Page 15 of Alpha's Unclaimed Mate

Let her go? The suggestion is laughable. I smirk. Luke, for all his intelligence, doesn’t understand the game we play. “She’s mine. She’s useful, and having her around keeps things interesting.” I shrug, trying to downplay the possessiveness that coils tight in my gut.

“That’s not fair to her.” he counters.

“Who said I was trying to be fair, Luke? Here’s how it works: she stays put under my watch, right here in Blackwood, and I’ll provide for her. She won’t want for anything.”

I take a sip of my coffee, but the taste is extremely bitter. I put the mug to the side and wash the taste down with a bite of a muffin. Luke seems lost in thought.

“We all make compromises in life,” I offer as an explanation. “I’ve also agreed to take your sister as my chosen mate. She wants the status of luna, which she’ll have, while I get Seren.”

Luke scoffs. “You mean Seren and others.”

That bothers me. My jaw clenches, fire building again, but I hold back. I don’t need to justify myself to anyone, least of all my friend and future beta. “I’ve busted my ass in training all these years, and it’ll be more of the same hard work once I take over as alpha. I fucking deserve this.”

No one sees them, but I’ve made more than my share of compromises.

“So Seren’s content being your little secret, hidden away with no title while you parade Vanessa around like a trophy?” He takes a step back, his voice heavy with disbelief.

A flicker of suspicion ignites within me. Does he have feelings for Seren? Leaning in, I meet his gaze, challenging him to argue with me again.

“You’re my friend, Luke, but you need to back off.”

Luke shakes his head. “As much as I hate Vanessa for being our parents’ golden child, she doesn’t deserve this either. And most of all, that girl, your mate, who has lived in this house all her life in love with you, deserves so much better than this.”

His heartfelt plea makes me chuckle, and he just throws his hands up in defeat and leaves.

My head throbs, and I decide to light up a cigarette, but my usual lighter refuses to work.

As I’m taking the extra one out of the drawer, I notice the familiar yellow dog-eared flip-book peeking out from underneath other things. I stare at it, remembering how she’d kept shifting on her feet as she presented that flip-book to me, her first piece for an art class. She’d even made it in my favorite color at the time.

I pull it out and flip through it, all the way from one end to the other. The animation slowly turns my sad face into a laughing one. I stare at the cover and flip it again multiple times, my own laughing face mocking me from the pages of the book.

Exhaling a deep breath, I throw it right back into the drawer, retrieve the lighter, and slam the drawer shut.

“Stupid sentimental garbage.”

Throwing the French doors open, I take in the view of blooming flowers as I light up the bud, making a mental note to go find Seren after this. We haven’t really spent much time together since I got back. Maybe Luke’s right, and I have been unfair.

My breath catches in my throat as I inhale the cool menthol smoke and sputter it all out, coughing wildly as the smoke chokes me. I frown, shake my head, and inhale again, only to cough even harder this time.

Pulling my head back, I frown at the cigarette, ash it, and light another, only for it to have the same result.

I try a third, but the same thing happens. A strange, cold feeling starts building in my gut, bile swirling up my throat.

I grab some water, but it goes down the wrong pipe, making me erupt in a coughing fit. Fear pricks at the edges of my consciousness. Something is wrong.

Titan? Titan, what’s wrong?

I call out to my wolf, but his response is a frantic scramble of emotions—fear and something else, something primal. Confusion clouds my judgment for a moment, but then it hits me.

Fuck!Seren.

A strange instinct tells me she heard my talk with Luke, but I dismiss that feeling almost immediately.

Maybe she’s gone out shopping like she said she would yesterday. Maybe something happened to her? My mind races through a nightmarish slideshow of possibilities.

With a trembling hand, I dial security, tripping over my words as I fire off questions.

"Where’s Seren? Who drove her today? What time did she leave?”

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