Short Stories & Novels

Seven days before our mating ceremony, my Alpha fiance, Kael Arnett, changes the venue from the frozen plains of Beloria to a beach in Sendor. His friend, Ryan Gerber, gives him a knowing smile. "You moved the ceremony just because Lilith's pack lives by the ocean. But are you not going to tell Akalia about it? What happens if her pack goes to the wrong venue? "Besides, I hear that holding the ceremony on the frozen plain is Akalia's dream. Everything has already been planned around that venue." Kael picks up the tie Lilith gave him and holds it against himself, sounding unconcerned. "Akalia can't live without me. She'd risk her life for me, so wherever I go, she'll follow. The mating ceremony means everything to her, so she'll check every invitation herself. "Once she realizes the venue has changed, she'll quietly take care of any problems. Besides, if she really wants to visit the frozen plains that badly, I can always take her some other time." I stand around the corner as I brace a hand against the wall, listening in silence. After a long moment, I turn and leave without saying a word. When the mating ceremony begins, Kael stands on the scorching beach and anxiously calls me. "Akalia, are you okay? Why aren't you here yet? Everyone's waiting for you!" I gaze up at the northern lights above the frozen plains of Beloria and smile faintly. "I'm already here."

Keane Mercer was the captain of the Boston Blades, one of the biggest teams in professional hockey. We'd been together for five years, and I hadn't missed a single one of his games. I could never get seats near the glass. Every game, I settled for the best spot I could find in a corner, lifting my camera to capture every moment he was on the ice. I asked him once. "Could you save me a seat in the friends-and-family section just once? The view is so much better from there." He didn't even look up. "I'm the captain. I can't play favorites. Maybe another time." He never said when "another time" would be. I never asked again. The friends-and-family seat remained empty season after season. Until the semifinals this year. For the first time, someone was sitting there. She was a young woman with a warm, bright smile, standing with the help of a crutch. Every time Keane scored, his eyes found hers. When the final buzzer sounded, he skated straight to the stands, lifted her effortlessly into his arms, and carried her out, shielding her as they disappeared into the crowd. I lowered my camera, packed away my gear, and walked out of the arena alone. Then I reopened the transfer offer I'd deleted and clicked "Accept". If I was never going to have a place in Keane's friends-and-family section, then I was done waiting on the sidelines. It was time to build a life that belonged to me.

The day after I moved into my new place, I baked a batch of my best brownies and went to introduce myself to the neighbor downstairs. As soon as she opened the door, a middle-aged woman gave me a long look before shouting into the apartment. "Honey, come here! This is the girl who was tap-dancing upstairs at three in the morning!" I froze. "There must be a mistake. I worked late last night. I didn't even come home." She pulled out her phone and showed me the residents' group chat. "Everyone's talking about it. Someone said they saw you dancing around your living room in red high heels. Building management has already come upstairs three times!" I was so angry my hands were shaking. I was ready to call the police and ask them to check the security cameras. Before I could, my boyfriend caught my arm. "Just let it go," he said. "We just moved in. If we get on her bad side, it'll only make life harder. Just say you're sorry and move on." I looked at his face. He had that same scared, anything-to-keep-the-peace look. Perfect. We hadn't even had our housewarming party yet, and I already had the worst combination possible—a nightmare neighbor and a cowardly boyfriend.

