The Substitute's Redemption

The Substitute's Redemption

Sharbie · Completed · 142.6k Words

284
Hot
588
Views
97
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

Jane Fitzergald, a 22 year old medical student and the illegitimate daughter of the Harrison family, was forced to take her half-sister's place as a substitute bride to the eldest son of the Harrington family, Ethan, a deformed cripple with less than 6 months to live. She dealt with mockery right from her wedding from everyone and was a victim of vicious plots due to her naivety which caused a strain on the relationship with her new husband whom had already decided to be on good terms with. Unbeknownst to her and everyone else who looked down on her husband, he was not what he seemed.

Ethan Harrington knew that she was not his bride but he didn't mind as long as she stuck to his words, his known health status was a front to cover his escapades. He's set to unmask some plots but what happens when he starts to fall for his naive wife who shows him the love and care he never got? Will their budding love be cut off or will they weather the storm together?

Chapter 1

  Standing in front of the mirror in an ill-fitting wedding dress, Jane studied her reflection and felt the corner of her lips twist into a wry smile.

  "Sign this contract."

  Jane caught the document that her father, Peter Harrison, tossed at her. Her eyes traveled to the bottom of the page where her husband-to-be's signature stared back at her: Ethan Harrington.

  The handwriting was neat as though in fine print but the pen had been gripped with enough force for the ink to have bled through the other side of the paper.

  "You'll be well taken care of as his wife but…", he warned, "… you'd better behave."

  An edge crept into his voice like the hints of a dark cloud looming over the horizon.

  "Think about what will happen to your grandmother if you ruin everything."

  It should have been Stacy in her place, Jane thought. But Stacy didn't want to marry a man on the verge of death - why would she?

  She had fled just a few hours before her wedding but to tell the groom's family would be nothing short of insulting, even humiliating, which was why her father had - rather callously- threatened Jane with her grandmother's life to coerce her into taking Stacy's place.

  And so to protect her grandmother, Jane found herself dressed in a wedding gown that had belonged to another woman; the bride to be of the sickly eldest son of the Harrington family.

  Her father might insist that it was a privilege to be in her shoes but Jane knew better. If she were truly all that lucky, why did Stacy run away in the first place?

  "You're right", Jane replied, her voice smooth and clear.

  "Thank you for your reminder, if not, the small matter of of me becoming the matriarch of the Harrington family would have slipped my mind completely. Although… correct me if I'm wrong but my new status would make it incredibly easy to punish those who try to hurt me, wouldn't it?"

  Her father's expression changed instantly.

  Jane raised her head to look him in the eye, all demure and innocent.

  "So don't hurt my grandmother. She's the only family I have left after all, if something happens to her, I can't imagine what I'd be capable of."

  "You…" Peter seethed. He opened his mouth as if to hurl more verbal abuse at her but at that moment, a staff came to inform them that it was time for the bride to take her place.

  Clamping down his fury, Peter smoothed his expression and brusquely escorted her into full view of the guests.

  Slowly she made her way to the center. The veil hid her face from the sea of guests around her but it failed to block their whispers and snickers.

  "Who would have thought that even a sickly whelp like Ethan Harrington would find himself a bride?"

  "I hear he's practically on his deathbed and he's only marrying the Harrisons' daughter to improve his luck and prolong his life"

  "The Harrisons? Their brazen hussy of a daughter? I heard she was throwing herself at a man she met at a party not long ago. Young Master Ethan must be begging to be cuckolded."

  "Speaking of which, the bride's a little on the skinny side, isn't she? She can barely hold up that gown of hers… if you catch my meaning."

  With each step, Jane ignored the murmurs of the throng, her gaze fixed on the man in the wheelchair in front of her. A mask covered the bottom half of his face but his eyebrows were set in two gentle lines.

  Sporadically, he would let out a cough or two, his fists clenching in a valiant attempt to control himself and avoid disrupting the wedding but he only succeeded in making himself cough harder.

  It went on for so long that Jane couldn't help but wonder if he would even survive the wedding. I would enter a bride and leave a widow, she thought humorlessly.

  Peter must have been afraid that the wretched, pitiful noises tearing from her husband-to-be's chest were the result of some kind of infectious disease.

  After placing Jane's hand into Ethan's, he wasted no time in covering his nose and hurrying off.

  The pastor began reciting the ceremonial vows. He asked Jane, "Do you agree to take this man as your husband, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, from this day till your last?"

  Did she have a choice when she had already signed the marriage contract?

  She rolled her eyes behind the veil, "I do."

  The pastor repeated the question to the groom who responded with several violent coughs before mustering up the strength to say "I do."

  "I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may now kiss the bride."

