The Billionaire Alpha's Wolfless Fated Mate

Annette POV:

"Where did you put the steel key to my desk?"

I pushed open the half-ajar bedroom door, the metallic taste of adrenaline flooding my tongue. The air inside smelled overwhelmingly of cheap synthetic vanilla-the exact scent my younger sister Karmen used to mask her low-grade Omega pheromones.

My gaze snapped to the bottom of the work table.

The heavy steel lock on my security drawer hung wide open. It was completely empty.

My heart plummeted straight into my stomach.

I rushed forward, my hands trembling as I tore through the empty metal slots. The blueprint folder for the Apex City Northern Commercial Sector was gone. Three months of sleepless nights, countless structural calculations, and the single contract meant to pay for my adoptive father's organ treatments had vanished.

Raucous laughter drifted up from the living room downstairs.

I turned on my heel and bolted down the wooden steps, my knuckles white against the handrail.

At the bottom of the stairs, my adoptive mother, Erlinda Glass, sat on the worn floral sofa. Her fingers were rapidly counting a thick stack of blue Pack territory gold vouchers.

"Where is my blueprint?" I demanded, my voice shaking with a fury so sharp it made my vision blur. "Erlinda, what did you do?"

Erlinda did not even bother looking up. She casually shoved the stack of currency vouchers into the pocket of her faded cardigan, her voice dripping with cold indifference.

"Your sister needed a deposit for her new suburban estate," Erlinda said, crossing her ankles. "Those scrap papers of yours were finally worth something. You should be grateful they fetched enough territory gold."

"Those weren't scrap papers!" Blood rushed to my ears, a high-pitched ringing drowning out the hum of the refrigerator. "That was the proprietary bidding design for Stone Architecture! Pack Law strictly forbids the private transfer of commercial blueprints! You just handed my entire career to the black market!"

The bathroom door swung open with a theatrical click.

Karmen strolled out, smoothing a thick collagen face mask over her high cheekbones. Her long, acrylic-tipped fingers rested against her collarbone as she looked me up and down with open contempt.

"Stop acting so righteous, Annette," Karmen scoffed, her sharp shoulder bumping hard against mine as she walked past. "You're just a broken Wolfless. You don't even have an inner wolf to shift with. Why should a defective cripple hoard the highest-tier design contracts in the city?"

My stomach twisted painfully. For twenty-three years, the entire Glass family had treated me like a genetic mistake because my inner wolf had never awakened. In our wolf-dominated society, being wolfless meant you were bottom-tier garbage, unable to feel the collective pack bond or defend your own territory.

"Who bought the file?" I stepped into Karmen's space, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "Give me the buyer's name. Right now."

Erlinda jumped to her feet, placing her bulky frame directly between me and her precious biological daughter.

"Watch your tone with your sister!" Erlinda sneered, pointing a calloused finger directly between my eyes. "Karmen is courting a high-ranking Alpha from the eastern district. She needs an estate that matches her upcoming status. You should be honored your useless drawings contributed to our family's elevation!"

The sheer absurdity of her words made bile rise in my throat. I turned toward the glass coffee table, reaching for my communicator to dial the local Pack enforcement bureau.

Before my fingers could touch the screen, Erlinda lunged forward and snatched the device. With a vicious flick of her wrist, she smashed it against the tiled floor.

The glass shattered on impact.

"You dare call the enforcers on your own blood?" Erlinda hissed, stepping on the shattered screen with her slipper. "Don't you ever forget who pulled you out of the cold streets when you were a stray pup that nobody wanted!"

A sharp shard of casing bounced off the floor and sliced through the skin near my ankle. A thin bead of red welled up, but I did not look down. I bit the inside of my lip until I tasted copper, refusing to let them see a single tear.

Karmen kicked the remaining debris toward the wall, extending her palm toward my face.

"Since Stone Architecture is going to fire you by sunrise anyway," Karmen said, her lips curving into a predatory grin, "hand over the deed to this apartment. I still need another fifty thousand gold coins to clear the closing costs on the estate."

I let out a harsh, disbelieving laugh. "You stole my life's work, and now you want the roof over my head?"

"This apartment was purchased with family funds!" Erlinda barked, stepping closer to loom over me. "You were merely the name on the title. Go to the safe and get the property deed right now!"

"I paid off every single cent of that down payment with my university design scholarships and four years of night shifts," I said, my voice turning icy. "You haven't contributed a single copper to this place."

Karmen immediately pulled a wounded face, her eyes welling with fake tears as she turned toward Erlinda. "Mom, look at her. I told you she was an ungrateful parasite."

The last shred of childhood sentimentality inside me snapped like dry kindling.

Without a word, I turned toward the foyer wall, snatching my trench coat, my spare purse, and the spare set of metal keys from the hook.

Erlinda spread her arms, blocking the front door. "You are not leaving this house until you sign that property over to Karmen!"

Something ancient and dormant deep within my marrow surged against my ribs. A wave of raw, pure pressure radiated off my skin. It wasn't the manic energy of a low-grade wolf-it felt vast, heavy, and completely unyielding.

Erlinda's eyes widened. Her knees visibly wobbled, and she stumbled back half a step, her shoulder blade hitting the wooden door frame with a soft thud.

"Out of my way," I said, my voice dead and quiet.

"You psycho!" Karmen shrieked from behind the sofa, clutching her chest. "Did you see that? She's dangerous! I'm telling the entire district you're an unstable monster!"

I ignored her screeching, reaching down to turn the cold brass door handle.

Before I could push it outward, the front door was shoved open from the outside. A blast of wet, freezing night air rushed into the hallway.

Julian Hayes stepped over the threshold, his damp wool coat smelling of expensive cologne. In his left hand, he held a luxury boutique gift bag-the exact designer brand Karmen had been begging for all month.

Julian was my boyfriend of three years. Or so I had thought until two seconds ago.

Julian froze when his eyes locked with mine. His face drained of color, and he instinctively jerked the gift bag behind his back, his eyes darting toward the floor.

"Annette..." Julian stammered, clearing his throat. "What are you doing standing in the doorway?"

Karmen immediately rushed past me, throwing her arms around Julian's neck and burying her face into his wet collar.

"Julian, thank goodness you're here!" Karmen sobbed, her voice trembling with manufactured terror. "She tried to attack Mom! She lost her mind because her work blueprints got rejected!"

Julian wrapped an arm around Karmen's waist, his fingers resting casually on her hip with an intimacy that made my skin crawl.

"Annette, you need to calm down," Julian said, trying to adopt a stern, protective tone as he looked at me. "Karmen is your sister. Family comes first. Whatever happened at your firm, you shouldn't take it out on her."

I looked at the two of them standing together.

The realization hit me not with a bang, but with the chilling finality of an execution. The missing blueprints, the sudden down payment for a luxury estate, the secret late-night calls Julian had been taking for weeks-it all snapped into place.

"A thief and a coward," I said, my voice steady, though my fingers were freezing cold. "You two truly deserve each other."

Julian's cheeks burned crimson. "Annette, don't be unreasonable! I was going to talk to you after the bidding-"

I slammed my shoulder into Julian's chest, knocking him sideways against the coat rack, and strode out into the torrential rain.

Behind me, Erlinda's venomous curses echoed down the stairwell, but I didn't look back. The freezing downpour struck my face like needles, washing away the smell of vanilla and leaving only the bitter cold of the storm.