Contract Over: I Rejected My Alpha Husband First
When her father fled with his mistress, leaving crushing debts behind, Freya Gilbert had nowhere to turn. Crashing Alpha Jonas's welcome ceremony in desperation, she never expected to find her fated mate there. But it wasn't gentle Jonas who made her wolf howl "mate." It was the dangerous, devastatingly powerful Niklaus Lockwood.
One scorching night of passion sealed her fate.
Niklaus already had his perfect chosen mate, the elegant Rebekah. Unwilling to abandon his plans, he offered Freya a cold business deal: be his contract Luna for three years, play the perfect wife in public, and he'd clear her debts. When their arrangement expired, she'd accept his rejection and disappear quietly.
Freya thought she could survive a loveless marriage. She was wrong.
Three years later, she's fallen hopelessly for the Alpha who sees her as nothing more than a gold-digging Omega. On their anniversary night, the very day their contract expires, Niklaus chooses Rebekah.
The message couldn't be clearer.
But when Freya files for divorce and moves out first, Niklaus's carefully controlled world shatters. The mate bond he's suppressed for years, and he never expected his obedient, compliant wife to actually leave him.
"I, Freya Gilbert, reject you, Niklaus Lockwood."
The words that should have set them both free only ignite a fire that threatens to consume them both.
Can a love born from a business contract survive the flames of pride and betrayal? Or will the most powerful Alpha in the territory lose his true mate because he was too blind to see what was right in front of him?
When the contract ends, the real battle for love begins.
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Chapter 4
Freya found herself surrounded by sneering packmates. Their faces showed clear contempt as they moved closer.
"The demoted omega," someone said mockingly.
"Pathetic little runt," another voice added.
She attempted to escape, but hands pushed her back to the center. Her breathing became rapid as panic seized her.
Jonas appeared through the crowd with worried brown eyes and extended his hand. "Freya, come with me."
Before she could reach for him, everything changed. She stood outside her family home alone. Court officials were posting foreclosure notices on the door. Papers listing debts covered the ground.
"You won't be homeless. I'll give you a home," a cold voice stated behind her.
She turned to see icy blue eyes staring at her. They were nothing like Jonas's warm ones. These eyes belonged to someone powerful and dangerous.
Freya woke with a sharp gasp. Her heart pounded violently. The surroundings confused her momentarily. Then she heard water running, and last night's memories returned.
The party. The mate bond. Alpha Niklaus bringing her to his suite.
She held the sheets against her chest. Her body felt pleasantly sore. Heat rose to her face as she recalled his touch and how his body had felt.
After they made love, he was gentle. He cleaned her up, held her close, and whispered soft words. Before her father's scandal, she never imagined catching an Alpha's attention like Niklaus. He wasn't Jonas, her expected mate, but perhaps the Moon Goddess knew better.
"Vicki, what should I say to him?" she whispered to her wolf.
"Be strong. Don't show fear, "Vicki responded.
The bathroom door opened. Steam poured out as Niklaus stepped out with a towel wrapped around his waist. Water still clung to his muscled chest. His wet hair was pushed back, emphasizing his sharp features.
His expression made her stomach sink. Last night's passion had faded completely. His blue eyes were cold, his jaw rigid.
Freya pulled the sheet higher, feeling suddenly vulnerable.
"Good morning," she said carefully.
He ignored the greeting. Instead, he walked to a chair and sat down. Even wearing only a towel, he radiated authority.
"Let's be direct," he said without emotion. "Name your price."
"What do you mean?" Freya asked, confused.
"I'm going to reject you," he stated plainly. "Last night was an error. My wolf, Flex, lost control when he sensed our bond. I brought you here to talk, but things went too far."
This wasn't the whole truth. Niklaus had planned to reject the mate bond quietly when he first felt it. Flex had reacted violently to that idea. But everything afterward, every touch and kiss, had been his decision. He had wanted her, even while telling himself he shouldn't.
"I'm willing to be generous," he continued in a matter-of-fact tone. "Name your price for accepting my rejection. We can both move forward."
Freya felt as if he had struck her. She thought after last night, he would accept her as his mate. But he still wanted to reject her. His sudden change caught her off guard, leaving bitterness in her heart. Her family had abandoned her, and now her fated mate was rejecting her. Once, she might have accepted the rejection quietly, grateful for any money he offered.
But not anymore.
Her current situation couldn't be solved with money. Her house faced repossession. After last night's scene, rumors were spreading through the pack. If she accepted Niklaus's rejection, she would become the center of a scandal. She had already disrupted Jonas's welcome ceremony. The pack would never forgive that. They would banish her, making her packless. No werewolf survived well as a rogue.
"No," she said quietly.
Niklaus looked surprised. "No?"
"I won't accept your rejection." Her voice grew stronger. "I can't."
He leaned forward, his eyes becoming dangerous. "What do you mean, you can't? "
"I want to be your Luna, in name only." she said, raising her chin.
Niklaus laughed harshly. The sound was mocking. "You want to be my Luna? You're just another gold digger."
