Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever-Chapter 101 - I’ll deal with him

Just before the quiet in the room could stretch long enough to swallow the last traces of Voren’s prayer, a sudden sneeze burst from Seraphine with startling force, the sharp sound cutting through the silence so abruptly that it made his entire body tense.

Voren’s eyes flew open at once, every nerve in his body reacting instantly as he stared at her.

Her chest began rising and falling with harsh urgency as air rushed violently back into her lungs, her body dragging in breath after breath in deep, uneven gasps as though she had been drowning moments earlier and had only just broken the surface.

The sight struck him with such overwhelming relief that his shoulders sagged as if an enormous weight had been lifted from them, and the tight pressure that had been strangling his chest loosened enough for him to finally breathe again.

"She’s breathing," he murmured under his breath, the words leaving him in a long exhale that carried away the worst of his fear.

For several seconds he simply watched her, making sure her breathing continued, because some stubborn part of him refused to fully relax until he saw that the life returning to her body would not vanish again.

The moment he became certain that she would survive, the fierce urgency that had ruled his actions a few minutes earlier gave way to the colder instincts that governed most of his decisions.

Voren rose quickly from the side of the bed and headed straight for the door, moving with determined urgency as he pulled it open so abruptly that he nearly crashed into Leon, who had just arrived in the hallway outside.

Leon blinked in surprise when he saw Voren standing there.

"Mr. Ashkael... you took Sera?" Leon asked in a startled voice, the confusion in his expression deepening as he took in the tension radiating from the chairman.

Voren barely slowed as he stepped past him. "No one must know about this," he said in a firm voice that carried unmistakable authority. "That includes Seraphine."

Leon frowned in confusion as he tried to understand what was happening. "What happened to her?" There were lip stick stains on Voren’s lips he dared not mention, hoping he hadn’t forced himself on Seraphine but the revelation shattered him.

"She was poisoned," Voren answered quickly, wasting no time on unnecessary explanations. "I found the antidote and gave it to her."

Leon’s eyes widened in alarm. "Poisoned? By who?"

"One of the men she turned down tonight," Voren replied coldly, the faint irritation in his voice revealing exactly what he thought about that kind of petty retaliation. "They didn’t take rejection well and decided to punish her for it."

His expression hardened further. "I’ll deal with him."

Leon still looked unsettled by everything he was hearing, but before he could ask another question, Voren leaned slightly closer and lowered his voice.

"If Seraphine ever finds out that I was the one who saved her life," he said quietly, "I will come after your father."

The calm certainty in his tone left no doubt that the threat was real.

Then Voren walked past Leon without another glance and disappeared down the corridor.

Leon remained standing there for a moment, stunned by the entire encounter because he had never seen the normally controlled chairman look that disturbed before, but the concern he felt for Seraphine quickly pushed every other thought aside.

He hurried into the suite and immediately spotted her sitting up on the bed, her body still fighting to recover as she dragged air into her lungs.

"Sera!" Leon rushed to her side and placed his hands carefully on her shoulders, helping her remain upright while her breathing slowly steadied. "Sera, you’re okay. You’re going to be fine."

Her eyes snapped open suddenly, and the instant she recognized Leon beside her, a visible wave of relief softened the tension in her expression.

"Leon... I’m glad you’re here," she said weakly, her voice rough from the strain her body had just endured. "But how did I get here?"

As the fog in her mind began clearing, her senses slowly returned. The last thing she remembered was a dream where her wolf was telling her goodbye but she could feel her alive, though they could not communicate in the city.

It was ruled by a different power from the pack. The faint lingering scent of wolfsbane still clung to the air, accompanied by the sharp trace of the antidote that had fought against it inside her body.

Then another scent reached her, and her heart twisted painfully. Voren’s scent lingered throughout the room, strong enough that there was no mistaking it.

An uncomfortable thought crept into her mind. Was he the one who saved her?

Seraphine immediately hoped that was not the truth because she had no idea how she would look him in the eye if it turned out that he had been responsible for keeping her alive.

She hated Voren nearly as much as she hated Ravyn, although the complicated reality was that she had sometimes used Voren’s partnership as a way to provoke Ravyn and watch their friendship break but that did not seem to have happened yet.

"Someone poisoned you," Leon explained carefully, remembering Voren’s warning while he spoke. "So I brought you here so you could recover."

His explanation sounded calm and sincere, yet Seraphine could not completely accept it. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Leon had no knowledge of wolfsbane or the rare antidotes required to counter its effects, which meant he would never have been capable of saving her life on his own.

"Then why do I smell Voren everywhere?" she asked, narrowing her eyes slightly as suspicion crept into her voice.

Leon hesitated briefly before answering. "This is his suite," he said. "When he saw the situation, he let me use it so you could rest. As chairman, everyone is his responsibility including you."

He added another explanation quickly. "Don’t worry about him. He’s also responsible for managing everything at the gathering tonight, so he went to handle whoever poisoned you."

Seraphine’s expression hardened instantly. "No," she said through clenched teeth as anger flared inside her chest. "I want to know who did this."

Her voice carried a dangerous edge. "And when I find out who it was, I’ll deal with him myself."

Leon found himself at a loss for words because the fierce determination in her eyes made it clear that she meant every word of that promise.

He quickly tried to redirect the conversation. "Let’s get you home first," he said gently. "This place isn’t good for you right now."

Seraphine considered his suggestion for a moment before finally nodding in agreement, deciding that leaving the building might help her gather the clarity she needed to piece together everything that had happened.

However, the moment they stepped into the corridor, any sense of calm disappeared instantly.

The entire building seemed to have descended into chaos.