Short Stories & Novels

Back home in Sicily, there’s a rule. If I’m not married by 30, I go back for an arranged marriage. When I told my boyfriend, Jax, he scoffed. "What century is your hometown stuck in? The Middle Ages? Arranged marriages? Alessia, I said I'd marry you. Stop trying to force my hand with this pathetic drama." He casually pulled out a pigeon-blood ruby ring and tossed it to his personal assistant, Bianca. She caught it, blushing. "I was going to propose tonight. But since you’re so desperate, I think we both need to cool off." The ring I’d waited years for. He just threw it to someone else. My heart froze over. Jax walked out of my office with a conqueror's smirk. Bianca pushed the ring toward me. I didn't even look at it. "Take it. It’s your size, isn't it?" The color drained from her face. I shoved her out the door. Right before I slammed it shut, I said, "Tell your boss we're done." He didn't know the "elders" forcing me into this marriage were led by the most ruthless Godfather in Sicily. And the "blind date" was an arranged union with the Don of the North American Five Families.

The day after my first shift, my Alpha mate Marcus Stone couldn’t wait to mark me as his Luna. He was the most powerful Alpha in Northern Regions. Rumors said he kept his distance from every beautiful she-wolf. Only I was the exception. Every anniversary, he would give me an exquisite red haute couture dress and a carefully arranged bouquet of moonflowers. I thought he loved the scent of moonflowers, so even though I was allergic to them, I happily accepted the gifts every time. Until at our mating ceremony anniversary banquet, I saw Marcus's childhood sweetheart Rose wearing a red dress, adorned with moonflower decorations. That's when I realized it was Rose who loved red dresses and moonflowers. Even when I was attacked by rogue wolves and lost our baby, he was by his first love's side. After learning the truth, I decided to leave him completely.

I had a perception disorder that messed with how I saw and felt stuff. So when I got dropped into a horror game, everyone else freaked out trying to survive— Me? I thought I was in a dating sim. I raised a young fae like she was my kid, fell for the vampire count, and treated the undead like my in-laws. The first time I saw the vampire—face torn up, soaked in blood—I straight-up blushed. "You're really handsome." He froze. Then, low and uncertain: "Am I... really handsome?"

My sister abruptly returns to the country on the day of my wedding. My parents, brother, and fiancé abandon me to pick her up at the airport. She shares a photo of them on her social media, bragging about how she's so loved. Meanwhile, all the calls I make are rejected. My fiancé is the only one who answers, but all he tells me is not to kick up a fuss. We can always have our wedding some other day. They turn me into a laughingstock on the day I've looked forward to all my life. Everyone points at me and laughs in my face. I calmly deal with everything before writing a new number in my journal—99. This is their 99th time disappointing me; I won't wish for them to love me anymore. I fill in a request to study abroad and pack my luggage. They think I've learned to be obedient, but I'm actually about to leave forever.

On the day Fiona Starr and Mark Zimmer tied the knot, his childhood friend jumped off the Starr family's thirty-story apartment and was reduced to pieces. The wedding wasn't called off, but in the ensuing three years, Mark's poker face became even more creepy, even though he would do everything Fiona asked. Then, when Fiona was three months pregnant, she was told that her father had gone missing. But instead of taking her to file a police report, Mark took her up the peak of the mountain, where Fiona saw her father. His whole body was swollen and bleeding everywhere, and he was barely alive as he lay on the ground. There were puddles of his blood everywhere, after someone tied him to a car trunk and dragged him up along the mountain road. That was when Mark gave Fiona the same treatment, even though she was pregnant with his child. As his car dragged her up and down the mountain, her legs were reduced to bloody stumps, but she didn't die there. So she locked her up in a basement in the company of rats that nibbled and devoured her legs. She despaired, her mind breaking until she eventually stopped breathing too… But she opened her eyes again and found herself returning to the day before she married Mark, whom everyone called the Starr family's live-in son-in-law. Smiling through her tears, she told herself that she wouldn't choose him again in this life.