  No sooner than he had uttered the words did a look of mortification spread across the pastor's face. If simply swearing his vows had been such an impossible feat, surely this wheelchair-ridden man wasn't capable of sharing a kiss with his bride.

  He was about to rescind what he had said when Jane bent down and lifted her veil over her husband's head, shielding them both from view.

  It was said that two became one beneath a wedding veil. Jane had been prepared for this moment ever since she donned her gown.

  She might have been forced into this position by her father to ward off the Harrington family's outrage but she needed the power of the Harrington family name to keep her grandmother safe. The longer her husband lived, the better.

  Jane pulled down his mask, revealing the lower half of his face which was decorated in a pattern of hideous scars. The sight was repulsive - horrifying, even - but Jane pretended not to notice.

  "The ceremony is completed, the contract has been signed", she said keeping her face neutral.

  "We are husband and wife now. What you cannot do alone, I can help you with."

  Without the mask to conceal his visage, she could see Ethan Harrington's features creasing in a slight frown, presumably at not being given the chance to speak.

  But then he took in her words and she caught the hints of a glimmer in his eye.

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

Omega Bound

Omega Bound

2.3m Views · Completed · Veronica White
Ayla Frost is a beautiful, rare omega. Kidnapped, tortured, and trafficked to rogue clans and corrupt alphas to do with as they pleased.  Kept alive in her cage, broken and abandoned by her wolf, she becomes mute and has given up on hope for a better life until one explosion changes everything. 

Thane Knight is the alpha of the Midnight Pack of the La Plata Mountain Range, the largest wolf shifter pack in the world. He is an alpha by day and hunts the shifter trafficking ring with his group of mercenaries by night. His hunt for vengeance leads to one raid that changes his life. 

Tropes:
Touch her and die/Slow burn romance/Fated Mates/Found family twist/Close circle betrayal/Cinnamon roll for only her/Traumatized heroine/Rare wolf/Hidden powers/Knotting/Nesting/Heats/Luna/Attempted assassination
The mafia princess return

The mafia princess return

912.7k Views · Completed · Tonje Unosen
Talia have been living with her mother, stepsister and Stepfather for years. One day she finally get away from them. Suddenly she learn she have more family out there and she have many people that actually love her, something she have never felt before! At least not as she can remember. She have to learn to trust others, get her new brothers to accept her for who she is!
The Vampire Prince's Hybrid Bride

The Vampire Prince's Hybrid Bride

51.4k Views · Ongoing · Riley Above Story
As a wolfless orphan, Joanne had been abused by Alpha Anthony ever since she was a child. She devoted her entire life to surviving in his pack—until one day, she returned home to find an injured vampire lying in her house, his whole existence luring her in. Taking the risk of bringing him in, Joanne never expected Alpha Anthony to discover it the very next day and finally seize the chance to kill her. Just as Joanne was about to be executed, the vampire she had saved arrived, with his army. And Joanne realized that he was the Prince Alexander, heir to the vampire throne…..
Where The Ice Gives Way

Where The Ice Gives Way

27.9k Views · Ongoing · Sheridan Hartin
Charlotte Pierce is used to surviving in motion. New towns, new schools, the same old house on the edge of nowhere, and the same rule that keeps her standing. Keep her twin brother, Charlie safe. Keep his hockey dream alive. Keep her own needs quiet. She works too much, sleeps too little, and saves the one thing that still feels like hers for the middle of the night, when she can lace up her worn skates and carve freedom into dangerous frozen ice. Charlotte and Charlie shifted once, years ago, and never understood what it meant. They had no pack, no guidance and no protection. Just two twins clinging to each other and pretending the voice in their heads was stress, imagination, or loneliness. Then they move to Wellington.
Blake Atlas scents his mate the moment Charlotte arrives. The bond hits hard and unmistakable, but Charlotte doesn’t recognise it. She doesn’t know why her chest keeps pulling toward the one boy she absolutely cannot afford to want. Blake is Charlie’s new hockey captain. Charlie’s chance at making something good. Charlie makes it clear; his sister is off-limits and Blake tries to do the right thing, but secrets don’t stay buried forever. Rogues prowl the edges of town. The ice cracks. The bond tightens. Then Charlotte’s rare white wolf awakens, the very thing that makes her powerful, also makes her a target.
Shanti needs Shakti. (Peace needs strength.)

