Chapter 2

Sabine POV

I groaned and shifted, my eyes opening slowly.

My senses were immediately assaulted by a mix of sights and smells. I caught the slightly unpleasant odor of drugs and disinfectant.

The pale blue curtains and white walls told me I was definitely in a hospital and not dead. I moved again and felt a pinch. Looking down, I saw an IV line connected to my arm.

“You’re awake.”

I turned at the sound of the voice and saw Dominic rising from a chair by the window. He walked toward me, a smile on his lips.

But the sight of his face triggered the memories that had come rushing back like a flood when I crashed.

I remembered everything.

———

**Flashback**

“This is the autopsy report you requested,” said Dr. Sam, my parents’ physician, as he handed me the thin folder.

I was already opening it as I sank into a chair, my lips moving silently while I read.

A chill crashed down my spine when I reached the end of the document and found the words “Death by drug poisoning” staring back at me.

I stared at those four words for a very long time. Part of me kept thinking my grieving mind had somehow conjured them. When they didn’t change no matter how many times I blinked, I looked at the doctor.

“Death by drug poisoning?” I said in a voice I barely recognized as my own.

Dr. Sam pushed his glasses up his sweaty nose and nodded.

“Yes, Alpha,” he said. “As you suspected, the fact that both your parents had heart attacks on the same day was suspicious and certainly no coincidence. We found a significant amount of erythropoietin in their systems—something both of them, as you know, are allergic to.”

I stood slowly, my hands shaking so badly the paper I held rustled.

“Erythropoietin?” I asked.

Dr. Sam nodded again and I clutched my chest, trying to breathe.

My parents had often joked about their allergies to that medication.

Many times my father would take my mother’s hand, smile at me, and say, “What are the odds I’d fall in love and marry someone with the same allergies as me? Your mother and I must be soulmates.”

Now they were dead because of that drug, and only three people knew about the allergy. Those three were me, Dr. Sam, and Lilian—my best friend, whom my parents had treated like their own daughter.

How could my parents have been poisoned with a drug only the three of us knew about?

Hot tears rolled down my cheeks as I asked, “Who could have done this, Doctor? Who could have poisoned them?”

Dr. Sam shook his head sadly. “I’m afraid I don’t know. But anyone who knew about their allergy is a suspect. However, there’s something else that may help.”

He handed me a slip of paper.

“Here,” he said. “That’s the name of the only authorized pharmacy that sells that medication. Their phone number is there too. They refused to give me a list of recent buyers, but you’re the Alpha. They’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”

He stood. “Please excuse me, I have patients waiting.”

I fell back into my chair, stunned, barely noticing when Dr. Sam left.

Slowly I pulled myself together, found my phone, and dialed the pharmacy number he had given me. I put the phone to my ear and listened to it ring.

“Hello?” a woman’s voice answered. I opened my mouth but no sound came out.

“Hello?” the voice said again. “Is anyone there?”

“Yes,” I croaked. I took a deep, shaky breath and continued. “This is… Alpha Sabine. I need to know who recently purchased a medication called erythropoietin. I need the information now.”

The woman said immediately, “Please hold, Alpha Sabine, while I check.”

I gripped the phone so tightly my knuckles turned white. Then I swore to myself that I would destroy whoever had done this to my parents. I would torture them and watch them die slowly.

The woman’s voice returned. “Alpha Sabine?”

I leaned forward. “Still here.”

“The medication, erythropoietin, was purchased online exactly two weeks ago by someone named Dominic H. It was delivered…” She paused and I heard more keyboard clicking. “It was delivered to Grand Estate, which is your property. Is there anything else I can help you with, Alpha?”

The phone slipped from my hand. It fell to the floor, but I didn’t care. I stood up, the whole room spinning as I staggered.

Suddenly it was hard to breathe. I lunged forward, grabbing the edge of the table to stay upright.

Dominic H, the woman had said. No. It was impossible.

No.

The man my parents had wanted me to marry couldn’t have done this… No. Tears fell from my eyes and my lips trembled as I clutched my chest.

Then, slowly, my pain turned to rage. I wanted to kill him, to make him feel more pain than my parents had.

Furious, I straightened, grabbed my phone, and ran out of my office. I sprinted to my car and climbed in.

I angrily wiped away my tears and started the engine. I drove on muscle memory alone because my thoughts were everywhere. I kept seeing my parents’ bodies and then Dominic’s face.

The man I was about to marry.

Halfway home, my phone rang. It was Dominic calling. My fingers curled around the phone in rage and I wished they were wrapped around Dominic’s neck, squeezing the life out of him the way he had done to my parents.

“Hey, sweetheart,” he said when I answered, sounding cheerful as always. “When are you getting here?”

“I know what you did,” I cut in.

My voice was shaking, but I was sure he heard it. And he understood.

Of course he did. Maybe some part of him had been waiting for a day like this.

“What?” he said after a few seconds of silence. “What are you talking about, Sabine?”

I breathed in and screamed the words: “You killed my parents, you monster!”

Right then a car horn blared, drowning out Dominic’s reply. I looked up through the windshield and saw a car speeding toward me. I tried to swerve.

But it was too late.

———

**END OF FLASHBACK**

Now the man staring at me with a fake expression of concern and affection was the one who had ended my parents’ lives. The man who had taken my title.

I clutched the sheet to keep from striking him in rage.

Dominic frowned as he leaned forward.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

I wanted to scream NO, that I knew what he had done, you murdering bastard! He could stop pretending now!

But I didn’t say it. I was angry—no, furious—but I wasn’t stupid. For now we were the only ones in this hospital room and I was still weak from my injuries. It would be so easy for him to kill me right now if he even suspected I had recovered my memories.

He must have kept me alive all this time because of my family’s wealth. We owned vast amounts of land. We held a seventeen percent stake in the werewolf wealth bank. And Dominic had access to all of it through me.

Even though he was now Alpha, my family’s lands and assets still belonged to me even after my death. They would not pass to Dominic unless I put it in writing. Still, he had control over part of that wealth.

“What happened to you, darling?” Dominic asked, his hateful voice pulling me from my thoughts.

I resisted the urge to shudder the instant he touched my shoulder. He stroked my cheek and then his hand fell away. I barely suppressed a shiver.

The brief contact made me feel like snakes were crawling all over my skin.

“Darling? Sabine?” he said.

I quickly answered, “I’m sorry, I’m… just a little out of it.” I sighed, sounding weak. “I was driving home. A child ran into the road. I barely avoided hitting her and lost control of the car. The last thing I remember is the car flipping.”

He shook his head. “I told you to take bodyguards with you, but you refused. Now look what happened. I was so worried.”

He didn’t look worried. His eyes, fixed on my face, were watchful and… calculating. And it was easy to see now that I knew the truth.

I glanced slowly toward the door and wished it would open so someone else would come in.

Normally Dominic should have called a doctor or nurse to check on me since I had just regained consciousness, but he didn’t move to do it now. Instead he sat on the bed and nervously licked his lips.

Could he hear my heart hammering against my ribs? I hoped not.

“Sabine?” he said.

“Yes…” I answered through lips that felt numb.

“Tell me… do you remember anything—anything from your past?”