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All Chapters of When Trading Husbands Backfires on Her: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

When Mom was pregnant, she saved the life of a serpent shifter who was also expecting. To repay the debt, the shifter sent our family a betrothal contract.As fate would have it, both women later gave birth to twins.The shifter was deeply grateful to Mom. On top of that, shifter clans regularly needed to introduce human blood into their bloodlines to keep their inner beasts from going feral. So, the clan asked for both my older sister, Kelsey Shaw, and me to marry in.On the day we were to choose our husbands, Dad laid two photos on the table in front of us and told us to decide.One showed Zane Coyle, a powerfully built shifter whose beast form was a black serpent.The other showed Mike Coyle, a pale, sickly shifter whose beast form was a white serpent.Dad had barely set the photos down before Kelsey snatched up Mike's.The corners of her mouth curled up slightly. She drew out her words on purpose, but she couldn't hide the joy underneath. "Kenzie, they say Zane is the one mo

Chapter 2

From the moment I stepped into the bridal suite, Zane spared me a single cold glance before ignoring me completely.He sat on the wide wedding bed and shifted into his beast form right there. The thick black serpent coiled himself into loop after loop until he filled the entire bed, then shut his eyes and sank into his training.Left with no choice, I lifted my veil myself and walked over to him in silence.Sensing my approach, the black serpent flicked his forked tongue with a hiss, though he still refused to open his eyes.I bent down, picked up the tip of his tail where it hung off the edge of the bed, and stroked it lightly until his eyes finally opened.He glared at me with slit pupils and jerked his tail back."What do you think you're doing?" he snapped.I rolled my eyes inwardly, though outwardly, I put on a bashful expression. "Zane, we got married today, so of course we should… we should…"He shoved me back several steps with his tail, disgust written all over his fac

Chapter 3

Zane rushed in at the very last minute, just as the banquet was about to start.I didn't dare take his arm on my own. I was afraid he'd send me flying with a flick of his tail.Even so, simply following behind him was enough to stun everyone in the room. No one had expected a shifter as busy as Zane to show up at a family banquet like this for my sake.The clan wives were warm toward me, their expressions far more genuine than the ones they'd shown Kelsey in our past life.I wore a perfect smile and handled every conversation with ease, effortlessly deflecting the few elders who tried to put on airs and lecture me.Glasses clinked all around us. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Kelsey and Mike feeding each other.Sensing my gaze, she shot me a gloating look.Zane was busy talking business with his uncles. Aside from when we first walked in, he'd barely paid any attention to me. Meanwhile, she and Mike sat in a quiet corner, spared from the elders' questioning, exchanging sw

Chapter 4

Zane didn't mind having another person sleeping in the room. After all, I stayed on the floor, so I never got in his way when he coiled up on the bed to train.What did bother him, however, was the lovestruck way I kept staring at him."Kenzie, can you stop watching me? You're distracting me so much I can't even close my eyes to train!"He always spoke to me harshly, convinced that would intimidate me.I bit my lip, and tears came right on cue. "But you're hardly ever home. If I don't look at you while I can, missing you is going to make me sick."He shoved me with the black tip of his tail. "We've only been married for a month. How are you already this far gone? Women put way too much stock in love. Does the world stop turning without it? Just tell me—what will it take to get you to stop staring at me?"The fact that he'd asked that many questions in a row meant I'd really gotten under his skin.I quickly wiped my tears away and looked up at him, my eyes full of devotion. "If y

Chapter 5

I brewed the herbs the traditional way and soaked both hands in the lukewarm decoction for half an hour.A faint herbal fragrance lingered on my fingertips. It actually smelled quite pleasant.That night, I went back to holding the tip of Zane's tail.Coiled up on the bed, the giant black serpent's body rose nearly to my height. However, the tip of his tail was slender and tapered, just the right size for me to hold in one hand.Zane trained with his eyes shut for a while, then couldn't help shifting the lowest coil of his body."Why is your palm so hot today?""Probably from digging up herbs with a hoe earlier," I said. "My hands got a bit chafed, so they're warmer than usual."He started to pull his tail back, but I immediately held on with both hands."Don't. It hasn't been long enough yet."His tongue flicked out as he hissed a warning. "As soon as the time is up, let go. You're wasting my training time."I nodded, pretending to be sad.Inwardly, I thought that if he cou

