

On the day of my engagement party, my mother and I were sitting in the car waiting for the driver when my fiance's secretary suddenly sent me a video. In it, she had a middle-aged she-wolf by the hair, slapping her across the face again and again. "Selena, you gold-digging trash! Did you really think pretending to be some high-society socialite and getting engaged to Alpha Declan meant your mother could sneak into his house and steal?" Another slap landed. The woman's face was already grotesquely swollen. "Typical backwoods behavior. Always grabbing at things that don't belong to you. As Declan's secretary, I'm handling this filthy thief on his behalf." I slowly lowered my phone. Beside me, my mother was adjusting her necklace in her compact mirror. When she noticed me looking at her, she smiled and patted my hand. "Thorncrown Pack may be an absolute disaster when it comes to business, darling, but Declan is very handsome. Once the alliance is official, your father and I can help straighten things out." Frowning, I replayed the video. The sharp cheekbones. The immaculate chignon. And the mole on her ear. Oh my God. That was my future mother-in-law! I immediately called back. "Vanessa, do you have any idea what a complete idiot you are? That's Declan's mother!" She let out a vicious laugh. "Oh, please. Declan already told me all about you. Some nobody his father forced him to marry. " "He doesn't even care about you, so why would he give a damn about your relatives?"

Bestselling author Edith has harbored a secret crush on firefighter Nolan for a decade. The two entered into a marriage of convenience to resolve family debts. A café explosion left Edith heartbroken; during the crisis, Nolan saved Nancy—a manipulative woman—but ignored Edith, treating her merely as a wife in name only. After Nancy falsely claimed to be pregnant with Nolan’s child, Edith decided to file for divorce. Nolan pleaded with her to keep up the charade of a loving couple for the sake of his ailing father. Nancy seized the opportunity to stir up trouble, while a colleague of Nolan’s began pursuing Edith, provoking Nolan’s intense jealousy. Nancy staged a miscarriage to frame Edith, but surveillance footage ultimately exposed all her lies. Nolan discovered the love Edith had hidden for years through her novels and began clumsily trying to win her back. Finally, after risking his life to save Edith from a fire and severing ties with Nancy, Nolan devoted himself to healing Edith’s emotional wounds, transforming their pragmatic contract marriage into a genuine, deeply loving union.