8378 Book(s) Related to gia wake up in the morning

"I was done being what others discarded. I would burn this entire pack to the ground before I let anyone take away the one thing I had left. Some wounds do not bleed. They hollow you out until survival is the only thing that remains."
Lyssara believed one truth above all else: a mate was sacred. The other half of your soul. A bond meant to be eternal.
Until Kaelrith looked at her with nothing but cold disgust.
The moment their eyes met, Lyssara saw no love, no recognition, no trace of the connection she had dreamed of her entire life. Instead, fate bound her to a man who wanted someone else.
Night after night, she watched him choose Vaelira, her own sister. Every tender word, every stolen moment, every promise of a future that should have been hers was given to another woman while Lyssara faded into the background.
Until she discovered a secret that changed everything.
A tiny heartbeat inside her.
Her child became her strength, her reason to survive, and the one thing she would protect at any cost.
Then Thalric appeared from the shadows. Scarred, dangerous, and untouched by her broken past. He did not try to save her. He simply saw her when everyone else turned away.
But when Lyssara finally learned to stand on her own, Kaelrith realized what he had lost.
Now the man who destroyed her must face the man who helped her rise.
Only one of them is worthy of her heart.

Nicole Williams is a good girl, an 18-year-old college student. She is deceived by her sister during a party to enter the room of a mysterious man. Her sister didn't expect that she would end up in the wrong room. After being exposed in her passionate night in national newspapers, she is forced to marry that man, who will make her suffer unimaginably.

Bruno Leone is a multimillionaire CEO, an attractive man in his early 30s. After being betrayed by a woman with his own brother, he became bitter. Unintentionally, he spends a night with Nicole while in a drunken state from a drink he was given. His father forces him to marry the girl, and he thinks she planned it all. Therefore, he decides to make her regret what she did, enjoying making her suffer. He never thought he would end up loving her. Will Nicole be able to forgive him after all the harm he caused?

A hidden witch. A cursed wolf. A shop where the tea is always warm....

Eliana just wants a quiet life. Hiding her hedge magic, she opens THE CRESCENT BREW in the snowy town of Frostfell a little tea house filled with dried lavender, sweet honey cakes, and the warmth of a crackling fire.
Then a severe snow brings Gideon to her doorstep: an exiled wolf commander dying from a curse that has stolen his sleep for four endless years.
One cup of Eliana's enchanted Moonflower Tea gives him his first night of peace. Unable to buy her shop, Gideon makes a simpler deal: every evening at eight o'clock, he takes his dedicated table by the fire, drinking her tea and quietly protecting her peace from the outside world.
Between late-night teacups and quiet glances across the hearth, two weary souls find home.

Joanna Arden was supposed to be dead.

The sole heir of the Arden family died in a tragic accident that sent shockwaves through the business world.

But when she opened her eyes, she found herself waking up in the body of a suicidal girl named Millie Hart.

With only ninety days to uncover her killer, Joanna must live under a new identity, infiltrate her own family, and expose a secret that has been buried for seventeen years.

But everything becomes far more complicated when a mysterious man begins appearing at every turn.

Alarich Vance.

A cold, untouchable CEO who seems to know far more about her than he should.

The man who always arrives just in time to save her.

The man who looks at her as though he has already lost her thousands of times before.

But there is one thing Joanna doesn't know.

This isn't the first time Alarich has tried to save her.

And if he fails again, Joanna will die.

Again.

The cab driver warned me to stay away from the St. Helis Campus.

I should have listened.

On my first day at St. Helis University, I walked into a classroom and watched a student feed on another girl's neck — crimson eyes, no apology, just amusement when he caught me staring.

By nightfall, I'd been chased, cornered, and bled on by things that shouldn't exist.

Here's what I know: the fog never lifts in Ashford. The beautiful students who move without sound aren't students at all. And the glass dome at the center of campus — the one everyone warns me to avoid — is exactly where I need to go.

