The Alpha Who Never Loved Me (Serena and Kieran) novel Chapter 148

< The Alpha Who Never Loved Me

Chapter 148

Serena

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I knew what Crowley would find if he started digging. So I

cleared my throat.

Every head in the room turned. I folded my hands on my lap,

kept my chin level, and looked at Crowley.

“I’ll do the press conference,” I said.

Crowley’s eyes moved to mine. Kieran went still beside me.

Aina stirred low in my chest, she pressed close, attentive,

reading Cora across the room.

“But I have conditions.”

“You don’t make..” Crowley started.

“My parents are to be left completely alone. No pack interference, no political pressure, nothing that touches their

lives or their business.” I kept my voice even. “The father

of my baby is to be left alone. And my career stays as it is. Nobody from this family contacts my workplace or touches my patients.” I said to him recalling when he had gotten me 43

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< Chapter 148

fired because he hated the idea of a Luna having a job.

The room went quiet but I wasn’t finished.

“I also want to be relieved of all luna duties. Immediately.” I

met Crowley’s eyes. “And if the title can be removed, I want it

removed.”

“Serena…” Kieran’s voice came out loud, splitting the quiet.

He was on his feet before I finished the sentence. “That is

enough.”

“Those are my terms.” I was still looking at Crowley.

“You are the luna,” Crowley said. His voice came down in

finality. “That is not a title you negotiate away at a dining

table.”

“I understand that,” I said. “I also understand that I have

very little reason to stand at a press conference and defend

a marriage I didn’t choose. You want the cameras to see a

united front. These are the things I need in order to give you

that. I’m not being difficult. I’m telling you what I’m willing to

offer and what I need in return.”

Kieran moved toward me. “The luna title belongs to my mate. 2/8

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< Chapter 148

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You can’t hand it back. You know what it means to remove it.”

I turned and looked at him. His face was taken by anger that

he saw no reason to hide from his family. “I know what it

means,” I said. “That’s why I’m asking.”

Removing the active luna title, stripping the duties, the

public function, the visible role, was as close to a divorce as

this family would ever give me without a court document. Without the function, the marriage existed only on paper. And a marriage that only existed on paper was a marriage I

might survive for the time being while I worked on getting the paper destroyed.

Kieran’s jaw locked. His eyes were dark and I watched

Cora rise briefly behind them, the wolf pressing close to the

surface, reading the room, reading me.

“She cannot give back the title,” he said, with his voice lower this time. “Serena, you know what that is.”

“I know what it is, Kieran.”

Crowley looked at Kieran. Kieran looked at me. Neither of them spoke. It was as if they were communicating through their mind, weighing the matter and what that would look 3/8

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< Chapter 148

like.

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“Fine,” Crowley said.

My lips widened into a smile. I turned to Kieran. “When we get home,” I said quietly, “you and I will talk about the rest of

my terms.”

He stared at me with Cora visible in the set of his jaw and the

tension running through him. I saw his fist tighten. He could

easily tell his father now that I was the one behind the news

reaching the world, but that would mean accepting what a

tattletale he was amongst other things.

“The press conference is tomorrow morning,” he said. Each word containing his hate for the agreement made. “Be

ready.”

I smiled at him.

I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his cheek, one

unhurried touch, and stepped back.

“I know how to act,” I told him. “I’ve been playing the good wife for years. A happy one should be straightforward.”

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I stood.

He caught my wrist before I could take a step.

“Is Misha really the father?”

I looked at him.

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“How many proofs do you need?” I pulled my wrist free. “You heard it from Misha himself. You saw the test results. You heard it from Jenna. At what point do you stop holding yourself back from believing it?”

I walked out immediately, having no time to waste on a man

like him.

I returned to work in a taxi, and the first person I saw when I walked through the door was Misha.

I stopped for a moment.

It had been a while since the last time I saw Misha. I have tried to keep a distance between us, keep him away from the drama Kieran brought to my life as much as possible. But the past days, seemed to have added a distance in our friendship. 5/8

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< Chapter 148

I looked at him at the end of the corridor holding his coffee

and his jacket and my shoulders dropped.

“Serena.” He looked at me. “You look like your morning tried

to kill you.” He said with a friendly smile.

“It did its best.” I crossed the corridor and took the coffee

from his hand.

“When is your next visit to Mr Cartridge?”

“Tomorrow, are you coming along?”

He fell into step. “Do you want me to?”

“I need you to.”

He didn’t ask why. He matched my pace and walked.

The truth was this: Kieran would never fully believe that

Misha was the father if they never appeared in the same story. Misha and I had almost no visible relationship outside of this clinic. We moved through the same spaces without overlapping.

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