Feel-Good Story Defy Fate 단편 소설 & 소설

I needed money, so I sold myself to that cold, handsome man for seven nights. He left behind a black card and an ice-cold eggshell, then vanished. Three months later, a doctor found six coiled serpentine shadows inside my womb. I discarded every trace of my identity and fled to a snowbound cabin, hoping to stay alive. But the day I gave birth alone in a blizzard, what crawled out weren't monsters. They were six babies with golden slit pupils who called me "Mama." My children were not priceless treasures. To the powerful guys, they were research subjects. To the other species, they were "filthy half-breeds." When cold needles pressed against all six of my children's chests, I heard the blast door torn from its frame. The man who had vanished three years ago stood in the smoke. Six golden threads glowed from his palm, each connected to a child, and black blood still seeped from the wounds he'd torn open breaking through the blockade. "Get your hands off my family."

The coming-of-age ceremony had barely ended when I received a prophecy crystal from my family. Inside it, I saw myself ten years from now. "Ella, stop trusting Noah." "He only applied for the Healing track to keep you tethered to him." "In the end, you became an ordinary wolf. You never got the chance to study the moon phases and prophecy again." I stared hard at the version of myself trapped in the crystal. "And Noah? His heart always leaned toward Mira. He said he loved you, but his love was the cage that trapped you." The crystal shattered. The vision ended. I ran back to the academy and found it. The contract Noah had submitted on my behalf. The one that would keep me on campus. I withdrew the application. Then I booked the earliest flight back to my family's pack. This time, I wasn't giving up my future for him.

On the day I was supposed to marry the man I loved, I found him in bed with my best friend. Before I could expose their betrayal, they revealed a horrifying truth. My best friend had introduced us, planned our relationship, and spent years helping him gain my trust. Their goal was simple—marry me, steal my inheritance, and get rid of me. Then they left me bleeding on the floor to die. As darkness swallowed me, I swore that if I ever got a second chance, I would make them pay for everything they had done. When I opened my eyes again, I was reborn back to one month before it all started. This time, I know every lie, I know every betrayal, and I know exactly who murdered me. Now it’s their turn to lose everything.

I had always been what you would call a slow person. Case in point: When I saw the stern-looking female CEO appearing in the financial news who looked just like my wife, it took me ages to finally realize it was truly her. Immediately after, a stream of comments highlighted in different colors overlaid my vision. [Oh my God! Julian Vance, the shameless supporting male lead, has finally shown up to stir the pot! Imagine dragging a child into this just to scam Ms. Eunice Latour, how disgusting!] [Didn’t he already make away with two million as compensation? Why is he back again? He must be sick in the head if he thinks that he can use his child as a pawn to get ahead in life!] [I can’t wait to see Mr. Carter put him in his place! Let the real male and female protagonists shine!] It took me half a minute before I finally wrapped my head around what they were saying. It seemed I had been in the world of a novel, one where I was cast as an evil supporting male lead whose main goal was to make the male and female protagonists look good. My wife was Eunice Latour, the female protagonist in question. One day, she went out to buy food for the baby, only to never return.

My fiancé, Alpha Theron, was the star player on the pack hockey team. Yet even as his mate, the pack mocked me as a fat pig that had wandered in among wolves. But when he was attacked, I was the one who stepped in front of him. Hockey sticks came down on my back and my shoulders. The pain cut to the bone, and I gritted my teeth and took it. That overweight body everyone despised was the only reason not one blow landed on him. It was also what finally made the old Luna nod and agree to let me marry into the family. But while I lay unconscious from my injuries, Theron announced that he would mark my stepsister Hannah, the cheer captain, instead. Not only that. Hannah posted videos online of the two of us practicing cheer routines together. "Who wants to watch a pig dance sexy? The Alpha had his reasons for turning her down." "Look at all that useless fat. Is that really a wolf?" Then, while the mockery was at its worst, she asked me to forgive her, as if none of it had been on purpose. When my heart was already ash, my father and my stepmother threw me out of the house. "All that fat, clumsy and ugly, and she cannot even hold on to her own mate." "She is that fat and still joined the cheer squad. Now the rest of us get mocked too. How humiliating!" As a rogue, I swallowed every kind of suffering there is. In one year I lost over a hundred pounds and became the brightest cheer sweetheart in the league. Then I turned around and cheered for the most valuable player on the ice. Theron heard about it and came running. He dropped to his knees with red eyes and clung to the hem of my skirt. "You were my love, my mate! What does that idiot who can only swing a stick have that I don't?"

