive. Completely obedient.

Maybe since our fight they’ve been waiting for revenge.

My memory casts me back to the day I met Tessa on the train. Laughing with the men on either side of me.

Since then, we’ve all changed.

Silas’s secret affection for Irene announced itself way too late. Kai is desperately watching trains, trying to work out when war will take him.

Unfortunately I think I am the only one changed for the better.

My concern for the unconscious Warden Marshall is a sure sign of that. The man has made every climb up the ladder a torturous endurance event.

But he might be the only person in this pack who actually gives a damn about me after all.

Sneak a look backwards, his body has already been swallowed by the shadows. Then I get a rough yank from Silas. His long blonde hair swept up into a tight bun, honey eyes glaring ahead.

I give Remy one more try. /Hate me all you like. Go check on Warden Marshall. Your father just slammed his fist in his face. ANSWER ME YOU FUCKING

COWARD!/

The cliffs loom large as we crunch along the gravel at pace, Alpha Hale having no time for secrecy.

I’ve gone from my bedroom to the grim, gray cylinder of the cliffs within fifteen minutes. Fuck the black void is so close. Just like when came here before, the place is surrounded by dark gloom. The void awaits.

2

Marched up a few flights of steps, our freezing gray corridor opens up into a series of little carved out cell spaces. Bare and desolate.

Remy is alive. Sat in a wooden chair, head in his hands.

“DON’T LOOK AT HIM!” Alpha Hale bellows, roughly grabbing my shirt and flinging me forward. It’s just us. Me against Hale.

Dulirty orange shadows appear behind Hale. Lanterns are being lit. Ready for the crowd.

At least Tessa won’t see me die like this. The thought needs banishing. I can’t die. I can’t leave her behind.

I remain standing. There has to has to a way to get this back on track.

1/4

Chapter 81

am sorry Alpha-

The first smashing punch into my jaw is like fucking time–travel. Blinding white and hot at the same time. I don’t fall down but I wish I had.

“Every time you talk shit I’m going to do that. We’ll soon get to the truth. Now, tell me about Tessa Darnell.”

Holding my head high swallow back the blood in my mouth, “She is my mate.”

“She WAS dead,” Alpha Hale hisses, silently treading around to the back of me. My eyes meet Kai and Silas, red faced from running around lighting lanterns.

They don’t say a word. Hale punches my kidney area. “Well! What happened to her!”

“We faked it so you would not hunt her down. She was scared for her life.”

“Why? Why should she be scared of me if she has done nothing wrong?”

“Because you killed her best friend. Her family hurt yours. She realised Ravenbow wasn’t ever going to be her home. Not under your leadership. Which is a decision she is allowed to make.”

“No. Actually no it’s fucking not Maxim,” before a stick hits the back of my kneecap and sends me hurtling face first into the cold stone floor.

“Lie to me and I’ll kill you now. No crowd, just guts on a floor. Understood?”

The full force of his icy gaze offers no doubt he would probably enjoy killing me for no reason.

“Now…Were you working for Donlon?”

I shake my head. “No. ‘Never. I believe he had designs for me early in my career. But I either bored or disappointed him in the end. He moved on”

“You have a knack for that, I hear. Forever chasing, only to fuck it up once you get it.”

I can’t help glancing across at Remy. Is that true, even now? That’s what he thinks of me?

He’s not answering the link so maybe it is.

“I’ve always tried my best Alpha-”

“Trying to change my entire army?”

“I’ve fought the rebels! I’ve seen them weak!”

“LIES! You’re one of them!”

Hale crouches down, his fist raised.

“NO! I came back! I could have run away with Tess and started again! Left Ravenbow to fall!!”

My own control is slipping. It’s not the waves of pain/It’s anger at my loyalty being worth absolutely nothing.

“I wish to fuck we had now,” my words spat hastily. “But I wanted to tell Remy what I had discovered! To end the rebels. Messing with people’s memories. They need crushing!”

“DO NOT MENTION SUCH THINGS!” Hale screams, popping my ears with the volume. “NEVER!”

I bite back the fact that had I not fought with Isaac and unveiled the whole plot, none of this would be happening right now. Sabrina would still be getting conned aand assaulted by Donlon with an Alpha none the wiser.

Tessa and I could still be as we once were. But we wouldn’t have found out mate bond.

Chapter 81

Sol won’t complain. No matter what. I was ignorant before. Now I know the Goddess always intended us. That nothing is chaner-

“So, you claim you are not a rebel? You are loyal? But you lied! Grieving? All that fucking sympathy for someone you knew was aliver

“I was devastated! I didn’t know if we’d ever see each other again!”

