549 Book(s) Related to cardi b story on october 13 2020

Love is not part of why Kane Beaumont marries Emilia Taylor.
It was purely a contract deal to him and nothing more. Saving her family's business from the claws of evil loan sharks is Emilia's motive for marrying a man she barely knew.
However, she doesn't count on being hopelessly attracted to him even when he treats her like a worthless peasant.
Their relationship is chaotic, thanks to Kane's lover who is determined to ruin any opportunity of their romance ever blooming.
Even if it means putting Emilia's life in danger, setting her up, and turning the world against her.
When sparks begin to fly between Kane and Emilia after an unfortunate accident, their relationship goes through a tough test that destroys the tiny flames of love burning between them.
Will love eventually find a way in the end or will this marriage continue to be a high-stakes business deal with dangerous rewards?

"Tell me, Miss Robin, when was the last time you disappointed someone who trusted you?"

The question hung in the air like a loaded weapon. My hands trembled beneath the mahogany table as I stared into the cold, green eyes of the CEO. He wasn't just my interviewer. He was Leonard Conti—the man I had destroyed four years ago.

"I... I believe everyone makes mistakes," I whispered, my voice barely audible in the silent boardroom.

He leaned back, a cruel smile playing on his lips. "Mistakes? Is that what you call finding your girlfriend half-naked with your best friend on prom night?"

The other interviewers gasped, shifting uncomfortably, but Leonard didn't break eye contact. He was enjoying this. He held my resume like it was a piece of trash he couldn't wait to discard. I needed this job to save my family from bankruptcy, and he knew it. He knew he held my entire future in his hands, just like I once held his heart before I crushed it.

"Here is my offer," he said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper that sent shivers down my spine. "You can walk out that door now and never come back. Or you can stay, work for me, and face my wrath."

I looked at the man who used to look at me with love, now looking at me with pure hatred. I had no choice.

"I'll stay," I said.

"Good," Leonard replied, his eyes darkening. "Then let the nightmare begin."

At the company gala, in front of everyone, the man I'd been with for ten years asked me if he could have the first dance with the new intern.

I didn't argue.

I didn't make a scene.

I stepped aside, turned around, and walked out.

For ten years I'd been there.

The tiny apartment with no heat. The credit card debt I helped him pay off. Every rung of the ladder he climbed to get where he is.

I put up with his arrogance. I put up with being talked down to. Because once upon a time, he'd said he would love me for the rest of his life.

I knew him too well.

To him, my silence was just a sulk.

He was sure I couldn't leave him. Sure that, like every other time in the last ten years, I'd swallow it and come back around.

He was planning to propose on our tenth anniversary. Down on one knee, in front of all our family and friends.

He thought one diamond ring would make me forget every humiliation and bring me home.

What I never told him was that the night of the gala, I packed ten years of memories into a cardboard box and threw it in the trash.

On the day of our anniversary, when I still hadn't shown up, he had someone call to ask where I was.

I was at the airport, waiting to board a flight to the West Coast.

"Please tell him happy anniversary," I said evenly. "And tell him there won't be any more."

My birthday was never truly mine.

Everyone was busy making sure she was comfortable, happy, and protected.
When she deliberately handed me chamomile tea—knowing I was allergic—they told me not to hurt my sister’s good intentions and forced me to drink it.

My brother accused me of being jealous and locked me in the basement.

They all forgot about me to celebrate her birthday, even my fiancé.

Lying there, I realized something worse than pain—I was replaceable.

That was the day I understood the truth about my family.
I was dying on “my” birthday, and no one chose me.

"Come back to me, Ivy," the man whom she used to love with all her heart said.“No, no,” Ivy shook her head and backed away from him. Her body trembled as fear consumed her whole being. He was the reason her baby was gone! He was the reason for all her suffering!

Ivy thought she was the luckiest woman in the world - she was married to the man of her dream.But that was just her illusion. On the day she received her pregnancy report, she found her husband in bed with his best friend. Before she had the chance to tell him about her pregnancy, she was forced to divorce and her family was driven to bankruptcy by that one man she loved.Since then, her life went south.
She married a governor in another country whom everyone thought was a gentleman. Everyone envied her, but no one knew he was a sadist who loved to abuse her.Five years later, the man she used to love met her by chance and begged her to come back.But would she be able to give her heart again, when all she felt toward him was fear and hatred? Knowing that he was the sole reason her life had turned to be what it was today with endless suffering?

Aston Whitmore thought I loved him. Truth is, his mother bought a year of my life for a million dollars.
He thought those 3 AM study sessions were about redemption and romance across class lines. He didn't know I was never watching his pretty face—I was watching the countdown to my mother's kidney transplant payment.
I froze this trust fund prince's credit cards, cut his internet, and nailed him to that desk until his eyes went bloodshot cramming calculus.
When he turned into a guard dog in front of the whole cafeteria, publicly staking his claim on me, all I was calculating was the date that final payment would clear.
Today, he burst through the mansion door clutching his Yale acceptance letter, ready to give me some grand confession.
I was already thirty thousand feet up on a flight to Zurich, staring at that million-dollar deposit notification, face blank as I pulled out the SIM card, snapped it in half, and tossed it in the trash.
No note. No goodbye.
Just one notarized Service Completion Certificate sitting on that empty desk. Terms fulfilled. Transaction closed.

