Eight Dates

After eight years of loving him in vain, my boyfriend, Gilbert Hughes, finally proposed. The wedding is set for a week from now. However, just as I'm happily preparing for it, I accidentally overhear a conversation between him and his friends. "I have to give it to Gilbert. The moment he proposes, his first love, Cheryl, gets restless." "But now that Cheryl's back, what are you going to do with your girlfriend?" Gilbert pauses for a moment, then replies casually, "It's fine. I'm not actually going to register my marriage with Jennifer. At worst, I'll just hold a wedding and play along." At the party the next day, he wraps his arm around me dotingly and socializes with our guests. Yet, the moment Cheryl Manning runs out in tears, he instantly lets go of me and chases after her in a panic. I follow quietly and watch them embrace tightly in the dark, kissing each other deeply. With my heart completely shattered, I turn away and dial a number. "Want to get married? I need a groom."

Emily Whitaker finds herself in a tough situation. She was betrothed to her childhood crush, Ethan, to save her pack from debts and form alliances with Ethan's pack. The wedding was to be when she was celebrating her 18th birthday, but everything fell apart when Ethan betrayed her. Angry and hurt, Emily vows to get back at him. Then she meets Lucien, a strong and confident Alpha. What started as a plan to get back at Ethan turns into something unexpected—a passionate connection. But Emily runs away, leaving behind a night she wishes she could forget. Fast forward eight years, Emily is now a single mom to twins, keeping a big secret about their identities. When danger threatens her kids, she seeks help. Will Lucien protect her and her children, or will he turn his back on them? As secrets come out and loyalties shift, find out who has the power in the end in this enthralling tale of love and survival.

I spent eight years helping my fiancé Kieran, a ordinary warrior, win the Alpha position of Shadowmoon Pack. But just after he became the Alpha.， he announced to the entire pack that his Omega secretary, Ivy, had contributed the most to the pack's territorial expansion. Ivy posted a video of me hugging other Alphas at the hotel entrance., accusing me of being a slut and not being worthy of being Luna. Kieran announced that I would be expelled from the pack. They didn't know that I was the daughter of the Alpha King, and the man I hugged was my biological father. When I really left, the powerful Alpha and the entire pack knelt down and begged for my forgiveness.

At the banquet hall, I refuse to let my adopted twin pups eat the walnut cake. Ivana Lamont—the childhood sweetheart of my mate, Luther Hardwick—chokes up dramatically. She cries accusingly, "Yara, they may not be yours biologically, but you can't abuse them! Why won't you even let them have a slice of cake?" I'm just about to explain that the twins are allergic to nuts, but they point at me and complain in aggrieved voices. "Mommy often doesn't give us food. We never have enough to eat!" With that, I'm unceremoniously driven out of the banquet hall by the host. When I go to look for my mate to talk about it, I accidentally overhear his conversation with a friend. "Alpha Luther, it's been eight years. Are you still not going to mark Yara?" "There's no rush. I'll wait until the kids are a little older. We love each other very much, so it's fine even if I don't mark her." His friend responds disapprovingly, "You've been hiding from her that the twins are actually your and Ivana's pups. Aren't you afraid she may leave in anger if she finds out?" Luther shakes his head and replies with certainty, "She won't. Yara is an orphan, so she has no family. If she leaves me, where else can she go?" The ugly truth causes me to freeze on the spot. It turns out the pups I've loved for eight years were born to my mate and another she-wolf. What I thought was a happy life is nothing but a cold, heartless deception! I touch my belly, thinking of the pup I just conceived. My tears fall like a relentless downpour. In the shadows, I say inaudibly, "You're wrong, Luther. In fact, I found my birth parents three days ago. I just haven't had the chance to tell you. But it doesn't matter now because you don't need to know about that anymore." I have Luther sign the mate bond dissolution agreement before finalizing my withdrawal from the Sharp Teeth pack. Two days later, I give both my mate and the pups to Ivana. With the pup that Luther has never known or laid his eyes on, I disappear from his world forever.

All it takes for me to be locked inside a sauna for eight hours is an accidental splash of hot water on Wayne Miller's secretary's hand. Right before I lose consciousness, he finally orders someone to let me out. He hisses, "Consider this a warning. If I ever see you lay a hand on Naomi again, I won't let you off so easily." I lie on a stretcher and answer with quiet composure, "Understood."

