Married to the Man I Hate
She never imagined love would begin with a marriage she didn't want.
Forced into a union to save her family, Elena promised herself one thing, she would never love her husband.
But the man she hated was nothing like she expected...
And the heart she tried to protect slowly betrayed her.
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Chapter 7
The morning after our conversation in the garden felt different.
Not lighter. Not heavier. Just... changed.
I woke with a strange awareness in my chest, as though something fragile had settled there overnight. The words Adrian had spoken echoed in my mind-We'll move slowly. Carefully. Together.
I didn't know what that meant for us yet, but for the first time, I wasn't afraid of the uncertainty.
When I stepped into the kitchen, Adrian was already there. He looked up immediately, as if he had been waiting. Our eyes met, and for a brief moment, neither of us spoke.
"Good morning," he said finally, his voice softer than usual.
"Good morning," I replied.
There was no awkwardness, no forced distance. Just a quiet understanding, delicate and new.
"I have an event today," he said as he poured coffee. "A charity luncheon. It's... expected that my wife attends."
My heart skipped. "Oh."
"I don't want to pressure you," he added quickly. "If you're not comfortable-"
"I'll go," I said, surprising both of us.
He paused, studying my face. "Are you sure?"
I nodded slowly. "Yes. I think... I think I want to."
Something unreadable flickered across his expression-relief, perhaps, or gratitude. "Alright," he said gently. "We'll go together."
Together.
The word lingered.
---
The preparations were overwhelming. A stylist arrived, followed by a makeup artist. I felt out of place, standing in the middle of a world so polished and unfamiliar. But Adrian never left my side. He didn't rush me. He didn't command. He simply stayed close, grounding me.
When I finally looked at myself in the mirror, I barely recognized the woman staring back. The dress was elegant but simple, soft blue that matched the calm I was trying to hold onto. My hair fell in loose waves, my makeup light and natural.
"You look beautiful," Adrian said quietly from behind me.
I turned, startled-not by the compliment, but by the sincerity in his voice.
"Thank you," I whispered.
He offered his arm, hesitating slightly, giving me time to decide.
I took it.
---
The venue was grand, filled with people dressed in expensive fabrics and confident smiles. Conversations flowed easily, laughter echoing through the space. As soon as we entered, heads turned.
I felt it immediately-the attention, the curiosity.
Adrian leaned closer. "Stay with me," he murmured.
I nodded, gripping his arm just a little tighter.
Introductions began almost immediately.
"Adrian!" a man exclaimed, approaching with a wide grin. "You didn't tell us you were bringing your wife."
Adrian's hand tightened gently over mine. "I didn't feel the need to announce it," he replied calmly. "This is Elena."
Not my wife.
Elena.
The way he said my name-steady, respectful-made my heart flutter.
"It's lovely to meet you," the man said warmly.
As the afternoon continued, I noticed something remarkable. Adrian never left me behind. Never walked ahead. Never spoke over me. When someone addressed him, he included me. When someone ignored me, he subtly redirected attention back my way.
At one point, a woman laughed lightly and said, "You're very quiet, Elena. Not used to this world yet?"
Before I could answer, Adrian spoke. "She doesn't need to be loud to be present."
The room fell silent for half a second.
The woman smiled awkwardly. "Of course. I didn't mean-"
"I know," Adrian said politely. "But I want it to be clear."
Clear.
That word wrapped around my heart.
---
Later, we stepped out onto the balcony for air. The city stretched before us, glowing softly under the afternoon sun.
"You handled that well," Adrian said.
"I was terrified," I admitted with a small laugh.
"You didn't show it."
"I think that's because you were there."
He turned to look at me, his gaze thoughtful. "That's what partners do," he said quietly.
Partners.
The word sent warmth through me.
For a moment, neither of us spoke. The breeze lifted my hair, and without thinking, Adrian reached out, gently tucking a strand behind my ear. He froze immediately, as if realizing what he'd done.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to-"
"It's okay," I said softly.
Our eyes locked.
