Cerita Pendek Independence Werewolf & Novel Regret

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.

On the night of the full moon, my mate Aiken brought home an Omega. He said the she-wolf had saved his life on the battlefield and that he would take care of her for the rest of her life. She took over my room and put on my mother's velvet cloak. In front of everyone, the two of them held up the bear claws that symbolized a mating and received the pack's blessing. And I got left behind, over and over. When I finally couldn't take it anymore and went to Aiken's house, I found him kissing her neck. The Alpha who was supposed to be mine was using his own scent to ease another she-wolf's heat. Because she said his scent was the only one she liked. "Mira, don't worry. The only Luna the Silvermoon pack will ever have is you." He held my face in both hands and promised me again that we'd have our mating ceremony at the next full moon. Too bad I'd already washed off the mate mark. And there was something else Aiken seemed to have forgotten. Any member of the pack can challenge the Alpha. If the Alpha is stupid and useless, then somebody will take his place.

Three days before the Mating Ceremony, the Alpha confessed his affair to me. "While you were away on business, I slept with Sophie." "But don't worry — we'll still go through with the ceremony. You'll still be the pack's Luna." My heart went cold. I left him without a second thought. The next day, the girl I'd sponsored for ten years showed up at my door. She rubbed her slightly swollen belly with a smug look on her face. "Vivian, I'm carrying Ethan's child. This baby will be the Alpha's heir — so you can give up now." But what Ethan didn't know was that I was pregnant too. I didn't tell him. I just booked a ticket out of the pack. What I never expected was that after I left, Ethan would lose his mind trying to find me.

I stared at the photos attached to an email. My Alpha mate, Marcus Hale, was supposed to be negotiating a partnership with another pack. But the photo showed him standing in Firefly Woods, a famous dating spot. Across from him were his long-lost first love and my two children. The four of them looked happy and complete, like a perfect family frozen in time. My heart jolted painfully. At the same moment, I realized that what I had with Marcus was over.

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."

To test whether he could resist temptation, my stepsister, Chloe Bennet, drugged my childhood friend, Ethan Vance, with an aphrodisiac. Then, she shoved me into his room in the Silverwood Pack. Unable to watch Ethan suffer, I willingly helped him through the night. In a fit of pique, Chloe ran off and married the cruel Alpha of a rival pack. I got pregnant, and Ethan 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 daughter coldly. But during a Rogue attack on Oakhaven, he sacrificed his life to get me and our daughter back to safety. I failed to keep my grip on him. As he collapsed, mortally wounded by the Rogues, 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 Chloe had drugged Ethan and locked me in his room.

I loved Lucian for years and gave up everything to save his life, but all I got in return was disgust in his eyes. In my past life, I was forced to become his mate, but in the end, I died under the claws of the feral wolves he sent after me, and he even snapped my brother Marcus's neck with his own teeth. The night I was reborn, I made a different choice. I let my rival Ayara have what she wanted. I married the brutal Prince Draven in her place, the one rumors said would "kill his bride," and she got to run off and save Lucian. But when the wedding car door opened, the person who stepped out was the gentle boy I'd met when I was five years old. "Take a closer look, sweetheart. Am I really as terrifying as the rumors say?" His amber eyes were full of warmth and affection. Turns out, he'd staged twelve fake weddings just waiting for me to grow up. By the time Lucian got on his knees and begged me to come back, it was already too late; I was Draven's Luna now.

Before the awakening ceremony, our pack reserved two family seats for every teenager taking part. I handed Mom and Dad their invitations and reminded them three times when it started. Every time, Mom said, “We know. We’ll be there.” But that day, I waited outside for three hours. Neither of them showed up. Other dads had brought cameras, ready to capture the moment their children awakened. Other moms had packed their kids’ favorite fruit to help them regain their strength afterward. Mom finally picked up just as the ceremony was about to start. “Mom, why aren’t you here yet?” “Huh? Here for what?” “My awakening ceremony. You promised you’d come.” She went quiet for a few seconds. “Your sister has a dance competition today. Your dad’s there with her.” “And your brother has a toothache. I’m at the healer’s with him.” “The ceremony will go ahead whether we’re there or not. You’ll be fine on your own.” Then she hung up. I walked in alone. Some of the other teenagers gave me pitying looks. Others smirked. That day, I awakened the strongest wolf in my group. It wasn’t until dark that the family group chat lit up. Mom sent a picture of my brother eating ice cream. Dad said my sister had won a prize, and he was taking her out to celebrate. Only when tears blurred my vision did I open Silverfrost Pack’s offer to train as a warrior and accept it. If there was no place for me in this family, I wouldn’t stay.

