Owen disappeared for days again.
While staring at the dim mirror, I got an unexpected message. It was from Leo, my brother, asking to meet.
The message felt like a beam of light in the dark. I thought he was finally coming to pull me out of this hell.
But the reality was, Leo grabbed my hands, trembling.
"My company... they set me up again." He couldn't meet my eyes. "It's worse this time."
"How much?"
"Thirty million dollars."
I felt dizzy.
Thirty million.
"They said if I don't pay it back in a month, they'll kill me." Leo gripped my hands tight. "Sienna, you're my only hope."
"Beg me?" I stared at him in disbelief, my voice shaking with rage. "Leo, do you have any idea what I've been through for the past eight years? What that fifty million dollars turned me into? And now you have the nerve to come back and beg me?"
"I'm sorry, Sienna, I'm so sorry..." He sobbed, collapsing to his knees on the floor. "I know I failed you! But..."
He gestured desperately to his leg. Beneath the fabric of his pants, a vicious, gnarled old scar was visible.
My heart seized.
The memory hit me like a physical blow, snapping me back to a night of wind and driving snow more than a decade ago.
Our parents were dead. My brother and I were wandering the wilds, searching for our pack, lost during the migration.
That night, we ran into a rabid shadow hound, its eyes red with starvation.
A split second before it lunged for me, Leo—just as thin and weak as I was—threw himself in front of me.
Its jaws locked onto his calf. His blood stained the snow crimson, but he just clamped his hands over my head, shielding my eyes from the carnage while muttering over and over, "Don't be scared, Sienna. Big brother's here..."
That scar was the price he paid. He'd traded half his life to give me mine.
He was my only family. He had saved my life.
But he was also the one who shoved me into this bottomless pit of hell.
Hate and an unbreakable bond of love warred inside me, threatening to rip me in two.
I hated him. I hated him for destroying my life!
But I... I couldn't just let him die.
I closed my eyes. The metallic tang of blood filled my throat, as if I was back in that snowy night.
After a long, agonizing moment, I finally forced the words through my teeth.
"I don't have the money."
"But you have Owen." His eyes were full of desperation. "Please, just help me one last time."
I wanted to say something, but the words stuck in my throat.
That first fifty million had already nailed me to a cross of shame, tortured day and night for selling myself.
How was I supposed to ask Owen for more?
When I got back to the apartment, a wave of nausea hit me, and I passed out on the spot.
When I woke up, I felt a strange fluttering inside me.
I performed a small ritual... and felt it. A new life. Growing inside me.
A pure-blooded Alpha pup. Owen's pup.
Even knowing this would bring a much worse storm, I had no choice.
That night, Owen came back to the apartment.
He seemed to be in a good mood, humming a tune.
"I'm pregnant," I said bluntly.
His eyes instantly lit up.
"Really?" He walked toward me, reaching out to touch my stomach.
I took a step back.
"Thirty million dollars."
"What?"
I met his eyes. "This pup costs thirty million dollars. Give me the money, and I'll carry it to term."
Owen's face changed in a split second.
His golden wolf eyes glowed with a dangerous light.
"What did you just say?"
"My brother needs thirty million dollars," I repeated. "Your heir should be worth that price."
"Are you out of your fcking mind?" His voice was a low, beastly growl.
A terrifying wave of Alpha aura crashed down on me.
"You're using your own pup as a bargaining chip?" He roared. "Do you have a heart at all?"
"I'm just asking if it's a deal or not."
He totally snapped. He grabbed my shoulders and roughly shoved me against the wall.
"You want money? I'll give you money!"
His kiss was brutal and completely possessive.
I tried to push him away, but his Alpha strength was too much.
He tore my clothes off, his movements rough, like a punishment.
"This is what you want, right?" He sneered in my ear. "Trading your body for cash?"
The way he took me had no pleasure in it—only anger and revenge. Each thrust was him claiming ownership.
He slammed into me, each thrust a brutal punishment. He was trying to kill our pup before it even had a chance to live.
When he was done, he pulled a black card out of his suit pocket.
"Take it." He threw it coldly in my face. "Thirty million. Is that enough?"
Then he slammed the door and left.
I lay on the floor, gently touching my stomach.
Miraculously, the pup's presence was still there. Steady and strong.
Three days later, I found Owen.
"The baby is fine." I said calmly. "I'll give birth to him. I owe you for the thirty million."
He was pouring a drink.
When he heard me, his hand shook, and the glass shattered on the floor.
Glass shards hit my legs, drawing blood.
But he didn't even look at me. He just turned and walked away.
That night, I activated the mirror again.
"I refuse to spend the rest of my life like this..."
The girl in the mirror shook her head, her voice shattering.
"I don't want my pup born into a family with nothing but humiliation... I don't want it..."
Listening to her mutterings, I suddenly felt like maybe everything could still change.
Just days after the thirty million was transferred, my brother asked to meet again.
This time, he cried and slapped himself over and over.
"Sienna, I'm a piece of sht! I owe another ten million... I swear, this is the last time!"
I stared at him, my mind a complete void.
All the strength drained from my body. I had no more excuses to beg Owen. I had nothing left to trade.
So, in my despair, I simply waited for him to come home. And when he walked through the door, I knelt before him.
"Give me another ten million, and I'll do anything you want!"
Owen kicked me away and suddenly laughed.
"An Omega's submission. You think that's still worth ten million?"
