Ceremony

In the split second when the research lab explodes, my boyfriend, Thomas Bastion, dashes to Melody Harper, who is standing furthest from the blast zone. He shields her from the impact with his own body. When the sounds of the explosion stop, the first thing he does is carry Melody to the hospital. I'm lying on the floor. My body is covered in fresh blood, but he doesn't spare a single glance at me. Thomas has taken care of Melody for the past 18 years. His heart is filled with nothing but her. There's no space for anyone else. I only survived because my colleagues rushed me to the hospital. When I am discharged from the ICU, I call my teacher, Louis Carpenter. Both my eyes are swollen from how much I've been crying. "Mr. Carpenter, I've made up my mind. I'm willing to join you for the confidential research. It's fine if we have to leave in one month. I don't care that I'll be unable to contact anyone for the next five years." The wedding ceremony that I have been dreaming of is supposed to take place in a month's time. However, I no longer want to get married.

" I thought...I..owe you a child only..", Katherine whimpered in pain, several shreds of glasses making their way deeper into her skin. " Yes but now... you owe me your body too, Principessa.", Ace replied with a sly grin, the dark layer of smoke hiding the demons behind his hazel eyes. ********* Twenty years old, Katherine Harper had everything in her life, a perfect grade,sweet boyfriend and an unfulfilled dream of becoming the next top international fashion designer. Returning to her homeland after years spent abroad, Katherine was all ready to settle down with her long time boyfriend, Nathaniel Cooper. But on the day of her engagement ceremony,she never expected to meet her ex-boyfriend, Ace King who had now become the next billionaire in town. Ruthless, Cold, arrogant, Ace wasn't the same like her childhood lover from the past.When she accepted the bitter destiny that they let go of their past, Ace started to influence her emotions mentally and sometimes physically. Secrets were yet to reveal, hatred was yet to turn in love and Katherine had yet to fall in his Devil's Trap. At the end, Katherine had yet to learn that you can never hate a person whom you loved once.

My mate and my brother hated me for twelve years. They believed I stole their precious Sarah's herbal research and bullied her for twelve years into silence. At my marking ceremony, they exposed my "crimes" to the entire supernatural world. "She's nothing but a bully who torments her packmates and a thief who stole the herb formula from Sarah!" But Sarah smiled through her tears: "The formula doesn't matter anymore." "As long as it saved our wolves from silver poisoning, what does it matter who created it?" "I've already forgiven her." She became the pack's angel of mercy. I was condemned by thousands, until the very wolf I'd saved with my medicine poured silver water over my head. In my despair, I dragged Sarah down with me into death. When I opened my eyes again, I was back in my second year of high school. Sarah was slicing her arm with a silver blade, smiling as she asked: "Have you thought about how you'll apologize to me?" Something in me snapped. My Alpha power surged forth, crushing her to her knees. I grabbed the blade: "Let me show you what real cuts look like."

I woke up back in my 27-year-old body. I had twin cubs, and my mate was Ethan, the most powerful Alpha in the Northwest. He was always at the top of the Wolf Council's rankings. Alpha Weekly even named him "Number One Ideal Mate on the Continent." Even the Royal Pack wanted to marry their princess to him. Everyone in the pack said I was lucky. But the first thing I did? I took the sacred contract for dissolving our mate bond and delivered it to his old flame myself. I pushed the contract in front of Isabella and said calmly, "I'm going to ask the Moon Goddess to break our bond. Ethan's yours. The cubs, too." Isabella stared at me, shocked. She couldn't believe the person who'd been Luna for six years would just give it all up. I just added quietly, "Since they all like your scent better, I'll get out of your way. Just get Ethan to put his Alpha mark on the contract. Once the bond-breaking ceremony is over, I'll leave this territory." This time, I wasn't going to make the same mistakes. I wouldn't be the Luna everyone ignored anymore.

My coming-of-age ceremony was supposed to be a celebration. My father, the Alpha of Alphas, had invited every powerful pack in the land. His goal: for me to choose a mate from the land's strongest Alphas. I chose the most powerful of them all, Alpha Lukas. But my sister Lyla, my father's bastard, was only allowed a lowly beta. She was slaughtered in the forest. After her death, Lukas and I crafted 99 soul crystals in her memory. I thought he did it for me, to honor my fallen sister. But then he killed me in battle. With his bare hands. "You bitch! If you hadn't chosen me, Lyla would have been my mate!" Only then did I learn the truth. He had only ever loved Lyla. He hated me for stealing the life that should have been hers. Those 99 soul crystals… they weren't for her memory. They were for my penance. I died in a sea of despair. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of my ceremony. Facing the most powerful Alphas in the world, I walked past them all and chose the one no one wanted. The half-breed outcast despised by all. Salome.