I was reborn at the Sacred Mating Ceremony of Omega house, the day my sister, Lily, and I were picked up by our mates. I heard Lily think. [I have exchanged my token of love with Vanessa. The Golden Alpha becomes the King of the North. I’ll be Queen, and she can rot in the mud with the rogue.] That was when I realized I could hear people’s thoughts and that my sister, Lily, was also reborn. In my previous life, I was picked up by the Golden Alpha everyone envied since he was the Alpha of the wealthiest pack, while Lily ended up with the poor rogue Alpha who never achieved success. She lived in poverty and was later kicked out, only to collect scraps for her living. In this life, she changed our fate as she confidently stood by the Golden Alpha, Mathew's side. She wanted me to suffer the same fate she suffered in her last life. Starved and humiliated. I quietly walked up to the rogue Alpha, Gabriel, and stood by his side. I laughed inside. Does she really think that being poor is the worst thing that can happen? Then let us wait and see who has the last laugh.

On the day of my coming-of-age ceremony, I must choose a fiancé from among the heirs of three great families. Everyone believes I will choose Dario Morandi—the man I have pursued for years. Instead, I pick up the photograph of his older brother, Cassiano Morandi. Cassiano is known as the lunatic who was kidnapped by enemies at the age of five and thrown into an underground fighting pit. He survived on his own for ten years before the Morandis brought him back. No one thinks he is worthy of me, the Vito family's Principessa. In my previous life, I choose Dario. On our wedding day, Lina Greco—the daughter of Papa's chauffeur—shows up in a white wedding dress with her pregnant belly on display, crying as she claims the child is Dario's. Enraged, I have her thrown out. But amid the chaos, she suffers a miscarriage. Dario smiles and goes through with the wedding. But in the third year of our marriage, he steals classified intelligence and hands it over to my famiglia's enemies. I die that very night. Now that I have a second chance at life, I decide to fulfill his wish and let him be with Lina. What I never expect is that he has been reborn as well.

As the most powerful witch in the pack, I gritted my teeth and swallowed the poison before the new Luna's ascension, destroying my own gift of foresight. In my last life, I had divined that the new Luna was a spy sent by the vampires, and that she would bring about the pack's destruction. When I begged Alpha Hall to banish her, someone reported me for coveting the Luna position, accusing me of selfish motives. Alpha Hall led a search of my quarters, and somehow, a letter conspiring with vampires was found under my bed. The moment Luna saw it, she flung herself into Hall's arms and sobbed with wounded innocence: "Bella, I know you've been in love with our Alpha, but you can't just frame me because you're jealous!" Hall flew into a rage, declared me a liar and a threat, and ordered me nailed to the stake and burned alive. As the flames swallowed me, I saw Luna grinning at me, twisted and cruel, her lips parting to reveal the glint of vampire fangs. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day before Luna's binding ceremony. The very moment Hall commanded me to beseech the Moon Goddess's blessing for his beloved.

My sister, Sophie Shaw, had taken the civil service exam twice before. On her third try, she finally came in first in the entire city, beating the runner-up by a landslide. On the day I drove her to her interview, a car came barreling straight at her. By the time the ambulance arrived, it was already too late. In five short seconds, I watched Sophie go from alive and full of hope to completely still. In the end, our cousin Rachel Morgan, who had placed second, got the job. And the person behind the wheel was none other than another of my uncle's children, Yale Morgan. The car was fully insured, and the court ordered the insurance company to pay us one million dollars in compensation. I had lost everything that mattered to me. When Rachel's family threw her a party to celebrate getting the job, I stormed in and demanded an explanation. Instead, my mom, Megan Shaw, marched over and slapped me hard across the face. My aunt, Laura Morgan, and uncle, Daniel Morgan, immediately sided with her. "She's dead. There's nothing anyone can do about that now. Rachel is the one who's actually brought honor to this family. You can't blame us just because your sister had terrible luck!" Something inside me broke. I went upstairs and jumped. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the morning of Sophie's interview. This time, I immediately made her take a different car. The crash still happened.

