Sable POV
I wake up to whiteness.
White ceiling. White walls. White sheets that smell like lavender and something medicinal.
For one blissful moment, I think I'm home. That everything was a nightmare. Corvin's betrayal, the false accusations, the Wastes—all just a terrible dream.
Then I move my hand to my stomach and feel nothing.
The flatness where a small bump should be destroys me all over again.
"No." The word tears from my throat. I press both hands against my stomach, searching desperately for any sign of life. Any flutter or movement. "No, please no..."
But I know. Deep in my bones, I know.
My pup is gone.
A scream builds in my chest. I double over, clutching my empty stomach, and the scream comes out as a broken sob that doesn't stop. Can't stop.
The door crashes open. A woman with copper hair rushes in—the healer from before, though I barely remember her through the pain.
"Breathe," she commands, hands on my shoulders. "You need to breathe or you'll pass out again."
"My baby—"
"I'm sorry." Her voice is gentle but firm. "The forced shift caused too much trauma. There was nothing I could do."
The forced shift. The antidote. My wolf emerging for the first time, stuck halfway, tearing me apart.
I did this. I killed my own pup.
"It wasn't your fault," the healer says, reading my expression. "The wolfsbane poisoning—whoever did that to you is responsible. Not you."
"I don't even know your name," I whisper.
"Vesper." She sits on the edge of the bed. "And you're Sable Thorne."
The name sounds wrong. Thorne was my father's name. My real father, who died when I was young. Maris kept it when she married him, kept me as a Thorne even though she hated everything about me.
"Just Sable," I say. "I don't want that name anymore."
Vesper studies me with sharp amber eyes. "What do you want?"
What do I want? That's the question, isn't it?
I wanted Corvin to love me. Failed.
I wanted my pup to live. Failed.
I wanted to belong somewhere. Failed at that too.
"I want them to hurt the way they hurt me," I hear myself say. The honesty surprises me. "I want Corvin and Ondine and Maris to feel what I felt. I want them to lose everything."
Vesper's mouth curves into something that's not quite a smile. "Good. Anger is better than despair."
"Is it?" I laugh bitterly. "Because right now I want to die and kill them at the same time."
"Then choose killing them. It's more productive."
The bluntness shocks a real laugh out of me. It hurts—everything hurts—but for a second, the pain lessens.
"Where am I?" I ask.
"The Rogue King's fortress. You're safe here."
The Rogue King. The masked man. The mate bond that snapped between us before I—
"I rejected him." The memory crashes back. "I rejected the bond."
"Yes." Vesper's expression is unreadable. "That was... bold."
"He made me shift. The shift killed my pup. Why would I accept a bond with him?"
"Because he saved your life. The shift was the only way to counteract the wolfsbane antidote's effects. Without it, you would have died within the hour."
My hands clench in the sheets. "So I should be grateful he killed my baby to save me?"
"No." Vesper stands. "You should be angry. Use that anger. Channel it into something useful instead of drowning in it."
She heads for the door.
"Wait," I call. "The Rogue King—Calix. What does he want from me?"
Vesper pauses. "Why don't you ask him yourself? He's been outside your door for six hours, waiting for you to wake up."
Six hours? Why would he—
The door opens before I can finish the thought.
The masked man—Calix—fills the doorway. He's tall, muscular, radiating the kind of power that makes my new wolf whimper in recognition. Even through the rejection, some part of me responds to him.
I hate that.
"Get out," I say.
"No." He steps inside. Vesper slips past him and closes the door, leaving us alone.
"I rejected you. That means you have no claim on me."
"Rejection doesn't erase what you are." He moves closer. Even with the mask distorting his voice, I hear the pain underneath. "You're Nightborn. Like me."
I blink. "What?"
"The bloodline everyone thought was extinct. Your half-shift—that incomplete transformation—that's a Nightborn trait. We shift differently than normal wolves. More powerful. More dangerous."
"I'm not powerful. I'm broken."
"You survived years of wolfsbane poisoning that should have killed you." He's right beside the bed now. "You shifted for the first time under the worst possible circumstances and lived. You lost everything and you're still breathing. That's not broken. That's steel wrapped in flesh."
