Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother

Damien’s POV

The quarterly reports blurred together on my computer screen. Numbers that should have meant something, Profit margins. Projected

growth. Territory expansion.

None of it fucking mattered.

I rubbed my eyes, the ache behind them pulsing in time with my heartbeat. Three months. Three months since Sera had walked out that

door, and I still couldn’t concentrate for more than five minutes without my mind drifting to her.

*Where is she? Is she safe? Is she eating enough?*

I slammed the laptop shut harder than necessary. The sound echoed through my empty office like a gunshot.

“Alpha?”

I looked up to find Lucas standing in my doorway, concern etched across his face. When had he knocked? How long had he been

standing there?

“What?” The word came out sharper than I intended.

“Board meeting in ten minutes.” Lucas stepped inside, closing the door behind him. “You forgot, didn’t you?”

Had I? I glanced at my calendar. Tuesday, 2 PM. Quarterly review with the pack’s business council.

“I didn’t forget,” I lied.

Lucas’s expression said he knew better, but he was kind enough not to call me on it. Instead, he settled into the chair across from my

desk with that easy confidence that used to irritate me. Now it was just… familiar. Comforting, even.

“You look like shit,” he said bluntly.

“Thanks for the pep talk.”

elbows on his knees. “When’s the last time you

clenched.

told Riley you always scream when you

My son. My five–year–old son was listening to his father break down in

I said, but even I

from where I’m standing, you’re barely functioning. You’re running the pack on autopilot. You forget meetings.

stretched between us like a

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172 Chapter 172

falling apart,” I

dawn. You leave after midnight. You barely eat. You don’t

couldn’t remember. Weeks?

me focused,” I

not work himself to death!” Lucas’s

doing my best,”

long moment. Then he shook his head slowly, disappointment radiating

to stop

with a soft click that felt louder than

slam.

sat there in the silence, staring at the closed door, feeling

board meeting was a blur of voices and presentations I didn’t care about. I nodded

and

while feeling like I

early, ignoring Emma’s

home felt eternal. Every red light another moment to think

beside me, complaining about traffic or telling me about her

She’d left. The unfairness of it made my chest burn with rage and helplessness in equal

the same as

and Lily smeared across her high chair–I put both kids to bed. Stories for Adrian. A bottle for Lily. The usual

window, staring out at the

eyes. Somewhere out there, she was living her life without us. Probably

Probably sleeping better