Astra picks up the bottle again, her expression grave. “From what you’re describing, it could have been laced with an aphrodisiac.”
“But why?” The question bursts out of me, frustration and confusion warring in my chest. “If Zane had Selene convinced they were fated mates, she would have accepted his mark. Why drug her?”
Astra moves to her workbench, pulling out various tools and vials. “If the fated mate bond between you and Selene had been manipulated somehow, her wolf might have figured it out when she and Zane got intimate. Which is why Zane needed the wine and the aphrodisiac.”
The words send ice through my veins. “You think he was planning to drug her and mark her before her wolf could resist?”
“It’s likely.” Astra’s hands move with practiced efficiency, drawing a small sample of the wine into a glass vial. She adds various reagents and watches as the liquid changes colors, her brow furrowed in concentration.
Minutes pass in tense silence. I pace the length of the lab, my wolf agitated and snarling. The thought of Zane drugging Selene and manipulating her into accepting his mark makes me want to tear something apart.
“I can’t find anything,” Astra mutters finally, frustration clear in her voice. After a moment, she leans closer to the vial and adds another reagent. The liquid shimmers, then turns a faint purple.
Her breath catches.
“What?” I’m at her side in an instant. “What is it?”
“It is an aphrodisiac,” she says slowly, her voice tight with growingalarm. “But not the kind I thought. This is made from a very rare herb—one that doesn’t only increase desire. It also lowers inhibitions and suppresses the wolf.”
Suddenly, I feel dizzy. “Suppresses the wolf?”
Astra looks up at me, her gaze serious and frightened. “I was right. Selene’s human side would have let Zane give her the mark; she was convinced he was her fated mate, after all. But Zane probably believed her wolf wouldn’t let him. Her animal would have known the truth, would have fought him.” She sets down the vial with trembling hands. “So, he needed something that would silence her wolf completely. Something that would let him mark her before the animal inside her could stop him.”
Rage explodes through me, hot and vicious. My wolf howls with fury, demanding blood, demanding justice for what was almost done to our mate.
“That bastard.” The words come out as a growl. “He was going to force a bond on her. Make her believe she wanted it while drugging away the part of her that would have known better.”
Astra nods, her face pale. “If you hadn’t gotten in the way, if you hadn’t drunk that wine yourself…” She trails off, but we both know how that sentence ends.
Selene would be marked by Zane right now. Bound to him through deception and drugs, her wolf silenced, her true mate forgotten.
The thought makes me see red.
“Seth.” Astra’s hand on my arm pulls me back from the edge of violence. “We need to tell Lucian. And we need to figure out how Zane manipulated Selene’s perception of the mate bond in the first place. Because that shouldn’t be possible, either.”
She’s right. None of this should be possible. But somehow Zane found a way—and now I need to figure out what he’s really after. I need to figure out how to keep Selene safe from whatever twisted game he’s playing.
Because she’s mine now. My mate. Bound to me, whether shelikes it or not.
And I’ll destroy anyone who tries to take what belongs to me.
The sun hangs directly overhead,casting short shadows in the training grounds. Sweat drips down my spine as I watch my soldiers run through their drills, their movements sharp and precise despite the midday heat.
“Faster!” I bark at the squadron running formations. “You think the enemy will wait for you to catch your breath?”
One of the younger soldiers—Torrin, I think—stumbles and nearly crashes into the man ahead of him. The formation breaks apart like water hitting rocks.
“Again!” I stride toward them, ignoring their groans. “From the top. And Torrin, if you trip over your own feet one more time, you’ll be running laps until sunset.”
“Commander,” one of the veterans mutters, just loud enough for me to hear, “we’ve been at this for three hours.”
I turn my glare on him. “And you’ll be at it for three more if I don’t see improvement. Now move!”
They scramble back into position, and I’m about to launch into another critique when my wolf suddenly sits up, alert.
The shift is so abrupt, it takes me aback. One moment I’m focused on the drills, and the next, every instinct is telling me to pay attention to something else entirely.
One second later, a woman’s voice cuts across the grounds like a blade.
