The Abandoned Empress

Clara gets betrayed and dumped by her ex on her wedding day. Devastated and depressed, she got drunk and ended up in his boss's bed. He asks Clara to be his girlfriend. Clara accepts his proposal and along the line she falls in love with him.

A powerful Empress of a mafia organization with an unknown identity. No one knows her as the Empress, no one saw her face- except from her trusted men. And her information is highly protected. But she can't hide forever. For no one can hide a secret forever. She can't hide from the world she was meant to live. It's either the enemies will reveal her identity, or she will reveal herself.

For our college graduation trip, I spent a whole week glued to various travel apps, finally snagging a half-price couples' train package. I was just about to share the good news with my boyfriend and call it a night when his message came through. "Anna's going through a breakup. She needs to get away and clear her head. We're gonna use those tickets." "See if you can grab yourself another single ticket. It's not that much anyway - like five or six hundred bucks." For a moment, I was speechless. Before he received the scholarship my dad’s pack had specifically established for him, five or six hundred dollars used to be his entire monthly allowance. After a moment of silence, I picked up my phone: “Dad, prepare a private jet for me. I want to take a trip alone before graduation.”

On the day Mateo was crowned as the Alpha King of the Eastern Packs, I learned that my remaining wolf's power was depleted and that the silver curse would eventually take my life. During the coronation ceremony, the Grand Elder asked Mateo who he regretted losing the most. Without hesitation, he dialed my number. I answered, listening to his cold voice through the phone: "When I got hurt, after you left me thinking I wasn't Alpha anymore, did you ever regret it?" Looking at the astronomical bill for another month's supply of moonwort potion, I laughed softly: "Mateo, since you're so powerful now, could you lend me 500,000 for the treatment?" The line went dead instantly. On the live broadcast, I watched as his face turned to ice: "Now I have no regrets." He didn't know that seven years ago, when that cursed silver dagger was killing him, I had secretly channeled my wolf's power to him, taking the curse upon myself.

ในวันครบรอบงานวิวาห์ปีที่เจ็ดของเรา ฉันกำลังนั่งตักลูเซียนสามีมาเฟียของฉัน และจูบเขาอย่างดูดดื่ม นิ้วมือควานหาผลตรวจการตั้งครรภ์ที่ซ่อนอยู่ในกระเป๋าชุดราตรีผ้าไหมแสนแพง ฉันอยากจะเก็บข่าวเรื่องการตั้งครรภ์ที่มาอย่างไม่คาดฝันนี้ไว้จนกว่าจะถึงช่วงท้ายของค่ำคืนนี้ มาร์โกลูกน้องมือขวาของลูเซียนเอ่ยถามเป็นภาษาอิตาลีพร้อมรอยยิ้มแฝงเลศนัย “นายท่าน โซเฟีย นกน้อยตัวใหม่ของท่าน เด็ดไหมครับ?” เสียงหัวเราะแกมเย้ยหยันของลูเซียนแล่นผ่านทรวงอก ทำให้ฉันรู้สึกเย็นยะเยือกถึงกระดูกดำ เขาตอบกลับเป็นภาษาอิตาลี “เหมือนลูกพีชดิบที่เพิ่งเด็ดจากต้น ทั้งสดทั้งนุ่มนวลดีนะ” มือคู่นั้นลูบไล้ไปตามเอวของฉัน แต่สายตาของลูเซียนกลับไร้ซึ่งอารมณ์ “ปิดปากเอาไว้ให้สนิท ถ้านายหญิงของฉันรู้เข้า ฉันตายแน่” บรรดาลูกน้องหัวเราะคิกคักอย่างรู้ทัน พร้อมยกแก้วขึ้นสาบานว่าจะเงียบปากเอาไว้ เลือดอุ่นในกายของฉันค่อย ๆ กลายเป็นน้ำแข็งทีละนิด สิ่งหนึ่งที่คนเหล่านี้ไม่รู้เลยคือ คุณย่าของฉันมาจากเกาะซิซิลี ดังนั้นฉันจึงเข้าใจทุกคำที่พวกเขาพูดกัน ฉันพยายามคุมสติตนเองให้สงบ พร้อมกับปั้นรอยยิ้มไร้ที่ติในฐานะนายหญิงไม่ให้คลาย แต่มือข้างที่ถือแก้วแชมเปญกลับสั่นเทาไม่หยุด แทนที่จะสร้างเรื่องราวอะไร แต่ฉันกลับกดเปิดโทรศัพท์มือถือและเลื่อนหาจดหมายเชิญเรื่องโครงการวิจัยทางการแพทย์ระหว่างประเทศแบบรายบุคคลที่ได้รับมาเมื่อสองสามวันก่อน และกด “ยอมรับ” ภายในสามวัน ฉันจะหายไปจากโลกของลูเซียนแบบไม่ให้เขาตามหาได้อีก

