I was the lead architect for the Pack's billion-dollar tech company, and I was secretly carrying the Alpha's heir. I thought the merger would finally make Caleb Mark me. Instead, I walked into my office to find a mistress sitting in my chair. Caleb didn't just fire me. When I refused to hand over the encryption keys to the system I built, he locked me in a reinforced closet lined with silver mesh. For a pregnant wolf, silver is poison. I pounded on the door until my knuckles bled. "Caleb! Please! It burns! I'm losing the baby!" I screamed until my voice broke, feeling the life drain from my womb. But outside the door, his mistress laughed. "Don't listen to her, Caleb. She's just a weak Omega faking it for attention." And my Fated Mate believed her. He left me in that dark box while our son died in a pool of my own blood. He thought he had broken me. He thought I would die a silent death so he could parade his fake heir around. He forgot one thing: I wrote the code that runs his entire life. Three days later, I didn't show up to the hospital morgue. I rolled my wheelchair onto the stage of his global press conference, flanked by the rival Alpha he feared most. I held up the remote to the main server. "You killed my son for a lie, Caleb," I smiled into the microphone as the screens behind him broadcast the footage of his crime. "Now, say goodbye to your empire."
I was the lead architect for the Pack's billion-dollar tech company, and I was secretly carrying the Alpha's heir.
I thought the merger would finally make Caleb Mark me.
Instead, I walked into my office to find a mistress sitting in my chair.
Caleb didn't just fire me. When I refused to hand over the encryption keys to the system I built, he locked me in a reinforced closet lined with silver mesh.
For a pregnant wolf, silver is poison.
I pounded on the door until my knuckles bled.
"Caleb! Please! It burns! I'm losing the baby!"
I screamed until my voice broke, feeling the life drain from my womb.
But outside the door, his mistress laughed. "Don't listen to her, Caleb. She's just a weak Omega faking it for attention."
And my Fated Mate believed her.
He left me in that dark box while our son died in a pool of my own blood.
He thought he had broken me. He thought I would die a silent death so he could parade his fake heir around.
He forgot one thing: I wrote the code that runs his entire life.
Three days later, I didn't show up to the hospital morgue.
I rolled my wheelchair onto the stage of his global press conference, flanked by the rival Alpha he feared most.
I held up the remote to the main server.
"You killed my son for a lie, Caleb," I smiled into the microphone as the screens behind him broadcast the footage of his crime. "Now, say goodbye to your empire."
Chapter 1
Brooke POV:
The sharp sting of antiseptic cut through the air, burning my nose. It was chemical, cold, and completely devoid of the earthy warmth I needed. I sat on the edge of the hospital bed, hands trembling as they hovered over my flat stomach.
"You're running on fumes, Ms. Myers," the doctor had said, not bothering to hide the pity in his eyes. "Your wolf is dormant because your body is funneling everything into the pregnancy. You need bed rest. Zero stress. Or you lose it."
Zero stress. I almost laughed.
I was the lead architect for Silver Moon Tech. The pack's entire economy ran on the code I bled to write. We were days away from the Apex merger, a deal that would secure our future. And I was doing it all for him.
Caleb.
My Alpha. My Fated Mate.
I checked my phone. Zero missed calls. Zero texts. I'd collapsed face-first onto the tile during a code review, and my mate couldn't be bothered to see if I was breathing.
"I have to go," I whispered to the empty room.
I signed the AMA forms. My wolf was silent, conserving her strength for the tiny spark of life growing inside me. I needed to tell Caleb about the pup. Maybe this would change things. Maybe he'd finally stop hiding us.
I caught a cab to Silver Moon Tower. The glass spire pierced the sky, a monument to the wealth my algorithms built.
I walked to the security gates, pressing my thumb against the scanner.
Access Denied.
The red light blinked. I frowned and tried again.
Access Denied. User Unknown.
My heart hammered against my ribs. I was the Chief Architect. I wrote the damn security protocols.
"Let me in," I told the guard, a young Beta named Leo.
Leo wouldn't meet my eyes. He shifted, the scent of anxiety rolling off him like sour milk. "I can't, Brooke. Alpha's orders. Your clearance has been pulled."
"Pulled? By who?"
"The new Director of Operations."
