Awakening 단편 소설 & 소설

On my thirtieth birthday, Levi Maddox's childhood friend sent me a screenshot of her latest post. She'd tagged it at an amusement park. In the photo, Levi was bent down, tying her shoelace. The caption read: "Somebody said thirty-year-old women are way too boring. Taking a little kid like me out to play is so much more fun!" I stared at the screen for a long time. I didn't like it, and I didn't reply. Less than five minutes later, Levi called. Amusement park music played in the background, and Tessa Wynn was shouting beside him that she wanted cotton candy. Levi sounded casual. "Saw it? Tessa insisted on coming. If you're willing to swallow your pride today, admit you were wrong, and promise you'll never check my phone again, I'll rush home tonight and cut the cake with you." I knew this was his usual trick. Every time we fought over his total lack of boundaries, he'd run off to Tessa. He'd take her to the movies, on trips, dress in matching outfits with her, and then sit back, smug and superior, waiting for me to break down and give in. He'd once said, "Only when you see me with someone else will you learn to rein in that scary need to control everything. Besides, Tessa's like a little sister to me. It's not like you'd really be mad." Tessa always played along sweetly, too. "Sienna, please don't be upset. Levi just sees me as a little sister." On the other end of the line, Levi was still waiting for me to say, "I was wrong. Please come home." But as I looked at the birthday dinner going cold in front of me, I suddenly felt bone-tired. "Don't bother rushing back. "I'm thirty now. "I'm done being your nanny."

On a flight, my boyfriend Cassio tried to steal a seat for his pregnant childhood sweetheart. Last time, I stopped him. I forced him to return the seat to its rightful owner. Out of spite, his sweetheart Ella refused to take the seat. She stood through the entire flight. By the time we landed, she miscarried. She bled out and died. Cassio never blamed me. He arranged her funeral quietly… Then married me. He gave me the best prenatal care, the finest doctors, and a seemingly perfect life. Until the day I went into labor. He put me on a long-haul flight with multiple layovers. And when I collapsed in a filthy airport restroom, bleeding and barely conscious— He looked down at me with pure hatred. “Serena, this is what you owe her.” “If you hadn’t interfered back then, Ella would still be alive.” “Today, you and your bastard child will pay for her and her baby.” When I opened my eyes again, I was back on that flight. Watching him berate the plainly dressed woman, I quietly put on my noise-canceling headphones. He didn’t know that woman was the beloved wife of the most dangerous mafia Don in the city. And the kick he was about to deliver— Would be their death sentence. This time, I just watched.

After I announced that my boyfriend, James Lane, and I were getting married, his childhood sweetheart came after me again. She dumped an entire bucket of chicken blood over my head, turning my pristine white wedding dress a hideous dark red. Lily Zane stood there watching me without the slightest hint of fear. She knew she could get away with it. Instead of backing down, I looked at James, who had been silent the entire time. "Are you calling the police, or am I?" This was already the ninth time this year. She'd rammed my car, slapped me, and harassed me online. Any time I dared post anything about James, there was always some new form of torment waiting for me. James had begged me to let it go, so I'd swallowed it again and again. Not this time. I dialed 911 without hesitation. James, who hadn't lifted a finger until then, suddenly snatched the phone from my hand and smashed it against the floor. Pieces went flying, and his face was dark with anger. "Are you seriously making this a big deal? It's just a bucket of chicken blood!" Calmly, I wiped the blood from my face and nodded. "Yes, I am, James. And the wedding's off."

