Aesthetic Peachy

It was a full moon, and my mate, Alpha Ethan, bailed on our son's coming-of-age ceremony rehearsal. All because his Omega mistress, Scarlett, was in heat. Then, during the actual ceremony, our son Caleb was ambushed by a rival pack. By the time I heard the news, Caleb had been shot. He was dead, lying in a pool of his own blood. I knelt beside him, completely breaking down, when Ethan's voice, faking an apology, came through the mind link: "Sorry, Scarlett needs me. I'm sure Caleb can handle things. Just make sure Caleb gets some rest early, don't let him run around and mess up tomorrow's celebration." I looked at my son's broken body, my voice trembling, "He won't be running anywhere anymore." "Good," Ethan said, sounding pleased. "Scarlett's bloodline is purer. She's better suited to give the Stone Pack strong heirs. You should understand." I cut the link. After I committed my son's body to the flames, I found the secret ritual to break a mate bond and contacted a wolf I hadn't spoken to in a long, long time: "The protection wards on Stone Pack territory are down. You can make your move."

I went into labor. And my mate, Alpha Alistair, locked me in a silver cage. The bars throbbed with curse runes, burning my skin. He did it for Livia. His dead brother's mate. Her pup had to be born first. That's when I learned the truth. He'd been poisoning me for months. All to make sure Livia's child would be the next Alpha. He called it "calming tea." A daily dose of poison to slow my pup's growth and delay my labor. But my body had other plans. My pup refused to wait. I went into labor at the same time as Livia. When he found out, he accused me of faking it. Of begging for sympathy. He let them poison me with wolfsbane. I lost my pup. A piece of my soul died with him. With my last breath, I reached out. To the one person who could save me. My brother, Alpha King Lucian. He came like a storm of rage. He burned the packhouse to the ground, with me inside. A phantom fire for all to see. Then, he plucked me from the flames. Only then, surrounded by the smoking ruins of his pack, did Alistair fall to his knees. His howl of regret tore through the night. For 99 days, he howled at the moon. Begging the Moon Goddess to return just a sliver of my soul.

I saw a trending post on a werewolf forum: "How to get your mate to break the bond with you?" The poster said he was going to lie to his mate about going on a wilderness trial, but he was really planning to run off with his "true love." I silently scoffed. What a shameless scumbag. But the next day, my Alpha mate came home, smelling of another she-wolf. "For the future of our pack, I have to go on a lone wolf trial in the wilderness," he said. "We should temporarily break our mate bond." I looked at his phony face and nodded calmly. "Okay. Whatever you say. We'll break the bond tomorrow." Later, he took the family money and his lover and disappeared. But with his parents' support, I became an executive at the family company. He blew through all the money, ditched his lover, and came crawling back to the country, trying to win me over. But by then, I was already at my engagement party with another, far better Alpha. I said it from the beginning. He was the one who chose to abandon his family. Even if he wanted to come back, this place would be nothing but his personal hell.

After my pack fell, my father and I joined the Black Moon Pack. Alpha Victor admired my gift for runes and promised to make me his Luna. I was so full of hope, I didn’t even mind that he was using my gift to shield his entire pack. But he kept delaying our marking ceremony, leaving me to endure the pack’s scorn for my fallen bloodline. On the eve of my father’s death, he even temporarily marked Seraphina, the daughter of another Alpha. He claimed it was to secure an alliance. I cried myself dry in the endless wait, only to hold my father as he died in my arms. Victor, however, continued to use my gift, commissioning runes from me only to give them to Seraphina. The final straw was when Seraphina destroyed my rune sanctum and flaunted the very pendant I’d crafted for my own bonding ceremony. That’s when my heart finally shattered. I no longer cared about being his Luna. I simply walked away. But after I left, Victor’s desperate plea echoed from the Moon Goddess altar. “Come back and be my Luna. Please.”

Si Zyrtea Fate Briones ay laging binabangungot simula ng tumira sila sa ibang bansa kasama ang kanyang ina. Mga panaginip na parang totoo pero alam niyang hindi naman nangyari 'yon. Hanggang sa nakilala niya si Kiel, ang lalaking natipuhan niya sa Cafe. Simula ng may nangyari sa kanilang dalawa ay tila nagbago ang ihip ng hangin, hindi na siya binabangungot. Siya na kaya ang kasagutan? O magiging mapait lang ang kapalaran nito sa kanya? Warning: Some of the chapters contains violence and mature content that are not suitable for very young audiences. Take note: It may contain Typos and Grammatical Errors so please bear with me. Thank you! Read at your own risk.

