My Substitute Bride Wasn't Supposed to Bite

Age Gap Romance/Arranged Marriage/Strong Heroine/Found Family/Revenge/Slow Burn Romance Nineteen-year-old Clarice Sullivan was forced by her scumbag father to marry Theodore Grant, a man of thirty-one. On their wedding night, Theodore, transformed into a ravenous wolf, left her utterly exhausted. "I thought you said you couldn't?" she muttered, rubbing her aching lower back. "Aren't men in their thirties supposed to know some restraint?" Theodore, irritated, pinned her down again. "Round two!" he growled. After marriage, Theodore switched into full protective-and-doting-husband mode. "Darling, my worthless father is trying to hit me again!" "Just wait," Theodore snapped, his temper flaring. He promptly dismantled the entire Sullivan family. "Darling, she drugged me-tried to hand me over to another man!" Clarice pointed accusingly at her wicked half-sister. Theodore's fury erupted. He slapped the woman hard across the face and ensured her reputation was ruined beyond repair. With Theodore's unwavering devotion backing her, Clarice repaid every slight and cruelty a thousandfold. When others criticized her for being spoiled, Theodore scoffed, "I'm the one who spoiled her-got a problem with that?"

Chapters

Chapter 5

Margaret's gaze drifted toward the staircase, then snapped back to Charles as a thought struck her. "Darling," she murmured, a silent understanding passing between them.

Charles cleared his throat, his voice carrying up the stairs after Clarice. "Since you're with Mr. Grant now, it's time to return the Moore family heirloom ring."

Clarice's step hitched for only a second at the mention of the Moores. A faint, mocking smile touched her lips, but she didn't turn or slow her ascent.

She and Jordan had been engaged for years-back when her mother was still alive. That heirloom ring had been passed down from old Mr. Moore, meant for his future granddaughter-in-law.

Clarice had always thought Jordan would be her husband. She'd done everything she could to impress the Moore family, hoping to marry him by the time she turned twenty.

Once that day came, she'd finally be able to leave the Sullivan house and start a quiet life with Jordan.

But that day never came.

She wasn't even twenty yet when Charles forced her to marry Theodore in Lydia's place.

What made it worse? Lydia and Jordan had already been together for two years. Charles, Margaret, and even Jordan's parents had known-and allowed it.

If the Grant family hadn't come out of nowhere with a proposal, Clarice might have stayed in the dark forever.

"Mom, what's Clarice's problem?" Lydia snapped, clearly annoyed at being brushed off.

"She's already with Theodore. Why is she still clinging to the Moore heirloom?"

Margaret patted her hand soothingly.

"Exactly, Lydia-like you said. She's with Theodore now. She has no future with the Moores."

"But what if she refuses?" Lydia fretted, her voice dropping. "You know Old Mr. Moore. He only acknowledges the woman wearing that ring."

A slow, calculated smile spread across Margaret's lips as she glanced toward the forbidden upper floor. "Then it's a good thing the sisters will have some time to reconnect today, isn't it?"

Understanding dawned in Lydia's eyes, bright and cruel. Of course. They still had Sophia.

Because of Sophia, Clarice had bowed her head and married Theodore. She was completely at their mercy.

She climbed all the way to the top floor-the forbidden level, where Charles permitted no one but himself. The air here was always still and heavy with silence.

Clarice paused outside the door, taking a shaky breath. All the defiance she'd worn like armor downstairs seemed to melt away, leaving only a raw, aching tenderness. When she stepped inside and saw Sophia, her eyes stung.

"Sophia."

A woman sat on the bed, long hair draped over her shoulders, quietly staring out the window.

She turned at the sound of Clarice's voice. And when she saw her, her delicate, pale face lit up with a soft, innocent smile.

Clarice walked in and climbed onto the bed, gently curling up in her arms.

"I missed you, Sophia."

Her eyes welled with tears almost instantly. She blinked hard to hold them back, wiped the corners of her eyes, and looked up again-meeting Sophia's dreamy, trusting gaze.

"Want me to brush your hair?"

Sophia didn't respond, her gaze still lost somewhere beyond the window, but she leaned slightly into Clarice's touch.

Clarice picked up the brush anyway and began running it through her hair.

She didn't know when-or if-she'd ever be able to get Sophia out of here. Or escape Charles's grip herself.

Marrying Theodore, breaking the engagement, giving up the ring.

Clarice didn't even want to imagine what Charles might try to force her to do next.

She had nothing left, but no matter how hard things got, she couldn't leave Sophia behind.

