Five Years as My Mate's Stand-In

I was secretly with Cole-my best friend Brooke's brother-for five years, only to find out I'd always been a stand-in for Alexis, my half-sister. He lied to me, took intimate photos of me without consent to share, and humiliated me publicly. Heartbroken, I ended things, took a job in Norlan Town, and even thought I was pregnant. Later, work brought me back to Belmor Town. I reunited with Gabriel, and kept dealing with Alexis's harassment. When my dad died from a sudden heart attack, grief pushed me to fight back-and Gabriel, who'd loved me quietly for years, stood by my side to take on the Price family. Gabriel and I formed a sacred bond. Even when Cole finally woke up, admitted he'd loved me all along, I couldn't go back.

Chapters

Chapter 2

The moment I unlock Cole's phone, my last shred of hope crumbles.

I stare at his lock screen wallpaper, frozen. It's blurry, like a cropped chunk of a graduation group photo. The she-wolf in it has a bright ponytail and a smile that lights up the frame. Her eyes? They're practically mine-seven or eight parts the same.

Of course they are. She's my half-sister, after all. Same mom, different dad.

My trembling fingers hover over the screen, ready to shut it off, when a notification pings. A message pops up in a group chat, and my blood runs cold.

"Yo, Cole just called Lauren 'Alexis' while hugging her. Nearly gave me a heart attack. Good thing I played it off, 'cause if Lauren finds out Cole's only with her to mess with Alexis, she'd probably lose it-crying, screaming, the whole deal."

"Gotta hand it to Cole, though. Dude's so gone for Alexis he's willing to stomach sleeping with an older she-wolf. How long's he gonna keep this up? Wasn't it supposed to be a quick fling?"

"Say what you want, Lauren's a bit older, sure, but her looks and figure? Top-tier. If Cole ever gets bored, can I call dibs?"

The group chat's a cesspool of vile comments about me. My hands shake so hard I can barely hold the phone. I try to exit the chat, but then someone drops a private photo into the group, followed by a voice message.

"Since you're all so curious about her figure, here's a little something to feast your eyes on."

The chat explodes.

"Holy-talk about spicy! But come on, you're gonna tease us with a blurred-out version? Be a wolf and share the real deal!"

"Seconded, drop the uncensored pic! Gotta say, Lauren seems all prim and proper, but damn, she's wild in bed. No wonder Cole's stuck around five years. That look on her face? I'm losing it."

"Go beg Cole for the original. I only got this censored one 'cause he didn't want to 'taint my eyes' when I bugged him for it."

"Cole's too real. Alexis, come on, let our boy make it official already. You know how much he loves you. Why keep testing him? If it wasn't for screwing with Lauren, you think he'd even glance her way?"

The words blur as my head buzzes, drowning out everything. I thought Cole was just using me as a stand-in for Alexis. But this? He's been plotting to destroy me for her. Those secret photos and videos of me, snapped without my knowledge, were just tools to keep Alexis entertained.

Why?

Alexis is the pup born from my mom's affair. My mom ditched my sick dad, abandoned me, and bound herself to another wolf. Yet somehow, everyone's on Alexis's side, tearing me apart.

I haven't done anything wrong.

My heart throbs with a dull ache. Tears spill over, and I swipe them away, grabbing my own phone to record the screen. Scrolling through the chat history, I see it's all there-months of them scheming to mess with me. Late-night calls to pick up Cole, only to get harassed by goons they set up. Getting him drunk during my cycle just to watch me grit my teeth and take shots for him while I'm in pain.

Every memory stabs like a boomerang, slicing deeper into my heart. I bite my lip so hard it bleeds, stifling the sobs clawing at my throat.

When I exit the chat, I spot Alexis's name pinned at the top. Her contact is labeled "Future Mate." Below it, my chat sits with a little "Do Not Disturb" icon.

I don't have time to dwell on it. All I want is to delete those stolen photos and videos. I scour every app, every folder, but find nothing. I tell myself maybe it's just that one picture.

Setting the phone back on the nightstand, a hollow chill settles in my chest. No wonder he kept dodging when I wanted to tell Brooke about us after things felt solid. What I thought was love was just me being a desperate placeholder.

My phone rings, shattering the silence of the night. I slap my hand over the speaker and slip out to the living room balcony to answer.

My boss's voice crackles through. "Lauren, you thought about that offer? The branch office needs wolves like you. It's a tough gig starting out, but you're more than capable of running the show as manager."

"Michael, I'm in," I say, my voice steady despite everything. "Give me three weeks to wrap things up here."

Continue to next part

After her fated mate brutally rejects her to favor his mistress, a heartbroken werewolf must navigate the painful fallout of a broken bond. Cast aside and humiliated, she struggles to reclaim her dignity while facing the harsh realities of pack politics. As betrayal turns her world upside down, she discovers an inner strength she never knew existed. In a journey of survival and self-discovery, she must decide if she will sink or rise against those who wronged her.

Action Romance Werewolf

9.4

Ashton's Betrayal, Her Unyielding Vengeance

9.4

I spent a decade as Ashton Maxwell' s shadow, building his empire and warming his bed, only for him to announce his engagement to a senator's daughter right in front of me. When assassins struck that night, he didn't just choose her; he used my body as a human shield against a grenade and then shot me himself to prove his loyalty to her family. I survived, reinvented myself as Grecia Munoz, and returned to burn his world to the ground, eventually forcing him to hand over his entire empire in a desperate plea for forgiveness. He promised to disappear so I could find peace with a kind doctor named Garrick. But Ashton' s definition of love was a sickness. To "protect" me from what he called a weakness, he secretly destroyed Garrick' s career and reputation, driving the only innocent man I ever loved to jump off a bridge. He thought this would drive me back into his arms, into the safety of the monster he created. Instead, I drove to the Hamptons, to the pristine dream home he had built for our future. He knelt before me, begging for understanding, claiming he did it all for us. I didn't offer forgiveness. I raised the pistol he had once given me, aimed at the heart I had already broken, and ended the nightmare once and for all.