Where the Ice Gives Way is a slow-burn YA paranormal romance filled with fated mates, protective alpha energy, fierce sibling loyalty, found family pack bonds, hurt/comfort, and quiet, aching tension. It’s a story about first belonging, learning to be cared for, and what happens when the girl who has always held everyone else up finally falls, and someone catches her.
Rise of the Banished She-Wolf

Rise of the Banished She-Wolf

414.1k Views · Completed · Lily
"White wolf! Kill that monster!"
That roar stole my eighteenth birthday and shattered my world. My first shift should have been glory—blood turned blessing into shame. By dawn they'd branded me "cursed": cast out by my pack, abandoned by family, stripped of my nature. My father didn't defend me—he sent me to a forsaken island where wolfless outcasts were forged into weapons, forced to kill each other until only one could leave.
On that island I learned the darkest edges of humanity and how to bury terror in bone. Countless times I wanted to surrender—dive into the waves and never surface—but the accusing faces that haunted my dreams pushed me back toward something colder than survival: revenge. I escaped, and for three years I hid among humans, collecting secrets, learning to move like a shadow, sharpening patience into precision—becoming a blade.
Then, under a full moon, I touched a bleeding stranger—and my wolf returned with a violence that made me whole. Who was he? Why could he wake what I'd thought dead?
One thing I know: now is the time.
I have waited three years for this. I will make everyone who destroyed me pay—and take back everything that was stolen from me.
To protect what’s mine

To protect what’s mine

535.1k Views · Completed · Winter Rowe
Amalie is more special than she ever thought possible. Why would the twenty-two-year-old think any different after she has been told she’s nothing for her whole life by her family? Adoptive mother of a three-year-old, Ama has been locked up by her family for the past seven years. But everything changes when her old friends, the Alpha twins, Markus and Calyx, take over the Moonstone pack. Finding out that the twins are her mates, she is a white wolf, and has a connection to the Moon Goddess, is just icing on the cake of her life is a huge mess. Ama just wants a normal life with her mates and protecting her pup, but life rarely gives us what we want. She is thrust into world that she no longer remembers and has forgotten her. Amalie is charged with protecting those closest to her. But she has her own past to overcome as she heals and attempts to move forward. Will she come out alive or lose herself along the way? After all, someone has to be pulling the strings, why not pull her along for the ride?
Lightborn: The Demon’s Bond

Lightborn: The Demon’s Bond

5.2k Views · Completed · ngocvynguyen985
Valerie accidentally forms a bond with Maxwell, a light demon, and begins seeing the dangerous supernatural world hidden around her. As the two constantly bicker yet protect each other, Valerie gradually discovers her own light-based powers and confronts many dark forces, including a serial kidnapper, the dark demon Zane, and other malevolent entities. Maxwell, haunted by the death of his former lover Juliana, repeatedly tries to distance himself from Valerie to keep her safe, causing both of them pain. Yet every time Valerie is in danger, Maxwell returns to save her, and their feelings grow deeper. The climax comes when they face Mason, a fire demon who hunts human–demon couples; Valerie risks her life in battle while Maxwell nearly collapses from exhaustion. In the end, Mason is destroyed, the threats fade away, and Valerie and Maxwell can finally stay together in peace.
The Deadly Mafia Princess

The Deadly Mafia Princess

8.4k Views · Ongoing · Tonje Unosen
Ro was taken from her real family when she was 1 year old. Those she believed is her parents have been abusive towards her do years. Despite she being a very feared gang leader of a well known gang, she can’t find it in her to stand up against what she think is her parents. The little girl in her wants their love which she never will get.
Her gang take the matter in their own hands, to try to save their leader from the horror of her home. What none of them know, they wasn’t her real parents, and now Ro will be sent away to live with her real family. That makes her closest members in her gang pack up and move as well. They don’t want to be far away from their leader.
From Sacrificed Slave to the Dragon King's Obsession

From Sacrificed Slave to the Dragon King's Obsession

2.7k Views · Completed · Ellis Carter
"Ten years of atonement, and you flee?"

His fangs glinted as he gripped my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. Dragon scales shimmered along his neck, breath scorching my skin.

"Your Majesty... I beg—" He shoved me onto the bed. Silk tore with a sharp rip, cold air rushing over my exposed body.

"Scared?" He smirked, palm sliding down my waist, fingers tracing slow, burning circles. "Yet you shiver... not from cold."

I lunged for the candlestick, but he caught my wrist, pinning it overhead. His knee forced my legs apart.

"When your father gave you to me," his lips brushed my ear, voice a dark rumble, "you were already mine."

On the eve of freedom after ten years of servitude, Lina Valeria stood one night away from reuniting with her betrothed. But Dragon King Augustus condemned her to the Abyss Mines on false charges—a trap forged from obsessive desire.

Augustus Ashenwing, Supreme Sovereign of Skyhold Citadel, is ruthless and feared by all races. His obsession stems from ancient grudges and dragonkind's most dangerous instinct: possessive desire. He demands her submission, binding her to his throne as his consort.

From prisoner to queen, Lina battles him through court intrigue and twisted passion—fighting for her mother, her freedom, her dignity.