By late afternoon, Clarice left the Sullivan estate, the weight of Sophia's situation still pressing on her. But tonight-tonight was for the race. For the prize money that could change everything.

The underground race was set for midnight-dangerous, chaotic, and full of adrenaline. Definitely not for the faint of heart.

The prize money this time? Insane. Enough to make Clarice absolutely determined to win.

She'd been sneaking out to race for two years now, dancing with danger every time.

Her skills had sharpened, her courage hardened. Sure, she needed the money-but that didn't mean she didn't value her life.

Because if something happened to her-who would take care of Sophia?

----

"Clarice! Try not to wreck my brother's car,"Chloe grinned, leaning out of the driver's window.

Clarice took one look at the vehicle and knew right away-it was custom-built.

The curves, the interior-every detail screamed high-end performance.

"Factory custom," Chloe said proudly. "You won't find another one like it."

Clarice gave her a playful pat on the shoulder.

Same world, different scripts. Chloe had a big brother most girls could only dream of.

"By the way, Clarice-what the hell happened last night? You ditched me!"

Clarice quickly explained that the guy she kissed at the bar wasn't just some random stranger-he was her husband.

Yep. Theodore himself.

Her marriage was a tightly guarded secret.

Aside from her own family, only Chloe knew.

"Theodore?!" Chloe looked like she was about to jump off a cliff. "That was Theodore? Wait-so the rumors about him being... you know... are they true?"

Clarice almost laughed. If she only knew what he was like in bed.

"Seriously, with a body like that? No way. Unless. wait, don't tell me he's gay? Have you guys done it yet? How's his technique?"

Chloe's questions spilled out nonstop. Clarice was about to tell her to shut up when a voice called from behind.

"Claire!" Leo Grant swaggered into view, the onetime racing king dethroned by her.

"You lose tonight, you run ten laps around City Square.Naked."

Laughter rippled through the crowd.

Leo wasn't here for the prize money. He just wanted to humiliate her.

"Deal!" Clarice snapped back without hesitation.

She wore a tight black leather jumpsuit that hugged her curves perfectly.

She looked sharp, sleek-and absolutely fearless.

"But if you lose, Leo, you run twenty laps. Same place. Same rules. Ten a.m. Naked," she said, smiling sweetly.

He wanted a show? Let's see if he could deliver.

"You-" Leo's face darkened, jaw clenching.

"Worry about your own underwear, Leo," Clarice said, yanking the car door open and sliding inside.

Chloe jumped into the passenger side beside her.

On the track, no one used real names.

Clarice was Claire.

Chloe was Coco.

Continue to next part

Leo Vance builds things that last. Bridges. Buildings. A quiet, unspoken life with the woman he loves. What he has never been able to build is the courage to name what they are. On the morning of his wedding to botanical illustrator Elara Ashford, Leo stands in a chapel in a suit he cannot bring himself to fully button, and realizes something that stops him cold - he has already been married to her. Not in any courtroom or ceremony, but in every moment that actually counted. The night she held his hand at his mother's funeral and said nothing, because nothing was the right thing to say. The years they ate ramen so he could chase a dream she believed in before he did. The night she stood in the doorway during their worst fight and looked him in the eye and refused to let him run. He has said I do a thousand times in a thousand unspoken ways. So why does saying it out loud feel like the beginning of the end? What Leo doesn't know is that Elara has been sitting with her own impossible question for three weeks - ever since she found a note in his jacket pocket that made her wonder whether the man she is about to marry proposed because he chose her, or because someone told him he was about to lose her. What neither of them knows is that the woman he was secretly engaged to four years ago just walked into the venue. His best man is in love with his bride. His estranged father is standing outside in a rented suit, unable to go in. And the wedding videographer has been filming everything - with two cameras. By the time the officiant asks who gives this woman, nothing about this wedding will have gone according to the blueprint. But then again, the most important things Leo has ever built never did. Every Vow But One is a lux serialized romance about the terrifying distance between loving someone completely and choosing them on purpose and what it can cost when you finally close the gap.

Action Modern Romance

8.2

My Crown, His End: A Vengeful Heart

8.2

My fiancé staged his own kidnapping as a sick loyalty test, betting I'd risk our unborn child to save him. The shock of his betrayal cost me our baby. When I confronted him, he protected his mistress and burned our son's ashes right in front of me. He sneered that I was just his "loyal little soldier" and that only death would end us. He was right. He just never realized he was talking about his own death, at the hands of the queen who owns his entire army.

