Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother

Chapter 71

Seraphina’s POV 1

The silence in Damien’s office stretched between us like a taut wire, heavy with unspoken secrets and questions that I wasn’t sure I

wanted answered. He stood with his back to me, staring out at the harbor through the floor-to-ceiling windows, his shoulders rigid with

tension.

“Damien,” I said softly, my voice barely above a whisper, “you’re scaring me. What’s this about?”

He turned slowly, and the expression on his face made my breath catch. There was pain there, and something that looked almost like

hope, but also a terrible intensity that made my wolf Ayla whimper in my mind.

“I need you to think back, Sera,” he said, his voice rough and strained. “Five years ago. The night before your eighteenth birthday.”

My heart stopped. Literally stopped beating for what felt like an eternity before it resumed with painful, erratic thuds against my ribs. “What… what did you say?”

“The Moonlight Grand Hotel,” he continued, his silver-blue eyes never leaving my face. “There was a masquerade ball, and you were wearing a green dress that matched your eyes.”

The blood drained from my face so quickly that I had to grip the back of the chair in front of me to keep from swaying. “How do you… how could you possibly know that?”

Damien took a step closer, his movements careful and deliberate, like he was approaching a wounded animal that might bolt at any moment. “Because I was there, Sera. I was the man you spent that night with.”

“No.” The word came out as barely a whisper, denial automatic and desperate. “No, that’s not possible. You don’t understand-I would

have known. I would have recognized you when I first saw you in this office.”

“Would you?” he asked gently, his voice filled with a kind of aching tenderness that made my chest tight. “We both wore masks that

other’s faces clearly.

reeling as memories I’d tried so hard to suppress came flooding back. The mysterious man with the silver-blue eyes. The way he’d made me feel safe and desired and beautiful for the first time in my life. The gentle way he’d touched me, the

Damien’s expression, and he was suddenly kneeling in front of my chair, his hands hovering just inches from mine as if he

bloodline. He’s not just some random

to make them stop. “But how… I don’t understand. If you knew, if you suspected, why didn’t

an idiot,” he

10.40

< 71 Chapter 71

wanted so badly for it to be true that I ignored all the signs that she was

looked at him in confusion, swiping at my tears with

a moment, Damien looked surprised. Then his expression shifted to

asleep

attention. But I didn’t want to wake you,

after what we’d shared.

the light from the windows-a golden

beautiful, hanging from a delicate

your nightstand,” he continued, his thumb tracing over the pendant’s surface.

to me. I hoped…

try

heart shattered into a million pieces as I stared at the pendant.

to you, I never saw it. I woke up alone, and you were gone,

maybe you’d left me a note or

the name like a

She must have found it when she came to clean the

“I thought… I thought you just didn’t care. I

was just some naive girl who’d

out to cup my face in his hands, his thumbs gently wiping away my