Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 197 – Leave me out of your problems

On the other end of the line, a long, unbothered yawn came through before Humphrey’s voice followed, thick with irritation and sleep.

"Ravyn... can’t you just let me rest for once?" he muttered, clearly unimpressed. "Leave me out of your problems."

Ravyn’s grip on the phone tightened slightly, his jaw clenching as he forced himself to stay composed, even though the urgency clawing at his chest was getting harder to contain with every passing second.

"Dad, there’s been a chemical explosion in the pack," he said quickly, his voice steady but edged with pressure. "I just need you to talk to Sera. She has the cure, and I need her to help us. Pack members are getting paralyzed, and if we don’t figure this out soon, we don’t know when the next explosion will happen, or how many more people will—"

He stopped abruptly, interrupted by another yawn. Ravyn’s expression hardened, frustration flashing through his eyes before his father’s voice cut in again, sharper this time.

"Ravyn," Humphrey said, the irritation now fully awake in his tone, "Seraphine was bedridden because of that same chemical, and you didn’t care."

The words hit heavier than Ravyn expected, but Humphrey didn’t pause.

"And now," he continued, his voice turning colder, "you want her to leave the city and come running to fix your pack?"

Ravyn exhaled slowly, steadying himself before answering, forcing logic into a situation that was quickly becoming personal.

"She doesn’t have to come here," he said, more measured now. "I can arrange everything from this side. She can prepare the cure, and I’ll pick it up myself. I’ll pay for it—whatever it costs."

There was a pause on the other end, followed by a quiet sigh that carried more weight than words.

"Willing to pay..." Humphrey repeated, almost to himself, the disappointment clear beneath the surface. "I thought you regretted your actions."

inhaled deeply, the air feeling heavier

didn’t

If it wasn’t for

flatly, his voice cutting clean through

didn’t stop there.

continued, his tone quieter now but no less piercing, "if you really believe you’re innocent in all of this... then why don’t you talk

cut in quickly, the response

his brows drawing together slightly as he searched for the right way to say it, though there really

he admitted, his voice dropping just a little. "Then she

humorless exhale before he added,

heavy but undeniable. "But if you don’t want the

long enough to feel intentional. Then finally, Humphrey spoke from the other side of the

willing to pay," he replied, his voice laced with calculation. "In that case, get the

straightened slightly, tension

to convince her," Humphrey went on, "but you need to

doctors—pack doctors, city doctors—it doesn’t matter. They all follow the same ethics. You don’t abandon patients because

chuckle came through the line, low and knowing. "I don’t know much about medicine," Humphrey admitted,

a gifted child. A medicinal chemist. What she does

just admit it, Ravyn...

teeth clenched together, his jaw tightening as

beyond what he had

Even MindNest...

bitter in his chest. It was the kind of empire people envied, the kind he himself had wanted to be part of,

Ravyn said finally, his voice firm again, grounding himself in what mattered most to him,