3299 Book(s) Related to how to cite a short story

Suspense/Romance.
Rachael Sinclair is a half Native American (Lakota) Police officer with Red Ridge PD in a tiny town in Montana with a new identity because her father was the nation's first native American serial killer.
She is 30 years old and because of the disappearance of her mother, the abuse suffered by her father and the things she was subjected to seeing in his cellar, and testifying against him at his trial, Rachael has become a depressed alcoholic, attempting to self-medicate her pain away.

She has questionable behaviors for someone that is law enforcement and a stalker.

When one body found on her patrol route turns into another, each in the same manner as her father. The FBI is called in to assist with the manhunt for the copycat killer.

Enter Roman Hanshaw, The FBI agent assigned to help Rachael find the truth behind these murders.

Their relationship takes an erotic turn when Roman realizes he sees the real her and he could be exactly who she needs to help her heal.
One reckless decision helps Roman make his mind up about wanting Rachael, but will she feel the same way?
Who is the killer?
Why are they targeting Rachel?
Can Roman and Rachael uncover the truth in time?
Can Rachael handle the twists and turns life throws her while uncovering this truth?

Tropes and Triggers (minimum)
Depression
Suicidal ideology
Child abuse (mentioned)
Death and dismemberment
Abuse of a corpse (eyes cut out, chest marked)
Police officer FMC
FBI MMC
Twists and turns
Erotic novel, 5 chili peppers
Bullying (co-worker and mentioned childhood off page)
Snarky, minority FMC
He falls first
Breath play
Dirty talk
handcuffs
Slow burn
Slight enemies to lovers
He breaks down her walls
Betrayal
secrets
Stalker
serial killer
touch her and die
one bed

Lucas: “You need the money, and I need a wife to shut my grandmother up. We’re a perfect match—don’t overthink it.”
Sophia: “You really know how to sweep a girl off her feet. Where’s the romance?”
Lucas: “I’m offering a solution, not a fairy tale.”
And that's how Sophia Lane got married to the Cruel CEO of Davenport and Co multi billion company, because of money and a burning hope to save her younger brother and selling her happiness as well.
But will she be able to tame the heart of her husband who is dead set on finding the woman Sofia Lang, who saved his grandmother from imminent death, but is unaware that he had already found her.
And when Lucas finds out the truth, can his sincerity be enough to heal the heart of an angel he broke intentionally

Was Bodden cursed the day he was born? Life on the frontier is harsh, leaving little room for mercy, but Richard believes there has to be a better way. Even from an early age, he struggles to find his place in a world where he is neither needed nor wanted, powerless to change his fate. It is only when he meets a knight of renown that he learns what it is to be truly noble. Finally able to control his own destiny, he must choose between his past and the future for the sake of Bodden. Mercerian Tales: The Making of a Man is a story that reveals the inner workings of one of Merceria's greatest nobles, Lord Richard Fitzwilliam, Baron of Bodden. This book is best read in its chronological order, as much of what the young Richard experiences relates directly to Dame Beverly's childhood. Gather some cheese and crackers, and start reading Mercerian Tales: The Making of a Man today!

Hot forbidden novellas so filthy that they'll leave you soaked and ashamed.
A stepdaughter bent over for her strict stepfather.
A stepsister ruined by her stepbrother in a snow-ending world.
A devout daughter corrupted on holy ground by her priest.
Best friends' innocent little sister ruined by the one man she shouldn't have.
Brilliant student blackmailed and bred by her married professor.
Every story burns with slow, agonizing tension before erupting into raw, unprotected breeding, ruthless dominance, and soul-crushing guilt that only makes them wetter.
These powerful men don't just break the rules, they destroy them... and their girls thank them with soaked thighs and whispered "please, more."
Some lines should never be crossed but these women don't just cross the lines, they spread their legs and beg to be ruined on the other side. Because the sweetest sins aren't the ones you hide, they're the ones that consume you completely.

Candice never imagined she would have to marry a man who had been to prison and was extremely poor, but when her father kidnapped her mother to avoid breaking a promise, she had no choice but to take her sister's place. However, the man she thought would be terrifying turned out to be kind and respectful, giving her a sense of security she never expected.

But when she discovers her husband's hidden identity, everything she thought she knew about him - and herself - is turned upside down.

On their wedding night, Candice's heart was pounding in her throat. As she closed her eyes, she felt a force wrap around her waist and she fell into his arms, only to be pushed onto the bed. Her mind went blank as she realized there was much more to her husband than met the eye. As she tentatively reached out her hand to hook around his neck, she whispered, "You're my husband, so it's okay to do anything to me... shall we start?"

Little did she know, this was only the beginning of a dangerous game of secrets and desire that would test the limits of her love and loyalty.