  "You are clearly a disgusting whore for having slept with your own uncle!" *** Akiko never wanted to cause trouble, especially with her cruel mother-in-law, who would easily scold and insult her, even for the smallest mistakes. But disaster struck, when Akiko was trying to calm down at her uncle's house. Somehow, Akiko ended up under the same blanket as Kenji, her father's younger brother. Akiko's uncle had been caring for her since she was eight years old, following the death of her parents. At that time, Akiko was eight, and Kenji was twenty. Kenji's marriage fell apart immediately, and Akiko's situation wasn't much better, as her mother-in-law would never forgive that act. Akiko was cast out without being able to explain everything to Yuto—her husband. With no other choice, Akiko returned to live with her uncle. But her life did not become easier after that. Akiko had to endure shame and disgrace, and also Kenji's increasingly strange behavior. He once gentle and caring uncle often became harsh. What secret is Kenji hiding that has caused him to change so drastically? Can Akiko repair her marriage? Or will she choose a forbidden path that she should not take?

For eight years in a marriage devoid of light, I had abortions five times. Every time, Sam would grip my hand when I woke up, his eyes red, and promise to find the best doctors to help me recover. After the third miscarriage, he finally hired a team of top-tier nutritionists, ensuring that every single meal was planned perfectly. He always comforted me, "Don't worry, Penny. We're still young, so we can have another baby!" When I found out I was pregnant again, snowflakes were dancing outside my window. I wrapped my fur coat tightly around my body and rushed to the company, only to hear Wren's furious voice outside the VIP suite, "Are you insane? Those five babies were your own flesh and blood!" Sam replied coldly, "Nicole needs specimen for her experiments. All I'm doing is providing her with the materials she needs." His words dug into my heart like icy spikes, and I could even hear my own bones cracking. "As for Penelope…" He chuckled. "Do you think that our marriage certificate is the real deal?" Snowflakes stung my face like needles, and I finally found out the truth about our marriage. From the very beginning, I was nothing more than a living test subject for the woman he truly loved. Sam was right. Those unborn children never even had legal identities, and were worth less than a piece of paper, just like my so-called marriage. Glass shattered from inside the room, and I could hear Wren cursing, but I turned and walked towards the elevator. Since Sam's priority was Nicole and nothing else, I was hell-bent on making him pay the price.

When Jake Gavingstone, CEO of the GS chain of department stores, lost his wife in a car accident planned for him, he shuts down focusing his energy on work and his twin sons. Now, after seven years, he is being pressured by his grandmother, who worries he would remain alone, to get a wife. He agrees to go on ten dates which she would arrange, in a bid to get an inheritance he had always wanted. Alice Singer is twenty nine year old young lady engaged to a resident doctor. She comes from a family where she is not wanted and his constantly bullied, despite trying her best to pay off the debts from her father's liver transplant surgery. She works two jobs and is still not able to pay off her debt. She decides to take a job as a nanny, even though she has a police record thanks to her stepbrother because of theft while working her last nanny job. She is hired in Jake's household as the nanny of the twins after the last nanny tried to seduce the twins father. The condition for hiring: You must be married or engaged. She gets the job as she is engaged and the twins opened up to her during the interview, and then some months down the line, she becomes unengaged. To pay off her debts and to finally be free of her family, she keeps pretending to be engaged, even when feelings awake between the boss and her.

On the way to get our marriage certificate for the twentieth time, Rolf Trivett regretted it once again. In eight years, this was our twentieth attempt to get the certificate. But every time we reached City Hall, he would always say he needed time to care for his seriously ill childhood friend and couldn't promise to marry me. This time, I couldn't take it anymore and asked him, "If she’s never going to get better, does that mean you’ll never marry me? What am I to you?" Rolf immediately lost his temper and yelled at me, "I've already promised to take care of her for life. Can you stop being so selfish? "Besides, we've been together for eight years. What difference does it make if we don't get this certificate?"

Eight years into our bond, I spotted a child at the kindergarten who looked uncannily like Malcolm—my mate. Malcolm had told me he was away on a business trip. However then he was holding that child in his arms, gently coaxing him. "Be good, sweetheart. In a few days, I'll bring you and your mom home. You're my only child. I'll never abandon you." The child smiled, content and trusting. I stood hidden around the corner, unable to breathe from the pain gripping my chest. Eight years ago, I had taken a silver blade to the stomach to save Malcolm. I lost my wolf that day—and with it, the ability to ever carry a pup. Back then, Malcolm had sat beside my hospital bed and made a promise: "You are the only mate I will ever choose. Whether or not we have a pup doesn't change that." However, what I saw now felt like a brutal slap—a reality too sharp to ignore. What value would Luna have if she'd lost her wolf and could no longer bear heirs? How could I possibly compare to someone who could give him a child, and the pack, a future? Choking back the pain swelling in my chest, I picked up the phone and called my father. "Dad… would you still want a daughter who's lost her wolf?" His voice came through, steady and sure. "Of course. No matter what happens, I'll always be here for you."