Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever novel Chapter 255

Chapter 255: Chapter 255 - No man leaves his phone with a hacker

’Now you’re being responsible,’ Bloodfang’s voice came through, low and steady inside Voren’s head.

The packhouse was close. Voren could already see the lights cutting through the grey curtain of rain, blurry and warm from this distance. His boots were soaked through, mud clinging to the sides, and every step felt heavier than the last.

’It’s the right thing to do,’ Voren answered back.

Bloodfang went quiet for half a second, like he was choosing his next words carefully. Then...’So let’s claim her.’

Voren almost missed a step.

’You’re out of your mind,’ he shot back, not even trying to hide the irritation threading through his thoughts.

’Am I?’

’She’s Ravyn’s ex-wife.’ Voren kept his eyes forward, jaw tight. ’We wait for our fated mate. That’s how it works. The Alpha code doesn’t bend for situations like this. Not even with a mate bond on the table.’

If he has to fight for the love of any woman, then it had to be his fated mate, nothing more, nothing less.

’But what if she is the one?’ Bloodfang pressed, his tone softer now, which somehow made it worse.

’She’s not.’

’You sound real sure for someone who tenses up every time she laughs.’

Voren said nothing to that. The rain came down harder, drumming against the leaves overhead, against his shoulders, against the ground. Something dark passed through his eyes, gone in a second, swallowed by the storm around them.

’Corvine told me the same thing when I ran into him in the city,’ he finally said, his mental voice flat. ’And he was right. Sera is an incredible woman. She’s strong and she’s real and yeah, maybe she’s one of the best people I know. But I don’t love her like that. Stop pushing something that isn’t there.’

Bloodfang let out a low sound, somewhere between a laugh and a snarl. ’You keep telling yourself that, Voren. Say it enough times maybe you’ll start believing it.’

’I mean it—’

’I just hope,’ Bloodfang cut in, his voice dropping to something that almost sounded like grief, ’that you don’t wait so long you lose her. Because some things don’t wait around while you figure yourself out.’

And then he blanked himself completely from Voren’s mind. A wall came up so fast Voren nearly stumbled from the abruptness of it, the mental space between them going dead silent, the way a room feels after someone slams a door.

Voren stood there for a second, rain soaking into his collar, staring ahead at nothing.

He’d blocked Bloodfang out plenty of times over the years but being on the receiving end of it was something else entirely. It felt strange in a way he couldn’t name. Like he’d reached for something and found his own hand empty.

He shook it off and kept walking.

"Sera!"

Damon’s voice rang out from the packhouse entrance the moment they came through the tree line, and Seraphine dropped from Voren’s back before he’d even fully stopped.

Her feet hit the wet ground and she straightened up fast, smoothing her hair back like she hadn’t just been riding piggyback through a rainstorm like a kid.

"Thank you," she murmured, not quite looking at him.

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