They say revenge is a dish best served cold. Mine's been chilling for five years. The night James Reed kicked me out of his life, I was pregnant, penniless, and naive enough to believe love mattered more than money. He taught me better. When you're bleeding out in the rain, clutching your stomach while your best friend laughs from his doorway, you learn exactly what you're worth to people like them. Zero. But the woman who nearly died that night? She stayed dead. The one who came back is someone else entirely. Anna Quinn. Lost daughter of California's most powerful family. CEO of her own pharmaceutical empire. And the silent majority shareholder in James Reed's failing company. He's about to learn what happens when you build an empire on stolen foundations. His marriage has cracks he doesn't see. And the investors keeping him afloat? They answer to me now. He thinks he's untouchable. That my formula made him invincible. But success built on stolen work has a way of crumbling when the original genius decides to pull the rug out. I don't want him back. I want him ruined. And this time, I'm the one holding all the cards.

"Stop the car!" Shouted Albert "Boss!" "I said stop the car or you are fired!" Albert said coldly. 'Screeeeeeech' the driver stepped on the emergency break. Before he could react, his boss had already flung the door and was running towards a certain direction... .... "Let's go home." Hearing the word home, Velma looked at the man before her dumbly. "Let's go home..." Albert repeated himself. Before waiting for Velma to reply, he took her hand and led her to the car.

I sacrificed half my life to make a deal with a witch to be with Rook. After one night together, Rook coldly promised the packs to be allied through marriage. However, on the second day of our wedding, he left the territory to be on the battlefield. He was gone for three years. I brought up our son, Ari, on my own in our territory while I waited for his return. Three years later, he suddenly came home and brought his sweetheart and their daughter along. He coldly ordered, "Move to the basement with your son and give your room to my daughter." For three years, he had built a life with them while I waited alone. I threw the divorce papers in his face and walked away from him with my son. The princes of the Heavenly Wolf Pack would never be trapped by a man's love again. What I want is to rule the packs and become a queen.

“We ain't divorced yet, Gabriella and you are already cheating. Is this why you wanted a divorce? Cutting me off from your business? Just to bring in someone and you didn't even do that alone but my uncle? Doing shit with my uncle?” My eyes widened more and more until I understood what was happening. For three years, Gabriella thought she had it all, a loyal husband, a growing interior design business, and a best friend she’d known since college living under their roof “just until she got back on her feet.” When her friend announced a surprise pregnancy, Gabriella celebrated, until she discovered the father was her own husband. The betrayal slices deeper when Gabriella learns the affair began long before the baby, and worse, her husband signed over half of their joint properties to the friend in secret. Now publicly humiliated and privately devastated, Gabriella refuses to be the woman who begs to be chosen. Divorce is not just a choice, it’s survival. Enter Aidan Voss, her newest client: a reclusive billionaire known for designing luxury hotels and for ruthlessly dismantling the competition. He’s charming, calculated, and hiding scars of his own. He offers her a high-stakes design contract that would put her business back on the map, but his interest in her is anything but professional. What she didn't know was that the newest client was her ex-husband's uncle. But Gabriella made a vow: never to lose herself in a man again. Not even one who seems to see past the ruins she hides behind polished smiles. And certainly not one who might just be planning revenge on the man who broke her, because Aidan has his own unfinished business with her ex-husband.

The day before the final round of Beta selection, I was poisoned with wolfsbane and locked inside my burning house. The fire spread too fast, and my weakened state prevented me from shifting. My wolf, Emma, screamed in my mind, but I couldn't escape. I clawed at the door as the flames seared my skin. When I was rescued, my body was covered in burns, my skin raw and torn. Outside the operating room, I heard my mother sobbing, repeating, “It’s my fault... I locked the door by accident... I never meant to...” Alpha David, my mate, called for every healer to restore me, but his cold words to my mother were chilling: “If Serina wasn’t so vain and selfish, I wouldn’t have had to do this. Becky was fragile, struggling with depression, yet Serina flaunted her success in front of her. This is what Serina owes her.” David’s actions were meant to pave the way for Becky to become Beta, but I was the one who suffered. He claimed to be treating me well, but destroying my health and future didn’t feel like care. I pressed my hand to my bandaged chest, the numbness spreading. Emma growled inside me, weakened by the wolfsbane. I no longer wanted the love of the mother who betrayed me or the mate who was supposed to protect me. I wanted nothing from them anymore.