To The Stars Fanfic

I was tasked with escorting classified information back to the wolf pack with my mate. As we were about to board the plane, he claimed to have left an important document at the hotel and told me to fly back first. I agreed, but after he left, I checked his location through the location sharing on my phone. He did not go back to the hotel like he said he would; instead, he changed his route and headed into human territory. I followed in a taxi and saw a young human woman holding a child at the entrance of a mansion. "Winston, you're finally back. You have no idea how long I've been waiting for you." He took the child and kissed the woman on the lips. "I knew you missed me, so I pushed back my work with the pack to spend time with you. Wherever you are is home." I did not confront them. Instead, I called the Alpha King. "Winston Holmes, the Alpha of the Hyan pack, is colluding with human spies and selling werewolf secrets. I request that the Alpha King dispatch guards to assist me in capturing him."

On my birthday, my fiancé used his supermarket points to get me a pair of dishwashing gloves. But at an auction, he bought a five-million-dollar gem for his first love. I was mad, confronting him, but he called me a gold digger. "I've been giving you money to spend. Isn't it only right that you take care of me? This was supposed to be my final test for you. If you passed, we'd get married. You've let me down big time." I broke up with him. He turned around and proposed to his first love. Five years later, we ran into each other on a private vacation island. Alex Thompson saw me in the workers' uniform picking up trash on the beach. He mocked me on the spot. "You turned your nose up at the gloves I got you, and here you are, scavenging garbage. Now, even if you begged me, I wouldn't give you a second glance." I ignored him. My son's social studies project was to clean up the backyard with a parent. His dad had expanded the yard all the way to the beach. Cleaning it up was exhausting.

At the pack's festival, a witch hands me a crystal orb that reveals the truth. When I ask "why," she says she was entrusted to deliver it and reminds me only to use it when I am alone. As the image in the orb grows clearer, and my mate appears, I forget how to breathe. "Jared Hamilton, do you love me?" a woman asks in her sweetest voice, curling her arms around his neck. "I do. Of course, I do. You're the only one I'll love for the rest of my life, Luciana." My hand slips. Even after the crystal orb hits the floor, I can still hear them talking. "I swear before the sacred Moon Goddess that I'll be with you, Luciana Rose, until my very last breath. If I ever break this oath, may I never know joy again." I feel suffocated. All I can do is stare in disbelief. The woman he vows to love for life is none other than my very best friend.

Alaric and I had agreed to elope together. But he changed his mind the moment I signed the papers to leave the pack. Standing outside the back booth at the hotel bar, I overheard him talking with his friends. "You tricked Sophie into leaving the pack just so you could have more alone time with Vivienne? Aren't you worried she'll lose it when she finds out?" Alaric took a lazy sip of his drink. "Why would she? She's so obsessed with me she'd cling to me all day if she could. Tell her what she wants to hear afterward and she'll forgive me, guaranteed." "Besides, Vivienne's family has real pull. That kind of backing could tip the scales in my fight for the Alpha position. Sophie will just have to deal with it." Every word sliced through me until I couldn't breathe. I fought back the urge to storm in and confront him, and turned away instead. Back home, I pulled out my phone and scrolled to the very last contact in my list. "Dad. That arranged mating you mentioned — I accept."

My husband, Matthew Glover, fabricates a scandal to help his childhood sweetheart, reporter Melanie Reed, boost her numbers. "Mrs. Glover Sleeps Around—Multiple Affairs Lead to Repeated Miscarriages." He uses it as a gimmick to grab attention. Next thing I know, my name's in the mud and the internet's tearing me to pieces. When I bring up divorce, Matthew says I'm blowing things out of proportion. "Melanie just started at the TV station. If she doesn't deliver, her coworkers will laugh at her. You're just doing her a favor. It's not like you're actually losing anything." I don't even bother arguing with him. I simply push the divorce agreement toward him. "If you want to help her, go ahead. But we're getting divorced!"

