Chapter 1

Aria's POV

"Is it supposed to burn like this?" I asked, gritting my teeth as a sharp, invasive cramp radiated through my lower abdomen.

The young nurse, a beta with nervous eyes, didn't look up from the syringe she was carefully disposing of. "Just a bit more, Aria. The Alpha Bride Suitability Test requires the serum to fully integrate with your system to gauge your fertility and Luna capabilities. Just breathe through the discomfort."

I closed my eyes, letting my head fall back against the flat pillow. I shouldn't have been doing this alone.

The Apex Lunar Citadel was the most prestigious pack hospital in the country, located deep in the neutral territory outside our borders. It was a massive, intimidating facility, and Jace was supposed to be sitting right beside me, holding my hand.

"I can't come, Aria," Jace had told me this morning, barely glancing up from his phone as I stood by the door with my coat. "The elders are breathing down my neck about the ceremony arrangements. You know how important this mating is for the pack's image. Just go, get the stamp of approval, and come back."

So here I was. Alone. Enduring a wildly uncomfortable, archaic pack tradition just to prove my body was suitable to carry the next Alpha heir.

The heavy door to the examination room suddenly swung open, making me jump.

Dr. Vance, the Chief of Medicine, walked in with a distracted sigh, flipping through a thick medical file. "Alright, Nurse Elara, how are we doing with the—"

Dr. Vance stopped dead in his tracks.

His eyes locked onto the empty glass vial resting on the stainless steel counter. All the color instantly drained from his face, leaving him looking like he had just seen a ghost.

"Elara," Dr. Vance whispered, his voice trembling so violently the file in his hands shook. "What... what did you just administer to this patient?"

The nurse frowned, looking confused. "The Alpha Bride fertility serum. From the cold storage. Sector four, just like you asked."

"I said Sector Five!" Dr. Vance shouted, a terrifying sound that made my wolf instantly bare her teeth in defense. "That vial has a gold rim! Sector Four is the royal preservation vault!"

My heart kicked into a frantic rhythm. I sat up quickly, pulling the thin hospital gown tightly around my shoulders. "Dr. Vance? What is going on? What did she give me?"

Dr. Vance ignored me, practically lunging at the counter to grab the empty vial. He stared at the serial number printed on the glass, and I watched in absolute horror as a tear actually slipped down his cheek.

"Doctor!" I snapped, my patience completely snapping. "Tell me what is happening to my body right now!"

Dr. Vance slowly turned to me. He looked like a man standing on the edge of a cliff.

"Aria," he choked out, his voice a hollow rasp. "The implantation process... it was instantaneous. The serum is already binding with your wolf's reproductive system."

"Implantation?" I echoed, the word feeling foreign on my tongue. "What are you talking about? I came here for a fertility screening!"

"You aren't just screened, Aria," Dr. Vance said, bracing his hands on the examination table. "You are pregnant. The process is completely successful."

"What?!" I screamed, jumping off the table so fast my bare feet slapped loudly against the freezing tiles. "That is entirely impossible! Jace and I haven't even—we were waiting for the ceremony! Are you telling me your clinic just artificially inseminated me?!"

"It was an accident," Nurse Elara sobbed, backing away against the wall. "I thought it was the screening serum!"

"Then fix it!" I demanded, my hands shaking uncontrollably as panic set in. "Flush my system! Give me the counter-drug! I am getting mated to the future Alpha of the Silvermoon pack tomorrow, I cannot go back to him pregnant with some random donor's child!"

"I am not a random donor."

The voice came from the doorway, and it was so deep, so completely laced with pure, terrifying dominance, that the air in the room was instantly sucked away.

I whipped around.

The man standing in the doorway looked to be in his early thirties, and he was, without a doubt, the most striking, dangerous man I had ever seen. He wore a flawlessly tailored charcoal suit that strained across his broad shoulders. He had thick, dark hair swept back from a brutally sharp jawline, and a faint, silver scar cutting through his left eyebrow that only added to his dark, mature appeal.

