Unspeakable Longing

My son is gravely ill. His inner wolf is too weak to awaken, and the healer warns that without the Alpha’s blood to strengthen his spirit, he may not last the next full moon. He clutches my hand, his feverish golden eyes dimming. “Mother, can Father take me to the Barnum & Bailey Circus？” But no matter how many times I summon my mate through the pack bond, he does not answer. His presence in the mind-link is an empty void. I can only hold my son as his small body trembles. I whisper stories of wolf warriors and great Alphas, but his breathing grows weaker. When the dawn breaks, his tiny fingers slip from mine. His wolf never wakes. A few days later, the scent of wild roses floods our pack’s sacred grounds. I turn—and there he is. My mate. My Alpha. He strides into the hall with my sister cradled in his arms. Her neck bears his fresh scent mark. His mark. I watch as he presses a lingering kiss to her lips, his hands caressing her like a treasure. Their love is bold, shameless—an unspoken declaration to the entire pack. And only then do I learn the truth. While my son lay fighting for his life, waiting for his father’s touch, longing for his Alpha’s strength… my mate was deep in Rose Valley, tangled in passion with my own blood. I thought my heart had long since gone cold from his neglect, but at that moment, it shatters. I make my decision. I will leave this pack. Yet just as I turn to walk away, the mate who had only ever treated me with indifference suddenly drops to his knees. A broken sob rips from his throat. For the first time, my proud, untouchable Alpha weeps.

I’m trained to do one thing: kill. I was put into a school where the concepts of love and forgiveness were treated as weaknesses. When I graduated, they told me I’d be lucky to survive; now I’m the best of the best and the person who gets the job done no matter what. I’ve assassinated Presidents, housewives, Navy SEALS and more shifters than I can count. I have more kills than anyone in my business, so when a new order comes in to kill Alpha Gideon, I take it without a second thought. ​He’s a job like any other, but during my scouting, I see something I’ve never seen before. Alpha Gideon isn’t a tyrant or a bully; he’s kind to his Pack. I start asking questions, which is when everything goes to shit. My signal is found, and for the first time in my life, my target has me in his sights. I expect pain and maybe even death, but Alpha Gideon treats me like a welcomed guest; his warmth and kindness open up something inside of me that I didn’t know I had. I should kill him before he changes me completely. I tell him I’m cold and heartless, and he laughs. Loving a mark has never been done, but no matter what I do, every touch sets me on fire and with each longing glance, my past becomes a distant memory. I’m ready to put everything I was aside to stay with Alpha Gideon when the call comes in; my fellow assassins have been called. The bounty on Alpha Gideon has been doubled. I have two choices: protect the man who has opened up my heart or kill the target and get the job done.

My mate Garrett inherited the Alpha position after his brother, the former Alpha of the Silver Claw Pack, was killed in the war against the Rogue wolves. And along with it, he inherited his sister-in-law Sarah. From that day forward, he gave me his love, but gave his resources and privileges to his sister-in-law. He claimed she would face cruelty from pack members without the protection of an Alpha, so he took her to Moonhaven Sanctuary—the most secure settlement in the entire Northern Territory—while leaving me behind in the abandoned, low-ranking wastelands of our pack. Every month, he wrote me five letters expressing his longing and affection, yet gave all hunting spoils and money to his sister-in-law. When Rogue wolves invaded, my mate dispatched the pack's strongest forces to protect her and her two children, while my two pups didn't even wait for my return from the hunt. They died cold and hungry, torn apart and devoured by Rogue wolves. Later, I finally managed to wait for my mate Garrett's return. He didn't shed a single tear for our children and told me he wanted to break our bond. "Ember, Sarah can’t keep Luna position anymore so that she can't enjoy the privileges that come with it. My brother died protecting me, so I must protect his widow and her children. " "Don't worry, once her children grow up safe and strong enough, I'll break the bond with her and re-establish our mate bond, because I only love you." He continued. The backlash from the broken bond tortured me until I was barely alive, and I ended my own life. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day my pups were brutally killed. This time, I didn't leave my children to go hunting. Instead, I took them with me to claim everything that rightfully belonged to us...

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?"

My mate, Alpha Alex, had a wolf cursed at birth by a witch—unable to catch the scent of any she-wolf, doomed never to find his true mate. He spent five long years searching for her, only to be met with nothing but disappointment. In the end, broken and exhausted, he gave up. That was when he claimed me. On the night of our bonding, he told me the truth. "Fiona," he said quietly, "I had no choice. If the pack knew their Alpha couldn't even find his true mate, I'd become a disgrace in their eyes. So I chose you. You are my selected mate—but I swear, no one will ever take your title. You are my Luna. Even if I one day find my true mate… that will never change." But then he added, his voice distant and heavy: "Even though I'm cursed… I must still try to find her. I need to search every corner of the pack." From that night onward, she-wolves began appearing at our den one after another—every day, without fail. Some were shy, some bold. Some came bearing gifts, others with longing in their eyes. But all of them came for one reason: to see if they were his mate. And I? I could only watch in silence—his Luna in name, but never truly in heart. Because I knew there was nothing I could do to change his behavior. I had lost count of how many times I cried and begged him to stop—but still, every night, he brought different young she-wolves into our den. I once thought he'd eventually grow tired of it, that he would stop one day. Until he brought home three young she-wolves from the werewolf club. He paid far more than other alphas for their first night. Why? Because a witch told him that only sharing a night with more than two virgin she-wolves from the same bloodline could awaken his wolf's dormant sense—and help him find his true mate. I let out a bitter smile because what he didn't know was— The true mate he had searched for all these years… was me. But I would never return to him again. And by the time he finally found out the truth— It was already too late.

My CEO wife, Cassandra Solis, has high hopes for me. In fact, she has drafted an elite training program for me. I have to work over 20 hours a day, finish every meal within 3 minutes, and spend no more than a minute in the restroom. "Honey, elites must achieve what normal people can't. Only when you become a true elite can I entrust the company to you." I can feel the major responsibility weighing down on my shoulders. Every day, I devote everything I have to work. Five years later, I've successfully taken the company public. I've also completed Cassandra's hardcore training program. But at the end-of-the-year gala, Cassandra hands over the position of the Executive Vice President—the same one that she's promised to me—to her newly-recruited assistant. Upon noticing my displeasure, Cassandra explains to me smilingly while holding a bouquet of flowers, "Oh, silly you! Having a completely useless boss is the final trial I've set up for you! Once you've completed this trial, I can finally hand the company to you!" But lines of text suddenly flash across my vision. "Oh, poor Harvey! He still has no idea that Cassandra has been training him just so he can earn more money in order to clear off Xavier's debt! Not only that, but she also steals the position Harvey has been longing for and gives it to Xavier! Cassandra really has crossed a line this time!" "You're being too dramatic. Cassandra is just paying Xavier back for his benevolence. She feels guilty for what she's done to Harvey, you know. Once she's done paying back her debt to Xavier, she'll pay attention to Harvey once again and live happily ever after with him." I'm stunned by what I see. Is this the actual purpose behind the elite training program? I'm about to pull out the terminal cancer diagnosis report, but I quickly stuff it back into my pocket. It's a shame that I'm about to die. I suppose that I can't live long enough to see that day.