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 between me and 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…
Mine.
Is he mine?
Seraphina’s POV
I woke the next morning feeling like someone had taken a sledgehammer to my skull. The pounding in my head was so intense that even the soft morning light filtering through my bedroom curtains felt like stabbing needles behind my eyes.
“Oh God,” I groaned softly, pressing the heels of my palms against my temples.
When I tried to sit up, the world tilted dangerously to the left, and I had to grip the edge of my mattress to keep from tumbling off completely. Every small movement sent fresh waves of nausea rolling through my stomach.
My clothes had been changed sometime during the night instead of the ruined emerald dress, I was wearing my softest cotton pajamas.
“Mommy!” Adrian’s voice made me wince, but his little arms wrapping around my neck. “You’re awake! I was worried about you!”
Ophelia stood at the foot of my bed, her arms crossed. She looked like she’d been awake all night, her dark hair escaping from yesterday’s ponytail and her clothes wrinkled from sleeping on the couch.
“Hey, sweetheart,” I managed to croak, pulling Adrian closer and breathing in his familiar scent of strawberry shampoo and something purely him. “I’m so sorry I was late last night. Mommy had some unexpected work things to handle.”
“It’s okay,” Adrian said solemnly, his small hands patting my cheeks with the gentle care of someone far older than his four years. “I was good for Aunt Ophelia. We had mac and cheese for dinner, and I brushed my teeth all by myself.”
“That’s my good boy,” I said, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “Did anything exciting happen while I was gone?”
Adrian’s expression grew thoughtful, and he glanced toward Ophelia before looking back at me. “A strange man brought you home last night. He was really, really tall, like a giant! But don’t worry, Mommy, I protected you. I stood right between you and him so he couldn’t hurt you.”
Memories of the previous evening came flooding back in vivid, mortifying detail. The dinner party. Valerie’s public humiliation. Michael’s attempted assault. And then… Damien. Oh God, Damien.
Heat flooded my cheeks as I remembered the intensity of our encounter in his car.
“The strange man didn’t hurt me, baby,” I assured Adrian, though my voice came out slightly strained. “He was actually helping Mommy get home safely.”
Adrian giggled, the sound chasing away some of the tension in my chest. “Can I have pancakes for breakfast? The kind with the little chocolate chips?”
“Of course, sweetheart. Why don’t you go get dressed for school while I talk to Aunt Ophelia for a minute?”
The moment Adrian’s footsteps disappeared down the hallway, Ophelia pounced.
“Okay,” she said, settling onto the edge of my bed with the determined expression of someone prepared to extract every detail. “Start from the beginning. Who was that man?”
I buried my face in my hands, groaning. “Ophelia, I don’t think I’m ready for this conversation.”
“Too bad. You disappeared for an entire evening, came home unconscious in the arms of a man who looked like he’d stepped out of a cologne advertisement, and now you’re blushing like a teenager who just got caught making out behind the bleachers.” She leaned forward, her voice gentling slightly. “Sera, I was terrified. When you didn’t answer your phone, when midnight came and went with no word… I thought something terrible had happened.”
The genuine worry in her voice made guilt twist in my stomach. “I’m sorry. I should have called.”
“Forget the apology. Just tell me what happened.”
So I did. Haltingly, with frequent pauses to hide my burning cheeks behind my hands, I told her everything.
By the time I finished, Ophelia was staring at me with wide eyes and an expression of complete shock.
“Holy shit,” she breathed. “Sera, you… you slept with your boss. Your Alpha boss. On your second day of work.”
Before I could respond, Adrian’s voice drifted from the kitchen. “Mommy! I’m ready for pancakes!”
“Duty calls,” I said, grateful for the interruption. “I need to get him to school and get to work before I lose my job on top of everything else.”
“This conversation isn’t over,” Ophelia warned as I climbed out of bed on unsteady legs. “Tonight, we’re talking about everything.”
An hour later, I stood outside Nightshadow Industries trying to gather the courage to go inside.
My stomach was a mass of nerves as I rode the elevator to the executive floor. Would people stare? Whisper?
But when I stepped off the elevator, something unexpected happened. Instead of the hostile stares and whispered gossip I’d been bracing for, I was met with… nothing.
Business as usual. People nodded politely as they passed, offered their standard morning greetings, and went about their work with the same professional focus as always.
When I reached my desk, I found a steaming cup of coffee waiting for me, along with a small plate of pastries. A note in Claire’s elegant handwriting was tucked beneath the saucer: *Rough nights require soft mornings. Take care of yourself today. -C*
The simple kindness made my throat tight with unexpected emotion.
