9040 Book(s) Related to is the shawshank redemption based on a true story

On the very day Charlotte Blackwood discovered she was pregnant, she walked into her bedroom expecting to surprise her billionaire husband with the happiest news of their lives.

Instead, she found him in bed with her best friend.

Branded a cheater with fabricated evidence, abandoned, and left for dead after a tragic fall, Charlotte lost everything—her marriage, her unborn child, and even her memories.

The world believed she was dead.

Three years later, she returns with a new identity, Aurora Sinclair—a powerful businesswoman with an empire of her own and only one goal: revenge.

Her ex-husband, Ethan Blackwood, is haunted by guilt the moment he sees the woman he buried standing before him, more beautiful and untouchable than ever. Desperate for a second chance, he vows to win her back, unaware that every smile she gives him is part of a carefully crafted plan to make him lose everything.

But when revenge and old feelings collide, will Aurora destroy the man who broke her... or discover that forgiveness is the hardest battle of all?

Rated ????: Explicit contents present. Don't read if you can't handle it.

All Kristen could offer is sex and nothing more due to her tragic past, She met Frederick at one of her craziest night and slept with him but then, Frederick could go extra mile to make her see that there is more to life than holding on to THE PAST.

When she thought life was being fair to her, something terrible happened which opens up a past no one knows about. She lost her memory leaving her with no knowledge of who Frederick is and a whole new identity.

Frederick would have to fight for a love he had nurtured for so long when Lous, an alleged fiance of Kristen surfaced.

In the rain-slicked underworld of the North End, some secrets are meant to stay buried. Others are meant to be hunted.
Sloane Vance is the 4th Precinct’s best detective—sharp, cynical, and dangerously observant. When a routine stakeout at a coastal warehouse turns into a bloodbath, she finds herself staring into the eyes of a monster. But the man standing amidst the carnage isn't a common criminal. He is Fenris Volkov, the "Enforcer" of the city’s most brutal Syndicate, and a creature out of a dark, predatory myth.
Fenris’s orders were simple: Leave no witnesses. But the moment he catches Sloane’s scent, his inner wolf snaps its leash. For the first time in a century, the legendary Scent Lock is triggered. Instead of ending her life, Fenris abducts her, dragging her into a world of silver-laced glass, primal politics, and ancient blood-feuds.
Trapped in Fenris’s high-tech penthouse, Sloane becomes a "confiscation" of the Volkov line. As a detective, she tries to profile her captor. As a woman, she finds her body betraying her to the "current"—a magnetic, biological pull that demands she submit to the man who holds her key.
But Sloane is no ordinary human. She carries the dormant "Null" gene—a genetic anomaly that makes her the ultimate stabilizer for a Lycan on the edge of madness. As the city descends into a "Red Market" war and Fenris’s father, the Alpha Primus, demands her execution, Sloane must choose her side.
From the claustrophobia of a penthouse to the ritualistic fires of a Lycan coup, Sloane and Fenris forge a bond of blood and ash. To survive the Syndicate, the detective must become an accomplice, and the enforcer must become a king.
One scent to bind them. One crown to break them. One empire to burn it all down.

Rosemary Decker, a 27-year-old marketing executive fleeing corporate burnout in Seattle, inherits her great-aunt's mysterious bookshop in Thornwick Hollow just as her life crumbles. But the inheritance comes with a chilling countdown—twenty-eight days until a crimson eclipse that occurs once per generation. Holden Ashworth, a devastatingly compelling stranger with secrets older than the mountain town itself, seems to know intimate details about her family history that she's never heard before. As Rosemary discovers the horrifying truth about an ancient covenant that has claimed six generations of women from her bloodline, she realizes Holden isn't courting her—he's preparing her for a ritual that will grant him immortality while consuming her life essence. But some family legacies are worth fighting for, and in Thornwick Hollow, the hunted might just become the hunter when the crimson eclipse rises and old debts written in blood come due.

"A book to rival TWILIGHT and VAMPIRE DIARIES, and one that will have you wanting to keep reading until the very last page! If you are into adventure, love and vampires this book is the one for you!" --Vampirebooksite.com (Turned)RESURRECTED is Book #9 in the #1 Bestselling series THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS, which begins with Book #1, TURNED! In RESURRECTED (Book #9 of the Vampire Journals), 16 year old Scarlet Paine finds herself changing in mysterious ways. She is becoming sensitive to light, able to read peoples’ thoughts, and is faster and stronger than she’s ever been. She doesn’t understand what’s happening to her, and tries to ignore it. But she can only dismiss it for so long. Caitlin Paine, her mom, knows too well what’s happening to her daughter. She underwent the same transformation to vampire once, centuries ago. But now, in the present day, as a mere human, she has no memory of it. All she has is the journal she found in the attic—her mysterious vampire journal—telling of her exploits in another time and place, and of the vampire race being eradicated. But was there one exception to the rule? Could it be that Scarlet, her daughter, is the last remaining vampire on earth? As Scarlet tries to fight who she’s becoming, she also tries to fight her intense feelings for Blake, a boy in her grade who she has a crush on. She can’t tell, though, if he’s into her, and with the big Halloween dance just days away, the pressure is on. She would do anything for Blake to ask her. But Vivian, the meanest of the popular girls, is also on Blake’s radar, and she’ll do anything to make Blake hers—and to make Scarlet’s life a living hell. Luckily Scarlet has her own clique of friends to back her up, including her best friends Maria and Jasmin. They, too, have guy troubles—but it isn’t until Sage appears, the mysterious new boy, that her friends become obsessed. Scarlet finds herself attracted to him, too—and is surprised when it is her, of all the girls in the school, that he pays attention to. But her mind is set on Blake, at least for now, and she continues to hope he’ll ask her to the dance. Just when it seems that Scarlet has what she wants, her body changes. Soon it may be impossible for her to be near her fellow humans. Soon, she may have to choose between her desire to live and her desire for love.