Olivia Parker, after she was forced on by an unknown man at the hospital where her sick father was just proclaimed dead, finds herself pregnant a month later.

Left with no other choice than to keep the pregnancy, she drops out of school at the age of 18.

Six years later, Olivia's son grew up to be the exact replica of her new boss... Damien Sterling!

"Who is his father?!" His voice echoed multiple times into her ears.

"I don't have one, talk to my mummy with respect!"

“I reject you as my mate. I chose her. Diana will be my mate, not some pitiful scrap of a slave.” The words that shattered her world came from her own fated mate.

Cast out and scorned, omega Alicia should have died in the wild. Instead, she discovers a fierce new strength: she is carrying the child of the Alpha who betrayed her. Now, hidden in the mountains under the protection of the formidable Alpha Brooke, she vows to protect her son and forge a new destiny far from the cruel Moon Pack.

But the bond she shares with Alpha Max is not so easily broken. Haunted by her memory and tormented by whispers of a living heir, Max begins a relentless hunt to reclaim what is his. As ancient powers stir and rival packs collide, Alicia must choose between the safety of a new love and the dangerous pull of a scarred past.

Can a rejected mate ever be forgiven? And what price is an Alpha willing to pay to win back the family he threw away?

On Christmas Eve, my life took a turn, a negative turn.
My boyfriend, the one I had loved for three years, was cheating on me with his cousin. The woman I had spent three Christmas Eves celebrating with. The same person who had always cheered me up whenever I was stressed. How can someone be so two-faced?


"There's nothing we need to talk about. Everything seems clear to me, Raphael," I said.
"What you saw that day was a misunderstanding. It was nothing." He lied with determination.
"You, naked, wrapped around Rachel, your cousin, was a misunderstanding? What do you take me for? A fool?" I spat, unleashing all the rage inside me.
"Amy, I'm not lying to you. You misunderstood what you saw. If you had waited, I would have explained everything." He pressed on, trying to make me believe him.
"Fine. Explain it to me. Tell me why you and Rachel were naked, tangled up together on the same bed," I countered.
"It was a rehearsal, a rehearsal for a sex scene she wants to act in after the holidays," Raphael said shamelessly.
A smile flickered on my lips as I stared at him. This man had the audacity to lie to my face.
"Get out, Raphael. Get out of my sight," I commanded.

Adeline had one choice: marry Grayson Archer, the ruthless billionaire, to save her dying mother and erase her father’s gambling debts.

Five years as his contract wife meant enduring cold indifference, sharp words, and a life overshadowed by his manipulative family. When the contract ends, Adeline shocks everyone—especially Grayson—by walking away.

But Grayson isn’t ready to let her go. Determined to win her back, he devises a new plan, only to discover feelings he never expected. Just as their fragile bond begins to heal, a devastating secret from his past and a betrayal Adeline can't forgive threaten to destroy everything.

Can love survive the ultimate test, or will Grayson lose the only woman he’s ever truly wanted?

Harriet Walter once had everything wealth, power, and a future others envied.

Then she made a choice for love.

When forced to choose between an arranged marriage to a powerful CEO or losing her inheritance, Harriet chose the man she believed in Taylor. To prove her loyalty, she sacrificed everything: her family, her fortune, even the company that carried her name.

But love turned into ashes.

The man she gave the world for slowly lost everything, and Harriet blamed herself for his fall. She stayed beside him through humiliation, poverty, and regret… until the night he did the unthinkable.

With a single bet, her husband gave her away.

Now Harriet belongs to a man no one knows a silent figure whose face hides beneath the brim of a hat. A man who wins people the way others win money.

Running is impossible. She tried once.

She woke up in his bed… marked, watched, and surrounded by walls filled with her own photographs.

Someone has been studying her.
Someone has been waiting.

The question is not who took Harriet Walter.

The real question is… why has he wanted her for so long?

Dona McNair thought her biggest problem was figuring out how to talk to August (Augie) Reynolds, the dreamy new hockey captain she’s been crushing on from a distance. But that all changes the day she finds out he’s her stepbrother. Now trapped in a tangled family mess with a boy who barely looks her way, Dona’s quiet life suddenly feels like a crazy soap opera.

Augie has a lot of secrets, and so does his father. The more Dona learns, the deeper she falls for him and for the truth. Between rivalries on the ice, forbidden romance and a criminal past that won’t stay buried, Dona and Augie are forced to choose: walk away or fight side by side. Forbidden love was never part of the plan, but neither was falling for your stepbrother, while exposing his father’s crimes.

Everyone knew my twin sister wouldn't live past eighteen. So they gave her all the love, leaving me to survive in the shadows.
When I suffered a asthma attack on our birthday, my mother locked me in the basement.
"Stop faking it. Don't ruin your sister's last birthday," my mother hissed.
She thought I was throwing a tantrum for attention.
She was wrong.
I died on the cold concrete floor while they sang Happy Birthday upstairs.
Now, I am just a ghost floating in our living room. I watch my parents complain about my selfishness. I watch them make empty promises to treat me better tomorrow.
They don't know there is no tomorrow for me...

