Leaving Roxana Robinson Novels & Stories

We have just finished our classes for the day when Nicholas Wolfe tells me that he's going to a concert with his junior, Madeline Cross. "I'm heading over to the venue right now. I can't let Madeline wait for me, after all." Nicholas sounds so casual, as though he's talking about the weather. I arrange my textbooks neatly before putting them into my bag. "Okay." My response leaves Nicholas stunned. He pauses in the middle of typing a text to Madeline before raising his head to look at me. "Madeline and I are about to watch the concert performed by The Paxleys, your favorite band. Are you… not mad at me at all?" I zip my bag while replying calmly, "Nope." I've begged Nicholas 99 times to watch the concert with me. On the 100th time, he finally buys two tickets… for himself and Madeline. I'm not surprised in the slightest. Ever since Madeline transferred to our university, I've started to get used to Nicholas prioritizing her over me. I sling my bag onto my shoulder and begin making my way to the classroom's exit. Nicholas doesn't move an inch. But when I'm about to leave, he catches up with me and grips my wrist. "Lia, we'll travel to Sorenton three days later. The Paxleys will be holding another concert there. I'll attend that concert with you. "That day is our third-year anniversary, so I definitely won't bail out on you." I look down at Nicholas' hand that's gripping me, then I look up at him. This time, my lips curl into a smile. "Okay." Over the past six months, Nicholas has promised me to do things "next week" nine times, and said "I'll definitely show up" 13 times, and "don't worry" 16 times. But he's bailed out on me every single time he makes plans with me. Next week, we won't be attending the concert together, that's for sure. After all, I'm the one bailing on him this time.

My mother is a hospital director. To give my brother, an intern doctor, more hands-on experience, she assigns him as the lead surgeon for my brain tumor operation. I beg her to let someone else do it and tell her it's my only chance at survival. But she slaps me hard across the face and screams, "How did I raise such a selfish, ungrateful child? Your brother has just started his internship—can't you help him improve his skills? Is that too much to ask?" Later, the surgery fails. I die on the operating table. And my mother seems to have aged decades overnight.

After I get reborn, I've orchestrated every missed moment with my biological parents. When they want to take my adopted sister, Simone Graham, to take a family portrait, I'll take cold showers so that I can catch a fever. When they decide to book a cruise ship overseas in order to celebrate Simone's birthday, I join a classified project, which stops me from leaving the country. When they start a company for Simone, I quickly apply to get dispatched to South City, which is 600 miles away from my hometown. I also make sure to declare that I will never fight with Simone over anything in life. In my previous lifetime, Simone and I had been fighting over our parents' affection for decades. But all I got were comments on how manipulative and cunning I was. Everyone preferred Simone, who was pure and innocent, while showing disdain toward me, who was a woman of little words. Even my own husband and child couldn't understand my pain at all. "We're all family here, aren't we? Can't you just stop your dramatics for a few days? Whenever I come home, you always start a fight and cause unrest among everyone! You really should reflect on your own actions!" Just like that, I died on my sickbed all alone. When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day I get accepted back into my family. This time, I'm not going to fight anymore. I'm going to live for myself instead.

I, Anna Moonhowl, believe I am the happiest woman in the world. I am the first love of my Alpha mate, Lucas Greyhound, and he loves me deeply. He is ruthless and cold to others, but in front of me, he always hides away his claws. He places everything he has—his territory, his life, and his future—into my hands. I have complete faith in him. So even when a young Omega who is pregnant suddenly barges into our marking ceremony, I never doubt his love for me. He rejects her in front of the entire pack, claiming it is nothing more than a loss of control when he was in heat. Fervently, he swears that I am his one true love. Lucas promises, "I will deal with the pup and exile her. We will never see each other again." I believe him despite the fact that he never brings up our marking ceremony again. But five years later, I run into that Omega again. "I didn't expect that he would love me even more after I had his pup. Seven times a night is considered little in our books," she boasts. She then hooks her arm around Lucas as they walk toward the witch's treatment chamber, flaunting their relationship. She reminds the witch, "Lucas says being with that old she-wolf is boring, so please make me as tight as a virgin. Once I give him another pup, he will dissolve his current bond and officially mark me. Then, I will be the Luna…" I stand frozen at the doorway while the rest of her words fade into white noise. The years of complete trust in Lucas deal the most devastating blow to my heart. Without hesitation, I turn and leave. I head straight to the Council of Elders to submit a request to dissolve our mate bond. Lucas, this time I will not believe your lies again. I don't want you anymore.

