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.
Chapters
Share
Chapter 9
Freya answered with a deep breath.
"What do you want?"
"Get in the car, Freya," Niklaus commanded, his voice glacial. "This childish game ends now."
"Game?" She laughed bitterly. "Is that what you think this is?"
"You've made your point. Now it's time to come home."
"That's not my home anymore." Freya's jaw clenched.
"You have two options," Niklaus continued as if she hadn't spoken. "Either Daniel brings you back to the pack house where you belong, or you can try surviving without any of our resources. Your choice."
"Our resources?" Freya repeated incredulously. "You mean the resources you're cutting me off from? The credit cards you've frozen? The hotel room you just had me evicted from?"
"You didn't think I'd let you use my money to fund your little rebellion, did you?"
His voice dripped with smugness. "Be realistic, Freya. Where will you go? What will you do? You've been playing Luna for three years--you have no job, no income."
Anger flared hot in Freya's chest. "You think I'm completely dependent on you? That I can't survive without your money or protection?"
"I think you're being stubborn and irrational," Niklaus said, his voice hardening. "Either you come home willingly, or I'll come get you myself."
"Try it," she challenged, ending the call before he could respond.
Daniel fidgeted awkwardly beside the car. "Luna Freya, please. The Alpha is only concerned for your safety."
"No, Daniel." Freya forced a tight smile. "And I'm not Luna Freya anymore. Tell your Alpha that from now on, I'm just Freya Gilbert."
She turned and walked away.
Her phone buzzed with text messages from Niklaus, each more threatening than the last.
Ignoring them, she checked her missed calls. Three were from Fiona, her best friend and owner of Azure Gallery.
"Where the hell have you been?" Fiona asked straight out. "I've been trying to reach you all night!"
"It's a long story," Freya sighed, flagging down a taxi.
"Can I crash at your place?" Freya asked. "For a while. Niklaus got me kicked out of my hotel and I doubt any other hotel in the city will take me."
"What a petty asshole," Fiona growled. "Of course you can stay. But that's not why I called."
"What's up?" Freya asked curiously.
"Good news. Huge news," Fiona said mysteriously. "We're definitely celebrating when you get here."
Freya hung up and got in the cab. Daniel's car followed her the entire way, but she ignored it.
Getting out, she grabbed her suitcase from the trunk and accidentally cut her hand on a sharp edge.
It bled but wasn't serious.
Fiona lived on the 17th floor. Knowing she was coming, she'd left the door open.
When Freya walked in with her suitcase, Fiona jumped--she hadn't mentioned luggage on the phone.
She looked like a runaway.
Fiona took the suitcase from her.
"If you'd told me about the luggage, I could've helped you carry it up... Oh my god, what happened to your hand?"
Seeing Fiona frantically searching for a first aid kit, Freya stopped her. "It's fine. It'll heal fast."
"Your hands are made of gold! Can't you be more careful? Pianists practically keep their hands in safety deposit boxes."
Freya laughed despite everything. The darkness of the past few days lifted a little. "This won't affect anything."
After settling in, Freya sat on Fiona's couch. "So what's this big news you couldn't tell me over the phone?"
Fiona pulled a bottle of red wine from the fridge and poured two glasses. "First, let's celebrate you getting out of that mess!"
They clinked glasses and Freya took a sip. Those three years as contract Luna had been exhausting.
Fiona sat beside Freya. "Edward Bravy was in the gallery today."
Freya sat up straighter. "Edward Bravy? The Edward Bravy? Head of Bravy Studios?"
"The very same," Fiona confirmed, excitement evident in her voice. "He was looking at your paintings, the ones under the name 'F', and he was absolutely blown away. Kept asking who the artist was, said he'd been trying to track you down for years."
"What did you tell him?" Freya asked, her heart racing.
"Nothing yet. I said I'd try to reach the artist, but wanted to talk to you first. Freya, he wants to offer you a position at his studio. This is huge!"
A position at Bravy Studios. Every serious artist dreamed of working there--for the resources, mentorship, exposure to the right collectors and critics. It was everything Freya had wanted before her life had been derailed by debt and desperation.