Everyone in the pack knew that my mate Damien loved me fiercely. After our mating ceremony, Damien gave me three bonding gifts. The first was a protective amulet he'd prayed three days and three nights for at the Moon Goddess shrine. The second was a sculpture he spent months carving with his own hands. The third was a diamond ring — the symbol of the Luna — priceless, and with it came the authority to govern the pack. On my birthday, he went searching for a moonstone and was ambushed by rogue wolves. He fell off a cliff. When he woke, his memory was gone. A bar hostess had rescued him. They fell in love. But the day before their mating ceremony, his memories returned, and he came back to me without hesitation. Just when I thought he'd ended things with her, on the very day I found out I was pregnant, I received a video — an intimate recording of the two of them together. Vivian was already carrying his child, nestled against Damien like a helpless little bird. "You're carrying my child. I won't abandon you. As for Elena — a few sweet words and she'll do whatever I say." I turned off my phone and sent a mind-link to my father. "Dad. The arranged mating you set up for me — I accept."

I stared at the photos attached to an email. My Alpha mate, Marcus Hale, was supposed to be negotiating a partnership with another pack. But the photo showed him standing in Firefly Woods, a famous dating spot. Across from him were his long-lost first love and my two children. The four of them looked happy and complete, like a perfect family frozen in time. My heart jolted painfully. At the same moment, I realized that what I had with Marcus was over.

I was ditched by my father, Alpha of Northcrest Pack. Dumped in the borderlands for a whole decade. "Danae's still young. Once she hits eighteen, we'll bring you back. She's always been insecure 'cause she's adopted. When she's stronger, we'll come for you." Yeah, right. I didn't even look at that delusional she-wolf. Just kept watering my orchard. Even my so-called brother backed Danae. "Danae's the sister I grew up with. Disrespect her when you return, and we're done." Their voices? Just white noise. I shut it down cold. "Wrong wolf. I don't know you." They had the nerve to call themselves family. Joke's on them—I've had real parents for the last eight years.

On the third day of kneeling before the statue of the Moon Goddess and praying for Ryan Summers, a sudden row of glowing text appeared right in front of my eyes. [Ryan really is a piece of trash. His little childhood sweetheart, Rowena Blake, ran off the moment she learned he was going to hold a bonding ceremony, so he actually faked his own death just to chase her.] [Ryan and Rowena are out there whispering sweet nothings to each other under the flowers and moonlight, while Jenna Cuttridge cried her eyes nearly blind over that scumbag.] [Too bad Jenna never finds out that Ryan tricked her. When he comes back from playing dead, she even happily marries him.] So this was the miracle the Moon Goddess had bestowed upon me. Thunderstruck, I grabbed my phone and called my Alpha father, Jake Cuttridge. "Dad, remember that alliance bonding you mentioned last time? I agree to it." Half a month later, the news that I would be entering an alliance bonding with an Alpha from the Northridge Pack spread throughout the entire wolf kingdom. Ryan's friend, Luke Carter, who had been in on his plan, rushed over and demanded, "Ryan just died not long ago, and you're already so eager to find the next guy?" "He's dead. I can't possibly stay single for him my whole life."

Dean Russo's gaming mate breaks up with him. In his foul mood, he forces everyone to work overtime. "Hey Kylie, you're his Beta, right? Go talk to Alpha Dean. We all want to get out of here on time." "Are you serious? Just seeing his gloomy face freaks me out." Everyone keeps urging me to go and calm Dean down, but what no one realizes is that the gaming mate he can't move on from is actually me. Just when everything seems fine in our online relationship, he unexpectedly asks to meet face-to-face. But if he ever learns that his beloved gaming mate is none other than his Beta, he's bound to be furious. For my own safety, I decide to end things before they can spiral out of control. But who would expect the breakup to hit him so hard? Yet, if I want to avoid working overtime, it seems like I have no choice but to get back together with him.