I didn't wait. I punched in my manual override-a backdoor I kept for catastrophic system failures-and the gate hissed open. Leo looked terrified, but he didn't stop me.
I stormed toward the elevator, exhaustion replaced by a cold dread. When the doors opened on the top floor, the scent hit me.
Cheap, cloying vanilla mixed with synthetic rose. It was trying too hard. And it was coming from my office.
I pushed the glass doors open.
Krystal Schroeder was sitting in my ergonomic chair, spinning my pen between her manicured fingers. She looked up, lips curling into a smirk that didn't reach her eyes.
"Back early," she said, her voice high and grating. "Thought the Healers would keep you overnight."
"Get out of my chair, Krystal."
"Your chair?" She laughed, standing up and smoothing down a dress that was two sizes too small. She puffed out her chest, releasing pheromones that smelled like desperation. "Caleb appointed me. He needs a real wolf for the Apex merger. Not a weak Omega who passes out looking at a monitor."
"Where is he?"
"Right here."
The voice came from behind me, deep and resonating. The Alpha Tone.
I turned. Caleb stood there in a suit I'd bought him. He looked magnificent, but his eyes-usually warm in private-were dead cold.
"Caleb," I breathed. "Why is my access revoked? Why is she in my office?"
He didn't reach for me. He stepped back, standing next to Krystal.
"Brooke," he said, flatly. "You're relieved of your duties. Go home."
"Go home? The presentation is in forty-eight hours! The Alpha Code isn't compiled. Only I can-"
"Krystal will handle it."
"Krystal?" I looked at her. "She failed high school algebra. She can't read the syntax, let alone compile a defense grid!"
"Watch your tone," Caleb growled. The air grew heavy. He was using the Command on me. My knees buckled. My wolf whined, forced to bow her head.
I clutched my stomach, fighting the gravity. "Caleb, please. We need to talk. Privately."
He looked at Krystal, then back at me. "Anything you have to say, you can say in front of the future Luna."
The words hung in the air like a guillotine blade.
Future Luna.
I looked at Krystal, beaming with triumph. Then at Caleb. He wasn't joking.
"But..." My voice broke. "I am your mate."
"You are an Omega," Caleb said, devoid of emotion. "A useful tool, Brooke. But Silver Moon needs a Luna who can produce strong heirs. Not a runt who can't even shift properly."
I felt the bond between us-that golden thread connecting our souls-turn necrotic. And on him, under his musk, I smelled it.
Vanilla and synthetic rose.
"You cheated on me," I whispered.
"I did what an Alpha must do. Now, leave. Before I have security drag you out."
I looked at the man I had loved since sixteen. The man I built an empire for. The father of the child inside me. And I saw a stranger.
"Fine," I said, fighting the crushing pressure of his Tone. "I'm leaving. But I'm taking the Alpha Code patent. It's in my name."
Caleb laughed, a cruel bark. "You're an Omega, Brooke. Without the Pack, you're nothing. You'll be a Rogue within a week. You'll come crawling back."
He turned his back. Krystal waved her fingers, mouthing 'Bye-bye.'
I walked out. I didn't cry. Not yet.
I made it to the street before the wind hit me. I was jobless. I was about to be homeless.
But I wasn't helpless.
I pulled out my phone, navigating to a contact hidden under a triple-layer firewall.
I dialed.
"Speak," a voice answered. Not a greeting. A command.
"Easton Jensen," I said.
A pause. "Brooke Myers. The brains behind Silver Moon. To what do I owe the pleasure? Finally realized your talent is wasted on that boy you call an Alpha?"
Easton Jensen. Alpha of Blood River. The boogeyman parents used to scare their pups.
"I have a proposition," I said. "I have the Alpha Code. And I want to watch Silver Moon burn."
"I'm listening," Easton purred.
I looked back at the tower one last time. "I'm coming to get everything they took from me. Starting with their future."
Chapter 1
Today at 18:49
Chapter 2
Today at 18:49
Chapter 3
Today at 18:49
Chapter 4
Today at 18:49
Chapter 5
Today at 18:49
Chapter 6
Today at 18:49
Chapter 7
Today at 18:49
Chapter 8
Today at 18:49
Chapter 9
Today at 18:49
Chapter 10
Today at 18:49
Other books by Lian Lian
More