Bu Chuang

I spent three years secretly healing my paralyzed Alpha husband, finally helping him walk again. But when a bridge snapped and plunged me and my fake sister into a toxic, silver-laced lake, he swam right past me. He pulled her to safety and left me sinking in the burning water. When the patrol finally dragged my half-dead body to the shore, he didn't even ask about my severe burns. Instead, he looked at me with cool irritation and called me a petulant child. "Selena is a weak Beta. She cannot handle the silver water. You are my mate, you should be stronger." He even used his power to steal my career endorsements and gave them to her as compensation. I looked at the man whose crippled legs I had massaged every night with my hidden power. He didn't know I was the one who saved his life, and he clearly didn't care if I lost mine. My three years of quiet devotion were nothing but a pathetic joke to him. With a dead heart, I walked into his office and threw the official rejection scroll onto his desk. "I, Serena, reject you, Hunter, as my mate." Ignoring his sudden, agonizing panic as our bond shattered, I booked a one-way ticket to Europe. This time, I was going to live for myself.

At eight months pregnant, I was locked inside the sweltering glass sunroom of my own estate. My husband's "sweet" adopted sister, Sophie, stood in the cool air on the other side, sipping ice water as she watched the midday sun bake me alive. When I shattered the glass to escape, my husband—a ruthless syndicate boss—finally returned. Sophie immediately dropped to the floor, faking tears and claiming I had gone mad and attacked her. Without a word of concern for my bleeding feet or my frantic pleas for a doctor, Dominic dragged me down to a windowless basement cell. "She needs to sweat this fever out of her." He turned the heat up to a scorching roar and locked the heavy iron door. In that dark, roasting oven, I cramped and bled out on the concrete floor. I lost my baby, and my body was so traumatized I could never carry a child again. Lying in a pool of my own blood, the truth finally pierced through my blind gratitude. Dominic had staged the accident that brought us together just to infiltrate my family. He never loved me; he only wanted to steal my empire and replace me with his mistress once he thought my protective older brother was dead. With the last of my strength, I dipped my fingers into my blood and wrote "Vengeance" on the steel wall. Just then, an explosion shook the foundation, and the door was blown off its hinges. My brother, very much alive, stepped through the smoke.

He married her as a contract, a duty, a cold transaction that lasted three years. She loved him so much that she sold herself to him—just to save her mother's life. He called her a “commodity,” said she was “tainted,” pinned her down in the back of his car while whispering another woman's name—Britt. Then she finally gave up. She placed the divorce papers in front of him and said quietly, “Francisco, let's end this.” For the first time, he panicked. The man who never really looked at her began spending entire nights outside her hospital room, his hands trembling as he reached for her—then pulled back. He searched for her like a madman, begging with bloodshot eyes: “Evelyn… just give me one more chance…” But she gently removed his hand, her voice softer than the wind: “Francisco, you lost my heart a long time ago.”

For six years, I guarded my fiancé's empty grave through blizzards and thunderstorms, surviving multiple suicide attempts because the guilt of his fatal car crash was eating me alive. Until an anonymous message led me to a luxury penthouse, where I found him perfectly healthy, his arms wrapped around his former secretary's pregnant belly. He had faked his own death to escape his mafia blood oath, keep the dirty money, and dump me. When I confronted him, he violently shoved me into a stone fireplace, leaving me bleeding out on the marble floor. "If anything happens to my new family, I will enact a Vendetta on you that will make the last six years look like a joke." To protect his pristine facade, he threatened to cancel my dying adoptive mother's heart transplant unless I publicly confessed to being a delusional stalker. I complied, but his mistress still snuck into the ICU, verbally abused my mother, and bribed the organ broker to back out. My mother flatlined right in front of me. I didn't understand how the man I had mourned for over two thousand days could watch me freeze in the snow for a box of dirt, only to coldly orchestrate the murder of my only family. Holding my mother's ashes, I scheduled a video exposing his dirty money, and jumped off the cross-river bridge. But I didn't die. When I opened my eyes, the city's most lethal Mafia Don was standing by my bed, offering me a gun and a throne built from their ashes.

