### **Chapter Title: The Truth Between Us**
"To kill you."
I didn't hesitate. Didn't flinch. The words left my lips as easily as a breath, coated in venom, in certainty.
Zain didn't move. He didn't react the way I expected him to—with rage, with fury, with the violent wrath of an Alpha who had just been threatened in his own domain.
No, he just stood there.
Watching me.
And then, slowly, he smiled.
Not a mocking smile. Not cruel, nor taunting.
It was something *worse*.
It was the kind of smile that made my stomach twist, the kind that promised something far more dangerous than anger.
"Is that so?" His voice was smooth, almost lazy, as if I'd just told him the sky was blue. "And how, exactly, were you planning to do that?"
I yanked at the silver restraints. "Doesn't matter."
He hummed. "It does, though."
His fingers ghosted over the wooden table beside him, where a small vial sat in plain sight. A vial I recognized instantly.