Time seemed to slow.
There was no rush, no pressure. Just two people standing at the edge of something neither had planned for.
---
On the drive home, silence filled the car again-but it was different from before. Comfortable. Safe.
"Thank you," I said suddenly.
"For what?"
"For today. For... standing beside me."
He glanced at me briefly, then back to the road. "That's where I want to be."
The simplicity of his answer made my chest ache.
---
That night, as I lay in bed, I replayed the day again and again. Not the grandeur. Not the attention. But the way Adrian had chosen me-quietly, consistently, without needing an audience.
For the first time, I realized something important.
He wasn't pretending to be my husband in public.
He was choosing to be one.
And that realization changed everything.
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7.1
Aria Graves was the perfect Luna.
After seven years of a marriage built on lies, She didn't break when the truth surfaced-she burned. Her revenge was clean and her rejection final.
But fate wasn't done with her.
To protect his own secrets, her father used her mother's life as leverage and forced Aria to take her sister's place, sending her to the Silverfang Pack as a living offering to their ruthless Alpha King, Damien Rothwell.
Cold, commanding, and scarred by war, Damien should have killed her. Instead, he claimed her.
Yet the King is not the only one who wants her.
His half-brother, Ethan Rothwell, once the blind boy Aria taught to read, now returns a man who sees her more clearly than anyone else.
Now Aria stands between two brothers-one bound by duty, the other by love.
In a world where loyalty bleeds and desire burns, she must choose: the Alpha King who could ruin her, or the brother who would burn the world to save her.
9.4
I stood before the heavy oak door with a positive pregnancy test burning a hole in my pocket, ready to tell the Underboss, Anthony Holden, that his legacy was secured.
But before I could turn the handle, I heard his twin brother laughing from inside.
"She screams your name, not mine. It is a little insulting, brother," Emmanuel mocked.
"Three years of celibacy for the alliance while you play with my toy," Anthony sighed. "I deserve a medal."
My world shattered. For three years, I thought I was the exception to their violence, but I had been sleeping with a monster in the dark.
When I kicked the door open, Bianca House—my high school tormentor—was sitting there like a queen.
"Happy anniversary, Erica," she sneered. "You were just a placeholder for the territory deal."
They didn't stop there. They took my dignity, and then they took my life.
At a dinner intended to show unity, they watched me choke on peanuts. Anthony looked me in the eye and used my EpiPen on Bianca’s fake faint while I suffocated on the floor.
They threw my grandmother’s ashes off a balcony just to watch me scream. They pushed me into traffic to ensure I’d be a compliant prop for their wedding.
They killed the baby in my womb.
They thought they had broken me. They thought I was just a nurse, a civilian, a loose end.
But on the day of the wedding, I wasn't in the pews.
I was on a bus out of state, hacking the church's livestream.
As the priest began to speak, I replaced the image of the cross with the video of their confession.
I watched their empire crumble from a cracked phone screen, leaving the monsters behind to find a man who would actually burn the world for me.
8.9
Seventeen-year-old Nina Storm has spent her life running from her tragic past, her dormant wolf, and the dreams of a mysterious man she can't escape.
Raised by her protective father after her mother's death, she has never stayed in one place long enough to call it home. But everything changed when they return to their home, the Moonlight Pack.
Nina discovers that her mate is Zane, the pack's Alpha... a bond that defies werewolf laws and the pack's expectations. Their undeniable attraction is dangerous, and their bond threatens to disrupt the fragile balance of power within the pack.
When an attack on the pack shatters her world, Nina loses everything, including her life. But death isn't the end.
Reborn, her dormant wolf awakens giving her a newfound strength and powers, Nina must navigate a world of betrayal, love, and vengeance as she unravels the truth about her family, her mate bond, and the danger threatening to destroy everything she holds dear.
7.4
"You can't escape me, Aurora. You are mine!"
The Alpha King's roar echoed through the palace walls.
But Aurora just tightened her grip on the blade hidden beneath her cloak.
