Escaping The Arrogant Alpha: The Pregnant White Wolf's Revenge

Anastasia Prince POV:

"Alpha Wright and his rumored mate, the acclaimed Omega actress Ginger Bauer, were spotted entering a private penthouse suite late last night."

The headline on my tablet screen burned in bright, clinical white. Below it, a photograph captured the scene in agonizing clarity. Andrew was placing his tailored suit jacket around Ginger's bare shoulders, his massive frame shielding her from the flashing cameras.

In five years of our contract marriage, he had never once offered me that kind of warmth.

To the entire Blackstone Pack, I was nothing more than a genetic failure-a wolfless female who had never manifested an inner wolf, incapable of shifting, unable to feel the fated mate bond, and utterly useless to a corporate empire built on Alpha dominance.

Heavy combat boots echoed against the polished marble floor of the corridor outside. The temperature in the master bedroom plummeted as an overwhelming, suffocating Alpha aura rolled through the doorway, thick with the scent of frozen cedar and pure dominance.

The heavy double doors swung open. Andrew stepped inside, his dark grey eyes sharp and dismissive. He was the undisputed billionaire CEO of Blackstone Enterprises and the Alpha of our pack, a man whose sheer physical presence could force lower-ranking wolves to their knees.

I set the tablet face down on the nightstand and stood up, keeping my spine rigid to disguise the tremor in my hands.

"You're back late," I said, my voice flat.

Andrew didn't answer. He yanked his silk tie loose with an irritable jerk of his hand, the obsidian wolf-crest signet ring on his forefinger catching the dim lamplight. As he closed the distance between us, a foreign scent hit my nostrils-a cloying blend of white lilies and the unmistakable musk of a rogue wolf trying desperately to mask her origins.

Ginger's scent.

My stomach churned with a sudden, violent wave of nausea. I swallowed it down, refusing to show weakness.

"What's with that look on your face?" Andrew asked, stopping inches from me. He towered over my frame, his broad shoulders blocking out the light. "Take off your clothes."

I dug my fingernails into my palms until the skin nearly broke.

"Andrew, our five-year contract ends in thirty days," I reminded him, my voice tight. "You don't need to force this anymore."

"As long as the contract is active, you are mine to command," he replied coldly. He grabbed my wrist, his grip like a steel band, and shoved me back against the cold wall. His hot breath brushed against my collarbone, but there was no passion in it-only the raw, territorial ownership of an Alpha claiming his property.

I closed my eyes and turned my head away, detaching my mind from the rough, impatient demand of his hands. There was no soul resonance between us, no electric sparks of a true mating bond-only the rigid terms of a legal arrangement that had bought my mother's medical care at the cost of my dignity.

When it was over, he pulled away without a single glance, strapping on a black silk robe as if shedding a chore.

I stayed pressed against the disheveled sheets, listening to the harsh spray of the bathroom shower. Minutes later, he emerged, dialing his encrypted phone.

"Bury the morning press releases," Andrew ordered into the receiver, his tone ruthless. "I don't want any tabloid trash circulating through the pack network."

I sat up, wrapping the blanket around my chest, and looked at his broad back. "Are you burying it to protect your image as CEO, or to protect her?"

Andrew paused, turning his head just enough to skewer me with a freezing glare. "Know your place, Anastasia. A wolfless surrogate has no right to question pack business."

The words felt like a bucket of ice water dumped over my head, washing away the last fragile shred of hope I didn't even realize I was holding onto.

Before he could reach the door, a ragged, hacking cough tore through the silence from the adjoining nursery.

Leo.

The five-year-old pup I had raised since infancy, the boy Andrew had brought home five years ago claiming he was the orphaned son of his fallen Gamma warrior, Duff Hale. I had poured every ounce of my soul into raising that child.

Andrew's hand tightened on the doorknob for a fraction of a second, but he didn't turn back. He pulled the door open and vanished down the hallway.

Ignoring the ache in my limbs, I threw off the covers and ran barefoot into the nursery.

Leo was curled in a tight ball on his small bed, his golden curls soaked with sweat, his little chest heaving as he gasped for air.

"Leo," I whispered, lifting him into my arms and pressing his burning forehead against my neck. "Mommy's here. I've got you."

"Mommy..." Leo whimpered, his small hands clutching the collar of my shirt. "It hurts..."

Holding his shaking body against mine, a quiet resolve settled deep in my bones. No matter how cold this pack was, I would protect this boy with everything I had left.

