2601 Book(s) Related to is ford vs ferrari a true story

For three years, I deliberately suppressed my grades to rank under my boyfriend William, paving his way to our promised Cambridge exchange. I overheard him and my best friend Maddie confess they framed me for plagiarism in my past life, driving me to jump off the 38th floor, yet they still carried on an affair. They lied and ignored my pain afterward. Heartbroken, I secretly applied to Cambridge alone. The twist? My years of hiding my brilliance were never selfless sacrifice. I collected all their dirty secrets. I’m going to Cambridge not to flee, but to ruin every dream they cling to.

"Time's up, sir. That's enough."
I've said it so many times I've gone numb to it. In this brothel, I'm nothing but a body with a price tag.
Then an old man froze in the doorway, his eyes reddening. "My God... Miss Isabella, what happened to you?"
Isabella. Somewhere in my shattered memory, that name still carries a weight I can't explain.
"I'm Antonio," he wept. "Alessandro sent me to find you."
A name both familiar and foreign. Salvation—or just the door to a darker room?

Ten years ago, I took a knife from a crazed patient to save Gideon, losing my ability to ever become a mother.

Ten years later, he is America's most celebrated "Charity Doctor." Over the years, he brought home three pitiful orphans and asked me to treat them as my own.

I poured my heart and soul into raising them, until the eldest smashed a vase into my face.

Lying in my hospital bed, I overheard the whispers of my husband and his lover.

"Gideon, making her raise our three illegitimate kids as charity orphans... aren't you afraid your philanthropic reputation will be ruined if she finds out the truth?" The woman's coquettish voice carried a probing edge and a hint of schadenfreude.

My breath instantly hitched.

Gideon scoffed coldly. "So what if she does? She should be thanking me for letting her play mother."

"But she did take that knife for you back then..."

"Don't mention the knife!" Gideon interrupted, his tone suddenly dripping with venom. "She was already diagnosed with infertility before the stabbing!"

"Since she loves scheming so much, I'll let her be a free nanny to our flesh and blood for the rest of her life. It's exactly what she deserves!"

I heard that recording and couldn't believe it. My husband had been having an affair for a whole year, and my six-year-old Jerry had been covering for him this whole time.

Later, at Jerry's birthday party, I overheard his friends: "That's Jerry's nanny. His real mom works overseas."

My son told everyone I was just the nanny.

That day, standing in the hotel hallway, Jerry looked at me and said: "Can you promise to never come find me again? So Michelle can officially be my mom?"

My blood ran cold.

Fourteen years I gave him.
Every storm I shielded him from.
Every mess I cleaned up for him.
I made him a king of Manhattan.
On my forty-second birthday, he brought my enemy's daughter to my party.
He forged my medical records.
He tried to strip me of my trust.
He thought I was done.
He forgot one thing: I made him.
And I have a son he never knew existed.

At the Ultimate Construct Tournament, my roommate beat me to the stage, unveiling the very runic matrix I had just designed in my mind.

When I confronted her about the blatant plagiarism, she burst into tears on the spot.

"You say I stole from you, but do you have even a single sketch to prove it?"

My boyfriend, Richard, sitting right there on the judges' panel, publicly condemned me.

He called me a sore loser and sneered that my vicious slander was absolutely disgusting.

Because the construct existed entirely within my mental sea, I had no physical proof.

I was crucified as a jealous bully, and ultimately, the violent magical backlash tore through me.

Right up until my last breath, I couldn't figure it out: how did she perfectly steal a top-secret construct I had only ever simulated in my mind, without leaving a single trace behind?

When I opened my eyes again, I had been reborn—right back at the start of that very tournament.

Watching my roommate step forward, ready to rush the holographic projector, I clamped a hand around her wrist.

"This time, I'm going first."

Due to an arranged marriage between our families, I married Damien Blackwood, heir to a business empire.

During five years of marriage, I tried hard to play the perfect wife, bore him a daughter Lily, thinking I had finally won his love.

Until his first love Serena returned from abroad, I watched him rekindle his passion for another woman, watched them rekindle their old flame.

A car accident changed everything.

I was taken to court, sentenced to three years in prison, becoming a "murderer" despised by everyone.

And he personally sent me to prison.

