Cloud Strife Smiling

My fiancee gets drunk the day before our wedding. While I'm taking her home, she mistakes me for my best friend. "Jackson, don't bring our child to the wedding tomorrow. I don't want Samuel to know about us." I slam on the brakes, causing Madelyn Wilkinson to hit the seatback and come to her senses. When she realizes it's me, she freezes for a moment before slowly explaining, "Since you heard that, let's call off the wedding for now. You don't have to worry. Jackson doesn't plan on getting married again. But I'm still that child's mother no matter what, so I need to help out. "Jackson's your best friend. You feel sorry for him if he has to raise a child alone, don't you? I'll marry you after my son starts school." I can't help smiling bitterly. "Alright then… I don't have a problem with that." When we get home, she packs up a suitcase and leaves without another word. Feeling a sting in my eyes, I suppress my emotions as I sit on the couch, falling into a daze. That's when my phone rings at the worst possible moment. My childhood friend, Hazel Parsons, says in a hoarse voice, "Sam, don't marry her. Please." I fall silent for a beat. "Alright."

Maya had never imagined one day she would be babysitting her ex-fiance's son- the very fiance she had begged to call off their wedding on the eve of their big day. After few years Maya finally escapes her abusive marriage only to collide with Dante. Dante Martinez is a man of few words. He is ravishingly handsome and is a top businessman. He doesn't talk much, he only has one friend and prefers to live alone. People dub him a cold CEO because no one has seen him smiling, not even a crack. He had a baby through surrogacy after his first love- Maya Diaz left him on their wedding eve. However, things begin to take an interesting turn when she returns all of a sudden. She asks him to let her stay with him until she finds a place to stay. Little does she know Dante has always been in love with her. He offers her to babysit his son and she takes up the offer. The more she stays with him, the more she realizes he is more than his cold exterior. There is a beautiful heart throbbing underneath his icy facade. The attraction between them intensifies, leading to the inevitable question: How long can two people who are immensely attracted to each other can resist the pull?

At the ceremony where my father, Robert Clarke, is promoted to the position as the pack elder, my mate, Alpha Ethan Thornfield, raises the wine glass in his hand while smiling at him. "Elder Robert, there's this question which has been bothering me for the longest time. Does shamelessness run in the Clarke family's genetics? Otherwise, how are you able to raise a she-wolf as stubborn and defiant as Isabella who keeps pestering me the whole time?" Dad's wine glass is suspended in mid-air. All the wolves turn to look at us. I place the napkin on the table before meeting Ethan's gaze calmly. "Stop barking like a mad dog, Ethan. I agree to sever our mate bond. That way, you and that mistress of yours can finally get together." Ethan replies softly, "It's wonderful to see you making that decision with a sound mind." On the night the ceremony ends, a mate bond severance agreement, which is prepared in advance, is passed to me. Silently, I drop my signature on the last page of the document. Ethan and that Omega, Chloe Stonehart, have started their affair a year ago. He started forcing me to sever our mate bond six months ago. Since he craves freedom that much, I shall grant it to him. I just hope that he won't regret his decision at all when he loses everything he treasures.

In my previous life, my husband had suddenly died of a brain hemorrhage, leaving behind a massive mountain of debt. For the sake of my son, who was still in high school, I sold the house my parents had left me, gritted my teeth, and worked three jobs to pay off the debt. Overworked and exhausted, my health deteriorated, and I eventually collapsed in the hospital. From my bed, I could hear my son, now a graduate from a prestigious university, smiling as he spoke on the phone. "Hello? Dad, it's me. Yeah, she's about to die. I bought insurance for her, so we should get close to one million. You and Aunt Rena should come back home right away." The "Aunt Rena" he spoke of was none other than my husband's childhood friend and neighbor who had known him for years. It turned out that the debts were all part of a massive money-laundering scheme between my husband and his childhood sweetheart. They had fabricated false accounts to hide their crime, and he had faked his death to escape the law. My son, eager to become the heir to wealth, had stood by and watched me work myself to death. When I next opened my eyes, I was back in the moment of my husband's feigned brain hemorrhage, the day it had all begun.

Yvette Warren, personal secretary to billionaire Orson Cox, announced that the heiress who was accidentally switched at birth 20 years ago was living in this orphanage. Whoever could prove their identity would inherit a billion-dollar fortune. In my first life, the two-faced Laurel Marsh tricked me into giving her my keepsake to claim the family. The Coxes tore her mouth apart. "Fraud!" In my second life, my frenemy, Rebecca Vargas, tattooed a fake birthmark on herself to claim the family. The Coxes had her skin slashed to shreds. "Still a fraud!" In my third life, my sworn enemy, Vita Davidson, took out online loans to get plastic surgery, reshaping her face to resemble Orson's wife. She tried to claim the family and was thrown straight into a mastiff cage by the Coxes. By my fourth life, no one dared steal my identity anymore. They packed me up overnight and delivered me straight to the Cox residence. When the DNA test confirmed I really was the heiress, everyone thought the nightmare was finally over. But on my very first night back, the Coxes shoved me off a high-rise building. "Anyone who dares steal our real daughter's identity deserves to die!" When I opened my eyes again, Yvette was smiling as she asked who the heiress was. Everyone backed away in terror, insisting they weren't the heiress. Yvette's voice turned low and eerie. "But our investigation shows that the heiress is definitely in this orphanage."

