The Price of His Control

The Alpha's Surrogate: My Heart, His Treason

My mate, Alpha Kaelen, refused to complete our sacred bond. Haunted by his mother's death in childbirth, he brought in a surrogate to produce an heir, and I accepted it for the good of the pack. Then I overheard him planning a secret bonding ceremony—not with me, but with her. He told me he loved me, but it was her face he saw when he held me. He'd lie about rogue attacks just to spend nights at her cottage. At the annual gala, an ice sculpture shattered. He ran right past me as I bled on the floor to save the surrogate from a twisted ankle. He then used a forbidden life-force transfer to heal her tiny scrape, nearly killing himself in the process, while the pack healer told me my own deep cut could wait. He believed his betrayal was meant to protect me, that my love for him was so absolute I would simply understand. As he lay unconscious from the ritual, I walked into the Elder's council hall and submitted my application to perform the Ritual of Severance, a ceremony to permanently break our bond and erase me from his life.

His Betrayal, Her Blazing Return

My whole life was a joke, and I was the last one to get the punchline. I sacrificed everything after my parents supposedly died in a car crash, working three jobs to raise my little brother, Alex. I gave up my dreams, my college scholarship, everything, just to make sure he had the best. But at Alex's graduation party, the punchline hit. The hall doors opened, and in walked my "dead" parents, David and Mary Miller, alive, well, and wealthier than ever, accompanied by a woman my age whom they introduced as their real daughter, Jessica. They calmly informed me I was just "the help," a "tool" to raise Alex, who wasn't even my real brother. They confessed they faked their deaths to escape debt, planning to reclaim their "brilliant son" once he was successful. When I pleaded with Alex, the boy I' d raised, he looked away, siding with them. As they dragged me to a dark alley, no one came to help, not even Alex, who just watched. Then there was only darkness. Until I opened my eyes again. I was back in my old bedroom, on the day of my parents' fake funeral, eighteen years old again. It was all a lie. The love, the family, the sacrifice-all for nothing. The world spun with betrayal and rage. I didn't understand how they could discard me so easily, how Alex could betray me. Why were they so cruel? What kind of parents would do this? But this time, I wouldn't be the fool. I was back, and I was going to burn their whole world to the ground.

The Ex-Factor: A Dish Best Served

The steak knife in my hand felt heavy. For five years, I' d been Chloe' s boyfriend, paying for dinners like this, writing her college papers, driving hours just to see her. I thought it was devotion, love. Tonight, sitting across from her, watching her giggle and feed asparagus to her ex, Chad, it just made my stomach clench. She wasn' t even looking at me; she was looking at him. His ex-girlfriend, Lily, sitting beside him, coolly observed the scene, her calm piercing my humiliation. Then Chloe' s hand, the one not holding the fork, slid across the table and landed on Chad' s forearm, tracing a slow circle. "Something wrong, Mark?" Chloe asked, her voice laced with annoyance when I finally put my knife and fork down. Nothing was wrong. Just a hot shame crawling up my neck, realizing I' d been a fool. "To old friends," I said, raising my glass, my voice tight. "It' s great to see you two so... close." Chloe pulled her hand back, nervously laughing it off, trying to erase the moment with a familiar gesture that screamed she was lying. Chad, on the other hand, reveled in the tension, casually inviting us to his launch party. "Mark, you'll be there, right? Chad's parties are legendary," she chirped, then her eyes raked over me. "Just... try to wear something nice. Not one of your nerdy t-shirts. You need to make a good impression for Chad." The casual flick of her wrist, a public dismissal of my entire existence. A highlight reel of five years of sacrifice, of being a placeholder, of believing her excuses, flashed in my mind. The woman I loved was sleeping with her ex-boyfriend, and I was the "good boyfriend," the convenient option. My throat felt tight. The words wouldn't come, but a cold clarity settled over me. This wasn't a relationship; it was a long, slow humiliation. I was done.