My adopted Omega sister, Maya Bardolph, is known to be innocent and kindhearted. Before the practical admission assessment, I specifically tell her not to interfere in any way. But she secretly puts a prohibited performance booster into my water bottle. I am reported for cheating on the spot. My results are canceled, and I am permanently blacklisted. When I break down and demand an explanation, she bursts into tears, looking pitiful and wronged. She weeps, "Sierra, I just wanted you to get first place... I didn't know things would turn out like this." My boyfriend, Dale Ashshade, immediately pulls her into his arms and blames me instead. He scolds, "She is only trying to help. Why are you being so harsh to her?" My parents chastise me frostily as well. "Isn't it just one practical assessment? She's an Omega. She doesn't understand these things. Can't you be more patient with her?" To apologize, Maya smilingly brings me a cup of herbal tea later. "Sierra, I made this just for you. Promise you won't be mad at me anymore after you drink it, okay?" Without thinking much about it, I drink the tea. But what she uses to brew the tea is highly poisonous silver oleander. I die from the poisoning. Outside the emergency room, Maya cries hysterically, "I'm sorry! I didn't know silver oleander is poisonous... I just wanted to apologize to Sierra..." When questioned by the Enforcers, Dale calmly gives false testimony. "After Sierra was caught cheating, she became mentally unstable. She couldn't accept how things turned out and took silver oleander to kill herself..." When I open my eyes again, I return to the day before the assessment.

On the eve of my wedding, my friends threw a joint bachelor and bachelorette party for Natalie Cole and me at a bar. After a few rounds of drinks, someone suggested a game of Truth or Dare. The bottle landed on me first. My younger brother, Kayden Wilson, grinned. "I dare you to take off your pants. Let's see what you've got." The whole table immediately erupted in cheers. I glanced at Natalie, but she kept her head down and continued scrolling through her phone without a word. Hence, I took off my pants and stood there in nothing but my underwear. In the second round, the bottle landed on me again. My sister, Hannah Wilson, raised her glass and asked half-jokingly, "Logan, I dare you to admit you're pathetic enough that you can't live without a woman." My face burned, but everyone was staring at me, waiting to see if I'd ruin the mood. I closed my eyes and said hoarsely, "I admit it." Eventually, the bottle landed on Natalie. Her friend, Veronica Reed, grinned. "I dare you to tell your soon-to-be hubby what you were doing behind everyone's back last night." Natalie paused for two seconds before she looked at Benjamin Henderson beside her, her eyes full of affection. "He got drunk and insisted I take him back to his hotel. Then he threw up all over himself, so I helped him shower and changed him into his pajamas. He said he didn't want to sleep alone, so I held him until morning," she revealed. The private room fell silent for a moment before suggestive laughter erupted around the table. Benjamin playfully tickled her and scolded her for embarrassing him by revealing his secrets. But I stood there frozen, unable to say a word. Finally, Veronica pointed toward the little quickie wedding chapel attached to the bar. "Then I dare you to take Benjamin over there, get married, and have it annulled afterward." Benjamin's eyes lit up as he looked at Natalie. I looked at her too. Natalie gave an exasperated smile, took his hand, and walked toward the chapel as the crowd cheered them on. At that moment, I suddenly felt there was no point in going through with our wedding the day after tomorrow.

I was the Alpha's personal Tarot diviner. On the eve of my coming-of-age ceremony, he asked me to choose one of his two sons as my mate. "Seraphina, whoever you choose will inherit everything I have — including the title of Alpha." In my previous life, I was hopelessly in love with his younger son, Theodore. I chose him without a second thought. But on our wedding day, he locked me in the basement and drove a wolfsbane-laced dagger through my heart. "If you hadn't rigged the Tarot reading to force me into marrying you, Sophia wouldn't have run from the pack in heartbreak — and the hunters wouldn't have torn her apart." "Now I'm sending you to hell to beg for her forgiveness!" The venom spread through my veins. I let out an agonized howl and died in despair. But the Moon Goddess granted me another chance. I was back — standing right where I'd been the day the Alpha asked me to draw a Tarot card. My fingers hovered over the same card I'd chosen in my last life. The Alpha looked at me. "This one?" Without hesitation, I picked up the very same card. "Yes."

