The Poisoned Feast

Evelyn’s POV:

The great hall blazed with light. Gold banners hung from the rafters, and laughter rolled like thunder across the tables. It was Lucien’s night, his ceremony to step into his father’s place. Every wolf in the Blood Fang Pack wanted to be seen smiling for their soon-to-be Alpha.

I moved between the tables with a tray of goblets. The smell of roasted meat and sweet wine filled the air until I could hardly breathe. I kept my eyes down, the way an omega should. My heart still hurt from the humiliation of the last few days. My name had become a joke that never stopped echoing.

“Careful, omega,” a guard muttered as I passed. “Wouldn’t want to spill on your new Alpha.”

Laughter followed. I said nothing.

Lucien sat at the head table beside Selena. He looked like a king already—broad shoulders, golden eyes, power rolling off him in quiet waves. When he laughed, the hall seemed to lean closer. When he frowned, the sound died instantly.

I hated that my eyes kept finding him.

Selena wore a silver dress that shimmered like moonlight. She leaned toward him, whispering, her fingers brushing his arm. Each time she touched him, something in me twisted.

When she saw me, her smile sharpened. “Evelyn!” she called sweetly, loud enough for everyone nearby to hear. “Come pour us some wine.”

I walked over, careful to keep my hands steady. She held up two goblets and gave me that innocent-looking smile that hid claws.

“You’ve worked so hard lately,” she said. “Let’s drink to forgiveness.”

Her friends snickered. My stomach tightened. Forgiveness from Selena was never free.

I filled her glass, then Lucien’s. The scent that rose from Selena’s cup made my head ache—too sweet, with a metallic hint that didn’t belong. The faint shimmer across the surface told me it had been laced with something. Wolfsbane maybe, or something worse.

She was watching me, waiting for me to drink first.

I forced a small smile, lifted my own goblet, and whispered, “To the Alpha.”

Before she could blink, I switched the cups.

She laughed lightly and drank.

Lucien’s eyes flicked toward us for just a heartbeat. He said nothing, but I saw it—the faint tightening of his jaw, the suspicion in his gaze. He’d noticed the swap.

The hall spun forward into more laughter and clinking glasses. I slipped back toward the shadows, tray pressed against my chest. My pulse wouldn’t slow.

Half an hour later, Selena stood to toast Lucien again. Her voice was bright and false.

“To our future Alpha,” she said, raising her glass. “May the Moon Goddess bless him with strength, loyalty, and—”

Her sentence broke. The glass fell from her hand, shattering. She swayed, clutching the table edge as her face drained of color.

Gasps filled the room.

“Selena?” Lucien stood, steadying her by the arm. “What’s wrong?”

“I, I don’t…” She slumped against him, breath hitching. Her friends rushed forward.

Whispers flew. “Poisoned?” “The wine!” “Who—?”

I backed away slowly, heart pounding so hard it hurt. I hadn’t wanted to kill her—just stop whatever she’d planned for me. Maybe the Goddess had turned her trap on itself.

Lucien’s gaze found me across the crowd. Cold. Searching.

Our eyes locked. For a second I couldn’t move. The bond burned under my skin, that strange, aching pull that wouldn’t die no matter how cruel he was.

He took a step toward me, but Rowan caught his shoulder, murmuring something too low to hear. Lucien didn’t answer; his stare never left me.

I turned and fled the hall before anyone could stop me.

Outside, the night air hit my face like ice. I pressed a hand to my chest and tried to breathe. Somewhere behind me, the pack was in chaos, Selena’s cries rising like smoke. I should have been terrified.

Instead, for the first time in my life, I felt… steady. Not powerful, not brave, just steady. I had faced her and lived.

The moon hung above the trees, pale and watching. I whispered to it without thinking, “I won’t break.”

And somewhere deep inside, a spark answered.

Lucien’s POV:

The laughter in the hall meant nothing. Every sound scraped at my nerves. I’d rather be outside, training until my hands bled, than sitting here while wolves bowed and pretended to worship a title I hadn’t even earned yet.

