Ava's POV

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

My heart lurched so hard it almost bruised my ribs. My fingers clenched the edge of my coat, nails digging painfully into my palm. "How... how is it, doctor?"

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 it, that 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 looked my way. Humility was the only bargaining chip 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 brain just... snapped. A loud ringing drowned out the world. I can conceive, so 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 grievance 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, world-shattering news.

My Damon, Alpha of the powerful Darkmoon Pack on the East Coast. A walking embodiment of authority, 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. Chose me, and used his Alpha dominance in front of the whole pack to silence every whisper, every doubt.

I stood beside him then, feeling the thunder of his heartbeat, and swore: if my body was flawed, I would use everything else in me to make up for it. I would prove that an Omega could be a Luna worth respecting. I would make Damon proud that he chose me.

So I poured every bit of my university training into his company, worked through nights without sleep, handled the pack's complicated contracts and tech projects. Even when I fainted from exhaustion, I never took a day off. Even when every research paper was credited to Damon instead of me, I told myself none of that mattered. The pack's strength mattered. Staying by his side mattered.

And now... the pack was thriving because of our work. And my body was healthy. And I could bear a child. If Damon would just tell the pack the truth about what I'd done these four years, they would finally accept me. I knew they would.

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

At the Alpha estate, 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, the little wolf pup we "adopted" from the orphanage three years ago. Damon said he'd chosen Leo at random, said he just wanted to help heal my "pain of being unable to bear children." I was so moved that I even offered to give up the authorship of all my research papers.

And yet Leo… was his and Silvia's child? I was certain now—she was Silvia, Damon's former mate.