The Bride's Dark Secret

Our wedding, live-streamed to millions, was meant to be my perfect future with the radiant Veronica. She was my salvation, helping me move past my "psycho ex," Clara Evans, who had supposedly clung to me pathologically. But then, from inside the grand piano, Clara's worn journal slipped to the floor. "What trash is that doing here?" I spat, kicking it away, reinforcing the narrative Veronica had perfected. The Event MC, David, picked it up, announcing the first entry: lyrics to Veronica's signature song, "Faded Embers," dated years before she claimed it. Veronica’s tinkling laugh felt suddenly hollow. I stepped in, defending her, pointing out a prep school melody only "we" would know, further solidifying Clara’s image as a delusional liar online. But David turned the page, reading Clara’s secret high school entries about me. "I think 'Faded Embers' is almost finished. It’s for him." Dated years before Veronica and I even met, before I "officially" knew Clara. My certainty wavered. This wasn’t the Clara Veronica had painted; this was a girl who admired me from afar, a pure unrequited love. The words continued, detailing Veronica's open cruelty: discarded gifts, her chilling taunt “You don’t belong here, street rat,” and the unimaginable horror of Clara’s 19th birthday. "He never believed me. He never asked," Clara had written. I swayed, remembering my cold judgmental rage, Veronica’s calculated comfort. A knot of sickening realization tightened in my gut. The lights flickered, a crystal glass cracked, an ominous sign. This wasn't a wedding anymore; it was a reckoning. And I, Ethan Cole, was just beginning to realize the monstrous truth about the woman I was marrying, and the horrific injustice I had enabled.

Obsessive Kiss: Love Is Consuming Me

For Flora, marriage was like a business, where each side had an agenda and took what they wanted from the transaction. She thought sacrificing herself for it was a bad idea, no matter what. So she had done what the obvious choice had been for her, to maximize what she could get in marriage: She had married Ivan, a charming, righteous man with great wealth. But little did she know that she didn't own this game. She was, instead, the prey. Ivan was the hunter, aiming at her and playing smart right from the get-go. And it hadn't taken long for her to fall head over heels in love with him, to become addicted to him.

After My Husband Cheated, I Married His Greatest Rival

The rain assaulted the glass, mirroring the storm inside me. For three years, I, Vivian Sterling, played the perfect wife to Julian Kensington, draining my life. The antique clock ticked, a reminder of time lost. Then, I found it: a blonde hair on Julian's suit, reeking of Midnight Rose, and a text, ""Candy: You left your cufflinks on my nightstand. I'm already missing you."" My world shattered, revealing his betrayal. This was just the beginning. I exposed Julian's fraud and his family's violent plots, surviving assassination. But their malice stole my past. Then Alexander Vance, my protector, uncovered a terrifying truth: my birth mother was alive, held captive by a shadowy order. My life was a lie, built to shield me from my dangerous bloodline. I found strength and love with Alexander, the man who walked into fire for me. Yet, as I prepared to rescue my mother, a new life stirred within me, a secret threatening to complicate the impending war.

Scars of Betrayal: The Heiress They Tried To Erase

Kelsie's biggest regret in life was getting involved with Judge, the icy Captain. She pursued him for three years, married him for two, thinking she'd warmed a stone, only to be met with nothing. Her mother-in-law disliked her, her husband was indifferent, and a fragile "white moonlight" would occasionally try to get her attention. Until she witnessed Judge and Angelique meeting secretly at a hotel, her heart shattered, and then she discovered she was pregnant. Kelsie sneered, threw down the divorce papers, and decisively ran away, disappearing without a trace. When they met again, she was a successful single mother, surrounded by suitors. In the pouring rain, the once aloof man humbly stopped her car, pleading in a hoarse voice, "Kelsie, come home with me." The car window rolled down, and a little boy, nine-tenths like him, coldly warned in a cute but fierce tone, "Want to date my mommy? Ask me first!"

Reborn And Remade: Pursued By The Billionaire

In her previous life, Kimberly endured the betrayal of her husband, the cruel machinations of an evil woman, and the endless tyranny of her in-laws. It culminated in the bankruptcy of her family, and ultimately, her death. After being reborn, she resolved to seek retribution against those who had wronged her, and ensure her family's prosperity. To her shock, the most unattainable man from her past suddenly set his sights on her. "You may have overlooked me before, but I shall capture your heart this time around."

