The Alpha's Poisoned Mate

Chapter 2- Three Years Of Poison

Three years later

The wolfsbane goes into his coffee at exactly 6:47 AM.

Three drops from the vial hidden inside a tampon box in our bathroom cabinet. Kade respects my privacy too much to search there, one of many things that makes poisoning him easier and so much worse.

My hand doesn't shake anymore. That's what three years of premeditated murder does to you. It turns the impossible into routine. The unthinkable into muscle memory.

I watch the liquid disappear into the dark roast, counting to five while it disperses. The derivative I've synthesized is tasteless, colorless, designed to mimic the metallic bitterness of coffee itself. My father's notes were thorough. Precise. It's almost poetic, using his research to avenge his death.

"Morning." Kade's voice is rough with sleep as he enters the kitchen. His arms wrap around my waist from behind, chin settling on top of my head. He's six-four; I barely reach his shoulders. He makes me feel small.

Protected.

Like I'm not currently calculating the cumulative damage to his nervous system.

"Coffee's ready," I say, and I hate how normal I sound. How easy this has become.

He presses a kiss to my temple, and the mate bond flares warm beneath my ribs. That's the cruelest part of this, the bond doesn't care that I'm destroying him. It insists he's mine, that I should cherish him, that we're two halves of one soul.

Biology is a liar.

I turn in his arms, forcing myself to meet those silver eyes. They're softer than they used to be… three years of thinking I've forgiven him has gentled the hard edges. He looks at me like I'm his salvation.

I'm his executioner.

"Council meeting at nine," I remind him, sliding the poisoned mug into his hands. Our fingers brush. The bond hums contentedly.

I want to scream.

Kade drinks deeply, and I watch his throat work. Once upon a time, the sight made me flinch. Now I just count the swallows. Monitor his micro-expressions for any sign he tastes something wrong.

He doesn't. He never does.

"Marcus wants to discuss the northern territory again," Kade says, settling at the kitchen island. Morning light catches the gray streaking his temples, he's twenty-nine, but he looks closer to thirty-five. The wolfsbane derivative attacks the cellular regeneration first. Accelerated aging is a side effect I didn't anticipate but haven't corrected.

Every gray hair is a trophy.

"What did you tell him?" I c***k eggs into a pan, grateful for something to do with my hands.

"That I'd consider it." He pauses. "He also mentioned you look tired. Asked if you're sleeping okay."

My wolf stirs uneasily. Marcus has been hovering lately…. too attentive, too concerned. The Beta has always been charming where Kade is blunt, but something about his recent attention makes my skin crawl.

"I'm fine," I lie. "Busy at the hospital."

I plate his eggs and set them in front of him.

He catches my wrist before I can pull away, thumb stroking the inside of my wrist where my pulse hammers.

"Thalia." His voice drops low. Intimate. "I need to tell you something."

My heart stops. He knows. Three years and he's finally figured it out….

"I'm worried about us."

I blink. "What?"

He releases my wrist, running a hand through his dark hair. The gray catches the light again.

"We've been trying for three years. I know how badly you want a child. And my wolf..." He swallows hard. "Something's wrong with me. I can feel it. The shifts are getting harder.

My healing is slower. What if I can't give you what you need?"

The irony is a knife between my ribs.

He thinks he's failing me. That his deteriorating health is some personal inadequacy, not the result of his mate systematically destroying him from the inside out. And the child we're supposedly trying for….. that was part of the torture. Let him hope. Let him try. Let him fail over and over while I ensure conception is impossible.

Except lately, I've been wondering if the cruelty is worth it. If watching him blame himself for something I'm causing makes me just as monstrous as….

No. He killed my father. This is justice.

"You're not failing me," I whisper, and some traitorous part of me means it.

He stands, pulling me against his chest. I let him hold me because refusing would raise questions. His heartbeat thuds against my ear, slower than it should be. Irregular. Last month's dose must have affected his cardiac function more than I calculated.

Good. That's good. That's what I want.

So why does my throat feel tight?

"I love you," he murmurs into my hair. "You know that, right?"

He tells me this every day. Has for three years. And every day, I don't say it back.

Because I don't love him. I can't. Loving the man who murdered my father would betray everything I am.

Except sometimes, when he brings me tea during late hospital shifts, or when he defends my authority as an Omega healer to traditionalist wolves, or when he holds me like this…. like I'm precious, like I'm his entire world, I feel something dangerously close to….

My phone buzzes. Hospital emergency.

"I have to go," I say, pulling away before I do something stupid like lean into his warmth.

Kade catches my hand. "Tonight. Can we talk tonight? Just us. No pack business, no hospital. Please."

The earnestness in his voice makes me want to claw my skin off. "Okay."

I grab my bag and flee.

The emergency is a rogue wolf found half-dead at our border…. silver poisoning, multiple lacerations. I'm wrist-deep in his chest cavity, extracting silver fragments, when Dr. Chen appears in the doorway.

"Thalia. My office. Now."

I glance up, hands still inside the patient. "I'm in the middle of…"

"Sara can finish." Her expression is carefully neutral. Too neutral. "This can't wait."

Something in her tone makes my wolf stand at attention. I peel off my bloody gloves and follow her down the sterile hallway to her office.

