Aries Boone POV:

Pain was the first thing I felt.

A dull, throbbing ache behind my eyes. My body felt heavy, bruised. The venom was gone, but the memory of its fire remained—and beneath it, something worse. The memory of hands on me that I couldn't push away.

Then came the scent.

Lilies and fresh rain. It clung to the air in the cave, to my skin, to the tattered piece of blue silk clutched in my fist. The scent of the woman. The scent of my mate.

My eyes snapped open.

The cave was empty, save for the lingering smell and a few dark stains on the stone floor.

Memory returned to me in jagged, violent flashes. Her green eyes, wild and unfocused. Her lips, stained with my poisoned blood. The weight of her pressing me down. My hands—useless, trembling—trying to push her off.

I had tried to stop her.

I remembered that clearly. The way my arms refused to obey. The way my voice came out as nothing more than a rasped plea. The way she didn't care.

A low growl rumbled in my chest, but it was hollow. Anger I could wield. The shame beneath it—that was harder to name.

She had saved my life. Then she had taken something I never offered. Then she had left.

"Alpha!"Marcus Steele, my Beta, appeared at the mouth of the cave, his broad frame blocking the morning light. He took in my disheveled state, my torn shirt, and immediately dropped to one knee. Two of my best warriors stood behind him, their faces grim.

"We cleared the assassins," Marcus reported, his voice tight. "Black Mamba venom. A coward's weapon. One of them got away."

My eyes were ice. The assassins were a nuisance. The woman was something I didn't yet have words for.

"Find her," I commanded. "The woman who was here last night. I want to know everything."

My wolf paced restlessly in my mind. It didn't share my anger. It whined for the female who had disappeared—the same female who had pinned me down while I was too weak to resist. The conflict between my rage and my wolf's instinct churned in my gut like poison all over again.

The ride back to my estate was silent.Her face floated in my mind's eye. Those green eyes.

I tried to recall if there had been a single moment when my body had acted of its own will. A single heartbeat where I had wanted her.

No.There wasn't.

Every frame of memory was a struggle. A no that wasn't heard. A hand that wouldn't obey. A body that failed its Alpha when it mattered most.

I stalked through my sterile mansion and straight into the master bathroom. The man in the mirror was a stranger. Wild-eyed, clothes in tatters. Faint, reddish scratches marred the skin over my collarbone.

Her nails. From when she held me down.

Rage surged through me—hot, cold, and utterly useless. My fist connected with the mirror. It shattered, spraying glass across the marble counter. I watched the blood drip from my knuckles and felt nothing.

Ilene Carroll POV:

I hummed as I smoothed the Dior gown over my hips. Soft champagne pink—lighter, brighter than the deep blue Chloe had worn. More fitting for a future princess.

Chloe hadn't come back. Kevin Miller wasn't answering his phone.

The plan had worked.

The wolfless bitch was finally out of the way—defiled, disgraced, gone. In this world, a deflowered Omega was nothing but damaged goods. No marriage value. No political worth. The moment word spread that the Carroll heir had been ruined, the engagement would collapse. And Prince Aries would need a suitable bride—one who was still intact. One who looked just like me, but younger. Prettier. Smarter.

A knock on my door interrupted my thoughts. My personal maid, Sarah, slipped in, her face pale.

"Miss Ilene," she murmured. "It's your sister. She came back."

My hand stilled on the necklace clasp. For a moment, I did not move.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Just now," Sarah whispered. "Through the servants' entrance. She looks... unwell."

I set the necklace down with deliberate care. A scream would have been satisfying, but screams were for women who had lost control. I was not such a woman.

I turned to the mirror and adjusted my collar, not a single hair out of place. Chloe had returned. Interesting. It meant the first act had failed.

But the night was not over.

"Fetch my father," I said, my voice calm and measured. "Tell him I have urgent concerns about my sister's conduct at the engagement banquet. Tell him I saw her slip away with a man."

I met my own gaze in the glass and smiled—soft, concerned, the perfect image of a devoted younger sister.

"Someone needs to protect this family's reputation. And it seems Chloe is determined to destroy it."

Aries POV:

"Alpha, we have something."

The voice of my intelligence officer, Silas Thorne, echoed in my mind through our mind-link. It was a welcome distraction from the throbbing in my hand.

I was in my private study, staring at the scrap of blue silk laid out on my desk.

"Report", I sent back, my tone clipped.

The drug used at the party was a potent aphrodisiac, designed for Omegas in heat. Highly illegal. I traced the purchase through an informant, a woman they call Mama Rose.

A pause.

She sold it to Ilene Carroll. The target was her older sister.

The world seemed to slow down around me. Ilene Carroll. My fiancée's sister.

So it was a setup, Silas concluded. A plot against your intended.

My fingers tightened on the arm of my chair. A plot. The woman in the cave... she hadn't been a predator. She had been prey. Just like me.