I came here following a dream and a broken star chart that shouldn't exist. I stayed because somewhere inside that dome is the answer to a voice that's been calling my name for a year.

My name is Faye Allen. I have no idea what I've walked into.

But I'm starting to think it's been waiting for me.

"Turn around and get on all fours."

He said it with his tongue still tracing circles against her clit.

She was a werewolf, not a bitch—she didn't want to do this. But she obeyed, because she thought if she gave him everything, he'd finally mark her as his.

She was wrong.

After he'd brutally fucked her to climax with his cock, he tossed a check for two million at her and called her a defective, powerless, lowly Beta. She'd handed him her body, her nights, her research—every piece of herself. And in return, he told her she was nothing more than a convenient hole, a stand-in for the woman he'd always truly loved.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

She tore off her disguise. Then she burned down the empire she'd built for him—and the full weight of her royal blood made him crawl to her feet, tail between his legs, begging for mercy.

She didn't even spare him a glance. Her revenge had only just begun.

And standing beside her was her true soulmate—the Alpha King who'd been hunting her for three long years.

Detective Lauren James has always trusted her instincts, but when she discovers that supernatural beings are manipulating Chicago's justice system, everyone thinks she's lost her mind.
Given one week to prove her "delusions" or face psychiatric evaluation, Lauren turns to the only person who believes her; her partner, Detective Alex Henderson, whose unwavering support feels like a lifeline in her darkest hour.
But as they chase evidence that always slips away at the last moment, Lauren doesn't realize that Alex is who she is investigating, and Alex's ancient bloodline requires a human sacrifice under the full moon to renew his fading powers.
And she's already been chosen.

Vivienne Payton is a 19 years old girl with endless beauty, she was raised in an orphanage, she knew nothing of her birth parents or who brought her to such a place but at the age of ten, she was thrown out for a crime she didn't commit, she never thought life was easy but she made sure she worked hard her entire life to give herself a better life and future but for how long when life problems presented themselves, bringing her back to the reality that she was all alone with no one to call her own but for a successful future she was willing to do anything including being the billionaire's Surrogate, he was broken, betrayed and disappointed and 9 months with him changed everything
"I'm only doing this for money...that's the important thing to me"
She needed it but what happens when her fate is twisted, what started fine turned serious. What if feelings and the heart are involved, will Vivienne be able to reach her goal of being successful or will she embrace her new life, will Victor ever get over his wife's death and accept love for the second time?

A MUST read d story full of, drama, lies, betrayal, hot romance, forbidden passion, and a possessive Male Lead.

One day I'm dealing with cranky toddlers and parents who work too much to actually parent, the next my life is turned upside down and I'm working in a bar for supernaturals. I might not know how to mix drinks, but strangely enough the skills needed to deal with misbehaving children seem to work well enough on vampires, werewolves and even witches. The good news is this job is interesting and hey, my boss might be a demon but I'm pretty sure that under all the grumpy expressions he is a total softie. The bad news is that humans aren't supposed to know about all this magic stuff and so now I'm magically bound to this bar until I can convince them that I won't go telling everyone. Or I die, whichever comes first. Sadly dying is seeming more and more likely because someone is after me. I don't know who or why but they are dangerous and they have magic. So I'll domy best to survive, and if that means spending some extra time with my scary but gorgeous boss then so be it. I'll convince him to trust me if it's the last thing I do.

[WARNING: RAPE, TORTURE, MURDER, MATURE CONTENT 18+]
In the shimmering light of what was supposed to be her dream wedding, Hazel's life descends into a nightmare she could never have foreseen. As the celebration unfolds, the joyous occasion swiftly transforms into a horrifying bloodbath, leaving Hazel to wonder if anyone has survived.
The man she was meant to marry, her childhood lover... Was he still alive or not?
But the nightmare was far from over. Captured by a ruthless and deranged man who reigned as the king of the underground mafia, Hazel's life took a dark and harrowing turn.
Forced into his bed in a state of vulnerability and despair, Hazel faced a horror she had never imagined on what should have been the happiest day of her life.
But her body bears the scars of unspeakable cruelty; her innocence is forever stolen.
Her secret mission, the path she embarked on with purpose, has now spiraled into a dark and perilous mission for survival.
**
“You have no right to treat me in this way.”
Francisco, a man with a darkness that matched the shadows of his empire, gritted his teeth and issued a chilling warning, "I can be more cruel to you, detective."
‘I am not weak; just remember it, Francisco. I am not afraid of you…’

