The Mate That Wasn't Mine novel Chapter 82

Chapter 82

TESSA POV

My instincts are non–existent. I’m too busy reeling to know whether I can trust these strangers or not.

“Prince Remy sent us.”

“Who are you?”

“Seriously?” the big blonde bear frowns, his honey–coloured eyes losing their gentleness swiftly. I take a step back.

If Maxim is in trouble, maybe these two aren’t the people I should be following. Maybe there is a back door to this wooden shack.

Daff and Mrs Braithes are fast approachin

“You’ve no business here. Go along now. We’re not open!” the burly owner bristles.

Receiving a swift nudge in the ribs, the man with black hair takes over. “Maxim said she’d been drugged you idiot,” before facing me, his green eyes wide, curious and glinting. “You don’t know us then?”

“That’s irrelevant. Where is Maxim?”

“We’ve been with him. Alpha Hale choked the shit out of him but he’s alive. The bells are all ringing across Ravenbow. They’re summoning the pack to the cliffs. We haven’t got long.”

“The Alpha is going to kill Maxim?”

“Yes! But Remy wants us to get you somewhere safe. He promised Maxim nothing would happen to you. So, what supplies do you have?”

My head tilts to the side in confusion. Are these two men seriously suggesting the best option is to run away?

The only direction I’m going is straight to Maxim. “Nothing. I have nothing. Maxim was going to bring everything tonight. So what can you lend me?”

“We’ll get you safe first.”

“No. You’re taking me to the Cliffs. So what weapons have you got?”

This time the two men step back, exchanging worried glances. “That’s not what we are doing.”

Rather than waste anymore time, I stride forward, pushing past the pair, completely ignoring their protests.

“It’s a great big cliff they throw people from? I’m sure i’ll find it!” and start running the same direction Maxim left me last night.

Fuck those two. My guess would be they are Silas and Kai.

They weren’t lying about the bells though. I wind my way in and out of the trees until a thick metal rail line appears, the heady, nightmarish, metallic thunder of the bells beckoning me closer.

Knowing Maxim has been harmed wrenched something deep inside. Like I’m bleeding inside myself.

“Wait!” The two men call but’l follow the tracks into the station itself. The blood red drapes overhead give me a sickening sense of deja vu that I haven’t

time to examine.

My wolf and brain are working overtime. Every corner is a fresh assault upon the senses. I recognise enough to be confused, but not enough to have a clue what they represent to me.

Soon, the huge granite columns of the station give way to long grassy driveways and a hulking packhouse that slices the sky in two.

The gray granite stonework looks indestructible. Especially with the dark, bloody red strike through the centre, I cannot stop staring at it, as I edge closer.

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Chapter 82

How did I once live here? The rolling gravel path splits off, leading to a series of large, identical looking buildings, to the other side of thôn torches glow and thick lines of people snake up towards the mountainside.

They are nearly all in beige. Some wear the same dark blue or maybe black shirts as the two strangers.

In my thin cotton dress and thick boots, will people recognise me? How do I get to Maxim if I cause a scene? Struggling for a solution, my arm i prabiber

I squeal but my face is fimmediately slammed roughly against a wooden door. “Don’t scream. Just let me talk

I’m not in a position to argue line shallow, the wooden planks of the arched door are pressed into my cheek. Goddess why didn’t one of those

idiots give me their knife!

“Do you know who I am, Tessa?” his voice

I scan his face with wasted hope. “No, N

“Okay. Well I’m Warden Marshall-” lowerin

neck.

a snarl, but certainly stressed. “Answer me, quickly!”

know who you are!”

his face close to mine, his short blonde hair reminding me of Maxim’s description. A tennis ball on a thick

Except he looks deadly serious, and one side of his face has a livid red and purple mark.

“He told me about you. Let me go! Let go!” I hiss, trying to buck my body away from the door, elbow thrusting towards his ribs.

“What are you trying to do here Tessa? Tell me the truth,” looking around to check for witnesses, his whispers a rapid fire force of their own.

“I need to get to Maxim! I can’t let him be hurt. He’s given up too much for me already!”

Warden Marshall reaches around me. The wooden door swings open and I almost tumble onto the gray stone floor. He points at a large package, bigger than my torso.

“He had this waiting for you in his room. Get changed. I’ll take you to the route the Royals take to the cliffs. Quicker. Nobody will see you. Are Silas and Kai not with you?”

“Is that is who came to find me? I ran. They wanted to take me somewhere safe.”

I squat to the floor rooting through the package. Charcoal coloured armour, weapons, gold coins and a mountain of food and essentials. I could cry.

Marshall turns his back, locking the door, whilst I dress. The solid black plates of armour are a woman’s size, fitting across my chest comfortably. How an earth did he arrange this?

Moments later, dressed to murder, I am sprinting down a series of deep underground tunnel, the bells continuing to ring.

“Once those bells stop, you’re out of time,” Warden Marshall notes sourly.

