Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Damon had just come out of the woods, his body still warm from the run, muscles loose but alert, the familiar rhythm of the forest still echoing faintly in his system, when something unusual caught his attention.

At first, it was just movement, fast, frantic, but then he focused, and his brows pulled together as he recognized Daisy rushing toward him, her breathing uneven, panic written all over her face as she carried Bryan in her arms.

No, not carrying. Struggling to carry him.

Bryan’s body looked limp against her shoulder, his small frame barely moving, and that was all Damon needed to see before his instincts kicked in. He closed the distance between them in seconds, stepping in and carefully but quickly taking Bryan from her.

"Daisy, what’s going on?" he asked, his voice firm but edged with urgency as he adjusted the boy in his arms, trying to get a better sense of his condition.

"He’s sick again," Daisy said, her words tumbling out between breaths, her chest rising and falling too fast. "It came back. He was fine after I gave him the new serum when the old one ran out, but now he’s worse, way worse."

Damon didn’t waste another second. He turned immediately, moving fast toward the pack hospital, his steps long and purposeful as he carried Bryan securely. Daisy kept up beside him, her anxiety practically radiating off her.

"Shouldn’t we call Alpha Ravyn?" Damon asked as they moved, his tone practical even as his mind raced through possibilities. "He might know what to do. Or maybe we should take him to a human hospital just in case?"

"No, no," Daisy said quickly, shaking her head as fear flickered across her face. "I’ve heard most of our complicated cases can’t be handled in human hospitals. It won’t work."

She hesitated after that, her steps slowing just slightly as something else, something heavier, seemed to settle over her. She swallowed hard, her fingers clenching at her sides before she finally spoke again, her voice dropping.

"You’ll keep my secret, right?"

Damon glanced at her briefly, his expression unreadable for a moment.

He nodded anyway.

Even as he did, there was a quiet truth sitting at the back of his mind, steady and unshaken. His loyalty wasn’t with Daisy. It never had been.

It was with Seraphine.

And lately, that loyalty had been paying off in ways he couldn’t ignore. His stocks had started rising again just like she said they would, his position stabilizing in ways that had once felt impossible.

There was no situation, no pressure, no secret that would ever make him turn against her.

"Go ahead," he said, his voice steady as they reached the hospital doors. "I’ve got your back."

The medical team rushed Bryan away the second they stepped inside, taking him from Damon’s arms and moving him onto a bed, voices overlapping as they began assessing his condition.

Daisy stood frozen for a second, watching them, her hands trembling before she reached for Damon and pulled him aside, away from the chaos.

"I lied to Ravyn," she admitted, her voice shaking now, the weight of it clearly eating at her. "I told him I was the one who created the serum but it wasn’t me. It was Seraphine."

Damon’s brow lifted slightly, though he didn’t interrupt her. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"I thought Bryan was fine," she continued, her words rushing out faster now, like she had been holding this in for too long. "When I kept pushing Ravyn to make me co-Luna, I really believed everything was under control. I didn’t even want to be Luna that badly, I just... I didn’t want to stay in Seraphine’s shadow forever." Her voice cracked, regret bleeding through every word.

"I didn’t know it would push her away like that. I didn’t know things would turn out like this. And now..."

She let out a shaky breath, her eyes filling with tears again.

"The doctors can’t recreate what she made. They’ve tried, but it’s not the same. Whatever she did, they can’t figure it out."

Damon listened, his expression neutral, though inside, a quiet thought surfaced.

Karma.

It really did have a way of circling back.

Still, he didn’t say that out loud. Instead, he kept his tone measured. "Let’s wait and hear what the doctors say first," he said. "But what about the original serum? Do you have any left at all?"

Daisy shook her head immediately, tears spilling over this time as she broke completely. "No, not even a little," she whispered. "And Damon, I don’t know how to tell Ravyn about Bryan. I don’t know what to do."

Before Damon could respond, his expression changed slightly, his eyes rolling to the back for just a second as a mind link pushed into his consciousness.

’Alpha has arrived.’

Daisy caught it instantly, noticing the way his focus flickered. "What is it?" she asked quickly. "Who contacted you?"

Damon blinked, grounding himself again as he looked at her. "One of the warriors at the gate," he said. "Alpha Ravyn is back."

Frustration flashed across Daisy’s face, mixing with the panic already there.

"I think we should just tell him the truth," Damon added, watching her carefully. "He loves you. He won’t hold it against you."

Daisy let out a broken laugh, shaking her head as more tears fell. She knew better.

Bryan wasn’t just any child. He was supposed to be the heir of the centenary pack.

This wasn’t something Ravyn would just overlook. "Isn’t there another way?" she asked, her voice desperate now as she wiped at her tears. "And why didn’t he tell us he was coming? Why show up like this?"

Damon frowned slightly, that detail bothering him too now that she had said it out loud. "Yeah... that is strange," he admitted. "Why would he return without warning anyone?"

Before either of them could think it through any further, Daisy stiffened. A mindlink cutting through her mind like a knife.

’Babe, I’m back. Where are you?’