When I realized my soulmate Darius was still hung up on his former lover Cassia and her child, I started teaching our son to call him "Lord Darius." That night, Theo accidentally stepped into a thorn trap set by forest nymphs. He was poisoned by a minor curse that sent his magic spiraling out of control and plunged him into darkness. But Darius turned and left because Cassia called him on his messaging crystal late at night. I touched my son's forehead as his divine aura dimmed from the pain, and made him say, "Goodbye, Lord." On Theo's birthday, Darius skipped our celebration because Cassia tearfully complained that her child needed a father. I didn't say much. I just had little Theo explain to the guests, "The Lord has important divine duties to attend to." My boy would always struggle for a long time before forcing those words out. Until Darius finally realized he owed us far too much. He offered to go to the temple and commission an enchanted portrait of our family. But right there inside the Portrait Pavilion, Cassia sent another message through the crystal. "Darius, I am begging you to come to the Divine Academy. Could you just pretend to be Milo's father for a bit? The young gods here are all mocking him for being a bastard..." A flash of guilt crossed Darius's face. He was just about to bend down and explain things to our son. But this time, Theo did not need my prompting. He just waved his hand. "It is okay, Lord Darius. Hurry up and go be with your other child. Just having me and Mom in the portrait is enough."

Isaac Kane, the Alpha of our pack, had prepared gifts for our bonding ceremony. But he let my own sister choose first. One was a jeweled wolf's-head pendant, a symbol of the highest rank and wealth in the pack. The other was a plain moonstone necklace. Almost every woman in the pack owned one. Chloe Allen reached right past me and fastened the wolf's-head necklace around her neck. I was about to say something when Isaac caught my wrist. "Linda, be good and let Chloe choose first. "That pendant is too powerful for you. Without a wolf, your body can't handle its energy. If you wear it, it'll make your heart race." "Did you forget the fever you had when you were 19?" My breath caught. I hadn't forgotten. But he had one thing wrong. I had that fever because I'd stood in the snow for four hours waiting for him. He'd promised to come to my qualifiers. In the end, he said Chloe's wolf had suddenly awakened and he couldn't get away. We were both Allens, but Chloe had always been the gifted one. When her wolf awakened, she became the pride of the family. And me? My wolf never awakened. Even though I was Isaac's fated mate, I could only watch as he chose the woman he'd always loved over me. I was done putting up with it. I pushed both necklaces toward her. "Chloe, you can have both."

In my past life, weaponized liquid silver flooded the vault. I begged my fated Alpha, Declan, through our mind-link. He called my crying annoying, shattered our bond, and took every warrior to rescue his lost first love. I died alone in the freezing silver mist, carrying our five-month-old pup. Later, they said Declan went mad. At his forced mating ceremony with Talia, he ripped his own Alpha core apart, begging the Moon Goddess for a second chance to protect me. The Moon Goddess granted it. Yet the moment I opened my eyes, the heavy blast-door was already locked from the outside. He had sealed me in again, rushing to the harbor for the same woman. His so-called "second chance" was just another death sentence with my name on it. As toxic fumes poured through the vents, a strange peace washed over me. Two lifetimes of this mate bond. I'm done.

"Miss Elara, this confirms the arrangement for your 'staged death.' In two weeks, at the Luna coronation ceremony, your death will be staged." "You will fall into the rapids, and the cause will be poisoning by wolfsbane." When my Alpha mate, Aiden, abandoned me again for "urgent pack business," I found a rogue on the black market and signed the staged death agreement without a second thought. The entire werewolf world believed Alpha Aiden was madly in love with me. He certainly played the part, never forgetting to kiss my forehead every time he left. But only I knew that for the thirty-ninth time he kissed me, he had also spent the night lost in a drunken haze with that Omega model, Cassia. But none of that mattered anymore. A tainted Alpha, I was done with him. At the coronation he treasured most, I would ensure he received the most perfect corpse.

