Picked up the System
/1/118699/coverbig.jpg?v=1bf72c7e122ab2ea31302562a1751bd1)
His Defiant Mate: The Lycan King's Chosen Luna
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.
Chapter 1
Audriana POV:
"I'm sorry, Ms. Sullivan, but Mr. Black's appointment was for half an hour ago."
The clerk's voice was polite, but his eyes held a pity I refused to acknowledge. I glanced at the sleek watch on my wrist. Thirty-two minutes. He was thirty-two minutes late.
"He's on his way," I said, my voice smoother than I felt. My stomach was a tight knot of cold dread.
I stepped away from the polished walnut desk, the scent of lemon cleaner and old paper filling my nose. The North American Inter-Pack Alliance Registry Hall was designed to be imposing, with its marble columns and vaulted ceilings, meant to impress upon werewolves the gravity of the contracts signed here. Today, it just felt cold.
The air conditioning ghosted across my bare arms, raising goosebumps. I unconsciously twisted the delicate silver chain bracelet on my wrist, a nervous habit I'd had since I was a child. The tiny links were cool against my skin.
My phone buzzed in my clutch. A message from my assistant, Maya.
'Apex Ventures deal is ready for your final review. They're getting antsy.'
I typed a quick reply, my fingers flying across the screen.
'Tell them to hold their breath. I'm handling something personal.'
Personal. That's what this was supposed to be. The final step. Gabe and I, registering our intent to bond, a formality before the ceremony that would tie our packs, our families, our futures together.
I closed my eyes for a second, focusing, trying to pull his scent from the air. It was a game we used to play as kids. I could always find him. That familiar, comforting scent of pine and damp earth.
But all I could smell now was a cacophony of strangers-stale coffee, cloying perfume, the metallic tang of anxiety from a dozen other wolves waiting in this sterile hall. A wave of nausea rolled through me. Something was wrong.
My phone buzzed again. Not a work message this time. An unknown number.
The message was short, brutal.
'VIP Lounge 3. He's waiting for you.'
My breath hitched. VIP Lounge 3. I knew the layout of this building. It was at the end of the private corridor, reserved for Alphas of significant standing. Gabe's father had used it last year to finalize a trade agreement.
My fingers tightened around my phone. It was a trap. A cruel joke. It had to be.
But the knot in my stomach pulled tighter, a cold, hard certainty.
I pushed open the heavy glass door that separated the main hall from the private corridors. The sound of the bustling hall was instantly muffled by the thick, plush carpet. My heels sank into the crimson pile with each step, silencing my approach.
As I moved down the hallway, a new scent cut through the sterile air.
Cherry blossom. Sickly sweet and artificial.
Hailee's scent.
My steps slowed. My heart, which had been hammering against my ribs, gave a painful lurch and then seemed to stop altogether. It couldn't be. She was my stepsister. She was supposed to be my maid of honor.
I reached the door. Room 3. It was heavy, dark redwood, and slightly ajar. Just a crack.
Through the gap, in the dim, intimate lighting of the lounge, I saw them. Two figures, tangled together on a leather sofa.
Gabe.
His hand was buried in her blonde hair, the same way he used to touch mine. Hailee's head was thrown back, her laughter a low, throaty sound that made my blood run cold.
The world narrowed to that sliver of a view. The sound of my own blood roaring in my ears drowned out everything else.
I didn't think. I acted.
My hand shot out and slammed the door open. It crashed against the interior wall with a sound like a gunshot.
They sprang apart, their faces a blur of shock and panic. Gabe scrambled to his feet, his shirt rumpled, his face flushed.
"Audriana! What the hell are you doing?"
Hailee, true to form, immediately dissolved into a picture of terrified innocence. She shrank behind Gabe, her eyes wide and already filling with tears. "Audri, it's not what it looks like."
A laugh escaped my lips, but it was a harsh, ugly sound. "Not what it looks like? You're half an hour late to our registration, and I find you with your tongue down my stepsister's throat. Please, Gabe. Enlighten me."
"You were following me?" he roared, his voice bouncing off the wood-paneled walls. He took a step forward, trying to use his Alpha presence to intimidate me, to make me shrink. It was a tactic that had stopped working years ago.
"Don't be stupid," I snapped, my voice like ice. "I can smell her on you. You reek of cheap perfume and betrayal."
Hailee let out a sob. "We couldn't help it! The bond... it's just so strong between us. We never meant to hurt you."
The bond. She dared to speak of the bond.
I ignored her, my eyes locked on Gabe. On the man I had loved since we were children. The man my wolf had recognized. The man who was supposed to be my future.
"Give me an answer, Gabe," I said, my voice dangerously quiet. "A real one. Now."