I thought I was broken.
Twenty-three years old, and my wolf had never surfaced. An outcast. A mistake.
But the night of the festival changed everything. My first heat hit me like fire, and three of the most dangerous Alphas in the realm rose to claim me.
Kia, the warlord feared for his blood-soaked battles.
AshBane, the cursed Alpha who collects souls like trophies.
And Lucivar, the Devil Alpha, banished for loving me in another life.
They say I’m fated. Desired. Owned.
But all I feel is the weight of chains tightening around my throat.
Because I’m not just their mate.
I’m the key to a curse that could burn the world.
And if I choose wrong… everyone dies.

"What exactly do you see in him? I'm more handsome, and I treat you better, so why do you have feelings for him?” His husky voice vibrated in the dark room, scattering the wine bottle into a thousand pieces.

Lydia stood her ground, refusing to be scared. “Why are you so angry? You're getting married next week, aren't you? So why can't I sleep with him?” She asked with a grimace.

He growled, letting out a low howl, and his eyes turned golden yellow. “You belong to me, your body, soul, heart, flesh….. everything's mine!” He whispered, slowly moving towards her like a predator.

Lydia’s eyes widened, trembling, she began to take steps backwards. He smiled on seeing her reaction. Alpha likes to chase after their prey.

But suddenly, the door was pushed open, and a half-dressed man entered, his eyes burning with rage. “How dare you touch what's mine, boy?!”
———

She lost her memory, but not her destiny.

When Lydia Rockwell, a quiet orphan turned corporate rising star, wakes up from a brutal accident, she remembers only two faces; Justin Magnus, the ruthless Alpha heir who once mocked her, and Harridan Wolfe, the man she'd secretly loved for ten years.

Now caught between two powerful men and a past soaked in betrayal, Lydia must piece together the truth, about her parents’ death, her hidden bloodline, and the accident that almost ended her life.

But the closer she gets to the truth, the more dangerous it becomes. Because Justin’s father will do anything to keep their family’s secrets buried…
And Justin himself is hiding something far deeper.

In a world where power replaces packs, love isn’t just forbidden, it’s fatal.

Will Lydia fight for justice and freedom, or fall for the man her heart and fate can’t let go?

"So hot… I need release…" The rough, guttural moans coming from the King’s chamber vibrated through the floorboards, dripping with a raw, carnal need that made my thighs clench involuntarily.

I was just a servant, but the scent pouring from that room—musk, sweat, and overwhelming dominance—pulled me in like a moth to a flame. I pushed the door open. The Lycan King lay sprawled on the bed, his sheets tangled around his waist, barely hiding the massive tent of his arousal. He was writhing, his hips bucking unconsciously against the mattress, sweat slicking his magnificent, scarred chest.

"AAAAHHHHHHH! I NEED HER!" He roared, his voice thick with lust and agony.

I reached out, my trembling fingers brushing his burning skin. The shockwave was electric. His eyes snapped open—glowing a demonic red—and locked onto my heaving chest.

"Mine," he growled.

He yanked me down, crushing my soft body against his rock-hard erection. I gasped as I felt the thick, throbbing length of him pressing against my belly through our clothes. He buried his face in my neck, inhaling my scent like a starving beast, his tongue dragging a wet, hot stripe up to my ear. "You smell like dessert," he rasped, his hand gripping my ass, grinding me harder against him. "Open for me."

The sheer size of him terrified me, but my own body betrayed me, my core gushing wet heat in response to hisAlpha command. "MATE," he roared, his hips snapping up to dry-hump me with bruising force, promising that once he got inside, he would never pull out.

In FALLEN (Book #7 of the Vampire Legends), Rachel Wood wakes to find she has fallen down a hole, into a fantasy world from which she tries to escape. She searches desperately for Benji, but destiny seems intent on keeping them apart.Rachel, saved from the underworld by her Grandmother, finally learns the secrets of who she is—and how powerful she is.Benji fights for his life, his love for Rachel never fading, he eager to be reunited with her. But he is up against forces more powerful than ever, and he may not be able to break free.Darker forces than ever are at play, determined to end the world, and it will be a race against time as they all converge on the portal in the midst of the ocean, all of them fighting for possession of the ancient relic that alone can save the world.More than anything, Rachel is determined to save her love. But as a dramatic twist comes at the end, she realizes, this time, all may be lost forever….FALLEN is book #7 of the Bestselling Vampire Legends series (following SWORN, TAKEN, BITTEN, CHOSEN, AWAKENED and RISEN).

