Chapter 1 1

Vivian POV

The sterile, bleach-heavy air of the Pack-affiliated medical center on the Upper East Side did nothing to calm my racing heart. I sat on the edge of the examination table, my hands tightly gripping the crinkling paper beneath me.

Dr. Smith, the senior Pack Doctor, stood before me with an unmarked folder. Her usually warm eyes were clouded with a deep, terrifying gravity.

"You are pregnant, Luna," she said softly.

For a fraction of a second, a desperate spark of hope ignited in my chest. A pup. An heir. Maybe this was the miracle I needed to bridge the freezing chasm between me and my husband, Alpha Julian Sterling. Maybe a child of his own blood would finally awaken his dormant mate instincts and make him look at me as more than just a political obligation.

But Dr. Smith didn't smile. She stepped closer, her voice dropping to a hushed, urgent whisper. "Vivian, you must listen to me. This is an extremely dangerous pregnancy. You are a wolfless Omega. You don't have the accelerated healing or the physical resilience of a shifted wolf." She paused, her words heavy with dread. "The pup's Alpha blood will be a fire your body may not be able to contain. Any severe emotional distress or physical trauma could be catastrophic for both of you."

The spark of hope instantly turned to ash, replaced by a suffocating terror. My body was a fragile vessel carrying a raging inferno. If the Pack Elders-the very people who despised my "tainted" bloodline-found out about this vulnerability, they would strip this child from me, or worse, terminate it to protect the Alpha's legacy.

"No one can know," I breathed out, my voice trembling but resolute. I looked up, meeting Dr. Smith's eyes. "Not the Elders. And especially not Julian. Keep this completely off the Pack records. I will pay for everything in cash, from my personal accounts."

Dr. Smith hesitated, torn between her duty to the Alpha and her oath as a healer. But seeing the fierce, desperate plea of a mother in my eyes, she slowly nodded.

Hours later, I stood alone in the cavernous, echoing space of the VIP private terminal at the Sterling Pack's airfield.

Because I was wolfless, I was deaf to the Pack's *Mind-Link*. I had to rely on human flight trackers just to discover that my own husband was returning from Europe a day early. I had come here to surprise him, clinging to the foolish fantasy that I could still save our dying mate-bond.

But the terminal was empty. The sleek black private jet sat on the tarmac, its engines already cooling.

Then, it hit me. The scent.

It lingered in the air, a heavy, invisible ghost. The intoxicating aroma of winter storm and ancient pine-Julian. My soul instinctively reached out for it, but violently recoiled a second later.

Woven intimately into his scent was another. The cloying, artificial stench of hothouse orchids.

Serena Chase.

My stomach violently heaved. She was a high-ranking she-wolf, the daughter of the rival Redclaw Pack's Alpha, and Julian's former lover. The fact that their scents were so deeply intertwined meant they had been in close, undeniable proximity.

Panic clawing at my throat, I pulled out my phone and dialed Arthur Penhaligon, Julian's Beta. It went straight to voicemail. I tried again. Nothing. I was completely shut out.

Suddenly, my screen lit up with a breaking news alert from a gossip site. *Billionaire Julian Sterling's Secret Rendezvous?*

My thumb hovered over the notification before I forced myself to tap it. The photo was grainy, taken by a paparazzi hiding near a private exit. But it was unmistakably Julian. His jawline was set in that familiar, commanding way as he held open the door of a non-Pack SUV for a stunning blonde woman. Serena.

Footsteps echoed behind me. It was one of the Pack drivers. He looked at me with a mixture of pity and discomfort. "Luna... Gamma Stone has initiated the Alpha's Command for the security detail. Total radio silence. We are not to contact the Alpha."

The phone nearly slipped from my numb fingers. The Alpha's Command. An absolute, unbreakable order that forced every wolf in the Pack to obey. He was using his supreme power to hide his betrayal from me.

The cold reality washed over me, freezing the last drop of naive love I had left for him. He wasn't just distant; he was actively betraying our bond, our marriage, and our Pack.

I placed a trembling hand over my flat stomach. I was carrying a secret that could kill me, and my Alpha was harboring a secret that had just killed our marriage. I turned away from the empty tarmac and walked toward the exit. I needed to get back to the penthouse before him. I needed to prepare myself for the monster who was about to walk through my door.