Selena clung to my arm, her perfume too sweet. She looked perfect tonight—silver dress, practiced smile—but something about her felt off. Maybe I was the one who’d changed. Maybe that cursed ceremony had left a mark deeper than I wanted to admit.

Because every time I looked up, my gaze found her.

Evelyn.

She moved between tables like a ghost, silent, careful. The same weak omega I’d rejected—yet nothing about her silence felt small anymore. It unsettled me, the way the bond still hummed under my skin when she walked past. I told myself it was pity. A lie even my wolf didn’t believe.

Then Selena called her over. I felt the muscles in my jaw tighten as Evelyn poured the wine. Selena’s voice had that dangerous sweetness I knew too well. I watched Evelyn’s hands—steady, graceful—and then I saw it. The switch. Subtle, quick.

What was that, Evelyn? Cleverness or fear?

The scent of the drink hit me next—too metallic, too sharp. Wolfsbane, faint but real. My instincts roared, but I stayed still. I needed to see how far this would go.

Minutes later Selena raised her glass, and before I could stop her, she drank.

The world slowed. Her face drained of color, eyes wide, glass shattering. Gasps rippled through the crowd.

I was on my feet, catching her before she hit the floor. “Selena!”

She coughed, shaking. I could feel the tremor of poison under her skin, but not enough to kill—someone had known the dose. Someone had planned it carefully.

“Get the healer!” I barked. The hall erupted. Wolves scrambled, servants cried out. And through the noise, my eyes found Evelyn at the edge of the crowd, standing too still.

Everyone else looked terrified. She looked calm. Shaken, yes, but not guilty. More like someone who’d survived a storm she’d seen coming.

Our gazes locked. Her lips parted slightly, a breath, a question—or a challenge. I couldn’t tell. The bond between us flared, alive again, dragging me toward her. My wolf pushed hard in my chest.

Mine.

I shoved the thought away. She was nothing. She had to be nothing.

Rowan’s hand landed on my shoulder. “Lucien, focus. She’s breathing; it’s not lethal.”

I nodded, forcing my eyes from Evelyn. “Find out what she drank. And who poured it.”

Rowan hesitated, then followed my order, though we both knew who had poured it.

When I turned back, Evelyn was gone. The door at the end of the hall swung gently, the scent of night and her clinging to it. Chocolate and chili. Wild and wrong.

I found her outside minutes later, by the edge of the forest. She was barefoot, staring at the moon. Her shoulders shook, but she didn’t cry. The sight hit harder than I wanted it to.

“You have a talent for chaos,” I said. My voice sounded colder than I felt.

She turned slowly. “You think I poisoned her?”

“I think you knew.”

Her eyes lifted to mine, steady, clear. “She tried to poison me first.” she spoke with a courage,I didn't know she have.

The honesty in her voice punched through every wall I’d built. She wasn’t pleading, she wasn’t broken. She was just… telling the truth.

I took a step closer. “You switched the cups.”

She didn’t deny it. “Would you rather I let her kill me?”

My wolf snarled inside me, half fury, half something else. I should have yelled, punished her for daring to speak to me like that. Instead I found myself closing the distance until I could feel her breath against my chest.

“Careful, omega,” I said quietly. “You’re forgetting who I am.”

Her chin lifted. “You keep reminding me.”

The bond burned hotter. My hand twitched before I could stop it, catching her chin, forcing her to look up. The moment stretched, tight, breathless. Her eyes were dark pools pulling me under.

I wanted to break that gaze. I wanted to break the hold she had on me. Instead, I leaned closer—just close enough to feel the warmth of her breath, and then stopped, fighting the impulse that screamed to claim what I’d already thrown away.

“I should hate you,” I whispered. “So why can’t I?”

She didn’t answer. She didn’t have to. The silence between us said everything.

I dropped my hand and turned away before the bond could drag me further. “Stay away from me, Evelyn,” I said, voice rough. “Next time, I won’t save you.”

Behind me, the night stayed quiet. But her scent followed me all the way back to the hall, haunting, unshakable.