Mara Awakening

After Nathan Seville stands me up for the seventh time we're supposed to register our marriage, I finally cut all ties with him—completely and on my own terms. If he shows up at a gathering, I don't go. If he's invited to perform at the college anniversary, I leave early. The moment my company decides to work with him, I resign on the spot. Even on Christmas Eve, when he shows up at my house with gifts, I make up an excuse about needing to visit someone. Calls? Blocked. Socials? Deleted. My strategy is simple—cut it all off. I don't reach out, and he has no way of finding me. For the first 30 years of my life, I spent most of it loving him with everything I had. I cared for him, supported him, and waited for him. But after being left hanging for the seventh time at the City Hall, I finally wake up. I don't want to live like this anymore. Even if I end up alone, it's still better than spending night after night waiting in an empty house that never feels like home!

My CEO wife insists on taking a young, fresh intern under her wing. She wants to train him personally. She says to me, "Don't overthink this. I just value his potential." She's always been stern and stoic, but she starts dressing in pink and pulling her hair back in high ponytails. On our third wedding anniversary, she and the intern even willfully disappear for 48 hours. When others are searching for her like mad, she shares photos of her riding a carousel and holding cotton candy. She captions them, "I found the purest of joys in the most joyful of places—all because of you!" Our company loses a huge project because of this, and I lose my wife. I slip a divorce agreement between the pages of the intern's application to become a permanent staff member. My wife signs it without even looking and says, "Knowing what Elliot can do, he's more than capable of carrying out the role of a vice president." I calmly hand her my resignation. "You're right. That's why I'll make way for him."

When we were about to head to the amusement park, my Beta boyfriend, Drew, brought along a woman and her daughter. There happened to be one seat short in the car. Drew told me to get out and give my seat to the two of them. “Laura has a kid with her. Let them go first. I’ll come back for you later,” he said. I calmly stepped out and watched as the car slowly pulled away from the pack. Three hours later, they arrived at the amusement park for the fireworks and feast. When a friend asked Drew why he still hadn’t come back to get me, Drew was patiently helping Laura light a giant firework. He wasn’t in a rush at all and even said, “It’ll be fine if I pick Sienna up later. She won’t mind. I’ll coax her a bit, and she’ll stop being mad.” Anger only worked on people who cared about someone. My dad, mom, and brother never cared, and now, not even Drew cared anymore. It was time for me to leave for good.

Kahinda Ayumbi, terlahir tanpa mengetahui siapa orang tua aslinya. Yang mana, ketika masih bayi dia ditemukan oleh seseorang pria tua yang kemudian melatihnya menjadi seorang pendekar. Ternyata, pria itu adalah seorang Petapa yang sedang bertapa guna menyempurnakan ilmu kanuragannya. Semua ilmu kanuragannya, diwariskan untuk Kahinda guna menjadi bekal dirinya kelak. Pria tua itu bernama Ki Mara Ngasula. Seorang yang mendedikasikan dirinya menjadi petarung tangguh. Ada alasan kenapa dirinya melatih Kahinda untuk menjadi pendekar, karena Ki Mara Ngasula sendiri tidak ingin ilmu kesaktiannya lenyap begitu saja jika suatu hari nanti dia dipanggil sang Pencipta. Dari sinilah, awal perjalanan Kahinda yang perlahan mengerti siapa dirinya sebenarnya, dimana Ki Mara Ngasula menceritakan bahwa Kahinda bukan anaknya. Dan Ki Mara Ngasula menyuruh Kahinda untuk melakukan perjalanan mencari siapa sebenarnya keluarganya, dengan bekal sebuah petunjuk Bandul kalung yang ditemukan di selendang Kahinda saat masih bayi. Ki Mara Ngasula sendiri, juga akan melakukan perjalanan Guna mencari seorang Pendekar yang berhasil mengalahkan dirinya. Dan perpisahan keduanya pun terjadi.

Mara Wolfe has clawed her way from humble beginnings to the top of the city’s legal world, building a prestigious law firm brick by brick-while hiding her true nature as a chubby, fiercely intelligent werewolf. Her world shatters when she uncovers her husband’s betrayal: he’s plotting to siphon her hard-earned fortune with the help of his cunning, much younger assistant. Refusing to become a victim, Mara unleashes her sharpest instincts-both human and lupine-to turn the tables. Just as she sets her trap, an enigmatic new associate, Lucas, offers his help. His price? Just one date. But Lucas is more than he seems, and his unexpected loyalty forces Mara to confront what she truly wants from life and love. As secrets unravel and loyalties shift, Mara must decide whether vengeance or vulnerability will define her future. In the end, when a woman becomes the queen of her fate, she always has the chance to rewrite her love story.