Adrianna is forced to marry a prince, rumoured to be a demon - the son of the devil himself. Her life takes a sad turn when she discovers she is only a tool for revenge.
    What will happen when her guide, Eva, informs her she is the only way to bring back light into Austeria? Follow the love story between Adrianna, a humble Prince with a pure soul - and Rainier, the demon Prince, in their quest to retrieve the lost Kingdom of Austeria.

Selena Vale doesn't have a wolf, status, or any business inside Blackthorn Academy.
She's a human orphan from a poor village. Or that's what she's always been told. Then her name burns into the Selection Hall with silver fire, and the most feared werewolf academy in the kingdom comes to claim her anyway.
Four powerful heirs want her gone.
Kael Draven is the ruthless future Alpha King. He calls her a distraction. Then an ancient soul bond snaps into place, and his obsession turns deadly.
Ryker Ashwood is Kael's rebellious cousin. He fights for her openly. He doesn't want to control Selena. He wants her to choose him.
Lucien Nightfang is the cursed shadow wolf. He understands what it means to be feared, and his bond with her runs the deepest. That makes him the most dangerous.
Elias Thorn is Blackthorn's golden prince. Perfect smile, perfect lies. He believes Selena could shift the balance of power forever.
Selena is soul bound to all four at the same time.
The academy fractures. Rivalries turn violent. Some students worship her. Others want her dead. The heirs grow more possessive every day.
Then she learns the truth. Blackthorn was built over an ancient prison holding a dark being called the Hollow King. The school has been secretly selecting students for a prophecy: Protectors. Betrayers. Rulers. Sacrifices.
Selena is the last Moonborn Luna, a bloodline everyone thought extinct. Her power could unite the werewolf clans or destroy them. The royal council murdered her parents to erase her kind.
Now she must survive the academy, handle four possessive Alpha heirs, and stop the Hollow King from rising.
The betrayal comes from someone she trusted.
The bond between all of them might be the only thing that saves them.

Luna Martinez, an ordinary young woman from a quiet town, has her life turned upside down after watching a TV report about the feared Vincenzo and his connection to the Italian mafia. Fate thrusts her into a harrowing cat-and-mouse game when her brother Davis mysteriously disappears, becoming Vincenzo's target.

Trapped in a dangerous web of secrets and conspiracies, Luna finds herself imprisoned by Vincenzo, a ruthless man determined to capture Davis. Luna, brave and astute, devises a daring plan: to enter Vincenzo's mind and manipulate him, making him fall in love with her.

However, Luna didn't anticipate that, by getting involved in this perilous game, she would be drawn into a tale of passion, betrayal, and dark secrets. As Vincenzo's heart entangles, Luna is faced with a moral dilemma, aware that her plan may have unimaginable consequences.

Blane Samuel
A definition of a nice guy, a guy who always think about others first than himself. Since his break up with Lauren Hastington, he's a wreck. He thought he won't look at another woman but he was wrong. One day, a beautiful girl in red dress came to him caught his eyes.

Camilla Medilton
Beautiful model who always have positive thinking and live her life the fullest. With her beautiful face and body, every guy wants her until it made some of them take a bad step. Since she sense the bad situation, she took a random guy to be his boyfriend and apparently that guy is Blane Samuel

"Hey baby! I miss you, what took you so long? How's work?" Camilla linked her arm to Blane who was clueless seeing a beautiful hot girl linking her arm to him

Skylar Richardson has two rules: don't get caught, and don't let anyone tell her what to do.

By night, she runs with a skater gang, ruling the city's streets with her crew. By day, she's the alpha's daughter—heir to a pack she wants nothing to do with, trapped in a life that feels like a cage.

When Micah Quinn transfers to her school, quiet and unassuming with a camera always around his neck, Skylar sees easy prey. The perfect target to remind everyone who runs this territory.

But Micah isn't afraid of her. He doesn't flinch when her crew corners him. He doesn't beg when one of her gang shoves him. And when he calls the police instead of backing down, Skylar's perfectly hidden double life starts to unravel.

She runs. A car hits her. She wakes up in the hospital—face to face with the boy she tried to bully.

The twist? His mother is the woman her father is planning to marry. Now Micah and his mother are moving into the pack mansion to plan the wedding.

Trapped under the same roof, Skylar and Micah form an uneasy alliance: she'll help him stop the wedding if he keeps her skater identity a secret. But forced proximity is a dangerous game—and somewhere between late-night negotiations and shared secrets, enemies start to feel like something else entirely.

She wanted to destroy him. Now she needs him to survive.

And he's the only one who can keep her from destroying herself.

