Olivia’s POV
"All I had to do was slip wolfsbane extract into her meals to trigger early labour," James said, almost amused. "It would terminate the pregnancy naturally. Then I would tell her her body rejected the pup. She would cry, I would comfort her, and life would go on."
My mind flashed back to each miscarriage. The pain. The blood. The white rooms in the pack clinic that I had come to hate.
After each loss, Mia would show up at the pack clinic with broth. "I made this specially for you," she would say, her eyes full of fake tears. "I know how much you're hurting. I'm here for you, sis."
She would stay the night, sleeping in the chair beside my bed, holding my hand whenever I woke up crying in pain.
James would be there too, stroking my hair, whispering, "We'll try again. We'll have our pup. I promise."
I had believed them both.
My hands shook violently. I bit down harder on my palm to keep from screaming, my wolf clawing at my mind for vengeance.
They had poisoned me four times with wolfsbane.
"Are you really going to break the mate bond when my womb is cured?" Mia asked, her voice dripping with false concern.
"Of course," James said casually. "Once the healer confirms the wolf essence treatments worked, I don't need to keep her around anymore."
He paused, and I heard the smirk in his tone. "Then you and I can finally be together publicly. Become bonded forever."
Mia's voice was breathy. "What about the pack and my family? What will they say?"
James laughed coldly. "Your family that favours you over their own blood daughter? Please. They'll side with us. Her mother already told me she thinks Olivia is an embarrassment to the bloodline."
The words cut through me like silver knives, because it was the truth.
"Olivia already signed her five percent pack shares over to me years ago without realizing it," James continued. "She'll walk away with nothing. She has no friends, no pack support. After I break the bond, she'll have nothing and no one. She'll probably end up as some pathetic rogue."
Mia furrowed her eyebrows. "How do you plan on doing that? The pack loves her."
James chuckled coldly. "Next week, we'll throw a huge pack gathering to announce your pregnancy to everyone important—the pack’s business partners, your family, the Alpha Council, and other ally alphas."
He continued. "Then I'll have silver-laced champagne ready for her. The silver will weaken her wolf enough that she won't remember anything. Halfway through the gathering, Harry will find her in one of the upstairs rooms with some wolves I hired."
Mia gasped. "You're going to frame her?"
"She'll be too drugged and silver-poisioned to know what's happening. Harry will make sure there are photos. By the end of the night, everyone will believe Olivia Grant betrayed her mate at a gathering celebrating her sister's pregnancy."
"That's brilliant," Mia breathed. "Everyone will think she's the villian."
"Exactly. Breaking the bond right there will be justified, and she'll get nothing." James's voice dripped with satisfaction.
My heart pounded so hard I thought it would burst through my chest. My wolf snarled viciously in my mind.
He was going to drug me with silver, frame me, and destroy everything.
Their moans filled the silence again. I backed away from the car slowly, careful not to make a sound. My hand was bleeding where I had bitten it, but I didn't feel it.
All I could feel was devastation, heartbreak, and my wolf's pain.
I climbed into my car, and my body shook so violently I could barely hold the wheel. I sat there in the darkness, tears streaming down my face, my palm pressed protectively over my stomach where my pup was growing.
Four pups murdered. Their wolf essence stolen to cure my sister's infertility so she could carry my mate's pup.
And now he was going to destroy my reputation and take everything I had left.
I barely remembered driving home. My hands shook so violently on the steering wheel that I almost crashed twice.
I drove home in a daze, their conversation replaying endlessly in my head.
'She's an idiot. She has nothing and no one. She'll end up as some pathetic rogue.'
I walked inside the house absentmindedly, then I headed straight to James's home office.
I needed proof. Evidence. Something to make sense of what I had heard.
My hands shook as I searched through his files, his laptop, his locked drawers. I found the small brass key hidden beneath the drawer lining and opened the filing cabinet.
Medical records with my name. Dates that matched every pregnancy. Procedures I never consented to. Bank statements showing payments to a private research facility specializing in werewolf genetics.
I kept searching, my hands moving faster.
Finally, I found the transfer record. The pack shares James had promised me as a mating gift—I had signed them all back to him without realizing it.
I stared at the document until the words blurred.
"She'll walk away with nothing."
A bitter laugh escaped me. James was so ignorant of the truth.
I couldn't be left with nothing, because what James didn't know was that he hadn't built the Blue Moon Pack businesses from nothing.
I had.
Five years ago, when his pack businesses nearly went bankrupt, an anonymous investor saved it. The investor paid all the debts, funded the expansions, and covered the losses.
That investor was me.
I was the anonymous silent shareholder with fifty percent ownership of his company. I had created the account under my maiden name, Olivia Hale, using an offshore account that James never knew existed.
Before I married James; Alice, my foster mother, had left me her entire life savings. It was money she had carefully saved from her potion brewing over decades, along with inheritance from her parents.
It was about a million dollars, but I was careful with it. I invested it wisely, made smart decisions, and over the years, it grew. By the time James's pack was failing, I poured $147 million into the failing businesses.
So his pack was built on my money.
And he called me an idiot.
Another laugh escaped me as satisfaction washed through me.
I gathered every document, every file, every piece of evidence, and made copies, hiding them where he would never think to look.
Then I sank to the cold floor of his office and cried until my body had nothing left to give.
When there were no tears left, I just sat there, feeling empty. I had no idea where to start.
Then I remembered something James had said months ago.
"Stay away from Asher Storme. He's my biggest rival. He is ruthless and dangerous. He will do anything to destroy me."
Asher Storme. James's biggest rival and worst enemy. The Alpha of the Northern Ridge Pack.
He was the only one who could help me now.
I picked up my phone with trembling fingers and began searching. It took twenty minutes to find Asher's private number buried deep in James's files.
I stared at it for a long time.
Once I made this call, there would be no going back.
But when I thought of my four pups, of Mia's mocking laughter, of James's cruelty, I pressed Call.
The phone rang twice before a deep, smooth voice answered. "Who is this?"
My throat tightened, but I forced the words out. "My name is Luna Olivia Grant. I'm Alpha James Grant's mate."
A pause. "Grant's mate. What do you want?"
Tears blurred my vision. "I need your help."
"Why would Alpha James Grant’s mate be calling me? I am your mate’s rival." His tone sharpened.
"Because I want him destroyed," I whispered. "And I think you're the only alpha who hates him as much as I do."
Silence stretched.
Then Asher laughed. It was a dark, low sound that sent a shiver through me, and made my wolf perk up with interest.
"Luna Grant," he said slowly, his voice was heavy with Alpha authority, "you have my complete attention."
