_Leon’s POV_

I drove through the night with my jaw locked so hard it hurt.

The road blurred under the headlights but my mind was sharper than it had ever been. Every breath I took felt too hot. My hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that my knuckles had turned white.

Beside all of that rage was something worse; guilt. It sat in my chest like a stone. It was heavy, cold and impossible to ignore.

Shadow was pacing violently inside me. His growls rolled through my mind like thunder. I told you something was wrong.

“I know,” I said out loud, my voice rough.

You should have listened sooner.

My throat tightened. “I know.”

That was the worst part. He was right.

I should have listened to the unease inside me. I should have paid more attention to the way Talia had acted. I should have looked harder when Anya cried and begged me to believe her. I should have stopped everything before it ever reached that point.

But I had not. I had failed. And Anya had paid the price.

The doctor’s house stood near the edge of the pack lands, far from the main road. It was a large stone house with a private clinic attached to one side. A single light was still on upstairs. Another light glowed near the entrance.

I parked hard and stepped out before the engine had even fully settled. The night air hit my face but it did nothing to cool me down. I walked to the front door and knocked once. Then again, louder.

A few moments later, footsteps approached. The door opened and Doctor Mike Johnson stood there in a plain shirt and dark trousers. His hair was slightly untidy as if he had been preparing to sleep. His expression was annoyed at first but the moment he saw me, his face changed.

“Leon?” he said in surprise. “What happened? Is something wrong?”

His tone sharpened immediately. “Is it Talia? Is she unwell again?”

I looked straight into his eyes. “There is an emergency.”

The doctor stepped aside at once. “Come in.”

I entered the house. The smell of medicine hit me immediately. It was the same smell that had filled Talia’s room after her so-called poisoning. That memory alone made my anger rise again.

He closed the door behind me and turned back to face me.

“What is it?” he asked. “What kind of emergency?”

I did not sit. I stood in the middle of the room, still wearing my coat, still carrying the cold night with me. The doctor looked confused by the silence that stretched between us.

Then I said, very carefully, “Yes. There is an emergency. I need to ask you some important questions and I hope that you will tell me the truth.”

The doctor blinked. For a moment he looked intrigued more than alarmed. He gestured toward the chairs near his desk. “Questions? About what?”

I did not move.

He slowly lowered his hand. “Leon?”

I stared at him and said, “Talia paid you a large sum of money to lie to everyone, did she not?”

The color in his face changed at once.

I took one step closer. “She asked you to give her something that would make it seem as if she had been poisoned. She staged the whole thing to frame Anya.”

His eyes widened. For one heartbeat, the truth flashed clearly across his face. Then he pulled himself together and frowned. “I do not know what you are talking about.”

My hands curled at my sides.

He went on quickly, “When Talia came in, she was barely breathing. I helped stabilize her and place her on a ventilator. Then I administered medicine to counter the poison and improve her condition. That is all.”

Every word made my blood burn hotter.

Shadow snarled inside me. Liar.

I stepped forward again. “Stop.”

The doctor straightened. “Leon, I think you are upset, and perhaps....”

“Stop lying.”

My voice cracked through the room like a whip.

He froze.

I did not even remember crossing the distance between us. One second he was standing near the desk and the next my hand was fisted in his shirt collar, dragging him forward.

His eyes went wide with shock. “Leon!”

I slammed him back against the wall.

“Do not lie to me,” I said through clenched teeth. “I know that you worked with Talia to frame Anya. I saw the messages. I saw every filthy word. I saw her asking you for something that would make her look poisoned. I saw you warning her that it was dangerous. I saw her paying you for your services.”

The doctor’s face went pale.

Still he said, “You are mistaken. You must have misunderstood....”

I tightened my grip on his collar until his voice cut off. “No,” I said coldly. “I understood perfectly.”

His breathing turned uneven. I leaned closer and lowered my voice.

“You have two choices right now. You cooperate with me and I will not take this to my father. But if you keep lying, the Alpha will know everything. He will know that you conspired against an innocent woman. He will know that your false testimony helped send her away to suffer for a crime she did not commit. And when he finds out, he will punish you severely.”

The doctor swallowed hard. I let the threat settle between us before I continued.

“It is better for you to tell me the truth quietly.”

The room was silent. I could hear his breathing. I could hear my own heartbeat. I could hear the clock ticking somewhere behind me.

The doctor looked away first. His shoulders sagged. For several seconds he said nothing. He looked like a man whose strength had just left him all at once.

Finally, in a low voice, he said, “Let go of me first.”

I stared at him.

Shadow growled. Do not trust him.

