Ex Begs Back-After Letting Another Wolf Claim My Kid
I've spent years as the Blake pack's punching bag-all because of a lie about my dad.
Veronica, the she-wolf I once loved, the mother of my little Ivy, spat on me daily.
"You're a rogue," she'd snarl, slamming me into walls. "Ivy will never know you're her father."
Preston, that snake, made it worse.
He paid thugs to beat me, whispered lies to turn the pack against me.
But when Veronica locked me in a basement with rabid dogs?
That's when I knew I had to die-or fake it.
I chose the latter.
Now I'm free.
Camille's in my arms, our daughter Lila clinging to my leg, her laugh brighter than the moon.
But Veronica found me. "Owen, I love you," she sobbed, dragging me to a binding ceremony.
I stared at Camille, at Lila's sleeping face.
"Some wounds don't heal, pup."
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Chapter 1
"You're not my dad! Get your hands off me!" Ivy's shriek slices through the moonlit clearing, her tiny fists battering the forearm wrapped around her waist.
"Let go! " She twists violently
"My dad said you'd slink back, that you're a feral! A rogue with a hunger for cubs!"
My pup thrashes, her tiny fists swinging, her teeth sinking into my arm.
Blood trickles down, but I don't let go.
I can't let go.
I only get one day a year to see her, and every eight with her is worth the pain.
Ten years.
Ten damn years, and not a single day passes without me aching for her.
I don't blame her for hating me.
To her, I'm just a lowly wolf slaving for the Blake pack, a sinner in their eyes.
The pack's whispers follow me like a shadow-tales that me and my dad, Douglas, schemed to seduce the Blake she-wolf and her pup, all for their fortune.
It's a filthy lie, but lies stick like mud in this pack.
"You think you're slick, don't you?" Andrew Blake's roar shakes the pines
"Your dad went after my mom, and now she's dead, my dad's a husk, and you're happy with that?"
My fists clench at my sides, nails biting into my palms as I fight the surge of primal fury his presence stirs. "Andrew, it wasn't-"
"Save it! " He lunges forward, chest heaving.
"Your dad went after my mom, and now she's dead, my dad's a husk, and you're happy with that?"
Veronica, his sister, kneels by their father Kenneth's bedside, her eyes red from crying, glaring at me with a hatred that could burn through steel.
No matter how I plead, how I swear it's not true, she sees only a wolf who betrayed her pack.
They want to tear me apart, me and my dad, but then the healer drops a bombshell: Veronica's carrying my pup.
I beg her, tears streaming, to keep our pup. "
It's not the pup's fault," I say, my voice breaking. She looks at me like I'm dirt, then points to the eight-story window.
"Jump," she says.
"You jump, I'll keep the pup."
So I jump.
Break my rib in the fall, but I survive.
The day Ivy's born, I'm racing to the hospital, blood pouring that nearly ends me.
I'm barely conscious on the operating table when Veronica storms in, cradling our pup, her eyes cold as ice.
"Your dad killed my mom," she says.
"He turned my dad into a vegetable. You want this pup? Fine. She'll be the Blake pack's princess, but you? She'll never know you. You'll feel what it's like to lose family."
From that day, I've slaved for the Blake pack, doing the lowest, dirtiest work to stay near my pup and my dad, who's still trapped in that hospital bed, a shell of the wolf he was.
The torment never stops, each day a fresh hell.
But Veronica keeps her word-she doesn't take her hate for me out on Ivy.
Seeing my pup thrive, even if she doesn't know me, it's the only thing keeping me going.
If my dad did wrong, the suffering I've endured should've paid that debt ten times over.
I've been scraping together cash in secret.
One more month, and I'll have the papers to get me and Dad out of here, away from this pack's claws.
"Mom!" Ivy's voice snaps me back.
The door swings open, and Veronica glides in, her dress flowing like she's royalty.
"What are you doing here?" she snarls.
"Who let you in?"
I drop my gaze, unable to meet hers.
"It's my day to see her," I mumble.
"Her? You think a wolf like you deserves a pup?"
She's been drinking-her breath reeks of whiskey.
She grabs the back of my neck, her grip like iron, and drags me upstairs.
The door flies open, and she flings me to the floor.
My forehead slams into the bedpost, and pain blooms, blood pooling under the skin.
I glance up, cautious.
Kenneth lies in the bed, hooked to machines, the heart monitor beeping steadily.
