Plot Twists Werewolf の短編小説 &IndependenceRegret小説

A week before the marking ceremony, my fiance, Alpha Mason Wallace, suddenly switches the venue to Firefly Grove. His friends tease him. "You changed the venue just because Serena wants to see fireflies? And you didn't even tell Cora? What if she shows up at an empty site? "Besides, Cora's the one who picked Moonlight Bay. Do you really think she'll go along with this?" Mason says casually, "She burned her skin saving me. She won't fight me over a venue change. Besides, she planned every detail herself. She'll notice the update." I stand outside the doorway, listening in silence. Then, I slip away without a word. When the day finally comes, Mason calls from Firefly Grove, panic in his voice. "The ceremony's about to start. Where are you?" I stare at the shimmer on Moonlight Bay and answer calmly, "I'm already here. My ceremony is about to start too."

Five years after I broke up with Damon, Alpha of the Greyrock Pack, I was invited to a celebration for his one-month-old pup. Just as the guard was about to verify my identity, Damon's voice came from behind me. "No need. She can go straight in." With that, he walked past me and headed into the banquet hall without another glance. I still handed my invitation to the guard and waited until it had been verified before stepping inside. Damon was waiting for me up ahead, his tone smug and suggestive. "You can say whatever you want, but here you are. You just couldn't stay away from me." "You've been hiding somewhere nearby all these years, haven't you? Otherwise, how would you know I was holding a celebration today?" I smiled but said nothing. Five years ago, Damon had betrayed me for the Alpha position and marked my best friend, Vivian. From that moment on, I had decided I was done with him for good. I was about to walk around him when Damon reached out and blocked my way. His thumb brushed over the back of my hand as he lowered his voice. "I'm glad you came back. As long as you take good care of Vivian and the pup, I'll still love you the way I used to." I slapped his hand away and looked toward the two high-backed chairs placed side by side at the center of the banquet hall. One was reserved for Kieran, Alpha King of the Frostmoon Pack, who carried the pure bloodline of the Lane family. The other was for his Luna Queen, Evelyn. Me.

To train myself for the role ahead, I hid the truth — that I was the only daughter of an Alpha King. In my first year at the Dark Moon Pack, I fell for Leo, the Alpha's youngest son, the moment I laid eyes on him. Three years of love. The cold, brutal man spoiled me rotten. Yet he never once agreed to a marking ceremony with me. I later found out why — his pack didn't think I was good enough. After all, the Dark Moon Pack was the most powerful in the Northern Territories, and in their eyes, I was just a nameless rogue from some lesser pack. With the whispers about the gap between our ranks growing louder, I decided to tell him the truth about my bloodline. But then Leo started disappearing. Day after day. After his ninety-ninth night away, I saw a photo on his childhood sweetheart's Ins Story — a Christmas tree decked out in sex toys. The caption read: "Leo promised me — on the night of our marking ceremony, we're going to try every single one." Before I could even process it, my phone buzzed again. A DM. From the same woman. "Do you have any idea how much Leo needs me? Every year on your birthday, every anniversary — he waits until you fall asleep, then comes to spend the night with me." "A high-born wolf like me is the only one worthy of being his mate. You're nothing but the third wheel between an Alpha and his Luna." I stared at the words on the screen, my thumb frozen in midair. Should I be furious? Should I fall apart? Nothing. I felt nothing. Just a hollow space where my heart used to be. Fine. This tainted love, this man — I was done with all of it. I closed my eyes and reached out through the mind-link to my father, the Alpha King. "Dad, I agree to come home and take the throne."

At my coming-of-age ceremony, I was supposed to accept the Chosen Mate Mark from my childhood sweetheart, the pack healer, Rowan. We were supposed to be bonded for life. But then Caleb, our Alpha, stepped in. In front of everyone, he pulled me into his arms—an irresistible force, a suffocating tenderness. He claimed it was a Fated Mate bond, that his wolf had lost control. He forcibly marked me. After crying all night, I had no choice but to accept it. I became the pack’s Luna. Everyone thought Caleb and his wolf were possessive. Insane for me. Then, two years into our bond, I finally got pregnant with his pup. That’s when he cupped my face, his eyes red-rimmed and gentle. He forced me onto a cold medical table. Rowan gave me the injection. A lethal dose of wolfsbane to kill our pup. The reason? I’d once been trapped with Rowan for three months in an abandoned silver mine during a rogue attack. A mine that suppressed our wolf powers. He was killing my pup to silence the pack’s rumors about its bloodline. But more than that, he was severing my last tie to Rowan. All so Rowan would be free to bond with his sister, Chloe. That’s when it hit me. My entire life since that ceremony? A lie. A carefully crafted trap. Fine. This sham of a mate bond? This pack? I don’t want any of it.

