I had known Ethan Blackwell for twenty years.
Tomorrow, I was supposed to marry him.
The wedding was set for the top-floor ballroom of the most expensive hotel in Manhattan, the kind of place where the chandeliers cost more than most people’s houses and the city glittered beneath you like it had been built just to witness your happily-ever-after.
After my mother died, the acting Alpha of Greyhaven Pack came from the capital to take my sister and me back to her territory.
One of us was to become a protected member of the pack, under her personal guardianship. The other would be her son’s intended mate.
My sister chose the first option before I could.
“Evelyn’s status is that high, and she’s picking a daughter-in-law from *us*?” Brielle had whispered. “Her son must have something seriously wrong with him. Maybe he’s sick, or he can’t even shift.”
The words had barely left her mouth when Nolan Hartley walked in.
My sister regretted her choice on the spot.
But that didn’t mean I’d won Nolan’s favor.
He hated his mother for arranging his future, and he was convinced I was just using the marriage to become Greyhaven Pack’s future Luna.
In his eyes, I was nowhere near as innocent or pure as my sister.
I spent three years trying to please him. All I ever got in return was his cold indifference.
In the end, I went to Evelyn myself.
She was silent for a long time before finally relenting.
“If you’ve made up your mind, then so be it. In two weeks, we’ll change the bride at the wedding to Brielle Jennings.”
Five years of marriage. Elara found a cardiac compatibility report in her husband Damian's study. Only then did she realize that Damian Montgomery - the youngest ltalian mafia don in history - had loved her and cherished her all these years for one sole purpose: to transplant her heart into the woman he truly loved, Vivian.
Damian coldly gripped her jaw. "Vivian's condition has worsened. The surgerv is set for one month from now Don't worry - I'I| find you the best burial plot, and I'I make sure your family is well provided for. You need to understand: if it weren't for your heart, you never could have become my wife, never could have become Mrs. Montgomery. You've enjoyed years of a lavish life. Now it's time to give something back."
Even the son she had raised with her own hands screamed at her: "Why won't you just die? If you die, your heart can go to Vivian! I want Vivian to be my mom!"
Elara fell apart. But she was not completely broken.
She slipped the divorce agreement into a stack of contracts that needed Damian's sianature. He didn't read closely. He signed. Now, she was free.
Elara accepted the offer - Top Jewelry Appraiser, a seven-figure annual salary. She gave herself one month to say goodbye to the five years she had lost. She withdrew from Damian's life and Caleb's life, little by little, until nothing of her remained
Until that night, when Damian watched helplessly as a bullet tore through her shoulder and she plunged into the freezing waters of the Atlantic.
"You've never touched her, You've never crossed that line. I know. But you married her anyway. Without divorcing me first."
Chapter 1
"You forgot," she said, like a confirmation.
Adrian's hand was still on Olivia's shoulder when he looked up, and the guilt surfaced on him like a bruise taking form. First the recognition, then the defensiveness, then that look, that particular look Sophia had spent ten years learning to hate.
The one that meant he was already putting together the explanation, already building the architecture of a reason.
She stood in the doorway of his corner office and let him look at her. The emerald dress, The heels, The fact that it was 9:17 PM and their reservation had been for seven.
Olivia Hart sat on the leather couch with her hands pressed to her chest, trembling in that precise, birdlike way she had, Her blonde hair was coming undone. Her eyes, when they noticed Sophia, filled immediately and thoroughly with tears.
Sophia looked at her. "What is it this time?"
"Sophia" Adrian started.
"I'm asking Olivia." She kept her voice even, courtroom calm. "The last time it was a nightmare. Before that, a panic attack. There was the week of the curtains, I remember that one particularly.
Marcus and Olivia had picked out curtains together six years ago, and she found the receipt and needed you to come over and help her feel less alone. You missed Ethan's first soccer game for that one." She paused. "What is it tonight?"
Olivia's breath hitched, a small, wounded sound. She made a movement as if to stand, a performance of leaving that never quite completed itself.
