The countdown in the lab reached its final second.

Three, two, one.

The main monitor flashed green.

**EXPERIMENT SUCCESSFUL.**

Every instrument in the lab began beeping at once. Data raced across the screens, the curve shooting past the critical threshold as the printer spat out page after page of test results.

It worked!

I shot to my feet, but my vision suddenly went black. I had to brace myself against the lab table. More than six months of sleepless nights and countless failed trials had nearly drained every ounce of strength from my body, but I couldn’t stop now.

I grabbed the report.

The data was stable.

No errors.

I had really done it.

My fingers trembled as I held the freshly printed results.

This was the breakthrough I had spent more than six months developing in secret, without telling Damon.

A completely new medical technology.

Now I had the successful data I needed. Once the remaining documentation was complete, I could officially file for a patent.

This technology was powerful enough to change the fate of the Dark Moon Pack. It could secure a partnership with the Crawford Pack and even give us a chance to replace them as the strongest pack on the East Coast.

Damon had always dreamed of the day the Dark Moon Pack would rise to the top.

So had I.

I was an Omega, while my husband was the Alpha of the Dark Moon Pack. With research valuable enough to transform the pack’s future, I was certain they would finally recognize me as their Luna. All the contempt and humiliation that had struck me like stones would finally disappear.

I had to see Damon.

The moment he saw the data, he would pull me into his arms and tell me how proud he was.

I quickly copied the complete experimental data onto an encrypted drive, slipped the printed report into a folder, and rushed out of the lab with both pressed tightly against my chest.

I sped toward the Alpha estate.

The moment I arrived, I headed straight for Damon’s office.

The door was slightly open.

I raised my hand to knock, but before my knuckles touched the wood, a woman’s moan drifted from inside.

I froze.

For a second, I thought I had imagined it.

Then another moan followed.

I stepped closer.

And saw my husband.

Damon had both hands wrapped around a woman’s ass as he drove himself hard into her.

Wild red hair spilled down her back as she bent over the broad office desk I knew so well, moaning with pleasure.

Three months ago, I had been bent over that same desk.

I had been explaining my previous clinical data to Damon.

At last, he released a low growl, and they stopped moving.

I stood outside the frosted glass door, unable to believe what I was seeing.

How could the man who had once stayed with me in the lab until three in the morning be sleeping with another woman?

“Damon, when are you finally going to divorce that Omega?” the woman demanded as she turned around. “I’m tired of waiting. Our son, Leo, deserves a real family.”

I finally saw her face.

Sylvia.

Damon’s former mate.

What had she just said?

Their son?

Leo?

Three years ago, Damon and I had “adopted” a young wolf named Leo from an orphanage.

Damon told me he had chosen the boy at random because he wanted to help me recover from the pain of being unable to have children.

I had been so moved that I even agreed to put Damon’s name on the research reports and papers I had previously submitted.

But Leo—the child I had raised for three years and loved more than my own life—was actually Damon and Sylvia’s biological son?

Dear Goddess.

Had Damon chosen me only to fill the space Sylvia left behind?

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

“Sylvia, calm down.” Damon’s voice was gentle, as though he were soothing someone precious. “You were the one who wanted to build a career in Europe. You left me. My parents were furious about it. I couldn’t bring you home the moment you came back and immediately tell them everything. These things take time.”

“Things are different now. You’re the Alpha,” Sylvia said. “More importantly, Leo needs to live with his real mother.”

“I know.” Damon lowered his head and kissed her. “But I still need Ava. She’s been working on medical research. Once she produces something valuable enough, we’ll have a chance to secure an agreement with the Crawford Pack. When that deal is finalized, we’ll be powerful enough to replace them and become the strongest pack on the East Coast.”

He lowered his voice.

“Once the agreement is signed, I’ll remove her as Luna. Then the title will belong to you. You’ll be the Luna of the strongest pack on the East Coast. Isn’t that worth waiting a little longer?”

My body swayed.

The air vanished from my lungs.

I had to brace myself against the wall to keep from collapsing.

For three years, I had practically lived inside the laboratory, working myself to the bone to make the pack stronger.

I had never forgotten that I was an Omega.

All I wanted was to prove that Damon hadn’t made a mistake by choosing me.

Even when I worked until I coughed up blood, I still dragged myself home to cook for his family.

His mother seized every opportunity to humiliate me for being a useless Omega. His sister insisted I had stained the Ashford family name, while his father sat silently by and watched.

