Counting Stars Novels & Stories

At the werewolf nation’s annual gala, I stood in front of dozens of reporters and said it straight to the cameras: tonight, I was going to sleep with the Alpha King. They thought I was just running my mouth. Nobody took me seriously. Nobody guessed I’d actually do it. The Alpha King had just come back from the front lines, wounded and weak, and I dragged him into a hotel room before anyone could stop me. When his guards and the Werewolf Authority finally broke through the door, I didn’t run. I walked up to them and held out my wrists. “That’s right. I’m the one who took the Alpha King. Cuff me.” Everyone thought I’d lost my mind. They had no idea this was exactly what I wanted. In my previous life, my boyfriend’s childhood sweetheart Lyra killed the Greenmoor Pack Alpha’s daughter, and I took the fall. Every piece of evidence pointed at me. I couldn’t talk my way out of it. I was exiled. I was tortured to death in the wastelands. My father wasted away after losing me, slipped into depression, and our pack was swallowed up. My parents were dragged to the executioner’s block. My soul stayed with them through all of it. I watched, and I couldn’t do a thing. Just when I thought I’d break, a light flashed, and when I opened my eyes I was back — the day before Lyra committed the murder. This time, I was going to prove my innocence to the whole pack.

I watched as my boyfriend put the ring that he had promised to give me on Sophie White's finger at her birthday party. When I questioned him, Mark Goodman shrugged nonchalantly. "I promised to marry Sophie. Since that's not happening now, the ring is compensation." I was left speechless from rage and so disenchanted that I decided to cut all ties with him. Everyone was cheering when Mark later showed up at a gathering with Sophie, both wearing a matching set of rings. But when they all thought I would make a scene, I smiled faintly. "You two really deserve each other. When are you getting married? Do send me an invite."

On the day of my mating ceremony with the Alpha, everyone said the only reason I got to marry Adrian Hawthorne and become Luna was because my face looked so much like my sister's. At the ceremony, the ring engraved with her name and the slip when Adrian instinctively spoke her name during his vows. Every detail was a reminder that I was nothing more than a stand-in. But I had loved Adrian in secret for seven years. Even being his stand-in was enough for me. I told myself that was enough. Twenty years later, I happened to see him standing beneath the Moonlight Tree, praying to the Moon Goddess. "If only Vanessa hadn't died back then." His voice trailed off. A sharp pain shot through my chest. The world went black. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the beginning. Back to when I had just met Adrian for the first time. This had to be a gift from the Moon Goddess. A second chance. This time, I swore I'd never love Adrian Hawthorne again.

I'm traveling through my pack when some Rogues ambush me. They chase me without mercy. I scream for Grayson Atwell, my Alpha mate, through the mind-link. But he shuts me out, muttering something about being "busy with pack affairs". I force down my fear and run, but they catch me anyway. Just as the silver knife grazes my throat, Vidar Mallory, the guard captain, bursts in. He drives the Rogues back and takes me to the hospital. Lying in the hospital bed, I overhear Vidar talking to his men by accident. "Freya is carrying a seven-month-old pup. How could Grayson abandon her just to take care of Bella's pup?" "Bella's pup had a fever last night. Grayson stayed at the hospital the whole night." My heart shatters. Even the pup I fought so hard to conceive was lost in the accident. I decided to leave and take on an entry-level healer position at a hospital in another pack. But after I'm gone, Grayson loses his mind searching for me.

A week before the marking ceremony, my fiance, Alpha Mason Wallace, suddenly switches the venue to Firefly Grove. His friends tease him. "You changed the venue just because Serena wants to see fireflies? And you didn't even tell Cora? What if she shows up at an empty site? "Besides, Cora's the one who picked Moonlight Bay. Do you really think she'll go along with this?" Mason says casually, "She burned her skin saving me. She won't fight me over a venue change. Besides, she planned every detail herself. She'll notice the update." I stand outside the doorway, listening in silence. Then, I slip away without a word. When the day finally comes, Mason calls from Firefly Grove, panic in his voice. "The ceremony's about to start. Where are you?" I stare at the shimmer on Moonlight Bay and answer calmly, "I'm already here. My ceremony is about to start too."