My wolf is rampaging around my ribcage, but there is no way out of this room. Three walls and a furious giant,

“I sent you out to find rebels. You found her.” His death warrant.

is!

Castic, dripping with anger. I inhale. I’m not going to lie but I’d also rather not sign my own

“She had been taken by a group of rebels.” My Vo

runs away with ine, explaining as fast as I can. “I waited until nightfall then struck and killed all of them. Then I checked them, all heavily scarred down the spine. Three times the length of what your father and grandfather allowed.”

“WHO? Who was she with!”

Through clenched teeth Tanswer, “Luca Tamish.”

“Ha! So she is a traitor! Ran away to join the rebels like the scum she

destined to always be!”

“She’s not a rebel! NO!” daring to raise my voice. I earn myself a brutal uppercut punch that flings me over a metre along the cell floor into a heap.

My jaw is screaming in pain, blood spilling from my mouth. Still, I stand again, and wipe with my forearm. “No. She wanted to start again. The rebels TOOK her. Drugged her, messed with her memory. Pills. Pills I’ve brought back here to help you work out what their game is!”

Alpha Hale shakes his head, like I’m a simpleton who deserves his pity. Cracking his knuckles he proceeds to deliver another variety of blow.

“I thought you were something clever Maxim. Goddess knows Marshall raved about you for long enough. But you’re just another fool tricked by a devious, lying slut. Like me. You need to learn. Like Remy needs to learn. YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN!”

“You’re wrong, Alpha: About both women.”

“My Luna is not your concern!”

This time his punch is a downwards swinging neck–cracker. I force myself to stand shards of blinding agony starting to lance my sides.

up

staggering and wheezing. My wolf is unable to numb all the pain,

Hale snickers cruelly, running a hand through his ice blonde hair, except he has

my blood

on his hands, streaking his head demonically.

“Has your precious Tessa not told you who she really is yet?”

“She doesn’t know. She wants to find out.”

“It’s not worth knowing, it truly isn’t.” Hale chuckles darkly. “Out of one shitheap and into another. Then mated to you. The bitches luck is appalling reallly.”

Nausea rises, I need to steel myself and remember no matter what, Alpha Hale cannot change how it feels to call her mine. To kiss her and know her brown eyes are full of love.

He smirks at my confusion. “The Darnells were exiles. The whole village has been destroyed now as a lesson to the farming area. Exiles are no

return!”

“She wasn’t their child?” trying to get to point, to be able to tell Tessa anything at all.

“No. Unbelievably she comes from even worse stock than a drug–toting gang of exiles.”

Now my fists clench. My wolf rises in anger, my irises no doubt flecked with green shards.

“That copper hair and brown eye look. So unique. But once, they were all over the mountainside. I had the whole lot of them run out of Ravenbow

ed to

Chapter 81

twenty years ago.”

Tessa’s hunger to visit that damned meadow is for nothing.

“I didn’t exile them. Oh no. Straight off the cliffs. A night like tonight.. No audience. But some sneaky little bastards tricked their way dut. But one little girl was unaccounted for. Contessa apparently.”

“She was an infant!”

“She is a lower form! The whole lot of them! Thinking they wild. Fiery–haired little savages!”

youned

my mountains! Like they could claim the land beneath MY feet. Hunting and living

“Why did nobody say anything when she arrived?”

“Look at her! Your so–called mate! What threat could she Pathetic. I was happy to let the little limpet exist.”

“Stop it. Stop insulting her.”

pose to

A mutel Her family were so cunning, she was the best they could leave behind.

“The Darnells only kept her in case some other survivors came looking, maybe get a fat little reward. Realised they put her to work on the farm instead,” Hale prowls, his face delighted by how I’m struggling to keep my shit together.

were stuck with the last survivor and

quickly she brought you down, and by fuck she did didn’t she? She’s

He keeps needling, pressing away. “Maybe she still as the cunning. Look how quick fucked your life up completely. A leech raised by rats, mated to a fool”

Furious outrage spills over. “YOU FUCKER!” Hale doesn’t have time to enable his wolfs powerful aura to subdue my wolf. Instead my wolf fires my urge protect Tessa. Together we have one purpose.

Hale might be gigantic but I’m battle–hardened. And right now, I want to rip the Alpha’s fucking head off. And hell, I tried. Everywhere there wasn’t armour I savaged him. With no blade all I could do was try to gouge his eyes and break his neck.

But the thick oaf caught me on the swing and slammed me into the ground. As his hand closed around my throat. I used my last thoughts to link Remy.

to

/Tess is waiting for me, in the whorehouse outside of Ravenbow. Get her safe. Keep her away from him. Tell her I love her. I love her. It was worth it to love her./

AD

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