Elena POV:
I will arrange everything, Hamilton's voice echoed in my mind through the Mind-Link. Just say the word.
Soon, I replied.
The front door slammed open. Jackson walked in.
The scent hit me first. Rotten peaches and cloying sugar. Candida's scent. It was suffocating the fresh pine smell that used to be Jackson.
He saw me in the hallway. For a second, his eyes flashed with confusion, as if trying to remember who I was, but then a dark film slid over his irises.
"Elena," he said, void of warmth. "Good. You are here."
Behind him, Candida stepped in, holding the hand of a boy who looked about five. Joey.
"This is Candida," Jackson announced, as if he hadn't been sleeping with her for three years. "And this is Joey. I found him... on the battlefield. An orphan."
Liar. The lie was so blatant it felt practiced.
"And since you cannot provide the pack with an heir," Jackson continued, eyes drilling into my stomach, "I have decided to adopt him. He will be the future Alpha."
"Hello, Mama," Joey said. He looked like an angel, but when he tilted his head up, his eyes were dead flat. Grey smoke with no light behind them.
"I am not your mother," I said quietly.
"Elena!" Jackson growled. "Be kind to the boy."
"I am feeling unwell," I said, clutching my side. Being near Candida made my skin prickle, like standing next to a high-voltage wire. "I need to go to my room."
An hour later, there was a knock. Joey entered, holding a bowl of steaming meat soup.
"Daddy said you were sick," the boy said, voice sickeningly sweet. "I brought you soup."
He walked over. My inner wolf growled. Danger.
"Put it on the table."
"Here, take it," Joey insisted. He thrust the bowl toward me.
I reached out. The moment my fingers brushed the ceramic, Joey let go. He shoved it downward.
The hot liquid splashed over my hands.
"Ah!" I gasped.
The pain was immediate and excruciating. It sizzled. Smoke rose from my skin. Wolfsbane.
"Help! Daddy! Help!" Joey screamed, throwing himself onto the floor, wailing. "She burned me! She tried to throw it at me!"
My hands were blistering, skin peeling away in red strips.
The door burst open. Jackson and Candida rushed in. Jackson saw the boy on the floor, then looked at me. His irises flooded with a glowing, angry red.
"You monster," Jackson snarled.
"Jackson, look at my hands," I pleaded, holding them up. The flesh was bubbling. "It has poison in it."
"Don't lie to me!" Jackson roared. "You are jealous because you are broken!"
Candida stood behind him. She looked at my ruined hands, and the corner of her mouth twitched upward.
