The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 394

Chapter 394: Pool Party Energy In A Training Arena

Serena closed her eyes, reaching for the place in her chest where Aurelia lived to see if she could draw out a shift.

Nothing happened.

Aurelia: Was that it?

Serena: I was trying.

Aurelia: I felt nothing.

Serena: No shit.

"Take your time," Captain Thane called from the side of the field.

Serena: Elara. I’m stressed.

Unbeknownst to Serena and Elara by some miracle still, Dexmon, Hale, and, new addition, Fin could hear her mindlink. Fin because he had marked her in wolf form. But luckily, he did not hear Elara’s response, because he was not part of Drakenfell’s pack.

Elara: You look like you’re about to cry.

Serena: Can you make an excuse?

Dexmon had heard enough, jumping down from the stands before Serena’s mindlink finished.

He moved at Alpha speed, clearing the distance between the front row and the arena floor in a blur that arrived before the sound of his landing could catch up. His boots hit the ground three feet behind Serena.

Fin took one step. His body launched forward on the same instinct, the reflexive response of an Alpha whose mate was being approached by another Alpha. He stopped mid-stride. His jaw clenched so hard the muscle jumped three times. His hands curled into fists at his sides.

He let Dex go.

The letting was expensive. The cost was visible in the tendons of his neck and the gold bleeding into his irises and the specific, rigid stillness of a man physically restraining himself from doing the thing every wolf instinct in his body was demanding.

He let Dex go because the goal was to help Serena and he was not going to undermine Dexmon in front of his men. That would only upset Serena. Fin Shadowclaw was a man who made tactical decisions even when the decisions made his wolf want to scream.

Dex moved behind Serena. His mouth found her ear first, lips brushing the skin just below the lobe, then her cheek, a slow, deliberate press of contact that was equal parts affection and advertisement. The kiss was tender.

Every Shadowclaw soldier in the arena was watching, because the woman their Alpha had claimed was being kissed by a different Alpha in their training arena, and the kissing was carrying a proprietary energy that a blind man could have read from three kingdoms away.

Elara looked around the arena. Her scan was fast, comprehensive, cataloguing the reactions of twelve Shadowclaw warriors, three mages, two captains, and two Betas. This was a territorial claim being staked in real time. Every person there was deciding whether to acknowledge it or pretend they were looking at something else.

Nobody was looking at something else.

"You are too cute to be this frustrated," he said.

Aurelia: Sure. Let them think that. I prefer this to be your fault for being stressed over my fault for lacking the instinct.

Aegon: Also, don’t say any of that out loud, because Aurelia is upset and is making Serena more upset. If you embarrass Aurelia in front of these captains, I am going to make the next three shifts extremely unpleasant for you.

Dex closed his mouth. The correction had been received. The correction was being filed.

He leaned close to Serena’s ear, dropping his voice.

"Shift."

Alpha command. Gentle. Carrying the specific frequency of a man whose bloodline had been issuing commands for a thousand years and whose current command was delivered with the tenderness of a whispered promise.

Serena pulled away from him just as a blinding white flash erupted from her core.

The white light lasted for twelve seconds, so bright no one could see Serena, but Dexmon and Fin could absolutely feel it. Both Alphas grunted, her pain echoing through their matebonds.

Fin staggered forward, catching himself on a railing while Dexmon’s hands fell to his knees. Twelve seconds was considered a very slow, painful shift by any wolf standards.

Their eyes met across the arena in the blinding light for another ceasefire moment. The look held an entire conversation. Was it this slow before? Yes. With you too? Yes. Did we both forget? Yes. We need to fix this.

The agreement was unanimous, instantaneous, and required zero words. It was the fastest consensus in the history of their co-mate geometry.

When the flash vanished, a glowing white wolf stood.

Every person in the arena stood.