Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother

7 Chapter 7

Damien’s POV 1

The pack territory negotiations had concluded hours ago, but I couldn’t focus on anything except that voice from this afternoon’s phone call. Sitting in my suite at the Moonstone Hotel, I stared at the tumbler of whiskey in my hand, replaying that calm yet resilient feminine

voice in my mind.

As an Alpha, I was accustomed to immediate submission and awe. But there had been something different in her voice-something that made my inner wolf restless, as if we’d encountered her before somewhere, though I couldn’t place where.

“You terrified that poor woman,” my wolf Alex grumbled in my mind. “She’s probably already quit.”

The thought bothered me more than it should have. Most assistants fled after a single encounter with my temper, leaving Claire to clean up the mess. But something about this Seraphina Knight intrigued me-the way she’d maintained her composure despite my obvious

fury, the slight tremor in her voice that suggested fear but not submission.

Just then, Claire called.

“Good evening, Alpha. I hear you frightened my replacement?” Her tone carried that familiar note of mockery that only she could get

away with after decades of service to my family.

“Claire, where did you find this woman?” I asked directly, my curiosity about the mysterious assistant growing stronger by the minute.

“Her name is Seraphina Knight. Silver Moon Harbor Business School graduate, exceptional abilities. Single mother, works harder than anyone I’ve ever supervised.” Claire paused deliberately, and I could practically hear her smiling through the phone. “More importantly— she didn’t run away after you scared her. She’s still there working, which tells me she has real backbone.”

“Single mother?” Something about that detail caught my attention.

“Four-year-old son named Adrian. Sweet boy- she showed me his photo.” Claire’s voice softened. “She’s had a hard life, Damien. But

she’s not looking for pity or handouts. She just wants to work.”

After hanging up, I immediately pulled up Seraphina’s employment file on my laptop. Twenty-three years old, graduated summa cum laude from Silver Moon Harbor Business School, previous employment at smaller firms with glowing recommendations. No photograph

attached-HR’s standard privacy protocol for new hires.

but brief, mentioning her desire to work

an email

Summary

*Mr. Nightshadow,*

items requiring your attention upon your return.

of organizing your calendar for the upcoming week based on priority

1/3

best support your objectives.*

*Best regards,*

*Seraphina Knight*

Assistant to

the standard administrative drivel. Instead, I found a

strategic insights about upcoming meetings, potential conflicts in my

optimizing my daily workflow.

the job for exactly one

approvingly. “She’s not just surviving-she’s thinking like

knew exactly why. The familiar

been searching for but

again,” Alex observed dryly in

I muttered aloud, downing the

to find my mate, growing increasingly

my intensity and understand the weight of leadership. I’d had brief encounters, meaningless affairs with women drawn

and status, but nothing that stirred my wolf beyond basic

for once, five

me with unexpected force-a moonlit night during the pre-Lunar Assembly celebration, a mysterious woman in

dress whose scent had driven me wild with desire. Even now, five years later, I could still recall every detail:

had sparkled with mischief and vulnerability, the soft gasp she’d made when I first touched her, the

if we’d been

was gone. An emergency call from the northern border-a territorial

at dawn. I’d been forced to choose between duty and desire,

as it always