Adrian stepped between them.
That was the tell, It always had been. The way his body moved. automatically, instinctively, to position itself as her wall.
"That's enough," he said.
"Is it?"
"She's grieving. Marcus's anniversary is next week."
"Marcus's anniversary is always next week." Sophia walked into the office. She did not look at the dress in the reflection of his floor-to-ceiling windows. She did not look at the table she had booked three weeks ago, the reservation she had confirmed that morning, the text she had sent at noon that he had read and not answered. "I've been keeping a list, Adrian. Would you like to hear it?"
"Sophia, don't."
"Ethan's science fair. You missed it because Olivia needed furniture assembled." She kept her voice very quiet, very precise. "His parent-teacher conference. Her car wouldn't start and you had to drive her to a mechanic. His birthday last March, which one was that? I can't remember the reason anymore. I've run out of the ability to retain them."
"Those were emergencies. You know I would never…"
"Do you know what I told our son?" She stopped.
"I told him you were held up at work. Every time. Eight years old, and he already knows 'held up at work' is code. He told me last week that he knows you have a busy job and it's okay and he doesn't mind." She let that sit between them. "An eight-year-old has learned to preemptively comfort himself about his father's absence. I taught him that. Because the truth would have been worse."
Chapter 1
After I landed in this savage world, the king of the snake tribe took me in.
But then he found another human girl.
She ripped into raw meat with her teeth and called me delicate, called me fake.
Little by little, the Serpent King forgot all about feeding me. All his attention went to the new girl.
My vision swam from hunger, but then a scent drifted from outside—roasted meat.
Tears streamed down my face as I followed the smell. I found skewers of roasted meat and sobbed as I tore into them.
Then a net dropped out of nowhere and scooped me up.
A beastman shouted, “Boss! We got one!”
A fluffy little dog stared at me, tail spinning like a whirlwind
Wait. Wasn’t that my Buddy?
...
It had been three days since Eden brought me food.
I was so hungry I could barely stand.
A pile of raw meat sat on the table in my room.
I clutched my stomach as nausea rose in waves, but my nose twitched.
The scent of roasted meat was unmistakable, drifting in from outside.
Three days ago, Eden and I had held our engagement ceremony according to the tribe’s custom.
A human girl had stumbled into the proceedings.
The moment she saw Eden’s human torso and serpentine lower half, she threw herself at him, clinging tight.
She ran a hand down his snake tail, her voice booming.
“Oh my God, a snake-man! Your tail is incredible. So smooth… I’ve got to get a better feel of this.”
Eden, cold by nature and obsessed with cleanliness, was so disgusted he nearly had her dragged away and fed to the tribe.
I have a soft heart, so I talked him out of it. You don’t just eat people.
Only then did he hand the girl over to another snake-man.
But soon, whenever I tried to share something with Eden, his gaze would drift to her.
During my three-year secretive relationship with my boss, Zane Bender, we used 999 condoms.
Before Zane dated me, he'd go through 20 partners per month.
After he started dating me, he only bedded me and me only.
He promised me that he'd give me a surprise on my birthday.
I thought it was going to be a grand proposal. But the moment the clock struck 12, Zane called me.
""Cassidy, buy a pack of condoms and deliver it to the 31st floor of Mavelon Hotel right now. Remember, I want the extra thin ones.""
At that moment, I couldn't believe my ears.
Before I could react, Zane completely lost his patience. He urged, ""Stop standing around! Hurry up and get over here! Lily and I are in the mood right now!""
Lily Hubbard was the charming secretary who recently joined the company.
My complexion turned pale instantly. ""You're sleeping with her, Zane? Then… Then who am I to you?""
Zane fell silent for a while. Then, he let out a soft chuckle.
""You? You're just a bedwarmer who can help alleviate my urges. That's all.""
It turned out that the so-called surprise wasn't a proposal. It was just me fantasizing about a relationship that never existed in the first place.
The pink bubbles of love and romance finally popped on my 25th birthday.
After that, a car accident completely changed everything in my life.