I'm doing my hospital rounds in the middle of the night when my personal phone suddenly rings. I answer it, hearing a frantic woman's voice. "My husband is having a heart attack! Please hurry over and save him, Dr. Chapman!" I'm just about to ask for the address and leave when rows of comments suddenly pop up right in front of my eyes. [Don't go!] [Her husband is actually already long dead.] [She's left the doormat outside her door wet, just waiting for you to step on it.] [She'll insist her husband died because you attempted to save him the moment you enter the house.] I feel a chill spread through the back of my neck. On the other end of the line, the woman starts crying even harder. "Are you still on the line? My husband really isn't going to make it, Dr. Chapman!" I take a deep breath and say, "If your husband is having a heart attack, please call 911 first. I'm not allowed to treat patients privately outside the hospital."

In my previous life, Damian Valen, future Alpha to the Silver Moon Pack, plunged a dagger coated in silver salts and wolfsbane through his heart on the night of our mating ceremony. All he left behind was a bloodstained note. "I owe her grandfather my life; bonding with her was the only way I could repay that debt. "If I get another life, I would mark Selena, the woman I truly love." After that night, I became the scheming bitch who used a life-saving debt to drive off Selena Winter, the noble white wolf, and tear apart a pair of fated mates. On a night that had plunged to four below zero, the Valens threw me out of their stronghold wearing nothing but my thin ceremonial gown. By morning, every social media feed in the city was dragging my grandfather's name and mine through the mud. They said the Blackmoon witches were low-lives, forever reeking of herbs and old parchment. Someone like me could never be worthy of the future Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack. How ironic. The truth was, Grandpa had almost died saving Damian during the blood moon. He'd used forbidden magic to drag Damian back after his wolf lost control. Afterward, the Valens had practically begged me to marry into the family, swearing they'd take care of me for the rest of my life to repay the debt. Shattered, I wandered onto the highway at the foot of the mountain. The next thing I knew, a car slammed into me and sent me flying. Blackmoon witches weren't werewolves. We couldn't regenerate the way they could. As darkness closed in, I caught sight of a man and woman tangled together inside a black SUV parked in the distance. It was Damian and Selena. Now I had been given a second life. Mrs. Valen slapped a contract sealed with black wax across my grandfather's weathered face and let out a scornful laugh. "This is more than enough to buy the life of one old wizard. "Your death will buy your granddaughter a life of luxury as the Luna of the Silver Moon Pack. What are you waiting for? Go die already."

In my last life, I single-handedly wiped out a rival gang, winning great honor for the Family. My mother handed me control of her private arsenal, worth hundreds of millions. Before I could even take inventory, the convent orphan my family had adopted quietly changed the codes, and handed the entire shipment to homeless men in slums controlled by our enemies. Staring down my gun, she crossed herself, her face full of pity. "God tells us to love the world, Alessia. Sitting on all those instruments of murder is a sin. I am only atoning for you." I scoffed, but one second before I pulled the trigger, my childhood friend, the Family's top killer, shot the gun from my hand and denounced me as bloodthirsty, cruel, and incapable of empathy. My older brother, the new Don, only sneered and stripped me of my inheritance on the spot. He threw me into the lowest end of the red-light district to wash dishes until the violence had been ground out of me. That same night, addicts from the rival gang cornered me at the end of an alley, stabbed me more than twenty times, then dumped me into the Thames. I opened my eyes, and I was back on the day the orphan girl walked toward the arsenal with my key in her hand.

