Just as Voren was about to let out the plan, she asked sincerely. "And what about Ravyn and Daisy?" Her voice cooling off a bit at their names, a flicker of old anger mixing with the warmth between them. "Right now, they don’t see me as any kind of real threat. I’m still the ex-Luna who got walked all over. That’s how they still picture me, and I need them to keep thinking that way, at least until the moon festival. I need that element of surprise on my side."
She let that sit there for a moment, the weight of it hanging between them like thick, charged air.
"The moment you announce us, everything changes. Ravyn will panic, Daisy will start scheming up new plans, and everything I’ve carefully crafted to drag all of Daisy’s dirty shit out into the open gets messed up before it even gets started. Ravyn would find any excuse to shut it down. He’ll do whatever it takes to protect her."
Voren exhaled through his nose, long and slow, the sound rough and masculine. He stared at the far wall for a few seconds like he was going through every angle she had just laid out, comparing them to his own understanding of the situation, his broad shoulders tense with the internal battle.
Then he nodded. Not in a reluctant way, but genuinely, respect shining in his eyes. "You have a point." He said it plainly, without making her work for it. "A real one."
He turned back to her, and that look was back in his eyes, that quiet, calculating energy that lived there when his mind was already thinking several steps ahead, mixed with pure hunger for her.
"But then here’s what I’m thinking. If we can’t announce it publicly, let’s get married secretly. Here in the city. Just you and me making it official in the way that matters most."
Seraphine blinked, her heart skipping hard at the raw commitment in his voice.
"Hear me out," Voren said, leaning forward a little, elbows resting on his knees, his muscular frame so close she could feel the heat radiating off him.
"I’d already been thinking about making you Marigold’s legal mother and trustee. But if we’re legally married, that covers everything automatically. All of it. Her future, her security, everything. You’d be protected, claimed, mine in every way that counts."
A spell must have broken them apart but they still found their way to each other like fate refused to let go.
Yet, would whoever cast that spell watch them living a happy life? The thought sent a shiver through her, but Voren’s presence made her feel safe enough to push it aside.
"And it stays quiet," Voren continued, his voice dropping lower, rougher with emotion and desire. "Just a courthouse, a few signatures, nobody outside of family has to know except those you want to tell."
His lips pressed together briefly. "But Sera, without us knowing who cast that spell on you, I won’t be comfortable for you to attend the moon festival as a single woman. What if they cast another spell to break us apart again? I can’t lose you like that. Not when I finally have you this close."
The mention of Marigold’s name already landed somewhere tender in Seraphine’s chest and stayed right there.
She felt it bloom slow and warm, the way real feelings always do when they’re true, spreading through her like liquid honey and making her thighs press together at the thought of building a real family with this man.


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