When I meet Zane again, he realizes that he can no longer win back the heart of his ""pet"".
Chapter 1
Cassidy's POV
In that moment, all the color drained from my face. My eyes burned red as words failed me.
On the other end of the line, the amusement in the man's voice became unmistakable. He sounded like he was teasing his pet as he said, ""Did you think we were a couple who were madly in love or something?""
That mocking tone pushed me over the edge. I hung up without another word.
The room fell back into a deathly silence, the stillness so stifling I could hardly breathe. Then, my phone lit up again.
Zane Bender sent me a message. It was the location of a hotel.
I stared blankly at the address for a long time, feeling as if a piece of my heart had been ripped out.
That night, I didn't get a wink of sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, Zane's degrading remarks echoed in my mind.
I'd met him three years ago. He was the CEO of Cosmo Group, while I had been just an intern back then.
To be honest, it never even crossed my mind that I'd get into Cosmo Group, as it was one of the top companies in the industry.
Everyone there graduated from elite universities. With my average educational background, I'd practically exhausted myself just to secure that one and only job offer from the company.
At the time, I'd thought I was the luckiest person in the world, never imagining that something even better would come after I entered the company.
Chapter 1
My phone vibrated violently on the nightstand, as if it was trying to shake itself to pieces.
I fumbled for the alarm with my eyes still closed.
It wasn't the alarm.
It vibrated again.
I shoved it under my pillow.
The vibrations became muffled, but even more frantic.
It was 3:30 AM, and the blue light from the screen stabbed at my eyes. My notification bar had exploded—Instagram, Twitter, iMessage, all glowing with red numbers.
My heart started to pound. That familiar, sinking feeling of dread poured over me like ice water.
At the very top was a push notification from CNN.
#Hollywood Star Chase Sterling Announces Relationship Late Tuesday Night#
It was followed by a fire emoji.
Trending number one in the country.
I tapped on it.
Pinned to the top was Chase’s Instagram post from an hour ago.
The photo was cinematic: the Santa Monica Pier at night, the coastline lights blurred into a golden halo in the background. He was wearing a white t-shirt, smiling brilliantly, his arm wrapped around a girl in a white sundress. The girl was turned to the side, her blonde hair blowing against his neck in the sea breeze, her smile impossibly soft.
The caption was just one sentence:
Finally found my person. @SummerQuinn
I stared at the photo until my eyes burned.
Chase Sterling.
My husband.
Legally.
Our marriage certificate was locked in the bottom drawer of my nightstand, where it had been for nearly three years.
After seven years together, I called off my wedding to my fiancé, Jordan, two days before we were supposed to get married.
The wedding planner looked at me in shock.
“The wedding is less than 24 hours away. Aren’t you going to wait for the groom to come back before making the decision?”
I simply smiled and glanced at the venue I had spent three months setting up, my voice indifferent.
“Nah. He doesn’t have time for this. He’s busy getting married to his ex in Slandsdeca.”
Chapter 1
In our seven years of dating, Jordan Harding forbade me from accessing his computer.
For once during his business trip, he forgot to switch it off.
While tidying up his study, I caught a glimpse of the lit-up screen.
“Jordan, are you honestly planning a wedding with Molly in Slandsdeca?
“Sure, the marriage isn’t official, but shouldn’t you worry about Eve going mad when she finds out?
“It’s three days to your wedding with her here.
“Get a grip!”
Jordan’s best friend, Tom Bloomfield, confronted him on WhatsApp.
I gripped the desk for support, thinking I was in a dream for a moment.
Molly Powell was Jordan’s girlfriend back when he was eighteen.
They broke up soon after because of the long distance.
It had been eight years since then.
It didn’t make sense that Jordan would hold a wedding with her when ours was right around the corner.
Veins bulged on the back of my hands as I clutched the edge of the desk. I stared intently at the computer screen, eager to see Jordan’s response.
It didn’t take long for Jordan to respond.
“It’s happening. My mind has never been clearer.