Not long ago, my pregnant daughter was murdered, and the killer remained at large.
Until that day, as I stood before her grave, her husband Oliver asked me,
"Mom, do you know who Robin is?"
"Stella came back from her prenatal checkup one day and said she bumped into Robin," he choked out. "She even said she wanted to take the baby to visit him."
My hand, reaching out to comfort him, froze in mid-air.
Because Robin was no good man—he had once tried to harm Stella.
That name was her lifelong nightmare. She wouldn't even dare look at a picture of a robin in a book.
And that name was a secret known only to me and my late husband.
So... who exactly is lying?

I waited five years for a heart transplant.
My mother—the Luna of our Pack, the healer everyone worships—gave it to someone else.
An orphan girl she took in. A girl who now calls her "Mom."
Ivy got my heart. She got a wolf. She got a mate and a wedding so grand the whole Pack attended.
Me? I watched from the corner, still dying, while my mother smiled for the cameras and accepted praise for her "selfless sacrifice."
When I finally snapped at the ceremony, she slapped me. Told me to apologize. Said I was embarrassing the family.
I'm her actual daughter. I'm the one who can't shift, can't feel a mate bond, can't survive another six months.
But sure. I'm the problem.
They wanted me to stay quiet and die gracefully.
I chose to make sure everyone sees who their perfect Luna really is.

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.

Our ceremony was ambushed underground. One exit. Corvin was the only one who could move fast enough to carry someone out.
In my last life, he chose me — and left Niamh behind. She didn't make it. He spent five years after that making sure I understood what that meant. Every day I woke up was a day she couldn't. When I finally ran out of ways to leave quietly, I chose a window that faced east and walked into it.
Now I'm back. Same corridor, same chaos, same choice.
This time, I said: "Take Niamh."
The way his shoulders came down — like something he'd been holding for years, finally put down — told me everything five years together never did.
He promised to come back. He was already moving when he said it.
I knew I had to get out myself. But the ferals who'd killed Niamh last time found my corridor before I made it to the stairs.

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?

My uncle cut off my allowance the moment he spotted my new tongue piercing. That night, I found a stranger online asking how to make his friend’s “gold-digging girlfriend” leave him. I told him to send her money. Minutes later, $8,888 landed in my account—from my uncle’s best friend, Adrian Foster, the handsome, buttoned-up man who thought my uncle was my boyfriend. The stranger was him. The gold-digging girlfriend was me. And the man he thought was my boyfriend? My uncle.

The stepbrother I grew up with was a golden boy, a star varsity quarterback everyone had high hopes for.
But for a street-level delinquent, he abandoned his Ivy League future.
Desperate to pull his life back on track, I tried to expose his toxic girlfriend.
Yet, he hated me to the bone for it.
For her, he ruthlessly dragged our family into the crossfire of a deadly gang dispute, causing us all to meet a violent, tragic end.
I never expected fate to rewind the clock.
To give me a second chance.

"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."

My two best friends killed me over a girl who'd been dead six months.
Lila Bishop never got a single offer. So she cried and clung until Cole and Wes were ready to throw away their full rides and follow her to nowhere. I tried to stop them — they called me jealous and cut me off. So I went over their heads. I called their moms. I fixed their signing papers myself, the night before the deadline.
Six months later Lila was gone, and they blamed me. They dragged me to the roof of our gym and threw me off.
Then I opened my eyes — three months back, the day it all started.
Last time, I broke myself trying to save them.
This time, I'd let them jump.

Everyone said Kane adored me.

That for me, he'd tame the wild rage of an Alpha, soften every growl, and sheath every claw.

Ten years. Ten damn years of chasing, spoiling, protecting. I was convinced I’d be his Luna—his mate, his forever.

But betrayal doesn’t come with a warning. It cuts sharp and deep. And it never just comes once.

The first lie, I forgave.

The second, I bled.

The third? It broke something in me I’m not sure I’ll ever get back.

And then came the words that snapped the last thread holding me together.

"Julia, can't you just stop being so difficult? Stop acting like the world revolves around you."

That was when I knew.

The man who once walked through fire for me…Had turned into the very beast I needed saving from.

The love I thought I had—it wasn’t love. It was a gilded cage, pretty from the outside, but still a prison.

And if I was ever going to be free, I'd have to be the one to smash it open. Even if it meant setting the wolf on fire with it.

