Get the APP hot

Bound To The Alpha

His Unwanted Wife, The Hidden Genius

His Unwanted Wife, The Hidden Genius

Modern

4.5

I flew back to New York on my twenty-fifth birthday, carrying vintage gold cufflinks I spent weeks finding for my billionaire husband, Declan. But when I walked into our townhouse, I found him throwing a massive victory party with Sloane, a glamorous socialite, standing by his side as the proud hostess. "Don't cause a scene. Go upstairs." Declan coldly dismissed me in front of his guests. Even Poppy, the rookie player whose shattered ankle I had painstakingly rebuilt, rolled her eyes and ignored me to suck up to Sloane. Hiding in the shadows, I heard the maids gossiping that everyone thought Sloane was the future Mrs. Hartford. To make matters worse, I discovered Sloane had stolen my anonymous, groundbreaking medical algorithm and was planning to present it as her own. First my husband, then the girl I mentored like family, and now the scientific foundation I had built with my own hands. Declan even texted me to cancel our birthday breakfast without a single apology, treating me like an annoying afterthought. My tears vanished, replaced by a freezing clarity. I signed the divorce papers, leaving them on his desk with zero demands for his money. Then I packed my bags, booked a one-way ticket to Boston, and prepared to destroy them on the global stage.

Chapter 1

Aurelia Vance POV:

I had been married to Declan Hartford for three years.

Today was my twenty-fifth birthday, and I had flown back from Boston in secret, hoping for one quiet evening with my husband.

I'd spent a week carefully picking out a pair of gold cufflinks as a gift for my husband.

But the laughter spilling from the front door told me I was already too late: the woman who had taken my place at his side was already inside.

The heavy oak door swung open before I reached the porch. Three young players from the New York Titans, Declan's NHL franchise, stumbled out with crystal tumblers of scotch, laughing loudly. They barely glanced at me as they passed.

I stepped into the grand foyer. The heat hit me instantly,expensive champagne, roasted tenderloin, cigar smoke.

Dozens of people filled the double parlor: executives, scouts, wives in designer dresses.

In the center stood Declan, tall and broad in a bespoke charcoal suit. Beside him, laughing into his ear, was Sloane Whitfield, her backless silver dress catching the chandelier light. Her hand rested on his forearm like she belonged there.

Before I could take another breath, a blur of blonde hair darted past my elbow.

"Sloane!" Poppy Delacroix cried, throwing her arms around Sloane's slender waist. "You were completely right about the catering! This is literally the best victory party the team has ever had!"

Poppy is fourteen, a junior elite forward prospect.

I scouted her two years ago from a crumbling youth league, back when she was at her lowest.

Her parents had once shown me great kindness, and I knew they had already passed away, leaving her all alone in the world.

Declan and I adopted her together.

I rebuilt her shattered ankle with a custom rehabilitation plan.

I had always loved and cared for her as both a mother and a sister.

Now, she did not even glance in my direction.

Declan turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the crowd until his eyes locked onto mine. The easy grin on his sharp jaw vanished instantly. His brows drew together in a hard, irritated line.

He excused himself from Sloane, cutting through the throng of players with long, impatient strides.

"Aurelia," Declan said, stopping two feet in front of me. His voice carried zero warmth. "What are you doing here?"

My throat felt like sandpaper.

"I took the four o'clock flight from Boston," I whispered, clutching the strap of my bag until my knuckles turned white. "It is my birthday, Declan. I thought we could—"

"We are celebrating the division win," he cut in, his tone sharp enough to draw blood. "The board is here. The sponsors are here. Sloane spent four consecutive days coordinating this event so the organization could project stability."

He did not look at me. His gaze slid past my shoulder to the bar, like I was a waitress who had wandered into the wrong room.

"Don't cause a scene," he added quietly. "Go upstairs."

A soft, mocking murmur rippled through a cluster of players' wives standing near the grand staircase. Two women with platinum blowouts exchanged knowing glances over their flutes of Dom Pérignon.

"I didn't know," I said, my voice barely audible over the swelling music. "I am sorry."

I turned toward the staircase, my legs trembling beneath my wool trousers.

Near the landing, Poppy was adjusting her designer jacket in the hallway mirror.

"Poppy," I said softly, pausing beside her. "How is your ankle feeling after Thursday's third period? Did you complete the isometric sequence I sent?"

Poppy rolled her eyes, sighing loudly as she pulled out her phone.

"Aurelia, please, not right now," she muttered without looking at me. "Sloane is introducing me to a marketing director from one of our partners. I don't have time for your spreadsheets."

