Homewrecker Familial Bond Short Stories & Novels

A typhoon warning had been issued. I drove out to pick up my mother, who lived by the coast. My car broke down halfway there. I called my boyfriend fifty-eight times, and every single one was declined. The rain kept getting heavier. No rescue services were available, and the water was rising. My hands were shaking so badly that all I could do was get Mom to a nearby bus shelter. That was when I scrolled past a Facebook post from my boyfriend's assistant, Megan. "Derek is such a sweetheart. Spent two hours searching, and the little stray finally has a home." In the photo, Derek was at Megan's place, giving a stray cat a bath. I looked at my mother, soaked to the bone, and a wave of hurt washed over me. By the time evening fell, my boyfriend finally called back, but the wind was so strong that the signal kept cutting in and out. I was about to ask him to come get us when his voice crackled through the receiver, broken up by static. "Don't let your mom... the seafood... mess up the car." Before I could say a word, he hung up. The rescue team arrived. As we climbed in, Mom was still shivering, fretting over the seafood that had spoiled during the delay. I picked up the bag and tossed it into the trash. If it's spoiled, there's no point keeping it. Same goes for people.

My baby brother was barely a month old when my father's mistress threw him off the upstairs balcony to his death. Then she turned around and said my mother had done it. And my father, the Don, took the mistress at her word and had my mother killed. That woman framed me too, and I was cast out of the house. For the next fifteen years, I clawed my way up through begging and reckless grit, until I became the Donna of the Vanetti family. Then one day, my adopted son Daniel Vanetti brought his new girlfriend to meet me. "Mother, this is Via, the Principessa of the Vitale family. I want to marry her." I looked at Via. Her face was the spitting image of my father's mistress. What a small world. The daughter of the woman who killed my mother had walked right up to my door. So I refused without a second's hesitation. "I don't approve."

On the day I'm sentenced to death, my parents, Herbert Meyer and Aileen Wagner, hold a press conference to announce their adopted son, Justin Meyer, as Meyer Corporation's new successor. My sister, Tiana Meyer, and Justin get engaged, and they finally become a real family. As for me, I've exposed Justin for who he really is, only to be branded an ingrate and disowned by my own family. After being reborn, I no longer want their love. I live only for myself.

My father hated me. He said I could never measure up to my sister. He also said I was the one who had killed my mother and destroyed the happy family of three they should have had. Every year on the anniversary of Mom's death, Dad took only my sister to visit her grave. On my eighteenth birthday, I was hospitalized for a heart condition. I called him as carefully as if I were asking for something unforgivable. His voice turned hard. “Today is your mother's death anniversary, and you chose now to pretend you're sick? What are you trying to pull?” My sister's voice drifted through the phone. “Maybe Stella thinks that if she gets sick, you'll love her the way you loved Mom.” She knew exactly where to strike. Dad hung up without another word and blocked my number. What he didn't know was that this was the last chance I would ever give him. My maternal grandmother had been waiting for me to come home and inherit everything she had left for my mother—including the companies she had once funded for my father.

The day of my mating ceremony with Alpha Kian, I arrived at the lake house villa—the venue we had chosen for our sacred ritual. My heart was pounding with anticipation. But when I pushed the doors open, the place was completely empty. I quickly mind-linked my parents. "Where is everyone? I'm at the villa, but it's empty. And my gown is gone." There was a heavy silence before my mother finally answered. "Freya... we temporarily changed the location." "Without telling me? Why?" "Isolde's wolf is fading," my father chimed in. "She is dying. Her last wish is to wear the Luna crown for just one day. So, we are holding the ceremony for her instead." "Freya, you're her only sister. Be the bigger person. Just let her have this." Even Kian, my Alpha, tried to soothe me over the link. "Don't worry, Freya. It's just a ceremony for her. A trick for the Moon Goddess. It'll just block our mate bond for a little while. We can have our real ceremony anytime after she's stable." I refused. It was insane. "You're being unreasonable, Freya," Kian sighed impatiently. "Just stay at the lake house and calm down." Then, they cut the mind-link completely. I was left all alone in the abandoned villa. Then the Rogues attacked. Wolfsbane burned the air. It choked my wolf. I couldn't scream. I couldn't fight. In desperation, I used our mate bond. I reached out to Kian with everything I had left. He just sighed through the bond. He thought I was throwing a tantrum over the ceremony. Then he severed the bond completely. When their fake ceremony was over, they finally remembered me. But all they found on the villa floor… was my body. Torn to shreds by Rogues.

