Countdown To Heartbreak Novels & Stories

On the night of my engagement party, Luca Moretti walked his childhood sweetheart over to me. "Clara accidentally stained her dress," he said. "Let her borrow yours for a while." He added, "Everyone knows you're the main character tonight. It doesn't matter what you wear." I didn't bother objecting. The gown was already on her. I stood behind the half-closed back door in a borrowed black dress while his men laughed over their whiskey. "Luca, is your real fiancee going to lose it?" someone asked. Luca barely looked up from his glass. "Anna is going to be a Donna. She needs to learn grace." Another man snorted. "Besides, she's an orphan. Where's she gonna go without you?" Luca smiled. "She can't leave me." They didn't know I had never been an orphan. I had buried the Valenti name for five years because I wanted Luca to love me as Anna, not as the Valenti daughter. My father is the Mafia Chairman, the man every family answered to when the highest table met. That night, I took off the Moretti emerald ring, left it beside the guest book, and called home. "Papa, I’m not marrying Luca. Don't come to Chicago."

On the anniversary of our Mating, my legs were wrapped around my Alpha, Adrian, as we shared a deep kiss. My fingertips brushed against the hidden pocket of my silk dress, my hand tightening around the pregnancy test I had concealed there. I felt the faint flutter of a new life inside me, planning to give him this surprise as the perfect end to our evening. Just then, Adrian's Beta, Ethan, spoke in a low, teasing tone, using the Old Tongue. "Alpha, that little sister-in-law of yours… the newly matured she-wolf, Zoe. How did she taste?" Adrian's low, suggestive chuckle reached my ears, quiet yet piercingly clear. He replied in the same ancient language. "You know a freshly ripened pepper? Hot, with a real kick." His palm was still caressing my waist, yet his gaze had drifted elsewhere. "Just keep it quiet. If my Luna finds out, it's all over." The other Betas let out knowing chuckles, raising their glasses in a silent promise to keep his secret. But a chill washed over me, and my inner wolf went still, as if it had died. He didn't know I had studied the Old Tongue for my research on werewolf trauma. I understood every word. I held back my tears, forcing myself to appear unfazed, maintaining the composure expected of a Luna. Instead of confronting him, I sent a magically shielded message to Elder Slone of the Werewolf Healers' Association, accepting the invitation she had extended to me. In three days, I would join a secure werewolf rehabilitation program as their new Lead Therapist and disappear from Adrian's world forever.

The 100th time Dexter Carrington ditches me to help my best friend with her lab work, I write the final line in my diary and break up with him. Dexter is exasperated, to say the least. "I genuinely don't know how your amygdala is wired. Your emotions have completely bulldozed your rational thinking." My best friend, Brianna Holt, laughs. "That's cruel. You're insulting her intelligence in words she can't even understand." She's right. I don't understand. The two of them dominate the biology department rankings every year, taking first and second place, and are the kind of prodigies even their professors defer to. I'm just an ordinary student at the music school next door. When they talk about how cells have their own rhythms, the only thing I can think to ask is what time signature those rhythms are in. Dexter always hates that. "If you don't understand, don't chime in." So now I listen. I don't chime in anymore. Because the first page of this diary reads, "Today is my birthday, but Dexter chose to go over data with Brianna. "By the time this diary is full, I'm leaving him for good."

On our seventh anniversary, Damon, the Don of the Voss family, turned what should have been our wedding into a divorce ceremony for the seventh time. I did not scream or break down sobbing. I only stood in the middle of the hall like a clown while his friends laughed at me. "Evelyn, why aren't you laughing? Don't tell us you're actually mad." Damon came over with a frown and gently wiped the tears from my face. "Evelyn, stop crying." "I promise. This is the last time I'll make a joke like this." I looked at him and suddenly remembered what I had overheard outside his study the night before. "Don, this is the seventh time you've made a fool of Evelyn. Aren't you afraid she'll leave?" Damon was silent for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse. "She won't." "Everyone knows Evelyn can't live without me." "Selene once took a bullet for me. Her health has been poor ever since." "She wanted to see Evelyn fooled seven times. I'm only granting her one last wish." "After this, I'll marry Evelyn properly and make her my Donna. I'll give her the grandest wedding as compensation." I had already been humiliated seven times. No matter how deeply I had loved him, no heart could survive being worn down like that. Damon did not know I was the hidden heir of the Hale family. I had never cared about his title as Don. In three days, I would return to my family and accept the marriage alliance.

On my five-hundred-and-twentieth flight into Chicago, my boyfriend finally came to the airport for me. He held a bouquet of air-flown Blue Moon roses, and the diamond ring inside the velvet box caught the terminal lights. The moment he dropped to one knee, I heard the shocked gasps around us. “Eliana Lowe,” he said, his gray-blue eyes lifted to mine. “Marry me.” My fingers tightened around the handle of my suitcase. I held out my hand, my voice already shaking. "Luca, we--" The ring had barely slid over my finger when Luca laughed. He wasn't looking at me anymore. He was looking over my shoulder at the row of black SUVs idling by the curb. "Told you she'd say yes. Hand over the key to Warehouse Three." Laughter burst from the SUVs. Luca's circle spilled into view: casino managers, dock supervisors, rich kids who lived off the Moretti name, and Vivian Gray at the front in pale fur, laughing hard enough to wipe at the corner of her eye. “No wonder she stayed at your heels for ten years. If I had a pet this obedient, I wouldn’t have the heart to throw it out either.” Luca smiled and patted my head soothingly.“Eliana, it was just a joke. Don't be angry. I’ll make it up to you later.” I looked at the ring on my finger, then at the people laughing behind him. For ten years, I had played along with his games. This time, I didn’t want to anymore.

