Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother

Chapter 19

Damien’s POV 1

After our intense encounter in the car, Sera had collapsed against me, her breathing evening out into the deep

rhythm of exhausted sleep. The drug, combined with everything she’d been through tonight, had finally claimed

her consciousness. | held her for a long moment, watching the peaceful expression on her face, before carefully

adjusting her torn dress and starting the car.

My wolf was restless, pacing anxiously in my mind. *She needs to be somewhere safe, * Alex insisted. *Home.

She needs to be home. *

The problem was, | realized with growing frustration, | had no idea where hwas for her. I'd hired her, worked

beside her for days,

claimed her as my mate, and yet | didn’t even know her address. The realization sat like a stone in my chest,

highlighting just how much |

still didn’t know about the woman who had turned my world upside down. 2

| pulled over and dialed Claire's number, knowing she’d still be awake despite the late hour. She picked up on the

second ring.

“Damien? Is everything alright? How did the dinner go?”

“Claire, | need Seraphina’s haddress. Now.”

There was a pause. “What happened? Is she hurt?”

“She’s fine,” | said quickly, though the memory of finding her drugged and helpless in that bastard’s house made

my hands clench on the

steering wheel. “I just need to get her hsafely.”

“| see.” Claire's voice carried that particular tone she used when she suspected there was far more to the story

than | was telling her.

“She lives at 47 Maple Street, apartment 2B. It's in the Riverside district.”

The Riverside district. | knew the area-older buildings, working-class neighborhood, the kind of place where

people minded their own

business and rent was cheap because the buildings hadn’t been updated since the 1970s. It was a twenty-

minute drive from the glittering

towers of the business district where I lived.

“Thank you,” | said simply.

Twenty minutes later, | was standing outside a narrow brick building that looked like it had seen better decades.

The neighborhood was

quiet, with streetlights casting pools of yellow light on cracked sidewalks. A few cars lined the street-older

models.

| gathered Sera carefully in my arms, noting how her emerald dress-now wrinkled and torn from the evening's

events-caught the

streetlight. She stirred slightly as | lifted her but didn’t wake, her head falling naturally against my shoulder.

The building's front door was secured with an old-fashioned buzzer system. | found the button for 2B and

pressed it, waiting in the cool

night air as footsteps echoed from somewhere above.

The door opened to reveal a young woman with dark hair pulled back in a messy ponytail, wearing yoga pants

and an oversized sweater that suggested she’d been waiting up for Sera’s return. Her eyes widened as she took

in the sight of me-a stranger in an expensive suit holding her unconscious friend.

“Who the hell are you?” she demanded, stepping protectively into the doorway despite being barely five and a

half feet tall. “And what did

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you do to Sera?”

“I'm Damien Nightshadow,” | said quietly, not wanting to wake Sera. “Seraphina’s... employer. Are you Ophelia?”

The woman's mouth fell open, her eyes darting from my face to Sera’s still form and back again. “You're... you?

You're the Alpha?”

| nodded, shifting Sera’s weight slightly. “She had too much to drink at the company dinner tonight. | wanted to

make sure she got home

safely.”

Ophelia’s eyes narrowed as she studied Sera’s appearance more closely-the flushed cheeks, the disheveled hair,

the torn strap of her dress that | hadn't noticed in the dim light of the car. “Too much to drink? She doesn’t look

drunk, she looks...”

“May | bring her inside?” | interrupted, not wanting to explain the full story while standing in a public hallway.

“She needs to rest.”

After a moment's hesitation, Ophelia stepped aside, leadingup a narrow staircase to the second floor. The

hallway was cramped and dimly lit, with thin carpeting that had seen better years. She unlocked a door marked

2B and gestured forto follow her inside.

The apartment was tiny but immaculately clean. A small living room opened into an even smaller kitchen, and |

could see a single bedroom beyond. Everything was organized with the precision of someone who couldn't afford

to waste space.

“The bedroom’s through here,” Ophelia said, still eyeingwith suspicion as she led the way.

| followed her into a space that was barely large enough for a double bed and a small dresser. The walls were

painted a soft yellow, and | could see children’s drawings taped beside the bed-stick figures labeled “MOMMY”

and “ME” in careful block letters.

| laid Sera gently on the bed, making sure her head was properly supported by the pillows. In the soft light from

the bedside lamp, she looked fragile and young, her dark hair spread across the pale pillowcase. Without

thinking, | reached out to brush a strand away from

her face.

“She’ll be fine by morning,” | said quietly, though | wasn’t entirely sure that was true. “Just needs to sleep it off.”

Ophelia crossed her arms, studyingwith the intensity of a protective older sister. Before | could respond,

there was a sound from the living room-small footsteps padding across the floor. A moment later, a small figure

appeared in the doorway, rubbing sleepy eyes with

tiny fists.

“Ophelia? What's wrong? Why are you talking so loud?”

| turned toward the voice and felt my entire world shift on its axis.

Standing in the doorway was a little boy who couldn't have been more than four years old, with tousled dark

brown curls and sleep-

creased cheeks. He was wearing dinosaur pajamas and clutching a stuffed wolf that had seen better days.

But it was his eyes that stopped my heart. Deep blue eyes that shimmered with silver light even in the dim

bedroom lighting.

“You!” he said suddenly, his sleepy confusion transforming into something sharper. He ran to the bed,

positioning himself protectively

betweenand Sera despite being barely three feet tall. “Who are you? Are you a bad man?”

Alex was howling in my mind. The scent coming from the child was familiar in a way that made my wolf pace

restlessly, a complex

mixture that included something unmistakably...

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