On the way to my prenatal appointment, Ethan got a call from his first love. "I'm back in Rainport. You promised I'd always be Luna of the Rain City Pack." Ethan said nothing and ended the call. I thought that was his answer—a rejection. Until late that night, when he had a lawyer deliver papers terminating our mate bond. He told me it was only a public arrangement. Once he repaid the debt he owed his first love, everything would go back to normal. I glanced at the seven-week ultrasound report on the table and calmly signed my name. "I'll move out tomorrow morning. I won't make things difficult for your new mate." Perhaps he had expected tears and a scene. Surprise flickered in Ethan's eyes, and he told the lawyer to add a condo and two million dollars to the settlement. I accepted every last cent. What Ethan didn't know was that, three years ago, I had allowed Crescent Biotech to use three core formulas I owned free of charge so I could marry him. The moment our mate bond ended, that license would expire as well. I hadn't gotten love, but I would take back my money, my shares, and my name. Every last one of them.

On the day of Grant Medical Group's anniversary celebration, someone sabotaged the glass elevator. By the time I crawled out of the twisted car, blood had soaked through my skirt and pooled across the floor. The doctors stationed in the lobby were about to treat me when my husband, Adrian, ordered the entire medical team to the top floor. His best friend, Cecilia, had seen the elevator fall, and the fright had left her struggling to breathe. I clutched his sleeve. "Save me. If I die here, my family will follow the scent of my blood straight to you." Adrian dismissed it as a jealous rant. He had no idea that my mother had once hung trespassing hunters from every tree in a fir forest, that my father had slaughtered a pack of rogue werewolves by himself, or that the smell of my blood could drive my brother Kane out of his mind. I had grown tired of that bloody life. I concealed my identity and hid among humans. "Stop trying to scare me." Adrian pried my hand from his sleeve. "Cecilia is having an asthma attack. Her condition is more urgent than yours." He turned and took every doctor with him. As I watched him walk away, I shared my location in the family group chat. Mom said she was coming to get me. Then Kane sent a message: Kane: How do you want him to die? Adrian, you were as good as dead. What now?

After discovering that my mafia husband, Dante Moretti, still couldn't let go of his first love, Bianca Mill, a newly divorced single mother, I began teaching my son, Leo Moretti, to call him "Godfather." At Leo's succession ceremony, Dante pinned the family crest on his first love's child, Noah Mill. When our son ran a fever of 104°F, he gave away the hospital's only high-security private suite too. Every time Dante abandoned Leo, Leo would hesitate for a long while before finally calling him "Godfather." Then Dante offered to bring him to the family dinner, only for Bianca to call him away in tears yet again. He thought Leo would keep waiting. This time, Leo waved him away on his own. "Go ahead, Godfather. "Mom and I aren't waiting for you anymore."

I hid my identity and spent three years in the borderlands with Kael, an outcast from his pack. The night I learned I was pregnant, he came home with Blackthorn warriors. "The truth is, I'm the Blackthorn Alpha's second son. In three days, I'll marry the Ironclaw Alpha's daughter. With her pack behind me, I can reclaim my place as heir." He promised me Northslope Manor on one condition: I could never show my face around his new Luna. I gripped the little wooden rattle meant for our pup. "So what does that make me? The mate you'll keep hidden forever?" Kael looked away. "You have no pack. Other than the title of Luna, I can give you anything." "If it's an Alpha's daughter you need, what if I can offer you more than she ever could?"

I'd been married three times. The first time was to help my childhood friend reclaim his father's inheritance. The second was to save the family of the man who once saved my life. The third time, I married Dante. Because I loved him. On our wedding day, he held me close and said, "Evelyn, you'll never have to go through another failed marriage." I believed him for five years. Until the night I overheard him talking to my two ex-husbands. "Bianca is about to marry into the Bellini family. Before the wedding, she wants all four of us to be single and spend five days with her together. But Evelyn has already been divorced twice. She won't agree to a third divorce that easily." My ex-husbands brushed off his concerns. "Please. No one knows divorce better than Evelyn. Once the five days are over, sweet-talk her a little. She'll come right back." "Exactly. After Bianca marries into the Bellini family, we'll help you win Evelyn back." So that was it. They were willing to sacrifice my five-year marriage just to make another woman's dream come true. They thought I would do what I had always done: sacrifice myself for the three of them and stay in the name of love. But they had forgotten one thing. Moretti women didn't get cast aside. We decided who stayed and who left. Now Dante sat across the dining table from me, watching me with the same eyes that had once made my heart race. I didn't question him. I simply turned to the last page and signed my name. "You're right." I set the pen down beside him. 'This will be my last divorce.' Seven months later, Dante stood outside Bellini Estate, staring at my 18-week baby bump. His voice was hoarse when he asked, "Is the baby mine?" I reminded him, "We divorced 30 weeks ago." Adrian came up behind me and slipped an arm around my waist. "Meet my fourth husband," I told Dante.

On my wedding day, two guards stopped me outside the doors to my own ceremony. My fiancé, the Godfather Matteo De Luca, called. "Let Bianca go in first. Wait in the side hall for twenty minutes." I froze. Matteo continued, "Bianca doesn't believe in marriage. She'll never get married in her life. She just wants to experience a wedding ceremony this once. After she's had her turn, you can come in." Before the doors closed, I saw Bianca already in her wedding gown, standing in front of the rose wall I had built with my own hands. Matteo was adjusting her veil. Sensing my silence, he softened his voice. "This wedding between Bianca and me is just for show. The one who will truly become Mrs. De Luca is you. Don't take a performance so seriously." The call ended, and applause soon drifted out from inside the church. Two hours later, I pulled on a delivery jacket and climbed into the flower van leaving the estate. My floral assistant, Nora, gripped the steering wheel, her eyes red. "Where are we going? Are you coming back for the ceremony?" I watched the estate shrink in the side mirror. "No." I didn't want a wedding where I had to wait my turn. And I sure as hell didn't need a man who'd always make me.