Chapter 6

Another two weeks passed before Rosalind's beloved hamster went missing one evening.The whole household turned Coyle Manor upside down, and in the end, they found Squeaky's body in the garden outside my room.Remembering Kelsey's unannounced visit that afternoon, I understood almost instantly what had happened.Rosalind struck me with her cane, trying to force me to my knees and make me apologize for Squeaky's death.I clenched my teeth, staring stubbornly at her. "Grandma, it wasn't me. Kelsey was the one who brought Squeaky into my courtyard."Rosalind turned and swung her cane at Kelsey next, but she flinched and dodged the blow."Grandma, how can you listen to Kenzie's nonsense? I never even saw Squeaky."Mike was standing right there. A flicker of amusement crossed his narrow eyes. In that instant, I knew who had killed Squeaky.It had to be Mike. He loved taking pleasure in other people's pain.In the end, both Kelsey and I were punished.Rosalind locked us in a dim ro

Chapter 7

Three years passed in the blink of an eye.With the wooden beads and the herbal decoction working together, I gradually brought Zane's heart under my control.By then, he was considerate of my feelings and attentive to my moods. There was no real difference between that and actually loving me.Everyone in the clan had witnessed my devotion and everything I'd done for him. Surprising as it was, they all thought it made sense that Zane would gradually fall in love with me as we spent more time together.Kelsey's life, on the other hand, was nowhere near as happy or as free as mine.Her health kept deteriorating, and at family banquets, no amount of makeup could hide how haggard she looked.Mike still played the doting husband in public, just as he had three years ago. The only difference was that whenever he touched her, she shuddered before she could stop herself.Just like in my past life, the Coyle Alpha died unexpectedly during the grand hunt hosted by the top ten shifter clan

Chapter 8

Another year passed. Then came a day of torrential rain. Thunder cracked, and lightning split the sky, striking Coyle Manor halfway up the mountain.Despite the sheer size of the manor, only Mike's quarters were split in two. And out of everyone, Mike was the only person struck by lightning.He didn't die. Just like in our past life, the electricity coursing through him strengthened his body, unleashed his serpent-shifter potential, and triggered a second awakening.As rain poured down in sheets, Kelsey made no move to help him. Instead, when I came over after hearing the commotion, she flashed me a triumphant smirk.Zane held the umbrella over me, looking puzzled. "Mike's the one who got struck. Why is your sister acting like such an idiot?"I shrugged. "Who knows."He glanced up at the sky. "With rain this heavy, it looks like the conditioning session you scheduled for me today is off."I thought about it for a moment. "Let's move it indoors."Zane and Mike had never gotten a

Chapter 9

Before I could figure out a way to have the best of both worlds, Kelsey seemed to have already given Mike another idea.She was in even more of a hurry than Mike was. She couldn't stand seeing me do even slightly better than her.She had put real effort into her appearance before coming to see me.I was at a loss for words when I looked at the jeweled necklace resting against her thin, bony neck.She was still showing it off. "Mike treats me so well. Look at the size of this stone. He bought it for me at an auction just a few days ago."Oh, and he bought me a beautiful island. Kenzie, are you and Zane free? Why don't you come have some fun?" she added.I sipped my coffee slowly, hiding the slight curl at the corner of my lips."Sure."I coaxed Zane for a long time before he finally agreed to take me to the island. His hot breath brushed my ear, but my heart remained completely calm.I ran a hand over my waist, which felt a little fuller today, and considered whether to keep gi

Chapter 10

I laid a serpent egg, and Zane spent entire days pacing around with it cradled in his arms.We lived like a loving couple, waiting together for our child to hatch.However, I knew better. None of it was real.It was the medicine that made him love me. What if it simply stopped working one day?So year after year, I kept dosing him, making sure he stayed in love with me while pushing him to keep striving.Finally, the year our child came of age, the Coyles became the most powerful shifter clan in the world.That was when I stopped giving him both medicines he'd been taking for over 20 years. I was planning to kill him the moment he came back to his senses.By then, I'd grown highly skilled in herbal medicine.The Coyle library held plenty of excellent ancient medical texts, and working from them, I developed a poison that could kill a serpent shifter on the spot.However, when I brought him the bowl, he took my hand first, pulled me onto his tail, and pinched my cheek with his

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