Yet this cold-blooded tyrant reserves all tenderness for her alone. He indulges her temper, bends his pride, compromises without limit—anything to see her smile. Gradually, her heart wavers. But loving him means betraying Kain, who waited eleven years. Torn between duty and desire, she drowns in agonizing guilt.

Love and hatred intertwined—a forbidden dragon romance in a realm of oppression.
Avery and the Cursed Alpha

Avery and the Cursed Alpha

3.5k Views · Completed · Lyra Lupine
After losing her mother to cancer and drowning in crushing debt, Avery Wellesley is running out of options. Her house is about to be seized, her job is hanging by a thread, and every door she knocks on seems to slam shut in her face.

Then a mysterious billionaire offers her a deal that sounds too good to be true.

Alexander Ravenswood is powerful, wealthy, and feared throughout Tenebrous City. Behind his perfect public image lies a deadly secret. He is the Alpha of the Nocturne Pack, cursed by an ancient bloodline that is slowly driving him toward madness and death. His only hope lies in finding the legendary Aethon Orb—or the prophesied mate destined to save him.

When Alex discovers that Avery can draw symbols connected to the long-lost artifact, he offers her a contract she cannot refuse: become his fake fiancée for six months in exchange for enough money to erase her debts and save her home.

What begins as a business arrangement quickly becomes something far more dangerous.

As they search for the missing Orb, Avery is drawn into a hidden world of werewolves, ancient prophecies, and deadly pack rivalries. Powerful enemies want Alex's throne. A jealous Alpha heiress wants Avery gone. And a ruthless rival Alpha will stop at nothing to claim the Orb for himself.

But the greatest secret of all may be Avery herself.

Because the closer she gets to Alex, the more impossible truths begin to surface about her past, her strange abilities, and the destiny that has been waiting for her all along.

With a curse threatening Alex's life, enemies closing in from every side, and a forbidden bond growing stronger by the day, Avery must decide whether to walk away from the dangerous Alpha who needs her—or risk everything for a love written by fate itself.

In a city where secrets kill and destiny cannot be escaped, can a fake engagement become a love powerful enough to change the future?
The Rogue King II

The Rogue King II

1.6k Views · Ongoing · MishanAngel
The hole left by Aelia’s death has a ripple effect through the world. The Alpha King retires, ushering in a new era. The Rogue King title now left vacant for the time being. Silas losing his sister, again. Nate losing his mate. Finn and Noah losing their Alpha and their lover.
Under the weight of his grief and pain, along with of the uncertainty of the new mate bond forged between Silas and Nate, Silas decides that he needs help. The weight of being Alpha that nearly just lost his pack if his little sister hadn’t been there, Silas decides to push everything away to be a better and stronger Alpha. Using magic is father gave him, Silas loses so much more than his way.
Nate, struggling with the mate bond, what the bond means for him, has continued to fight Silas, his Alpha, his best friend, and now his mate. When their fight goes too far, both Silas and Nate must deal with the consequences. It both pulls them together and tears them apart. Eventually leading to a full break in any relationship they had ever had.
On his own, Silas has to navigate through the next chapter alone. Coming to realize his actions, the consequences, and just how much it’s going to take to repair the damage he has done.
Nate, also on his own, works through what it means to step up in more ways than one. Somehow, even after her death, Aelia is still reaching out and helping Nate navigate the world on his own. He vows to grow and step up into the wolf that she knew he could be.

Book 2 in The Rogue Kings following immediately after The Rogue Kings I - Solaris' Reign. Trigger Warnings. Rated 18+.
The CEO's Unspoken Love

The CEO's Unspoken Love

281.6k Views · Completed · Lily Bronte
"You want my forgiveness?" he asked, my voice dropping to a dangerous timbre.

Before I could answer, he moved closer, suddenly looming over me, his face inches from mine. I felt my breath caught, my lips parting in surprise.

"Then this is the price for speaking ill of me to others," he murmured, nipping my lower lip before claiming my mouth in a real kiss. It began as punishment but quickly transformed into something else entirely as I responded, my initial rigidity melting into compliance, then active participation.

My breathing accelerated, small sounds escaping my throat as he explored my body. His touches were both punishment and pleasure, drawing shudders from me that I thought he felt reverberating through his own body.

My nightgown had ridden up, his hands discovering more of mine with each caress. We were both lost in sensation, rational thought receding with each passing second...

Three years ago, to fulfill the wish of his grandmother, I was forced to marry Derek Wells, the second son of the family that had adopted me for ten years. He didn't love me, but I had secretly loved him all along.

Now, the three-year contractual marriage is about to end, but I feel that some kind of sentiment has developed between Derek and me that neither of us is willing to admit. I'm not sure if my feelings are right, but I know that we can't resist each other physically...