But it was his eyes that froze the blood in my veins. They were a piercing, molten silver. The eyes of a Lycan.

Dr. Vance and the nurse immediately dropped to their knees, bowing their heads so low their foreheads touched the linoleum floor.

"Your Majesty," Dr. Vance whimpered.

Majesty.

My stomach plummeted straight to the floor. The Lycan King. King Valerius. The most ruthless, cold-blooded ruler on the continent.

Valerius stepped into the room, his long strides eating up the distance between us. He smelled of rain-soaked cedar, expensive cologne, and an overwhelming power that made my knees physically ache to submit.

I locked my joints, refusing to bow.

"I had an Alpha-core silver extraction last year," Valerius stated, his deep voice eerily calm as his silver eyes dragged over my face. "A surgical procedure to save my life after an assassination attempt. It rendered me completely incapable of reproducing naturally."

He stopped a mere foot away from me, towering over my frame.

"That vial," Valerius continued, his gaze dropping briefly to my stomach before meeting my eyes again, "was my last remaining genetic sample. It was safely stored here because this clinic is supposedly infallible. There is no other heir for the Lycan throne."

I stared up at him, my chest heaving as the reality of his words crashed over me. "I don't care who you are. This was a medical mistake. I am not carrying this pregnancy."

The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees.

"You will not terminate," Valerius commanded. It wasn't a request. It was an absolute, unbreakable order.

I snorted, a harsh, bitter sound, entirely unaffected by the heavy Alpha aura trying to press me down. "Excuse me? It is my body. You don't own me, and you certainly don't dictate what happens to my womb. I can do whatever I damn well please."

Valerius tilted his head, a dark, dangerous spark of amusement flashing in his cold eyes. "You are incredibly bold for a standard pack wolf. Or just foolish."

"I am engaged," I shot back, lifting my chin to maintain eye contact. "I have a life. A mate. A pack. I am not throwing all of that away to be your royal incubator because your doctors don't know how to read a label."

"Your life," Valerius said, his voice dropping into a low, rumbling purr that sent an involuntary shiver down my spine, "just changed. Irrevocably."

He reached out, his large, warm fingers lightly brushing a stray strand of hair behind my ear. The casual intimacy of the gesture was terrifying.

"I will give you exactly one day," Valerius murmured, his eyes locking onto mine with fierce intensity. "Let it sink in. Say your goodbyes to your little Alpha boy. Pack your belongings. Tomorrow, I am coming to your territory to collect you. You are my responsibility until you give birth, and I protect what is mine."

"I won't go," I snapped, smacking his hand away from my face.

Valerius just smiled—a cold, devastatingly handsome smirk. "I wasn't asking."

I didn't give him the satisfaction of another word. I spun on my heel, grabbed my coat from the chair, and stormed out of the examination room. I could feel the horrified stares of the medical staff burning into my back as I marched down the hallway, but I didn't care.

I practically sprinted to the parking lot, my hands trembling violently as I jammed my keys into the ignition of my car.

Jace.

I needed to see Jace. He was the future Alpha. He would know how to handle this. He would protect me from the Lycan King. We would find a way to fix this nightmare together.

I drove like a maniac, shattering every speed limit on the hour-long drive back to the Silvermoon packhouse.

When I finally slammed the brakes in the courtyard, I didn't even bother locking the doors. I bolted through the grand entrance, ignoring the greetings of the pack members in the foyer, and took the marble stairs two at a time.

I hurried down the east corridor, practically out of breath by the time I reached the heavy oak double doors of Jace's private suite.

"Jace!" I called out, pushing the doors open without knocking. "Jace, we have a massive emergency, the clinic made a huge—"

The words died in my throat.

The heavy thud of my heartbeat filled my ears, deafening the sudden, agonizing snap of my mate bond.

Jace wasn't preparing for the ceremony.

He was standing by the edge of his massive four-poster bed, completely shirtless. And tangled in his arms, her head thrown back in a fit of breathless giggles, was a woman.

A woman I recognized immediately.