The dismissive edge in her voice hit me harder than Declan's coldness. I had stayed up until three in the morning reviewing her biomechanical scans while she was recovering from surgery, and now I was just an annoyance in the way of her social ascent.

I walked up the rest of the stairs and entered the primary suite—the massive, sterile bedroom allocated to me under our prenuptial agreement.

I sat on the edge of the mattress and pulled out the velvet box. The gold cufflinks gleamed under the bedside lamp, cold and useless.

Downstairs, cheers erupted. The sound vibrated through the floorboards.

I walked to the French doors overlooking the rear garden. Down on the illuminated patio, Sloane was directing two servers by an ice sculpture. Declan stood beside her, his head bent down as he listened to her speak, his hand casually brushing the small of her back.

They looked like the couple the city expected them to be.

My phone buzzed in my coat pocket. I pulled it out, hoping against hope.

It was an email notification.

"Happy Birthday, Aurelia. Remember that true science requires patience and solitude. You are meant for greater arenas than New York boardrooms. -Dr. Edmund Sterling."

My mentor at Harvard was the only person in the world who had remembered.

I typed a brief "Thank you, Professor" and shut off the screen.

Hours passed. The bass eventually quieted, replaced by the occasional clatter of glassware and slamming car doors. My throat burned with thirst.

At two in the morning, I padded downstairs in my stocking feet to fetch a glass of water from the butler's pantry.

As I rounded the corner near the service hallway, the voices of two newly hired catering maids stopped me dead in my tracks.

"Miss Whitfield is stunning," the first girl whispered, scraping dessert plates into a bin. "Mr. Hartford's girlfriend carries herself like royalty."

"A girlfriend?" the other asked, pausing. "But isn't Mr. Hartford rumored to be married? Is it inappropriate to be this close with Whitfield?"

"Married?Where did that come from? Even if there was one, they must have split long ago. I've worked three events here this month, and Miss Whitfield is the only woman hosting by his side. Everyone knows she's the future Mrs. Hartford."

I shrank back into the cold shadow of the archway, my blood turning to ice.

In the home where I held a legal marriage certificate, my presence had already been wiped clean.

Continue Reading
Bound To The Alpha

Bound To The Alpha

Werewolf

5.0

Leilani's world crumbles around her when news of how her parents died in a ghastly automobile accident reached her and her younger sister Samantha. Betrayed by her relatives, she and her sister learnt to survive on their own until she was torn between brothers that wanted her for themselves. w

Bound to the Alpha Commander

Bound to the Alpha Commander

Werewolf

5.0

I was supposed to be the perfect daughter. Smile at the rich men my mother chose. Quit my job as a trauma nurse when one of them finally decided I was worth marrying. Pretend love did not matter as long as the groom had money, status, and a family name my mother could show off. Then a gunman bro

Bound To The Alpha Billionaire

Bound To The Alpha Billionaire

Werewolf

5.0

“Little bunny," his voice sounded so sexy and yet deadly. “You should have thought twice before trying to make a deal with the devil. Once you make a deal with the devil, there's no going back." … Vera, a human girl, only wanted a fake boyfriend to attend her grandma's birthday party but ended up

BOUND TO THE ALPHA'S CURSE

BOUND TO THE ALPHA'S CURSE

Werewolf

5.0

She was meant to live quietly in the shadows. Now, she's mated to the most dangerous wolf in the wild. Elara never believed in fated mates until the night her blood called to him. Kalen Thorne is a rogue Alpha with a bounty on his head and darkness in his soul. His pack betrayed him, His enemies wan

BOUND TO THE ALPHA BILLIONAIRE

BOUND TO THE ALPHA BILLIONAIRE

Billionaires

5.0

BLURB Sierra Lane is a broke reporter chasing her next headline, until one mistake lands her in the path of Dominic Thorne, the cold, dangerously magnetic billionaire who controls more than just the stock market. He rules the hidden world of werewolves. To protect his pack's secrets, Dominic give

Bound to the Alpha's Curse

Bound to the Alpha's Curse

Werewolf

5.0

Ciaran Winterbane is a powerful alpha cursed to become a savage beast under the light of the full moon a curse that threatens not only his life but the survival of his entire pack. Cold, ruthless, and desperate for salvation, he sets out to find the one person who might save him: a mysterious lone w

Bound To The Alpha King's Brother

Bound To The Alpha King's Brother

Werewolf

5.0

"She's mine, Finnian! The Queen of this kingdom! You've no right to look at her the way you do!" King Rowan roared. "Queen? Or Prisoner?" Prince Finnian shot back, his voice trembling with rage," You made her suffer, you made her bleed and yet you still have the nerve to claim her?! Don't forget, b

