Tragic Love Short Stories & Alpha Countdown Novels

Through the bond that tied my wolf to his, I sent ninety-nine screams for help. The hundredth time, he answered—distant, distracted. "Seraphine, I'm occupied. Stop whining like a needy pup." I lay in an ice crevice, our pup suffocating in my womb, while he hunted beneath the full moon with another. Five days later, I woke in a healing den. Through the wall, I heard my mate—my Alpha—speaking of me like livestock. "Keep her under until Lysandra whelps," Leon growled to the shaman. "If she learns I drained our pup for that she-wolf's marrow, I'll have your tongue. And if you fail me—I'll burn your den to ash." I touched the mating mark burning on my throat and reached for the crystal. My voice didn't tremble. "Harris. Prepare the severance scroll. I want his signature before the moon wanes." The she-wolf who loved her Alpha died in that ravine. The one who clawed out will make him howl.

Seven months pregnant, and I accidentally overheard a conversation between my Alpha mate Kane Frost and the pack Beta Ethan Roberts. "This one's going to Vivian too?" Ethan's voice was thick with fury. "You're really giving away Elena's pup to repay a life debt?" Kane was silent for a long moment. "Vivian saved me." "Seven years ago, that silver dagger was meant for my heart." "She took that blade for me. The residual silver poison destroyed her womb. She can never have a pup of her own." "Her only wish is to keep Elena's pup by her side." Ethan slammed his fist against the wall. "But she's already gotten two pups!" "This is the last one." Kane's voice was hoarse, but there was no hesitation. "Vivian promised me. After she gets this pup, she'll leave Silvermoon territory." "When this is over, I'll have another pup with Elena." "I'll spend the rest of my life loving her. Making it up to her. To the pups we'll have together." My stomach churned. I nearly threw up right there. Three years. I'd been pregnant twice before. And every time, after the surgery, Kane held me and told me the pup had stopped breathing before it could be born. I'd cried myself raw over those two little souls who never got to see the light. I'd clutched their tiny clothes every night, unable to let go. Only now did I understand. They never died. They were alive. Kane had stolen them from me, given them to someone else. Tears spilled down my cheeks, hot and endless. I gently touched my swollen belly. "This time, little one. Mommy's taking you away."

My Alpha husband and I were both liars. He lied to me a thousand times—said he would forget his ex, but he never did. Me? I only lied to him once. I tricked him into signing the Mating Dissolution Agreement. Today is my last day. Three hours left. I packed all my bags. Bought a ticket to Northbridge. Two hours left. I cut him out of every photo. The album only has me now. One hour left. I recorded a final video for him. "Damon… this is my tenth year loving you. And my first day leaving you."

Everyone in Silvercrest Pack knew Kael Thorne loved me. He loved me so much that even after betraying me, he always came back on his knees and begged me not to leave. The first betrayal was a mistake, he said. He had been drugged by a rival Alpha and spent one night with a rogue female. The second betrayal was responsibility, he said. That same rogue female was pregnant, and the Council forced him to keep the child. He held me in his arms and promised, “Once the baby is born, she’s gone. You’re still the only woman I love.” Then came the third betrayal. By then, I knew Kael would never let me leave. To him, I was not just his Luna. I was his life. I disguised the mating dissolution agreement as a simple household checklist and placed it among the daily papers he signed without reading. Kael signed it with one hand while holding Lila’s prenatal report in the other. He did not even look at the page. Seven days later, the agreement took effect. The mating bond tore apart inside his chest. And the Luna Kael Thorne had sworn he would never release had disappeared from his world forever.

In order to save Alpha Varkon Stormclaw, who was poisoned with wolfsbane, I've used my life force to trade for the antidote with the witch. After the transaction, I become unusually weak. My wolf sinks into a deep slumber as well. Because of that, the elders have cast me out of the Moon Goddess Church. Nyla Ironcrest, the newly-appointed Luna, locks me up in a silver cage that's filled with wolfsbane. "How could a lowly and filthy defective she-wolf like you be a good match for the prestigious Alpha?" Varkon, who has once loved me with all his heart, gets tricked by Nyla into thinking that she's his savior. Not only does he sever our mate bond from me, but he also turns a deaf ear on my pleas for help. Defeated and devastated, I breathe my last breath in the silver cage. However, Varkon kneels before my corpse later on. He's struck with so much pain in the chest that he goes crazy. At the same time, he keeps spitting out blood. But I can never hear his confession of atonement ever again.