My boyfriend was Alexander Sterling, Alpha of the Sterling Pack worth over a hundred billion. Mistaking me for a fragile human, he "tested" my character by never buying me a gift in five years. We even split the bill on condoms. Then my foster mother fell critically ill. I borrowed from every friend, scraping together all the money for her surgery except the last $1,000. No matter how desperately I begged Alex, he refused to lend it. "Clara was right," he said coldly. "Getting down on your knees for one grand? That's textbook gold-digger behavior." "We've only been together three years, and you're already this eager to bleed me dry?" Turned out, his three-year "test" was just a suggestion from his childhood sweetheart, Clara Hayes. I broke up with him on the spot. He sneered that I'd come crawling back. He had no idea my biological parents had found me. I returned to my true lineage to marry the most powerful Lycan prince, Vito Marchetti. Five years later, we ran into each other at the Grand Royale Hotel in Los Angeles. His pack enterprise was going public, and Clara Hayes was on his arm in luxurious haute couture. He caught me covered in mud and digging through a dumpster, curling his lip in disgust. "Mia, you rejected me over a thousand bucks back then. Look at you now—you've turned into a beggar!" "For old times' sake, I'll give you one chance. Crawl back to me, and I'll give you a decent place in my pack." I didn't even glance at him. My little boy was sobbing because his stern, powerful father, Lycan Prince Vito, had accidentally knocked his prized crystal into that dumpster during training. I had to get it back, fast.

I'm the last of my father's bloodline, the old Alpha of the Moonlit Howl Pack. To keep me safe, Dad wanted me to mate with either Rhys, the pack's bravest, or Finn, our top warrior with insane fighting skills. They were supposed to be the next Alpha. But the only one they actually gave a damn about was that pathetic, vicious Omega, Cassidy. They even spat on pack tradition and marked her, thinking they could kick me out after Dad died! So, after Mom passed, and they asked me with disgust who I’d finally picked as my mate… I didn’t choose either of them. I turned my back and walked straight to Harris, the Alpha of the Shadow-fang Pack. The Alpha they say is eaten up by an ancient blood curse, a terrifying monster. However, on the day Harris was supposed to come for me, Liam and Seth actually stood in front of my den, begging me like whipped pups to stay.

Right before graduation, my three childhood friends, Xavier Reid, Silas Moore, and Caspian Ward, asked me to play Truth or Dare with them. I drew a dare in the very first round. My adopted sister, Vivian Sloane, asked if I'd be willing to give up the job offer I already had and go work in another city with them. Xavier, the childhood friend I'd been secretly in love with for years, even promised that if I came with them, we'd become mates once we were settled in our jobs. I said yes. That night, with everyone watching, I turned down my dream job. Xavier kissed my forehead and promised he would never let me down. On graduation day, once the ceremony was over, I'd meant to go tell them that I'd already found a new job. But before I could, I heard them around a corner, talking in low voices. "Is Vivian's job a done deal?" "It's official. HR called me right after Flora turned down the offer." "Good. This way she won't keep clinging to us and upsetting Vivian." "Poor Xavier, though. He's a werewolf, and yet he's had to spend all that time dating a girl he doesn't even like." The four voices drew closer. I stood frozen as my three childhood friends and Vivian met my eyes.