My daughter, Lilah Olson, was hit by a car and needed immediate medical attention. Instead of calling my surgeon wife, Elina Olson, I raced against the clock to find another doctor. In my previous life, Lilah and Elina’s first love, Nolan Hicks, were involved in car accidents at the same time. I called Elina first and begged her to operate on Lilah. She rushed over to perform the surgery, only to miss Nolan’s desperate call for help. Elina didn’t blame me. Instead, she comforted me, saying that everyone had their own fate. That was until our third wedding anniversary. She slipped sleeping pills into my water and replaced Lilah’s calcium supplements with rat poison. She grabbed me by the hair and forced me to stay conscious, making me watch as she hacked Lilah’s corpse to pieces, blow after blow, until it was nothing but bloody pulp. Then she used a scalpel to slash open my major artery and stabbed me more than a thousand times. “If it weren’t for you two, Nolan wouldn’t have died!” When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Lilah was hit by the car.

The night before I was due to leave the pack, the Alpha was struck by the heat poison. As his personal doctor, I broke it the only way I could, with my own body. The next morning, the old Luna came to find out what had happened. In my last life, I stepped forward and admitted it was me, shy and ashamed. The Alpha marked me himself and made me the pack's new Luna. After that, he let the pack fall to ruin, and gave up the peace alliance with a neighboring pack all for my sake. The whole pack cursed me for bewitching their Alpha. But I knew the truth. Every bit of his devotion was a lie. The one he truly wanted to mark was Cassia Lowe, the nurse who worked under me. For years she had his heart and his love, and every night I lay awake with the sound of the two of them through the wall. It left me sitting alone until dawn. Maybe the Moon Goddess took pity on me, because I woke again on the very day the old Luna came with her questions. This time, I stood quietly at the back of the room. Cassia stepped forward, soft and sweet, and claimed that night as her own. I swallowed the potion that hid the mate bond, nodded along, and agreed. “She was the one on night duty at the villa. It has to be her.”

On my 28th birthday, Carl Thorne asked me to meet him at the Moon Goddess statue. He specifically told me to wear a wedding dress and said he was finally going to keep his promise and mark me. But when I arrived in my wedding dress, its train trailing behind me, he turned to the crowd and laughed. "See? I don't even have to mark her. One word from me, and she'll come running. I win. The hunting grounds are mine." Then he raised an eyebrow at me. "Vera, I was only joking. The pack still sees you as their Luna, mark or no mark." When I remained silent, Carl grinned. "If you're so desperate to be marked, why not pick someone here?" The crowd burst out laughing. Everyone knew I was Carl's fated mate, that I was hopelessly in love with him and would never choose another. But when I took my new husband's hand and completed the marking ceremony, Carl went white and froze where he stood.

When I'm eight years old, my dad gets remarried. Then, when my stepmother gets pregnant, she decides I'm an eyesore. Dad shoves a train ticket into my hand. "I can't afford to raise you anymore. Your aunt's working down south. Go to her." I don't even remember what my aunt, Ava Shore, looks like anymore. All I know is that she left home at 18 and cut contact with Dad years ago. I spend a day and a night on that train, getting more scared by the minute. What if Aunt Ava doesn't want me, either? When I finally step off the train and exit the station, I'm greeted by an MPV. The door swings open, and a woman with big, blown-out curls and sunglasses steps out in high heels. "So you're the daughter my brother decided he didn't want?" I nod, clutching the straps of my duffel in a death grip. She crouches and studies me carefully. "Your hair's a mess. You look like some neglected stray." Before I can respond, a boy about my age pops his head out from behind her. "Mom, she looks awful." Aunt Ava immediately reaches back and twists his ear. "Say that again if you have the guts. If anyone at your school even thinks about bullying her, I'm coming for you first." The boy bares his teeth and hisses in pain, but he still reaches out and takes my duffel from me. A warm southern breeze washes over me, and tears form in my eyes. Suddenly, I don't feel so scared anymore.

