The Dad He Didn't Have To Be Novels & Stories

On the day of my ninth wedding attempt, my fiancé, Lucas Yearwood, leaves me jilted again. This time, I follow him. I see him holding his adoptive sister's hand as they walk into the obstetrics department. "Lucas, I dreamed that we're having a boy—he's definitely going to be as handsome as you." Watching the two of them laugh and chat like that, I feel my blood freeze. After I chased Lucas for seven years, I got a chance to use a debt of gratitude to force a marriage contract out of him. I backed him into a corner to make him marry me. Everyone thinks I can't survive without him. But this time, I hand the marriage contract back and leave him without looking back. On my wedding day, he calls me. "Viv! Where are you right now?" I'm in the shower. My new husband picks up the call for me. "Do you have business with my wife?" Later, I hear Lucas turned all of Riverville upside down, digging through every trash can to find our marriage contract.

While they slice me apart, I desperately call my brother, Nathan Slade. He finally picks up as my consciousness starts to slip and answers in an annoyed voice, "What now?" "Nathan, help—" I don't get to finish before he cuts me off. "Can't you ever go a day without drama? Gemma's graduation is at the end of the month. Miss it, and I swear I'll kill you!" Then, he hangs up without a second thought. The agonizing pain swallows me whole, and my eyes close for good, tears still trailing down my cheeks. Well, good news, Nathan… You won't have to kill me because I'm already dead.

I was nine months pregnant when the Wolf Council sent a resource report to the Luna’s quarters. It listed my mate’s monthly distributions. For two years straight, my husband—the pack’s Alpha—had been secretly providing the same female wolf with territory access, protection, and supplies. Without missing a single month. The first record dated back to two years ago. The same month I lost my first pup. A notification appeared—A contact request. The note read: “A woman kept by an Alpha.” I was strangely calm, one hand rested on my swollen belly as I accepted. She messaged immediately. “You saw the report, didn’t you?” I didn’t reply, I opened her feed instead. The earliest post was dated April 21st, two years ago. A female wolf leaned against an Alpha’s chest. His face was cropped out—but the mark on his shoulder was clear. I recognized it instantly. My mate’s Alpha mark. The caption read: “Thank you for choosing me on my coming-of-age night.” April 21st. That was the night I lay bleeding in the healing room, losing my unborn pup. He had told me he was away on pack business. I kept scrolling. She trained freely in Alpha-only areas. Used resources reserved for the Luna. Was guarded as if she already belonged at his side. Every post carried the same message: He chose her. Pinned at the top was a medical report—She was pregnant—With the Alpha’s pup. I put the device down and returned to our bedroom. Then I received it—Photos. Videos. She sent them to me on purpose— to flaunt that the love I had once been so proud of had already rotted beyond repair. I sat down slowly, my pup shifting inside me, pain spreading through my chest. Only then did I understand—He had betrayed me completely. This kind of love—I don’t want it. This pack—I won’t stay in it. When my pup is born, I will leave—And I will take his heir with me. Let the Alpha search every territory, scour every border, tear the pack apart in regret— he will never find us.

It is the third year of my marriage when the video of my bodyguard, Julian Sutherland, holding an umbrella over me in a downpour goes viral. Overnight, the internet becomes obsessed with the "Icy Protector and his Forbidden Heiress." Netizens are relentless; they dig through the archives until they unearth a ten-year-old clip. In the video, a girl was holding a pair of high-heeled shoes while sprinting through the Folander airport. My friend teased, "No way, Ms. Serina Brown. Are you really flying back home to confess to that poor man? What could you possibly see in him?" The camera shakes, capturing my youthful face. I was just a reckless 20-year-old. "I love Julian. I love everything about him." That night, after seeing the video, Julian loses his composure and bursts into my room. "I didn't know you loved me back then. I thought… I thought… God, it was never supposed to end like this." I pull my coat around me and stand rooted on the spot, remaining silent. Suddenly, a mocking laugh echoes from behind me. Someone places their hand firmly on my waist and says, "Are you trying to reminisce about your love with my wife right in front of me? Do I look dead to you?"

Ayla never expected that one night at her best friend’s house would change everything, until she came face to face with Jace, her best friend’s dangerously charming and notoriously reckless brother. She tells herself she can’t stand him—his playboy reputation, his endless games, teasing smirks, and the way he looks at her like she’s just an innocent girl playing in a world she doesn’t understand. But beneath the tension and constant clashes, there's something far more dangerous—an undeniable pull neither of them is ready to admit. Then, one reckless night at a party changes everything: lines are crossed, secrets are revealed, and suddenly, avoiding each other isn’t an option anymore. As guilt begins to weigh on Ayla and Jace starts to see her in a way he never has before, their connection deepens into something forbidden, intense, and impossible to ignore. Because if the truth were to come out, it wouldn’t just ruin them—it would destroy the one person they both cannot afford to lose.