"Did he leave his contact information?" Freya asked, hardly daring to hope.
"Better. He's coming back Thursday afternoon. Said he'd wait all day if necessary." Fiona paused. "This could be your ticket to a whole new life, Frey. A life where you don't need Alpha Niklaus."
Independence, freedom--the chance to be valued for her talent rather than her status as an Alpha's mate.
Vicki stirred inside her. "Maybe this is your chance."
"Yes," Freya murmured. "I think it is."
"I'll be there," Freya promised. "What time?"
"Two o'clock. And Frey? Wear something fabulous. This is your moment."
***
Outside the hospital room, Niklaus read Daniel's text message with growing disbelief.
[Luna Freya didn't return home. She's staying at a friend's place.]
He had frozen her cards.
He had made sure no hotel in the city would take her.
She was supposed to have nowhere else to go.
A friend?
Niklaus stared at his phone. Freya had friends? In three years of marriage, she'd never mentioned anyone. Male or female?
His wolf Flex whined miserably in his mind. Their mate was rejecting them, and lately Flex had been growing more despondent by the day.
Niklaus immediately texted his beta, Dale, find out whose place she's staying at. Now.
"Niklaus?"
A soft voice called from the hospital room. He turned to see Rebekah looking at him with worried eyes.
"Is everything okay? You look upset." She bit her lip nervously. "Is Freya angry that you've been here with me? The doctor says I'll be discharged soon."
"No," Niklaus said quickly. "Just work stuff."
He cleared his throat. "When is your manager coming to look after you?"
"Hannah should be here any minute."
Rebekah shifted closer to him, her voice trembling. "What if I can never dance again?"
Guilt crashed over him. She'd gotten hurt trying to save Freya. Maybe she'd never dance again because of that.
"Don't worry about it," he said softly. "Whatever you want to do, my company can help you."
"Thank you so much." Rebekah moved to hug him.
Niklaus went rigid but didn't push her away.
Just then, Hannah walked in.
"Am I interrupting something?" Hannah asked playfully.
Rebekah blushed and let go of his arm.
"I should go," Niklaus said immediately, stepping back.
As he reached the door, his phone buzzed. A text from Beta Dale.
[Luna Freya's staying with Fiona Martinez, owner of Azure Gallery. ]
Niklaus stopped in his tracks. Azure Gallery? Why did that name sound familiar?
You may also like
8.6
Seven nights with the devil to pay a debt. One truth that will burn the world down.
Sienna Blackwood was never part of the deal until her step-brother gambled with her life to save his own.
Now, she is collateral in a brutal game of revenge. The collector is Dante Moretti, a billionaire with a fifteen-year grudge and a thirst for Blackwood blood.
He doesn't want her money; he demands seven nights of her total surrender.
But in the shadows of a Manhattan penthouse, hatred turns into a lethal obsession. When a syndicate ambush forces them to flee, the contract becomes a race for survival across the Atlantic.
Hunted for the three-year-old secret heir in their arms, Sienna and Dante must navigate a world of blood oaths and forced alliances.
In a game where every kiss is a tactical error, Sienna must decide: is her step-brother's rival the monster who shattered her life, or the only man who can save it?
7.6
When Christine Woods collapses into a hospital bed from unbearable pain, her husband's response is colder than the IV dripping into her veins: "Stop pretending to be sick."
That same night, a single social media post shatters her marriage--Neil Caffery, intimate with the first love he once claimed was dead.
Three years of marriage. Three years of neglect, indifference, and quiet self-deception.
In that moment, Christine finally understands the truth: she was never a wife--only a substitute.
Not wanting to live as a substitute any longer, she divorced her husband.
After divorce, Christine started her new life, achieving success both in career and love.
Seeing her so radiant and successful, her scumbag husband beg her to come back.
"Hazel, I know I was wrong. Please come back."
However, before Christine could respond, the country's richest man kicked him and held Christine's waist, "Who are you? Stop pestering my wife!"
His voice was cold, his presence imposing.
Christine looked at him and snorted, "When did I agree to marry you?"
"Baby, are you still angry about last night? I promise, I will be gentle next time." The man said, looking at her playfully.
