Chapter 34
"My name is no longer a name, it is a call. And love is no longer love — love is you.” ― Lang Leav, Lullabies
Rose's POV
“The glass of champagne was poisoned.” Dr. Danvers’ words hit hard, echoing through his office like a gunshot.
I sat frozen across from him, Josie and Aiden on either side of me, all three of us stunned by what we were hearing.
The wedding reception had come to a screeching halt after the chaos, and now we were here, still in our formal wear.
Josie’s face was streaked with mascara from crying, and the tension in the room was suffocating.
Everything felt like too much. First Tanya gets claimed by some future alpha from a pack in England, and now… someone tried to poison Dylan?
“That was my glass,” Aiden said suddenly, his voice steady but low.
“I didn’t touch it. I… got caught up in a discussion.
” His eyes flicked briefly toward me before turning back to Dr. Danvers.
“Then Rose came to get me and I left it there. He must have been around and tried to sneak a drink when no one was watching.” He let out a heavy sigh.
Dr. Danvers looked grim. “His body is metabolizing it differently than expected, likely because of the medication we’ve been giving him to suppress his alpha instincts.
There was polonium in the drink. It’s a slow killer.
If you had taken it, we wouldn’t have been able to trace it back to today.
Alphas metabolize polonium differently. Dylan threw a wrench in the plan.
You wouldn’t have known something was wrong for a year, and by the time symptoms showed, it would’ve been too late. You would have died.”
A sick chill spread through me. My throat felt raw when I finally spoke. “Is there hope for Dylan since we caught it early?”
My voice cracked, but I had to ask. Josie looked like she was about to fall apart, and Aiden had gone pale. Someone had to hold it together, even if I was barely managing.
“Yes. We’ve managed to neutralize most of the radiation poisoning. I’m going to keep him here and monitor him closely.”
Most. Not all.
Going to keep him for monitoring.
The weight of it settled on all of us. No one needed to spell it out—this wasn’t over.
That night, I sat with Tanya in her room, reading her a story in hopes she’d finally drift off.
Josie refused to leave Dylan’s side and was staying overnight at the clinic.
Meanwhile, Aiden was trying to negotiate with the Coventry pack alpha, who was adamant that Tanya—Tanya! —belonged to his son as a future mate.
The door creaked open, and Aiden stepped into the room. He still hadn’t changed out of his ceremony clothes.
“Is she doing OK?” he asked softly, glancing toward Tanya.
I looked down at her, gently smoothing her curls. “Yeah, she’s asleep now.”
I stood and quietly followed him into the hallway, closing the door behind me.
“How’d your meeting go with the alpha and his son?” I asked as we walked toward our rooms.
“Like pulling teeth,” Aiden muttered. “She’s too young to be taken from her mom. They wanted to take her back with them, raise her under their care, and teach her how to be a proper lady.” Aiden grunted.
“And what did you say?” I asked instantly.
“I only agreed to visitation. I have told the alpha that his son could come see her, not the other way around.” Aiden then added, “She’s seven. Seven. How could anyone look at her and think of mating?” He was fussing over the idea once again.
“Has the alpha agreed to your suggestion?” I asked softly.
“He had to. The alpha was trying to tell me how his son deserves a proper lady and how Tanya needs to learn the rules of British society.” He was incredulous.
“You should’ve told them about Dylan. This isn’t the time for them to push their demands,” I said, my voice tight with disbelief.
“All they know is he’s sick. We haven’t told anyone about…” He lowered his voice. “The poisoning.”
Of course. It made sense. Keep it quiet, let the would-be killer think they’d failed unnoticed. But then it hit me.
“The only person with Dylan at the time was Lexia,” I said slowly, dread pooling in my stomach.
Aiden stopped dead in his tracks, right outside his room. His entire body tensed, eyes hardening into something fierce. He may not be with Lexia anymore, but I could tell—even suspecting her was like crossing a line.
“Stop it... I may not be with Lexia, but I can never believe she did this.” Aiden gave words to his trust for Lexia and left the space.
I wanted to argue. I wanted to tell him things were different now—that Lexia thought he was with me.
But I kept my mouth shut. Maybe I was wrong.
Still… the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.
Even the day his father died, Aiden had smelled like Lexia.
If her scent had been near the car, no one would’ve questioned it. No one would’ve thought twice.
I couldn’t sleep. I spent the whole night drowning in thoughts, turning over every clue I had, trying to force the puzzle to come together—but something was missing.
