Chapter 691 I would never make that mistake again

“Espe, I love you. I promise that no harm will ever come to you.”

Voren’s voice was a desperate whisper against his daughter’s hair, his arms wrapped around her trembling form. But she was inconsolable. His words were stones dropped into an ocean of grief, swallowed whole without a ripple.

“No, daddy! You failed me!”

Her cry was a knife to his heart, sharp and unforgiving.

“The woman uncle Corvine gave me to said not to get close to old daddy. I told you all this, but you still brought me!”

Ravyn’s eyes burned red, tears streaming down his face without shame. He dropped to his knees, his legs unable to hold him any longer. At least he knew his daughter’s new name now. A small gift in the wreckage of everything he had destroyed.

“Espe.” His voice cracked, raw and broken. “Please forgive me. I was wrong. I just want to make amends.”

Esperanza didn’t even look at him. Her sobs grew heavier, her small body shaking with a violence that terrified Voren. Her little hands wrapped tightly around his neck, clinging to him like he was the only safe harbor in a storm of her own making.

“No! You are evil! You want me dead!”

Ravyn’s heart shattered into a thousand pieces. Each shard was a memory, a regret, a moment he wished he could take back. He had seen this girl a few times before, and she had avoided him like Satan himself. Now he understood why. Now he was beginning to piece together the depths of what he had done.

“It’s alright, Espe. I’ll leave.”

His voice was barely audible, choked with tears. He had caused this. He had created this fear, this hatred, this devastation. The weight of it crushed him.

But seeing her messy, crying form ached him in ways he couldn’t describe. She was so small. So fragile. And he had nearly destroyed her before she had even taken her first breath.

“You don’t have to leave.”

Voren’s voice cut through the fog of Ravyn’s despair. Calm. Controlled. The voice of a king who had learned to compartmentalize his pain.

“This is your suite. I’ll just take her to her room.” He paused, his gaze meeting Ravyn’s with an intensity that made the other man’s blood run cold. “We need to talk, Ravyn.”

Ravyn nodded, grateful for the reprieve but terrified of what was to come. He tried to peek at his daughter’s face, desperate for one more glimpse, but she buried her face deeper into Voren’s shoulder. Her hands tightened around him, a silent plea for protection.

Voren didn’t take her to Madison. He took her to Sera.

Seraphine had returned to their suite, and she wasn’t surprised to see Esperanza in such a state. Her heart had known. Her heart had been waiting.

“Mommy!”

Esperanza’s cry was a wounded animal’s keen, raw and piercing. She launched herself from Voren’s arms into her mother’s embrace, her small fingers clutching at Seraphine’s dress like it was the only thing keeping her tethered to the earth.

“Daddy took me to old daddy. Does he hate me?”

Seraphine’s heart ached, a physical pain that radiated through her entire being. She held her daughter close, her hand stroking the tangled mess of her hair.

“No, Espe. He doesn’t.” Her voice was soft, steady, a lighthouse in the storm. “I’m well aware of it. But your old daddy didn’t want to accept that you won’t want to see him. That’s why we made this arrangement.”

“I don’t want to see him again!”

Esperanza’s voice rose, fierce and desperate. Seraphine nodded, her arms tightening around her daughter.

“Then we won’t take you to him again.”

“I’m sorry.” Voren’s voice came from behind them, thick with guilt. He wrapped his arms around Esperanza from behind, his chest pressing against her back, his chin resting on the top of her head. She was still in Seraphine’s arms, cocooned between them, safe.

“I love you so much. It was hard for me too.” His voice cracked, just barely. “Do you forgive me?”

There was a brief silence. The air in the room grew heavy, charged with the weight of a child’s judgment.

“I forgive you.” Esperanza’s voice was small, but firm. “But if you take me to him again, I will hate you forever.”

Voren froze. The words hit him like a physical blow, stealing the breath from his lungs. He spoke honestly, his voice stripped of every defense.

“I would never make that mistake again.”

—

When he returned to Ravyn’s suite, the man was a crying mess.

The Alpha who had once commanded respect and fear was reduced to a heap on the floor, his shoulders shaking with sobs that seemed to come from somewhere deep and broken inside him. His words were drenched in tears, barely coherent.

“Voren, I know you hate me. But did you have to tell her what I did? You’ve corrupted her mind.”

Voren’s expression hardened. The softness he had shown his daughter vanished, replaced by the cold, unyielding steel of a king who had no patience for self-pity.

“You think I’d stoop so low?”

His voice was quiet, but it carried the weight of thunder.

“When you ordered Corvine to kill her, he gave her to a strange woman because he couldn’t stand her cries. From everything she’s said, we’re certain that woman was the moon goddess.”

Ravyn’s head snapped up, his tear-streaked face frozen in shock.

“Espe says things even we adults don’t understand. She stayed in the ethereal realm for a few years before she was left at a coffee shop with Coco.” Voren’s jaw tightened, his hands curling into fists at his sides. “That’s how Coco got her. She lied and said Espe was hers just to get my money.”

Ravyn sank to the floor.

The words hit him like waves, each one more devastating than the last. The moon goddess. His daughter had been in the care of the moon goddess herself. And he had ordered her death.

What had he done?

“Voren.” His voice was barely a whisper. “What do I do? Does it mean the moon goddess hates me now?”

“I don’t know about that, Ravyn.”

Voren’s voice was measured, but there was something beneath it. Something cold and unforgiving.

“It’s understandable to not want Seraphine. But ordering the death of your own child…”

He let the words die, leaving them to hang in the air like a blade suspended over Ravyn’s neck.

“I’m sorry.”

The apology was pathetic. Weak. A single drop of water trying to extinguish a raging fire.

Voren only sighed, the sound heavy with exhaustion and something that might have been disappointment. “She said she’ll hate me if I bring her to you again. So you know what that means.”

Ravyn sobbed. Great, heaving sobs that tore from his chest and left him gasping for air. He cried like a child, broken and helpless and utterly alone.

Voren didn’t comfort him. He didn’t offer words of reassurance or a hand to help him up. But neither did he leave. He stood there, a silent sentinel, watching the man who had once been his best friend fall apart.

After a while, Ravyn spoke again. His voice was hoarse, scraped raw by tears.

“I understand that she doesn’t want to see me again. But I will spend every day making it up to her.” He lifted his head, his eyes red and swollen but burning with something new. Something fierce. “Just tell me, Voren. What can I do to make her life better?”

Voren smiled. It didn’t reach his eyes. It was a cold, calculating thing, the smile of a king who had learned to use every tool at his disposal.

“The Lycans want her blood.” His voice was soft, almost gentle. “The least you can do is help me protect her at all costs.”

Ravyn stared at him from the floor. His eyes locked onto Voren’s, and in that moment, something passed between them. An understanding. A pact.

“I’ll be your slave, Voren.” His voice was steady now, stripped of everything but conviction. “I will do anything. Anything to bring down the Lycans.”

He paused, his jaw setting with determination. “Tell me. What’s the plan?”