The day Alpha Marcus and I marked each other, his first love, Cecilia, threw herself off a cliff into a ravine overgrown with wolfsbane. The pack searched for three full days and nights before they found her, barely clinging to life. She was once the most spirited she-wolf in our pack, but the fall cost her a leg and the ability to bear pups. I grieved for the beautiful life that had been ruined, and I blamed myself for not seeing how fragile she'd become. Marcus comforted me gently. "Elena, this wasn't your fault. Cecilia made her own choice. You did everything you could. Don't beat yourself up." Later, not long after our pup, Rylan, turned five, a sudden illness tore through him, and he died in my arms. Night after night, Marcus held me, wiping away my tears. "Don't be sad, Elena," he would murmur. "We'll have other children." I had always believed my mate was the most considerate, most protective Alpha in the entire world. Until the day I overheard him speaking with his Beta, Adrin. "Alpha, the dosage of wolfsbane we gave Rylan was perfect—just as you ordered. It looked like a genetic defect. No one will ever suspect." "It's been so long. Don't you think it's time to forgive the Luna?" "What's one pup compared to what Cecilia lost? She lost a leg, her future as a mother. Everything."

On the day of the family's "Legacy Day," Dad announced he was giving us necklaces blessed by our ancestors. Everyone got one. Everyone except me. My older brother Leon received an obsidian necklace. Even the old butler who'd served our household for twenty years got a protective charm to calm his mind. The most beautiful one—a moonstone wrapped in rare runes, glowing with soft holy light—was gently placed around Mia's neck by our father. Mia is my little sister. She's been a rare white wolf since birth, but she's always been frail. She accepted it with delight. I stood at the very edge, running on no sleep after just returning from border patrol. I stepped forward and instinctively reached out my hand. But my Dad didn't even look at me. Click. The velvet box snapped shut in front of everyone. That sharp sound of the lid closing jolted me fully awake. Father dusted off his hands. "Yours isn't urgent. We'll talk about it later." My eyes stung. I walked over to Mother, who stood to the side. "Mom, what about me? Why does even the butler get one, but not me?" Mother just told me to wait a little longer. Just then, Mia coughed from the cold wind. My future mate, Garrett Whitfield, immediately took off his coat and wrapped it around her, escorting her all the way into the warm room. I stood alone in the biting wind, pulled out my phone, and replied to a warrior invitation message from the Silver Creek pack next door—one that had been sitting there for a week.

I had saved Emma, an Omega, from a pack of rogue wolves. James, my Alpha and fated mate, welcomed her into our pack. But she fell for him anyway. She clung to him, following him everywhere he went. Whenever James mentioned her, his face twisted with disgust. "If I had known she would become this much trouble, I never would have done her that favor." On the day of our marking ceremony, Emma burst in again. She knocked over a candle stand, and flames raced through the room. I failed to escape. Toxic smoke filled my lungs until I could barely breathe. When they pulled me out, the healer said my wolf had gone dormant. I might never wake up. James hated Emma after that. He dragged her to my bedside every day and forced her to repent. He said every cruel thing he could think of. Then Emma held a silver dagger to her throat. James grabbed the blade from her hand. Blood dripped from his palm. "Emma, you'll never repay what you owe me in this lifetime.I haven't given you permission to die." Emma threw herself into his arms again. This time, James didn't push her away. They held each other tightly beside my hospital bed. No one saw the tear slide from the corner of my eye. In the end, I chose to leave our pack. James searched for me like he had lost his mind.

The day my mother pulled up to school in a Cullinan, I was digging through a trash can for stale bread. She was furious. She snatched the bread right out of my hand and crushed it under her heel. "I give you a living allowance and you're out here going through the garbage? Are you trying to make your own mother look like a joke?" I was about to explain when Ms. Laura grabbed my arm and whispered in my ear. "Don't talk back. Your mom's been a CEO her whole life. She can't handle being challenged in public, especially not by her own daughter." Ms. Laura was my mother's best friend. My living allowance went from my mom to her, then to me. Two hundred a month. When I stayed quiet, Ms. Laura went over to my mom's side. "Elsa's just trying to experience what a tough life feels like. That's the mindset of someone with real grit. Don't crush her spirit." The suspicion in my mother's eyes didn't fade, but the edge softened a little. "This dedicated to roughing it? Fine. But she can't keep this up. People are gonna think my company went under." "Go swipe your meal card and bring me a school lunch. I want to see what they're feeding you here." I lowered my head. Quietly. "I don't have any money." My mother exploded. "No money?! I transfer twenty thousand to Laura every month for your living expenses! I send you the most advanced suppressants and nutrition supplements straight from the company lab! It's only been five days into this month and you're telling me you're broke? Where is all that money going?!" The entire courtyard went dead silent.

