The White Death

"Ms. Jones, the service to fake your death that you requested has been arranged. Here's the agreement. Please sign here." Isabella Jones glanced at the contract that the person placed before her. Client: Isabella Jones Cause of death: Falling from a mountain, eaten by wild animals. Unable to retrieve the remains of the body Time of death: One week from now One week from now would mark the fifth anniversary of her marriage to Samuel Grant. It was also the day she had planned to fake her death and leave him. Since that was the date it all began, it might as well be when it ended.

Lucas Blackwood was an alpha werewolf until his pack and mate were brutally killed by a secret notorious pack with questionable propaganda. Having suffered a fate worse than death by the feeling of losing the bond to both his mate and pack, he's sworn to track down and destroy the rogue pack no matter what it takes. He takes up a teaching job in a remote town where he believes their hideout to be and begins hunting them by night, but there's this human girl in his class whose scent drives him crazy with want. This shouldn't be possible since werewolves are known to mate for life and attraction to a human is impossible...right? Marcella Garcia is the classic bookworm who everyone hates for being a know-it-all but she swears she always feels a tug pulling her towards the new and cruel history professor that she can't explain. And if her secret observations of him are correct, there is something not quite right about the professor, something not quite...human.

On the fourth day after my son's death, I decided to secretly dissolve my military marriage with my husband. Before that, I had three days to settle everything for my son. On the first day, I tricked my husband into signing the cremation papers. On the second day, I went to the school and collected the textbooks my son would never get to use. On the third day, I cooked a table full of dishes and begged my husband to celebrate our son's last birthday. He agreed, but soon after claimed he had a mission. Instead, he spent the entire night setting off fireworks with his childhood sweetheart. That night, I cooked. Then, I sat alone before my son's photo and ate all my son's favorite foods. The next day, my husband returned, guilt flickering in his eyes as he handed me a brand-new backpack. He said it was a gift for our child's first day of school. But he didn't know—our child would never have a first day of school.

For the Christmas holiday, my family sets off to the Christmas holiday camp up north. Along the way, my younger brother, Jamie Hale, says he needs to use the restroom. Mom tells my older sister, Ava Hale, and me to go as well. "It'll be a while before we reach the next rest stop, so you two should go with Jamie. I don't want anyone fussing to go to the restroom again on the way. And be quick! Don't waste time dawdling." I run to the restroom at once. But when I come back out, I see the familiar SUV slowly driving away. I'm left standing outside, in -4 degrees Fahrenheit weather, while a snowstorm sweeps through the rest stop. Mom and Dad have forgotten all about me, their Omega daughter. I've been left behind at the rest stop, with no one else around. I run as fast as I can, shouting, "Mom! Dad!" But the SUV turns the corner and disappears into the traffic along the interstate.

On the day my body gets blasted into pieces, Amanda Stone, my wife and a police captain, is busy riding the merry-go-round with her childhood sweetheart, Mark Horton, and his son, Keith Horton. Three days later, she finally remembers our son, Evan Johnson, and me. "It's been three days! Is he still mad that I used him and Evan to exchange for Mark and Keith? He's even trying to get the entire police squad to play along with this fake disappearing act of his, huh?" "Captain Stone, Caleb has died in the line of duty. Evan was also injur—" "That's impossible! What I did was only a temporary measure. I set up three layers of defense. There was no way anything would've happened to Evan or him!" Lara Chase, Amanda's colleague, turns away. She can no longer bear to look at Amanda. "Mark did it. He lied about the situation and used your authorization to move everyone away. We've already identified the kidnappers. They're the remnants of MW Syndicate. This was all part of their attempt to get revenge against you. "We also found out that, when you were trapped at the border three years ago, it was Caleb who led the rescue attempt and risked his life to bring you to safety, not Mark's deceased wife…"

