Tragic Temptress

Pia Bellucci descends from the slums in Hughlin. Orphans like her are supposed to spend their lives struggling in the bottom rung of society. They are meant to live in the darkness till they draw their last breaths. But the appearance of Vito Castaldo, the Don of the Castaldo family, has completely rewritten Pia's fate. Thanks to Pia's resilience and talent, she fights against all odds and becomes Vito's personal bodyguard. She takes it upon herself to block all harm coming his way and resolve deadly crises for him. Once, when Pia gets kidnapped by Vito's rivals in his stead and almost dies in that ordeal, Vito confesses his feelings to her after rescuing her. After that, he holds an engagement banquet and slides a diamond ring onto her finger before making his vow. "Once I become the Don of Nework, you shall become the Donna." Pia is grateful to Vito for saving her life while showering her with love and affection. It's only natural that she's willing to sacrifice everything for his sake. From then, she works even harder in striking more dangerous deals and wrapping up the most brutal negotiations on Vito's behalf. She practically puts herself at risk just to get rid of all obstacles in his way until his strongest foes are dead. But when Pia thinks her dream is about to come true, she stumbles upon the cruelest truth. It turns out that she's nothing but a tool for Vito to wield from the start till the end.

My best friend, Mila Clarke, falsely accused my father and my family for betraying the pack and killing the warriors. I kneeled before my husband, Alpha Leon Black, and begged him to have faith in my father. But he merely gazed at me coldly no matter how hoarse I've gone from crying. Even my own pup, Lucas Black, berated me. "I feel ashamed of you and your family! You're not worthy to become my mother!" Later on, I got cast out to the barren plains surrounding the border. Six years later, Leon and Lucas want to take me home. But I already have a new pup, a new mate, and a new home here.

Three days into the silent treatment, Derrick—my fiancé and CEO—greenlit his assistant's pitch for a self-driving road trip. He expected me to flip, like always. I didn't. A month later, he came back and saw it—I wasn't the same. He backed Molly, stole my project, and thought I'd explode. I didn't. I just helped her draft the proposal. He trashed everything I built, just so she could snag her year-end bonus. I didn't fight back. Took the blame, took the hit. Molly was all smug. "See? Told you. You can't go at Yara head-on. Give her the silent treatment—she folds. She's scared of losing you. That's why she's playing nice." Derrick ate it up. Called her smart. Then he pulled me aside—offered a raise, a promotion, even a fancy wedding. First time he'd ever brought it up. But he missed one detail: he'd already signed off on my resignation while he was off playing road trip king. And I'd already dumped him. That was it. Clean cut. Nothing left.

The day after I gave birth to Alpha Albert’s pup, while our son was still fragile and my own wounds still fresh, he demanded I give up the Luna Suite. For his old flame, Chloe, and her unborn child. His reason? Chloe was close to her due date, and the suite’s unique moonlight energy was known to soothe expectant mothers and their pups. I stared at him in disbelief. "But that's the Luna's suite. And our son? Doesn't he need that energy?" Albert’s expression was hard as stone. "I owe her." His voice was ice. "If I hadn't been forced into this mating with you, she never would have married that abusive bastard out of spite. You're the Luna. A small sacrifice won't kill you." A small sacrifice. He’d used that excuse to hurt me countless times since our union. He missed our anniversary to play nursemaid to a sick Chloe. He forced me to give up my position as the pack's Head Healer for her… This time, I didn't scream or fight. I just looked at him, my voice eerily calm. "Fine. I'll move." Then I sent a message to my father, the Alpha of the Blood Moon Pack: Father, come get me. I'm rejecting my mate bond with Albert.

On the sixth year of our marking anniversary, I travel a distance of 3000 miles just so I can tell my mate, Damon Shadow, that we're finally having a pup. But at the doorway of the Overseas Alliance HQ, I witness him doing something that he's never done for me in the past six years. Damon can be seen kneeling next to another she-wolf. He takes her mud-covered boots off for her while looking so reverent that one would think he was serving the Moon Goddess herself. Meanwhile, I just stand in the heavy downpour while clutching an ultrasound report and a pair of baby socks, which I have yet to finish knitting. Those things are instantly drenched in the rain. It's then that Damon turns to face me. The way he looks at me is as though he's glaring at a Rogue who has accidentally intruded the forbidden grounds. "Get lost, Selena." At that moment, my wolf howls loudly within my mind. Sharp pain tears through my abdomen at the same time.