Chloe wasted ten years loving arrogant Zane. To win a Porsche bet, he publicly humiliated her, taking her devotion for granted. Finally awake, she cut him off and rebuilt herself as a brilliant top-university elite.
After losing her, Zane drowned in regret, begging desperately for her forgiveness. But it was too late. Chloe met the wealthy, gentle genius Liam, who healed all her wounds. Zane gambled with her heart—and lost her forever.

"First, unlimited funds. Second, you clean up every mess I make. Third, keep out of my private life."
Those were the arrogant demands my student laid out when I, the top art professor in New York, offered to make him my exclusive protégé.
The entire faculty gasped. No one dared speak to a Voss heiress like that.
Instead, looking at his face, I gave a slow, quiet nod.
"Agreed," I whispered. "Just make sure you never ruin that face."
He thought I was just another rich, desperate woman blinded by love. He spent my money, flaunted his little girlfriend in my face, and trampled all over my dignity, thinking I would never let him go.
He forgot one crucial detail about being a substitute.
The moment the original returns... the fake becomes worthless.

My fiancé of five years lent the white rose greenhouse—the one we built for our wedding—to his junior for her graduation project.
"Postponing the wedding to next year won't change anything. Elara, we've been together for five years. A few more months won't matter, right?"
He was certain I couldn't live without him, expecting me to wait around for him to cash his empty promises of marriage, just like I had countless times before.
I handed over the key, my voice flat. "She can have the greenhouse. But I'm done waiting for a five-year-old promise."
He froze for a second, then his brows furrowed, assuming I was just throwing a tantrum again. "Fine, act out all you want. I'll make it up to you once I'm done with this busy period."
Until a month later, when he scrolled through his social media feed and my wedding photos popped up on his screen.
Surrounded by a sea of white roses, I was in a wedding gown, smiling radiantly.
Staring at the screen, Julian was suddenly struck by the memory of the night I handed over that key.
My best friend, Maya, had practically gritted her teeth as she asked me:
"Didn't we agree that once this garden bloomed, you'd put on your dress and be the most beautiful bride in the world? He just carelessly gave away your wedding venue with a single sentence. What does he even take you for?"
I fought back the last bit of foolish obsession in my eyes and gave her a smile. "The wedding goes on as planned."

Rayne
She ran to the Crimson Riders to warn them of danger, hoping to find a safe place for her and her baby girl.
There she found a man who claimed her and her baby as his own without hesitation, vowing to keep them safe.
She finds the love and passion in his arms she'd never dared dream of.
Will she have the strength to fight for it when it's threatened, and the horrors of her past try to pull her back?

Night
As the VP of the Crimson Riders and son to the president, his life has revolved around the club.
When a wounded half naked girl stumbles through the snow with her newborn to warn them of imminent danger, his heart is forever captured.
Determined to show her the love she has long been denied, he fights those from the present and her past trying to steal her away.

Rowan Hayes was just another woman lost in the city—tired, broke, and invisible—until the day she threw herself in front of a van and saved a little girl’s life.

Now that girl, Emma Vance, refuses to let her go.
Her father, Asher Vance, refuses to let her stay.

With sharp suits, inked skin, and a voice that sounds like danger, Asher is the kind of man who gets what he wants—and never forgives what he doesn’t. He built his fortune on control and his reputation on fear. But Rowan Hayes makes him lose both.

As their worlds collide, the lies holding his empire together begin to crack. Emma’s mother isn’t dead. The truth is uglier—and far more dangerous—than anyone knows.

Caught between the child who trusts her and the man who tempts her, Rowan must decide whether love is worth the ruin that follows.

He’s power and poison. She’s the spark that might burn it all down.

Synopsis: Dr. Camelia Hayes, a famous marriage counsellor has the perfect husband. He is handsome, kind, and successful.

Then one day, she receives an anonymous package containing photographs of seven women.
Each woman dated the same man and each woman disappeared after saying yes to his proposal.

The shocking news: Her seemingly perfect husband is the man in every picture.
The problem is...
The photos were taken years before he was born.

In a world where love is a dangerous game, Leila Castor finds herself charmed by the devil himself. Ben Maloney, with his alluring facade and sweet promises, hides an evil truth that threatens Leila's life. When he betrays her, leaving her to choke on her blood, Leila's thirst for revenge knows no bounds.

And luckily fate grants her a second chance, And discovers she has been taken back in time two months before her death! Will she rewrite the wrongs done to her or set out on a path of retribution against those who wronged her?

“Come back to me, Ivy,” the man whom she used to love with all her heart said.

“No, no,” Ivy shook her head and backed away from him. Her body trembled as fear consumed her whole being. He was the reason her baby was gone! He was the reason for all her suffering!


Ivy thought she was the luckiest woman in the world - she was married to the man of her dream.

But that was just her illusion. On the day she received her pregnancy report, she found her husband in bed with his best friend. Before she had the chance to tell him about her pregnancy, she was forced to divorce and her family was driven to bankruptcy by that one man she loved.

Since then, her life went south. She married a governor in another country whom everyone thought was a gentleman. Everyone envied her, but no one knew he was a sadist who loved to abuse her.

Five years later, the man she used to love met her by chance and begged her to come back.

