Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 299: Ravyn was stronger

"You’re wrong," Voren said after thinking it over for a second. The smile that crossed Seraphine’s face didn’t reach her eyes at all.

It was one of those fake smiles you give when something isn’t funny but you still have to nod along anyway. Like all the puzzle pieces finally clicking into place, leaving you with nothing but a quiet, unsurprising realization that you probably should’ve seen this coming from a mile away.

"I didn’t see any real chance between us until I came to get you from the pack," he continued. "The second Corvine told me you had gone there, I called Ravyn. Once he confirmed it, something inside me just couldn’t let you stay around him."

"Honestly, I didn’t even know what that feeling was until Bloodfang suddenly took a liking to your wolf. The moment we kissed, hope rushed through me again, but I was ready to take things slow."

"If you hadn’t been at the hospital taking care of Marigold that day, this whole situation would’ve dragged out even longer because you still weren’t letting me in."

Seraphine shook her head slowly. "Voren, what you’re asking for isn’t simple at all."

"Marigold loves you," Voren interrupted, like that one fact wrapped everything up perfectly. Like a five-year-old’s love was some kind of unbreakable contract that ended the whole conversation. "I honestly don’t understand what’s so complicated about it."

Seraphine swallowed hard. The whole thing felt heavy in her throat. Not because she didn’t love Marigold back, she did, in that scary, immediate way that didn’t make any logical sense, but because there were still things, she thought Voren didn’t know about.

Heavy things that sat right on her chest and made his clean, neatly packaged offer feel impossible to accept.

Becoming Marigold’s legal mother would automatically tie her even closer to Voren, and they had already crossed so many lines.

the Bohemian Grove," she said

still beside her

low sound in his throat, not quite a

me that if this guy asked you to marry him, you’d just do it? Just

for a life. That’s how I’ve always handled things, and I’m not gonna pretend

it through, that sharp, calculating side of him that understood power plays

from the wolfbane poisoning that

and when he spoke

that night. Whatever debt you think

jaw stayed firm, but his eyes went soft in a way that clearly cost him something to show. "You

her to love him out of obligation. He wanted

for him all over again, so

I’ll help you find your daughter, no strings attached to that part at all. When we do find her, we’ll have two kids, Marigold and yours. And we can have more

of proposing to her? As ridiculous as it seemed, the offer hung there between them, wide open with nothing hidden on

sit, crossing her legs under her and creating a little physical space between herself and the warmth of that promise before it started

not that simple," she

sounded like he genuinely wanted to understand where she was coming from instead of