Action Modern Romance

9.0

Revenge for Mom: Destroying His Mafia World

9.0

My fiancé, the Underboss of the DeLuca Crime Family, promised he would burn the world down for me. But when my mother was dying in the hospital, he chose a ski trip with another woman. It was that woman's dog that attacked my mother, but when I called him, shaking, he was annoyed. He was in Aspen with Isabella, and I could hear her laughing in the background. He dismissed my mother's injuries as a "minor scrape" and told me not to "make a big deal out of this." While my mother's fever spiked, he ignored my desperate pleas. Instead, my phone lit up with an Instagram post of him and Isabella smiling by a fireplace, sipping hot chocolate. My mother slipped into septic shock. That picture was a public declaration, a judgment on my mother's worth, and my own. A cold fury burned away every last bit of love I had for him. She died at 3:17 a.m. I held her hand until it was cold, then walked out of the hospital and called the one number I was never supposed to use—the number for my father. "She's dead," I said. "I'm coming to Chicago. I'm leaving this life, and I'm going to burn his world to the ground."

Action Mafia Modern

8.4

Rise of the Rejected Luna

8.4

She was to be set out as a debt to be paid. He is known to be the ruthless Alpha of a pack, feared by many and dared by none. By ancient rites and moonlight ceremonies, turning eighteen means everything to werewolf shifters. It is aligned with their tradition, holding a great celebration. For Kiara, it should be a day to be merry, the day she finally confirms her bond with her boyfriend and future Alpha, Jason. Rather, it becomes the moment her world is blurred. "I, Jason, hereby reject you as my Luna." Ridiculed as a "freak" for her inability to shift, Kiara is publicly rejected by the boy she loves - replaced by her sister, Erina, and humiliated in front of the entire pack-Heartbroken, backstabbed, and renounced by everyone including her family. Kiara is sent out against her will to live with Alpha Ryder, who had provided a handsome loan to her parents to cure an ailment. Her stay at the Alpha was prolonged and intriguing. She discovers that she has never been a freak but rather descended from the Lunaries. The drama unfolds, tragedy awaits, torn between love and war. She learns great strength and endurance. She becomes a body of attraction to the Alpha. Would her stay in the new pack be worth her first rejection or would she be consumed by it?

Action Romance Werewolf

7.1

The Don's Pawn, A Queen's Revenge

7.1

My family sent me to marry into the enemy, a ruthless Don in Chicago. From the moment I arrived, I was treated like a common whore, a pawn to be humiliated and discarded. But they made one fatal mistake: they thought I was a lamb, when I was really a wolf in disguise. Sent to Chicago for an arranged marriage with Don Vincenzo Moretti, Isabella Falcone arrived at his hostile estate, instantly an unwelcome outsider. Hostility turned personal. Publicly shamed and trapped in Vincenzo's bed by his cousin, the Don accused me of whoring for family favor. I faced constant humiliation. Family insulted me, staff trapped me. Vincenzo was cold. A rival framed me with a planted diamond, and the Consigliere declared me a thief, ordering soldiers to drag me away. Branded a criminal by a rigged game, injustice fueled a cold, clear rage. I was a pawn, but I would show them a queen. My fear hardened into lethal resolve. Alida Savage thought she'd destroyed me, but only declared war on the wrong woman. I would tear down all who dared to underestimate me.

Action Mafia Modern

9.6

The Vanished Luna: Returning to Reject the Alpha

9.6

"Not guilty." With those two words, my husband, the Alpha, acquitted his mistress of poisoning my mother. I had the toxicology reports. I had the receipts. But Garrison didn't care. He looked me in the eye, his hand resting possessively on Keyla's back, and told me to stop making a scene. That was just the beginning of my hell. He moved Keyla into our master suite and forced me into the servant's quarters. "Since you can't give me strong pups," he sneered, "you can serve those who do." I became the maid in my own home, washing Keyla's silk lingerie while she wore my Luna robes. When I tried to fight back, he used the Alpha Command to silence me and locked me in a room filled with silver dust that burned my skin like acid. He even drugged me and offered me to a rival Alpha just to secure a timber deal. He thought he had broken me. He thought I was just a weak Omega who would eventually fade away. But he forgot that my mother taught me everything about poisons. On the night of the yacht party, I didn't just jump into the dark ocean to escape. I jumped to be reborn. I flushed my wedding ring, severed the bond, and let the icy water swallow Janette the victim. Garrison thought I was dead. He didn't know that the ocean wouldn't kill me. It would awaken my true bloodline. And when I came back, I wasn't his wife anymore. I was a White Wolf, and I was going to burn his pack to the ground.

Action Romance Werewolf

My Substitute Bride Wasn't Supposed to Bite

Chapter 5

You may also like