Claire Ward Novels & Stories

“Your groom isn’t coming.” Those four words destroy Clarissa Ward’s world. After four years together, Luca Richard abandons her on their wedding day, leaving her humiliated in front of hundreds of guests. She expects the wedding to be canceled. Instead, the impossible happens. Luca’s older brother steps forward. Powerful. Ruthless. Untouchable. Charles Richard looks at the stunned crowd and says, “Continue the ceremony.” The next thing Clarissa knows, she is standing at the altar with a different man. A man she never truly understood. A man who has watched her for far longer than she realizes. A man who whispers in her ear after their vows: “You were never meant to be his.” Now trapped inside the powerful Richard family, Clarissa must navigate a mansion filled with secrets, hidden agendas, and enemies hiding behind polite smiles. A god-sister who believes she should have been Charles’s wife. A cousin who betrayed her in the worst possible way. A family determined to test whether she belongs among them. And a husband whose feelings are far more dangerous than his cold reputation. Because the biggest secret isn’t why Luca left. It’s why Charles stayed. And when the truth finally comes out, Clarissa will have to decide whether the man who saved her at the altar is also the man who has been quietly stealing her heart all along. “Tell me the truth, Charles.” He holds her gaze. “I’ve been trying not to love you for years.”

In the third year of being locked up in a psychiatric hospital by Jonathan Fowler, I had already lost all of my vibrance and vitality. During a particularly harsh winter, Jonathan's new girlfriend, Charlotte Stewart, visits me in the hospital. She caresses my sunken cheek lovingly with one hand. "You must be Jon's legally-wedded wife, right?" I just stare at her in alert without saying anything. The next thing I know, Charlotte shoves me down the stairs. Her expression is already twisted into one of malice. "Everyone tells me that I'll get to marry Jonathan once you're dead, so just hurry up and die already!" I don't have any energy to fight back. After crashing onto the floor, I'm left bleeding and broken. After struggling in the operating theater for one full day, I managed to survive the ordeal. With red-rimmed eyes, Jonathan rushes into the ward and grasps my hand. "Mallory, I promise that if you agree to stay alive and not pin the crime of manslaughter on Charlotte, I can let bygones be bygones! In fact, I won't disturb you anymore for the rest of your life!" I don't have the strength to respond to Jonathan. That's when the System, which has stayed silent for a very long time, suddenly speaks in my mind. [Congratulations. You've maxed out the male lead's guilt. You may now leave this world.] I secretly let out a sigh of relief. Finally, I can go home.

What happens when the veil opens for someone it shouldn’t? Kaida St. Claire always thought she was just an ordinary girl, living quietly with her grandmother in a small town. But suddenly, on a day that marks the beginning of a sudden shift in the earth, she stumbles into a forest that shouldn't exist, the one that plagues her dreams, surrounded by tall trees and an ancient-looking building standing strong in the centre. Ashveil Pack. The veil that guards it has never opened for anyone, not in over a hundred years, without the Alpha’s permission. Yet, it doesn’t burn Kaida when she reaches the boundaries. Instead, it welcomes her. And the Alpha isn’t pleased. Alpha Kellan has lost a mate before and blames himself for it. He won’t taint the memories he has of her by accepting a second-chance mate, especially not with a girl with secrets in her blood. But the pull between them is undeniable. Dangerous. Kaida was never supposed to survive the purge of her bloodline. And now that she is back, seemingly clueless about who she is, every pack wants her dead. But more importantly, someone inside the Ashveil pack is already trying.

It's Grandpa's birthday banquet, and yet my fiancee is working late again, missing her one chance to meet the family. My brother and his wife, still bitter about me taking the project from them, don't waste the opening. "What good is all his money when his fiancee can't even show up on a day this important? She clearly doesn't take him seriously." "That's why Archer's the smart one. He landed himself Claire Donovan, of all people. Even her throwaway gifts start at seven figures." I'm about to fire back when the familiar name stops me cold. My eyes lock onto the bracelet of dark wooden beads the butler carries in. It's identical to the one my fiancee just spent a fortune on a few days ago. My gaze turns to ice as I snatch the bracelet from his hands. "Return this. Tell them it's a fake, and Grandpa's furious. And didn't you want to meet my fiancee? She's walking through that door right now."

My boyfriend is trapped in the mountains, and I head there alone to search for him. However, I don't find him despite a night of searching. Instead, I end up falling off a cliff and passing out due to severe blood loss. When I open my eyes again, I hear laughter coming from outside my hospital ward. "Sonya's such a fool! She fell for it again!" "This is our 99th time tricking her, right?" "When you pretended to fall into the water, she jumped into an icy lake to save you in the middle of winter. When you pretended to be poisoned, she went to dig up the herbs that you'd need for the antidote… "This time, you pretended to be trapped in the mountains, and she ran there without a care for her life! She's truly head over heels for you!" I struggle to sit up. That's when I see my boyfriend, Austin Miller, standing at the ward's door. He stands out among the crowd and has a bright smile on his face. He doesn't look like he's lost his way at all. His friends continue talking. "It's her fault for abandoning Austin when he was down on his luck!" "She deserves to get played like this! When this is all over, we can throw the invitation to Austin and Dion's engagement party in her face!" It turns out Austin is already engaged. Yet, to this day, he has no idea why I broke up with him in the first place.