Plot and Description:
In the heart of Paris, "Passionate Encounters in Paris" unfolds as a tale of forbidden love and profound connection between Alexander Laurent, a driven American entrepreneur, and Amélie Dubois, a talented local artist. Their serendipitous meeting at an art gallery sparks an immediate attraction, drawing them into a whirlwind romance amidst the city's enchanting backdrop.

Amidst the iconic landmarks and cobblestone streets, Alexander and Amélie navigate the complexities of their burgeoning relationship. Alexander, captivated by Amélie's vibrant art and spirit, finds himself drawn to her passion and creativity. Meanwhile, Amélie is equally enthralled by Alexander's ambition and the depth of their emotional connection.

Their love story deepens with each intimate moment shared—the stolen kisses in quiet cafés, passionate encounters in Amélie's Montmartre loft, and heartfelt conversations under the Parisian moonlight. As they explore the city together—from the Louvre to the Seine—they discover new facets of themselves and each other, forging a bond that transcends the boundaries of their respective worlds.

However, their love is not without its challenges. Caught between their undeniable chemistry and the obligations that threaten to pull them apart, Alexander and Amélie must confront the realities of their situation. Yet, through it all, their love remains steadfast, a testament to the enduring power of passion and the timeless allure of Paris—the city where their hearts found home in each other's embrace.

“I’m pregnant.” Her voice cracked.
He stared at the test like it might explode. “How long have you known?”
“Three days.”
“Three days.” He repeated it like testing the weight of a lie. “Tell me, Bella. Whose is it?”
The question hit her like a physical blow. “Yours. It’s yours, Nathaniel.”
“Don’t lie to me.” His face was a mask of cold fury. “We haven’t shared a bed in months. So I’ll ask again, whose baby is it?”


Bella Martinez thought her loveless marriage to billionaire Nathaniel Blackwood couldn't get worse, until she discovers she's pregnant. But when Nathaniel reveals he's been sterile for seven years and accuses her of cheating, Bella's world crumbles. As she fights to prove her innocence, dark family secrets emerge that threaten to destroy everything. The truth about her pregnancy is more shocking than anyone imagined, and it will either tear the Blackwood empire apart or forge an unbreakable bond between two broken souls.

"I need to go now, Tasha, before your sister notices I am gone," Desmond said as he looked around for his boxers.
I turned his gaze to mine and said "I want you to fuck me, Daddy," I pleaded my voice low and sultry.
In the beginning, his words were like sweet poison, luring her deeper into his web of manipulation. She longed for the love she thought he could give, but instead, she found herself trapped in a toxic embrace.
Tasha, a beautiful young woman, finds herself entangled in a forbidden affair with her sister's husband, hoping to win his love and perhaps even lead him away from her sister. However, as emotions intensify and loyalties are tested, Tasha soon realizes that her misguided intentions have set off a chain of events that will forever alter the dynamics of their family.
Love, betrayal, and the intricate web of relationships collide in a story that explores the depths of desire and the repercussions of crossing forbidden boundaries.

" When I don't get a thing...I ruin it," he said and then started laughing maniacally.

"And believe me nobody wants a ruined girl."

And now she understood her life is ended.

Ayzel is a beautiful, innocent orphan girl, trapped by an agent to trap a Mafia don. Under a planned scheme, she enters the Mafia's
den and becomes the victim of that ruthless Mafia don's lust. She comes to know that the day her mother died giving birth to her in an orphanage, the very day a bloody massacre happens in this family.
Will Ayzel accomplish the mission or get herself destroyed by that mafia don? will she find the secret of her paternity before it's too late?
will she be able to survive the web of lies, lust, and danger?