The Surgeon's Vow: Healing My Billionaire Husband

I sat in the gray, airless room of the New York State Department of Corrections, my knuckles white as the Warden delivered the news. "Parole denied." My father, Howard Sterling, had forged new evidence of financial crimes to keep me behind bars. He walked into the room, smelling of expensive cologne, and tossed a black folder onto the steel table. It was a marriage contract for Lucas Kensington, a billionaire currently lying in a vegetative state in the ICU. "Sign it. You walk out today." I laughed at the idea of being sold to a "corpse" until Howard slid a grainy photo toward me. It showed a toddler with a crescent-moon birthmark—the son Howard told me had died in an incubator five years ago. He smiled and told me the boy's safety depended entirely on my cooperation. I was thrust into the Kensington estate, where the family treated me like a "drowned rat." They dressed me in mothball-scented rags and mocked my status, unaware that I was monitoring their every move. I watched the cousin, Julian, openly waiting for Lucas to die to inherit the empire, while the doctors prepared to sign the death certificate. I didn't understand why my father would lie about my son’s death for years, or what kind of monsters would use a child as a bargaining chip. The injustice of it burned in my chest as I realized I was just a pawn in a game of old money and blood. As the monitors began to flatline and the family started to celebrate their inheritance, I locked the door and reached into the hem of my dress. I pulled out the sharpened silver wires I’d fashioned in the prison workshop. They thought they bought a submissive convict, but they actually invited "The Saint"—the world’s most dangerous underground surgeon—into their home. "Wake up, Lucas. You owe me a life." I wasn't there to be a bride; I was there to wake the dead and burn their empire to the ground.

The Billionaire's Cold And Bitter Betrayal

I had just survived a private jet crash, my body a map of violet bruises and my lungs still burning from the smoke. I woke up in a sterile hospital room, gasping for my husband's name, only to realize I was completely alone. While I was bleeding in a ditch, my husband, Adam, was on the news smiling at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. When I tracked him down at the hospital's VIP wing, I didn't find a grieving husband. I found him tenderly cradling his ex-girlfriend, Casie, in his arms, his face lit with a protective warmth he had never shown me as he carried her into the maternity ward. The betrayal went deeper than I could have imagined. Adam admitted the affair started on our third anniversary-the night he claimed he was stuck in London for a merger. Back at the manor, his mother had already filled our planned nursery with pink boutique bags for Casie's "little princess." When I demanded a divorce, Adam didn't flinch. He sneered that I was "gutter trash" from a foster home and that I'd be begging on the streets within a week. To trap me, he froze my bank accounts, cancelled my flight, and even called the police to report me for "theft" of company property. I realized then that I wasn't his partner; I was a charity case he had plucked from obscurity to manage his life. To the Hortons, I was just a servant who happened to sleep in the master bedroom, a "resilient" woman meant to endure his abuse in silence while the whole world laughed at the joke that was my marriage. Adam thought stripping me of his money would make me crawl back to him. He was wrong. I walked into his executive suite during his biggest deal of the year and poured a mug of sludge over his original ten-million-dollar contracts. Then, right in front of his board and his mistress, I stripped off every designer thread he had ever paid for until I was standing in nothing but my own silk camisole. "You can keep the clothes, Adam. They're as hollow as you are." I grabbed my passport, turned my back on his billions, and walked out of that glass tower barefoot, bleeding, and finally free.

His Unwanted Wife, The World's Coveted Genius

Rumors said that Lucas married an unattractive woman with no background. In the three years they were together, he remained cold and distant to Belinda, who endured in silence. Her love for him forced her to sacrifice her self-worth and her dreams. When Lucas' true love reappeared, Belinda realized that their marriage was a sham from the start, a ploy to save another woman's life. She signed the divorce papers and left. Three years later, Belinda returned as a surgical prodigy and a maestro of the piano. Lost in regret, Lucas chased her in the rain and held her tightly. "You are mine, Belinda."