Dalia Bloodoath has known nothing but rejection. Branded a bad omen as the black wolf of Bloodmoon Pack, she was betrayed by her father, despised by her sister, and left motherless before she could even remember her face.
When her father trades her to the Lycan Kingdom, Dalia expects another prison—until she discovers the truth. The Lycan King himself is her fated mate.
Alaric Muskbane has ruled with steel and silence since the murder of his mother and the loss of the mate he believed he could never replace.
Hardened by grief, he refuses to accept another bond—especially with the daughter of a pack steeped in betrayal. Yet the mark on Dalia’s skin, the fire in her blood, and the prophecy she carries make her impossible to ignore.
But fate is never simple.
Shadows stir in the cursed woods. Rogues gather under a rogue king who seems to be determined to end the werewolf race as we know it.
As past lives unravel through dreams and ancient ruins, Dalia and Alaric must face the truth: they have loved and lost each other before. And if history repeats itself, she may die again–this time with more lives at stake.
Caught between deception and destiny, betrayal and forgiveness, Dalia must choose: surrender to fear, or embrace the power of the black wolf and fight for a love that defies death itself.

In my first life, Alpha Damon Hawthorne rescued me, made me his mate, and poisoned me.
When I woke in the forest, I remembered enough to change one thing: this time, I would get my friend Selene to safety, let him find her, and leave.
He chose her. I asked for my freedom.
Then he broke my betrothal to another man and told me I had always been his.

After pulling back-to-back graveyard shifts, I dragged myself to my twin brother's place to mooch his washer. One look at his biohazard of a bed, and I crashed on the clean bunk across the room instead.
Big mistake. It belonged to Jensen—the baseball team's untouchable ice king.
He lost his mind over the sweet peach scent someone left in his sheets, then discovered it was the first thing in two years that let him actually sleep. My desperate brother, hunting for free rent, conned me into playing Jensen's "replacement sleep aid" and locked the damn door behind me.
Jensen caught on instantly. But instead of throwing me out, he offered me cash to stick around as his contract girlfriend. After he handled some thugs threatening my brother, this guy who never lets anyone close pressed his face into my neck, voice raw and possessive:
"Your brother sold you to clear his debt. You're mine now. And I don't do returns."

In my past life, I was ruined by the transfer student at the werewolf academy. My fated mates were the triplets, the most popular figures at school, yet they all stood by her side.

The eldest of the triplets, Kai, my combat instructor who had always guided and cared for me, shielded her behind him.

The middle one was Jack, the campus heartthrob. We used to be inseparable, but now he ran errands for her.

The youngest was Leo, a musical prodigy who had been pursuing me, now obeying her every command.

Three men who once favored me above all else forced me to kneel and apologize for that transfer student.

Unable to defend myself, I was locked in an abandoned training room to reflect, and ultimately pushed off a cliff by the transfer student to my death.

Reborn, I vowed to stay far away from them and never participate in this ridiculous game again.

But when they learned I was about to transfer to the top-tier "Silver Moon Academy" for advanced studies, all three men panicked.

In the Faewild, pureblooded elves are born to rule. We wolves are nothing but savage beasts bred for war.
I was sent to the Elven Court as a hostage—a living pledge of my pack's surrender. For five years, I bled for King Othlan. Seven times I bore curses meant to kill him. Slaughtered countless horrors in his name.
All for the soul mark he promised me. The only thing that could mend what he'd broken in me.
But when I dragged myself back from the abyss, body shattered and poisoned, I found him binding that mark—the one meant for eternal mates—to another woman.
A pureblooded elf. Of course.
I swallowed the blood rising in my throat and crushed the dragon stone hidden in my palm.
He wanted me gone? I'd give him exactly that. Permanently.

I remember that frost-covered train door like it was the last thing I ever saw. Because it was.
The escape spot I’d spent three years scraping together? My fiancée was sitting in it, wearing my parka. Her brother had my hiking boots on his feet. Her mother clutched the medical kit I’d carried six miles through ash-covered roads. And Caleb Frost—the ex she’d sworn was just “someone from the past”—stood in the seat that should have been mine, lifting my silver emergency flask in a toast.
While I froze out in the subzero ash storm, my lungs burning like they were filled with shards of broken glass, they turned their backs to me under the warm yellow light inside.
Then I woke up.
The calendar read May 3, 2041. Exactly one year before the Yellowstone chain eruption would turn the northern hemisphere into a frozen grave.
On the TV, experts were still downplaying the volcanic tremors, insisting there was no immediate risk to the public. My fiancée walked into the bedroom wearing one of my white shirts, carrying coffee in the blue mug she’d bought with my card. She reached for my forehead, asking if I’d had a bad dream.
None of them know I’ve already died once.
They’re still plotting how to make me pay for her brother’s failed investments, how to sneak texts to her old boyfriend, how to use me as their most obedient, most useful doormat until the world ends. I’ve sold the downtown office towers, mortgaged the lakefront house, bought the abandoned geothermal station no one wanted in the dead mountains, and signed a stack of engineering contracts they’ll never bother to read.
They still smile and thank me, tell me I’m the best fiancé in the world.
They have no idea who will be holding the key to the door, when the sky goes dark forever and the snow never stops falling.

