Miss Fortune Ruined King

Before my wedding to Sophie Bennett, the impoverished student I've been sponsoring for ten years posts a photo on social media. "Successfully moved into the new apartment. Soph prepared such a big, soft bed for me!" In the photo, Zachary Wells lies sprawled on the wedding bed I bought for Sophie and my new home, taking a smug selfie with his hand waving at the camera. He's even wearing my wedding ring on his ring finger. Zachary also comments on his own post, "Just thinking about how I'm the first man to lie on this bed fills me with overwhelming happiness!" I reply with a question mark under his comment. The next second, Sophie's call comes through. "I'm just letting Zach experience the warmth of home. Why are you being so passive-aggressive?" In the background, I hear Zachary softly trying to calm her down. "Soph, he's not worth getting angry over." Hearing that, Sophie laughs and banters with him, then abruptly hangs up on me. The two of us have been together for ten years, from ages 18 to 28, and we've finally made it to our wedding day. But now, I no longer intend to go through with it.

I slept with my brother's best friend. And I didn't even know who he was. --- The first time I saw Rafael De Luca, he was a stranger by the pool with sin in his smile and hunger in his icy blue eyes. He kissed me like I was air and he'd been drowning. Then I learned his name. My brother's best friend. The heir to the De Luca empire. My family's sworn enemy. I should have walked away. Instead, I let him ruin me. One night of passion. One whispered "my little sunshine" against my skin. One secret I took with me when I disappeared without a trace. Now I'm back. Six years later, Rafael is colder than ever, Chicago's most feared mafia prince, and the man I'm being forced to marry. He doesn't know why I left. He doesn't know about the five-year-old secret waiting at home with his father's blue eyes. And he definitely doesn't know that one look from him still sets me on fire. "You're mine now, sole," he whispers against my lips on our wedding night. "And I'm going to find out why you left. Every. Damn. Reason." He thinks he's in control. He thinks he's the one ruining me. But Rafael De Luca doesn't know the truth yet. I didn't just sleep with my brother's best friend. I gave him a son. And when he finds out, this monster who wears obsession like armor will have to decide: Destroy me for my betrayal... Or surrender to the passion that could save us both.

One week before our wedding, my fiance, Ashton Fraser, suddenly cancels the world-tour wedding trip that I've been preparing for the past two years. Thinking that he's misclicked something, I turn on my tablet and am about to ask the wedding planner what's going on when I see the WhatsApp on the tablet syncing with the version Ashton has on his phone. That's when numerous text messages from one of Ashton's friends begin popping up. "Wait, did you seriously cancel your fiancee's world-tour wedding trip just because you wanted to fulfill Mariah's wish? You even entrusted the authority to organize your wedding to Mariah? "I'm not exaggerating when I say this wedding is practically your fiancee's life's work! Everyone knows that she went so far as to force herself to continue planning the wedding even when she relapsed from her cardiac arrest! Aren't you worried that she might not marry you at all once she finds out about this?" With a trembling finger, I tap on the notification. Ashton replies to the friend nonchalantly, "Laura has already given her life to me; why would she care about how her wedding goes? Mariah wants to try her hand at organizing a wedding. This is her dream. "Don't worry. Laura cares more about this wedding than anyone else in this world. She's even willing to cut half of her heart just for me. Clearly, she loves me to the moon and back. Even if she finds out about this matter, she will never have the heart to leave me. At most, she'll only throw a tantrum that lasts for a few days. I'll make sure to coax her properly when the time comes." I take a deep breath to suppress the irregular rate at which my heart is beating at the moment. Then, I tell another man, "Are you interested in getting married? I still need a groom for my wedding."

A Gen Z employee named Sylvie Mercer has reported me to the Department of Labor by claiming that I've forced all employees to work on the year-end holidays. But the truth is, I've given the entire company a nine-day vacation just to celebrate the year-end holidays. Those who are willing to work overtime shifts will be paid three times their usual salaries and given an additional five-thousand-dollar bonus. Sylvie keeps crying on the internet about how all the employees, including her, are forced to trade their lives for money. Thanks to her, the entire Internet keeps bashing me. So, I decide to follow the public opinion by releasing an announcement. "In order to ensure all employees' health, the company's doors shall be locked during the year-end holidays. Do note that the electric supply will be cut off as well. No one is permitted entry into the company." As soon as the announcement is released, the employees who plan on earning extra money in order to pay off their mortgages all rush toward my office in alarm.