Just one second before Alpha Daniel’s fated mark burned into my skin, a sharp voice pierced the air at the bonding ceremony. “Stop!” Jessica, Daniel’s first love, stumbled forward, her belly swollen. “Are you all really going to let this vicious woman become your Luna?” she cried, pointing at me with trembling hands. “She’s been torturing me for months! She poisoned my tea, left knives at my door, and tried to force me to abort Alpha’s pup!” My mind went blank at her sudden, fabricated accusations. “What? I didn’t—” Before I could finish, Jessica lunged toward me. Acting on instinct, I raised my arm to block her, but she collapsed heavily to the floor. “My pup!” she shrieked. “Daniel, look! She’s trying to hurt us again! Call the enforcers to arrest her!” In the next heartbeat, Daniel rushed forward, shielding Jessica in his arms without hesitation. He looked at me, his gaze cold and disappointed. “Rosie, why couldn’t you just behave? This pup is our pack’s heir!” Around us, the elders exchanged dark, knowing glances, silently condemning me. With no way to prove my innocence, I was sentenced to three years in the nightmare Silver Prison. Whips, hunger, endless violence… Eventually, I learned what Daniel really meant by “behave”. But why was he the one who regretted it?

Every year on the first spring full moon, Callum Thorne and Sienna Blake turn the anniversary of our relationship into a game for the entire pack to enjoy. Every year brings another humiliation, from a false Luna ceremony and a moonstone ring designed as a joke to a room filled with laughter at my expense. Every year, Callum assumes I love him too much to leave, no matter how deeply he humiliates me. This year, laurel wine runs down my face as I remove the ring I have worn for six years and drop it at his feet. He still does not follow me because he believes I will forgive him by morning. He has forgotten one thing. I am not Tessa Reed, the ordinary woman with no family, no pack, and nowhere else to go. My real name is Tessa Valeborn. I am the Alpha King’s daughter and the rightful heir to the royal bloodline. Six years ago, I concealed my identity and left the royal court because I wanted someone to choose me without knowing my title. I believed Callum was that man. Then I discover that even his first confession began with a full-moon bet. This time, I refuse to remain their favorite joke. Tessa Reed is about to disappear from Callum’s life. The Alpha King’s daughter is finally going home.

On the night of my eighteenth birthday, the Lycan King came to me in a dream. He proclaimed me his fated mate and vowed to make me his queen when I turned twenty-two. Terrified, my father tried to help me escape this fate. Before he died, he entrusted me to his closest allies, a family with three powerful, wealthy sons who became my adoptive brothers. They once fought for my attention, each vying to be the one who would marry me. But that all stopped when they brought home Daisy, an orphan girl they found on the streets. They never spoke of marrying me again. Before I knew it, my twenty-second birthday arrived. A blood moon hung in the sky, and I trembled with fear, crying as I begged my eldest brother, Liam, to marry me. He had once had a million-dollar couture wedding gown designed just for me, swearing he would protect me for the rest of his life. But just before the wedding, he heard Daisy had a migraine. He abandoned me without a second thought, rushing her to a private doctor. Tears blurring my vision, I dragged the long train of my gown to find my second brother, Noah. The hot-headed brother who used to fight anyone who upset me now did not even spare me a glance. "Don't bother me," he snapped impatiently. "I'm busy preparing Daisy's medication." As the night deepened, my panic grew, and I ran to find my third brother, Caleb. He was holding Daisy, soothing her gently. "Evie, sweetie, stop playing the victim," he said with a gentle smile that didn't reach his eyes. "There was no Lycan King in your dream." "Your father was just afraid you were so spoiled that no one would ever want you, so he made up that ridiculous lie." "Once Daisy has fully recovered, we'll draw straws or something to decide which of us will marry you." My fingertips went cold as tears streamed down my face. So this is how they saw it. Marrying me was a burden. I stopped pleading. I turned, walked back to my room, and quietly waited for the Lycan King to claim me.

My fated mate, Alpha Kian of the Valerius Pack, had an unbreakable rule. After 9 PM, he cut off the mind link. No calls. No exceptions. He called it his "absolute radio silence." A time for the Alpha to calm his inner beast. Even when my heat hit the hardest. Before 9, he’d comfort me. The second the clock struck 9, he pushed me away without a second thought. Once, I was patrolling the borders late at night and got ambushed by rogues. My wolf howled in pure agony as blood spilled. Panicking, I pushed through our mate bond, begging for help. All I got was his voice, dripping with extreme annoyance. "Do you have any idea what time it is? Do not disturb me!" That night, I tore those rogues apart myself. I dragged my bloody, battered body back to the Pack House at dawn. He didn't even bother to bandage me. Just frowned dismissively. "You're the strongest female warrior in the pack. It's just a few rogues. Stop being so dramatic." To him, my strength was a given. Until today. I was cleaning his study and accidentally bumped his private phone. In the encrypted logs, I found a call. From 9 PM to 9 AM. Twelve hours straight. Every single night. For five years. I knew the number. Lily. The weak Omega daughter of his mother's old friend. The only one he bent his rules for. The one who got to stay in the Pack House. In that moment, my wolf let out a tragic, broken whimper. I sat staring at the screen for a long time. The morning light finally crept through the windows. In silence, I picked up the printed schedule for our Luna Mating Ceremony on his desk. I tossed it straight into the fireplace. His heart was never open to me. And now? My door is permanently closed to him.

