The Barefoot Bandit

When I took a bullet for Theo Moretti, the bullet grazed my temple, compressing the optic nerve and causing blindness in both my eyes. He kneeled by my hospital bed, pressed the family crest to his chest, and swore: “Sophie, I will be your eyes for life. If I break this oath, may I die a horrendous death.” I believed him. However, the day my sight returned, I saw Theo through the bedroom door, naked on our marital bed with the maid, Isabella. He gripped her waist and thrust violently, his voice hoarse in a way I had never heard, growling, “Bella… you really are the most seductive woman in all of Sicily…” “Theo, who else besides me could satisfy you like this in bed? Divorce that blind woman already!” Isabella nibbled his earlobe. “After all, I’m the one who truly understands you.” “Wait a little longer,” Theo panted. “I need time… Don Lucas just handed me control of the docks. If I divorce now, I’ll be left with nothing.” Rare snowflakes rained down outside. I walked barefoot out of the estate in a thin nightgown and sent an encrypted message to my father. “Father, send someone to pick me up in three days. I’m coming home.” Don Lucas, my father, never expected that the boss he had personally promoted would dare betray his daughter. He replied with a single sentence: “For daring to betray you, Theo’s dead.” What I did not know was that this message would ignite a storm that would sweep across all of Sicily. In three days, Theo Moretti, the man I had risked my life for and I had personally helped rise to power, would lose everything he held dear, including me.

Kyla Eclipse is the true-born daughter of Beta Albert Eclipse of the Moonveil Pack. At just five years old, tragedy rips her world apart after a bandit attack leaves her mother dead and Kyla lost in the woods for ten years. There, she is taken in by Wynona, a mysterious witch who teaches her forbidden magic and warns her to guard their secret with her life. One day, when Kyla is fifteen years old, she stumbles upon a flyer with her face on it. It also has the name of her pack and a map to find her way home. She says her goodbyes to Wynona and makes her journey back to her father. But the pack she returns to is nothing like the one she remembers. Her father has remarried the cruel Claudia, who has thrust her own daughter, Vivica, into Kyla's place. Vivica thrives as the Beta's "true" heir, while Kyla is tormented, mocked, and scarred by the mysterious fire that nearly kills her the night she comes home. Three years later, Vivica is engaged to Tormund, the Alpha's son and the only man Kyla has ever loved. But just days before the wedding, Vivica takes her own life, leaving behind letters blaming Kyla for her misery. Enraged, Tormund goes into the woods to release his anger, only to suffer a tragic accident that leaves him crippled forever. Desperate and heartbroken, the Alpha and Luna promise anything to the one who can heal their son. Under pressure from her father, Kyla's darkest secret is exposed when he reveals that he knows about her witchcraft. Cornered, betrayed, and desperate to seize control of her fate, Kyla faces the Alpha and Luna with an unflinching demand: "I can heal Tormund... but my only wish is to marry your son."

James Wesley has hated me for a decade after his childhood sweetheart passed away. He requests to be transferred to the frontier the day after we get married. I write him countless letters in those ten years to win back his favor, but his response is always the same. "If you truly regret it, why don't you hurry up and die?" However, after I am abducted, James storms the bandit's hideout by himself and saves me. He suffers multiple bullet wounds, but before he succumbs to his injuries, he uses the last of his strength to slap my hands away. "The thing I regret the most… in this life… is marrying you. If we get a second chance at life… please… don't bother me anymore." His mother, Felicia Axford, sounds regretful during the funeral. "It's all my fault, James. I shouldn't have forced you to marry her…" His father, Jeremiah Wesley, stares at me, his eyes burning with contempt. "You forced Emily to take her own life, and now you also caused my son's death. You're nothing but trouble, so you should just die!" Even Xavier Bowen, our troop commander, who was responsible for facilitating our marriage in the first place, shakes his head and sighs. "I shouldn't have played matchmaker. I let you down, Mr. Wesley." Everyone feels sympathetic toward James, including me. On the night I am discharged from the troop, I swallow some pesticide and die in the middle of an abandoned field. When I open my eyes again, I realize I have returned to the day before my marriage. This time, I am determined to fulfill everyone's wishes.