Ceremony

On the marking ceremony with my Alpha mate, Sebastian Cole, my world falls apart. A pack of Rogue werewolves kills my mother. The one responsible is Sebastian's stepsister, Cassandra Cole. The security footage captures everything. Cassandra runs out of the cemetery, with a group of Rogues hot on her heels. She bolts into my mother's house, desperate to hide. My mother steps in to protect her and fights back, but in the struggle, her silver rifle is knocked away and lands right at Cassandra's feet. Cassandra could pick it up and kill those Rogues, but she doesn't. She just stands there with a faint smile, watching as the Rogue leader drives his claws through my mother's heart. Later, Sebastian tries to justify her actions. "Vivian, Cassandra was wrong this time... I promise I'll punish her." But I know what I saw. I believe it was murder, and I am bringing charges against Cassandra at the Elder Council Court. However, Sebastian begs me to drop the case. "If Cassandra goes to prison, it'll destroy her! Vivian, don't do this." I can hardly believe what I'm hearing. I refuse him without hesitation. So, he makes another choice. The night before the hearing, he locks me in the basement, trying to stop me from testifying. That's when it finally hits me. No matter what happens, Cassandra will always matter more to Sebastian than I do.

When I was in college, my mom had terminal cancer, and our family company collapsed due to heavy debts. Just when I was at my lowest, my childhood friend Zach Hall rushed back from overseas. For seven years, he stayed by my side and helped me heal. …Until the night before our engagement ceremony, when I was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer. I wanted to tell Zach, but instead, I overheard a conversation between him and the lead surgeon who had operated on my mother. "Zach, your fiancee's mother could've been saved back then. But you stopped me from treating her, just so Jessica could get that poor woman's corneas. If Jessica is the one you love, why marry your fiancee?" "I do feel guilty toward Annie, but I don't regret it. It was the only way for Jess to pick up a brush again and keep chasing her dreams." Through the crack in the door, I saw clearly the tenderness on Zach's face when he mentioned Jessica. "What if Annie finds out?" the surgeon asked. Zach fell silent, rubbing the band on his ring finger. "I don't know. I've already decided to marry her. I'll love her, protect her, and spend the rest of my life making it up to her." The pain hit me so hard at that moment that I almost collapsed, as if my heart was being ripped out.

In shifter society, Eden isn’t the paradise you’re used to hearing about in the Bible. It’s the place where all girls are housed from birth until their 18th birthday. A war between the humans and shifters left the werewolf population decimated and diseased due to poisonous agents used against the wolves. As a result, birth rates of purebred werewolves declined extraordinarily, while the presence of mutant werewolves rose. To combat their fertility crisis, the Elders invented Eden where young girls were kept locked away from society. Their knowledge of the outside world is very limited and their only purpose is to become breeders after their 18th birthday when they are selected by their mates during the Breeding Selection Ceremony. If the girls don’t prove they are purebred wolves or turn into mutants, then they are killed by the Alphas. Imani is shamelessly classified as a Breeder C–the most undesirable amongst the breeders. She hates that the girls are subjected to such barbaric practices and desires to escape from Eden. What she doesn’t expect is to run into Alpha Jackson, the man who was tasked to kill her on her 18th birthday if she didn’t prove to be a purebred wolf.  The Breeding Selection Ceremony commences and Imani is certain she doesn’t have a wolf. As her “sisters” are dying around her, Imani is shocked when Alpha Jackson spares her life. Not only does he spare her life, but he selects her as his Breeder! Alpha Jackson only kills when he’s 100% certain, but there is something off about Imani and the only way he can get to the bottom of it is if he keeps her close.

