Winning The Week

Thanks to Sofia Columbo, Luca Vitale and I keep breaking up and getting back together for three years. Exhausted and desperate to get out of this situation, I end up choosing to be with Don Marco Rossi, who has been pursuing me for many years. Since then, we've been together for five years. His love for me never wavers, and I truly believe that I've chosen the right man to be with. But at the bachelor's party that takes place one week before the wedding, Marco's Underboss, Enzo Ferrari, begins running his mouth without any filter whatsoever after he gets completely wasted. "Don Rossi, Anna actually fell in love with you for real! Does she even know that you're only marrying her just so Sofia can be with Luca?" Marco just smiles without denying the allegations. He merely says, "As long as Sofia can be with Luca, I'm fine with marrying whoever. Honestly speaking, I did get close to Anna with ulterior motives at first, but I still ended up falling in love with her for real. "By the way, do not let Anna find out about this, no matter what. You know how much she hates it when people lie to her. If she ever finds out, she'll leave me just like how she left Luca. That mustn't happen at all." After wiping my tears, I tell my father that I wish to marry the man he has picked out for me.

Just one week before my marking ceremony with Lucien, I discovered his heart already belonged to someone else. His secretary, Anika, walked out of his office with a smirk that was a little too knowing. Her blouse was askew, her usually neat hair a tangled mess, and only the faintest trace of her crimson lipstick remained. My heart seized in my chest, and my fingers went cold on the doorknob. Two years ago, she had been a timid girl fresh from the countryside. All that pretense of innocence had vanished, replaced by a brazen ambition written across her face. Her relentless eagerness around Lucien had always grated on my nerves, and I had asked him more than once. "Lucien, can't you replace her?" His smile would always fade. "Anika saved my life," he'd say. "I can't be so heartless." Now, that single triumphant smirk was all it took for me to understand. What others once envied in me had already been trampled beneath her heels. My phone vibrated. It was a new proposal from the event planner. [The marking ceremony plan is nearly perfect. Can we finalize it?] I refused to be consumed by sorrow. I wiped a tear from my cheek and made one last adjustment to the document.——Replaced the bride's name withAnika I didn't want a false love, or a fake Alpha Lucien. Let them have the marking ceremony. Let Anika stand at his side as his Luna, his chosen mate. In seven days, I would be gone with my pup.

"When will you finally be willing to love me?" My Alpha, Jack Newman, pins me beneath him and asks in a hoarse voice. His tail brushes lingeringly across my waist, sending a shiver through me. This is the seventh night we are tangled in bed together, our bodies bare and inseparable. Seven days ago, he returned from the battlefield, carrying the scent of bloody slaughter and long-suppressed desire. One year ago, I became his Luna. But I never truly open my heart to him. My wolf, Hannah, refuses to acknowledge the man who takes me by force. But over this past week, under his repeated, forceful confessions, my defenses crumble bit by bit. I think he loves me desperately. After he once again takes me tirelessly, I finally admit, "I love you..." He smiles in satisfaction and leaves his mark on my neck. A month later, the doctor says I am carrying a pup. I think this is the beginning of my happy life. Just as I decide to accept him wholeheartedly, his first love, Isabella Boyd, returns. Dressed in a set of armor, she is seen alongside Jack at the border training grounds, stirring rumors throughout the pack. He comes back at dawn once again. As I look at his handsome sleeping face, I quietly go to the council of elders and submit a request to dissolve our mate bond.

On the eve of our wedding, Evelyn Gates fell to her death. Everyone believed that, since I had always been devoted to her, I would take my own life to follow her. However, I didn’t shed a single tear. Three years later, I saw her again. Not only was she alive, but she had no memory of the past. “So you’re my ex-fiancé? After all these years, why do you look so broke and shabby now? For old time’s sake, I’ll give you one day a week to wait on me.” I didn’t even bother to look her in the eye. Evelyn had no idea that, on the very night she fell, I received a video recording. She didn’t know that, during the three years she spent pretending to have amnesia while traveling the world with Cole Anderson, I had gotten married. My bride was her older sister.

"My incubus has been with me for a month, but he still won't let me touch him. What could be the reason for that?" I type my questions into the customer service feedback form and wait for a reply. The customer service representative replies at once in a very helpful manner. "Dear customer, our incubi are all very eager to stick to their owners like glue! I'm afraid your issue might be due to a malfunction on his end. "We can apply for your incubus to be replaced with a new one instead, and he will arrive in a week." I look at Riven Sterling, the incubus whom I had made tailored specifically to my tastes. After a moment of thought, I decide that maybe I can just wait and observe for a while longer. If he still doesn't change for the better, then I can perhaps send him in for repairs. After all, Riven is just too perfectly aligned with my tastes. I can't bear to give him up. However, at the family dinner, I quickly realize that Riven is having a reaction toward my younger stepsister, Teresa Ashford, who is sitting across from me. It's only then that I recall that Teresa is the one who opened my parcel the last time Riven arrived at the doorstep. That night, I contact the customer service representative again and say, "You said that the new replacement would be arriving in a week, right? Please send it out, then. Thank you."

