I Survived Midnight With The Alpha King—Now His Board Wants Me Dead

By 8:00 AM, Croft Estate was crawling with heavily armed enforcers and forensic clean-up crews.

I sat in the vast, slate-tiled dining hall, wearing an oversized black cashmere sweater Kane’s housekeeper had provided. In front of me sat an untouched porcelain cup of black coffee and the legal documentation concerning Cascade’s three-million-dollar default.

The ink at the bottom of the final page was fresh. Kane’s signature was bold, slashing across the paper with arrogant finality: DEBT DISCHARGED IN FULL VIA TRADITIONAL CONSORT TRIAL.

"You shouldn't have signed that," Vivian Mercer’s sharp voice cut across the silence.

She stepped into the dining hall, carrying a sleek leather tablet. Her composure had returned, though the slight twitch at the corner of her left eye betrayed the panic boiling beneath her designer veneer.

"The board hasn't ratified his capacity," she continued, standing across the long table without sitting. "Kane suffered an acute neuro-toxin episode last night. The incident on the cliff is being reviewed as a catastrophic security failure. Under section four of the Croft Charter, an Alpha undergoing active cognitive degeneration cannot unilaterally discharge corporate liabilities."

I picked up my coffee cup, taking a slow sip before looking at her.

"The assassins used Austrian-milled liquid silver cartridges," I said evenly. "Serial numbers scrubbed, but the pressurized firing pins are proprietary to Mercer Defense Systems. That's your family's holding company, isn't it, Vivian?"

Her expression didn't change, but her fingers tightened against the rim of her tablet.

"Mercer Defense sells to twelve international security firms," she countered smoothly. "Anyone could have purchased those rounds on the black market to frame us."

"Except the dead man downstairs only had one outgoing frequency programmed into his encrypted comm link," I lied smoothly, watching her pupils contract. "He dialed an internal extension inside this estate forty minutes before the breach."

Vivian’s mask fractured for a microsecond.

Before she could speak, the heavy double doors swung open. Kane walked into the room, fully dressed in a tailored charcoal suit that concealed the bandages wrapping his ribs. His dark hair was still damp from the shower, his face carved from cold stone. The silver veins along his throat were invisible beneath his crisp white collar, but I could hear the faint, uneven cadence of his pulse from across the room.

"Leave us, Vivian," Kane said, his voice flat and dangerous.

"Kane, we need to discuss the emergency board assembly," she pressed, taking a step toward him. "The elders are convening in Seattle at noon. They've caught wind of the gunfire. If you don't appear in person to demonstrate stability—"

"I said, leave."

The command carried just enough Alpha resonance to make the silverware rattle against the porcelain plates. Vivian flinched, her jaw locking in silent fury, before she turned on her heel and strode out of the hall, the click of her heels sounding like countdown timers on the slate tiles.

Kane pulled out the chair directly beside mine and sat down. He didn't look at the breakfast spread. His focus locked entirely onto my face.

"You bluff well," he said, the ghost of a smirk touching his lips. "The shooter's comm link was fried by a localized EMP when Gideon breached the room. There were no outgoing frequencies retrieved."

"She didn't know that," I replied, sliding the signed debt agreement toward him. "Which means she knew the call existed. She planned the hit, Kane. She didn't just want me out of the picture. She wanted you dead before the board could see that the silver poisoning isn't making you insane—it’s just making you vulnerable."

Kane stared at the paper between us.

"Your father called fifteen minutes ago," he said quietly. "Gideon patched him through to my office."

My chest tightened. "What did Richard say?"

"He didn't ask if you were alive," Kane said, his tone turning Arctic. "He asked if the wire transfer clearing his personal accounts had cleared. When Gideon confirmed the debt was settled, your father hung up to schedule a press conference announcing his retirement."

A cold, hollow ache settled behind my ribs. I had known what Richard Hayes was for years, but hearing it articulated by a stranger stripped away the final shreds of filial loyalty I had clung to.

"He's leaving Cascade," I whispered.

"He's fleeing to an offshore enclave in Costa Rica," Kane corrected. "Taking the remaining liquid reserves with him. By tomorrow morning, your pack will have no Alpha, no treasury, and eighty families facing bankruptcy while the regional council moves in to divide the timberlands among their allies."

I stood up so violently my chair scraped backward against the stone. "I have to go back. Chloe is still there. If the council seizes the territory—"

"You can't save them from the outside, Harper," Kane interrupted, rising smoothly to his feet and towering over me. "The moment you cross the county line without Alpha status, your council will place you under administrative arrest to silence any contest to the land sale."

"Then what do you propose?" I demanded, looking up into his piercing gold gaze. "You forgave the debt. My obligation to you is finished."

"Your obligation is," Kane said, taking a step closer, his hand coming up to rest gently, almost reverently, against the side of my neck where my pulse hammered. "My proposal is not."

The heat of his palm sank deep into my flesh, sending an involuntary shiver down my spine.

"The board wants me removed because they think my wolf is broken," he whispered, his eyes burning with lethal intent. "They want to install Vivian as regent, sell off Croft assets to her family, and put a silver collar around my neck until I rot in a sanitarium. But under the Old Laws, a seated Alpha King cannot be deposed by a board vote if he takes a chosen Luna within thirty days of a challenge."

My breath hitched. "You're out of your mind."

"I am completely sane for the first time in five years," Kane said, his voice dropping into a low, hypnotic rumble. "Your presence stabilized my shift last night. My wolf answered your voice when chemical tranquilizers failed for half a decade. You need an army and a treasury to protect Cascade. I need a Queen with a spine made of iron to stand between me and the vultures trying to tear my throat out."