Maikling mga Kwento & mga Nobela

There's an unspoken rule in the high-end society—married couples who are bound by marriage alliances are allowed to branch out romantically. But if they ever buy anything for their side piece, they must buy the same gift for their legal spouse. Raymond Johnson is a very particular person. That's why he continues sticking to the rule and gives Melanie Strickland the respect she deserves by showering her with gifts that are 100 times more than his mistress', even after the Stricklands have gone into bankruptcy. If his mistress gets 100 thousand dollars' worth of allowances every month, Melanie's bank account must receive ten million dollars in return. When Raymond gifts his mistress jewelry that's worth a million dollars, he'll go for the main highlight of the auction. After that, Melanie will receive an antique emerald ring worth 100 million dollars. The rich wives, who are too used to seeing wealthy men immersing themselves in booze and beautiful women, can only sigh wistfully whenever they witness Raymond and Melanie's lovey-dovey relationship. But at the same time, they can't resist dropping Melanie words of advice—mainly to tell her to appreciate what she has now. Appreciate, huh? Of course Melanie appreciates everything she has right now. That's why on the day Raymond gives a house of very little value that's located in the suburbs to his mistress, Melanie decides to ask him a question while receiving the land deed of Villa No. 1 that's located in Northshore. "I've grown tired of this marriage. Can we get a divorce?"

As soon as I leave the hospital after my abortion, I send my husband, Rykel Heffer, a message. "I terminated the pregnancy." I get an instant reply. "Okay." I stare at that single word and suddenly find it almost funny. For years, whenever I gave him a heads-up before heading into a high-risk assignment, the only reply I got was "okay". And whenever I reminded him that if he was unable to reach me for 24 hours, he should come looking for me, I also got a simple "okay". When I was trapped under the rubble after a building collapsed and lost contact for 72 hours, I sent Rykel 309 desperate messages, consumed by fear. He replied with 309 "okay"s. Only now do I realize that every reply I have ever received has been an automated response. Since Rykel never reads my messages, naturally, he has no idea that half a month ago, I told him I would be taking an overseas assignment and terminating the pregnancy today. His attention and affection have always belonged to the woman who fills his social media feed—Joey Mugbrey. "It's our thousand-day anniversary, and it's Joey's birthday too!" The post is accompanied by a screenshot of their chat history. Above the countless messages is a 1,000-day streak, celebrating their thousand days together. I tap "Like" on his post and leave a comment. "A wonderful day indeed." Today marks the anniversary of the day I narrowly escaped death in that collapse years ago. More importantly, it is the day I decide to leave Rykel for good.

It's my seventh anniversary with Chase McGregor. I hide in his car's trunk while holding a pregnancy report. In my other hand, I hold a limited-edition watch that I've prepared for him. I want to surprise him and tell him we're about to have a child. To my surprise, I hear something that devastates me. "Chase, you're not really going to marry Daphne, are you? Lucille Gervais wants to marry you. As long as you do that, the North Sea's shipping routes, cargo operations, and drug trade will come under your control." "Help me set up a date with her. I'll break up with Daphne." My breathing hitches. I want to hear Chase object to this or show even the slightest bit of hesitation, but none of it comes. The pregnancy report slips from my fingers. I once thought he would be the father of my children; I thought we would have a happy family together. Now, my dream has been shattered.

I’m the best art forger and intel specialist in Chicago. And I fell for the man who owned it all, Don Vincenzo Russo. For ten years, I was his secret, his weapon, and his woman. I built his empire from the shadows. I thought I’d get a ring. After all, every night he was in this city, he was buried inside me, taking his pleasure. He’d whisper that I was his, that no one else felt this good. But this time, after he was finished with me, he announced he was marrying the Russian Bratva princess, Katerina Petrov. That’s when I knew. I wasn’t his woman. I was just a body. For an alliance, for her, he sacrificed me. He left me to die. So I destroyed every piece of the life he gave me. I made one call to my father in Italy. And then, I vanished. But when the Don who owned Chicago couldn't find his favorite toy… he went insane.