The Richie Rich who violated my daughter has gotten off unscathed. He sneers and throws a wad of cash in my face. "I'll show you what people mean when they say money makes the world go round!" In that split second, I want to tear him to pieces.

Leo, my mate, wanted to spend Valentine's Day with Cheryl, his first love, on the night Victor and Vera, his parents, were abducted. But this time, instead of stopping him, I contacted the Werewolf Enforcement Bureau to help. After all, when I tried to stop him in the last life, Cheryl ended up dying a horrific death, her heart gouged out by the Feral Rogues, a group of werewolf gangsters. "You killed her! Cheryl wouldn't have died if it weren't for you!" Without hesitation, Leo threw me into a cave where a pack of hungry wolves tore through my body, along with the child I was about to bring into the world. "You don't deserve to live after what you've done… I'm going to stand here and watch you endure all the pain she felt as she died!" Surprisingly, rather than staying dead, I woke up on the exact day when Victor and Vera were abducted once more…

"Mr. Woods, what's that thing pressing against me?" I was teaching a freshman girl how to drive at a driving school. I never expected that this innocent-looking but boldly dressed underclassman would actually ask to sit on my lap and have me teach her hands-on. On the way, I held back my urge and forced myself to focus on teaching as I deliberately ignored her brushing against me. But then she released the clutch too quickly, and the car suddenly stalled and shook violently. She fell heavily between my legs, and I could feel myself pressing against her core. She was only wearing a short skirt, with thin underwear underneath.

When my best friend, Tricia Tate, finds out I have secretly switched my husband's used rubber with her father-in-law's, she has a full-on meltdown right then and there. In my last life. Tricia had been abused by her husband and asked to stay at my place for a while. I felt sorry for her and agreed to let her stay temporarily. But just two weeks later, she unexpectedly found out she was pregnant. I was about to ask her what had happened when her husband suddenly showed up and broke my husband's leg before dragging my whole family into court. In court, Tricia sobbed uncontrollably, accusing my husband, Jayden Lowe, of being a predator and claiming he had assaulted her while she was living with us. She said I didn't just ignore it but helped him carry it out. Jayden and I denied everything in court, but she pulled out an amniocentesis report, proving that the baby was indeed Jayden's. The internet exploded with hate against us, and the court sentenced both of us to prison, ordering us to pay her ten million in emotional damages. In the end, Jayden and I went to jail, while Tricia took that ten million, aborted the baby, and lived happily ever after with her husband. When I open my eyes again, I am back to the very day Tricia came to stay at my house.

My mother claims my husband has cheated on me and pushes me to get a divorce. I want to collect evidence before proceeding with anything—if it's true, I have to uphold my rights. Yet she causes a scene at an art exhibition I've worked on for three years, humiliating me in public and making me sound like a gold digger. "How are you any different from a prostitute when you're holding this dumb exhibition with a man's money? I didn't raise you to be a gold digger! How can you be so revolting?" She slashes the million-dollar paintings in the exhibition, claiming that she's doing this for my good. She wants me to see the error of my ways and return to the right path. Meanwhile, I clutch my bloody hand, which she slashed with her blade. I say, "You say you want me to return to the right path, but is that what it really is? You want me to divorce my legally wedded husband, who's a CEO, without a penny to my name. "Then, you want me to marry a 45-year-old cheap man who has a child and no money? He even wants me to support him!"

I had been secretly in love with my childhood friend for nine long years. When we finally got married, my family and friends thought I was the happiest person in the world. After I became pregnant, he used the excuse of "helping an old classmate" and invited the most beautiful girl from our class into our home. During the worst of my pregnancy, when nausea and exhaustion hit hardest, he took her to the hospital, made crafts with her, and watched sunsets with her. He even had the guts to accuse me of being small-minded and petty and acting like a bitter, jealous wife. Only then did I realize that it was just my foolish fantasy that I lived my dream of marrying my childhood sweetheart and had a happy life. I let go of the love I had for him and of the future I thought we would share. Now, however, he was the one who regretted it.