"Very entertaining. Highly recommended for the permanent library of any reader who appreciates a well-written mystery with twists and an intelligent plot. You will not be disappointed. Excellent way to spend a cold weekend!" --Books and Movie Reviews (regarding Murder in the Manor)A VILLA IN SICILY: OLIVE OIL AND MURDER is the debut novel in a charming new cozy mystery series by bestselling author Fiona Grace, author of Murder in the Manor, a #1 Bestseller with over 100 five-star reviews (and a free download)!Audrey Smart, 34, is a brilliant vet—yet fed up by her demanding clients who think they know more than her and who don’t care about their animals. Burnt-out with the endless hours, she wonders if the time has come for a new direction. And when her 15th year high school reunion (and her hopes for re-sparking on old flame) end in disaster, Audrey knows the time has come to make a change.When Audrey sees an ad for a $1 home in Sicily, it captivates her. The only catch is that the house requires renovation, something she knows little about. She wonders if it could be real—and if she may really be crazy enough to go for it. Can Audrey create a life and career—and the home of her dreams—in a beautiful Sicilian village? And perhaps even find love while she’s there?Or will an unexpected death—one that only she can solve—put an end to all of her plans?Are some dreams too good to be true?A laugh-out-loud cozy packed with mystery, intrigue, renovation, animals, food, wine—and of course, love—A VILLA IN SICILY will capture your heart and keep you glued to the very last page.“The book had heart and the entire story worked together seamlessly that didn't sacrifice either intrigue or personality. I loved the characters - so many great characters! I can't wait to read whatever Fiona Grace writes next!”--Amazon reviewer (regarding Murder in the Manor)“Wow, this book takes off & never stops! I couldn't put it down! Highly recommended for those who love a great mystery with twists, turns, romance, and a long lost family member! I am reading the next book right now!” --Amazon reviewer (regarding Murder in the Manor)“This book is rather fast paced. It has the right blend of characters, place, and emotions. It was hard to put down and I hope to read the next book in the series.”--Amazon reviewer (regarding Murder in the Manor)Books #2 and #3 in the series—FIGS AND A CADAVER and VINO AND DEATH—are now also available!

"I'll f*cking strap you to the frikken bed if I have to, but you'll never leave me."
"Gabriel...let m-me g-go," she says. Just at expression he was giving me, I croaked, my neck suddenly going dry. It was almost as if he was about to attack and devour me whole, but instead he chose to draw it all out and make me sweat; he intended to play the game that would eventually send me fleeing for the hills.
My back arched as he poured kisses down my throat, giving special attention to a spot that made me want more. As if claiming his territory, his lips littered the region where my neck met my shoulder, nipping and sucking.
He sank low and gently pushed his lips on my face, causing me to close my eyes and appreciate the moment. His silky, deep voice pierced through the humid air like a dagger, warm breath blowing into my ear as he delivered a statement that I realized was full of assurances and underlying warnings of repercussions if I choose to disobey.
"You are not going to abandon me." Never...never...never...never... Gabriel Winks does indeed have a hidden talent.
Gabriel has a secret.
One so deadly, it could cost him his life.
His tragic past molded him into a harsh and ruthless Alpha and an even more merciless monster who kills in cold blood.
But then he meets her.
Amanda; a spitfire of a woman full of innocence and spirit who awakens the beast inside him.
Deep down, Gabriel just wants someone to love him wholeheartedly.
Will Amanda be that girl when she learns of his past? Or will she run for the hills and never look back or stay and love the beast?

Five years ago, I woke up after surgery with my mind completely blank. The doctor said I had been in a training accident, and I was lucky just to be alive. Due to my injuries, after being discharged from the military, I was assigned to the mess hall at Fort Kiernan. Every day, I stood behind the same serving window, dishing out the same beef and potato stew to the same group of new recruits. I thought my life would always be like this. Then one day, a female journalist from the detention cell was escorted over by military police to get her meal. She slid her tray toward me and spoke a word I had never heard before. The ladle slipped right out of my left hand. My right arm dropped to my side, and my fingers curled instinctively into the shape of a gun grip. Who on earth am I?

"I want a divorce. "
The day before her third wedding anniversary, Fiona sees her husband walking to the obstetrics wing with his arm around his ex-girlfriend, Rowena. Rowena is pregnant.
Heartbroken, Fiona rejects Micah, her husband, her mate, the Lycan Prince of the Alastair Kingdom, and leaves the pack.

However, to Fiona’s surprise, after being rejected, Micah goes crazy looking for her all over the world.
Until one day, when he sees her walking down the street holding a little girl, he pins her against the wall.
“Is she my daughter?” Micah hisses.

He owns the school. I just survive in it.

Matt was supposed to be my safe place.
My best friend. My maybe-someday.
Until he chose her—the girl who’s bullied me for being poor, curvy, and unwanted since day one.