He looked from my face to Hailee's tear-streaked one. She gave a little whimper and tugged on his arm, the perfect damsel in distress. And in that moment, I saw his decision. His jaw tightened. His eyes, which I once thought held the whole world, turned to stone.
"I, Gabe Black, Alpha of the Blackwater Pack," he began, his voice formal and loud, ringing with the ancient power of the rite.
The air in the room crackled. The words were a physical force, slamming into me.
"Reject you, Audriana Sullivan, as my mate."
Pain. It wasn't emotional. It was physical. A spear of white-hot agony that started in my chest and ripped through every nerve in my body. It felt like my soul was being torn in two. My breath was stolen from my lungs. My knees threatened to buckle.
I bit down on my lower lip, hard. The coppery taste of blood filled my mouth. I would not scream. I would not cry. I would not give them the satisfaction.
My fingernails dug into the soft leather of my clutch, the leather groaning under the pressure.
For a flicker of a second, I saw something in Gabe's eyes. A flash of regret. Of pain. But it was quickly smothered by the cold, hard wall of his decision. Hailee's hand was on his arm, a triumphant possessiveness in her touch.
I forced myself to stand taller, to straighten my spine, even as the world tilted around me. I met his gaze, and I let him see the abyss that had just opened between us.
I cleared my throat, my voice a raw, broken thing. But it was steady.
"I, Audriana Sullivan," I rasped, each word costing me a piece of my shattered soul, "accept your rejection."
The bond snapped.
It was a sound no one else could hear, but for me, it was a cataclysm. A final, brutal severing. The pain intensified for a blinding moment, then settled into a deep, hollow ache that I knew would never truly leave.
Behind Gabe, Hailee's lips curved into a small, victorious smile.
I looked at them, and in that moment, the labels fell away-fiancé, stepsister, family-until all that remained were two strangers, standing on the ruins of my life. Two pieces of trash I had found on the side of the road.
Worthless.
Without another word, I turned my back on the wreckage of my life. I walked out of the room, my steps even and measured, down the long, silent corridor, and away from the man who had just ripped my heart out of my chest.
/0/59261/coverbig.jpg?v=ff6d54dd4c6259caa05eab73d3dcfee3)
I Picked Up A Billionaire Husband
After picking up an unconscious man on the street, I took him home and took care of him in the hope of earning some money as thanks from his family. However, this man lost his memory and did not know what his name was and where he came from. Seeing that he was quite handsome and healthy, I lied th
/0/91612/coverbig.jpg?v=db1be53dd8baf47333adbb2608bc2ff8)
Dumped By My EX, I Picked Up A Tycoon
Isabella's world shatters when her longtime boyfriend, Damon Sanchez, publicly proposes to her best friend. Humiliated and heartbroken, she drowns her sorrows in a bar-only to wake up on the bed of Matteo Moretti, the city's most powerful billionaire. Their one-night stand should have been the end o
/0/60797/coverbig.jpg?v=eefe26f364dd7fba262272838ed035d7)
The Dating Debuff System
I spent a fortune offering a reward for the whereabouts of the movie star. To my surprise, he appeared right in front of me, and I immediately knelt down. The next day, news of my proposal to the movie star skyrocketed to trending topics. And all of this happened because I had bound myself to a syst
/0/38171/coverbig.jpg?v=f4f8d48c283dbb72939f2d7f60dd0643)
The Urban Hero System
Beauties? Don't annoy me, please. I don’t have time to play with all of you. Money? I like it! But it really bothers me that I own so much money. Power! That is my favorite. However, my power is so enormous that I myself even feel scared! You call me Brother Jiang? That’s how people used to ad
/0/56961/coverbig.jpg?v=8cb69706fac8904d427f5059b7732024)
The Grand System
Travis's world is shattered when his girlfriend Abigail dumps him for a wealthy playboy, Calvin, and humiliates him in public. But just as Travis is about to lose hope, a mysterious entity, the Grand System, appears, offering him a chance to turn his life around and become rich and famous. Will Trav
/0/70388/coverbig.jpg?v=aaffa0595800c29aa31f2c94803a9e95)
The Successor System
Betrayed by the woman he loved, Art ended up dying with the last thing he saw being her kissing another man. He was filled with regret about how wasted his life was but he was given another chance. [Potential Successor found. Do you wish to accept] He found himself transmigrated into the b
/0/36836/coverbig.jpg?v=3f4e5cc05c825e75635575f89aecceaf)
The Ability Steal System
Felix was one of the best elite special ops soldier in the world and now he is reincarnated as a bookkeeper with a trash ability in a Esper filled world which thrives on the rule of the strong prey on the weak, when he is give a nameless book by a mysterious stranger, he gains a system and finds out
/0/41694/coverbig.jpg?v=9096ca5cad1a3738c6b59ed962074368)
Living With The System
He is David Lewis, a young man who wants to stand high above the top of the world. Is it possible that he can make it happen with the support provided by the system. Follow the fun, don't forget to like and support, and make good comments. to build a good work...