“Be careful with that, Emma," my boss at the high-end courier service warned, handing me the velvet-lined case. "That bottle is worth more than your life. It’s for the penthouse gala at the Sterling Heights. If it breaks, don't bother coming back.”

I clutched the case to my chest like it was a newborn child.

The soles of my shoes were so thin I could feel every jagged pebble on the pavement. My feet ached, a dull, throbbing reminder of the sixteen-hour shifts I’d been pulling for the last three months.

But every time I felt like collapsing, I thought of Liam. He met with an accident five years ago and could not work.

So, I became the bread-earner in our family.

Today was our wedding anniversary. And this last expensive delivery could earn me a decent gift for him.

"The host is on the terrace," a waiter whispered as I reached the penthouse, eyeing my worn-out sneakers with disdain. "Hurry up. He doesn't like to be kept waiting.”

I walked toward the terrace, my heart hammering. I just wanted to drop this off, get my signature, and run to Liam. I pushed through the crowd, dodging silk gowns and tailored tuxedos.

Then, I stopped.

The man standing at the edge of the terrace looked familiar.

He was wearing a bespoke midnight-blue tuxedo that cost more than our three years of rent. His hair was slicked back, his posture commanding and regal. He was way too rich to cross paths with me in my entire life.

But, my heart skipped a beat as he turned back to look at his friends.

It was Liam. My Liam. With other woman, offering the world to her.

After months of being bullied at school, things got even worse—the bullies said they wanted to come to my house.
Wanted to see what kind of family a "dog" like me came from.
I begged them, sobbing, not to do it.
Because my dad is a serial killer. My mom is a twisted murderer. And my brother is a full-blown psychopath.
If they come to my house, they will die.

"Unless you bring 100 gold coins and the Alpha's blood, the half-breed dies in the cellar."

Those words broke what little was left of my soul. Three years ago, I was the proud Luna of the Blackwood Pack—until my fated mate, Alpha Valen, branded me a traitor, burned our sacred mark from my neck, and locked me in the Ice Crypt.

Now, I am nothing but a despised outcast. But I don't care about my pride anymore. My four-year-old daughter, Nyra, is freezing to death in a damp cage, succumbing to a fatal disease. To save her, I need the ultimate cure: Valen's Alpha blood.

The tragic irony? He refuses to claim her. Tricked by the woman who framed me, Valen believes my tiny, innocent pup is the filthy product of betrayal. He would rather watch me crawl on my hands and knees over corrosive silver powder than offer a single drop of his blood.

With my daughter's breaths fading, the woman who framed me offers a dark, irreversible trade.

I will pay the price. I will give away the last piece of myself to save my pup.

But when Valen finally discovers whose bloodline he left to die... it will be entirely too late.

In my past life, the glorious "Son of the Sun" drained my divine blood until I died a broken shell.
Reborn, my twin sister eagerly steals my fiancé, shoving me toward the exiled, "crippled" King of the Shadow Crows.
As she flaunts her stolen glory, desperate to birth the sky's future ruler, I can only smile.
She doesn't know her golden prince is functionally sterile—and the "heir" she's destroying herself to conceive will be a nightmare.
And she certainly has no idea that my featherless, outcast husband is actually the ancient Abyssal Phoenix.
Let her drown in the hell she stole. This time, I’ll let the very abyss she cursed crown me as a True God.

My younger sister was tortured to the brink of death by the young heir of a newly minted mafia family.
 
His older sister stood on her high horse and threw a check at me.
 
"Take this half a million, grab your half-dead sister, and get the hell out of New York."
 
I tore the check into shreds and screamed at her, "In your dreams! I want him dead!"
 
She let out a contemptuous scoff.
 
"Around here, my family is the law! Half a million is enough for bottom-feeders like you to scrape by for three lifetimes. If it's not enough, consider it money for a nice cemetery plot. How about I throw in another two million?"
 
As she spoke, she raised her hand, flaunting it. "Otherwise... take a good look at this signet ring. Who exactly do you think you're talking to?"
 
My eyes locked onto the ring on her finger. The ancient crest engraved on the gold was all too familiar—it was the custom wedding gift I had commissioned for my mafia boss husband ten years ago.
 
Instantly, my glare turned absolutely lethal.
 
"I said, I want your brother's life."

"We can only take one more person! Any heavier and we ALL go down!"

In the middle of a raging forest fire, my fiancé Carter Hayes was piloting a fuel-leaking helicopter, forced to choose between me and my cousin Lily Sterling.

He chose me.

Lily was left behind in the inferno. She burned.

I thought surviving made me lucky — until my parents slapped me across the face at my wedding. "Why wasn't it YOU who died?"

Turns out, I was never the one they wanted to save.

Carter married me, then spent five years making me wish I'd died in that fire instead. He and my parents worked together, systematically stripping away my dignity, my career, and every reason I had to keep living.

Three years into my depression, I jumped from the top floor of the Hayes estate.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself back before the fire — before the helicopter took off, before Carter made his choice.

This time, I spoke first. "Take Lily."

If they all wanted me dead, then I'd give them exactly what they wanted.

