Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 296 - Someone who looked like you

Voren walked back over to the bed and lay down beside her again, both of them back to looking up at the soft light from above.

"I’m not gonna sugarcoat it for you. I was already in so much pain, and that story just fed right into everything the angry side of me wanted to hear about you. Like you were so obsessed with Ravyn that you didn’t even recognize who you were anymore."

Seraphine swallowed hard but stayed silent, just listening.

"You went back to school after that. Then the news hit that you were pregnant." His voice broke a little on that last word before he caught himself.

"You put your medical program on hold and headed back to the pack to finish things there. I heard about it all from Ravyn, and I just... I completely fell apart, Sera. Something inside me snapped for real."

Seraphine wanted so badly to turn and look at his face. The way his voice cracked open told her so much more than the actual words, and she wished she could see it all, but the heavy weight of shame kept her right where she was, staring up.

"I can’t go back and fix any of it," she said gently. "None of it. Ravyn was my biggest mistake, and I know that now. Honestly, I knew it even before it ended. But knowing that doesn’t erase what happened."

"I know." The way Voren said it carried a deep bitterness mixed with a kind of tired acceptance, like someone who’d learned to live with an old injury but still felt it ache when the weather changed.

He stayed quiet for a bit, the chandelier casting its gentle, broken light across their faces. "That’s exactly why you need to hear what came next because it wasn’t nothing, and I’m not gonna act like it was."

Seraphine turned onto her side.

said it pulled her eyes right to him. She studied the sharp line of his jaw and the way he kept staring up at the ceiling like it might give him

are you talking about,

could feel her watching him. His hand reached for the remote on the nightstand without even looking, fingers wrapping around it a little tighter than

wasn’t quite a request, but

it, a soft, clear click. The lock on the bedroom door

darted to the door

you just lock

still holding onto it, and kept staring at the chandelier. "So if what I’m about to say upsets you,

suddenly felt a bit smaller and

door one more time, then back up at the ceiling.

already covered tonight, all the painful pieces they’d spread out on this bed like broken parts that might still fit

she said. "I told you I’d listen

some of the tightness ease

he was weighing it out one final time. Then he went ahead. "I went

in surprise as Voren continued

"It got to be too much for me to carry around anymore. So I did what I thought might help. I asked someone to search around

lips parted, but no words came out at first. She feared a single word would discourage Voren from saying more, so she

her eyes were the exact same blue as yours. Same face shape. Same mouth, nose,

look at her. "I had her dye her hair darker to match