My Alpha mate, Leon Worth, brought a breathtaking mermaid into our estate. He named her Nerissa and tended to her every need with painstaking care. That day, the moment Leon stepped out, Nerissa walked right up to me—and placed my Luna Crown on her own head, right in front of my face. "Leon and I have known each other for six months now. He promised me with his own mouth—he'd take care of me for life." She traced a finger along the crown's rim, her smile poised. "I've made up my mind—I'm willing to drink the potion for him. I'll give up my tail. Delores, step aside and hand over the Luna position. It'll save everyone the humiliation in the end." I didn't argue with her. I just waited for Leon to come back and explain. But when he finally returned, he didn't even bother to take that crown off Nerissa's head. He left me standing there like I didn't exist, while he knelt beside her, gently cleaning her scales, his voice low and tender—like he was handling something fragile, something precious: "Just three more days. I'll get you a better heated pool." The way he looked at her—I'd seen that look for seven years. Now, it belonged to someone else. I turned and walked away. I didn't look back. My flight had barely broken through the clouds when my phone lit up. A message from Leon flashed across the screen: "Delores, don't go. I did all of this—to save you!"

My Mate, Alpha Ronan, locked me in our penthouse. All for his childhood sweetheart, Jessica. It was her birthday. That was the night fire consumed our home. I clutched my five-month pregnant belly. The pain was too much. I couldn't shift. I desperately called the pack guards. "Help me... I'm locked in. The apartment's on fire—" Silence. Then a cold voice. It was his right-hand man. "Amelia, the Alpha gave an order. Any alarms from the penthouse tonight are just you having a meltdown. Don't waste the pack's resources." The line went dead. I tried the pack's medical team. The operator hesitated. "Luna, I'm sorry. The Alpha has declared the penthouse off-limits. We can't enter without his direct order." Then the call was rerouted. To my Alpha. To Ronan. I heard his ice-cold voice. "She's losing it. My Mate loves to make a scene. Ignore her." Smoke filled the room. I shattered the balcony's glass door and jumped. From the 30th floor. I survived. But the doctor told me the fall and the shock had been too much. I’d gone into labor. My pup, our heir… was gone. And I could never have another. That same night, my Alpha was clasping the Luna's moonstone necklace around another woman's throat. A birthday gift for her.

On the third day of our cold war, my fiancé, Alpha Rowan Blackwood, agreed to take his assistant, Kiara Lane, on a month-long trip across three states. He packed while I was still feverish from a patrol injury and left without asking whether I could stand. He expected to come home to dozens of calls, jealous accusations, and an apology for questioning him. Instead, when he handed Kiara the border-security project I had built, I stayed up and finished the proposal she couldn't write. When she destroyed the test data, Rowan erased the activity logs and blamed me. I surrendered my management badge without defending myself. When he promoted Kiara into my position and reduced me to overnight field support, I congratulated her. For the first time in weeks, Rowan looked pleased with me. "You're finally starting to act like a proper future Luna," he said. Kiara smiled. "See? Stop fighting her. Take away enough, and eventually she'll learn which decisions belong to her Alpha." Rowan didn't deny it. Certain I had finally learned my place, he decided to return my position and hold the marking ceremony I had once begged him not to postpone. He expected gratitude. What he had forgotten was that, somewhere between restaurant photos with Kiara, he had approved a stack of documents without reading them. My resignation was in that stack. So was my transfer out of Blackwood Pack. By the time Rowan decided I was obedient enough to become his Luna, I no longer belonged to his company, his Pack—or him.

The year I turned sixteen, the water supply of Moonlight Pack was contaminated. A desperate, burning thirst spread through every household. Owen was the one who found me half-dead and carried me home. His parents didn't just open their door to me. They shared what little water and food they had left. Everyone said it was because we were fated mates, destined to be together. But anyone could see the truth. His family loved me from the bottom of their hearts. The year I turned twenty, Owen asked me to be his mate. He gave me a silver dagger he'd forged with his own hands. He said that when he wasn't by my side, this dagger would protect me in his place. That very night, I used it to kill everyone in his family.

