LOGINI'm the orphan girl adopted by the Moretti family, which was the biggest mafia family on the East Coast. The current Don Grayson Moretti was my best friend growing up. At a family banquet, somebody slipped him an aphrodisiac and I slept with him. Good news: the experience was incredible. He was absolutely massive and we went at it eight times in a single night. Bad news: I'm pregnant. He's just put out a massive bounty, ordering every man he has to hunt down the woman who vanished from his bed a month ago. The Moretti family has eyes on every street in New York. Not even a rat can dig a hole without him knowing. I forced my face into something calm and clapped him on the shoulder. "Gray, that girl from that night — did you find her? What are you going to do?" Grayson let out a cold laugh. "Break every bone she's got. Burn her to ash. Scatter what's left."
View MoreThe night of the mating ceremony was supposed to be the happiest day of my life.
Instead, it became the night that destroyed me. I stood at the center of the pack hall, my hands trembling as the elders began the ritual. My wolf stirred anxiously beneath my skin, restless… hopeful. Because tonight, I would finally meet my mate. The moment Alpha Ryan walked in, my heart stopped. Tall. Powerful. Devastatingly handsome and mine. The bond snapped into place so violently that my knees nearly gave out. “Mate…” Joy flooded my chest. But the look on Ryan’s face… It wasn’t joy. It was disgust. My stomach dropped. I could feel the anger and hatred burning from his eyes He couldn’t stand it “No,” he said coldly, his voice echoing through the silent hall. “This is a mistake. Whispers erupted around us. I felt my world begin to crack. “Alpha…” my voice came out small, broken. Ryan’s eyes turned ice cold as he stepped back like I carried a disease. “I, Alpha Ryan of the Silver Moon Pack… reject you.” The words hit like a death sentence. And in that moment My wolf howled in agony. ___________________________________ A sharp pain lanced through my chest, stealing the air from my lungs. It didn’t come immediately. For one terrifying second, everything went still. It felt like someone reached into my chest and ripped something out with bare hands. My wolf screamed inside me …. A sound so raw and broken that it made my vision blur. Gasps filled the pack hall. Some pitied me. Most were satisfied. “Please…” I whispered, my knees giving way beneath me. “Ryan… don’t do this.” His jaw tightened, but there was no hesitation in his eyes. “I refuse to be mated to a weak omega,” he said coldly. “You would embarrass me as Luna.” Me? The words were sharper than claws. The mate bond flickered, unstable now. My wolf curled into herself, trembling. “You’re making a mistake,” one of the elders murmured carefully. Ryan didn’t even look at them. “I have made my decision.” And with that, he turned his back on me. Just like that. Like I was nothing. The rejection sealed. Our bond shattered. And something inside me changed. Because in the ashes of heartbreak… Something ancient stirred. Something different but felt powerful. Something strange and wrong Yet fulfilling ___________________________________ The pain should have weakened me. That’s what rejection does to an omega. It breaks her. Destroys her wolf. Leaves her hollow. But as I lay on the cold stone floor of the pack hall, something felt… wrong. The pain was still there. Sharp. Burning. Merciless. But beneath it There was heat. My wolf wasn’t curled up anymore. She wasn’t crying. She was pacing. Restless. A low growl vibrated through my chest before I could stop it. The sound echoed across the hall. Silence followed. Every head turned. Omega wolves don’t growl like that. I pushed myself up slowly, ignoring the dizziness. Alpha Ryan was halfway to the exit when he paused. He looked at me. And for the first time since the bond snapped His expression changed. Not disgust. Not indifference. Suspicion. “What was that?” someone whispered. My hands trembled, it wasn’t weakness this time. It felt like energy. Like something clawing beneath my skin. My wolf surged forward suddenly, pressing against my control. She wanted out. That had never happened before. I swallowed hard. The air around me felt heavier. Thicker. Charged. For the first time They weren’t looking at me with pity.Winter in our Maine town came in thick. Snow piled past your ankles, and the wind cut to the bone.I pushed open the wooden door and saw Grayson sitting on a tiny stool, helping Claire with her kindergarten math.He was in his thirty-dollar gray sweatshirt, a pencil in his hand, brow furrowed over a workbook."Three apples plus two apples equals how many."He asked it patiently.Claire chewed on her finger, thinking hard."Five."She announced it loudly."Smart girl."Grayson smiled and ruffled her hair, his eyes soft.For the first time, there was real warmth in those ice-blue eyes.I stood in the doorway watching them.For half a year now, Grayson had done everything he said he would.He hadn't gone back to New York, and he hadn't reached out to anyone in the family.He walked Claire to and from kindergarten every day. He helped me in the bakery. At night, he slept on that folding cot.He was patching what he'd broken five years ago, slowly, with his hands."You're back."He stood up
By early the next morning, Claire's fever had broken.I walked out of her room and saw Grayson against the hallway wall. His eyes were red-rimmed from the long night, and there was dark stubble across his jaw.When he saw me, he pushed off the wall and almost stumbled, because his legs had gone numb."How is she."He couldn't meet my eyes. His voice was wrecked."Fever broke."I walked past him toward the washroom.He followed two steps behind."Quinn."He said my name, with something close to begging in it."Come back to New York with me. I'll get Claire the best care money can buy."I stopped and turned."Back to do what."I looked at his bloodshot eyes."Back so you can confirm I was the woman that night and decide what to do with me? Or back to deflect Camille while you marry her?"His face went white."There is no Camille."He spoke fast and urgent, pulling a folder out of his coat and holding it out to me."I broke the Fontaines five years ago. Camille's in a psychiatric ward. Sh
Late autumn rain always came out of nowhere.That evening, Claire suddenly spiked a fever.Her temperature hit 104, her little face flushed bright red, and she slipped into unconsciousness.I panicked, grabbed her, and ran into the rain.Grayson took her out of my arms and wrapped her in his overcoat."To the town hospital."He was already running.The Bentley tore through the storm, ran three red lights, and skidded to a stop at the ER entrance.In the exam room, they gave Claire a fever shot and started her on an IV."Acute pneumonia."The doctor looked at the chart."This child has a weak constitution. Was she premature?""Yes."I stood by the bed, holding Claire's burning hand.Grayson stood behind me, eyes on Claire, his jaw set hard."We're moving her."He pulled out his phone."I'm calling a chopper. Top private hospital in New York.""No."I cut him off."They can treat her here.""Quinn."He kept his voice low."You're going to risk her life to spite me."We were locked there
Grayson actually moved in.Ryan took a few of the bodyguards and drove the Bentley out of sight.Before he left, he had a folding cot brought in and wedged right next to my single bed.The room was already tight, and now there was a six-foot-two man in it. Even breathing felt crowded.At ten p.m. I tucked Claire in and pulled the blanket up to her chin.Grayson was sitting on the squeaking cot in a gray sweatshirt that didn't fit him.Ryan had grabbed it from the thrift shop in town.He had a stack of merger documents in his hand, reading by the dim lamp."What exactly do you want."I stood by the bed, watching him."Reading."He didn't look up."I'm asking why you're staying here."I kept my voice down, afraid of waking Claire."You're the Don of the Moretti family. You've got a mansion in Manhattan, and you're crammed in a shack with me."Grayson closed the file and looked up."I'm afraid the second I leave, you'll fake your death again."He held my eyes."You're never out of my sigh












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