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

saying, but the glass is too thick. Their voices are

makes my frustration spike

a perfect laugh -not too loud, not too soft, just professional enough to be appropriate while still showing she

before he voiced them.

the maintenance guy

she finished “just one

Twenty minutes ago.

glass and try to breathe through

trapped while

me, is making

window, pointing at something outside. Damien

showing him. They’re silhouetted against the afternoon

business

sight makes

absorbed by whatever Emma is telling him. She’s

explains something. He nods, asks what looks

obvious enthusiasm.

look like a

everything I used

him something on the screen. He studies it carefully,

smile. Not the professional smile she’s been wearing all morning-a real one. Warm

and exactly the kind of smile that would make any man

I know that. Emma is

There’s nothing inappropriate happening here, nothing I

08.12

214

make

myself, try to find some of that

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

an empty well.

his watch. He says something to Emma that makes her nod

papers. They’re wrapping up their

exist and come let me out of

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

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

acknowledgment.

And then he’s gone.

typing, her fingers moving across the keyboard with

completely in

wall and slide down until I’m sitting