Devotion Words

I woke up staring at divorce papers—from the guy I'd crushed on all through college. My name. His. Right there on the page. He said I cheated. Last thing I remembered? Getting ready to finally tell him how I felt at our graduation party. Now suddenly, we've got a four-year-old. And him? He looked at me like I was some rando off the street. No trace of the sweet, soft guy I used to know. Just ice. What did I miss? What the hell happened in the last five years?

My husband only married me for a family alliance, but his heart was always with his first love. To please her, he even threw her a grand wedding. He forced me to play the wedding march at their ceremony. When I hit a single wrong note, he stood by as she drove steel needles through my fingers. “Weren’t you so proud of being a pianist? Then I’ll take that away from you.” “This is my revenge for forcing me into this marriage!” Later, I got pregnant. However, Yaron Hayes, my husband, left for an extravagant trip abroad with Ellie Jensen. When he finally returned and saw my swollen belly, he immediately assumed I had cheated. He locked me in a closet, forcing me to endure a brutal childbirth alone—one that cost me my life. Yet when I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the Hayes family arranged our marriage. This time, I let go of my foolish devotion. I booked a flight to study abroad in half a month. “The sky is vast, and birds are meant to be free. It's time for me to follow my own path.”

To cure my half-sister's illness, my brother took my beast bone—all because I was a half-beast and had a strong self-healing ability. Later, to make me suffer in her place, the tiger beast servant I had cared for joined forces with my brother and sent me straight into the Beast Den. The tiger said I didn't deserve to be his master, and the one he wanted to protect was my sister. In the end, I was tortured and died a terrible death. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the very day I had to choose my beast servant.

After the great war between the three clans of Human, Dragon, and Wolf, the Dragon Clan and Wolf Clan were cursed. Pure-blooded descendants of both clans could not inherit full power. To pass down the power of their bloodline, Kings of each generation of Dragon Clan and Wolf Clan would need to be with a Human woman who possessed Blessings. Whoever gave birth to a child of mixed heritage first would have their clan rule the three clans for a hundred years. In my past life, I married the King of Silver Wolves, Silas Hector, who was known to be a gentleman. One year after my marriage, I gave birth to a child who was half Wolf. He inherited full power from his bloodline, and Silas became the ruler of the three clans. The Wolves ruled the world for a hundred years. My sister, Lucia, became enamored by the magnificent Silver Dragon. She married the King of Silver Dragons, but the Dragons were arrogant and unpredictable. In a moment of mad rage, her husband injured her womb and caused her to miscarry. Lucia became barren after that. Lucia went crazy with jealousy for me, and she stabbed me to death during a family reunion. When I opened my eyes next, I had returned to the eve of the wedding organized by the three clans. Lucia was quick to enter the room of Silver Wolf King, Silas, and sleep with him. She was reborn too. However, she had no idea that Silas was a cold-blooded wolf who enjoyed torturing weak Humans.

The moment I opened the door, I never imagined that my fiancé would be in bed with my best friend, both of them wearing nothing. I went absolutely crazy and charged toward them, wanting nothing more than to kill the two of them. But my fiancé shoved me to the floor and, turning it around, blamed me instead. "Rosalind," he sneered, "if you hadn't been so self-righteous and refused to sleep with me, I wouldn't have cheated!" Fine. Since he no longer wanted me, I married his older brother. On the day of the wedding, I smiled at him and said, "Norris, guess what? I'm your sister-in-law now."

The day my husband left the country on a business trip with his assistant, I learned—by sheer accident—that his archenemy was plotting revenge overseas. Without a second thought, I raced to the airport and stopped him from boarding the plane. But his assistant went ahead, alone. And over there, she was killed brutally. Not a trace of her remains was ever found. When my husband received the news, he fell apart. Wracked with guilt, eaten alive by remorse, he spiraled into a relentless, violent mania. In the past three years, I'd been in and out of hospitals more times than I could count because of him. And this time, he pushed me so far—I lost our child. Then I overheard a conversation between him and his secretary. "Sir, Casey is still alive. Why keep pretending you're sick? Aren't you afraid your wife will find out and leave you?" "Leave me? What right does she have to be angry?" He laughed coldly. "If she hadn't stopped me from going abroad, Casey would've never been lured away by that bastard. Everything Linda's suffering now—she brought it on herself."

My mate, Alpha Julian, was born ruthless. He fell for a mute human girl, an innocent orphan whose scent could calm any wolf. He’d fought in pack wars his whole life. But with her, he discovered love. He only mated with me to secure his bloodline. His wolf never wanted me. I found out about their affair and confronted him at the full moon ceremony. I screamed. I raged. He didn't even look at me. "If you can't accept her," he said, "we can sever the bond. I'll give you your freedom and half my wealth." I refused. Again and again. But he was relentless. He wiped out my pack. He allied with witches and tortured my parents to death in silver cages. I knelt before him, broken and begging. I could only watch as dark magic devoured them. The pain shattered me. I passed out. And woke up on the day I first learned of his betrayal. This time, I didn't scream. I plotted. I contacted a powerful Alpha in the North, arranging sanctuary for my people. I planned my escape. But when I finally vanished, Julian was the one who went insane. He was the one who begged me to come back.

[WARNING: MATURE CONTENT] Being the third party in a relationship cuts deeper than any blade ever could. I watch him glorify her, obsess over her, pour every ounce of his devotion into someone who will never be his wife. The bitter irony tastes like poison on my tongue. I deserve that consuming passion, that unwavering dedication. After all, I'm the one who wears his ring, bears his name, shares his bed. Yet when he looks at me, there's nothing. Just cold, empty indifference. "You are nobody to me." His words echo through my memory like a death knell. "It's impossible for me to care about you. The only person I want isn't here because of you." The marriage was nothing more than a business transaction. I realized this truth far too late.

Tom Howard had spoiled Jane Lawson for more than 20 years. She had thought that they would naturally end up together, get married, have children, and live a happy life. Until one day, Tom brought a girl back and told her. "Jane, she's your sister-in-law."

Before my boyfriend, August Cadwell, marked me, we went to register our mate bond at the Pack Affairs Department. Without a word of explanation, he unexpectedly had someone throw me out of the office. Then he walked in with his childhood sweetheart. He didn’t even blink when he saw me sitting there on the ground, shaking with disbelief. "Hailey's pup needs to be part of the Aurelis pack. The best and quickest method is for her to register a mate bond with a werewolf from the Aurelis pack. As soon as we sever the mate bond, I'll form a mate bond with you." Everyone assumed the lovesick version of me would wait just one more month for him. After all, I'd already waited seven long years. But that night, I did something unexpected too. I accepted my parents' arranged mate bond and quietly left for the Lymerian pack, disappearing from his life entirely. Three years later, I returned to my original pack to visit my family. My mate, Ryder Weyland, was now the lycan chairman. Because of an urgent council meeting, he arranged for someone to collect me from the airport. I never imagined that “someone” would be August. The moment he spotted me, his eyes immediately landed on the sparkling bracelet on my wrist. "Isn't this a knockoff of the bracelet Ryder Weyland, the lycan chairman, spent two million dollars on for his mate? Didn't expect you to turn this vain after just a few years. "You've caused enough chaos, haven't you? It's time to return. Hailey's pup is now of school age. You can take on the responsibility of pick-ups and drop-offs." I gently ran my fingers over the bracelet on my wrist. Little did he know that this was the cheapest one Ryder had ever given me.