Maya POV
I don't drop the knife.
Instead, I press it harder against my palm. The blade bites into my skin. Blood wells up, bright red against my pale hand.
"Stop," Richard Kane says. His voice is calm, almost bored. "Miss Chen, I really will shoot you. Don't test me."
"Then shoot." The words come out steadier than I feel. "But the second you pull that trigger, I'm cutting my hand and falling on Dominic. My blood will save him whether I'm dead or living. And then you'll have an extremely angry alpha wolf who just watched you kill his mate."
Richard's eyes narrow. "You're bluffing."
"Am I?" I tilt my head, mirroring the gesture I've seen Dominic do a hundred times. "You've been trying him all night, right? Seeing if he's strong enough to be alpha? Well, here's your answer: he crashed through a window fifty stories up to save me. He killed Marcus. He's dying from poison and still tried to protect me until he couldn't move anymore. That's your kid. That's your boss."
I press the knife harder. Blood drips down my wrist. "So go ahead. Shoot me. Let's see what happens when you give him a reason to hate you forever."
For the first time tonight, Richard Kane looks unsure.
Seris—still in her real form—steps between us. "Father, stop this. You've made your point."
"Father?" I stare at her, then at Richard. "He's YOUR father too?"
"Dominic and I are half-siblings. Same father, different women." Seris doesn't take her eyes off Richard. "Mother was his first mate. She died giving birth to me. Then he found a second mate—Dominic's mother. And we all know how that ended."
"I didn't kill her," Richard snaps. "The Vale pack—"
"Killed her because you were too weak to protect her!" Seris's voice rises. "And now you're taking it out on Dominic. Testing him. Torturing him. Trying to force him into being the alpha you never were!"
Richard's hand tightens on the gun. "I am making him stronger."
"You're breaking him!" Seris waves at Dominic's unconscious body. "Look at him! He's dying because you poisoned him! Your own son!"
"The poison will only kill him if she doesn't complete the bond." Richard's eyes are cold. "This is the final test. If she loves him, she'll save him. If she doesn't, he doesn't deserve to be alpha."
"That's insane," I whisper.
"That's tradition." Richard finally lowers the gun. "Alpha dogs must be strong enough to inspire loyalty. Dominic has been weak, refusing his mate, hiding what he is. Tonight, I've given him a choice: accept his nature or die. And I've given you the same choice, Miss Chen. Save him and bind yourself to our world forever. Or let him die and walk away free."
"Some choice," I mutter.
But my hand is already moving. I drag the knife across my palm in one quick move. Pain flares bright and sharp. Blood flows freely now, pooling in my cupped hand.
"Maya, wait—" Seris reaches for me.
I'm already kneeling next to Dominic. His face is gray. His breathing is shallow. He's seconds from death.
"I'm sorry," I say to him. "I'm sorry for whatever this means. But I can't let you die."
I press my wounded palm to his mouth.
For a heartbeat, nothing happens.
Then Dominic's eyes snap open—pure liquid gold, no white visible at all. His hand shoots up and grabs my wrist in a grip like iron. His lips close around my hand and he drinks.
Pain bursts through my entire body. Not from my hand—from everywhere at once. It feels like lightning is running through my blood, burning and freezing and tearing me apart from the inside.
I scream.
Dominic's other arm wraps around my waist, pulling me down against him. His teeth sink into my palm, not cutting but holding, and I feel something snap into place inside my chest. Like a chain circling around my heart and pulling tight.
The mate bond.
I can feel him now. His torment, his fear, his desperate hunger for my blood. But underneath all that—love. Pure, intense, desperate love that's been trapped inside him for eight months.
"Maya," he rasps against my palm. His voice is rough, barely human. "Mine."
"Yours," I hear myself say. "I'm yours."
The words feel like a promise. A vow. Something solid and unbreakable.
Dominic's cuts start healing. The gray tinge fades from his face. His breathing slows. The poison is leaving his system, burned away by whatever power comes from the mate bond.
