"Miss Crawford, you are about to inherit billions of dollars."

"More importantly, you have been confirmed as the heiress of the most powerful pack on the East Coast."

I had just picked up my test results from the hospital. Lately I'd been having trouble breathing, and I needed to know what was wrong.

I was sitting in my car, hadn't even had a chance to look at the report, when my phone rang. Unknown number.

"Don't waste my time." I was losing patience. The exam had exhausted me, and I cut him off. "I'm an Omega. And an orphan."

The respectful voice came again. "My name is Alvin. I was your father's Beta. We compared your blood sample with the Alpha of the Crawford Pack. The results confirm you are his only daughter."

The Crawford Pack? The richest, most powerful pack on the East Coast?

"That's impossible," I said, my voice shaking.

"I know you have questions, Miss Crawford, but this is urgent. Now that your identity is confirmed, there are legal documents that require your signature. You need to come as soon as possible."

After the call ended, my heart was pounding.

I'd always known I was an orphan. But I never imagined I was the daughter of an Alpha that powerful.

I was an Omega Luna. The kind everyone looked down on.

The kind who couldn't even have children. The only thing I could offer my mate was my mind. But in a pack, bloodline is what decides whether you deserve anything at all.

I had no right to complain. My mate, Damon, Alpha of the second most powerful pack on the East Coast, marked me publicly, in front of everyone, despite the pack's objections.

I gripped the phone. Alvin's words were still making me tremble. Then a paternity report came through — stamped with the Crawford Pack seal. That mark was unmistakable.

And I was an orphan. And my last name was Crawford. Everything pointed to the same thing. I really was the Crawford heiress.

But — I didn't expect a second surprise today. I looked down at my test results, and when I reached the line about fertility, I covered my mouth.

Tears almost spilled over. This couldn't be happening. Every result said the same thing. I was perfectly capable of getting pregnant.

I remembered what the doctor said on his way out. "Your reproductive system is completely fine, Miss Crawford. Though your liver enzymes are elevated. Come back in two weeks for a follow-up."

I didn't think much of it at the time. I'd spent four years pulling all-nighters in the lab. Of course my body was a little worn down.

But my husband, Damon, had always told me the pack doctors diagnosed me as infertile. I never questioned him. The doctor who examined me today was new to the hospital. Maybe that explained why this result was different. Maybe Damon had been lied to, too.

Still, I couldn't jump to conclusions. I needed to talk to Damon.

First, I had to tell him I was about to inherit billions of dollars. And as my husband and my mate, Damon could stand beside me — we'd rule two packs together. Everything he'd ever wanted, all that recognition, all that ambition, was finally within reach. And the woman standing next to him would be me.

Second, I could have a baby. That meant Damon and I would be closer than we'd ever been. All those whispers that hit me like bullets would finally stop.

I hit the gas.

When I got to the Alpha's mansion, I went straight to Damon's office. The door was slightly open. I raised my hand to knock — and heard a woman moan.

I froze.

For a second, I thought I'd imagined it. Then I stepped closer, and I saw him. My husband, gripping a woman by the hips, driving into her from behind.

She had wild red hair. She was bent over that wide desk I knew so well, moaning like she'd never been happier. Three months ago, I'd leaned over that same desk to walk him through my clinical data. Finally he let out a low growl, and they stopped.

I couldn't believe it. How could the man who stayed up until three in the morning running experiments with me be inside another woman?

"Damon, when are you finally going to divorce that Omega?" The woman turned around, her voice sharp. "I'm done waiting. Our son Leo deserves a real family."

She said Leo?

Three years ago, Damon and I "adopted" a pup named Leo from an orphanage. Damon told me he'd picked the boy at random, because he wanted to help me heal from not being able to conceive. I was so moved that I let Damon put his name on every piece of research I'd ever produced.

But Leo — the child I'd raised for three years, the child I loved — was Damon's son with his ex-mate?

Then I saw the woman's face. Sylvia. Of course it was her. Damon's ex. She'd vanished without a word, and now she was claiming my adopted son was hers.

God. Did Damon choose me just to get over losing her?

