Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 271 – You made a promise

Voren’s fingers were already moving across his phone screen, the call half-dialed, when something slammed into his hand hard enough to send it crashing to the floor. The sound cracked through the room like a gunshot, but the phone was still intact.

"Voren." Seraphine’s voice didn’t rise, only threatening. "You made a promise."

He turned to look at her, jaw tight. "Yeah, and you got everything you wanted out of that promise." His eyes darkened, the muscle in his cheek jumping.

"Daisy crossed a line the moment she started wanting you dead. You really think she’s just going to stop? That she’s going to wake up tomorrow and decide she’s done?"

The truth was, something primal in him wanted nothing more than to find Daisy and make her pay, not quickly, not cleanly. He wanted to watch her suffer the way she had made Seraphine suffer.

The image sat behind his eyes, sharp and satisfying, but then Seraphine stepped closer and he saw it — that cold, calculated look she got when she was already five steps ahead of everyone else in the room. She had a plan, just as always.

"Daisy is exactly the kind of woman Ravyn deserves." The words came out of Seraphine’s mouth like she was reading a grocery list, flat, unbothered, almost bored. "Those two belong together."

Something about the way she said it hit different. Not the words themselves but what was underneath them, that hollow kind of calm that only showed up when a person had buried something too deep to dig back out. Voren felt it settle into his own chest, cold and uninvited.

His eyes moved over her face. "You won." His voice dropped. "You came out on top. So why do you still look like that?" He paused, hoping it wasn’t what he was thinking. "Are you still in love with him, Sera?"

He didn’t see it coming.

Her palm connected with the side of his face so hard his head snapped to the right.

This one had more behind it than the slap she gave him during the whole Santiago situation. This one had grief in it, and fury, and something close to desperation.

a way that made the air in the room feel thinner. Her claws had already

in, and what was left behind was just a woman cracked open and raw in the middle of a dimly lit

voice dropped back down to almost nothing, which somehow made it worse. Tears spilled over before she could stop

she’s out there somewhere breathing or if she’s—" She stopped. Pressed her lips together. "And you’re standing here thinking what? That I still have feelings for that

opened his mouth, then closed

physical. He watched her shoulders shake and something in his chest that he had kept carefully locked away rattled

space between them before his brain signed off

she immediately pushed back, both palms flat against his chest, trying

a building finally giving way after too long under too much weight, she stopped fighting and let herself fall

through his

sorry, Sera." Voren leaned down without thinking, his lips pressing to the top of her head, and he didn’t even realize he’d done it until he felt her go completely

pulled back slightly, or tried to, but

"I’m not going to take advantage of you while you’re hurting. That’s not what

was still standing in her came down at that. Her whole body relaxed against his, going soft in a way that told him she hadn’t let herself rest

gently, and her breathing

love Ravyn

he had ever really needed to know, not for any scheme. Just for himself. Just to have that one

of

time the last of the crying stopped. When Voren tilted slightly to get a look at her face, her fingers

didn’t