He's going to live.
I start crying. I don't even know why. Relief, maybe. Or fear at what I've just done. Or the overwhelming sense of feeling someone else's emotions mixed with my own.
"Well," Richard says from the lift doorway. "That was dramatic."
Dominic's eyes snap to his father. The gold in them burns brighter. He moves faster than I can track, pulling me behind him as he rises to face Richard. His body is still healing but his attitude is pure alpha—protective, aggressive, lethal.
"You did this," Dominic growls. "All of it. Marcus. Victoria. The drug. Everything."
"I did," Richard admits quietly. "And you passed. You picked your mate over everything else. You fought for her. Nearly died for her. And now you've claimed her properly. You're finally worthy of being alpha."
"Worthy?" Dominic's voice is pure rage. "You killed an innocent woman. You poisoned your own son. You scared my mate. All for some weird test?"
"All for the pack." Richard's face is stone. "The Kane pack needs a strong boss. Not a broken boy hiding from what he is."
"Then the Kane pack can find a new alpha." Dominic's words are like ice. "Because I'm done. Done with you. Done with your tests. Done with this whole nightmare."
He turns, lifting me up in his arms like I weigh nothing. "We're leaving."
"If you walk away now, you'll be exiled," Richard calls after us. "No pack. No defense. Just you and your human mate against every enemy we've ever made. Is that really what you want?"
Dominic stops. His arms tighten around me. I can feel his internal fight through the bond—duty versus freedom, pack versus mate.
"It's your choice," I say to him. "Whatever you choose, I'm with you."
His eyes meet mine. Gold going back to gray. Human returning.
"Then we run," he says.
We make it three steps before the lift doors close.
And the wire snaps.
We're falling. Fifty stories straight down. The emergency brakes aren't working. Someone ruined them.
Dominic wraps his body around mine, trying to shield me. But we're both going to die when we hit bottom.
Through the link, I feel his last thought: At least I got to hold her.
The elevator crashes.
Everything goes black.
When I wake up, I'm not in the lift anymore.
I'm in a hospital bed. White walls. Beeping machines. IV in my arm.
A nurse walks in and smiles. "Oh good, you're awake! You're very lucky, Miss Chen. The fall should have killed you both. But your boyfriend took most of the force. He's in surgery now."
"Surgery?" I try to sit up but pain shoots through my whole body. " Is he—will he—"
"The doctors are doing everything they can." Her smile is sympathetic but not comforting. "You should rest. Your body went through tremendous stress."
She leaves.
I stare at the ceiling, feeling the mate bond in my chest. It's there, but weak. Distant. Like Dominic is very far away.
Or dying.
My phone buzzes on the bedside table. Someone must have brought my things from the elevator accident.
A text from an unknown number: Congratulations on surviving! But the game isn't over. Check your email. You have 24 hours.
With shaking hands, I open my email.
There's a movie attachment.
I press play.
The video shows Dominic on an operation table. Doctors working rapidly. But in the corner of the screen, standing in surgical scrubs with a mask covering his face, is someone I know.
Richard Kane.
And he's holding a needle filled with something dark and wrong.
He looks straight at the camera and winks.
Then injects it into Dominic's IV line.
The video stops.
A new text appears: The poison I gave you was just the starter. The main course is in his system now. You have 24 hours to bring me what I want, or your mate dies. For real this time.
What I want: The Kane pack alpha stone. It's in Dominic's office safe. Code is his mother's birthday.
Bring it to the abandoned building on Pier 9 by midnight tomorrow. Come alone. Tell anyone, and I'll make sure Dominic's death is slow and painful.
Tick tock, Luna.
I stare at the phone, my whole body shaking.
Dominic is being poisoned. Right now. In surgery where I can't reach him.
And Richard Kane—his own father—is doing it.
I have 24 hours to rob my mate's office, find some magical stone, and give it to a psychopath.
Or watch Dominic die.