No Longer His Substitute Bride

At sixteen, Clara Bennett lost the last place she could call home.

After years of feeling unwanted by the father who should have protected her, Clara is finally forced to leave the only home she has ever known. Her stepmother’s pregnancy only makes it easier for her family to let her go.

With nothing but her mother’s old violin, she arrives in a small Pennsylvania town carrying the fear that she will never truly belong anywhere.

The last thing she expects is Adrian Cole.

Once the town’s basketball star, Adrian gave up his dreams after his father disappeared and left him with debts he never should have carried. Now he spends his days repairing cars, avoiding the court, and pretending he doesn’t want anything more from life.

Clara thinks she is too broken to be loved.

Adrian thinks his future is already over.

But somewhere between physics lessons, late nights at the repair shop, and a forgotten small-town high school, two lonely people begin to find something they both thought they had lost forever:

A reason to stay.

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A tough exterior with a soft heart x A soft exterior with a strong heart

✦ ✦ ✦

The first half is set in high school, and the second half is set during their college years. Hope you enjoy the journey!

This is a slow-paced story, focused more on emotions, healing, and the small moments in life rather than intense action or dramatic twists.

If you find any mistakes while reading, please feel free to leave a comment. I’ll be happy to correct them.

I hope ordinary Clara, ordinary Adrian, and all of us ordinary people can find the happiness we deserve.

“Who is she?” I asked, feeling tears well up in my eyes.
“He met her at the Alpha training camp,” he said. “She is a perfect suitor for him. It snowed last night, indicating that his wolf is happy with his choice.”
My heart sank, and tears made their way down my cheeks.
Alexander took my innocence last night, and now he is taking that thing in his office as his Luna.


Emily became the laughingstock of the pack on her 18th birthday and never expected the Alpha's son to be her mate.
After a night of passionate love, Emily finds out that her mate has taken a chosen mate. Heartbroken and humiliated, she disappears from the pack.
Now, five years later, Emily is a respected high-ranking warrior in King Alpha’s army.
When her best friend invites her to a night of music and laughter, she never expects to run into her mate.
Will her mate figure out it is her?
Will he chase after her, and most of all, will Emily be able to keep her secrets safe?

Two nations are at war. Valencia's pack is massacred by Alpha Marcus, and she is enslaved by him. When he dies, she is to be buried alive with him as a sacrifice.

Alpha Logan is an illegitimate son whose mother disappeared when he was 10 years old. He grew up suffering from humiliation and lacking maternal love.

Alpha Logan saves Valencia at Marcus's funeral, which seems to be destined by fate—part of the Moon Goddess's grand plan.

As Valencia accidentally discovers prophecies in Logan's mother's diary that seem to be related to her, the truth gradually surfaces. Valencia appears to be merely a tool in a princess's revenge plot. How will Logan and Valencia navigate their path amid the national war and pack politics?

Being the middle Child ignored and neglected, rejected by family and injured, She receives her wolf early and realizes she is a new type of hybrid but doesn't know how to control her power, she leaves her pack with her best friend and grandmother to go to her grandfather's clan to learn what she is and how to handle her power and then with her fated mate, her best friend and her fated mate little brother and grandmother start their own pack.

Kage enters the foster system in New York at the age of five. The reality of his life seems bleaker each day as his circumstances worsen, and he becomes closed-off, cold and distrusting of others. When he gets adopted at the age of sixteen, his belief in humanity has withered. Kage doesn't live, he exists, day by day. He has lost all hope, and he doesn't dare to dream of something better. Alexander Hawthorne gives him a new lease on life, a family and most importantly, hope. Kage has his own past trauma to deal with and he carries that burden with him when he gets drafted into the NHL. Hockey is his life, his passion and the only thing that is a constant form of happiness.
Follow Kage's journey as he tries to heal, falls in love and faces his inner turmoil.

In my life as a waitress, I, Sephie - an ordinary person - endured the icy glares and insults of customers while trying to earn a living. I believed that this would be my fate forever.

However, one fateful day, the King of the Underworld appeared before me and rescued me from the clutches of the most powerful Mafia boss's son. With his deep blue eyes fixed on mine, he spoke softly: "Sephie... short for Persephone... Queen of the Underworld. At last, I have found you." Confused by his words, I stammered out a question, “P..pardon? What does that mean?”

But he simply smiled at me and brushed my hair away from my face with gentle fingers: "You are safe now.”


Sephie, named for the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone, she's quickly finding out how she's destined to fulfill her namesake's role. Adrik is the King of the Underworld, the boss of all bosses in the city he runs.

