Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
My wolf-shifter husband didn’t love me, even though our compatibility index was as high as 80 percent.
Every time he slept with me, he would pull away afterward with that cold, unreadable expression and remind me, “Being intimate with you doesn’t mean I love you. I’m only doing my duty.”
I always gave him a careless little nod and let it roll off me. It didn’t matter.
Not until the woman he’d never gotten over came back.
Damian used my Compatibility Bureau account to file a partner replacement request.
The moment I found out the Bureau had identified a new match for me—a wolf-shifter with a 90 percent compatibility index—I let out a long breath of relief.
The truth was, I’d never been all that satisfied with my match rate with Damian.
I had only married him in the first place for my career.
And now that someone with an even higher compatibility index had appeared?
That was wonderful news.
Right before bed, I stumbled across a post online.
[The one who got away came back from another planet, but I’m already married. Can I get divorced and go after her?]
I clicked in immediately. On principle alone, a scumbag like that deserved to be dragged.
Then I went silent.
The account looked familiar, for one thing.
And the more I stared at the profile picture, the more it looked like that photo of my back.
Suddenly my scalp started tingling.
Like a whole flock of sheep was stampeding across my head.
I scratched at it and kept reading.
[I’m a wolf-shifter, and my marriage to my wife happened by accident. Three years ago, she found me in the outskirts when I was in the middle of a psychic stability episode and took me to the hospital. At the time, the doctors determined I was at the critical threshold.]
[Everyone knows that once a wolf-shifter’s psychic stability drops below that line, there’s a high chance they’ll be ruined for life. The hospital filed my case with the Compatibility Bureau out of protocol.]
[I don’t know whether to call it lucky or unlucky, but the next day, despite already loving someone else, I was matched with a human whose compatibility index with me hit 80%. You’ve probably guessed by now—that person became my wife.]
[So even though I didn’t like her, the Compatibility Bureau forced me to marry her.]
[Honestly, our life after marriage wasn’t bad. She’s ordinary, but she’s kind, sweet, and easygoing.]
[She knows I don’t love her, but she never picks fights with me. Every day she just smiles and tells me she likes me.]
[After a while, I started to think maybe living like this wasn’t so bad.]
[Until yesterday. Yesterday, the one I’ve never forgotten came back. The moment I heard the news, one insane thought flashed through my mind—divorce.]
…
Wolf-shifter.
Eighty percent compatibility.
The exact same way we met.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
At that point, I could say with absolute certainty that the person who made the post was my husband, Damian Sterling.
I let out a long, hollow sigh, switched to a burner account, and left a comment beneath it.
[There are only two ways for a human and wolf-shifter couple to legally divorce.]
[One: both parties consent.]
[Two: both parties re-enter the Compatibility Bureau’s matching system, and each of them must find a new match with a higher compatibility index than the one they have with each other.]
[You and your wife are already at 80%, which is considered high. Where exactly do you think either of you is going to find someone with a score above 80%?]
I wasn’t saying that to keep him.
I was telling the truth.
If divorce were really that easy, I would’ve left him a long time ago.
In this era, everything revolved around psychic stability.
I was a film director—one of the kind who built entire movies with the mind.
The higher your psychic stability, the larger and more complex the cinematic worlds you could construct. And when a human paired with a wolf-shifter who had a high compatibility index with them, that bond could raise their psychic stability to a certain extent.
That was why I’d agreed to marry Damian in the first place.
And sure enough, after we got married, my psychic stability improved by a lot.
The worlds I built for my films became smoother, more cohesive. What I made went from obscure and unnoticed to modestly successful.
That was also why, even knowing Damian didn’t love me, I kept trying to appease him.
It was fine if he didn’t love me.
As long as he reliably contributed to my psychic stability, that was enough.
But half a year ago, I hit a creative wall.
I could feel it clearly—my psychic stability wasn’t enough anymore.
It couldn’t keep up with the ideas in my head. It couldn’t support the worlds I wanted to create.
I started going from hospital to hospital across different planets, seeing specialist after specialist.
Every time, I asked the same question: was there any way to raise my psychic stability?
And every time, the doctors gave me the same half-joking answer.
“There is. Divorce your husband and find a wolf-shifter with a higher compatibility index.”
How was I supposed to do that?
I’d promised my mother.
I would never become one of those awful people who chased after someone better the second they appeared.
I would be a decent, honest human being.
So my career and my conscience went to war.
I was miserable.
I was torn.
I had already been trying so hard to restrain myself.
But Damian, that damn wolf-shifter, had no sense at all.
One night, deep into another bout of rough, resentful sex, he lay there with his cold face flushed red and warned me yet again,
“Sleeping with you doesn’t mean I love you. I’m only fulfilling my obligation.”
I was already fed up to begin with.
And then he pulled that.
For once, I didn’t smile and soothe him.
I turned away, my face gone flat, and gave a quiet, “Oh.”
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Then I said evenly, “If that’s the case, maybe we should figure out a way to get divorced.”
In an instant, the whole room went silent.
That night, I forced my heavy, half-sleeping eyes to stay open and waited for hours, but he never answered me.
Back then, I’d secretly felt pleased. I thought it meant he liked me after all—that he couldn’t bear to divorce me.
It wasn’t until I saw that post that I understood.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t bear to let me go.
He was just waiting for the right moment.
I’d only spaced out for a moment before Damian replied to my anonymous burner account.
[Actually, the compatibility index between me and the woman I’ve never gotten over is 90%.]
What?
I nearly flung my wrist console across the room.
No, seriously.
Why the hell did he get a 90% match waiting for him?
Then, in the very next second, my anger fizzled out.
Another message from Damian popped up.
[I also found out there’s an unmarried wolf-shifter in the Compatibility Bureau system with a 90% compatibility index with my wife.]
So my career could still be saved?
A huge rush of joy slammed into me. My fingers actually trembled as I typed back:
[There’s really a coincidence like that?]
[Yes.]
My smile broke wide across my face. I immediately urged him on.
[Then what are you waiting for? Tell your wife. For the sake of a 90% match alone, she’ll definitely agree to the divorce.]
Other people in the thread were chiming in too.
[It’s kind of cold-blooded, but honestly, a 90% compatibility index is hard for anyone to resist.]
[Exactly. This is 90%, not 60 or 70. That’s enough to keep a wolf-shifter psychically stable and enough to expand a human’s cognitive range. It could push both their careers to the next level.]
…
Exactly.
What human or shifter could say no to that?
But then Damian, that absolute idiot, claimed I could.
[No. I can’t tell her. My wife likes me. A lot. Like, really, really, really likes me. She’d never agree to divorce.]
Me?
Say that to my face, Damian. I dare you.
See if I don’t slap you so hard your face swells like a balloon.
I was already gearing up to absolutely tear him apart in the comments when he posted again.
[But I’m going to use her Compatibility Bureau account in private and submit a partner-change request.]
[I know it’s wrong, but we’ve been married for three years, and I still can’t forget her.]
The second that disgusting line hit the thread, the people who’d been sympathetic about him not being able to resist a 90% match completely exploded.