I pressed myself against the wall and forced myself to keep listening.

"Sylvia, calm down." Damon's voice was gentle, like he was soothing something precious. "You wanted to see the world. You left me. My parents were furious about it. I can't bring you back overnight and tell them everything. It takes time."

"Things are different now. You're the Alpha," Sylvia said. "And Leo needs to live with his real mother."

"I know." Damon kissed her lips to calm her. "But I still need Ava. Her research is the key to the deal with the Crawford Pack. Once that agreement goes through, we'll be strong enough to replace them. We'll be the most powerful pack there is."

He lowered his voice.

"The moment the deal is done, I'll strip her of the Luna title. Then it's yours. You'll be Luna of the strongest pack on the East Coast. Isn't that worth waiting a little longer for?"

"But I've been gone four years," Sylvia said. "What if you actually fell in love with her?"

Damon was quiet for a moment. Then he took her face in both hands.

What he said next cut into me like a knife.

"That will never happen. You're the mate the Moon Goddess chose for me. No matter what you do to me, I'll always choose you. And Leo will be my only heir."

"I know." Sylvia laughed. "The whole pack knows that Omega is a barren curse."

"I'm the one who had the hospital write that infertility report," Damon said. "She's an Omega. She doesn't deserve my bloodline. Those vitamins she takes every day? There's a trace of poison in them. It won't hit her all at once. She'll just die slowly. And when she finally collapses, the pack will only say what they already believe — that she was an Omega. That she was weak."

No.

A sharp ringing filled my ears. It felt like something had torn open my chest and shattered my heart from the inside.

All those nights I cried alone in the dark, certain there was something wrong with me. All those moments I wondered if Damon regretted choosing me.

Every bit of that pain was something he engineered. He used it to control me.

He wanted me dead.

My body swayed. The air was gone from my lungs. I pressed myself hard against the wall.

"God, Damon, you're cruel." Sylvia's voice dripped with fake sympathy. "I bet she's been doing all of this just waiting for you to acknowledge her as your Luna in front of the pack."

"That'll happen the day she's publicly cast out." Damon's voice was cold as snow. "No Alpha wants an Omega Luna. If I hadn't noticed her, if her research hadn't been useful to my pack's economy, she'd still be out there begging. She should be thanking me."

I felt the floor giving way beneath me. My heart clenched.

I'll never forget the day I walked into the pack building to submit my research, and how gently Damon looked at me. He told me he'd never met a girl so special. Then he proposed. No ceremony. Just a quiet registration.

It had all been planned from the beginning.

"You're right," Sylvia said with a sneer. "She's just an Omega living in a fantasy. In the end, she'll be thrown out like a stray dog."

Then Sylvia dropped to her knees, took him in her hand, and put her mouth on him. The office filled with sounds that made me sick.

I couldn't stand there one more second.I thought vaguely that maybe Leo still needed me. I'd raised him for three years, after all.

I turned and stumbled down the hall, barely able to feel my own legs.

Outside, rain was coming down hard, and it soaked me instantly. I couldn't feel the cold. I couldn't feel the ground. I just stood there and let everything inside me collapse into the rain.

I'd been an orphan since I could remember. My childhood was spent on the edges of one pack after another, never belonging anywhere. Until Damon marked me in front of everyone. I gave everything to build our home. I kept going even after I collapsed in the lab at midnight, until I'd turned the Dark Moon Pack from a handful of wooden cabins into the second most powerful pack on the coast.

And then my husband put a knife through my heart with his own hands.

I stood in the pouring rain and let the water run down my face. After a few seconds of silence, something rose up inside me — strong, steady, absolute.

I'm not an orphan Omega anymore.

I'm the heiress of the most powerful pack in the country.

The heiress of the pack Damon has tried to get into dozens of times, and never once set foot in.

It's almost funny. A few minutes ago, I was going to hand billions of dollars to my husband.

Thank God he hasn't found out.

I wiped the rain off my face and called Alvin.

"Get the divorce papers ready," I said. "And cut off every joint project with the Dark Moon Pack."