“It’s a promise Molly and I made when we were eighteen. It’s the only thing she asked of me, and I must fulfil it.
“As for Eve…”
He stopped for what felt like forever.
“She won’t find out anyway. I’ll just pretend like none of this ever happened.”
I stared at the words in disbelief. It took a while before a wry smile broke across my face.
Too bad.
I had already found out.
"Your husband is having an affair with my wife."
The water in my mouth splashed out before I could stop it.
I stared at Dominic Ford across the table, certain I had heard him wrong. I had to have heard him wrong. Because what he just said was impossible.
Julian would never cheat on me.
"Mr. Ford." I set my glass down carefully, the way you do when your hands are shaking and you don't want anyone to notice. "Is this a joke? Because it's not funny."
"Do I look like I'm joking?"
He didn't. Dominic Ford never looked like anything except serious. But that didn't mean he was right.
"Julian loves me," I said firmly. "He would never do something like this."
"I know." His voice was quiet and tired. "I said the same thing about Sera three months ago."
Sera.
Just her name made my chest do something strange. Seraphine Ford. My best friend since forever. The woman who cried at my wedding. The woman who called me every single day and told me how lucky I was to have a man like Julian.
We were practically sisters.
"This isn't possible," I said again, but my voice came out smaller this time.
Dominic looked at me the way people look at someone they feel sorry for. I hated it.
"Did you never see the signs?" he asked.
"There were no signs."
"Six months, Celeste."
I flinched at the number. "No."
"Six months and you never once suspected anything?"
"I said no." I got to my feet, my chair scraping back loudly. "I trust my husband completely. Whatever you think you know, you're wrong."
"Sit down."
"I'm leaving."
"Sit. Down."
Something in his voice stopped me. Not loud. Not aggressive. Just absolute.
I sat down.
He leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. "Six months ago, did anything change between you and Julian?"
I opened my mouth to speak, but closed it.
Six months.
The memories came without permission. The way Sera had suddenly started visiting more. Two, three, four times a week, always when Julian was home. I had been so happy about it. I thought our friendship was growing deeper. I thought she just missed me.
And Julian. Still loving. Still perfect. Still sending flowers every morning and texting me love notes throughout the day and kissing me like I was something precious each time he walked through the door.
But our sex life.
Three months since he had last touched me. Three long months of 'I'm exhausted baby' and 'once this project is done, I'll make it up to you" and 'just one more year and we'll have everything we've ever wanted.'
I had believed every word.
Stop it. I shook the thoughts away. You're doing exactly what he wants you to do.
"Even if things changed between me and Julian," I said carefully, "that doesn't prove anything."
Dominic pulled out his phone without a word.
He turned the screen toward me.
Adrian Vale was the Don the whole city feared, and yet he spent three years chasing me, a girl who waited tables.
Then, the night before our wedding, my best friend Nina Ashford and I were taken at the same time.
With the cold muzzle of a gun against my forehead, I cried out, my voice shaking, “Let Nina go! She’s innocent!”
The kidnapper laughed like I’d told a joke. “Innocent? She’s worth a hell of a lot more than you.”
My whole body went rigid. The next second he leaned down to my ear, his smile pure malice.
“You really think Adrian’s marrying you because he loves you?”
“The day you tried on your wedding dress, he was fucking Nina on your bed.”
“And that black ring, the one that stands for the Don’s power? He put it on Nina’s finger a long time ago.”
I shook my head, over and over, refusing to believe it.
But the kidnapper had already stopped looking at me. He dialed Adrian’s number.
“Mr. Vale, you need to make a choice. Your bride, or Miss Ashford. Only one of them walks out of here alive.”
“Which one do you choose?”
In that instant, I forgot how to breathe.
On the other end, Adrian was quiet for only a few seconds. Then he said it, perfectly calm.
“Let Nina go.”
"On my ninety-ninth rebirth, I stopped fighting with the real heiress, Lily Hart.
I accepted every false accusation she threw at me and let my relationships with my two childhood friends fall apart.