On the day of our engagement, Caesar Greco brings the wrong ring. The one he's supposed to give me is a ruby ring engraved with the family crest. Instead, he slips a silver band onto my finger, the gift that comes with a necklace he bought a few days earlier. His eyes stay fixed on my sister, Anna Benedetti, in the audience. Barely paying attention to me, he answers, "I grabbed the wrong one by mistake. The audience sits so far away. Who's going to notice?" "By mistake" is something I've heard far too many times. On our date, he books tickets to a symphony concert Anna likes instead of the opera I've wanted to see by mistake. On our vacation, he brings the wrong passport by mistake. He and Anna board the plane while I am still stuck back home. At a dinner party, he sends my invitation to Anna by mistake. The next day's headlines are filled with photos of them arriving together, announcing to the world that she's the Don's wife instead of me. Every time, Caesar dismisses it with the same careless excuse. "It was just a mistake. Every day, I'm dealing with arms shipments and checking on the family's casinos. I have to watch my back in case someone tries to kill me. Why can't you cut me some slack over something this trivial?" I've made a point of putting the ring in a custom jewelry box and setting it in the most conspicuous spot on the table, right beside the pistol he never goes anywhere without. Somehow, he still picks up the wrong one. I follow his gaze to Anna. That's when I notice the ruby ring on her left ring finger, its facets blazing under the lights. Caesar steps in front of me, blocking my view, his tone impatient. "It's just a ceremony. Let's get through it. I have something important to get to." That so-called important thing is that Anna has found a newly opened boutique and wanted him to go with her to check it out. I slip the ring off my finger and hold it out to him. "Since I'm clearly never on the top of your list, you should save your time for the person who is."

On the night of our mating ceremony, I found out my mate, Alpha Cain, had an Omega mistress. And they already had two pups together. Seeing he couldn't hide it anymore, he finally told the truth. "Our bloodline is cursed. It's hard for us to have pureblood pups. You were poisoned by silver, and the pack doctor said it'd be hard for you to get pregnant. Jasmine is a highly fertile Omega..." He hugged me, his eyes red as he promised. "Aurora, you are my Luna, my mate. I swear on my wolf, I only love you. As long as you just accept this, a mistress like her can never threaten your position." My wolf whimpered in agony. In my grief, I smashed everything and screamed the words to reject our mate bond. But I didn't expect my family to face his retaliation so soon. After my family was ruined, he locked me in a silver room and tortured me to death. "I told you, as long as you accepted it, you'd still be my Luna! Why did you have to break the bond? Why betray our love and make us both suffer the backlash?" My consciousness faded, and I died completely. When I opened my eyes, I was back. Back on the night of our mating ceremony. Right when I discovered his filthy secret. This time, I didn't cry or scream. Instead, I calmly took Cain's arm. "You are my Alpha. I could never blame you." When the time is right, I will send him straight to hell.

I'm a werewolf with zero sense of direction. I can't tell north from south and get lost at the drop of a hat. My best friend, Lily Sterling, refuses to believe that I truly cannot find my way around. So, she confidently declares that she will cure me of this problem. She even ropes in my foster brother, John Hunter, and my childhood sweetheart, Jason Livingston, into giving me a "special training". During the Full Moon Festival, the three of them sneak away while I'm praying. During the Spring Hunt, they abruptly speed up while we're hunting, leaving me far behind. They maroon me in the heart of the forest with my prey on my back, forcing me to find my own way home, all in the name of training my sense of direction. During today's picnic, I step away for just a moment to forage for some wild fruit, only to come back and find that the three of them, who have been sitting on the picnic blanket, are gone again. Even all the picnic food on the blanket has been packed away. I have no choice but to reach out to them through the mind link, but no matter how many times I try, I can't get through to them. I find the hamburgers we brought sitting on a rock beside the river, and underneath it is a note with only three sentences written on it. "We've taken you down this route twice, so I'm sure you must've memorized it by now. You've got this, Monica! The three of us will be waiting for you at home." All of a sudden, I lose all interest in playing along with their little game. Little do they know, I actually bought a scrying map on the black market two days ago. No matter how directionally challenged I am, I'll never lose my way again.

