Cerita Pendek & Novel Love after Marriage

After my parents died in battle saving the Alpha, Theron Blackwood, the Blackmane Pack took me in as an orphan. To repay them for saving his life, Alpha Theron laid down a rule: whoever became my mate would be the next Alpha. Growing up, I always believed that person would be Damian Blackwood. He was Alpha Theron's chosen heir and the man who had pulled me away from Redfang's silver blades twelve years earlier. I loved him, loved him enough to believe him without question, no matter what he said or did. But on the night of the blood moon, when the groom who looked exactly like Damian pushed back his hood, I instinctively reached for the mole at the corner of his eye. The ink wasn't dry yet. The mole smeared. I froze, realizing that the man at the altar, the man who had just exchanged vows with me, was not Damian. He was Damian's youngest uncle, Adrian Blackwood, identical to him except for the missing mole at the corner of his eye. Damian had thrown our mating contract, and me, to someone else. He was certain I loved him more than life itself, certain he could switch everything back before long. But this time, I was done bending to his will. So the first thing I did that night was wipe away the painted mole, along with twelve years of love.

Seven days left until I leave my Alpha husband, Leon Gray. Next Sunday at 9:00 am, my petition for forced mate bond dissolution automatically takes effect at Werewolf City Hall. I'll drop off my Luna badge, grab my healer license, and board a noon flight to Bordevia. This time, it's a one-way ticket. Leon has no idea. He's too busy setting up a foundation for his fallen comrade's sister. He always says she's lost too much, and he can't let her down again. So, all these years, I'm the one who handles the pack's calls for help and pulls all-nighters tweaking treatment plans. Even the reinstatement review he promised to attend with me becomes something he can put off without a second thought. I always assume he just forgets that I get hurt too. Until I see the email sent directly from his account. Turns out the admission letter I spent a whole year waiting for isn't something I lost out on. He turned it down on my behalf. He says he loves me and can't stand the thought of coming home to an empty house every day. Well, in seven days, he gets to sit alone with the wedding ring I leave behind and finally learn what it feels like to wait for someone who isn't coming back.

After getting laid off, I found a new job. I married a woman who was in a coma and became the live-in son-in-law of a wealthy family. In return, my mother-in-law gave me a million dollars a month. However, one day, my comatose wife opened her eyes, and I could hear her thoughts. She thought, ‘Where did Mom find this ugly, dumb guy?’

The Silvermoon Pack's white wolves must cross the Moon River to seal their bond. The female lies in the moon boat, and her future mate must hold the rope with his own hands and drag her across the river himself. Otherwise, the white wolf is sent to the Frozen Peaks to bond with the Alpha King, and never leave again. The one who was supposed to pull me across was Gabriel Hale. He's the Alpha of the Frostwood Pack, and my destined mate since we were pups. Our families have intermarried for generations, but he swore to me that marking me was about love. He said I was the Moon Goddess's most perfect blessing to him. On the day of the crossing ceremony, I waited in the pack grounds, giddy with joy. I waited three days and three nights. What I got was news that he'd given Selena, his Beta, a temporary mark. He came back to explain. Said Selena's wolf was weak, that the temporary mark was to save her. But the truth? His heart had already drifted to her without him even noticing. He didn't know I'd already made up my mind to bond with the Alpha King. The forever Gabriel promised, I'm not waiting for it anymore. In three days, I leave for the Frozen Peaks.

In the five years of their marriage, Kimberly bore a son for Daniel, believing their life together would last. Then Siena returned to the country. Kimberly finally realized she was nothing but an outsider the whole time. Daniel repeatedly chose Siena over her, and even her son grew attached to Siena. Fortunately, their marriage was just a contract, and in seven days, she would be free to leave.

