Rejected By My Mate, Claimed By His Stepbrother
After two years of love and unwavering commitment to her mate Adrian, Amelia's world shatters when she finds Adrian, cheating on her with his ex-fated mate, Mara. The pain deepens when she is framed for a crime she didn't commit, and forced to leave the pack she once called home. Yet, as time passes and Adrian's regrets grow, he embarks on a desperate quest to find Amelia and win her back.
Years later, Amelia has rebuilt her life as a successful medical doctor, only to find herself drawn to Alex Darlington, a charming and caring doctor who turns out to be none other than Adrian's stepbrother. But when their bond grows undeniable, Amelia must face the shocking truth-Adrian, the man who once betrayed her, is now the one asking for her forgiveness. Torn between her past love and her new feelings for Alex, Amelia's heart is pulled in two directions.
As Adrian fights to reclaim the woman he lost, he must confront his own mistakes and battle the darkness inside. But when Alex's true motives come to light, Amelia must decide who is truly worthy of her love, and whether she can find a future with the man who shattered her heart-or the one who might just heal it.
In a world where loyalty is tested, love is fragile, and betrayal runs deep, will Amelia find peace, or will she be forced to choose between two men who will stop at nothing to claim her heart?
Settings : Moonstone Pack, Present Day, Human World, New York City, Present Day, 21st Century.
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Chapter 2
*Amelia*
"Adrian, you have to believe me, I..." My words faltered as Adrian stormed towards me, slapping me hard across the face. I stumbled, crashing to the ground, the sting of the blow still ringing in my ears.
"How could you be this heartless and vicious?" His voice thundered with rage, dripping with anger and hatred as I sat there, tears streaming down my cheeks.
This was the first time Adrian had raised his hand to me in our two years of marriage. And it was all because of Mara-his ex-mate. What hurt most was that he hadn't even given me a chance to explain. Without hesitation, he slapped me and accused me.
"You better pray nothing happens to her," he spat, his words like a cold knife to my heart. "If anything happens, you won't like what I'll do to you."
He then turned his back on me, scooping Mara off the ground and leaving the room.
As I sat there, the realization hit me like a punch to the gut. Adrian was still in love with Mara. No matter how much time had passed, no matter what we'd built over the past two years, he was ready to destroy it all for her. He didn't trust me. If he did, he would have listened before making his judgment.
Hot tears burned my eyes, and the truth hit me-my marriage was crumbling before me, and I had no control over it. I could only cry.
Just then, my phone rang. It was Sarah. I quickly wiped my face, trying to regain composure before answering.
"Hello, Sarah, how are you?" I asked, forcing cheer into my voice.
"I'm fine, Lia, but there's a rumor going around the pack. What's this about you trying to murder Adrian's guest this morning?"
"What?!" I gasped, shocked and confused. How had this story spread so fast?
"Is it true?" Sarah pressed. "Is the guest the same woman you saw Adrian with last night?"
"Yes, it's her," I said, explaining everything that had happened.
Sarah sighed. "Lia, listen, if after everything Adrian still doesn't trust you, if he's so quick to believe Mara and bring her into your life without even talking to you first, maybe it's time for you to start thinking about your own future. You need to find your fated mate."
Her words stung. Adrian was my mate, even if he wasn't my fated one. I loved him with all my heart. The thought of leaving him made my stomach twist.
"Lia, I'm not saying you should leave him. But if you stay, know that this could get worse. He hit you today. Who knows what might happen next?"
I sighed deeply. "I don't know what to do, Sarah."
"Think about it. Do what feels right," she said softly, then hung up.
I was left standing there, feeling torn and lost.
"Ivy, what do you think?" I asked my wolf.
"I think Sarah has a point," Ivy replied. "Adrian hit you, Lia. What if he does worse next time? I'm scared for you."
"I know," I said, trying to keep my resolve. "But right now, I'm not leaving him. I'm his mate and Luna. I'm not letting Mara tear everything apart. I'll fight for us."
I heard Ivy sigh through our mind-link, disappointed, but she fell silent.
After a long bath, I decided to go and have my breakfast. I hadn't eaten since the night before, and my stomach growled with hunger.
As I made my way to the dining table, I heard whispers from the maids. They must have heard the rumors too, but they quickly scattered when they saw me.
I was about to start eating when Jake, Adrian's Beta, burst into the room.
"Good morning, Your Highness," Jake greeted me, his expression serious.
"Good morning, Jake. What's going on?" I asked, sensing something was off.
