Like An Echo In The Forest

My marriage to Dante, the Moretti heir, was meant to be a union of power, an alliance of empires. But for me, it was also the real deal. Then his adopted sister, Clara, showed up at a party. She was wearing his custom leather jacket, straddling his prized Ducati, and she looked right at me with a smirk. "Dante says," she purred, "that I suit these precious things better than you do." My smile froze. Dante had her on a plane overseas so fast it was like she'd never existed. Five years later, the night before our wedding. I found him staring at the design for our wedding rings. He'd changed the engraving. The "Amor Aeternus"—Eternal Love—was gone. In its place: "Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa." My sin, my greatest sin. I took off my veil right then and there. "The wedding," I said, my voice like ice, "is off."

When we were eight, Kaelen burned down an entire pack territory just to save me. He swore an oath before the Moon Goddess to be with me forever, to never leave my side. Not even his own father could keep us apart. Then, a pregnant human girl reeking of his scent strutted into my office, a smug smirk on her face. "He says you're old and boring," she gloated. "That your scars turn his stomach." He seems to forget that he's the reason I have every last one of them. And I am not some weak woman he can just humiliate.

When Zirelle woke up next to a half-naked stranger in a room dripping with luxury, she had no memory of how she got there—just a surge of panic in her chest and a towel wrapped around her body. The room was too pristine, too extravagant, and far too distant from the broken, desolate life she knew. Her first instinct? Run. But not before stealing his gold, his wallet… and the mysterious silver necklace hanging around his neck. She thought she was escaping to safety, back to the familiar chaos of her world. Instead, she ran straight into carnage. Returning home, she found her parents slaughtered and her own pack baying for her blood. As for the necklace she stole? It’s no ordinary trinket. And the man she stole it from? He’s not just wealthy or dangerous—he’s deadly. What Zirelle doesn’t know is that he’s far more than he seems. He’s the key to the truth she’s been running from her whole life. She thought she had left him behind. But by stealing from him, she’s unknowingly invited an even greater storm into her life. Now, he’s coming for her. And he won’t stop until he finds her.

My Alpha slept with another woman. He promised me, "It was an accident." "I was drugged," he said. "I didn't even know what I was doing. Besides, I've already used my family's influence to bury it. No one will ever know." But three months later, I found him in the hospital with her—the pregnant Omega. This time, what Sebastian said to me was as cold and final as a death sentence: "Sophia, you're a smart woman. You understand the importance of a bloodline. This child will be the strongest Alpha heir our pack has seen in decades." That was it. My heart shattered. I turned and walked away. But they had no idea what they had just unleashed.

Three years into my arranged marriage with the Valachi family heir, the one that got away came back. He left me for Julia eight times. The ninth time, he left me bleeding on the side of the road with a gunshot wound to go running to Julia, who’d called him because she felt a little dizzy. "She needs me. You get that, right, Leona?" This time, I didn't fight for him. He didn't know about the bet I’d made with Julia. The ninth time he abandoned me, I would be the one to leave for good. So on his birthday, I left a set of signed divorce papers on his desk and got on a plane.

The sixth year I gave up my family, my name, everything, to be with Marcus. That’s when I found out I was just a stand-in for the one he could never forget. And now, she was back. I accepted my family’s arrangement. The marriage alliance. The day my engagement dress arrived at the office, Marcus looked pissed. “I thought we agreed we’d get married when my career was more stable.” I said nothing. But when the wedding invitation arrived, Marcus finally broke. The groom wasn't him. It was the heir to the Moretti family.

I'm undressed and bound to a testing table when my family comes to pick me up. A thick, sharp needle pierces into my neck. A drug is administered into my blood, and the pain almost makes me lose consciousness. Behind me, I can feel a man's cold hands stroking my skin amorously. Before me, several people are staring at me. They point at me and treat me like an educational instrument. I tremble in fear and curl up on the testing table in pain. Three years ago, my brother sent me to Mykorra's war zone to stand up for Yvette Sanders. Those were the three most insulting and torturous years of my life. They burned away my hope for kinship but not my desire for survival. As the hands roam lower on my body, I bite my lip so hard that I almost draw blood. As the hands start to go overboard, someone knocks on the door. "Wendy Sanders, your brother is here for you."

After dating in secret for seven years, Mitchell Zahn decides to propose to me on the day his birthday album is officially released. But during the birthday party, he publicly invites Isabella Claxton, a composer and my sister, to work with him. I follow Mitchell to ask him for an explanation. That's when I hear him and his friends chatting and joking inside the lounge. "You're so loyal to your first love, Mitchie. You couldn't wait to ask her to work with you upon her return. What are you going to do about Gabriella, though? Will she accept how your relationship ends when she's written so many songs for you?" After a moment, another person laughs and says, "To Mitchie, Gabriella has always been a replacement for Isabella. Now that Isabella is back, her replacement has to go. Don't you agree, Mitchie?" I wait for a long time before hearing a soft sound of agreement.

"Your husband is so wild in bed!" On the eve of my childbirth, I received a provocative video from my husband's mistress, flaunting their affair.In the video, my supposedly loyal husband, Max Jennings, and his mistress were entangled in a hotel bed, exchanging dirty talk and engaging in various sexual positions.The shock of it all triggered premature labor, resulting in a stillbirth that left me utterly devastated.Max, consumed by guilt, fell to his knees before me, tears streaming down his face. Desperately, he begged for my forgiveness. Little did he know, I had already uncovered all his schemes - the secret transfer of his assets, the signing of substantial life insurance policies, and the true cause of our baby's tragic demise.I clung to him, sobbing uncontrollably, like a typical housewife shattered by her husband's betrayal.But in the depths of my heart, a grim thought emerged: "Max, since you won't agree to a divorce, it seems that becoming a widow is my only way out."During this tumultuous period in my life, I met Luke Walker.The people in our town describe Luke as an angel who has fallen to Earth—an honorable and composed beacon of light. Yet, somehow, he took an interest in me—a woman scorned and deemed hopeless after a failed second marriage.No one understands the truth. It was Luke who relentlessly pursued me, drawing me deeper into a complex relationship!

Before Valentine's Day, I received a message from Caleb Spencer. It was a screenshot of a seven-figure bill for a necklace. It was meant for me, but he bought it for another woman. I didn't cry or make a scene. Instead, I quietly kept cleaning the house. Since we got married, every month brought new gossip about Caleb. Some came from the internet, some from nosy friends, and some even from Caleb himself. By now, I'd become the joke of the whole social circle. But it didn't matter. This life wasn't going to last much longer anyway.