The IVF Mistake That Fated Me to an Alpha

When Alpha Logan Vale heard Isla's bold request, his first reaction wasn't anger. It was disappointment.

He stood beside the windows of his private office, looking down at the afternoon traffic threading through the rain. A few hours ago, Isla Spencer had accused him of trying to rent her body. Now she wanted the Vale name.

"Five million dollars wasn't enough," he said, "so you decided to ask for something more valuable?"

Silence stretched across the line.

When Isla answered, her voice was cold. "I'm asking for a contract, not your affection."

That was not the embarrassed retreat he had expected.

"I believed I was having a child with the mate I intended to marry," she continued. "I won't hide your baby from you, but I won't spend the pregnancy living in a house you provide, give birth, and wait for someone to tell me my part is over."

Logan remembered her standing in the examination room. She had been exhausted, furious, and unafraid to tell the most powerful Alpha in the territory that he had no idea what he was talking about.

"What kind of marriage are you proposing?" he asked.

"One year. We live together long enough to get through the pregnancy and the first months after the baby is born. After that, if we both want a divorce, I'll sign the papers."

"And what do you expect to receive?"

"Shared custody. Control over my own medical decisions. A separate bedroom, no physical obligations, and no mating mark. I have no intention of trapping either of us in a marriage that pretends to be something it isn't."

Logan's wolf pushed against him at the last condition, displeased by the idea of the mother of their pup sleeping beyond their reach.

He ignored it. "My company and pack assets remain separate."

"I don't want your company."

"You would say that before signing."

"I'll say it in writing."

He moved away from the window. The sharp edge of his disappointment had begun to dull, replaced by interest despite himself.

The first Vale pup to survive beyond implantation in years was growing inside her. Logan had watched every previous attempt end before it truly began, and the healers had long since stopped promising that the next one would be different.

Now his child existed. His wolf had recognized the pup through the air and city traffic, and it had not stopped demanding that Logan bring them both somewhere safe.

He could refuse Isla's condition and risk losing the child, or he could surrender one year to a marriage neither of them intended to make real.

"One year," he said at last. "You have a deal."

Her breath caught quietly enough that another man might have missed it.

"Where are you?" Logan asked.

"Still at the hospital."

"A car will be outside in fifteen minutes."

"I can take a cab."

""You're pregnant, anemic, and you've been through enough today. You're not taking a cab."

He ended the call before she could argue.

His attorney was already waiting outside the office. Logan opened the door and said, "Prepare a one-year prenuptial agreement and contact a licensed registrar."

The man blinked. "For whom?"

"For me."

*

The Vale car arrived in thirteen minutes.

By the time Isla reached the private entrance of Vale Tower, she had read Logan's name on the card in her hand so many times that the letters no longer looked real.

A security officer opened the door before she touched it, and another escorted her to an elevator without buttons. He placed his palm against a dark glass panel, which glowed once before carrying them upward.

The city vanished beneath her.

Logan's residence occupied the upper floors of the tower, although residence seemed too ordinary a word for a place with its own elevator, silent staff, and windows tall enough to turn the skyline into wall art. There were no gilded ceilings or crystal statues, only pale stone, dark wood, and the quiet efficiency of a home where everything had been chosen without checking the price.

A tray waited on the dining table with soup, bread, sliced fruit, and iron supplements.

"The doctor sent dietary instructions," Logan said from the doorway.

He had removed his coat and rolled his shirtsleeves to his elbows. The change should have made him appear less imposing. It did not.

"Finish your meal first. We can discuss the contract after that."

Isla considered refusing on principle, but her stomach chose that moment to growl loudly enough for both of them to hear.

Logan glanced at the untouched soup. "Sit."

"You could try saying please."

"Would it change the outcome?"

Probably not. Isla pulled out the chair and sat down.

When Isla finally entered the study, three people were waiting: two attorneys and a gray-haired woman carrying an official case. A marriage contract lay on the desk.