I'd known Ethan for twenty years. We'd been together for five. Everyone was certain that at the Rose Crown Gala, I would place the crown in his hands and publicly confirm our engagement, sealing the alliance between our families. But when I walked onto the stage, the person standing beside him was my adopted sister, Claire. She wore a custom white gown, my mother's missing rose diamond ring glinting on her finger. Behind them, the screen that should have displayed my name alongside Ethan's had been changed to theirs. The most laughable part? They'd been together behind my back for six months. My father ordered me in front of every guest, "Give Claire the crown. We'll discuss this at home!" They wanted to throw me out of my own family. My crown was tossed aside and landed in the arms of a mud-streaked stranger the guards had mistaken for a homeless man. I didn't hesitate. I pulled off my engagement gloves and walked up to him. "Will you marry me?" But after marrying that homeless stranger, I became the most powerful woman in the country.

Silas Grant and I are renowned in our social circle for being a loving couple. However, a month before our wedding, he calls everything off. He wants to marry the poor student that my parents have been sponsoring. I demand an explanation. He says to me, "Vivian will have to marry that cripple if I don't marry her. You're the kindest person I know, Serena. I'm sure you can understand why I'm doing this." "Fine, then," I say. Silas leans down to kiss my cheek. He holds me happily and says, "I knew you'd agree to this. Don't worry, okay? I'll divorce her once this matter is settled." I push him away lightly and wipe his saliva from my cheek. Then, I pull out an invitation from my pocket. He takes it. His smile freezes when he sees the names on the invitation.

The moment I opened the door, I never imagined that my fiancé would be in bed with my best friend, both of them wearing nothing. I went absolutely crazy and charged toward them, wanting nothing more than to kill the two of them. But my fiancé shoved me to the floor and, turning it around, blamed me instead. "Rosalind," he sneered, "if you hadn't been so self-righteous and refused to sleep with me, I wouldn't have cheated!" Fine. Since he no longer wanted me, I married his older brother. On the day of the wedding, I smiled at him and said, "Norris, guess what? I'm your sister-in-law now."

"Hello, I want a divorce." In the third year of her marriage, Roxanne Levine decided to file for divorce. But she did so without telling her husband. Across the desk, the lawyer, Nathaniel Shepherd, responded in a formulaic tone after hearing her intent. "If you wish to proceed with a divorce, both parties need to sign the divorce agreement. After that, there will be a one-month cooling-off period before the divorce is finalized. Did your husband not come with you today?" Roxanne paused for a few seconds. "I'll make sure he signs it." "Very well. I'll draft a divorce agreement for you."

For five years, I'd poured every resource my family had into making my fiancé, Julian Vane, a star. Now he was slipping the wedding gown of the century, the one supposedly made to my measurements, onto my best friend, Mia Shaw. The gown that had been digging into my ribs fit Mia perfectly. He looked at me with disgust. "Chloe, you don't deserve my designs." Meanwhile, my family was facing bankruptcy and liquidation. Julian was waiting for me to crawl back and beg him like a kicked dog. Instead, I knocked on the door of Killian Valentine, the most ruthless tyrant on Wall Street. He'd been my family's sworn enemy for ten years. "You hold the Winslow debt. Name your price. What do you want in exchange for leaving my family alone?" "I want you. Take off those dirty clothes and be my wife."

My husband, Ivan Sanders, found out that his first love, Brenda Waters, had gotten divorced. That very night, I asked for a divorce. Ivan smiled. "Are you sure? I'll call my secretary and have him cancel the custom dress from Butterfly." I blinked. Um... on second thought, maybe I should think it over a little longer.

On the day of my ninth wedding attempt, my fiancé, Lucas Yearwood, leaves me jilted again. This time, I follow him. I see him holding his adoptive sister's hand as they walk into the obstetrics department. "Lucas, I dreamed that we're having a boy—he's definitely going to be as handsome as you." Watching the two of them laugh and chat like that, I feel my blood freeze. After I chased Lucas for seven years, I got a chance to use a debt of gratitude to force a marriage contract out of him. I backed him into a corner to make him marry me. Everyone thinks I can't survive without him. But this time, I hand the marriage contract back and leave him without looking back. On my wedding day, he calls me. "Viv! Where are you right now?" I'm in the shower. My new husband picks up the call for me. "Do you have business with my wife?" Later, I hear Lucas turned all of Riverville upside down, digging through every trash can to find our marriage contract.