"Take me, please take me now. I love you, Damon." she moaned as he continued squeezing and toying with her breasts, especially her nipples.
“I am yours. But only for tonight." was his cold reply.

★

Alpha Damon owns the physical appearance of an angel but a heart inclined to evil because of his demon origin.

Ladies fantasize about him because of his extraordinary beauty and aura but Damon cares for no one. No one at all.

The Cold Heart one.

However, Damon would meet a human girl Jane, who he saved from a gang of rapists. And she will make him feel things like compassion and concern and ultimately love.
But before he could accept these feelings as true and real, Danger and Death would come like the shadow as he will be the center of a war between Demons and Witches as well as Werewolves and Vampires...

Marilyn is a self made boss and a Baddie. She does not soften for anyone but she made an exception for her fiancé.
Until she found out her fiancé Tom was cheating on her. To make matter worse, he didn't feel remorse. He broke off the engagement and left her standing there like a fool.
She ends up at a hotel bar, where an arrogant stranger approaches her. He’s persistent, irritatingly sure of himself, and exactly the kind of man she doesn’t deal with. She dismisses him and leaves, refusing to give any man her time anymore.
The next day, she goes to her ex’s office with the intention of ruining his peace. Instead, she finds the man from the bar. His name is Dante. He is her ex’s boss.
Dante proposes an offer and she accepts when she realizes it would get her the revenge she wants on her ex and even more.
The arrangement is clear: No feelings attached.
But the longer they play the part, the more the line blur.

This is a story about control, ego, attraction, and what happens when two people who don’t surrender to anyone start wanting each other anyway.

Liana had the perfect life until her best friend stole her husband and her own family turned their backs on her. Heartbroken and alone, she walked away… then found out she was pregnant.

With no one to trust, she ran to London. She built herself up from nothing. Strong. Smart. Untouchable. A woman no one could break again.

Now she’s back.

Not for love.

For revenge.

She wants her name cleared. She wants the people who hurt her to fall to their knees. And she wants to take everything they thought she would never have again.

But Ethan, her ex-husband, the man who shattered her world, suddenly wants her back. He wants answers. He wants the child he never knew. And he wants Liana in his arms again.

Too late.

Liana didn’t return to be claimed. She came back to burn the lies down… even if Ethan sets fire to her plans, her heart, and the walls she built.

This time, she’s not the one who will lose everything.

When Alpha Cassius Raventhorn sets out to hunt down the Luna who abandoned him, he never expects to find a dying woman in the deathly forest. She’s broken, bleeding, and wearing a necklace that hides the truth of her blood.

Astoria Vallesteria is the person he has no business with.

A human, fragile, and weak.

Yet the moment he touches her, the mate bond reacts like a curse he never asked for.

But Astoria is not a helpless stray. Beneath her scars lies a power bound by moonlight and prophecy. A power tied to her crescent birthmark she never understood.

And the nights she’s spent suffering under the Blood Moon weren't cursed. It was a sign.

Cassius only wants Roxanna, the Luna he lost.

And Astoria only wants to survive from her Alpha father who terrifies her.
But fate doesn’t give them a choice.

As Cassius’s curse worsens, the truth behind Astoria’s identity begins to unravel.

When Chrissy agrees to go camping with her new, hot boyfriend, she never imagined she'd be roughing it under the stars, or that she'd get lost.
When Luther, the werewolf, went for a run in a summer storm, he never expected to get pinned under a tree and rescued by a curvy, slightly crazy version of a brunette Barbie.

Now Chrissy thinks Luther is her new 'puppy',
Luther's new name is Fluffy,
And back in the city, the pack is about to have the laugh of their lives.

But try as he might, Luther can't seem to bring himself to leave her, and Chrissy could never known that there was an underground battle in Seattle for who would get to claim the city as their pack's territory.

I caught my fiancé cheating with his ex in our bedroom—twins on the nightstand proved it had been going on for a year.

The alchemy vial slipped from my trembling fingers, shattering against the stone floor. There they were: Kaelen, the youngest Archmage on the continent, tangled in silk sheets with Lyra Elessar, the high-elf noble he'd supposedly rejected for me.

But it was the glowing parchment on the nightstand that destroyed me completely—a bloodline registry declaring him father to one-year-old twins.

I'd sacrificed my magic core to save his life three years ago, becoming powerless while he used that second chance to build a secret family. Every "council meeting," every "emergency" had been a lie to visit them.

When Lyra saw me, she didn't even flinch. She just smiled and said, "Looks like we're caught."

The humiliation burned hotter than heartbreak. I fled to the black market that very night, seeking the Death Merchant's ultimate service—complete disappearance.

"Seven days to prepare the ritual," he told me.