One more thing, Alpha, Silas added, his mental voice hesitant. We can't be one hundred percent certain, but based on the guest list and the target of the plot... there is a high probability that the woman who found you in the cave... was Chloe Carroll herself.

Silence.

The name hung in the air. Chloe Carroll. My wolfless, politically convenient, utterly undesirable fiancée.

If she was the woman from the cave...

It meant my fated mate, the one chosen for me by the Goddess herself, was a weak, pathetic creature who couldn't even avoid a simple trap set by her own sister.

It meant I had been saved and claimed by a woman I was supposed to despise.

The humiliation was a physical blow, worse than any venom.

Aries POV:

"It's her, Alpha."

Silas's voice echoed through the mind-link, sharp and certain. An image materialized in my thoughts: a grainy security photo from the party. A woman with dark hair swept up, her profile turned away. Chloe Carroll.

Next to it, her official file photo. The same face, but sterile, lifeless.

"We ran a bio-scent trace from the fabric sample," Silas continued, his tone clinical. "The residue matches Miss Carroll's profile with 99.9% certainty."

I didn't respond.

The crystal glass in my hand exploded. Red wine and blood dripped from my clenched fist, staining the pristine white rug. Shards embedded themselves in my palm. I felt nothing.

Silas waited. He knew better than to speak.

I turned and looked at the portrait above the mantel. My mother, Grace Livingston. Her hair a cascade of rich brown, her eyes the same shade of emerald green as the woman in the cave.

The woman who had pinned me down while I begged her to stop.

A sound tore from my throat—something between a growl and a snarl. My fist slammed into the mantel. The wood cracked. The portrait shuddered but did not fall.

"Alpha?" Marcus's voice came from the doorway, cautious.

"Get out."

He didn't move. "Sir, your hand—"

"I said get out!"

The door closed.

I stood there, breathing hard, my bleeding fist pressed against the cracked wood. My wolf was howling inside my skull, ecstatic, triumphant, demanding I go to her, claim her, never let her go. I wanted to strangle the beast into silence.

Shut. Up.

The marriage was a humiliation from the start. A tool for my half-brother Brendan to mock me. A symbol of my fall from grace in the royal court. A wolfless bride for a prince who had displeased the King.

Now that humiliation had a face. A body. A scent that clawed at my sanity.

She was my fiancée.

She was my fated mate.

She had taken me while I was too weak to fight back.

And I had to marry her.

There was no way out. If I rejected her now, the Alliance Council would demand answers. The Carroll family would demand compensation. Brendan would have all the ammunition he needed to paint me as unstable, unfit, unworthy. The King would side with him—he always did.

I couldn't kill her. I couldn't cast her aside. I couldn't even tell anyone what she had done, because the story would destroy me. An Alpha prince, too weak to fend off a drugged Omega? The laughter would follow me to my grave.

She had trapped me twice—once in that cave, and once in this cage of politics and honor.

"Silas," I said finally, my voice flat.

"Yes, Alpha."

"Prepare the Boone family's traditional betrothal gifts. The most extravagant we have. Have them delivered to the Carroll estate immediately."

A pause. "Alpha?"

"And spread the word." I turned from the portrait. My mother's green eyes followed me—the same color as hers. I couldn't look at them anymore. "There was an incident last night. An attack on my life. My brave fiancée, Chloe Carroll, found me. She protected me. We spent a dangerous, passionate night together, fending off our enemies."

Silas was silent for a long moment. Then, slowly: "I understand."

He did. He understood exactly what I was doing.

The narrative was perfect. It turned my shame into a heroic romance. It made her a heroine instead of a victim. It made us a united front.

And it protected me.

If anyone ever questioned why I smelled of her, why my clothes were torn, why there were scratches on my back—the answer was already waiting. We were attacked. We fought together. We survived together.

The truth would never see the light of day.

I looked down at my bleeding hand. The glass was still embedded in my knuckles. I pulled a shard out slowly, watching the blood well up fresh.

Publicly, I would make her the most envied woman in the territory. The perfect fiancée. The untouchable future princess.

Privately...

I would make her pay.

Not today. Not tomorrow. But I would make her love me. I would make her depend on me. I would make her believe I had forgiven her.

And then, when she was at her happiest, I would reject her.

Just as she had abandoned me in that cave.

The smile that spread across my face was slow, cold, and perfectly practiced. It reached my eyes the way a blade reaches flesh.

I pressed a handkerchief to my bleeding hand and straightened my collar.

"Marcus," I said aloud, my voice calm and even.

The door opened immediately. My Beta stepped in, his eyes flicking to the broken glass, the cracked mantel, the blood. He said nothing.

"Let's go," I said. "It's time I met my brave little fiancée."

The word dripped from my tongue like venom.

I smiled all the way to the car.