Despite using my cornea, my husband, Felix Halward, forced me to kneel on glass shards. Despite using my heart, my daughter declared that I was not fit to be her mother. Before my artificial heart stopped beating, I called Felix, only to have him snap at me, “Liana, could you stop kicking up a fuss? If you want to die that badly, do it somewhere far away! I’m not collecting your corpse!” I shut my remaining left eye as I lay on the snow. Later on, Felix, who had stopped loving me, plucked out his own eyeball. My daughter, who had denounced me, tried taking her life multiple times just so that she could see me again. However, I no longer longed for their love.

On my fifteenth birthday, I begged my mom to teach me how to make a cream cake from scratch. We only had cream at home. No flour. So we went out to buy some. When we came back, we didn't walk into a birthday surprise. We walked in on my father pressing a strange she-wolf down onto the dining table. Cream was smeared all over her bare body. That night ended with my parents signing the Mating Dissolution Agreement. From that day on, cake became my nightmare, a taboo I could never touch. The night I mated with Alpha Kaelen of the Shadow Pack, amidst the pain and pleasure of his marking bite, I whispered in his ear. "Honey, if you ever want to end our mating, just bring me a cake." He frowned, his eyes burning with possessiveness, and kissed the words away. "Don't talk nonsense, Seraphina. You are my fated mate. How could I ever let you go?" Later, on his birthday, his intern secretary Elena ordered a three-tier luxury cake. Kaelen went into a rage, throwing both the cake and the intern out the front door. Back then, I was moved, even telling him not to be so harsh on a low-ranking wolf for my sake. But six months later, Elena had been promoted to Kaelen's personal assistant. On my birthday, she walked into my laboratory, swinging her hips, holding a burnt, homemade cake. I called Kaelen, asking him to remove the provocative item. On the other end of the line,his tone was casual. "Elena put her heart into making that for you. It would be cruel to throw it away. Be a good girl, don't be so sensitive. Have the grace of a Luna." The phone slipped from my hand. It turned out my mother wasn't wrong. Cake really is best served with a side of rejection papers.

I'm hospitalized after a car accident that nearly costs me my leg. Meanwhile, my fiancé is too busy in the room next door taking care of his first love. She's only faking a sprained ankle. From that same room, I hear Johan Rivera's mocking voice. "Raelyn? She's just a pawn the old man picked for a political marriage. She's not even good enough to be your stand-in." In that moment, something in me finally breaks. I watch the news coverage of a rising business star who's surrounded by reporters and flashing cameras. He's also my childhood friend who has pursued me for ten years. I calmly send him a message. "Christian, does your offer for a contract marriage still stand?"

In my previous life, my girlfriend's childhood friend impersonated a rich heir and messed around with the fake power he had. I exposed him, and he crashed his car into me. In my final moments, my girlfriend's sister begged on her knees, pleading for my girlfriend's aid, hoping she could save me, but my girlfriend did nothing. "He wouldn't do that. Zacharias is beyond this. He would never dirty his hands for a nobody like this guy. He might be my boyfriend, but that doesn't mean he can do anything he wants. He'd better know his place." My girlfriend's sister remained on the ground for three days. In the end, Zacharias dragged her away, violated her, and killed her. Even at my dying breath, my girlfriend was still covering up for her childhood friend. She refused to believe Zacharias hit someone with a car and violated her sister. And then I was reborn. This time, I did not beg and plead for my girlfriend to give me a moment of her time. I called my brother instead. "Hey? Yeah, it's me. Some bastard impersonated me and is dragging my name through the mud. I need you to take that guy out. Also, I'm not marrying Annabelle Lawson. I'm taking her sister instead." I gave the Lawsons a lot of resources so they could grow, and what did I get in the end? An ungrateful woman who would leave me stranded and dying all for another man. With all their resources pulled, Annabelle and her childhood friend would be saying goodbye to their good old days and hello to their personal hell.

Mara thought her life was finally beginning—until her father’s bankruptcy shattered everything. Overnight, she loses her freedom, her career, and her dreams. To save her family from ruin, she is forced into an arranged marriage with Elias Devereux, the cold and ruthless billionaire CEO who holds their debts in his iron grip. Elias is powerful, intimidating, and dangerously magnetic. He claims Mara as his wife, not out of love, but out of control. Yet behind his arrogance lies secrets that could destroy them both. Trapped in his penthouse and his world of wealth and deception, Mara vows to fight back. But every attempt to escape only pulls her deeper into Elias orbit—where passion collides with betrayal, and hate blurs into desire. As rivals, scandals, and hidden enemies threaten to tear them apart, Mara must decide: is Elias her savior or her destroyer? And when love finally ignites between them, will it be strong enough to survive the empire built on lies?