But would she be able to give her heart again, when all she felt toward him was fear and hatred? Knowing that he was the sole reason her life had turned to be what it was today with endless suffering?

Torn between the man she loves, and the man who loves her....

Cordia has always been strong-willed, but she knows her family expects her to accept the hand of her childhood friend, Jaris, in marriage. As the conflict continues to escalate, Cordia hopes it will last long enough for her to find a way to free herself without breaking her friend’s heart.

On the eve of war, Cordia meets a mysterious newcomer. There’s just something about Will that she finds both intriguing and dangerous. She makes a plan to write to him. Perhaps by the time the war is over, Will’s feelings for Cordia will have blossomed into love.

But by the time war begins to wind its way through Missouri, one of these men will be dead, and Cordia will find herself betrothed to a man she loathes. Will she have the courage to follow her heart, or will she do as she is told and acquiesce to a loveless marriage to a heartless traitor?

Bonus story Cordia's Hope!

Forbidden love on the frontier....
Hope is content staying in her hometown of Lamar, Missouri, focusing on her life as a schoolteacher instead of finding love. But when she hears the truth about her parents' romance during the Civil War, how her mother Cordia set out to find her father Will after a deadly battle, Hope is determined to have that sort of adventure as well.

Accepting a teaching position in a frontier town in Texas isn't quite what she was expecting--there are no marauders or gunslingers--but there is one man with a shady past, and when the entire town tells her to stay away from Judah Lawless, Hope finds herself drawn to him.

Is Judah dangerous, or will Hope finally find the romance she's been looking for?

Wait. I was this close to going full caveman on my incubus, and you're telling me the store sent the wrong one?

I'd bought an incubus online, hoping for one really good night with him.

But he said no. Every single time.

I racked my brain trying to tame him. Besides plotting to steamroll him into it, I'd even gone so far as to contact customer service.

The poor little chat rep just kept apologizing.

[I'm so, so sorry, hon! We checked, and we shipped you the wrong item. He's a Household-type incubus. He does NOT provide intimate services!]

[Please, please don't get any closer with him! Under the Supernatural Beings Welfare Act, incubi can't be forced into anything, and if one gets pushed to his breaking point, he can suddenly lose control and put your safety at risk!]

A cold sweat broke out down my back. I grabbed Kane's pillow and comforter and tossed them straight out of my bedroom.

I didn't expect him to do the opposite of what I'd figured. He came and knocked on my door...

Rejection, Moon Goddess, Omega, Alpha King, Alpha Queen, Soulless, Runt.
When Amberle Crest's mate rejects her on her eighteenth birthday, She realizes that living in a pack where the majority would rather use her as a slave than treat her as an equal is not worth the pain. She becomes the notorious wolf, Fire Foot, vowing that everyone would regret how they treated her, as she leaves her pack in the past.

Now a ghost forgotten by those that tormented her, Amberle does whatever it takes to survive as a lone wolf. A fateful day changes her lonely life to one full of happiness and hope--until ghosts from her past call for aid in ridding their pack of the Soulless who threatens all wolf kind.
Faced with new friends, old foes, and the threat of a building army, will Amberle be able to fight the ghosts of her past to cherish the pack she has found or will an old mate claim her before a second chance mate can show her what being treasured by someone is all about?
Rejection Series includes three books, Rejection on the Full Moon (Book 1), Rejecting the Future Moon Goddess (Book 2), and Rejection to the Alpha King's Daughter (Book 3).

Contains mature content
When the company's helicopter goes down over the Pacific, struggling intern Ariana Tokes never expects to wake up on a deserted island stuck with her domineering and cold billionaire boss, Nathaniel Coop. He's demanding. He's used to controlling everything.
But the island doesn't care about money, power or titles. Together, they must fight to survive storms that try to tear apart their shelter, venomous creatures, hunger, and the crushing loneliness of the endless sea. With no rescue in sight, they become each other's only hope, and the only danger is how close they might get before the world finds them.

The death of a property developer named Nick on February 14th should have been an open-and-shut suicide case. But not for Keya Harold, a police detective, who uncovers too many inconsistencies. She and her team decide to dig deeper into the case.

But Nick's death brings Keya face to face with the man she once loved in college. His name is Raiden Evander Harrison.

Seeing each other again after ten years shakes Keya's professionalism as a law enforcer. On one hand, old feelings begin to rekindle. On the other, Raiden becomes one of the people closest to Nick to fall under police suspicion. The case grows more complicated as Keya tries to dismiss her colleagues' suspicions about Raiden.

Until Keya realizes that everyone close to Nick has a powerful motive to kill him. They're all hiding grudges, old wounds, lies, and dark secrets connected to Nick.

Can Keya investigate the case without letting her feelings for Raiden get in the way? Is Raiden really the honest man Keya believes him to be?

Ethan Hayes was supposed to be Hargrove Academy's next star goalie. Full ride. NHL pipeline. The golden boy.

Three days before pre-season, a car accident puts him in a coma.

If he doesn't report, Hargrove pulls the scholarship his family can't afford to lose. So his fraternal twin does the only thing she can.

Emery Hayes quit hockey two years ago after they told her she was too small, too fragile, too girl to tend goal at this level. Now she's cutting her hair, lowering her voice, and pulling on his oversized jersey - HAYES 31.

