THE FABULOUS DOCTOR LUNA HE THREW AWAY?

CHAPTER 3

SERA

I stared at Dimitri Volkov and my brain just stopped working.

It was like someone pulled the plug on every thought in my head. My body was still standing, my eyes were still open, but nothing was connecting. There was just him. In my apartment. On my couch. Like he belonged there.

He didn't belong there. He didn't belong anywhere near me.

My brain would catch up. It always did. It just needed a second.

"Sera," he said again, and his voice was softer this time, like he was talking to something wounded.

That was the push my brain needed. Everything slammed back into me at once. The fear. The anger. The hurt. All of it, crashing into my chest like a wave I wasn't ready for.

"Get out." My voice cracked but I didn't care. "Get the hell out of my apartment."

He didn't move. He just stood there, those grey eyes locked on me, his hands at his sides like he was trying to show me he wasn't a threat.

He was always a threat. Every single inch of him.

"How did you find me?" I asked, and I hated how my voice shook. I hated that he could still do this to me. Make me small. Make me afraid. I wasn't that girl anymore. I clawed my way out of that life with bleeding fingers and I swore I would never go back.

"I need to talk to you," he said.

"I don't care what you need." I took a step back, my hand reaching behind me for the door. "You lost the right to need anything from me the day I signed those papers."

Something flickered across his face. Pain. Guilt. I didn't know, and I didn't care. He was good at wearing masks. I learned that the hard way.

"Sera, please. Just listen to me."

"No." My fingers found the doorknob and I twisted it. The door opened behind me and the hallway air hit my back. Good. An exit. A way out. "You don't get to break into my home and ask me to listen. That's not how this works. That's not how anything works between us anymore because there is no us."

He flinched. Actually flinched. Like my words hit him somewhere soft.

Good. I hoped it hurt.

"I know I don't deserve your time," he said, and his voice was low, rough at the edges. "I know what I did. I know why you left. And I'm not here to ask you to come back."

I laughed. It came out sharp and ugly. "Then why are you here, Dimitri? Because it sure as hell isn't for my coffee."

He looked at me and for a moment, just a moment, his mask slipped. I saw something underneath it. Exhaustion. Worry. Fear.

Dimitri Volkov didn't do fear. He was the Alpha of the most powerful wolf pack on the east coast. He ran a mafia empire that stretched across three countries. Men twice his size looked away when he entered a room.

But right now, standing in my tiny apartment with the overhead light buzzing above us, he looked afraid.

That scared me more than anything.

"You're in danger," he said quietly.

My stomach dropped. "What?"

"The Zanetti family. Italian wolves. They've been moving into our territory for months. Hitting our shipments. Killing our men." He paused, his jaw working like the next words were hard to say. "They found out about you."

My blood went cold. Not cool. Cold. Ice in my veins, frost on my skin, the kind of cold that made my wolf press itself flat against my ribs and whimper.

"Found out what about me?" I asked, but my voice was barely a whisper.

"Everything." His eyes held mine and I couldn't look away. "Your real name. Where you work. Where you live. They know who you are, Sera."

No.

No, no, no.

I was careful. I was so damn careful. I changed my name. I moved cities. I buried every trace of who I used to be so deep that not even my own reflection recognized me anymore. Six years of hiding. Six years of being nobody.

And now it was all for nothing.

"How?" The word came out broken.

"I don't know," he said, and I could tell it was eating him alive. "Viktor found out through one of our contacts. The Zanettis have been watching you for at least a week. Maybe longer."

A week. They had been watching me for a week and I didn't even know. I didn't sense them. My wolf didn't warn me.

Because my wolf was practically dead. I had shoved her down so far, for so long, that she couldn't protect me anymore.

This was my own fault.

My legs gave out and I grabbed the door frame to keep from falling. Dimitri moved toward me, his hand reaching out, but I jerked back.

"Don't touch me," I whispered.

His hand froze in the air. Then he slowly pulled it back, his fingers curling into a fist. "I'm sorry."

"For which part?" I asked, and I didn't even try to hide the bitterness. "For breaking my heart? For the other woman? For letting me find out about her from your own pack members who whispered about it behind my back? Or for showing up now, two years too late, telling me someone wants me dead?"

Each word landed like a punch. I could see it in the way his body tensed, the way his breathing changed, the way his eyes went dark with something that looked a lot like shame.

"All of it," he said roughly. "I'm sorry for all of it."

I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to hit him. I wanted to break down and cry until there was nothing left of me. But I didn't do any of those things. Because I was Sera Valentini now. And Sera Valentini didn't break.

Not in front of him. Never again in front of him.

"What do the Zanettis want with me?" I asked, forcing my voice steady.

Dimitri's expression shifted. The guilt faded and something harder took its place. Something cold and dangerous. The Alpha.

"They don't want you," he said slowly.

I frowned. "Then why are they watching me?"

He looked at me, and the words that came out of his mouth made the ground disappear under my feet.

"Because they know who your father was."