I was the deadliest warrior in the Black Moon pack, raised by Alpha Silas himself. I was his fated mate. And his dirty little secret. I always knew he only used my body to soothe his restless wolf. But I didn't care. Being by his side was all that mattered. Until a political alliance forced him to mate another—Ravenna, the Alpha’s daughter from the Sunfire Pack. On the night of the full moon, the moment he marks her, our sacred mate bond will shatter. Forever. Once he cast me aside, I would vanish. But after I walked through fire for my freedom and disappeared from his world… he went insane.

Liam Hurley's favorite thing to say to me is, "Don't worry." Don't worry. Once he consolidates his power and ends the internal strife of the pack, we'll reveal our relationship. Because of that, I waited for two years. Don't worry. We'll hold the bonding ceremony as soon as his mother accepts me. I waited for another three. In the fifth year, at the banquet celebrating Liam's rise to Alpha of the Ashmoon pack, his mother, Elana Gibson, unclasps the moonstone necklace from around her neck in front of everyone. Liam told me long ago that passing down the moonstone necklace is the Ashmoon pack's official ritual for acknowledging a Luna. I figure Liam won't be telling me not to worry this time. "Here, let me put this on you." Elana walks right past me and gently fastens the necklace around the neck of Lilith Powell, Liam's assistant. The whole banquet hall falls dead silent. Elana pats the back of her hand with a warm smile. "Lilith is so sweet and kind, and she's been a massive help to Liam. She has a special place in my heart." I hear someone whisper, "What about Freya?" Liam lowers his voice. "My mother cherishes bonds. Lilith really has done a lot for me, so don't take it personally. Don't worry, okay? Next month, I'll take you to pick out a better moonstone necklace that's way more valuable than that one." As the crowd scatters, Lilith strokes the necklace and gives me a smug smile. "Freya, are you jealous? Elana says this moonstone has been passed down for seven generations in the Ashmoon pack." I tell her I am. Just then, my phone buzzes in my pocket. "Have you made up your mind? When are you coming to Nordravia?"

I've always been half a beat behind everyone else. But my childhood friend Charles and my best friend Annie always seemed to grow faster than me. After every training session, they'd be the first to pack up and leave. I'd still be sorting my gear, piece by piece. Once, we had a moonlit hunt training together. I fell into a trap and screamed for help, but they were long gone. On the day we submitted our Shifter Academy applications, they filled out their forms and left. I was still double-checking my last entry. "Lilith, you're way too slow. I still have to go with Annie to pick up Moon Festival admission passes. We're leaving. Not waiting." "Annie and I are both applying to Silver Moon Academy. Make sure you put that one down too. That way we can all keep training together." Charles said his piece. Annie hooked her arm through his, and they hurried off. They were in too much of a rush to hear the words I said behind them, so quiet the wind nearly swallowed them. "I'm not applying to Silver Moon Academy." I watched their figures shrink into the distance. For the first time, I didn't chase after them. "From now on, you never have to wait for me again."

Edward kept a note tucked inside his pocket watch. I had secretly read it once. “To Edward, the future strongest Alpha: Train hard, or I’ll make you hunt ten rabbits for me.” The handwriting was delicate and elegant, as if it belonged to a female werewolf. He looked perfectly calm as he rubbed my cheek and explained. “She was my partner during the Spring Hunt years ago. I thought the note was worth keeping as a memento. You’re the only one destined to be my mate, so don’t overthink it.” I nodded and let it go. Until the night of the Full Moon Ceremony, when Edward introduced me to his childhood friends, a girl in a red dress joined us midway through the gathering. Someone explained, “Monica left for the Northern Pack after something happened to her family. This is her first time back.” Someone else, drunk and eager to stir things up, chimed in, “Back then, we used to see Monica playing with Edward all over the hills every day. Everyone envied Edward for dating such a lively werewolf.” I took a sip of wine and listened quietly. So that note had been kept to commemorate a love story.

