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“Don’t worry.” Terrence smiles at me suddenly. “From today on, nobody will ever treat you as less than a queen.”

Before I can ask him what he means by that comment, he walks away. “Wait here. I’ll get you something to drink.”

My eyes linger on his retreating figure, and I feel a sense of unease within me. Perhaps it’s the fact that I feel like a guest in my childhood home? I can’t put a finger on it, but I’m definitely uncomfortable.

Taking out my phone, I try calling Robert, only to discover there’s no signal here. But then my phone vibrates, and Ricky’s name pops up in the message notifications.

“No outgoing calls, but I can receive messages?” I mutter, confused. “What’s going on?”

I’m about to open the message when I hear pounding footsteps, as if someone is running. My head jerks toward the main hallway, and a woman bursts out of it. The sight of her has me gaping.

My sister’s flawless complexion is marred with bruises. One of her eyes is swollen shut. Her hair looks like chunks have been torn out.

My heart crawls into my throat. “Arabella!”

She sees me and rushes toward me. “Help me! Help me, please!”

There’s no trace of arrogance on her face anymore, just desperation. “He’s going to kill me! Please! Help me!”

“Arabella, who?” I grab her by the upper arms and give her a little shake. “Who’s trying to kill you?”

Her eyes are crazed with pain. “We have to go! We have to g—”

“Go where?” comes a pleasant voice from the hallway.

I look up as Arabella turns white as a sheet, hiding behind me as she used to do when she was a child.

Terrence is standing there, and a feeling of foreboding overtakes me.

“What is going on, Terrence? Why is Arabella in this state?” I demand.

“She’s paying for her sins.” Terrence beams at me. “And I’m not done with her yet.”

When his gaze settles on the cowering girl behind me, there’s an intense hatred in his eyes, one I’ve never witnessed before. It makes me shiver.

“She’s the reason we couldn’t be together, Charlotte.” Terrence’s voice is harsh. “After everything I did for this clan, all I wanted was one thing in return. You. And your father couldn’t even keep his end of the bargain. To my face, he agreed to the engagement between us, but just when the clan began to achieve success due to my efforts, he backed off, claiming you ran off and died, and then arranging my engagement with your sister!”

I stare at him, shocked. “You knew?”

Terrence gives the cowering Arabella a hateful look before turning his attention toward me. “I wouldn’t have found out if I hadn’t arrived earlier than planned. I saw you in the street. I thought I was imagining things, so I followed you. And not just that day. For a couple of days, I followed you. I thought I was going mad. The animal shelter, your apartment, your place of work. And I realized it really was you. I sent word to your father, asking if he was sure you were dead, because I’d seen you. He asked me where, and I made the mistake of telling him. I didn’t think he would have the guts to touch you. But I was wrong.”

My brain is trying to process all this information. There are a lot of things that aren’t making sense to me—especially the way Terrence is talking, as if my father should have been scared of him. Why would my father be scared of Terrence?

“Your father and sister decided the jig was up, and that’s why Arabella took it upon herself to try to kill you.”

“I was—” Arabella can hardly speak, she’s crying so hard. “I was only going to scar your face. Father told me I had to! I had no other choice!”

“Shut up!” Terrence roars. “Don’t pity her, Charlotte! How can you pity someone who was so cruel to you—”

“I did everything you told me to do, Terrence!” Arabella suddenly screams, clutching my dress as if frightened I’m going to abandon her.

A terrifying flash of rage crosses Terrence’s face. “Do you think lying to Charlotte is going to save you? You and your father stabbed me in the back! You—”

“What do you mean, everything he told you to do?” I ask Arabella, my heart pounding.

“Everything!” Tears stream down her face. “He told me and Clyde to hurt you so that he could rescue you! Clyde enjoyed it, but I didn’t! But he said I was special, and Father said I had to listen to what Terrence said!”

“Shut up!” Terrence roars, but when he moves toward her, I block his path, a sick feeling forming in my stomach. My phone vibrates again, and my eyes lower to it just long enough to read the message Ricky has sent me.

The macaroons had poison in them. Call me now.

The macaroons?

For a moment, I’m confused, not knowing what he’s talking about. But when I lift my gaze to meet Terrence’s, he looks unhinged, and I remember.

“The macaroons,” I murmur, my head spinning. “You gave me those macaroons.”

“So?” Terrence frowns.

Robert told me about the poison that had taken my abilities away. Of course, Ricky knows about it, too; Robert said the vet had been the one to discover the poison in the blood I threw up. There’s been a lot going on lately, so I haven’t had the time to think about everything properly, but Ricky’s message is dragging me down memory lane.

“You always used to give me food to eat,” I say numbly, staring at the man who proclaims to love me. “I lost my abilities after I met you. You poisoned me.”

Terrence’s jaw tightens. “That’s nonsense. Who is filling your head with—”

“That day at the coffee shop,” I cut him off, my brain beginning to put the pieces together. “I vomited because you put something in my coffee, didn’t you? You didn’t know that Robert had been feeding me his blood. You never would have thought that a wolf Alpha would do that. That’s why I threw it up, along with all the leftover poison in my system. And the macaroons. You brought the macaroons because you remembered I used to like them. You put poison in them, too. You wanted me to lose my abilities. Even when I was a child. Why?”

My heart is aching because I genuinely believed that Terrence and I could form a path of friendship, when all he was trying to do was poison me. But for what possible reason?