Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother

113 Chapter 113

Damien’s POV 1

The world tilted.

Those eyes. Even swollen shut, even surrounded by bruises and cuts that made my stomach lurch, I knew

those eyes. The elegant arch of her brows. The small scar on her left temple from when she’d fallen off her bike as a child.

*Sera.*

My hands went slack around her throat. She dropped back to the ground with a soft thud that seemed to echo like thunder in the sudden silence.

“No.” The word came out strangled. Broken. “No, no, no. This isn’t-this can’t be-”

I fell to my knees beside her, my hands hovering over her battered face. Afraid to touch. Afraid that if I did, she’d disappear like some cruel hallucination my desperate mind had conjured.

But she was real. The soft whisper of her breath. The familiar curve of her lips, split and swollen but still *hers*. The way her hair curled at the ends, even matted with blood and filth.

“Sera?” I whispered, my voice cracking like I was fourteen again. “Baby, is that you?”

Her only response was another barely audible murmur. “Adrian… where’s Adrian…”

The sound of her voice-hoarse, broken, but definitely *hers*-hit me like a physical blow. My chest seized. My lungs forgot how to work.

Lucas appeared at my shoulder, his face pale with shock. “Alpha, that’s not… that can’t be…”

“It’s her.” The words came out flat. Final.

I reached out with trembling hands to touch her face. Her skin was ice cold, waxy with fever. Dark circles shadowed her closed eyes. Her lips were cracked and bleeding.

How had I not known? How had I looked at her-at *Sera*-and seen nothing but a rogue?

Because she didn’t smell like herself. The realization hit me like a sledgehammer. Where her scent should

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have been-that unique blend of jasmine and rain that was pure Sera-there was nothing. Just the harsh

chemical burn of wolfsbane and the lingering stench of death.

“What did they do to you?” I breathed, my fingers tracing the air above a particularly nasty cut on her cheek.

“Oh god, baby, what did they do?”

More importantly-why couldn’t I sense Ayla? Every wolf had a distinct presence, a spiritual fingerprint that

as any physical scent. But when I reached out with my enhanced

for Sera’s wolf…

Nothing.

where Ayla should

following my train of

couldn’t scent her

rage that made my bones ache with the need to shift. To hunt.

this to my

voice dropping to a register that made every wolf within

“Find every last piece of shit who laid

“Yes, Alpha.”

wait. Right now, she needed medical attention. Needed

and take care of her instead

as gently as I could manage. She was so light. Too light. Nothing but skin and bones wrapped in

my arm, exposing the purple finger-shaped bruises around

furrowing with distress

safe,” I whispered against her matted hair. “He’s home.

had been asking for his mama every day. Crying himself to sleep because she wasn’t there to read him bedtime stories. How was I

tell

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take root. She was alive. Breathing. Whatever they’d done to her, whatever poison

We had to.

car,” I barked at the nearest

like I’d hit him with a cattle prod, sprinting toward the parked

I carried Sera toward the road,

“The hospital?” he asked.

Morgan first,” I replied, my jaw tight. “She needs someone who understands

how to counteract

to a halt beside us, engine still running. I

lap as carefully as I could. Her breathing was

hands.

the soldier behind the wheel. “Fast as

“We’ve got

with complete wolf suppression. ETA ten

couldn’t hear her response, but Lucas

her eyelids fluttering. For a moment, hope flared in my chest. Maybe she

Maybe-

her voice barely audible over the

Or having flashbacks. Reliving whatever hell they’d put her

forehead. “You’re safe now. No one’s

promise.”

was I?

view, its white walls gleaming in the afternoon sun. Dr.

entrance with a gurney and two nurses, her silver hair tied back in