Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 253 - I’ll carry Sera on my back

However, Seraphine knew better than to dwell on it. ’Don’t.’ She shut it down before the sentence finished. ’Not right now. Not ever. Stop.’

Marsha went quiet.

But the thought had already half-formed and Seraphine’s hands were still moving and the truth was that treating humans had never felt quite like this. Humans didn’t have this. The muscle under her fingers was dense and warm even through the cold rain and it was sitting in exactly the right places and the feel of it against her fingertips was doing something she was actively choosing not to think about.

She found what she was looking for.

"This is going to hurt," she said simply.

"Do it," Voren growled.

She pressed. Firm, precise, right next to the spine. The crack was loud enough to cut through the rain for just a second and Voren’s whole body went rigid. A sound tore out of him that he clearly didn’t intend to make. And then it was done.

The stiffness left him like something had been unplugged. He rolled over slowly onto his back and lay there looking straight up at the sky, rain pouring directly onto his face, washing the mud away in thin brown rivers. His chest rose and fell.

"Thank you, Sera."

"No." She was already sitting back on her heels, her own clothes completely ruined, mud on her knees and her arms, gently washed by the rain. "Thank you. For pulling me out." She reached her hand down toward him. "I didn’t even see that tree. I had no idea it was coming."

He looked at her hand for just a second and took it.

He stood without pulling on her too hard, careful about it, and when he was upright he turned and saw the car for the first time since it happened. The roof on the passenger side was crushed inward. Not a small dent. The kind of damage that meant anyone still sitting in that seat would not have walked away from it.

it for a moment without speaking. "I’ll

her head. "Have it repaired and let’s find somewhere to wait this out. You’ve seen it out here. The roads

He didn’t argue.

open to both

and they both turned. Ravyn stood there in his soaked emergency cloth, rain running off the end of

clearly been standing there long enough to watch the whole thing. When he had first arrived and seen them on the ground together, something in his face had gone tight and sharp. But that look was

jumped up

both," he said again, steadier

Seraphine turned back around.

packhouse." Her voice was flat. Finished. Like the topic had already been discussed and closed in her head before it

pressed his lips together and looked at her sideways

you want

nobody she could completely trust in that matter. to lean on in this particular moment. It was just her,

him

"Go ahead."

off and kept talking before she could get the refusal all the way out. "There are a lot of rooms. Nobody is going to bother you. You have my word

her

did not want to say

her bag was still sitting in that lab. Her dry clothes were in that bag. Her phone was in that bag. And somewhere inside the packhouse there was a hot shower and right now, standing in the mud with rain running down the back of her neck and her clothes

fine when they mean I want the record to show I am not

mechanic for the car on the

said. "And I can mindlink Damon to bring one of my cars so you both

obvious he was trying, hoping that Seraphine would forgive him

way that meant the passenger seat was basically gone. One person could fit on the driver’s