Trailing Stars

After my financial reports were replaced with blank pages, the company was thrown into a legal and financial crisis. As the accountant, I was accused of falsifying records. I was charged, convicted, and sent to prison. Three years later, I was finally released. My CEO husband and our son came to pick me up in person. Just when I was touched by their loyalty, believing they had stood by me through it all, I overheard their conversation. "Dad, Winona wanted that villa in the suburbs, so you used company funds to buy it. But Mom was the one who got blamed for the falsified accounts. She spent three years behind bars, shunned by everyone. Even I got teased by my friends because of her." Hank took our son's hand, his tone grave. "We agreed never to bring this up again. Back then, Winona needed a place to live. I had no choice but to use the company's money, and your mom had to take the fall." That was the moment I realized—my years in prison, the public disgrace, the humiliation… had all been part of a plan. A plan crafted by the very man I trusted with my life.

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.

I know that I don't have much time left after getting poisoned by wolfsbane. I don't want to have any regrets, so I travel to the Sacred Crystal Lake, a place I have always wanted to visit. I don't tell anyone that I plan to end my life there. I didn't expect to run into my ex-mate there. We haven't seen each other in ten years. He has become the Alpha that he has always wanted to be, and he's wearing a ring that has another she-wolf's name engraved on it. As for me, I've already thrown away our token of love and erased him from my heart. We're exchanging pleasantries when he suddenly asks, "Do you still hate me, Giselle?" I shake my head. My life is about to end, after all. I don't need to hold on to anything anymore. In the last moments of my life, I just want to see the sea of irises that the Moon Goddess has blessed.

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."

En el festival de la manada, una bruja me entrega un orbe de cristal que revela la verdad. Cuando le pregunto por qué, me dice que le fue encomendada su tarea y me recuerda que solo lo use cuando esté sola. A medida que la imagen en el orbe se hace más clara y aparece mi compañero, me olvido de cómo respirar. —Jared Hamilton, ¿me amas? —pregunta una mujer con su voz más dulce, rodeándole el cuello con sus brazos. —Sí. Claro que sí. Eres la única a quien amaré el resto de mi vida, Luciana. Mi mano resbala. Incluso después de que el orbe de cristal toca el suelo, todavía puedo oírlos hablar. —Juro ante la sagrada Diosa de la Luna que estaré contigo, Luciana Rose, hasta mi último aliento. Si alguna vez rompo este juramento, que nunca vuelva a conocer la alegría. Me siento sofocada. Solo puedo mirarlo con incredulidad. La mujer a la que jura amar de por vida no es otra que mi mejor amiga.

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."

When I inherited the title of Alpha Female, the Witch prophesied that my pack would fall within eight years. Only finding my fated mate could avert the coming disaster. I searched for eight long years. With just seven days left before the prophecy's deadline, I received word that our sacred altar had been bombed. The one responsible was Lucian Grey — the same man who had tried to poison me. When I confronted him, he had only one thing to say: "I'm from the real world. I'm here to save you." In that moment, I knew — my fated mate had finally found me.

~"Why is the best fruit always forbidden?"~ Alecander Blackford is that perfect Alpha blessed with the face of an angel but cursed with overbearing parents who would not stop tailing after his ass. After he runs away from the pack to stay at his aunt’s house, he did not expect that he would meet his mate who turned out to be more than he had expected and everything he was not. Soft, caring with a touch of defensive instincts, Elristeya Larsen is just that girl who has two parents that were in love since forever and a brother who would do anything to make her frustrated. When she meets her brother’s new best friend, it turned out to be the Asshole that had slammed the door in her face, Alec. She was undeniably captivated by his hypnotic orbs and the way he looked like everything a human was not. Like a different breed. Alec’s entire plan to stay away from her as far as he could begins to fall flat right before his own eyes. No matter how he tried to ignore her, like a moth to a flame he was attracted to her. When circumstances fell into place, they slowly began to get closer, creating more connection and strengthening the bond between them. Elristeya soon realized that Alec was no prince charming of hers but her beautiful downfall. Her perfect nemesis. Her flawless damnation. Theirs was the mate bond that was never supposed to be formed. Forbidden right from their births and when they try to fight against the fate that binds them, ugly and haunting secrets, capable of ruining them both and those they cherished, from the past are unleashed, threatening the soul bond they shared.

All her life, she has loved only one person and that was him, Nathaniel Hale. The one who had chosen her to be his Luna before everyone's eyes and had made her believe she would find rest in him except it was all wrong. Tears flowed down her face as he dropped the divorce papers before her. "Sign it, Maurene and leave!" She knew it was coming because his childhood friend, Amanda was back. Picking the divorce papers, she signed it and left only to find out she was now carrying not one but three children that belonged to Nathaniel! Circumstances bring them together again and she is forced to live with her ex-alpha mate. Will Maurene give in to be deceived one more time or will she accept another man's hand to save her?

“I, Castiel Vexthorn, hereby reject you…” His voice cut through the room like a blade, each word dripping with venom. “What is your name?” He didn’t even know my name. The humiliation hit harder than the rejection itself. I met his gaze—those cold, storm-gray eyes that seemed carved from granite. “Estelle Frost.” I kept my voice steady, refusing to let him see me falter. “I reject you, Estelle Frost!” His words thundered in the air, the weight of the mate bond snapping inside me like a brittle twig. **** They called him a cursed king. He called her a mistake. A weakness. When pack healer Estelle Frost accompanies her Alpha to a summit of Alphas, she expects nothing more than long hours tending to warriors and ignoring the sting of her fiancé’s betrayal. One night. One drink too many. One bed she should never have fallen into… and she wakes beside Castiel Alaric Vexthorn, the feared Alpha King who despises humans. The next morning, he discovers she is his fated mate and rejects her without mercy. But fate is not so easily severed. Because weeks later, Estelle learns she’s carrying the heirs of the very man who swore he’d never want her. And the cursed Alpha King will burn the world to claim what he’s just thrown away. *** “I should hate you, Dove. Heck, I want to but…” His storm gray eyes looked into mine and slowly, ever slowly, he leaned closer and captured my lips. I gasped, my hands flying to hold onto his broad chest. He seized the moment to slide his tongue through my lips and I let out a tiny moan. The kiss wasn't gentle. It was demanding. Possessive and filled with want.