My mate always put his childhood friend Brooke and her son first. Eventually, I taught Owen to call him something else. Alpha Ethan, instead of Dad. When Owen sprained his wrist at training, he clung to Ethan's shirt. One call from Brooke was all it took for Ethan to walk away. As I adjusted our son's wrist brace, I taught him to say, “Drive safely, Alpha.” On the day of my father's birthday dinner, Ethan chose to help Brooke pick out a gift for Mason instead. I had Owen explain to the family.“The Alpha's busy. He can't be here.” But afterward, he still asked me to save Dad a piece of cake. I'd stopped making excuses for Ethan. Owen hadn't. Then Owen's teacher told Ethan he was the only father who'd missed the school play. At last, looking ashamed, Ethan bought us passes to an amusement park. We'd barely reached the entrance when Brooke's text arrived. [Ethan, Mason can't breathe. His inhaler isn't helping. Please come. I don't know what to do.] For once, Ethan hesitated. He looked down at our son instead of walking away. I hadn't said a word when Owen let go of his hand. “Go ahead, Alpha Ethan. Mom can take me on the rides.”

The day of our Mating Ceremony finally arrived. As the Elder stood before the pack, his voice booming as he announced the exchange of our soul-binding rings, Julian—the man standing across from me—suddenly spoke. "Actually," he said, his voice cutting through the sacred silence. "I’ve been fucking Chloe." I froze. He didn't even blink as he watched the color drain from my face. "While you were busy trying on your ceremonial gown, we were in the dressing room right next to yours," he continued, his tone chillingly conversational. "She couldn't help but scream when she climaxed. You actually thought she was falling ill; you spent ten minutes checking on her through the door, worried sick." "Later, while she stood by your side helping you pick out jewelry, her legs were shaking so hard she could barely stand." In that instant, I felt the blood turn to ice in my veins. Stiffly, I turned my head toward the woman standing in the front row, wearing a radiant smile. Chloe. She was waving her bouquet, cheering my name at the top of her lungs. Just an hour ago, she had been brushing tears from her eyes as she straightened the train of my dress, squeezing my hands and telling me I deserved all the happiness in the world. "Even just now, while you were preparing for the ritual, she was riding me," Julian added, his voice dropping to a low, rough growl. "She got so worked up her claws shredded the skin on my back." He looked down at the silver band in his hand—the ring he had yet to slide onto my finger—with total indifference. "I’m laying it all out there, Elara," he said. "Whether you still want the title of Luna is entirely up to you."

When Reese, Alpha of the Blood Moon Wolf Pack, was pursuing me, he always said I was the moonlight that had fallen directly into his territory. I possessed ancestral vampire blood that resurfaced in my generation, leaving me naturally light-sensitive and unable to endure the sun for long. While others checked the temperature before going outside, Reese checked the UV index. He had the highest-grade solar tint installed on his car windows and never let me step out into the daylight without holding an umbrella over my head. While the entire pack marveled at his devotion, he would smile and reply, "She was born deserving the absolute best of everything." That was until he rescued a rogue wolf named Selena during a border patrol and brought her back to live with the pack. She hid my umbrellas and snatched my sun hats, but every time I voiced my grievances, Reese would just gently brush it off. "She doesn't mean any harm. She's just used to running wild out there and likes to play around. Don't take it to heart." So when she invited me up to the glasshouse conservatory to admire the flowers together, I didn't suspect a thing. Until the door locked behind me. Midday sunlight poured through the glass dome, and my skin immediately began to burn and swell. I called desperately for Reese again and again. It wasn't until my tenth call that he finally answered, his voice laced with gentle coaxing. "Just bear with it a little longer, okay? Selena sprained her ankle on the way down, and she's crying her eyes out. I'll be right back up as soon as I help her out. Try moving into the shade for now." Except that the sun was directly overhead, leaving nowhere to hide. I was nearly unconscious from the excruciating pain by the time the door was finally unlocked. As Reese scooped me up in his arms, Selena pouted. "You just spoil her way too much. It was only fifteen minutes. How bad could it actually be?" Reese's hands were trembling as he held me, yet he still made excuses for her. "Alright, that's enough. Fifteen minutes is a long time." Selena giggled. "I bet she'd tan, and you bet she'd stay just as pale no matter what." "So who actually won the bet?" In the end, he won that little wager, but I had already left his territory for good.

