1945 Pulitzer Winning

My mom made me pretend to be a boy since I was a child, all in hopes of winning my father’s love. As I was about to graduate from college, I decided to leave the country for good. However, I never expected my secret crush to tie me up.

At our Thanksgiving family dinner, my stepbrother brought his beautiful girlfriend to meet the family for the first time. She held up her wine glass and flashed me a malicious smirk. “I heard you had a first love you can’t forget, Summer.” I kept my head low and focused on my food, unsure how to respond. After all, my first love… was her boyfriend. When I was seventeen, my stepbrother Ethan Cole tricked me into crossing the line we should never have crossed, while our parents were blissfully unaware. Even right now, under the table, his foot was rubbing mine sensually. He did not bother holding back. On the table, he held his girlfriend’s hand tenderly as he mocked me with a smirk, “You’re twenty-seven, sis. Your shelf life is running out, and you’re such a plain Jane. Who would ever want you?” I stood up abruptly and looked at him, my tone calm and resolute. “I’m married, Ethan.”

My husband,Yves Gordon, got a diamond necklace at an auction. It was my birthday. The next day, I saw another woman wearing that necklace. She was Joyce Cherny, my husband's new sales director. That woman posted a dozen shorts on TikTok to show off her necklace. I commented, 'Nice necklace, but the outfit doesn't match.' Half an hour later, Yves called me. He berated, "I bought Joyce that necklace! She deserves it! She doesn't need you mocking her for it!"

Harold missed our fifth anniversary. He said Rogues had attacked the border, and as the Alpha, he had to fight to protect the pack. However, the she-wolf who came to fetch him was dressed in a tight little dress and heels—she looked more ready for a date than a battle. Worried for Harold, I went to the Moon Goddess's altar to pray for his safety, like I always do whenever he's called to fight. However, on the way, a witch told me there was no war at the border at all. He lied to me. At that moment, I knew it was time to walk away. "I want to break my mate bond with Harold," I said. She turned the pages of an old, dusty spellbook. "Harold won't accept this. He was even willing to give up his claim to the Alpha title just to be with you." "I don't need his permission," I said. "I'm willing to pay any price." She sighed. "If your heart is truly set on leaving, I can brew a potion for you. One sip, and your scent will vanish from the pack's memory—as if you never existed. "However, think carefully. You'll lose your title as Luna, leave behind your home, your people. You'll start over somewhere new, where no one knows your name. Not even the Moon Goddess will be able to find you." I said, "I've made up my mind, I refuse to stay in a love built on lies. "How soon can I have the potion?" "Three days." Three days. Just enough time to say goodbye to everything I once called home.

After I finished the Luna training that every she-wolf dreamed, I went to my Alpha, Damien, with a request. To break our mate bond. "All this, just because I missed your ceremony to help my late brother's mate, Lilith, with the rogues in her territory?" A smirk twisted his lips, his voice a low rasp. I nodded, silent. "I gave my brother my word before he died. I swore I would protect Lilith. I can't break that vow! Why can't you understand?" he whispered, sighing heavily. "Stop being so childish! Why can't you be reasonable, like Lilith is?" I pushed him away with a chilling calm. Ten years. For ten years after our bond was confirmed, I gave up everything. Every hobby, every dream… all to learn how to be his Luna. Everyone in the pack thought I was helpless without him. That I couldn't even survive without his protection. But this time, I was done. He didn't know I'd already contacted the neutral packs in another land. I was going somewhere his Alpha scent could never reach me.

Lucas Fenrir was the son of the Alpha of the Silvertail Pack, born as the pack's greatest pride. When his Luna and first love, Nara Boris, chose to leave, he married me in a fit of rage—the most unremarkable Omega in the pack. Everyone said I was just a substitute for Nara. They were waiting to see me abandoned, to see me cry, and to see me beg on my knees. Nonetheless, I always smiled and calmly fulfilled Lucas' every demand. I helped him stabilize the pack's morale, stood up for him in public, and even defended him against the rumors that he had rekindled his past romance with Nara. Until one day, I saw him on the streets during the Moon Goddess Festival. He was holding Nara, kissing her deeply. Meanwhile, I simply turned my head away in silence from behind the crowd and pretended I saw nothing. A few months later, I was diagnosed with wolfsbane poisoning that had spread to my nervous system. My condition was beyond saving. I was admitted to the ICU of the pack's hospital, with only a few days left to live. Lucas came when he heard the news. His eyes were bloodshot as he roared and grabbed my dying body. "Why didn't you tell me? Why are you trying to die alone in secret?" I looked at his unhinged expression, my gaze as gentle as it had always been. There was even a faint mocking smile curling at my lips. "Lucas, I've never loved you. "The one I loved… was actually your twin brother—Derrick."