On our wedding anniversary night, my husband, Lucian Moore, comes home with a seven-year-old orphan named Chloe Martin. He even hands her the necklace he bought me for our anniversary and lets her play with it like a toy. Because of her, my son, Ryan Moore, shouts at me for the first time. "You're a bad woman! I don't want you to be my mommy!" I watch the three of them sitting together, warm and cozy, and I say nothing. Instead, I buy a ticket to leave the country. At first, they think I'm just acting out and will come home in a few days. But when they return from Feanland after celebrating Chloe's birthday, they find out I've joined a ten-year classified research project and will not come back again. At that moment, they fall apart.

I time-jumped five years into the future, and my ex-boyfriend, the former Alpha’s bastard son, is now the Alpha. We've had our mating ceremony. I'm carrying his child. But he seems to hate me. When I tried to talk to him, he shoved me away. "If you're here to discuss dissolving the mate bond, we have nothing to say to each other." When I cooked him dinner, he accused me of poisoning his food. I put on my sexiest outfit and paraded around the house trying to thaw him out. He just sneered. "Are you trying to seduce me and then plant another woman in my bed?" I was running out of ideas, so I tried the last card I had. "Can't we at least try to make this work? For the baby's sake?" It was as if the words struck a nerve. "You expect me to raise your lover's child?" I stood there, stunned. What the hell happened in the last five years? And why isn't this baby his?

On my way home, I saved a witch from a rogue attack. She thanked me with a small vial of potion, which would let me hear other people’s thoughts. That night, at the pack banquet, I heard my mate’s thoughts. ‘Serena just bought the sexiest lingerie. I need to find some excuse to ditch Aurora tonight.’ A second voice cut in, a woman’s. ‘She has no idea every time Lucian says he’s working late, he’s with me. We’ve slept together so many times now.’ ‘Once I’m pregnant with Lucian’s child, he’ll have every reason to break the mate bond with her. And when he becomes Alpha, I’ll be the Luna.’ I almost laughed out loud. What Serena didn’t know was that Lucian was the Alpha’s illegitimate son. He’d never inherit anything. I was already running through how to make them pay when another voice broke through. It came from the man standing next to Serena, the shabby boyfriend everyone in this pack looked down on. ‘How am I supposed to tell her I’m the heir to the Alpha King?’ My eyes went wide. I kept my face blank and walked straight up to him. “Hey. Mind if I get your number?”

Joseph Larsen is as hard as a rock. After being rejected by the one he loved, he gives up on finding love. But there is an issue, his best friend ‘s sister, Alerix, finds out that she is mated to him. She tries her best to make him see this bond but he keeps rejecting her over and over again. On a drunken night, they get tangled in the sheets and it results in the pregnancy of twins. After a final rejection, Alerix leaves after the coronation of her brother. Five years later, she comes back and meets him. She is caught between holding her emotions and her undying attraction to him but he meets two cute little kids that look so much like him. ****** “Are… Are they mine?” His question caught me off guard. I blinked, biting my lower lip. “No, they are not.” I ground my jaw. “A-Alerix—”He stuttered. I glared at him. “Joe, they are my kids. You…” “Please, come back to me.” He pleaded, catching me off guard.

He was just a stranger at the bar. One drink. One night. No names. Talia James didn’t plan to sleep with anyone, especially not a gorgeous, arrogant man in a designer suit with eyes cold enough to freeze fire. But one tequila too many, and her life changed forever. Nine months later? Twins. Two weeks after birth? That same man shows up at her door, DNA test in hand. “You had my children. You belong to me now.” Turns out, Ethan Wolfe is not just any man, he’s a billionaire CEO used to getting everything he wants. And right now? He wants her. Talia may have carried his babies, but she’s not about to be carried like some damsel. Not when he’s bossy, grumpy, and completely infuriating. Too bad the twins already love him. Too bad her heart might be next. One wild night. Two tiny surprises. And a CEO who won’t let her go.