Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother

<

57 Chapter 57

57 Chapter 57

Damien’s POV 1

The sound of my phone buzzing on the nightstand jolted me awake at exactly 5:47 AM. For a heart-stopping moment, panic flooded my system as I reached for it, expecting some emergency from the northern territories where Sera was conducting her heritage search.

Instead, I found a text from Ophelia.

*Emergency at the hospital. My mom had a stroke. Can you handle Adrian today? I’m so sorry – I know this is last minute but I can’t

reach anyone else and I have to get to Portland immediately.*

I scrubbed my hands over my face, trying to shake off the lingering drowsiness. Of course I could handle Adrian for a day. How hard

could it be?

*Of course. Take care of your mom. Adrian will be fine.*

Her response came immediately: *Thank you SO much. I’ll leave the spare key under the flower pot by the door. He knows the routine.*

Twenty minutes later, I stood outside Sera’s modest apartment building, still slightly disoriented by the early hour and the suburban

quiet. The key was exactly where she’d said it would be, hidden beneath a ceramic pot containing.

I let myself in as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake Adrian before necessary.

“Mr. Damien?” A small voice drifted from the direction of bedroom. “Is that you?”

“Yeah, buddy, it’s me, I called softly, following the sound of his voice down a short hallway. “Aunt Ophelia had to go help her mom, so I’m

going to hang out with you today.”

Adrian’s bedroom door was cracked open. He was sitting up in bed, his dark curls sticking up at impossible angles and his blue eyes still

heavy with sleep. He wore Spider-Man pajamas that were slightly too big for his small frame, the sleeves covering his hands completely.

“Is her mom going to be okay?”

“I think so,” I said honestly, settling on the edge of his bed carefully. The mattress dipped under my weight, and he scooted closer

Ophelia wants to be

if you got

solemnly, apparently satisfied with this explanation. “Are we

asked, genuinely curious about how

lecture, “first we have breakfast. Aunt Ophelia makes really good pancakes, but she says they’re not as good as Mommy’s.

and maybe watch cartoons if

realized we had exactly forty-seven minutes

get him to his preschool

10-35

123

<

57 Chapter 57

I said, standing up with more confidence than I felt. “But we

time.”

out of bed with the kind of instant energy that only children

at stirring.”

out a box of pancake mix and a note with basic instructions, but she’d apparently overestimated my domestic capabilities. The

excellent sous chef, chattering continuously as we worked through the pancake process. He told me about his friend at school

to him about dragons who lived in

our first pancake with disastrous results. “Mommy says that’s how you get really smart-by reading lots of

very wise,” I agreed, scraping pancake fragments off the pan with growing dismay. How had something so

so wrong so quickly?

the spatula with the fearless confidence of someone

the bubbles on top, and then you flip it really fast. Like

whose hands were barely large enough to grip the handle properly, he demonstrated the proper pancake-flipping technique. The pancake landed perfectly in the pan, golden

did you learn to do that?”

me,” he said proudly. “She says everyone should know how to cook at least a little bit, even

a stack of reasonably edible pancakes, which Adrian declared “almost as

Victory, apparently, came

arriving for their day. I watched

completely out of

as I walked him to his classroom, his small hand warm in mine. “Will you pick

by

said with satisfaction. “I want to show you the picture I’m going to draw

give you superhero muscles.”

a wonderful day, sweetie,” I said, crouching down to Adrian’s level. Without hesitation, he threw his small arms around

hug that was