Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Voren drew in a slow breath before he finally broke the heavy silence that had settled over the room.

"First of all, when I thanked you earlier, you never once asked me why."

His eyes settled on Ravyn, calm yet completely unwavering. "It was because of Sera."

Confusion spread through the gathering like a wave, but nobody interrupted him.

"You were the one who introduced me to her in the first place. From the moment we met, my entire life changed. I fell in love with her when I was sixteen years old. She was just ten."

The confession landed like a bomb in the middle of the crowd. Gasps rippled through the guests as stunned faces turned from Voren over to Seraphine.

A lot of people there had secretly believed Seraphine had somehow charmed or manipulated Voren into falling for her. Now they were realizing just how wrong that idea had been.

The truth was the complete opposite. Voren had been hopelessly in love with her long before anyone ever imagined it was possible. Without Ravyn unknowingly bringing Seraphine into his life, he never would have met the woman who became his entire world.

He had wanted to tell Ravyn the truth ever since he found out about the memory spell. Now there was nothing left to hide.

Ravyn’s fists tightened until his knuckles turned white. His voice trembled with a raw sense of betrayal that he couldn’t keep buried any longer.

"I told you all my secrets, but you kept this from me."

"Yes." Voren didn’t try to deny it for a second. "But there was a reason."

His gaze softened for only a moment before it returned to Seraphine. "At first, you were the one she loved."

He carefully left out any mention of the Moon Goddess’s involvement. Ravyn already had more than enough regrets piled on his shoulders, and there was no reason to hand him another excuse to cling to the past.

"When I secretly brought her to my pack, everything changed between us. We started spending more and more time together, and before I even realized what was happening, we couldn’t stay away from each other. I stopped coming around here, but it wasn’t because of you."

His eyes never left Seraphine as he continued. "It was always because of Sera."

Emotion flickered across his face as the old memories resurfaced one after another.

"One day, she looked at me like I was a complete stranger. She acted as though we had never even met. She said things that tore me apart inside."

His jaw tightened against the weight of those memories.

"I couldn’t understand what the hell had happened. That’s why I stayed away for so long. But when fate brought us back together and we started working side by side again, those feelings came rushing back harder than ever. That’s when I finally realized something was terribly wrong. She didn’t hate me. She lost her memories due a spell Daisy cast on her."

Silence swallowed the entire room as everyone hung on his every word. "My shaman eventually helped restore her memories."

A small smile found its way onto his face as he looked at Seraphine with pure tenderness.

"But even before she remembered everything, we had already fallen in love all over again."

His voice grew impossibly gentle as he spoke the next part. "Sera is the only woman I have ever loved."

The tenderness vanished as quickly as it had appeared. "Coco..."

He lowered his eyes briefly before finishing the thought. "Was only a substitute."

The room erupted into shocked whispers as tears streamed down Ravyn’s face, the full weight of everything hitting him.

"But you should’ve told me." His voice cracked under the crushing weight of his emotions. "We were best friends."

Voren understood exactly why Ravyn felt so betrayed. If Ravyn had known from the beginning that Voren loved Seraphine, things might have unfolded completely differently.

Maybe he would have valued her the way she deserved. Maybe he would have paid real attention to the woman who had once loved him with everything she had.

Maybe Seraphine’s heart would never have found its way over to Voren again. But there was no changing the past now.

Voren had taken what once belonged to another man, and that was simply the nature of a black wolf. The difference was that he never stole Seraphine for pride or some twisted sense of victory. He loved her more than his own life.

"I gave you a chance the last time we were here."

Voren’s voice stayed steady even as the tension in the room thickened. "Everyone saw the way I looked at her. I kept fighting those feelings because I still believed there was something left between the two of you."

His piercing gaze locked onto Ravyn without flinching. "That’s why I asked whether there was even the smallest part of you that wanted to pursue your ex-wife again."

The memory hit Ravyn immediately and another tear rolled down his face. "I only answered like that because of Bryan."

Pain twisted across his features as he forced the words out. "I believed he was my son, and I wanted both mother and son to always be together. He was the reason I always stood for Daisy and protected her so fiercely."

His breathing grew uneven as the truth continued to unravel around him. "But looking back now..."

His eyes drifted toward Seraphine with a mixture of regret and bitterness. "Tt seems you already knew the truth."

Bitterness crept deeper into his voice. "And you never told me."

A humorless laugh escaped Seraphine. She remained seated, her posture relaxed despite the emotional storm raging all around her. "You really are a fool, Ravyn."

The insult would have enraged him once upon a time. Now he couldn’t even find the strength to argue back. For the first time in his life, he was truly listening. Even if all he ever got from Seraphine was insult and coldness, he would endure it just to have her back.

"All my life I tried to defend myself." Seraphine’s voice carried years of heartbreak that she had never fully voiced until this moment. "You never believed a single word that came out of my mouth."

Disappointment filled her eyes as she looked at him. "So, I stopped wasting my breath trying."

She glanced around at everyone gathered in the room before continuing.

"I put together a team to uncover every piece of evidence you refused to see with your own eyes."

Her gaze returned to Ravyn and stayed there. "They brought you the truth."

A bitter smile curved her lips as the weight of everything settled between them. "And after everything that happened, you still have the nerve to blame me?"

She gestured toward Daisy without sparing the other woman a second glance. "The woman you love is right beside you."

Her voice turned icy as she delivered the final blow. "Forgive her."

The words dripped with sarcasm that cut straight through the tension. "And move on."

"No!"

Ravyn’s roar echoed through the room with a force that made several people flinch. His bloodshot eyes locked onto Seraphine with a frightening intensity that mixed longing, obsession, and pure desperation all at once.

"Sera..." his breathing turned ragged as he forced the next words out. "You were once mine..."

His chest heaved with the effort of holding everything back. "And you’ll be mine again.

The declaration had barely left his mouth when a crushing fist slammed into his face with enough force to send him crashing hard onto the floor.