The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate-Chapter 137: Fucked, Chucked, & Left With All His Goddamn Paperwork

Chapter 137: Fucked, Chucked, & Left With All His Goddamn Paperwork

Serena reached for him before she was fully awake, and her hand found nothing. Her eyes snapped open to cold sheets and an empty bed.

Her heart was thudding against her ribs.

Did she dream that too?

No. If she could remember, then it wasn’t a dream.

They’d been keeping all of this from her for almost three weeks.

She shook her head.

No more. She was done being protected and kept in the dark.

✦✦✦

Serena and Elara made their way to the healing wing.

Alaric looked up from his work the moment they entered.

"Serena, how are you feeling?"

"I’m feeling much better, thank you for your tonics." Serena met his gaze steadily. "I need to speak with you in private."

His face darkened. Without a word, he turned and walked towards his office. Serena and Elara followed.

He closed the door behind them and crossed to his desk without offering either of them a seat, which told Serena everything she needed to know about how this conversation was going to go.

"I don’t think I can give you what you want. By all means, ask."

"I need a portal to Orosia."

"Of course you do." Alaric exhaled through his nose, and resignation settled into the lines around his mouth. "You aren’t fully healed. Throwing yourself into danger would be a slap in everyone’s faces who are trying to protect you."

His words landed like a punch to the chest. She hadn’t considered that angle. Elara shifted beside her.

"Dexmon left hours ago." Alaric held her gaze, unflinching. "Give him two days before you throw yourself into danger."

"Two days." Serena’s jaw tightened. "And if he disappears?"

"Then we reassess."

"Reassess." The word tasted bitter in her mouth. "People I care about are missing, Alaric. They could be dead. They could be tortured. And you want me to sit here and wait?"

"They could also be fine. You’re catastrophizing, which is understandable, but I’m not going to validate it."

He wasn’t wrong. She hated that.

"One day," Serena countered. The words still felt like surrender.

"You are the worst patient I’ve ever had. And I have treated soldiers who pulled their own stitches out to get back on the field."

He shook his head.

"Fine. One day. Now get out of my office."

✦✦✦

One day became three, and Alaric became a ghost.

Serena and Elara were fulfilling the duties of Hale and Dex, and neither were able to hound Alaric again. By the time they finished their responsibilities for the day, Alaric was nowhere to be seen.

Serena suspected that wasn’t a coincidence. The man had survived wars, plagues, and royal politics. Avoiding two women in a castle was well within his skill set.

It was the morning of day two, and they were curled on opposite ends of her bed, when Serena finally said what she’d been thinking for hours.

"Do you think they miss us too?" Her throat closed around the question, and she pressed her palm flat against the bed because her fingers had started to tremble.

"Gods, I hope they both have blue balls and their hands cramp so there’s nothing they can do about it. Hale was getting this ass three times a day up until he left."

"I had sex with Dex twice the day he left."

"He fucked you, then chucked you."

"Gods, don’t ever say that again," Serena said, face in her hands.

"They are missing us. Dex was following you around like a puppy. If we feel it, they definitely feel it."

Elara stood, giving Serena a hug. A much needed one.

Her bed still smelled like Dex and she found herself getting emotional about being apart from him. She couldn’t feel his emotions through their matebond.

The absence grew daily, a low hum that turned her stomach and made her hands restless. She’d felt this once before. The day she severed the matebond. This wasn’t as extreme, but the flavor was the same, and that terrified her.

Elara kept touching her mark when she thought Serena wasn’t looking. They were both reaching for men who weren’t there.

On the second day, she went through the ledgers at alpha speed and finished Dexmon’s work in under one hour. She looked up to find Tiberon standing in the doorway, watching her.

It dawned on her then that they’d just made a tactical error by being too efficient.

"Oh, I had a feeling," he said dryly.

He crossed to the war room table and dropped another pile of documents in front of her. The stack landed with a heavy thud that echoed off the stone walls.

Elara looked at the pile, then at Serena, then back at the pile.

"Dexmon’s work for the week." He added two more stacks beside it. "Along with Gavriel’s and Hale’s."

Serena didn’t flinch. She pulled the first stack towards her and began.

She completed Dexmon’s weekly reports by midday. She moved through Gavriel’s intelligence summaries and flagged three discrepancies that had been overlooked for months. She reorganized Hale’s training schedules to eliminate redundancies and increase coverage during shift changes.

Elara worked beside her, handling the administrative tasks. She organized correspondence and managed the steady stream of messengers and junior officers who appeared at the door with questions.

They moved in tandem, anticipating each other’s needs without speaking, a rhythm born from years of survival together. A force to be reckoned with.

By the end of the third day, they had cleared it.

Tiberon returned to the war room that evening and stopped in the doorway.

His eyes swept across the empty table, the organized stacks ready for distribution, and the two women who had accomplished in three days what his staff would have struggled to complete in two weeks.

Bellatrix stood behind him. Her face held none of its usual venom. If anything, she looked curious, the way a hawk might study a mouse that had learned to fly.

Interesting, Serena thought to herself.

Tiberon crossed the room and sat at the head of the table. Bellatrix remained standing near the door with her arms folded across her chest.