"That's not true."
"Absolutely not," he interrupted, standing quickly. "Do you understand how ridiculous that sounds? I already have a chosen mate. She's accomplished, well bred, perfect for Luna. Last night was a mistake. My wolf responding to the mate bond. Nothing more."
Freya winced but remained firm. "I understand you don't want me, but I need this," she admitted. She hated sounding desperate. "My father left me with only debts. I'm losing everything."
"That's not my problem," he said coldly.
"What if we made a deal?" she asked, finding her courage.
Niklaus raised an eyebrow. "What kind of deal?"
"A contract marriage," she suggested. "Three years. I'll be your Luna in name only. I'll handle pack affairs and play the role publicly. You can find your chosen mate after the contract ends. I'll accept your rejection then without questions."
"Why would I agree to this charade?"
"Because rejecting a fated mate is scandalous, even for an Alpha," she explained. "The pack will gossip. Your reputation will suffer. This way, you get time to prepare and control the story however you want."
Niklaus raised an eyebrow. This woman was indeed clever. She was actually convincing him. But he didn't like keeping women around when her affections lay elsewhere.
Niklaus opened his mouth to refuse when a his mother sent a mind-link.
"Niklaus! Is it true?" His mother's voice filled his head.
He grimaced and turned away from Freya.
"Mother, this isn't a good time," he replied.
"So you did find your mate! I've been hearing rumors all morning. The Frostwood Pack's Beta daughter? Why haven't you brought her home yet?"
Niklaus rubbed his damp hair in frustration. "It's complicated. What about Rebekah?"
"Rebekah left for Europe last night," Margaret informed him. "She packed her bags and took the first flight out. Honestly, son, you never had real feelings for her anyway. She was the Council's choice, not yours."
His mother spoke the truth. As the Alpha of the Whitecrown Pack, finding a Luna was his duty. At 26, the pressure had grown stronger. The Council had presented Rebekah as the perfect candidate. She was beautiful, accomplished, from good bloodlines. He had agreed more from obligation than desire.
"A fated mate is a blessing from the Moon Goddess herself," his mother continued. "You'd be foolish to reject such a gift. Bring her home, Niklaus. I want to meet her."
Before he could respond, his mother ended the mind-link.
Niklaus turned back to Freya, who sat waiting on the bed. Despite her vulnerable position, her green eyes showed determination. Flex moved restlessly inside him, growling at the thought of rejection.
"She's OURS," Flex snarled.
Niklaus told his wolf to be quiet, but the pull toward her was undeniable. He studied her more carefully. The delicate curve of her neck. The soft golden hair falling over her shoulders. Those full lips that had moaned his name hours ago.
Maybe a temporary arrangement wouldn't be terrible. It would satisfy the Council, calm his wolf for now, and give him time to find a permanent solution.
"Three years," he finally said. "No more. After that, we divorce, and you accept my rejection. No drama, no demands."
Freya's eyes widened slightly, as if she hadn't expected his agreement. "Yes."
"And during those three years, you'll act as my Luna completely. Handle pack affairs, attend functions, maintain appearances."
She nodded.
"One more thing," he added, his voice becoming harder. "This stays between us. No one else knows about this arrangement. As far as everyone knows, we're a regular mated pair."
"I understand," she whispered.
Niklaus walked to the closet and pulled out fresh clothes. "Get dressed. We're going to my pack house today. My mother is expecting us."
As he turned his back to her, he wondered if he had just made the biggest mistake of his life.
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9.3
Born into privilege, Eleanor never imagined her life could shatter in a single night. Then her father disappeared with his mistress, her mother fell from a building and slipped into a coma, and everything she once owned turned to dust.
Determined not to ruin Jonathan's future with her family's disgrace, she ended their relationship and became the bride of a man trapped in a vegetative state.
She believed that was the last time their paths would cross. But two years later, Jonathan pinned her in the dark and whispered, "Long time no see, my sister-in-law."
7.6
To pay for her father's life support, Haleigh sold herself into a marriage with Fabian Blackburn, a ruthless billionaire in a deep coma.
But on her wedding day, she caught her boyfriend cheating with her stepsister, laughing about how they would steal the inheritance the second Fabian stopped breathing. Cornered and desperate, Haleigh secretly underwent IVF using her comatose husband's frozen sperm to secure the family trust.
Weeks later, a miracle happened. Fabian woke up.
But instead of gratitude, he treated her like trash. He threw annulment papers at her face, completely disgusted by the arranged marriage.
"If you try any dirty tricks to get pregnant, I will personally drag you to a clinic and have that bastard scraped out of you."
Terrified, Haleigh hid her positive pregnancy test and desperately tried to hack her way to enough cash to escape. But while using his computer, she accidentally opened a highly classified folder.
Inside was a medical file and a photo of a severely disabled girl who looked exactly like Fabian.
Before she could process it, Fabian walked in. Seeing the screen, his cold mask shattered into pure, unhinged madness. He lunged across the room, lifting her off the floor by her throat, completely ignoring her desperate gasps for air.