Now he’s dating her, and I’m left with nothing…
Except rage.
And a deal I never saw coming.

Lucien Knox Ravenscroft is danger in a tailored uniform—the son of a trillionaire, heir to Ravenscroft Academy, and the guy every girl wants. He also happens to be her ex.

And nobody dumps him.
Especially not for some millionaire’s son.

So when he offers me a deal—a fake relationship that puts us front and center—I say yes.
He wants revenge.
I want Matt to regret ever choosing her.

But then comes the bet.
If Matt notices me again, I win—and Lucien will help me ruin her.
If not… I’m his. For as long as he wants me.

Now the whole school is watching.
My father works for his powerful, monstrous dad.
My crackhead mother is a secret buried deep.
And Lucien?
He doesn’t believe in soft. He plays dirty.

And the more we fake it, the more real it feels.

This isn’t love.
This is war.

No one fakes a relationship with Lucien Knox Ravenscroft… and survives it whole.

"This pup belongs to me," he growled, his voice thick with power.
"Who do you think you are to claim him?" I shouted.
"I am your father and your king."
When Sophie's twin sister dies mysteriously during childbirth, she makes a promise—to protect the baby no matter the cost. But that vow thrusts her into a world she never believed existed, one ruled by savage wolves, dangerous secrets… and a cursed Alpha King who now claims her nephew is his heir.
"You… You're the father?"
"Yes. Therefore, the pup belongs to me."
"No! I promised my sister I'd protect him. I won't let you take him—not even if I have to fight to the death!"
Attacked. Bitten. Marked.
Now Sophie is changing into something she never wanted to be—a wolf. And the ruthless Alpha King who once hunted her now claims she is his destined mate, chosen by the Moon Goddess herself.
Torn between her human emotions and rising wolf instincts, Sophie must fight to survive the excruciating transformation, uncover the truth behind her sister's betrayal, and protect the child who may be the key to breaking a deadly curse.
But when passion ignites beneath their deadly rivalry, Sophie faces an impossible choice: reject the monster who marked her… or embrace the terrifying power awakening inside her.

Jace is a wanted criminal. Out of sheer luck or fate, as most people would say, he landed a job as a household manager—a position that didn't require a background check, which felt like a miracle. However, he soon finds himself drawn to the quadruplet bosses he serves.

Damon, Peter, Jacob, and Garrett were the first quadruplets in the Bloodlust Pack to survive. Before their birth, quadruplets were seen as abominations and were to be killed immediately after birth. It was only because their mother, the Luna, and their father, the Alpha, had tried for years to have a child but to no avail that they were allowed to live. This brought about mixed feelings among the members of the pack, especially the elders.

The quadruplets lived their lives trying to prove to everyone that they weren't abominations. For every good deed other members of the pack accomplished, they had to do ten times more to gain acceptance.

What happens when they discover that they have a mate, and not just any mate, but a human male mate?! Will they accept him? Remember, they are already hanging by a thread in their quest for full acceptance into their pack. Will being gay jeopardize all their years of hard work?

What about Jace? He is a victim of abuse but somehow was convicted of murder. Is he in the right mental state to fall in love?

Let’s say he eventually does fall for the quadruplets—will he accept them, knowing they are werewolves? Even if he does accept the fact that they are werewolves, who will he choose to mate with?

If the quadruplets accept Jace, what comes next? Can they fight against their pack for his sake?

"Dad?"
Dominic's expression remained stern, but a flicker of warning flashed in his eyes. He nodded subtly at Kael.
Kael strode towards Valerie, his movements fluid. "Vel, let's go."
Valerie's voice trembled as she asked Kael, "What's going on? Why is Dad kneeling there?"
Kael's expression softened, but his eyes remained guarded. He offered a gentle smile. "You don't need to worry about him, Valerie."
Valerie's concern deepened. "But what's happening?"
Kael's tone turned cold. "Anyway, that man doesn't deserve anyone's concern."
Valerie's eyes widened. "That man is my father."
Kael's jaw clenched. "That man was neither a good father nor an honest man. He's getting what he deserves."
Suddenly, the sound of a bullet firing cracked through the air. Valerie's eyes went wide, and she took a step forward, but Kael grasped her hand, holding her back.
"Don't go there, Valerie," Kael warned, his voice low and urgent. "The boss is very pissed off right now. It's not safe."
Tears welled up in Valerie's eyes, spilling down her cheeks. "He was my father," she whispered.