Seven days until I could vanish forever. Seven days to decide what the naive girl who'd loved him deserved as her final gift to herself.

A frat party Ouija board game awakened a deadly fae. Every fortune it grants comes with a fatal price. It offered me three. I refused them all.
But my boyfriend, crushed under student loans, craved the fae's riches. He took the money. He signed the deal. He opened the door.
I thought I would stay safe as long as I refused the fae's demands. Then my body started to weaken. My limbs thinned. My stomach swelled with something that shouldn't exist.
Desperate for answers, I found an old novel a story that mirrored my own. Hidden in its pages, a secret that might be the only way out.

My twin sister and I were born on the same day. She got the love. I got the debt.
Some doctor told my parents I stole Colette's immune system in the womb, and after that, the rule was simple: every time she got sick, I had to hurt worse. Fever meant the basement. Below freezing, no blanket, no socks, door padlocked from the outside.
I was seventeen and I weighed under seventy pounds. My teeth were coming loose. My hair was falling out.
Then, on the coldest night of the year, something moved behind the cracked mirror in the basement. A man in a tailcoat. He said he could give me anything, as long as I could pay.
All I wanted was a blanket and a piece of bread.
He asked what I had left to trade.
I didn't have anything. So I offered him my last years.

“Aeris, for the pup’s sake, I won’t reject you. But the suffering you caused Seraphina—I want you to experience it a thousandfold.”
I knew he didn't love me, but I didn't know he could be so heartless.
I am the one who saved my Alpha’s life, yet my Alpha mistook another woman for his savior. Even though I became his Luna and sacrificed so much for him, he still doesn’t love me. I was framed by that woman, and in a fit of rage, my Alpha accidentally killed me and our pup. At this moment, the truth is about to be revealed.
What will his reaction be after knowing the truth?

For five years, I stood by my husband, Kieran Blackwood, as he built his company from nothing and took it public.
For him, I gave up the chance to study abroad, turned down a job offer from a Fortune 500 company, and helped him secure investors and close deals—even when it meant drinking so much at business dinners that I ended up with a stomach hemorrhage.
I thought that if I loved him enough, someday he'd finally love me back.
Then, on the night we celebrated his company's IPO, he pulled me into his arms, drunk, and whispered another woman's name.
"Raven, I've kept every promise I made to you. Will you finally come back to me?"
That was when I realized the truth.
It wasn't that Kieran hated movies or traveling. It wasn't that he didn't know how to be romantic.
He'd simply saved all his tenderness for his first love.
And me? I'd been nothing more than a pawn in his plan to make her jealous.

Twelve years of love, loyalty, and promises—shattered in one gunshot moment.

Aria thought she knew what love meant: sacrifices, patience, blind faith in the man she'd called her fiancé for over a decade. But on Valentine's Day, with a gun pointed in their direction, Liam instinctively shielded his ex, Sophia—while Aria was left bleeding and invisible.

"You almost died!"
"And he didn't even look at me, Lili. He wrapped his arms around her like I was nothing."

Torn between heartbreak and dignity, Aria makes a bold move—marrying Liam's wealthy rival, Aiden Carter, in an impulsive act of revenge. But Aiden is more than a rebound. He's powerful, possessive, and unexpectedly protective—and he plays for keeps.

Now caught between a love that failed her, and a man who may demand more than she's ready to give… Aria's heart faces the ultimate reckoning.

Will she finally become someone's first choice—or lose herself trying?

"I should have known from the day I met my fiancé's father that I would end up sleeping with him. The attraction was so fierce and it was obvious it went both ways."
I thought my life was perfect.
I had Marcus, my sweet and dependable fiancé, a cozy apartment, and a wedding to look forward to. I was the classic good girl—the kind who always followed the rules and made the safe choice.
Until I met Victor
Marcus' father.
Tall, sophisticated, and dangerously charming, Victor was the one man I should never want. But from the moment we shook hands, my body betrayed me.
I told myself it was nothing. A stupid crush. A passing temptation.
So I avoided him.
It didn't work.
One girls' night. One strange-tasting drink. One mistake I can never take back.
Suddenly, I find myself crossing the one line I swore I never would.Now Marcus sleeps beside me every night, completely unaware that his future wife is hiding the most dangerous secret of all.
He has no idea whose face fills my thoughts when he touches me.
Every morning, I tell myself to stop.
But the moment Victor and I are alone, my resolve begins to crumble.
And the worst part?
Victor doesn't seem willing to let me go.
The wedding is getting closer. The lies are piling up. And every stolen moment brings me closer to destroying the life I thought I wanted.
Marcus is the man I'm supposed to marry.
Victor is the one man I'm forbidden to want.
So how long can I keep our affair hidden before Marcus discovers the truth?

