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

The cleanup of Cascade Territory took three days.

The Mercer mercenaries who survived the courtyard battle surrendered unconditionally the moment Marcus Mercer’s death was confirmed. Federal pack marshals, acting under Kane’s supreme authority, seized every asset, server, and manufacturing plant belonging to Mercer Defense across Washington and Oregon.

Vivian Mercer sat in the high-security subterranean holding cell beneath Croft Tower in Seattle, stripped of her designer suits, dressed in standard gray inmate cotton. Her hands were secured to the steel table with heavy cuffs laced with silver alloy—a fitting irony for a woman who had weaponized the metal for half a decade.

The heavy magnetic locks chimed.

I stepped into the interrogation cell alone, carrying a thick manila dossier.

Vivian looked up, her face bruised, a split lip healing poorly. Despite her captivity, her eyes burned with bitter, unyielding hatred.

"Come to gloat, little Alpha's daughter?" she sneered, leaning back against the steel chair. "You think because Kane put a ring on your finger you've won? You're a placeholder, Harper. The moment his wolf goes permanently feral—and it will—his council will lock you both in a concrete cage."

I dropped the dossier onto the table with a dull thud.

"Apex Bio-Dynamics has been liquidated," I said calmly, sitting across from her. "The federal marshals raided your family's offshore accounts in the Caymans this morning. They found fourteen wire transfers directly to my father's dummy corporation."

Vivian gave a cold, dismissive shrug. "Richard Hayes was greedy. It takes very little silver to buy a coward."

"They also found the lab records from the 2021 ambush," I continued, opening the folder to reveal a series of stamped chemical analysis sheets. "The neuro-toxin that poisoned Kane wasn't meant to kill him, Vivian. It was engineered to slowly degrade his cognitive control over five years, forcing the board to initiate Article Nine and install your father as regent."

Vivian’s jaw twitched, but she remained silent.

"You knew the timetable," I said, leaning forward, resting my forearms on the table. "You knew Kane’s mind would reach critical failure this month. That's why you encouraged my father to default on his loan. You wanted Cascade under Mercer control so you could manufacture the antidote on your own terms."

"Antidote?" Vivian laughed, a harsh, brittle sound. "There is no antidote, you stupid girl. Marcus didn't want a cure. He wanted a leash. The compound only stabilizes if the subject receives a continuous synthetic enzyme derived from pure Alpha blood."

"Which is why you sent your sister into his room," I said, watching her eyes widen slightly. "You thought her Alpha lineage would act as a natural stabilizer. You wanted her to become his handler."

"She was too weak!" Vivian spat, slamming her cuffed hands against the table, the silver burning her wrists. "She panicked! The beast terrified her, and she ruined three years of planning in forty minutes! And then you walked in. A dirty border brat with no pedigree, and his wolf rolls over like a lapdog!"

"My pedigree didn't matter, Vivian," I said, rising smoothly to my feet. "What mattered was that I didn't see a monster to be leashed. I saw a man who needed someone to hold the line while he fought."

I walked toward the door, pausing with my hand on the biometric panel.

"Your trial before the Grand Council begins on Thursday," I added without looking back. "High treason, corporate sabotage, and attempted murder of an Alpha King. In the old days, they would have hung you from the Olympic cliff. Now, you’ll spend the rest of your life in the silver mines beneath Idaho."

"He will still destroy you, Harper!" Vivian screamed as the heavy steel door began to slide shut. "The poison is in his heart! He will rip your throat out while you sleep!"

The door sealed with a heavy pneumatic hiss, cutting off her screams into absolute silence.

I walked down the brightly lit corridor, where Gideon was waiting with an encrypted tablet.

"The council convened early, Harper," Gideon said, falling into step beside me. "The regional elders are gathering in the Grand Chamber on the top floor. Richard Hayes was intercepted at Sea-Tac airport trying to board a private flight to Panama."

My heart gave a dull, hollow thump. "Where is he now?"