"The Alpha sent me to get you. He says you need to come to the hospital right away."
"Is everything okay?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
Jake hesitated. "I'm not sure, Your Highness. I wasn't with him when he went to the hospital."
I nodded, the sinking feeling in my chest growing stronger. "Let's go."
On the way to the hospital, whispers followed me. Some of the Pack members were already turning on me, accusing me of trying to murder Mara. The murmurs cut through me like daggers.
When we arrived at the hospital, the glares from the nurses and Pack members were palpable. I ignored them and headed straight for Mara's room.
Outside, I found Adrian pacing, his face a mask of fury.
"What took you so long?" he demanded coldly as I approached.
I didn't respond. His anger was suffocating, and I couldn't bring myself to speak.
"The doctor said Mara was stabbed with a knife coated in wolfbane. They had to drain her blood to prevent it from spreading," Adrian explained, his voice hard. "She needs a transfusion, and since you have the same blood type, you're the only one who can help."
I clenched my fists. "Sorry to disappoint you, Adrian, but I'm not giving her my blood. If I had really stabbed her, maybe I'd consider it. But I didn't, and I'm not helping her."
His eyes flashed with anger. "What do you take me for, Amelia? A fool? If you didn't stab her, then who did?"
"She stabbed herself to frame me!" I shouted, unable to contain my frustration. "Why won't you believe me, Adrian? After everything we've been through, how can you still doubt me?"
He scoffed. "Mara would never do that. She wouldn't stab herself, especially with wolfbane. She has no reason to frame you."
"Because she's trying to take everything from me! She's trying to take you!" I yelled, my voice cracking with emotion.
Adrian's face twisted with fury. "Enough!"
He stepped closer, his anger radiating. "When I tell you to give her your blood, it's not a request. It's an order."
I stood my ground. "If you force me to do this, Adrian, I will file for divorce. I won't stay in a marriage where we don't trust each other."
His eyes widened, disbelief and shock flashing across his face. "What?"
To be continued...
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7.4
I was the bankrupt socialite everyone pitied, standing in the mud at my mother's grave with nothing left but a pair of old Louboutins and a single white rose. My bank account was overdrawn by three hundred dollars, but I still believed Julian, my fiancé, was the one person who hadn't abandoned the toxic Compton name.
Then I saw his Maybach shaking in the cemetery parking lot. Through a crack in the window, I heard the man I loved whispering to my stepsister, Tiffany.
"Don't worry about the broke princess. Once I secure her voting proxy for the trust, I'm dumping her."
Tiffany laughed, clutching the scarlet coat she'd charged to my own maxed-out credit card.
"She's so pathetic, Julian. She actually thinks you love her."
I didn't scream; I recorded them. But when I tried to use that leverage, my family turned into vipers. To protect Julian's status, they framed me for causing Tiffany to miscarry a fake pregnancy and planted stolen documents in my bag. My own father stood by as they locked me in a room, planning to sell me to a predatory creditor named Hightower to settle his gambling debts. I ended up in a freezing police cell, my ankle shattered and my reputation destroyed.
I sat on that metal bench, shivering as I realized my own blood had traded my life for a check. I called the only man powerful enough to burn them all-Julian's uncle, the "Butcher of Wall Street," Alden Stark. The phone just kept ringing. He wasn't coming. To the world, I was just a walking bankruptcy filing, a girl who had finally run out of luck.
I didn't wait for a savior. I escaped custody and ran barefoot through the rain, leaving a trail of blood on the marble floor of Stark Tower. When I collapsed at Alden's feet, he didn't look at me with pity; he looked at me like a rare, damaged artifact he finally owned.
"Inform the board that this is my fiancée," he announced, lifting me into his arms.
I signed the marriage contract that night, trading my freedom for the power to ensure my family's liabilities exceeded their assets for the rest of their natural lives.
7.7
I was suffocating in a borrowed Valentino gown at the Met Gala, but it wasn't the corset that was killing me. It was the debt collector, Vargo, stalking me through the crowd like a wolf.
Desperate to hide, I ducked into a private lounge and threw myself at the silhouette of a man sitting in the shadows, pressing my lips to his in a frantic plea for cover. When I pulled back, the air turned to ice; I was staring into the ocean-blue eyes of Kingsley Osborn, the billionaire who believed I’d sold his company secrets six years ago.