Bound to the Alpha by Eva black

Bound to the Alpha by Eva black

Werewolf

5.0

Caden, the fierce Alpha of the Howlers pack, is determined to defeat his longtime rival and secure his pack's future. Moriah never wanted anything to do with the supernatural world-let alone be bound to an Alpha. But when she discovers that her fated mate is none other than Caden, her father's riva

Bound To The Alpha's Heart: His Silver-Eyed Luna

Bound To The Alpha's Heart: His Silver-Eyed Luna

Werewolf

5.0

"Say you're mateless, Laia. No matter what you feel during the Ceremony, don't say a word," he whispered squeezing my bicep so tight I thought he'd leave bruise marks. I was stupid to hope. Years of secretly dreaming that Alphason Cael would be my mate and choose me, even while Lysandra clung to h

Bound to the Cruel Alpha

Bound to the Cruel Alpha

Werewolf

5.0

Amelia's body had become an object of sexual pleasure for the Alphas, this was the price she must pay as a slave to her captors after losing her family. Her bittered heart only longed for revenge on Alpha Zane whom she saw on the scene the day of her parents' death yet for Alpha Zane, Amelia is who

Bound to the Ruthless Alpha

Bound to the Ruthless Alpha

Werewolf

5.0

BLURB: In a Pack where being wolfless is seen as a curse, Mia, the heiress of Gyde Pack is sold to the most ruthless Alpha in the region by her father in exchange for a Pack alliance. When Mia thought her life would get better in Phoenix Pack, things turn for the worse as she battles with submitti

Bound To The Ruthless Alpha

Bound To The Ruthless Alpha

Werewolf

3.9

"Get your clothes off," he said, his voice emotionless. I stared at him, my lips slightly parted in shock. What? "I said, get your clothes off," he repeated. "Turn around. I want you on your hands and knees. Face me with your ass." "What?" I breathed, trembling. He took a single step forward

Bound To The Wolfless Alpha

Bound To The Wolfless Alpha

Werewolf

5.0

Katherina Rosemary is an omega who was rejected by her Alpha lover as a mate. She felt so devastated when she realized her fate would be the same as her mom's. Yet, fortune still followed her when the observation visit took place. She was chosen to be a committee member and met an Alpha from the Sca

Bound To The Frigid Alpha

Bound To The Frigid Alpha

Werewolf

5.0

Alpha Orion, the formidable leader of the wolf star pack, inherited his position immediately after the passing of his father Atlas Warren, the late Alpha. With an unwaveringly cold demeanor, he commands respect and strikes fear into the hearts of all who cross his path. While being the Alpha and ru

Bound to the Bastard Alpha

Bound to the Bastard Alpha

Romance

4.0

They gave Fiona to the crippled bastard as a cruel joke-the adopted daughter married off to the wheelchair-bound outcast nobody wanted. Her real crime? Existing when the true heiress returned. Her mate rejected her for her manipulative sister. Her family cast her aside. And her forced husband? He's

Bound To The Dominant Alpha

Bound To The Dominant Alpha

Werewolf

5.0

Ashwin is a power driven Alpha who does not believe in love or the werewolf mate bond. So he sets out to marry a female alpha, Fellrath, for power but then he sees his mate at his wedding and refuses to continue the wedding. Then his brother betrays him. Fellrath gets frantic and swears to destroy

Bound To The Lycan Alpha

Bound To The Lycan Alpha

Werewolf

5.0

"I didn't want to do this, but it looks like I am bound to the Alpha. Right from being your mate, I'll prove to the Clan that you're not impotent and can make a good king," *** The moment Elena was rejected by Alpha Tyler after she had sacrificed everything for him, a secret no one had imagined w

Bound To Rival Alpha

Bound To Rival Alpha

Werewolf

5.0

Violet was a weak Omega who married Leo Easton, the head Alpha of her pack. She thought her marriage was the beginning of her new life, but she soon realized that her husband did not love her. Despite her deep emotional suffering, she kept trying to be an ideal wife. One day, her life became colorle

Bound to her destined alpha

Bound to her destined alpha

Werewolf

5.0

Clara was the nameless girl weak, voiceless, and unloved. For years, Alpha Lucas made her his target, punishing her for a crime she never committed. In the Silver Crest Pack, she was nothing but a shadow, enduring humiliation and pain under the cruel gaze of the very man fated to protect her. But t

Bound To The Cursed Alpha King

Bound To The Cursed Alpha King

Werewolf

5.0

Growing up, Avery Smith knew nothing but pains and suffering. Treated badly by the pack members, even her own family treated her as an outcast. Finding solace in only one person, her mate, Julian Styles, only to have her whole world crumbling down when he rejected her and choose her sister over her.

MoboReader