Alida caught her boyfriend in bed with another woman, only to discover a frat house contract on his nightstand. Her love and submission had been nothing but a fifty-thousand-dollar bet. She extorted the check from him to pay for her dying father's surgery, then went to a club to drink away the brutal betrayal. But her malicious stepsister secretly drugged her drink, planning to sell her to an underground thug to pay off a debt. Burning from the chemical mix and running on pure terror, Alida escaped into a VIP hallway and crashed straight into a wall of solid muscle. Desperate and out of her mind, she slapped the fifty-thousand-dollar check against the handsome stranger's chest. "I'm buying you for the night." She had no idea the man she just bought was Jax Vaughn, the ruthless, untouchable billionaire tyrant of Wall Street. The next morning, Alida fled the penthouse, leaving behind a single crumpled hundred-dollar bill and a humiliating note. "Service fee. Average skills. Like an uncivilized beast." Seven years later, Alida returned to New York, holding the hand of her genius seven-year-old son who possessed the exact same pitch-black eyes as the billionaire. She thought her past was buried forever, safely hidden away from the monster she had insulted. But her father's mounting medical bills forced her to accept a high-paying executive interview at Vaughn Enterprises. In the middle of the grand lobby, she stepped right into a familiar, terrifying chest. Jax Vaughn's iron grip locked onto her wrist, recognizing her scent instantly, his eyes burning with seven years of obsessive, murderous rage. "You."

For three years, Alyson endured a suffocating marriage, while her biological family treated her like a stray dog compared to her sister, Chelsea. She thought her husband Kenton would at least show her basic human decency. But during a horrific car crash in a freezing storm, Kenton used his own body to shield Chelsea. Meanwhile, a massive, out-of-control truck slammed into Alyson, throwing her broken body into a muddy ditch. With shattered ribs and blood blurring her vision, she reached out a trembling hand to him for help. Kenton just stared at her coldly through the rain. "Stop faking it. It's just a scrape." Without another glance, he wrapped his arm around the completely uninjured Chelsea and drove away, leaving Alyson to bleed out in the mud. Hours later, after being saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, her phone rang. It was Kenton, furiously demanding she bring Chelsea's anxiety medication to the hospital. He didn't even care to ask where she was, let alone realize she was severely injured. Alyson couldn't understand how the man she loved could be so blindly cruel, or why her own parents constantly orchestrated her destruction. The pathetic hope she had clung to for three years finally shattered into dust. She dragged her battered body back to their penthouse, hiding a divorce settlement inside a stack of tedious charity documents. When Kenton arrogantly signed his name without reading a single line, Alyson turned her back on the toxic family for good.

My wedding to Ethan Reed was just weeks away. After seven years, I was certain of our perfect future. Then, Ethan claimed "selective amnesia" from a head injury, forgetting only me. I tried to make him remember, until I overheard his video call. "Total genius move," he boasted to friends. His amnesia was a fake "hall pass" to pursue influencer Chloe Vance before our wedding. Heartbroken, I feigned belief. I endured his open flirting with Chloe and their taunting selfies. He mocked my distress, prioritizing Chloe's fake emergency. After an accident he caused, he abandoned me, injured, choosing to send Chloe to the hospital first. He even tried to cut me off financially. How could my fiancé be this cruel, calculating monster? His betrayal poisoned every memory. I felt like a fool for trusting such boundless cruelty. His audacity left me reeling. But I wouldn’t be his victim. Instead of breaking, a cold plan formed. I would shed my identity, become Olivia Carter. I would disappear, leaving him, my past, and his engagement ring behind forever, claiming my freedom.

On our wedding anniversary, I came home to find my husband, Jace, celebrating with another woman in our living room. She was wearing my mother's necklace-the only thing recovered from the explosion that killed my parents. Jace laughed, calling it a "cheap piece of junk," and tried to write me a check to buy a new one. His family called my parents' ashes "garbage" and "unsanitary." When I confronted them, Jace sided with his mother, ordering me out of the penthouse I secretly owned. He let his friends publicly humiliate me, calling me a gold-digging leech with no background. But that wasn't the worst of it. When a gunman stormed the restaurant we were in, Jace shoved me directly into the line of fire to shield his mistress. The shotgun blast tore through my arm. As I lay bleeding on the marble floor, I stared at the man who had just used me as a human shield, his face pale with terror as he protected her. In that instant, every ounce of love I ever had for him died. The pain in my arm was nothing compared to the cold, hollow void that consumed my heart. He thought he was sacrificing a quiet, useless wife to secure his future. He had no idea he had just declared war on Captain Cilla Henson, West Point valedictorian and the most lethal operator of the Eagle Task Force.

