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.”

with that unnerving perception children

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

gave them credit for.

makes you

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

eyes for a moment, fighting back tears. When I opened

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expression.

said finally. “I’m going to look

“Can I come?”

to stay here with Ms. Sarah and take care

help find her too.” His bottom lip

arms, holding him tight against my chest. “I know you do. I miss her

“Is she lost?”

had to go away for a little while,” I said carefully. “But I’m going to find her and

drive to the border took four hours. Four hours of tense silence, broken only by Ophelia’s occasional directions

steering wheel

further from civilization and deeper into rural territory. Towns gave way to

place where people went when they wanted

said, squinting at her phone in the

seemed to wind through endless trees. “How

to this, about ten miles to the

hide from a world that had become

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

myself the same question for the past four hours. What did you say to the woman who’d walked out of your life

thought she wasn’t

figure it out when

roadsmall, quiet, exactly what I’d expected. A few houses scattered along the main

the window, and in the distance, the glow of what looked like a repair

Auto Repair. The sign was old but well–maintained, and there were lights on in the building

against my ribs. This was it. Either Sera was here, or I was about

for

“No.”

I got out of

repair shop looked lived–in and welcoming. Warm light spilled

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