Ugly Smile

When I died with a smile on my face, right before my brother's eyes, he looked as if the anguish might tear him apart. Yet, for twenty-one years, he hadn't stopped wishing I would meet this exact end. It all traced back to my fifth birthday—the day I had innocently hoped our parents would come home from their business trip to celebrate with me. They rushed back that night but never made it. A car accident took both their lives. From that moment on, my brother resented me, despised me. He didn't just stand idly by as our cousin snatched up my work as her own; he encouraged it. And when my landlord threw me out, it wasn't a random cruelty—it was my brother pulling the strings. All he had ever wanted, from the very beginning, was to see me die a miserable death. But when he finally got his wish… why did he cry, pleading for me to come back, begging me to call him 'brother' one last time?

This marks the third year since Alan Cohen and I became mates, and today's finally the day of the Luna ceremony. As the ceremony begins, Alan takes my hand. But then he hesitates, refusing to move forward. I'm still trying to make sense of it when my adoptive sister, Eden Parker, suddenly breaks into the mind-link. She says she's just ended a failed mate bond with another Alpha and will be back within the hour. That's when I see a flicker of a smile on Alan's face. Then, without a second glance, he lets go of my hand and walks away. I turn to my adoptive brother, Dexter Parker, and my adoptive father, Hank Parker, hoping for some kind of comfort, only to realize they've already left the ceremony with Alan. And just like that, I became the joke of the entire pack. Eden sends me a photo. She's glowing beside Alan, her arm looped through Dexter's, with Hank beaming next to them. That's when I give up. I reach out through the mind-link to my birth father. "Dad, I'm ready to return to the Bloodmoon Pack."

When I was six, I spilled hot water, slipped, and burned my face. My face was ruined. My parents learned their lesson and never let my younger sister do housework. To everyone they met, they praised her beauty, her charm. They turned to me with nothing but disdain. When I was ten, I had a high fever. They didn't think much of it and let it drag on until my brain was damaged, leaving me slow and dull. They learned their lesson again. From then on, if my sister so much as coughed, they would rush her to the hospital in the dead of night, showering her with care. I was like a failed experiment. Every mistake they made with me, they corrected for her. I was ugly, silent, dim-witted, unwanted. She was beautiful, sweet-talking, clever, adored by all. When I was diagnosed with depression, I gathered what little courage I had and told them. Mom lashed out, called me sick in the head, and accused me of being petty. If I was so capable, she said, I might as well die. It wasn't until my sister pushed me off a high-rise that they found out, by sheer accident, that she wasn't their child at all. I was their one and only biological child.

The dark and brooding Ashlyn was the daughter of an Alpha and owned the position of pack commander. Having only one friend by her side, others found her too intimidating and unapproachable. Ashlyn closed herself off after being betrayed by Elijah. The one who was once her best friend and love of her life. Now, he was her mate. He didn't know, and that's how she preferred it to be. He broke her by choosing another over her. As the beta of the Azure pack, Elijah was respected and liked by his pack mates. Smart, reliable, and capable— he was the man with many responsibility upon his shoulder. Behind that polite and gentle smile of his was a mind filled with various sly schemes. Thus came his nickname 'scheming bastard' from Ashlyn. What happens when he learns that Ashlyn is his mate? Will he accept her? Will she allow him to be with her?

Jewel Anderson is secretly in love with her best friend boyfriend. She endured the pain and dismay in her heart knowing how much Cherrie Miller; her best friend loves the man. On the night of their graduation Ball she discovered that Cherrie is cheating. She saw her kissing Frank Mason in his car, dumbfounded she watches as the car speed away from the school ground. She looked everywhere for Larry Williams, She thought in her heart that she might have a chance. Luckily after finding him, one of their common friends invited her to tag along for the after party, Larry's face is sullen, he’s so quiet and as cold as ice. In the bar she seat next to him and when their eyes met she give him a nod and smile sweetly. Although his Cherrie's boyfriend they are not really close. He seems to recognize her, they chatted and share a toast. Both of them get wasted, decided to leave the bar together and shared the long cold night. In the morning Cherrie showed up in Larry's condo, seeing both of them under the quilt. They were caught. Her best friend cried, looking at her with disgust and anger, accusing her of betrayal. She left after ending her relationship with Larry. Deep inside she knows, Cherrie betrayed the man first but she could not say it and as her best friend does she really need to humiliate her like that. Even the man she love who initiated the did, blame her for everything.