In full pads and a mask, she can pass as him. On the ice, she's better than him.

No one can know. Especially not Cole Maddox - Hargrove's cold, brutal team captain who hates Ethan, who now has to share a dorm, late-night practices, and the crease with the new, weirdly different Hayes.

He keeps saying: "You don't play like you used to. You play like you have something to prove."

She does. Because this was never about saving her brother's spot.

It's about finally earning her own shutout.

A twin-swap, grumpy x sunshine, he-falls-first ice hockey romance about the girl who had to become a boy to prove she was the best goalie on the ice.

"A man like me usually has patience. But with you, I’ve exhausted it all. Everyday, you leave me craving you, needing you in my bed like a mad man. Scarlet, what do you want from me?" He growled, staring deep into her green eyes. "Time." She whispered, her voice barely audible. I don' t have time!" His voice rumbled with slight annoyance and a hint of jealousy. "Your heart is torn between me and Brad, "Brad is my mate, my fated mate. And- "And who am I to you?" He pulled her closer to himself. "You’re mine, Scarlet. Every inch and depth of you is mine. And I won' t let that undeserving boy have you. May the best man win your heart."

Bullied and mocked her entire life, Scarlet always dreamed of the day she would find a mate. Someone to love and cherish her. But on her eighteenth birthday, she was rejected by the boy she was fated to love. Unusual red hair, awkward social life, and a complete nerd, she did not expect to be ever wanted again by anyone. But everything changed when she realized she was given a second chance mate—a lycan prince. Driven by jealousy, her first mate wants her back and the prince would rather die than let her go. Now desired by the two most powerful boys in college, what choice would she make? And how would she navigate her complex love life with them?

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.

Blurb:

“Now honey, what was that about earlier?” Mom demands after a beat, her voice even. Controlled. Measured. Like she's always been.

I look at her. At her copperry red hair much like my own, conflicted. And my eyes water.

It's about how I can still feel Grayson's touch on my skin mum. How his tongue has done things to me. Things too unholy to describe.

About how the scent of him—the mere thought of him—makes me heady.

And now, you’re marrying his father?

Grayson's bad news for goddess’ sake!

I want to tell her all that, but I don't.

I Can't.

“You didn't even stop to think about it,” I say instead, not liking the crack in my voice at the end.

“Probably because there was nothing to think about,” mother shrugs, frowning in concern. “What is this really about Ginny?”

Ginny. The five letter syllable that somehow sounds so different—sinfully different—when he says it.

“You've been acting weird ever since I mentioned coming back.. Is there something I should know?” she probes.

And then..

Her face grows pale.


Ours is a story that was never meant to be written.

A broken symphony, A perfect imagery with cracks.

He was my living torment, I was his subject. His prey. His Forbidden fruit.

We weren't meant to love. To feel so deeply. To Burn.

But we did anyways.

And the inferno we created?

Blew out of proportion.

Destroying everything we once thought we knew.

Again, we weren't meant to love,

But our story was a destructive force of nature,

Bound by soul-ties that could not be denied.

When I called my husband with trembling hands, clutching my cancer diagnosis, all I heard was his sweet laughter with his young, hot influencer girlfriend. Ten years of marriage, and when I needed him most, he chose betrayal.

In divorce court, I was painted as the "crazy ex-wife" while the entire internet mocked me. Everyone took their side. No one knew I was fighting for my life.

Until the day he finally learned the truth.

My boyfriend had refused to sleep with me for years.

I thought he was shy, inexperienced, or hiding something painful.

Then I found his journal.

In it, Adrian Shaw wrote that my stepsister had warned him I would despise a virgin who didn't know how to please me.

He hated the thought of touching another woman, he said.

He loved me.

But he had decided to practice anyway—for my sake.

I still believed we could fix it, right up until I heard him agree to meet another woman in secret.

So I gave him one last chance to tell me the truth.

He lied, crossed the line he knew mattered most to me, and expected love to erase the choice.

By the time he understood what I had actually wanted, another man was already waiting at my door—a man who had heard my standard years ago and remembered every word.

He hung up on me while the killer's knife plunged into my body.

Seventeen seconds. That was our final call after seven years of marriage.

He was at the hospital with my "depressed" stepsister, convinced I was just being dramatic again. He didn't even let me finish.

I died that rainy night, taking a secret with me he'll never know.

Three days later, my husband—the city's chief medical examiner—caught a brutal case: female victim, face destroyed by acid.

He worked the autopsy with his usual precision. Methodical. Clinical. Until the facial reconstruction software completed its rendering.

When he recognized my face on that screen, blood exploded from his mouth.

He hit the floor hard.

When my Alpha told me a rogue faction was going to destroy our Pack, I volunteered as a hostage to keep him safe.
Three years in a cage. Branded with silver. Broken like a feral. Every rogue in that compound had me. The only thing that kept me alive was a toxic root that numbed the pain — and was slowly killing me from the inside.
Then my Alpha showed up and told me the truth.
There was never any threat. He'd staged the whole thing — hired the rogues, built the compound. Because I'd embarrassed his precious Cora in front of the Pack, and he needed me to "learn my place."
Now he wanted me back. Wanted to make me his Luna again.
But I wasn't the same woman who walked into that cage. And the truth about what happened to me there?
He didn't believe a word of it.
Not until I was already dead.