“Sidd, if you leave me here, I won’t ever forgive you,” I declared, glaring at him. “I will hold you responsible for anything that happens to me.

"Remember, you made me stay here till late," I stated, even though I was scared, holding him responsible for anything that might happen to me.“I don’t need your forgiveness, Rani,” he snarled. “Holding me responsible for anything bad that happens to you is what enemies do,” he declared and moved off. From hatred to love, it created a bond between Rani and Sidd.

Not without drastic challenges that are meant to separate them forever. Can they withstand the challenges and keep their love strong, or will they allow hatred to take over and be separated forever?

He made one mistake—he chose revenge instead of mercy.

Luna’s sharp tongue and careless drunken words should have been harmless. Instead, they mark her as a target for Daimen Blackwell, a billionaire who doesn’t forgive and never forgets.

What begins as punishment turns into possession when he forces her into a contract that binds her to him as his mistress—his rules, his house, his bed.

Luna is naïve in love but not in spirit, and her defiance slowly becomes the one thing Daimen can’t control. Somewhere between power plays and stolen moments, he wins her heart—only to destroy it.

When Daimen betrays her, Luna leaves with nothing but shattered trust. And that’s when he discovers the truth: she is the woman he has been searching for all his life.

This time, the billionaire has nothing left to bargain with.
Only regret. Only groveling. And the hope that love might survive the damage he caused.

I am Ian McLeod, heir to the Werewolf clan, Alpha.

I disguised myself as an ordinary guard and worked as a servant in my family's castle for a year.

Her name is Ella, and she's a Luna. She said she loves me, that my pheromones are special, and that she doesn't care who I am.

On the night of the full moon, in front of the entire clan, she chose a Beta adjutant.

That Beta made me kneel down and apologize; she knelt down and begged me to mark her.

I laughed.

In the seventh year of our long-distance relationship, I quit my job in New York and dragged my suitcase back to Boston.
But I punched in the door code three times, and it was wrong all three times.
The door opened from the inside.
It was my best friend, Paige Monroe.
She was wearing a man's white dress shirt. The hem barely reached the tops of her thighs.
I recognized that shirt. It was the one I'd given Nathan last Christmas.

Two years ago, a car crash took my sight. The day it finally came back, I couldn't wait to share the news with my husband, Grant.

But outside the door, I overheard Grant talking with his assistant, Owen.

"Mr. Holloway, Mrs. Holloway has been blind for two years. Just so you could be with your first love, you had Mr. Callahan wear your cologne and copy your voice, and lie beside her every night... Aren't you afraid the two of them will actually sleep together?"

Grant took a sip of his drink, his voice smug.

"Miles has the best self-control of anyone I know. Back when we were starting out, he stayed clear-headed even after somebody spiked his drink at a business dinner.

"Besides, since Nora lost her sight, she's had almost no interest in sex. She lives inside her own shame now."

Owen couldn't resist teasing him. "Honestly, I can't decide whether to pity Mrs. Holloway or wonder whether Miles even likes women. She's the most beautiful woman in our circle, and those two just talk and nothing ever happens. What a waste!"

"Then you take Miles's place next time and keep Nora entertained."

The laughter that followed grated in my ears.

I looked at Miles, sitting in the corner. Aloof, sparing with words, his profile clean and sharp. A man that fine, that striking, left to go to waste.

It really was a shame.

In my past life, my husband Pietro locked me in a dark basement and tortured me to death. My only crime? I couldn't get pregnant.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the family’s arranged marriage banquet.
Pietro was an illegitimate son, desperate to secure his status through marriage. In my previous life, he chose me—the Godfather's daughter. But this time, he publicly wrapped his arm around my ambitious stepsister, Livia.
Livia had always envied my status. She craved power and desperately wanted to be the Don's wife. Seeing them together, I knew instantly: Pietro had been reborn, too.
Don Ettore laid down the law: Whoever sired a son first would inherit Castel City.
My sister thought she had just been handed a crown.
But she didn't know the truth. The barren one... was Pietro.

News broke that a classmate had fallen from a building. The forensic assessment said it was homicide. Someone claimed they’d seen the killer: a young girl in a red coat.
The police came to our home. My stepsister shoved me forward. Mom said, “My daughter owns a red coat and she wasn’t at home yesterday.”

I saw everything.
My husband, his pants down to his ankles, my best friend’s legs wrapped around his waist.
I didn’t scream. I didn’t cry. I went back to my table, drank until my heartbreak went numb, and made a decision.
I wanted out.
What I didn’t want was Donovan Buford—my ex’s friend, his most feared rival, the lawyer who never loses—showing up every single time my life fell apart.
He caught me when I stumbled drunk.
He broke down a door when Gary cornered me.
He handed me a job when I had nowhere to go.
I told myself he was just being decent.
Then I found out that the divorce I thought I’d fought for alone? He’d been orchestrating it for years.
So what exactly does Donovan Buford want from me?