My student, Renee Blue, comes from a poor family, and her mother suffers from uremia. Out of sympathy, I lent her some money. She promised to pay me back after graduation. However, on graduation day, she handed me an ultrasound and told me, "Your money comes from your husband anyway, right? I’m pregnant with your husband’s baby, so I won’t be paying you back. Also, you should step aside." I was in shock… because my husband had been dead for seven years. It wasn't until I saw Renee with my driver that I understood how she got pregnant.

Alice Long and I were caught in the crossfire. When my boyfriend—a combat medic responsible for saving the wounded—came to our rescue, he pushed me aside. Gently cradling Alice, the girl I had shielded, he shot me a cold glance and said, "Crystal, I'm deeply disappointed in you. She needs immediate care to avoid infection!" What about me? Was I meant to die instead? When my flag-draped coffin arrived home, he had the nerve to weep openly at my memorial. This once-renowned combat medic, celebrated around the globe, never set foot outside his room again.

I was Alpha Adrian's secret for eight years. It took his grandfather’s centennial birthday for him to finally bring our son, Gale, and me home to the pack. He swore the pack Elders had finally given us their blessing. Our son, buzzing with excitement, bounced on the bed, clutching the champion’s medal from his junior fighting tournament. He’d fought tooth and nail to win it, just to make his father proud. But the moment we set foot on the Blackwood Manor grounds, we saw him. Adrian, with his arms wrapped around a blonde she-wolf, kissing her deeply. Adrian introduced her with a smile. "My mate, Sophia" Our son, Gale, rushed forward to confront him, stabbing a finger toward the seemingly perfect bite mark on my neck. "That's the mark Dad gave Mom! You all see it!" But the pack’s Head Elder stepped forward. After a cursory glance, he let out a cold sneer. "A clever trick of blood magic," he said with contempt. "It can mimic a scent, but it lacks the soul-deep connection of a true mate bond. Any experienced wolf can see through it." I turned to Adrian, my body frozen stiff. He turned away from me, gently stroking the real mark on Sophia's neck, which glowed with a silvery, moonlit light. "The Blackwood pack will not accept a half-blood who can’t even shift" he said. "The only one fit to stand by my side is Sophia." I looked at him, and a bitter laugh escaped me. To think I had suppressed my own Royal Alpha blood for a man like this.

I died on the day I was supposed to marry Ryan Wolfe. When I didn’t show up on time, he angrily married his childhood sweetheart, Lorelei Floyd, instead, and publicly announced, “Alexis Harding cheated before our wedding and called it off herself!” The rumors crushed my mother, and she died from a heart attack right then and there. But Ryan seemed to have forgotten that he, in a fit of rage to defend Lorelei, slashed my arm and locked me in a basement for ten whole days. I begged him and pleaded for mercy, but all I got was his cold reply. “You’ll stay here for a while, so you can fully understand the pain you caused Lorelei. And maybe, just maybe, it’ll rid you of your wicked thoughts.” When he found my corpse, ravaged by maggots, he lost his mind.

