Alpha Regret 단편 소설 & 소설

On the day of my Luna coronation dress fitting, Sterling pinned me against the full-length mirror. I could clearly feel the raw hunger in his wolf's soul. But the moment his rough fingertips traced my spine. The moment he completely claimed me. He gasped another woman's name. "Chloe, you smell so sweet." Chloe. My half-sister. And his former Fated Mate. She was killed in a rogue attack. Her life forever frozen in the year they loved each other most fiercely. From then on, her memory became sacred ground to this powerful Alpha. No one was allowed to touch it. Every Full Moon Festival, I would accompany Sterling to her memorial to lay down moonflowers. He used to cup my face and swear repeatedly that the mate bond had died with her. He said in his long life, he would only spend that one full moon night mourning the past. For all the remaining days and nights, his wolf would belong only to me. But an Alpha's vow was a joke. My sister's ghost still possessed his soul. She never left for a second. And I finally woke up. You can't compete with a ghost. This mark was a lie. I would sever the bond myself. He was in love with a dead woman. I didn't want him anymore.

On the day of our mating ceremony, the moans of my fated mate, Alpha Liam, fucking a Stonecrest she-wolf named Kira in the locker room accidentally broadcasted to the entire pack. I stood at the altar, trembling, and cut the mic. I found Liam in tears, begging for an explanation. He just shielded Kira in his arms and glared at me. "If you hadn't left the microphone on, we wouldn't have been caught! An amnesiac stray orphan like you never deserved to be my Luna!" I became the laughingstock of the entire North. Just as I was about to be exiled, Jaxson Thorne—Alpha of the Stonecrest Pack—stepped in like a dark savior, his overwhelming aura shielding me from the humiliation. "I'll take her," he announced. With his support, I publicly rejected that betrayal-stained mate bond. For seven years, I was his declared Luna. He laid all the treasures of the North at my feet. Yet I never received the legendary Heart of the Moon pendant—the ultimate symbol of a Stonecrest Luna. I told myself Jaxson had his reasons. Seven years mated; he wouldn't hurt me. Until the Blood Moon Banquet, when I saw the Heart of the Moon resting on Kira's collarbone. She'd just returned to the pack. As she strutted toward me, provoking me, everyone expected me to cry and confront Jaxson. I didn't shed a single tear. I just pulled out my phone and texted my brother: "Come get me in three days." Jaxson didn't know—a month ago, I had recovered all my memories. I was no orphan. I was Ayla Valerius, sole Princess of the Royal Lycan bloodline that ruled the North. And my brother, the new Lycan King, was coming with the elite Royal Lycan Guard to burn this pack to the ground and take me home.

Kalen Silver Moon and I had been officially bonded for less than a year, and we'd already dissolved the contract nine times in public. The tenth time, I stood at the bottom of the Moon Temple steps, holding a roll of unbinding papers. At the top of the steps, he and his childhood friend Sylvia were each holding a freshly drawn mate contract. "Sorry about this, Ella," Sylvia winked at me, playful as ever. "Just need to borrow your Alpha for a few days. The second Gareth gets jealous enough to come crawling back, I'll return him good as new." Kalen laughed under his breath. "Only you'd have the nerve to pull this with Ella being as easygoing as she is." "If your father wasn't an Elder, I wouldn't play along with this childish game." He draped his arm around me, casual as anything. "Ella, just go with it for a few days." "Once this is over, I'll throw you the biggest Moon Ceremony Silver Moon has ever seen. Every Elder, every warrior in the pack will be there to witness it. I'll announce to everyone that you're my Luna." "I promise. This is the last time." Before I could open my mouth, Sylvia cut in with a bright smile. "Ella would never get upset. She smiled through it the first nine times. She'll definitely help us out again, right?" The two of them stood shoulder to shoulder in the moonlight, laughing, easy with each other. Like the nine mate contracts I'd signed and dissolved with Kalen were nothing but a game they played for fun. I'd been part of this act for nine rounds already. This time, I didn't want to play anymore.

