Tragic Backstory Examples Novels & Stories

After being Conan Stone’s secretary and girlfriend for seven years, he was going to be engaged to someone else. Ninian Springs was dejected. She was going to resign, but he decided to cancel the engagement in public. During the auction, just when everyone thought that Conan was going to propose to Ninian, his crush showed up. When everyone saw that Ninian had the exact same face as Conan’s crush, they began to whisper. At that moment, Ninian finally realized: she was just a replacement.

A century ago, the war between humans and beastkin nearly destroyed the world. To restore order, the five major beast clans—Dragon, Tiger, Leopard, Serpent, and Peacock—formed an alliance with humanity. Under the Treaty of Balance, every hundred years, a union between humans and beastkin must occur. The first child born of this union—a half-beast—will inherit the throne and rule over the Human-Beast Alliance. In my past life, I chose Max, the Dragon Clan's heir. Known for his unwavering devotion and noble bloodline, he seemed the perfect mate. I gave birth to the first half-beast child of the generation—a rare white dragon. Our son was named the next ruler, and Max rose to unmatched power. My half-sister, Alice, chose the Tiger Clan—seduced by beauty, blinded by arrogance. Her husband betrayed her, and she was left barren and disgraced. She envied me. Hated me. One night, she drugged me, set our home on fire, and watched as the flames devoured me and my son. But fate was not done with me. When I opened my eyes, I had returned to the day of the choosing ceremony—the moment that would decide our mates, our fates, and the future ruler of the realm. Only this time… Alice had already climbed into Max’s bed. She had been reborn too. But what she didn’t know was this: Max is not the devoted prince she remembers. He is brutal. Possessive. A beast of blood, not love. And this time, I won't make the same mistake.

My father-in-law was clinging to life after a car accident. The only way he'd survive is if I—a top surgeon—operated on him myself. I'd just changed into my scrubs when my wife, Clara Stevens, rushed in and grabbed my arm. "You're not going anywhere. The priority is protecting Rick's face. Not a single scar, you hear me?" I pulled away. "Dad has minutes left. If we miss the window, he's gone." Clara didn't even flinch. "That worthless country bumpkin father of yours was born a burden. If he dies, he dies—at least we won't have to take care of him anymore. But if Rick's face gets ruined, I swear you'll pay." Her first love, Rick Ford, tugged her sleeve with a fake whimper. "Clara, your husband seems pretty upset. You think he's stalling on purpose? Trying to hurt me?" I was so angry, I just laughed. So that was the case. All along, Clara thought the one dying… was my father.

On the day of my bonding ceremony with Alpha Ethan Gray of the Moonstone pack, he suddenly receives a distress video call. It comes from Chloe Hale, the twin sister of his dead first love. In the video call, Chloe can be seen all bound in a wooden cabin. With a blade in hand, the kidnapper dares Ethan to rescue Chloe on his own. Ethan lets out a furious roar before shifting into his wolf form immediately. I know very well that this is another one of Chloe's tricks. After all, such incidents have happened 18 times in a row. Every time, our bonding ceremony will be called to a halt whenever we're about to perform the last step of the process. This time, I specifically order the warriors to keep an eye on Chloe. Alas, she still slips out when no one's looking. I quickly extend an arm before Ethan to stop him from leaving. But when I plead with him to stay, he just shoves me away. "Selena, I can't see Layla's only sister get hurt! Even if this turns out to be a trap, I'll still accept it!" As I watch Ethan's silhouette rushing into the woods resolutely, the last flicker of my love vanishes on the spot. Since Ethan still loves Layla, then I shall put an end to this relationship of ours.

After being attacked by a rogue wolf and poisoned by wolfsbane, I didn't want my Alpha to sense my humiliation or pain. So, I chose to sever our bond—temporarily, at least. A week later, I dragged my still-ailing body back, only to discover that my Alpha, Liam Morgan, was entangled in my bed with my younger sister—Lily Manning, the little princess of the Moruna Pack. He hurried to reassure me. "Tania, this was just a mistake. My Luna will only ever be you." I met Lily's provocative gaze. I didn't cry. I didn't make a scene. I didn't argue. Liam let out a breath of relief. "Good. You're calm and dignified. That's how the mistress of a pack should behave." He was wrong. I wasn't calm, and I wasn't being dignified. From this moment on, I simply erased him—completely—from my world.

While my husband, Gerald Brown, was abroad negotiating a business deal, he was drugged and spent the night with a female secretary from a rival company. The drug’s side effects scrambled his memory so badly that he forgot who I was. He kicked me out of the master bedroom and let the secretary smash my grandmother’s heirloom. I told myself he was sick and stayed silently by his side. But when I suggested taking him for a medical checkup, he hit me for the first time. “Who do you think you are? Only Ailey is allowed to touch me. If she gets jealous, you’ll regret it.” When the secretary framed me, he pushed me down the stairs, and I suffered a miscarriage. Late one night, when my heart condition flared up, I went to his study for medicine but overheard him talking to his friend outside the door. “Faking amnesia to bring Ailey home is one thing, but why replace your wife’s heart medication? Now, she’ll never return to the hospital for surgery.” Gerald just chuckled. “If I don’t keep her weak, she’ll go to the hospital and check the hospital records and find out I was never drugged. Ailey’s been timid since childhood and even went undercover for me in a rival company. I can’t betray her.”