While Adrian was out negotiating a partnership, Vivian slipped nuts into my food — the one thing she knew I was deathly allergic to. I broke out in blisters all over during the negotiation, making a scene in front of everyone. But Vivian didn't care. She pulled me aside and sneered, "You, Luna, spoiled as you are, just stay there and be a pretty face. Leave the real business to me and Adrian." I lost my temper and slapped her hard across the face. The next second, Adrian appeared in front of Vivian, pulling her into his arms. The look he gave me was pure reproach. "You're the Luna — is this how you treat your own pack members? Vivian didn't do it on purpose. Why are you making her life difficult?" Vivian pressed herself against him, eyes wide and glistening. "Luna, I know I'm clumsy. You're not really going to hold a grudge over something so small, are you?" That night, he didn't come back to our hotel room. I sat on the bed and waited until dawn, tears streaming silently down my face. Through the mate bond, I could feel exactly where he'd been — with Vivian, the entire night. He'd already betrayed me. Numb with heartbreak, I picked up my phone and called Alpha’s father.

I'm dying, and so is Sean Quinton. He still has hope, though. I don't. Why? Because once I die, my body will become the first to have passed due to a special infection. It'll be dissected and researched to help cure Sean. So, his daily task becomes urging me to die. Unfortunately for him, I'm unwilling to save him another time, so I die not because of the infection but because of carbon monoxide poisoning. It's enough to destroy the symptoms my body shows and ruin their plans to research my corpse.

Exactly Five years ago, I discovered my union with my ex-husband was all a cruel lie. Before we married, my best friend Mirabel had introduced him to me as her brother. He was a poor talented but unrecognized fashion designer then, so I picked him up and helped him build his career with my father’s wealth. We later got married, and he eventually coerced me to sign off my father’s asset to his name and reeled by my undying love for him, I did. I trusted and believed that nothing could ever break us apart that I never saw Austin’s betrayer coming! First, I found out my best friend wasn’t his sister. They were a couple who had been having an affair under my nose, and it had been their plans to steal my heirloom. More heartbreaking enough, the day I found out was the day I discovered I was pregnant after three years of marriage. Austin, having gotten what he wanted, divorced me and threw me on the street with his seed growing inside me. He didn’t know, and I never intended to tell him. All I wanted was to hurt him back and take back everything he stole from him. However, helpless and left with nothing, I couldn't fight Austin back. I relocated to another city where I gave birth to twins who had rare talents. Five years later, their Talents brought me unexpected fortune. Now the most powerful and influential woman in the world, I could finally bring my bastard ex-husband to his knees... As if fate was on my side, everything fell right into place until it all came crumbling down again!

Ivy Sinclair never expected her father's last desperate move to be selling her off like a pawn—to the coldest billionaire in Manhattan. Lucien Blackwood doesn't believe in love. But he believes in power, and marrying Ivy gives him just that—until the fire in her eyes threatens to melt the ice around his heart. Their vows are signed in ink and built on lies. She’s determined to protect her soul. He’s hiding demons that could destroy them both. But what starts as a calculated business arrangement spirals into a dangerous obsession. Secrets bleed. Betrayals burn. And when the past comes back with blood on its hands, their fragile union may be the only thing standing between survival and ruin. He owns her name. She could own his heart. But only if they don’t destroy each other first. In this house of fortune, love is the most dangerous currency.

At twenty, she had one reckless night with the Beta who always looked at her like she was trouble. By morning, he was gone. He left more than silence behind. Two years later, she’s raising their daughter alone — strong, proud, and over him. Then he comes back. Not as Beta. As Alpha. And he wants what he didn’t stay for.

“Run. For when the moon rises so do the monsters.” Blood trickled down my legs as I managed to keep my foot in front of the other in an attempt to run. Who would imagine that running away from being engaged to an old Alpha would lead right into the clutches of my fated lycan king? And that right there would lead to my death or...? Now I'm hunted, claimed and I might just end up ruined.