She closes the door. Locks it.

"Sit."

"Dr. Chen, if this is about…."

"You're pregnant."

The world tilts.

"What?"

She turns her computer screen toward me.

Blood panel results. HCG levels elevated.

"From your annual physical last week. I'd estimate eight weeks along."

I stare at the numbers. They blur. Refocus. Make absolutely no sense.

"That's impossible." The words come out strangled. "The treatments…."

I stop before I give myself away. The wolfsbane should have made conception nearly impossible. I designed it that way. A special torture, letting Kade desperately want a child while ensuring I'd never give him one.

Except I was wrong.

"There's more." Dr. Chen's expression is too careful. "The markers are unusual. I ran the panel twice to confirm. Thalia... you're carrying twins."

The room spins. I grip the edge of her desk.

Two lives. Growing inside me. Two children who will never know I spent three years murdering their father.

"Congratulations," Dr. Chen says softly. "I know you and the Alpha have been trying."

I nod because I can't speak. Can't breathe.

Can't think past the roaring in my ears.

I make it to the supply closet before I vomit.

Pregnant. Eight weeks. The timeline scrolls through my mind, I haven't missed a single dose in three years. Not one. So how….

My wolf surges forward violently, breaking through the chemical suppression I've kept her under for years. She snarls one word, primal and absolute: PROTECT.

The command slams through my entire body.

Protect the young. Protect the mate. Protect the pack.

I reach for my bag automatically, fingers seeking the spare vial of wolfsbane I always carry. I'll go home. Make Kade lunch. Measure the dose like I always do.

My hand closes around the vial.

My wolf closes around my consciousness like a vice.

And for the first time in three years, when I try to imagine poisoning my mate, my body refuses to move. My fingers won't uncap the vial. Won't lift it. Won't….

"No," I whisper. "No no no…."

But my wolf is immovable. Ancient instinct overriding conscious thought. I'm pregnant, and she will not allow me to harm the father of my children.

I stand there shaking, vial clutched in my frozen hand, while everything I've worked for crumbles.

Three years. One thousand and ninety-five days of careful, calculated revenge. Gone.

Because biology decided now, after all this time, to give me the one thing that would stop me.

The door opens.

I spin around, instinctively hiding the vial behind my back.

Beta Marcus stands in the doorway.

His eyes drop to my hand. Then back to my face. Slowly, a smile spreads across his features.

"Well," he says softly, stepping inside and closing the door behind him. "Isn't this interesting."

My heart hammers against my ribs. "I don't know what you…"

"Don't." He moves closer, and there's something predatory in the movement. "I've suspected for months now. The Alpha's deterioration, your access to the hospital pharmacy, those little trips to your father's garden. But I wasn't sure until right now."

Terror ices through my veins. "Marcus… "

"You've been poisoning him." He says it like it's the most fascinating thing he's ever heard.

"Slowly. Brilliantly. Using what…. wolfsbane derivatives? That would explain the shift difficulties, the weakened healing." He tilts his head. "Your father would be proud of the craftsmanship. Terrible that he was a traitor, of course, but the man knew his herbs."

"My father wasn't a traitor," I spit.

Something flickers across Marcus's face. Amusement? "No," he agrees. "He wasn't."

The world stops.

"What?"

Marcus leans against the door, casual.

Relaxed. "Daniel Ashford was innocent.

Sharp, too. Started asking questions about discrepancies in the pack finances. Noticed trade deals that didn't quite add up. He was getting close to discovering some... unfortunate truths."

My blood turns to ice. "You framed him."

"Framed is such an ugly word." Marcus examines his nails. "I prefer 'strategically repositioned.' And it worked beautifully. The encrypted messages, the security codes, the silver bullets, all very convincing evidence when planted correctly."

Rage blinds me. I lunge for him, but he catches my wrists easily. Beta strength versus Omega fury, it's no contest.

"Easy," he says. "Think about those twins you're carrying."

I freeze. "How….."

"I can smell the hormonal shift. Any wolf with half a nose could." He releases me, smoothing his shirt. "Here's what's going to happen, Thalia. You're going to continue being the devoted mate. You're going to stop poisoning Kade, though it seems your wolf has already made that decision for you. And you're going to keep your mouth shut about this conversation."

"Or what?"

His smile is all teeth. "Or I tell Kade everything. About the poison. About your three-year revenge plot. And I provide evidence, because unlike you, I've been documenting your garden visits, your pharmacy access, everything. The Alpha will have you executed for treason. Just like your father." He pauses. "And those twins? Well.

They'd be orphans. Such a tragedy."

I can't breathe. Can't think. He's trapped me completely.

"Why?" I whisper. "Why would you do this?"

"Because in about six months, Kade will be weak enough to challenge. And when I'm Alpha, I'll need a mate who understands what real power looks like." His hand touches my cheek, and I flinch. "You've already proven you're willing to do terrible things for revenge.

Imagine what you could do with actual authority."

He opens the door, pausing in the threshold.

"Oh, and Thalia? Congratulations on the pregnancy. I'll make an excellent stepfather."

Then he's gone, leaving me alone in the supply closet with my father's murderer's words echoing in my ears and my revenge crumbling to ash in my hands.