The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate-Chapter 161: She Watched Him Rule And Thought Oh FUCK

"Serena!" Fin ran to her, stopping her mid-stride, grabbing her arm.

Onyx was strapped to his front like an oversized, scaly infant in a carrier that didn’t exist.

"I need to check on Hale," Elara said, already moving in the opposite direction with the purposeful speed of a woman who recognized a moment that didn’t need a third person in it.

"Hi," Serena said, swallowing the lump in her throat that had been sitting there since the portal closed between them.

She pulled him into a hug with Onyx sandwiched in between. His gold eyes blinked up at Serena from the narrow gap between their bodies with an expression that suggested he found this arrangement perfectly acceptable.

Fin was surprised, but hugged her back immediately, breathing in her scent, his arms tightening around her with the kind of relief that doesn’t bother pretending to be casual.

"Serena... I have to return to Shadowclaw. I want you to come with me. You have to recharge before you can do anything."

Serena paused. She wanted to go with him. She did. She wanted a break from Drakenfell. From not getting a thank you for saving their lives and instead being punished for breaking into the restricted section of the library, even though she was the future Luna Queen.

Meanwhile, Agnes had cut the back of her dress, poisoned her, and never got so much as a scolding. She had fought their war, bled for their people, and the reward had been a disciplinary hearing and a lecture.

Then she realized she was feeling Fin’s emotions through the matebond, bleeding into hers like ink into water. But he wasn’t too far off from the feelings she’d been pushing down.

"Just say yes. Aeron will make you a portal back here before dusk. I’ve already cleared it with Tiberon. And you get out of your punishment for today." His lips twitched at that last part.

Serena smiled and shook her head. He was right. She had to recharge. She couldn’t make a portal, and if she arrived in Orosia even if someone else made one for her, she’d be at half capacity at best. She needed to game plan more on how to get to the capital for Dex.

Onyx craned his neck around from where he was plastered to Fin’s chest and gave her the cutest look a baby dragon possibly could, his enormous gold eyes going wide and round, as though he were trying to make himself look as helpless and irresistible as possible.

She looked at Onyx, then back up at Fin — who pretended like he didn’t notice his dragon’s manipulation tactics that were devastatingly effective.

"Okay," she whispered, grinning.

Onyx detached from Fin’s chest and launched the short distance from Fin to Serena, catching her off guard.

She staggered back half a step under the weight and looked down at the dragon now attached to her like a barnacle.

✦✦✦

Serena walked next to Fin through the streets of Shadowclaw, and the stares that followed her were nothing she wasn’t used to.

Onyx wouldn’t let her go, so she was holding him, sixty pounds of baby dragon draped across her front with his claws hooked into her training suit and his tail curled around her hip.

They also looked at her, then at Shadowclaw, all wondering the same thing.

A woman hanging laundry from a second-floor window spotted them and waved. "Oh, hi Onyx!"

Onyx chirped back, his head popping up from Serena’s shoulder, his tail wagging once against her ribs.

A man at a fruit stall called out next. "There he is! Morning, Onyx!"

Another chirp. Louder this time, as though he were making sure everyone heard him.

A group of children running between market stalls skidded to a halt, their faces splitting into grins. "ONYX!"

Onyx chirped so enthusiastically that his entire body vibrated against Serena’s chest, and his small wings flapped twice, which accomplished nothing aerodynamically but communicated his excitement with absolute clarity.

"He made some friends while I was away," Fin said, a rare smile on his lips, the kind that reached his eyes and stayed there, unhurried, as though this place gave him permission to wear it.

Serena glanced at him and felt something shift in her chest. This was Fin in his own territory, and he was a different man here.

Another thing Serena noticed was the level of respect Fin had from his pack. Shadowclaw more than liked him. They loved him.

Every person they passed acknowledged him, not with the rigid, eyes-forward deference, but with warmth. A baker pressed a wrapped loaf into his hand and wouldn’t take payment.

A blacksmith called out a joke that made Fin shake his head but didn’t stop the smile.

An elderly woman touched his arm as he passed and said something quiet in a dialect Serena didn’t catch, and Fin leaned down and kissed her cheek without breaking stride, as though he had done it a thousand times before.