Maybe even my infertility had been part of their plan.

The floor seemed to collapse beneath me as my heart tightened painfully inside my chest.

I would never forget that day.

I had gone to the pack headquarters to submit a research report when Damon stood before me and told me, with such tenderness in his eyes, that he had never met a woman as special as I was.

Later, he proposed.

There was no ceremony.

Only a secret marriage registration.

But now I understood.

Everything had been planned from the beginning.

The truth crashed over me like shards of ice.

“You’re right,” Sylvia said with a cold laugh. “She’s nothing but an Omega living inside a fantasy. In the end, she’ll be thrown away like a stray dog.”

Then Sylvia dropped to her knees, wrapped her hand around Damon’s cock, and took him into her mouth.

The suffocating sounds began again.

I couldn’t stay there another second.

I turned and fled.

My fingers tightened around the folder containing the experimental data before I shoved it into the hidden compartment of my bag. The encrypted drive holding all the core research was safely tucked inside with it.

Now everything made sense.

Whenever I had suggested making my research public, Damon would pull me into his arms and comfort me softly.

“Baby, you’re only an Omega woman. If you make your research public, everyone in the pack will question you. But I know what you’re worth. Once we defeat the strongest pack on the East Coast—the Crawford Pack—I’ll make sure every pack in North America knows what you contributed.”

He had never intended to keep that promise.

He had only been waiting for my research to succeed, waiting for me to secure a partnership with the Crawford Pack, so he could strip me of my Luna title after squeezing every last drop of value from me.

But he wouldn’t get the chance.

Damon didn’t even know that I had completed the most critical experiment.

And he would never know whose name would appear on the patent application.

First, I would divorce him.

Then I would file the patent under my own name and take back everything that had always belonged to me.

By the time I left the estate, rain was pouring from the sky.

It beat down on my body, soaking through my clothes, but I was too numb to feel the cold. I couldn’t even feel my feet touching the ground.

I simply stood there while my entire world continued to collapse around me.

I was an orphan.

From the moment I could remember, I had wandered along the edges of different packs.

Humiliation, beatings, and rejection had been part of my everyday life.

Then, one evening beneath a blazing sunset, I met Damon Ashford, heir to the Alpha position of the Dark Moon Pack.

The heat in his blue eyes chased away the darkness that had followed me my entire life.

I believed the Moon Goddess had finally remembered the suffering orphan Omega everyone else had forgotten. I thought she had sent me a prince who would give me the happy life I had always dreamed of.

But it had all been a lie from the beginning.

I had never been anything more than a substitute.

A tool the Dark Moon Pack could use to make itself stronger.

I had to leave.

Now.

Anywhere would be better than staying inside this carefully constructed lie and allowing them to control me.

I opened my banking app.

There were only a few dozen dollars left in my account.

I remembered what I had once told Damon.

“Honey, I don’t need a salary. As long as I have you, I don’t need anything else.”

The stupidity I had once embraced so willingly now sliced through me like a knife.

“All my previous research has Damon’s name on it, and I’m nothing but an Omega who’s about to be divorced and thrown out,” I whispered, biting down hard on my lip.

Just then, my phone rang.

Unknown number.

Numbly, I answered.

An elderly, respectful voice came through the line.

“Am I speaking with Miss Ava Crawford?”

“This is Ava.” I struggled to find my voice.

“Miss Crawford, I am the steward of the Crawford Pack. I regret to inform you that your father, the Alpha of the Crawford Pack, passed away yesterday. According to his will, you are his only lawful heir. You will inherit all of his assets, as well as the entire Crawford Pack.”

My entire body began to tremble.

“How is that possible?”

“Miss Crawford, I have just transferred one billion dollars into your personal account.”

The moment he finished speaking, my phone chimed with a banking notification.

I lowered the phone and stared at the screen.

**Available balance: $1,000,000,056.**

There was no mistake.

Power surged upward from the soles of my feet.

Damon, you want a partnership with the Crawford Pack.

But you never imagined who would be standing on the other side of the negotiating table.

I wiped the rain from my face and raised the phone back to my ear. When I spoke, my voice was so calm that I barely recognized it.

“Prepare a divorce agreement for me. And terminate every partnership between the Crawford Pack and the Dark Moon Pack immediately.”

After ending the call, I raised my head.

Now, I needed to go to the hospital.

I had to find out what was really wrong with my body.