After a humiliating breakup, Athena’s best friend tricks her into helping their roommate, Jonas Parker, rehearse for a romantic comedy audition. One fake marriage license, several drinks, and one very questionable cousin later, Athena wakes up to discover she’s apparently married.
To her best friend.
And the entire internet knows about it.
Determined to fix the mistake, Athena plans to get an annulment immediately—until Jonas lands the role of a lifetime, and staying married suddenly becomes part of the deal. Jonas has spent years telling everyone exactly one thing: “We’re not dating.” Now he’s trying to convince the world that his accidental wife isn’t just his best friend. Because if their marriage falls apart, so might his acting career.
As if that isn’t complicated enough, Athena’s estranged billionaire father wants her to come home and claim her place as heir to his empire, her ex-boyfriend wants her back now that he knows she’s rich, and her new boss turns out to be Duke Montgomery—her former fiancé who still hasn’t forgiven her for breaking his heart.
With jealous exes, scheming socialites, corporate power struggles, fake relationships, family secrets, a charming stranger and a wedding neither of them remembers agreeing to, Athena and Jonas are about to discover that friendship is a lot easier than love.
And then Athena begins to notice something she never saw before. Maybe the person she’s been looking for has been standing beside her all along.
After all, what happens in Vegas was supposed to stay in Vegas.
Instead, it followed her home and it might just change her life forever.

I should know better than to hook up with the handsome stranger at my best friend’s wedding.   Especially when he runs off mid-kiss like Cinderella at midnight.    Is he a fugitive from justice? A player? Both?   I find out soon enough when he shows up at work—where I was just hired as a law partner defending white collar criminals. Yup, he’s one of them. And he’s depending on me to keep him out of jail.   He’s also just as hot, charming, and tempting as he was the night of the wedding. Talk about forbidden love.   The last thing I should do is get involved with a client, especially one who may be guilty of all kinds of things.    Not the least of which is stealing my heart.

Anna an orphan girl, manages to make ends meet running her small business until her lover, Ethan needs money to grow his business, she sacrifices everything she has to help him grow. She has to work so she accepts his offer to work as his secretary, where she is underpaid.
lillian(Ethan’s new lover) steps into the story and Ethan’s humiliation grows.

Things take another dramatic turn when, Mrs. Desmond the billionaire’s wife meets Anna and finds out that She is their long lost daughter, The heiress of Lenu Jewelers.
She seizes the opportunity and elevates her father’s company marvelously.

There, She meets Wesley a handsome guy whom She would fall in love with.

She had suffered humiliation and is ready to be her boss.
Ethan tries to get back into her life, but it is clear he wants only the Favour, as he still works with Lillian and her father, who is Anna’s company’s greatest rival.
Ethan feel intimidated and doesn’t accept defeat.
tries to further destroy and humiliate her because of this, but she has had enough and gives him a taste of his medicine.
She hits him with a sweet revenge, where he has to kneel and beg.

Dasy is a shooting Star who decides to reincarnate in earth, so She can find the love of her life, Patrick, who is also a shooting star and have been in love with Dasy since eternity. They both will fin each other the true love they have been dreaming among their reincarnations. But there is a little secret between them, everytime Patrick touch Dasy they shine and everything shakes as a strong equark around them. They must to keep their secret on safe, that they actually are shooting stars living as humans being otherwise they could finish being apart forever, because their love is too strong but as deep as dangerous.

Mya Evans never believed in monsters, until the night she walked into a warehouse and met Dante Cardello.
Cold, violent and powerful, the mob boss doesn’t forgive theft. He punishes it. But instead of putting a bullet in her father’s skull, Dante names his terms. Marriage, obedience and an heir within a year.
Mya swears she’ll never want him, never love him, never surrender her fire. But Dante has no intention of letting his unwilling bride remain untouched. He’ll break her defiance and teach her that everything that belongs to him stays his.
Enemies to lovers, forced marriage, age gap and breeding kink.
In Dante’s world, vows aren’t whispered at an altar.
They’re written in blood.