My fiancé, Garrison, told me his family would love me. He said I was perfect. But at our engagement dinner, I overheard their real plan: to harvest my kidney for his sick sister, Corliss, and then discard me. They framed me for pushing Corliss, causing her to have a "stress-induced episode." Garrison, believing their lies, had me thrown into a brutal "behavioral correction facility." When he finally came for me, it wasn't to save me. It was to show off his new woman, my old rival, Katia. He humiliated me at a party, forcing me to wear the same dress as her, then accused me of sabotaging a chandelier that nearly killed them-a chandelier I had actually pushed him away from. In the hospital, broken and bruised from a car crash Katia orchestrated, Garrison showed me faked evidence of my "crimes." He called me an empty void, a monster, and told me he was done with me. He believed I was a jealous viper trying to destroy his family. He never saw that they were the ones who had systematically destroyed me. Lying in that hospital bed, alone and in agony, I finally understood. The man I loved was a stranger, and his family were my tormentors. As he walked out of my life for good, a cold peace settled over me. I was finally free. And I would never look back.

The smell of grilled meat and Olivia' s expensive perfume filled the backyard. We were hosting a perfect summer barbecue, or so it seemed. I was the guy flipping burgers, the stay-at-home dad, while my wife, Olivia, laughed a bright, theatrical laugh, her hand resting on my cousin Liam' s arm-the one who got away in college. My twins, Max and Chloe, looked up at Liam with wide, adoring eyes, asking him to do magic tricks and cut their food, preferring their "Uncle Liam" over me, their own father. Olivia, too, openly favored Liam, remembering his steak preference while dismissing me with cold precision: "Ethan, the trash is overflowing. And did you forget to buy more ketchup?" Each laugh, each dismissal, felt like a confirmation: I wasn' t their father or husband. I was just a convenience, my expiration date rapidly approaching. A week later, while fixing the AC-because calling a professional was too expensive on my non-existent income-I fell off a ladder, breaking my arm. Olivia' s first reaction? Not concern, but irritation. "Are you serious? Today? I' m about to close a seven-figure deal, Ethan. Is it really that bad?" At the hospital, my kids barely noticed my bright white cast. Max' s only question was, "Is Uncle Liam coming over for dinner?" That was it. The clarity cut through the pain. My wife, my children-they didn' t care. My pain was an annoyance; my presence, a service. I looked at my angry wife, at the backs of my children' s heads. I was completely alone, a disposable tool. That night, I looked at our wedding photo, two smiling strangers. I made a decision. Quiet, solid, absolute. I was done. "I want a divorce," I told Olivia. She closed her laptop, her face shifting from annoyance to clinical curiosity. "Don' t be ridiculous. We don' t have time for a divorce." Then Max and Chloe walked in. "A divorce?" Max said, his eyes calculating. "Does that mean we can go live with Uncle Liam?" Chloe brightened. "Yeah! Can Uncle Liam be our new dad? He' s more fun." Their words, fueled by Olivia' s cultivation, hit harder than any fall. My children, my own flesh and blood, wanted my replacement. Olivia, seeing my pain, delivered the final cut. "This is your own fault, Ethan. You let yourself go. The kids want a father they can look up to." A cold rage burned through me. I pulled out the divorce papers, already signed, that I' d secretly prepared. Olivia snatched and shredded them. "No one is divorcing me. You work for me, Ethan. You don' t get to quit." The children watched, not scared, but as if it were a power play, knowing whose side they were on. A chilling emptiness settled over me. I walked away, locked myself in the guest room, the click of the lock the first taste of freedom in a decade.