I have only recently been reunited with my family. Desperate to fit into their wealthy world, I follow every instruction from the voice in my head, which calls itself the Council. At my father's birthday banquet, my stepsister, Giselle Chatham, suggests playing Truth or Dare. When it's my turn, the Council's authoritative voice rings out in my mind. "Choose truth! Admit that you stole Giselle's necklace. Sometimes, you have to hit rock bottom before you can rise to the top. Your father will see you as an honest person!" Just as I'm about to speak, a series of comments suddenly flashes before my eyes. "The Council is spouting nonsense! Don't listen to it!" "Don't admit to stealing if you never did it! If you do, you'll be kicked out of the family for good!" "Listen to the comments! Whatever you do, don't admit to it!" I bite down hard on my lip, torn between the Council's instructions and the warnings flashing before my eyes. Who should I trust?

A few days before my postpartum period ended, I found two plane tickets to Mirelia tucked inside Daryl’s wallet. I was secretly delighted. I thought he had planned a surprise for me. But on the very day I was supposed to recover, he told me that his company had suddenly sent him on a business trip. I tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep—only to see his first love post on social media. [Finally fulfilled our promise to kiss at Saint Vyron Cathedral. Thank you, God. After all this time, it’s still you.] The photo showed the two of them holding hands and kissing. I didn’t confront him right away. Instead, I turned to look at my sleeping daughter beside me, then picked up my phone. [Dad, I've made up my mind. I'll take over the family business.]

My girlfriend was known for being frugal and extremely stingy. When the chicken drumstick I loved went up by a dime, she decided they were too expensive and stopped buying them. When I got sick, she thought drinking warm water would be enough to make me better. Even the marriage certificate's nine-dollar processing fee was too much for her. She thought it was a waste of money. When the marriage certificate finally became free to acquire, I put on the only discounted suit she had been willing to buy for me and arrived at the city hall two hours early. I was eagerly waiting for her. Instead, from a distance, I saw her sitting by the lake with Henry, the male assistant she had hired six months earlier. A street photographer approached with a camera and asked if my girlfriend wanted some photos. Each photo cost a hundred dollars. I thought she would refuse on the spot, curse him for overcharging, and walk away. But she glanced at Henry beside her and said, "Henry, come to think of it, we've never taken a photo together. How about we take some?" Henry waved it off and said it was too expensive. The photographer quickly added that there would be a discount if they took more pictures. My girlfriend calmly retrieved her phone and transferred one grand to him. "No discount needed. Take a hundred photos of me and my junior. Put them in an album." I silently watched as my girlfriend and Henry posed intimately for a hundred photos. The time we'd agreed to meet finally arrived. My phone lit up. [I asked around. Although the marriage certificate itself is free now, we still need to take three ID photos. That's at least twenty dollars. That's enough to pay for one of our meals. Besides, getting the certificate is just a formality. We can still spend our whole lives together without it.] I quietly typed out a reply. [Okay. Let's not get married then.] I didn't want her anymore either.

Three days before our engagement, Zach Jefferson called me. “We’ll need to postpone the engagement party by a month. That day is Sienna’s first concert since she returned, and I need to be there. “It’s just a postponement. It’s no big deal.” He had postponed our engagement three times that year. The first time was because Sienna Lynch had been hospitalized with appendicitis. He said he had to take care of her and rushed over. The second time, Sienna said she was feeling down. He was worried she might get depressed and immediately booked a flight to see her. It was the third time. I simply said, “Okay.” After hanging up, I turned to the good-looking and refined man beside me. “Are you interested in marrying me?” Later, during Sienna’s concert, Zach left her without hesitation. With red, teary eyes, he rushed to my engagement ceremony. “Yulia, are you really getting engaged to this man?”

