My Sister Stole My Mate And I Let Her (Seraphina) novel Chapter 534

Chapter 534: Chapter 534 AFTER (BONUS Chapter 1)

SERAPHINA’S POV

"I’m just saying," Daniel said, pushing his green beans around his plate with more focus than they warranted, "if I leave now, I’ll have more time to practice my starts."

"You have two hours."

Two hours until the horn sounded and the pack gathered at the tree line for my second-ever pack run.

I could already feel anticipation humming through my veins, the same restless energy that had been building all week—an itch beneath my skin I couldn’t quite scratch, a warmth pooling low in my belly.

"Two hours isn’t that long, Mom,” Daniel said with the weary patience of someone explaining something painfully obvious to a particularly slow student. “I need all the practice I can get.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’ve spent the last month practicing nonstop.”

Ava had beaten him at the race they’d had at the last pack run, and Daniel had spent the following month in what could only be described as a training montage—sprints across the pack grounds, unsolicited stretching demonstrations in the middle of the living room, and even managed to recruit Gavin as a "professional running coach."

“And it hasn’t been enough,” he sighed. “I must regain my honor.”

“Ava beat you by three seconds, hon.”

“Exactly!” He threw his hands up in the air. “Do you know how humiliating that is? Do you know how awful the last month has been? Every second of every day, she won’t let me forget it. I have to beat her tonight, or I’ll die, and Nightfang will be without an heir, and it’ll all be your fault because you didn’t let me practice.”

I nodded solemnly. “You’ll be missed. I promise to visit your grave every day. What kind of flowers would you like?”

He shot me a look that was pure Kieran—flat, unimpressed, entirely too dignified for a ten-year-old with barbecue sauce on his chin.

“Let me go, Mom, please?”

"Finish your dinner, and you can run all the way across the country if you want."

He huffed in defeat and stabbed a baby carrot like it was the sole cause of every tragedy in the world.

I shook my head, laughing softly. Ava’s presence in the pack had brought out a new competitive—a little irrational, honestly—side to my son, and I would be worried if I wasn’t so thoroughly amused.

But all the mirth left me the moment Kieran walked in.

He’d come from the training grounds, his shirt clinging damp to his shoulders, sleeves shoved up his forearms, dark hair pushed back like he’d run his fingers through it one too many times.

I froze as his scent reached me, and every rational thought in my head dissolved into static.

Cedar and rain and something darker underneath, something that had always belonged only to him, but tonight it hit...differently.

Tonight it wrapped around me like a hand closing around my throat, and my whole body responded before my mind caught up—the warmth in my belly turned to searing heat, my skin was suddenly too tight, my breathing turned low and heavy.

I gripped the edge of the counter.

"Sera?" Kieran’s brows furrowed as his gaze found mine across the kitchen. "Baby, you okay?"

No. Not remotely.

"Fine," I managed, my voice coming out strangely husky.

"Can I—" I cleared my throat, aware of Daniel shoveling carrots and green beans into his mouth two feet away, like that was another race he was determined to win. "Can I borrow you for a second? Privately."

Something flickered across Kieran’s face—a flash of understanding, quick and startled, gone almost before I registered it.

“Sure,” he said, his voice level.

He ruffled Daniel’s hair as he passed. “Be right back, bud.”

Daniel barely acknowledged him, shoving a whole chicken thigh into his mouth.

One moment, I was standing on shaky feet, my heart slamming against my ribs and my whole body lit up like a live wire.

The next, I was shoving Kieran against the wall of the Alpha wing corridor, fisting his shirt in both hands as I pulled him down to me.

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