One night of rebellion. A lifetime of consequences. I was the princess of the High Pack, destined for a life of luxury and a bonded mate. Then the fire happened. My father was imprisoned, our lands were seized, and my name became a curse. Now, I’m just Ivy Mercer, a struggling medical intern fighting to keep my mother alive in a sterile ward I can’t afford. When my fiancé, Blake Ryder, publicly discards me for a cruel opportunist, I do the unthinkable. I walk into SkyDeck 71, drown my sorrows in moon-essence, and surrender my virtue to a lethal, golden-eyed stranger. I didn't know he was Cole Ryder. The "Ice King" of the West Coast. The Alpha of Alphas. And my ex-fiancé’s uncle. Now, I’m caught in a dangerous game of territory and temptation. Cole is cold, controlling, and far too powerful to cross, yet he’s the only one standing between me and the vipers who want to see me crawl. He offers me a contract to save my family, but his touch demands a much steeper price: my absolute submission. As the pack secrets unravel and my heart begins to heal under his unexpected tenderness, I have to wonder—is he protecting me from the wolves at my door, or is he the most dangerous predator of them all? He’s the Alpha I should fear. He’s the protector I crave. And in the dark of the moon, he’s the only one who can make me feel whole again.

Just before her husband and son have her locked in a psychiatric ward, Nora Yates wakes up—reborn, wide awake, and done playing nice. Two men who never truly loved her? Who used and discarded her? Fine. She’s cutting them out for good. When she signs the divorce papers and walks away, the world cheers—including the internet. Oddly, the only one upset is her adoptive sister, the mistress. “Come on, Nora,” she pouts. “I only borrowed your husband and son for my birthday. Was that really worth all this drama?” “You’re lucky to have a husband and son like that. You should count your blessings.” Nora lets out a sharp laugh. “Then consider this ‘blessing’ my personal gift to you. After all, trash belongs in the dumpster.” She walks off without a second glance—glowing, untouchable, and ready to run the world. Soon, her business is booming. Suitors line up. The woman they tried to destroy becomes the woman everyone wants to be. Years later, now a titan in her field, she sits down for a high-profile interview. “Ms. Yates,” the reporter asks, “it’s rumored that Mr. Luther, CEO of Luther Corp, is your ex-husband. Do you still keep in touch?” Nora smiles politely. “Sorry. I’m a widow with no children.” Then she turns to the camera, smiles straight through the lens—at the ex-husband and son losing their minds behind the scenes—and adds, “Just remarried. Baby girl on the way.”

When broke waitress Sarah Thompson agrees to impersonate her wealthy best friend Claire on a blind date for a quick thousand dollars, she expects a simple evening of rejection and escape. What she gets instead is Adrian Cole, a ruthless, devastatingly handsome billionaire who sees right through her lie. Instead of exposing her, Adrian slides a marriage contract across the table. A temporary arrangement. Public wife by day. No emotions. No physical contact. One million dollar penalty for breaking the rules. And the ultimate condition: she must move into his luxurious penthouse. Trapped between crippling debt and her dream of opening her own restaurant, Sarah has no choice but to play along. But as Adrian’s cold dominance begins to crack with unexpected intensity, and his powerful family demands a real introduction, the lines between pretense and dangerous attraction start to blur. He knows she’s an imposter. She knows this game could destroy her. In a world of wealth, secrets, and ruthless expectations, how long can Sarah survive a contract marriage with the one man who refuses to let her go?

For five years of marriage, Felix Ward had spoiled Cordelia Harper like a princess, until a plane crash took him from her. Cordelia was so devastated that she wanted to follow him into death, but she was carrying their daughter. She spent five years as a widow, raising their daughter alone, and thought the rest of her life would pass that way, until the fifth year after his death, when the hidden cameras in their home captured the truth. It turned out Felix had never died. For the past five years, he was pretending to be his older brother, all because he wanted to take care of his widowed sister-in-law. He left her trapped in an impossible position, and even their five-year-old daughter took their side, complaining that Cordelia was like a nanny and hoping someone else would become her mother. Ten years of devotion shattered into nothing. Cordelia finally let go and dialed the number she thought she’d never call.“I’ll go through with the arranged marriage.” Then Cordelia returned to the research institute and stunned everyone with her brilliance. And just as the most untouchable man in Kingsford slipped a ring onto her finger, the husband who had supposedly been dead for five years suddenly came back to life and stuck to her like gum on a shoe. "Delia, I was wrong. Please forgive me, just this once." Her daughter also clung to her leg, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe. "Mommy, don’t go!" This time, Cordelia could not even be bothered to look at them. Behind her, the man slid an arm around her waist, his voice low, lazy, and unmistakably possessive. "Honey, it’s time to feed our baby."

"Two families are here today hoping to adopt. You can choose which one you'd like to go with." In my previous life, I chose the Parkers, who owned a small neighborhood store. Life wasn't particularly comfortable, but they cherished me like their own. They fully supported my writing and helped me become a moderately successful novelist. Meanwhile, Sean Lowe chose the affluent Bennett family. Their home was comfortable, but cold and detached. He spent more than a decade trying to earn their affection, but never truly became part of the family. Now that I'd been given a second chance, the moment I saw the Parkers again, I nearly called them Mom and Dad. But Sean beat me to it. He threw himself forward and said, "Mrs. Harper, I want to go with the family that owns the store! I love snacks the most. I'll be good and listen to everything they say!" He buried himself in Claire Parker's arms like a kitten that had finally found its way home. I stopped behind him and didn't move. If my guess was right, he had been reborn too.