The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate-Chapter 104: He’s Temporary. Next Fucking Question.

Dex’s fist went through the bedpost before his eyes were fully open.

A sharp pain jabbed through his skull. More memories surfaced.

Agnes on top of him. Serena in the doorway. Her knees giving out. The word omega leaving his mouth.

He hit the wood again. And again. Until his knuckles split and the memories had somewhere to go.

He stared at the blood on his hand.

He had work to do.

✦✦✦

Dex stood outside Elara and Hale’s tent, fist raised to knock against the support beam.

Aegon: You faced a battalion of dragons yesterday. You can face one redhead.

Dex: The redhead is scarier.

Aegon: Lead with the apology. Not charm. She will see through it and it will make things worse.

Dex: I know how to talk to people.

Aegon: You know how to talk to people who like you. She does not like you.

He knocked.

The flap pulled back. Elara was there, arms crossed, expression unreadable.

"Elara." Dex’s voice was quieter than he intended. "Can I have a word? Please."

The please landed heavy. Dex didn’t say please, not like that, not stripped of charm or deflection.

Elara studied him for a long moment.

"Yes," she answered finally. "But let’s go to your tent."

The walk was silent. Aegon, for once, had the good sense not to fill it.

When they reached his tent, he held the flap open for her. She walked in but remained standing. She wasn’t going to make this easy.

Good. He didn’t come here for easy.

Dex let the flap fall closed behind him. "The memories are coming back."

Elara’s expression didn’t change. "Which ones?"

"All of them. The Battle Address. The Draken Forces meeting." His jaw tightened. "You, in my doorway. What came out of my mouth."

"You called me omega," Elara said, voice flat.

"I know." He didn’t look away. "That wasn’t me. Agnes put two forms of dark magic in my system and I couldn’t stop it, but you still had to stand there and hear it, and that’s not something I can undo."

"No, you can’t."

"I’m sorry, Elara."

Elara sighed, taking a seat at the table. Dex moved to sit across from her.

"I know it wasn’t you, Dex," Elara said after a few heartbeats. "I watched you try to remember Serena’s name and not be able to. That’s not something you fake."

He swallowed. Hearing it described back to him was worse than the memory itself.

"But she doesn’t process things the way I do," Elara continued. "I can separate what Agnes did from who you are. But Serena is still trying to reconcile what she knows with what she saw."

"I know. Agnes puppeteered my body like a goddamn weapon, and she pointed it at the person who matters most."

He exhaled.

Aegon: Good. That was honest. Now stop talking before you ruin it.

Elara’s expression didn’t soften, but something behind her eyes shifted, like a wall that had stopped actively pushing him out.

"What do you want, Dex?"

"I want to fix what Agnes broke."

"How?"

"I don’t know yet," he answered. "But I know it starts here, with you, because if you don’t trust me, she won’t either."

Elara was quiet for a long moment.

"She’s not in my tent."

Dex blinked. "What?"

"Serena. She’s not asleep in my tent." Elara held his gaze, steady. "That’s why I wanted to come here instead. I didn’t want you walking in on something that would make this harder."

The words hit him like a fist to the sternum.

She’s with Finnick Shadowclaw. She’s sleeping in his arms.

Dex stood very still.

The jealousy didn’t creep in. It detonated. Hot. Vicious. Immediate. His wolf surged forward so hard his vision flickered gold, and somewhere behind him a tent pole groaned under pressure that had nothing to do with wind.

Aegon: She’s OURS.

Dex: I know.

Aegon: Go get her. Right now. Pick her up and carry her out of his tent.

Dex: That is not a plan. That is a kidnapping.

Aegon: It’s not kidnapping if she belongs to us. It’s retrieval. There’s a legal distinction.

Dex pushed down his wolf.

"Thank you for telling me," he said. His voice was even.

Elara’s eyebrows rose slightly. She’d expected an explosion.

"That’s it?"

"No." Dex met her eyes. "That’s not it. But I’m not going to stand here and rage about Shadowclaw when Agnes is the one who put her there."

"He’s been good to her," Elara said.

"He’s temporary," Dex said. The words came out flat. A statement of fact, the way someone might say the sun rises in the east.

Elara blinked. "That’s—"

"No." Dex’s gaze didn’t waver. "He kept her safe when Agnes made sure I couldn’t. Fine. That happened. But let’s not dress it up as something it isn’t."

"And what is it?"

"A man standing in a space that belongs to me. Not because he earned it. Because it was stolen from me." His voice dropped and his expression hardened. "And I’m taking it back."

Elara stared at him. Not with hostility. Something closer to recognition.

"She is mine," Dex said firmly. "She has been mine since the moment I saw her. She will be mine until I stop breathing, and after that too. Agnes tried to burn that out of me with two forms of dark magic and it still wasn’t enough."

Aegon: Tell her about the bedpost. Show her the blood. Women respect property damage done in their honor.

Dex: Absolutely not.

Aegon: At minimum, break something of his. A chair. A table. His jaw. Start small and escalate.

"I’ll make her fall in love with me again," Dex added with no hesitation. "I did it once in under a week. I’ll do it again. I’ll do it as many times as it takes."

"And Finnick?"

Dex’s smile was sharp, a flash of the man he was before Agnes tore everything apart.

"Shadowclaw isn’t a bad man." The smile didn’t reach his eyes. "But if he thinks I’m going to step aside and let him have her, he’s out of his goddamn mind."

Aegon: And yet you continue to stand here instead of going to get her.

Dex: Because I am trying to do this correctly.

Aegon: Correctly is overrated. Speed is underrated. She is in another man’s bed right now.

Dex: I am aware. Thank you for that image.

Aegon: You are welcome. It should motivate you.

Elara watched him for a few heartbeats, then uncrossed her arms.

"There he is. I was wondering where that Dex went."

"He’s been here the whole time. Buried under whatever the hell Agnes pumped into my veins." His expression cooled. "I’m done being buried."

"Clearly." She studied him again, but differently this time. "She’s supposed to portal back to my tent before dawn. If you want to talk to her, give her time to wake up first. Don’t ambush her."

"I won’t."

"And Dex?"

He looked at her.

"The honesty? Keep that. She needs to see you’re not running from what happened." Elara’s eyes were serious. "But the fight? The refusal to let go? She needs to see that too. She needs to know you’ll burn the world down before you let this happen again."

"That’s not even a question."

"Good." Elara moved toward the tent flap, then paused. "One more thing."

"What?"

"If you hurt her again — even accidentally," Her voice was calm. Pleasant. Terrifying. "I will bury you so deep they’ll need a map and a month to find the body."

Dex inclined his head. "Noted."

Aegon: She’s not joking.

Dex: I’m aware she’s not joking.

Aegon: Just making sure. The redhead has killed before. I can smell it on her.

Elara held his stare for a moment longer, then nodded once and ducked out of the tent.

Dex stood alone in the silence.

She’s with Shadowclaw.

She’s sleeping in his arms right now. His chest burned. His mark burned. Everything burned.

But underneath the jealousy, underneath the rage and the grief and the bone-deep fury at what Agnes had turned him into, there was something harder.

Certainty.

She’s mine. I love her. I’m going to get her back.

And God help anyone who tries to stop me.