Familial Bond Short Stories & Alpha Fake Death Novels

I saw a trending post on a werewolf forum: "How to get your mate to break the bond with you?" The poster said he was going to lie to his mate about going on a wilderness trial, but he was really planning to run off with his "true love." I silently scoffed. What a shameless scumbag. But the next day, my Alpha mate came home, smelling of another she-wolf. "For the future of our pack, I have to go on a lone wolf trial in the wilderness," he said. "We should temporarily break our mate bond." I looked at his phony face and nodded calmly. "Okay. Whatever you say. We'll break the bond tomorrow." Later, he took the family money and his lover and disappeared. But with his parents' support, I became an executive at the family company. He blew through all the money, ditched his lover, and came crawling back to the country, trying to win me over. But by then, I was already at my engagement party with another, far better Alpha. I said it from the beginning. He was the one who chose to abandon his family. Even if he wanted to come back, this place would be nothing but his personal hell.

It was the third year of my secret relationship with Garrett, my Alpha brother's best friend. Marcus laughed and nudged Garrett playfully. "You've been with that little mate of yours for three years now. When are you going to introduce her to the pack?" I pressed myself against the doorframe, my heart racing. Had my brother figured out our secret? Garrett just laughed it off. "What mate? Just some crazy she-wolf who won't leave me alone." Marcus caught sight of me and grinned. "Sage, you see this? Never pick a mate like Garrett here." "Takes everything a female offers but won't even acknowledge the bond." Just then, more of Marcus's friends arrived, and they joined in the teasing. "Your brother's right, but Garrett's had his heart set on someone for years." "What was her name again? Oh right, Aria. She's returning to the pack soon." I'd heard that name before - Aria. But Garrett had never told me she was his true love.

My fated mate, Alpha Baton, had once shackled his bloodlust for me. He’d built a corporate empire from the ashes of his bloody conquests, all to give me a civilized home. Even when my father was framed for murdering the brother of his first love, Seraphina, he held me gently. "Don't worry, Tricia. I'll face this with you." But on the day of the trial, my father was condemned as a murderer and exiled to the North. And Baton? He was celebrating, with his arm wrapped around Seraphina. I hunted down the witness, demanding answers, only to find him trembling as he stared at Baton, who stood right behind me. It was Baton. He had threatened the witness into lying. He was willing to destroy my father, just to make Seraphina happy. "Seraphina's brother is dead. Someone has to pay the price." The mate bond between us didn't just snap—it shattered. Agony ripped through my soul. If I meant nothing to him, our marking ceremony was a promise. And now, it was one I had to break.

I let Gideon mark me again. Then, I put my Alpha mate up for rent. The fragile widow of his dead Beta, Civian, always found excuses to drag him out of our bed. I stopped crying over the possessive pull of our Mate bond. Instead, I just charged her by the hour. 100,000 an hour during the day. 200,000 at night. Triple on full moons. In just three months, my offshore account grew by nearly twenty million. He had promised to take me to the werewolf auction to buy some rare herbs. But that woman called, crying that her wolf was out of control and desperately needed soothing. I didn't even blink. I just pulled out my phone and started the timer. Midnight. Burning up with fever from the pills I took to suppress my heat, he was driving me to the Pack hospital. That woman called again, shaking because she had a nightmare about Civian’s bloody death. I calmly signaled him to pull over and drop me at the next intersection. Seeing the flicker of struggle in his eyes, I just smiled lazily. "Just don't forget to pay." Then came the day of our daughter Mia’s checkup at The Pack's Gene-Therapy Center. The woman called again. "Toby's first shift is coming up. He really needs a strong Alpha to guide him through this dangerous time..." Gideon hung up the phone. He turned, guilt flashing in his eyes, and started to kneel before our daughter to explain. But Mia just held out her little hand, copying me exactly. "It's okay, Daddy. Just pay up. It's a full moon today, so that’s triple."

I am the last heir of the Eclipse royal line, and the only person in a hundred years who can carry Nyx, the first dark wolf. If I reached adulthood safely, I would become the Eclipse Queen, and every wolf alive would bow to me. But when I was six, rogues broke into the nursery. To save a baby lying in a pool of blood, I shifted into a black wolf in front of everyone, and showed a power that could swallow an Alpha command whole. The Elders were afraid I would lose control, and they wanted me put to death. Agatha Voss, the priestess, had no choice but to seal away my wolf and my memories. She gave me to the Ashbourne family to raise and warned them again and again, "Treat this child well, and never let silver or wolfsbane touch her." My adoptive parents never knew who I was. They thought I was a frail orphan girl with no wolf. Their own daughter was not with them, so they gave me all the love meant for her, and for years they treasured me. Then their biological daughter, Viola Ashbourne, came home. Everything changed. She cut herself and blamed me for it. She faked a pregnancy and took my mate and my place as Luna. My parents believed her. My brothers destroyed the evidence for her. Even Damian Blackwood, my fated mate, marched me into the Silver Cells himself. They knew the wolfsbane was killing me, and they still turned around and went to Viola's coronation, and left me to take my last breath alone. The moment my heart stopped, every memory taken from me nineteen years ago came back, and deep in my chest a second wolf heart began to beat. In the Forsaken Pit, I opened golden eyes, their pupils narrowed to slits. The adopted daughter they had despised until her death was gone. The queen they should have knelt to all along had awakened in her place.