What do you do when you fall in love with the man who hurt your best friend?
Her plan was simple: seduce the scumbag who shattered her best friend's heart, make him crawl, and then ruin him. It was supposed to be a cold, calculated game.
Enter Jason: the campus heartthrob, the future Alpha heir, and—according to Lysa's intel—the target. She played the innocent girl, lured him into her trap, and waited for the perfect moment to strike. She thought she was the cat and he was the mouse.
She didn't know she was hunting a predator who had already claimed her as his Fated Mate.
Now, an Alpha knows his human Mate only approached him to destroy him. And he wants her back anyway.
"The game ends when I say it ends, Lysa. Not when you decide you're bored. When. I. Say."

Trigger Warnings: This is dark, not soft romance. Expect BDSM, breeding kink, power play, rough sex, omega submission, orgasm denial, impact play, primal rut/heat, age-gap obsession, violence, and depraved scenes. Read at your own risk.

I spent two years grooming myself into the perfect omega for the man who rejected me: the deadliest SSS+ Alpha alive.

Marcus Kane—my father’s best friend, old enough to be my uncle—wants no children, but only a woman dark enough to take his brutality.

So I became her.

If he craves a throat that swallows his cock or cum without complaint, thighs that spread for his waist to occupy, or a body begging through pain and filth… I’ll give it all.

But he still fucks other omegas. Never me.

Then danger stalks us when my father’s research puts a target on our backs and shadowy enemies are looming, leaving Marcus as our only shield. I had to move into his penthouse.

And now, I’m done waiting. I will have him.

The Alpha who swore he would never claim me is ready to burn the world before anyone takes what is his—ME!

"What if I want to escape?"

I looked at the man before me.

He was Alexei Cardis, vampire prince, and the one who would sacrifice me with his own hands at the Eclipse Ritual.

"Then escape," he said, lowering his gaze to meet mine, his tone calm. "Just don't get caught."

—

At seven years old, I was brought into this vampire castle.

From that day on, I had the best teachers, and the most dangerous guardian.

Alexei taught me to read, taught me to calculate, taught me how to survive amid lies and conspiracies.

But he never told me—that the meaning of my existence was to become the offering on the altar.

As the Eclipse Ritual drew closer, I began searching for a way to survive.

Forging evidence, sowing discord among nobles, stealing weapons, planning my escape.

Everyone wanted to use me.

Everyone wanted me dead.

Only Alexei was different.

He stopped others from getting close to me again and again, yet pushed me toward my destined fate with his own hands.

I could no longer understand him.

Until later, when I discovered a secret hidden in a wooden box.

It turned out that behind all these years of what I thought was captivity and exploitation, there was another, more dangerous emotion.

But if he truly cared about me—

Why would he raise me only to personally send me to the altar?

And when the night of sacrifice arrives,

Will I kill him and escape to freedom,

Or will he, for the sake of the entire vampire race, kill me with his own hands?

“Marry Damian.”
My father’s voice was cold.
“Or stop acting like a spoiled heiress.”

I laughed bitterly.
“You mean sell me to save your company?”

I was once the proud daughter of the Blackwood family—until my parents divorced, another woman moved into my house, and my father decided to trade my future for business.

Worse?

The man I was forced to marry was Damian Harrington—my childhood crush who broke my heart and now shamelessly flirts with my stepsister.

So instead of crying over him, I made a decision:

I would build my own company and take back control of my life.

Then one reckless night changed everything.

While escaping Damian, I ended up in the arms of a dangerously handsome stranger with cold blue eyes and a smile impossible to resist.

I thought he was just an expensive escort.

But later, I learned the truth.

The man I slept with wasn’t some stranger.

He was Gabriel Ashford—the billionaire every woman in Manhattan dreams about.

“Tianna! No! Stop it! Your brother is in the other room!”
Read and enjoy the experience of Valencia and Aaron, from friends with benefits to a real relationship. Will she leave Aaron for his sister Tianna? Read and find out!

Madam, your fetus is perfectly healthy, and all indicators are completely normal," Dr. Helena said with a smile as she looked at the image on the ultrasound machine.
"Really?" Emily slowly sat up on the hospital bed. She glanced down at her slightly swollen belly, gently placed her fingertips over it, and a look of worry crossed her face.
This was her second child. Her first pregnancy had also gone perfectly at every prenatal check-up, yet in the end…
"Everything is stable for now," Dr. Helena comforted her. "Rest assured, what happened last time was just an accident. Take good care of yourself this time, and come to the hospital right away if anything feels wrong."
The moment Emily thought of her first baby, a dull ache welled up in her heart.
It had been a baby boy.
Both of her children with her husband Watson were conceived through IVF.
When the first pregnancy succeeded, she had been overjoyed. She prepared the nursery, bought tiny baby clothes, and even started thinking of names.
But shortly after the baby was born, it passed away.