Isla approached it but did not sit. "I want to read every page."

"I expected you to."

For the next forty minutes, she read while Logan remained across from her. The agreement had been carefully drafted. What did surprise her was the first draft of the custody section.

"Primary custody to Logan Vale," she read aloud.

His attorney shifted in his chair. "That language was prepared before Mr. Vale explained your conditions."

Isla took the pen and drew a line through it.

"Shared legal and physical custody," she said. "Neither parent takes the child out of the territory without the other's written agreement."

Logan watched her amend the clause. "You intend to stay involved."

"I intend to be the baby's mother. I've been clear about that."

His gaze rested on her for a moment before he turned to the attorney. "Make the change."

She added protection for her medical decisions and the right to continue working. When she reached the financial section, Logan asked, "Nothing for yourself?"

"I need somewhere to live, prenatal care, and the freedom to keep my job. I'm not marrying your bank account."

A trace of something almost like amusement touched his mouth. "No. You're only marrying me."

"I'm trying not to dwell on that part."

After the attorneys revised the document, Isla read it once more and signed. Logan added his name beneath hers without hesitation.

The gray-haired woman opened her case and removed several official forms.

The ceremony took less than five minutes.

There were no flowers, no family, and no dress waiting upstairs. Isla stood in the same clothes she had worn when security removed her from Blackthorn that morning, while two attorneys witnessed her marry a man she had not known existed until a few hours ago.

The registrar submitted the marriage electronically, stamped a certified copy, and handed it to Isla.

"Congratulations, Mrs. Vale."

Isla looked over her shoulder before realizing the woman meant her.

Logan noticed. He seemed to notice everything.

"I need to go to the Spencer house," she said, slipping the document into her folder. "My laptop, identification papers, and some of my mother's things are still there."

Before Logan could answer, his phone rang. He listened for less than a minute, his expression hardening.

"A patrol was attacked near Silvercrest's northern boundary," he said after ending the call. "I have to go."

"I can manage a trip to my father's house. I'm going to collecte clothes."

"You're not going alone. You're carrying my pup."

He arranged for his driver and two guards to accompany her, ignoring her objection that arriving with a security detail would attract attention.

"Take what matters," he told her. "The driver will bring you back here."

It was the first time anyone had spoken as if her return were already expected.

Isla didn't know what to do with the feeling.

*

The Spencer house looked respectable from the street, with trimmed hedges and fresh white paint hiding everything unpleasant behind its front door.

Isla asked the guards to wait in the car. She wanted to collect her belongings quietly, but Hilda's voice reached her before she could put her key in the lock.

"She rejected him right after he woke up," Hilda announced from the living room. "Coel could barely sit up, and she made the whole day about herself."

"That ungrateful girl has humiliated this family for the last time," Cassian said.

"We can still repair the damage," Melinda replied. "Hilda has smoothed things over with Coel."

"Of course I have," Hilda said sweetly.

A chair scraped across the floor.

"Then Isla will accept Reid's offer," Cassian decided. "He's wanted an unmarked Omega for years."

Melinda lowered her voice. "You've heard what happened to his last companion."

"Not my concern. Isla has eaten my food and lived under my roof long enough. It's time she became useful."

"What if she refuses?" Hilda asked.

"She won't have a choice."

Isla opened the door.

Three faces turned toward her as she entered the living room.

"You should have asked me," she said, "before arranging my next engagement."

Cassian rose. "You will go back to Coel and apologize. If he won't take you, you'll marry Reid."

"No."

His face darkened. "You are an unmarked Omega living under my roof. You'll marry whoever I choose."

"You're too late."

Hilda laughed. "What did you do, find another Alpha between the hospital and here?"

Isla removed the certified document from her folder and placed it on the coffee table. With two fingers, she pushed it toward her father until the silver Vale seal caught the light.

Cassian stared down at it.

"What is this?"

Isla met his eyes.

"You can't marry me off," she said. "I'm already married."