01. I reject you for being infertile

VICTORIA

The paper crackled inside the car, lost in the darkness of the underground parking garage.

My heart sped up waiting for the result, not daring to look toward the passenger seat.

“The test is... negative. You’re not pregnant, Vicky.”

I closed my eyes, trying to control the tears and swallow the knot in my throat, but a rough sob ripped out of me anyway, and I couldn’t stop it.

I was exhausted from this fight to give my mate Luca, the Alpha of Creston Pack, an heir.

“Don’t get like that. You’ll see, next time it’ll be positive.” Marcella’s hand, my assistant and best friend, slid gently down my back.

“It’s always next time, Marcella. What the hell is wrong with me that I can’t get pregnant?!” I growled, slamming the steering wheel in front of me to let my frustration out.

She didn’t answer, but her eyes dropped, pity written all over her face.

I hate it. I hate how everyone looks at me with condescension or mockery, like they’re just waiting for me to fall.

The pack elders are pressuring Luca, and my marriage is going to shit because I can’t conceive an heir even though I’m an Omega.

Supposedly the most fertile tier of our werewolf race.

“I’m sorry, Marce... I’m sorry I yelled at you,” I said in a trembling voice, wiping at the tears that wouldn’t stop falling.

I touched her hand beside me, grateful, remembering how I’d taken her in when she arrived running from her abusive partner.

She was a fugitive rogue, and I asked Luca to accept her. I made her my assistant, and since then she’s been my unconditional support.

“I’m not taking it personally. I know exactly what kind of pressure you’re under,” she replied, understanding, and I watched her tuck the medical report into her purse.

“Don’t worry, Vicky. I’ve got you...I’ll hide this so the Alpha doesn’t find out you failed again.”

That last line punched straight through what little self-esteem I had left, but I let it slide because I know she isn’t being malicious, and I thanked her under my breath.

I took a deep breath, clearing my mind to drive back to the pack, and that’s when I heard the phone ring.

I tensed as soon as I recognized the ringtone. Luca was calling me.

Marcella handed me the phone from the glove compartment, and I cleared my throat, pretending I hadn’t been crying.

“Hi, baby. How’s your busine...”

“Where are you, Victoria?” His cold question sliced right through my greeting.

I frowned, catching my reflection in the rearview mirror. I had my brown hair pulled into a slightly messy ponytail, and my hazel eyes were red from crying.

“I went out with Marcella to do some shopping...”

“You know how dangerous the streets are getting for Omegas. I don’t want you going out without the driver...”

“But, baby, we’re downtown, in broad daylight. It’s not like we live in the jungle,” I sighed, feeling like he barely cared about me.

With the fertility issues Alphas and Betas had been dealing with in recent years, only Omegas had kept their fertility and heat cycles.

The whole procreation situation, in a society where heirs were everything, was getting critical.

Omegas had become “valuable merchandise.”

We were on illegal traffickers’ radar, sold to underground brothels and auctions for wealthy Alphas who couldn’t procreate with their official partners and wanted Omegas to use as breeders.

“We’re heading back now,” I answered with a sigh.

“Go straight to the Council building. There’s an emergency meeting and you need to be there,” he added, suddenly turning it into an order. I didn’t like that urgent tone.

“But weren’t you on a business trip?”

“I’m back in the pack. Don’t take long.”

“I’ll be ri...” beep, beep, beep.

The sound of him hanging up, leaving me with the word stuck in my mouth, made my face heat with shame.

I pretended I was saying goodbye, even sent him a kiss. Anything so Marcella wouldn’t realize how pathetic my marriage was getting.

“We’re going back. There’s an emergency,” I muttered, starting the car.

The headlights lit up the dark walls of the underground parking garage at Fairmont General Hospital, the big city where our pack is based.

I merged into the hectic morning traffic. Tall skyscrapers and business buildings filled the prosperous downtown.

Fairmont is controlled by four big families that manage the smaller packs under them.

The Bianchi, the Vasiliev, the Brona, but at the top of it all is the Greco family.

Most of these buildings and businesses are controlled by Lorenzo Greco.

The tyrant Alpha in the shadows, the man with a reputation for making you piss your pants with one savage look.

I’ve never met him. Not even when I used to be in a higher position in society.

I was the daughter of the head of the Bianchi family.

My father exiled me from our main pack when I chose Luca over the an arranged mating

he had planned for me.

With bitterness choking me from the inside, I finally arrived at my current home.

Creston Pack was under the Vasiliev family’s control.

I passed the checkpoint, half-listening to Marcella’s distracted chatter.

I drove up to the imposing Council building and frowned when I saw Luca’s Beta waiting for us.

The moment I parked, he opened my door, even more arrogant than he usually was with me.

I unbuckled and stepped out.

“You’re late. They’re waiting for you...” he said roughly, looking at me with those dark eyes that matched his hair.

“Luna...” I added, not moving.

“Excuse me?”

“You forgot to call me by my title. And don’t forget to address me properly. I haven’t given you that kind of familiarity,” I clarified, lifting my chin as I walked beside him without giving him a second look.

Even so, I could feel his poisonous eyes boring into my back. Every day I feel less valued in this pack.

My heels clicked on the polished floor, and behind me I heard Marcella’s flats.

I reached the main chamber and pushed the door open with decision.