I told myself it was fine. At least Wayne Fall was still on my side.
That lasted until Lily's birthday gala, when her gown suddenly slipped and nearly left her exposed in front of everyone.
Wayne pulled her into his arms and, for the first time, turned his anger on me.
""Do you even remember who you are? You're not a Hart by blood. What makes you think you can compete with Lily?""
What he didn't know was that every time I tried to expose Lily, everyone I cared about died in horrifying ways.
In the first life, my childhood friend, Adrian Cole, was crushed beneath a freight truck, his skull shattered.
In the second, my cousin, Ryan Hayes, fell from a skyscraper and was torn apart on impact.
In the third, my fiancé, Wayne, was trapped in a blazing fire and burned alive...
Adrian and Ryan threw me into the estate's artificial lake.
I couldn't swim.
Water flooded my lungs until tears streamed down my face, but no matter how desperately I begged for help, neither of them reacted.
By the time my consciousness finally faded away, someone dragged me out of the water.
Then I heard them talking.
""Looks like she's finally learned her lesson. At least you won't have to keep hypnotizing her anymore, Wayne. I was starting to worry all those pills would fry her brain.""
""There'll definitely be some cognitive damage... But we didn't have a choice. Lily's the Harts' real daughter. If she refused to give in, she'd end up being pushed out of the family sooner or later.""
So, the countless ""rebirths"" I'd experienced were nothing more than an illusion.
I'd simply been hypnotized.
But I never needed to cling to a place in the Hart family.
I had a family of my own too.
Chapter 1
When I woke up, Wayne Fall was sitting beside my bed.
The moment he noticed I was awake, he silently stood, walked to the table, poured a glass of water, and held it out to me.
When I looked up and met his concerned gaze, I almost believed he had become the Wayne who always stood by my side once again.
But the next second, he turned his hand over, revealing the familiar white pill resting in his palm.
My voice tightened with a trace of pleading.
""Can I... not take it?""
Wayne paused briefly, then brought the pill directly to my lips.
""Fiona, be good.""
The morning I buried my mother, Nathan Hale was three states away, knotted inside his mistress.
I knew because she livestreamed it to me.
Their moans played through my phone speaker while the priest read scripture over my mother's casket, the mating mark on my throat burning with every sound he made inside another woman.
That was the moment my wolf went silent. Not screaming. Not howling. Just... gone.
I walked out of the cemetery, drove straight to the Pack Council building, and filed for severance of the mating bond.
By the time Nathan finally rolled up to meet me — three hours late, reeking of her scent, lipstick still smudged on his collar — I had already drafted the terms.
He sat across from me with the lazy smirk of an Alpha who'd never been told no.
"Babe, you're really going through with this little tantrum?"
"The car. The house. Every cent in our joint accounts."
I didn't look up from the papers.
"And half the Riverrun Pack resources."
Nathan blinked, a flicker of surprise flashing in his Alpha eyes.
"The pups? You're just... rejecting both of them?"
"You claimed to cherish those pups. You're really going to abandon the future Alpha heir and his sister like this?"
My gaze dropped to my wrists, tracing the faint silver scars from years of self—harm—scars that even my wolf's healing couldn't fully erase.
A quiet shake of my head. Definitive. Final.
I didn't want them.
From now on? Only the resources mattered.
Anything tied to Nathan's scent or his bloodline? None of it. Not a thread.
He sensed the coldness in my aura.
Nathan's wolf seemed agitated, ready to growl, but he held it back.
He hesitated, just for a moment. Then, without a word, he signed the separation papers for the Pack Council.
As we parted, Nathan said, his voice polite but laced with that Alpha authority.
"The Pack resources aren't an option. But you'll always be the mother of my pups. If you ever find yourself in trouble with rogues or finances, just call me."
I nodded, keeping my neck bare in a mock display of submission.
But as I turned my back, the card Nathan had just pressed into my hand went straight into the nearest trash can.
Not in this lifetime.
Anyone has the free link?
Anyone has the free link?
Anyone has the free link?