“Don’t worry. She can’t see a thing.”

The familiar male voice came from behind the half-open door.

“So she wouldn’t know even if I kissed you right now?”

A woman laughed softly and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Only a few steps away, Rosalie watched the man she had loved for years lower his head and kiss another woman.

What they didn’t know was that her sight had returned.

The betrayal wasn’t even the cruelest part. When Rosalie checked their records, she discovered that the marriage she believed was real had never been legally registered. The man who had promised to protect her forever had used her blindness to cheat right in front of her—and now he planned to marry another woman and steal everything that should have belonged to Rosalie.

If he could give her a fake marriage, she could come back with a real husband.

So Rosalie married Cassian Thackeray.

The moment they signed the papers, she recognized him.

He was the firefighter who had once carried her out of a burning building—the mysterious man she had been searching for ever since.

But Rosalie said nothing.

Cassian believed he had married a fallen heiress who simply needed a legal husband. Rosalie believed he was nothing more than a dangerous, emotionally untouchable fire chief.

Their rules were simple: separate bedrooms, separate lives, and absolutely no falling in love.

But Cassian was always there when someone tried to humiliate her, his arm locking possessively around her waist.

“I’m her husband,” he warned. “Who gave you permission to touch her?”

And when Rosalie treated his injuries late at night, her fingers traced the hard planes of his bare, heated chest. It was supposed to be medical. Nothing more.

Until he trapped her between his arms, their mouths barely an inch apart.

“Your hands are shaking,” he murmured.

“It’s a professional response.”

“Is that so?” His palm slowly closed around the back of her neck, his voice dropping lower. “Then why is your heart beating so fast?”

Again and again, they tested the boundaries. Again and again, they almost kissed—only to stop at the final inch.

Then Cassian came home before dawn, smelling of smoke and cold rain, and found the lamp she had left burning and the milk she had kept warm for him.

“You waited for me all night.”

“I forgot to turn off the light.”

Cassian stared at her, his thumb pressed against the frantic pulse in her wrist.

“Rosalie, your body is much more honest than your mouth.”

She was beginning to forget that their marriage was only a contract. She was beginning to forget that she had married him merely to reclaim everything stolen from her.

But then Cassian’s signature appeared on confidential corporate documents.

And Lucian Thackeray—the mysterious billionaire heir who never showed his face in public—had the same unforgettable gray-blue eyes as her husband.

As Rosalie begins digging into the man sleeping just one room away, she realizes Cassian has never told her who he truly is.

And their marriage may never have been an accident.

The legendary general Victor was sentenced to death, and everyone thought he had already been buried in the grave.
Until a phone call came through ,
"Dad, help!... They took Mom away."

TITLE: MARRIED TO AN OLD BILLIONAIRE, IN LOVE WITH HIS SON.

Eve has no choice but to give up her own dreams and marry the old billionaire who could even be her grandfather ...due to her father's illness and the expensive operational costs.
Despite the sex harassment she faces on a regular basis, the humiliation she receives from the old man's son, Liam is another source of pain for Eve. Then, Eve's only thought is to make as much money as she can and get away from the family.
Nevertheless, as Liam works with Eve, he gradually falls in love with the girl he used to loathe.
What will he do about his hidden feelings for his stepmother?

She came with claws and fire, scent like sin; his wolf didn’t stand a chance. Neither did he.

•••

Brant Paxton has always been the wild one—gorgeous, untamed, and irresistible to everyone. But when Sable Knox returns, everything changes. She’s no longer the sweet girl he remembers. She’s fierce, sexy, and carries a scent that sets his wolf on edge. The heat between them is dangerous. Forbidden. But Brant can’t stay away.

Sable once called the Paxtons her family, but one tragic night tore it all apart. Now she’s back, stronger and smarter, ready to make them pay—especially Brant. But nothing prepares her for the fire that ignites when they’re close. Her wolf wants him. Craves him. And Sable doesn’t know if she’s falling into his arms or into a trap.
As old wounds reopen and passion burns hotter, Brant and Sable must choose: follow the rules or give in to the sin that could ruin them both.

Content Warning: This book contains sexual content and mature themes. Reader discretion is advised.

Nyla is an Omega who has been counting down the days to her eighteenth birthday, excited about finally being mated to her boyfriend, Zoran, and discovering her wolf. But just a day before the big day, Zoran breaks her heart, claiming he found someone better. Heartbroken, she cries herself to sleep but still manages to wake up and prepare for her birthday. However, things take an unexpected turn when she suddenly finds herself mated to the Alpha, who happens to be her best friend's dream man.