I grew up with James Brown, the Alpha of the Blackwood Pack. We were inseparable. I thought I was going to be his Luna. Then I brought home an abandoned female wolf from the border. After that, she lived in James's eyes. He couldn't see through her act, and he kept pinning her mistakes on me. After countless heartbreaks, I finally woke up. "Olivia, the bonding ceremony we arranged for you and Lucas Johnson, the Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack, is in a week. Do you... want to go through with it? If you still don't want to, I'll go to the Johnson family and call the whole thing off." It was the eighth time my mom had brought it up. Just when she thought I'd turn her down again, I spoke. "I'll do it. I'll bond with Lucas." Mom froze. "You... you will?" "I will." My voice was calm. "But I have some loose ends to tie up in the Blackwood Pack. I'll be back in time for the ceremony."

I arranged a lavish dinner cruise in Alpha Lucien Grimfang's honor. However, I mistakenly wore the ceremonial gown that had once belonged to his late Luna, Sylvia Wilder. In front of all the guests, his ten-year-old son, Rhett Grimfang, suddenly rammed me into the champagne tower. The shattered crystal glasses left deep cuts across my skin. "Don't think that you can replace my mother just because you're wearing her sacred gown! You're nothing but a dog—obedient and always at my father's beck and call! Don't you dare dream of claiming a Luna's honor!" His cold, scornful expression mirrored Lucien's perfectly. "I can make you leave anytime I want!" I forced myself to look up at the pup I had raised. "Don't trouble yourself. Tomorrow, I'll submit my resignation to the Elder Council and leave for good."

On the day of my Luna coronation dress fitting, Sterling pinned me against the full-length mirror. I could clearly feel the raw hunger in his wolf's soul. But the moment his rough fingertips traced my spine. The moment he completely claimed me. He gasped another woman's name. "Chloe, you smell so sweet." Chloe. My half-sister. And his former Fated Mate. She was killed in a rogue attack. Her life forever frozen in the year they loved each other most fiercely. From then on, her memory became sacred ground to this powerful Alpha. No one was allowed to touch it. Every Full Moon Festival, I would accompany Sterling to her memorial to lay down moonflowers. He used to cup my face and swear repeatedly that the mate bond had died with her. He said in his long life, he would only spend that one full moon night mourning the past. For all the remaining days and nights, his wolf would belong only to me. But an Alpha's vow was a joke. My sister's ghost still possessed his soul. She never left for a second. And I finally woke up. You can't compete with a ghost. This mark was a lie. I would sever the bond myself. He was in love with a dead woman. I didn't want him anymore.

Three years ago, my Alpha mate, Grayson Blackthorn, has a dream in which he falls for an Omega who works at a flower shop and does countless things to hurt me for her sake. When I hear about it, I don't take it seriously. Instead, I laugh and tease him, "And then what?" Grayson pins me beneath him and kisses me fiercely. "Then, you got me drunk and tricked me into breaking our mate bond. By the time I woke up, you were gone, and I couldn't find you anywhere." He claims it's just a ridiculous dream, yet he starts avoiding alcohol, steering clear of every flower shop, and keeping his distance from every Omega. He even develops severe separation anxiety. It got so bad that our pack's healer, Ravenna Nocturne, has to intervene regularly. To put Grayson's mind at ease, I do everything I can to show him that I love him and depend on him more. Gradually, we forget all about that dream. On our fourth wedding anniversary, a seemingly pure and fragile Omega named Avery Darkcrest appears before me with a bouquet of white lilies in her hands. The flowers nearly send me into anaphylactic shock because of my severe lily allergy. The council demands that Avery be expelled from the pack, but Grayson steps in front of me to protect her. "Avery didn't do it on purpose. Don't make things difficult for her." As I watch him shield her with his body, I know that nightmare is beginning to come true. In the dream, Grayson leaves me utterly broken, and it takes me a long time to finally walk away. But this time, I need only five days.