A prince needs to be taught how to handle a sword by Adira, the female gangster in her country. She was named the "Queen of Gangsters" because even men are afraid of her, especially when they hear her name, Adira.

When she enters the world of the nobles, she will meet many people; there are good, bad, and those who wear masks so as not to know what their real personalities are. Easy missions turn difficult.

The heart of the prince, who cannot beat for the person he loves because of an agreement, Stalwart Castle, Valiant Castle, and Paradise Castle—the countries with secret stories will be known by Adira.

Love or responsibility? Both words are really difficult to portray, but to choose is more painful if you want them to do both.

Martin Williams and Estella Jules grew up together, but lived completely different lives. She was the nanny’s daughter, while Martin was the child her mother served. After her mother died, Estella was taken in by the Williams family and raised to become the nanny’s replacement. At home, she was Martin’s loyal servant, but at school, she was his number one target.

Nobody knew about their secret master–maid relationship, and Martin would curse Estella if anyone ever found out they lived in the same apartment. He grew to hate her presence, while Estella continued to smile at him through everything. Not out of loyalty or obligation, but because she was sincerely in love with him.

Estella knew she would do anything for Martin, yet he never cared enough to notice. She couldn’t stop herself, like a moon drawn endlessly to the sun. Until one night, at Martin’s birthday party, her eyes finally opened to who he truly was. That night, she swore she would stop loving him, stop begging for him, and stop crying over him.

What she didn’t know was that her decision would only make their relationship even more complicated—messy, intense, and filled with the reckless sweetness of their perfectly imperfect youth.

Everyone on campus has a theory about Lila Monroe. The whispers started freshman year and they never stopped. They call her cheap. Desperate. Available for the right price.

They are not entirely wrong.

What no one knows is why.

Lila Monroe does not arrive at Westfield Elite on a scholarship or a trust fund. She arrives on survival instinct and a secret she cannot afford to let anyone discover: she earns her tuition by selling her time to wealthy students who want company, a date to an event, or someone to pretend they matter to. It is not what anyone would choose. But it is keeping her enrolled. And staying is the only plan she has left.

Ryder Kane has never needed a plan. Everything at Westfield bends around him. The son of the man who controls the school board, he is untouchable by design. Until one night he overhears something he was never supposed to hear.

Now he has a proposal. She has a price. And neither of them has any idea what they are actually getting themselves into.

Betrayed by her fated mate and left shattered, June is banished—wolf broken, heart in pieces. But when the ruthless Shadow Alpha Cassian drags her from the darkness, one scorching touch ignites everything.
His massive body pins her to the wall, thick cock grinding against her dripping heat as he growls, “Mine.” Every filthy lick, every possessive thrust chases away her pain, turning agony into raw, screaming pleasure.
Yet her treacherous past is coming—sister and ex hunting her down.
Will Cassian claim her completely, burying himself so deep she forgets every other man… or will the old bond tear her apart mid moans?

“Go to your father’s chambers and kill him.”

The command controlled my body, forcing me to swing the saber. I watched in horror as I beheaded the Divine God—my own father. Stripped of my powers and exiled by my brothers, I fell from the sky and crashed into a freezing river.

I thought I would die. Instead, I was pulled out by three identical, breathtakingly handsome men.

“We should leave her,” one sneers.
“I’d like to fuck her though,” another says, his eyes raking over my soaked dress.

They are triplets. They are Alphas. And they have decided to keep me.
I am Lillyan Elyort, the fallen Moon Goddess. Now, I am a prisoner in the Blackmoon pack, surrounded by enemies who want to use me. But they don’t know one thing: I might be mortal now, but I still know how to bite back.

At the quarterly all-hands, during the raffle, my boyfriend won the company's two-person trip to Santorini.
The whole room was hooting, asking who he'd take.
I stood in the crowd, heart hammering.
The night before, in bed, I'd told him I was so tired, that I wanted to see the sea. He said once this busy stretch was over, he'd take me.
The old employee handbook said anyone dating someone from their own department had to report it to HR, and one of them had to transfer out. Neither of us wanted to leave, so we never went public.
So I said nothing. I just looked at him, waiting for him to speak.
He glanced in my direction.
Then he looked at someone else.
"Sophie. She really came through on that last project — I promised her a trip and never made good on it."
The hooting exploded.
Sophie got pushed into the middle by colleagues, blushing and laughing.
I stood where I was, mind a total blank.
All the way until after it broke up, when he chased me into the fire stairwell to explain.
"Listen to me. Her father is our biggest client. I'm right in the middle of my promotion review. I can't afford to offend her."
I turned and looked at him.
"Then go be with her. You two are a better fit."