The scent of lilies and hairspray usually meant joy, but for me, Abigail Turner, on what was supposed to be my wedding day, it was a suffocating prelude to disaster. I stood in my bridal gown, gazing into an ornate mirror, my heart a storm. Then Brandon Hayes, my fiancé, walked in, his eyes cold and distant. He took his mother' s diamond necklace, an heirloom he' d given me, straight from my neck. "I need that back," he said, his voice flat. Before I could process the shock, my cousin, Seraphina Vance, appeared, clutching an overnight bag, her eyes red-rimmed. Without a word, Brandon fastened the necklace around her neck. My future, my life, was now hers. "I can' t marry you, Abby," Brandon declared, his voice devoid of emotion. "The wedding is canceled." Then, he looked at Seraphina, his voice softening. "I' m marrying Seraphina. Today." Just like that, my own cousin, who should have been my bridesmaid, was taking my place. "Why?" I managed to choke out. Brandon sighed, as if burdened by immense self-pity. "It' s for the good of the family. There' s a curse, Abby. A psychic told Seraphina' s mother. If I don' t marry her, something terrible will happen." Seraphina sniffled, burying her face in his chest. "I' m so sorry, Abby. I didn' t want this." He held her tight, then looked back at me, his eyes filled with a bizarre pity. "It' s just for a few years, Abby. Once the danger from the curse has passed, I' ll divorce her. Just wait for me. You' ll always be the one I love." The absurdity of his words was staggering. He wanted me to wait. My family rushed in, drawn by the commotion. My mother' s face paled at the scene: me in my dress, Brandon holding Seraphina, the necklace on the wrong neck. Everyone expected tears, screams, pleas. But a strange calm washed over me. The heartbreak was a cold, hard stone in my chest, but my mind was clear. I looked at Brandon, the man I thought I would spend my life with, and saw a stranger-a weak, arrogant man easily manipulated by my jealous cousin. I turned to my father, my voice steady and firm. "Dad, do you remember the arrangement with the Beaumont family in Europe?" His eyes widened in shock. "Abby, you don' t mean…" "I do," I said. "Call them. Tell them I accept." Silence fell over the room. My life as Abigail "Abby" Turner ended in that moment. The next day, I was on a plane to Europe. Five years later, the world knows me as Ava Beaumont. I am a respected art curator, happily married, and six months pregnant. I am back in the United States for the first time in five years, for my husband William' s grandfather' s ninetieth birthday. And I am a completely different woman.

The anesthesia was a thick fog, but the voices cut through it. "Is she going to be okay?" That was Mark, my boyfriend, a rising musician. "She' ll be fine. She gave you a kidney, Mark, she can handle a little post-op pain." That was Jessica, his new manager. My blood ran cold. A kidney. I' d donated a kidney to save his life, worked three jobs, sold my art, used family connections, all for his dream. Then the words that shattered my world. "She was a good stepping stone, Mark. She got you where you needed to be. But you can' t have a sick, tired artist clinging to you when you' re about to become a star. You need… Jessica' s Lullaby." Jessica's Lullaby. Our lullaby, a deeply personal melody from my childhood that I rewrote just for him. He had given her our song. He didn't just take my kidney, he stole my art, my trust, everything. Even when he came back to the hospital, publicly proposing with cheap roses and a camera crew, it was a sham. Jessica staged an illness, and he abandoned me, rushed to her side, his devotion clear for all to see. The man I loved had betrayed me, not just by stealing my art, but by commodifying my sacrifice, casting me aside as a mere stepping stone. My heart was a hollowed-out cavity. But in that emptiness, a cold, hard rage began to burn. He thought I was just a stepping stone. He was about to find out how wrong he was. I reached for my phone, scrolling for David, the head of a rival record label. "David," I said, my voice raspy but firm. "It' s Sarah. I have a proposition for you."

Five years. That' s how long Sarah Miller believed she' d built a real family and found true love with billionaire Ethan Vanderbilt, the man she married through a mysterious deal that saved her life. Their son, Noah, was turning five. At his birthday party, Noah, coached by Ethan, blew out his candles and wished: "I want Daddy and Mommy to divorce so Aunt Olivia can be my new mom!" Ethan' s cold, approving smile was a dagger, shattering my heart. He served divorce papers, calling me a mere "placeholder" for his recovery. Publicly shamed, disowned by my parents, and rejected by my son for his new "Auntie Olivia," every sacrifice was dismissed. My rare Larsen' s Syndrome, previously suppressed, ravaged my body, mirroring my shattered life. Was every tender moment a calculated performance? The man I nursed back to health, my child's father, utterly discarded me. Abandoned and utterly broken, I wrestled with this profound betrayal. With nothing left, I activated The Guide' s "exit clause," staging my dramatic public demise. I plunged into a new reality as Ava Monroe, a famous Hollywood actress, determined to finally find genuine love. But a ghost from my past, Ethan, followed, poised to conquer me again, threatening my new beginning.