To help my girlfriend climb the ranks, I handed over my life's research and propelled her into the inner circle of power.

Her repayment? To secure her status, she threw my thirteen-year-old sister outside the city gates to feed the zombies.

When I uncovered the truth, she showed zero remorse. Instead, she knocked me out herself, tossing me into a metal transport truck to serve as zombie rations.

She thought dead men tell no tales.

What she didn’t know was that the moment the zombies bit me, I swallowed my newly developed serum.

When I opened my eyes again, I hadn't lost my mind. Instead, I had become the Zombie King, commanding an endless horde of the infected!

Half a year later, Eden City’s energy is depleted, and the city is besieged by a massive army.

Dressed to the nines, my girlfriend steps out of the city to beg and negotiate with the rumored "Zombie Boss of the Wasteland."

Sitting across the negotiation table, looking at her hypocritical face, I slowly take off my gas mask...

"Your credit code has been wiped to zero. You are worse than a cyber-dog now."

I fought bloody battles in the Abyss for the Federation for three years, only for my wife to be framed by my adjutant, her left arm shattered, and kicked into a wasteland scavenger town like a dead dog.

Three years later, I returned from the bloodbath. What awaited me was not a medal of honor, but the megacorp's indiscriminate bombing order aimed at my wife.

High up in Cloud City, the megacorp executives raised their wine glasses and sneered: "Burn it all to ashes, along with that crippled woman!"

They seemed to have forgotten that I am the Grand Marshal of the Federation, and an absolute war maniac.

Since the law means nothing, I will use the purest firepower to drag their massive fleet and the entire megacorp straight down to hell!

I chose Adrian Cole for a strategic marriage because he understood boundaries.

For three years, he never gave me a reason to regret it.

Then his new assistant fed him from her fork, took my seat in his car, and appeared on his arm at a charity gala while society reporters called them a perfect match.

I gave my husband three chances to remember that I was his equal. He used every one—then admitted he had only wanted to teach me how a proper wife should behave.

Adrian thought our families' business alliance would keep me beside him.

He forgot that I ran Shaw Group before I ever became Mrs. Cole, and I had never needed a marriage badly enough to be trained by one.

After five years of mopping floors at Harrington Tower, I finally had enough saved for my son Theo's heart surgery.

I got off work early that day, folded my new paycheck in half twice, and tucked it into my inside pocket. I practically ran the whole way to the hospital. I wanted my husband, Beckett Reid, to be the first to know.

The door to the family lounge wasn't shut all the way, and I could hear the hospital director inside.

"Mr. Reid, Ms. Hale says she'll have the rest of the money this week. Do you still want us to keep the medical records going?"

Keep the records going? I held on to the doorframe. For a second, it didn't make sense.

Beckett was leaning back on the couch, completely relaxed. "No, you can stop. Thanks for playing along all this time. I'll sign off on the pediatric wing donation soon. She's had a rough few years. Last month her back was so bad she could barely stand up straight, and she wouldn't even buy herself a pain patch."

My best friend Blair was sitting next to him, her voice all sweet and gentle. "Don't go soft on me yet. A guy like you has to find out if she's in it for you or for your money. Besides, Theo needs a little more time to adjust."

Theo was curled up against her, pouting. "She smells like bleach all the time. It's so gross. I want Blair to be my mom."

Beckett looked at the two of them snuggled together and didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Fine. Six more months."

I took the silver bracelet with Theo's name engraved on it out of my pocket and dropped it in the trash can in the hallway. I'd skipped lunch for two months to pay for it, and I'd stood at a jewelry counter at the mall for half an hour before I could bring myself to buy it.

Six more months? Don't bother.

Five years of night shifts. I'd just chalk it up to an expensive lesson. From now on, he could go be rich, and Theo could go be his precious little boy. None of it had anything to do with me anymore.

When my boyfriend was a child, a maid sacrificed herself to save him from a fire. Afterward, his wealthy family adopted her daughter. Ever since, he tied himself to this adopted sister, giving her everything she demanded to repay that debt of gratitude.
Jealous of me, she framed and sabotaged me time and time again. And out of guilt, he always took her side.
Until one day, just to make her happy, he abandoned me in a freezing blizzard deep in the mountains.
Hunted by a hitman, I called him for help in desperation. Instead, I heard them laughing and clinking wine glasses over the phone.
"Stop faking your death," he scoffed. "And pick up some pizza on your way back." Then, he hung up.
He didn't know that the hitman hunting me down was hired by her for $50,000.
And he definitely didn't know that the "debt" he worshipped for years was built on a horrifying lie. During that fire years ago, the maid could have escaped. It was his precious adopted sister who deliberately locked the door, burning her own mother alive just so she could be taken in by his rich family.
At my birthday banquet, he planned to publicly humiliate me with a prank video, then step in to propose with a diamond ring like a "savior."
But when the giant screen lit up, it didn't show my humiliation. It broadcasted the ironclad proof of his sister hiring my killer and murdering her own mother!
Meanwhile, I was already sitting in first class on a flight to Paris.
Amidst the wailing police sirens, that was when he finally realized what a massive, unforgivable mistake he had made.

