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.”

He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “When’s the

clenched.

Riley you always scream when you sleep.” Lucas’s voice was

five–year–old son was listening to his father break down in the middle

it,” I said, but even I didn’t

the window that overlooked the city. “Because from where I’m standing, you’re barely functioning. You’re running the pack on

stretched between us like a

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172 Chapter 172

falling apart,” I

at my office, at everything, “You come in before dawn. You leave after midnight. You

couldn’t remember. Weeks? Maybe

pack needs me focused,”

not work himself to

doing my

gaze for a long moment. Then he shook his head slowly, disappointment radiating from every

to stop being an asshole,” he said,

door closed with a soft

slam.

in the silence, staring at the closed door, feeling something crack deeper inside

of voices and presentations I didn’t care about.

budgets and rejected

feeling like I

I left early, ignoring Emma’s surprised expression

eternal. Every red light another moment to think about Sera. Every familiar

about traffic or telling me about her

The unfairness of it made my chest burn with

as always. Grand.

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

our bedroom, I stood by the window, staring out at the moon rising over the trees. Full

eyes. Somewhere out there, she was living

choice. Probably sleeping better than I had in