Ex-Alpha's Regret: Siren's Comeback novel Chapter 149

POV: Seraphina

Killian looked up, startled, as if pulled from a great depth. He blinked, his focus slowly returning to the room, to me. He looked at my face, at the genuine, undisguised concern in my eyes, and a wave of something passed over his own features. It was a flicker of the man I knew, the warm, open man who had been missing for days, but it was immediately overshadowed by a look of profound, weary resignation.

He let out a short, bitter sigh, running a hand over his face. "You could say that," he said, his voice low and strained.

He leaned back in his chair, not looking at me, but at the dark window that reflected the two of us in the quiet office. "My parents," he began, and the words were heavy with a familiar kind of dread, "reminded me of my duties. Not to our business, or our alliances, but to our bloodline."

He finally turned to look at me, and his eyes were filled with a苦涩的无奈 (a bitter helplessness) that seemed completely genuine. "They summoned me home to insist that I choose a mate. Immediately. They told me I have been derelict in my duty to provide the Vance clan with an heir."

He let the words hang in the air for a moment. "They've grown impatient with my... lack of progress. They have begun to arrange candidates for me to meet. Powerful Alphas' daughters. Suitable Lunas. Alliances to be forged in mating bonds."

The words hit me with the force of a physical blow. A sudden, sharp intake of breath was the only sound I made, but inside, my world tilted on its axis. A cold, alien emotion surged through me, a sickening, acidic feeling that coiled in my stomach. It took me a moment to identify it.

It was jealousy. Raw, potent, and utterly humiliating.

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