He promised her dying father he'd protect her. Always.
Dante Moretti grew up under Liliana's dad—a powerful mafia boss who taught him everything and treated him like a son. When the old man was killed, Dante swore he'd keep Liliana safe, no matter what. For years, he watched over her like a big brother, making sure no one ever hurt her.
Now Liliana is 21 and back home. She's beautiful, curvy, and done with Dante's rules. She wants to date, go out, live her life. But Dante won't let any guy near her. He scares them all away.
He tells himself it's because he's her guardian.
He tells himself she's like family.
But the truth? He doesn't want anyone touching her... because he wants her for himself.
One night, the jealousy boils over. One touch changes everything. What started as protection turns into something dark, hot, and completely forbidden.
In Dante's dangerous world, love is a weakness enemies can use. Old secrets about her father's death are coming out, and rivals are watching. But Dante can't let her go. Not now. Not ever.
She's his to protect.
She's his to have.
And some lines were meant to be crossed.
A steamy, possessive mafia guardian romance full of forbidden love, intense jealousy, and off-the-charts passion. Perfect for fans of dark, obsessive alphas and the women who bring them to their knees.

Ness is tired of her predictable life—arguing with her family, working a dead-end job, and daydreaming about the kind of grand adventures she reads about in books. So when her best friend Joe suggests a trip to the infamous RoseWood Park, a forest rumored to swallow people whole, she doesn’t hesitate.

Trapped in a nightmare world where time moves differently, they encounter two boys who disappeared decades ago yet never aged.

The forest gives adventures... but at what cost?

“I’ll die in ten days without my second chance mate…just claim me, Asher… before it’s too late.” I pleaded.

“If I do, I’ll never love you again. That's worse than you dying…”

Banished. Cursed. Unclaimed.

Phina thought being chosen as a mate by a powerful Alpha would save her. Instead, she was used, betrayed, and thrown to the wolves—literally. Now cursed to die unless she's claimed within ten days, she's dragged before the one wolf feared by all: Asher, the ruthless Rogue Alpha King.

When their eyes meet, sparks fly. One word seals their fate: “Mate.”

But Asher is cursed too—one night with any woman, and he loses all ability to love her. He fights the pull. She begs for survival. Every moment burns with forbidden heat…
Until desire wins.

Will claiming her break the curse—or destroy them both?

I was cruising leisurely down a desert highway when three Harley motorcycles pulled up behind me, claiming one of their crew was injured.

I pulled over to help — and they stole my truck.

I called the police — and the cops arrested me as an accomplice.

In my previous life, I was cruelly exploited by my wicked stepmother.
Not only was I drained of my military discharge money, but I was also driven into a subterranean warehouse that could collapse at any moment.
In darkness and despair, I was frozen to death by a cold wave that dropped surface temperatures to minus 60 degrees.
The moment I opened my eyes again, I had reincarnated back to three days before the outbreak of the cataclysm!
Staring at my stepmother's face, which was filled with greed and harshness, I wasted no words, threw on my heavy coat, and marched straight toward the underground warehouse.
For I knew that with sufficient supplies and energy, this nuclear-grade subterranean warehouse would become the ark of the apocalypse!

irectly in front of me.
Only the night before, she’d been curled up in my arms, her warm fingertips brushing my collarbone, our bodies tangled in tender, loving intimacy.
Yet the toe tag fastened around her ankle was etched with cold, unflinching words: Su Wan, Female, 22. Cause of death: fatal fall from height. Time in morgue custody: 365 days.
She had been dead for an entire year.
Just what in the hell was the woman who’d gasped beneath me night after night, who’d lived beside me day in and day out for six whole months—the woman I’d called my girlfriend?

