

Three days before my marking ceremony, someone set fire to the bridal shop while I was inside trying on my ceremonial dress. Alpha Marcus threw the arsonist into the pack prison, sentencing them to the harshest punishment our laws allowed. I lay in the hospital bed, my body covered in third-degree burns, refusing to wake fully as the reality of my disfigurement sank in. In my semi-conscious state, I heard Marcus speaking with the pack's healing witch. "Alpha, we can still heal her completely with the ancient magic. If we wait any longer, Sarah will bear these scars for life! You just want Miss Rachel to be your Luna at the marking ceremony. This is cruel beyond measure!" "Let her keep the scars. I'll provide for her for the rest of her life, but if she's healed, she'll definitely cause trouble at the marking ceremony." "I promised Rachel that her pup would be welcomed into the pack with full honors. Only when Sarah is completely disfigured will she be grateful enough to raise Rachel's child as her own. The scars are necessary - at least this way, she won't dare mistreat the pup." In the corner of the room, where no one was watching, a tear slid down my burned cheek. So this was the truth. The marking ceremony I'd dreamed of was nothing but a lie. The mate bond I longed for would be my death sentence. If that's how it had to be, I would give him what he wanted.

Rose Newton spent three years as the perfect wife to cold lawyer Ian Fuller, even giving him a bracelet of ten beads—ten chances to earn her forgiveness. Now, every bead is gone. Ian never knew that when the last bead disappeared, the wife who endured his betrayals would vanish—and the legendary lawyer Vivian would return to the courtroom. After years of humiliation and living in the shadow of his first love, Rose finally snaps. Facing Ian on opposite sides of the law, this time, she will not lose.

For five years, Luna Stone pretends to be deaf and mute, not for herself, but to help Sean Porter survive his darkest years. Quietly, she also funnels her parents' entire inheritance into keeping his studio afloat. She asks for nothing. She says nothing. Then Sean recovers his hearing, his studio becomes a company, and life turns good again. In an unguarded moment,he says out loud what he actually feels: he never wanted to marry her. His heart still belongs to someone else. Luna hears every word. She walks away without making a scene, and into a waiting arrangement with Kilan Arden, the man she was always supposed to find.