On the day before the marking ceremony, my Alpha mate, Zev Briarwood, is wounded in a battle and loses his memory. He forgets everything… including me. To help him restore his memories and Alpha pride, I go all out. I seek out an evil witch to trade my precious heartblood and fangs for her magic, nearly dying in the process. I sketch jewelry designs day and night, selling them just to earn money and to find every possible memory cure. When I drag my battered body to visit Zev at the clinic, I overhear him laughing with his buddies. "Your acting's next level, Zev! Kira still hasn't figured out you're faking it, and you've delayed the marking ceremony!" A buddy snickers. Zev gulps his wine and grins. "I'm definitely winning the bet that I'd sleep with 100 women at parties. Once I've had my fun, I'll go back to her for my mate duties and complete that marking ceremony."

Three years into our marriage, Rylan Shaw brings another woman home. "Maeve, you should learn from the younger ladies. Stop acting like a block of wood all the time." With a calm resolve, I shatter our wedding photo and hand him the divorce papers I've long prepared. "Let's get divorced, Rylan. I'll step aside for her," I declare. His friends insist that without him, I'll starve on the streets. Rylan believes the same. "Once she's suffered enough out there, she'll realize how lucky she was to be Mrs. Shaw." But a week passes, then a month—and I never return. That's when Rylan begins to grow uneasy. Panic and restless nights consume him. One evening, drunk and desperate, he pounds on the door of my new apartment. "Maeve, if it's money you want, I'll give it all to you…" The door swings open to reveal an unfamiliar man—bare-chested, pajama pants hanging low, fresh scratches streaking his abdomen. Jonah Archer arches a brow, dissatisfaction flickering in his eyes as he asks, "Mr. Shaw, what madness brings you to my wife's door in the middle of the night?"

A week before my bonding ceremony, my younger sister traveled from a distant pack to be my maid of honor. While she was trying on her dress, the phone she had left outside suddenly rang. “Florence, can you answer that for me? I can’t get it right now.” I picked it up, and a male werewolf’s voice came through the line. “Baby, I bought you a gorgeous lingerie set. Tonight is going to be amazing.” I didn’t make a sound. A cold chill sliced straight through me. That voice belonged to none other than my mate-to-be, Dylan Conner.

I have just been discharged after leg surgery when Victor Clark, my wife's former colleague who resents her for taking his position, drags me up to the roof and stabs me repeatedly. My wife, Melissa Lane, is the captain of the rescue unit, yet she is busy mobilizing everyone to stop her depressed first love, Ethan Hayes, from setting his rental apartment on fire. I don't call her to save me. In my previous life, I begged her for help. She abandoned Ethan and rushed to rescue me. In the end, I survived while Ethan died in the blaze. Melissa never blamed me. She said that Ethan got what he deserved and even promised me a surprise for my birthday a week later. But on my birthday, she drugged me, tied me to a bed, and drove a knife into me again and again. "You and Victor set me up that day, didn't you? Those stab wounds aren't even serious! You were never going to die! Since you like getting stabbed so much, I'll make it real for you!" When I open my eyes, I am back to the day Victor took me hostage. This time, I let Melissa go save her first love.

On the night of the full moon, my mate, Alpha Wade Rizzotto of the Bloodmoon pack, has sent someone to deliver me a box of gifts. He also has the wolf bring me a message, stating that he'll be home tonight. Warmth floods into my heart. Even though Wade is extremely busy with work and hasn't been able to meet me in person for half a year, he still cares about me and our unborn pup. Giddily, I begin preparations on dinner while eagerly anticipating Wade's return. But as soon as Wade steps into our home, I instantly pick up on a foreign yet strong scent of a she-wolf clinging to his form. My wolf's instincts flare up instantly. Having sensed my suspicion, Wade gently comforts me in order to suppress my uneasiness and doubt. But the she-wolf's scent that's obviously not mine keeps bothering me the whole time. I remember the way Wade began putting more distance between us over the past six months. Doubt and suspicion begin taking over my mind like mad. Throughout the week after that, I stalk Wade every day. Still, I can't spot anything that's off with him. So, I begin consoling myself, thinking that I must have gotten far too sensitive during my pregnancy. Maybe the hormones are affecting my wolf's senses, making me paranoid. I've decided that from tomorrow onward, I will not stalk Wade ever again. But that's when the Moon Goddess plays a cruel prank on me.