On the day the apocalyptic flood swallowed the city, I died on a fractured overpass.

The man who crushed my fingers under his boot was my brother-in-law, the very man I had sacrificed everything to support. And standing safely out of reach, watching coldly as the muddy torrent swallowed me whole, was my supposedly sweet and devoted fiancée. In her arms, she fiercely clutched her "son"—who was hoarding the last of my survival rations.

In the very last second of my life, she nestled into the arms of her ex-boyfriend and left me with a single, contemptuous sneer: "Let's go. Forget about this useless trash."

It turned out that working my fingers to the bone and emptying my life savings had all been a pathetic joke—a long con orchestrated by a pack of bloodsucking parasites.

But when I opened my eyes again, I had returned to exactly one year before the apocalypse began.

My fiancée was standing there, holding a cup of hot coffee and sweetly begging me to invest another million into her brother's business.

I just smiled, gently pushed her hand away, and turned around to liquidate every single asset to my name. With that money, I secretly constructed a state-of-the-art, deep-sea underground fortress.

Later, when the monstrous floodwaters inevitably tore the city apart, they stood on the balcony of their doomed mansion, desperately falling to their knees and begging my icebreaker for salvation.

Sitting inside my perfectly secure command cabin, I took a leisurely sip of hot coffee and softly gave the order:

"Open fire. Don't let this trash dirty my deck."

My sister climbed out her window the night before her wedding. So my family pinned her veil over my face and sent me in her place.
I'd been her stand-in my whole life — same face, same hair, the daughter they could afford to lose. Nobody looks twice at a bride behind a veil.
The Falcones figured out I was a fake before the vows. They broke my hand for the insult. And the don himself — the man this whole city only says quietly — took one look at the mess they'd made of me and told them to throw me out with the trash.
Then his eyes dropped to the locket my dead mother left me, lying on his marble floor.
And the most feared man in the city went very, very still.
He had no business knowing my mother's name. So why did he say it like a prayer?

I thought eight years of devotion could warm a frozen heart, but it turned out to be nothing more than a nightmare of being someone’s stand-in.
Jazzy’s poisoned chocolate, the scalding hot water, and Azrael’s gaze that never strayed from his dead wife—each one a blade carving into my soul.
They said I stole her dresses, wore her necklace.
But who saw the nights I stayed awake for the pack, the dangers I took on for Jazzy?
It wasn’t until I was cast out of the territory that I realized—there was never a place for me here.
Then the ruby ring burned against my skin, and the Silverfang wolves came for me.
Only then did I learn the truth my father had hidden all along—
I was never anyone’s shadow.
I am the heir of royal blood.
And those who once hurt me will one day watch as I rise from the ashes—reborn.

Dad was in critical condition and had just been wheeled into the operating room.
My husband—also Dad’s attending surgeon—was nowhere to be found.
I stood in the corridor in my pajamas until past midnight, hands shaking as I kept calling Jason.
When the call finally connected, a sweet, girlish voice spilled through the speaker:
"I’m watching the Eiffel Tower lights with Jason!"
A male voice followed, impatient and familiar—Jason’s:
"Is it her again? Ava, tell her to stop calling. The lights are about to go out. Can she stop making a scene?"
A chill sliced through me. Before I could speak, the line went dead.

“Eight hundred million. Pay up, and your son lives.”
The Rogue’s voice on the other end of the line was cold as steel.
“Or are you really going to let your own blood die over a little money?”
Stella’s reply was chillingly calm.
“Do whatever you want.”
She turned, pressing down on her father’s trembling hand before his pen could touch the page—
the deed of their ancestral lands, the very foundation the Moon Howl Pack had guarded for generations.
Her father’s face went pale with shock.
“Stella! You love Dean more than anything… That boy is his only heir. How could you be so cruel?”
She gave a bitter smile, but not a word, before walking away with finality.
Blood-stained memories from her past life surged through her mind—
She had once loved Dean blindly.
The moment she heard their son was kidnapped, she never questioned it.
She emptied the pack’s vault, forced her father to mortgage their territory… and in the chaos, her mother’s illness returned and took her life.

