Chapter 1
Chapter 1
When Aria Collins rushed to the healer den after hearing that her mate Alpha Lucas Thornwood had been attacked by rival wolves and was bleeding out, she immediately donated a full liter of blood for him.
His friends urged her to go home and rest, and she reluctantly agreed. But just as she reached the doorway, anxiety gripped her heart and pulled her back.
Turning around, she witnessed the pack healer dumping all five bags of blood–her blood–straight into the garbage bin!
At that moment, thunderous laughter erupted from a nearby room, so loud it could’ve shattered windows.
“Your Sweet Luna, Aria Collins fell for our bullshit again!” a voice howled. “What a fucking idiot!”
Aria froze, staring through the half–open door. Among the crowd, she immediately spotted him.
Lucas was lounging casually against the headboard, scrolling through his iPhone, barely paying attention to his friends. Though his face was partially blocked, she could still make out his chiseled jawline and perfect features-
He didn’t have a single scratch on him!
Aria blinked hard, convinced her distress was making her hallucinate.
“Guys, let’s count,” drawled one guy she recognized as Tyler, Lucas’s closed friend. “How many times have we screwed with her now?”
“The first time,” chimed in Blake, another alpha’s son from Lucas’s circle, “we told her Lucas lost the silver moon pendant he was supposedly getting her. She spent the entire night searching in a blizzard. Even with a 104–degree fever, the dumb bitch wouldn’t quit.”
“Remember the second time?” Derek, Lucas’s another friend, leaned forward eagerly. “We convinced her Lucas was in a coma after a territory fight. She spent all night at the sacred grove lighting candles and sobbing to the pack elders. Got blessed water and a moonstone. Lucas poured the water out casually and gifted the moonstone to Leila Blackwood the next day!”
“My personal favorite,” smirked Josh, “was when we framed her for challenging the lycan king’s
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Billionaire Alphas
Chapter 1
mate and nearly got her a rogue. The way she begged the pack council–pathetic! Still makes me laugh thinking about it.”
“This blood donation scam makes ninety–six.” Tyler calculated, checking something on his phone. “Just three more pranks, and our revenge tour wraps up. Not bad for four years of entertainment. Worth every minute, right, Lucas?”
Lucas barely looked up from his phone, his voice detached and bored. “Whatever. As long as I can finally reject her and banish her from the pack after we hit ninety–nine.”
“It’s what she deserves,” Blake insisted. “Remember how she beat Leila for that position as ceremonial dancer? Leila cried for days. Nobody messes with your beloved and gets away with it.”
“That’s why it’s been so perfect,” Derek added. “Pretending to accept her as your future Luna just to systematically destroy her? Pure genius, man. Too bad it’s almost over. We’ll need to find someone else to torture soon.”
A deafening ringing filled Aria’s ears, like a bomb had detonated inside her head.
Her chest constricted so violently she thought she might be having a heart attack. She clutched at her sternum, doubling over to gasp for air, her lungs burning as though filled with acid.
The words kept replaying in her mind like a nightmarish loop. Lucas was only mating with her for revenge. Four years of what she thought was love–just an elaborate scheme to break her.
He knew exactly how desperately she loved him…
Lucas Thornwood, the Alpha of The Thornwood Pack. With his predatory good looks, he could’ve stepped off a GQ billboard. “One look at Lucas Thornwood and you’re ruined for all other wolves“-that’s what everyone said.
And like a moth to flame, she’d fallen just like all the rest.
Since the day she found out he was her mate, she had chased him relentlessly for three years, sacrificing every shred of her dignity, while he remained coldly indifferent–until one day, when he miraculously accepted her as his mate.
She thought her persistence had finally melted his heart. Instead, it had all been a calculated game of destruction.
The truth crushed her: he’d initially rejected her because his heart belonged to someone else.
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Pill.
Chapter 1
He only agreed to accept her later because she had beaten Leila Blackwood in that crucial moon dance competition and made his precious beloved cry.
For revenge, he pretended to accept her, orchestrating ninety–nine humiliations to systematically destroy her soul piece by piece.
Aria’s tears streamed down uncontrollably, her throat constricting as if invisible hands were choking her,
She stared at the group laughing without restraint, at Lucas’s indifferent face, and suddenly felt hollowed out completely.
She had given him everything–her love, her trust, her very being–only for him to crush it all beneath his Italian leather shoes and toss it away like yesterday’s garbage.
Just then, Josh noticed movement at the door and glanced over.
Aria spun around and fled.
She walked faster and faster until she was sprinting down the pack compound corridors, past startled pack members and guards.
She had no destination–she just needed to escape this place, escape Lucas, escape the smoking ruins of her reality.
When her legs finally gave out in some distant corner of the pack garden, she collapsed onto a bench as tears flooded from her eyes like a broken dam.
She covered her face with trembling hands, her body convulsing with silent sobs that tore through her like physical pain. Each breath felt like inhaling shards of glass.
God, Aria, you pathetic, gullible fool.
After what seemed like hours, her mother’s gentle voice reached her through the mindlink.
“Aria, sweetheart, your father and I are finalizing our arrangements to move to the Northern Alpine Pack in the Northern Territory next week. The High Alpha Council has requested him to lead their howl choir before the next full moon ceremony. Are you absolutely certain you don’t want to join us? They has excellent moonlight dance instructors too.”
Her father, a celebrated historian of werewolf traditions, had received this prestigious appointment months ago. They had planned to relocate as a family, but Aria had delayed and made excuses
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Billionaire Alpha‘
Chapter 1
repeatedly, unable to bear leaving Lucas. She’d even considered staying with The Thornwood Pack permanently, transferring her allegiance just to be near him.
Now, the irony of it all cut deeper than any silver blade could.
“No,” she wiped away her tears with such force it hurt her skin. She took a deep, shuddering breath. Her voice emerged raw but unwavering, “Mom, Dad, I’m coming with you to the Northern Alpine Pack.”
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