Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother

148 Chapter 148

Damien’s POV 1

The drive back felt like driving through concrete.

Every mile stretched into eternity. The road blurred in front of me, headlights from oncoming cars like distant stars in a universe that

had stopped making sense.

Ophelia sat in the passenger seat, her silence heavy with all the things she wasn’t saying. I could feel her looking at me every few minutes, checking to see if I was going to fall apart.

Maybe I already had.

“Damien,” she said finally, her voice careful. “We can keep looking. This doesn’t mean–“”

“It means exactly what it fucking means.” My hands tightened on the steering wheel until my knuckles went white. “She’s gone. She’s

really gone.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Don’t I?” I laughed, but it came out broken. Wrong. “I was so sure, Ophelia. So goddamn sure I’d find her there. That I’d see her face and

everything would be–”

My voice cracked. I couldn’t finish.

“We’ll keep searching,” Ophelia said firmly. “We’ll check every town, every city, every–”

“No.” The word came out flat. “No more searching.”

She turned to stare at me. “What?”

“I can’t do this anymore.” The admission tasted like poison.

“So you’re just giving up?”

I’m accepting reality.” Each word felt like pulling teeth. “She doesn’t want to be found. And maybe… maybe that’s for the best.”

“You don’t mean that.”

I didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer. Because part of me did mean it, and that was the worst part.

was dark when I pulled into

moment I opened the front

Crying.

Lily’s infant wails. Something worse. Something that

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148 Chapter 148

Adrian.

time, following the sound to his room. The

nightlight.

pillow, his small body shaking with sobs that seemed

two strides, sitting on the edge of his

his face streaked with tears, his silver–blue eyes red and swollen. My eyes. Sera’s nose. A perfect blend of

of us.

was so small, so broken.

cracked.

voice was new,

“I know–“”

fists. “You said you’d find

my chest. Because he was

reached for him, but he

you

“Why doesn’t she want to come home? Why doesn’t she love us

listen to me. Your mother loves you

her

voice broke completely.

him into my arms, holding him tight against my chest while he sobbed. His small body shook

pain pouring

first time he’d cried. For three weeks, he’d been so brave,

lies.

could I tell my son that his

we were

They’d poisoned her. Tortured her. Killed

she thought they’d

thought hit me like lightning.

weak. She’d never been weak. But she was terrified. Terrified that the monsters who’d hurt her would

Lily next.

thought she wasn’t good enough–but