Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 345: Espe cannot lie

Esperanza stood right there in front of her parents, her brain going haywire like always, thoughts slamming into each other from every direction, piling up so fast she could barely breathe.

She’d been dead quiet for almost a full minute, long enough that her mom tilted her head and her dad’s face slid from patient to straight-up curious.

"Mom, Dad—" She sucked in a deep breath. "I wanna stay with Aunt Jasmine and Uncle Corvine."

Voren’s brow furrowed hard. He looked at her in that steady way he always did when shit didn’t add up, like he had forever to puzzle it out. "Why the sudden change, Espe?"

She pressed her lips tight together. For a second she looked just like Seraphine. That same stubborn little mouth thing that screamed she was picking every word like it might explode.

"Grandma would ask questions." Her eyes flicked sideways before snapping back. "Espe cannot lie."

The whole room went dead silent.

It hit everybody at once, what she really meant underneath those few words. If she stayed at the pack house, her grandparents would dig into everything. How she was holding up. Where she’d been. What life in the human world was really like.

And Esperanza, who had never once looked an elder in the eye and spun a single lie, would crumble in under five minutes. She’d spill about her mom. And Seraphine wasn’t gonna be at the pack house. She’d be off with Voren in some secret spot nobody was supposed to know about yet. The whole damn thing would blow up before they even got a plan together.

Jasmine caught Seraphine’s eye from across the room. "She has a point."

through all the details in his head. A

shows up. Other times, she can tag along to the office. She’ll be right there where I can

yank her daughter into her arms and just hold on tight, watch a movie, order way too much food, pretend the rest of the world could burn for one

circling this thing for days, getting so close their skin buzzed and then yanking back, and

sent a rush of heat blazing up the back of her neck. She turned a little so nobody would catch it and stared hard at a spot just past

at Corvine. "Alright." His voice came out low and solid. "But I want to hear from you the second anything feels off, anything at

the first call." Corvine held up

finally drop with relief. "And the samples," she added, almost like it just popped into her head. "Check the combs, the hairbrushes. You know what we

mouth, about to crack some joke about the whole thing but then something else hit him. He grabbed

"I wanted to talk to you about choosing

us to

him, ready to tease him, but whatever joke Corvine had ready,

Voren once on the shoulder instead. Sometimes that said

goodbye stretched out way longer than any of

fiercely that Seraphine had to press her lips to the

that made her pull back, look at him with those bright blue eyes, and nod real slow and serious, like

was driving them to the chopper, the city lights streaking past the windows in a dizzy blur, and just like

crashed hard into sleep before they’d