Maya POV
I drop Dominic.
His body hits the elevator floor with a horrible thud, but I don't care. I'm scrambling backward, away from the thing wearing Lucas's face.
"Stay away from me!" My voice comes out high and frightened.
Victoria—because it's Victoria, it has to be Victoria—tilts her head in that familiar motion. "Maya, calm down. I know you're scared, but—"
"Don't!" I hold up my hands like that will stop a shapeshifting monster. "Don't come any closer!"
She—he—it stops, holding up Lucas's hands in submission. "Okay. Okay. I'm not going. But we need to talk about this sensibly."
"Rationally?" I laugh, and it sounds crazy even to my own ears. "The real Lucas is dead in that meeting room! You killed him and stole his face!"
"I didn't kill him." Victoria's voice is still using Lucas's soft tone, which makes it worse somehow. "He's asleep, not dead. I needed to remove you from Dominic, and the fire trick wasn't working, so I shifted into Lucas to gain your trust. It's a rare ability—most shifters can't do it. Only certain bloodlines."
My brain is trying to understand this. "You can turn into anyone?"
"Anyone I've touched recently, yes." She takes a step forward.
I take three steps back. "I said don't move!"
"Maya, please. Dominic is dying. That poison is especially designed to kill alpha wolves. Without care in the next ten minutes, he'll be dead." Her—his—Lucas's eyes are pleading. "I can help him. But you have to trust me."
"Trust you? You kidnapped Sophie—"
"I never took Sophie. That was a trick, remember? You called her yourself."
"You set a fire—"
"Smoke bombs. No one was hurt. I needed to separate you two, not kill innocent people." Victoria crouches next to Dominic's body. "Look at him. Really look. He's barely moving. " I do look. And she's right. Dominic's chest is barely moving. His face has a gray tinge. Blood still drips from the bite marks on his arms.
He's dying because he saved me.
"Why should I believe anything you say?" I whisper. "You've done nothing but lie."
"Because if I wanted you dead, you'd already be dead." Victoria's voice is flat, honest. "I could have killed you a dozen times tonight. But I didn't. Because despite what Dominic thinks, I'm not the villain here."
"Then who is?"
"The same person who sent Marcus to attack you. The same person who's been influencing both you and Dominic for months. The same person who wants you dead and Dominic broken." She looks up at me. "Your strange text sender. Did you ever figure out who that was?"
My blood runs cold. The texts. I'd forgotten about them in all the chaos.
"You?" I ask.
"No. Someone much more dangerous." Victoria pulls out a phone—Lucas's phone—and shows me the screen. "I've been tracking him for weeks. He's the one who hired Marcus. He's the one who planted those pictures of me and Dominic. He's been arranging everything."
The screen shows a man I don't know. Older, maybe sixty, with cold eyes and a wicked smile.
"Who is he?" "Richard Kane. Dominic's father. " The world tilts sideways. " His father? But Dominic said—" "Dominic thinks his father is a broken man missing his dead mate. He's wrong." Victoria's face—Lucas's face—is grim. "Richard Kane is the leader of the Kane pack. And he's decided that Dominic is too weak to lead because he refuses to take a mate. So Richard has been trying to force Dominic's hand by putting you—his fated mate—in danger over and over."
"That's insane."
"That's shifter politics." Victoria stands. "Every attack, every threat, every 'accident' has been Richard testing Dominic. Seeing if he'll finally take you. But Dominic keeps fighting it, keeps pushing you away, and that makes Richard angry. Tonight was supposed to be the final test. If Dominic let you die to save Lucas, he'd show he's not worthy of being alpha. If he saved you and let Lucas die, Richard would kill him for being a bad brother."
My head is spinning. "Then why did you hit me? Why the whole Victoria act?"
"Because I needed Dominic to make a choice. To finally accept what he is and claim his mate properly." Her face softens. "I was engaged to him, yes. But I broke it off two years ago because I could see he'd never love me. He was waiting for you. And I'm tired of watching him suffer."
"So this was all... what? Tough love?"
"More like forcing his hand." Victoria looks at Dominic's unconscious form. "But I didn't expect Richard to harm the real Victoria. Yes, there's a real Victoria Cross. She's dead now, killed an hour ago. Richard shapeshifted into her, struck you, and poisoned Dominic. When you 'killed' her in the meeting room, you actually killed an innocent woman. "
I'm going to be sick. " No. No, I didn't—"
"You were protecting yourself. You didn't know." Victoria's voice is gentle. "But Richard set it up perfectly. Now you're guilty of murder, Dominic is dying, and Lucas is asleep. All of his problems solved at once."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you're the only one who can save him." Victoria points at Dominic. "The poison can only be eliminated by his fated mate's blood. You have to let him bite you, Maya. Let him finish the mate bond. It's the only way."
I stare at Dominic's gray face. At the blood. At the man who's been mean to me for eight months but saved my life tonight.
"If I let him bite me, what happens?"
"You'll be linked forever. You'll feel his feelings, he'll feel yours. You'll be bigger, faster, harder to kill. And you'll be tied to the shifter world for the rest of your life. There's no going back."
Forever. Tied to a man I barely know. Pulled into a world of monsters and politics and murder.
But he's dying.
"How do I know you're not lying about all of this?" I ask desperately. "How do I know you're really trying to help?"
Victoria moves.
Right in front of me, Lucas's body melts away. The features change. And standing there is a young woman with kind eyes and dark hair pulled back in a ponytail.
"Because this is what I really look like," she says in her own voice—softer, younger than Victoria's. "My name is Seris. I'm Kael's sister."
"Kael?"
"Dominic's real name. His shifter name. The name his mother gave him." She smiles sadly. "He stopped using it after she died. Started going by his human name to separate himself from what he is. But he's still Kael. Still an alpha dog who needs his mate."
She holds out a knife. "Cut your palm. Let him drink. Complete the link. Or let him die. Your choice."
I take the knife with shaking hands.
The blade is silver, glinting in the elevator light.
I look at Dominic one more time. Even asleep and dying, he's beautiful. Strong. And somewhere under all that hatred and coldness, he's been trying to protect me.
I press the blade to my skin.
The elevator doors suddenly open.
Standing in the lobby is the man from the picture.
Richard Kane. Dominic's father.
And he's pointing a gun straight at my head.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he says kindly. "Put down the knife, Miss Chen. Or I'll put a bullet through your brain and let my son die knowing he failed to save his mate. Again."