Christine hit his chest playfully, her face turning red.
9.1
Leo Vance builds things that last. Bridges. Buildings. A quiet, unspoken life with the woman he loves. What he has never been able to build is the courage to name what they are.
On the morning of his wedding to botanical illustrator Elara Ashford, Leo stands in a chapel in a suit he cannot bring himself to fully button, and realizes something that stops him cold - he has already been married to her. Not in any courtroom or ceremony, but in every moment that actually counted. The night she held his hand at his mother's funeral and said nothing, because nothing was the right thing to say. The years they ate ramen so he could chase a dream she believed in before he did. The night she stood in the doorway during their worst fight and looked him in the eye and refused to let him run.
He has said I do a thousand times in a thousand unspoken ways.
So why does saying it out loud feel like the beginning of the end?
What Leo doesn't know is that Elara has been sitting with her own impossible question for three weeks - ever since she found a note in his jacket pocket that made her wonder whether the man she is about to marry proposed because he chose her, or because someone told him he was about to lose her.
What neither of them knows is that the woman he was secretly engaged to four years ago just walked into the venue. His best man is in love with his bride. His estranged father is standing outside in a rented suit, unable to go in. And the wedding videographer has been filming everything - with two cameras.
By the time the officiant asks who gives this woman, nothing about this wedding will have gone according to the blueprint.
But then again, the most important things Leo has ever built never did.
Every Vow But One is a lux serialized romance about the terrifying distance between loving someone completely and choosing them on purpose and what it can cost when you finally close the gap.
8.4
Everly spent four years playing the perfect, accommodating wife to Carson Moss, swallowing every grievance just to secure medical treatments for their sick daughter.
But at a high-society banquet she exhausted herself organizing, Carson's pregnant mistress crashed the party.
The woman shoved an ultrasound of Carson's "real heir" directly into Everly's frail grandfather's face.
The shock triggered a massive heart attack.
Carson refused to use his private helicopter to save the dying old man, choosing to protect his mistress and his company's IPO instead. Her grandfather died on the hospital table.
Instead of remorse, her mother-in-law demanded Everly publicly cover up the murder.
"You will do exactly as I say, or I will freeze every single cent of the medical trust fund paying for your crippled daughter's treatments."
When a battered Everly returned to the estate, she discovered her three-year-old daughter covered in dark bruises and pinch marks. Her in-laws were deliberately torturing her disabled child.
Everly couldn't comprehend how a family could be so utterly heartless. Her only family was murdered, her child was abused, and her husband threw a five-million-dollar check at her face as hush money.
They thought she would just break and quietly disappear.
But when a terrifyingly powerful billionaire unexpectedly blocked Carson's security team from locking her up, Everly finally saw her window.
She grabbed her sleeping daughter and ran out into the freezing storm, making a blood-bound vow to make the entire Moss family bleed.
8.5
Kaelyn spent three years believing Andrew loved her completely, until one overheard conversation shattered everything.
He had never returned for her. He had come back to save another woman, even if it meant taking Kaelyn's heart.
Humiliated and done with loving alone, she agreed to marry Theodore, the blind yet powerful heir chosen by his grandfather.
After the wedding, no matter how many times she tried, she just couldn't get past his walls.
Then at a banquet, her desperate ex came begging. Before Kaelyn could react, Theodore drew her into his arms and murmured, "Giving up already? Try again. I'm ready to surrender."
8.8
She married the devil. Then she divorced him. Now she carries his child.
All Isabella Lorenzo wanted was to protect her family, and she thought marrying the ruthless and feared Luca Moretti... heir to the Moretti crime empire would be enough, but she was wrong. Instead of protection, her father was brutally executed and her heart left shattered in a million pieces.
Two years later, she has managed to move on from the past and rebuild her life in the shadows. Every feeling of emotion was buried in her past, but they soon reignite after a reckless night with a masked stranger... a stranger that happens to be Luca Moretti.
Now she's pregnant, and Luca will do anything to get her back.
But forgiveness is not something that exists in her heart anymore... will she be able to fully heal, or will her urge for revenge burn everything down?