After My Mate Poisoned My Wolf for Three Years

Kade worked like someone who had done this before. He spread the Luna Accord documents across the council table in neat rows, sorted by procedural step. His hands moved with precision. No wasted motion. No hesitation.

I sat across from him and organized the physical evidence. The wolfsbane records went into one folder. The phone messages into another. The staged rogue pelts—still carrying that jasmine-and-venom scent underneath Derek's cedar—stayed sealed in the evidence bag Marcus had handed over.

Kade read through a section of pack law, his finger tracing the text. He paused. "The tribunal requires three witnesses to the Luna's testimony. Do you have them?"

"Elara Voss," I said. "Marcus Hale. And the border patrol messenger who brought the pelts."

He nodded and made a note. "That works."

We worked in silence for a while. The only sounds were pages turning and my pen scratching across the tribunal packet checklist. It felt strange—sitting across from someone who wasn't trying to fill the quiet with reassurances I didn't want.

I reached a clause about territorial dissolution rights and frowned. "This says the Luna must prove the Alpha's absence was voluntary abandonment, not death. But Derek staged it as a rogue attack. Does that count as voluntary?"

Kade leaned forward and read the section I was pointing to. He read it twice. Then he looked up. "You're right. The staging itself proves intent. He chose to make it look like death instead of simply leaving, which means he knew he was abandoning his responsibilities. That's voluntary under the Accord's definition."

I wrote it down. My chest felt lighter.

Kade went back to his documents. He didn't make a show of conceding the point. He just accepted it and moved on.

I noticed that.

I didn't say anything about it.

---

The changes started small.

Three days after I burned the wolfsbane, I woke up and heard a conversation happening in the kitchen. Two floors down. I could make out individual words. One of the younger pack members was asking Marcus if the Rite was really going to happen. Marcus said yes. The younger wolf's voice dropped. "What happens to us if she dissolves the pack?"

I sat up in bed. The walls weren't thin. I shouldn't have been able to hear that.

Later that morning, I passed a group of wolves in the hallway. They stepped aside to let me through. I caught the scent of their anxiety before I saw their faces. Sharp and sour, like fear dressed up as respect.

I kept walking.

By the fourth day, Kade's scent was everywhere. Not because he was following me. He wasn't. He stayed in the guest wing and only came to the council room when I asked. But I could smell dark amber and rain from three hallways away. It pulled at something inside me I didn't have a name for.

The presence in my mind—the thing that had cracked open when I burned the wolfsbane—pressed harder. Not words. Just feelings. Fierce protectiveness when I overheard a Delta dismiss the Rite as "Luna dramatics." A low, purring warmth that surfaced every time Kade walked into a room.

I hated how much I noticed it.

I hated more that I didn't want it to stop.

---

I went to Elara Voss on the fifth day.

She was in the pack infirmary, restocking medical supplies. She looked up when I knocked. Her expression shifted—concern, not surprise.

"Luna," she said quietly. "Come in."

I closed the door behind me. "I need you to examine me."

She didn't ask why. She just gestured to the exam table.

I sat. She checked my pulse first, then my reflexes. She asked me to describe what I'd been feeling. I told her about the sharpened senses. The scent sensitivity. The presence in my mind that wasn't a voice but felt like one waiting to speak.

Elara set her stethoscope down and looked at me for a long moment.

"The wolfsbane suppression was total," she said finally. "Three years of it. That's longer than any case I've seen. Whatever wolf you carry—she's been compressed beyond any natural dormancy."

I pressed two fingers to the mark on my neck. It still felt cold. "What does that mean?"

"It means when she wakes up, it's going to be fast. And it's going to be big."

I swallowed. "How big?"

Elara hesitated. Then she said, "I suspected something was wrong with your wolflessness for a long time, Luna. You're too strong. Too steady. Wolves who never awaken don't carry themselves the way you do. I thought maybe it was dormant. I didn't think—" She stopped. "I didn't say anything. I should have."

The admission sat between us.

I didn't tell her it was fine. It wasn't.

I just nodded and left.

---

That night, I went back to Derek's vault.

I'd taken the wolfsbane and the phone. But I hadn't gone through everything. There were still boxes I hadn't opened.

I pulled the next one down.

Inside, I found a leather-bound notebook. Aviana's handwriting.

I opened it.

The first entry was dated three weeks after Derek marked me.

*Subject appears responsive to initial dose. Appetite normal. No visible side effects yet.*

I turned the page.

*Week 4: Reflexes slower. Aura dimming. Weight loss—2 lbs. Administered dose as scheduled.*

*Week 8: No wolf presence detected. Suppression holding. Subject unaware.*

Page after page. Clinical. Detached. Notes tracking my deterioration like I was a lab experiment.

Not a friend.

Not even a person.

Just a subject.

I read every entry. My hands didn't shake. The mark on my neck stayed cold.

When I finished, I added Aviana's name to the formal tribunal summons. I attached the notebook as evidence. I sealed the packet myself.

Then I walked back to the council room, where Kade was still working.

He looked up when I came in. His eyes went to the notebook in my hand. He didn't ask.

I set it on the table in front of him.

"She kept records," I said.

Kade opened the notebook. He read the first page. Then the second. His jaw tightened.

He closed it carefully and looked at me. "This goes in the tribunal packet."

"I already added her name to the summons."

He nodded. "Good."

I sat down across from him. The pressure in my chest—the thing that had been building since the wolfsbane burned—pressed so hard I could barely breathe.

Kade's scent wrapped around me. Dark amber and rain.

I didn't move away.

I didn't move closer.

I just sat there and let myself feel it.