Countdown

When I hear my boyfriend, Terence Bowen, is trapped in a house fire, I immediately rush back to save him. However, after dragging him out with all my strength, I realize it's just a dummy. Laughter erupts from the house next door. "Ariana Brock is such a fool! She fell for it again!" Through a half-open window, I spot Terence lounging on the couch, casually scrolling through his phone. He looks completely fine. "That's the 47th prank we've pulled on her. Three more to go and we're done." "Serves her right. She shouldn't have stolen Bethany Howard's scholarship. Bethany is the one Terence actually cares about. That's why he decided to fake a relationship with Ariana to get revenge 50 times over. Too bad the game will end soon." I bend over, gasping for air. All this time, the relationship I've worked so hard to protect is nothing but a game to them.

Ashton had always been deeply devoted. However, on the day his first love was diagnosed with cancer, he handed me a pill that could erase memories. "Macie," he said gently, "Lydia doesn't have much time left. Give me three days—to give her the wedding she's always dreamed of." "I promise I won't break your heart.This pill will make you forget, just temporarily. Once it's over, you'll take the antidote, fall in love with me again, and we'll get married—properly, this time." His eyes left no room for doubt. So I took the pill and swallowed it. No hesitation. However, what Ashton did not realize... I created the memory-erasing drug. There is no antidote. In three days, I'll forget him—forever.

"Your mate bond is false, Elena. It broke a year ago when Sophia returned—Elias's real mate now," Selene said, her voice heavy with pity. I'd saved the Moon Goddess by accident. Her reward was the Lunar Heartstone—and the truth that shattered me. "The Lunar Heartstone is meant for true mates to share. Since you're mateless—it's yours alone," she added softly. Something inside me broke. Then hardened. Eight years I gave him as his Luna. I destroyed my body trying to give him an heir. Now I'm finally pregnant with twins—while Elias is out there building a family with her. I touch my belly. "My pups don't need a cheater as their father." Three days. Then we disappear. Turns out the Alpha who threw me away is now searching everywhere. Desperate. Broken. Begging. Sorry, Elias. You're too late.

Wendy staggered forward at the hospital entrance. She held the Seventy Thousand Dollars she had received for selling her kidney. Her pale face carried a satisfied smile. That was enough to cure Lucas. She thought it was worthy to sell off her kidney for his life. She ignored her post-surgery weakness, and stumbled all the way to the hospital ward. Her heart ached even more as she looked at the frail man lying in bed. "Lucas, your lowly girlfriend is not around. Why put on a show?" "Shut up! I'm perfecting my acting. How else could I fool her?" A familiar, teasing voice came from inside. Wendy's hand froze on the door handle. What did he mean... by fooling her? Laughter and exclamations erupted from the room. "You're smart, Lucas! A fake medical report was all it took to make that woman believe you had cancer!" "I heard she handed over all her savings; all she had was only Eight Thousand Dollars!" "Eight Thousand Dollars? Lucas could simply spend more than that on a single bottle of liquor at the bar. Her money is worthless, yet she actually offers it."

I was the deadliest warrior in the Black Moon pack, raised by Alpha Silas himself. I was his fated mate. And his dirty little secret. I always knew he only used my body to soothe his restless wolf. But I didn't care. Being by his side was all that mattered. Until a political alliance forced him to mate another—Ravenna, the Alpha’s daughter from the Sunfire Pack. On the night of the full moon, the moment he marks her, our sacred mate bond will shatter. Forever. Once he cast me aside, I would vanish. But after I walked through fire for my freedom and disappeared from his world… he went insane.

The day of our Mating Ceremony finally arrived. As the Elder stood before the pack, his voice booming as he announced the exchange of our soul-binding rings, Julian—the man standing across from me—suddenly spoke. "Actually," he said, his voice cutting through the sacred silence. "I’ve been fucking Chloe." I froze. He didn't even blink as he watched the color drain from my face. "While you were busy trying on your ceremonial gown, we were in the dressing room right next to yours," he continued, his tone chillingly conversational. "She couldn't help but scream when she climaxed. You actually thought she was falling ill; you spent ten minutes checking on her through the door, worried sick." "Later, while she stood by your side helping you pick out jewelry, her legs were shaking so hard she could barely stand." In that instant, I felt the blood turn to ice in my veins. Stiffly, I turned my head toward the woman standing in the front row, wearing a radiant smile. Chloe. She was waving her bouquet, cheering my name at the top of her lungs. Just an hour ago, she had been brushing tears from her eyes as she straightened the train of my dress, squeezing my hands and telling me I deserved all the happiness in the world. "Even just now, while you were preparing for the ritual, she was riding me," Julian added, his voice dropping to a low, rough growl. "She got so worked up her claws shredded the skin on my back." He looked down at the silver band in his hand—the ring he had yet to slide onto my finger—with total indifference. "I’m laying it all out there, Elara," he said. "Whether you still want the title of Luna is entirely up to you."

