My Sister Stole My Mate And I Let Her (Seraphina) novel Chapter 552

Chapter 552: Chapter 552 DESTRUCTION (BONUS Chapter 3)

DAMIAN’S POV

“My, my, Damian,” Astrid tutted, eyeing me with what an obtuse would have called sympathy but I knew to be poorly disguised amusement, “you’ve definitely seen better days.”

My knuckles blanched as I strangled the armrests, the leather protesting beneath my grip. “I did not come here to be mocked, Volker.”

She smirked, leaning back in her plush leather seat. “No, Rooke, you came here to hide.”

I gritted my teeth, struggling to keep my fangs from sliding out. The pressure was the only thing holding me together.

Hide. As if I were prey. As if I were a child cowering under the bed, terrified of imaginary monsters.

Except my monsters weren’t imaginary.

No, Kieran and Seraphina Blackthorne were real—as real as the scent of cardamom and vanilla that had clung to Seraphina on that cursed island—and they’d stolen from me and driven me underground like a fucking rat.

Their irksome alliance had set up surveillance on everything I owned—hotels, bars, even my most secret, unscrupulous businesses had been uncovered and hounded.

I’d known Catherine and Marcus were ticking time bombs. I’d been amused by the knowledge that it was only a matter of time before they exploded and destroyed each other.

I’d just been too arrogant—perhaps naïve was the better word—to see that they would take me down with them.

I thought I was well removed, distant enough to be entertained, to receive my profits, and not have my clothes stained by the splash of their inevitable mess.

But more than being stained, I was drenched. Their mess was practically dripping off me.

And as a cherry on the cake, losing Mireya had made me foolish. Reckless. I’d transformed into a wild animal on that island, attacking any and everything that moved.

Yet, all that feral vengeance had done was lead me here—cornered and at someone else’s mercy.

I held far fewer cards than the last time I was here, and Astrid knew it. Knew it and reveled in it.

She lounged in her chair as if it were a throne and regarded me as if I were a subject begging for scraps at her feet.

“Tell me, Rooke,” she said, her fingers lightly drumming against the sleek cellphone resting on her desk, “why I shouldn’t call my very good friend, Sera, and let her know you’re here. After all, she returned something precious that I had been searching for. It’s only right to return the favor.”

At the mention of that name, my vision briefly blurred with red-hot rage.

I was a reckoner by nature. I settled my scores, and I fully intended to settle the one I had with Seraphina Blackthorne.

She’d taken the most important thing to me and torn my world apart. I would return the favor if it was the last thing I did.

“Do that,” I ground out, “and you’ll never get the information I promised.”

Astrid’s brow arched, and a surprised laugh fell from her lips.

“Oh, you’re still holding on to that pathetic little trading card?”

“I found Mireya all on my own, but I’m willing to keep my end of the bargain if you...”

Gods, the words were so hard to force out. Asking for help was never my strong suit, and I loathed how often I’d been forced to.

“...if you help me.”

Astrid was silent for a while, her sharp eyes fixed on me with the curiosity of a scientist dissecting a new organism.

I met her gaze unflinchingly. I may have lost a lot—my assets, my credibility, my mate—but I would not surrender the last scraps of my dignity.

Information was all I had left to barter with, and no matter how blasé Astrid acted, I knew there was one secret she would trade the world to possess.

She could feign indifference as well as I could pretend I didn’t need Mireya.

“Tell me what you know,” she said at last, “then I will decide if the information is worth whatever aid you need rendered.”

I shook my head. “I need your word—”

“That is all you will get from me, Rooke,” she cut in, all amusement leached from her voice. “Take it or take your odds running from the alliance for the rest of your life.”

It was my turn to be silent.

A sly smile tugged at Astrid’s lips as her amusement resurfaced. She knew I had next to no bargaining chips. My silence was just a last-ditch effort to claw back a sliver of control.

Fuck. How did I get here?

Mireya, that was how.

She’d drifted into my life like a fragile little leaf carried on the winds of a storm—only to reveal herself as the storm itself.

She ripped a hole into my perfectly curated existence, driving me mad with a possession I couldn’t understand, much less control.

I should have been glad she was gone—yanked out of my grasp, more accurately—but I didn’t know how to function with that hole. No, I needed that void filled.

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