After a century of war between humans and the Otherkin, both sides finally agree to a ceasefire. To preserve peace and coexistence, an intermarriage pact is established—every hundred years, humans and the Otherkin must marry. The first Otherkin to produce an Otherkin child will become the chairman of the Otherkin Alliance. In my last life, I married Kevin Walker, the famously devoted Alpha of the Whitefang pack. One year after our wedding, I gave birth to a wolf pup, and Kevin ascended smoothly to the chairman of the alliance. My sister, Meredith Singer—driven by vanity and a thirst for power—married Simon Lynch, the leader of the vampires. However, she didn't expect his chaotic private life, overflowing with mistresses, to leave her with a disease that robbed her of her ability to bear children. Bitter over her ruined life, Meredith blamed everything on me. She drugged both me and my pup before setting a fire that burned us alive. "Annabelle, everything you have should've been mine! I should be the one married to the Alpha! I should be the chairman's mate! You're nothing!" As the fire roared around us, I clutched my pup tightly in my arms. He sobbed against my chest. "Mom... it hurts..." I couldn't do anything but watch as the flames consumed us both. In the final moments of my life, I saw someone I never expected—the zombie king, Landon Zeller. Without hesitation, he charged into the inferno, cradling me and my pup in his arms, trying desperately to save us. However, it was too late. We'd already taken our last breaths.

I'm accidentally pushed off a cliff when my fiancé and I are enjoying the sunset. I end up with grave injuries. As I drift in and out of consciousness, I hear Eric Bartholomew speaking to a doctor. "Gamma Derrina's injuries aren't that severe, Alpha. She can be treated even without her womb being removed!" "Shut up! Do it because I say it needs to be done. Don't forget that I'm the Alpha here—all you need to do is obey me! Only if Derrina loses her womb can my and Phyllis' pup to become the wolf pack's heir. "Use copious amounts of sedatives on her. I don't want her to wake up on the wedding day. She'll be sad if she sees that the bride isn't her." I open my eyes and look at Eric standing outside the room. He's like a monster with hands that can end lives. I'll make his wish come true since he wants to marry that weak Omega. I make a call. "I agree with the thing you asked me about before." The person on the other end of the line laughs. "The Moon Goddess loves the wise."

My husband had just ducked into the bathroom when his phone started ringing. I glanced at the screen and saw it was his brother calling. A frown creased my brow, but I answered anyway. "George, why haven't you sent the $10,000 to Mom and Dad this month?" Ross Serrano said. "Mom just asked me about it." I hung up without a word, but a rush of fury surged through me. My husband stood at the bathroom door, his hands still dripping wet. I forced a bitter smile. "You make $8,000 a month, right? $3,000 goes to the mortgage, $2,000 to me, and you pocket $1,000 for yourself. You told me you sent $2,000 to your parents, so how did that magically turn into $10,000?" His lips quivered, his face draining of color. My heart sank, and my hands trembled uncontrollably. We'd been married for five years, and I'd never once laid eyes on his bank card. What other secrets was he keeping from me?

After I was reborn, I was the one who changed the name on my blood bond with Prince Mortlock. I wrote in “Isabella”—the other vampire he’d always cherished, always protected. When Isabella wanted the ruby necklace, the one that marked the Prince's Mate, I let her have it. The wedding dress Mortlock had prepared for me? I gave that to Isabella, too. I did it all because in my past life, I got my wish. I became Mortlock’s mate, but I lived every moment in Isabella’s shadow. In the end, during a battle with vampire hunters, Mortlock ran to a wounded Isabella first. I was the one left to take a silver stake through the heart. So this time, I decided to let them be. To stay far away from Mortlock. But this time, the cold, distant Prince wept and begged me to be his mate again.