Despite being a healthy werewolf, I had terrible night blindness. The moment the sun went down, I couldn't see a thing. On the night of my sister's birthday, my parents booked the best restaurant in town to celebrate. After dinner, she suddenly said she wanted to walk home. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to see the road, so I tried to turn her down. My future mate, Theodore, cut me off. He told me it was Willow's birthday and I should let her have her way. Then he promised he'd hold my hand the whole way and told me not to be scared. I finally agreed. I never noticed the knowing look Theodore and my sister exchanged. Before long, we turned into a dark alley. I could no longer see where I was going, so I clung to Theodore's sleeve, too afraid to let go. A few steps later, there was suddenly nothing beneath my foot. I lost my balance and fell straight into a creek beside the road. The next second, four phone flashlights swung onto me and the laughter broke out all at once. That was when I realized Theodore had slipped out of his jacket without me noticing. I had been holding on to an empty jacket the whole time. My parents laughed and pointed at me while Willow took pictures of me at my worst. My future mate stood beside her, holding her carefully so she wouldn't lose her balance. It was obvious now. They had used the mind-link to plan the whole prank without me knowing. At that moment, I no longer wanted to call this place home. There was no warmth here for me anyway.

In my fifth year of serving the Moon Goddess on behalf of the pack, the mother-and-child necklace around my neck suddenly shattered. It had been passed down from one Luna to the next, carrying the bond between mother and child. When the mother's half breaks, it means the child is dead. Something had happened to my daughter. I gathered the broken pieces in my hands and saw a vision of her final moments. She lay facedown on the ground, her body covered in wounds, repeating the same words over and over: "Mom, it hurts so much." I could hear the werewolves around her laughing. "Poor thing. The Luna's been gone for years, and things have only gotten worse for her daughter. Now she's been poisoned with wolfsbane, and she can't even get the antidote." "That's what she gets for not being able to have pups. She can't give the Alpha an heir, and she can't even keep her mate, Mark, interested in her." "The Alpha's bloodline can't be allowed to die out. If she can't give him an heir, then naturally, that responsibility falls to Faye. She has Alpha blood too, after all." "Honestly, the wolfsbane is a blessing. Mark is the son-in-law the Alpha chose himself. Once she's gone, he can take Faye as his mate and give the pack an heir with Alpha blood." The voices cut off, and a chill ran through me. Five years ago, for the sake of the pack, I'd agreed to my mate Lucas's request and secluded myself on Moon Goddess Mountain to serve the Moon Goddess. He'd promised to take care of our only daughter. By the time I came home, I'd be a grandmother. Instead, he used her inability to have pups as an excuse and turned a blind eye while Mark slept with Faye, Lucas's niece and the daughter of his widowed sister-in-law, Mina. When my daughter was poisoned with wolfsbane, he stood by and watched her die. I felt her wolf fading, along with the pup inside her. Tears slipped down my cheeks. I raised my hand and shattered the crystal pillar. It had taken five years of offerings and was almost ready

After the SAT, Mom and Dad give Henry Simpson, my brother, a Rolex. I, on the other hand, receive nothing but the missing admission ticket. Dad says, "I found your admission ticket under the couch last night, Gavin. It's too bad you couldn't take the SAT with Henry this year, but don't beat yourself up because of this. You should just treat this admission ticket as a lesson to be more careful when you retake the SAT next year." The admission ticket before me carries a subtle scent, a smell that belongs exclusively to Mom and Dad's closet. Dad continues, "You have nothing to worry about, Gavin. I'll give you a watch too once you retake the SAT next year and get accepted into a good university." I laugh under my breath in disbelief. They are telling me to retake the SAT, not knowing that I have already received guaranteed admission to Crestvale University. I only registered for the SAT this time to accompany Henry and go through the motions so that he wouldn't feel insecure or mess up his test scores. If Mom and Dad are willing to hide my admission ticket for Henry's sake, then I no longer care about the so-called family bond between us.

