Beyond His Lies, Her Alpha's Love

Aliana braved a heavy storm, carrying a warm stew for her fiancé, Ivan, just as she always put his needs before her own. This ingrained habit, a survival mechanism from a cold childhood, was about to shatter into a million pieces. Tonight, everything she believed was a lie.

The iron gates of Ivan's private villa flashed red, denying her entry, and a guard mumbled lies. Ignoring him, she pushed past, a strange orchid perfume leading her to Ivan's car, where a tube of crimson lipstick lay on the passenger seat. Through a window, she saw him with another woman and a small child, an image that felt like jagged glass twisting in her heart.

Then his words cut through the storm, cold and cruel:

"Aliana is just a placeholder."

He was marrying her for her multi-billion-dollar patent, a secret deal made with her own parents, who had sold her for a kickback to buy this very house. Her family, her love, her future-all were a calculated lie.

Her inner wolf, usually fierce, fell terrifyingly silent, replaced by a chilling resolve. The burning acid in her throat wasn't just bile; it was the taste of her shattered devotion.

She didn't want his apologies or his guilt. She wanted his ruin, and as Ivan walked in with a fake smile the next morning, Aliana was ready to deliver it.

Chapter 1

Aliana POV:

I held the black umbrella with one hand, the cold metal handle digging into my palm. My other arm was wrapped tightly around the insulated thermos pressed against my chest. The heavy rain lashed against the pavement, the icy droplets soaking the hem of my trench coat. I didn't care about the cold. I only cared about getting this hot deer meat stew to Ivan.

I always put his needs before mine. It was a pathetic, ingrained habit. A survival mechanism forged in the freezing, echoing halls of my childhood home, where my vampire parents looked right through me unless I made myself useful. If I provided, if I healed, I existed.

I walked up to the heavy iron gates of Ivan's private villa. The biometric scanner usually flashed green the second I stepped into its radius. Tonight, a solid red light glared back at me through the downpour.

The heavy door of the guardhouse creaked open. The security guard stepped out into the rain, his shoulders hunched. He didn't meet my eyes. He stood squarely in the center of the path, blocking the gate.

"I'm sorry, Miss Aliana," he mumbled, staring at my wet boots. "No entry without an appointment."

I frowned, the rain dripping from the edge of my umbrella. "An appointment? It's me. I am Ivan's fiancée. I am the future Luna of this pack."

The guard shifted his weight. His eyes darted toward the dark driveway, then back to the ground. "System malfunction, ma'am. The gate won't open. Alpha's orders are strict during a lockdown."

He was lying. My heart gave a slow, heavy thud. I didn't argue. I just let out a breath and pushed a fraction of my Alpha mate aura outward. It wasn't a violent wave, just a cold, suffocating pressure that rolled over the wet asphalt.

The guard gasped, stumbling half a step backward. His knees buckled slightly. He was a low-ranking wolf, and the sheer weight of a Luna's command terrified him. He didn't say another word. He just swallowed hard and stepped aside.

I pushed the heavy iron gate. It swung open with a screech. The red light on the scanner mocked his lie. I stepped onto the stone path, the deep puddles splashing freezing water over my leather boots.

I walked toward the main house. The wind whipped through the trees, carrying the scent of wet earth, pine, and something else. Something sharp and entirely out of place.

I stopped. As a top-tier healer, my olfactory senses were razor-sharp. It was how I diagnosed blood infections and poison. I inhaled slowly.

Orchid. A heavy, synthetic, cloying orchid perfume.

I turned my head toward the scent. The detached garage door was cracked open about two feet. Ivan's black sports car sat inside the dark space. I walked over, my boots silent on the wet concrete. I reached down and pulled the car door handle. It wasn't locked.

The door swung open, and the smell of orchid punched me in the face. It was so strong it coated the back of my throat.

I looked down at the passenger seat. Lying on the pristine black leather was a tube of lipstick. Bright, aggressive crimson.

I picked it up. The slick metal casing was warm. My fingers gripped it so hard my knuckles turned a stark, bone-white. Deep inside my chest, my inner wolf began to pace. She let out a low, vibrating whine that rattled against my ribs.

I carefully placed the lipstick exactly where I found it. I closed the car door with a soft click. I turned and continued my walk toward the main house, my posture perfectly straight.

The first floor of the villa was glowing. Warm, yellow light spilled out from the massive floor-to-ceiling windows onto the wet grass. The rain was coming down harder now, a deafening roar that masked the sound of my approach.

I stepped off the stone path and onto the muddy lawn, walking right up to the glass. The heavy velvet curtains were drawn, but they didn't meet in the middle. A two-inch gap remained.