Veronica's voice is venom.
"Look at him. Ten years, thanks to you and your dad. And you think you get to play happy family with your pup?"
"What about us?" she says, her voice shaking with rage.
"How do we get our family back?"
Her fist clenches, veins bulging.
I'm pale, practically begging.
"Veronica, please-listen." My voice cracks as she steps back. "My dad's no killer. He'd never break the truce. You know him."
Dad worked his tail off for decades, loyal as they come.
I can't believe he'd chase a mated she-wolf.
But Veronica laughs, a cold, bitter sound.
"You're still peddling that lie?" Veronica's laugh is a snarl, eyes flaring.
"My mom's car. Your dad half-dressed in the front seat. You gonna claim the moon framed him too?"
I open my mouth, but I've got no proof, so I bite my lip, silent.
Andrew bursts in, shouting.
"How dare you show your face here!" His snarl splits the air, and he shoves me-hard-sending me crashing into the oak. My shoulder throbs, but I bare my canines, hackles rising.
"Get out!" He advances, fists clenched, eyes blazing like embers. "My dad's got enough of your kind stinking up his territory. One whiff of your bloodline, and he'll tear you to shreds. Go. "
He spins on Veronica, canines bared. "Why let this wolf linger? His sire-why waste healer's tonics on him? Let the pair rot. Die."
Andrew and I once ran as brothers.
"Die?" Veronica's laugh is a low growl, eyes flaring.
"Too kind. I want them breathing. Want his dad whimpering through each moonrise, his son tasting shame with every howl. Suffering? It's their penance. Daily. Forever."
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8.0
For four years, Ember traced the bullet scar on Chace's chest, believing it proved his unwavering protection. Their anniversary gala was supposed to be the night he finally proposed, a symbol of their future. Instead, she stood frozen, watching him slide his mother's sapphire onto Karyn Warren's finger—the daughter of a rival family.
His voice, amplified by the silent ballroom, declared, "Karyn is for power. Ember is for pleasure. Don't confuse the assets." Her heart incinerated. Publicly humiliated, she was ordered to remain his mistress, threatened with her dead mother's grave. Chace, confident her father's debts trapped her, forced her from their shared penthouse.
He then used a fake "Help. Sick." text to lure Ember to a club, only to humiliate her further, calling her "loyal like a dog." Karyn ordered a soldier to "touch" Ember while Chace watched, indifferent. With no other choice, Ember drank a punishment cup containing wine she was severely allergic to.
She collapsed, suffocating on the club floor, as Chace and Karyn watched, annoyed. Waking in a sterile hospital room, her throat raw, she faced Chace's cold relief and Karyn's dismissive cruelty. The betrayal was absolute, the injustice sickening.
But moments before, in her despair, Ember had invoked a Blood Oath. She texted Keith Mosley, the ruthless Don, accepting his price for her father's debt: marriage. She would become his, and she was ready to pay.
8.1
One wardrobe malfunction.
Two people who don't belong together.
Three awful "Be my wife."
Everyone else is at this party to marry the host.
I'm only here until I can get a ride home.
When my dress rips in the world's worst-timed wardrobe malfunction,
I go find somewhere quiet to fix it.
So I'm standing there in nothing but my heels when,
As my luck would have it, the door opens...
And the man of the hour walks in.
I wish I could say I played it cool.
But it's been a looong time since anyone has seen me in my birthday suit...
Much less the hottest man I've ever laid eyes on.
All I want to do is fix my dress, click my heels three times, and be back on my couch in fuzzy slippers.
But Ivan has other ideas.
He's decided who he's taking to the altar...
And I don't have a choice but to say "I do."
8.1
I was sealing our wedding invitations with crimson wax when I heard my fiancé through the slightly ajar study door.
Ethan wasn't reciting the poetry he’d written for me over the last seven years. He was outlining the logistics of his betrayal.
"If I fake amnesia after the 'accident' tonight, I can delay the wedding without the family stopping the merger," Ethan laughed, ice clinking in his glass.
"And Ava? The Canary?" his friend asked.
"Ava is property. You maintain property; you don't have fun with it. While she plays nurse, I get a medical exemption to sleep with Chloe."
My world shattered. I fled into the rainy night, blinded by tears, until headlights turned my world upside down.
I woke up in the wreckage, my arm shattered, tasting blood. Ethan arrived moments later.
But he didn't run to me.
