Chapter 183

Isaac

Bianca thought Isaac had tried to have her killed. That he’d ordered his own child to be cut from her womb.

He had spent five years thinking they were both dead all because she believed he was capable of such a monstrous act.

All because of Ella.

Just thinking that name filled Isaac with fury so intense that he nearly crashed the car. Ella had gone to Bianca that night all those years ago and had told her that he only wanted an heir, that he’d never really loved her and that she needed to run.

Lies. All fucking lies.

Isaac had fallen for Bianca. Hard. The marriage may have started as a political arrangement, but his feelings had been real. She was the only woman he’d ever truly loved. All that time, she had been his fated mate; her dormant wolf had just kept them from realizing it.

If only they could have known before Bianca ran… But Ella had poisoned her against him before they could. Why? Did she know that they were mates, that Isaac somehow had two, and wanted to drive Bianca away? Or was there another reason?

By the time he reached the palace, the sky had just begun to lighten, a warm and humid pink glow on the horizon promising a hot and miserable day. Isaac stormed through the quiet halls, dismissing the guards who tried to greet him with a curt wave of his hand, and made his way straight to her suite.

He didn’t bother to knock, just pushed open the door to her chambers.

“Ella, we need to talk—”

But the room was empty. The bed was made, the curtains drawn back to let in the early morning light. The air felt still and undisturbed as if no one had been there for hours.

Isaac frowned and stepped inside, closing the door behind him. Where was Ella? It was barely dawn—she should still be asleep. She slept until noon most days, complaining about needing her beauty rest.

His eyes scanned the room, taking it in. Ella was neat to a fault, and everything was in its place. The top of her dresser was lined with expensive perfumes and lotions, her closet perfectly organized, everything freshly dusted and tidied.

But something was off. Ella’s jewelry box was sitting wide open, its contents spilling across the top of her vanity. She prized her expensive jewels and pearls above almost all else—maybe except for her shoe collection—and wouldn’t leave it like that, just sitting there for anyone to snoop through.

Curious, Isaac moved over to the jewelry box and peered inside. The contents were all over the place, necklaces tangled and earrings mismatched. But everything that was left appeared to be cheap, not the expensive stuff she usually wore. He looked around, noticing a few fake pearls that had broken free from their string and had fallen to the floor.

Isaac bent down and peered at the pearls. And there, beneath the vanity, was a small crystal bottle. He picked it up. It was heavier than it looked, with no label. Not one of the designer perfumes Ella typically favored.

Without thinking, Isaac uncapped it.

The scent hit him like a brick wall. His wolf surged forward with so much intensity that Isaac’s vision blurred, muscles bunching, a low growl rumbling in his chest.

“Mate,” his wolf howled, nearly feral. “Mark her. Take her. Now!”

“Fuck,” Isaac gasped, staggering back. His fangs had extended, piercing his lower lip. The taste of his own blood snapped him partly out of it, and he had to shove the cork back onto the bottle with extreme effort.

The scent dulled, but even sealed, the scent lingered in his nostrils. Isaac had to shake his head to get himself to think straight.

What the hell was that? It was Ella’s scent, but stronger and more concentrated. Too strong to be natural. And it had nearly forced him to shift against his will.

Isaac held the bottle up and stared at it for a long moment, confused. Did Ella have a perfume that somehow mimicked her natural scent? Isaac had never heard of a perfume like that. But if it were the case, then why would she have it?

Unbidden, Isaac’s mind flickered back to the broken perfume bottle at the masquerade—the one Bianca had dropped. He recalled Ella smashing it instantly, almost in a panic.

But that perfume was made to dull Bianca’s scent so no one could recognize her. He recalled that, when Bianca had been wearing the perfume, she had basically had no scent at all.

This… Whatever Ella had was like ecstasy pills in liquid form. Like someone had taken her natural scent and condensed it into this tiny bottle.

Isaac needed to look into this.

He found his Beta in the training yard, overseeing the morning drills for the palace guards. The Beta noticed Isaac immediately, his eyes widening slightly at the thunderous look on Isaac’s face, and jogged over.

“What’s wrong, Your Majesty?”

“I need your help with something.”

The Beta nodded without hesitation, following Isaac away from the training yard and to a more private area. Isaac showed his Beta the bottle and explained what had happened, carefully covering his nose as his Beta uncorked it and sniffed.

Strangely, his Beta showed no reaction to the scent. Meanwhile, even with his mouth and nose covered by his sleeve, Isaac had to take several steps back to keep his wolf from taking over again.

“Let’s take this to the lab,” the Beta said, pocketing the bottle. “Maybe they can help.”

The palace laboratory was in the basement, a state-of-the-art facility that Isaac’s father had built years ago. Dr. Mercer, the chief scientist, looked up from his microscope as they entered.

“Your Majesty,” he said with a respectful nod. “How can I assist you today?”

Isaac’s Beta pulled out the bottle and set it on the lab bench. “We need to know what’s in this. As quickly as possible.”

Dr. Mercer picked up the bottle carefully. “A perfume analysis? That’s not usually the sort of work we do here.” The scientist’s eyebrows rose, but he nodded. “Very well. I’ll need a sample.”

Isaac took a step back and watched from afar, covering his nose and mouth again, as Dr. Mercer carefully opened the bottle and used a dropper to extract a small amount of the liquid. The scent immediately filled the lab, and Isaac could feel his wolf pacing beneath his skin. A heat behind his eyes indicated that his irises had begun to glow.

The scientist shot Isaac a confused glance before he placed one drop on a microscope slide and inserted it into the microscope. The room was silent as he studied it.

“Interesting,” he murmured after several minutes. “The composition is quite complex. There are several synthetic pheromones here that I’ve never seen combined in this way before.”

“What does that mean?” Isaac demanded from behind his sleeve.

“It means this isn’t a standard perfume,” Dr. Mercer said, still studying the slide. “The chemicals here are specifically designed to trigger a neurological response in wolves. It’s similar to… wait.”

He looked up and turned to Isaac. “I’ll need to run some more tests, but at a glance, this appears to have a very similar chemical structure to the residue on that shard of glass you gave me a few weeks ago.”

Isaac’s pulse quickened. “Is it the same thing?”

The scientist shook his head. “It’s very similar, but there seem to be key differences. This doesn’t appear to be designed to dull a scent like the other sample. It appears to have a different purpose.”

“What do you mean?” Isaac asked, taking a step forward.

The scientist’s face darkened. “This appears to contain a synthetic version of the pheromones that signal compatibility between mates.”