Condensation coated the outside of the glass, blurring the interior into vague shapes of light and shadow. I shifted my umbrella, freeing my right hand. My fingertips touched the freezing glass. I took a slow, shallow breath. I wiped a small circle of moisture away.

The room came into sharp focus.

An expensive Persian rug covered the hardwood floor. Several brightly colored plastic toys were scattered across the intricate woven patterns.

A woman sat on the plush leather sofa, her back to the window. She wore a silk nightgown that clung to her curves. The shape of her shoulders, the cascade of her hair, and that suffocating smell of orchid perfume violently merged in my brain.

My eyes darted downward, searching for Ivan.

When my gaze hit the center of the rug, my pupils dilated. My lungs stopped working. The breath died in my throat.

"No, this is impossible."

Aliana POV:

I stared through the gap in the curtains, my chest tight.

Ivan, the ruthless Alpha CEO who wore ten-thousand-dollar suits like armor, was on his hands and knees. He was crawling across the Persian rug.

A little boy, no older than four or five, was sitting squarely on Ivan's back. The child's tiny fists were tangled in the collar of Ivan's crisp white dress shirt, yanking on the expensive fabric.

Ivan didn't snarl. He didn't snap. Instead, a deep, rumbling laugh vibrated from his chest. He shook his shoulders, playing the obedient beast of burden, crawling faster to make the boy squeal with delight.

The woman on the sofa turned her head. The warm light caught her face.

Kiera.

Her exquisite features were twisted into a smug, lazy smile. She held a crystal glass of red wine, swirling the dark liquid as she looked down at the man and the boy with the absolute authority of a queen.

My hands started to shake. The heavy thermos slipped from my grip. I lunged, catching it against my stomach just before it hit the stone ledge. The impact bruised my ribs, but I didn't make a sound.

Inside my mind, my wolf threw her head back and let out a bloodcurdling howl. She slammed against the mental barriers of my consciousness, her claws tearing at my sanity. She wanted to shift. She wanted to smash through the glass and rip their throats out.

I bit down on the side of my tongue. Hard.

The sharp, metallic taste of my own blood flooded my mouth. The sudden burst of physical pain acted like a circuit breaker, shocking my brain back into absolute, cold rationality. I forced the wolf down, chaining her in the darkest corner of my mind.

I looked back through the glass.

The boy yanked on Ivan's dark hair. "Faster, Daddy! Run!"

Ivan stopped crawling. He turned his head, his face softening into an expression I had never seen in the three years we had been together. He pressed a long, affectionate kiss to the boy's chubby cheek.

The image felt like a jagged piece of glass twisting directly into my heart.

Ivan hated children. He had told me a hundred times that pups were noisy, useless distractions. He had made me swear we wouldn't even discuss breeding until five years after our mating ceremony.

Kiera stood up from the sofa. She walked over to where Ivan was kneeling on the rug. She raised her bare foot and lightly tapped her toes against his broad shoulder.

Ivan didn't flinch. He reached up, his large hand wrapping securely around her slender ankle. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to her lower leg, right above the bone.

A violent wave of nausea hit me. My stomach violently contracted. Acid burned the back of my throat.

I took a step backward. I needed to run. I needed to get back to my car, drive away, and scrub my skin until it bled. But my boots felt like they were cast in lead, sinking deep into the muddy grass. I couldn't move.

The freezing rain slid down the metal spokes of my umbrella, dripping steadily onto my shoulders. The cold was seeping through my coat, sinking directly into my marrow.

Inside the warm, bright room, the boy grew bored. He slid off Ivan's back and ran toward the pile of plastic blocks in the corner.

Ivan stood up. He casually brushed the lint off his ruined shirt. He reached out and pulled Kiera flush against his chest. She melted into him, her arms wrapping around his neck. She rested her head against his heart, her manicured finger tracing lazy circles on his chest.

As she moved, Kiera's gaze drifted toward the window. Her eyes seemed to lock directly onto the gap in the curtains. The corner of her mouth twitched upward into a faint, knowing smirk.

My breath hitched. I froze, my muscles locking tight. She saw me.

But she didn't scream. She didn't alert him. She just let her eyes slide past the glass, acting as if she had seen nothing but the storm.

Ivan dipped his head, taking Kiera's earlobe between his teeth. He whispered something against her skin. Kiera giggled, swatting his chest playfully.

The bulletproof, soundproof glass muted their voices into a dull hum. I needed to hear them. I needed to know exactly what this was.

I leaned closer, pressing my ear against the freezing, wet frame where the window met the brick.

The wind suddenly shifted. A violent gust ripped across the lawn, catching the tiny gap in the window seal and carrying the acoustics of the room straight to my ear.