My daughter Emily, just seventeen, had a heart of gold. She wanted to change the world, much like her father, James, a Medal of Honor recipient who died serving his country. Emily was kind and brave, even standing up to Kevin Jennings, the mayor’s son, when he bullied a disabled classmate online. Then, one cold night, Emily was gone. The doctor’s words were flat: "Severe internal injuries. Hypothermia." The police officer’s words were a punch: Kevin Jennings claimed Emily attacked him, and he’d acted in self-defense. They found my sweet girl beaten and left in the freezing rain. The powerful Jennings family immediately offered hush money, threatening to smear Emily’s name if I didn't comply. The media, in their pocket, painted Emily as "aggressive," while online, I became a "gold digger" facing vicious attacks. When I tried to protest, Kevin Jennings himself publicly *stepped* on James’s Medal of Honor, disgracing everything sacred to me. The system closed ranks, branding Emily’s death "mutual combat." But I knew the truth. Emily’s journal revealed she was trying to reason with a monster. This wasn't self-defense; it was murder, a brutal cover-up by the powerful. How could they erase my daughter’s memory, twisting her kindness and trampling on her hero father’s legacy? Broken and alone, I remembered a sacred promise James’s commander, Colonel McGregor, had made: "His family is our family." Hundreds of miles away, he was my last, desperate hope. I packed my bags, clutched James’s Medal, and drove out of that corrupt city. The Jennings family *would* pay. This fight wasn't over. It had only just begun.

Brian, a notorious playboy, was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His father wanted him to help the family by joining the company, but he preferred to enter the world of entertainment. Rachel, an orphan, learned the skill of theft from the master who adopted her. She was a talented thief who used her skills only to help other orphans. Fate brought Brian and Rachel together. She became his assistant and also stole his heart.

Accidentally murdered the bride? Check. Forced to marry the cursed Alpha who's lost six wives? Check. Now wearing her dress, dragged to his bed, while the pack waits outside for proof he's fucked me raw? Double check. Remi was just trying to catch her cheating boyfriend in the act. Instead, she tripped, ripped lace, and cracked a skull. Now Alpha Nero Blackwater owns her. "Bride for bride," he growls. "You owe me a wedding... and a womb." The curse kills his mates before dawn. Unless he plants an heir fast. But something's wrong. What if there was never a curse at all? One night to survive. One claiming to break everything. One Alpha who'll fuck her senseless... even if it's the last thing she feels.

I was the wolfless disgrace of the pack, traded like cattle to a dying monster. When a royal decree stripped away my engagement, my own father gave my fiancé to my cruel sister, Charly. My punishment for being born without a wolf? A forced marriage to Demetri Contreras—the crippled, disgraced Alpha left to rot from silver poison. They threw me into a frozen, forgotten estate, waiting for my new husband to die so I could be buried as a silent widow. Charly laughed as she stole my life, my mate, and my future. My family discarded me, just like they murdered my mother years ago. They thought this exile would break me. They thought I was a helpless pawn. They didn't know that inside this fragile body lived the soul of the top interstellar miracle surgeon. Looking at the ruined, festering Alpha bleeding on my wedding bed, I didn't see a corpse. I saw the deadliest weapon in the realm. The fallen Alpha needs a miracle to survive. Lucky for him, I am the miracle. I will drag this monster back from the gates of hell—and together, we will burn my enemies to ash.