On the day of her engagement, her boyfriend had run off. She drowned her sorrows unexpectedly, then she made love with her boyfriend's older brother. Two families caught the two people the next morning in bed! "If that's the case, then get married!" The man who had always been cold and calm used a simple sentence that couldn't be simpler than the conclusion of the relationship between the two. Marrying Damian Desmond??? She doesn't dare! From childhood to adulthood, for some reason, the person she feared the most was him. Her world with his was radically different. Who is Damian Desmond? The pillar of the nation, the elite of society, the first family, the first intelligence, the heart is more treacherous than anything else and is desperate, and she is just a child of a second wife, not just a slow mind. A slow, reluctant appearance can only be considered elegant, the family background goes without saying, it is as different as chalk and cheese. So, in everyone's eyes, Fiona Forger, she is "an ugly toad dreaming of eating swans. So this time, basically no one expected that the person who ran off was her...

"A great alpha handles pack affairs outside, and chores at home." my mate Luke had posted. I stared at these words. It was a post from my mate, Luke's Instagram. In the picture he was in a vineyard pruning grapes. Chores at home? Luke who would not even help me to clean a table was actually helping someone else. He had left this morning saying he was going on werewolf business, but from these pictures he was at a she-wolf's vineyard in our pack. A bitter smile escaped my lips as I quietly liked the post and put of my phone. Whatever was coming next, I did not know. But I knew it was over.

"You like what you see?" Said Kate "Absolutely" "It's all yours for the night. You can touch. You can feel it. You can taste it too." "Damn! That sexy voice! Thirty-five-year-old Christopher Martins is the CEO of a world-leading construction company. He's got the money, the body, and the cute face but has never loved a woman – until that night. He sat in that exclusive room and could not take his gaze away from a beautiful young striper whose alluring smile beckoned him. "It was love at first sight." The kind of love that gets you stuck between love and ethics. Will he go ahead with a relationship after the one-night stand? Will he be able to make her his? Just his! Will he continue to love Kate Davis when he learns of her unspeakable relationship with his only brother?

On my 20th birthday, my father hosts a dinner for our allied families. He lifts his glass with a smile and turns to his old friend, saying, "It's time my principessa chooses a husband from your sons." Without hesitation, I choose the youngest—Salvatore Carlo. Everyone is stunned. After all, I'm Estella Vinci, the eldest daughter of the Vinci family. I was born into wealth and power, with a father from a long-established Virellian mafia family and a mother from Montavira's ruthless DeNucci bloodline. And yet, I was hopelessly in love with Giovanni Carlo, third son of the Carlo family. In my past life, I got exactly what I wished for. I became his wife. He got what he wanted too. With my father's power, he became the heir of the Carlo family. But after we got married, my adopted sister Eleanor Vinci became his mistress. When my father found out, he was furious. He sent her far away in marriage to Norland. From that day on, Giovanni hated me with everything he had. He drowned himself in nightclubs, night after night, always bringing home women who looked just like Eleanor. He let them mock me and humiliate me. On my birthday, one of them poisoned my cake. I died with hatred in my heart at eight months pregnant. Now that I am reborn, I decide to let them have each other. But the moment I choose Salvatore, Giovanni loses his mind.

I met my mate, Alpha Draven, at the bonding ceremony of our classmate Raven—seven years after I rejected him. But everything had changed. He was still handsome and prestigious, with his beautiful mate clinging to his side. And me? I stood there in an old-fashioned uniform, black-rimmed glasses perched on my nose— a relic from another world. Yes. We were from two completely different worlds now. In the middle of the ceremony, I overheard some werewolves whispering and laughing. "Draven, have you finally moved on from her rejection? It's been seven years, after all." His smile faded. "Honestly, I didn't even recognize her at first glance today." Their words struck me like claws to the heart. I couldn't breathe. So I left—quietly, halfway through the ceremony—before the pain could completely devour me.