At two in the morning, when the pack elders' urgent summons came, I had just crawled out from beneath my childhood sweetheart, the Alpha heir Slade. My body was still aching from his rough possession. As the only human healer in the entire Blackwood Pack, I was ordered to prepare herbs as a gift for Slade's marriage alliance with the Thorne Pack. I gently lifted Slade's arm from where it was wrapped around me. After a night of passion, his powerful Alpha body was still radiating a feverish heat. I assumed this was just another wolf princess he needed to turn away, so I poked his chest playfully and asked with a smile, "Slade, what excuse are you going to use the 99th time? That you've suddenly developed an allergy to the princess?" He rolled over and kissed my forehead, his eyes heavy with sleep. "My sweet girl, this time the herbs must be prepared by you, and you alone. The success of this alliance rests on your shoulders." I froze. For the past ten years, I had been his secret solace, the one who soothed his violent rages every night. I thought I would earn a formal bonding ceremony, sooner or later. But in that moment, I understood. I was just a convenience, a body for him to use. If that was all I was to him, then I would burn everything we had to the ground. I made a call to my old mentor at the National Institute of Medicine, Professor Sterling. "Professor, that research position regarding gene... is it still open? I'm ready to return to the human world." But when that arrogant Alpha, who claimed we were 'just friends' and 'strictly professional,' discovered he could no longer catch even a faint scent of me in the air, he completely lost his mind.

I spent five years being Alpha Finn's hidden mate. He promised to announce me as his mate and Luna to the pack, but each time his 'best friend,' Adeline, showed up, I became an afterthought. Every time he betrayed me, he handed me an apology token with a promise never to fail again. And I forgave him every time. By the time Adeline finally returned to the pack, I was almost at a hundred tokens. And just as expected, Finn again chose her over me. This time, he expected that he would return, I'd forgive him, and we'd continue the cycle. Until he felt our bond disappear in the middle of the night and realized he had just signed away his mate. In terror, he ran after me, begging on his knees. But it was too late. Because just a few days before his final betrayal, I discovered something Finn had never known. I wasn't wolfless. I wasn't useless. And I wasn't going to be anyone's backup plan.

For love, I left my pack and followed Kayson Callahan to the distant Silver Moon Pack. Yet for five whole years, I was never officially entered into the Silver Moon Pack's records. Lyanna Lawrence, on the other hand, had only stayed in my home for two months when Kayson personally contacted the Council of Elders and had her official status fast-tracked. I was completely devastated and decided to return to my own pack. For the first time, Kayson cried as he knelt before me. "Serena, you're my fated mate. Once we hold the Bonding Ceremony, it's only a matter of time before the pack accepts you. "But Lyanna is different. She has nowhere to go, and without a pack to protect her, she could easily die at the hands of rogue wolves. Stay for me this time, okay?" Seeing the tears in his eyes, I softened again. It wasn't until I became pregnant and applied once more to be added to the pack records that Elder Walter Blankenship frowned and flipped through the records. "Serena, Kayson's registered mate is... Miss Lyanna Lawrence." "Are you sure you didn't get that wrong?" I stood there frozen, unable to believe what I was hearing. The only reason I had been able to swallow disappointment again and again was that I loved Kayson deeply and kept waiting for the Bonding Ceremony that was supposed to be ours. But in the end, I realized that these five years had all been nothing more than wishful thinking on my part. If that's how it was, then it was time for me to return to where I belonged.

On the day of our graduation trip, my Alpha boyfriend and his Beta best friend left me behind at an interstate rest stop. Sienna was traveling with us too. She was a wolf Cedar Ridge Pack had only found and brought home six months earlier. They had been gone for nearly half an hour before they realized I was no longer in the car. When Adrian Cross finally called, there was no panic in his voice. Only irritation. “Nora, why didn’t you get back in the car? Don’t turn this into a big deal. We have to arrive before sunset, and we can’t turn around now.” His childhood friend, Evan Brooks, was also the pack’s future Beta. His voice came through the phone next. “There are taxis at the rest stop, and you can call a rideshare. Get to the next exit. We’ll meet you there.” Then Sienna’s clear, bright voice cut in. “She isn’t a pup. Do you two really have to handle everything for her?” In the past, my eyes would already have been burning with tears. I would have apologized first, then dragged my suitcase behind me and done everything I could to catch up with them. But this time, I stood outside the rest stop and looked up at the blue-gray sky. A sense of relief unlike anything I had ever felt suddenly spread through me. I did not want to chase them anymore. I canceled every remaining hotel and photography reservation for the trip. Then I changed my flight and booked a ticket to the coastal town I had always wanted to visit. They had all said it was too quiet and too boring, the kind of place no young wolf would enjoy. But in that moment, I understood one thing with perfect clarity. I was tired of living by someone else’s map.