After my husband picked up his secretary and our son, they went into the hotel for a business meeting. Photos of them were trending online. I gave him a call to ask him about it, but he hung up on me impatiently. “I’m meeting a client. Obviously, we’re meeting at the hotel! Can you stop being unreasonable?” I was busy contacting IT support to retract the trending topics. Two hours later, I received a call from the emergency department of the hospital. When I reached the hospital, my son was already dead. In his hand, he was still holding a staff ID tag. The secretary’s name was on the tag. I broke down crying. My husband, Zac Davis, had blocked my number so I could not reach him. After I completed the hospital procedures, Zac finally returned my call. He sounded very angry and impatient, “Did you fetch our son? Why didn’t you inform me? Don’t you know that we’re all waiting for him to pass us the agreement? Just send the document over now!” After that, he immediately hung up and blocked my number again. I stared at the notification on my phone and sneered. I was going to snatch your clients and force you into a dead end!

Carlo La Rosa is the Don of the La Rosa family. As for me, I'm just a plaything who's been delivered to his bed in order to clear off my family's debts. For the next three years, Carlo vents his carnal urges on me anyhow he wants. He doesn't do any foreplay. In fact, he doesn't even turn off the lights. Instead, he forces me to look at myself in the mirror. He wants to show me how he eventually devours me. "Take a good look at who's screwing you right now, Lydia!" Carlo is very rough with me in bed, as though he wants to merge with me. I beg him to be gentler with me, but all I get in return are harder thrusts. Those thrusts continue until I faint from the intensity. When I wake up, I see a black card and a morning-after pill on the nightstand. Even though I quickly take the pill, I still end up getting pregnant. I'm about to tell Carlo the news when I see the news on the TV. Apparently, he gets stabbed three times in a row just to protect his first love, Serena Sergio. It turns out that I'm just a plaything for him to vent his urges on. I'm not even considered a replacement. As I caress my belly, I drop my signature on the divorce agreement. Then, I snap the black card in half and leave the pieces on the table.

My husband and I go on a road trip back to my hometown before Christmas. I want to ride shotgun, but he chases me to the backseat so his female colleague can sit in front. He says, "Isabel gets carsick easily. You are my wife, so you should be more considerate of her." He seems to have forgotten that I'm pregnant—my morning sickness is at its peak. Halfway through the journey, he and Isabel Slater start smoking. They make me throw up. The smell disgusts them, and my husband wants to teach me a lesson. He and Isabel leave me at the rest stop. Unbeknownst to them, my family is already waiting there. This time, I'm going back with them and getting an abortion and divorce. Later, my husband is filled with regret when he learns the child is gone.

Our pup, Kyle Draven, is burning with a fever of 104 degrees Fahrenheit. His small body convulses as he cries out for his father. But my husband, the Alpha, doesn't care. Julian Draven ignores our son's suffering because Kyle's cries might disturb his precious Linda Griffin. "Linda's trying on evening gowns. Stop using Kyle to get my attention. You're pathetic." Linda deliberately monopolizes my husband's time, then shows up with cake for Kyle like she's some saint. When Kyle eats it, he vomits black-purple blood. The cake had Wolfsbane. I confront her, desperate for answers, but Julian responds with a vicious slap and crushes me under his Alpha authority. "Linda wouldn't hurt a fly. How could she poison anyone? You clearly framed her. What kind of mother poisons her own pup?" He shatters my spine and throws both me and our dying pup into the Borderlands. Just as he gives the order to kill us, a roar erupts from deep within the forest—the kind that makes every beast submit. My childhood friend has returned.

Christmas Eve was meant to be the culmination of seven years of long-distance longing—the day Lorenzo finally slid an engagement ring onto my finger. Instead, a sudden emergency surgery chained me to the operating table. The patient wasn't just suffering from a premature delivery and catastrophic hemorrhaging; she was riddled with infections, the biological fallout of a reckless, hedonistic lifestyle. The girl on the table spat out orders with a venomous entitlement that made my blood run cold. "My husband is the head of the Corleone family. He’s second to none, and this entire city bows to him. If you can’t save my baby, you’re all dead." My mind went blank. There was only one head of the Corleone family: Lorenzo. "You’ve got the wrong man," I said, my voice wavering despite my frown. "The news said he’s already engaged to a woman from a rival family for a strategic alliance." The girl looked at me as if I’d just told a pathetic joke. She surveyed me with a mocking sneer. "Oh, he’s mentioned that woman. He said she’s like a cold corpse—that even touching her makes him sick to his stomach. She doesn't provide him a fraction of the pleasure I do." She smirked. "He heard something happened to the baby. He’s en route from Sicily right now with his personal detail." She flicked her phone screen open. There it was: a photo of her and Lorenzo, locked in a suffocatingly intimate embrace. I froze. A second later, a notification from Lorenzo vibrated against my palm. “Darlin’, something urgent came up tonight. I’m skipping the engagement dinner. I’ll make it up to you later.” Since they were so utterly in love, I decided to give them exactly what they wanted. I dialed a number that had been silent for three years—the number of the true mastermind of the underworld, Don Sebastian. "Does your proposal from three years ago still stand?"