I'm New York's top fashion designer. Everyone says the industry is a swamp, but nobody ever dared lay a hand on me. Nobody knew my secret bed partner was the most dangerous, ruthless Alpha in the city. He used his power to pave my path, and asked for nothing. As his fragile human mate, he hid me away in his downtown penthouse. Every night after we were intimate, he would kiss my palm over and over. He'd bury his face in my shoulder, whispering that hiding me was the only way to keep me safe. He claimed his pack was torn by civil war and he needed time. He told me to wait until he could make me his true Luna in broad daylight. For seven years, it never missed a beat. Every single night, he only left after I fell asleep. I honestly thought he was obsessed with me. Until I overheard his right-hand man trembling as he asked: "The Council approved the vote. When are you bringing our real Luna home?" The Alpha sneered, his voice dripping with disgust: "Those old bastards trying to run my life again? Ava is just a toy. Make a human food my mate? I'm not out of my mind." And now? When my heart turned to ash and I finally walked away to let him have her... why is he losing his mind?

Five years of marriage, and as the pack's Luna, I've never been to a single big celebration. Every Moonlight Festival, I spent it alone at home. It's simply because my mate told me the pack has a rule: wolves not raised within the pack cannot join pack gatherings. Even Lunas can't. To follow this rule, I endured my wolf spirit's unease and felt lonely for five solid years. Until the eve of another Elder Gathering, I stumbled upon a post from his first love on social media. Through another woman's account, I saw my mate. She posted pictures with my mate. For five years, at every Elder Gathering, they were side-by-side, never apart. That's when I realized, it wasn't that he couldn't make an exception. It was just that the one he'd make an exception for wasn't me.

After four miscarriages, I was finally pregnant again. To surprise my mate, Wyatt, I hid behind the curtains in his office. I never expected to see him tangled in a passionate embrace with my younger sister, Stella. They were kissing frantically, and Wyatt showed a fiery passion for her that he had never once shown me. What shattered my heart completely were Wyatt’s next words: "Since you're pregnant now, Harper is useless to me. I'll figure out a way to sever the mate bond with her." "She’s so incredibly clueless. She never even suspected that I caused those four miscarriages just to cure your infertility..." Hiding behind the curtain, I clamped my hand over my mouth to stifle my devastated sobs. My fated mate murdered my babies with his own hands, all for my sister. In that moment, a fire of pure vengeance ignited in my heart. I called Wyatt’s mortal enemy, Dominic, Alpha of the Sterling Pack: "Want to make Wyatt's life a living hell? Let's make a deal."

Right after Ethan and I announced our mating ceremony, his childhood sweetheart from the pack, Sophia, came rushing back. And she flat-out demanded I go through a "bloodline trial." "Someone like you, a wolf outcast, you're definitely up to no good. You have to pass this month-long bloodline trial before our pack will accept your mating!" With Ethan basically giving them the nod, Sophia and her pack betas put me through hell. They deliberately messed with my moonlight alchemy circle, almost tore my mind apart. The backlash from the moon energy tortured me until I almost broke. My body felt like it was being ripped to shreds. They contaminated my sacred water potions. The choking fumes nearly suffocated me. The betas were cruel and vicious. "She's just a lone wolf anyway. If she dies, no pack will back her up." Then, Sophia stole the Moon Goddess sacred artifact my grandma left me—the Moon Alchemy Cauldron. She taunted me, all cocky. "If you've got the guts, try summoning the Moon Goddess's power on the blood moon night to take it back! Otherwise, I'll use your family's crappy old cauldron as a chamber pot!" I’ve had enough. I’m so sick of these ‘trials,’ and there’s no way in hell I’m mating with Ethan.

My fated mate, Alpha Ethan, chose another woman over me. Not once. Not twice. But ninety-nine times. He always claimed it was for the pack. He always swore he loved me. He always promised that next time, I would be his priority. Then she showed up at his Alpha ceremony. The outsider, Oliva. In my Luna gown. My Beta saw red and told Oliva to get her ass out of our pack. Ethan abandoned me on the stage—on the night we were to be crowned together—and stormed down to shield Oliva in his arms. For the hundredth time, he ordered me to apologize for the sake of an alliance. As if she was the victim. And just like that... I was done. I drew my silver dagger and sliced it across my palm. "I, Ivana, before the Moon Goddess and the Elders, reject my mate bond with Alpha Ethan." He thought I was throwing a tantrum. He was wrong. I didn't just shatter our bond. I erased him. And that’s when he lost his mind, tossing Oliva aside and begging me to come back.