The Alpha's Poisoned Mate

Chapter 1-The Execution

They're going to kill my father at dawn.

I know because the Alpha's guards came for him at midnight, silver chains burning his wrists, and the only executions that happen at dawn are for treason. The worst crime. The unforgivable one.

I'm running through the forest now, barefoot, my nightgown catching on thorns. My wolf is screaming inside my chest, clawing to get out, but I force her down. If I shift, the guards will stop me before I reach the ravine. I have to see him. I have to….

The clearing opens up ahead, and I skid to a stop.

The entire pack is already there. Hundreds of wolves forming a circle around the execution site, their eyes reflecting the torchlight like stars. At the center, my father kneels in the dirt, hands bound behind his back. Blood trails from his temple. His healer's coat is torn.

And standing above him, silver blade in hand, is Alpha Kade Blackthorn.

"No." The word rips out of me. "NO!"

I break through the circle, and hands grab at me, pack members trying to hold me back but I'm feral with panic. I claw at them, bite, kick.

Someone yelps. I don't care.

"Thalia, stop!" That's Marcus, the Beta, his arms wrapping around my waist like iron bands. "You can't."

"LET ME GO!" I thrash, but he's too strong.

I'm just an Omega. Healers aren't built for fighting.

My father's head lifts. Our eyes meet across the clearing.

And he mouths: I'm sorry.

"Daniel Ashford." Kade's voice cuts through the night, cold and absolute. Alpha command. Every wolf falls silent. "You have been found guilty of treason against the Blackthorn Pack. The evidence is irrefutable, encrypted communications with the Silverpaw Pack, stolen security codes, silver bullets bearing your fingerprints found in a cache near our border. You conspired to betray your pack, your Alpha, and your people."

"I didn't… " my father starts, but Kade's dominance presses down, forcing his head to bow.

"The sentence for treason is death," Kade continues. His face is carved from stone. No mercy. No hesitation. "Do you have any final words?"

My father struggles against the Alpha command, managing to lift his eyes to me one more time.

"Thalia. Baby girl. I love you. And I…." His voice breaks. "I'm innocent. I swear on the Moon Goddess, I'm innocent. Someone framed…."

"Enough." Kade raises the blade.

"PLEASE!" I'm sobbing now, still fighting against Marcus's hold. "Please, Alpha, he's all I have! Please, there has to be a mistake! My father would never…"

Kade's eyes flicker to me for just a second. Something crosses his face…regret? Pain?

But then it's gone.

"I'm sorry, Thalia," he says quietly. "But the law is clear."

The blade comes down.

My father gasps once. Blood blooms across his chest, dark, too dark, and then he slumps forward into the dirt.

The world stops.

My wolf howls, a sound so broken it doesn't seem like it could come from anything living. I hear myself screaming, but it sounds far away. Distant. Like I'm underwater.

Marcus is still holding me, and I realize I'm not fighting anymore. I'm just... breaking.

Collapsing. Folding in on myself like a paper doll thrown into a fire.

"Take her home," Kade orders, and his voice sounds wrong. Strained. "Make sure she…"

"Don't touch me!" I wrench away from Marcus, stumbling toward my father's body. The pack parts for me. No one stops me now. What's the point?

I fall to my knees beside him, hands hovering over his chest, healer instincts screaming at me to fix this, to stop the bleeding, to save him. But there's nothing to save. The blade went straight through his heart. His eyes are still open. Still green like mine. Still kind, even in death.

"Daddy," I whisper, and my voice cracks on the word I haven't used since I was a child. "Daddy, please. Please wake up. Please."

My hands are covered in his blood now. It's warm. Sticky. The smell of copper fills my nose.

Someone's hand touches my shoulder, gentle, careful and I look up.

Kade stands above me, the bloody blade still in his hand. "Thalia…"

I slap his hand away. "Don't. Don't you dare touch me."

Something flashes in his silver eyes. Hurt, maybe. But I don't care. I'll never care again.

"He was innocent," I tell him, my voice shaking with rage. With grief. With a hatred so pure it tastes like ash. "My father was a good man. A healer. He saved half this pack. And you murdered him."

"The evidence…"

"Damn your evidence!" I'm standing now, even though my legs feel like water. "I hope you rot for this. I hope every day for the rest of your life, you remember what you did. I hope it destroys you."

Kade's jaw tightens, but he doesn't respond. He just turns and walks away, the pack parting for their Alpha like the sea.

And I'm left kneeling in my father's blood, alone.

Two months later

I've stopped crying.

That's what worries me most. For the first month, I cried every day, sobbing in the shower, in my car, in the hospital supply closets where I'd hide during breaks. But now, six weeks after they burned my father's body and scattered his ashes in the forest he loved,

I feel... nothing.

Just emptiness. And a cold, quiet rage that lives in my chest like a second heartbeat.

The pack tried to be kind at first. Casseroles appeared on my doorstep. Condolence cards.

Offers to "talk if you need anything." But I'm an Omega who lost her only family. No mate, no siblings, no close friends, my father and I kept to ourselves, focused on healing work.

The pack's pity felt like acid.

I stopped answering the door after the second week.

Now I live in my father's clinic, the small cottage on the edge of pack territory where he practiced herbal medicine. The pack gave me his position as head healer, probably out of guilt. I accepted because I need access to the hospital, to the herbs, to the knowledge.

I accepted because I have a plan.

I'm in the garden now, harvesting wolfsbane.

The purple flowers are beautiful, innocent-looking. My father taught me about them when I was eight.