A man by the name of Michael Burke shows up one day. He gathers four of us who had grown up in the orphanage and introduces himself as the secretary to John Ferguson, the richest man in town. According to him, John's real son had been mistakenly switched as a baby 20 years ago. Anyone who can prove that he's the long-lost son will get to inherit the Ferguson family's entire billion-dollar fortune. The first time around, Luke Carter, ever the manipulative schemer, tricks me into handing over the locket I've had since arriving at the orphanage. He uses it to prove his identity to the Fergusons, but they end up ripping him into pieces. "You're a fake!" Somehow, the four of us are reborn after that. This time, Simon Davis, whose friendship was superficial at best, gets a tattoo of my birthmark and uses that to claim that he's the Fergusons' long-lost son. They end up skinning him alive. "We know you're a fake!" Third time isn't the charm. Tom Egan, my archrival, takes out a loan and pays for plastic surgery to give himself a face that resembles Mrs. Ferguson's. However, the Fergusons throw him into a cage and let a ferocious dog maul him to death. In our fourth life, all three of them are too scared to usurp my identity. They immediately deliver me right to the Fergusons' doorstep. When everyone sees the DNA report that proves I'm the Fergusons' long-lost son, they think that their nightmare has finally ended. But on my very first night back home, the Fergusons push me off the balcony. "Anyone who tries to steal our son's identity deserves to die!" … My eyes open yet again. Michael is standing in front of us, smiling as he asks which one of us is the Fergusons' son. Everyone backs away in horror, insisting that it's not them. "But we've already looked into it. We know that the family's long-lost son grew up in this orphanage," Michael says, his voice strangely ominous.

As one of the country's top high school teachers, I have helped countless students get into the best colleges. But I somehow find myself reborn as a poor kid from the countryside while attending a ceremony honoring my achievements. A mysterious voice echoes in my mind. "If you fail to get into college, you'll die!" How hard can that be? It's just getting into college. That's hardly a challenge for a genius like me. But soon I realize that getting into college isn't really about how smart you are. In the end, it all comes down to people and their motives.

I'm a healer. And I've been given a second chance. I'd barely opened my eyes on the border battlefield when the emergency transmission crackled through from the Healers' Guild. "Ivy Mitchell—get to the infirmary, now. The Alpha's been hit bad. You're the only one who can save him." The words hit me like a punch to the chest. Because I'd read this exact message before. In my last life. Last time, I'd dropped everything and rushed back the second I got the call. But by the time I reached the infirmary, the Alpha was already dead. And then—every healer in that room, including my own parents and my sister—pointed at me and screamed that I'd murdered him. The Tribunal sentenced me to death. The pup I'd raised? They tossed him to the vampires like scraps. Made him a blood thrall. My nails bit into my palms so hard they nearly drew blood. Not this time. I wasn't about to let history repeat itself. Then I remembered—something else had happened on this day, last time around. The Alpha King had been ambushed by vampires and left in a death-like coma. If I saved him, I'd have the most powerful wolf in the realm as my shield. No one would ever dare touch me again. I squeezed my eyes shut, ground my teeth—and ran. I found him on the battlefield, right where I remembered. The vampire was already lunging, claws out. I didn't think. I just moved—shoved the Alpha King aside and took the hit myself.

At a company party, I catch our manager drugging a female coworker's drink and call the police to save her. But the next day, she shows up with the police and accuses me of drugging her and trying to rape her. She even claims our manager was the one who saved her. The police take me in for questioning, and before long, I'm being branded a rapist all over the internet. My company fires me to distance itself from the scandal. Even after I'm cleared of all charges, my life is a mess. I've lost my job, and the online harassment gets so bad that my mother ends up in intensive care. When I confront my coworker, Katherine Miller, about what she's done to me, she doesn't feel the least bit guilty. "I never asked you to save me. You're the one who decided to stick your nose where it didn't belong. Whatever happened to you is your own problem. "I worked hard to land this job. I'm not going to risk getting fired just because you decided to piss off my manager." Then our manager comes out shirtless, puts his arm around her, and gives me a smug look. "You were too stupid to know your place. Of course you got fired. Getting rid of someone like you would be as easy as squashing a bug." I'm so furious that I pass out. But when I open my eyes, I'm back on the day of the company party.