At the banquet hall, I refuse to let my adopted twin pups eat the walnut cake. Ivana Lamont—the childhood sweetheart of my mate, Luther Hardwick—chokes up dramatically. She cries accusingly, "Yara, they may not be yours biologically, but you can't abuse them! Why won't you even let them have a slice of cake?" I'm just about to explain that the twins are allergic to nuts, but they point at me and complain in aggrieved voices. "Mommy often doesn't give us food. We never have enough to eat!" With that, I'm unceremoniously driven out of the banquet hall by the host. When I go to look for my mate to talk about it, I accidentally overhear his conversation with a friend. "Alpha Luther, it's been eight years. Are you still not going to mark Yara?" "There's no rush. I'll wait until the kids are a little older. We love each other very much, so it's fine even if I don't mark her." His friend responds disapprovingly, "You've been hiding from her that the twins are actually your and Ivana's pups. Aren't you afraid she may leave in anger if she finds out?" Luther shakes his head and replies with certainty, "She won't. Yara is an orphan, so she has no family. If she leaves me, where else can she go?" The ugly truth causes me to freeze on the spot. It turns out the pups I've loved for eight years were born to my mate and another she-wolf. What I thought was a happy life is nothing but a cold, heartless deception! I touch my belly, thinking of the pup I just conceived. My tears fall like a relentless downpour. In the shadows, I say inaudibly, "You're wrong, Luther. In fact, I found my birth parents three days ago. I just haven't had the chance to tell you. But it doesn't matter now because you don't need to know about that anymore." I have Luther sign the mate bond dissolution agreement before finalizing my withdrawal from the Sharp Teeth pack. Two days later, I give both my mate and the pups to Ivana. With the pup that Luther has never known or laid his eyes on, I disappear from his world forever.

During the year when my relationship with my Alpha father was at its worst, he gave me the newly elected Beta of the Sunfang Pack to make me happy. After spending the night with him, I fell for him. Three months later, I mended things with my father. Four months later, I was pregnant. From then on, I became the most distinguished expecting she-wolf in the pack. Whenever it was time for a checkup, the Alpha and Beta of the pack would come with me. But when I was six months pregnant, neither of them was around. “I have something urgent to take care of in the pack.” My father patted my head. Scott stroked my pregnant belly. “I have to help too. I’ll prepare gifts for you and our pup.” I smiled as I sent them off, only to receive a video from an unknown number. My father was dressed as a groom, and beside him stood Jelena, the mistress who drove my mother to her death. Katie, their illegitimate daughter, was also pregnant. She wore a wedding gown as she leaned against Scott and smiled happily. “This is a doubly joyous occasion!” Someone in the video raised their glass. “Congratulations to our Alpha for bringing his first love back, and congratulations to the Beta for holding his bonding ceremony!” At the end of the video, my father said airily, “Your mate certificate with Claire is fake. Wouldn’t that make Claire’s pup illegitimate?” Scott chuckled and said, “Claire has had everything since she was born, but Katie has been an illegitimate child for most of her life. I can’t let her pup grow up bearing that shame as well.” At that moment, my heart shattered into pieces. I called my brother, who had become the Lycan Chairman, and cried as I said, “Hoills, I want to leave with you.”

I have a deal with Aldric Cromwell, the so-called King of Equinox Street, a billionaire lawyer-turned-CEO. If I confess to him 142 times while wearing a wedding dress, he will cover his limited-edition Koenigsegg in flowers, drive me to the most magical castle, and give me the grandest wedding imaginable on my 143rd try. However, Aldric is nowhere to be seen that day. Instead, he makes headlines by renting out the entire Wondergrove Theme Park just to celebrate his sweet new girlfriend, Bianca Alvarez's birthday. Bathed in the glow of brilliant fireworks, they share a tender kiss, cameras flashing like stars all around them. That moment quickly becomes the top trending story on the internet. Meanwhile, I go viral in my own way for showing up in a wedding dress for the 143rd time outside his company building. Speculations and theories swirl about the mystery man I keep confessing to but never reveal. People also wonder how long it will be before I make the 144th declaration. When Aldric realizes I have faithfully kept our agreement, he promises me, out of pure guilt, that he will finally fulfill the vow he's made to me after the final confession. Dressed to the nines, he arrives at his company, driving that flower-covered, limited edition Koenigsegg, only to receive a final text from me. "There won't be a 144th confession, Aldric. We're over."

At twenty-eight, I held the dubious honor of being the last unmarried socialite on New York's Upper East Side. Everyone around me was growing increasingly anxious about my single status. In my previous life, my mother arranged a matchmaking cocktail party, where I was told to choose a husband from ten handpicked elite bachelors. I bribed the event planner to place Mark West's profile at the very top—and as I had hoped, I chose him. After we married, Mark treated me with what seemed like tender affection. He even bought me an oceanfront villa in the Hamptons, making me believe I had finally found true love. But that illusion shattered the day I was nine months pregnant, just hours away from giving birth. Mark drove a scalpel straight into my abdomen—then, right in front of me, hurled our newborn onto the floor. "If you hadn't forced me into this marriage with your family's power, Sofia wouldn't have been heartbroken enough to go drinking and get drugged and assaulted. This… this is what you owe her!" He tossed the scalpel aside, then calmly let his private doctor pin down my blood-soaked body. I fought through excruciating pain for six agonizing hours, until I finally bled to death. Afterward, Mark dumped my corpse into the Hudson River. But for Sofia, he hosted a grand funeral—funded with my money, under my name—and paraded himself to the world as a grieving, devoted widower. Given a second chance at life, I refused to step foot in that cursed matchmaking event. Instead, I went straight to my mother with a demand: marry me to Robert Black—the most ruthless, cold-blooded titan of Wall Street, whose scarred face was feared by all. In the end, stripped of my financial backing, Mark's hedge fund collapsed. He became a disgraced fraudster, spat on by everyone on Wall Street.