Lily From It Ends With Us

I used to work as a model, but not the typical kind. In our profession, everyone had a benefactor, someone who supported them financially. I dedicated myself to my benefactor for a year and a half, tending to his needs diligently. Despite my dedication, I was eventually abandoned. Just when I gathered my courage and decided to start afresh, he showed up again, "Do you want to date me? Officially."

“I hate you for bringing me here! I hate you for forcing me to live among wolves when I'm the only human. They all hate me! I am a prey, a pet, a weakling waiting to be devoured. How could you do this to me?” I cried as I stared the Alpha in the eye. I had just tried to escape again, but he caught me as always. There was something in his eyes. It was rage. Possessive and protective rage. “If anyone makes you feel insecure because you're human, I'll make sure their heads roll at their feet. Nobody is permitted to hurt you. Because you're mine. My mate. My Luna,” he replied. *** For 18 good years of my life, my father has kept me hidden from the outside world. Everything I wanted, he provided... Except to interact with people and live outside the walls of my wing in his mansion. All of a sudden, one night, he wants us to leave everything behind and flee. Flee from what? He won't say. Until strange men barge in and the leader of them has the face of the monster who has plagued my dreams every night for a decade. And then the monster proclaimed me his mate and took me away from the world I’ve ever known.

At my wedding, a video of my fiancé cheating was exposed. I didn't make a scene; just turned around and walked away, left him to clean up the mess himself. I went back to my room and kissed my younger boyfriend. We were halfway through when we got interrupted. My fiancé stormed in, face red with shame and rage. "Is this really the time? All you can think about is kissing?" I smacked my lips, still savoring the moment. "Weren't you the one who introduced us?"

When you are growing up adults usually tell you that you can be whatever you want to be, right?! I was told I would be a starving artist if I became what I wanted to be. I let their words become me. All their words. I let them dictate the person I became. I kept the real me to myself after so many years of their hatred for that person. I let little bits of my soul break away and die to keep their torment to a minimum. I learned to not rock the boat, just keep my head down and do as I was told. I was the party crasher on their life that never left. Until I shocked them when I did. Out on my own, I wasn’t as strong as I thought I was. I settled for the first “nice guy” to come along. That quickly fizzled out after a shotgun wedding. After a year alone I met Prince Charming #2 at a backyard BBQ. I didn’t know my jerk radar was still broken. Then out of nowhere, the one I had always thought was a jerk turned out to surprisingly be my Prince Charming. Being the man, I need in my life. He became everything I needed, and everything I didn’t know I wanted. Allowing me to grow and blossom as a person which inspires him to do the same. And we live happily ever after.

When Maya walks away from Alvarez, she thinks she’s freeing herself from a toxic love. But love doesn’t die easily. Alvarez refuses to let go, torn between rage and longing, while a new man steps into Maya’s life — calm, patient, everything Alvarez never was. Caught between memory and possibility, Maya must face the truth: can broken love be fixed, or is it better left behind?

Steven Zimmer, the assistant of my wife, Lucy Quinn, has lost in a truth-or-dare session. Lucy doesn't hesitate to file for a divorce from me for the ninth time. In the courthouse, I hear the staff member asking Lucy curiously, "Your husband is like a well-trained dog now. You've already married and divorced him nine times! Aren't you worried that your husband might ditch you for real?" Lucy merely smirks at her. "Do you know that the more ruthless you are when you abandon your pets, the harder it'll be for them to live without you? In fact, they will just become more obedient and docile. As long as I curl a finger at him, he'll definitely sink down to his knees and beg me to remarry him." Everyone bursts into laughter after that. They bet that I'll plead pathetically to Lucy to remarry me for the tenth time in less than a day after I've obtained the divorce certificate. Lucy even declares that she'll stream the tenth wedding proposal on the Internet when it happens. But the next day, Lucy keeps waiting for me to show up at the city hall while clad in a wedding dress. All she gets is a text from me. "No more proposals. This is the end between us, Lucy."

