Fae's POV:
The world was a haze of red-tinged pain. I lay in a spreading pool of my own blood, the wolfsbane a fire devouring me from the inside out. My limbs were leaden, unresponsive. But the hatred, that burning, all-consuming hatred, kept a flicker of consciousness alive.
My gaze found Heidi. She was watching me, her expression one of detached fascination, like a scientist observing a dying insect.
A guttural sound escaped my throat. It was meant to be a plea, a bargain.
"The baby..." I rasped, blood bubbling on my lips. "Please... save the baby..."
Heidi threw her head back and laughed. The sound was sharp and brittle, echoing off the tiled walls. It was the most hideous sound I had ever heard.
She knelt beside me, her silk dress brushing against the blood on the floor. She tapped my cheek with the flat of the silver dagger, a gesture of ultimate contempt.
"You still don't get it, do you?" she said, her voice laced with cruel amusement. "The person who wants this little bastard gone more than anyone... is Colten."
His name was a fresh stab wound to my heart. My mind recoiled, refusing to accept it. He was my fated mate. The Moon Goddess herself had bound us. He couldn't... he wouldn't...
"No," I whispered. It was a denial against the crushing weight of reality.
Heidi's smile widened. She seemed to relish this, the slow, methodical destruction of my soul.
"We were lovers long before your ridiculous mating ceremony," she purred, tracing a pattern on the floor with the bloody tip of her dagger. "He never wanted you. He wanted your pack's alliance. You were just the price of the treaty, sister. A necessary, but temporary, inconvenience."
Flashes of memory assaulted me. Colten's coolness, his frequent absences, the way his touch sometimes felt more like a duty than a desire. I had explained it all away. He was an Alpha, burdened with responsibility. I was a fool.
"He never intended for you to carry his heir to term," Heidi continued, her voice a relentless torment. "A child with Blackwood blood? A threat to our future children. A threat to my children."
She stood up, pacing the room as if she were on a stage, delivering a grand monologue.
"The plan was perfect. A slow poisoning to weaken the pup. A tragic 'accident' during childbirth. Everyone would mourn the poor, unfortunate Luna. And Colten would be free to comfort, and eventually claim, the grieving sister."
My breathing was shallow, each gasp a struggle. My inner wolf whimpered, a dying animal trapped in a poisoned cage.
Heidi paused by the window, gazing out at the full moon. "Soon, I will be the Luna of Silvermoon. This pack's true queen."
She turned back, her brow furrowing in annoyance as she saw I was still breathing.
"Why are you taking so long to die?" she sighed, walking towards me, raising the dagger for a final blow.
Just then, the sound of a key turning in the lock echoed through the room.
Heidi froze. In an instant, the monstrous predator vanished. She hid the dagger in her skirts, and her face crumpled into a mask of terror and grief. It was a masterful, sickening performance.
The door swung open.
Alpha Colten Shields stood there, his powerful frame filling the doorway. His eyes, the color of a stormy sky, swept the room, widening in shock as they landed on me, bleeding out on the floor.
Heidi launched herself into his arms, her sobs wracking her body.
"Colten! Oh, Colten, thank the Goddess! I came in and she was... she was like this! It must have been Rogues! A Rogue attack!"
I watched them. My mate, the father of my child, holding my murderer in his arms. The last fragile thread of hope inside me snapped.
I tried to speak, to scream the truth, but all that came out was a wet, gurgling sound as blood filled my throat.
Colten's gaze met mine over Heidi's shaking shoulders. His expression was a complex mixture of shock and something else... something cold and appraising. There was no love. No pain for his dying mate.
He gently set Heidi aside and walked towards me, his heavy boots silent on the blood-slicked floor.
My vision was blurring, the edges of the world turning dark. He knelt beside me, his handsome face swimming in and out of focus.
For a fleeting, insane moment, I thought I saw a flicker of remorse in his eyes. I thought he might offer a word of comfort, of apology.
He leaned in, his lips close to my ear, his voice a low rumble meant only for me.
And he spoke the words that shattered what was left of my soul and damned me to an eternity of hatred.
"Your purpose is served, Fae," he murmured, his voice devoid of all emotion. "Thank you for the alliance."