When I was injured, Alpha Kenny Havon had his arm around the newly arrived she-wolf, Leah Sterlace. He was flirting with her. All it took was Leah saying she wanted to look at the stars, and he abandoned me to take her out on a date across the plains. "Leah isn't like you. Don't bully her. "And I'm staying with Leah tonight. The marking ceremony tomorrow can be postponed." This was already the ninety-ninth time Kenny unilaterally canceled our marking ceremony. I nodded. Since he was always busy, maybe this marking wasn't really necessary anymore.

On the day my love fades away for good, I've finally learned something about my mate, Ethan Langley. He's not hopeless when it comes to directions—he just can't remember which path it is that leads to me. Ethan is the Alpha of the pack, whereas I'm his mate. We've been mates for ten years. But whenever I need him, he always gets lost. On the day of our marking ceremony, Ethan got lost in the pack territory. Because of that, the ceremony was delayed for another three days. Every year on the marking anniversary, Ethan would always get lost. The food in the evening banquet I always prepared would always go stone cold. When I was eight months pregnant with my pup, I sent an SOS message to him through the mind-link after I suffered from a bad fall. While Ethan screamed at me that he'd be there through the mind-link, he was physically lost in the pack territory for five hours. By the time our packmates came to my rescue, my pup was already dead. As I lay on the stone bed in the healing center, my packmates came over to comfort me. "Ethan can't navigate at all to save his life. He didn't do this on purpose. Don't get mad at him, okay? You two will still have pups in the future." I could only nod in a daze. But on the day we were supposed to attend our pup's funeral, I realized that Ethan was familiar with the road when he was behind the wheel in the SUV. He even took a detour just to drop by the residence of Lyria Jeffries, a female Beta. "Elena, there's still some time before the funeral starts. I'm going to send Lyria home first so that she can visit her family." Before I could object, the car had already stopped right outside Lyria's residence. Lyria got into the front passenger seat as though it was the most natural thing to do in the world. She wore a bright smile as she said, "Look at how well I've groomed you, Ethan! If you ever forget the way to my place, I'll make sure to skin you alive!" Only then did Lyria notice me, who sat in the backseat. She pretended to be bashful as she stuck out her tongue. "I was just kidding, Elena." I endured Lyria's "harmless" quips with a stony expression. But right after Ethan dropped Lyria off, he forgot the way to the funeral immediately. Because of that, the funeral was delayed by half an hour. As I held my pup's tiny urn, I felt my heart sinking into the pits of my stomach. It turns out that there exists someone who can be exempted from Ethan's hopeless sense of direction. It's just that… my pup and I are never the exception.

I use a full decade just to be able to stand by Claude Thorne's side as an equal. In the past, I used to be an outsider who was often ignored by others, but slowly, I've transformed into Claude's most trusted Beta as well as the future Luna. But I decide to leave Claude one month before the Luna coronation ceremony is set to begin. It's because Claude has personally placed the Luna crown, which is supposed to be mine, onto Victoria Grimm's head instead. "It's just a crown. Victoria doesn't have anyone left in this world. What's wrong with letting her wear it? You're the future Luna, so you must be more magnanimous." I never bothered crying or throwing a tantrum. Instead, I've secretly dissolved the mate bond between Claude and me. Just like that, I've graciously given away the position as Claude's mate to Victoria magnanimously, like the way Claude wants me to be. But he goes nuts instead. He tracks me all the way to the human society in an attempt to patch things up with me. But what he doesn't expect to see is Silas Wulfric, the legendary Alpha King, getting down on one knee in front of me. "Heather, since that blind fool is incapable of crowning you as his Luna, allow me to make you the Luna Queen."

I helped my wife, Kim Carey, rise from obscurity into stardom, only to discover that she was having an affair with a rising young actor who looked like me. When I asked for a divorce, she cried and begged me not to leave. In the end, I caved in. I gave her three chances. The first time, she stayed up all night to post a public statement clarifying all the rumors between her and Emmett Stone. She canceled all her work and stayed with me for an entire week. The second time, on my birthday, she publicly announced that Emmett was her soulmate. She even released intimate photos of the two of them. She buried herself in my arms and said righteously, "Emmett is depressed. I'm only doing this to comfort him. You're the only one in my heart. This is the last time. Please believe me." Then, she abandoned me in the wilderness, just because Emmett had suffered a minor injury on his hand. The final time, my father was critically ill and urgently needed a huge sum of money for surgery. She refused to even transfer a single cent to me. "All the money has been invested in Emmett's new drama," she said coldly. "Your father won't die that quickly." That night, my father missed the best window for treatment and died on the operating table. My heart was completely shattered. When Kim finally returned home late that night, I asked for a divorce once more.