Kingsley didn’t save me; he trapped me. The next morning, he slid a "Marriage Service Agreement" across his desk, revealing he knew everything about my father’s illegal Ponzi scheme and the quarter-million dollars I owed to loan sharks. He offered to pay my debts and protect my father, but only if I signed over two years of my life to be his trophy wife.
"I don't want your money, Cassidy. I want your life."
The marriage was a cold, calculated war. He forced me into his glass fortress, banned me from contacting my friends, and treated me with a distilled hatred that felt like a physical weight. When I accidentally broke his grandfather’s vintage watch during a nightmare, he didn't see an accident—he saw a crime, threatening to destroy my father if I didn't "charm" his board of directors into submission.
I was a prisoner in a three-piece suit, until I found a mislabeled file buried in his company’s server. It contained evidence of a massive, illegal hostile takeover that would ruin Kingsley if the Feds ever saw it.
I held the gun that could destroy the man who had cornered me. But as I looked at the champagne roses he’d secretly kept from my "peace offering," I realized I didn't want to pull the trigger. I wanted to see how far he’d go to keep me from leaving.
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."
9.1
For three years, June played the perfect, submissive wife to billionaire Augustus Pruitt, hoping a child would finally warm his cold heart and secure their marriage.
But when she cautiously suggested they have a baby, he looked at her with pure, unfiltered disgust.
"A woman who schemes her way into a marriage doesn't get to carry my blood."
He sneered, leaving immediately to lavish his mistress with diamonds. The nightmare only escalated from there. Augustus bought the one painting June desperately wanted—a piece she had secretly created herself—just to gift it to his mistress. He publicly outbid June at the gallery, mocking her lack of wealth, and left her to collapse in the freezing rain. When the storm gave her a severe 104-degree fever and she nearly died on their staircase, he didn't even stay by her hospital bed. Instead, he sent an assistant with a box of jewelry to buy her silence, then forced her to attend a family dinner where his mother and sister viciously mocked her barren womb and background.
Looking at Augustus, who sat there casually cutting his steak while his family tore her apart, the last flicker of hope in June's chest sputtered and died.
She finally understood that her three years of bleeding devotion were nothing but a pathetic joke to them.
She dropped her silverware, the sharp clatter silencing the entire room. She wasn't going to be their punching bag anymore. It was time to finalize the divorce papers, reclaim her hidden identity as the world-renowned artist 'mr.sun', and make them all regret it.
8.5
Series One:
On her wedding day, Isabella Hernando stared into the mirror and wondered-
how could she possibly marry someone she barely remembered?
Miguel Martez, the man she was arranged to wed, was only a childhood friend who had long since disappeared.
But just before the ceremony was about to begin, Miguel vanished without a trace.
To save the family's reputation, Maximilian Martez, his elder brother, was forced to take his place at the altar-
without anyone knowing, not even the bride herself.
But when Isabella finally stood before the man,
she was shocked.
That face, those eyes... that voice...
Series Two:
Adeline Martez is a quiet, introverted girl who grew up cherished and spoiled by her parents. Marriage was never something she worried about-until the day her parents announced her arranged match.
Her groom-to-be?
Jason Castello-the man she despised most.
Her senior.
Her tormentor.
The shameless bully who had made her school days miserable.
Adeline fought with everything she had to escape the engagement.
But the harder she pushed him away, the tighter Jason held on.
One stubborn cat.
One relentless dog.
When hatred sparks, tempers clash, and neither is willing to surrender-
how does a battlefield turn into a marriage?
7.9
On my wedding day, my fiancé Connor received an urgent phone call.
He told me a D-list actress had broken her leg on set, then abandoned me right at the altar.
In my past life, I cried until my throat bled, begging him not to leave.
But my tears only brought endless humiliation. My mother and adopted sister mocked me, framed me, and forged my signature to steal my multi-million dollar trust fund.
They kicked me out of the family estate without a single dime.
I ended up freezing to death in the minus-twenty-degree New York blizzard, listening to my mother's voicemail telling me to die in the street as long as I didn't bleed on her carpets.
Until my last breath, I couldn't understand why my own blood relatives hated me so much, yet treated an adopted daughter like a precious princess.
The only person who showed me any mercy—draping his wool coat over my frozen corpse and giving me a proper burial—was Connor's ruthless, untouchable uncle, Harding Snow.
Opening my eyes again, I was back in the bridal suite, right as Connor was rushing out the door.
This time, I didn't shed a single tear.
I let him run to his actress, then walked straight into the VIP room to face the most feared billionaire on Wall Street.
"The wedding proceeds as planned, but the groom's name changes to yours."