"Lock her in the basement," he roared to his guards. "No food. No water."
Curled on the freezing concrete, clutching her newly pregnant belly, Haleigh didn't understand what she had just seen that turned him into a murderous monster.
But she knew one thing: if she didn't escape this terrifying estate, both she and his unborn heir would die in the dark.
8.5
For five years, I was tech billionaire Alden Maxwell' s secret. A pretty accessory on his arm, a deal I made to save my father' s life. I played my part, quietly planning my escape for the day our contract ended.
But then his first love, Amanda, came back.
At a lavish auction, he spent ten million dollars to outbid me for my own mother' s heirloom bangle, only to place it on Amanda' s wrist, calling it a "token of his undying affection."
Later, he told me I was just practice. A "little bird" he could use to learn how to be gentle before he went back to his true love.
That' s when the last of my foolish hope died. I was never a person to him, just a transaction he could buy and discard.
So I disappeared. I took a five-year, off-grid research position and cut all ties. When he finally tracked me down, begging me to name my price, I faced him through the sterile glass of the facility and gave him my final answer.
"We' re done."
9.5
Bridget left the office early on her anniversary, her pocket heavy with a custom velvet ring box meant for her fiancé.
But when she pushed open the bedroom door, she found him tangled in their bed with her best friend, Chloe.
"Bridget! Wait, it's not what it looks like!" Jacob stammered, his eyes wide with panic.
"Evidence," Bridget stated coldly, snapping a photo of their naked bodies before fleeing into the freezing New York night.
Desperate to numb the betrayal, she got blackout drunk at an underground lounge and threw herself at a dark, terrifyingly handsome stranger.
She woke up in a penthouse suite alone, finding only a limitless black credit card left on the nightstand.
Humiliated and feeling like a cheap escort, she ran away, swearing to forget the nightmare.
But the nightmare had just begun. When she rushed into the office, she discovered the stranger was Jevon Rocha—the ruthless billionaire CEO of her company.
He didn't fire her. Instead, he trapped her in a twisted, obsessive power game, forcing her into his private life and demanding she report to his penthouse.
Bridget couldn't understand why a ruthless billionaire was so dangerously fixated on a low-level employee.
Until she stumbled upon his secret social media account and saw a crayon drawing of a little kid, captioned with a single word: "Finally."
A wave of absolute horror washed over her. He wasn't just playing games; he was hiding a secret child and a messy, high-stakes family drama.
She refused to be the naive collateral damage in a billionaire's twisted life.
Trembling, Bridget hit "Block" on his profile, determined to escape his dangerous web.
7.2
I spent my whole life trying to fit into the "Kensington aesthetic," dyeing my hair blonde and playing dumb just to earn a crumb of my father's approval. But when the manor went up in flames, I realized I was never a daughter to them-I was just an inconvenience.
I lay pinned under a heavy oak beam, the smell of copper and burnt sugar filling my lungs. My father, Arthur, stood in the doorway with my brothers, looking like a phalanx of saviors, but their eyes weren't on me.
They rushed past my outstretched, bloody hand to save my sister, Karly, who was huddled in a corner without a scratch on her. My brother Archer scooped her up like spun glass, stepping over my crushed leg without a second glance. Just before they crossed the threshold, Karly looked back at me and smiled-a small, victorious, terrifying smile. My father didn't offer help; he just shouted that I was an arsonist and slammed the door, sentencing me to burn alive in my own bedroom.
As the crystal chandelier melted and crashed toward me, I didn't feel fear anymore. I felt a guttural, distilled hate for the family that left me to die because of a lie. I had spent my life begging for scraps at a table that was never meant for me, and I died realizing they never loved me at all.
"If I come back," I promised into the void, "I will burn you all down."
I gasped for air and woke up in my bed, the smell of lavender replacing the smoke. It was September 14th, five years before the fire, the exact week I had started ruining myself to please them. I looked in the mirror, scrubbed off the pathetic makeup mask, and realized the old, desperate Kala was dead. If I was going to burn, I'd make sure they were the ones who felt the heat first.
"Queen is back online," I whispered.
9.5
Zara grew up with nothing but resilience and ambition. Raised in an orphanage, she fought her way into the corporate world, believing education would be her salvation and love her reward. When she married Dante, a powerful CEO, she thought she had finally found both.
She was wrong.
Behind closed doors, Zara's marriage became a nightmare of cruelty, betrayal, and calculated malice. Stripped of her career, manipulated through her own child, and nearly killed by the very family she married into, Zara is forced to face a devastating truth: she was never meant to survive.
When she walks away from everything with no money, no protection, and only her dignity Zara makes one promise: she will return.
What she doesn't expect is to uncover a shocking secret about her past one that reveals she was stolen as a child, her life destroyed by a conspiracy rooted in greed and revenge. Reclaimed by her real family and armed with power she never knew was hers, Zara rises from the ashes stronger than ever.
This time, she isn't fighting for love.
She's fighting for justice.
And revenge will be delicious.