Nachdem meine jüngere Schwester ins Ausland gegangen war, heiratete ich an ihrer Stelle den Mafia-Don. Fünf Jahre nach unserer Hochzeit waren wir zu erbitterten Feinden geworden. Er hasste mich, weil ich angeblich meine Schwester vertrieben und mich in die Ehe hineinmanövriert hatte. Ich hasste ihn, weil er mich immer nur als Ersatz behandelte und mich nie vor aller Welt als seine Frau anerkannte. Mein fehlender Status brachte meinen eitlen Eltern nur Demütigung. Von diesem Moment an verwandelte sich ihre Liebe zu mir in Hass. Am Ende ließen er und meine Eltern mich auf einem verschneiten Berg zurück, während sie mit meiner Schwester Weihnachten feierten. In der bitteren Kälte starb ich gemeinsam mit dem Kind, das ich niemals kennenlernen durfte. Währenddessen badete meine Schwester in der Liebe aller und erlebte das glücklichste Weihnachten ihres Lebens. Als ich die Augen wieder öffnete, war ich zu dem Tag zurückgekehrt, an dem meine Schwester aus dem Ausland heimkam. Diesmal würde ich weder Gideon Wade noch meine Eltern jemals wieder um Liebe anbetteln.

My father adopted Seraphina, the daughter of an Omega servant who died trying to save us. In less than a year with the Blackwood family, she became everyone's precious darling. Not only did my father treasure her like a gem, but even my mate and my brother started favoring her over me. When Sera accidentally dropped my mother's heirloom necklace into the fire and it burned to ash, Father said we should let the past stay in the past. He threw away everything that belonged to Mother. Even the anti-silver antidote I developed to honor my mother's memory—she died from silver poisoning—Sera wanted to take that away from me too. To force me to hand over my research to Sera, Damien—my childhood sweetheart and future mate—even threatened to cancel our mating ceremony. However, when I stopped fighting with Sera and left home forever, they went crazy.

I had spent my whole life living in the shadow of my sister, Juliana, the woman everyone in the mafia's heir circle adored and protected. She had no idea that I had been reborn. Just like in my previous life, she smiled sweetly and gently, insisting that I pick my fiancé first, pretending to be thoughtful and gracious. However, this time, I refused. In my previous life, I naïvely believed she meant well. I married the man she recommended, Chester Kane, an heir who was said to have been paralyzed after an ambush. I gave up my right to inherit the family, becoming his caretaker, his crutch, the medicine he used to fight loneliness. However, no matter how much warmth I gave him, his heart remained frozen. The truth only came out during my sister's pregnancy celebration. When an assassin from a rival family raised his gun toward her belly, the man who had not stood in years suddenly rose to his feet. He shoved me toward the muzzle of the gun. All seven bullets tore into my womb. As I collapsed, I saw him pull my sister into his arms, shielding her with his own body and taking the final shot for her. Only then did I understand. He had never been paralyzed. His family had never abandoned him. He pretended to be sick because Juliana's heart belonged to another man, and he refused to be tied to me. "I'm sorry, Tania," he said. "I lied to you. However, I couldn't let Juliana lose the heir she's carrying. I'll repay what I owe you in our next life." When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day my father asked us to choose our marriage partners. This time, I chose no one. Yet back then, they were the ones who begged for my love.

I was eighteen when I left Italy for Chicago. My brother Leo handed me over to his most powerful ally for “protection.” Don Damien Volkov. His eyes locked on me the first time we met. They never looked away. By day, I was his private doctor. By night, I was the only thing in his bed. His seduction was a slow, deliberate hunt. The way his body brushed against mine during an exam. A stray kiss that landed behind my ear. The weight of his hand resting on the small of my back. I fell fast and hard for his dark charm. I gave myself to him, letting him claim me, again and again. For four years, our affair was a secret hidden in the shadows. In that time, he sculpted my body, teaching it to crave his touch, molding me into his perfect obsession. Then she came back. Isabella, his exiled ex-fiancée. He sent his private jet for her. I swallowed my pride and crashed his reunion. An hour ago, his hands, still smelling of blood, gripped my chin. He forced his kiss on me. But now, right in front of me, he was stroking another woman's hair. "Elara, you're the one who climbed into my bed four years ago." "You act like a whore, but you expect me to treat you like a Donna?" The way he looked at Isabella was so tender. The way he looked at me was pure scorn. Shame burned through me. Head down, I sent my brother a coded text. Accept the Moretti proposal. I looked up. A smile bloomed on my face. "Fine. Then this is goodbye, Damien."