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Her face pales. “You can’t believe I’d betray the sanctuary. Not after everything—”

“I don’t know what to believe anymore.” The admission costs me, revealing vulnerability when I want to stay angry. “I trusted you, Blair.” A broken laugh escapes me. “With my heart.”

The monitoring device shrieks. Fire races through my veins—the poison responding to my spiking pulse, my emotional chaos. Temperature climbing. Dangerous territory.

“Dante!” Alarm replaces everything else in her expression as she lunges forward with a scanner. “The toxin is accelerating. I need to administer the new treatment now.”

“Of course you do.” Bitterness coats every word. “Fix the problem your father created.”

“This isn’t about him right now.” Her voice turns clinical, the scientist asserting control over emotional chaos. “It’s about keeping you alive while we figure out the rest.”

“Is there a rest to figure out?” The question emerges raw with pain that has nothing to do with my poisoned wing.

Instead of answering, she moves to her workstation with grim efficiency, preparing injections with trembling hands. “The molecular binding patterns require immediate intervention. Without treatment, the toxin will reach your central nervous system within hours.”

“Just do what you have to.” The defeat in my voice surprises even me. “But understand something.” I meet her gaze, letting her see the full weight of my betrayal. “After this? After you stop your father’s poison from killing me? You and I are done.”

Her eyes shine with unshed tears, rage and grief caught in her throat.

“How can you say that?” she breathes. “I come from a family of hunters. My father built the weapon that’skillingyou.”

She takes a shuddering breath, voice cracking.

“I’ve lied. I’ve kept secrets. But the mate bond—”

“Is irrelevant.” The lie burns my throat, the mate bond howling in protest even as I speak the words. “Some betrayals can’t be overcome, no matter what biology demands.”

Fresh pain lances through my wing as she administers the first injection. Her free hand finds mine, as she offers the support and comfort I desperately crave and vehemently reject as I force myself to release her hand.

“I never meant to hurt you.” The words emerge broken with emotion I once would have treasured. “Everything between us—every touch, every kiss—was real, Dante. More real than anything in my life.”

“And now it’s over.” My voice remains steady despite the agony coursing through my body. “Save my life if you can, Doctor. It’s the least you owe me after everything.”

She works in silence then, tears falling freely as she completes the treatment. Each touch that once brought comfort now feels like another small betrayal. The mate bond pulses between us, a cruel reminder of the connection we’d shared last night.

When the treatment concludes, I rise from the examination table with legs that threaten to buckle beneath me. The antivenom fights her father’s poison, creating a battlefield in my body.

“You need to rest.” Her professional mask slips back into place, though her eyes remain red-rimmed from crying. “The treatment requires at least eight hours to properly circulate through your system.”

“I’ll rest.” Already moving toward the door, each step requiring more effort than it should. “Far from you.”

“The mate bond strengthens the treatment’s effectiveness,” she calls after me, scientific certainty in her voice despite everything. “Proximity improves healing rates by nearly forty percent.”

“Then I guess I’ll settle for sixty percent effectiveness.” My hand finds the door frame, steadying myself against a wave of dizziness. “Since the alternative is trusting someone who’s been lying to me since the day we met.”

“I never lied about my feelings for you.” The words follow me into the corridor.

I pause without turning back, unable to leave without one final truth. “That’s the problem with secrets, Blair. Once discovered, they poison everything they touch. Even truth.”

The door closes behind me with quiet finality. In the corridor beyond, my legs finally give way as poison and emotional devastation take their toll. Leaning against the crystal wall, I feel the mate bond stretch painfully between us, protesting the separation with physical agony that matches my emotional state.

Some betrayals cut deeper than poison.

Some bonds survive even broken trust.

And some loves hurt more than any weapon ever could.

Chapter Seventeen