The Alpha Who Never Loved Me (Serena and Kieran) novel Chapter 144

Chapter 144

Kieran

I was at my desk when the door flew open.

Mark never came in without knocking and that alone prompted me to look up.

He stood in the doorway with his face tight and his hands at his sides.

“Alpha.” His voice came out lower than usual. “I have terrible news.”

I set my pen down. “What is it?”

He crossed the room and held his phone out and handed it to me. I took the phone.

Showing on the screen was an article. At the top was a photograph of me and Sophie in the children’s section of the mall, Ethan on the floor beside us, her hand flat against my back.

Belpo it, the headline ran in block letters across the 15:14

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screen: THE ALPHA OF THE CRIMSON PACK CAUGHT

WITH HIS MISTRESS AND HIS ILLEGITIMATE SON.

I looked at it.

Cora went completely still inside my chest and like a flash of lightning the fury came, what the fuck was this? Whp would’ve taken a picture of Sophie and I?

“How long has this been up?” My voice came out level.

“About a few hours, sir. It’s already been shared across three other platforms.”

Hours.

I turned from the window. I picked up my phone and called Sophie.

She answered on the second ring.

“Did you see it?” I kept my voice low.

“I just saw it.” Her voice broke on the last word. “Kieran, I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t share anything. I don’t know how this happened, I promise you I don’t know—”

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“Stop.” I cut across her. “Stop and think. Do you have any idea at all who could have done this?”

A pause.

“That morning,” she said slowly. “Before you came to pick up Ethan from the hospital. I had met Serena for coffee.”

Cora went rigid inside my chest.

“I think she may have followed me,” Sophie said. “Or she already knew we were going to the mall. Kieran, I think it was Serena who took those pictures.”

I said nothing for a moment.

I didn’t know. I had no proof. Her name was the first one in my head but I wasn’t going to say it out loud as if it was settled when it wasn’t settled.

“I’ll call you back,” I said. I ended the call.

I stood in the middle of the office and felt Cora pushing against my ribs.

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I didn’t know if it was Serena. But I knew she had the motive and I knew she had the timing and I knew that since she came back nothing she had done was accidental.

Mark cleared his throat from across the room.

“Sir.” He paused. “Your grandfather and your father have sent word. They want you and Serena at the main house. Immediately.”

I opened my phone and called Serena.

Busy. I called again. It rang twice and cut off. She cut the call. I called a third time and the line went straight to

nothing.

I stared at the screen.

“Take me to the main house,” I said without looking up.

The door was barely open when i saw something flying towards my way. I shifted to the side and the object slammed the wall ahead, shattering to pieces.

My grandfather stood in the center with both hands. yrapped around his walking stick and his face darkened

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with blood.

“Grandfather-”

“You are a failure. You are a disgrace. You are standing in front of me and you are the worst thing I have produced in the generations of this family.” He picked up his phone from the table and threw it across the room at me. I

caught it. “Look at that. Look at your name. Look at what it says.”

I looked at the headline. I already knew what it said.

“I’ve seen it,” I said.

“Then you understand why I am this angry.” He crossed the room, stick striking the floor with every step, and stopped a foot from me. His eyes were level with my chin. “You have dragged this family’s name through the streets. You have handed our enemies every weapon they need. How long do you think it will take before Lunaridge uses this? Before every pack in this territory looks at the Thawthorne name and laughs?” He struck the floor with the stick again. “Explain yourself. Explain how this picture ended up on the internet.”

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“I don’t know how the photograph got out,” I said.

“You don’t know.” He repeated it slowly. “You don’t know.”

“I don’t.”

“It doesn’t matter how it got out.” My father’s voice came from across the room. “That photograph is only the beginning. As long as you keep Sophie beside you, there will be more pictures, more articles, more headlines. Every week something new.” He stopped beside my grandfather and looked at me. “Can you not end this? Can you not remove her from your life and close this chapter? Why are you choosing this woman over this family?”

“This is my son we’re talking about.” My voice came up. “Ethan didn’t choose any of this.”

“Then send him gifts from a distance,” my grandfather said. “You don’t need to keep his mother under your roof.”

“I’m not-”

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My father looked past me. His eyes moved around the room, to the doorway, to the hallway behind me.

“Where is Serena?”

My chest dropped.

I kept my face even. “She couldn’t make it. She had work.”

My father looked at me and said nothing for a long

moment.

“That is a lie,” he said. “That woman is disrespectful. She thinks this family owes her something. We took her family off the ground. We gave her a name, a position, a future. We married her to my son. And she cannot show up when she is asked.” His voice tightened. “She cannot even show up to stand beside her husband when his name is on every screen in the territory.”

“Don’t speak about Serena like that.” My voice came out flat and hard. “I won’t sit here and take it.”

“You will sit here and take whatever I say.” My

grandfather hit the floor with his stick. “Because you have

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earned this, Kieran. Every word of it.” He pointed at me. “You are stupid. You are a grown man who has kept a woman beside him who is setting fire to everything around you. You have no one to blame but yourself.”

“Ethan is my son,” I said again. “Whatever else is true – he is my son and I won’t abandon him.”

“You have a son outside this marriage,” he said. “And Serena carries a child outside this marriage. The two of you have made a ruin of everything.”

Cora surged hard against my ribs.

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