I had been dating Sean Barnes for three years, and during all that time, I never once asked him to dine at a fancy restaurant. He kept a strictly balanced ledger for all our romantic spendings. If a meal crossed the budget, he would go out of his way to earn back the extra amount. Before heading off to work, he would always plant a kiss on me. “Gotta save up for that wedding, baby.” While away on those business trips, he never failed to report every detail of his itinerary, so I never once doubted him. One night before Thanksgiving, Sean claimed the cost of the gifts he got for my parents had gone way over budget, prompting yet another trip out of town. “You wouldn’t want our wedding date to keep getting pushed back time and again, would you? I’ll be back on Thanksgiving. You have my word.” Gazing at the exhaustion in his eyes, my heart softened, and I yielded. Came Thanksgiving Day, and my parents and I waited in vain late into the night, while Sean’s phone rang on without being picked up. Faced with the worried looks in my parents’ eyes, I forced a smile, then drove through the night to the place where Sean was supposed to be working out of town. When I arrived at the hotel, however, I found him holding a wedding ceremony with my best friend, Michelle Hudson. They were kissing amidst the loud cheers of the crowd. At that exact moment, a message popped up on my phone from Sean. “Sorry babe, just wrapped up with the emergency surgery.” Watching Sean put away his phone on stage with a face full of tenderness, I dialed the number of my friend, the CEO of an entertainment agency. “How much for a trending hashtag? I want the whole world to know about a certain wedding.”

My CEO fiancee, Lexi Wyndham, had no patience for incompetence, yet she repeatedly made excuses for her incompetent assistant, Lachlan Hayes. During the hiring process, she noticed that his profile looked remarkably similar to mine. Worried that our rivals might target me, she kept him on as my double, someone who could take my place whenever I was in danger. She bought him designer clothes, took him to exclusive events, and even put my projects under his name to build up his reputation. As time went on, she grew increasingly protective of him, insisting it was all so he would be willing to take my place when the time came. Then tensions with our rival company escalated. Lexi would rather send the bodyguards assigned to protect her to me than let Lachlan stand in for me. In the end, our rivals kidnapped me and locked me in a basement, where they tortured me for ten straight days. By the time I was rescued, there was not a part of me that was not badly injured. I had nearly died down there. The next day, Lachlan was diagnosed with liver disease. Lexi drugged me and forced me into the operating room to donate my liver to him. Her voice was gentle. "Lachlan has to be saved for the moment we truly need him to stand in for you. We can't use him too soon, or they'll get suspicious and everything we've done will be for nothing. "He has to stay alive until the day we need him. I'm making you donate your liver for your own good. Don't overthink it. Once you're discharged, I'll marry you." But she did not know how badly I had been injured. The liver donation only made my condition worse, and I was already dying. I would not live long enough to see the wedding she had promised me.

I was pregnant with Alpha Jaxon's heir. His childhood friend, Hattie, volunteered to drive me to the Pack Medical Center for a checkup. On the bridge over Wolf’s Hollow River, she didn't hesitate. She yanked the steering wheel right into the rusty guardrail. I didn't fight her for the wheel like I did in my past life. Because in my last life, I stopped the crash, but she was thrown from the car into the rapids. They never found her body. My Alpha claimed he didn't blame me. He even ground evening primrose by hand every day to soothe the pup, his eyes full of tender anticipation for our baby. But on the day I gave birth to his heir, he forced me and our newborn pup into his car, slammed his foot on the gas, and drove us straight into the raging sea. "She wouldn't have died if you hadn't gone insane with jealousy and grabbed the wheel! Did you think playing the victim would fool me? " "You like staging 'accidents', don't you? Then let's see how you like the freezing depths of the river!" When I opened my eyes again, I was back in Hattie's out-of-control sports car.

Introduction My Alpha mate Ethan hated me for twelve years after his childhood sweetheart Ivy died. I tried everything to win him over but he would just sneer at me coldly. "I wish it had been you who died that day instead of her." When the rogue wolves attacked our territory, Ethan still threw himself in front of me. The silver blade meant for my heart pierced his chest instead. As his life slipped away, he stared at me with those piercing blue eyes, his voice barely a whisper. "If only... I had never met you." At the funeral, Ethan's parents—the former Alpha and his mate—wept uncontrollably. "I should have honored Ethan's choice to be with Ivy," his mother sobbed. "I never should have forced the mate bond between you and him!" The pack members surrounded me with accusing eyes and bitter words. "Alpha saved you three times! Three times!" one warrior snarled. "He was the best of us. Why couldn't it have been you who died?" Everyone regretted that Ethan had been bound to me as his mate. Even I regretted it. They drove me away from the funeral like a diseased animal. For three years, I howled my prayers to the Moon Goddess every night. Finally, the great Moon Goddess granted me something impossible—a second chance. I was back in the past. This time, I would cut every tie that bound Ethan and me together.