Three days before my wedding, I found out that Shane Dawson had changed the venue from Grandma Mae’s home in the South to Castillo de Sol, the Spanish castle that Tania Collins, his childhood sweetheart, adored. I confronted him, only to overhear him complaining to his friend, "Thank God Tania has taste. Otherwise, I’d be laughed at for life." His friend reminded him, "Didn’t you promise her you’d hold the ceremony at her grandmother’s house? Aren’t you afraid she’ll get angry and refuse to marry you?" Shane just laughed, sharp and dismissive. "The Quinns are on the verge of bankruptcy. Marrying me is her only way out. She can’t afford to gamble. I’ve already asked the planner to call her. She’s probably scrambling to change her flight right now." Anger and humiliation burned in my chest. I bit down on my lip and, in the end, turned away. Three days later, the castle wedding went on as scheduled, but I didn’t reschedule my flight. I didn’t show up. Instead, I stood in Grandma Mae’s old courtyard and exchanged rings with another man. To this day, Shane doesn’t understand. I never married him for some so-called escape route. I married him for a love that lasted ten years. However, once the dream was over, it was time for me to choose a different path.

Darcy a 17-year-old Alpha Female wants nothing more than to be loved. Being always ignored by her parents and looked down upon, the only love she ever knew was from her elder twin brother, Dylan and her best friend Lavender. She believes all her miseries will come to an end when she finds her mate. Colton is the next in line Alpha King who wants nothing more than to take his childhood sweetheart Patrina as his chosen Queen. He doesn't want anything to do with his true mate and wishes to spend his life with the woman he loved, but everything changes when he finds his true mate on the day of his coronation ceremony and is forced to accept her as his Queen and Mate. Stephen is the next in line Beta of the royal pack or so he thought. He has always been in love with Darcy but decided to stay away when he realised she wanted to find her true mate. Everyone's worlds come crashing down when Darcy is accused of a murder conspiracy. While proving Darcy innocent a lot from the past is revealed leaving everyone shocked. Will Darcy be able to find the love she always craved and deserved? Will Colton realise his mistake before it is too late? Will Stephen be able to move on with his life without Darcy? Follow on their journey to find out. THE UNWANTED LUNA SERIES BOOK 1 - THE UNLOVED LUNA QUEEN BOOK 2 - THE VENGEFUL LUNA QUEEN All rights reserved! © Midnight Shines Books, 2020.

At the wedding, I immediately recognized that the woman under the veil wasn't Selene, but an impostor. But I still went through with the ceremony as if nothing was wrong. In my previous life, Selene had been forced to return and complete the wedding with me after I exposed the fake bride in front of everyone. That very night, however, her childhood sweetheart was rushed to the ICU with acute alcohol poisoning. When Selene heard the news, she didn't shed a tear. Instead, she cursed him, saying he got what he deserved. … After we married, Selene and I appeared to be a loving couple on the surface. I kept funneling money from my family to save her family business from collapse. But on our first anniversary, my wife—with not even a sliver of warmth in her eyes—tied me to a helicopter with her own hands. "If you hadn't forced me to come back and marry you that day, Chase wouldn't have ended up like that," she snarled. "What right do you have to live so happily? I'll make sure you feel the pain he went through before he died." She threw me from ten thousand yards up, and I hit the ground as nothing more than a broken heap of flesh. So, this time, I pretended to know nothing and went through with the wedding alongside the fake bride. I wanted to see just how Selene would manage to save the crumbling Liraine Co. without the Schreiber family's support.

My childhood friend promised to marry me once we came of age — but at my wedding ceremony, he gave my wedding ring to my stepsister, Summer Hugh. At the time, it was Victor Lowell, the fearsome mafia heir, who saved me by publicly announcing he had loved me for years. In the five years we had been married, he would fulfill every wish I had, even those I mentioned offhand. I truly believed I was the center of his world. All that changed when I stumbled across a top-secret folder as I was cleaning his bookshelf. The very first page was a file on Summer, with three red words printed in bold, “Top protection priority.” It was followed by a mission report I knew too well. On the night of the mission, there had been an attempt on my life. My blood had almost run dry before I was saved. When I woke up at the hospital, I found out that I had lost a baby I did not know I had been carrying. I wept bitterly in Victor’s arms, but I did not tell him about the baby. I did not want him to worry about me more. Now, I finally found out — Summer had been attacked that night as well, and Victor’s orders had been: “Save Summer first.” My tears soaked into the paper, smudging his handwriting. “Alright,” I said softly but firmly into the silence. “If my marriage had been a lie all along, I’ll disappear from your life. Forever.”