I'm two months pregnant with Tristan's baby when Brielle, the woman he'd do anything for, shoves me down the stairs.

She calls it an accident. I lose the baby.

I beg my husband to do something about it. Instead, he shields her and turns it around on me.

"Brielle saved my life in that fire. The whole Merrick family owes her. So drop it."

That debt. Always that debt.

Three years. No matter how many times Brielle humiliates me, degrades me, Tristan only ever has one answer: "I owe her my life."

But the truth about that fire? I'm the only one in the world who knows it.

I tried to tell him once. He laughed in my face. "Adeline, you're so desperate for attention you'd make up something like that?"

So I shut my mouth. Buried the truth. Buried whatever was left of my heart along with it.

The man I trusted with my life just handed my child to the woman who killed them, and called it loyalty.

I'm done.

I pull up the number I blocked three years ago and hit call.

"Dad. I'll take over the company. I'll go through with the engagement to Everett. But I have one condition. I want Tristan and Brielle ruined beyond recovery. Nothing and no one left."

Knowing I had severe claustrophobia, my stepfamily locked me in the basement just to make my stepsister smile.
"Evan, please! I can't breathe!" I pounded on the door until my nails bled.
But instead of saving me, my boyfriend of five years simply scoffed from the other side. "Aurora, drop the act. Daphne just wanted your room."
For fifteen years, I gave them everything, only to be treated like a parasite when the "true daughter" returned. They stole my home, my design, and finally, locked me in a burning attic. When the flames consumed me, would they finally be happy?

Six months into our marriage, Adrian still wouldn’t touch me.
Every time I reached for him, he pulled away at the last moment. I thought he didn’t love me. I thought he’d only married me because my sister had run away to Paris.
So I drafted our divorce papers.
But just as I was preparing to leave, I discovered his secret. He had stolen my lingerie, tattooed my name on his body, and turned to the internet for advice under an anonymous account:
“I’ve loved her for years. How do I make her see it?”

My due date was any day now.

My husband, Ethan, had promised to stay home with me tonight. Then, out of nowhere, he grabbed his car keys.

"I'm going over to Vanessa's tonight to watch her kid. She has to work late."

I stared at him, stunned.

"I could go into labor any minute. There's no one else here. You're going to leave me alone to go to your ex-girlfriend's?"

He glanced at my belly, clearly annoyed.

"I told you ahead of time, didn't I? What more do you want? Don't make it into something dirty."

The door slammed shut.

And that night, of all nights, my water broke.

Every call I made to him went straight to voicemail.

Meanwhile, Vanessa's Instagram stories kept updating with pictures of him playing with her little girl.

I got through labor alone.

But the moment my heart truly died came a few days later.

A car lost control and crashed into a restaurant. He grabbed his ex and her child and ran, leaving me and our baby in the wreckage.

That's it. This marriage is over.

I drove through a snowstorm to bring my son his asthma inhaler, only for my car to plunge down a slope.

Bleeding and trapped, I called my husband twenty-seven times. My own son rejected every call, then blocked me. They were taking family photos with my husband's former fiancée and did not want me—his real mother—interrupting them.

I saved Theron’s life, and in return, he lined up his eight grandsons before me. Whoever I chose would be the next Alpha of the Frostvale Pack. My wolf instantly recognized Rhysand—my fated mate. I chose him without hesitation.
On our wedding night, the moment I touched him, he broke out in hives and gasped for air. The doctor said he was allergic to me. Overnight, I became the city's laughingstock. For three years, I walked on eggshells, terrified to even step near my own husband.
Until he was dosed with a lethal aphrodisiac. If not cured within two hours, he would die. I threw caution to the wind and climbed into his bed. Through an entire night of skin-to-skin contact, there were no hives, no suffocation. His "allergy" had miraculously vanished.
But at dawn, his ex-girlfriend Linnea walked in. Rhysand looked at me like I was garbage. "If Linnea hadn't saved me last night, I'd be dead."
Two weeks later, I found out I was pregnant. But before I could even share the news, a raging fire buried that unspoken hope—along with my unborn child—in the ashes forever.
I finally understood. He was never allergic to me.
He just never loved me.