After my scores were revealed to be the highest in the city, I was holding the report in my hand as I happily returned home to tell my family. However, before I reached home, I unexpectedly got a call—it was from myself, four years into the future. I was stunned to see how terrible I looked in the future, but I remained hopeful like a kid seeing candy. "Are you really me from four years into the future? Will our parents finally be proud of me and love me like they love Yohan?" Future Me was laughing so hard that he teared up. "Never tell them about your scores! They'll never be proud of you—all they care about is Yohan, and they will force you to give up your results because he fell short!" I felt a chill run down my spine, but it was true. After my parents found me and took me home, they took Yohan to luxury restaurants while making me eat cold leftovers, saying that my stomach was weak after being homeless for so long—that good food would be wasted on me. I naively thought that success would bridge the gap between us and earn me fairness, but as it turned out, blood connections couldn't win against companionship. And hearing what my own parents did for Yohan, I folded my report neatly before sliding it deep into my pocket. Since they wanted to treat me like a tool, I had no reason to tell them that I made it into Jogen University.

After I quit my job to become a full-time househusband, my wife, Brooke Lowell, left me with nothing but a bank card capped at 1,000 dollars a month. She said children had to be raised with hardship to grow up strong, and was always worried I might secretly give our daughter special treatment. But 1,000 dollars was nowhere near enough to cover a household's monthly expenses. Every time the kindergarten asked for nutrition fees, I could only swallow my pride and beg for leniency. "She's just a child. Why does she need that much money? You've got some nerve, living so comfortably on 1,000 a month." I had thought Brooke's harshness was meant to temper our daughter's character. That illusion lasted until I asked Brooke for 300 dollars to buy clothes for our daughter's Children's Day performance. What I received instead was humiliation and ridicule from everyone. Brooke accused me of acting like a spoiled rich kid, wasting money on unnecessary clothes. My mother-in-law complained that I dressed too poorly, like a beggar bringing shame to the family. Even my daughter blamed me for embarrassing her, saying I had ruined her Children's Day and damaged her props. I bowed my head, apologized, and paid compensation. Only then did I discover that my bank card had been frozen. The very next moment, Brooke's crush posted on social media about his son receiving a luxury mansion. 'Already a house-owner at three! Who'd believe she's not his birth mother?' Only then did I understand. People who truly loved someone would never be stingy when spending on them.

During the university’s hundred-year anniversary celebration, my daughter was cast as the lead in a play. A certain female classmate who had always been jealous of her conspired with others to swap out the safety cables. Halfway through the performance, the cable snapped, and my daughter fell from a great height. She bled to death on the spot. I rushed onto the stage in a frenzy, but my daughter’s advisor and others held me down with all their might. My wife was heartbroken. In front of the media cameras, she wiped away her tears. “My husband had been so desperate for our daughter to become famous that he secretly changed the safety wire to a thinner one...” Amid a storm of online abuse, I jumped to my death, filled with bitterness. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back on the day of the anniversary celebration. Without a word, I immediately withdrew my daughter from school and locked her at home. That evening, I sat in the audience at the school anniversary gala. When it was time for the final play, the female lead wore my daughter’s costume and took the stage. My heart sank, and I looked around. The group that had bullied my daughter was sitting in the row in front of me. So, who exactly was the person hanging in midair right then, wearing my daughter’s costume?

I was the Blackwell family's real heir, lost as a child and recovered only five years ago. After Grandfather's will left me the controlling shares, the adopted son, Damian, jumped into the pool himself and swore I'd pushed him. My parents never bothered to check. They shipped me overnight to the poorest mining belt in Kembala. Three years later, my father called me for the first time. "Damian isn't angry anymore." "Blackwell Forge Holdings is short on cash." "Crawl back here and marry into Gloria Dane's household in Damian's place, so she'll invest in us." I laughed. Gloria Dane was an old woman pushing sixty. What a devoted father he was. But they didn't know that during those three years, I'd quietly built the largest private financial network in the world, the Obsidian Crown Consortium. Now they were days from bankruptcy and still wanted to trade me for money. Fine. I'd been looking for a reason to go back and settle every account.