Alpha Scott hated me, his fated mate, more than anything. All because I was just a human, a useless creature without claws. His heart belonged entirely to his childhood sweetheart, Joanna. After Joanna died in an accident, he hated me for ten years. But when an enemy pack’s bomb exploded in front of our den, he saved me. Before he died, covered in blood and lying in my arms, he used his last ounce of strength to push away my trembling hand. "Elena, if only the Moon Goddess had never let us meet..." At the funeral, the former Luna—Scott's mother—grabbed my collar, sobbing uncontrollably. "Scott, it's my fault. I never should have forced you to accept this human. If I had supported your choice of Joanna, would any of this have happened today?" I didn't answer. Because she was right. After being dragged out of the funeral, I climbed Skyfall Ridge—the pack's sacred ground—alone and leaped. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the Moon Goddess designated me as Scott's mate. This time, I decided to sever all ties with Scott, to give everyone what they truly wanted.

At the full moon party before our marking ceremony, my mate Lucas got wasted. I went to pick him up, just like we agreed. Only to walk in on him burying his face in his first love’s neck, marking her with his scent. "Don't ever leave me again, Willow. My wolf only wants you." His first love shot me a triumphant smirk and shoved him into my arms. "Your mate is here. You should go." But Lucas, hiding behind his drunkenness, just looked at me with disgust. "You're the only one for me, Willow! She's just some lowly half-blood Omega. She's just my ride home, don't worry about her." I swallowed my humiliation and took him home, only to find out he wasn't drunk at all. He claimed he only said those things to appease Willow, for the sake of her pack's power. I just turned away. So on the day we were supposed to be bound for life, I ran. If Lucas was still hung up on his first love, then I would grant him his wish and disappear. But I never expected that after I left, he would lose his mind, crying and begging for me to come back.

My fated mate, Alpha Baton, had once shackled his bloodlust for me. He’d built a corporate empire from the ashes of his bloody conquests, all to give me a civilized home. Even when my father was framed for murdering the brother of his first love, Seraphina, he held me gently. "Don't worry, Tricia. I'll face this with you." But on the day of the trial, my father was condemned as a murderer and exiled to the North. And Baton? He was celebrating, with his arm wrapped around Seraphina. I hunted down the witness, demanding answers, only to find him trembling as he stared at Baton, who stood right behind me. It was Baton. He had threatened the witness into lying. He was willing to destroy my father, just to make Seraphina happy. "Seraphina's brother is dead. Someone has to pay the price." The mate bond between us didn't just snap—it shattered. Agony ripped through my soul. If I meant nothing to him, our marking ceremony was a promise. And now, it was one I had to break.

On the night of our mating ceremony, my mate, Damon, marked another she-wolf right in front of me. He said that if I wanted to be his Luna, I had to accept him having us both. In my past life, I screamed at him, accusing him of defying the Moon Goddess. Pressured by the Elders, he was forced to banish Lyla. She was run down by rogues and fell from a cliff to her death. After that, Damon refused to ever mark me. He even framed me, luring me into the forbidden lands as a pretext to banish me. Then, he hunted me down and killed me himself. I remember my body being picked apart by birds, the agony of it all. But now, I just stared at Damon's cold face, and at the Omega, Lyla, cradled in his arms. Then, I calmly reached up and removed the sacred symbol of our fated bond. "I refuse." And with that, under the shocked gazes of the entire pack, I walked away, heading for the frozen lands of the North. This time, I will make every single wolf who hurt me pay.

Three months since my husband, Julian Moretti, disappeared. I walked into his favorite den, the grief so deep it stole the air from my lungs. I just wanted to breathe him in, to find any trace of him that was left. Then I heard it. A familiar laugh. And the soft moan of a woman. Through a crack in the door, I saw him. My husband, the man "missing" for three months, had his hand tangled in another woman's hair. "Baby, just a little longer," he said. "Soon as I siphon enough cash from the family's books, we're gone. You and me." In his arms was Bianca, from the Rosso family. "What about your wife?" she purred. "Let her play the grieving widow. She's nothing without me anyway." My fists clenched. The world went quiet, my blood turning to ice. The next day, I put the word out to the entire Family. "I'm holding a memorial mass for my husband." At the service, he stormed in, a ghost returned from the grave, roaring that he was alive and there to take back what was his. But I was standing next to his uncle, Dante Moretti, and all I did was stare him down. "Then explain," I said, my voice cutting through the silence. "Explain the woman. Explain the money. Explain your betrayal... to the Family. And to me."