I Know My Worth

Being second best is practically in my DNA. My sister got the love, the attention, the spotlight. And now, even her damn fiancé. Technically, Rhys Granger was my fiancé now—billionaire, devastatingly hot, and a walking Wall Street wet dream. My parents shoved me into the engagement after Catherine disappeared, and honestly? I didn’t mind. I’d crushed on Rhys for years. This was my chance, right? My turn to be the chosen one? Wrong. One night, he slapped me. Over a mug. A stupid, chipped, ugly mug my sister gave him years ago. That’s when it hit me—he didn’t love me. He didn’t even see me. Obviously, I needed alcohol. A lot of alcohol. Enter him. Tall, dangerous, unfairly hot. The kind of man who makes you want to sin just by existing. It was reckless. It was stupid. It was completely ill-advised. But it was also: Best. Sex. Of. My. Life. And, as it turned out, the best decision I’d ever made. Because my one-night stand isn’t just some random guy. He’s richer than Rhys, more powerful than my entire family, and definitely more dangerous than I should be playing with. And now, he’s not letting me go.

Ten years to the day we were mated, Eric came home wearing the scent of his first love. He wrapped me in his scorching heat, his voice a hoarse whisper against my ear. "I want you, Lyra." He hadn't marked me on a full moon in so long. But right now, the scent of another she-wolf on him was a bitter ache in my chest. The dinner I'd prepared for our full moon ritual was swept off the table by our cub, River. He looked at me with his father’s cold expression. "Mom, your cooking doesn’t even come close to Auntie Aurora’s." Aurora. The first love Eric could never forget. The one he'd brazenly appointed as CFO of our pack's corporation. They were the perfect pair, flaunting their connection for all to see. And I, his true mate, had become the pack's laughingstock. For ten years, I played the part of the perfect mate and mother, only to become a shadow in my own home. That night, I filed the request to the Elders. I would sever the mate bond。 Later, under the brilliant Alaskan aurora, I received Eric's frantic mind link. "Lyra, what about River if you leave?" I let out a small laugh. " River only needs you." "Your first love is back, isn't she? Let her be the mother. I'm free."

Ava thought that everyone in the world was just like another. Only caring about their interests. But when she was about to die alone on the streets, the man sitting in front of her had appeared like a guardian angel. His gentleness and concern had made her death not so painful and her life not so pathetic. Through him, she had felt that world could be a beautiful place. And now that she had been given another chance at life, the first thing she did was to find him. She looked at the man that she only knew of his name said through gritted teeth, “Sir, I know that we barely know each other, but as fate has it, I have to marry you!” Leo looked at the little woman sitting opposite him and smiled, “Well, if you were a man, I would say that you definitely have some extra balls. But since you are such a beautiful lady, I would just have to reluctantly agree.” Ava blushed when she heard the man. She never knew that she would one day ask a man to marry her. She said with the sweetest smile,“But before that, I have some personal business to take care of. I hope you don’t mind that I am almost a divorcee.” “Your past has nothing to do with me. Once you become mine, there will be no room for regret even if you want to.”

Three years ago, Swelina Lott, the mate of Holden Grant, my older brother, had read my diary out loud in front of everyone at the ceremony. Holden, who was also the Alpha of the Silvermoon pack, was enraged after hearing the contents. He personally locked me up in the juvenile wolf prison afterward. After all, my diary was filled with entries proclaiming my love and adoration for him. What Holden doesn't know is that the wardens used all sorts of violent punishments on me in order to correct my behavior. As a result, I lost my wolf there. Today is the day I regain my freedom. Holden and Swelina are already waiting for me at the prison gate. The latter even has a sweet smile plastered on her face. "You're finally released, Anria. Holden and I miss you terribly." Meanwhile, Holden just looks at my skeletal frame while saying icily, "Swelina is already pregnant with my pup. That makes her the future Luna of the Silvermoon pack. I hope that you can make peace with her. "If I hear anything about you fantasizing about me again, I don't mind sending you back to this very prison." Upon hearing his threat, I sink down to my knees instantly. My body starts trembling uncontrollably at the same time. Already, I can feel warm liquid seeping through my pants. I won't do that anymore, Holden. Right now, the only thing I want to do is to stay far, far away from you. The further, the better.

