Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 132 – Restoring the mate bond

Seraphine’s schedule had been nothing short of overwhelming lately, her days packed so tight that even breathing room felt like a luxury she couldn’t afford, and in the middle of all that chaos, it had unintentionally given Corvine the space he needed to focus on things she simply didn’t have the time or energy to keep up with.

While she buried herself in work, building her company piece by piece and stretching herself thin trying to meet impossible timelines, Corvine had been moving in a different direction entirely, reaching out, reconnecting, and quietly weaving himself back into networks that stretched far beyond the city.

He didn’t limit himself to just the centenary pack. Instead, he extended his reach to other packs he had built relationships with over time, tapping into old connections, reviving conversations that had long gone quiet.

And just like that, information started flowing.

It didn’t come in clean reports or structured updates. It came the way things usually did among their kind, scattered, inconsistent, passed from one voice to another, sometimes written in pack chat groups, sometimes whispered in conversations that weren’t meant to travel far but somehow always did.

Rumors, fragments of truth wrapped in speculation, but the thing about rumors in the pack world was that they rarely came from nothing.

And what Corvine had been hearing, wasn’t something he could just casually drop into conversation and move on from. It carried weight. The kind that could change everything.

So when he finally spoke, his tone carried a seriousness that immediately cut through whatever else was on Seraphine’s mind.

"I’ve been hearing something," he began, his voice measured, careful, like he had gone over this in his head more than once before saying it out loud. "Some of the Alphas are planning to go through a ritual, something meant to restore the mate bond during the next moon festival."

The reaction was instant.

Seraphine went completely still.

wasn’t loud, it wasn’t dramatic, but the way her body stiffened said more than words ever could, and beneath that stillness, something darker

had been through with Ravyn, the very idea of a mate bond felt like a chain tightening around her neck,

on her goals without emotions dragging her in directions she didn’t

now, edged with disbelief, because to her, it didn’t make sense. Not after everything she had seen, everything she had lived

small smile, though it didn’t quite reach his

like this, had imagined that if the mate bond still existed, maybe, just maybe, Seraphine would have been his fated mate due to the secret love he

have been simpler, clearer, decided by the

like that would only be possible during

for a second before adding, "It seems like freedom of choice isn’t

slightly from her face, and the way her expression tightened, like she was trying to hold something

her carefully. "If the mate bond still existed, maybe

a moment, but then pushed through

had a bond with your daughter too. Maybe strong enough that, even in a situation like rejection, he wouldn’t have

better of her. "The fact that rejection is even possible

words came faster now, more controlled, like she was building a wall with every sentence. "It doesn’t guarantee anything," she added, her

"There are consequences for that kind of choice," he

that was the part that made