Chapter 3

When I woke up, I was lying in a large, soft bed.

The sharp smell of antiseptic hung in the air.

"You're awake. Stop playing dead."

A sarcastic voice cut through the silence beside the bed.

I opened my eyes to find a scrawny old man in a white coat, his hair a wild mess, drawing blood from my arm with a syringe.

This was the most notorious doctor in the underground black market — known simply as "the Ghost Doctor."

Jax was leaning against the doorframe, an unlit cigarette between his fingers, watching me with a heavy, unreadable gaze.

"How is she?"

The Ghost Doctor dropped the blood sample into a set of strange-looking vials and watched the liquid change color. A cold smirk crossed his face.

"How is she? It's a miracle she's still breathing."

He turned and fixed his eyes on me. "Girl — did you drink some kind of bitter black medicine every single day when you were little? Did your family tell you it was good for your health?"

I froze. I nodded without thinking. "Yes… my foster mother said I was born weak. She said it would help regulate my blood."

"Bullshit!"

The Ghost Doctor slammed the vial down on the table. "That was Soullock Herb — a poison specifically designed to suppress high-grade shifter bloodlines! You've been taking it for fifteen years. Fifteen years, and it ground what should have been an extraordinary bloodline down to nothing!"

The words hit me like a lightning strike. My whole body went cold.

"What did you just say?"

Jax stepped forward, his expression dark and dangerous.

"Explain. All of it."

The Ghost Doctor pointed to the deep gold color swirling inside the vial, his voice trembling. "She's not some defective. She never was. She's a Blood Healer — a gift that comes along maybe once in a century. Her blood, her pheromones — they can purify the feral rage in any shifter."

I sat on the bed, completely hollow. My mind had gone blank.

Fifteen years.

Fifteen years of cold stares and cruelty from my own family. Fifteen years of being called worthless. I had always thought I was just unlucky — that I'd been born without the ability to shift.

So it was true — someone had deliberately destroyed me.

"There's more." The Ghost Doctor pulled out a specialized scalpel and walked over to me. "Girl, give me your left hand."

I reached out my left hand, trembling.

He pressed the tip of the blade gently against the inside of my wrist, drawing a shallow cut, then dripped a blue liquid into it.

In an instant, a strange black inscription surfaced beneath my skin — like a venomous snake coiling around my veins.

"A Mate Interference Curse."

The Ghost Doctor stared at the inscription and drew a sharp breath.

"This is one of the most vile forbidden spells in existence. Someone forcibly twisted your fated mate bond. The reason you caught Maximilian's scent during your awakening — that was this curse at work."

My head snapped up. I stared at Jax, disbelief written all over my face.

"Then my true mate is…"

The Ghost Doctor let out a cold laugh. "Still don't get it? That bastard Maximilian didn't just steal the throne that rightfully belonged to Jax — he used this filthy trick to try and steal Jax's fated mate too."

The cigarette in Jax's hand crumbled to ash.

A wave of murderous energy exploded from him, and every pane of glass in the room began to rattle violently.

It all made sense now.

That was why Maximilian suffered such a violent backlash when he rejected me in the arena. He was never my mate to begin with. He had forced himself into that place, and fate was making him pay for it.

And that was why, in my darkest moments, catching Jax's scent had made me feel safe.

Because he was where I truly belonged.

"Can it be broken?" Jax's eyes were locked on the Ghost Doctor, his voice cold as ice.

The Ghost Doctor wiped the sweat from his forehead. "It can. But it requires the blood of the true mate, combined with a dual-cultivation ritual to fully shatter the Soullock Herb's seal. The process will be extremely painful. And…"

"And what?"

"And the moment the seal breaks, her presence will be exposed instantly. The entire Night Alliance will know she exists. Maximilian's half-beast soldiers — the ones already on the edge of madness — will come for her like sharks smelling blood."

Jax crossed to the bed and stood over me, looking down.

His gaze was deep and dangerous, like an abyss ready to swallow its prey whole.

"Serena." His long fingers tilted my chin up, forcing me to meet his eyes. "Are you scared?"

I looked at him. The weakness and tears in my eyes faded away, replaced by a hatred carved straight to the bone.

Fifteen years of lies. The humiliation in that arena.

Maximilian. Tiffany. And the woman who called herself my foster mother.

I grabbed Jax's hand and dug my nails into his skin.

"I'm not scared. I want the seal broken. I want every single one of them to pay in blood."

Jax smiled.

"Good. I'll help you."