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 have

quietly, following my train of thought.

couldn’t scent her

vision. Pure, incandescent rage that made my bones ache with

to

them,” I growled, my voice dropping to a

who laid a finger on her, and bring me

“Yes, Alpha.”

Right now, she needed medical attention. Needed safety. Needed me to get my

her instead of standing

I could manage. She was so light. Too light. Nothing but skin and

back over my arm, exposing the purple finger-shaped bruises

mumbled again, her brow furrowing with distress even in

matted hair. “He’s home. He’s waiting for

Crying himself to sleep because she wasn’t there to read him bedtime stories. How

son and tell him

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Breathing. Whatever they’d done to her, whatever poison they’d pumped into her system, we’d find a way to

We had to.

barked at the nearest soldier.

man jumped like I’d hit him with a cattle prod, sprinting toward the parked vehicles. Lucas fell

carried Sera

“The hospital?” he asked.

I replied, my jaw tight. “She

to

jeep screeched to a halt beside us, engine still running. I climbed into the

was shallow,

hands.

ordered the soldier behind the wheel.

into the phone. “We’ve got an emergency.

wolf suppression. ETA

response, but Lucas

For a moment, hope

Maybe-

voice barely audible over

flashbacks. Reliving whatever

her forehead. “You’re safe now. No one’s going to hurt

promise.”

of mate was I? What kind of

white walls gleaming in

with a gurney and two