Action Modern Mystery

7.7

Betrayed, I Married the Feared Cripple

7.7

Three days after my fiancé publicly dumped me for my stepsister, the Supreme Don issued a command that silenced the entire estate. I wasn't being cast aside. I was being sold to Damien Russo. The "Broken Don." A crippled, scarred monster rumored to have murdered his last two wives. My adoptive mother, Elena, didn't cry for me. She smirked. To her, I was finally being disposed of. She was so confident I was walking to my death that she decided to loot my corpse before I even left. She forged documents to steal my entire inheritance—my biological mother’s trust fund—to pay for my stepsister’s lavish wedding to my ex. "She won't need money where she's going," my stepsister laughed, wearing a dress bought with my stolen funds. They thought they were sending a lamb to the slaughter. They thought I was too weak, too stupid, and too afraid of the monster to fight back. But they made a fatal mistake. With my aunt’s help, I didn't just find the proof of their embezzlement; I found a weapon. I’m not running from the monster. I’m going to marry him. And when I hand him the evidence that the Herrera family stole from his bride, he won't be my executioner. He will be my vengeance.

Action Mafia Romance

7.4

Futuristic Corporate War Zone

7.4

In a city where data is power and truth is a weapon, some secrets are worth killing for. Mara Quinn is a ghost in the system, an underground journalist known only as Cipher, feared by corporations and hunted by those with everything to lose. When she breaches a classified network inside Axiom Industries, she uncovers something no one was meant to see: ORACLE, a predictive AI capable of shaping human behavior on a global scale. She expects retaliation. She doesn't expect Kael Draven. Cold, brilliant, and untouchable, Kael is the architect behind Axiom's empire, and a man who doesn't make threats he can't execute. Instead of silencing Mara, he offers her a choice: work under his watch, or disappear from existence entirely. Trapped inside his glass fortress known as The Spire, Mara is pulled deeper into a world of surveillance, manipulation, and power plays that stretch far beyond anything she imagined. But ORACLE isn't just a tool, it's already been used. Governments have fallen. Empires have shifted. And someone else is pulling the strings. As a rival syndicate closes in and a hidden war erupts across the city, Mara and Kael are forced into an uneasy alliance, one built on intellect, suspicion, and a dangerous, undeniable pull neither of them can ignore. Because in a world where every move is predicted... the only thing more dangerous than control is feeling. And the system is already watching.

Action Modern Sci-Fi

7.1

His Dangerous Touch

7.1

Aurora Andrews has never known a life free from pain. Orphaned and left in the care of her cruel uncle and aunt, she endured years of abuse that taught her the safest place was in the shadows. But even in college, her silence couldn't shield her from the cruelty of her peers. Just as she reaches her breaking point, fate intervenes in the form of Alexander Mark, the powerful and enigmatic CEO of the Vanguard Group company. Alexander saves her from a nightmare, but one impulsive, accidental night binds their fates together. When the morning light comes, he leaves her with a heartless dismissal, assuming she is just another gold digger looking for a payout. But Aurora carries a secret more precious than anything. Forced to drop out of school to protect her unborn baby, Aurora fights to survive in a world that wants to break her. But the shadows of her past are closing in; what will happen when her abusive aunt and uncle discover she is pregnant? And what will become of her when Alexander Mark walks back into her life, unaware of the child growing in her womb? He left her thinking she was a whore. But the truth is far more dangerous. When their paths inevitably cross again, will he accept the child as his own? Or will he destroy the only chance Aurora has at a happy ending? "I'm not a whore, I promise you, Sir. I just wanted to save you... and nothing else."

Action Billionaire Modern

7.2

Pregnant Oracle: The CEO's Most Dangerous Mistake

7.2

I stared at the ceiling tiles of the sterile clinic, counting water stains to keep from screaming. The IVF transfer was complete, but the nurse didn’t call me a mother—she called the life inside me an "asset" for Caldwell Holdings. When I walked into my husband Alexander’s office to demand a divorce, he didn't even look up from his desk. He just laughed, shredded my legal papers, and told me I was nothing more than a high-end broodmare for his inheritance. The nightmare only deepened from there. To keep me in line, Alexander fabricated evidence of an affair to destroy my reputation. When I tried to run, he revealed he controlled the facility where my sister was on life support, threatening to pull the plug if I didn't submit. "One phone call, and her ventilator stops," he whispered. Even my own parents turned against me, demanding I apologize to Alexander’s mistress just to secure their next business merger. I was a prisoner in my own life, trapped between a husband who wanted to own me and a family that had already sold me. I couldn't understand why everyone was so obsessed with this pregnancy until I saw the fear in Alexander's eyes when his uncle, the powerful Harrison Sterling, started showing up at my door. I finally hacked into the clinic’s high-security database and found the truth. There had been a catastrophic lab breach the day of my procedure. The donor wasn't some anonymous third party. I wasn't carrying my husband's child. I was carrying his uncle's heir. As Alexander sent a hitman to stage a fatal "accident" on the Manhattan Bridge, I realized the war had just begun. This time, I wasn't just fighting for my life—I was holding the nuclear leverage that would burn the Caldwell empire to the ground.

Action Modern Romance

Five Years as My Mate's Stand-In

Chapter 2

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