On the night of the full moon, I take my mate, Kyle Fenwolf, back to my pack for the full moon ceremony. Before the start of the ceremony, I head over to the sacred spring to wash my hands. Upon returning to the venue, I find out that Kyle has gone missing. I quickly looked for the guards, only to be told that I came to the pack on my own. When I asked my packmates, who were here to attend the ceremony, they told me that they never saw anyone by my side. But the thing is, I came back with Kyle! He had just given me the bone flute that he had personally carved! He even told me that he'd teach me how to play it once the ceremony was over! How could he be gone all of a sudden? As I stared at the flute, which was still warm from Kyle's body heat, in my hands, I strongly requested the guards to search around the forest and the pack territory. Thanks to my strong demands, the ceremony was forcibly interrupted. The pack's enforcers searched the entire territory for Kyle, and yet they never found him. They couldn't even pick up on a trace of his scent. They asked my father, who was the pack's Alpha, for answers. But Dad claimed that I was mentally ill, and that I dreamed up a mate on my own. In the end, I was thrown into the dungeon. There, I got ripped into shreds by the other insane wolves. When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day when I'm meant to bring Kyle home.

The day my father jumps to his death, I'm taken in by Scout Saccone, an influential scion. He treats me like a princess for eight years, turning me into the target of everyone's envy. However, everything changes when he walks right into a trap and has a wild night with me after being drugged. I can't stop myself from confessing my deep-seated love for him when at the peak of my flame. To my devastation, he thinks I drugged him to have my way with him. He berates me for being shameless and hedonistic. The following day, he announced his impending marriage to his childhood sweetheart. Everyone thinks I'll kick up a fuss as I've always done, but I merely take a pill to end my pregnancy. Then, I leave without a word on his wedding day.

Three years after my death, my wife’s first love was hanging onto life by a thread, and only my system could save him. To force me to show up, she cut off my father’s medical payments. My sick mother was forced to beg her out in the summer heat until she collapsed. She even threw my beloved little sister into a bonfire to be eaten up by the flames. As she waited for me to show up, apologize to her, and use the system to save her first love, my sister finally stopped hiding the truth. “He died three years ago! Three years ago, he traded his life so you would survive that car crash!”

My family has always considered me a harbinger of misfortune. It's all because I can see a countdown to my relatives' deaths. I tell them when my grandfather, father, and mother will die. It all comes true due to various accidents. My three brothers hate me to the core because they think I cursed my parents and grandfather. My mother actually dies after giving birth to my younger sister, but my brothers dote on her to no end. They say she's their lucky star because everything goes well for the family after she's born. But didn't Mom die while giving birth to her? On my 18th birthday, I see my death countdown when I look at myself in the mirror. I buy an urn I like and prepare a meal. I want to have one last meal with my brothers, but none of them show up even when the timer hits zero…

My husband, an Army regimental commander, was killed in action. Before his body was even cold, I didn't hesitate. I filed for his death certificate and notified the Army, the Social Security Administration, and our bank. Then, three days later—on the very day his twin brother married his childhood sweetheart—I moved out, changed the locks, and remarried quietly at the courthouse, taking my son and the full line-of-duty death benefits with me. To everyone else, I was heartless. Cold. I let them curse me. I just looked into my “brother-in-law's” bloodshot eyes and felt a quiet, cruel satisfaction. Only I knew the truth. In my last life, I discovered the body sent home wasn't my husband's at all—it was his identical twin brother's. I ran to confront him, but by chance I overheard him and my mother-in-law whispering. "Mom, Sarah is strong. And we have our son. She'll be okay. The benefits will take care of her. But Amy has waited for my brother all these years. If she finds out he's dead, she might do something drastic." Their words struck me like lightning. I tried to expose them, but my husband knocked me out. He told everyone grief had driven me insane. He locked me in the garage apartment and, with cold detachment, married his sweetheart. And when that woman complained my son was too loud, my husband slipped sleeping pills into our boy's juice—right as my crying child was coming to look for me. My son never woke up. The day they buried him hastily, I ended my life in the garage, utterly broken. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day they delivered my brother-in-law's body to our home.