I died in the year my husband hated me most. Unable to endure his endless silent treatment any longer, I swallowed a bottle of pills and ended my life. At the crematorium, watching the flames roar inside the furnace, he allowed himself a rare smile. “Someone as vile as her doesn’t deserve to be laid to rest whole.” So when the staff handed him the urn, he flipped it over. My ashes scattered across the floor in an instant. All this time, he had believed I was responsible for the death of his first love. That belief was why he had schemed and plotted for years, all for this precise moment of final desecration. When it was over, he stepped over my ashes and walked away without looking back. Though not long after that, he fell to his knees and begged the crematorium to give my ashes back to him.

After graduation, I struggle to find a job, while my girlfriend easily lands a position at a major company. She has been with me for two years, and to cheer me up, she even lets me hold onto her payroll card. Once I finally start working, she worries about my long commute and immediately buys me a car. Everyone around us envies me for having such a thoughtful girlfriend. To save up for a house, I secretly deposit my salary into her account. A year later, we decide to get married. Excited, she grabs my hand and says, "I know you don't have much saved. I don't need any wedding gift. All I want is your love." I am deeply touched by her consideration. But on our engagement day, she pulls out photos of me with a dozen women and accuses me of cheating. I look closely and realize I have never even met any of them. Then she shows me my card's transaction history, filled with charges at the notorious Solara Club. "You had my payroll card, and you used my money to indulge yourself!" she cries. "I'm not marrying you. Return my car and all the money you spent over the years. It adds up to 800 thousand dollars." I calmly place the payroll card she gave me on the table and say with a smirk, "Fine, let's settle this properly." When I present the detailed account prepared by my top lawyer, she is stunned.

Three years of marriage, and I'd become known in our social circle as the ultimate doormat. My husband staying out all night, his silent treatment, bringing his first love home to flaunt in my face—through it all, I'd smile and make him hangover soup, keeping the house spotless. Everyone thought I loved him to the point of madness. Even he believed it. Until the day of the divorce, when he begged me with tears in his eyes not to leave—and then watched "me" collapse rigid to the floor after a power outage, revealing a charging port on the back of my neck. He lost his mind. Meanwhile, the real me was lying on a beach in the Maldives, running my fingers through the hair of a gorgeous twenty-something with a six-pack, cheerfully pressing the "factory reset" button.

A business trip took an unexpected turn when our plane ran into disaster. While everyone else was penning their last words, I, an orphan with nothing to lose, decided to have a little fun with my miserly boss. “Boss, let’s keep this short—I like you.” “I really, really like you.” “Boss, this is a final goodbye.” Just when all hope seemed lost, the captain pulled off a miracle with his years of experience, saving us from the brink of catastrophe. By the time we landed safely, I was still in a daze until I saw my boss, eyes bloodshot, storming toward me, flanked by a wall of black-suited bodyguards.

My best friend, Yara Campbell, got reborn back to the day she was to reunite with the richest family in town, the Waltons. She didn't want to relive her fate as the Waltons' marionette that was trapped in a gilded cage, so she refused to go home with them. That was why she didn't hesitate to push me out instead. As I gazed at Grace Robinson, whose fingers were adorned with diamond rings, and Raymond Walton, who looked like he was made of money, I instantly rushed toward them. There was no way I'd let this golden opportunity slip through my fingers, after all! Five years later, Yara shows up on the Walters' doorstep with a paternity test report in her hands. She then demands that I be cast out of the family. But she's too late. In the past five years, I'm no longer the replacement she had used on a whim back then. Now, I'm the second-in-command in Walton Group. No one in this family can possibly usurp my position from me now.

My Luna became an alpha after I rejected her : she was my Luna. I rejected her. Now she's stronger than ever and she has my son. Amelia’s world shattered the day her daughter died and her mate, Alpha Aiden of the Red Moon Pack, divorced her to reunite with his ex-girlfriend. Cast out, disgraced, and accused of poisoning her own child, Amelia was stripped of her title and driven from her pack. The next morning, her lifeless body was found at the border.They all believed she was dead.But she wasn’t.Far from the ashes of betrayal, Amelia rebuilt herself—rising from rejection and ruin to become the first female Alpha of Velaris, the most powerful and respected pack in the realm. She also carried a secret Aiden never discovered:She was pregnant with his son.Years later, fate brings them face to face once more. A deadly disease is spreading through the packs, and the only one who can stop it is the renowned doctor they thought had died. When Aiden sees the boy at her side—his eyes, his blood—he realizes the truth.He didn’t just lose his Luna.He destroyed the mother of his child.And now, she’s everything he’s not—stronger, wiser, untouchable. Will she heal the pack that betrayed her?Will she ever let him near her heart again?Or is his punishment simply living with the consequences?