I am a pureblood Alpha Female. My parents were tied up with pack affairs year-round, so I grew up at their side, living and breathing pack life. After my wolf awakened, every pack duty got dumped on me. When we finally got a break, the whole family agreed to take a trip. Before we left, Mom laid the plane tickets on the table. The five tickets belonged to my parents, Daniel Carter and Vivian Carter; my brother, Marcus Carter; my fated mate, Hale Bennett; and my adopted sister, Leah Foster. Years ago, Leah's father, Gavin Foster, had died saving Marcus during a rogue attack. Born into a frail Omega bloodline and left without a father, Leah had been taken into our family and pampered as one of our own for seven years. I stared at the tickets for a long time. There really wasn't one for me. When I asked Mom what was going on, her eyes darted away. "Don't you have border patrol coming up? I figured you'd be busy, so I didn't buy you one. "Leah finally got some time off. She's been so busy with her job at the council, and we wanted to take her somewhere to relax. The anniversary of her father's death is coming up. We just want her to be happy." Marcus was packing Leah's bags, carefully choosing her favorite pink suitcase. And Hale, my boyfriend of five years, was busy matching her outfits and carefully packing away her passport and boarding pass. "Beatrice, what are you standing around for? Pack up your ski gear and give it to Leah. Gavin saved Marcus's life. We need to show some gratitude." Dad waved at me, motioning for me to get moving too. I stood in the living room, watching my family bustle around. So they did know I existed. They were just using a life debt to wring everything they could out of me. Even my fated mate could defy his instincts and become just one more thing my family was willing to sacrifice to repay their debt to Leah. Since there was no place for me on this trip, I'd give them exactly what they wanted. I lowered my gaze to my phone. The Alpha King

On the night of the full moon, both the widowed Omega, Natalie, and I went into sudden, agonizing labor. The pain brought me to my knees on the cold floor. Clutching Kaelen’s hand with the last of my strength, I begged him to take me to the hospital. But my pleas fell on deaf ears. Within the pack, everyone believed I was finally getting exactly what I deserved. After all, five years ago, I had cruelly played with Kaelen’s feelings and publicly rejected our mate bond. Now, with my pack on the brink of decline, Kaelen had risen to become the Supreme Alpha, forcing me into a partnership. Yet, while he claimed my body night after night, he bitterly refused to give me his mark. Even when he brought the pregnant Natalie into our home, I merely turned away and walked back to my room without a word—an indifference that only fueled his volatile rage. Until tonight, when Natalie and I went into labor at the exact same time. In my agony, I finally broke down and confessed that I loved him. But Kaelen only saw it as another calculated lie. Scooping Natalie up into his arms, he looked down at me with cold, unyielding eyes. “Natalie was right about you. You’re just staging a premature labor to orchestrate your escape and abandon the pack again.” He sneered, turning his back on me. “If you really love me, you’ll wait until she safely delivers. Don’t even think about running from me this time.” With the Alpha’s absolute command issued, the pack members did everything in their power to stall my delivery, ignoring my fading pulse. By the time Kaelen finally remembered me—deciding he would perform the marking ritual the moment our pup was born—it was already too late. My pup and I were already cold.

I was five months along, carrying the pup of my fiancé, Ryan Hebert. On our marking day, Ryan rejected me and marked Daisy, also with pup. He claimed my pup wasn’t his, a bastard of unknown origin. Worse, he called my father a traitor in front of everyone. At the banquet entrance, my father collapsed, and I miscarried. I knelt in blood, begging him to save us. “Daisy can’t handle stress. Stay away from her.” Then he walked off, holding her close. Later, my childhood friend Andrew saved me. He brought in the most skilled wolf healers for my father, and stayed by my side, night and day. A week later, my father had another heart attack. Before he passed, his only wish was for me to be protected. Andrew knelt by the bedside, and solemnly swore to my father’s lifeless body that he would marry me,that he would protect me for the rest of my life. And I believed him. After the funeral, I ended things with Ryan and married Andrew instead. But five years later, I overheard a conversation between Ryan and Andrew. “If Eleanor ever finds out that it was you and me who traded her purity for Daisy’s happiness on the day of the ceremony… do you think she’d still love you?” So Andrew’s love was a lie too. But when I left, why did the one who broke me beg to have me back?