On the day I died, Roland was rolling in the sheets with his adopted sister, Lavinia.
When the hospital called with my death notice, he scoffed. It was just drawing some blood, how could anyone die from that? He was certain I was just throwing a tantrum again, desperate for his attention.
The day he received my ashes, he personally smashed the wooden urn to the ground. His expensive leather shoes ground my ashes into the floor over and over as he coldly announced he was going to marry Lavinia and throw a grand wedding—the exact wedding I had begged for when I was alive but never got.
It wasn't until the day before their wedding that his assistant, Desmond, rushed in, trembling.
"Sir, it's bad... We pulled the security footage from the hospital, and... the madam's autopsy report."

“Do you, Alex Snow, take Jennifer Walker, to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

Soon to be husband looks at me with the eyes of a beast, ready to rip me apart at any second as he says tightly “I do”

Although he just vowed to take me as his wife, to hold, love, and cherish, his ‘I do’ vowed something else entirely.

It was an oath to make me suffer horribly at his hands.

As soon as the words “I do” left my mouth I was certain, I just sealed my fate by marrying Alex Snow.

And my fate was crystal clear, death is coming for me sooner rather than later.

In a small town called “Snow”, known in all of Alaska for its huge illegal smuggling business on the border of America and Canada, Alex Snow; the new leader of the Snow clan that controls and dominates the smuggling territory, forces Jennifer Walker into marrying him against her will.

After his father gets murdered at the hands of Jenny’s father, Patrick Walker, the Snow clan vows to take their revenge on the whole Walker bloodline.

But killing the responsible man sends both families into a blood feud as both clans vow to make the other one pay.

The only way to stop that bloodbath from turning into a m******e, and claiming more innocent lives was a peace offering in the form of marriage from both families.

Jennifer’s world turns upside down as she turns out to be the one Alex Snow asked to marry specifically to stop that war.

Her only thought at that moment was “He is going to make my life a living hell”

The town Snow and everything it illegally represents is real inside the world I created in this book. It’s as real as you make it to be, but It doesn’t exist in real life

“You can’t marry him, Caitlyn. He’ll destroy you.”
“And what are you, Jaxon? My salvation? Or my biggest mistake?”

Caitlyn Vale, the priest's only daughter, is promised a perfect life—security, marriage, and a future without risk. It all very quickly spirals out of control, and behind the vows lies a world built on secrets, violence, and betrayal.

Drawn into a dangerous love she can’t resist, Caitlyn finds herself torn between the man who owns her and the outlaw who awakens her. With every choice, the walls close in, lies tighten, loyalties shatter, and desire burns hotter than fear.

When passion becomes rebellion and survival demands sacrifice, Caitlyn must decide: protect the life she was promised, or risk everything for the love that could save her.

Our company's year-end retreat was a ski trip to Silver Peak, and it took until day three for Cole, the guy I'd been in love with for years, to finally ski a run with me.

We were only halfway down a green run when he pulled up at the bottom of a pitch and shook his head, clearly annoyed.

"Your balance is awful. I've shown you a hundred times and you're still doing the same thing."

One of our coworkers laughed. "Seriously? Cole had Addison for one afternoon and she's already doing blues."

Addison was the assistant he'd hired a year ago.

Cole didn't look at me again. He flagged down a stranger who had just skied to the bottom.

"Hey man, can you take her down a couple runs for me? I'll pay you after."

He was skiing off toward Addison before he'd even finished talking.

Addison hunched her shoulders and said she was cold. Cole pulled off his scarf with a smile and looped it around her neck a few times.

Looking at that scarf, I thought about the first time I ever stood on a ski slope.

My legs were shaking so hard I could barely stay up.

He stood right behind me, hands hovering by my arms in case I slipped, and we inched our way down together.

He kept saying the same thing the whole time. "Don't worry, I've got you. You're not gonna fall."

For all these years, I'd thought I was stuck on the green runs because I was a slow learner.

Now I finally saw it. He hadn't been behind me for a long time.

So I didn't need to keep looking back for him anymore.

I died once.

Spent seventy years as a housewife the first time around. Biggest regret? Never felt my heart race.

Met her in this life, and that's when I learned what being alive actually meant. In this world where assassins pay in gold coins and seek sanctuary at Continental hotels, we became a duo called "Swans," hunting down the man who destroyed her family. Every single day, dancing on a razor's edge.

Two years ago, the explosion killed Raven Hayes right in front of me.

To survive, I married a naive tech heir, slipped into silk dresses and started doing the charity gala circuit, tried to convince myself this was the peace I wanted.

Until that enemy became a High Table member and announced a hundred-million-dollar bounty on me to the world.

I used to be scared. Used to run. Used to ask why it had to be me.

But sitting at my vanity, staring at this stranger's face in the mirror, all done up like some socialite, I suddenly realized none of it mattered anymore.

I'm going to die eventually anyway. Might as well die looking like myself.

The night before our engagement party, my fiancé gifted me a million-dollar yacht—with another woman's name carved on the hull.

Not mine. "Serena"—his first love, the one who got away.

