My Sister Stole My Mate And I Let Her (Seraphina) novel Chapter 228

Chapter 228: Chapter 228 TIME

SERAPHINA’S POV

I found my car parked in Kieran’s driveway, probably retrieved from the Lockwood Estate after I abandoned it.

I had no idea how I drove home without crashing it.

My foot slammed the accelerator as I sped through the empty streets, awash with pre-dawn light.

With every mile, the bond tugged at me like a thread stretching thin, and I just kept chanting internally: Don’t look back. Just get home.

By the time I pulled into my driveway, the sky had warmed to pale gold.

I killed the engine and sat there for a long moment, forehead resting against the steering wheel as the gravity of everything that had happened pressed onto me.

The library. My mother’s words. The Moon Goddess. Alina. Kieran.

Mate.

It was hard to believe that all this had happened in the span of less than twenty-four hours. That I had a life before all this. That I was—

Realization struck like a bolt of lightning, sending a cold rush through me as dread settled heavily in my stomach.

I’d been gone all day and night.

Daniel.

I shoved the car door open and rushed inside, heart racing.

“Daniel?” I called out, panic lacing my voice.

Silence greeted me. The house was still.

Oh gods.

Just as the claws of panic wrapped around my throat, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

I snatched it up with trembling fingers.

Kieran: Daniel’s safe. He’s with my parents.

I let out a heavy breath and sagged against the nearest wall as relief poured through me like warm water.

Sera: Thank you

I stared at the blinking cursor far too long, hesitating.

As much as I loved and wanted to see my baby, I was a wreck right now, and dragging him into this chaos—especially before his ceremony—felt cruel.

So I added: Could you please ask your parents to keep him for a while longer?

The reply came almost immediately.

Kieran: Done.

And then: Take all the time you need, Sera. I’ll be here when you’re ready.

With my heart no longer thundering a mile a minute, the magnitude of Kieran’s message sank in.

That should have made me feel better, knowing he wasn’t pushing. Yet the ache in my chest lingered.

I turned off my phone without replying.

I tilted my head back against the wall and closed my eyes. Unbidden, a solitary tear slid down my cheek.

“Alina,” I whispered, my voice too loud in the quiet house.

‘Sera?’ Her soft voice was like a balm on my aching heart.

“Kieran’s our mate.”

‘Yeah,’ she sighed. ‘It appears he is. Do you want to talk about it?’

I inhaled deeply. Did I want to talk about it?

No.

But I needed an outlet for the heat burning under my skin before it devoured me whole.

***

The OTS Sparring Arena smelled of metal, sweat, stone, and old fury.

And this early in the morning, it was blissfully empty.

I stepped into the center, cracked my knuckles, and let all the tangled, fucked up emotions within me unspool into raw energy.

My aura flared so sharply that the light panels overhead flickered.

The heat of the bond pulsed in my veins like lava, strengthening everything—my senses, my speed, my reflexes.

Power surged outward, like a storm unleashed, violent and instinctive, as I went through all the training simulations like tearing through tissue paper.

I didn’t stop, didn’t ease or relent until my fist collided with a training dummy and ripped straight through it, foam and fibers exploding outward like confetti.

The shock rattled up my arm, but the frustration inside me only burned hotter, refusing to be dulled by pain.

I could feel Alina under my skin. There—full, whole, bright, beautiful.

I should’ve been able to Shift. That was the last step, the last destination in the journey I began all those months ago.

I dropped to all fours, breath shaking, forcing energy outward, feeling my bones tighten, skin heat, willing the transformation.

And still nothing.

“Why?!” I screamed, slamming my palm into the mat hard enough to sting. “What am I still missing?”

A maddening thought slithered in, one I didn’t want to entertain.

Did I need the mark? Is that what I needed to be whole? Did accepting Kieran complete the Shift?

How ridiculous. How cruel. How perfectly on brand for fate to bind my power to the man who had broken me.

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