Chapter 310: Chapter 310 - Let’s Get Married the Human Way
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.
She turned it over carefully in her mind. Even if everything Marigold had told her turned out to be completely true, all of it, and even if Voren wasn’t her biological father, none of that changed what Seraphine already knew deep in her gut.
That little girl was hers and as much as she wanted to change Marigold’s name or add to it, that could wait. The blood test would just be paperwork catching up to what was already real but that would also give her the chance to get her name onto Marigold’s birth certificate.
And if that was the case, then Voren would still be her father too, because there was also the fact that Ravyn already knew Marigold existed.
But he’d never once looked at that child and seen himself in her. Which meant he’d go right on not knowing. And that suited Seraphine just fine.
Then she remembered what Marigold said, that she had to marry Voren before the blood moon festival. The words felt like destiny now.
Seraphine had no idea what was going to happen but if marriage was the only way to save what they had, to protect this growing fire between them, then she was ready for a second one. Ready to give herself to him fully, heart, body, and soul.
She looked up at Voren, her eyes lingering on his lips, the strong line of his throat. "Alright," she said, and the steadiness in her own voice surprised her a little. "We do it the human way. But it stays small. Just close family. I’ll make the list, and nobody who can’t keep their mouth shut. I want this to be ours, private and real."
The way his face changed wasn’t loud or over the top. It was the quiet kind of happiness. The kind that settles deep into a person instead of bursting out, lighting up his eyes with pure masculine satisfaction and love.
His whole chest seemed to release something it had been holding onto for a very long time, his shoulders relaxing as a slow, heated smile curved his mouth.
"Copy that," Voren said, and his voice came out a little rougher than usual, thick with emotion that made her core throb. He cleared his throat.
"I cannot wait for your cycle to be over, and don’t worry about anything. I will handle everything. You are already swarmed with MindNest and the hospital. If you permit me, I could have a word with Leon to give you a flexible schedule so you can focus on us... on letting me take care of you the way I’ve been dying to."
Seraphine’s heart jumped straight up into her throat. One day she was faced with a partner who never cared if she lived or died, and now there was this man who wanted to do everything for her, to worship her in every possible way.
The warmth that rushed through her was immediate and she couldn’t control it, heat flooding her cheeks and lower, making her ache for his hands, his mouth, his body covering hers.
She pressed her lips together and looked away for a second before her face could give away too much, before he could see just how badly she wanted him right then.
Then something else nudged at her from a different direction and she turned back to him, her expression changing to something more serious but still soft with affection.
"V." She said his name with enough weight that it made him look up properly, his gaze intense and full of love. "This is going to cost you your friendship with Ravyn. You know that, right? That’s not a small thing. Are you really ready to burn that bridge for me?"