"Did you bring one back?" My mom, Siobhan, urged.
I pushed my half-empty mug to the center of the cafe table. The campus buzzed around me, students stressing over minor things like finals.
"I’m still at school, Mom."
"The Summer Solstice is in exactly one month, Maeve." The line crackled.
"If you cross that water empty-handed, Finn is going to the pens. Are you going to let your own brother be taken?"

One hundred years married to Everett, and I've learned one thing: whenever he wants to push me into a corner, he throws the mate bond dissolution agreement in my face. Whenever my parents want me to cave, they hold the family name over my head.

They've always wanted the same thing — for me to hand over everything I have to my twin sister Rosalie, who's been sick her whole life.

I've fought it. I've grieved over it.

But when the doctor slid the diagnosis across the desk — Blood Depletion Syndrome, late stage, less than two weeks left — something in me just went quiet.

What's the point of fighting when you're already dead?

I divorced the same man nine times.
The first eight times, I was the one sobbing, begging him not to go.
The ninth time, I was the one who slid the papers across the table.
He signed them, then told me we'd remarry once she left.
I said okay.
What he didn't know was that my flight was already booked.
This time, I was leaving for good.

Jennifer suddenly announced in the sorority common room: "Everything's on me tonight, ladies—oceanview cabana at The Pearl!"
The whole room cheered. I kept my eyes on my textbook.
Yesterday she borrowed twenty bucks from me for a salad. Now she's booking a five-thousand-dollar minimum venue? She wanted the black card in my bag.
"Teresa, just lend me your card to get us in the door. I'll cover everything myself." I stared at her for three seconds, then handed it over. Her face lit up.
I stepped away and called the club manager. "Lock my account, highest security tier. Without my verification code, not a single charge goes through."
She took my card and rounded up five girls, headed straight to the club. Champagne, caviar, Wagyu, Louis XIII—she ordered all of it.
When the check came, it totaled fifty-two thousand, three hundred and eighty dollars.
And the card wouldn't go through.

Aurelia, princess of the Light Fae Clan, sacrificed everything to save Caleb, a young noble cursed with blood plague. She fed him her golden life‑blood, bound herself with a silence spell to hide imperial secrets, and swore to protect him forever—even if it cost her freedom.
Blinded by false accusations and manipulated by a cruel dark witch, Caleb turned on the woman who gave him life. He chained her with deadly cold iron, tore out her Life Core, imprisoned her in a freezing basement, and watched his beloved’s younger brother die by his own hand.
When Aurelia unleashes the forbidden stardust self‑destruction curse and fades into glowing ashes, Caleb finally uncovers the terrible truth. Drowning in endless regret and self‑loathing, he embarks on a brutal path of atonement—punishing the witch, saving the last surviving Fae, and torturing himself for years.
But some sins can never be washed away.Some saviors never return.And the noble who killed his Fae savior will pay with his life.

My son died on his fifth birthday, waiting for a father who never showed up.
I found out why at the lake—Cole had his mistress pinned against the boathouse wall while our five-year-old took his last breath alone in a clinic bed.
Selene was pregnant. Selene was Grayridge. And Selene knew exactly what she'd done to my son before I ever said a word about a curse.
Cole hit me for defending myself. Then he threatened to strip my title if I touched her again.
Fine. He wants to protect his mistress? He can do it broke.
Every dollar that rebuilt this town came from my family—and I'm taking it all back, starting with the ranch he thinks is his.
But the bone shard I found in my son's jacket says this isn't over.
It says someone wanted him dead before he turned five.

At twenty-nine, Dominic Brooks owns this city's underworld.

This year, I'm pregnant again. Finally.

But on our daughter's death anniversary, he doesn't show. Five hours. Nothing.

I find him at our casino with some girl draped all over him. The same girl I pulled out of a trafficking ring two years ago.

She's laughing loud enough for everyone to hear. "His wife won't stop crying about that dead kid. God, he's so over it."

He kisses her. Right in front of me.

Three days later, he tears up our daughter's grave. His mistress wants a swimming pool.

The shovel comes down. My unborn baby goes with it.

Years ago, Dominic taught me the rules of our world. How we handle traitors.

Time for a reminder.

As the sole heir to one of America’s wealthiest families, I had always known the Harrington rule: every heir had to go through all four years of high school under an assumed identity, without using a single dollar of the family fortune.

So I wore thick black-framed glasses and secondhand sneakers and worked part-time jobs to support myself.

Everyone at school mocked me for being poor. They said my face was the only thing I had going for me.

Only Nolan, the top-ranked student in our grade, never looked down on me. Once, he slid half an eraser across the library table to me and told me that education could change a person’s life.

The day we started dating, he held my hand and promised me:

“Georgie, I’ll hold your hand through all of it. No matter how hard things get, I won’t let go.”

I believed him.

But during the outdoor club’s final hiking trip before my four-year disguise was over, a storm rolled in. Savannah, his childhood sweetheart, complained that her ankle hurt.

Nolan immediately let go of me and knocked me into the mud as he rushed to her.

