The Genius Designer Escapes Her Alpha

DAVINA'S POV:

The lingering heat of our intense lovemaking still clung to my skin. I stood before the vanity mirror, carefully tying the simple blue silk scarf Corbin had just given me, treating it like a priceless treasure. On the nightstand, Corbin's phone suddenly lit up. I glanced at it, and the name on the screen instantly froze the blood in my veins.

Collette Walsh. His untouchable first love.

It was a picture message. Collette was standing in the grand foyer of a luxurious new villa, holding a glass of red wine. But what caught my eye wasn't the mansion. Sitting at her feet was a poodle, and tied loosely around the dog's neck was the exact same blue scarf I was currently wearing.

Before I could process it, a voice message popped up.

"Corbin..." Collette's voice was dripping with softness, laced with a pitiful vulnerability. "Thank you for the estate, it's beautiful. Oh, by the way, those two complimentary scarves that came with the house purchase? You took one, and I thought the other color suited my dog perfectly, so I tied it on her. It's just... this house is so big. Without you by my side, I feel so cold. Can you come see me tonight? I miss you."

The dead silence in the bedroom was deafening.

I slowly untied the scarf from my neck. Seconds ago, I thought it was a token of affection. Now, it felt like a dirty rag, suffocating me.

A wave of intense, nauseating humiliation surged up my throat. The warmth of our recent intimacy suddenly made my skin crawl with absolute disgust.

The bathroom door opened. Corbin stepped out, water droplets sliding down his chiseled muscles. Even with just a towel wrapped around his waist, his oppressive Alpha aura demanded absolute submission.

He saw me standing there, staring dead at his lit-up phone screen, and his jaw tightened in displeasure. He strode over and snatched the phone from my hand.

For a split second, as his eyes caught Collette's message, a rare softness flashed in his silver-gray gaze. But when he looked back at me, the absolute, freezing indifference returned.

"Don't touch my things," he said coldly.

He turned, took a small herbal pouch from a polished wooden box, and tossed it onto the black marble coffee table. "Take it."

It was a mixture laced with wolfsbane, an herb designed to suppress fertility. It was meant to ensure that I, his low-ranking Omega mate, would never bear an heir for the Montgomery bloodline.

For three years of marriage, after every time we made love, he would throw me a bag of these herbs. But today, he had given me a gift. I had foolishly thought he finally saw me... yet the only gift in three years was nothing but a free giveaway from his first love's house purchase.

I mechanically poured a glass of lukewarm water, mixed the bitter powder, and swallowed it down. Instantly, a familiar, searing agony ripped through my throat and stomach.

"Good," he said, as if I had just completed a mundane chore.

I gripped the edge of the vanity, silently enduring the torture of my insides being burned by hellfire.

The butler appeared at the door, his posture immaculate. "Alpha King, Luna, dinner is served."

I followed Corbin to the dining room. At the head of the massive mahogany table sat his mother, the former Luna, Genevieve Montgomery.

"Three years, Davina," Genevieve sneered, her voice echoing in the spacious dining room, deliberately loud enough for all the servants to hear. "Three years of marriage, and your belly is still flat. If you can't even breed an heir for the Alpha King, what exactly is the point of you occupying that seat?"

I had endured this exact mockery countless times, usually lowering my head to swallow the shame in silence. But tonight, the image of that poodle wearing my "gift," combined with the residual burn of the wolfsbane tearing at my womb, shattered something fundamental inside me.

I set down my fork. I looked at her with a dead, calm expression. "Mother, you should ask Corbin that question."

Genevieve's face hardened instantly. "Insolence! A nobody from the fringe territories dares to talk back to me? Know your place!"

"Not only are you a useless Omega who can't produce pups," she continued, her tone dripping with pure disgust, "but you also drag around that bloodsucking, crippled brother of yours. A wolfless freak."

My hands clenched into fists. Emmett was my absolute bottom line.