My husband is from a wolf pack with a throne to inherit, but despite all my efforts, I can never give him a son. He finds it shameful that I only give birth to daughters, forgetting how I risked my life to save him. So, he begins an affair with my sister. Later, for the sake of the male offspring in my sister's belly, he brutally throws my daughter to her death and made me cough up blood until I die. Now that I am reborn, I no longer want any connection with him and avoid the path where I save him. But I never expected that my reborn sister would rescue him instead. They smugly mock me for being unable to bear male heirs. But she doesn't know that the ten-thousand-year-old Creator Goddess bloodline flowing through my veins has already been quietly awakened. My daughter will inherit the power of the goddess and become the ruler of the new world.

To test his loyalty, my stepsister, Wendy Lidell, drugged my childhood friend. Then, she shoved me into his room. Unable to watch Connor Gordon suffer, I willingly helped him through the night. In a fit of pique, Wendy ran off and married a cruel mafia don. I got pregnant, and Connor was forced to marry me. At that point, he started to despise me. During the ten long years of marriage, he treated me and our son coldly. But during a flood overseas, he sacrificed his life to get me and our son back on solid land. I failed to keep my grip on him. As he sank into the depths, he looked at me and said, “If we could redo everything, make sure you don’t help me that night.” Those words stung me greatly, and I fainted right away. When I next opened my eyes, I found that I had gone back in time. I had traveled back to the night when Wendy had drugged Connor and locked me in his room.

During my cousin Monica Bleuthe's birthday party, my boyfriend, Grayson Chapman, who claimed to be on a business trip, suddenly appeared holding her hand and toasting the crowd. We were stunned when our eyes met. Monica hugged his arm intimately. "I forgot to introduce him to you, Ella. This is my boyfriend, Grayson. He's the CEO of the company we worked with last time." Grayson approached me and lowered his voice to say, "It's just a misunderstanding. I'm only pretending to be Monica's boyfriend." We had been in a relationship for four years, and he had never allowed our relationship to go public. He even refused to let me attend any high-end parties with him because he thought I was just an ordinary employee who was not glamorous enough to be introduced to anyone. He had no idea that my father wanted me to gain valuable work experience away from the family business. I hid my identity so that I would be better equipped to take over my family business one day. If I had married Grayson, he would have enjoyed a portion of my family's fortune. Unfortunately, that was no longer possible.

To prove himself worthy of marrying me, Nico Ricci volunteered to take over the most profitable drug trafficking route out of Mexico. Before he left, he slipped a ring on my finger. "When I get back, we'll get married." I waited three years for him. The next time I saw him, he was holding hands with a timid woman as he asked me to end our engagement. "Leah took a bullet for me. I owe her my life. I promised her I'd marry her if we made it back to New York alive." My father, Lorenzo Moretti, handed me a pistol, his face dark with anger. "Camila, he's your man. You deal with him." I took the gun and stepped forward. With one swift motion, I racked the slide. Click. Everyone in the Moretti family was waiting for me to paint the floor with the traitor's blood. Bang! I fired several shots into the air. Hot shell casings clattered to the floor around their feet. The hall fell silent. Nico stood rigid, his grip tight around Leah Cruz's hand. I pulled off the ring and dropped it on the floor among the spent casings. "We're even." Then, in front of everyone, I called Dante Vitale, the Don of the Vitale family and the Morettis' worst enemy. "About that proposal of yours? My answer is yes."