My husband's childhood sweetheart was diagnosed with a terminal illness. To fulfill her last wishes and let her experience the warmth of family, my husband, Aaron Turner, gave her my necklace. He even let her claim my birthday. Even our son started calling her "Mom" in private. He told me, "Chrishell, Sylvia is dying. Just give in to her, will you?" Whenever I asked him to spare even a little time and affection for me, our son, Lucas, would rush to speak on their behalf. "Mom, didn't you always teach me to be generous? Sylvia is dying. Why do you always make things difficult for her?" Over time, I stopped asking for anything at all. Then one night, I overheard my son speaking to his father after returning from the hospital. "Sylvia is so gentle and graceful. I wish Mom could be more like her." Aaron chuckled and affectionately brushed his hand over our son's hair. "Your mom may be a little strict, but it's all for your own good. Since you like Sylvia so much, how about we let her be your godmother?" So even the child I risked my life to bring into this world didn't like me. I lowered my gaze, quietly closed the bedroom door, and pretended none of it had happened. Since they were both filled with such regret, I'd leave quietly and give them what they wanted.

"Your love makes me sick." Those were the final words my husband, Vittorio De Luca, left me in my past life. On our wedding day, Elara Hale had crashed my ceremony, begging Vittorio to run away with her. But he chose to stay by my side. Yet, when Elara died of an illness shortly after, he harbored nothing but hatred for me. He detested that I had clung to him for over a decade, forcing him into a marriage he never wanted. More than that, he loathed himself for not running away with Elara. When I opened my eyes again, I was reborn before everything went wrong. I looked at him, "Vittorio, I'm getting married." He looked a bit troubled. "You know I’m busy with a critical territorial expansion. My mind is entirely elsewhere…" “Never mind.” I offered a faint, indifferent smile. Relieved, Vittorio leaned in and pressed a kiss to my forehead. "Don't worry. We've been together for twelve years. I'll do the right thing and take responsibility." He didn’t know what I meant, but I knew what I’d do in this lifetime. I would never choose him again, let alone marry him.

My wife, Anne Brighton, gives me a gray parrot. Every single day, it looks me in the eye and screeches, "Go to hell!" I send it to a parrot rehabilitation center, where they place it in a mirrored cage and play "I'm a good bird" on loop, three thousand times a day. Here's the thing—I've been reborn. In my past life, that parrot came into our home knowing only two phrases—"So ugly" and "Go to hell". At first, I believed it was merely mimicking what it had heard. But then my body began to fail. Sleep was the first to go. Every night, the same nightmare returned, and the same voice echoed through it, repeating those words over and over. "Go to hell." My appetite disappeared, and I wasted away until I was nothing but bones. In the end, my organs gave out. I didn't find out the truth until I was dying. The parrot I thought it was wasn't one at all. It was Ian Sawyer—my best friend, who had been dead for years, trapped inside that bird the whole time.

It was only after my boyfriend, Julian Mercer, received his HIV diagnosis that he finally understood what his childhood friend, Luna Sullivan, truly meant by "life and death together". In my previous life, after Julian collapsed from anemia, Luna insisted on donating blood to him. I fought with everything I had to stop it. I told him that Luna had already contracted HIV. If she donated blood to him, he would be infected as well. He refused to believe me. Luna cried and swore that she had never even had a boyfriend. To prove her innocence, she climbed onto the rooftop and pretended she was going to jump to her death. However, she slipped. She missed her footing and fell to her death from the building. To avenge her, Julian conspired with our classmates to kidnap me. He strangled me with his own hands. I still remember his furious roar. "This is all because of your slander! You killed Luna! I will make you pay for her life!" When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of the blood transfusion. I watched as Julian lay there, already receiving blood from his beloved Luna. I smiled faintly. HIV? Fine.

