
Playing Dead for My Vampire Husband
Juniper Marlow · Completed · 5.4k Words
Introduction
He told me I was the first person he'd loved in six hundred years. He bought a castle and named it after me. He reserved a spot for me in his family's crypt so we'd lie there together when the time came—right beside his parents, in the inner ring where only blood and the most beloved go.
While I spent four years bleeding myself dry over ancient rites, trying to carry his child, he was across the city watching another woman do it on her first try. Using my research to get there.
He named one of the twins Soren. That was the name I'd chosen.
The night I found out, I was seven weeks pregnant.
I didn't tell him.
I called Mira and said: I need him to think I'm dead.
Chapter 1
I found out Lucian Vael—the man I took a crossbow bolt for five years ago—had been living a double life behind my back.
I don't know exactly when I blacked out. I remember the archive room floor coming up fast. Then nothing.
When I came to, he was already there.
He was on the phone at the far end of the physician's room, and his voice had an edge I almost never heard from him. Something about the ritual components. Something about whoever had let this happen again. The physician was waiting him out patiently, the way you learn to wait out powerful men.
For a moment I almost believed it. That he was that furious on my behalf.
Then I remembered the crystal. Those two new silver branches. The name carved into one of them.
The physician got through half his update before Lucian ended the call and crossed the room.
"Was it the Accord?" he said, low and tight. "Did someone get to your materials?"
"Nobody got to anything. I just pushed too hard."
He looked at me like he didn't believe it, then looked at the physician like he was deciding whether to find someone to blame anyway.
"Blood loss," the physician said firmly. "Third time in six months. No more rites until she's recovered. Two weeks minimum."
Lucian pulled a chair close and sat. He reached over and put his hand against my face—same angle, same weight as five years ago, the night I first woke up changed, when he'd steadied me because I didn't know how to hold my own head up yet. I wondered if he knew he still did it that way.
"What's wrong?" he said. "Something else."
"I'm tired."
He held my gaze for a second, then leaned in and pressed his mouth to my forehead.
That's when I caught it.
Under the cedar-and-copper that was specifically him: something cold. Old. A pureblood's presence clings to skin and fabric differently than anything else—floral in a way that has nothing to do with flowers, something you can't place until you know what you're looking for. I'd been in the same room as Seraphine Moreau three times. I knew that scent.
And beneath it, so faint I nearly missed it: something sweet and warm and milky.
Infant blood smells different. It's one of the first things you learn.
I pushed him back, said something about needing a moment, and barely made it to the bathroom before I was sick.
He followed. He gathered my hair back with both hands and said nothing, just stayed there, kneeling on the tile floor in a coat that probably cost more than most people's rent. He'd always hated mess. He'd always been worse around illness. He was kneeling on a clinic bathroom floor not caring about either.
I almost told him. I was right on the edge of it—I'm pregnant, seven weeks, I just found out yesterday—and maybe if I had, everything would have gone differently.
Then his phone rang.
He glanced at the screen. Something moved through his face, there and gone. "Clan business," he said. "I'll be right back."
He wasn't back in twenty minutes.
What came instead was a vision—images that pushed into my head uninvited, sharp as memory, except they weren't mine. It happens between two people who've shared blood long enough. Someone can send things through that connection without a phone, without warning.
Soft light. A pale nursery. Lucian leaning over a crib, his mouth to a baby's forehead. Unhurried. Like he'd done it before.
Seraphine in the background. Her hand on his arm. Watching.
One line of text threaded through it after: He moves fast when they need him.
I stayed on the bathroom floor until my hands steadied. Then I called Mira.
"Two days," I said. "I need to be dead in two days."
A beat of silence. Then, carefully: "Corbin's been lying to me too. I found the messages." Her voice was controlled but only just. "I can't stay, Vera. Not anymore."
She was wrong. He'd spent eight months saving for a ring, had her old Hunter insignia worked into the setting, wanted her to know he accepted everything she'd been before. I didn't know that yet.
"Okay," I said. "We go together."
That night I came home to an empty house. Late, his message said. Handling things.
I went straight to the archive room. Four years of notebooks on that shelf, his handwriting in my margins, time that had looked like partnership from where I was standing. I pulled them down one by one and tore them. I'd expected it to feel like something. It didn't.
The gown from my first clan gathering went into a bag without me looking at it too long.
My ring caught the light when I tied the handles shut.
I left it on. The plan needed it.
My phone lit up on the countertop.
Mira: Everything's ready. 48 hours.
Forty-eight hours, and Vera Cross-Vael would be dead.
Last Chapters
You Might Like 😍
Legacy Of Dragons, Royal Dragons Book 2
Ria and the Balaur brothers never imagined how far their family would come.
After surviving betrayal, loss, and the lies that nearly destroyed everything they loved, they dedicated themselves to building a future. What began as a training facility for dragons soon grew into something far greater—a place where dragons and other species from around the world could learn, train, and thrive together.