Anastasia Prince POV:

By the time the nursery thermometer finally beeped green to signal that Leo's fever had broken, the first grey light of dawn was filtering through the blinds.

I stood up from the rocking chair, my joints stiff from sitting awake all night. As I walked into the master bathroom to splash cold water on my face, a violent, unexpected spasm seized my stomach.

I lunged forward, gripping the marble edge of the sink as bile rose up my throat. I dry-heaved into the basin, my chest burning, cold sweat breaking out across my forehead.

I stared at my pale reflection in the mirror, my fingers slowly drifting down to press against my flat abdomen.

Nausea in the mornings. A sudden sensitivity to smells. My cycle was two weeks late.

The terrifying realization struck me like a physical blow: I might be pregnant.

In a hierarchical werewolf society where high-ranking Alphas valued genetic strength above all else, a wolfless female bearing an Alpha's child would be stripped of all rights and treated as nothing more than an incubator for the pack. If Andrew discovered this before our contract expired, I would never be allowed to leave.

I washed my face with ice-cold water, pulled on an oversized trench coat, and put on dark sunglasses.

Leaving the penthouse quietly, I drove my sedan to an independent human pharmacy located on the outer fringe of the territory, far beyond the pack's surveillance grid. I paid cash for three high-accuracy pregnancy tests and buried them at the bottom of my purse.

The moment I stepped back onto the street, my encrypted satellite phone vibrated in my pocket. The screen flashed with the caller ID: Chloe Hayes.

I put in my earpiece and answered. "Chloe, what's happening?"

Chloe was my secret partner and agent, the only one who knew the true identity behind my anonymous restoration signature.

"Ana, we have an emergency commission," Chloe whispered, her voice buzzing with excitement. "A direct request from the King's Domain. An ancient ceremonial jade vessel dedicated to the Moon Goddess was fractured during transport."

My breath hitched. "The Moon Goddess relic from the first dynasty?"

"Yes. The Pack Elders said it was beyond repair, but the Royal Sanctuary specifically demanded our master restoration signature," Chloe explained. "The bounty on this single piece is enough to purchase an entire commercial district."

A faint spark ignited in my chest. To the world, I was a defenseless wolfless woman, but in secret, I was the sole disciple of Jacky Morrison, the continent's most revered master of ancient werewolf artifacts. My dormant White Wolf heritage gave me the rare ability to mend broken totems that ordinary wolves couldn't even touch.

"Accept the commission," I said firmly. "Transmit the high-res scans to my private terminal. I'll begin the structural analysis tonight."

"Understood. Be careful, Ana. Blackstone security has been tightening perimeter sweeps."

"They won't look my way," I said, ending the call.

I drove toward Blackstone Manor. After Leo's fever broke morning, Arthur sent a driver to pick him up and bring him to the estate for further examination. Now that I've finished what I had to do, I'm going to pick him up and take him home.

As I stopped at a major intersection in the pack's commercial center, the colossal holographic billboard overhead flickered to a live broadcast. Andrew appeared on the screen, looking impeccably sharp in a charcoal suit, escorting Ginger out of an elite private club surrounded by security guards.

Alpha Andrew Wright Spares No Expense Celebrating Omega Star's Birthday, the bold caption scrolled across the bottom.

Two young Omega women in the convertible next to me were giggling excitedly. "Alpha Andrew is so devoted to Ginger! That wolfless woman holding the Luna title is an absolute joke."

I pressed the button to roll up my window, cutting off their voices. The coldness inside me hardened into stone.

Twenty minutes later, I pulled up to the iron gates of Blackstone Manor. The Gamma guards at the gatehouse gave my car a slow, disdainful glance before pressing the gate release.

I parked by the central fountain and walked into the grand foyer. The maids in the hall went silent the moment I stepped inside, exchanging furtive whispers.

Arthur Reynolds, the head butler, intercepted me with a practiced, superficial bow. "Madam, you shouldn't be here."

"I came to take Leo home," I said coldly. "Where is he?"

"The young master is currently in the drawing room," Arthur said, shifting his feet to block the corridor. "It is not convenient for you to enter right now."

"Step aside, Arthur." I brushed past his arm, my heels clicking sharply against the floor as I headed straight for the double doors at the end of the hall.

The door was slightly ajar. A soft, overly sweet voice drifted out from inside, cooing to a child.

I pushed the door open.

Ginger was sitting on the velvet sofa, holding a limited-edition robotic mecha, while Leo sat quietly against her knees, looking up at her with wide eyes.

