Chapter Five

"I want you to watch the preparations," Brandon says, as he looks at me. "As my mate, you'll help host all sorts of these celebrations eventually. I want you to be a vital part in celebrating your pack's destruction. Lily will be doing the work alongside the others, and you will oversee her.

"I want you to watch as all sorts of wild game are prepared. I want you to watch as all of my pack feasts and gets drunk.

"Watch them as they let loose and give into the wild. Watch them as they revel in the power they have over others. Watch them as they celebrate their victory. Our victory.”

I don't say anything. I bury my anger. I can't let him see any emotions. It will give him too much pleasure.

"I've brought you here to be my mate,” Brandon says. “But I also brought you here so I can show you who I am and how I'm going to shape the pack. I'm going to shape you as well.

"You'll come around. You'll learn to love me. You'll learn to love the power that comes with being a mate to a pack leader. And then you'll bow down to me. You'll serve me. You'll accept me as your one and only Alpha."

I don't say anything. I can't say anything. Listening to him talk is like getting stabbed in the chest over and over again.

"Tonight, I want you to think about how weak your pack was,” Brandon continues. “How they were so easily defeated. How they never stood a chance against my pack.

"You can be free of them now," he says. "You can be free of the pack that couldn't protect you. You can be free of the people that couldn't protect themselves."

"I'm the only person you'll ever need."

I need him to fall into my trap. So, I'm cautious. I help with the planning. I help cook the food that will celebrate the deaths of those I love. I do it all while Brandon has fun with his friends, jokes about my pain, and checks in on me from time to time to make sure I’m falling in line with what he wants.

I act normal. Or at least, I try to. I know it'd be suspicious if I was all of a sudden nice to him. But I also don't want to put him too on edge. I want him to allow me to get close.

When I have a spare moment, I sneak away and grind up the water hemlock into a fine powder. It's the only way I can think of to get it into his food.

“What are you doing,” a sharp whisper stops me.

I look up to see Lily, staring at me with wide eyes. “It’s the hemlock, isn’t it?” she asks.

“Don’t be so loud,” I warn her. “We’ll be killed if someone stumbles in on us now.”

“We’ll be killed no matter what,” she says. “Why would you take a chance like this? Our pack is gone. We have to stay alive now.”

“This isn’t a life though,” I say. as I step close to Lily. “This is living in stress and fear until they kill us. This is bowing down and celebrating our pack’s deaths, instead of getting revenge for them.

“This is our only chance, Lily. We have to make the most of it. We have to try to get free, try to get revenge. We can’t just give up.”

Our eyes meet as I look at my best friend. If she gives me up now, she’ll probably get a place of honor in this pack. She’ll be able to save herself.

But at what price?

Is she willing to pay that price?

“Okay,” she says. “I won’t stop you, but remember to be careful. “Both of our lives are on the line now.”

“I will be,” I promise.

***

I calm my fears as the food is brought out on a long, wood table under the stars. A bonfire keeps us warm as the celebration begins, and I try to appear like I'm warming up to Brandon in a natural way.

I'm forced to eat with Brandon and his friends. I'm forced to sit next to him. It's supposed to be intimate and romantic, but I feel like I could throw up as I watch him play with his food and joke around with his friends.

What little I've eaten churns in my stomach as we sit around talking, laughing, and drinking cups of wine. I worry about Lily, who’s pale and watching me too closely. I worry she’ll give us away.

I worry I’ll give us away.

I try to be as loud as everyone else. I try to smile and laugh and joke about things. But it's so hard. I'm waiting for that perfect moment.

And then I notice it approaching. Brandon's words start to slur. They're all drunk off of alcohol and the buzz of victory.

I've slowly been getting closer to Brandon, slowly worming myself in until I find myself looking down at his goblet of wine. No one else is looking over at me.

I reach down and pick up the goblet.

Everyone else is laughing and talking. The food is being passed around. The feast is going on.

Everyone else is looking away. Everyone else is looking at the food.

I pour the powder from the pouch at my side into the goblet.

I resist the urge to pour more powder in. I don't want to kill Brandon too quickly. I want him to suffer the way I suffered. I want him to suffer for a long time.

I look up, exposed. But everyone else is looking at the food. I put the pouch back into my belt.

Moments later, Brandon reaches for his goblet, brings it up to his lips, then stops and looks at me with the most awful smile I've ever seen.

"You're not drinking?" he says.

I look down. I wasn't paying attention to the fact that I hadn't taken a sip yet. I was too busy thinking.

"I don't want anything to drink," I say. "I'm full after all the great food, and not feeling too well."

"Come on," he says, offering me his cup. "It might make you feel better. Have a sip of mine, Katia. I think you'll love it."

I freeze.

He knows. Somehow he knows.

"Drink it," he says, offering it out to me.

"What's the matter?" he asks. "You can't really think I don't know what hemlock looks like, do you?" He lifts the goblet to his nose. "My sense of scent is better than most, and I was curious when I saw you by the water. I had my suspicions, but I wanted to show mercy to my mate. The kind of mercy you haven’t shown me."

He shakes his head and offers me the goblet again. "Come on, Katia. Have a sip of my wine."