Thought I Was the "Barren" Mate? I Married the Billionaire Alpha Instead

The needle slid into my stomach, leaving yet another purple bruise to join the constellation of failures painted across my skin. I didn't flinch. Two years ago I had stopped flinching. I simply looked at the white sterile ceiling of the clinic, and heard the buzz of the fluorescent lights, and I reminded myself of why I was doing this. For Derrick. For our pack. To honor the Hale family legacy. “No, Dr. Aris,” she replied, “I'm not sorry.“No, Luna Sienna, I am not sorry,” he said, and he pulled off his gloves with a heavy sigh. His voice was full of the practiced sympathy. The scan reveals nothing, your womb is still barren, it looks like it is a permanent condition. Barren was like a punch to the stomach, it took the breath right out of me. I closed my eyes, tears were hot in my eyes. A female werewolf who couldn't produce puppies was regarded as cursed, a broken vessel in our society. But Derrick had been by my side. My beautiful, good-looking husband had stood up for me to the pack elders. He told them my brilliant mind was worth more than a dozen heirs. For that love, I gave him all of myself. I worked in the underground laboratory of Hale Industries by day, and by night. The first time we met, Derrick was only a weak Beta with big dreams. With my brainpower in biochemistry, I invented a revolutionary suppressant and enhancement serum. It covered up his Beta scent and endowed him with the dominant aura and physical might of an Alpha. I molded him into the strong CEO that he is today. All I asked in return was a family. I can give you another dose of hormones," Dr. Aris said, tapping his pen on his clipboard. No, I whispered, I pulled my shirt down over the bruised canvas of my stomach, and I sat up. Not today, Doctor. I just... I need to go see my husband. Dr. Aris stiffened. A strange, nervous twitch caught his eye. It's a very important board meeting today, Mrs. Hale, don't bother him, "Alpha Derrick. He said he was at the office, yes, I said, taking out my purse. I'll leave him a note. I came out of the examination room and was exhausted, exhausted, exhausted. For years, my wolf had been silent and slow, hidden behind the veil of drugs and sadness. I approached the front reception desk to check the parking ticket but the head nurse was not there. Her computer screen was lit up. I bent over the counter and took a mint from the glass bowl, and my eyes fell upon a familiar name on the screen. Patient: Chloe Adams. Room: VIP Maternity Suite 402. Billing: Derrick Hale. I froze. The mint dropped from my fingers, and clattered on the desk. Chloe Adams. She was Derrick's new partner of twenty one years. The one who was always snickering at me when I was in the office, a loud and vain Omega. Why was Derrick paying for her maternity suite? My heart was racing and pounding against my ribs. Perhaps it was a charitable impulse, I thought, trying to hang on to the tenuous glass house of my life. Perhaps he is assisting an employee who is in need. A dark, cold instinct, the instinct of a wolf, whispered something else. My feet walked without my mind. I avoided the elevators and opened the thick door to the stairs, which led up to the VIP wing, four floors up. The hallway was vacant, and it smelled of new lilies and fancy disinfectants. I walked quietly, my flat shoes making no sound on the polished marble floor. I found Suite 402. The door was opened a few inches, presumably by a passing nurse. I tried to push it open, but a voice came and halted me. Derrick's smooth, deep voice drifted out into the hallway, "You need to stop being so paranoid, baby. I froze and looked through the small opening. Derrick was propped up on the edge of the hospital bed. He wasn't inspecting a sick employee, however. He was bent over, kissing the full, pregnant stomach of Chloe Adams. I was lying on the pillows, my blonde hair in perfect condition, with a silk robe that cost more than my entire wardrobe. Chloe ran her fingers through his dark hair, "I'm not paranoid, Derrick. I'm tired of hiding. I'm carrying your real Alpha heir and yet I have to call that barren freak 'Luna' when she walks into the building. When will you be getting rid of her? My vision blurred. The hospital walls seemed to be crumbling inwards. Alpha heir. “Soon, my sweet Omega,” Derrick chuckled pressing a kiss to her lips. It was the same tender, loving kiss, he gave me this morning before he left for 'work'. You know we can't just kick her to the curb yet. Sienna is the goose that lays the golden eggs. Hale Industries only exists thanks to her formulas, my whole Alpha status depends on the serums she makes for me. Chloe crossed her arms, "But I want to be your legal wife before the baby comes. I don't want my son to be born to a man that is married to someone else. Derrick laughed his head off. That was a cruel and mocking sound, one I had never heard before. It was as if glass had broken. "Married?" Derrick scoffed. “Chloe, you know the truth, I never got married to Sienna.” I suddenly found myself on the floor. I had to put my hand up to my mouth to prevent myself from gasping up my throat. Derrick held Chloe's hand, explaining the forged marriage certificate she had. I paid the pack elders and the city officials five years ago, I needed her genius, I knew that if she worked herself to death thinking that she was working for her 'husband' she would be nothing to me. “All of that's part of the plan,” Derrick said venomously. I give her a lot of money to fill her body with low-grade suppressants that she thinks are fertility treatments, so that she becomes hostile to pups and keeps her wolf under control, so she is weak, depressed, and dependent on me, and as long as she believes that she's broken, she'll keep trying to make it up to me by making new drugs in that underground lab. Hilarious, really. My mind went to a shocking stillness. For five