The day I married Dante Moretti, I became the youngest Donna in New York. He took the Family seal from me and put the Family's ledgers and vault keys in the hands of his Underboss Valentina. She was his second-in-command and his lover. Even as Donna, I needed her signature before I could spend a dollar of the Family's money. Then Beatrice Moretti, Dante's mother and the former Donna, was attacked outside a church. The secret clinic demanded half a million dollars in cash before they would operate. I couldn't reach Dante, so I had to go to Valentina for access to the emergency vault. She sat behind Dante's desk, painting her nails. "You want money? Kneel, kiss my instep, and submit a request form." I did as I was told. Because my mother-in-law was lying on that operating table, and she was the only person who had ever treated me like a daughter. Valentina deliberately spilled coffee on the form and tore it to pieces. Not long after, the church bells tolled for the dead. And Dante, with his arm around Valentina, asked, "It's your mother who died. Why should we pay for her?"

I’m the long-lost true daughter of the Alpha and Luna of the Silver Moon Pack, but five years ago, my own parents had me thrown in prison. All because their adopted daughter, Grace, lied and said she saw me meeting secretly with a wolf from a rival pack. They ignored my pleas and branded me a traitor. Five years later, at a pack gathering, I ran into my parents and Grace again. They were dressed to the nines, dripping in jewels, while I was in casual clothes, without even a necklace. A flicker of pity crossed my parents' eyes. "Amelia, come back to us. We can find a stable job for you in the pack. It would be better than the hard life you're living now." Grace chimed in with fake kindness, "Yes, sister. Our estate needs a gardener." I refused. My mother frowned. "Are you still holding a grudge? What we did was for the good of the pack. We weren't favoring Grace..." I laughed. "You're reading too much into it. It's nothing." They don't know that after I left them, I didn't just survive. I built my own pack. That I've become the most mysterious and legendary female Alpha in North America.

After five years of keeping the demon sealed away, I finally saw my sister again—inside a coffin, her body mangled beyond recognition. The men carrying the coffin were whispering to each other. "She died like this, and nobody even investigated? Isn't her brother-in-law some big shot?" "Shh! She's only his sister-in-law. How could she matter more than his new lover? Mr. Smith even helped cover the whole thing up!" "His ex-wife has been dead for five years. Ms. Sophia runs the house now!" "They say the wedding is tomorrow, and it's going to be huge!" For five years, I'd stayed in a graveyard, keeping a demon sealed away for my husband, Victor Smith. Meanwhile, he'd found another woman to replace me. Worse, he'd stood by while she erased every trace of my existence and tortured my only sister for years. When my sister finally tried to escape and come looking for me, Sophia ran her over and killed her. I stroked what remained of my sister's face and smiled. I'd given up everything to protect Victor. This was how he repaid me. Fine. Then I'll stop protecting him. It's time to let the demon have him.

The pack knew my mother, Wynne Carter, a renowned pack healer, as the very definition of fairness. To avoid any accusation of favoritism, she once had me removed from the emergency ward while I was suffering from a severe allergic reaction, all because she couldn’t let her own daughter take medical resources away from other pack members. Even when I invited her to the academy’s open day, she turned me down because my instructor was pregnant. She reprimanded me sternly, “Get those funny ideas out of your head. My position is not a way for you to get special treatment from your instructors.” I had always believed my mother was merely strict. Then, the fire happened. My adopted sister, Lena Sylan Carter, and I, who was five months along, were taken to the pack infirmary. My mother walked straight past me while I clutched my belly in agony. She assembled the infirmary’s best healers around Lena, all to treat a minor burn to the back of her hand. “Lena is just a fragile human. She doesn’t have healing powers. Even a small wound could become infected or leave a scar. “Odette Carter, you’re my flesh and blood. If I were to give you priority, the elders will have something to say about that. “Why are you making this about yourself and competing with Lena for attention? You’re about to become a mother yourself. It’s time you grew up!” I grabbed desperately at her pant leg, only for her to shake me off in annoyance and walk away. Little did she know, my wolf had been severely injured. My healing ability was gone. Blood ran down my legs, and the pain in my abdomen shifted into hollow numbness. The truth that my mother wasn’t impartial sank in. I simply wasn’t the one she favored. My vision blurred. I knew that I didn’t have much time left.

