Damien’s POV
By the ti we reached my estate, the night had settled into that deep, quiet darkness that cos in the hours before dawn. The house lood before us, all stone and shadow, its windows dark except for the security lights that automatically illuminated our path.
"Thank you for the hospitality," Caleb said, extending his hand with genuine warmth. "And for the ride. That was... illuminating."
"More than you know," I replied, shaking his hand briefly. The anger I’d felt earlier had transford into sothing else entirelyâ€"a mixture of hope and dread that sat in my chest like a living thing.
"Guest room is second door on the left upstairs," I told him. "There should be everything you need."
Caleb nodded and disappeared into the house, his footsteps echoing briefly in the marble foyer before fading as he climbed the stairs. I stood in the entrance hall for a long mont, staring up at the chandelier that cast prismatic shadows across the walls.
Everything Caleb had said kept circling through my mind like a relentless tide. The description of the woman from that nightâ€"erald eyes, dark hair, petite build, that underlying strength. It was Sera. Every detail matched perfectly.
I made my way to my study, knowing sleep would be impossible. The room felt hollow despite its rich furnishings, the leather-bound books and expensive art doing nothing to quiet the storm in my head. I poured myself three fingers of whiskey and settled into my chair, staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the city lights twinkling below.
*Sera.*
Her na echoed in my mind like a prayer, like a curse. How could I have been so blind? The mate bond I’d felt the mont I saw her in my office, the way my wolf Alex had recognized her imdiately it all made sense now. She wasn’t just my fated mate by so cosmic coincidence. She was the woman from that night, the mother of my child, the missing piece of my soul that I’d been searching for across five long, empty years.
And Adrian. God, Adrian with his silver-blue eyes that matched my own, his natural charisma that drew people to him like moths to fla.
I drained my glass and imdiately poured another. The whiskey burned, but it was nothing compared to the fire in my chest.
How had the pendant ended up in Anna’s hands? The tiline made sense nowâ€"Anna working as a cleaning lady at the hotel, finding the pendant after I’d left in such a rush for that ergency pack eting.
And Sera... Sera had probably never even seen it. She’d been asleep when I left it on her nightstand, unconscious from exhaustion and the intensity of what we’d shared.
Five years. Five fucking years we’d been in the sa city, breathing the sa air, and I’d been too blind to recognize what was right in front of . Worse, I’d hired the woman who’d stolen our chance at finding each other sooner, given her a position of trust based on a lie.
The irony was bitter enough to choke on.
I pulled out my phone and scrolled to Sera’s contact information. My thumb hovered over the call button. What would I say? How could I explain that I was the father of her child, that I’d been searching for her for years, that every mont we’d spent together had been building toward this revelation?
No. Not like this. Not over the phone in the middle of the night when she was probably sleeping peacefully in her small apartnt, Adrian curled up in his bed down the hall. She deserved better than a rambling confession delivered through a device.
Instead, I opened my laptop and began reviewing everything I knew about Sera Knight. Her employnt file, her address, her schooling records. Looking for any trace of the woman I’d held in my arms that night, any hint of the connection I’d felt.
There wasn’t much. She’d appeared on official records about five years ago when she’d moved to Silver Moon Harbor, pregnant and alone. Before that, there were scattered ntions of a Seraphina Knight from a small town called Whispering Valley, but the trail grew cold quickly.
Dawn was painting the sky pink and gold by the ti exhaustion finally claid . I fell asleep in my chair, still fully dressed, with my laptop open to Sera’s employee photograph and an empty whiskey glass at my elbow.
The sharp buzz of my phone dragged from uneasy dreams. Lucas’s na flashed on the screen, and I answered imdiately despite the crick in my neck from sleeping in the chair.
"Tell you have sothing," I said without preamble.
"Good morning to you too, sunshine." Lucas’s voice carried that slightly manic edge he got when he’d been up all night working on sothing important. "And yes, I have sothing, though I’m not sure how useful it’s going to be."
I straightened in my chair, suddenly fully awake. "What did you find?"
"First, the bad news. The hotel’s digital storage system had a massive failure about three years ago. Most of the older footage was corrupted or completely lost. What we managed to recover is... patchy at best."
My heart sank. "And the good news?"
"The good news is that I’ve got a guy who specializes in data recoveryâ€"the kind of guy who can pull deleted files off a computer that’s been through a blender and struck by lightning. He managed to piece together a few minutes of footage from the hallway outside your room that night."
"Send it to . Now."
I went to the office imdiately. The video file was small, barely two minutes of grainy, black-and-white footage. I hit play and leaned forward, squinting at the screen.
The hallway was empty for the first thirty seconds, just the familiar perspective of a security cara mounted high on the wall. Then a figure appeared in the fra, moving slowly down the corridor with a cleaning cart.
The person was clearly wearing a hotel uniform, and even through the poor quality of the video, I could make out the distinctive blonde hair and the stocky build that scread "Anna." She stopped outside what I knew was my room, fumbling with her keycard for several seconds before the door opened.
The tistamp showed she’d entered at 6:23 AM, roughly two hours after I’d left for the ergency pack eting.
I watched her erge twenty minutes later, the cleaning cart lighter than before but with sothing clutched in her hand that caught the hallway’s fluorescent lights. Even through the grainy footage, the golden glint was unmistakable.
My pendant.
She looked around quickly, as if checking to make sure no one was watching, then slipped whatever she was holding into her uniform pocket and continued down the hall with her cart.
The video ended there, cutting to static.
My wolf Alex was snarling in my mind, demanding blood, demanding justice. The rage that built in my chest was so intense it made my vision blur around the edges.
I was still staring at the frozen final fra of the video when I heard the familiar click of high heels in the hallway outside my office. A mont later, my door opened without a knock, and Anna swept into the room like she owned it.
"Good morning, darling," she purred, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness. She was wearing a dress that was at least two sizes too small and a shade of pink that could be seen from space, her blonde hair teased into what could generously be called a style.
She perched herself on the edge of my desk, crossing her legs and leaning forward to give what she probably thought was a seductive view of her cleavage.
"I missed you last night." she continued, trailing one finger along the edge of my desk.
I stared at her, marveling at the sheer audacity of her performance.
"Anna," I said quietly, my voice so level and controlled that Alex whimpered in my mind.
"Yes, sweetheart?" She batted her eyelashes and tilted her head, probably thinking she looked coquettish rather than deranged.
"Get out of my office."
The change in her expression was instantaneous. The fake sweetness evaporated, replaced by confusion and the first hints of panic.
"What? Damien, honey, what’s wrong? Did I do sothing toâ€""
"Get. Out."
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