“I am not asking you to trust me,” the doctor said weakly, as if he could somehow feel the wolf’s rage through me. “I am asking you to let me breathe.”

Slowly, I loosened my grip and stepped back, though I was still ready to grab him again if he tried anything.

He adjusted his collar with shaking hands and avoided looking directly at me. Then he said, “Talia contacted me before the incident.”

The words hit me like a blade even though I had already known. Still, hearing him say it out loud made everything feel even more real.

He swallowed and continued, “She asked me to give her a substance that would make it look as if she had been poisoned. I told her it was risky. I warned her that it could harm her body if the antidote was given too late. I told her I wanted nothing to do with it.”

I said nothing.

He gave a humorless laugh full of shame. “But she was very determined. She kept insisting. Then she offered me a large amount of money. More money than I had ever been offered for anything.”

His voice dropped lower. “And I accepted.”

My stomach turned.

The doctor rubbed his face with one trembling hand. “I had to lie to everyone and say that she had been poisoned. But in reality, it was I who gave her the substance that put her into that condition. Later, I gave her the antidote to reverse the effects.”

He looked at me then and there was fear in his eyes now....real fear.

“That is all I know,” he said quickly. “Please. Leave me alone. I do not know anything else.”

For a second I could not speak. My chest felt too tight. My heart was pounding so hard that it hurt.

Talia had done it. She had truly done it.

She had poisoned herself. She had paid a doctor. She had lied to everyone. She had watched Anya be blamed. She had watched Anya cry and beg. She had watched Anya be dragged away.

And she had said nothing.

Shadow was furious now. She deserves punishment.

“She does,” I said under my breath.

The doctor looked at me uncertainly. “What?”

I ignored the question and stared at him with disgust. “What you did was wrong. Do you understand that? Anya was falsely accused because of you. She is the victim in all of this.”

The doctor’s face crumpled. “I know,” he whispered. “I know. I am sorry. I was blinded by greed. I let the money tempt me. Please forgive me.”

A bitter laugh almost escaped me. “Forgive you?” I repeated.

He flinched.

“You should ask Anya for forgiveness. Not me.”

He lowered his head at once. “You are right.”

I kept looking at him and for a moment I thought about dragging him straight to my father that instant. I thought about exposing everything. I thought about making sure he paid for what he had done.

But I also knew one thing with complete certainty.

Anya mattered more.

Every second I wasted here was another second she remained far from me. She was surely feeling hurt and alone and believing that no one would come for her.

“Since you told me the truth, I will not denounce you to my father tonight. But do not mistake that for mercy. If I need you again, you will answer me. If you run, if you hide or if you warn Talia, I will know.”

The doctor nodded quickly. “I understand.”

“I hope you do.” I turned away from him and strode toward the door.

Behind me, he said in a trembling voice, "Leon.”

I stopped but did not look back.

“I truly am sorry.”

I let out a slow breath and said, “That will not undo what you did.”

Then I walked out. The cold night wrapped around me again. I stood beside my car for a long moment, staring into the darkness.

So it was true. Talia had stooped that low just to hurt Anya. No. Not just hurt her....but destroy her.

She wanted Anya disgraced and completely broken. She wanted her out of the way so badly that she had put her own life at risk to make it happen.

My hands shook with fury. “She is insane,” I muttered.

Shadow’s voice came out low and dangerous. She is cruel.

“Yes.”

Cruel and selfish.

“Yes.”

And you almost married her.

That hit me harder than anything else. I closed my eyes. I had almost married her.

I had stood before my family and agreed to bind my future to hers. I had looked at her smiling face and thought I knew the woman standing beside me. I did not know that she was cruel and jealous. But this… this was beyond jealousy. This was wickedness.

This was poison in human form.

“How did I not see it?” I whispered.

Shadow answered with brutal honesty. Because you were blind.

I swallowed hard. I had been blindly in love.

And because of my mistake, Anya had suffered. Her face rose in my mind at once. Her tear-filled eyes. Her pale skin. Her trembling lips when she tried to defend herself. The pain in her voice when she told me she had done nothing.

Then came the memory that cut deepest of all. Her looking at me as if I was the one person who might still save her.

And I had failed.

“What must she think of me now?” I asked.

Shadow was silent for a moment before he answered. That depends on what you do next.

I drew in a sharp breath. He was right. Regret meant nothing by itself. There was only one thing left for me to do.

I had to act.

Alpha Jacob had taken her away. At the time I had let it happen because I thought it was a legal matter tied to the poison.

Now I knew better. A dangerous growl rose in my throat. “I am bringing her back."

Shadow responded at once. Yes.

I got into the car and started the engine. I would go to the Fireblood pack and bring Anya home.

No matter what it took.