I slammed my hands on the table and stood up, glaring at her. "Don't call Emmett a freak!"

Bang.

Corbin slammed his glass down. A suffocating Alpha command crashed over me like a tsunami, forcing me violently back into my chair. My lungs burned as I struggled to breathe.

I looked at Corbin, silently begging him to say something, anything, just this once to defend me.

But he just methodically cut his rare steak, and coldly warned, "Mind your tone when speaking to my mother, Davina."

I stared at the man I had loved with my entire soul, feeling the last thread binding me to him snap. In his cold eyes, my pain, my family, and my dignity were utterly worthless.

As soon as he finished his meal, Corbin stood up, grabbed his coat, and walked straight out the front door without sparing me a single glance. He was going to her.

The air in the main house was suffocating. I curled up alone on the sofa in the massive, empty living room, the giant television screen illuminating the darkness.

The entertainment channel was broadcasting frantically, the bold headline blinding: [Alpha King's Late-Night Rendezvous with First Love: Wedding Bells Soon?]

In the paparazzi photos, Corbin and Collette were walking into a luxury hotel. His hand rested protectively on her lower back-a gesture of tenderness he had never, ever shown me.

I stared at the screen. My heart felt like a pile of dead ashes, but from those ashes, a chilling clarity emerged. My three years of desperate persistence wasn't just a pathetic joke-it was a prison of my own making. I had sacrificed all my pride to warm a stone, only to be burned. It was over. The Davina who lived for a crumb of Corbin Montgomery's affection died right there on that sofa.

Just then, my phone rang frantically, shattering the dead silence.

"Miss Davina! It's terrible!" It was Martha, the caregiver for my brother, Emmett. Her voice was trembling with pure terror and despair. "Master Emmett... he suddenly collapsed with a high fever! The doctor says he's dying!"

DAVINA'S POV:

The sterile, suffocating smell of bleach hit me the moment I burst through the hospital doors. I sprinted toward the ICU, my legs trembling so violently I could barely stand.

Through the cold glass window, I saw my brother, Emmett. He was hooked up to a ventilator, his usually pale face now a terrifying shade of blue. Seeing him so fragile, so close to death, felt like a brutal grip crushing my heart.

"How did it get this bad?" I grabbed Martha's arm, my voice cracking. Emmett had always been frail, a wolfless human in a werewolf world, but he had never ended up in the ICU.

Martha, his caregiver, looked at me with red, swollen eyes. She hesitated before whispering, "Master Emmett... he saw the entertainment news this afternoon. The photos of the Alpha King and... that woman. He locked himself in his room, left the window wide open in the freezing wind, and by nightfall, the fever spiked."

I stumbled backward, my spine hitting the icy wall. It was because of me. The humiliation of my pathetic marriage was literally killing my brother.

The harsh ring of the nurse's station phone pierced the air. The head nurse looked at me with clinical detachment. "Are you Emmett Hayes' family? The pneumonia has triggered acute respiratory failure. He needs emergency surgery. We need a deposit of two hundred thousand dollars immediately, or we cannot proceed with the treatment."

Two hundred thousand.

Martha panicked. "Luna, I have some savings..."

"No," I forced a hollow smile, pushing her hands back. "Keep your retirement money. I have it."

I paused, swallowing the bitter lump in my throat. "If it's not enough, I'll ask Corbin. Don't believe the paparazzi trash online. Corbin and I... we're fine."

I waved my phone and turned away, walking quickly into the deserted stairwell. The moment the heavy fire door clicked shut, the fake smile on my face shattered completely. I wasn't trying to hide the truth; I just couldn't bear to let my dying brother's caregiver see how utterly worthless I was.

With shaking fingers, I dialed Lauren Sullivan, Corbin's executive assistant.

"Lauren, it's Davina. I need an emergency transfer of two hundred thousand dollars from the pack's medical fund right now."

