Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother

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144 Chapter 144

Damien’s POV 1

I was already reaching for my car keys before Ophelia could respond.

“Whoa.” She caught my arm, her grip surprisingly strong. “Slow down, Damien. We need to think this through.”

“Think what through?” I shook her off, my heart racing with the first real hope I’d felt in three weeks. “If Sera’s there, I need to get to her

now.”

“And what if she’s not? What if we’re wrong?” Ophelia’s voice was gentle but firm. “You’ve been holding it together by a thread. I won’t watch you fall apart if this is another dead end.”

Her words hit me like cold water. She was right. I’d been surviving on pure willpower and desperation. If this didn’t pan out…

“But what if she is there?” I asked quietly. “What if she’s been there this whole time, and I’ve been searching in all the wrong places?”

Ophelia studied my face for a long moment. “Then we go get her. Together. But we do this smart, okay?”

I nodded, though every instinct screamed at me to get in the car and drive until I found her.

“Do you even know where Caleb lives?”

“I can find out.”

An hour later, I stood in my driveway, keys in hand, watching Ophelia throw an overnight bag into her car. The sun was already setting, painting the sky orange and pink. We’d lost daylight, but I couldn’t wait until morning. Not when I might be hours away from holding

Sera again.

The front door opened, and Adrian appeared on the porch in his pajamas, his dark hair sticking up at impossible angles.

“Daddy?” His voice was small, uncertain. “Where are you going?”

My heart clenched. “I have to go somewhere for work, buddy.”

“At nighttime?”

I knelt down to his level, looking into those silver–blue eyes that were so much like mine. “Sometimes grown–up work happens at weird

times.”

children sometimes possessed.

like a punch to the chest, I’d been so careful, so sure I was hiding the truth from him. But kids saw more than

gave them credit for.

you

said quietly. “And you’re

I opened them again, Adrian was still watching me

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expression.

buddy,” I said finally. “I’m going to look for

“Can I come?”

sweetheart. You need to stay here with Ms.

find her too.” His bottom

against

“Is she lost?”

carefully. “But I’m going to find her and bring her

hours of tense silence, broken only by Ophelia’s occasional directions from the GPS

gripping the steering wheel so

and deeper into rural territory. Towns gave way to farmland, then to forests and

kind of place where people went when

the next intersection,” Ophelia said, squinting

that seemed to wind through endless trees. “How

about ten

world that had become too painful to

softly. “What are you going to say to her? If she’s

past four hours. What did you say to the woman who’d walked

thought she wasn’t good

know,” I admitted. “I’ll figure it out when I see

what I’d expected. A few houses scattered along the main street,

window, and in

Auto Repair. The sign was old but well–maintained, and there were

the gravel parking lot, my heart hammering against my ribs. This was it. Either Sera was here, or I was about to face another crushing

for this?” Ophelia

“No.”

out

Warm light spilled from

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