Everyone gathered around Savannah to make sure she was okay. Then they laughed at me for thinking a poor girl like me could ever belong with someone like Nolan.

I didn’t cry.

I took off my glasses and placed my muddy, bloodstained hand in the palm of Holden, the Upper East Side heir who had spent the past two years trying to get me to go out with him.

“If you take my hand, you’re agreeing to be my girlfriend.”

“Okay.”

My brother's first day on the job, and the new intern, Ashley Pratt, accuses him of trying something with her in the break room.

In my last life, I panicked under all those judging stares and my father screaming at me over the phone. I grabbed my brother by the shoulder and forced him to bow and apologize to her, tried to pay her off to make it go away.

She turned around and leaked the wire transfer online instead, twisted it into a story about rich people paying to buy back their good name. The backlash spiraled out of control. My brother couldn't take the flood of hate anymore and jumped from the roof. He hit the ground and there was nothing left of him to recognize.

My father used my failure to handle it as an excuse to push me off the board. I ended up watching the woman responsible climb over my brother's grave and take the CEO seat at Merritt Industries.

Fate is giving me a second shot.

My brother reaches for me, eyes rimmed red. "Camille, I swear I didn't do anything."

I pull him behind me and look down at the woman crying on the floor.

"She's saying you assaulted her? Fine. Let's call the cops."

In my previous life, when the extreme cold apocalypse arrived, I was drained of all value and heartlessly kicked into an ice pit by my ex-girlfriend.

When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the time before the apocalypse erupted!

On my phone screen, my girlfriend was still arrogantly issuing ultimatums: "If you don't deliver that eight-thousand-dollar Chanel bag to me today, don't even think about touching me ever again!"

I sneered coldly, decisively blocking this gold-digger who was prepared to devour me alive on all platforms. Then I immediately unlocked the seven-million-dollar trust fund my grandfather had left me and went on a shopping spree for the city's top-tier extreme survival supplies!

A few hours later, an unprecedented extreme polar vortex swept across North America.

When my ex-girlfriend and street thugs frantically pounded on my half-meter-thick reinforced steel blast door, what greeted them wasn't just the aroma of fireplace-grilled steak, but also me and my hardcore parents holding heavy firearms.

My name is Junie. I'm six years old, a half-werewolf. My mom Juliet is a human witch, the gentlest woman alive.

A month ago, Mom was eight months pregnant. We were walking by the river when Dad's childhood friend Melody shoved her straight into the rushing current. The cold water took my unborn brother. When they pulled Mom out, she was covered in blood, her magic all but gone.

Dad, Maxwell, is the youngest Alpha of the Silver Wolf pack and runs a family conglomerate. That day in the hospital hallway, his eyes went red and he swore through gritted teeth that whoever did this would pay for it, hard, in front of the Tribunal.

Mom believed him.

Then came the trial. The second Dad saw that the woman sitting in the defendant's seat was Melody, he went quiet.

Right there in front of the judge, he took it back. He said Melody never meant to push her, that Mom's magic had gone haywire from the pregnancy and she'd slipped into the river on her own.

Melody walked free. Mom got community service.

The day we left the courthouse, Melody buried her face in Dad's chest and sobbed, but the second no one else could see, she shot Mom a cold little smirk. Dad kissed her forehead like her tears were breaking his heart.

Mom just watched them, one hand over her empty belly. Those eyes that used to be so full of love were calm now.

She let out a slow breath. "Maxwell, let's break the mate bond."

"I saved you. Now you're mine."

Five years ago, Matteo De Luca took a bullet for me. Ever since, I willingly stayed hidden as the secret lover of New York's most ruthless Mafia heir.

He claimed the shadows were the only way to protect me from rival families. I believed him—right up until his former flame, Serena, returned to the city.

Suddenly, his protective instincts shifted. He left me alone with an IV in my arm just to rush to her side for a mild stomachache.

But the real wake-up call came when I accidentally opened the locked attic he never let me enter. It wasn't full of syndicate weapons or secrets. It was covered wall-to-wall with intimate photographs of him and Serena.

Staring at the shrine he kept for her, my five years of devotion felt like a pathetic joke.

I didn't scream or cry. I just pulled out my phone and dialed Sicily.

"Papa," I said steadily, staring at the empty room. "Tell the Ferraro family I've changed my mind. Set the wedding date."

"Economy? For me?" I stared at the boarding pass while my boyfriend's new "business partner" got first class instead. "You're just my plus-one," Cedric said. "The sponsor won't cover you." I said nothing and boarded the plane. What he didn't know was that if I wanted to, I could buy the entire airline.

My entire family betrayed me.

My husband Keith threatened divorce to force me into donating bone marrow to save my sister Berenice's life.

My parents slapped me across the face, screaming I owed her everything.

Thirty days in an underground lab, Keith wined and dined Berenice while I got steel needles driven through my spine daily.

When I begged Keith for help through the agony, he texted back: "Stop playing victim. Disgusting."

I died alone on day thirty. Keith arrived with divorce papers, ready for one final insult, but received a decomposing corpse crawling with maggots.