In my last life, my Alpha husband despised me for giving him a “tainted” Omega Black Werewolf. So, he murdered our newborn with his own hands and then tore me apart with silver-quenched claws. As I lay dying, I cursed him to eternal damnation, and with my own eyes, I watched as his body sank into the frozen depths of Moonshine Lake alongside mine. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the bonding ceremony—the day he was supposed to choose his mate. This time, he didn’t hesitate at all. He chose my sister, a Beta Gray Werewolf whose bloodline sat just one step above an Omega’s, and the way he looked at me was nothing but bone-deep disgust. I knew then that he had been reborn, too. In my last life, my sister was just an ordinary Beta, while I was a Silvermoon Alpha, one of the highest bloodlines, second only to the legendary Golden Lycan. Back then, he chose me without hesitation. However, my sister later married a regular Alpha and somehow gave birth to a golden pup, earning the envy of the entire pack. Meanwhile, I married him and gave birth to a low-rank Omega Black Werewolf, making him the laughingstock of the Werewolf Alliance. This time, he thinks choosing my sister will give him that golden pup again, but what he doesn’t know is that a body is only a shell. Blood doesn’t lie. A bloodline tainted by Omega can never forge a true descendant of a Golden Lycan.

I was five months along, carrying the pup of my fiancé, Ryan Hebert. On our marking day, Ryan rejected me and marked Daisy, also with pup. He claimed my pup wasn’t his, a bastard of unknown origin. Worse, he called my father a traitor in front of everyone. At the banquet entrance, my father collapsed, and I miscarried. I knelt in blood, begging him to save us. “Daisy can’t handle stress. Stay away from her.” Then he walked off, holding her close. Later, my childhood friend Andrew saved me. He brought in the most skilled wolf healers for my father, and stayed by my side, night and day. A week later, my father had another heart attack. Before he passed, his only wish was for me to be protected. Andrew knelt by the bedside, and solemnly swore to my father’s lifeless body that he would marry me,that he would protect me for the rest of my life. And I believed him. After the funeral, I ended things with Ryan and married Andrew instead. But five years later, I overheard a conversation between Ryan and Andrew. “If Eleanor ever finds out that it was you and me who traded her purity for Daisy’s happiness on the day of the ceremony… do you think she’d still love you?” So Andrew’s love was a lie too. But when I left, why did the one who broke me beg to have me back?

I was born a fragile omega, but my gift of prophecy made me the Saintess of the Northern Packs. The Council of Elders demanded I choose a mate from the Alphas of the great packs. The Alpha I chose was destined to lead the North to victory and be crowned the Alpha King. I chose Alpha Kane without hesitation. He'd saved my life once. On the day of our bonding ceremony, I blushed and trembled as he sank his teeth into my neck. But the moment we were bonded, his true love Scarlett, his childhood Beta, went mad with jealousy. She tried to poison me, and for her crime, the Elders exiled her. She died on the road. And I? I used my prophecies to help Kane win the war, to put him on the throne. After his coronation, he plunged a silver blade into my heart. He murdered me. "Why didn't you save her?! Why didn't you save her?!" Only then did I realize. He'd hated me all along. I opened my eyes again... and I was back. Back on the day I had to choose my Alpha mate. He stood before me, arrogant as ever. He didn't lose his mind until he found out I chose a cursed Alpha. I watched him kneel, begging for my forgiveness. But this life, there would be no prophecies from me. Let’s see how he survives the war now.