THE BILLIONAIRE ALPHAS DISCARDED LUNA

The entire Blackwood pack was chanting my name. "Elena! Elena! Elena!" Three hundred wolves, all in black, all howling for me. I stood in the center of the Moon Temple in my white Luna dress that my mother had sewn for six months, my hands shaking, my heart beating so loud I was sure the human city three miles away could hear it. Tonight was supposed to be my night. Tonight I was supposed to stop being Elena Rayne, the weak Omega orphan the pack took in out of pity, and become Elena Blackwood, Luna of the most powerful pack on the East Coast. Tonight Dominic Blackwood was supposed to mark me. My wolf, Lira, was pacing inside me, whining. Mate is close. Mate is here! For five years I had waited for him. While he went to Harvard, while he built Blackwood Global into a billion-dollar empire, while he only came home for full moons and looked right through me, I waited. I waited because the Moon Goddess told me when I was fourteen that he was mine. The temple doors were supposed to open and he was supposed to kneel with a smile. The doors slammed open. He didn't smile. Dominic walked in wearing his black Alpha suit, his dark hair wet from the storm, rain dripping down his sharp jaw. He was twenty-six now, six-foot-four, built like a god, the kind of Alpha that made CEOs sign contracts without reading them. His golden eyes swept the temple. They didn't find me. Behind him walked her — Vanessa Croft. Alpha's daughter from Silver Crest. Blonde, tall, in a white dress that was almost identical to mine, but tighter and more expensive. Everyone knew her father wanted to merge packs. The chanting died instantly. A cold feeling dropped in my stomach. "Elena Rayne," Dominic's voice boomed, enhanced by Alpha command so the stone walls shook. "Step forward." I stepped forward. My bare feet on the cold marble. I was smiling so hard my cheeks hurt. "Dominic—" "I, Dominic Blackwood, Alpha of the Blackwood Pack and CEO of Blackwood Global," he said, and his voice was ice. The same voice he used to fire people, "have made a decision for the future of this pack." Lira went completely still inside me. No. "For five years, this pack has been without a Luna because I have been building our future in the human world," he continued, looking at the elders, at everyone except me. "We are now worth 1.2 billion dollars. We cannot afford weakness at the top." Vanessa smiled. "I was told as a child that the Moon Goddess fated me to an Omega," Dominic said, and finally his golden eyes dropped to me. And they were empty. "But I am an Alpha who makes my own fate. I cannot have a weak Luna. My children cannot have a weak mother." My breath stopped. "No," I whispered. "I, Dominic Blackwood, Alpha of the Blackwood Pack," he said louder, so no one could pretend they didn't hear, "REJECT you, Elena Rayne, as my mate and as my Luna." The sound that came out of me was not human. The rejection hit like a silver knife to the chest. The mate bond — the thread that had tied my soul to his since I was fourteen — snapped. I heard it snap. I collapsed. My knees hit the marble so hard I heard a crack. My white dress tore. Pain flooded me. My wolf, Lira, was screaming, dying inside my head. MATE! HE IS REJECTING US! I was gasping, clawing at my chest, trying to keep my heart inside. Tears were streaming. "What... what are you... Dominic, please..." I crawled forward. "You... you marked my neck last week! Last week in your office, you said you felt it!" That made his jaw clench. A flicker of guilt. Then it was gone. "That was a mistake," he said quietly. "A goodbye to childhood, Elena. Don't make this pathetic. You knew you were never going to be Luna. An Omega cannot birth Alpha pups." A mistake. Vanessa stepped forward, her heels clicking, and placed her manicured hand on his arm. Her huge diamond ring caught the temple lights. "Oh, honey," she said to me, sweet and poisonous. "Don't cry. It's not your fault you're... well, you. Some she-wolves are born to be Luna. Some are born to scrub floors for the Luna. You'll make a great maid in our new house." Someone laughed. Then more people laughed. My mother, in the second row, looked down at her hands. She didn't stand up for me. I forced myself to stand. My legs were bleeding where the marble had cut them. My white dress was now grey with dirt. My whole body was shaking, but the pain was turning into something else. Something hot. Rage. I put my hand on my stomach without thinking. I had gone to the human doctor yesterday. Two sacs. Two heartbeats. Twins. Alpha twins. I was six weeks pregnant. I was carrying the Alpha's pups. The words were right there. I'm pregnant. You are going to be a father. I looked at Vanessa's hand on his arm. At his cold eyes. At the elders nodding like this was a smart business decision. No. He didn't deserve to know. "You will regret this," I whispered. My voice was broken, bloody, but every wolf heard it because the temple was dead silent. "I swear on the Moon Goddess you just insulted, Dominic Blackwood, you will regret tonight. You will beg me to come back." He flinched. His nostrils flared. I turned. I didn't run. If I ran, I was the weak Omega they said I was. I walked. One foot in front of the other, out of the Moon Temple, out of the pack house I had cleaned for ten years, out into the pouring rain in my dirty, torn dress. No one stopped me. Behind me, Vanessa giggled, "Finally. Now can we start the real Luna ceremony?" I kept walking until the pack border lights disappeared. Until the rain washed his scent off my skin. Then I collapsed on the side of the human highway and vomited from the rejection pain until there was nothing left. My phone buzzed. One text. From Dominic: Don't cause a scene. My assistant will send money. Be mature. Mature. I blocked him. I threw my old cracked Android into the ditch. Then I placed both hands on my flat stomach, where two tiny pups were fighting to stay alive despite their father trying to kill their bond. "You're all I have now," I whispered to them, rain mixing with tears. "And they will pay. I will make him kneel for us one day." I stuck my hand out for a taxi with my last forty dollars. No pack. No family. No mate. Two babies inside me. FIVE YEARS LATER — MANHATTAN The conference room on the fiftieth floor of Blackwood Global Tower fell silent when I walked in. I wasn't in a dirty white dress anymore. I was in a blood-red Chanel suit, six-inch black Louboutins, my black hair cut sharp to my shoulders, diamonds on my neck that cost more than Vanessa's wardrobe. My twins, Leo and Luna, were safe with my nanny two blocks away, probably fighting over who gets the last cookie. On the table was a five hundred million dollar investment deal. The only thing that could save Blackwood Global from the bankruptcy Vanessa's family dragged it into. All the board members stood up. All except one. Dominic Blackwood sat at the head of the table, older, broader, more handsome than before, with a beard now, and the same cold golden eyes. But there were dark circles under them. He looked tired. Like a king about to lose his kingdom. He looked at me like he was seeing a ghost. He stood up slowly. "Ms. Rayne? I'm Dominic Blackwood, CEO. We were expecting Elena Rayne, CEO of Rayne Industries from London." I smiled. A slow, cruel, red-lipped smile I had practiced for five years for this exact moment. "That's me, Mr. Blackwood," I said, placing my Birkin briefcase on the table. My voice was ice. "Elena Rayne. Your savior. Or your worst nightmare. You decide." His eyes widened. His body went rigid. His nostrils flared. He inhaled, involuntarily, like an Alpha when his wolf takes over. And his whole body froze. Because he finally smelled it. Under my French perfume, under five years of pain and power and revenge, he finally recognized the truth I had hidden from the world. He smelled his own blood on my skin. The scent of his pups that I had bled for, cried for, and raised alone while he built his empire with another woman. His Alpha voice dropped to a whisper only I could hear, a growl that made the windows shake and my heart stop completely. "...Elena... what have you done with my children?"