But when the truth came out, why did my loving family completely lose their minds?

This year, out of nowhere, my mate Dominic told me to take two months off and go to Ashvale with our son, Finn. Eight years, and he'd never once given me a single day off.
I thought he'd finally noticed how tired I was.
Then Maren found a letter in his study. It was from his Beta, laying out the whole plan. Move his old flame Camille and her daughter into the main house. Hold a mating ceremony the moment I was gone.
I don't know how long I stood there holding that letter before I could think straight again.
If my mate wanted to bring her home and pick up where they left off, that was his business.
I packed our son's things for Ashvale.
I just wasn't planning on coming back.

My foster brother Caelan swore he'd only ever marry me. Even though I'm the only human in a pack of wolves, for eighteen years he and his brother Ronan made me feel like I belonged.
Then Mira showed up—and suddenly she was his "fated mate."
I watched him bond with her while I choked on poisoned incense and collapsed. No one caught me. They were too busy wiping her tears.
Within a week, she had my room. My job. Eighteen years of memories—trashed.
They said I could never leave them.
They forgot about the vampire prince who's been waiting at the border for three months.
He never forgot me.

My sister ran away the night before her wedding, so I had to take her place and marry Damian Kovac, the city's most feared don.
I figured he'd throw me in the harbor out of pure rage. Instead, the man wouldn't even touch me.
A month in, still sleeping in the guest room.
I wasn't my sister's level of charming, but I wasn't hard to look at either. And this man couldn't spare me a single glance?
The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I grabbed the divorce papers I'd already drawn up and stormed toward his study.
Right as I raised my hand to knock, I caught his childhood friend's voice through the door.
"You moved heaven and earth to get the woman you've been hung up on, and now you're icing her out? Didn't think I'd live to see the day."
My hand froze.
The woman he'd been hung up on? Me?

I took a bullet for my husband five years ago. He married me in the ICU before the anesthesia wore off.
Raffaele Santoro—heir to the most powerful mafia family in Italy—told me I was his everything. He bought a castle and named it after me. He reserved a grave beside his parents so we'd lie together for eternity.
While I was pumping my body full of hormones for our fourth round of IVF, he was across town watching his childhood sweetheart give birth to twin boys.
He named one of them Dante—the name I'd chosen for our future son.
The night I found out, I was seven weeks pregnant with his child.
I didn't tell him.
I called my best friend and said: I need everyone to think I'm dead.

I found the thirteenth piece of evidence of Reid's affair today.

Black lace panties, shoved deep between his car seats.

The first time, it was designer lipstick in his glove box. "Oh, that's mine," my friend Mia shrugged. "Must've fallen out when Reid gave me a ride."

The sixth time, a hotel key card in his console. "I borrowed his car for a business trip," my brother Owen explained calmly. "Stop being so paranoid, Nadia."

Thirteen times. Thirteen perfect excuses.

When I confront Reid with the panties, he just makes a phone call.

On speaker, Mia and Owen claim the underwear is theirs—some late-night hookup in my fiancé's back seat. "You're being ridiculous, Nadia," they snap in unison. "You're getting married. Start acting like it. Trust him."

I watch Reid's face, that innocent mask he wears so well.

Then I smile.

Because I bought those panties myself. I planted them there.

And now I finally know who's been his accomplice all along.

I hid in my best friend's closet to catch my fiancé cheating.
Through the gap in the door, I saw them on the bed. Tessa was blindfolded, wrists tied to the headboard with silk scarves. Callum's hands wrapped around her throat—some kind of breath play, I guessed.
Then her moaning turned to choking.
Her body convulsed. Her bound hands clawed at nothing. Her legs kicked against the mattress.
Then stopped.
Callum released her throat. Checked her pulse. Sighed.
And lit a cigarette.
He sat there scrolling his phone next to her body. No panic. No CPR. No 911.
Like this wasn't his first time watching someone die.
I bit my hand to keep from screaming. Blood seeped across the floor toward my bare feet.
Then he walked toward the closet.
I escaped that night. Barely. Ran three floors up to my neighbor's apartment—Dr. Neve Ashton, a trauma therapist. Beautiful. Warm. The kind of woman who made you feel safe just by existing.
She pulled me inside, locked the door, handed me tea.
"I called the police," she said. "They're on their way."
An hour passed. No sirens.
I looked at her. She smiled.

"Knock on this door over the noise one more time, and you're dead!"
Calling the cops was useless, and I was too broke to move.
Driven practically insane, I recklessly tore open the black box from the dark web—the seller promised that if I just followed the instructions, it would "eliminate the noise at the source."
Less than half an hour later, the deafening rager upstairs completely stopped.
Three mornings later, a homicide detective pounded furiously on my door.
"The father and son upstairs are dead."

She never intended to fall for anyone—let alone three of them.

Trying to make ends meet in Los Angeles, Alexis didn’t expect to be caught between her childhood crush, his irresistible brother, and a rising celebrity she was only supposed to fake date.

With family chaos, betrayal, and forbidden love threatening to tear everything apart, Alexis must figure out where her heart truly belongs… before it’s too late.