CHAPTER 4: The Poison Kiss

Elara frowned, tilting her head slightly as she felt his pulse racing wildly, she was about to open the mask when he held her hand.

"Do not touch it, because the poison inside that wound burns anyone who comes close."

Elara ignores his warning, "I am your Mate now, whether you like it or not. A Luna does not run away when her Alpha is poisoned and dying slowly."

Silas's eyes widened, his breath catching as he felt her soft warm palms on his cold skin.

Elara's lips curled into a cold brave smile, as she pulled the mask away slowly.

One side of his face was perfect, god-like and the other side was a nightmare. The wound itself was not big but a small dirty cut that pulsed with black poison eating him alive slowly.

Silas's eyes squeezed shut, waiting for the familiar scream of disgust that had chased away every other girl before.

Elara did not scream, her soft brown eyes filling with tears, "Who did this to you, Alpha Silas, who was so cruel that they would send a witch blade to slowly poison an Alpha before he could become Alpha King?"

Silas's eyes snapped open, his grey eyes shocked and vulnerable, his voice rough and broken as he stared at her soft chubby face that showed no fear at all.

"You are not screaming, little Luna, you are not running, and you are not looking at me like I am a monster that should be locked away and hidden."

Elara leaned forward, her soft body pressing against his massive chest, "I am not going to run, because your scar is not ugly at all."

System screamed again inside her head, its voice urgent and bright, pushing her to act quickly before the poison reached his heart and killed him.

[ACTION REQUIRED: KISS THE WOUND NOW! YOUR SALIVA HAS TEMPORARY HEALING PROPERTIES THAT CAN PUSH THE VENOM BACK FROM HIS HEART! DO IT!]

Elara inhaled deeply, her soft lips parting as she tilted her head and pressed her warm trembling mouth directly onto the small black wound.

Silas roared, his body arching violently, his hands flying to grip the bed as fire and ice exploded through his veins at once.

The black veins around the wound writhed.

Inside Silas's chest, his wolf, who had been silent and sleeping for twelve long months, suddenly threw back its massive head and howled loudly enough to shake the mansion walls that made every wolf in Obsidian Fang Pack drop to their knees in the streets below.

Elara pulled away, breathing heavily as she watched the black veins slowly retreat from Silas's neck. For the first time, the terrifying Alpha looked genuinely stunned, his trembling fingers rising to touch the wound she had just kissed.

"What did you do to me?" he whispered, his voice rough with disbelief.

Elara wiped her lips with the back of her hand, trying to ignore the strange warmth spreading through her chest. "I told you I could help you, didn't I?"

Silas stared at her as though she had become the greatest mystery he had ever encountered. Nobody had ever dared to touch his cursed wound, much less make the poison retreat.

Downstairs in the kitchen hallway, Vivian had pressed her ear against the crack of the massive bedroom door, spying shamelessly.

Vivian's face twisted with shock and jealousy as she heard Silas roar and then heard his wolf howl for the first time since his curse began.

"She is doing witchcraft, that fat rejected girl is doing evil witchcraft on our Alpha, and she is making his wolf howl like she is some kind of dark witch!"

Vivian's voice shook, her hands balling into fists as she pulled away from the door, her red dress swishing as she ran down the hallway toward Rowena's small room.

Rowena was sitting at a small wooden table, her face pale as she also heard the impossible howl that had not been heard in Obsidian Fang for a year.

"Rowena, that fat girl kissed his poisoned scar and his wolf howled, and we must send word to Red Moon Pack immediately that their rejected girl is dangerous!"

Rowena's eyes narrowed, her thin lips curling into a cold calculating sneer as she thought about her cousin, Kade's mother, who had sent her here years ago to poison Silas.

"That chubby girl knows too much, Vivian."

Rowena pulled out a small black piece of paper, her hands shaking slightly as she scribbled a quick message with a piece of charcoal from the fireplace.

"Send this to Lyra Moon in Red Moon Pack tonight."

Meanwhile, far away in Red Moon Pack, Kade Stone was suffering the full backlash of a broken Mate bond that he had never expected to hurt him so badly.

Kade lay on the cold stone floor of the Great Hall, his handsome face pale and sweaty, his chest heaving as his own wolf whimpered inside his mind like a wounded pup.

"Why does my chest hurt so much, why does my wolf cry for her, when I am the Alpha who should be strong?"

Lyra knelt beside him, her face full of fake tears, her hands trying to hold his shaking shoulders, "Kade, my love, please do not think about that sister of mine, because I am here and I am carrying your heir and I will be your true Luna."

Kade's eyes snapped open, his gaze cold and suspicious as he looked at Lyra's flat belly that showed no sign of pregnancy despite her claims of carrying his child.

"Lyra, you said you were pregnant with my heir few weeks ago, but your belly is still flat and you smell wrong, like you are not pregnant at all."

Lyra's face paled, her eyes widening as she realized her lie about being pregnant was starting to crumble under Kade's Alpha senses.

Outside the Great Hall, the crops in Red Moon's fields were already wilting, the land itself weakening because a Luna's presence strengthens a pack and her leaving weakens it.

An elder rushed in, his face panicked, his voice shaking as he bowed low before his bleeding Alpha, "Alpha Kade, our northern border wolves are reporting that our strength is dropping, our warriors are feeling weak, and the land is dying since Luna Elara left us today."

Kade's fist slammed against the stone floor, his eyes blazing with a new painful realization that he had thrown away the one girl who made his pack strong.

"Bring Elara back, bring her back right now!"