My family's fate was sealed in an ancient war. We saved the lord of the Clare clan. In return, their lord forged an ancient blood pact with my line. Each generation, a woman from my family can choose a mate from the Clare heirs, to birth a hybrid child—one who walks in daylight, blessed with eternal life. When my time came, I didn't hesitate. I chose the eldest son, Evan, who had been in a cursed slumber for a century. Every vampire in the room was in disbelief. After all, everyone knew I'd spent the last few years obsessed with the third son, Julian. It had to be him, or no one. In my last life, I got my wish. I bonded with Julian and helped him seize control of the family's vast biotech empire. But after our union, he started an affair with my adopted sister, Chloe. To punish her for breaking the blood pact, the family exiled Chloe. Julian, however, was convinced I had orchestrated the whole thing. He hated me to his very core. From then on, he kept a string of lovers, and every single one of them looked like Chloe. The heartbreak shattered me. In the end, he poisoned my life-sustaining elixirs, making my flesh rot from my bones, and sacrificed my very soul in a dark ritual. Reborn, I decided to let them have each other. But I never imagined Julian would be reborn, too.

The ninety-ninth time my Alpha mate blocked our mind-link, I was in the final stages of Wolf Spirit Decay. I dragged my broken body into the Council Hall. The cold marble steps grated against the soles of my feet, and with every step, a tearing pain ripped through my chest. "I am here to petition to leave the pack." The council official studied my pale, thin form with a pitying gaze and asked softly, "Are you certain, Miss? You would be giving up the pack's protection." Since childhood, my wolf has been unstable, making me frail. Ever since my father brought home my adopted sister, Lydia, when I was ten, my parents have treated me like a disgrace to the family. Despite being his marked mate for years, Caleb never promised me a Luna ceremony. He rarely even took me to pack gatherings. As a result, hardly anyone in the pack knew who I was. "It doesn't matter," I said, my voice calm despite the effort. "I will be dead in three days."

On the first day I reunite with the wealthy Holloways, as soon as I step into the villa, I'm instantly whisked into a car with tinted windows. The fake heiress, Kate Holloway, cuts my ID and bank card with a pair of scissors right in front of my biological parents. She grins smugly at me the whole time. "You see, Rosalie, I've offended that one person who must not be offended at all costs in Ravenfield. You should go kneel in his estate for a few days. Think of this as your way to repay the Hollways for giving birth to you in this world." My heartless parents even tell the driver, "Make sure that she doesn't escape. It all depends on her whether or not our family will be able to survive this crisis." The journey to the mysterious man's estate is bumpy. But the scenery outside the window becomes more familiar as time passes. Finally, the driver stops right outside a well-guarded estate. He reports in a frightened tone, "W-We are here to deliver the girl to Mr. Whitethorn." Mr. Whitethorn? As in the powerful man who is prone to mood swings and can easily make families such as the Holloways go into bankruptcy with just a twitch of his finger? Wait, isn't that Dominic Whitethorn, my adoptive father who has doted on me since I was a little girl? The Holloways have chosen to make me the scapegoat in order to protect Kate. They probably never would've thought that the fearsome Mr. Whitethorn, who's capable of determining their survival, has scoured the entire city for me because I didn't come home last night.

For five years of marriage, Sophie Lane had always believed her husband, Daniel Hart, was just an ordinary call center operator. He was busy with work, so she learned to handle everything at home on her own. His salary was low, so she stretched every dollar as far as it could go. It wasn’t until she was hospitalized during a difficult labor and ran into Daniel accompanying his fallen comrade’s widow, Clara Bailey, that she finally learned the truth. Daniel had never been a call center operator at all; he was a commanding officer in an elite unit. To give all the privileges of a commander’s wife to his childhood sweetheart, Clara, he had hidden his identity from Sophie for five years. When Clara lost her child, and to spare her the pain, he had even made Sophie give her own baby to her. Sophie’s heart went completely cold. After recovering in the hospital, she went alone to audition for an out-of-town performing arts company. With the offer letter in hand, she petitioned the court for divorce. She was going to end this marriage built on lies. And leave Daniel forever.

