THE FABULOUS DOCTOR LUNA HE THREW AWAY?

CHAPTER 5

SERA

My father.

He said my father.

The words kept playing in my head on a loop, over and over, like a song I couldn't turn off. I was sitting on my kitchen floor because my legs stopped working somewhere between "they know who your father was" and Dimitri reaching for me when I almost collapsed.

I didn't let him catch me. I lowered myself down on my own. I didn't need his hands on me. I didn't need anything from him.

Dimitri was crouching in front of me now, keeping his distance, watching me with those grey eyes that used to make me feel safe. Now they just made me feel sick.

"Sera," he said gently. "Talk to me."

"Don't." My voice sounded like it belonged to someone else. Hollow. Far away. "Don't tell me to talk to you like we're something. We're nothing, Dimitri."

He flinched. Good. Let him flinch. Let him feel a fraction of what I felt when I found out about her. When his pack members looked at me with pity in their eyes because they all knew before I did. Poor Luna. Doesn't even know her Alpha is sleeping in someone else's bed.

"What do they want?" I asked, staring at the floor between us.

"They think your father hid something before he died. Documents. Records. They believe you know where they are."

A laugh escaped me. It was the kind of laugh that made people uncomfortable. Sharp. Bitter. Ugly.

"My father died when I was twelve," I said. "I was at a sleepover while my family burned. I didn't even get to say goodbye. And these people think he sat me down and told me where he hid his secrets?"

Dimitri said nothing. He just watched me, his jaw tight.

"I don't know anything," I whispered. "I don't know what he hid. I don't know where it is. I spent six years trying to forget he even existed."

That was the truth. After the fire, after the funerals, after being passed around distant relatives who didn't want me, I made myself forget. I killed Sera Kraev and became Sera Valentini. New name. New city. New life. I went to medical school. I became a surgeon. I built something from the ashes of everything I lost.

And now it was crumbling.

"I believe you," Dimitri said quietly.

I looked up at him. "Since when do you believe anything I say?"

The hit landed. I saw it in his eyes, the way they darkened, the way his throat moved when he swallowed. "I deserved that."

"You deserve a lot worse."

Silence stretched between us. Thick. Heavy. Full of all the things we never said and all the things we said too many times.

"You need to come with me," Dimitri said after a moment. "To the compound. It's the only place I can keep you safe."

I almost choked. "Your compound? Are you insane?"

"Sera."

"No." I pushed myself up from the floor, my legs shaking but holding. "Absolutely not. I'm not going back there. I'm not going anywhere with you."

"The Zanettis are watching your apartment. They're watching the hospital. They have photos of you, Sera. They know your schedule, your route home, everything." His voice was steady but I could hear something underneath it. Something desperate. "If you stay here, they will come for you. And they will not be gentle about it."

My skin went cold. Photos. They had photos of me.

I thought about the silver haired man at the hospital. The one with the scar and the pale eyes who gave me his card. Was he one of them? Was he Zanetti?

Oh God. I kept his card. It was still in my coat pocket.

"That man," I said, my voice dropping. "At the hospital. Silver hair. Scar on his jaw. Is he one of them?"

Dimitri's entire body went rigid. "What man?"

"Two weeks ago. After I operated on your guy. Three men came to see me. The one in charge had silver hair and pale eyes. He gave me a card."

Dimitri's face changed. The softness vanished. The guilt vanished. What replaced it was something I had only seen a few times during our marriage. Something that made the air in the room feel thin and dangerous.

The Alpha.

"Where is the card?" he asked, and his voice was so calm it terrified me.

I walked to my coat hanging by the door and pulled it out of the pocket. Black card. Silver number. I held it up and Dimitri took it from my fingers, careful not to touch my hand.

He looked at it and his nostrils flared. Then he pulled out his phone and dialed.

"Viktor," he said. "Enzo Zanetti was at the hospital. He made contact with her two weeks ago." A pause. "No, she's fine. But we're out of time."

He hung up and looked at me. The fear was back in his eyes, louder this time, screaming through the cracks of his composure.

"Sera, I need you to listen to me very carefully," he said. "The man who gave you this card is Enzo Zanetti. He is the head of the Zanetti family. He doesn't send his men to do things. He does them himself. And if he came to you personally, it means you are not just a target. You are the target."

My heart was beating so fast I could taste it. My wolf was pressing against my chest, whining, pacing, begging me to do something.

"I can't go with you," I said, but my voice had no strength left.

"You can't stay here," he said.

We stared at each other. Two people who used to share a bed, a life, a bond. Now standing on opposite sides of a war neither of us started.

A sound came from the hallway. Soft. Barely there. Footsteps.

Dimitri heard it before I did. His head snapped toward the door, his body shifting in front of mine. I didn't even realize he had moved until his back was blocking my view.

"Dimitri," I whispered.

"Quiet," he breathed.

The footsteps stopped right outside my door.

Then the lights went out.