The healers worked through the night.
Sera refused to leave Dax's bedside. Sat in the hard wooden chair beside his bed, watching his chest rise and fall, counting each breath like it might be the last. The candles burned low. The room smelled of herbs and blood and something acrid underneath — the poison, she thought. Working through him.
Garrett came in at dawn.
"The poison," he said quietly. "It's a compound. Shadow Fang has been developing it for years. It targets the Mate Bond specifically."
Sera looked up.
"Explain."
"If an Alpha is bonded and takes this poison, the Bond becomes a conduit. The poison flows through the connection. Hits the mate." Garrett's face was grave. "Dax was dosed. The bond did the rest."
Sera's mind raced.
"But why would completing the bond help?"
"Beca
