His Mate. His Claim. His Mistake

Doubt

Theo

It’s the Regent.

The words echoed in my mind like a death knell.

The man who had given the guard orders to shatter my brother’s body, to throw him from a window like a piece of discarded meat, was Lilith’s uncle?

A blinding, white-hot rage took hold of me.

I didn’t walk toward the interrogation room.

I stormed.

Inside, the Omega guard shrank against his chair. The moment his eyes met mine, he began to shake, his face draining of color.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” he shrieked, his voice bouncing off the cold stone walls. “The Regent... The Regent made me do it!”

“Tell the truth!”

My roar was purely animalistic, a King’s command meant to rip the lies straight from his throat.

But instead of breaking, a desperate, almost fanatic light flashed across the guard’s eyes.

It happened in a fraction of a second.

None of the interrogators noticed his fingers curling around something hidden inside the lining of his sleeve.

Then he pulled out a small glass vial.

My eyes widened.

He brought it to his lips.

“No!”

He swallowed.

“...For us...” he choked out, his voice already weakening. “I didn’t have a choice...”

I lunged across the room.

My hand slammed into the front of his uniform, hauling him out of the chair. I shook him violently, my fingers clawing at his jaw as I tried to force his mouth open.

“Vomit it up!” I roared. “Spit it out, damn you!”

But I was too late.

The poison had already begun working.

Within seconds, his eyes rolled back. His body went limp in my hands, and I lowered him to the stone floor as the life slowly drained from him.

Then he went completely still.

Silence.

I stared down at his body.

Rage, pure and unadulterated, choked me.

“How did this even happen?!”

My voice exploded through the room.

I spun toward the lead investigator, my claws already out, my teeth bared.

“How does a prisoner, someone who was supposed to be questioned, someone who held the answers to who targeted my brother, get to take the easy way out?”

No one answered.

“Where was the search?” I demanded. “Who cleared him?!”

The guards and interrogators stood frozen.

“As the Omega Regent,” one of them finally said carefully, “he controls the families and resources of many within their community. This guard likely had loved ones back home. He may have been compelled... told this was for the greater cause.”

I stared at the body.

Disbelief twisted together with rage.

The sheer convenience of it made my stomach turn.

“Find out the credibility of this testimony,” I said.

My voice had dropped into something quieter.

More dangerous.

The men looked at me, genuine surprise flickering across their faces.

I wasn't stupid.

Of course I would verify it.

This entire setup smelled like a trap.

A trail designed to divert attention away from the real mastermind and point directly toward the nearest, easiest scapegoat.

The Regent was already heavily disliked by the High Council. Framing him tied everything together too neatly. The murder of the King. The attack on the Prince. The unrest among the Omegas.

It was almost perfect.

Too perfect.

I wasn't about to blindly follow every trail thrown in front of me, especially one left by a man who had killed himself immediately afterward.

“Your Grace?” the lead investigator tried cautiously.

“The assailant confessed. He named Reginald with his dying breath.”

“It is to be verified.”

“Your Majesty...” another advisor pressed, his tone incredulous. “The man who threw Prince Ethan from the window literally confessed.”

“Anyone can be hired by someone and instructed to name someone else with their dying breath,” I said, my eyes locking onto him until he looked away.

“To muddle the waters. To cause confusion.”

I stepped closer.

“We do not act on the words of a dead fanatic.”

Before anyone could respond, a guard knocked and stepped into the room.

“Your Majesty, the Omega Regent has been brought in for questioning. He is in the secure holding room.”

“About time,” I muttered.

I brushed past them.

---

I watched the interrogation from behind the one-way glass.

Reginald didn't look like a man who had ordered the death of the King.

Or was that my defensiveness for Lilith talking?

Was I so desperate to believe she was innocent that I was becoming blind to everything else?

Reginald looked tired.

His shoulders were heavy, his posture still carrying the same quiet dignity he always possessed in the council room.

When the investigators told him about the guard's confession, his eyes widened in shock.

"I'm being framed," he said calmly.

“I did not communicate with that guard,” the Regent continued. His voice remained steady, carrying through the speakers into the observation room. “I gave no such order.”

He paused.

“I have fought for my people through policy. Through legislation. Through speaking for their rights. Not through bloodshed.”

He denied it.

Exactly as I expected him to.

“I would never harm Prince Ethan,” he continued. “Nor would I betray the trust the late King showed me during our private meetings.”

I watched him for a long moment.

He sounded sincere.

Too sincere?

I studied every movement. Every expression. Every shift in his eyes.

I searched for deceit.

But all I saw was profound, heavy sorrow.

I let out a slow breath and turned away from the glass.

"Your Majesty."

The aide's voice made me stop.