There were two famous deadweights in Kingsgate's high society. One was me, Millie Tanner, the pampered little princess whose only talents were shopping and throwing parties. The other was my childhood friend, Iver Langford, the fragile young heir born with autism and congenital heart failure. However, my older brother was the most feared name in the underworld, and my second brother was the richest man in the country. Iver's older sister was the undefeated queen of the courtroom, and his second sister was a surgeon whose hands could bring back the dead. One day, the four of them were chatting over a game of poker. "Raising one hopeless case takes the same effort as two. Might as well pair them off." Just like that, Iver and I signed the marriage papers. Our married life consisted of maxing out my second brother's credit cards, raiding my older brother's dinner table, and waiting for his sisters to show up with care packages. That was the routine, until my older brother sent us to attend a banquet at the Crestport tycoon's estate in his place. At the banquet, the tycoon's daughter, Portia Beaumont, waved around a blurry photo taken from behind and insisted I was the other woman who had stolen her boyfriend. I kept my temper. "You have the wrong person. I'm married, and this is my husband." Portia lost it on the spot and swung at me. "Married and still out here throwing yourself at men?" Iver stepped in front of me on instinct and took the slap meant for me. Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. She sneered, "Oh, is he slow? His wife's out cheating and he can't even tell, but he still jumps in to protect her? One's a tramp, and the other's an idiot. The perfect match!" She flicked her wrist, and several bodyguards lunged toward us. "Get them both." My heart ached as I looked at Iver, and I dialed my older brother's number. "Someone's picking on me." These people had no idea. Crossing the four terrors of Kingsgate and living to tell about it was one thing. Messing with the two of us was something else entirely.

Vera Nightingale was the only human in the werewolf pack, raised alongside Alpha Kieran Ashford since childhood. When she was 14 and rogues cornered her, Kieran was the one who fought them off. When she was 16 and a Beta confessed to her, Kieran kissed her in front of the entire pack and made it clear she belonged to him. The day she turned 18, Kieran announced to everyone that she was his mate, his future Luna. Vera thought she had found her happily ever after. Then their marking ceremony arrived, and Kieran did not show. She waited until moonset. When he finally arrived, he had an Omega with him. "She reminds me of how you used to be," he told her. "I want to keep her." Vera agreed. Kieran thought her love for him meant she would share. He was wrong. In Vera's mind, betrayal only happened once. After that first time, everything that followed did not matter anymore. If that was how he wanted to play it, she would find herself a new mate.

At the Luna coronation ceremony, Alpha Lucas announced that he had sensed two mates. One was me. The other was my twin sister, Mia. So he proposed that the entire pack vote to choose the future Luna. He cast the first vote for Mia. My mother voted right after him. Also for Mia. When the votes were tallied, I had zero. But Lucas pulled me aside. "Nora, my darling, you're still my fated mate. "It's just that Mia's wolf is too weak. She needs the Luna title more than you do. "Don't make a scene tonight. Once Mia's stable, you'll still be my only bonded mate." I smiled coldly and shut down the mate bond. He and his pack weren't worth staying for anymore.

On the eve of my mating ceremony, I caught my parents and the entire pack holding a secret Luna ceremony for my Alpha fiance, Caden, and my adopted sister, Lydia. Lydia's biological parents had died saving mine. Now terminal wolfsbane poisoning had left her with three months to live, and her final wish was to be buried as the Luna of Blackridge Pack. Caden stood with his back to me, his voice soft and patient. "Lydia, don't worry. Before you leave this world, I'll give you everything a Luna deserves—the ceremony, the title, the place at my side. It's the least I can do for you." My father placed her hand in Caden's. My mother draped my Luna mantle over her shoulders, while my own brother struck my name from the Luna registry. Caden exchanged rings and vows with Lydia, then signed the record naming her Blackridge's first Luna. They all believed that because I was healthy, I had years ahead of me and should give this one chance to Lydia. I watched the ceremony to the end and deleted the message announcing my pregnancy. Later, I left with my unborn pup to become Frost River Pack's chief investigator, reclaiming the future I had surrendered for Caden. I left only my pregnancy report, mate-contract dissolution, and bloodline severance declaration. By the time Caden learned the truth, I had already crossed the northern border. His desperate call came too late.