The wolfsbane had reached my bones, and I decided to stop treatment. Once, Ethan Anderson, the pack's Alpha, was the only light in my life. He promised we would travel the continent together, chasing the northern lights across frozen plains and exploring ancient ruins. But while I lay dying from wolfsbane poisoning, he took Murphy Blake, my best friend and the person I trusted most, to every place I had dreamed of seeing. My dreams became the story of how they fell in love. I was ready to let go. I wanted only to see the final place on my list. Then the antidote shattered, my ticket was soaked in blood, and Ethan abandoned me alone in the frozen wilderness. My life entered its final countdown. And there, at the edge of death, I discovered a secret that would change the fate of every werewolf. Ten years later, when the wolfsbane curse that had plagued werewolves for a thousand years was finally broken and everyone called me their savior, Ethan finally understood: He hadn't merely lost a mate who loved him. He had lost the one person who once would have spent her last breath waiting for him to turn back. But by then, I no longer needed his love.

After my fiancé Aiden Reynolds inherited his deceased twin brother's position as Don, he proposed a "split arrangement" to me. His time would be divided in half—Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays belonged to me; Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays he'd spend pretending to be his brother, keeping my sister-in-law Juniper company. The goal? To make sure Juniper safely delivered the Reynolds Family's first heir. So during that time, no matter how passionately Aiden and I tangled in bed, the moment the clock struck midnight, he'd pull away without a second's hesitation. Even when my fever spiked to 104 degrees, if it fell on a Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday, Aiden would only say flatly: "It's Juniper's day. Call a doctor. Don't call me." When I was kidnapped by our enemies and dialed his number with trembling hands— All I got was his cold voice, "Stop being dramatic, be good. I promise you, once Juniper has the baby safely, I'll tell her the truth. After that, I'll throw you the grandest wedding and announce you as my one and only Donna." The line went dead. In that moment, something inside me died for good. What Aiden never knew was that I never gave a damn about being Donna. I was the only daughter of the Richardson Family's Don, the biggest Mafia family in Sicily. All I ever wanted was a man who loved me with his whole heart.

At my engagement party to Matthew, the Don of the Gambino family, he said he had business to handle. Two hours later, he still wasn't back. I went to look for him. Around the corner of the hallway, his men were whispering in Sicilian dialect. "Poor thing. The future Donna has no idea Don's been screwing Ruth." "The Don's out of his mind. Can't even keep it together on his engagement night." Ruth Martin. His childhood friend. His business partner. I stood there, frozen. Then I walked back to the ballroom. A while later, Matthew pushed through the door. One button missing from his shirt. Sweat on his forehead. Someone clapped his shoulder, asked in Sicilian. "Ha! So? How was it with Ruth? Fucking intense, right? You're a madman." Matthew laughed and answered. "Of course. Couldn't get enough." What Matthew didn't know—I used to be Sicilian. I understood every word. What he also didn't know—I was about to tell him I was carrying his child. I took a sip of my juice. Didn't call him out. Instead, I pulled out my phone and opened the confirmation from the lab in Paris. Hit Confirm. Seven days from now, I'd be on a flight to Paris. Gone from his world for good.

The day I get shot, my husband's assistant, Rosa Fontana, claims she has a headache. He diverts the medical team treating me to take care of her instead. As I lie there, rapidly losing blood, I have no choice but to beg my husband, Guglielmo Muratori. "Guglielmo, if my life is in danger, my family will never let you get away with this!" During our three years together, I've never told him that my parents are the heads of the most powerful mafia family in Sicaro. They rule the place with an iron fist. Anyone who dares stand against me would, at best, lose their life. At worst, their entire bloodline will be wiped out. Guglielmo simply scoffs. "Anna, do you really think I'd believe something like that? You're just an orphan. I let you stay by my side because I thought you were kind. "But you've been targeting Rosa out of jealousy every chance you get. If she's unwell, makes a mistake at work, and the company loses millions of dollars, will you take responsibility for that?" I reach out and grab his arm, trying to explain. He remains unfazed, leaving me with only one cold sentence. "If your family is so powerful, tell them to save you." Before passing out from blood loss, I decide to send a distress message to Papa. What Guglielmo doesn't know is that the moment that message is sent, neither he nor his family would have any place left in Sicaro.