Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 394: Chapter 394 – Alpha Vladimir never suspected a thing

Corvine had always prided himself on being ready for anything life could throw at him. Years of navigating brutal pack politics, backstabbing betrayals, and total chaos had trained him to keep a cool head no matter how bad things got. But this? This hit him like a freight train he never saw coming.

For what felt like forever, he just stood there staring at Jasmine, his mind reeling as it tried to wrap itself around the bombshell she’d just dropped. The room felt suffocatingly quiet. Finally, he let out a long, shaky breath and rubbed a hand over his jaw, trying to ground himself.

"You’ve got to be fucking kidding me," he said, his voice low and rough with raw disbelief. His eyes bored into hers, searching for any sign that this was some kind of twisted joke. "You really understand what you’re saying here, right?"

Jasmine looked completely drained, not in her body, but deep in her soul, like someone who had been hauling around an unbearable weight for years and had finally let it crash to the ground. She drew in a deep breath, steadying herself before she kept going.

"My mother was a midwife in the Grimroot Pack," she began. "At least, that’s what she always told me." Her hands trembled as she clasped them together tightly in her lap. "The night Voren’s real mother went into labor happened to be the same night her twin sister showed up at the pack."

Corvine’s brows drew together slowly, his stomach already twisting into knots as the pieces started falling into place.

Jasmine nodded, her gaze dropping to the floor as painful memories flooded back. "From what my mom understood, the sisters hadn’t seen each other in ages. She was right there helping with the birth when Voren’s mother, her name was Oriana, died right after bringing him into the world."

The knot in Corvine’s gut tightened painfully. Jasmine swallowed hard, pushing forward. "After she passed, Oriana’s twin, Olivia, begged my mother not to tell Alpha Vladimir anything. My mom refused at first, but then Olivia... that’s the twin... she poured out the whole heartbreaking story."

Jasmine lifted her eyes to meet his, her voice thick with emotion. "Olivia was running for her life from an abusive husband who wouldn’t stop hunting her.

She felt completely trapped, like there was no escape. When her sister died, she saw her chance. Two identical twins, no one would ever know the difference."

A bitter, hollow smile crossed Jasmine’s lips, though there wasn’t a trace of real humor in it. "My mother tried to stop her, but Olivia begged and begged. She said stepping into her sister’s life felt like a blessing straight from the Moon Goddess herself. She even promised my mom that if she kept the secret, she could ask for any favor she wanted someday."

The weight of the confession hung heavy in the air between them. Jasmine’s fingers tightened until her knuckles went white. "That secret started destroying my mother from the inside out."

"It got harder every single day to keep pretending like nothing had happened. But somehow, Alpha Vladimir never suspected a thing. When he saw Voren in Olivia’s arms, he just believed his wife had survived childbirth. She’d already raised a daughter before, so she knew exactly how to play the part of a loving mother."

Corvine’s jaw clenched hard as the full picture grew darker and more twisted with every word. Jasmine let out a deep sigh. "Eventually my mother left the pack because she was terrified she’d slip up and reveal everything. But life didn’t get any kinder. She married into another pack, and that turned out to be a horrible mistake. Her new husband was abusive whenever he got drunk."

Her voice cracked with the pain of it all. "One day she finally fought back and stabbed him... but she didn’t know the knife had been coated in poison meant for war. He died, and she got banished for it." Jasmine’s eyes grew distant, lost in the tragedy.

"She survived as a rogue for about a month before finding out she was pregnant with me. When I was six, she got really sick. She knew her time was running out, so she reached out to Luna Oriana and reminded her of that old promise, the favor she was owed."

A bitter smile tugged at Jasmine’s mouth again. "My mother asked for me to marry Olivia’s son when I came of age. Looking back, it sounds completely ridiculous, but in our world, those kinds of promises carry real weight, especially when they’re tied to secrets this massive."

"To my surprise, Luna Olivia agreed... but she didn’t keep me close. Instead, she dumped me with a family out in the outlands who treated me like shit. The night the man I was learning to call a father tried to rape me, I stabbed his eyes with a toothpick and escaped."

Her voice went flat and emotionless, like she’d repeated this nightmare to herself a thousand times just to survive it. "I was twelve by then, and that’s how I ended up as a lone wolf, just me, no family, no pack, no one in my corner."

For the first time that night, a flicker of genuine sympathy stirred in Corvine’s chest. Jasmine turned back to him, her expression steadying again. "When I turned eighteen, I sent word to Luna Oriana, and that’s when she brought me back to Grimroot after staging that whole fake rogue attack."

"Everyone bought the story, but there’s one thing she doesn’t know. She thinks my mother only told me about the marriage promise. She has no clue that I know everything, every secret, every single lie from that night."

Understanding dawned across Corvine’s face, sharp and cold. Now it all made sense why Jasmine had stood up to Oriana without fear, why she suddenly refused to be controlled.

"That’s what gave me the strength to fight back against her," Jasmine said firmly, her voice steady despite the storm raging inside. "When she threatened to blow everything up because I wouldn’t follow her rules, I stood my ground."

The confession hung between them like a dark cloud, making the room feel heavier and colder than before. Neither of them spoke for a long stretch.

Corvine’s thoughts spun wildly in every direction. This wasn’t some petty little secret or harmless gossip. This was the kind of truth that could destroy Alpha Vladimir and completely destroy Voren’s mood.

A full minute dragged by as Corvine wrestled with what the hell he was supposed to do now. If this exploded before the wedding, the fallout would be catastrophic.

All the joy Seraphine and Voren had fought so hard for would drown in scandal and heartbreak. But staying silent felt just as wrong, especially to Corvine. He had never kept anything important from Seraphine ever since they left the pack together.

Now here he stood, trapped in the middle of a secret that could change everything forever. For the first time in a long time, Corvine honestly had no idea what the right move was, and the uncertainty ate at him like acid.

End of flashback.