She was a seemingly normal girl, with a normal job until it all changed one night when he walked through the front door and her life changed abruptly. Now, she finds herself on the wrong side of powerful men, but under the protection of the most powerful among them.

My name is Audrey, and I'm the adopted daughter of the Bailey family.
Four years ago, the Bailey family faced a devastating financial crisis.
Just when bankruptcy seemed inevitable, a mysterious benefactor emerged, offering salvation with one condition: a contract marriage.
Rumors swirled about this enigmatic man—whispers claimed he was hideously ugly and too ashamed to show his face, possibly harboring dark, twisted obsessions.
Without hesitation, the Baileys sacrificed me to protect their precious biological daughter, forcing me to take her place as a pawn in this cold, calculated arrangement.
Luckily, in those four years, the mysterious husband never asked to meet in person.
Now, in the final year of our arrangement, the husband I've never met is demanding we meet face to face.
But disaster struck the night before my return—drunk and disoriented, I stumbled into the wrong hotel room and ended up sleeping with the legendary financial mogul, Caspar Thornton.
What the hell am I supposed to do now?

I never knew my blood could kill a king—until I met one. Sebastian, the ruthless and immortal King, rules with precision. For centuries, he's ruled with ruthless precision, his heart as cold as the stone throne beneath him. One moment, I'm nothing. The next, I'm his obsession. His touch burns like ice fire. His stare follows me through shadows. And when he feeds from me—God help me—it feels like drowning in darkness and craving more. He tells me my blood is unlike any he's tasted, that my scent drives him to the edge of madness.


He reached for the back of my head and pulled me up just enough to reach my neck. When his fangs slid into me, the pain was instant, electric. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. My hands found his shoulders, clawing for something to hold. My legs kicked. Tears streamed down my cheeks.

He moaned against my throat as he drank, and the sound was devastating.

Kruz has always been strong, disciplined, controlled, and unbreakable. Nothing prepares him for losing his mother… or what comes after.
Pulled into a hidden world he never knew existed, Kruz is forced to face the truth—he isn’t just different.
He’s a vampire.
The transformation is only the beginning. Thrust from a life of survival into one of power, wealth, and expectation, Kruz is given a position no one his age should hold: District Elder.
With it comes authority. Responsibility. And enemies he doesn’t yet understand.
And then there’s the bond.
Forced into a connection he didn’t choose, Kruz is tied to a girl—whether he wants it or not. She’s a complication. A problem. A constant reminder that his life is no longer his own.
Because the one person he wants… is the one he can’t have.
As pressure builds and danger closes in, Kruz is forced to walk a line few survive—between duty and desire, control and instinct, the life he had and the one being forced upon him.
Because in this world, power isn’t earned slowly.
It’s given.
And if you’re not ready for it—
It will destroy you.

She was born cursed and silenced. He was born cursed and destined to lose everything.

Vanessa, the mute runt of a cursed litter, has only ever known cruelty and abuse. Her voice stolen by a witch’s spell, her freedom crushed by a brutal father, she’s been promised to a monster she doesn’t want. But fate intervenes when she’s left for dead—bleeding, broken, and bound—only to be rescued by Alpha Alfred of the Shadow Pack.
Alfred, fighting against a generational curse that has doomed his brothers to remain wolves forever, never expected his fated mate to be a fragile girl on the brink of death. But the moment he breathes in her scent, everything changes.
Together, they must confront the past, survive betrayal, and uncover the true key to breaking the curses that bind them. Will their bond be strong enough to save them both?

She broke their marriage. He walked away.

Neither of them knew she was carrying his child.

Emily’s affair didn’t just end her marriage—it erased the life she thought was guaranteed. Ryan left without looking back, carrying his anger like armor and leaving Emily alone with regret she would never outrun. Three years later, fate drags them back into each other’s world, along with a little girl who has Ryan’s eyes and a truth that shatters everything he thought he knew.

Old wounds reopen, grief masquerades as rage, and love refuses to stay buried. As parenthood binds them together and the past demands accountability, Emily and Ryan must face the question neither of them is ready to answer: is broken trust the end of their story… or the beginning of a love forged through loss, forgiveness, and brutal honesty?

The Plan: Travel back in time to high school, identify my insanely intimidating future billionaire boss before he gets rich, and suck up to him so hard I secure a six-figure job for life.
The Execution: Perfect. I brought him coffee, cheered at his games, and basically operated as his unpaid teenage executive assistant. He’s totally buying it.
The Problem: I was trying to network my way into the C-suite. I think I just networked my way into his bed.