"You’re wrong," Voren said after thinking it over for a second. The smile that crossed Seraphine’s face didn’t reach her eyes at all.
It was one of those fake smiles you give when sothing isn’t funny but you still have to nod along anyway. Like all the puzzle pieces finally clicking into place, leaving you with nothing but a quiet, unsurprising realization that you probably should’ve seen this coming from a mile away.
"I didn’t see any real chance between us until I ca to get you from the pack," he continued. "The second Corvine told you had gone there, I called Ravyn. Once he confird it, sothing inside just couldn’t let you stay around him."
"Honestly, I didn’t even know what that feeling was until Bloodfang suddenly took a liking to your wolf. The mont we kissed, hope rushed through again, but I was ready to take things slow."
"If you hadn’t been at the hospital taking care of Marigold that day, this whole situation would’ve dragged out even longer because you still weren’t letting in."
Seraphine shook her head slowly. "Voren, what you’re asking for isn’t simple at all."
"Marigold loves you," Voren interrupted, like that one fact wrapped everything up perfectly. Like a five-year-old’s love was so kind of unbreakable contract that ended the whole conversation. "I honestly don’t understand what’s so complicated about it."
Seraphine swallowed hard. The whole thing felt heavy in her throat. Not because she didn’t love Marigold back, she did, in that scary, imdiate way that didn’t make any logical sense, but because there were still things, she thought Voren didn’t know about.
Heavy things that sat right on her chest and made his clean, neatly packaged offer feel impossible to accept.
Becoming Marigold’s legal mother would automatically tie her even closer to Voren, and they had already crossed so many lines.
"Soone saved my life at the Bohemian Grove," she said quietly. "I owe him everything. My life, specifically."
Voren went completely still beside her on the bed.
Then he made this low sound in his throat, not quite a laugh, more like pure disbelief.
"You’re telling that if this guy asked you to marry him, you’d just do it? Just like that? Because he saved your life?"
Seraphine looked at him steadily. "A life for a life. That’s how I’ve always handled things, and I’m not gonna pretend it’s any different now."
Sothing passed across Voren’s face. She watched him think it through, that sharp, calculating side of him that understood power plays and leverage perfectly.
If she had died from the wolfbane poisoning that night, would he even be here making this offer?
Voren turned fully toward her, and when he spoke again, every sharp edge had disappeared from his voice.
"Sera." He waited until she t his eyes. "I already took care of that night. Whatever debt you think you still owe anyone from the Bohemian Grove, you don’t owe that man anything anymore."
His jaw stayed firm, but his eyes went soft in a way that clearly cost him sothing to show. "You don’t owe any man a single thing."
Even though he was the one who had saved her then, he didn’t want her to love him out of obligation. He wanted her love, the way she had loved him when they were little.
Even with the spell on her mory, Voren wanted her to fall for him all over again, so he had no intention of revealing how he saved her that night.
"I’ve loved you for a really long ti," he said simply. "And I’ll help you find your daughter, no strings attached to that part at all. When we do find her, we’ll have two kids, Marigold and yours. And we can have more kids after that, as many as your body can carry. I’ll be there through all of it."
Was this his way of proposing to her? As ridiculous as it seed, the offer hung there between them, wide open with nothing hidden on the surface.
Seraphine pushed herself up to sit, crossing her legs under her and creating a little physical space between herself and the warmth of that promise before it started feeling too comfortable to question.
"It’s not that simple," she said again.
"Tell why." He wasn’t upset or annoyed. He just sounded like he genuinely wanted to understand where she was coming from instead of trying to talk her into agreeing.
"Because I still don’t have my full mory back. Because there are so many things I don’t know yet about myself and about everything that happened. Because you can’t build sothing strong and lasting on a foundation that’s still got big chunks missing."
"Then let help fill those pieces in," Voren said, pushing himself up to sit too and naturally matching her position. "I’ll start from the very beginning if that’s what it takes."
"How far back are we talking?"
"I loved you when I was sixteen. You were ten years old."
Seraphine’s eyebrows shot up before she could stop them.
"Ten."
"Ten," he confird, not embarrassed about it in the slightest. "I know you don’t rember any of this right now. But when your mory cos back, you’ll be able to check every single detail I’m telling you against what you find in there, and you’ll know it’s all true."
She stayed quiet, just watching him carefully.
"The first ti I ever t Ravyn was during those cross-academy training sessions," he started, getting comfortable with the story.
"I t Ravyn when I was nine, and he was eight. I was already older than most of the boys there, but I was still struggling hard. Trying to find my place, figure out where I fit in."
"All the other Alpha kids, every last one of them, were already Ravyn’s loyal friends. He had this natural pull, this gravity about him. Because he was the strongest one out of all of us."
Seraphine frowned a little. "Ravyn was stronger than you?"
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