Abandoned at the borders of Darkfang as a child she was taken in by the generosity of the previous Alpha and raised along with his sons before he passed away. From a young age it was crystal clear that there was an undeniable bond between her and the Alpha twins; this was confirmed when she became of age at the mating ceremony and found out that she was fated to both brothers. She loved Wulfric but the weight of her decision was great knowing that whoever she picked would inevitably be chosen as the Alpha King, completely unprompted Wulfric rejects her in public and leaves the pack. Devastated, she falls into the arms of his brother and develops feelings for him. He promises to Cherish forever but that promise doesn't last long after 3 years pass and each of her children are girls. But she never gets to deliver them, one accident or another always occurs and causes a miscarriage. He starts to gather concubines, neglecting her until she is pushed into the foreground. She reaches her breaking points after finding out that he was the one who arranged for each of her miscarriages, in her burning flame for revenge she makes an impulsive choice reaching out to someone she hadn't heard from in years with one insane request that would not only eventually push Ranger out of power but give her her revenge- “Wulfric will you be my concubine?”

Derrick Caldwell once promised me that on the night of our pack's founding feast, he would announce that we'd been married for eight years. However, on the big day, his childhood friend, Lilith Sterling, takes my place. She sits beside him—the spot reserved for his Luna. The warriors say, "We heard you have a mate with whom you've been married for eight years, Alpha. Is this her?" Derrick smiles without denying it. He silently allows their assumption to stand. I want him to explain this to me, but he merely says, "You may have helped me become the Alpha, but your lowly birth is nothing compared to Lilith's noble status. As my mate, you need to be more tolerant." I don't argue with him. Instead, I turn and leave the pack he and I built together. Later, I start my own pack and turn it into the largest one in the federation. Derrick stands among the crowd during a ceremony where the Alpha King confers a medal of honor to me. He proudly tells anyone who will listen that I'm his wife. I act like I don't see him, and his eyes turn red with desperation.

I was Alpha Damon’s Head Beta. For six years, I had been his partner in bed and his second-in-command. When he announced our mating ceremony, the entire pack celebrated. My dream was finally within reach. But then, outside his private trophy room, I heard him bragging about his “Luna trials.” And just like that, I learned the truth. I wasn’t his one and only. I was one of thirty candidates. He’d spent a month with each of us, grading our bodies, our submission, our performance. My score? Lower than an Omega’s. Lower than Lydia’s. “Fucking Lydia was incredible,” he boasted. “I could barely pull myself away. Then I look at Elysia—so stiff, so in control—and I’m just… bored.” Ice flooded my veins. My body went numb. Six years of devotion. Countless nights tangled in his sheets. It all meant less than a cheap thrill and a wolf who knew how to kneel. My heartbreak hardened into ice. I sent a message to an Alpha who had wanted me long ago. “Adrian, you once said your offer to mate was a standing one. Does it still stand? Damon and I are over now.”

In the werewolf kingdom, a she-wolf's happiest day is supposedly when she meets her predestined mate. But for weak omega Lyra of the Crescent Moon pack, this fated day brings nothing but humiliation and heartbreak. Her chosen mate rejects her and chooses her cousin Athena , her longtime bully and tormentor. Devastated, Lyra flees the mating ceremony and goes to a bar to drown herself in sorrow. In her despair, she has a one-night stand with a stranger and becomes pregnant. Shunned by her pack, gossip about her unwanted pregnancy spreads like wildfire. Lyra decides to escape the shame by running away for good. Her already sorrowful world is thrown into further chaos when she ends up crossing paths with the stranger from that fateful night. And it turns out he has a chosen mate who will stop at nothing to get rid of Lyra. Meanwhile, Lyra's former mate, who once rejected her, now seeks to reclaim her upon learning she alone holds a special power that can save his ailing mother, the Luna of their pack. Lyra finds herself trapped in a whirlwind of emotions as people only want to use her for their own needs. Or will she finally carve her own destiny in the face of those who betrayed her trust and wrecked her dreams?

Selene Nightshade, the daughter of a powerful alpha, was fated to be the Luna of the ruthless Alpha Kieran Blackwood. But on the night of their mating ceremony, he rejected her in front of the entire pack, choosing her stepsister instead. Broken and humiliated, Selene was cast out, left to fend for herself as a rogue. But Selene’s story didn’t end in exile. The Moon Goddess had bigger plans for her. She was taken in by a hidden pack—one of ancient power and dark secrets. There, she unlocked her true potential, her bloodline linked to a long-forgotten prophecy. Now, stronger than ever, Selene returns—not as the weak girl Kieran rejected but as the Queen of Rogues, commanding forces that could bring the werewolf world to its knees. Kieran realizes too late that his mate bond with Selene never faded, and now, he is haunted by the woman he betrayed. But she’s not the same girl who once loved him—she’s out for revenge. And worse, another powerful Alpha, a mysterious and dangerously charming rogue king, has set his sights on Selene. Now, caught between the mate bond she can’t escape and the tempting darkness of a new love, Selene must decide—does she destroy the mate who shattered her, or does she reclaim her destiny and rise as the most powerful Luna the werewolf world has ever seen?