years, I had blamed myself. I have cried myself to sleep, asking the Moon Goddess to heal my broken body. I had been subjected to hundreds of painful injections, blinding headaches, and the embarrassing contempt of the pack. I've given this man my youth and my brilliant mind and my whole heart. And it was all a sham. The marriage. The infertility. The love. He had drugged me. He had enslaved me. He'd built a billion dollar empire with me, and had made a family with his mistress on the side. I felt tears in my eyes but they didn't come down. It was all sadness and heartbreak and despair, until it all came to an end, in one flash, terrifying. Instead, a cold, icy anger welled up in me. The suppressed wolf in my soul opened its eyes for the first time in 5 years. It didn't whimper. It growled. An absolute murder humming low and vibrating. Derrick believed that he had wed a weak, submissive fool. He left out one important detail. He did not remember who was the one that had the keys of his kingdom. He was an Alpha in disguise! It was all from the blue vials in my laboratory: his strength, his scent, his dominance. If I don't give him the serum every day, his body would reject the Alpha enzymes. He would wither. He would make himself a public embarrassment. All of the patents, all of the research data, all of the master formulas? My biometric passwords were used to secure them. I didn't storm in on the room. I didn't cry or scream or ask questions. A predator never calls its prey. I slowly pulled the fake silver wedding band off my left finger. I looked at the flimsy metal for a moment, then quietly put it down on the ground just outside the door. Let him discover it on his own. Have him ponder about the time of the executioner's coming. I turned around and walked out of the hospital. I stood straight, my tears were dried, my mind cold as a surgeon. I took a taxi outside the clinic. I told the driver that it was "Hale Industries". "And step on it." It took 15 minutes to ride. I keyed in my keycard to pass through the main lobby and went directly down into the underground laboratories via a private elevator. My lab was a white sterile place where I had been imprisoned for five years. Today, it would be Derrick's empire's tomb. I proceeded to the main server terminal and logged in. Welcome Chief Researcher Sienna. Opened Master Drives. Five years of sleepless nights. Five years of innovative drug development. The Alpha-enhancement serum. The Lycan suppressants. The multi-million dollar deals Derrick was to sign with the pack leaders of the world next week. I marked each and every folder. I hit the delete key. Warning: You will now permanently delete the master servers, and start the physical destruction of all your backup drives. This action is irreversible. Proceed? I entered my override password. Yes. The screens went red. The hard drives were groaning and groaning, and terabytes of priceless information were being pulverized into digital dust. The backup servers immediately lit up as the internal magnets erased the data. Derrick Hale was now a dead man walking. The lab doors opened when the progress bar reached 99 percent. Three big men in dark suits came into the room. I could not have been mistaken for whom they were. Derrick’s personal Beta enforcers. They must have discovered the ring at the hospital and deduced that I was missing. Derrick was not a fool; he knew just where I would be. The leader of the enforcers snarled at Sienna, "Step away from the console, Sienna.The leader of the enforcers snarled, "Step away from the console, Sienna. The boss said to bring you in quietly, don't make us break your legs. The progress bar reached 100%. Wipe Complete. I retrieved the master flash drive, which was the last copy of my work, from the port and put it in my pocket. I said to Derrick, "That's your prescription, isn't it, that's the one that's expired? I slammed my fist against the fire alarm. The red lights were flashing and the sirens were shrieking so loud, I couldn't hear my escape. I forced my way through the thick steel door and ran down the maintenance tunnel that connected to the back alley of the industrial area. I burst out into the cold, pouring rain of the city streets. I ran as fast as my feeble legs could carry me, splashing through puddles, my breath tearing at my throat. I heard snarls behind me. Now the enforcers had transformed into their wolf form. They were after me. I had to go through a corner that led to an alley. Brick walls on three sides. My heart pounded in my chest, and I turned around. Three huge gray wolves came into the alley's entrance, teeth bared, saliva dripping from their jaws. I was trapped. I was weak, I had no serum, no weapon, and a wolf that couldn't shift. The lead wolf lunged at my throat. However, he never made it to me. Suddenly there was a terrifying pressure that crashed down on the alley. It was an atmosphere so pervading and so oppressive that the very air seemed to freeze. The three enforcers hit the damp road with a whine of utter and complete fear, unable to move, unable to think, unable to act, unable to speak. In the midst of the rain, a man emerged from the shadows. Tall, he wore a custom-made black suit that swallowed the feeble street lights. It rained, and the rain drops fell on his wide shoulders. But it was his eyes that took my breath away. They were blazing a fierce, piercing gold. Lycan gold. Kaelen Thorne. The next in line to the Thorne Syndicate. The richest and most deadly Alpha in the Capital and Derrick Hale's biggest fear. He stood just inches from me, and the whimpering wolves at his feet ignored him. His golden eyes gazed down at my dampened face, bruised soul, and the flames in my eyes. “Well,” Kaelen rumbled, his voice as soft as velvet around a blade. My opponent's little secret seems to have run away. He tilted his head, holding out a large, scarred hand. "Are you ready to burn his world down, Sienna?"