He remains ahead of me, his bright fire torch guiding us. Coated in jet–black armor, a bow and arrow pulled taut, I am ready. The sound of chatter begins to echo towards us. My destiny is fast approaching at the hand of this unassuming blonde man. “Thank you, for helping.me.”

“Thank you for trusting me,” he nods, his bruised face wrinkled with concern.

“I know you and Maxim have had issues…but he’s my mate. My world. He doesn’t deserve this.”

“I have been harsh on him in the past. What he told you is correct.” he answers with a stoic nod “But as it turns out, you were the one thing he needed.”

Passing racks of menacing hooks and equipment Slowing to a walk, Warden Marshall gestures for me to look upward. A huge, gray stone cylinder, carved with incredible intricacy. At one end a short platform. Above that, a clear night sky.

A pirate’s plank of gray stone juts out halfway up. I don’t need my memory restored to know this is where people die.

“I don’t think I’ve brought him anything good.” Scanning upwards for a trace of those perfect tiger eyes. We’re so far down it’s impossible to see. I feel like an ant staring up at the gigantic world above. “I’ve ruined everything he had.”

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Chapter 82

“You haven’t. Pagano is loyal, determined, Intelligent and cares about this place. A damned fierce lighter. But he didn’t heus anythi Into. So he drifted along. But from the moment he showed up with you, there has been a fire In hins that cannot be dulled you de be reckoned with. You have been the making of him.”

Then why is the Alpha killing him!”

“Because that is Ravenbow. The will of the Alpha. No matter the reasoning, the unsteady nature of his mind.”

Dust rains down into my eyes from the shuffling feet all jostling for position metres above us.

“He’ll be thrown from that ledge then?” I check.

“Yes.”

“What’s down there?”

“Another hundred metres freefall I believe. Death either way.”

We’re on the lowest tier of the balcony. Everyone is gazing upwards, shuffling endlessly. I’m one person. Less than that. I’m one despised, hated, no doubt wanted for rebel stirring, treasonous bitch.

So if I’m going to save Maxim it won’t be via.appealing to Alpha Hale‘ better nature. What do I have? What have I got apart from a need to tell Maxim I love him?

I will never be able to thank him enough for lighting up my life. Not just the one I cannot remember. This, now. The limited shards of myself I am clinging to, he helped them make sense.

The bells continue to clang. I turn to Warden Marshall, standing tall. “Ineed a storeroom. And another archer.”

Marshall grimaces. “You have me. Until the bells stop anyway.”

We fly into action. Every clang of the bell is a gift. I find reams of rope. I get silver -tipped arrows. There is barely any light down here and that’s exactly how it needs to stay. Marshall moves to a balcony one level up.

Aiming I fire through the gap, timing it to clang with the bell. Marshall feeds it through and fires it back. With no knives we repeat half a dozen times. We create a stretch of half a dozen ropes, barely spanning a metre and a half wide, sloping down to where I stand.

It’s not enough. It won’t catch him. I need more.

The bells stop. Whatever the crowd were discussing ends as sharply as a guillotines swish.

Marshall gives me a silent nod before throwing his bow over the edge and vanishing into the shadows. I need to think of something to expand this meagre collection of ropes.

I’ve nothing else but this desperate prayer. My pulse rages in my eardrums, paired with an adrenalin that suggests we’re.not done yet. We have until Maxim leaves the ledge. Everyone is looking upwards.

“RAVENBOW! YET AGAIN YOU HAVE FAILED YOUR ALPHA!” a voice booms.

Once again I get deja vu. But it doesn’t confuse me. It angers the living hell out of me. Using the bag the rope came in to cover my bright hair I slowly loop another length of rope around an arrow.

Then, trying not to look down I ease myself outwards. Black rope over black, certain death. My wolf is having to help me steady my sha

ands.

Soon, I’m over the void. Directly below the ledge. I’ll finish the job myself.

“BRING HIM OUT! I must apologise Ravenbow. For I once extolled the virtues of having a mate! I told you all it was the greatest, noblest thing a man could want at Ravenbow. Well…I’m here to tell you I was wrong. SO WRONG!”

Chapter 82.

I’m wincing, but there is no time to pause,

You see a mate. A woman. They aren’t always thinking of you. of your happiness. They have AGENDASI SECRET LIVESILIES

The Alpha has truly lost his mind. I almost scream when some more dust and specks of stone land on me but keep my quivering frame modu

blackness.

Weaving the rope loosely through the “hel have to wait to pick my target. My eyes have to adjust to the darkness, my hands settle into my

accelerated pulse.

I fire, back down the corridor. Then I slowly work my way back to safety: Wrapped around a column, I begin the process all over again. Too light, tha weave will compress and Maxim will miss it. Too loose and he’ll fall through it.

“Please. Please work,” I whimper as I hear the sound of a body thudding heavily above me, Alpha Hale’s lecture on failures of having a mate continue.