I am the fearsome godfather of the Mafia.
For the woman I love, I sheathed my fangs and willingly became a despised commoner son-in-law.
In the horrific car accident, I shielded her with my own flesh and blood, and steel bars pierced through my chest.
Faced with the only life-saving machine in the entire hospital, she did not hesitate to save her lightly injured "white moonlight" brother-in-law, leaving me to die in the basement.
She thought that as long as I bled to death, she could naturally embrace perfect love.
But she didn't know—
Without my protection, her proud, century-old family wouldn't even last a month ...

Seven years ago, Alpha Matthew's fiancée Elvira ran off with another alpha. I was just his assistant back then, harboring a secret crush but never imagining we could be together.

That night I picked him up from the bar. He was drunk and had been drugged. One night later I was pregnant, and Matthew became convinced I was the one who drugged him, that I'd schemed my way into becoming his luna. He hated me, but still gave me the title of secret mate. No mating ceremony, just a contract. My son and I lived in the guest wing of his estate for seven years.

Last night he drunkenly spun Liam around in circles. My son thought he was finally being accepted. But I heard the name Matthew was murmuring—Elvira. She was coming back, with her son.

I held my transfer request to the Eastern Region. This time, we're done waiting.

"Your wife is just making up another excuse to ask for money."

With just one sneer from his trusted female assistant, my husband hung up my desperate call for help on that stormy night.

Safe in his warm conference room, he scolded me for being unreasonable and told me to "let the rain cool your head."

What he didn't know was that on that freezing night, because of his assistant's vicious lies and my inability to pay the medical fees, our newborn baby stopped breathing forever.

Three months later, discovering the horrifying truth, he searched frantically for me like a madman.

Finally, before our baby’s tombstone, a broken and desperate man knelt in the mud, begging me to take him back.

I just turned my back on him and walked away.

"We are over. Forever."

"Fuck a whale like that? Dude, I'd need a goddamn forklift to dig through the rolls and find the hole. You could pay me a thousand bucks and I still wouldn't touch it. This isn't a date—this is a fear factor challenge."
Three months ago, those words boomed through the speakers at the frat party, filling every corner of the house.
That night, I was the joke. The fattest pig in their twisted little hunting game.
Three months later, I'm at the podium running for student body president. My waist dropped from 38 inches to 24, and this custom suit fits like a weapon.
Down below, the same people who laughed are staring up at me now. And that asshole who needed the forklift? He's face-down in the dirt like a kicked dog, waiting for me to end him.
My name is Leona. This isn't some crying fat girl's diary anymore. This is how I crushed every bastard who ever stepped on me—and clawed my way to the crown with blood and sweat.

For eighteen years, my mother counted every pill I swallowed.
She kissed my forehead every night. She told me I was born broken. She said no one would ever love me the way she did, and I believed her.
Then, on my eighteenth birthday, a voice inside my head screamed: Don’t swallow that.
Her name is Vera. She’s my wolf. And she says there’s nothing wrong with my legs.
Now the woman who sang me to sleep is watching me with glowing green eyes. The only person who can help me is the stranger next door, who smells like cedar and danger. And I have one question I’m terrified to ask:
What was she so afraid I’d become?

Three days ago, a car crash took my baby. I spent three nights in the hospital alone. My husband never came.
His assistant told me he was in Europe. He wasn't. He was home on the couch I picked out, holding Elodie while she cried about the thunder.
She's his "sister." No blood, no adoption, just his money. That night she was wearing my pajamas and the necklace I designed for our third anniversary.
I built the firm that has his name on the door. I drew the tower his company breaks ground on next month.
He gave my office to her. Then my design credit. Then he told me not to make a thing out of it.
Fine. She can have the office. She can have the tower.
I signed the divorce papers, left my ring sitting on top of my signature, and walked out with one suitcase.
He still has no idea what I took with me.