His face was grim.

“The autopsy report for the King has just been brought down from the medical wing.”

I froze.

For a moment, the world seemed to pause around me.

I wanted to understand exactly what had happened to my father.

I needed to know.

The inner council was already waiting when I entered the room.

“We completed the autopsy on the King as you demanded, Your Majesty,” the lead physician said, stepping forward with his head bowed. “And we found a strange substance in his blood.”

I stopped beside the table.

“What kind of substance?”

“A massive dosage of Lunarsbane-Silt extract.”

I frowned.

“It is a rare, refined powder,” he explained. “In small quantities, it dampens a wolf’s instincts. But in a high dosage, it can completely paralyze a Lycan’s senses.”

My stomach tightened.

“It causes extreme physical weakness, disorientation... and severe hallucinations.”

A cold dread began to pool in my stomach.

Then my father's routine flashed through my mind.

Late at night, before wandering into the gardens, he usually drank wine.

Sweetened wine.

He loved the taste, but he avoided alcohol. He always said a King had to remain alert and sober.

Instead, he had a specific supply of non-alcoholic, honeyed vintage delivered directly to his quarters.

He drank heavily from it.

Anyone who knew my father intimately knew about that habit.

“The Silt extract is tasteless when dissolved in heavy sugars,” the physician continued quietly.

My fingers curled against the edge of the table.

“We believe it was slipped into his decanter. It weakened the King from the inside out until he was a fraction of himself.”

He hesitated.

“Weak enough... to be easily overpowered by an Omega.”

A sharp pain shot through my chest.

An Omega.

My Lilith?

I shook my head immediately.

No.

It couldn't be.

It defied everything I knew about her.

Everything the bond screamed at me.

But the reality laid before me was brutal.

My father had been drugged.

My brother was lying mutilated in a medical bay.

And Lilith had been found at the center of the bloodbath.

Still...

Something didn't add up.

Lilith had been hidden in my rooms.

She had never met my father.

I had never introduced them.

Even if she had wanted to hurt him, how could she possibly have known he was poisoned?

How could she have known he would be in that exact garden at that exact time?

My claws scraped against the wood.

“She couldn't have administered the poison,” I muttered, my voice dangerously tight. “She didn't have access to his chambers.”

“No, she didn't.”

My father's right-hand man stepped into the room from a side door.

His expression was grim.

“But there is someone who did meet the King.”

Every person in the room went silent.

“The last person your father saw that night,” he continued. “And the night before.”

I slowly looked at him.

“What?”

“There is someone the King willingly admitted into his private quarters.”

His boots clicked against the marble as he approached.

“The guards on duty reported an air of familiarity between them. It seemed they knew each other well, which is why no alarms were raised.”

My chest tightened.

“It would have been tragically easy to slip the powder into the decanter in a room that was completely unmonitored.”

The image formed in my mind.

A trusted figure walking into my father's private quarters.

The guards stepping aside.

No suspicion.

No questions.

And the same person returning the following night.

“Who?” I asked.

The commander looked at me.

“The man he met with was the Omega Regent.”

My blood ran cold.

“They met again on the very night of his death. Just hours before the body was found.”

The room erupted.

Elders and advisors began talking over one another, voices rising as they pieced the story together.

“It fits perfectly!”

“He had access!”

“He had motive!”

“He could have poisoned the King!”

“Wait.”

I raised my hand, but they continued.

“One of our men found traces of Wolfsbane-Silt in the Regent's home,” another advisor said urgently. “It was found around the pipes and inside his toilet. It appears he was trying to flush the evidence away when the palace went into lockdown.”

My head began to spin.

I sank heavily into my chair.

If the Regent had done this...

If the poison really came from him...

Then what did that mean for Lilith?

“The Regent paralyzed him,” the royal guard captain said, stepping forward.

His voice was grim.

“And we believe she struck the final blow.”

I looked up sharply.

“The girl was the executioner,” he continued. “Sent to use your own knife to finish the coup.”

“No!”

My fist slammed against the armrest.

“There’s a mistake somewhere.”

I shook my head.

“There has to be.”

My breathing grew heavier.

“Her uncle had no idea she was my mate. I kept her hidden. When would they have plotted this? He didn't even know she was in the palace!”

Silence.

Then Marcus stepped forward from the shadows of the council.

There was something about his expression that made my stomach twist.

A slow, terrible smirk touched his lips.

Not amusement.

Something worse.

The look of a man who knew a truth I had been completely blind to.

“You truly believe he didn't know, Your Grace?”

His voice was almost pitying.

“The Omega Regent knew you were mated to his niece from the very beginning.”

My heart stopped.

No.

That couldn't be.

It couldn't.