Page 181 of The Beta's Blind Date

“Such as?”

“Paul, her second mate, died. Just before she killed Julian. My guess is his death pushed her over the edge she’d been teetering on. And she’d been poisoning the pack since right before Dominic turned twenty-one. She had him take the antidote when Taryn arrived, just to see if they’d be mates.”

“So he’s never found his true mate?” Taryn asks.

“He hasn’t.”

“But why poison the entire pack?” I ask.

“It’s easier to poison the food supply for an entire pack than it is to target one or two members specifically,” Malachi says.

“How was she doing it?”

“Cooking oil. Milk. Ingredients that are used in most every recipe. She’d sneak into the kitchens at night after delivery days to slip the potion into the supplies.”

“So, she was working alone?”

“Other than collaborating with rogues and using Dominic as her puppet, yes. She had him enter the code to the bunker from his phone before he left the wedding with Taryn.”

“What else did she force him to do?” Taryn asks, her hand tightening around mine. “I mean, what was her and what was him?”

Malachi sighs and rubs his hand through his hair, his sleeve riding up and exposing the tattoos that extend up his arm and cover his entire torso. “That is harder to determine, but she says she never manipulated him to be with you or sleep with you. At least, not until she learned you’d called everything off with him. That’s when she made him pursue you, made him take you away from the wedding, made him ask you to be his luna, and try to alpha command you to say yes.” Taryn nods and I pat her hip, leaning my forehead against her cheek. “I know that isn’t reassuring, but she said the same thing under the potion and the alpha command.”

“No, it helps,” she says, giving him a weak smile. “So what will happen to her?”

“Since most of what she did was unmonitored witchcraft as an unregistered hybrid, her punishment will be decided by the thirteen crones. And they will not go easy on her, especially for using thespiritus imperiumspell on Dominic.”

“I can’t believe she would do that to her own son,” I say, shaking my head. “And I can’t imagine how he’ll feel when he finds out.”

Malachi’s eyes flick between us, his lip pinched between his teeth. “Actually, that’s why I came in here. He knows everything—he heard the recording from the wires in the centerpieces at the tea party, and he witnessed his mother’s confession in the cell. We told him everything when he woke up after you pushed the spell out the other day, so he’s had… a while to prepare for this while we kept him hidden until everything played out.”

“Oh,” I say, glancing at Taryn, my hand moving to her stomach and my thumb stroking a small circle above our Sour Patch.

“He’s asked to speak with you. Both of you,” he adds.

I tense and grit my teeth, the reaction automatic even though I know the only thing he did to my girl was tell her he wouldn’t commit to her. Which worked out better for her and for me, anyway. I should probably thank him now that I think of it.

“He understands if you do not wish to speak with him after everything that’s happened. But if you do, I am willing to act as a mediator or an extra person in the room if you don’t want to speak with him alone.”

I swallow back my pride and the dark, possessive anger rising inside me and look at my mate. This should be her decision. She’s the one it’s affected the most.

Her beautiful midnight sky eyes meet mine, and I know her decision before she speaks it into existence.

“We’ll hear what he has to say.”

Of course, that’s her choice. She is confident, sassy, and sure of herself, but she is also kind and forgiving, and willing to see the best in most everyone. If she wasn’t that way, she’d never have forgiven me, never accepted me and let me be a part of her life as her mate and the father to her pup.

“He’s in the conference room,” Malachi says, unfolding himself from the wall. “You can join us when you’re ready.”

He exits the room and pulls the door shut with a soft click, leaving us alone. Taryn blows out a breath and rests her head against my chest, her eyes closing.

“You don’t have to talk to him,” I say, lifting her hand to my lips.

“I do though,” she says, sighing again. “He needs to be heard. He’s been under Merina’s hold for so long. He probably doesn’t even know who he really is.”

“You’re too nice sometimes, you know that?”

She chuckles and lifts her head from my shoulder. “The only ‘wrong’ he did was ‘break up’ with me. And, to be fair, I was the one who ended things, not him. He wasn’t mean to me, just honest.”

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