Seven women entered Kane Croft’s private wing after midnight. None made it to sunrise.

That night, after the council members had fled the hall in total disarray to inspect their own financial ledgers, Kane led me down into the deepest subterranean levels of Blackwood Keep.

We walked down a narrow stone staircase lit by glowing blue crystals, deep beneath the bedrock of the mountain.

At the bottom of the stairs sat an ancient vaulted chamber made of obsidian stone. In the center of the room stood a massive stone basin filled with glowing, silver liquid—the ancestral Moon Pool of the Croft Bloodline.

"This is where the truth lies, Harper," Kane said softly, stopping at the edge of the pool.

"The truth about what?" I asked, looking down into the shimmering water.

"The curse," Kane answered, his face growling dark with ancient sorrow. "My father, my grandfather, and every Alpha King before me didn't go mad because of stress or power. We went mad because of a poison."

I looked up at him in shock. "A poison?!"

Kane nodded grimly. "Three hundred years ago, the High Council secretly commissioned a dark alchemical poison known as Wolf's Decay. It is an invisible, odorless toxin administered in micro-doses over generations through the royal water supply. It slowly degrades the Alpha's mental barriers, driving them mad so the Council can control the crown from behind the scenes."

My hands flew to my mouth. "That's why Silas wanted you isolated! That's why he was putting acoustic triggers in your room! He was accelerating the poison!"

"Yes," Kane said, taking my hand and holding it over the silver water of the Moon Pool. "For seven months, Silas was feeding me micro-doses of Wolf's Decay through my daily wine ration. I was weeks away from total brain hemorrhaging."

"Then how are you sane now?" I asked, bewildered. "How did you recover so quickly?"

Kane looked at me, a profound, spiritual light shining in his golden eyes.

"Because of you, Harper," he whispered. "When a true Alpha King finds his fated Mate, the spiritual bond creates a divine immunity. The moment you stepped into my room and offered me your heart without fear, our souls recognized each other. Your presence neutralized the poison in my blood."

Tears welled in my eyes. I reached up, cupping his strong jaw with my hands.

"You're not cursed, Kane," I whispered. "You were just waiting for me."

Kane leaned down, resting his forehead against mine, his hot breath brushing across my lips. "I have been waiting for you my entire life, my Queen."

He closed the distance between us, his lips meeting mine in a deep, passionate kiss that sent a wave of golden light exploding through the chamber.