/0/45057/coverbig.jpg?v=088b1b2b3f31bc3fc7b522ab70bf6f7d)
The Mutant System
What would you do, if after so many years of being weak and finally you got something that might help you get stronger and make you a somebody from a nobody. Then later, you get a notification saying you'll die slolwly if you don't absorb human soul. [Your soul point is getting low] [-10 Soul
/0/61515/coverbig.jpg?v=7fa0ae1a13a10a89d0ba6eae390efb46)
The Billionaire's System
Percy had always received the short end of the stick when it came to luck. Separated from his parents at the age of two, the child no one wanted to adopt, the very personification of bad luck, that was just Percy's life. Percy didn't care about all that stuff because, to him, he wasn't so cursed. He
/1/132018/coverbig.jpg?v=d992771a53e9ff265c2df599f4b32f5e)
The Family Cashback System
Amelia Grace Hart is an ordinary, hard-working young woman drowning in sudden desperation when her father collapses and requires an immediate $100,000 surgery. Maxing out her savings and plunging into debt through predatory loan apps, she manages to clear the hospital bills, completely broke but rel
/0/83296/coverbig.jpg?v=42cf93b913424351a6cf1393b9066581)
The Pop-Up Truth
My phone screen lit up, not with a text, but a stark, black-and-white pop-up. "Ethan' s SAT scores: 1580. Stanford bound with Tiffany. You' re the 'just in case' girl." Just moments earlier, my childhood crush Ethan, whose father my own dad died saving, feigned despair over "disastrous" SAT sc
/1/127345/coverbig.jpg?v=f1458397d543d3effbbaa519dbbd193d)
Siren of the Nightmare System
Betrayed by those she loved and discarded as a sacrifice, Astrida Mercer awakens within a lethal Infinite Flow system. With a forbidden erotic nightmare system at her fingertips and a monstrous entity as her only ally, she turns her survival into a crusade of blood, desire, and retribution.
/0/62553/coverbig.jpg?v=df5cb9b50afe8002efc16641760ebebc)
System Of The Bone Demon
Kurtz failed a mission! That was a word never said. Kurtz, a legendary Mercenary had finally received a ticket to the underworld. He was back at home just in time to discover a great threat rising against his kind. As a rejected prince and murderer of the last Blood Queen, would Kurtz choose to hel
/0/38170/coverbig.jpg?v=cfc3655e5e99e654b5fa024bff681f60)
The Strongest Dragon Slaughter System
On the Dragon Continent, the Dragon Clan overrode everything, dominated the whole world and even had the ultimate power to decide whether a man should die or not. Meanwhile, there was a human who once was a masterful figure on the Earth. Unfortunately, he was betrayed by his follow but his soul tra
/0/28350/coverbig.jpg?v=fec63b14004b9a35f612db79bf316b5b)
The Human Prince's Preservation System
Prince Kyanite is a human living in a world where vampires exist. One day, he is slain by the Tenth Vampire Prince. Supposedly, that's how his story should've ended in the animation titled: The Tragedy of a Human Prince. Coincidentally, his death scene crossed the same time, day, and place when the
/1/132169/coverbig.jpg?v=4e7abf651430e7bea0b21ed9d48d280a)
The Unawakened Porter's Divine System
God Vanished. Twenty-five years ago, the world changed. Gates appeared across the Earth. Monsters poured through them, and humanity awakened powers it never knew existed. Xavier Reed was one of the unlucky ones. Born with strange crimson eyes and abandoned as a child, he grew up believing weakne
/0/21671/coverbig.jpg?v=b54931ec7bde000754e846a14fba3ebf)
Tangled Up
When his father's life is put to an end; Harry Banks has to take over his father's company as the rightful owner. To tangle things up, Harry has a stepmother; A stepmother whom no one knew her true colours. Everything is tangled; Who will untangle this? Will Harry be able to do so or will he be don
/0/5441/coverbig.jpg?v=9ddd161aedd234549e9bc4a7f10503df)
/0/85809/coverbig.jpg?v=01a6e57217a473337e570daf64d87476)
The Judge, The Fiancée, The Frame-up
The judge' s voice was a flat, impersonal drone. "Guilty." My fiancée, Olivia, a vision in her tailored business suit, didn' t even flinch. Her eyes, once so full of love, slid away from mine, landing on my half-brother, Liam. He covered her hand with his, a small, intimate gesture that scream
