Chapter 1

Daphne knew better than to glance at his phone. The first ring she ignored, letting it vibrate against the nightstand while his mouth pressed hers.

The second time it buzzed, she was already lost with her wrists pinned above her head by one of Storm’s large hands, his body moving deep inside her intimate flesh in that slow, devastating pattern that always made her forget every boundary they’d drawn three years ago.

The Alpha’s bedroom carried the scent of sex and warm cedarwood, undercut by the faint, artificial lemon from the diffuser Katerina had given him months ago. Daphne hated that smell. It felt like an intruder, a reminder that she was never truly alone with him.

Daphne bit her lip, fighting back the moans rising in her throat. Her legs wrapped tighter around his waist, her heels pressing into the hard muscle of his back.

Even after three years, her body still craved him like air. Storm felt dangerous in her arms, tall, powerfully built, every part of him solid and commanding. She could touch him, hold him, feel him moving inside her, but she knew in her bones she could never truly have him.

“Storm…” she whispered, her voice shaking with the pleasure building low in her belly.

He growled against her throat, hips pushing forward harder, hitting that spot that made stars burst behind her eyelids. “You like that?” His voice was rough, edged with his wolf. “Tell me.”

She didn’t answer. Saying it aloud would force her to admit how deeply she had fallen for a man who saw her only as a means to an end. Instead, she closed her eyes and let the fantasy wrap around her. Just for these moments, she imagined they were real lovers and the low sounds he made were only for her. That he came home to her every night because he couldn’t bear to stay away. That she wasn’t simply his contracted human breeder, but the woman he chose with his whole heart.

His phone buzzed again.

This time Storm reached for it without stopping. Daphne’s eyes flicked to the glowing screen before she could force herself not to.

KAT. With a double love emoji.

Her stomach twisted painfully.

He answered the call. “Yeah?” His voice was still gravelly and lazy with sex.

Daphne went rigid beneath him, staring up at the ceiling while his movements became slower and empty. He was still inside her, their bodies joined, yet his attention had already shifted somewhere else. It made her feel invisible.

“No, I’m at the estate,” his tone sounded more alert. Daphne turned her face into the pillow, hiding the sting in her eyes. She could hear Katerina’s muffled crying through the speaker.

“You’re bleeding?” Storm’s voice dropped, laced with concern he hadn’t shown Daphne in months. “Kat, stay right there. I’m coming.”

The words landed like ice water. Daphne’s hand fisted the sheets. Storm ended the call and finally pulled out. He rolled off her without a word, padding into the bathroom and letting the water run.

Daphne pushed herself up slowly, drawing the sheets over her bare skin. Her body may have still carried his scent but the ache between her thighs now felt hollow.

Her hand slipped beneath the sheet to rest on her flat stomach, where the secret she hadn’t yet told him grew.

He emerged already half-dressed, water droplets still on the chiseled edge of his jaw.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be gone,” Storm avoided looking at her, focusing instead on buttoning his crisp white shirt. “Don’t bother calling me.”

Daphne swallowed the lump in her throat. “Okay.” The word came out practiced since she’d had months to perfect it.

“You don’t need to wait up.” He grabbed his watch from the table, strapping it on in a hurry.

Daphne’s throat felt dry. “Where are you going?” She already knew, but she asked anyway, pretending she hadn’t seen the name on his screen.

“Kat needs me.”

And what about me? The question was just on the tip of her tongue but stayed trapped. She had been the one here through his sleepless nights and pack crises. The one who listened when the weight of leading Blood Shadow pack and running his company crushed him. She had warmed his bed and offered her body whenever he needed it. Wasn’t that enough to have all of his attention?

She forced a small nod. “Okay.”

Storm grabbed his jacket and then disappeared briefly into the walk-in closet. Daphne stared at the empty doorway, the silence pressing down on her. How had it come to this?

It hadn’t always been this way.

Years ago, after the brutal war between humans and werewolves, the world had fractured. Female wolves were left infertile by some divine punishment or curse… no one truly agreed on the reason.

