Chapter 19

DANTE

I've spent the last few days watching Leah sleep out of exhaustion on the coach, and now it felt like I was living in hell in my house. I couldn't touch or have a normal conversation, hell! She only tolerated me because she needs my training, but I've had enough of this bullshit.

It was time.

After watching her hold herself together by her own will. Every moment we shared felt like a ticking clock, and every lie I withheld tightened the noose around my throat and I couldn't take it anymore.

Leah didn’t trust me and I mean how could she? After everything I've done? And who could blame her? Her entire life had been a series of betrayal stitched together by the people who were supposed to protect her. I would rather not be another shadow in her past. I wanted to be her light, and I was going an absolute shitty job at doing that.

Tonight, I’d tell her the truth. Everything.

She was my mate.

And not just any mate, my destined one. The bond I’d waited for all my life, the pull I’d felt long before I even knew her name. She was fire and steel and scars wrapped in skin, and I was the fool who had kept it all from her, thinking I was doing the right thing.

No more lies. No more half-truths. She deserved better. She deserved everything.

Stepping out of my office I walked to our room and the linger of her scent make my wolf relax, I could hear her grunts from the balcony and I couldn't help but walk to the balcony to watching her train at the training ground

It was the most beautiful site, as if realizing I was staring she looked up and glared at me. Goodness! She really hated my guts at this point.

I stepped away to take a shower while letting my mind think of how to deliver everything to her. The evening light from the window dawn upon the room floor faster than I anticipated, but she was still not back in the room, perhaps she knew I was here that's why she wasn't coming back.

I stood in front of the full-length mirror in my room, adjusting the dark jacket I had on, trying to smooth the nerves that had gathered in my stomach like storm clouds.

I left the room to the dinning hall to see if everything was ready. The place was completely transformed, candles flickering along the long table, silver covers gleaming beneath soft lighting, and a delicate floral scent lingering in the air. Gareth had rolled his eyes at the roses, but I knew Leah liked them. She once whispered it in her sleep.

I was going to make this right.

“Your Highness,” my attendant said from the door, “The table is ready.”

“Where’s Leah?” I asked curiosity for no one was on the training ground and the attendant stiffened a bit making me curious.

“She’s in the west wing. I believe she wanted to… explore.”

A flicker of unease passed through me. The west wing housed my private quarters, including my study and storage. I trusted her not to destroy anything, but I didn’t trust the secrets hidden behind those oak doors. Still, I shrugged it off. I was about to tell her everything anyway. She’d understand, once she heard the truth.

LEAH

I should be getting ready for dinner especially now that I know that he wasn't in the room anymore, honestly I couldn't stand him and all his lies but with that aside

Something felt off. The doctor’s words still echoed in my head like a haunting lullaby. This is the same poison that killed Darren Strong’s past fiancées. My hands had trembled for hours after hearing that. It wasn’t just a slow poison, it was a signature, a pattern, a message. Someone wanted women like me dead. Women who got too close.

Everything in me screamed to go after my ex-mother in-law, but I had a sickening feeling that she wasn't the only one in this game, but why do they truly want them dead? Want me dead?

And now here I was, tangled in the arms of not just a powerful man, the king Lycan!

I couldn’t shake the feeling that Dante knew more than he let on. The way he looked at me sometimes like I was something fragile and precious. Like he’d seen me before I even walked into his life. Maybe that’s why my feet had carried me here, to the west wing I was asked to avoid even if the servants tried to talk me out of it.

I still didn't know some part of the house; hence the servants trying to talk me out even if I was their Queen. I could see that they care, and honestly, I appreciated that, but Dante could do whatever he wanted for all I care.

The hallway was colder here, quieter. Each step echoed against the marbled floor, the only light coming from the flickering wall torches. I stopped in front of the door labeled Storage. The lock had been left undone, strange for a man who kept so many walls around himself.

Curiosity obviously won me over and I pushed the door

Inside, the scent of old parchment and cedar wrapped around me like a spell. The room was surprisingly organized, shelves lined with labeled boxes, glass cases with scrolls, a desk with drawers and neatly stacked files. But one drawer was slightly left open, as if someone had rifled through it recently.

I walked to it before gently opening

Inside were thick folders, each labeled with a name. The moment I saw the first one, my heart stopped.

ISABELLA REYNOLDS

I flipped it open and saw her photo first, a brunette with sharp cheekbones and pale skin. There was a summary underneath, clinical and cold.

Status: Deceased.

Cause of Death: Poisoning.

My mouth went dry as shivers went down my spine

The next folder read Maria Alder. And then Selene Castor. And then two other women Dante hadn't mentioned earlier.

My hands trembled as I opened each one. Five. Five women.

All poisoned. All fiancées of Dante. And every single one of them… looked like me. The resemblance was horrifying, soft features, long lashes, similar builds. Were we just… prototypes? Test subjects?

Was I next?

I tried to breathe. My lungs refused. I held on to the shelf to keep myself from falling down. Three was left out, three documents weren't here, he had told me about two and this was five, what happened to the remaining three?

A rustling sound startled me, and a loose paper slipped from the final folder, floating gently to the floor like it had been waiting for me all along.

I crouched down and picked it up, heart racing.

It was a letter, old parchment, sealed with the royal crest.

I furrowed my eyebrows confused. I knew Lycan's lived for a very longer time, but the detailing of the royal crest looked too ancient like twenty decades ago, has he been alive this entire time? I hesitated looking at the letter and swallowed.

Gently I pulled on the crest and opened it, the writing was old and Latin, lucky for me, I learnt Latin before Darren got me out of school

“Leah Waters, daughter of Robert Waters, was born a rare she-wolf and is the key to breaking the lycan curse.”

My heart dropped and the world tilted.

No.

No.

The paper slipped out of my hand as the words went on a repeat in my head, my mind scrambling to comprehend them. What curse? What rare she-wolf? My father’s name, Robert Waters burned on the page like it was mocking me. How did Dante have this? Why had he kept it?

I picked the paper again unable to comprehend what I had just saw, it must be a lie, I couldn't possibly be reading the right thing, but it was the same, no words changed

The paper shook in my hands, and I stumbled backward, crashing against the edge of the desk.

Rare.

Curse-breaker.

Fiancées. Poison.

It all connected. The pieces began forming a horrifying puzzle. Darren had kept me even if he didn't love me, his mother tried to kill me severally, and I had become Dante's eleventh wife after I was fooled by a deal. All seven wives looked like me.

Was I never a choice, but a tool?

Was I really just… part of some prophecy? Why am I even part of a prophecy? I don't have a wolf, how could I possibly break a curse that I don't even know about?

My eyes filled with tears as my mind kept moving at the pace of a cheetah then a chill went down my spine as the door creaked behind me.

And I didn’t even need to turn to know who stood there.