Jane Mckay POV: I pushed the door open and found my fiancé in my bed with my stepsister. He looked up at me. His first reaction wasn't guilt. It was annoyance that I'd come back too early. "Coral," I said, without looking at Dirk, my eyes fixed on her, "your mother climbed into my father's bed, and now you climb into mine. Do you two just love picking up what other people leave behind?" The woman straddling his hips froze and yanked the silk sheet over her chest. My stepsister, Coral Mckay—a greedy low-ranking Omega whose mother had once climbed into my late mother's bed. Her face went white, her lips trembling, a single fake tear hanging awkwardly on her lashes. Dirk Maddox, a high-ranking Alpha executive of the Maddox Pack and my fiancé in name only, grabbed a dark robe and threw it over his broad shoulders. There was no guilt on his face at being caught by his fiancée. Instead, he strode to the bed and shielded Coral behind his tall frame. "Shut up!" Dirk's tall body pressed down on me with Alpha pressure. "What do you think you are, to talk to her like that?" "What am I?" I laughed once and let my gaze slide slowly from Coral's face to Dirk's. "Dirk, have you forgotten whose room this is, whose bed this is—or that your fiancée in name only is standing in the doorway watching you protect another woman?" "You wolfless piece of trash, what right do you have to judge me?" Dirk took a heavy step forward, angered by my calm face. His heavy Alpha aura flooded the room, thickening the air until it was suffocating, trying to force my knees to buckle. The whole pack treated me like a wolfless waste. No one in the pack knew I took bitter herbs every day to mask my real wolf scent. Blood rushed to my throat, and my fingertips went cold. I bit my lower lip hard and used the iron focus I'd honed in underground street racing to keep my spine straight. I didn't retreat an inch. "Sister, please don't blame Dirk. It's all my fault. During my Heat, I couldn't control my feelings for him…" Coral sobbed from the bed, though I saw her right hand clutching the sheet. "If you can't control your Heat, go inject a suppressant. The Saint Sanctuary Pharmacy has boxes of them." I cut her off flatly. Coral choked, her face turning pale. "Jane Mckay, watch your tone with her!" Dirk roared. He slammed his fist onto the nightstand, veins bulging on the back of his hand. The crystal lamp crashed onto the wool rug and rolled to my shoe. I glanced at the broken glass, then looked straight into Dirk's glowing eyes. "What tone do you want?" I walked past him, completely ignoring his furious aura. "Should I kneel and thank you for letting me off, or thank you for testing my mattress's shock absorption?" Dirk's pupils shrank. Every humiliating word he'd prepared got stuck in his throat. I pulled open the closet door, grabbed a black duffel bag and swept a few everyday outfits into it. On the top shelf was an unopened box of bitter herbs. I stuffed it into the bottom of the bag—next week's medicine money was still up in the air, and every box saved counted. "What are you doing?" Dirk frowned, irritation creeping into his voice. "Making room, obviously." I zipped the bag shut. "This room reeks of cheap mating sweat. It's disgusting." "Jane, don't push it! Do you think you can survive in this pack without the Maddox family's protection?" Dirk threatened through gritted teeth. "That's none of your concern." I slung the strap over my shoulder. The sudden movement pulled at the old injury in my chest core and sent a spasm through my ribs, but my face stayed blank. I walked to the door, stopped, and looked back at their livid faces. "By the way, Coral," I smirked. "Lock the door next time. Not everyone wants a free ticket to watch two low-grade animals rutting." I turned and slammed the heavy oak door shut. The bang cut off Dirk's furious roar. Alone in the dim hallway, I took a deep breath of clean, cold air. Deep in the shadows at the end of the corridor, a tall figure stood motionless. A faint scent of white tea and cold cedarwood drifted over. Before I could make him out, my phone buzzed. Saint Sanctuary Pharmacy: Payment overdue. Kacie's medication will be cut off in 48 hours.

