Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother

124 Chapter 124

Seraphina’s POV

The storage room smells like cleaning supplies and old paper. Dust motes drift through the afternoon light streaming from the small window, and I press my palms against the one-way glass, trying to steady my

breathing.

I can see everything.

Emma Rodriguez sits at my old desk-*my* desk-her perfectly manicured fingers flying across the keyboard

with the kind of confidence I used to have. Her hair is swept up in an elegant chignon. Her burgundy blazer

fits like it was tailored specifically for her body. Even from here, even through the glass, I can see the way she

holds herself. Straight spine. Shoulders back. Every inch the competent professional.

I catch my reflection in the glass and wince. My hair is falling out of the ponytail I hastily threw it into this

morning. There’s a stain on my sweater-probably from Lily’s last feeding. My eyes look hollow, ringed with

the kind of dark circles that no amount of concealer can hide.

*Human nanny.* The words echo in my head, Emma’s voice from yesterday when she saw me at Damien’s

door.

The office door opens, and my heart clenches as Damien walks in. He’s wearing the charcoal gray suit I

bought him for his birthday last year, the one that makes his eyes look almost silver in certain light. He looks

every inch the powerful Alpha he is-commanding, confident, untouchable.

Emma stands immediately, and I watch as she moves around the desk to greet him. She’s close. Too close.

Her body language is professional, but there’s something else there. The way she tilts her head slightly when

she speaks. The way she touches his arm briefly while handing him a file.

My chest tightens with something ugly and familiar that makes me feel small and pathetic.

Damien doesn’t seem to notice her proximity. He’s focused on the documents she’s showing him, his brow furrowed in concentration. But that’s how he’s always been-single-minded when it comes to business. It’s one of the things I used to love about working with him. We were a perfect team.

Now I’m on the wrong side of the glass, watching someone else take my place.

08:12

1/4

to hear what they’re saying, but the glass

makes my

like fingernails on a chalkboard. It’s a perfect laugh -not too loud, not too soft, just professional enough to be appropriate while still showing she has a sense of humor.

before he voiced them.

from the outside when the maintenance guy “accidentally” shut me in here twenty minutes ago. Emma had been so

she finished “just

Twenty minutes ago.

glass and try to breathe through

while watching this, watching

to define me, is making my chest feel

something outside.

him. They’re silhouetted against the

discussing business

makes my stomach

completely absorbed by whatever Emma is telling

gesture as she explains something. He nods, asks what looks like a

obvious enthusiasm.

a team. Like

used to

on the

makes her smile. Not the professional smile she’s been wearing all morning-a real

exactly the kind of smile that would make any man feel

I’m being ridiculous, I know that. Emma is

happening here, nothing I can point to and call

08.12

214

make it

center myself, try to find some

without Ayla’s fierce presence backing me up, I feel hollow. Like I’m trying to draw

an empty well.

checking his watch. He says something

papers. They’re wrapping

Maybe now someone will remember that I exist

the desk and settles into the chair-*my* chair-like

for the door, pausing to say something over his shoulder that

acknowledgment.

And then he’s gone.

her fingers moving across the keyboard

home, completely in control of

wall and slide down until I’m sitting on the floor among