To seize more territory, the ancestors of the Black Moon Pack desecrated the Moon Goddess's altar. For their crime, a deadly curse was woven into their bloodline: no male wolf of their pack lives past the full moon of his thirtieth year. The only cure is to mark a she-wolf with the blood of the Moon Goddess, using her song to suppress the rage that boils in their blood. In my last life, I was that cure. I was married to their Alpha, Corbin. He marked me before the entire pack, binding us as mates. But once the threat of death was gone, he had me thrown into an asylum. "I never believed in that Moon Goddess blood crap. If the pack hadn't forced me to marry you, Faye never would have run off and married that Beta from the neighboring pack. Now she's broken mate bond, and I'm going to make her my Luna, no matter what. As for you, go to hell." Then he shattered our bond, whispered to the guards, and walked away. I was locked in a silver cage, tortured day after day with injections of silver poison. On the day of Corbin and Faye's mating ceremony, the guards gave me a fatal dose. A fiery agony tore through me. My body convulsed, and then… endless darkness. When I opened my eyes again, I was back. Back at my own marking ceremony. This time, I'm going to watch. And I'm going to see if Corbin can survive his thirtieth birthday without my blood.

My good friend, Kiera, committed suicide after being raped, yet I covered up for the murderer. Kiera's family begged me to identify the murderer, but I ruthlessly kicked them out. Pack members smashed the door and made a scene. I planted Wolfsbane around the house, preventing them from coming in. Years later, my best friend, Sienna White, who had become the Alpha Female, ordered my exile while I was dying. On the day of my exile, she summoned the most powerful witch, who bound me to an altar and used dark magic to share my memories with everyone present. "Nyla Gotham, Kiera considered you her best friend, yet you covered up for the murderer who hurt her. Today, I'll use dark magic to examine your memories and find out who the murderer you've been painstakingly protecting really is." When the true culprit's face appeared in everyone's minds, my best friend collapsed to the ground in horror.

The day the company opened up a vice president position, I was thrilled. I was sure the promotion was mine. Instead, the secretary called me into her office. "Ms. Carter, you took kickbacks from clients, falsified invoices, and carried on with clients. With conduct that disgraceful, the company cannot promote you to vice president." I couldn't understand a word of it, because I had done none of those things. I went home to ask my mate what on earth was going on, only for my mother, Diane Carter, to slap me to the floor. "How could you do something so disgraceful? I'm your mother, but even I can't cover for you anymore!" I was banished from the pack and had to scrape by on odd jobs outside it, but even strangers pointed and whispered, spreading rumors about me. When I learned that my mate, Allen Blackwood, planned to hold a ceremony to sever our mate bond, I returned to the pack. But before I even reached the door, I overheard Allen talking with his friend. "Allen, severing a mate bond is agony, and the bond between you two will be gone for good. Aren't you afraid she'll end up with someone else?" Allen let out a contemptuous laugh. "Jenny's own mother signed off on this. She's an Omega without even a wolf. Without me, what pack would ever take her in?" "Olivia needs this position more than she does. Once Olivia is settled into the role, I'll bring Jenny back. She'll be just as devoted to me as ever." I leaned against the doorframe, slowly closed my eyes, and let the tears fall. A vow? Fine. I agree. Once the mate bond is severed, we are nothing to each other.

I dragged my pack from the old ways to thrive in the human world. As its Alpha, I canceled our most pointless tradition: the annual Winter Solstice Moonflower ornaments. But Chloe, a new omega, put me on blast on our pack’s feed for it. She said I disrespected the Moon Goddess. That I spat on tradition. Contracts from other packs and human companies started drying up. Even my own pack turned on me. So I took away the ten-grand Winter Solstice bonus…and gave them twenty-eight-dollar Moonflower ornaments instead. Now, my pack is losing their minds. Crying. Begging for the ten grand back.

For as long as I could remember, whenever my sister Bella made a mistake, I was always the one who got punished. My mother used the pain of my punishments to teach her a lesson. When Bella was caught stealing from a store in the territory, my mother made me apologize in front of everyone. She wanted to teach her that she should never touch anything that did not belong to her. When Bella lost the territory's tribal amulet, my mother made me take the whip in her place. She wanted to teach her to be more careful and stop being so careless. Later, Bella became obsessed with drinking cough syrup. My mother was afraid that drinking too much would hurt her health, so she mixed lethal wolfsbane into a bottle of medicine and left it in the most obvious place in my room. I drank it by mistake and writhed on the floor in agony. My father drove me to the royal infirmary that same night. On the way, we ran into a group of guards checking travel permits. My father's permit had clearly passed inspection, but my mother insisted that it was fake. "You wolves these days are absolutely useless. You can't even tell that it's a fake travel permit?" I was in the back seat, too weak to even shift into my wolf form anymore. Yet my mother was still sternly lecturing Bella. "Look carefully. This is what happens when you drink things you're not supposed to." She kept talking, completely unaware that she had blocked the mind link between us. Due to that, she could not feel my wolf spirit weakening little by little. I had given my life for this final lesson. Was she satisfied now?