What was I not seeing? And then there was the fact that Jake’s parents had shown up at the mating ceremony too.
That couldn’t be a coincidence, could it? Maybe they were involved? Maybe…
I shot up in bed after hours of desperate Googling.
My fingers were cold, my brain buzzing. Without thinking, I threw off the blanket and padded out of my room, heading down the hall to Aiden’s.
I knocked, once, then again—harder. I heard a groan from inside, followed by the rustling of sheets. Finally, I pushed the door open.
“It’s not even four a.m. What are you doing up so early?” Aiden’s voice came from the dark, flustered and groggy.
I was relieved to see he had at least wrapped a sheet around his torso. I stepped in further, breath catching. “Polonium leaves a trace,” I said quickly. “It’s radioactive, so we can trace it. Or at least, try to.”
Aiden sighed, rubbing his face. “The investigator’s on it. I met with him last night.”
I bit my lip, the sting of embarrassment rushing through me. I’d thought I had something important—urgent. Turns out, I was just late to the party.
“Have you slept at all?” he asked, tone hard and sharp now. I could feel his gaze on me, even in the dark of his room.
I hesitated. My eyes burned.
“No,” I admitted after a long pause. “I can’t sleep. I’m too wound up. I keep thinking… what if you had died? What if Dylan still does? What if we had done the ceremony for him, and he drank the poison as a true alpha? What if—”
He crossed the room in a flash, light from the hallway spilling over his bare torso. Pressing a warm finger to my lips he spoke gently.
“Rose… you’ll drive yourself insane thinking like that,” he said softly. His bare chest radiated heat that soothed and flustered me all at once.
Then his hands wrapped gently around my wrists, pulling me toward his bed. Heart thudding profusely, somewhere in the back of my mind, a voice whispered that tonight would have been my wedding night… if things had been different. If he loved me.
Aiden guided me down onto the bed, and I sank into the mattress, letting his scent calm the storm in my chest. He sat beside me, watching my face, probably reading every emotion as it flickered by—worry, calm, then anxiety.
Dylan was poisoned. Someone had tried to kill Aiden. I had to—
My thoughts shattered when he suddenly let the sheet slip from his body.
My breath hitched. My face went pale. I forced my eyes to stay on his, refusing to look down. Then, without a word, Aiden crouched low to the floor and began to shift into his wolf form.
Finally, he jumped up onto the bed and curled into my side, a low hum vibrating in his chest as my arm instinctively draped over him.
Out of nowhere, sleep crept in, wrapping around me as I soaked in the heat radiating from him, his scent surrounding me, his wolf's steady breath brushing against my skin, adding to the cocoon of warmth.
I drifted off listening to the gentle purr of the beautiful wolf lying beside me—offering me the comfort his human form never quite could.
Aiden's POV
In my wolf form, I watched Rose as she slept, her breathing slow and even—a clear sign she’d finally slipped into deep sleep.
Every instinct in me ached to shift back, to lie beside her in my human form, to pull her close and bury my face in those soft curls.
It was our wedding night. And yet…I’d never felt farther from her than I did tonight.
I stayed like this, in my wolf form. She might push me away if I tried to comfort her as a man, but her turn was coming—her wolf would soon awaken, and it would recognize mine. My presence like this could help calm the storm within her, even if she didn’t know it yet.
After some time, I looked down once again at Rose's face and I felt like even in her sleep, she was sad. I nuzzled my nose closer into her side. She sighed and rolled further into me.
Shit if only she’d do this with me in my human form.
I lay there beside her, forlornly wondering why Rose seemed to be so close to Jake and not me.
Her earlier words echoed in my mind—how she suspected Lexia might have poisoned my drink.
The thought hit like a punch, and my eyes hardened.
I wasn’t with Lexia anymore, but accusing her?
That was a line I couldn't cross. She’d been more than just an ex—she’d been my friend, my anchor when everything around me had fallen apart.
After my father died, she was the one who helped me stay grounded.
Looking back, I knew I’d clung to our promise not out of love, but obligation.
I felt like I owed Lexia for helping me through a tough time.
We hadn’t even been together very long when I first met Rose.
But I was so bent on proving I could make the right decisions for my pack, that I convinced myself I wasn’t a good alpha unless I fulfilled my obligations.
However, I wouldn’t tarnish what Lexia and I used to have by entertaining Rose’s doubts. Not now. Not ever. Rose was mistaken. Lexia was many things, but was definitely not a killer. With those final thoughts, my wolf’s eyes drooped closed, and I felt sleep finally overtake me.