Ava's POV

"Ms. Crawford." A gentle voice pulled me out of my racing thoughts. The elderly doctor adjusted his glasses and added, "All of your test results are ready."

My heart lurched. My nails dug painfully into my palms, my voice trembling. "Doctor, how... how are the results?"

This hospital sat quietly in the neutral zone between packs, far from the Darkmoon Pack's territory. A place every pack agreed not to touch. I chose it on purpose, because I didn't want a single soul to know what I was doing here.

Four years. Ever since my first year married to Damon, the word "infertile" had been branded into me over and over again. Like a hot iron pressed against my skin until I actually believed my body was broken from the start.

Whenever pack members looked at me with that mix of pity and contempt, I would instinctively drop my gaze and remind myself: an Omega with no known background should be grateful an Alpha even noticed me. Humility was the only leverage I had to hold this marriage together.

"You're perfectly healthy." The doctor flipped through the report casually, like he was announcing today's weather. "And fully capable of conceiving."

My mind just... went blank. I could conceive. I was never infertile. How could that possibly be true?

For four years, every Darkmoon Pack doctor had sworn up and down that my body was too weak, my system too unstable to carry a strong Alpha child.

Coming here was pure stubborn instinct, the last shred of fight left in me.

"Doctor, are you sure?" I stared at him, desperate. "Can you check again? They kept telling me..."

"I'll stake my entire career on it." His expression sharpened when he noticed how shaken I was. "Actually, today happens to be your ovulation day. If you want a child, tonight is an excellent opportunity."

Joy and hurt slammed into me at the same time. I sucked in a shaky breath. I could give Damon a child, our child. The thought nearly made my knees buckle. I wanted to run to him right that second and tell him this unbelievable miracle.

My Damon, Alpha of the Darkmoon Pack, the second strongest on the East Coast. He was power and authority in human form, the dream partner of countless she-wolves.

Four years ago, right after my eighteenth birthday, fate threw us together. He knew I was a nobody, an Omega with no past, and even after hearing I was "infertile," he still chose me, even publicly marked me in front of the whole pack.

Even so, the whispers never stopped. I did everything, used the medical products I developed to lead the pack to greatness. But the one problem remained: I couldn't conceive.

Now that problem was about to disappear. I would become a Luna the pack truly accepted. More importantly, this child would be proof of love between me and my mate. Nothing could have made me happier than this moment. Not even a deal worth hundreds of millions.

I grabbed my bag and basically sprinted out of the hospital.

At the Alpha Manor, I headed straight for his office. The door was slightly ajar. I lifted my hand to knock, only to freeze when I heard a woman's muffled moan from inside.

I thought I misheard. But when I leaned toward the gap in the door...

I saw my husband, my Alpha, holding another woman so tightly it felt like the air around them belonged only to the two of them. The woman had this wild, fiery red hair and a body that practically melted into his. Her arms were looped around Damon's neck, and Damon, the man who was always so composed, so controlled in front of me, was leaning down toward her with a softness I didn't even know he had.

My blood turned to ice on the spot.

Her annoyed voice slipped through the crack of the door and stabbed straight into my ears. "Damon, when are you going to divorce that Omega? I'm done waiting. Our son Leo deserves a real family."

Leo, our little wolf pup we "adopted" from the orphanage three years ago. Damon said he picked Leo at random, said he just wanted to help me heal from "the pain of being unable to conceive." I was so touched by his thoughtfulness that I offered to give up authorship for all my research files.

The child I'd raised for years... was his and Sylvia's? I was certain now. She was Sylvia, Damon's former mate.

The pack said she had rejected her first mate. Damon was her second chance. In our world, before an Alpha claimed someone, the Moon Goddess couldn't belong to anyone.