A mysterious plague swept through the packs, wiping out every last she-wolf. To continue their bloodline, these ancient predators turned to the human world, bringing with them centuries of wealth and power. They struck a pact, sealed in blood, with the most powerful human families: every summer solstice, the finest daughter would be chosen as a "Breeding mother," destined to mate with a wolf. And the one Breeding mother who could birth a female hybrid would be crowned, becoming the Queen of both the wolf and human worlds. In my last life, my sister Selena, the family favorite. She chose the Alpha of the warmest, richest territory. And me? I was the family’s sacrificial lamb, thrown to Colton, the most brutal Alpha of the Frozen Wastes. But who could have guessed my sister’s life of warmth and riches was all a lie? Her Alpha treated her like a disposable toy. She froze to death in a damp cellar, forced to listen to the fireworks that celebrated my coronation. Yes, I successfully gave birth to a girl. But those brilliant fireworks were also my funeral pyre. I died on that cold throne. Now, I’m alive again. We’re back on the day of the choosing. “I choose Alpha Colton of the Frozen Wastes!” The voice belonged to my sister, Selena. I slowly opened my eyes. Seeing the undisguised triumph and cold calculation in her eyes, I knew. She was reborn, too. But she didn't know，this time, she would be the one to fall into the very hell I just clawed my way out of.

I dated my younger brother’s best friend, Dylan Lane, for three years. More than once, he told me how much he loathed arranged marriages and how he hated being chained by family interests. However, one night, after another bout of indulgence, he wrapped his arms around me and begged me sweetly to design a wedding ring for his fiancée—someone he had never even met. The smile froze on my face, yet he just said indifferently, “Aren’t people like us all destined to marry for our families' benefit?” Seeing the blood drain from my face, he even chuckled. “Vee, don’t you tell me you're still as naïve as a 20-year-old girl, thinking I would ever marry you? At most, we're just… pillow friends." Later, I agreed to the marriage my family had arranged for me. Dylan showed up on my wedding day, disheveled and red-eyed. He fell to his knees and begged me not to leave. I stood beside my new husband, hand in hand, and smiled faintly as I chuckled. “Didn’t you say people like us were born for arranged marriages? I’m simply doing what you always wanted me to do. Shouldn’t you be happy?”

When my husband from the arranged marriage lost his memory, I couldn't resist messing with him. “Adrian. Say 'Boss.'“ The man in the hospital bed hugged his pillow and looked up at me like a good little boy. “Boss.” I nodded, satisfied. Perfect. A whole year of marriage, and he never once called me his wife. One car crash, and he'd been demoted to calling me Boss. Adrian and I had an arranged marriage. I did it for my family's dying factory. After the wedding he was colder than the fridge. We slept in separate rooms. He wouldn't eat my cooking and wouldn't take my calls. He even saved my number in his phone as “the Bell girl.” I lived in the Crane house more carefully than the hired help. His mother thought I was poor. His aunt thought I was trash. Adrian thought I was an eyesore. Then came the crash. A clot pressing on the nerves in his brain. The doctor said his mind had rolled back to about six years old. I looked at the man in the bed, clutching my sleeve and refusing to let go, and on the inside, I was glowing. Payback. My moment had finally come. I wanted money. I wanted revenge. I wanted a divorce and a clean getaway.

After my little sister Sophia and I came of age, Father gave us two choices. Go to the front lines with his most trusted lieutenant and fight in the shootouts. Or go to the coast and marry into the local arms-dealing dynasty. In my last life, Sophia cried and kicked and screamed to go to the seaside. I put down the paintbrush I loved and took the gun the lieutenant handed me. In the end, I carved out a name for myself on the front lines, took back every inch of territory the family had lost, and became the successor the council of elders unanimously acknowledged. Sophia, meanwhile, was ignored by her husband, frozen out and neglected by his entire family, and died of depression. After being reborn, Sophia couldn't wait to plant herself beside Father's lieutenant, Lorenzo. "Catherine, the front lines are too dangerous. You go to the coast and live easily. I'll leave the good life for you." The lieutenant paused, then smiled with relief. I said nothing. I just told the housekeeper to pack my bags. I was ready to leave immediately. Sophia didn't know. In my last life, the reason all that lost territory was recovered, the reason that unruly lieutenant came to respect me completely, was because when we were surrounded, I refused to retreat. I cut a bloody path out with my bare hands. Reborn, with no endless artillery in my ears, I just wanted to chase my dream of art.