Human women who could carry shifter children, known as Breeders, became the only hope for the packs. They are rare, valuable, and bound by compatibility that no one could force no matter what they did.

Daphne had grown up in the Greyford Slums, where she had to fight every day to survive. Her parents were killed in a senseless riot over food when she was nineteen, a stupid argument that escalated over a single can of corn they wanted to give her for her birthday. The neighbors accused them of hoarding and that accusation led to a huge violent fight. By the time it ended, both her parents were dead, and Daphne was all by herself.

A year later, because she was starving, she wandered into the dangerous forest just on the southern border of Shadow City.

Everyone knew about the people who went missing when they went there and the rogues that lived there but two days without food? Anyone would think they were lucky enough to escape without being caught.

The trees felt deceptively peaceful at first. Then three massive wolves emerged, circling her with hungry eyes. Daphne couldn’t find it in her to scream or run, starvation wouldn’t let her. So she closed her eyes and waited for the end.

A fourth wolf exploded from the shadows, black as midnight, enormous and furious. He tore through the rogues brutally, breaking their bones without getting harmed by any of them. It was all over in seconds.

When the black wolf turned to her, Daphne’s heart hammered wildly. He shifted right there, the beast melting into a tall, powerfully built man with intense dark eyes and an aura of high authority. Blood still dripped from his hands, but his first words to her were gentle.

“Are you hurt?” He asked.

Not “who are you?” Or “what are you doing here?”

Daphne shook her head, though a cut on her foot burned. She couldn’t stop looking at the man who had the body of a god. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I don’t have anything to give you, but—”

“You don’t owe me anything.” He knelt, carefully examining her injured foot. His touch was surprisingly gentle for someone who tore three wolves apart. His gaze flickered as he studied her wound, like he found something, before looking up at her. “What’s your name?”

“Daphne.”

He smiled and it softened the hard lines of his face. “Would you like to come with me, Daphne?”

His deep, soothing voice sent shivers down her spine as he explained that she was compatible to be his human breeder.

Daphne should have said no. But she had nothing left, no family, no safety and no future.

Storm promised her a life away from the slums, safety, food, a warm place to sleep, and even the chance to finish college one day. He explained the breeder contract clearly: she would help him secure an heir for the Blood Shadow Pack. In return, she would never want for anything again. But there was a catch.

No emotional ties required.

She didn’t fully believe his promises until he brought her back to Blood Shadow Pack and everyone bowed their heads and called him Alpha.

At first, life in the pack mansion felt like a dream. The estate was grand, her rooms comfortable and she had hot meals daily. The other wolves looked down on her for being human, but Storm’s attention on her made her stay bearable.

He had just ended things with Katerina Balvini when Daphne arrived, though he never shared the reason for their breakup and she never asked. Sometimes he still whispered her name in his sleep, but Daphne told herself he just needed time.

In those early months, he laughed with her, shared pieces of himself no one else saw, touched her like she meant the world to him. She dared to hope he was healing from his tragic breakup and might see her as more than a breeder soon.

But Katerina came back into his life, and the way Storm looked at her told Daphne the truth she had been avoiding. She would always be second. A vessel. Never the one he chose.

Back in the present, the sound of the bedroom door opening pulled Daphne out of her thoughts. Storm stood in the doorway, his face closed off. Daphne held her breath, hoping he’d change his mind and stay the night with her.

“Lock the door when you leave.” He said and then the door clicked shut behind him.

Daphne sat alone in the massive bed, feeling the silence choke her despite the cool air. She worried her lip between her teeth and placed a hand over her stomach. Another day gone, and she still hadn't told Storm about their baby.

She didn’t know how much longer she could keep living like this, pouring out everything she had, body and heart, while surviving on whatever scraps he left behind.

Still, she brushed her thumb gently across her belly, keeping her voice soft. "Maybe all hope isn't lost yet..."

A small, bittersweet smile touched her lips despite the tears stinging her eyes. “What do you think, little one?” The words came out quiet and playful, as if sharing a secret.