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.

When the pack set out on its southward migration, Rebecca Hale, one of our newly appointed young leaders, proposed changing the route at the last minute. She wanted to break away from the main column, take the shortcut past Blackwind Gorge, rest in wild-wolf territory along the way, and live on berries gathered by the roadside. Each wolf would need only half a bag of rations, and we would reach the southern grounds ten days ahead of the main column. Freedom and speed were the whole point. My family had guarded the border of Blackwind Gorge for generations. I knew exactly how deadly that route was. Every year, young wolves who strayed from the pack died in that gorge. Some were flayed by rogues; others became prey for venomous snakes. Newly adult she-wolves were the easiest targets of all. In my past life, I fought with everything I had to stop them. I went from pack to pack, warning each Alpha until they withdrew. In the end everyone gave up the shortcut. Rebecca alone refused to listen. She vanished on her second day in the gorge. A week later, her body was found among the loose rocks. Because I had stopped the others in time, I earned the right to become the pack's priestess. But on the day of my investiture, my mate, Stefan Cross, tore out my throat. "If you hadn't stopped everyone from going with her, Rebecca would never have died alone! "You'll pay for her death with your life!" The packmates I had risked everything to save stood there cheering my death. Then they hurled my body onto the altar. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Rebecca proposed the detour through Blackwind Gorge.

Dad and my brother, Jonah Atwood, have always favored my sister, Lisa Atwood, while resenting me. At my coming-of-age ceremony, when several werewolves in the Blackwolf pack corners and harasses me, it's Rex Vaughn, the Alpha's heir, who steps in to protect me. He throws the most extravagant mate-bonding ceremony for me, right before the Moon Goddess. Overnight, I become someone every other female wolf wishes they could be! I'm seven months pregnant when I show up at Lisa's birthday party. Somehow, we're ambushed by dark magic. As always, Dad and Jonah put Lisa first. They throw everything they have into shielding and dragging her out of the enemies' barrier, leaving me trapped in the center of the spell circle, nearly consumed. In the end, it's Rex who pulls me out. Later, I wake up in Stone Cabin, only to walk right into a scene that makes my blood run cold. "You paid off an old witch from the Darkmoon pack to set up that spell circle?" Rex's eyes blaze red with fury. "She's only seven months along, and you were already trying to rip the pup out of her? "What? Were you hoping Lily and her pup would blow up and die together?" Jonah and Dad shrink back, trying to explain themselves. "Lisa's wolf is fading fast. The old witch said the only way to save her and her wolf is to sacrifice someone with the same blood immediately…" Rex snaps, "I care about Lisa more than either of you do! Why else do you think I claimed Lily as my mate? Sure, I want to save Lisa, but not by sacrificing Lily and her pup!" That is how I learn the truth. Rex didn't bond with me because he cared. He did it to save Lisa. As it turns out, he's no different from Dad and Jonah. All they ever see is Lisa, the weak-born wolf. I was never part of the picture to begin with. Since no one's ever truly cared about me, I'll walk away with my pup.

By the time Kaelen canceled our marking ceremony for the seventh time, I no longer asked him to stay. I simply watched him fasten his cloak and prepare to leave for Elara. “Elara’s wolf had lost control. She needs my Alpha aura to stabilize her. We can do it after she recovers.” He promised we would finish the ceremony once she was safe. He also promised this would be the last time. But I had already heard that promise six times before. Each time he broke the ceremony halfway through, our unfinished mate bond tore through me like a rejection. I was always the one left shaking on the floor while he rushed to hold another woman through the night. This time, I did not beg. Kaelen mistook my silence for understanding. Before leaving, he kissed my forehead and said, “Wait for me.” I smiled and nodded. Then I called the only witch who knew how to destroy a fated bond. Kaelen believed he was postponing our future for some time. He could never have imagined that the mate he had neglected again and again would be the one to sever their bond with her own hands.