Ceremony

My son was kidnapped by a pack of rogue wolves. Two days later, the patrol team found his body. His limbs were broken, his entire body covered in bruises, not a single patch of fur left unmarked. I held his lifeless form and howled in anguish. My mate Damien, Alpha of the Stormfang Pack, swore the killers would pay. All evidence pointed to Sera, Damien's nominal Omega assistant, but in reality his mistress. As the pack's Luna, I publicly revealed the investigation results and evidence before all pack members. Under pressure from the pack, my mate was forced to execute his Omega assistant. A year later, I became pregnant again. But during my tenth anniversary Luna ceremony, my mate locked me in a burning chamber as punishment. That's when I learned the truth—he hated me for forcing him to kill his Omega assistant. He wanted me dead for revenge. In the flames, I felt the child in my womb slip away, and my own strength began to fail. After my rebirth, I still couldn't change my son's tragic fate. But when I chose to abandon my role as Stormfang Pack's Luna, the entire pack fell to their knees, begging me not to leave.

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.

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?

I did three years in prison for my wife, Lilian Parson. The day I got out, she handed me an envelope for her company's grand opening. Inside was a single dollar bill. For a second, I thought it was a mistake. Then I saw her colleague, Nathan Ramsey, holding his envelope—his also contained a single dollar. Relieved, I pushed my doubts aside. I smiled, stood by Lilian's side through the entire ceremony, the picture of a proud, supportive husband. That night, scrolling through Instagram, I saw Nathan's latest post. A photo of a check. [Congratulations to Lilian Parson on the grand opening! So generous—100 million as a gift!] The comments section exploded with envy and blessings, congratulating him and "the boss" on finally becoming a couple. Lilian offered no explanation. Instead, she hurried to draw a line between us. "You just got out of prison," she said coolly. "It's not a good look to go public right now. Let's keep our marriage a secret. In front of others, just call me your boss." Then she turned around and liked Nathan's post. I wiped the tears from my eyes, picked up my phone, and dialed the number of her greatest rival. "From now on, I work for you," I said.

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.”

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.

On the day of my wedding with my girlfriend, I was unexpectedly informed by the hotel that our ceremony had to be postponed by a couple of hours. With no time to notify relatives and friends of the change, I had to rush to the hotel entrance to intercept guests. Upon arriving, I was stopped at the door by security, who told me that a wedding was currently taking place inside. The host's voice could be heard as I saw my girlfriend, wearing a veil, smiling and extending her hand to a man who was half-kneeling. In the audience, all the bride's relatives who were supposed to attend our wedding were seated, clapping and cheering. The man on stage was her dream guy and also my current superior. Seeing me causing a commotion, my girlfriend warned me, "I'm just helping out. Alex is your superior. I'm also doing this to help you. Don't cause any trouble." Just helping out? I had booked the wedding venue, chosen the time, designed the wedding dress, and personally sent out the invitations. How could a wedding be rearranged so suddenly? I looked coldly at the ring box the man was holding. "It seems my taste is quite similar to my yours. If that's the case, this diamond ring is yours, including the wife." My girlfriend finally panicked.

"Hide little one... The sweet wolf is gone and now it's my turn to possess you. Again and again. " His bloodshot eyes landed on my mouth and he licked his lips... **** Rejected and sent to the Omega Slave Camp by her mate who took another woman at the Luna Ceremony, Cecilia thought she would never see the light of another day. But when the Dark Alpha king Theodore Knight saved her, she began feeling comfortable until one day the mate who rejected her comes in her life back as the only nephew of the King. "My uncle will behead you once he gets to know what you did six months ago... " Scared to be punished again while pregnant with the king's pups, she tries to run and protect her kids. Only to be captured by the king again, but this time he has changed. His dormant beast wolf is angry and wants to torture the little wolf who betrayed him and hid something so precious... His pups. Will Cecilia calm the cursed second wolf of her mate or gets pushed into life of misery? Will her pups save their doomed mate bond and form the strongest pack in the shifter world? **** 18+ Kidnapping and Forced Marking Weak to Strong FL

My son, Jasper Cole, won the gold prize in an art competition. When I took off my apron and rushed to the award ceremony, I found that the painting titled 'Mother' was not of me but Maeve Leighton, my husband's secretary. Maeve pretended to be troubled as she told my son, "Your mom will be sad when she sees this painting." However, Jasper was unperturbed. "What does her sadness have to do with me? She's an ordinary-looking and incompetent housewife, always nagging me about what I can and can’t do. She's too strict with me. It's annoying! Maeve, I wish you were my mother. My dad doesn't like my mom at all. He's only happy when he's with you. He's only with my mom because he feels obligated." My heart broke at that moment. Since he no longer wanted me as his mother, it was pointless for me to stay. I called my dad. "Dad, I want to go home. Can you pick me up?" My dad could not believe it. He answered after a long pause, "Of course. I'll come pick up my brilliant daughter in three days."

I was invisible. A wolf-less servant, beaten down and forgotten. Until the Lycan King saw me. For twelve years, I survived by making myself nothing: no voice, no power, no hope. My stepfamily made sure I knew my place. But they never knew my secret: I'm not wolf-less. I'm a silver wolf, blessed by the Moon Goddess herself, hiding in plain sight because showing my true nature would've gotten me killed. Then Kael Devereaux walked into the Culling ceremony, and everything shattered. One look. One scent. One brutal claiming bite in front of thousands, and I became his. Lycan King's fated mate, his Luna, his healing. Kael isn't looking for love. He’s loosing his mind and I am the only thing standing between him and madness. Now I'm trapped in a palace of enemies who want me dead, bound to a king who's equal parts monster and salvation, and discovering that my hidden power might be the only thing that can break his curse or doom us both. They think I'm weak and breakable. They are wrong. I didn't survive twelve years of hell just to bow to a new kind of monster. I survived to become one. Welcome to the Shadowstone Citadel. Try not to bleed on the throne.