The way he ruled reminded her of her father. There were many ways a king can be a king, but the most difficult and type she found the most impressive was this.

Shadowclaw’s loyalty wasn’t built on fear or tradition or obligation. It was built on the fact that their king knew the baker’s name, kissed the elderly woman’s cheek, and carried a baby dragon on his chest without a shred of self-consciousness.

Her pride in him swelled through the matebond like a tide coming in, warm and steady and impossible for him to ignore.

"Careful, Frostborne," Fin said under his breath. "I might not let you leave if you keep looking at me like that."

She flushed like she was caught.

"And now she blushes."

He laughed, pulling her into his arms.

✦✦✦

When they reached Fin’s study, there was a massive amount of paperwork waiting for him. Onyx curled in a warm, heavy ball on his lap.

Serena helped him sort through it. He tried, more than once, to get her to do something else, suggesting a tour of the grounds, a meal, a nap, anything that wasn’t sitting across from him sorting through paper.

She said no every time.

She wanted to help him, after he had put his life in danger for her. And it kept her mind off of things, which was worth more than sleep right now.

They worked in comfortable silence for a while. Onyx dozed. Pages shuffled. Fin signed things without reading them until Serena reached across and pulled one back.

"You didn’t read that."

"I read it."

"You signed a requisition for six hundred goats."

Fin paused. "We might need six hundred goats."

"It says ’decorative goats.’"

He took the page back, read it, and set it aside with the quiet dignity of a man who would never speak of this again.

Half an hour went by and he couldn’t take it anymore.

"Stop."

Serena looked up.

"You have a better way of doing this. I can feel it off you," Fin said, grinning. He leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. "By all means."

"I don’t want to mess up your system, I—"

"Shadowclaw will take it as an act of war if you don’t show me." Fin cut her off.

Serena started to laugh.

She stood over the pile and glanced at him. Onyx lifted his head from Fin’s lap and was now watching her too, his gold eyes tracking her hands with the attentive focus of a creature who had no idea what paperwork was but was fully prepared to support the process. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"I’ve been told this is disturbing."

She went through the pile at Alpha speed, her hands a blur, pages flipping and sorting and re-stacking so fast that the papers made a sound like a deck of cards being shuffled by someone who had lost patience with the game.

Fin watched the entire display the way a man watches someone disarm a bomb in four seconds. Onyx’s head swiveled back and forth, tracking the blur of paper like a spectator at a very fast, very confusing sport.

She turned back to Fin.

"Two supply invoices are duplicated with different totals. Someone is either skimming from your northern grain stores or your quartermaster can’t count. And this one," she held up a third document, "is a tax exemption request that was filed under military provisions, which means either it was misfiled or someone is trying to avoid your finance council’s oversight. That’s a financial matter, not a king one, and it should go to your auditor, not your desk."

"Can’t say I was expecting that." Fin dragged a hand down his face, then shook his head and gave a dark laugh. "I’ve been signing these for two hours. You sorted them in forty seconds."

He leaned forward, elbows on the desk, studying her with the sharp, assessing look of a king who had just found exactly what he didn’t know he was looking for.

"Is there anything you’re bad at? Genuinely asking. For my sanity."

Serena’s face flushed. "Following direct orders."

"Yeah. I heard."

Fin watched her for a long moment, something dangerous moving behind his eyes. Then he leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers behind his head.

"I’m hiring you."

Serena laughed. "You can’t hire me. I don’t live here."

"Details." He gestured at the now-organized desk. "I’ll build you an office. Onyx can be your assistant."

Onyx lifted his head at the sound of his name and chirped once.

"He’s already accepted the position. It’s done." Fin said.

He laughed then added,"That explains the debate around your punishment today. Half the room thought it was too lenient. Archibald insisted."

"I did go against his direct orders. That cancels out everything else," Serena said, voice dry.

Fin snorted. "True. There was direct evidence against you. You brought back the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Master Mage. And an Alpha from another pack. But if you’re going to break a rule, that’s a pretty damn good excuse."

He shook his head. "Drakenfell doesn’t deserve you."

The words landed heavier than he meant them to. But he didn’t take them back. And he wasn’t talking about the paperwork.