Now the facility is flourishing. Their children have grown, many finding their own mates among dragons, shifters, and other species from distant lands. The family Ria fought so hard to protect has expanded beyond anything she once dreamed possible, bringing new friendships, new adventures, and a growing legacy of grandchildren.
As old secrets continue to surface, long-held beliefs about dragons and mixed-species bloodlines are being challenged. Truths buried for generations are finally coming to light, reshaping everything they thought they knew about their world.
The Unbreakable Oath
Mated To The Last Scribe
A missing woman is found exactly where her latest story said she would be.
A warehouse burns down hours after she publishes another.
Then anonymous messages begin appearing.
WE KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW.
The problem is that Iris doesn't know anything.
At least, she doesn't think she does.
When her stories attract the attention of billionaire Alpha Cassian Blackmoor, Iris is pulled into a hidden world of werewolves, secrets, and deadly conspiracies.
Cassian believes she may be connected to a mystery that has claimed the lives of powerful Alphas for years.
His wolf believes something else.
That she is his mate.
As enemies close in and events from her stories begin unfolding in real life, Iris must uncover the truth behind her impossible gift before she becomes the next target.
Because someone is watching.
Someone is waiting.
And someone will kill to keep the truth buried.
“Burn those who burned me!”
Burn those who burned me is an anthology book circulated on truth; justice; and REVENGE!
Story #1 The Ballad of Rabena Price.
Story #2 The rebirth of Clara Granger
Story #3 The violin of Graceland Teague
Story #4 The list for Josie Taylor
Story #5 COMING SOON!
The mafia princess return
The Spy Who Left
"I still can't believe she actually did it. Aria Hart, filing for divorce. Who saw that coming?"
"How long do we think it'll take before she comes crawling back?" Another voice joins the conversation.
"Three days," Victoria declares. "Five at most. She has no money, no skills, no family. Where's she going to go?"
When Aria Chen divorced billionaire Leon Hart, New York's elite sneered, betting she'd crawl back within days. She never did.
Three years later, the world is rocked when Dr. Aria Vale, CEO of a revolutionary cybersecurity empire, steps into the spotlight. The mysterious genius who built a billion-dollar company from nothing is none other than Leon's discarded wife, the woman everyone thought was just a pretty ornament.
Now, every powerful man wants the queen Leon threw away a renowned scientist seeking partnership, a financial titan proposing an empire, and an actor offering devotion. Each sees the brilliance Leon ignored.
Then Leon discovers the truth: Aria's sacrifices, her secret double life, and the daughter she's been raising without him. For the first time, the man who once took her for granted must fight for her love. But can he compete with men who valued her from the beginning?
A story of love, betrayal, and power where the king must kneel before the queen who never needed saving.
Where The Ice Gives Way
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.
Oops. My Boss Was Seventeen
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.
Pregnant by My Husband's Rival Alpha
Those words should have destroyed me, but the truth was worse: I'd been used as a broodmare by the man who swore to love me, set up in a hotel room with a stranger because My husband Alexander Cross couldn't father children himself, and now I carried the secret babies of Damon Lester—the most powerful and dangerous Alpha in San Loris—while my own family replaced me with the daughter they'd always wanted. But when that same stranger's doctor appeared at my door, when twenty million dollars exchanged hands over a fake perfume bearing my secret identity, and when Damon's gray eyes locked onto mine with recognition I couldn't afford, I realized my carefully hidden life as the legendary perfumer Vera was colliding with a pregnancy that could cost me everything.
Could I protect my babies from the husband plotting my death, hide my true identity from the Alpha who's been hunting me for years, and reclaim the freedom I'd buried along with my dreams—even if it means standing alone against the wolves who see me as nothing more than a womb to be used and discarded?
The Alpha Of The Shadow Pack And His Mute Luna
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?
Offside Temptation
Ethan Ryder was a disaster waiting to happen. Hot-headed, reckless, and constantly one bad decision away from ruining his career. I was supposed to hate him. Instead, I memorized him. I learned exactly how to push his buttons on the ice just to see the fire in his eyes.
When he grabbed my jersey in that locker room and kissed me in front of twenty cameras, it wasn't a mistake. It was the moment the line between hatred and obsession finally snapped. The media called it a scandal. They called us a divorced couple. But they didn't see the way Ethan trembled when I cornered him in the hallway afterward.
"You're staring again," he whispered, his back hitting the wall.
"You're still here," I replied calmly, stepping close enough to feel his erratic pulse.
He thought I was cold. He thought I was controlled. He didn't realize that every time he looked at me, I was fighting the urge to completely destroy the distance between us.
Now, the league is forcing us to live together, train together, and smile for the cameras to fix our public image. But the more time we spend alone in my apartment, the harder it is to pretend I just want to play hockey...
BROKEN TRUST
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?












