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.”

that unnerving perception children sometimes

like a punch to the chest, I’d been so careful, so sure I was hiding the

gave them credit for.

you

been gone a really long time, Adrian said quietly. “And you’re

a moment, fighting back tears. When I

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expression.

“I’m going

“Can I come?”

stay here with

want to help find her too.” His bottom lip wobbled

him tight against my chest. “I know

“Is she lost?”

said carefully. “But I’m going

hours of tense silence, broken only by

hands gripping the steering wheel so tight my knuckles

into rural territory.

where people went when they wanted

intersection,” Ophelia said, squinting at

road that seemed to wind through endless trees. “How

this, about ten miles to

from a world that had become too painful to

Ophelia said softly. “What are you going to

past four hours. What

thought she

I admitted. “I’ll figure it out

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

store with a neon “Open” sign flickering in the window, and in

The sign was old but well–maintained, and there

lot, my heart hammering against my ribs. This was it. Either Sera was here, or

ready for this?” Ophelia

“No.”

out of

behind the repair shop looked lived–in and welcoming. Warm light spilled from the windows, and I could

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