Chapter 525 - Stay away from my wife
Voren stood over Ravyn, his towering frame casting a heavy shadow across the man on the floor. His eyes had gone so dark they barely looked human anymore.
If not for Humphrey and Kylie’s sake, Voren would have torn Ravyn apart piece by piece.
Every ounce of Bloodfang’s rage surged through Voren’s veins like liquid fire, but he refused to surrender control to his wolf.
Drawing in a slow breath, Voren forced himself to bury the murderous fury that threatened to swallow him whole. His voice came out low and steady, though every word carried enough weight to silence the entire room.
"Ravyn... even after I lost Sera to you, I stayed away because I respected her choice."
His eyes never left Ravyn’s as he continued. "You treated her terribly, but she still chose to remain with you. As much as it killed me inside, I never crossed that line."
Pain flashed across his face before it disappeared just as quickly. "I was everything a best friend should have been. I stood by your side, supported you through everything, and gave up the only woman I had ever loved..."
His jaw tightened against the memory. "Because I had no idea she was blinded by a spell."
The silence that followed was thick enough to choke on. Every guest remained frozen in place, hanging onto each word as if their lives depended on it.
Voren continued, his voice softening the moment his gaze found Seraphine.
"But genuine love has a way of finding its way back no matter how hard you try to bury it."
A faint smile stretched his lips as he looked at her. "We fell in love all over again."
His eyes warmed with unmistakable affection that no one in the room could miss. "I knew you would behave like this if you found out, so I had her marry me a few days ago."
The smile disappeared the second he turned back to Ravyn. "So I’m asking you one last time..."
His expression hardened into something cold and final. "Stay away from my wife."
Ravyn slowly climbed to his feet, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. His eyes burned with obsession instead of anything resembling reason.
"That will never happen."
The words echoed through the room with a stubborn finality that made several people tense. Ravyn was unnaturally bold for the situation he was in.
Voren’s expression turned frighteningly cold. "Then don’t blame me for what happens next."
Every syllable landed like a death sentence hanging in the air between them. "If I have to kill you, I will."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees. "No man..." Voren’s eyes glowed with absolute conviction that left no room for argument. "And I mean no man born of a woman..."
He pointed toward Seraphine without looking away from Ravyn. "Will come near what belongs to me."
There were many things Voren could sacrifice without hesitation. His title, his wealth, even his own life, but never Seraphine. He had already lost her once, and he would never allow history to repeat itself.
Ravyn let out a bitter laugh that held no real humor. "She doesn’t belong to you."
Before Voren could answer, Ravyn stepped closer with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Have you forgotten about the Blood Moon Festival?"
A dangerous smile spread across his face as he pressed the point. "What if she turns out to be my fated mate?"
None of them had experienced the mate bond after their ancestors destroyed it but they had read about it and that was why they supported Voren to have it restored.
Whispers immediately spread among the gathered Alphas and Lunas. Many of them silently agreed with the possibility even if no one dared to voice it aloud. Ravyn noticed their expressions and pushed harder.
"Now that I think about it..." He narrowed his eyes at Voren with growing suspicion.
"The reason you wanted the mate bond restored was because you believed she’d become your mate, wasn’t it?"
Voren didn’t flinch under the weight of the accusation. He stood steady, letting the words settle around him without a single sign of regret.
After Ravyn and Seraphine’s divorce, Seraphine had still been cold toward him, and that had driven him to come up with the suggestion in the first place.
He had hoped that the moon goddess would give him back what he had lost, that somehow the festival would force the truth into the open and hand him the chance he desperately wanted with Seraphine.
Now he had her, already his in every way that mattered. So what was the real point of letting the Blood Moon Festival go forward the way tradition demanded?
Voren had already experienced love with her, the deep kind that filled the empty places inside him, but he had also read enough and seen enough to know that a part of them was still missing without the mate bond fully in place.
He believed that if that bond had existed for his own father, someone like him never would have fallen for Olivia’s tricks the way he did.
If the mate bond had been there, his father would have known the second Oriana died. He would have felt the break, the loss, the absolute truth of it, and he never would have lived with Olivia for thirty-two long years under a lie.
That missing piece had cost his family everything, and Voren refused to risk the same kind of blindness in his own life.
That was the reason he was willing to risk it all, the risk of not being mated to Seraphine. But he also knew that the moon goddess was fair. For a woman he loved who was also carrying his child and had a soul tie to him, she would not be so heartless to mate them with others, would she?
A small, quiet smile crossed his face as the thought settled fully in his mind, and when he finally answered, he did it with complete honesty.
"That was my hope."
His honesty caught everyone off guard, but he didn’t stop there. "But before that happened..."