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

scent. But when I reached out with my enhanced

for Sera’s wolf…

Nothing.

silence where Ayla should have

seems like the wolfsbane,” Lucas said quietly, following my

couldn’t

made my

this to my mate with

dropping to a register that made every wolf

every last piece of shit who laid a finger on her, and

“Yes, Alpha.”

she needed medical

of her instead

slid my arms beneath her, lifting her against my chest as gently as I could manage. She was so light. Too light. Nothing

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

mumbled again, her brow furrowing

her matted hair. “He’s

wasn’t there to read him bedtime stories. How was I going to

tell him

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take root. She was alive. Breathing. Whatever they’d done to

We had to.

I barked at the nearest

him with a cattle

as I carried Sera toward the road,

“The hospital?” he asked.

first,” I replied, my jaw tight. “She

to counteract wolfsbane

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

as I could. Her breathing was shallow, irregular. Her skin felt like

hands.

I ordered the soldier behind the wheel. “Fast as you can without

the phone. “We’ve got an

wolf suppression. ETA ten

couldn’t hear her response, but Lucas nodded grimly. “Understood.

a moment, hope

Maybe-

she whimpered, her voice barely audible over the engine noise.

having flashbacks. Reliving whatever hell they’d put

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

promise.”

of mate was I? What

hospital came into view, its white walls gleaming

and two nurses, her silver hair tied back in a