The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate-Chapter 168: Pine, Skin, & Plausible Deniability

She came back in pieces.

Warmth first.

A heartbeat beneath her ear. Steady.

She opened her eyes slowly.

Fin was shirtless, the hard lines of his abs on full display. She was tucked against him with her legs tangled in his, and from the position of his arms, he had not adjusted his grip once since he’d settled her here. He had not moved. He had held her exactly like this and waited.

His breathing was too controlled, the kind of controlled that meant he’d been barely keeping it together and the effort was costing him.

She felt his relief crash through their matebond so hard it made her heart ache.

She shoved calm into him again. Gently this time. Not the emergency push from the study but something slower. The emotional equivalent of, I’m here. I’m breathing. You can stand down.

He jolted. Then his entire body loosened by degrees, like tension he’d been carrying for hours finally finding permission to leave.

His lips found her hair again. His breathing slowed, thumb tracing a line down her spine, the same absent, grounding habit that she was starting to think had nothing to do with grounding and everything to do with memorizing her.

The gentleness of it was disarming, and she almost missed it when his voice shifted.

"Why did you leave Shadowclaw without telling me."

Serena’s pulse kicked. "I wasn’t feeling well."

"Aeron said you were in tears."

"He was mistaken."

Fin was quiet for a moment. The kind of quiet that had weight behind it. His hand didn’t stop moving in her hair, but his breathing changed, just enough that she noticed.

"Did someone say something to you."

She didn’t answer.

His arms tightened around her and she felt the shift through their matebond before he spoke. Something dark rolling through him. The thing that comes right before anger, when the shape of it is still forming and looking for a target.

"Who." One word. Low. The voice of an Alpha King who was already compiling a list.

"Fin, nothing happened."

"Serena." He said her name the way people say don’t. Like a warning and a plea braided together.

"You left Shadowclaw without saying goodbye. You were crying. And right now you’re telling me nothing happened while your emotions and heart rate say otherwise." His jaw worked. "I’m not interrogating you. I just want to understand."

"There’s nothing to understand."

The words landed between them like a door shutting.

She felt him flinch through their matebond. Not physically. Somewhere deeper. The place where a man who’d already lost one mate registers the specific pain of being shut out by the person he’s terrified of losing.

He didn’t push again. But he didn’t relax either.

His hand stayed in her hair. His heartbeat stayed too fast. And the silence that followed wasn’t comfortable. It was the silence of someone who knew he was being lied to and was choosing, for now, not to break the door down.

But the for now had a shelf life.

She let her eyes close.

She let herself be small again. Not for ten seconds this time. For as long as he’d hold her. Which, based on the grip, was going to be a while.

✦✦✦

Morning came through his windows like it had places to be.

Serena stirred against him. She was still on his chest, exactly where she’d fallen asleep, his arms locked around her.

She tried to sit up but her entire body screamed in protest. Her ribs ached and her throat was raw and bruised.

Her Fae magic was gone. The well she’d started to recognize inside herself was dry, scraped clean, and the absence of it left her feeling hollow in a way she hadn’t expected.

"Don’t," Fin said. One word. His arm tightened, keeping her against him.

"I need to get up."

"No you don’t."

She looked up at him. He looked like he hadn’t slept, which was a lie because she’d felt him breathing steadily under her for hours.

But the shadows under his eyes said the sleep he’d gotten hadn’t done much. His eyes tracked over her face, her neck, her throat, cataloguing damage with a dark intensity.

His fingers brushed the bruises at her throat. Light. Barely touching. But his eyes went dark in a way that had nothing to do with the morning light and everything to do with the fact that someone had left marks on her.

She tried to sit up again. He let her this time, but only enough that she was upright in his lap. His hands stayed on her waist like letting go wasn’t part of the plan.

"You’re staying in Shadowclaw today," he said.

"Fin, I’m fine."

"No. Hyran’s orders. You stay here until they can get wards situated. And I am taking care of you."

She opened her mouth.

"Try me, Serena. I have nowhere to be today and an entire kingdom of people who will do whatever I ask. You are not winning this."

She closed her mouth. He was right, and she was too sore to argue, and the bed was too warm.

"Okay," she said.

✦✦✦

He had a bath drawn before she’d finished her second glass of water.

His bathing chamber was enormous. Vaulted stone ceilings. A sunken tub carved from white granite that could fit four people comfortably, already filled with steaming water.

Everything in this room was built for a king. And the king in question was currently standing behind her, pulling her silk camisole over her head before she’d fully processed that his hands were on her.

She stiffened.

The moment the fabric left her skin and cool air hit her bare chest, every conflicted feeling she’d been burying since the courtyard, since the lake, since Dex’s face in her dream, surged up at once and sat in her throat.

Fin felt it immediately through their matebond. The turmoil. The guilt. The war between wanting to be here and feeling like she shouldn’t.

His hands stilled on her hips where the silk shorts sat.

"Hey." His voice dropped. "Dexmon isn’t here."

She swallowed.

"I am. And you are hurt, and exhausted, and running on nothing." His thumb traced a slow line across her hip bone. "I’m going to take care of you. And you’re going to let me."

He shoved calm through their matebond. The kind that said I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you, so stop fighting this.

She felt her resistance crack. Not break. Crack. Enough for her shoulders to drop and her breath to come out uneven.

"Okay," she whispered.

His hands slid the silk shorts down her legs.

She stepped out of them, standing in front of him in nothing, and felt her entire face flush from her neck to her temples.

Fin forgot how to breathe, his brain short-circuiting for a full three seconds. The soft curve of her waist. The way her white hair fell over her shoulders and her breasts. The slight tremble in her frame that she was trying to hide and failing.

Then his eyes dropped lower.

Bruises.

Along her ribs. Her hip. A deep one on her left side that had no business being on a body this small.

Every trace of warmth left his face.

"Serena."

"It’s not what you think."

"Someone put their hands on you." Not a question.

"That one," she said, pointing to the bruise along her ribs before he could spiral further, "is Elara’s fault. We fell into a closet together."

Fin stared at her.

A laugh broke out of him. Unexpected. Real. The kind of laugh that cracked through the tension like sunlight through a storm cloud, and it transformed his entire face for two full seconds before he caught himself.

"Into a closet," he repeated, shaking his head. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Before she could say another word, he picked her up. Both arms under her, lifting her against his bare chest like she weighed nothing, which to him she did.

Her face went scarlet. "Fin, I can walk."

"I’m aware."

He carried her to the tub and lowered her into the water with the kind of care usually reserved for things that cost more than a kingdom. The heat hit her muscles and she let out a sound that was embarrassingly close to a moan before she could stop it.

Fin’s jaw tightened. He said nothing. He climbed in behind her.

His legs bracketed hers. His chest pressed against her back, warm and solid and broad enough that she felt entirely enclosed. His arms came around her waist, settling her against him.

Her head rested against his collarbone. His heartbeat was steady behind her. The water was perfect. The silence was the kind that didn’t need to be filled.

She felt him press a kiss to the back of her head. Then her temple. Then the spot just below her ear and the contact sent a shiver through her that had nothing to do with temperature.

"A closet," he murmured against her skin. She could feel him smiling.

His thumb traced her hip beneath the surface and for a few minutes, silence settling between them except.

"Who made you cry, Serena."