Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 91 – You saved me.

Voren Ashkael was not Corvine, and he certainly was not one of her gentle adopted parents who allowed her clever traps to unfold without crushing them before they could bloom.

Even before the game began, Seraphine already understood that the odds were not leaning in her favor, and the thin, satisfied smile curling along Ravyn’s lips only sharpened that realization until it felt like a blade pressing quietly against her pride.

The sight of that smile stirred something inside her that burned hotter than reason, because she wanted nothing more than to wipe it off his face and replace it with the stunned disbelief of someone watching their certainty crumble right in front of them.

Voren’s voice drifted across the room from where he sat on the couch, calm and smooth in a way that made the words sound almost courteous even though the meaning behind them carried an unmistakable weight.

"Don’t worry," he said in a tone that remained as steady as polished marble. "I will go easy on you, but also remember that I have a reputation to protect."

Seraphine let out a quiet laugh that carried just enough sound to acknowledge his comment, although the faint curve of her lips never reached her eyes.

What a beautifully polite way to tell someone they had already lost before the first piece even touched the board.

"I’ll take my chances," she replied, her voice steady even while a storm of determination gathered inside her chest.

At that moment the waiters began preparing the space for the match, moving through the luxurious club with a smooth efficiency that suggested they had performed similar transformations many times before.

Furniture was arranged and repositioned until the center of the room resembled a stage designed for spectacle, and the polished chessboard soon rested under the glow of the overhead lights like a centerpiece meant to command every eye in the room.

The couches formed a wide crescent around the playing area, curving like a ring of quiet thrones where the members of the Sovereign Circle lounged with their drinks resting on low tables beside them.

Crystal glasses caught the warm lighting while expensive liquor swirled inside, yet the attention of every billionaire present had already drifted away from their drinks and toward the unfolding confrontation.

Curiosity gleamed in their eyes, sharp and hungry, because challenges like this rarely appeared without consequences worth watching.

When the final piece was placed on the board and the arrangement stood complete, Seraphine and Voren approached the table at the same time, their footsteps quiet against the polished floor as they took their places across from one another.

across the chessboard and reflected faintly in their eyes, revealing two completely different forms of confidence staring at each other across the grid of black and

refused to bend, the kind of determination that burned

like a stone that had existed long before anyone

made, the room sank into a silence so thick that it almost felt physical, as though every person present had unconsciously stopped breathing

her mind raced through possibilities and risks that branched out like an endless

boldness behind it, a refusal to play timidly in front of an audience that had already decided she stood no chance against the man

the couches, his voice

evaporated the instant Voren lifted

yet the silent message behind that calm stare made the middle-aged man close his mouth

continued answering Seraphine’s aggressive strategy with the kind

moment it needed to exist, as though he had already mapped the

styles pulled the audience deeper

leaned forward. Conversations died. Glasses remained untouched as the spectators watched two

that he did not even realize he was making. Beside him, his father and stepmother wore expressions just as

hand, leaned back with the relaxed satisfaction of

was never any doubt that Voren would crush her and remove her from the Circle without

forward

easily, her determination growing fiercer with every exchange

calculations flickered through her thoughts like lightning, because she knew that every piece she moved carried the weight of

fighting for her

for the chance to sit among these powerful men as something more

power, respect, and the right to shape her own destiny inside a world that had

board slowly emptied piece by piece, the invisible pattern behind Voren’s design began revealing

her queen fell, removed from the board with a quiet finality that felt like a

lines collapsing under pressure that had been building

the final move

of a judge delivering a verdict that no