Elena Carter once had everything, a brilliant career, a respected name in medical research, and a family she believed was worth sacrificing everything for. As a pioneering pediatric immunologist, she was on the verge of a breakthrough that could save thousands of children suffering from a rare and deadly genetic disorder. But for love, she walked away from it all… choosing to become a wife, a mother to a fragile child who depended on her for survival. She believed her sacrifice meant something. However, she was wrong. Her husband, Marcus Thorne, lies a truth Elena never dared to see, a truth that begins to unravel the night a stranger sends her a message that changes everything. What starts as suspicion soon turns into something more devastating than betrayal. It isn’t just about another woman. It’s about stolen time. Broken promises. A decision that will cost Elena more than she ever imagined. When tragedy strikes and the truth finally surfaces, Elena is forced to confront a reality so cruel it shatters everything she once believed in love, loyalty, the man she trusted with her life. With nothing left to hold her back, she walks away. But she doesn’t leave empty-handed. She takes with her the one thing that still matters to her. Years later, she returns… no longer the woman he once overlooked, but a force the world cannot ignore. A doctor who saves lives. A woman who rebuilt herself from ashes. Fate brings them face to face again Marcus is left with a truth he can no longer escape: The woman he once took for granted… Is now the only one who can save what he holds dear. But some losses don’t fade. Some wounds don’t heal. And this time. Elena Carter may choose herself.

“Just...I have one question before this,” I pretend to not see his hurtful look, keeping my eyes on his chest, “...Please.” Would it change anything if I’m pregnant? I want to ask, I don’t know how. Taking a deep breath, I look up, just to catch him rolling his eyes with a sigh: “I don’t have time for your games, Scar.” Home? I laugh bitterly. We don’t have a home anymore, Sebastian. I built one for us, and you broke it.

I thought I buried them in the past, but oh, was I wrong. Five years ago, my father told me to protect the pack even if it meant framing three boys I barely knew. The Alpha triplets, golden boys, were responsible for my mother’s death. I thought they were gone for good. But now they’re back. Stronger, Colder, ready to drown in the blood of their enemies, me. And somehow... the Moon has chosen them as my mates. They don’t want love. They want revenge. And I’m the girl wearing the crown they swore to destroy. They were my enemies, my mates. I could run. I could fight. But in this school, there’s nowhere to hide. And I was no coward. I would never submit, even if it meant going through hell for the crimes I didn't fully understand. And the worst part? This cursed mate bond. The heat, the lust, the pull. I hate them. They hate me. And still, my body burns for them. They were my biggest punishment and in a twisted way, my salvation.

I swore I'd never crawl back the night my Alpha turned me down. He kept me a secret because I was a "fat nobody," until I saw him kiss my best friend under the full moon. He told me I wasn't good enough to be his Luna. He told me I'd hurt his reputation. After three years, I go back to Los Angeles with a kid he doesn't know about and a new name for the baby. Thanks to a DNA story that showed I was switched at birth, I'm no longer the mean Omega that everyone made fun of. I'm now the heiress of the Moonstone Corporation. No matter how much power I have, wear, or how red my hair is, he doesn't know me. He will, though. He needs me now, not you. His company is failing. The throne of his pack is in danger. And I’m the only one who can save it for a price. The contract marriage he offers? I’ll sign it just to watch him burn with the same hunger he once denied me. But every time he touches me, every time his eyes darken with that old possessiveness, I feel the tie we both tried to break. And when he finds out the truth that the little boy calling me “Mommy” has his golden eyes it’ll be too late. Because the rejected Luna doesn’t want payback anymore. She wants power. And maybe… she still wants him. He was my first loss. I’ll be his last chance

"You were never her, Aria. You were just... there." Jason's words echo in my head as I stand in the back of the church, watching him mourn another woman on her sister's wedding day. Isabelle. The perfect dead girlfriend. The ghost I've been competing with for three years. I thought I could be enough. I thought love could grow where grief once lived. But when I find the evidence, when I see the hotel receipts, the text messages, the photos of Jason with Isabelle's sister Violet, I realize the truth. I was never the love story. I was the intermission. What I don't know yet is that nothing about my marriage was real. Not Jason's cruelty. Not Violet's affair. Not the stranger's rescue. They've all been playing a game, and I'm the prize they're willing to destroy each other for. When the truth comes out, when I discover why Isabelle really died and who's been pulling the strings, I'll have to decide: Do I let them destroy me, or do I burn their whole world down?