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."

himself sound better. "I’d heard a few of them making comments about her. Ugly ones. I wanted to get everyone together so I could call it out directly, and make them apologize in front of the whole pack." He paused. "I

for negotiation. "Because if she throws my shares back in my face because of this morning, I

"I’ll handle it."

"See that you do."

the second lace and stood, and they walked out together into the gym, through the wide doorway that opened onto the main floor with its high ceilings, scuffed mats, weight racks and long rows of

enough that the pack used it for assemblies when the weather or

of bodies and the particular charged quiet of people who had been making noise

feared it would. There was no remorse anywhere, not in Diane’s expression, not

whatever he was about to say wouldn’t really apply to

side like he’d been launched from somewhere, all flushed cheeks and heaving chest and

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

him that he hadn’t expected to find unlocked. His gaze went to Daisy first, almost

objection. He turned the thought over as he looked at her. A Luna was supposed to be the heart of a pack, the standard, the anchor, the person who set the temperature of

if she could ever fill in the

the look became something that leaned toward sorry without quite announcing itself as an apology

front of Bryan, eye level, the way you had to be when a conversation actually

steady that a child reaches for when everything else feels unsteady. "And you have something important ahead of you. The pack is