

For five years, Gideon—my brother's Beta—and I had a secret.We were supposed to announce our mating at the pack's Winter Solstice festival.Instead, he breathed hot against my ear."Babe, we've been sleeping together for five years. I'm bored with you. Find someone else for the marking ceremony, alright?"I didn't cry. I just gave a calm, simple nod. "Alright."Only because in my last life, I had begged him through tears to complete the bond.After he finally marked me, he grew cold.He never again woke me by rubbing his stubbled chin against my forehead.Even when we made love, he kept his eyes shut, as if he were wit for my life, he left me.He was going to comfort his savior, Aveline. The old wound she suffered saving him had relapsed, sending her into a mental spiral. In that moment, I finally understood.A mark I had to beg for was nothing but a curse, a wound that would never heal.This time, I pulled away with a smile, removing his hand from my waist. "You're right. I'm tired of it, too. We're done."h someone else, just using my body.When I was in agony giving birth to our pup, fighting

Bryce Davidson married into the Barber family and has never quite stood straight under the weight of it. On New Year's Day, his wife Ginny leaves to collect relatives and asks him to bathe their infant with a towel. Out of some small, stubborn impulse he fills the bathtub instead. The phone rings. He looks away. By the time he looks back, it is too late. In his collapse he hides what happened. He conceals the baby,covers the room, holds himself together through the Barber family's New Year visit. Every attempt by the relatives to see the child Bryce deflects. Ginny watches him, and something in the way he moves begins to pull at her. She can feel the shape of a closed door. She moves toward it.

Born the daughter of a billionaire, Wendy was lost to her father and suffered torment from school bullies. But after she discovers her identity, she makes a dazzling comeback alongside a loyal accomplice and crushes her bullies.

In his past life, Harrison Cowan abandoned his own daughter for a widow, raising her two sons instead. In his old age, when he fell ill, his adopted sons refused to even pay a mere hundred thousand for his surgery. Given a second chance at life, Harrison is determined to make amends. No longer willing to play the role of a stepfather, he vows to work hard, make money, and devote his life to raising his biological daughter, living only for her from now on!

My husband, Cesare Ferrante, the most feared Don of the Ferrante family, had always hated children. Yet everything changed the moment my stepsister, Bianca Moretti, moved in next door with her six-month-old baby. Suddenly, my husband became obsessed with that child. He personally fed the baby formula, sang lullabies, and carried the baby everywhere he went. Every day, he came home exhausted at dawn, yet his face glowed with joy, as if that baby occupied his entire soul. I became invisible to him. Three days ago, someone forced my car off the road, and I crashed into the median. Blood streamed down my forehead, and my vision swam. I called Cesare 55 times. He did not answer a single call. Instead, he posted a photo of the baby on his social media. [My little angel smiled today!] I had had enough. Tonight at the family banquet, every member of the famiglia was seated around the table. I raised my final toast, then set down my glass. "I want a divorce." They all froze. "Are you insane?" My parents' voices rose in unison. Cesare grabbed my wrist, disbelief written across his face. "Giulia, you want to divorce me just because I was busy taking care of the baby and didn't answer your calls? You're actually jealous of a six-month-old child?" I did not meet his eyes. Instead, I stared at the glaring kiss mark behind his ear. "Since you love that child so much," I said calmly, "I'll make it easy for you. Go be that child's father."