"He is the only true heir to my throne. I must take him back." That day, the Alpha King descended upon our remote little pack with his royal soldiers. He pointed at Jasper—the man I had saved a year ago in the wilderness, my fated mate—and with those words, he shattered my entire world. I remember feeling this tight knot in my chest, because I'd always known Jasper was different. When I'd saved him from falling off that cliff last winter, I could feel something about him. I guessed it was his Alpha blood, but I wasn't totally sure back then. Now, his secret was out in the open. And me? I was still scrubbing dishes in the corner, because that was an Omega's duty, while everyone else cheered and celebrated. But Jasper… he stayed calm. He looked the Alpha King dead in the eyes and said, “I’m taking my pup Liam and Amelia back to the Shadowfang pack.” Yes. Amelia. Not me. In my last life, only their favorite she-wolf, Amelia, also the Beta's daughter, got to leave with them. When I broke down and asked Jasper why, his answer was cold and simple: “Her status suits me better than yours.” And just like that, my mate and my pup abandoned me. But this time—when Jasper spoke those same words again—under the mocking stares around me, I took a deep breath, forced a smile, and whispered my blessing: “Oh, well. I wish you both a happy future. I still have work to do.” I had already made up my mind. I was gonna work hard, save enough money, and get out of here, start a fresh life somewhere else. But tell me this, if I was so unworthy, then why, after I finally walked away, did he come begging me to return as his Luna?

Karen was once obsessed with tribal witch Lyra, who falsely accused me of stealing the Moon Soul Flower, claiming I cursed her spirit sight. My destined mate, Alpha Karen, whipped me before the Moon Goddess statue and banished me to the frozen Cliff of Sinful Wolves. When I returned, I became tame, hiding all my wolf nature in front of him, becoming just a gentle shadow. But when he discovered the truth about what happened at the Cliff in my blood-stained wolf tooth talisman, he went crazy. "Elara, please, answer my mate's call one more time!"

Five years after our son was born, I finally faced the truth: my wife didn't love me—or our boy. Determined to end this miserable marriage, I made plans to leave and take our son with me. But fate had other ideas. A car accident cost me a kidney and took our son's eye. At my lowest point, my usually distant wife fell to her knees right in the hospital corridor, begging for forgiveness. She swore she would spend the rest of her life taking care of us. We decided to give her one last chance—a 100-day trial. If she made it, we'd stay together. But on the ninety-ninth day, my son and I overheard her talking to the attending physician. "Emma," the doctor said, "did you really arrange that accident to secure organs for Daniel Carter's son? You did that to take a kidney from your husband and an eye from your son—was it worth it?" Emma Evans's voice was eerily calm. "It was worth it. As long as Daniel is happy, I'd do anything." "And what if your husband and son find out?" She fell silent for a moment, then instinctively touched the wedding ring on her hand. "Then they'll never know. They just want a family; I'll do everything I can to make up for it." So the "changed woman" we thought we knew was just an act—a carefully built lie. The happiness my son and I had begun to believe in was nothing more than a story she'd crafted to protect the person she really loved. Every kindness, every effort—it had all been quietly weighed and paid for in advance.

"There's still half a year left before the contract is up. I'm getting ready to file for a divorce from Steven." As Celine Harlow speaks, she looks at the video which has been replayed on her iPad over a hundred times. In the video, her husband, Steven Kirk, keeps staring at his childhood sweetheart, Quinn Lambert, lovingly. "Oh, Quinn! I still can't forget about you at all! Will you please return to my side?" After that, he takes the initiative to capture Quinn's lips in a kiss. Meanwhile, Celine's son, Zane Kirk, whom she has risked her life giving birth to, keeps screaming at the top of his lungs, "Daddy, I want Quinn as my mommy!" Celine's resolve to leave her marriage behind is steeled even more. On the other end of the line, Steven's mother, Evelyn Kennedy, falls silent for a moment. She then advises Celine to think through her decision carefully. "You have to think this through. If you get divorced, not only will you have to give up on your current job, but you also won't be able to obtain any assets because of the contract." Celine doesn't hesitate at all. "I know. Since our marriage certificate is fake, I'll definitely get divorced without asking for a single cent. Don't worry." But Evelyn tries to get Celine to stay. "If you insist on getting a divorce, you won't get the custody over Zane. Are you sure you have the heart to never see him again?"

There was a strict rule in my pack. Any female werewolf at the age of twenty‑nine who had not gone through a mate bond had to return to the pack for the Moonpick Ceremony, where the Alpha would personally choose her mate. When I showed the chairman of the Werewolf Council, Jonah Gregot, my pack’s notice to return, he gave a low laugh. “Is Sovereign Moon Pack still stuck in the olden days, Jade?” He leaned back in his leather chair and spoke in a casual tone. “I told you we would have our mate bond ceremony, and I promise it will happen. Do not try to use your pack’s law to force me into anything.” He took a ring box from the pocket of his suit and tossed it to his secretary, who stood beside him. The young woman caught it in a panic, and the tips of her ears turned red. “I planned to make our relationship official tonight, but it is clear that you care more about legitimacy than us. Maybe we need some space.” Jonah shrugged and walked out of the office. Silence filled the room. I stared at the ring box and did not know how to react. I could not believe he had thrown our mate bond ring to another woman so easily. Sapphire Kane hesitated as she held the ring box out to me. “You should take this, Jade. Jonah bought it for you.” I did not reach for it. “You should keep it now that he gave it to you.” Sapphire’s eyes widened. I stood and left the office with my pack’s notice. “Tell Jonah that I will not wait for him anymore on the day of the Moonpick Ceremony.”