My mate was the most powerful Alpha in the North and the youngest medical prodigy in the entire pack. His college sweetheart, Vera, was a witch with a gift for brewing wolfbane poisons. For 8 years, she had poisoned people, and he had cured them, treating everyone else's lives like pieces in their twisted little game. Then she used me to test her latest poison, and I nearly died. When I woke up, Kane sighed as he wrote out the prescription for my antidote. "Don't blame Vera. She only wanted to test a new poison. She wasn't really trying to hurt you. She knew I'd be able to save you. She was just acting out because she was mad at me." Before he could finish, a frantic call from Vera sent him rushing away again. He left in such a hurry that he never noticed he had omitted silverleaf from the prescription. The system that had been dormant for 6 years suddenly spoke. [System: Die by the male lead's hand, and you may return home. Without silverleaf, the antidote will become a slow-acting poison. Host may choose whether to take it.] I handed the prescription to the nurse with a smile. "Prepare it exactly as written."

Everyone in my family doted on Madison, the daughter they'd raised in my place. For spring break, Madison wanted a road trip up into the backcountry north of Graystone. I told them the forest roads were still closed for the season and we didn't have a guide with us. We should pick somewhere else. Mom decided I was ruining Madison's fun. She slapped me across the face and told me I could come along or I could get out. In the end we all got in the car anyway. That night somebody stood out in the snow trying to flag us down. I told Dad not to unlock the door. We were miles from anywhere. It wasn't safe. He called me selfish and made me open it. And there it was. A gray-faced grizzly that somehow knew how to wave a paw like a person. It closed its teeth around my arm. I screamed for help. Mom didn't try to save me. She threw her whole weight into shoving me out of the car. When I opened my eyes, I was back on the day Madison first brought up the trip. I told them not to go. Mom told me to get out, same as before. Fine. Then I'll drive the three of you straight out there and feed you to it myself.

Four years after my divorce, at a veterans charity gala, one of my ex-husband's old comrades asked me, "Sarah, do you still hate Arthur for refusing to help arrange your mother's surgery out of state?" I smiled and shook my head. "Not anymore. He was an active-duty military surgeon. He couldn't misuse military resources for family." The man relaxed. "Then do you still love him? He's waited four years for you. He's still single." I was surprised. I held up my left hand and showed him the wedding ring on my finger. "But I've remarried. My daughter is already two years old." The moment I said it, everyone's eyes went to Arthur in the corner. His face was deathly pale. His eyes were bloodshot. I just found it strange. Years ago, when my mother was diagnosed with severe heart disease, I begged him to contact a specialist and arrange an emergency transfer. He refused without a trace of emotion. "Military resources can't be diverted for family. Everything has to follow procedure." My mother died in the ambulance on the way to another hospital. Two years later, on our fourth wedding anniversary, a florist mistakenly delivered a bouquet of white tulips to our home. The card tucked inside read: Arthur, Rex made it. Thank you for contacting the military veterinary center overnight and getting us across state lines for emergency treatment. —Chloe Rex was the retired military dog Chloe's late husband had left behind. So Arthur could bend the rules. He could use military resources first and file the paperwork afterward. My mother and I just weren't worth breaking them for.

The explosion threw me into the rubble. By the time I got my head up, my husband and his partner had already pulled back fifteen feet. I opened my mouth to call for help, and the man who was supposed to be protecting me was walking away. The two of them stood shoulder to shoulder, shaken up over a scrape the size of a dime. Like I had never existed at all. At the department, Arthur and Elena were the golden pair. Everybody said so. Out in the field, they were the kind of partners who put their lives in each other's hands. And no matter how hard I worked, all I ever did was trail behind them. Just civilian staff. Arthur used to grip my shoulder and promise me, "Don't worry. Anything goes wrong, we're the first ones through the door." Then something went wrong, and he threw himself in front of Elena without a second of hesitation. Looking at the two of them walking away, I was suddenly just so tired. A marriage where I'd always be the outsider. I didn't want to do it anymore.

On my very first day working for a top-tier billionaire family, the little heiress "died" in my arms. The pregnant head secretary was fanning the flames, the ruthless Patriarch drew his gun, and the five heirs were ready to drag me out and throw me into the sea. It was an absolute dead end. Until a voice suddenly echoed in my head, "The pregnant secretary's perfume is poison! Get me some fresh air! Save me, and I'll give you 50 million!" 50 million?! With this sudden mind-reading cheat code, the room full of bloodthirsty elites instantly became an open book. I kicked the scheming secretary out of the way, snatched up the dying child, and smashed through the door. A game-over scenario? Watch me. That 50 million was mine!

I'd been in a five-month online relationship with a man named "V". He never showed his face, but he always sent me half-naked post-shower photos of his abs late at night. Water droplets trickled down his taut, bulging muscles, disappearing into the dangerous edge of the towel wrapped around his waist. Along with the photos came the explicit messages that made my face burn. I was completely ensnared in this web of passion, about to suggest we finally meet in person. But in the latest photo he sent, I spotted something extremely familiar—the seal representing the highest authority of Sterling Corporation. And I just so happened to work there—meaning my online date was very likely my boss!