Jane Mckay POV: I was two steps from the stairs when the oak door behind me banged open. "Jane Mckay, stop right there!" Dirk stormed into the hallway in his loose robe, his golden-brown hair messy and his face twisted with rage. I didn't stop. Dirk caught me in three strides and clamped his hand around my upper arm hard enough to grind bone. "Do you really think playing hard to get will win my attention?" he growled low, his voice dripping with smug certainty. I turned my head and stared at his hand. "Let go," I said quietly. "And if I don't?" Dirk sneered. His Alpha Dominion crashed down on my shoulders—the kind of Command meant to buckle a lower wolf's knees. My breath went ragged. Before my knees could bend, I hooked my left hand around the inside of his wrist. I drove my thumb into the nerve cluster above his ulna—a spot I'd practiced on cadavers at Saint Sanctuary more times than I could count. "Dirk, do you know how fragile a rutting male wolf's nerve endings are once his heart rate passes one hundred forty?" I locked eyes with him and twisted my thumb down. Dirk gasped, his arm jerking back like I'd burned him with silver. Shock flashed across his amber eyes. Right then, Coral ran out barefoot from the bedroom, wrapped only in a thin silk sheet. "Dirk, are you okay?" She rushed over and clung to his arm, looking at me like I was a monster. "Sister, what did you do to him? How dare you attack an Alpha!" "Attack?" I shook out my sore wrist. "I just gave him a free nerve reflex test." "Turns out the proud Alpha of the Maddox Pack thinks with his lower body and has the exact same pain receptors as a stray dog." Dirk's face turned an ugly shade of purple. "You crazy bitch…" he gritted out, a dangerous light flickering in his wolf eyes, as if he wanted to tear my throat out. "Want to hit me?" I tilted my chin up. "Go ahead, unless you're afraid tomorrow's Pack headline will be 'Executive Suffers Nerve Spasm From Overindulgence.'" Dirk's fists clenched and loosened. He swallowed the rage. "Jane, you'd better not regret this. I will personally go to the Council of Elders to terminate our engagement," he spat out as a final threat. "I can't wait," I replied lightly, turning to walk toward the small guest room at the far end of the hall. I pushed open the dusty, unused door, stepped inside, and slammed it shut. Outside, Coral's fake soothing voice mixed with Dirk's curses, then my old bedroom door banged shut again. Silence. I tossed the bag onto the dusty single bed and slid down the door onto the floor. The armor dropped. A spasm tore through my chest core. I curled up, fist pressed to my ribs, biting my lip. With trembling fingers, I pulled my phone from my pocket. The screen glowed with a payment notice from the Saint Sanctuary Pharmacy. I was still a million short for Kacie's life-reconstruction herbs next month. I closed my eyes and saw Kacie's pale little face. After that night four years ago, I hid my pregnancy. Then I got hurt, and she was born with a fatally displaced heart core. Even if the Mckay family threw me into the streets tonight, I had to get that money. I stood, brushed the dust off my jeans, and stared at the contact name flashing on my screen. Julian Mckay. My playboy cousin. The one who'd bet me a million dollars I wouldn't walk into an elite club and sleep with a random Alpha for one night. I took a deep breath and hit the call button.

Jane Mckay POV: I hung up and took the back stairs down to the underground billiard room. The soundproof door swung open—bass slammed into my ears, cigar smoke thick enough to choke on. By the central pool table, Julian Mckay leaned over his cue in a loud floral shirt. Crack—the black eight dropped into the corner pocket. "Well, look who's here." Julian straightened and tapped his cue on the floor. "Why has our noble future executive wife stepped into my filthy den?" I ignored the leering eyes of his rich friends and planted my palm flat on the green felt. "Does that bet from last week still count?" I looked straight at him. Julian blinked, then laughed. "You? Walk into Night Moon and pick up a random Alpha for a one-night stand? Jane, did Dirk finally break your brain?" "One million," I said. "Give me the card. I'm going tonight." His friends whistled. Julian's smile faded. "You're serious?" He pulled a black bank card with no PIN requirement from his wallet and held it up between two fingers. I reached for it. He jerked it back. "Jane, Night Moon is a playground for top-tier Alphas. A wolfless woman like you walks in there, she gets eaten alive—bones and all." "That's my problem. Just make sure the money clears." I snatched the card from his fingertips. The plastic edge scraped his skin, leaving a thin red line. Julian stared at his empty hand. "Wait for my proof tonight." I shoved the card into my pocket and walked out, leaving their whistles behind. My old black sedan sat outside the front gates. I slid in, started the engine, and gripped the wheel. Four years ago—that stormy night—flashed through my head in broken pieces. I stomped the gas and shot toward the city center. Elias Maddox POV: I stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Maddox Group penthouse office, rolling an unlit Cuban cigar between my fingers. A knock. My Gamma aide stepped in with a classified file. "Alpha, we tracked that scent in the Saint Sanctuary database," he said. I spun around. The giant Dire Wolf inside me—restless for four years—let out a deafening roar. "Who is she?" My voice came out low and gravelly. "Jane Mckay. The Mckay Pack's marginalized girl—the one everyone calls a wolfless waste. And… Young Master Dirk's fiancée." At "Dirk's fiancée," my fingers clenched, crushing the cigar into brown dust. Four years. The girl who'd saved me from death with her Heat-warm body in that abandoned shelter—right under my nose, engaged to my own nephew. I closed my eyes. Her faint herbal scent was still burned into my memory. In werewolf law, only a Fated Mate chosen by the Moon Goddess can calm a rampaging Alpha's soul. "Where is she now?" I opened my eyes. "Surveillance shows she just left the Mckay estate, driving toward Night Moon," the Gamma said, not daring to look up. "Night Moon?" I let out a cold laugh. My club. The little lamb was walking straight into the wolf's den. "Bring the car around." I grabbed my black coat and strode to the door. "Yes, Alpha. Should I notify Young Master Dirk?" the Gamma asked carefully. "No." I stepped into the private elevator, my cold Alpha aura freezing the air. Mine! my inner wolf snarled, already starving to sink his fangs into her neck as the doors slid shut. She still didn't know that tonight, the one walking into Night Moon wasn't prey—it was the debt collector she'd left behind four years ago.