HIS HIDDEN DIAMOND LUNA

CHAPTER 1: THE $100K PROPOSAL

The hospital bill felt heavier than my entire life.

$95,473.29. PAST DUE.

I stared at the pink paper in my shaking hands. Zara's ventilator beeped behind me. My 12-year-old sister, my only family left, looked so small in that white bed. Her chest barely rose.

"Mrs. Okoro, we need payment by Friday or we move her to state care," the nurse whispered. It was Monday. I had four days.

I had $312 in my account.

I walked out of Mount Sinai into the freezing Manhattan rain, no umbrella, my waitress uniform soaked. I called my boss. "You're late again, Layla. You're fired."

Perfect.

My phone buzzed. Unknown number. I almost ignored it. Then a cold, British voice: "Layla Okoro? My name is Julian Cross, assistant to Dimitri Kane. Mr. Kane wants to see you tomorrow at 9 AM at Kane Systems Tower, 57th floor. Regarding a private contract. $100,000."

I froze in the middle of 5th Avenue. Scam. It had to be scam. But $100,000 was the exact number I needed plus extra.

"Why me?" I whispered.

"Mr. Kane saw your profile on the Columbia scholarship alumni database. He needs a fiancee. Discreet. Professional. Nigerian-British. You fit."

Fiancee? I wanted to laugh and cry.

Next morning, I wore my only good dress, the black one from Zara's graduation. Kane Systems Tower was glass and power, it touched the clouds. Every man in a $5,000 suit stared as I dripped rain in the lobby.

57th floor smelled like money and something else, like pine forest after rain and expensive cologne.

Then I saw him.

Dimitri Kane was not a man. He was a force. 35, tall enough to block the light, shoulders wide in a black tailored suit, hair dark, eyes like storm-grey ice. His jaw was sharp, his mouth cruel. He looked at me like I was a problem he already solved.

"Layla Okoro. Sit."

His voice vibrated through my bones. My stupid silver moonstone bracelet from Iya, the one I never took off since I was five, suddenly went ice cold.

"You need money. I need a wife. Tomorrow I have Dubai summit. Investors think I'm unstable, too ruthless, no family. My CFO told them I need grounding. So I need a fiancee for 60 days. You will act in love. Smile. Hold my hand. No real touching. No kissing on lips. No s*x. Clause 4."

He slid a thick contract across the black marble desk. $100,000 printed in bold.

"60 days. You get paid half now, half after Dubai. You get apartment, clothes, medical for your sister included. You break NDA, you owe me $1 million."

I should have run. But I thought of Zara's beep. Of state care.

"Why can't you hire an actress?"

"Actresses want fame. You want to be invisible. And..." He inhaled, his nostrils flared, his grey eyes darkened to gold for a second. I blinked. Gold? Impossible.

"You smell... familiar."

He stood, walked around desk. He was too close. Too big. I smelled pine, amber, snow. My bracelet burned hot now, searing my wrist. I gasped.

He grabbed my wrist, his fingers huge, warm. The moment he touched the moonstone, a low growl ripped from his chest, not human. My knees buckled.

"MINE."

The word wasn't English. It was inside my head.

I yanked away. "What did you say?"

He stared at my bracelet, his face twisted in shock and fury. "Where did you get that?"

"My grandmother in Ibadan. Iya Adunni gave me when I was five. She said never remove it."

"Adunni..." His voice broke. He stepped back like I'd burned him. He pressed his intercom. "Julian, get security to run background on Adunni Okoro, White Diamond Pack, Ibadan. Now."

White Diamond Pack? What was he talking about?

He looked at me again, this time not cold, but hungry, possessive, terrified.

"Layla, that bracelet is not jewelry. It's a suppressor. It's been hiding what you are."

"What I am? I'm broke!"

"You're a Luna. A dormant wolf. And you... you are my..."

He didn't finish. The lights flickered. My bracelet cracked, a tiny white light leaking out. Inside my head, for the first time in 23 years, something howled back, loud and free and furious.

And it answered him: MATE.

The contract was still on the desk. $100,000. But now I wasn't sure if I was selling myself as a fake fiancee, or walking into a cage far more dangerous.

"Do we have a deal, Mrs. Kane?"

My sister's face flashed. I picked up the pen. My hand bled where bracelet burned.

I signed.

And the moment ink touched paper, every wolf in Manhattan lifted its head and howled. The moon was watching. And it had finally found its hidden diamond Luna after 23 years of hiding in Brooklyn. The lights in his tower shattered. My blood dripped onto the contract and turned silver. Dimitri's eyes glowed gold. He whispered, "What have you done to me, little Luna? You just claimed an Alpha billionaire."