Plot Twists Short Stories & Childhood Sweethearts Contract Marriage Novels

"How can there be a perfect choice in this world—one that betrays neither the Sandharan Order nor the one you love?" It's a romantic line, but it has nothing to do with Rosalie Stone. Her fiance, Bradley Wakefield, is a man revered like Sandhara himself, but it's not because of her that he leaves the Sandharan Order. She thinks he will never fall in love. But later, she learns that it's just her that he won't fall for. And so, she gives up on him. She gives herself seven days to forget about Bradley.

In the seventieth year of my marriage to Adrian, the whole world still believed we were the most devoted vampire couple alive. In the documentary, he looked at me across old footage that spanned half a century and told everyone, "After I met my wife, I finally understood that even immortality can make you feel there isn't enough time." He confessed his love for me. He said he wanted every tomorrow I had. But that same night, I received a video. In a dim hotel corridor, my husband had a young human woman pinned against the wall, his head bent to bite the side of her neck. She asked him whether he was going home to me that night. Adrian kissed the blood from the corner of her lips and answered gently, "I'm yours until sunrise." Later he knelt in front of me and explained that the woman was only a brief diversion in his long life. She would age. She would die. And I was his only wife, the one he wanted to keep beside him forever. He thought that as long as eternity belonged to me, handing a few nights to someone else did not count as betrayal. But he had forgotten. On the day I agreed to marry him, I told him plainly, I could stand beside him through poverty, war, silver, and death. The one thing I could not accept was a third person entering our marriage. One betrayal, and there would never be a second chance. Adrian did not believe I would really go. He thought seventy years of knowing each other was enough to earn my forgiveness, and he thought we had endless time, enough to start over as many times as he liked. Until I left the divorce papers behind, took everything that was mine, and never looked back. Then a year passed. Ten years passed. A hundred years passed. I built a whole life that had nothing to do with him. And that vampire duke, who would not age and would not easily die, stayed alone in the long night. He could have everything. He would never have my love again.

I was always sick as a kid. My parents were desperate. They’d try anything. So they got me a bunch of "guardian angels." Next thing I know, I'm set up and tossed into a horror game. Turns out, Medusa is my godmother. The ghost girl? My childhood playmate. And the final boss, a vampire? He's my fiancé. The first time we met, I was in a blind panic. I tripped and fell right onto his chiseled chest. "Oh—I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking—" I gasped, looking up at him. The words tumbled out in a rush. "And you're really handsome—but I didn't mean to fall on you! I have a heart condition!" The boss let out a laugh. He wiped the blood from his hands and swept me up into his arms. "Don't you worry," he purred, his voice dangerously smooth. "As your fiancé, I promise... I'll fix you right up."