Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 295 – The first time Voren cried

Seraphine’s mouth had fallen open just a bit. The picture of her own life that she’d been carrying around for years was quietly rearranging itself in her head, and she wasn’t sure yet what it would look like once everything finally settled into place.

"You were incredible out there, by the way," Voren started. "Smarter than almost everyone in your year group, same as me in business engineering, and I wasn’t surprised at all."

"I had another plan for your graduation," Voren said, and something in his tone changed, a weight coming back into it.

"I thought four years away from the pack, away from Ravyn, that distance would have cleared your stupid obsession out of your system. I told myself that by the time you crossed that stage, you’d have moved on. That there’d finally be an opening for us again."

He stayed quiet for a beat. "I had the whole thing mapped out in my head."

Then his voice changed again. Careful now. Like he was picking out each word with extra thought.

"But during one of the long vacation breaks, there was a full moon festival. And you went back to the pack because you could not forget Ravyn right?"

Seraphine felt something tighten up in her stomach before he even finished the sentence.

"And that’s when Ravyn came to me." His eyes went back to the ceiling, but his jaw had gone tight. "He told me that you had lured him to bed."

"That’s not true."

no hesitation at all. Seraphine’s voice cracked on

threatening finally slipped loose and ran sideways down her temple as she lay

"I was drugged."

room went

himself up on one arm, and

it about how Marigold’s mother came into the picture, the explanation he’d been

excuse. Her eyes were wet and open and exhausted, the kind of exhausted that lives deep in a person for years before

looked a lot like a man realizing he’d been handed a completely different story than the one he’d been

repeated it back to her quietly, not exactly as a question, but like

voice came out lower than he meant it to.

know myself," Seraphine started right there with that honest confession, because it felt like the realest place to kick things off. Her voice came out quiet but steady, the kind of steady

chandelier instead of facing each other created just enough space to

in the dark, almost like a confession where

and looked straight at her, really studying her face, and the words started getting stuck in her

you lie on your back again?" she asked

long breath and

and sent little rainbows

let out a breath of her

into the outlands that time," she said. "And you saw me pick

"I remember."

night. Every single bit of it." She let that