Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 284: Chapter 284 - Then you have to be my friend

Of all the things she’d expected, deflection, silence, that particular brand of nothing he was so good at, this wasn’t it. She looked at him with something that sat between confusion and fresh irritation, and beneath both of those, something she wouldn’t name yet.

”What does that even mean?”

”It means exactly what it sounds like.” Voren wasn’t calm the way he usually was, all that practiced, almost maddening stillness.

He was calm the way a person gets when they’ve stopped performing and started just saying the thing.

”Every single thing I found out about you, I had to pull out of you. You didn’t volunteer any of it. Nothing.” He pressed his lips together for a moment, like he was making sure the next words came out the right way. ”And weren’t you the one who said we aren’t friends?”

Seraphine went still.

Not the kind of still that comes from having nothing to say. The kind that comes from having too much and needing a second to figure out which pieces actually fit.

Voren kept going, and each word landed with the quiet, unhurried precision of someone who had thought about this and wasn’t going to waste it.

”Everything I know about you, I forced it because you matter to me, and I never intended to hide anything from you.”

He took in a deep breath, looking for the right words to explain the situation. ”Sera, I tried to get close to you, but you drew a line. You told me we were just business partners. You made that very clear.”

His eyes held hers without pressure, without performance. Just the thing itself. ”Even when we kissed, I thought it would trigger something but in the end, it meant nothing to you.”

Seraphine went quiet, allowing his words to sink and before they did, Voren asked her, ”so tell me, what was I supposed to do with that? Sit across a table from my business partner and tell her about my daughter? About my personal life?” He paused a little, his voice slightly raised but not enough for others to hear. ”Would you have done that?”

The hallway kept moving around them, indifferent. Somewhere down the corridor a monitor beeped its steady rhythm. The vending machine hummed. A pair of sneakers squeaked against the floor and faded.

Seraphine had gone completely quiet.

Not because she agreed. Not yet. But because the thing he’d said had landed somewhere real, somewhere she hadn’t expected it to reach, and she needed a second to breathe around it.

He was right, and she hated that he was right, and she could feel him watching her realize it in real time.

Voren read the silence correctly. He didn’t push, didn’t rush it. Just let it sit between them, doing its work.

”If you want to know everything about me.” His voice had dropped, lost whatever edge had sharpened it earlier. It was quieter now. Almost careful. ”Then you have to be my friend.” His eyes stayed on hers, steady. ”So. Will you be my friend, Sera?”

The elevator behind her made a soft sound. The doors slid open. That quiet mechanical exhale of something that had been waiting. Neither of them moved toward it.

The answer didn’t come right away.

Seraphine stood there, his question still hanging in the air between them, and let herself actually think about it. Not the easy, surface-level version of the question — will you be my friend — but everything underneath it. Everything that made the answer complicated.

She thought about Ravyn. About how Voren had always been planted firmly in Ravyn’s corner, like a fixed point, like something that didn’t move no matter what direction the wind came from.

Even when Humphrey had asked if Voren was aware that Ravyn had killed their child, Voren had let it pass, standing beside Ravyn the same way he always did, like the accusation was just weather. Like it didn’t require a response.

That had told Seraphine something. She’d filed it away and let it inform every interaction with him after.

And then the city. When she’d first landed here, still raw from everything, still rebuilding, Voren had come at her, closing doors of opportunities for her.

He’d moved against her with the quiet, systematic efficiency of someone who knew exactly what they were doing and had the resources to do it.

She’d survived it. Not by luck, but because of her skills, and she hadn’t forgotten it either. You don’t forget the shape of a force that was designed specifically to dismantle you.

So why was she still standing here? Her eyes moved to his face, past the surface of it, past the version of him she’d spent so long categorizing and keeping at arm’s length.

There was something there she hadn’t let herself look at before. Something she’d been too busy defending against to actually see.

Not softness exactly but depth. After everything, he stood by her at the pack when they met again. Aside from their wolves being silly, things had been different.

Voren had been supportive, even punching Ravyn in the face for her. He’d been there in moments where she’d given him every reasonable excuse to walk away but he stayed till she returned to the city.

Seraphine wasn’t a person who made decisions from emotion but standing here, looking at the mystery of him that she’d never quite been able to stop turning over in the back of her mind, she made a quiet decision.

If opening a door was what it cost to understand him, she could open a door. Besides, she wanted to get close to Marigold. The girl called her mommy and right from the moment she stepped into that ward, she knew there was something special about her.

”Friends,” Seraphine said.

It came out simpler than she expected. Just the word, clean and small. But it landed.

Voren’s whole chest moved, a sigh of relief escaping him. His grip on her wrist relaxed, fingers opening one at a time until her arm was free. He didn’t step back.

Just stood there for a second, looking at her like he was making sure she’d actually said what he thought she said.

She had accepted to be his friend again and this time, he was determined to make sure he never loses her again. ”I didn’t see Corvine’s car outside,” he pointed out, driving at something. ”I should probably —”

”Voren.”

Jasmine’s voice came from behind them, and the ease that had just started to settle over Voren’s expression evaporated. His jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.