My Sister Stole My Mate And I Let Her (Seraphina) novel Chapter 541

Chapter 541: Chapter 541 AFTER (BONUS Chapter 8)

KIERAN’S POV

I used to think being an Alpha meant standing unshaken through battles, politics, impossible decisions, even death.

Then Sera got pregnant again, and I discovered that none of those things had ever truly tested my composure.

The real test came every morning when she cracked her back before getting out of bed, and I worried whether she’d slept comfortably enough.

It came every time she reached for something on a high shelf before I could get there, every afternoon she insisted she could carry a basket of laundry despite my two perfectly functional arms, and every evening when she disappeared into the garden without telling me, sending me into a mounting panic until I found her peacefully reading beneath the pergola while Daniel practiced his sparring.

She found my concern endlessly amusing.

“Kieran,” she sighed one afternoon after I rearranged the cushions behind her for perhaps the fifth time that day, “I’m pregnant, not made of glass.”

“I know.”

She folded her arms, one eyebrow arching in that familiar way that called bullshit. “Do you?”

I nodded, adding another pillow. “I do.”

“Because you’ve been hovering since breakfast.”

“I have not.”

“You almost had a coronary when I lifted the kettle.”

“It was heavy.”

"It was empty.”

“You shouldn’t be lifting things.”

She stared at me for a long moment before laughing so hard she had to wipe tears from her eyes.

“You are unbelievable.”

“I prefer attentive.”

“Try: suffocating.”

I shrugged. “I can live with that. Don’t know why you’d need oxygen or space when you have me.”

She laughed again, shook her head, and pulled me beside her before resting her head on my shoulder.

“I know why you’re doing this,” she murmured, slipping her hand through mine.

Of course she did.

I rested my cheek against her hair, my gaze drifting toward the gentle curve of her stomach.

"I missed it all the first time.” The words came out as a quiet, painful admission.

She tilted her head back, her eyes filled with gentle understanding.

"Kieran...you know I—”

“I know.”

But her forgiveness didn’t mean the regret hadn’t been stewing inside me since the moment I learned she was carrying our new baby.

When she was pregnant with Daniel, I wasn’t there the way I should have been.

I’d lived in the same house, sat across from her at meals, passed her in the hall, and slept beneath the same roof each night, yet I’d still somehow missed it all.

My attention had been consumed by everything except the woman carrying my child.

“I don’t remember asking if you were sleeping enough,” I admitted, my voice roughening.

“I don’t remember noticing when you were exhausted, rubbing your feet when they ached, or making sure you were eating right.”

I swallowed hard, shame tightening my throat. “I don’t even remember talking to Daniel before he was born.”

The words hung between us, impossible to soften because they deserved their full weight.

Emotion welled inside me as I rested my hand against the curve of Sera’s stomach, feeling our baby shift beneath my palm, and I vowed that neither mother nor baby would ever doubt my presence.

“I’ll spend the rest of my life making up for that.”

Warm fingers slipped beneath my chin, gently lifting my face until I met Sera’s eyes.

“You already are.”

She smiled, that same soft smile that carried more forgiveness than I believed I deserved.

“Every time you fuss over me, every time you calculate my nutrient and caloric intake, every time you ask if the baby’s kicking enough or insist on coming to every appointment...”

She reached up to brush a strand of hair away from my forehead. “...you’re loving me the way I always wanted you to.”

Tears threatened before I could stop them. “I really hate who I was.”

She shook her head gently. “I don’t.”

Confusion must have shown on my face, because she continued before I could speak.

“I hate the choices you made,” she admitted. “I hate what they did to us. But if you erase the man you used to be, you also erase the man who fought so hard to become the one with his arms around me now.”

She placed a tender, sweet kiss on the corner of my lips, and whispered, “And I happen to love him very, very much.”

***

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