Alaric and I had agreed to elope together. But he changed his mind the moment I signed the papers to leave the pack. Standing outside the back booth at the hotel bar, I overheard him talking with his friends. "You tricked Sophie into leaving the pack just so you could have more alone time with Vivienne? Aren't you worried she'll lose it when she finds out?" Alaric took a lazy sip of his drink. "Why would she? She's so obsessed with me she'd cling to me all day if she could. Tell her what she wants to hear afterward and she'll forgive me, guaranteed." "Besides, Vivienne's family has real pull. That kind of backing could tip the scales in my fight for the Alpha position. Sophie will just have to deal with it." Every word sliced through me until I couldn't breathe. I fought back the urge to storm in and confront him, and turned away instead. Back home, I pulled out my phone and scrolled to the very last contact in my list. "Dad. That arranged mating you mentioned — I accept."

For three years, she was just his transparent, obedient wife. He never knew that the girl who saved him from the raging ocean—and gave up her Olympic dream to marry him—was the very woman he just divorced.

Three months after I give birth, Nicholas Faulkner finally makes his choice between his mistress and me. He agrees to marry me. Everyone thinks I am hopelessly in love with him and would never give up the chance to secure my position as his wife with our child. But I refuse, give up my son, and leave on my own. Nicholas doesn't take it seriously and says nonchalantly to his friends, "She's just throwing a tantrum. She even poked holes in condoms just so she would end up having my child to make me marry her. How could she possibly let go so easily?" No one expects that I would be gone for five whole years. When we meet again, I am accompanying my husband to a birthday banquet for an elder. A little boy blocks my way. He hugs me and turns to shout behind him, "Dad, I found Mom! You don't have to hold Mom's photo and cry every night anymore!" My heart clenches as I look up and meet Nicholas' reddened eyes.

I know that I don't have much time left after getting poisoned by wolfsbane. I don't want to have any regrets, so I travel to the Sacred Crystal Lake, a place I have always wanted to visit. I don't tell anyone that I plan to end my life there. I didn't expect to run into my ex-mate there. We haven't seen each other in ten years. He has become the Alpha that he has always wanted to be, and he's wearing a ring that has another she-wolf's name engraved on it. As for me, I've already thrown away our token of love and erased him from my heart. We're exchanging pleasantries when he suddenly asks, "Do you still hate me, Giselle?" I shake my head. My life is about to end, after all. I don't need to hold on to anything anymore. In the last moments of my life, I just want to see the sea of irises that the Moon Goddess has blessed.

My husband, the Don, never acknowledged me as anything more than his political bride. From the day we married, I knew there was someone else in his heart, a woman from the slums named Elena. But for the sake of my family's honor, and for that small, pathetic scrap of love I still held onto, I endured everything in silence. Until two months ago. He came home drunk and reckless and lost all control. He kicked open my bedroom door and took me like a man possessed, and the whole time, the name he breathed into my ear wasn't mine. It was hers. But that night left something behind. I was pregnant. I thought maybe this child could be the thing that finally turned us around. So I walked to his study door, pregnancy report in hand, heart full of something dangerously close to hope. That's when I heard his voice through the door, soft and tender, speaking in a tone I had never once heard him use with me. "Don't worry, Elena. Once you have the baby, I'll bring him into the family personally. He'll be the only heir I recognize. As for Jessica..." His voice turned cold and contemptuous. "She'll never have children. For the past seven years, I've had someone slip the highest dose of birth control into the warm milk she drinks every night before bed. She's nothing but a political arrangement. Why would I let her carry my bloodline?" The door opened. He stepped out and saw me standing there, frozen. He assumed I'd do what I always did, scream and cry and demand answers. He had no idea this time was different. This time, I was really leaving.

A major pharmaceutical company offered me a position, on one condition. I had to transfer my membership to their pack. While I was still on the fence, my boyfriend urged me to take it and promised to leave the pack with me. But the day before I submitted my withdrawal papers, he changed his mind. Outside a private room at the bar, I overheard him talking with his buddies. "You're really leaving with Serena Frost? Your Alpha father just acknowledged you. You've got a real shot at succeeding him. You'd throw all that power and status away for a woman?" Xander Blackwood let out a cold laugh. "Of course not. I've been lying to her the whole time. You know how powerful Vivienne's family is. Keeping her happy is my only shot at becoming Alpha." "I can't have Serena finding out and making a scene that wrecks my plan. Talking her into leaving the pack was the only way." Hearing it all, I felt the pain cut me wide open. Five years I had loved this man, and he had betrayed me. I turned and walked away from that room. The moment I was out the door, I reached for my father, the Alpha, through the mind-link. "Dad, I want you to pull every investment we have in Xander Blackwood's pack."