Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 239 - They said bad things about Mom

Earlier, Voren spotted Ravyn the moment they crossed paths near the back of the building, and Ravyn, to his credit, didn’t waste time on pleasantries.

"Voren." He fell into step beside him, dropping his voice low. "Did you bring her?"

"She’s here," Voren confirmed. He glanced around the space they were moving through, the side corridor that ran parallel to the main gym floor, and came up empty. No Seraphine. No Damon. No Bryan. He put it together quickly enough.

She’d gone inside ahead of him, probably with the other two, because being near Voren for an extended stretch of time required periodic breaks for her sanity. He understood that, though he didn’t particularly like it, but he understood it. "Get me something to train in first."

Ravyn’s mouth curved. "Already handled. Changing room."

They took the back entrance into Ravyn’s private changing room, a space that most pack members never saw, set apart from the main locker area and separated from the gym floor by nothing more than a wall and whatever distance sound needed to travel.

As it turned out, it didn’t need much. The voices from inside carried cleanly, and Ravyn knew every single one of them without having to think about it.

Voren went still as he listened. The easy, coiled patience he usually carried with him had gone somewhere else entirely, replaced by something tight and low and simmering just below the point where it would start to show on his face.

He pulled on the training gear, white shorts, a white tank that fit well enough, and kept his jaw locked while the sounds from the other room continued to travel through the wall.

When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet. Controlled in the way that things are controlled when the alternative is considerably worse. "You made me bring her here for this?" He didn’t look at Ravyn while he said it. He focused on lacing his sneakers, precise and unhurried, like he needed somewhere safe to put his hands. "I trusted you."

but honest, the tone of a man who wasn’t going to dress something up just to make himself sound better. "I’d heard a few of them making comments about her.

said, low and without room for negotiation. "Because if she throws my shares back in my face because of this morning, I won’t forgive you for it. That’s

"I’ll handle it."

"See that you do."

Voren finished the second lace and stood, and they walked out together into the gym, through the wide doorway that opened onto the main

weather or the occasion called for it.

it was full of bodies and the particular charged quiet of people who

not in Diane’s expression, not

was about to say wouldn’t really apply to them. After all, he’d made his feelings about Seraphine clear enough over

he’d been launched from somewhere, all flushed cheeks and heaving chest and eyes that

his hand. His grip was tighter than it should have been for a child his size. "They said bad things about Mom." His voice cracked on the last word, and he pushed through it. "I don’t want to be in this pack anymore. Can I go with her? To

a door opening somewhere inside him that he hadn’t expected to find

land without raising a single objection. He turned the thought over as he looked at her. A Luna was supposed to

and asking himself quietly, if she could

gaze moved to Seraphine. He looked at her long enough that the look became something that leaned toward sorry without quite announcing itself as an apology yet, because that conversation wasn’t one he could have in front of

when a conversation actually mattered. "Seraphine is a very busy woman, pup. She wouldn’t

his voice even and warm, the kind of steady that a child reaches for when everything else