In the fifth year of my mating to Alpha Tom, his childhood sweetheart, Becky Bell, was splashed across every tabloid in the territory. Pregnant. Unmated. And accused of shattering another couple’s bond. The rumors hit like a rogue’s ambush. But it was his reaction that truly gutted me. “Becky’s father once saved me, she has no pack, no family left. Everything she’s accomplished… she clawed her way to it. Alone.” My fingers clenched tighter around the pregnancy test tucked away in my purse. “And the only way to protect her now,” he continued, not even looking me in the eye, “is for me to marry her. To claim the pup as mine.” “And what about me?” I asked, barely more than a whisper. My voice cracked. The Sunfire Pack and the Golden Fang Pack—my pack—had been allies for over a century. “How do I explain this sudScott rejection to my parents? To my pack? To the elders? They know we're mate bond.” Alpha Tom inhaled sharply. “Just tell them it was always a business arrangement. That there was no real love between us.” My wolf bared her teeth at that. He had the audacity to look away. “Once the media frenzy dies down, I’ll come for you. I’ll bring you back to Sunfire Pack and give you the grand wedding you deserve.” I stared at him. This Alpha—was seriously telling me he was going to marry another she-wolf, claim her pup, let me get torn apart by pack gossip and speculation, and then what? he's offering me his marriage like it’s some kind of charity? My fingers twitched, aching to throw the pregnancy test at him. But I didn’t. I laughed. For three years, I had been the one he discarded—over and over. And now, even my marriage was to be sacrificed for her sake. It hit me then, sharp and cold: It's time for me to leave him

I was married to Gideon Strathmore for eight years, but he was unfaithful, bringing home different women. The 100th, Vesper Quinn, smirked at me and turned to him, saying, "This is your useless wife, huh?" Gideon leaned back in his chair and lazily nodded. Emboldened by his attitude, she strutted over and patted my cheek. "Listen closely to what a real woman sounds like." That night, moans filled the living room. I couldn't escape them. The next morning, Gideon ordered me to breakfast as usual. I refused, unwilling to be his puppet any longer. He forgot our marriage was based on a contract, and it was due in three days.

The year my boyfriend lost his sight in a car accident, I silently disappeared. Later, when he regained his sight, he used every means to find me and forced me to stay by his side. Everyone said I was his true love, unwilling to let go even though I abandoned him. Until one day, he appeared in front of me with his fiancée, and he asked, "Mia Frank, does the taste of betrayal feel good?" I shook my head with a faint smile, it didn't matter, even if it hurt, it wouldn't hurt for long, because I was about to forget him.

I'm the strongest warrior of the Silvermoon Pack. For ten years, I've been secretly in love with my Alpha, Aiden. The only wolfless Alpha. We grew up with nothing but each other. I bled for him. I cut down his enemies and searched for a cure to awaken his wolf. He promised me a place at the top—always by his side. The fated mate bond never snapped into place for us. It didn't matter. I loved him anyway. Then I found out the truth. His heart belonged to someone else. A she-wolf named Gianna. When a rival pack kidnapped her, Aiden sent me to get her back. I did, but I died. And so did my wolf. He welcomed Gianna home with open arms, ready for their Mating Ceremony, but he refused to believe I was dead. He thought I was just jealous, hiding in a fit of rage. He even ordered my banishment. But on the night of the full moon, as the entire pack gathered for their Alpha’s ceremony, my second-in-command crashed the altar in his war truck. He walked toward Aiden, carrying my blood-soaked body. Aiden’s body trembled. He collapsed to his knees, clutching his chest in agony. "I can feel it. The mate bond…it’s breaking. Rhea was my fated mate... How can she be dead?!"

At the engagement party, the champagne tower is only half-built when Marcus Harrison answers a phone call. He glances at me and says, "I have to go. Lily collapsed at the airport." I say, "If you leave, we're done." He leaves anyway, in front of 200 guests. He carries Lily Bardot in his arms, wearing the coat I gave him, as he drives away in my car. The next day, he sends me an email that reads, "Lily will be moving into my apartment. She needs me, and I hope you can understand. Once Lily gets better, we'll get married. Please trust me." I stare at the screen and suddenly laugh. So what he wants isn't someone who loves him. It's someone who needs him. And I'm too independent, so I don't make the cut. That evening, I scroll through my contacts and find a number I've never given a second glance to. It belongs to someone who's been waiting for me for 23 years. I dial it. "Tomorrow night, 7:00 pm. Meet me at the restaurant by the sea."