This year marked the sixth Unclaimed Moon Damian and I had shared together. As the future Alpha of Moonridge Pack, Damian always believed this tradition would make our bond stronger. Every year, for one month after our anniversary, we suppressed our mate bond through an old pack ritual, stayed out of each other's lives, and gave each other complete freedom. If either of us found someone better, we were supposed to wish them happiness. If not, he would reclaim me when the month ended. Champagne sprayed through the hall as wolves laughed and cheered around the betting table. "Here's to our Alpha being unclaimed again. Another year of freedom." "The betting is open. Put your chips on the left if you think he'll reclaim her. Put them on the right if you think this is finally over." Through the haze of cigar smoke, I sat alone on a leather sofa, watching everything unfold as if none of it had anything to do with me. Damian slipped an arm around Vivian's waist. As he passed me, he lowered his voice and said, "Don't overthink it. You'll always be my only Luna." "When Unclaimed Moon ends, I'll come back to you." I rested a cold hand against the slight curve of my stomach, my expression unchanged. Damian, this year, I placed my bet on the end. I would disappear from your world completely. The claim you were always so sure I would never reject would be the one thing I walked away from tonight.

The Alpha I loved and his powerful father, the Lycan King, were both drugged with a Heat Potion. Without a second thought, I climbed into the King's bed. In my last life, I was forced to be Damien's cure. To mate with him. To bear his pups. But he spent every night at her grave, mourning his "true love," Isabella. He never touched me again. Five years into our mating, after an argument, he shifted into his wolf form. He tore me and my pups limb from limb. He was convinced I'd used some dirty trick to mark him, keeping him from his true love. He believed it was my fault Isabella left, heartbroken, and died in an "accident." When I opened my eyes again, I was back. Back on the night they were drugged. This time, I will not be the cure. I will be the Queen.

For the past two months, I’ve been getting photos. Photos of my fated mate, Andrew, fucking his mistress, Crystal—a sultry omega. 【Dear Luna, Andrew left so many marks on me last night. He said I'm the only one who's ever made him feel a real orgasm.】 【Oh, and that famous soothing ability you're so proud of? I have it too. He says I can replace you completely now.】 【Don't worry, I'll take good care of your mate for you.】 In the photos, a smudge of Crystal's lipstick was a glaring stain on Andrew’s mate mark. Looking at those messages, disbelief curdled into despair, and finally, into a cold, hard numbness. Until tonight, when the Moon Goddess finally answered my desperate prayers. I could sacrifice half of my soothing gift for one chance to sever our mate bond on my own. In seven days, I will finally leave Andrew for good.

3 years ago, the Southern witch sealed the mate bond between Dylan and me with her spell. She said that if we still truly loved each other after 3 years, the bond would remain. Otherwise, it would be broken. During these years, I helped him become the Alpha of our pack as his Luna. But in his heart, there was someone else, his childhood sweetheart, Eleanor. When Eleanor found out that we had started our mate bond, she chose to leave with another werewolf. Dylan was drunk and cried out her name in my arms. His wolf claws scratched me. At that moment, my arm was bleeding, so was my heart. But I believed that he would gradually fall in love with me as time went on. I thought 3 years would be quite enough for that. When the 3 years are almost up, Eleanor returned. Dylan dropped an important meeting to meet with her. We lost $2 billion because of that. Dylan started being by her side every day, just like before. I used to be so afraid that when the time came, we wouldn’t be in love, and that I might lose Dylan. 7 days later, our mate bond would be gone. This time, I didn’t care anymore. It was just a countdown for me to become the Alpha Queen of my own pack.

