Chapter 1

I took a billionaire’s fortune to carry his heir. But I didn’t give birth to a child. I unleashed a monster.

"Oh my god! What... What is that?"

The midwife’s scream was the first thing I heard after giving birth.

Her eyes were wide, fixed on the bassinet in front of me. The color drained from her face.

Then, she passed out cold.

Thud.

My body trembling, I pushed myself up and looked down.

Three wet, furry little things were curled up in the soft towels.

Their eyes were still sealed shut, but their tiny paws were already pawing at the air, letting out faint, whimpering sounds.

Their fur was a silvery gray, shimmering unnaturally under the harsh delivery room lights.

Not babies.

Wolf pups.

Three of them.

This was impossible.

A human womb can't carry wolves.

DNA doesn't just allow for that kind of... cross-breeding.

But there they were. Real. Sniffing the air with their little noses, searching for their mother's scent.

My brain couldn't process it.

"Miss Chloe, what is this?" The housekeeper, Martha, stood frozen nearby. Her voice was laced with pure shock and disbelief. "You just gave birth to..."

"I don't know!" My voice was a raw scream, shredded from the delivery. "I don't know why! How is this possible?!"

I tried to think back. The pregnancy.

The check-ups?

Every ultrasound showed a normal human fetus.

The heartbeat?

A normal human heartbeat.

I’d seen every single scan. I saw the outline of a human baby!

But now...

Now there were three wolf pups lying there.

Heavy footsteps and hushed, deep voices echoed from the hall.

Bodyguards.

Lots of them.

I could hear them pacing, waiting for news.

Waiting for the cry of a baby. Waiting for Killian’s heir to be born.

If they came in and saw this...

I would die. And these little things would die with me.

Panic flooded me like ice water.

My heart hammered against my ribs, so hard I thought it would burst.

I remembered the rumors I’d heard when I first set foot in this mansion a year ago.

"The 77 before her all vanished."

"They slept with Mr. Blackwood and were never seen again."

"Some people say you can hear wolves howling on the estate late at night."

"Susan said she was sending money home. The next day, she was just... gone."

"The cops? The cops won't touch anything involving Killian Blackwood."

I’d thought they were just urban legends, meant to scare off the new girls.

After all, ten billion dollars was a hell of an incentive.

If I could just give the mysterious billionaire CEO, Killian Blackwood, a healthy heir, I could pay off all the debt my father left behind.

Those numbers haunted my dreams.

Five million in medical bills.

Three million in loans.

Two million in interest.

That ten-million-dollar anchor was dragging me under. I couldn't breathe.

I had no choice but to stay.

I remembered the day I signed the contract.

Killian sat behind his desk, dressed in an impossibly expensive custom suit.

His gray eyes were ice-cold. His presence alone was suffocating.

"You know the price," he'd said, his voice a low growl, like a beast. "The consequences of failure."

I knew.

I remembered the night I slept with him.

I was so terrified, I'd hidden a handful of fruit knives under my pillow, convinced I'd end up like the other girls.

My hands shook all night. Every little sound made me jump.

Killian found my "arsenal," of course.

He just smirked, tossing the knives to the floor one by one.

"If I wanted you dead, little one, these toys wouldn't save you," he’d purred, his thumb stroking my chin. "But I need you alive. For now."

Then he took me, all night long.

His kisses were brutal.

His hands were rough, leaving marks all over me.

But strangely, in the middle of that absolute domination, I felt a flicker of... protection?

The next morning, I woke up covered in his marks.

And somehow, I didn't think he was the monster the rumors painted him to be.

At least he hadn't killed me afterward.

For the next few months, I barely saw him.

I lived like royalty in this mansion. I had a personal chef, maids, a private doctor.

The bathroom in my suite was bigger than my old apartment. The budget for my daily meals was more than my old monthly salary.

All I had to do was rest, grow his baby, and wait for my ten billion dollars.

The pregnancy was smooth.

Every ultrasound showed the baby was developing perfectly.

I even saw them kicking inside me.

Yes, them.

They found out it was triplets in the third month.

When Killian heard the news, I saw a flicker of... satisfaction? ...on his stone-cold face.

"Good," he'd said. "The Blackwood line needs heirs."

But now...

Now I'd given birth to three wolves.

How?

The footsteps outside were getting closer.

That suffocating presence, that aura that made the air feel thick… that could only be Killian Blackwood.

The doorknob turned slowly.

His voice, the same one that terrified the entire business world, cut through the door.

"Why is there no crying?"