Ivan's voice cut through the sound of the rain. It was low, cold, and dripping with the arrogant cruelty I knew so well.

"Stop being jealous. Aliana is just a placeholder."

Aliana POV:

The word echoed in my skull. Placeholder.

My fingernails dug so deeply into the palms of my hands that the skin broke. Warm blood pooled in the creases of my fists, mixing with the freezing rain. The physical pain grounded me. It was a familiar anchor. Whenever my mother had locked me in the cellar for failing a healing trial, I would pinch my arms until they bruised to keep from crying. Pain meant I was still alive.

Inside the room, the little boy abandoned his blocks. He ran across the rug and threw his arms around Ivan's leg. "Horsey!" he yelled.

Ivan patted the boy's head, his expression indulgent. He looked up and snapped his fingers. A nanny in a gray uniform immediately stepped out from the hallway shadows.

"Take him upstairs to bed," Ivan ordered.

The nanny nodded, scooping the complaining child into her arms and disappearing up the sweeping staircase.

The living room was suddenly empty, leaving only Ivan and Kiera. The air between them shifted, growing thick and dangerous.

Kiera picked up her wine glass from the coffee table. She took a slow sip, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Ivan over the rim. "You're spending an awful lot of time planning this mating ceremony next week," she said, her voice dripping with sour jealousy.

Ivan chuckled. It was a dry, dismissive sound. He stepped forward, grabbed the crystal glass out of her hand, and slammed it down onto the table. The red wine sloshed over the rim, staining the wood.

He grabbed Kiera by the hips and shoved her backward onto the sofa, pinning her beneath his weight. "I have never touched her," he growled, his face inches from hers. "You know that."

"Then why marry her?" Kiera challenged, tracing his jawline.

"Because the elders are traditional fools," Ivan sneered. "They want a pureblood healer as Luna. Aliana is nothing but a pacifier to keep the council off my back."

Kiera pouted, twisting a button on his shirt. "And the merger ceremony? Is that for the elders too?"

Ivan's eyes flared with a sudden, greedy light. "The merger is for me. That stupid bitch holds the patent for the cell regeneration serum. It's worth billions. The moment she signs the mating contract, that patent automatically transfers to the Hughes pack. To me."

Kiera feigned a gasp, her eyes wide with fake concern. "But what if her parents find out? Richard and Eleanor are ruthless. They'll tear you apart for stealing their family's asset."

Ivan threw his head back and laughed. The sound bounced off the high ceiling, loud and triumphant.

"Find out?" Ivan mocked, shaking his head. "They are the ones who handed her to me. Richard and Eleanor are getting a thirty percent kickback from the patent revenue. They sold their daughter, Kiera."

Ivan raised his hand, gesturing to the massive, opulent living room around them. "How do you think I paid for this house? Her parents bought this villa for us using the down payment I gave them for their precious daughter."

Lightning struck the ground beside me, but I didn't feel the electricity. The shockwave hit me from the inside out.

My parents. My blood.

I remembered my mother adjusting my collar just three days ago, her cold hands surprisingly gentle. *'You are doing your family proud, Aliana. Ivan is a good man.'*

My stomach violently heaved. I swallowed down the bile burning my throat.

The wolf inside me didn't howl this time. She didn't fight. She simply laid down in the dark and went completely, terrifyingly still. The silence in my head was absolute.

Suddenly, the phone in my trench coat pocket vibrated.

It wasn't a soft buzz. It was a harsh, continuous grinding against my hip bone. In the dead quiet of the storm outside, it sounded like a chainsaw.

Inside, Ivan's head snapped up. His red eyes locked directly onto the gap in the curtains. He pushed off Kiera, his body tensing into a combat stance.

Cold sweat broke out across my spine. I dropped into a hard crouch, my knees splashing into the freezing mud. I scrambled backward, throwing myself behind a thick row of wet hydrangeas.

I ripped the phone from my pocket and jammed my thumb onto the volume button, killing the vibration. My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird.

I held my breath, waiting for the front door to violently open.

Through the leaves, I saw Ivan staring at the window. He took a step toward the glass. Before he could reach it, Kiera grabbed his tie. She yanked him backward, pulling his mouth down to hers. Ivan hesitated for a second, then groaned, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her back.

I slumped against the wet brick wall of the house, my lungs burning as I dragged in a jagged breath.

I looked down at the glowing screen of my phone. The harsh light burned my retinas.

It was a text from Ivan. Sent one minute ago.

I swiped the screen open and read the words.

"Baby, I'm at the border dealing with rogue wolves. Don't wait up for me tonight."