On the other end, Lauren's voice dripped with blatant impatience and a sneer she didn't even try to hide. "Luna, do you know what time it is? The Alpha King left strict orders. All of your 'large expenditures' require his personal signature. Besides, the pack funds are for wolves, not for treating a wolfless freak."

"You-"

"And the Alpha King is... currently indisposed. I cannot interrupt him. Goodnight." Click.

I stared at the darkened screen, my fingertips turning to ice. Indisposed. That single word was a poisoned needle stabbing directly into my chest. The entire pack looked down on me, knowing my husband was out with another woman, while my brother was suffocating in an ICU bed.

I stared at the number I had memorized by heart. Corbin's private line. I pressed call. Please, Corbin. Just this once. Pick up.

To my shock, the call connected almost instantly. But the voice that floated through the speaker made the blood freeze in my veins.

"Hello? Who is this?" It was a woman's voice. Soft, melodious, laced with a lazy, post-coital satisfaction.

Collette Walsh.

In that split second, my heart stopped beating. "Put Corbin on the phone," I demanded, using every ounce of willpower to keep my voice from trembling.

"Oh, Davina!" Collette's tone shifted to sickeningly sweet, dripping with false innocence. In the background, I could clearly hear the sound of a shower running. "Corby is in the bathroom washing up. Did you need something? I can pass a message."

She paused, then let out a soft, mocking giggle. "Let me guess. You need money for that crippled brother of yours? Corby was just complaining to me about how exhausting it is to fund a bottomless pit. You really shouldn't burden him so much, Davina. He works so hard."

"Shut up."

I didn't wait for her to say another word. I ended the call.

My legs finally gave out. I slid down the rough concrete wall, collapsing onto the cold stairwell floor.

I thought of the girl I was three years ago, full of hope, believing my fated mate would eventually love me. I thought of how I swallowed my pride, playing the perfect, obedient Luna. I thought of the searing pain of the wolfsbane I drank just hours ago, destroying my own body just to please him.

All my compromises, all my sacrifices... they made me look like an absolute, pathetic joke. A colossal, laughable fool!

My husband was spending the night in a luxury hotel with his white moonlight. His subordinates treated me like dirt. And the brother I cherished more than my own life was lying in the ICU, dying because of my failed, toxic marriage.

Tears spilled over, hot and bitter, smashing against the back of my hand. My inner wolf, who had whimpered for her mate for three years, suddenly went dead silent. The bond didn't snap, but the soul tethered to it died.

I wiped my face fiercely. When I looked up, the desperate pleading in my eyes was gone, replaced by a chilling, venomous clarity.

So what if he saved me once years ago? Three years of my youth, my dignity, and my brother's near-death were more than enough to repay that debt.

I wasn't going to live in this hell for another second.

I opened my contacts, found my best friend Chloe's number, and sent a single text: [I need $200k for Emmett's surgery. Now.]

Less than a minute later, my phone pinged. The money was in my account. Followed by a text: [Done. Whoever hurt you, I'll help you bury them.]

I stood up, my spine straight. It was time to end this.

DAVINA'S POV:

I paid the hospital, watched them wheel Emmett into the operating room, and then drove like a maniac back to the Montgomery estate.

I marched straight into the palatial walk-in closet. Everything in here was bought by Corbin. The limited-edition designer bags, the diamond jewelry, the racks of haute couture, and those damn silk scarves he brought back from business trips-the exact same ones he gave to Collette's dog.

Right now, looking at this mausoleum of wealth, all I felt was a piercing, razor-sharp irony. Perfect.

I pulled out my phone, didn't hesitate for a single second, and started a live broadcast on a new account I named 'The Luna's Ledger'. The title of the stream was pure, unadulterated mockery: [Ex-Husband's Pity Gifts - Clearance Sale. Everything Must Go.]

I grabbed a Himalayan Birkin bag worth three hundred thousand dollars, shoved it right up to the camera, my voice clear but raspy from crying. "Welcome, everyone! Brand new, authenticity guaranteed! Why am I selling it?"