I am Nerissa Calvino, the illegitimate daughter of the Vespucci mafia family—a stain on their pristine name.
All I ever wanted was a quiet life, spent in the arms of Carmine, a simple doctor. But my half-sister, Renata, fell terminally ill and was declared infertile. To preserve the alliance between the Vespucci and Arcuri families, a filthy transaction was struck: I was to be the surrogate for Renata’s fiancé, Silvano, bearing the heir that would bind their syndicates together.
They threatened Carmine’s life. To save him, I had to spit venom, shredding our love to pieces with my own hands.
In public, Silvano was the perfect, doting fiancé to my sister. But in the dark, he locked me away, claiming my body with ruthless gravity.
When news of my pregnancy broke, the entire estate rejoiced. Only I remained trapped in a living nightmare.
Torn between a past I couldn’t return to and a forbidden entanglement I couldn't escape, I wondered: would I ever reclaim my own life?

I spent two years quietly building something I thought was worth building.
Full recovery support after birth, someone checking in on meals, leave approved the moment you asked for it. I worked out a deal with the best facility in the city and covered the difference myself, out of my own account. Not a cent of company money.
I did it because I'd watched a good employee disappear from the company the year she got pregnant. No announcement. Her desk just cleared out one day.
Then one of them posted about it.
She called it surveillance. A golden cage. The comment section called me a predator. By morning it was trending.
Here's what none of them knew: not a single dollar of that program belonged to the company.
So I listened to what they wanted and gave them exactly that.
I shut the whole thing down.

My childhood sweetheart, Henry, gave me a glass of milk the night before my Harvard interview.
I thought he cared.
Until I woke up with my waist-length hair hacked off and my brain drowning in sedatives.
Later, I found him at a cafe, laughing with the prettiest girl, Madison, in our class.
"You actually cut her hair? You're insane, Henry!" she giggled.
"Truth or dare, babe," I heard him. "She's fat anyway. But you need that Harvard spot, Madison."
The boy who promised to marry me traded my dream to impress someone else.
I didn't scream. I didn't cry.
Let him have his joke. I'm taking my life back.

Our clan worships the Spider Goddess.
To keep this face, every girl in our bloodline must sacrifice a truly evil man every ten years.
Just two weeks before my twentieth birthday, my mom asked me again over the phone:
"Sweetie, is it really that hard to find a sufficiently bad guy in a place like Ashfield?"
Right now, I’m looking at my boyfriend, who just handcuffed me to a bed. He’s laughing, negotiating a price with a buyer, thinking I’m tonight’s merchandise.
I think to myself—
Mom, I can answer your question now. This guy’s wickedness easily rivals your husband's—my father.

Half human, half wolf—my blood can heal anything. To keep the peace, the elders offer me to the pack's War God.
"I'd rather sleep with a rock than a half-blood," Zane spits.
The wind rips away the herbs masking my scent. He freezes mid-sentence.
"Mine," he growls, claiming me on the spot.
He warns me to stay away from the Alpha—he hates half-bloods, and he'll kill me.
But when Zane leaves for war, it's Lucius who collapses at my door, drenched in blood.
"Medicine won't save me. You already know what will."

When I was rushed to the ER with food poisoning, I heard the doctor shout, "We need to pump her stomach, now!"
But my mother, Catherine, calmly stopped the doctor's hand.
"No hurry," she said coldly. "Give her a sedative first."
My brother Austin panicked. "Mom! If you don't detox her, she could die!"
But my mother's voice was ruthless, low and sharp:
"If she dies, she dies. As long as her uterus is still warm, that's all that matters."
"Did you forget our plan? Sarah's transplant surgery is scheduled for tomorrow. If Elena wakes up now, what if she runs away?"
"Our priority is keeping her uterus safe for Sarah—not saving her life."
In that moment, the burn in my stomach was nothing compared to the chill in my heart.
I forced my eyes open and saw my brother—the one who'd always protected me—hesitate for a moment, then slowly let go of my hand.
"...Okay. You're right, Mom. Saving Sarah comes first."
The moment I closed my eyes, I made a decision: If I survived, this life would never belong to this family again.

For years, I believed a rival family had stolen my children. Four of them — two baby boys, then my newborn twins. Every time, my husband wept. He swore revenge. He held me while I screamed myself sick.
Tonight I went down to the basement looking for him. The door was open a crack. He was kissing another woman.
"I threw both incubators off the cliff myself," he laughed. "Didn't even blink."
He killed all four. To clear a path for his mistress's son.
He runs the family now. He thinks grief has broken me — that I'll spend the rest of my life crying in the bed we shared.
He forgot one thing. I'm the old don's daughter. This family was never his.
It's mine.