Winter Garden

A writer once said, "We don't need down jackets in summer, fans in winter, and attention after we're disappointed." After the breakup, I became happy and even found myself. Thanks for letting me go. This is a series of stories after breakups. A relationship may not necessarily make people happier, but a breakup will definitely do it. “Seven Ear Piercings” I had a secret relationship with my stepmother's son. When we broke up, it became particularly unpleasant. One day, he got drunk and intercepted me in the bathroom. He said, "I'm a masochist. We'll torment each other until our hair turns grey. What can you do to me?" “Blind Date With an Undercover Cop” I never expected to meet him again. The last time I saw him, he was a clumsy barista who messed up my order nine times in a row. I felt sorry for him, so I tried to crack a joke. "Hey, are you an undercover cop?" He looked startled and denied it quickly. But as soon as I left the cafe, he locked the door and disappeared. Later on, we ran into each other again. He stopped me and said, "You're under arrest, because you have stolen my heart, darling."

I've planned seven wedding ceremonies in total, and not once has my fiance, Zachary Gardner, ever shown up for it. The first time, his adopted younger sister, Louise Foster, bursts into tears because she lost her passport at the airport. It was the dead of winter, but he dumped me by the side of the road and left me. The second time, Louise's dog sprained its ankle. Zachary stuffed the ring back into its box and rushed to the animal hospital to accompany her. Every time I argue with him about it, he declares nonchalantly, "We can get married anytime, but I can't let Louise be upset." Everyone around us agrees with him, saying that we're all family anyway, so I shouldn't be so petty. None of them has seen Zachary and Louise kissing fiercely on the dance floor. Today is the seventh wedding ceremony. Once again, he turns to leave after getting a call. I grab the corner of his shirt and say in a choked voice, "If you leave this time, Zachary, I won't marry you anymore." He stops in his tracks and peels off my fingers. "Wait for me," he says before rushing off. What he doesn't know is that this time, I won't be waiting for him any longer.

Wendy McNaulty never expected her twenties to look like this—sharing a quirky Boston townhouse with her two best friends, juggling a job she doesn’t love, and navigating a love life that’s as messy as the city’s winter slush. With Grady, her charming and overly confident roommate, and Scott, the quiet and steady best friend who knows her better than anyone, Wendy’s life is a whirlwind of late-night pizza runs, laughter, and unspoken tension. When a disastrous breakup pushes her to “figure herself out,” Wendy vows to swear off romance and focus on herself—only to find love and scandal showing up where she least expects it. As lines blur between friendship and something deeper, Wendy is forced to confront her own heart. Torn between the thrill of the new and the comfort of what’s always been, she begins to unravel feelings she’s kept buried for years. But just when she thinks she has it all figured out, an unexpected twist threatens to change everything. In the midst of secrets, mistakes, and the kind of vulnerability she’s always avoided, Wendy learns that true love doesn’t always come in the form you expect—it’s often been standing right beside you all along.

After I, Rosalie Ricci, was stood up 17 times, the mafia don, Daniel Marino, finally holds the perfect engagement banquet for me. In our second year together, we are ready to get married. But every single time, he has an excuse to hold our engagement off. He says he's busy with work, the timing isn't right yet, or that he isn't quite ready. I never blame him because I love him. I have loved him since our school days. In fact, I have loved him for seven whole years. This is the 18th time. I stand in the banquet hall wearing the gown he personally chose for me and watch as he slips the ring onto my finger. He kisses me with a passionate intensity he has never shown me before. At that moment, I believe that I have finally secured my perfect happiness after waiting seven long years. My happiness only lasts until the guests leave. As I step into the back garden, I see Daniel holding my twin sister, Leah Ricci, in his arms. He says in a hushed voice, "I announced my engagement to Rosalie 18 times. This time, you're finally back." That's when I realize that the engagement banquet that I have longed for is nothing more than a ploy by Daniel to draw Leah back to him. But when I decided to let them be together, Daniel panics.

On my birthday, Connor Simpson's first love jumped off a building due to depression. She died on the spot. Connor blamed everything on me. I never celebrated my birthday again after she died. After the murderer electrocuted me for more than ten hours, they forced me to call Connor. "Connor, it's my 25th birthday today. Can you come over and spend time with me?" However, Connor did not notice anything unusual. His voice was laced with venomous iciness. "Clarisse Winter, Audrey wouldn't have died if it weren't for you. How dare you ask me to celebrate your birthday? If only you were the one who died." I heard him coaxing a woman on the other end just before he hung up on me. That low and gentle tone was what I loved to hear the most in the past. That night, the murderer cut my body into countless pieces, packed them in bags, and threw them in front of the police station. Connor was summoned back overnight. He spent two days and two nights piecing together the body parts, but he did not realize that the dead person was the wife that he hated the most.