I was waiting at the Registry Hall to formalize my mate bond with Gabe, my childhood sweetheart and the Alpha of our pack. He was thirty-two minutes late. When I finally found him in a private VIP lounge, his hands were buried in my cousin's hair, their lips locked together. Hailee was supposed to be my maid of honor. Instead of apologizing, Gabe looked me dead in the eye and used his Alpha authority to publicly reject me. The severing of our ten-year bond tore my soul apart, but the nightmare didn't stop there. My grandfather immediately called, demanding I clean up a mess Hailee had made. When I refused, he disowned me on the spot, froze every single one of my bank accounts, and stripped me of my family name. Within hours, my entire pack erased my existence, gleefully announcing Hailee as their new Luna. I had given my entire life to a family and a man who discarded me like worthless trash the second I became inconvenient. I was left broken, humiliated, and utterly penniless in the blink of an eye. But as I stumbled out of that sterile hall, a terrifyingly beautiful stranger stepped out of the shadows, radiating a primal power that made my knees weak. He was Caden Sinclair, the ruthless Lycan King, and he was dodging a forced political union of his own. "You need a shield. I need a wife. Marry me." Without hesitation, I signed the Eternal Vow.

I was three months pregnant when the car hit me. Lying there, barely hanging on, I called my husband-Alpha Ethan-over and over. No answer. When I finally woke up from the pain, I saw a post from his first love, Ivy. "Thank you, Alpha, for knowing how scared I am of the dark and staying with me all night. He even cleared his whole schedule today to take me to the auction, just to give me the best gift in the world. I'm so happy!" Right then, it hit me. While I was fighting to protect our child, he was with another she-wolf. I calmly liked her post and put my phone away. Since he chose his first love, I chose to let go. Seven days from now, I'd leave his world for good-with our child.

Emilia Taylor was the most unwanted daughter of the Frostridge Pack. She had no wolf, no status, and no one who truly loved her. After failing to awaken at the age of twenty-two, she was betrayed by her lover, abandoned by her family, and finally sent by her father to the Silver Moon Pack-to become Sebastian Simons' seventh bride. Sebastian was the Alpha everyone feared. Rumor had it that none of his first six wives had met a good end, and every woman who married him eventually became another name on the list of the dead. Everyone was waiting for Emilia to die. But they did not know that her failed awakening had not left her with nothing. Instead, she had gained the ability to read minds. She could hear the malice and lies hidden behind every smile. Everyone's thoughts were open to her. Except Sebastian's. She could not hear his mind, nor could she see through his secrets. When a wolfless girl abandoned by everyone meets a cold-blooded Alpha haunted by the mystery of six dead wives, will she become his next victim-or the only one who can break the curse?

After four years of playing the perfect girlfriend, my wealthy boyfriend publicly humiliated me for a rich heiress. He sneered that I was just a poor Omega who couldn't survive without his money. "You're not going anywhere without my permission." I didn't cry or beg. I simply packed my single suitcase, blocked his number, and walked out into the night to reclaim my life. That same evening, I ended up saving a dangerously handsome stranger bleeding out in a dive bar restroom. I thought I had finally escaped that toxic world to focus on my career as a top heart surgeon. But a week later, my ex's grandmother suffered a massive heart attack, and his desperate family dragged me back to the hospital to save her. After the grueling surgery, my ex's mother tried to force us back together, while my ex glared at me with pure contempt. I was about to reject them all when the terrifying Alpha King-my ex's ruthless uncle-stepped out of the shadows. My blood ran cold. His piercing blue eyes were unmistakable. He was the bleeding stranger from the bar. I thought he would simply thank me and let me walk away. "From this moment on, Dr. Freeman will reside at the Manor." He didn't ask. He commanded it in front of the entire family, completely ignoring my ex's shock. Before I could even protest, his men were already at my new apartment, packing up my life. I had just escaped my ex's gilded cage, only to be trapped by the King himself.

For three years, I poured my blood, sweat, and tears into building Blackwood Group for Alec, my Alpha and the man I thought was my mate. But on the day of our work anniversary, I stood outside his office door and heard him talking with his Beta, shattering my entire world. "Kay is just a wolfless Omega, useful for paperwork," Alec sneered coldly. "The bonding ceremony is just a show for the elders. The real Luna, the one who carries the bloodline that matters, is Breanne. I'm transferring all of Kay's core project files to Breanne tomorrow. Let her take the credit." He even texted me later, telling me to wear a blue dress to the upcoming gala because it made me look "obedient." I had turned down a Wharton scholarship for this man. I had spent countless nights fixing his mistakes, building his empire, and giving him my youth. Yet to him, I was nothing but a disposable placeholder, expected to smile and bow while another woman stole my life's work and my place by his side. The agonizing pain in my chest didn't break me; it forged me into ice. I didn't cry, and I certainly didn't beg. Instead, I wiped his servers clean of every strategy I had ever created, left a wax-sealed resignation on his desk, and accepted a job offer from his most ruthless rival.

