Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 287 - You should stay at my place tonight

"Sera—" Corvine started, but Seraphine was already shaking her head before he could finish. She wasn’t in the mood for excuses. Not tonight.

The connection she’d felt with Marigold the moment their eyes locked wasn’t something she could explain away, and that feeling was the only thing keeping her hopes alive right now.

"Some things don’t change," she said, her voice steady, quieter than she expected it to come out. "Eye color. Hair color. Those things travel in blood. You can’t fake that."

Something new moved across Corvine’s face. The tight line of his shoulders dropped just slightly, like a weight had been lifted clean off them.

"You know, I told Ravyn to actually look at the girl when she when you were unconscious." He exhaled slow, like the memory still sat wrong with him. "He wouldn’t. Couldn’t bring himself to. And truthfully, she had this full head of hair, thick as anything, just like his. Not long, she was a newborn, but still. A hairy little thing."

The corner of his mouth twitched upward, almost fond. "Her eyes though, were yours, Sera. Yours, or maybe even prettier, if that’s even possible."

Seraphine’s breath caught somewhere in the middle of her chest. "Voren," she said, almost to herself. "Has a daughter." The goosebumps crawled up her arms before she even finished saying it out loud.

Corvine’s whole face closed off fast. "Hold on." He pulled over at the shoulder of the road. "The five-year-old you’re talking about — you’re saying she’s Voren’s?"

Seraphine nodded. "And she calls me mom." Her voice dropped on those words, like they were almost too heavy to carry out loud. "She told us she saw me in a dream."

Corvine went quiet. His jaw worked like he was chewing through the information, trying to figure out which part surprised him most. "Goddess." He dragged a hand down his face.

I saw you together, I just couldn’t name it." He looked up at her, something urgent behind his eyes now. "Sera, are you completely sure that night wasn’t him? Because what if Ravyn was right? What if the person you were

than she wanted to admit. "I would have entertained that idea," she said carefully, "if Tallulah hadn’t confirmed everything herself. But Corvine... Voren wasn’t at the moon festival. The

looked away. The memory pressed in from every angle and she swallowed it back down, her throat tight with something she wasn’t

between them for a beat, then his voice came back softer.

What matters is what’s right in front of

invited me to his place.

that reached all the way up to his eyes. "Sounds to me like he’s opening a door," he

it. The first day I showed up with you for training, he shut us both out cold. changed the venue because

it makes complete sense. He was protecting her. He didn’t want you anywhere near that house until he figured out

the thought over slowly in her mind. The more she pulled at it, the more threads came loose, and none of them led anywhere clean or simple. Everything tangled right

continued, his voice dropping to something careful now, "then what does that mean

deep, somewhere Seraphine hadn’t let herself look yet. The helplessness that followed wasn’t something she could argue

let myself go there yet. Not until I know for sure." She looked at him, something raw and open in her eyes. "Corvine, that little girl is... there’s

held her gaze and said nothing. He didn’t need to, pulling

✧༺♥༻✧

before she even

light was doing anything useful, she was already buried in it. It was the kind of day that doesn’t ask your permission before

It just kept sending

it all on muscle memory and cold coffee and the kind of iron focus that kicks

leaving her legs aching, her neck stiff, and her eyes feeling like sandpaper by the time it

hair pulled back messy, the sharp antiseptic smell of the OR clinging to her skin when