edric Blackwood was about to mark me at our bonding ceremony when Elena Marsh, a wolfless girl, burst in. She wore a necklace made with one of Cedric's fangs, which he'd broken off while in wolf form. She held it up and confronted Cedric. "You promised this necklace would grant me three wishes." Cedric immediately stepped away from me. "First, you can't touch Cassandra tonight. Second, the vows you wrote for her are for me alone." Cedric went quiet. Then, with everyone watching, he took Elena's hand and gently recited the vows he'd written for me. "And the third?" Elena glanced at me with a smug smile. "In three days, I want you to choose me as your mate." I turned to Cedric, certain he would refuse her. Instead, he agreed without hesitation. Then he looked at me. "Cassandra, I swore to the Moon Goddess that I'd grant her three wishes. I can't break my oath. I have to give her what she wants. We'll have to call off today's bonding ceremony." Then he walked away without another word. The man I'd loved for ten years didn't even look back. A cold night wind swept across the ceremony grounds, putting out the torches one by one. As the last flame died, so did my love for him. But Cedric had forgotten something important. Without me as his mate, he could never become Alpha King.

My twin Alpha brothers believed that I have deliberately hidden the vast inheritance left by our Alpha parents so that our adoptive sister Sophia couldn’t by the medical equipment to treat her silver poisoning. For the sake of our adoptive sister, my twin Alpha brothers dragged me before the Council's tribunal. They accused me of stealing pack assets and deliberately harming pack members. If the charges stuck, the Alpha Council would strip away my Alpha power to treat Sophia. My brothers had no idea that years ago, I'd nearly died protecting them. If I lost my Alpha bloodline strength, I would die. In my own brothers' eyes, I was already a criminal beyond redemption. But when the Council used ancient magic to extract my memories for judgment, everyone wept for me. And when my brothers learned the truth, they fell to their knees, begging my forgiveness.

Five years ago, my Alpha mate, Bryan Ravensworth, returned from the war with the vampires on the brink of death. I spent the next five years nursing him back to strength, repeatedly soothing him whenever he lost control. He spends three months searching for the purest moonstone and makes me a necklace from it. He puts it on me himself and tells me I'm his one and only Luna. But as Alpha, he spends his days buried in pack affairs and can only spare Saturday nights to have dinner with me. I prepare ahead every single time, looking forward to the hours that belong to just us. Then one Saturday evening, I'm walking the pack border with another patrol team when I spot a figure I know all too well. Bryan is out with his female assistant, Hazel Linfield, who wants to pick moonflowers. When Rogues show up, he uses his Alpha power to overwhelm them and drive them back. One of the patrol wolves reminds him to mind his old injuries. He brushes it off. "I'm fine. Just keep Hazel safe!" That's when I realize he'd rather spend his time off taking Hazel to pick moonflowers than come home for even one more dinner with me. That same day, I request clearance to leave the pack and agree to become the Frostmoon pack's appointed healer. I decide to leave behind the moonstone necklace that has marked me as his Luna for five years.

On the day of my marking ceremony, my mate, Alex Burke, and my sister, Rose Roth, are caught mating in the dressing room. This renders me the laughingstock of the entire pack. While I'm drowning in humiliation, the Alpha, Nate Hyland, steps forward and marks me in front of everyone! After we get married, Nate treats me exceptionally well. However, we're never able to conceive a pup. Eventually, I turn to IVF and finally get pregnant. Nate becomes even more attentive to me. He even calls me "Darling" in his sleep. I think this is a blessing from the Moon Goddess. This continues until I hear the conversation between Nate and his Beta one day. "How could you, Nate? Luna Diana adores you and cares for you so much. But just because Rose is scared of pain and doesn't want to go through pregnancy, you secretly switched their eggs and made Luna Diana carry her child? The pup is due in two months! What are you going to do about this?" Nate goes silent for a moment. Then, he sighs softly and replies, "When the pup is born, I'll hand him to Rose and let her live out her dream of being a mother. I'll tell Diana the pup was stillborn. She's just an abandoned Omega. Staying with her for life is compensation enough." So all the love and tenderness he showed me is fake. I immediately schedule an abortion, as I don't want this filthy pup. And I am certainly not holding on to this sham of a marriage either. I may be an Omega, but I am no one's pawn.

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.”