My husband and I couldn’t get pregnant after we got married, and we really wanted a baby of our own,

We tried IVF, and after three failed rounds I finally got pregnant,

But then my husband and my parents suddenly started pressuring me to get an abortion...

In the werewolf world, denying your mate usually means an agonizing death. Fortunately, I already died once for Alpha Kaelen Blackwood.

After waking up in my past, I stop desperately chasing him.

He bans me from his Ascension Ceremony? I simply pack my bags and head for the neutral lands.

He growls that my wolfless scent ruins his packhouse? I move out the same night.

Soon enough, I publicly accept the claiming mark of a royal Lycan.

In my past life, I did everything to please Kaelen and endured his endless tortures when his precious first love faked her death. I was driven to throw myself into the sea, only to watch her return in glory to his side.

This time, I'm choosing myself.

Yet, Kaelen is now blocking my driveway, his fangs bared and his wolf clearly losing its mind.

"Cancel this stupid game, Elara," he snarls, his eyes bloodshot. "Come back to the pack with me now, and I'll forgive you."

I am Catherine Holloway, CEO of a tech company in Seattle.
It was just an ordinary rainy night. I was driving my Porsche Cayenne toward the airport when a beat-up Ford pickup rear-ended me on the off-ramp.
I never imagined that this seemingly routine accident would drag me into a serial murder case — turning me from a witness into the police's prime suspect.

I'm the youngest lead surgeon in our hospital's cardiothoracic department. My fiancé, Adrian Wexford, runs the whole department.

His first love, Bella Hartley, is a mediocre surgeon, but she wants to take over the surgery that should be mine before her promotion review.

In my last life, I fought for it. I told them she didn't have the skill to handle it alone, that it was gambling with a patient's life. I threatened to quit and saved the patient.

But Bella couldn't handle the gossip going around the department. She got depressed and jumped off the hospital roof.

Adrian never said a word about it. He kept treating me the same, picked out wedding rings with me, smiled and told me we'd go on our honeymoon right after the wedding.

I thought he'd let it go.

Then on our wedding day, one glass of wine in, I woke up in a freezing basement, strapped down to an operating table.

He held a scalpel and cut into me, inch by inch, his eyes bloodshot.

"If you hadn't fought so hard for that surgery, Bella wouldn't have jumped. You owe her. Pay with your life."

When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the afternoon he first suggested giving Bella the surgery.

This time, I didn't argue. I just smiled. "Sure. Let Bella take the lead on this one."

They have no idea that next Tuesday, the Chief of Surgery is bringing the board and a visiting specialist to observe, unannounced.

We'll see how they explain this one.

I screamed as I burned to death while Julian ran past me to save Emma.

His first love. The girl he'd never let go of.

Eight years I spent being the understanding fiancée. The one who smiled through her endless crises. The one who died alone because he chose her panic over my screams.

When I opened my eyes again, I was standing at the altar of St. Patrick's Cathedral. Julian was leaning in, voice low—we needed to pause the ceremony. Emma was having a panic attack at the airport.

Last time, I'd said yes.

Not this time.

I looked at the man I'd died for and smiled.

Then I threw my bouquet at his face.

I turned and walked straight to the man who made Wall Street sweat. Julian's worst enemy.

Victor Kane.

"Go save her," I said. "I need a new groom."

My fiancée accused me of not caring about family.
To make it up to her, I planned a luxury vacation for all of us.
But the night before we left, she told me she'd given my first-class seat to her childhood best friend.
Instead, she booked me a seat in economy—on a flight with a recent terror threat advisory.
The whole family thought I should just go along with it.
That's when I finally woke up.
I tore up the itinerary and rerouted to Hawaii instead.
I turned off my phone, leaving them to deal with the $20,000 bill.
It wasn't until their hotel reservations got canceled that they started to panic.

After ten years of marriage, my fated mate, Alpha Harvey, had slept with nearly every female worker in the Silver Claw Packhouse.
When I was seven months pregnant, his newly kept mistress, Yvonne Robson, offended the Alpha of the Eclipse Pack at a celebration banquet. Badly.
"Jasmine, you, kneel and apologize on her behalf."
The entire banquet hall fell silent.
I blinked at him, sure I had misheard. "Excuse me?"
"She's young," he said impatiently, as if this were a minor inconvenience. "She made a mistake. You're the Luna. You need to fix it."
I placed a hand over my swollen belly, my wolf snarling inside me. "I'm pregnant, Harvey. How can I kneel? What if it hurts the pup—"
He cut me off harshly. 'It's just kneeling. You've never acted so delicate before.'
He dragged me forcefully to Alpha Kenneth.
Then, before I could react, Alpha Harvey shoved me down, forcing my head toward the ground.
Pain shot through my knees as they hit the floor.
And then—a sharp, wet sensation beneath me.