It shocked me a little to see all the elders present, and my gaze went straight to Luca’s eyes in the main seat at the back of the room.

I walked toward him.

“Gentlemen, I’m sorry I’m late...”

“Stay in the middle of the room,” Luca cut me off when he saw I intended to take the seat beside him... my seat as Luna.

“What’s going on, darl... Alpha?” I corrected myself, because we were surrounded by the pack’s directors.

All my senses went on high alert.

My Omega wolf tried to move toward Luca’s Alpha, but he rejected her without mercy.

“This meeting has been called to strip you of your position as Luna of Creston Pack,” Luca’s words fell like a hammer, crushing my chest.

“What?! Luca... what does that mean?” I went pale. I wasn't even prepared for such a sudden rejection.

Murmurs erupted all around me, accusations and complaints, but I could only stare into the green eyes of the man I betrayed my family for.

“What you heard. I’ll get straight to it,” he answered coldly. “Victoria Bianchi promised to help this pack with the Bianchi family’s influence and give me an heir. She’s done neither!”

I went even paler at his roar that made the whole room boil. When did I ever promise my family’s help?!

I tried to speak to him through the bond, to take this into the privacy of our bedroom, but Luca kept the link between us shut tight.

“So I propose removing her as my Luna and dissolving our bond...”

“Wait, Alpha!” I roared, my voice shaking as I took a step forward.

“I never promised my father’s help. You know damn well he exiled me when I left the Bianchi pack!”

“That’s not what you told me back then...” he lied shamelessly in front of everyone. “You assured me it was just an initial tantrum, that he’d never leave his only daughter helpless.”

My disbelief kept me frozen, unable to react to the absurdity.

Dad warned me that night, crystal clear, while my mother slapped me across the face:

«If you walk out of this house, don’t you ever come back. To us, you’re dead!»

“And leaving that detail aside, here’s the most important one...” Luca kept stabbing without mercy.

“You’re an infertile Omega. Two years of marriage and you still haven’t gotten pregnant.”

“You know the reason. I don’t want to talk about our sex life here!” I screamed, rage burning through my veins.

Our marriage had gone cold to the point we didn’t even share a bedroom anymore.

I’d spent my last heats alone, stuck between the pain of lust and the agony of needing him while he was off on his nonstop business trips.

“So now it’s my fault for not fucking you. Maybe you should take a hard look at what’s wrong with you in bed,” his mocking snort made me clench my fists hard.

I looked around, cheeks burning, facing the twisted stares of those old pack creeps.

“Luca... this isn’t fair...”

“Then if I’m the one to blame, why do you hide the proof of your failures?” he challenged, hostile.

“What are you talking about?” I whispered, my heart pounding like it was losing its mind.

I watched him gesture to the side, and to my complete shock, Marcella walked up to him like a little lamb, flashing a smile that was way too familiar, pulling a paper out of her purse.

I trembled from head to toe when I recognized the doctor’s report. The same pregnancy test she’d come with me to pick up.

“Here it is, gentlemen. One of the many tests proving this Omega can’t get pregnant and is useless as my Luna!”

“No, no! Marcella, how could you do this to me?! Luca, that paper doesn’t mean anything, darling. We can keep trying!”

“I’m pregnant with the Alpha’s baby.” Those words, coming out of that harpy’s mouth, froze the blood in my veins.

I stood there like an idiot a few feet away, unable to process how I’d been feeding a viper right at my side.

“Here’s the test. The Alpha knows it’s his,” she announced to the room, holding up the results.

My eyes dropped to her stomach, wide open.

She’d hidden it too well from me... all this time she’d been pretending to be my friend so she could spy on my marriage.

Rage made me lunge at her and rip the document out of her hands.

I stared at it, desperate to find proof it was fake, but I was wrong.

In that very hospital, the day she asked me for time off, that slut confirmed she was pregnant... with my husband’s baby!

“It’s not the Alpha’s! You’re lying, Marcella! Luca, say she’s lying! SAY IT IN FRONT OF EVERYONE, SAY SHE’S LYING!” I roared, the pain of betrayal shredding my chest.

“She’s not lying. The baby is mine, and I’m going to name her my Luna. I’m almost sure Marcella is my true fated mate. I’ll know once I break the bond with you.”

My legs gave out and I dropped to my knees.

My wolf roared in agony, my whole world collapsing.

“How could you, you bitch?” I lifted my red eyes, full of resentment and a hate that was rotting me from the inside out.

“You comforted me while you laughed behind my back and slept with my husband! You disgusting whore!!!”

Adrenaline made me throw myself at her. That cynical smile at the corner of her mouth made me want to tear her apart.

Every vulnerable moment I’d ever shown her flashed through my mind, reminding me how pathetic I’d been.

“Grab this crazed woman. Don’t let her hurt the future heir!” Luca’s roar set his Beta in motion.

I felt him crash into my back like a rabid dog, forcing me down brutally.

I screamed when my arms were twisted behind me, my knees slammed hard into the floor, tears of pain spilling out.

Slow footsteps approached while the room shouted for my removal.

I lifted my face, full of fury, and looked straight into the eyes of the man I’d defied my father for.

“I, Alpha Luca Miller, reject you as my Luna, Victoria Bianchi, for bringing neither power nor heirs to Creston Pack, and I condemn you to serve as a breeding Omega for the benefit of my people.”