"Wolfsbane is a paradox, little one," he'd said, letting me touch the petals gently. "In the right doses, it can heal, reduce fever, slow a racing heart. But too much, and it becomes poison. It can strip a wolf's ability to shift, weaken their healing, even kill them if you're not careful. That's why healers must be precise. We hold life and death in our hands."

I cut three stalks carefully, roots and all.

Life and death.

I'm carrying them inside when I feel it…. a pull in my chest, sharp and sudden, like a fishhook lodged in my sternum. My wolf surges forward, alert, confused.

And then I smell him.

Pine. Smoke. Alpha.

Kade.

I spin around, and he's standing at the edge of my garden, hands shoved in his pockets. He looks terrible…. dark circles under his eyes, jaw shadowed with stubble. He's wearing a plain black shirt instead of his usual Alpha regalia.

"What do you want?" My voice comes out flat. Dead.

"I…." He stops. Starts again. "There's a pack gathering tonight. To celebrate the autumn equinox. You didn't RSVP."

"I'm not coming."

"Thalia…"

"Is that all, Alpha?" I turn back toward the cottage, wolfsbane in my arms. "I have work to do."

"Wait." His voice stops me, not with command but with something raw. Desperate. "Please. Just... wait."

Against my better judgment, I pause.

He moves closer, and that pull in my chest grows stronger. Insistent. My wolf is pacing now, whining, and I don't understand why until….

Oh no.

Oh no no no….

The mate bond slams into place like a lightning strike.

I gasp, stumbling, and the wolfsbane falls from my arms. Kade catches me on instinct, his hands on my elbows, and the moment we touch, the bond roars to life. Golden thread connecting us, soul to soul, the Moon Goddess's cruel joke delivered two months too late.

Kade's eyes go wide. He feels it too.

"No," I whisper. "No, this isn't…. this can't…."

He releases me like I've burned him, stepping back. "Thalia. I didn't... I didn't know."

I'm shaking. My wolf is howling with joy – MATE MATE MATE, but all I feel is horror.

Rage. The sick, twisted irony of fate deciding that my destined mate is the man who murdered my father.

"Get away from me." My voice is barely human.

"I'll reject it." Kade's words come fast, stumbling over each other. "Right now. I'll reject the bond. You don't have to, Thalia. I never wanted to hurt you. Your father, the evidence was solid, I thought…"

"You thought?" I laugh, and it sounds unhinged. "You thought it was fine to execute an innocent man?"

"He wasn't…." Kade stops. Runs a hand through his hair. "The trial was fair. Three elders reviewed the evidence. It was unanimous."

"Then they were wrong. Or someone lied. Or…." My breath catches. "It doesn't matter. You still killed him."

"I know." His voice breaks. "And I'm sorry. I'm so goddamn sorry, Thalia. If I could go back."

"But you can't." I bend down, picking up the fallen wolfsbane with shaking hands. An idea is forming. Dark. Terrible. Perfect. "So reject the bond, Alpha. Do us both a favor."

He flinches at the title. "I will. I'll perform the rejection ritual tonight, in front of the pack. You'll be free of me."

He turns to leave.

And I realize this is my only chance.

"Wait."

Kade stops, hope flickering across his face. It makes me want to vomit.

"What if..." I force myself to meet his eyes. To let vulnerability show. To play the part. "What if I don't want you to reject it?"

He stares at me like I've spoken a foreign language. "What?"

"The Moon Goddess chose us for a reason, didn't she?" The lies taste like honey on my tongue. "Maybe... maybe this is meant to heal the pack. To heal us both. My father believed in fate. In the Goddess's plan."

"Thalia." Kade's voice is careful, like I'm a wild animal he's trying not to spook. "You don't have to do this. You don't owe me anything. You don't owe the pack anything."

"I know." I step closer, and the bond hums between us. "But I'm choosing this anyway."

"Why?" His eyes search mine, desperate for understanding. "After everything I've done, why would you…."

"Because I'm tired of being angry." Another lie. The anger is all I have left. "Because my father would want me to move forward. And because..." I let my voice soften, dropping to almost a whisper. Because the bond is telling me you're mine. And I don't know how to fight that."

It's the right thing to say. I watch Kade's walls crumble, watch hope bloom across his face like blood in water.

"Are you sure?" he asks. "Thalia, please, don't do this out of obligation or…"

"I'm sure." I reach out, taking his hand. The bond sings. "I accept you as my mate, Kade Blackthorn."

His breath catches. "I... I accept you as my mate, Thalia Ashford."

The bond solidifies, clicking into place like a lock. I feel him now, his emotions bleeding through. Relief. Joy. Crushing guilt. Love, already, because that's what the mate bond does. It makes you love the person holding the other end of your soul.

Kade pulls me into his arms, and I let him. I even tuck my face against his chest, breathe in his scent, pretend that this is real.

"I'll be good to you," he whispers into my hair. "I swear on my life, Thalia. I'll spend every day proving that you didn't make a mistake. I'll protect you, cherish you, give you everything."

"I know," I murmur.

And I do know. Because Kade Blackthorn is a man of honor, even when that honor is twisted. He'll be the perfect mate. Attentive.

Gentle. Devoted.

Which will make it so much sweeter when I destroy him.

Over his shoulder, I can see my cottage. The wolfsbane I dropped is scattered across the ground, purple flowers bright against the dirt.

Life and death in a healer's hands.

My father taught me well.

I close my eyes and let the Alpha hold me, let him believe I've forgiven him, let him think the Moon Goddess has given him a second chance.

And I start planning exactly how I'm going to take everything away from him.

Starting with his wolf.

Then his pack.

Then his life.

He killed my father.

Now I'll kill him slowly enough that he never sees it coming.