Five years of patience. Five years of sacrifice. And this is what I get?

"Stop overreacting," Austin said without a hint of shame. "She's severely depressed. I'm just trying to comfort her."

Comfort her? What about me?

When Serena tried on what should've been my wedding dress, when Austin demanded I "be the bigger person" yet again—I finally snapped.

I threw the engagement ring. It cracked against his face.

Austin's hand shot up in fury.

The door exploded open.

Julian Cross—New York's most dangerous billionaire—stepped inside, his presence filling the room like a storm.

"You dare lay a hand on my woman?"

I'm a figure skating prodigy from one of the wealthiest families in the country. I'm also an idiot.

I believed that if I was kind enough, people would be kind in return. So I sponsored Haley Dunning, a scholarship skater on our team, and treated her like my own little sister.

The day before the NCAA qualifier, she came up to me with a sports drink, said she wanted to help keep my energy up.

I drank it. Went down on the ice with a broken leg. Drug test came back positive for banned stimulants.

Overnight, I went from the queen of the rink to the face of a scandal no one could stop talking about.

Expelled from school. Torn apart on social media. Calloway Corporation's stock in freefall.

Haley stood in front of the cameras, tears in her eyes: "Piper just wanted to win so badly. I never thought she'd go this far..."

I fell into a depression. Couldn't sleep without medication.

Then one day, she showed up at my hospital room with my boyfriend, bearing "comfort": a cup of water and a few pills: "Piper, take your meds, okay? This is all my fault for being so stupid..."

Three minutes later, I'm coughing up blood, convulsing on the floor.

Right before I died, I caught the look on her face. That sweet, innocent face. A slow, vicious smile spreading across it.

She knocked over the pill bottle and started screaming: "I grabbed the wrong ones! I mixed up her antidepressants with some old person's heart meds! I'm so stupid!"

My boyfriend pulled her into his arms. Didn't even glance at me dying on the floor: "She meant well. Piper just had bad luck."

I was poisoned to death in that hospital room.

Then I opened my eyes, and it was the day before the qualifier.

Being disowned by my family, and being cheated on by my boyfriend and best friend seems to be the end of the world, But I have to save my mother from her illness, I need money to save her but My father, Alpha of the biggest refuses to give a single penny and chose his Mistress's daughter over me.
Desperate and alone, I was ready to take any option I could get if my mother would be saved.
I made a deal with an almost-stranger, a contract marriage! Who was forced by his grandma to get married.
A win-win situation for both of us.
He saved my mom. I married him to fulfil his Grandma's wish, But, why is my heart aching when our marriage contract is going to end?
It was a marriage deal for both of us, but when it's coming to an end, I don't want it to end?
Being disowned by my family, and being cheated on by my boyfriend and best friend seems to be the end of the world, But I have to save my mother from her illness, I need money to save her but My father, Alpha of the biggest refuses to give a single penny and chose his Mistress's daughter over me.
Desperate and alone, I was ready to take any option I could get if my mother would be saved.
I made a deal with an almost-stranger, a contract marriage! Who was forced by his grandma to get married.
A win-win situation for both of us.
He saved my mom. I married him to fulfil his Grandma's wish, But, why is my heart aching when our marriage contract is going to end?
It was a marriage deal for both of us, but when it's coming to an end, I don't want it to end?

"Abort her mutt. Liora is carrying my true pureblood heir."
My Alpha husband’s voice was ice-cold as I bled out on the delivery bed.
The woman he was protecting? My fiercely loyal best friend.
While I was screaming in pain, biting my lips bloody to birth his child, he was in the next room, making her moan.
He killed our baby.
When I returned from burying my grandmother in the freezing rain, his guards threw holy water in my face.
"Wash her," Lachlan ordered coldly. "The stench of death on her will harm Liora's pup."
I stared at the man who once took nine lashes of a barbed whip just to marry me.
He aborted my baby to save hers. He let my only family die.
He tossed me a bag of gold like a beggar and told me to stop causing drama.
So, I packed my bags, and vanished into his world.

My boyfriend's stepsister was assaulted. She didn't survive it.

I knew the truth, but I refused to name the man who did it.

His parents got down on their knees and begged me. I didn't budge.

When the reporters showed up at my door, I chased them off with a kitchen knife.

He didn't leave me. He turned his back on his family and married me.

And then he made me pay. Every day, he brought people into our home to make me feel what his sister felt.

Six years later, my body was at its breaking point. So he spent his fortune to put my memory on trial.

Six months ago, my parents started fostering a girl named Lila Mercer.
Six months ago, Mom repainted the guest room and strung fairy lights over the bed. My room still has the same furniture I've had since I was twelve.
Six months ago, Dad started coming home for Sunday dinner. Not for me. I'd been eating alone at the counter for years by then.
Six months ago, Mom posted a photo of the two of them at the farmers market. Caption: our family is growing. I saw it during third period and locked my phone hard enough to crack the case.
So when I picked up the family iPad tonight and a notification popped up from an app I didn't recognize, I wasn't shocked. Just tired of being right.
The app was called Beacon.

