The Substitute Bride - Chapter 23

“You mean that Prince Yu wants to marry me?”

Being the pack defect is bad enough. Getting REJECTED? By your own fated mate?Yeah. THAT is a whole new level of low.Ava Grey is the pack defect, a wolfless shifter. She struggles through life with the vague dream of freedom. Her opportunity comes when she's suddenly informed that she will be attending the Lunar Gala, an annual ball for young adult shifters to find their fated mates.And she finds him. He's beautiful and intense, and his kisses send desire through her veins like a drug.Until he REJECTS her.Ava isn't about to go back to her dreary life. She escapes and forges a new identity far from her pack, and far from her alpha mate. She makes new friends and is even forcefully adopted by a hilarious husky.But just as she settles in and finds happiness, strange things begin to happen...Her husky has been holding secrets.She's hearing whispers that shifter packs all over are looking for her.And she can smell a familiar scent in her apartment, which makes no sense at all... because the man it belongs to rejected her.DECEMBER 2024 NOTE-- Author has a broken hand and updates are slower than normal. Deepest apologies. Trying to get updates more normalized again!!---------This is a wolf shifter romance with multiple triggers that like to waltz hand in hand with all the dark themes through a meadow of dead flowers. In this book you will find the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Laugh, cry, rage; you can do them all as you follow Ava in the rather perilous journey of being a wolf shifter in this generation of werewolf romance.There are R18 scenes sprinkled throughout this book like candy popping out of a pinata. Please read responsibly.-------

Shu Wan, the most outstanding daughter of a high-status family from a feudal dynasty, travels a thousand years into the future, becoming the new lady of the Fu family in the capital.------Her husband in name has gone overseas to explore markets, leaving behind a rebellious son whose name resounds throughout the capital.------Upon first meeting, the rebellious son speeds past on a motorcycle with his silver-white hair flying, “Isn't that my stepmother who's 6 years older than me? Skinny arms and legs, but with grand ambitions.”Before he finishes, Shu Wan leaps up and plucks him off the motorcycle with one hand, “Watch your mouth.”------Fu Yang is consistently at the bottom of his grade, especially with his Chinese language scores never passing 50.Shocked by his atrociously written exam papers, Shu Wan asks, “Are you even Chinese?”Fu Yang is defiant, “Aren't you a dimwitted academic failure yourself, what right do you have to criticize me?”Yet the next second, as Shu Wan smoothly writes down 'Ancient Prose Paragon' with a brush, it's Fu Yang's turn to be astonished.Isn't she a walking dictionary?------Fu Siyu returns from his overseas expansion earlier than expected, thinking he would come home to chaos.However, upon entering the door, he sees the usually defiant Fu Yang sitting obediently practicing his calligraphy with a perfect score exam paper beside him.And his reputedly timid wife, in a sleek black high-slit dress, confidently struts to the music, drawing the attention of everyone.But none of that is the focal point. The focus is on Fu Siyu's gaze, sharp as a knife, directed toward the dance partner's hand resting on Shu Wan's lower back, “Let go.”Note: The son is not the biological child of the male lead.

Teela married King Heavenly because she loved him, but life in the Heavenly household was anything but euphoric. Lettie, her hard-as-nails mother-in-law, treats her like an unpaid servant. The family treats her like an outsider. King treats her like a shadow, transparent and forgettable.When Lettie presses Teela to prove her value to the family or get out, Teela has a decision to make. But she’s not leaving without a fight.King Heavenly rules Heavenly Industries with an iron fist, but he leaves his home life to his mother to manage, and that includes the management of his boring little wife. Teela has never complained. She’s never done anything interesting, for that matter. She’s just one more responsibility in a long line of responsibilities that King shoulders on a daily basis, and that is exactly how he treats her — as a responsibility that he’s delegated to his mother.Suddenly Teela steps out of the shadows and into a fight with him and his whole family, and King is baffled by the ruthless actions of his now daring wife. He’d always heard that vengeance is a dish best served cold, but Teela is coming in hot!