Elizabeth is a wolfless mute slave. After her mother was brutally killed to protect her from rape, her father was murdered by the Alpha of the black river pack. Elizabeth endured endless bullying in the black river pack for revenge. She vowed to kill the Alpha's families and leave with her beloved boyfriend when she turned 18. However, fate played a joke on her. Elizabeth discovered that her boyfriend had cheated on her long ago, and her fated mates were Alpha's twin sons! She declared to reject them as her mates, but the moon goddess had more incredible arrangements waiting for her. One day she will find out that her mates are not only twins, but also the Alpha of Giant Wolf who is 16 feet tall, the prince of Winged Wolf who lives in a cloud castle, the Beta of Fire Wolf who is covered with Untouchable heat, and even the vampire king who is the enemy of all werewolves and the Merman who lives under the deep sea... Why does she have 9 mates? What should she do when all her mates are jealous and desperate to possess her? *** I was kneeling on all fours inside the cage, with a heavy chain tied around my neck. Countless werewolves wearing masks sat in the circular stands, pointing at me, the cheapest auction item. "Look at her huge belly. She's pregnant. Non-virgins aren't worth much!" "Minimum 50 gold coins. If she has a baby girl, you will have two sex slaves then. " I couldn't believe that I, Elizabeth, the most cherished daughter of Blue moon pack's Alpha, would be reduced to being auctioned off as the lowest-priced sex slave in an underground trading market. "10 million gold coins, we want her!" 9 handsome men claimed.

Leah, Logan’s adopted sister, threw a tantrum at our first engagement party, an episode of her pup dependency anxiety. But after that night, I gave him an ultimatum: if he couldn’t bond me before I turned thirty, he’d have to choose—me or Leah. Logan believed I’d never walk away. After all, I was bonded by my dying mother’s last wish: to be bonded with the werewolf warrior who’d loved me for ten years. Ten years together. Twelve promises that he’d keep Leah in line. And then came my twenty-ninth birthday—our thirteenth engagement party. Leah locked me in a restroom, stole my gown, and stood beside Logan in my place. She was smiling, glowing, claiming everything that was mine. When I finally stepped out, my gown was tattered. I confronted Logan, but he only said, “Alison, forgive her. I promise, this is the last time.” I looked at the torn gown my mother had sewn through sickness and pain… and I laughed. Logan sighed in relief, thinking I’d let it slide again. But I didn’t. I turned and walked away without a word. After a decade together, he thought I belonged to him. Well, he was wrong. He didn’t know that there was someone else who could give me happiness and fulfill my mother’s wish.

The day my husband, Eric Johnson, brought his foster sister home from overseas, he gave her our master bedroom. "Yvonne just lost her husband. She's heartbroken, so I want her to feel comfortable," he said. I nodded obediently. "Okay." The next day was my birthday. Yvonne said she was feeling down and wanted her brother, Eric, to go stargazing with her. Eric turned to me and said, "She really needs me right now. I'll celebrate your birthday with you later." Still, I smiled and nodded. "Okay." Ten years of marriage and I was ready to walk away from it all… Because I have lived this life once already. In my previous life, I made the mistake of asking Eric to stay with me on my birthday. I did not let him go stargazing with Yvonne. She ended up falling into the water in her sorrow and was rushed to the hospital. After that, Eric shoved my head into a bathtub and held me there until I drowned. In this second life, when Eric handed me the divorce papers and said, "I’m only marrying Yvonne to help her revoke her foreign citizenship and restore her citizenship here. Once it's done, we'll remarry." I did not hesitate. I signed my name without a second thought. By the time he came looking for me again, I was already sitting on his archenemy's lap, smiling like a flower in full bloom.

ZACH: I had loved Amber all my life, so when she turned of age, and her wolf didn't surface, I made the biggest decision of my life—I would claim her. It didn't matter to me if I was the first Alpha with a wolfless Luna in this generation. I still wanted her. I could win her in the Claiming, and I could protect her all her life. I was sure of that until reality struck, and a tragedy happened, leaving me crippled, unable to walk with my feet. My wolf was strong—still able to run on his paws—which was the exact opposite of my human. I became useless, just a shell of the man I was once. So tell me, how could I claim her? How could I protect her when I couldn't even stand on my own? AMBER: I had loved Zach all of my life. I was determined to be claimed by him—either as his fated or chosen mate. So even if my wolf didn't surface, I was still on cloud nine because he finally confessed he felt the same way. I was beyond ecstatic waiting for the Claiming when he could finally claim me. Everything was perfect until I woke up in a hospital bed, where I almost died from a car accident. I thought it was the worst thing that happened in my life until I met Zach again, and he wanted nothing to do with me anymore. I survived the fatal crash, but I had no idea how long I could survive until my heart finally gave up from being shattered by the only man I ever wanted.

Leonard Burton and I are childhood sweethearts, bound by a family-arranged marriage. After we marry, we live a loving, harmonious life. In a terrible accident, he even gives up his only chance at survival to save me. After Leonard's death, we find a journal among his belongings. In it, he records the three years he was missing after falling off a cliff—years spent with another woman he deeply loved. But his parents had forcibly separated them and arranged our marriage instead. Unbeknownst to anyone, he had continued to protect that woman from afar, silently and faithfully. At the funeral, Leonard's mother, Charlotte Newman, is inconsolable. "Leonard, it's all my fault. Would you still be alive if I'd let you marry Yelena back then?" His father, Samuel Burton, glares at me with hatred. "He fell off that cliff saving you. He died in that crash shielding you. Why do you bring him nothing but harm? Why aren't you the one who's dead?" Yes, why is it not me who's dead? I look at Leonard's familiar, smiling face on his gravestone before running at it and smashing my head on it. When I open my eyes again, I'm taken back to when he just returned from that small fishing village. This time, I choose to let him go and give him what he wants. Finally, I see Leonard again.