She would never-never-give herself to the monster who murdered her father.
Even if the Moon Goddess cursed her to be his mate.
***
Aurora Regalia once had everything-a loving father, a prosperous pack, and a future that glittered with promise. Her father, the king, even chose her a mate: Logan Charming. Powerful. Charismatic. Cursed.
She thought he was her destiny.
Then she watched him tear her father's head from his shoulders.
One night. One betrayal. Her entire family, slaughtered. Her pack, reduced to ashes.
Aurora jumped off a cliff that night-not to die, but to survive. To become something her enemies would never see coming.
An assassin. A ghost. A blade wrapped in silk.
For years, she trained in the shadows, fueled by one single purpose: revenge. Blood for blood. She would make Logan Charming suffer the way she had suffered. She would carve his heart out and feel nothing.
But fate had a cruel sense of humor.
The Moon Goddess looked down at her shattered daughter and laughed.
Because the man who destroyed her life?
The monster who wore her father's blood on his hands?
He was her fated mate.
Now Aurora stands at a crossroads she never asked for. Every instinct screams for vengeance. Every fiber of her being recoils at the bond pulling her toward him.
But Logan? He doesn't care about her hatred. He doesn't care about her blade.
"You can run, little mate," he whispers, crimson eyes gleaming in the dark. "But I will always find you."
And when he does?
He won't just cage her body.
He'll claim her soul.
7.3
The sound of loud slapping windows jolted her from her sleep. She carefully got down from the bed, walking towards the window to shut it closed.
She froze instantly, turning cold with fear at the familiar figure standing right outside her window.
She staggered backwards. "No," she shook her head in disbelief, but that didn't stop him from jumping through her window.
She ran for the door, desperately trying to unlock it, but it wasn't even budging. Her heart raced in her chest, her palms clammy, and then she felt his large presence behind her, slamming his hand on the door right beside her head.
She slowly turned to find those cold gray eyes staring at her.
She trembled. "H-how did you f-find me?"
A sinister smirk suddenly appeared on his lips, his eyes shining with an evil glint.
"Didn't I tell you, Lilian? You run, I chase."
His hand shot to her throat, his thumb caressing it gently, and then he covered the distance between them, leaning in for his hot breath to fan her neck.
His hand held her small waist, pulling her impossibly closer to himself.
"Now you must be punished, princess."
In a bid to escape her cold husband and her cruel family, Lilian finds herself in an even more dangerous situation that either mends or breaks her.
8.2
The sensation of falling wasn't like flying; it was heavy, violent, and smelled of burning flesh. Above us, on the crumbling balcony of the Sears manor, Duke Cato Sears turned his back, shielding his cousin Bianca from the smoke as he walked away, leaving my sister Blossom and me to drop into the abyss.
As the darkness slammed shut like an iron door, I realized my entire life had been a cruel script written by the people I called family.
In my first life, I was the sacrificial lamb of the Dawson manor, sold to a man who eventually watched me die without blinking. My sister Blossom had pushed me into Cato's arms to avoid his rumors, only to laugh when the fire finally consumed us both. My father had measured my value like a piece of livestock, and my step-grandmother didn't even acknowledge my existence while I was being led to the slaughter.
I died in that fire, feeling the heat scorch my skin and the weight of a hatred so potent it tasted like bile. I spent twenty years being the weak, manipulated shadow of a girl, only to end up as nothing more than a phantom scorch mark on a "hero's" estate.
I couldn't understand why my own blood treated my life like a game they could discard. The injustice of it all burned hotter than the flames that took my last breath.
Then, I sat up, sucking in air that tasted of lavender and air conditioning, not smoke. I was back in my bedroom, three days before the engagement ball that ruined my life. Blossom stood at the door, her "sweet" mask slipping as she tried to manipulate me into the Duke's path again.
She thought she was the only one who had come back, but she didn't realize that this time, I was going to let her have exactly what she wanted: the Duke, the bankruptcy, and the living hell that awaited her in that house.