Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother

148 Chapter 148

Damien’s POV 1

The drive back felt like driving through concrete.

Every mile stretched into eternity. The road blurred in front of me, headlights from oncoming cars like distant

stars in a universe that

had stopped making sense.

Ophelia sat in the passenger seat, her silence heavy with all the things she wasn’t saying. | could feel her looking

atevery few minutes, checking to see if | was going to fall apart.

Maybe | already had.

“Damien,” she said finally, her voice careful. “We can keep looking. This doesn’t mean-""

“It means exactly what it fucking means.” My hands tightened on the steering wheel until my knuckles went

white. “She’s gone. She's

really gone.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Don’t I?” | laughed, but it cout broken. Wrong. “I was so sure, Ophelia. So goddamn sure I'd find her there.

That I'd see her face and

everything would bea€"”

My voice cracked. | couldn't finish.

“We'll keep searching,” Ophelia said firmly. “We'll check every town, every city, everya€"”

“No.” The word cout flat. “No more searching.”

She turned to stare at me. “What?”

“I can’t do this anymore.” The admission tasted like poison.

“So you're just giving up?”

I'm accepting reality.” Each word felt like pulling teeth. “She doesn’t want to be found. And maybe... maybe

that’s for the best.”

“You don’t mean that.”

| didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer. Because part ofdid mean it, and that was the worst part.

The house was dark when | pulled into the driveway. After midnight. Everyone should be asleep.

But the moment | opened the front door, | heard it.

Crying.

Not Lily's infant wails. Something worse. Something that made my heart stop completely.

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148 Chapter 148

Adrian.

| took the stairs three at a time, following the sound to his room. The door was cracked open, soft light spilling

into the hallway from his

nightlight.

He was curled up in his bed, face buried in his pillow, his small body shaking with sobs that seemed too big for

someone so little.

“Adrian?” | crossed the room in two strides, sitting on the edge of his bed. “Buddy, what's wrong?”

He turned to look at me, his face streaked with tears, his silver-blue eyes red and swollen. My eyes. Sera’s nose.

A perfect blend of both

of us.

“You didn’t find her.” His voice was so small, so broken. “You didn’t bring Mama home.”

“I'm sorry, buddy.” My voice cracked. “I tried. | really tried.”

“But you promised!” The anger in his voice was new, raw. “You promised you'd bring her back!”

“I know-""

“You LIED!” He was screaming now, his little hands balled into fists. “You said you'd find her and bring her home

and LIED!"

Each word was a dagger through my chest. Because he was right. | had promised. And I'd failed.

“Adrian, please-“" | reached for him, but he scrambled back against the headboard.

you

“I want Mama! | want my mama!” Tears poured down his face. “Why doesn’t she want to chome? Why

doesn’t she love us anymore?”

“She loves you.” The words cout fierce, desperate. “Adrian, listen to me. Your mother loves you more than

anything in this world.

More than her own life.”

“Then why did she leave?” His voice broke completely. “If she loves us, why won't she cback?”

| pulled him into my arms, holding him tight against my chest while he sobbed. His small body shook with the

force of it, three weeks of

confusion and pain pouring out all at once.

This was the first the'd cried. For three weeks, he'd been so brave, so strong, asking his careful questions

and accepting my careful

lies.

How could | explain it when | didn’t understand it myself? How could | tell my son that his mother thought she

wasn’t good enough?

That she'd convinced herself we were better off without her?

The rogues. They'd poisoned her. Tortured her. Killed her wolf.

What if she thought they'd cafter our children next?

The thought hitlike lightning. Everything suddenly clicked into place.

Sera wasn’t weak. She'd never been weak. But she was terrified. Terrified that the monsters who'd hurt her

would cfor Adrian and

Lily next.

That's why she'd left. Not because she thought she wasn’t good enough&€“but because she thought she couldn't

protect them.

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148 Chapter 148

“Daddy?” Adrian’s voice pulledback. “What's wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.” | stood up, my whole body thrumming with new purpose. “Everything's right. | understand

now.”

“Understand what?”

“Why your mother left.” | kissed his forehead. “And how to bring her home.”

By the tAdrian finally fell asleep, exhausted from crying, my mind was made up.

The rogues. This all cback to the rogues.

They'd taken everything from Sera. Her wolf. Her confidence. Her sense of belonging. And now they'd taken her

from us because she was

too terrified to chome.

Well, fuck that.

| went downstairs to my office and pulled out the maps. Territory lines. Rogue activity reports. Intel from border

patrols.

If Sera thought the rogues were a threat to our children”if she was hiding because she couldn't protect them

from those monster“then

I'd eliminate the threat. Completely.

I'd burn their camps to the ground. Hunt down every last one of them. Make our territory so safe, so secure, that

Sera would have no

choice but to chome.

Because that’s what alphas did. We protected our mates. Our children. Our pack. 1

Even if it meant going to war.

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