Since I was a kid, my parents drilled it in—you're gonna be a Corleone girl, Giovanni Corleone's property. "This is just an alliance. Don't expect anything more." That's what he said on our wedding night. So I played the part—quiet, polished, dutiful. Then year three hit, and suddenly Giovanni couldn't keep his hands off me. Every night, something new. I thought maybe—finally—he felt the same way I had all along. Then I caught him kissing his stepmom. Funny. Just the night before, he told me kissing me made him sick. "I've been practicing with her—for your sake." So yeah. All that heat? Just rehearsal for her. So I ran. Took back my life—and our unborn daughter. The Don lost his mind looking for me. Begged me to come back—with the kid. But I would not stop for him anymore. I turned and walked straight toward the stage that was always mine.

“Reject us,” Kellen commanded. “No.” The word slipped from Daciana's lips. The murmurs in the crowd grew louder, shock spreading like wildfire. The triplets’ eyes widened in disbelief, their confident masks slipping. Kellen’s hands balled into fists, his jaw clenched tight as he glared at her. “What do you mean, no?” Axel’s voice broke through the noise, disbelief clear in his tone. “You’ve always hated us. You don’t want this. Reject us!” “I won't reject you” Daciana stood her ground, she had never had this kind of leverage over them before, For years, they had been in control, tormenting her at every turn. But now… now they were at her mercy. They were begging for rejection? That wasn't going to happen. She would make sure they paid for everything they've done. This mate bond they desperately wanted to break…. will not happen! **** When she didn't get her wolf on her eighteenth birthday, Daciana became an element of mockery in her pack. Everybody hated her and the students at school derived joy in bullying and making her life miserable. Daciana has hated the royal triplets all her life. She wanted nothing to do with them, and they equally hated and made her life hell. She wished to have nothing to do with them, but fate played a quick one on her, and she got mated to all three of them. The triplets, having no power to reject her, asked her to reject them, but Daciana, knowing the leverage she had, refused with the sole aim of making them pay for everything they did to her. But how long will she be able to play this game? Will she win, or will she be pulled into their seductive web now that they didn't want to let her go?

I waited eight years. The day I was supposed to become Luna, my fated mate, Alpha Cayden, rejected me in front of the entire pack. Because I was barren. He severed our mate bond and kissed my omega assistant, Lilith. Turns out, they had already mated. The bitch was pregnant with his child. Rage consumed me. I was ready to leave it all behind, but his mother threw me in a silver cell. He planned to strip me of my wolf and my gift—and give my powers to his new Luna, Lilith. Broken, I fled, only to be attacked by rogues and left for dead in a pool of my own blood. When I woke again, I was in a strange place. My memory was wiped clean. Alpha Rhys of the Shadowcrest Pack was by my side, promising to take care of me. And me, the barren wolf, I was pregnant… But I can no longer remember who the child's father was.

During the holidays, Ellie Harper, my wife who's a hospital director, tells me once again that she has taken on a few operations at the last minute, so she can't go home with me to spend time with my parents. But soon, I see her assistant, Jaiden Roth's social media feed. Apparently, Ellie is slaughtering pigs at Jaiden's village in preparation for a holiday party. The caption writes, "Dad says having a daughter-in-law who works as a doctor is amazing. To think that she's this skilled in slaughtering pigs as well!" With a cold smirk curling on my lips, I leave a like on the post. I also comment, "That's her major, after all." My colleagues keep gossiping among themselves in various group chats. They all think I'll definitely get into a huge fight with Ellie this time. Ellie wastes no time in calling me. I can already imagine the impatient look on her face and the way her brows are drawn into a tight frown. "Jaiden's village is hosting a huge party for the holidays, so I'm there to lend them a helping hand! What's with that passive-aggressive tone of yours, huh? "There isn't anyone who can help out in his household, you know! Do you know how badly it'll reflect on his family if no one from his side helps out at all? I was just helping him out as a friend! What's there to kick up a fuss over? "Hurry up and remove the like and the damn comment! Don't make life difficult for Jaiden at the hospital, you hear me? "Once I get back from the village, I'll pick a good date to go back to your hometown with you, okay?" Another empty promise from Ellie, it seems. All she does is making empty promises that she can never keep nowadays. I'm completely stuffed with those promises, and I can't afford to wait for her anymore. Once the holidays are over, I'll receive the divorce certificate marking the end of our seven-year marriage once and for all.