Anastasia Prince POV:

The heavy oak door slammed against the wall, the sharp crack shattering the quiet inside the drawing room.

Ginger looked up. For a split second, panic flickered in her honey-brown eyes, but she masked it almost instantly behind a practiced layer of innocence.

Leo jumped at the noise. For a heartbeat, his eyes darted toward me with a flicker of hesitant recognition-but Ginger's hand settled on his shoulder, and she held the limited-edition robotic mecha just within his reach, the toy he had been begging for all week. He was only five, and the prize was too bright to resist.

He shrank back against Ginger's silk skirt like a startled pup seeking shelter, his small fingers curling into the fabric.

That instinctive reaction hit my chest like a lead weight. For five years, I had held him through every fever, bandaged every scraped knee, and sung him to sleep every night. Yet here he was, cowering behind a woman he had barely met-not because he loved her, but because she had learned exactly which buttons to press on a child too young to know the difference between love and bribery.

"Leo, come here," I said, extending my hand toward him, fighting to keep my voice steady.

Leo peeked out from behind Ginger's arm, his lower lip trembling as he looked between the two of us without moving. His eyes kept darting to the toy in Ginger's hand, then back to my face.

"Anastasia, please don't frighten the child," Ginger said gently, emphasizing my name as she placed a protective hand over Leo's shoulder. She was dressed in an immaculate white designer dress, the faint tear-shaped beauty mark beneath her right eye giving her an air of delicate vulnerability.

"This is the Blackstone main estate, not a movie set," I said, stepping forward. "Save your acting for the cameras."

Ginger shrank back slightly, her eyes instantly welling with tears. "How can you be so cruel to me..."

"I'm taking my son home," I said, locking my gaze onto hers. "Give him to me."

Several Beta housemaids lingered near the open doorway, their eyes darting between us as they watched the drama unfold.

"Your son?" Ginger's voice suddenly lost its gentle cadence, rising into a sharp, mocking laugh.

She stood up, pulling Leo firmly behind her, her posture straightening with sudden malice. "Anastasia, have you lied to yourself for so long that you actually believe you're his mother?"

A cold dread coiled in my gut. "What are you talking about?"

"You're a defective, wolfless parasite who can't even carry pure Alpha blood," Ginger sneered, her voice carrying clearly into the hallway. "What right do you have to claim my flesh and blood?"

The words dropped like a bomb in the room. In the hallway, a maid let out a sharp gasp.

The air rushed out of my lungs. The room seemed to tilt beneath my feet.

"What did you just say?" My voice barely came out as a whisper.

Ginger smiled, a triumphant, venomous grin, and pulled Leo forward by his wrist. She brushed aside the golden curls at the base of his neck, exposing a small, pale-brown birthmark shaped like a crescent moon.

"Look at it," Ginger hissed. "He is my son. I carried him for nine months, and Andrew is his biological father."

My gaze locked onto that birthmark. I had kissed that exact spot thousands of times over the last five years, never once suspecting it was the physical proof of a monstrous lie.

"No..." I shook my head, my mind spinning. "Andrew told me... he was Duff Hale's orphan..."

"A dead Gamma's orphan was just a convenient story Andrew made up to protect me from pack politics while I built my career!" Ginger stepped closer, her voice dropping to a vicious whisper meant only for me. "You were never his wife. You were just the free, disposable nanny we used to keep our son safe until the time was right."

Five years of sleepless nights. Five years of bending my knee to pack elders. Five years of swallowing insults, believing I was raising the child of a fallen hero.

It was all a calculated fraud.

A white-hot wave of fury surged through my blood. My hand moved on pure instinct, rising to strike the smirk off her face.

Before my palm could connect, a pair of small hands grabbed my wrist with surprising force.

Leo planted his entire body in front of Ginger, glaring at me fiercely. "Don't touch my mommy. I'm not done playing with the toy yet."

My hand froze in midair.

The child I had once loved with every fiber of my being was now attacking me with his tiny sharp teeth, his eyes filled with pure hatred-all for a toy.

"Leo..." The name tore from my throat, broken and hoarse.

"Leave me alone!" Leo screamed, shoving my leg with all his strength. "If you don't let me play with the toy, I'll only want my real mommy and not you anymore!"

He lowered his head and went back to playing with the toy, completely absorbed. Ginger held him tight, looking at me from above his head, her face wearing a look of pure triumph.

I stumbled back two steps, my shoulder hitting the cold wood paneling of the wall.

Before I could breathe, a sharp, authoritative voice boomed from the doorway: "What is the meaning of this disgraceful display?"