Tiberon picked up one of the organized stacks and flipped through it.

"The northern garrison reports." He set the stack down and looked at her. "Current troop strength."

Elara kept her face neutral, though she already knew what Tiberon was in for. She’d seen Serena rattle off numbers too many times. It never stopped being impressive. And slightly irritating.

"Four hundred and thirty-two active soldiers," Serena answered. "Twelve are on medical leave, and seven are on disciplinary suspension. Effective fighting strength is four hundred and thirteen."

"Supply status."

"Provisions for six weeks. Weapons stores at eighty-seven percent. Resupply in four days."

"Treasury reserves."

"Fifty-nine million gold marks total. Forty-seven primary, twelve emergency. Net outflow of two million, two thousand unless the Ironclave trade payment arrives on schedule, which, based on two years of their payment history, there’s a sixty percent chance it won’t. I’d plan for a net outflow of four thousand."

Tiberon was quiet for three seconds. From a man who never wasted time, three seconds was a standing ovation.

"You sat here and let Dexmon do all his paperwork for hours without saying a word."

Elara bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling.

Serena’s face flushed red. "I didn’t know what half of this was. He showed me."

"Hyran said you were a terrible liar, and I have to agree." Tiberon’s voice was dry as bone. "No, you didn’t say anything to protect his ego." He glanced at Elara. "I am going to assume she did Ironholt’s pile as well."

"You are correct." Elara didn’t bother hiding it. "Gamma Sterling’s pile was taken care of too."

"Is there anyone in this castle whose job you two haven’t done?" Tiberon asked.

"Yours," Serena said. "Give us a week."

The second it slipped from her mouth, she immediately wished she could take it back.

Tiberon’s expression didn’t change, but his eyes stayed on her for a fraction of a second too long.

After a tense moment, he exhaled through his nose. He looked like a man who had just discovered his castle was being run by two women he hadn’t hired and couldn’t fire.

"Fine."

He lifted his hand, and warriors filed into the room. They carried stack after stack of documents and ledgers. The table groaned under the weight. Elara looked like she wanted to join it.

Serena stared at the mountain of paperwork.

"Hyran’s duties while he’s away," Tiberon said. "Consider this a promotion. Unpaid. Effective immediately."

"Is there any word from Dexmon?" The question burst out of Serena. She couldn’t take it anymore. The ache behind her sternum flared, and she pressed her palm flat against the table to keep her hand from shaking.

Tiberon waited until all the warriors had cleared from the room and the doors had closed behind them before answering.

"I don’t suppose you are going to tell me how you found out, are you?"

Serena met his gaze head on. "I’ll answer your question if you answer mine."

The corner of Tiberon’s mouth twitched. It might have been amusement. It might have been irritation. With him, it was impossible to tell.

"It may be a week before we hear anything." His voice was measured and careful. "We wanted to avoid magical signature detection, so we made a portal to Varos first. They are sailing to Orosia from there."

A week. Serena’s throat tightened. Another week of reaching for him through the matebond and finding nothing.

"My turn." Tiberon’s eyes sharpened. "Who did you hear it from?"

"I woke up in a tunnel behind that tapestry." Serena gestured toward the heavy fabric hanging on the far wall. It was a half-truth, and she hoped it would be believable.

Tiberon rose from his chair and crossed the room. He pulled the tapestry aside, and sure enough, a narrow tunnel entrance gaped in the stone wall behind it.

He stared at it for a long moment.

"I’ve ruled this kingdom for thirty years. There is a tunnel behind my war room tapestry. Wonderful." His voice was flat. "Does anyone else know about this?"

"No," Serena answered.

"And you expect me to believe you woke up behind it?"

"Yes." Serena didn’t flinch.

Tiberon turned and measured her with those cold, calculating eyes. The silence stretched between them like a blade.

"Fine." The word was clipped and final. "You’re lucky I do. Do not repeat this to anyone or use it again."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Tiberon walked toward the door, and Bellatrix fell into step beside him. She hadn’t said a single word during the entire exchange.

The door closed behind them.

Elara and Serena stood in silence, staring at the massive piles covering the war table.

"It’s interesting how quiet she is when she’s not trying to kill you," Elara said, tapping a finger against the edge of a ledger.

"My thoughts exactly." Serena agreed.

Elara picked up a pile and flipped through it. Her eyebrow rose. "The crop almanac is not part of Hyran’s duties."

Serena picked up another pile and scanned the first page. "This is payroll for omegas and warriors." She reached for a third stack. "And this is castle operations." She looked up at Elara. "These are Queen Bellatrix’s tasks."

They stared at each other.

Serena didn’t know if she should laugh or be angry.

Elara tossed an almanac back onto the pile. "She watched him give us her work and didn’t blink. That woman is either impressed or plotting. Possibly both."

Serena set down the stack. "Either way, they underestimate how fast we work."

"Everyone does." Elara’s lips curved into a grin that looked like trouble."That’s the advantage of being consistently underestimated. It never gets old and they never learn."

Serena pulled the first pile towards her. "Start with Bellatrix’s. If we’re going to do the Queen’s homework, she’s going to know we did it faster than she would have."