I settled into my chair and tried to focus on my computer screen, reviewing emails and preparing for the day ahead. But every few minutes, my eyes would drift toward Damien’s office door, wondering what I would say when I inevitably had to face him.
At exactly nine-thirty, the door to his office opened, and he emerged looking like he’d stepped off the cover of a business magazine. His navy suit was perfectly tailored, his dark hair styled with casual precision, and his blue eyes were as penetrating as ever.
“Good morning, Miss Knight,” he said, his voice carrying its usual professional tone. “I’ll need the Henderson contracts reviewed by noon, and please reschedule my two o’clock with the pack council. Something urgent has come up.”
“Of course, Mr. Nightshadow,” I replied, proud of how steady my voice sounded. “I’ll take care of it immediately.”
He’s pretending nothing happened. “Maybe that’s for the best,” I murmured under my breath.
But even as I said it, I couldn’t ignore the way my body responded to his proximity, the way my pulse quickened every time he spoke, the way my skin seemed to remember the heat of his hands.
The day passed in a blur of focused productivity. By five o’clock, most of the office had emptied out for the evening. I was just finishing up the last of my daily reports when I heard the soft click of Damien’s office door closing.
I looked up to find the outer office empty except for the two of us. Damien was standing by his door, his jacket off and his tie loosened, looking more relaxed than I’d seen him all day. But there was something in his expression that made my pulse quicken.
“Seraphina,” he said quietly, my name sounding different in his voice now that we were alone. “Could I speak with you privately for a moment?”
My heart started hammering against my ribs, but I nodded and followed him into his office. I took a deep breath, gathering my courage. Before he could speak, I plunged ahead with the words I’d been rehearsing all day.
“About last night,” I began, my voice sounding steadier than I felt. “I owe you an apology. I shouldn’t have lost my temper at the restaurant, shouldn’t have walked away like that.” I paused, meeting his penetrating blue gaze.
“For the record, I was telling the truth. Gabriel and I never… Adrian isn’t his son. But I understand why Valerie’s words might have made you doubt me.”
I took another breath, forcing myself to continue. “And thank you. For coming after me, for rescuing me from that situation. I don’t want to think about what might have happened if you hadn’t arrived when you did.”
The words hung between us in the quiet office, and I felt heat rising in my cheeks as memories of what had followed his rescue flooded back in vivid detail.
I started to turn away, to escape back to the safety of my desk and the pretense that nothing had changed between us.
That’s when his hand shot out and wrapped around my wrist, his fingers warm and strong against my skin.
Damien’s POV
The office space felt smaller with both of us in it, our breaths mingling in the charged air between us. Sera seemed nervous, her emerald eyes darting away from mine before meeting them again with obvious effort. My hand was still wrapped around her wrist like a steel band, my mind racing with images from last night -her in my arms, the way she’d felt beneath me, and then … Adrian.
Those silver-blue eyes. So familiar. So impossible to ignore.
Sera shifted slightly, but I didn’t release her. She couldn’t escape -not yet. Not until I had answers. She lifted her chin to look at me, confusion clouding her beautiful features.
“Is there… is there something else you needed, Mr. Nightshadow?”
The question that had been burning in my chest all day finally forced its way out. “Have you ever thought about finding him? Adrian’s father?”
Sera’s entire body went rigid, every muscle tensing as if I’d struck her. The blood drained from her face, leaving her pale as moonlight.
“I…” she started, then stopped, swallowing hard. “I tried. Once. But there were no leads.” Her voice grew smaller, more vulnerable. “Maybe he was just there for fun that night. I didn’t want to cause problems for anyone.”
“He didn’t leave you anything?” I pressed, my voice rougher than intended. “Any way to contact him? A note, a card… anything?”
The golden wolf pendant. I’d left it on her pillow that morning, engraved with my initial.
“Nothing,” Sera shook her head, and her voice held the finality of old grief. “When I woke up, he was just… gone. Like he’d never been there at all.”
The words hit me like a sledgehammer to the chest. Nothing?
My hand slowly released her wrist as the implications crashed over me.
“That’s… unfortunate,” I managed, my voice sounding hollow even to my own ears. Alex was howling in my mind, a sound of pure anguish.
“Is that all?” Sera asked quietly, taking a step backward now that I’d released her. “If there’s nothing else, I should get back to -“
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