At the reunion dinner, my adopted brother, Isaac Johnson, whispers in my ear, "The Johnson family only needs one son. You're just a country bumpkin. We don't need you here." I think he's right. So, I run straight into traffic at the intersection. My family is terrified. They rush over and manage to pull me back from the road. My sister, Rebecca Johnson, turns pale with anger and warns me not to upset Isaac again. I obediently nod. Then, late that night, I turn on the gas and leave a suicide note. "It's my fault for upsetting Isaac. I'll take the whole family to heaven with me. None of us will ever have to suffer again." My family stares at me as if I've gone mad. Later, at a party, Isaac and his friends push me into the pool. But I don't struggle. I simply let myself sink slowly to the bottom. Isaac panics and has no choice but to jump in and pull me out again. "Idiot! What if you really drowned? Mom and Dad would hate me! Couldn't you at least struggle?" What he doesn't know is that I've fought back before. But every time, it only ended with me dying a horrible death. This is my tenth time being reborn. This time, I just want to die.

Our family road trip ended in a cliffside plunge. The Moon Goddess told us that to survive, we must enter the werewolf world and conquer the cruelest Alpha in existence. Only by obtaining the Alpha’s "Token of the Blood Oath" could our family be reborn. My cousin Chloe, brimming with confidence, chose the identity of the "Savior." She attempted to replicate the "White Moonlight"—the lost love—from the Alpha's memories. Meanwhile, the "Spectators" from this world were blowing up the chat stream: "This family is interesting. Much smarter than the last batch." "As long as one of them gets the Token, they all resurrect. I’m betting on the blonde hottie." "For sure. The way that Alpha looks at her? His favorability is already maxed out." Just when we thought victory was in the bag, the next day brought devastating news. The first batch of family members who entered the instance were wiped out. And Cousin Chloe died the most gruesome death of them all. The tone of the chat instantly shifted to mockery and ridicule: "LMAO. Did they really think this was some fluffy romance novel? That’s the Rogue King who crawled out of a pile of corpses." "Forget his 'White Moonlight.' He wouldn't hesitate to kill his own Fated Mate."

After coming back home for the family gravesite visit over the holiday weekend, I was busy loading all the luggage and supplies into the car. That's when my mom casually dropped, "There's no more room in the car — you'll have to call an Uber and meet us back." I just stood there for a second. It's a five-seater, and with my parents, my older brother, my younger sister, and me, that's exactly five people. My brother Derek and sister Chloe were already in the back, laughing and goofing around together. My mom shrugged and said, "The back seat's too small — three people would be cramped. You came back on short notice this time, and your brother and sister need to rest." At that point, I stopped overthinking it and just rolled with it.

I’m the Blackthorn family’s top surgeon and their “cleaner.” I’ve handled countless messes for Evan Blackthorn. I was also his secret lover for five years. He was inside me more times than I can count, holding me tight as I came apart, kissing me with an obsession for my body he never bothered to hide. It all ended after sex one night, when he said with a casual laugh, “I should get a wife, Rachel.” “And maybe you should find a good man and get married, too.” I wasn’t angry. I just quietly said, “Okay.” In my last life, I insisted on staying by his side. It got me both my hands broken, my career as a surgeon shattered. In the end, during a raid by a rival family, he left me behind as bait, holding his brother’s widow, Sofia, tenderly in his arms. So this time, I learned my lesson. I stayed away from him. Found a new man, just like he wanted. But this time, the always cool and calculated Mafia Don lost his mind.