THE ALPHA KING’S SON SCREAMED AT EVERY TOUCH—UNTIL A POOR OMEGA MAID FOUND A SILVER NEEDLE HIDDEN IN HIS FUR, REVEALING THE HORRIFYING TRUTH BEHIND HIS “CURSE”

Chapter 3

She knew exactly where she needed to go.

Dr. Lorn’s office. She had heard Isolda order him to destroy the proof. If she reached it first, there was a chance — a thin, desperate chance — that she could still save them both.

The door was unlocked. Medical papers covered the desk. Her hands rifled through the chaos, breath shallow, ears straining for footsteps.

Then she saw them.

Three old X-ray sheets, each marked with a name that made her throat tighten.

PRINCE ASH BLACKTHORNE.

She held the first toward the lamp. Nothing. The second. Nothing. Her heart began to sink.

The third.

The light caught it, and her heart stopped.

A thin silver shadow ran directly beneath the skin at the base of Ash’s neck. An object, long and straight, embedded in bone and muscle. The needle. It had been there for over a year. Isolda had been poisoning him for over a year, and no one had ever looked closely enough to see.

Meera rolled the film beneath her clothing.

Voices sounded in the corridor.

She darted behind the door just as it opened. Isolda swept inside, followed by Dr. Lorn.

“Burn them,” Isolda said.

“My Lady—”

“Now. All of them. Leave nothing.”

Meera waited until their backs turned. Then she slipped out of the room and into the shadows.

She had to reach the Alpha King.

His study lay two floors above her. The castle was asleep, but Meera’s heart pounded loud enough to wake the dead. She climbed the servants’ staircase, kept to the dark, held her breath at every turn.

She reached the study just as Isolda entered it — carrying two glasses of wine.

Meera stopped in the doorway, hidden, and watched.

“My love,” Isolda purred, setting the glasses before him. “Drink.”

Theron sat behind his desk, broad shoulders hunched, golden eyes fixed on nothing. “I almost executed an innocent woman today.”

“She isn’t innocent.”

“I saw Ash’s eyes.” His voice cracked. “I saw him. Calm. For the first time in years.”

“Poison does strange things to a mind.”

Theron lifted the glass.

Meera smelled it from the doorway. Metal. Bitter herbs. Wolfsbane. Her blood turned to ice.

These weren’t glasses of wine. They were a death sentence.

“DO NOT DRINK THAT.”

The doors flew open. Theron shot to his feet. Isolda spun around, face twisting.

“You.”

Meera slammed the X-ray onto the desk.

“The needle was already there. Look!” She pointed at the silver line. “It’s been in his spine for over a year. The wound I found wasn’t new. I didn’t put it there — Isolda did!”

Theron stared at the film. His face drained of color.

“Where did you get this?”

“Dr. Lorn’s office. She was about to burn it.”

Isolda reached for the film. Theron’s hand caught her wrist, halting her.

Meera pointed toward the wine. “Smell it.”

Theron bent over the glass. His eyes flashed gold.

Isolda backed away. “It isn’t what you think—”

“Your necklace,” Meera said quietly.

Theron turned. He ripped the silver pendant from Isolda’s throat. It clicked open.

White powder spilled onto the desk.

Wolfsbane.

Silence fell over the room like a shroud.

Isolda’s beautiful face changed. The mask crumbled. The trembling voice vanished, replaced by something cold and ancient.

“So.” She smiled. “You found it.”

Theron’s voice was murderous. “You poisoned my son.”

“For four years.” Isolda tilted her head. “You were surprisingly easy to fool, Alpha King.”

Something broke inside Theron.

Isolda’s body exploded into the form of a massive white wolf. She lunged — not at Meera, but at Theron.

The two wolves collided with enough force to crack the furniture. Blood sprayed across the floor. Meera pressed herself against the wall as the fight tore through the study.

Then Isolda twisted free. Her white jaws turned toward Meera.

“You should have stayed a maid.”

She launched herself.

But something had awakened inside Meera. The Packbinder bond — ancient, dormant, waiting — snapped open with a force that knocked her to her knees.

Her mind connected with Theron’s.

Images poured through him like a flood. Ash screaming. The needle. The X-ray. Isolda’s smirk. Dr. Lorn’s lie. The poison in the wine. The poison in the pendant. The poison in the spine of a child for four years.

All of it. Every drop.

Theron’s golden eyes snapped toward Isolda. He understood everything.

Isolda barely had time to turn.

Theron’s black wolf seized her. One violent movement. The terrible sound of a neck wrenching.

Then silence.

At dawn, the execution platform prepared for Meera stood empty.

Instead, Isolda’s crimes were announced before the entire pack. Dr. Lorn, pale and trembling, confessed everything. The old X-rays were recovered. The truth spilled out across the courtyard like light after a long darkness.

Theron stood before his people with Ash beside him. The little prince was weak, still recovering. But standing. For the first time in years.

“This Omega saved my son.” Theron’s voice carried over the crowd. “I condemned her for telling me the truth.” His throat tightened. “That shame belongs to me.”

Meera lowered her eyes, wishing she could disappear.

Then Ash did something nobody expected.

He walked away from his father. Across the platform. Straight toward Meera. Slowly, uncertainly, on shaky legs.

He wrapped both arms around her waist.

And whispered one word.

“Mommy.”

The entire courtyard went silent.

Theron stared. Meera stopped breathing.

Because Ash had never called anyone that.

And somewhere inside the castle, hidden behind a wall for five years, the dead Luna Lyra’s private journal was waiting to explain why.