I paused and offered the camera a smile-a smile that was breathtakingly broken yet utterly defiant. "Because while I stay home serving my Alpha King husband, taking the infertility herbs he forces down my throat, he's out buying a mansion for his mistress. So, ladies, I'm passing this massive 'blessing' onto you. Who wants it?"

The moment the stream went live, hundreds of pack members and socialites flooded in. After a few seconds of dead silence, the chat absolutely exploded!

"Holy shit! Is that the Luna?! She's exposing the King!" "That bag! You can't even get that on a waitlist! Thirty grand?! Are you crazy? I'LL TAKE IT!" "Luna, don't cry! Leave that cheating bastard! We support you!"

The comments scrolled so fast they blurred. The viewer count skyrocketed from hundreds to tens of thousands, rushing toward the hundred-thousand mark.

Exhaustion vanished, replaced by a frantic, almost manic energy. I turned into the most ruthlessly efficient salesperson. I didn't even look at the climbing revenue. I just mechanically, precisely held up the clothes, the shoes, the jewelry... every single thing he had ever given me. I slapped a humiliatingly low price tag on them and tossed them into the 'sold' pile.

It wasn't just a sale; it was a public execution of my marriage.

Just as the system alerted me that sales had surpassed half a million dollars, a single anonymous buyer purchased every remaining link in the store.

The adrenaline crashed. My fingers trembled as I ended the stream. I immediately transferred two hundred thousand back to Chloe. The rest was my capital for a new life.

By the time I finished packing the items for overnight shipping, the sky outside was turning a pale, cold gray. I called Martha; Emmett's surgery was successful, and he was stable.

The tension that had held me together all night snapped. I was bone-tired. I dragged myself to the bedroom and had just sat on the edge of the mattress when-

BANG!

The heavy oak bedroom door was kicked open with enough force to crack the frame. Corbin stormed in.

He was still wearing yesterday's bespoke suit, but it was wrinkled. His tie was ripped loose, his hair was a mess, and his silver-gray eyes were practically bleeding with rage. It was obvious he had seen the stream and sped all the way back. And underneath his anger, I could smell it. The faint, sweet scent of Collette's perfume clinging to his collar.

Looking at this furious, supposedly untouchable Alpha King, I didn't feel a single ounce of fear. Instead, a twisted thrill of vengeance coiled in my stomach.

I slowly stood up, casually sweeping a strand of hair behind my ear, before finally meeting his lethal gaze. I smiled.

"Are you done being a lunatic?!" His voice was a guttural snarl, squeezed through clenched teeth. His oppressive Alpha aura flooded the room, meant to force me to my knees.

But my inner wolf was dead. You can't suppress something that no longer cares.

"A lunatic?" I tilted my head, my smile never wavering. "Compared to you, Corbin, I'm perfectly sane."

I took a step toward him, my voice light, floating like a feather, but every word was a poisoned dagger. "After all, I'm not the one who sleeps with my mate, forces her to drink wolfsbane, and then runs off to play house with my first love in the same night."

"You-" Corbin's face turned a violent shade of ashen gray. He stepped forward, raising a hand.

I didn't give him the chance to explode. I turned, my bare feet silent against the freezing marble floor. The cold shot up my legs, making my mind sharper, clearer than it had been in three years.

I walked over to the vanity and picked up the polished wooden box-the one that held the wolfsbane herbs he forced on me after every intimacy. I walked right back to him and slammed it directly against his chest.

Smack.

The box clattered to the floor, the bitter-smelling pouches scattering across the marble between us.

I raised my chin. The eyes that used to look at him with nothing but desperate adoration were now hollow and freezing.

I slowly slid the diamond wedding band off my finger, letting it drop onto the pile of herbs with a sharp, dismissive clink.

I spoke each word with crystal clarity. "Everything you've ever given me, I've already sold. Keep the change. As for this marriage? I quit."