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.

Damon Westbrook was kidnapped and held in the mountains for three months, subjected to every kind of humiliation. Three hellish months ground away every bit of fight he had. After his rescue, he developed severe PTSD. He hurt himself. He tried to end his life. Nightmares came every night. Through it all, Eleanor Carrington never left his side, holding him and comforting him again and again. "Damon, I'll always be here. When you're better, we'll get married." To help him heal, Eleanor brought back Marcus Keane, a former upperclassman of hers in college, who was finishing his doctorate in psychology overseas. The first time Damon met Marcus, he seemed calm and gentle, considerate in every way. "Don't be afraid. Eleanor and I will make sure you recover completely." Damon was deeply grateful. He cooperated with every treatment. Even when the sessions left him wishing he were dead, he gritted his teeth and endured. He believed everyone was doing everything they could to save him. Until tonight. The sliding glass door to the balcony hadn't closed all the way, and two low voices carried clearly to him. Eleanor and Marcus. Marcus took out a cigarette, his tone light. "When my research hit a dead end, I had no choice but to come to you for help. I never expected—" Eleanor turned her back to the wind and lit it for him. "Once the experiment is done, your dissertation is guaranteed to win the top international award." Marcus exhaled a stream of smoke and chuckled. "I only said in passing that a real case would be nice. I never thought you'd arrange a kidnapping yourself—let alone the kidnapping of the man you're about to marry."

Conan Hamilton's true love secretly wears my wedding gown. She's pregnant, and she slips and falls when we argue. After being taken to the hospital, she's told that she'll never have another child. Conan is furious. He banishes me abroad to be a nun. A year later, he comes to the nunnery to take me home. However, all he finds is that I've long since broken free. I even have a child in my arms. His eyes are red as he snarls, "Are you trying to use the child to force me to marry you? Or do you just want to mock Queenie for not being able to bear children anymore?" He has no idea that the child isn't his. He also doesn't know that I'm about to marry someone else.

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.

My sister and I married into the Phoenix Clan at the same time and, coincidentally, gave birth at the same time. After my sister birthed a purebred golden phoenix, the eldest prince she married was immediately crowned the next leader of the Phoenix Clan. Meanwhile, I gave birth to a mixed-bred pheasant and was condemned to death along with my husband, who was the second prince. It was only after my death that I found out the pheasant was my sister’s child! It was a ploy concocted by her and the eldest prince. The goal was to hide the bastard bloodline of the eldest prince and steal the throne of the Phoenix Clan. When I opened my eyes again, I realized I had been reborn. I didn't give birth, and my sister was visiting me with a haul of supplements…

I gave up the chance to take over my family's business and spent ten whole years acting as a sports agent for my swimmer boyfriend, Nate. I stayed by his side from his early days to his rise to fame. He promised he would propose to me the day he won the world championship gold. The night of his victory dinner, I eagerly put on a wedding dress. I even invited all our close friends and family to the venue so they could witness the moment together. But as he stood under the spotlight, he looked right past me and his gaze landed on his younger teammate, Lexi, who was smiling brightly and clapping for him nearby. A reporter pushed through the crowd with a microphone and asked on the spot if he and Lexi were dating. Nate just smiled at the cameras and didn't deny a thing. Hearing the crowd around us cheering and swooning over them, I ripped off my veil, turned around, and walked out. I sent a text to my father asking him to send a car to take me home. I suddenly remembered that before he left, Nate had hugged me tightly. He said he wasn't in top form and was afraid of losing. He begged me not to go to the competition because he didn't want me to see him fail. In the end, he kept me away just so he could bring someone else. Whoever wants a man like this can have him. I am done.