Why Did Bella Swan Choose Her Spouse?

She was his mate. But what’s the point of fate… if the Alpha doesn’t choose you? Bella stayed. She waited. She loved him quietly, hoping one day Ethan would finally see her. He didn’t. Not when she needed him. Not when she was breaking. Not even when she was carrying his child. And when he finally realized what she meant to him… It was too late. Because by then, Bella was already gone and he had lost everything he never knew he had.

Vampires only ever took one mate in their lifetime. And yet, my vampire husband refused to acknowledge me—his human wife, bound to him through an arranged marriage. On the night of our tenth wedding anniversary, Jason brought another woman into my bed. She was wearing my nightgown. She was carrying his child. And in my hand, I held a pregnancy test I'd just had confirmed. "Be reasonable, Elena. Jessica just conceived my child. She needs me." "Go sleep in the guest room. I'm sorry for the inconvenience." My husband shielded the other woman, his smile polished and gentlemanly, though his eyes held the same icy indifference they always did. When he saw me frozen in the doorway, Jason assumed I was going to do what I always did. Scream. Cry. Demand to know why he kept doing this to me. But he didn't know—this time was different. The ten-year contract had come due, and I was finally leaving him for good.

Liliana Hart spent four years shrinking herself to fit the life her husband wanted. Quiet wife, loyal mate, perfect future Luna. Then, in a single night, everything burns to ash. After catching her husband with another woman, Liliana plans to leave quietly. Instead, she is publicly rejected, accused of betrayal, stripped of her home, and cast out of the Blood Veil Pack with nothing but her name in ruins. Everyone believes the lies. Everyone except Alpha Darian Reed. Cold, feared, and impossible to read, Darian offers her shelter beneath one condition: stay out of his business. But the longer Liliana remains inside his mansion, the more she begins noticing the cracks beneath Blood Veil’s perfect image. Secrets buried within the council. Rumors surrounding the deaths of Darian’s parents. And a dangerous connection between her ex husband and the people desperate to control the pack. The closer she grows to Darian, the more enemies she makes. Then the council house burns to the ground. Liliana is framed for the attack. Now hunted by the same pack she once called home, Liliana must prove her innocence before the people behind the fire destroy her for good. Because this time, they did not just break her heart. They started a war.

Betrayed by the one she called her mate, and sister, Bella was humiliated and thrown from the pack. She vowed to take revenge on those who hurt her. When Alpha Arthur found her bleeding and left for dead by the side of the road, he healed her and took her to his pack. After rejecting Bella, he regretted it very much. When he met Bella again, there was Arthur by her side.

My father had always been against my marriage to Ryan Kane, a vampire of noble birth. He believed that as a human, I had no place in the vampire world. He warned me that if Ryan ever changed his mind, without his protection, my half-blood child and I would be nothing more than walking blood bags in the eyes of vampires. But I believed in Ryan—and in our love. My husband had always been gentle and attentive. He had even defied everyone to make me, a human, his vampire bride. That was before Ryan's human ex-fiancée had her engagement called off and returned to the country seeking his help. I went to the hospital alone. While I was learning that my pregnancy was high-risk, Ryan was there attending her prenatal checkup, even introducing her to the doctor as his wife. All he had for me was one cold line: "Keep pushing me and I'll file for divorce." I pressed my hand against my stomach and dialed a number I hadn't called in years. "Dad, you were right... I want a divorce." Two weeks. That was all it would take for me to disappear from his life completely. But later—that same vampire who had discarded me like I was nothing showed up at my wedding to another man, trembling all over, calling my name in a broken voice.

I was born a half-blood vampire, the daughter of a vampire father and a human mother. I inherited a vampire's power, yet I could walk in sunlight without harm. On the day it happened, my beloved fiancé Adrian had been gravely wounded by hunters and lay collapsed in the burning light. I was the one who ran to him, and I was the one who took the bullet. But when he came to, he was certain the person who'd saved him was my stepsister, Sophia — because her arm bore the mark of a sunlight burn. I tried to explain. I wept and begged him to believe me. Adrian only looked at me with cold, distant eyes. "Elena, stop trying to steal Sophia's credit." Sophia was cherished in his hands, while I was trampled repeatedly. Adrian sealed my bloodline power, stripping me from half-blood to nothing. Our engagement was annulled, and he watched, cold and unmoved, as I was sent in Sophia's place to marry the noble vampire everyone whispered about: that ancient, monstrous lord. Then came the day of his and Sophia's betrothal ceremony. The vampire hunters struck again. Stripped of my power, I threw myself in front of a young girl to shield her. Sophia, meanwhile, abandoned Adrian's side and fled behind the elders. Only then did Adrian understand: the one who had saved him in the sunlight had always been me. He went mad with it. He blocked my carriage, desperate to stop me from leaving, from marrying another man. But I reached out and took another man's hand. "Adrian," I said. "I don't love you anymore."