Book 1, Alania Wilson is a she-wolf daughter of the Red Winter Pack's beta, born with extraordinary abilities, desired by all the alphas for her ability to become one of the strongest Luna ever. When she is 14 years old, Alpha Julius of the Blue Mountain Pack tries to kidnap and abuse her to make her his and prevent anyone else from having her. Her father and brother will send her away to protect her, and when she is 18, she will return home to fulfill her destiny. But she comes back stronger than ever and with the intention of not accepting her mate because she wants to be the master of her own destiny and become the first alpha female. The moon goddess has another path prepared for her. When she finds her mate in her alpha Hansen, she tries to evade the mating bond by using magic. Hansen, without knowing that she is his mate feels the bond between them. The desire and attraction are getting stronger, and Alania falls in love with him. When Alania decides to confess to Hansen that she is his mate and seems to have found happiness, Alpha Julius reappears, and everything changes.

I am the youngest daughter of the White family. As rulers of the Moon Shadow pack, the White family showered me with love from the young age. That was until my brothers brought home an orphaned Omega named Calista. In less than a month, she had stolen all the affection that once belonged to me. All it took was a slight frown from me when she tried to move into my bedroom, and my eldest brother, the Alpha, slapped me on the face. My second brother, the Beta, locked me in the cellar. I never wanted to compete with Calista. All I wanted was to live the rest of my days quietly. But on the day of my eighteenth birthday, Calista falsely accused me of attacking her when I shifted. My brothers called me evil, and they cut all ties with me. They believed that I was spoiled rotten and that my jealousy of Calista had made me turn vicious. Little did they know that I had already secretly applied to be the guard of the Land of Winter and to live there in solitude for 20 years. After this farewell, I would never see them again. On the day that I left, they all broke down in regret.

I died with my mother's name on my lips and the face of the man who killed her burned into my memory. I woke up two years later in a stranger's body with gentle hands and no past... just a quiet life, a herb garden, and the kind of peace that feels too clean to be real. I did not know who I was. I did not know what I had lost. Not yet. Then I found him bleeding in the forest. And I made the worst decision of my second life... I saved him. His name is Caius. He is the Alpha of Ironblood Pack, the most powerful and feared wolf in three territories. He is cruel in the way that powerful men are cruel... not with raised voices, but with absolute certainty that the world belongs to him. He looked at me with those cold eyes and he saw a healer. A useful thing. He brought me into his pack like a man bringing home a tool he found on the road. What I did not plan for was him. Not the real version of him... the one that shows up at the healer wing at strange hours with small injuries and no good reason to be there. The one who looks at me like I am something he cannot figure out. The one who, for the first time in what I suspect is his entire life, seems to want to be a better man. He is falling for me. And the worst part, the part I will never say out loud, is that I feel it too. My name is Maren. He does not know that yet. But he will.

“I want you again, Aurora… naked, begging, and this time as my mate.” In Last Christmas, after a painful betrayal, Aurora Wright made a mistake she never forgot. She spent one night with a stranger whose touch left her breathless, and that night ended in a pregnancy she faced alone. Two months after giving birth, Aurora is hired as the lead photographer for Averne’s Christmas festival. When she arrives in the winter city beyond Paris, she discovers that the man from that night is Leon Valmont, the cold and dangerously handsome CEO of the entire project. Leon is not just a CEO. He is the Alpha prince of Averne, a hidden werewolf kingdom. And the moment he sees Aurora holding a child with familiar eyes, he knows the truth. “You disappeared after that night,” Leon growls, stepping close enough to claim her breath. “But you are not leaving again. Not you… and not my child.”Caught between a possessive Alpha prince, a truth she tried to hide, and a bond that never faded, Aurora must face the man she never meant to see again. This Christmas, her baby daddy does not just want answers. He wants his mate. And he wants his family back.

Survival taught Elon Rivers that his body could be a weapon—just not in the way his stepfather intended. Now he works the con: dress pretty, play helpless, drug them, and disappear with their valuables. It's not honest work, but nothing about Elon's life has ever been honest. When he targets the wrong mark—Fort Thorne, a mafia enforcer with eyes like a winter grave—his carefully constructed world shatters. Fort knew exactly what Elon was from the moment he walked into that hotel room. The briefcase Elon stole contained information worth killing for, and Fort wants it back. There's just one problem: Elon's roommate has already stolen it from him, and now Fort is out two million dollars. Fort's offer is simple: return what was stolen, or work off the debt. Every single Penny. Trapped in Fort's world of violence and power, Elon discovers that his captor is as damaged as he is, and that the line between hatred and desire is thinner than he ever imagined. But in a world where trust is a luxury neither can afford, falling for the enemy might be the most dangerous con of all.