He stepped right over my bleeding body to comfort Chloe, who had a minor scratch on her forehead.
"I've got you, baby," he cooed to his mistress, looking at me with nothing but cold annoyance. "Don't worry about her. She's tough."
He left me in the street.
By the next morning, the narrative was set: The tragic Don had lost his memory of his fiancée, but miraculously remembered his 'true love,' Chloe. He evicted me from our penthouse while I was still in surgery.
He thought he had won. He thought the Canary would just die in the cold.
He forgot one thing. I knew where he hid the bodies—literally.
I walked into his staged public proposal, slammed my ring on the table, and left a note under it.
*I remember everything. And so do you.*
Then I boarded a plane with his secret incriminating journal in my bag. The empire was about to burn.
8.6
"This is wrong," I said, my voice rough and strained. "I'm your older brother... we can't do this." I tried to pull away from her, forcing some distance between us, but my body wouldn't cooperate. The pull toward her was too powerful, too deep in my bones.
She didn't let go. Instead, she tugged me closer, guiding me toward the bed. One of her soft hands pressed flat against my bare chest, right over my pounding heart, while her other arm wrapped around the back of my neck, holding me there.
Her eyes burned with hunger as she looked up at me. In a low, needy voice, she whispered, "Whether you believe you're my mate or not... I'm giving you my first everything tonight. All of me. Right now."
The words hit me like a shockwave. Every single inch of my body-my soul, my wolf-screamed the same thing over and over in my head: Mate. Mate. Mate. The instinct roared so loud it drowned out everything else, every rational thought, every rule I'd ever lived by.
I crashed my mouth against hers in a hungry, desperate kiss, claiming her completely. My hands gripped her waist, pulling her flush against me as I muttered against her lips, "And I don't care anymore about morals or rules or any of that bullshit. I'm the ruler of these lands... and you're mine. All mine."
I was completely crazy about her. Obsessed. Possessed. She was mine-every part of her-and nothing in the world was going to change that.
8.6
After sacrificing her own life to save a young billionaire, Anne became the wife of Edric Montray overnight. However, it was only a loveless contract marriage that would last two years, just until Edric's ex-girlfriend returned from studying abroad.
Anne thought she could melt Edric's cold heart, but all she received was icy resistance and words that pierced her like knives.
One passionate, mistaken night gave Anne a spark of hope, only for it to be crushed when Bella, Edric's ex, returned the very next day. Anne gave up, signed the divorce papers, and disappeared.
Unexpectedly, a car accident brought back the memories Anne had lost for three years!
From that day on, the woman named Anne completely vanished, the underworld welcomed back the long-lost Mafia Queen after three years!
Edric went mad searching for his ex-wife, only to spiral deeper into insanity when he saw a seductive, stunning woman with Anne's face... holding the hand of a little boy who looked exactly like him.
"Anne..."
"There is no more Anne."
The ex-wife, no, now known as Mary Salvaria, the Mafia Boss ruling the entire underworld of the Union State.
Edric, how will you win back the heart of this entirely new woman?
7.4
I was only fifteen when my venomous family orchestrated my doom by forcing me into an arranged marriage with mafia heir Javier Velasquez.
On our wedding night, Javier paraded strippers into our suite to show his absolute contempt, turning me into the ultimate joke of the underworld overnight.
But being a joke was a luxury compared to what came next.
Three years later, Javier needed to be a widower to marry into a heavily armed family and secure their backing for a coup.
He didn't grant me the mercy of a bullet.
Instead, he dragged me to an abandoned underground safehouse, locked me in the damp, rotting dark, and told the world I had been assassinated.
For six months, I starved in that dungeon, surviving only on the desperate hope that my family was safe.
Then, on the day of his lavish new wedding, a cruel maid kicked a plate of spoiled food onto my floor and delivered the final, fatal blow.
"Annabel is dead. Pined away and died of a broken heart two weeks ago."
My gentle mother was dead, all because she actually believed his lie about my tragic murder.
Driven by pure agony and an all-consuming hatred, I shattered crates of smuggled chemical solvents and struck a match, letting the roaring inferno turn their bloody wedding into my funeral pyre.
I thought the fire was the end.
But when I opened my eyes, the suffocating smoke vanished, replaced by the biting chill of a Long Island winter.
I was standing in the snow, back on the exact day my descent into hell began.
This time, the terrified girl was dead, and I would use their own ruthless rules to tear their empire apart.