The words hit deeper than they should.
"What do you want from me?" I demand.
"I want to give you a choice." He extends his hand. "Come with me. Let me show you what you really are. Help me destroy the people who hurt us both."
"Both?"
"Corvin Hale was my Beta seven years ago. He framed me for killing my brother and sent me into exile. He's the reason I wear this mask. The reason my wolf is crippled." His violet eye burns through the mask. "Your mate and mine share an enemy."
The word 'mate' stings. We're not mates anymore. I rejected that.
But the thought of revenge...
"Why should I trust you? You're a stranger who killed my pup—"
"The pup was already dying." His voice is flat. Hard. "Vesper found evidence of poison in your bloodstream specifically targeting your pregnancy. Someone was trying to make you miscarry. The shift just finished what they started."
The room spins.
"What?"
"The wolfsbane suppressed your wolf. But there was something else. A different poison. Slow-acting. Meant to end the pregnancy without anyone realizing it was murder."
Maris. It had to be Maris. She gave me those "vitamins" every morning. Said they were for the baby's health.
"So my pup was dead either way," I whisper.
"I'm sorry."
The apology sounds genuine. But it doesn't change anything.
"You said you'd give me a choice," I say. "What choice?"
Calix pulls something from his pocket. A small device. He presses a button and a hologram springs to life between us.
It's a video. Corvin and Ondine, in what looks like the pack house. Recent footage—Ondine's stomach is larger now, maybe five months along.
"The wolfless bitch is probably dead by now," Ondine laughs. "The Wastes don't leave survivors."
"Good riddance," Corvin says, kissing her neck. "Now we can focus on our real heir. Our strong, perfect pup."
"Your mother was brilliant to poison her pregnancy," Ondine continues. "Sable never suspected a thing."
My mother? But my mother is dead—
Then I realize. She means Maris. Corvin's mother.
Maris is Corvin's mother.
My stepmother orchestrated everything with her son. The affair. The frame-up. The poisoning.
It was never about Ondine being stronger. It was about control. About getting rid of me so they could rule together.
"Where did you get this?" I breathe.
"I have spies everywhere." Calix stops the video. "Including in your former pack. I've been gathering evidence against Corvin for years. Waiting for the right moment to strike."
"Why haven't you struck yet?"
"Because I needed the one thing he values most. The one weapon that could truly destroy him." His eye meets mine. "I needed his rejected mate. The wolf he underestimated. The woman he threw away."
Understanding dawns.
"You want to use me."
"I want to offer you partnership." He extends his hand again. "Help me bring down Corvin and everyone who hurt you. In exchange, I give you protection, power, and the training to become what you were always meant to be."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then you're free to leave. I won't stop you. But out there—" he gestures toward the window, "—you're a rejected, wolfless omega with nowhere to go. They'll find you. And next time, I won't be there to save you."
I stare at his extended hand.
Every instinct screams not to trust him. He's using me. This is manipulation.
But he's also offering me exactly what I want: revenge.
"If I agree," I say slowly, "I want full partnership. Not just following orders. I get a say in the plans."
"Agreed."
"And you stay away from me. No mate bond games. No trying to convince me to accept you."
Pain flashes through his visible eye. "Agreed."
"And when this is over—when Corvin and Maris and Ondine are destroyed—I'm free to leave."
A long pause.
"Agreed," he finally says.
I take his hand.
The moment our skin touches, electricity sparks between us. Not the mate bond—I rejected that. But something else. Something older and more dangerous.
Power.
His Nightborn bloodline recognizing mine.
"Partners," I say.
"Partners," he agrees.
Then Vesper bursts through the door, her face white with panic.
"Calix, we have a problem. A big one." She's breathless. "There's an army at our gates. Three hundred wolves. Led by—"
"Let me guess," I say bitterly. "Corvin Hale."
"No." Vesper's eyes lock on mine. "It's led by your father. Stellan Thorne. The man who supposedly died fifteen years ago."
The world stops.
My father is alive.
And he's here.