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

faces clearly. And five years is a long

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

was suddenly kneeling in front of my chair, his hands hovering just inches from mine as if he wanted

my son,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “Our son, Sera. He carries my bloodline. He’s not just some random child you’re raising-he’s a Nightshadow. He’s

I couldn’t seem to make them stop. “But how… I don’t understand.

“Because I’m an idiot,” he said bitterly. “Because I let desperation

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When Anna showed up with my pendant, claiming to be the woman from that night, I wanted so badly for it

in confusion, swiping at my tears with the back of my hand. “What

Damien looked surprised. Then his expression shifted to something that was almost

course you don’t know about it,” he said softly. “You were asleep when I left. I had to go-there was an emergency

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

after what we’d shared.

into his pocket and pulled out something that caught the light from the windows-a golden pendant in the shape of

and beautiful, hanging from

continued, his thumb tracing over the pendant’s surface. “It was my way of telling you

us meant something to me. That you meant something to me. I

would try

pendant.

I woke up alone, and you were gone,

or your number or something, but

like a curse on

when

“I thought… I thought

some

cup my face in his hands, his thumbs gently wiping away my tears. “Sera,