The Square Of Sevens

When I faint due to my hemophobia after seeing blood on the training grounds, my mate, Alpha Yves Golding, is busy applying medicine to his assistant, Renee Lawson, who has only scraped her skin. After I wake up, the first thing I do is drag my weak and exhausted body to the Elders' Council to request something I never imagined I would ask for—to break my mate bond with Yves. Yves swiftly approves the request, then turns confidently to his Beta and says, "Come on, she's just throwing a tantrum. She's an orphan. Other than staying by my side, she has nowhere else to go. She can't possibly leave me for real. "Besides, aren't there three days left until the Council processes breaking a mate bond? When she comes back regretfully to beg me, I'll withdraw the application. As long as the process isn't finished, she's still mine." Then, Yves uploads a photo on Wolf Net. It features him and Renee standing shoulder-to-shoulder while showing off their muscles in the mirror. They are also gazing at each other with smiles on their faces. The caption reads, "Every bead of sweat deserves to be remembered." Everyone showers him with praise, teasing compliments, and blessings, and every single one stabs into my chest like a dagger. Still, I don't fall apart. I calmly pack my belongings and then pick up my encrypted phone. "Uncle Harrison, it's me. Please arrange a flight back to the Silvermoon pack for me as soon as possible." However, after my departure, Yves is the one who falls apart instead.

Willow Ashford, the secretary of my mate, Alpha Garrett Blackwood, files our marking ceremony application as a mate bond dissolution for the 37th time. I finally can't hold back anymore and storm into Garrett's office, my voice trembling. "Is this what you call a top graduate from the Elite Werewolves Academy? She couldn't even figure out a simple marking ceremony application! "This is the 37th time. If you really don't have time to manage your employees, I can help you fire her." Garrett looks up from his documents, glances at the application records on my phone screen, and sighs. "I told you before, you can't have someone of Willow's caliber doing menial tasks for you. "If you have time to come here and lose your temper at me, you might as well go handle it yourself." But he doesn't know that I just discovered I'm with pup. The doctor warned me to protect the pup and avoid crowds, and the Werewolf Affairs Department is always packed and suffocating. I look at his cold profile, and something deep inside me finally shatters. In that moment, I decide to end it all. But on the day I leave the pack with our pup, leaving him behind, he goes crazy searching for me everywhere.

My childhood friend promised to marry me once we came of age — but at my wedding ceremony, he gave my wedding ring to my stepsister, Summer Hugh. At the time, it was Victor Lowell, the fearsome mafia heir, who saved me by publicly announcing he had loved me for years. In the five years we had been married, he would fulfill every wish I had, even those I mentioned offhand. I truly believed I was the center of his world. All that changed when I stumbled across a top-secret folder as I was cleaning his bookshelf. The very first page was a file on Summer, with three red words printed in bold, “Top protection priority.” It was followed by a mission report I knew too well. On the night of the mission, there had been an attempt on my life. My blood had almost run dry before I was saved. When I woke up at the hospital, I found out that I had lost a baby I did not know I had been carrying. I wept bitterly in Victor’s arms, but I did not tell him about the baby. I did not want him to worry about me more. Now, I finally found out — Summer had been attacked that night as well, and Victor’s orders had been: “Save Summer first.” My tears soaked into the paper, smudging his handwriting. “Alright,” I said softly but firmly into the silence. “If my marriage had been a lie all along, I’ll disappear from your life. Forever.”

The seer foretells that I will mate with an Alpha and give birth to the strongest heir. Because of this, I am arranged to be mates with the Alpha heir, Chad Gibson, since I was a child. And from then on, I am groomed to become a Luna. I devote my entire youth to bleeding, fighting, and enduring it all. Every smile, every step, and every breath is for the sole purpose of becoming the perfect Luna. And yet, what do I receive in the end? On the day of the marking ceremony, Chad carries in an expecting Rogue with Omega bloodline, Yelena Lockhart. He then publicly declares that during a hunt, he accidentally consumed a lustbane and bred with Yelena. Thus, he must take responsibility and make her his future Luna. Seeing the unshakable resolve on his face, I ask in a trembling voice, "What about me? What am I supposed to do?" Without a moment's hesitation, he replies, "Tessa, because of that false prophecy, you have stolen the future Luna's place and enjoyed privileges that were never yours for long enough. Now, you must step aside. "But don't worry, I won't cast you out. As long as you keep serving Yelena as her maid in atonement, you may still stay by my side." The world falls into dead silence, and the stares of the pack weigh on me like a mountain. I neither scream nor beg. Instead, I simply remove my veil and return the ring that symbolizes the future Luna. Later, when Yelena gives birth, the pup turns out to be of Omega bloodline. Only then does Chad realize the prophecy is true, that I alone can bear the Alpha heir destined to lead. But when Chad finally regrets everything and begs me to come back, it is already too late. I have already accepted the Alpha King's proposal and no longer belong to Chad.

After my brother, Don Matteo Sabella, finds out I have a crush on our family Consigliere, Lorenzo Gallo, for years, he spikes Lorenzo's wine and has him delivered to my bed. That night, he pushes deep into me, and we lose ourselves in each other. When the sky begins to lighten, Lorenzo stays, kisses my temple, and asks me to marry him. Now that we are married, he is all those things—gentle, perfect, and fiercely possessive—handing me almost everything I desire. I truly believe I've landed the kind of love every woman in our world dreams about. That illusion lasts until the day Matteo gets taken out in an assassination. After that, Lorenzo steps up as the Sabellas' new Don. It isn't long before he says he has family business to handle and disappears overseas for three years. Even on the day I deliver our daughter, Luna Gallo, he can't come home because of some emergency. Then I hear a recording that's blowing up on the family's internal network. His Consigliere chuckles and asks, "Don, what do you think has changed the most since you took over the family?" Lorenzo answers in this offhand tone, "It's definitely the fact that I can finally give those I care about most a home. But it also means I'm even more worried that Eliana and Sofia will be targeted because of me…" My blood runs cold. Eliana Rossi is his adopted sister, and Sofia is her daughter. Turns out every business trip, every absence, every so-called emergency Lorenzo has is about them. He has another home out there. That night, with my hands shaking, I dial the encrypted line. "Matteo, we've found the traitor. Isn't it time you stopped pretending to be dead and came to take Luna and me away?"

My fiance, Victor Blackwood, is a mafia boss who rules the country's underworld with an iron fist. To the rest of the world, he is the epitome of power. Yet to me, he is the embodiment of love. But I do not realize the cost of loving a man like him. On Valentine's Day, I cook his favorite dishes and wait for him to come home. However, time passes, and his chair stays empty. Uneasy, I go to Queenie Stone's social media page. She is Victor's foster sister. She posts, "All I said was that I felt lonely, and he came right away. "Even when I accidentally spilled wine on him, he didn't mind. Victor is still someone who puts family first, even if it means neglecting his lover. "He never lets me down. I hope things stay that way." In the photo, Victor's shirt is soaked at the waist. Queenie's handkerchief lingers near his most private parts, but he doesn't pull away. He merely looks at her affectionately. I do not make a fuss and give Queenie's post a like. Then, I send Victor a message that reads, "Let's break up." Victor ignores it as always. Later, I discover that when my breakup message popped up, he had said offhandedly, "Vivienne can't live without me. She's just acting out. "If I ignore her for a few days, she'll come crawling back by herself. She's easy to please." What he doesn't know is that I was easy to handle only because I once loved him. But now that I have decided to leave, he cannot make me turn back, no matter how he tries to win me over.