"This is Virella, my wife." Three years. And that was all Alpha Kaelen gave me. No welcome. No touch. No recognition. Just another woman at his side, carrying his child. While I ruled in his absence, I was nothing more than a placeholder. A Luna he never chose. So I gave up. And I left. One rejection was all it took to break the bond. When I returned, I wasn't the Luna he abandoned. I was untouchable, respected, and feared. And no longer his to claim. Now he watches me like a man drowning... Because the woman he discarded came back as something far beyond his reach. And this time, I didn't come alone. The Alpha of Ebonmoon stands beside me, his presence crushing, and his hand firm on my waist... "Careful, Kaelen," his voice drops, dark with warning. "Rowena isn't yours anymore." His lips brush my temple, possessively. "She's mine. If you try to take her, I'll end you."

"She is exhausted from taking care of a sick child! What's the big deal if she wears a piece of your clothing?! When did you become such a vicious shrew?!" My Alpha mate protectively cradled his weeping mistress in his arms, unleashing his crushing aura to force me to my knees to apologize to her. And all of this was simply because I slapped the woman who had hijacked my bridal suite and put on my clothes. But that bridal suite was painstakingly decorated by me, and that piece of clothing was the sexy lingerie he gifted me for our one-year anniversary! When I refused to yield, he ordered his guards to drag me into the freezing psychiatric isolation ward. "Lock her up for five days! Let her starve in the dark until she crawls out begging for forgiveness!" He didn't know that in my past life, I died in that exact cell. I was forcefully injected with hallucinogens and chained to a bed. When a roaring fire engulfed the building, he kicked open the door, ignored my desperate screams, and scooped up his fake-crying mistress before rushing out. I was left to burn alive, smelling my own roasting flesh. Reborn on the exact day I was locked away, I didn't struggle. Five days later, he and his mistress stood outside the door, waiting for me to grovel. Instead, I smashed a flawless mental health evaluation and a signed "Mate Rejection Form" right into his hypocritical face! "Keep the house, and keep the trash." I coldly watched him drop to his knees, gasping in agony as our soul bond violently severed, and then tossed three thousand dollars at his feet. "That's for the lingerie. Consider it charity." He scoffed, certain that an abandoned she-wolf would eventually starve on the streets. He had no idea that I already held the deadly secrets of his corrupt officials and used them to extort my first pot of gold. Next, I will build my own business empire, monopolize the pack's supply chain, and buy the absolute loyalty of his entire army. When his proud Alpha throne is completely hollowed out by me, I can't wait to see how he protects his precious little parasite!

Contract Marriage+Kickass Heroine+Hidden Identity+Regret For two long years, Aria Smith devoted everything to Ethan Holt, convinced she was his beloved Luna and his fated mate. Until a trip to replace her lost marriage certificate shattered every lie. Ethan had never loved her. Her closest best friend Clara was his real destined mate. The adopted son Aria had raised with all her love for two years was actually their biological child. Before she could process the brutal truth, a sudden call overturned her whole life. She was not a lonely, powerless human orphan as she had always believed. She was the sole legitimate heir to Vincent Smith's staggering cross-realm fortune, inheriting his massive business empire that dominated both human and werewolf worlds. Her heart completely broken, Aria made her choice without hesitation. "I am single. Legally, I have never been anyone's wife." She cut off all ties with the Silver Creek Pack and stepped into her rightful identity as a billionaire heiress overnight. Ethan and Clara mocked her relentlessly. They believed the helpless human orphan could never survive outside the pack, and she would soon come crawling back begging for forgiveness. They never foresaw the day they met again. When Aria returned, she was no longer the humble, gentle human Luna who lived for Ethan. She stood powerful, wealthy, and untouchable, holding unmatched commercial power that shook the entire werewolf realm. And right by her side stood a dominant, peerless Alpha King-someone far more powerful than Ethan could ever dare to rival, ready to burn the whole world down for her revenge.