There are no unmated males in our pack.
Every she-wolf in Hollowfen is promised to someone when she turns eighteen. We just don't get to know who until we walk into the Choosing Hall.
Girls go in wearing white. They come out flushed, shaking, barely able to stand. Some laugh. Some cry. None of them talk about what happens inside.
My sister Thessaly turned eighteen this spring. Gran told her she couldn't attend the Choosing.
She went anyway. She came back on shaking legs, with blood between her thighs and a smile she couldn't wipe off her face.

There was a project at our company that promised a £50,000 bonus upon completion.
As the lead planner, I had worked my fingers to the bone for over half a year, pushing the project to 99% completion. Yet, just a week ago, right at the final hurdle, Charlotte—the daughter of the company’s largest shareholder—got jealous.

Eager to steal the ultimate credit, she forcibly parachuted into the project department, hijacked my position as the lead planner, and insisted on presenting the pitch to the client’s top executives herself.

Amateurs dictating to professionals—the outcome was entirely predictable.
Her arrogant, clueless micro-management completely infuriated the client’s Big Boss. They flipped out on the spot, threatening to terminate the contract and seek damages.

After causing this catastrophic disaster, the "princess"—who normally paraded around calling everyone her "bros"—played dead at the speed of light.
She ignored calls, left emails unread, and threw the entirely collapsed, hopeless mess right into my face.

For the sake of my team's blood, sweat, and tears, and even more so to prevent my boyfriend Bastian’s company from getting sued, I paid £24,000 out of my own pocket. I stayed up for three consecutive nights, scrambling to find a backup crew, booking restaurants to humbly appease the client, and ultimately breathed life back into the chaotic mess she left behind.

I thought that when I brought the receipts in for reimbursement, I would at least get a guilty "thank you." Instead, she flipped through the stack of invoices, let out a cold sneer, and smacked them right back into my face.

"Bella, after making such a massive compliance mess, you actually have the nerve to ask me for a reimbursement?"

I boarded The Elysium, thinking it was just another job.

A luxury cruise ship. A floating paradise for the world’s elite.

Private. Untouchable. Unregulated.

I was wrong.

Within hours, I was accused of a murder I didn’t commit.

And on The Elysium, innocence is not something you prove.

It’s something you lose.

That’s when I met him.

Silas Voss.

They call him the Sovereign of the ship.

He didn’t ask if I was guilty.

He asked how much I was worth.

I was given a choice:

Death… or a ninety-day contract under his control.

His physician.
His property.
His possession.

I signed it.

Because I had no other way to survive.

I told myself I could endure him.

I told myself I could outsmart him.

But The Elysium doesn’t break people through violence alone.

It breaks them through permission.

And Silas Voss never takes what he can’t make you agree to give.

Every attempt I made to escape only brought me closer to him.

Every rule I broke only made him calmer.

More patient.

More interested.

Until I realized something I never should have felt in a place like this—

Fear wasn’t the worst part anymore.

And what he was turning me into… might be worse than what he did to me.

⚠MATURE READERS ONLY⚠ DARK ROMANCE | MORALLY GREY HERO | OBSESSION | FORCED PROXIMITY ⚠

My Husband Cheated on Me with His Cousin, So I Married His Boss.

Kalyssa always believed her marriage could survive anything. She trusted James until he started slipping away. Late-night calls. Locked doors. Half-truths dressed up as excuses.
When she finally follows him, she discovers the kind of betrayal that breaks something inside you forever…her husband in the arms of his cousin, Melissa. What should have ended in tears turns into something far worse. In one night, Kalyssa loses her company, her home, and nearly her life.
But someone saves her. A man she doesn’t know, or couldn’t remember. He’s powerful. Controlled. Dangerous in ways that make her pulse quicken. And he isn’t a man who lets go of what he wants.
As Kalyssa rebuilds her life, her husband and his cousin suddenly want her back.
How was she going to get back what he stole from her? What would she do when the man who saved her proposes a contract marriage?

Jessica Howard was Ridgeview Homecoming Queen.

She smiled for the cameras, accepted her crown... and disappeared before the after-party. No body was found. No ransom. No answers.

The next morning, every student's phone lit up with the same notification. ‘A new app has been installed.’ No one downloaded it. No one can delete it.
It's simply called NEXT.

At midnight, NEXT chooses a name. The next day... Someone dies. Or something even worse happens.

The police call them accidents, the students call it a curse. I call it impossible.

I was never supposed to be part of this. I’m Sabrina Markson. The scholarship girl nobody notices. I came to Ridgeview to earn a future, not become part of its darkest mystery.

But somehow I ended up with the final piece of Jessica’s puzzle. The one clue that could blow the whole thing wide open.

Now the whispers are turning into threats. And the only person who’s willing to help me is the last person I should trust, Luke Carpenter. The school’s notorious bad boy. Trouble with a capital T.

We started out hating each other. But late nights chasing clues turn into shared moments. Stolen glances in empty hallways turn into him walking me home when NEXT starts targeting people close to me.

With every secret we uncover, it gets harder to tell if I’m falling for him... or falling into a trap.

As Luke and I dig deeper, it gets harder to tell who’s hunting who. And to figure out if what’s growing between us can survive when everyone around us is dropping.

Together, we need to unmask the culprits, and stop the stupid app from sending any more death notifications.

Because if we don’t find them first…
We’re next on the list.