"You will be married to the King of Grok on the fourth night, and that's final!"

I fell to my knees, the cold marble digging into my skin. I had studied for years in the flickering candlelight, memorizing every herb and poison to pass the healer's exam. I wanted freedom. I wanted to save my mother from the servant's quarters. I placed second. I thought I had won my life back.

But the King didn't give me a badge of honor. He gave me a death sentence.

"Raven Thorne shall be wed to the King of Grok," he announced, his voice echoing in the silent hall. Princess Ellie, the woman who had tormented me for years, slapped her hands over her mouth to hide her cruel laughter. She was supposed to marry the Beast. Now, I was the lamb being sent to the slaughter in her place.

They say King Liam drinks the blood of his enemies. They say he is more monster than man. And now, I have to walk into his bedroom, wearing the Princess's silk gown, and pray he doesn't tear me apart.

I looked at the King, tears streaming down my face. "I'll do it," I whispered, my voice trembling. "But my mother must be safe."

I sold my body and soul to a monster to save her. But when the carriage door opened and I finally looked into the Beast's golden eyes, I realized the terrifying truth...

He wasn't a stranger. He was the man I met in the woods.

"Do you enjoy this? Ignoring me like I don't exist? Do you have any idea how humiliating this feels, waiting for you like some fool?" After three years of a cold, loveless marriage, Selene Henderson finally gathers the courage to walk away from her distant billionaire husband, Sebastian Kingsley.
She's ready to file for divorce... until a tragic accident changes everything. When Sebastian wakes up with no memory of the woman he once pushed away, Selene finds herself trapped in a marriage she was desperate to escape—this time with a man who suddenly looks at her like she's his whole world.
But can love born from broken memories survive the truth of their painful past? Or will the secrets she's been hiding destroy them all over again?
"Are you always this shy around your own husband, wife?" his voice dropped into a low, dangerous growl, his hands anchoring me against the wall.
"We didn't... we didn't use to do this," I gasped, trying to look away from his piercing gaze.
He leaned in, his breath hot against my lips. "Then your body has a better memory than my brain. Because right now, it's telling me you belong exactly right here."

Dema never expected her new job to end with a marriage proposal from her billionaire CEO.
But with the tabloids destroying his family's reputation, Rami needs a wife—fast.
One year, a quiet divorce, four million dollars. That's the deal.
Thrown into a world of luxury, scrutiny, and impossible expectations, Dema struggles to keep up while Rami treats their marriage like another business arrangement. Yet beneath his cold rules and perfect composure, something unspoken flickers between them.
Just when Dema begins to wonder if their pretend marriage is becoming something real, she overhears a late-night phone call that makes her blood run cold.
Because maybe she wasn't chosen.
Maybe she was used.
And maybe the deal was never the real trap.

In my last life, the heatwave collapse began with me turning an abandoned warehouse into a safe zone. I stocked it, fortified it, and brought my girlfriend inside. That same night, she slid the bolts open from within and let an armed crew storm the place. They threw me out to die.

I survived the heat, only to learn too late that it was just the warning. The real purge came next, when brutal cold hit overnight and froze me to death in the snow.

Then I opened my eyes and found myself back one month before disaster.

While everyone else rushed to buy water and fans, I was the only one who knew the heat was just the beginning. The deep freeze was what would really wipe people out.

This time, I explained nothing. I poured everything I had into diesel, insulation, winter stoves, generators, and turned that warehouse into a fortress built for the cold.

She came again, just like before. This time, I never let her through the door. So she ran straight to the armed gang and had them surround my warehouse for three full days.

She thought trapping me inside meant she’d already won.

What she didn’t know was that in just a few more days, the freeze would arrive.

And the people outside had no fuel, no winter gear, no way to stay warm.

They weren’t waiting for me to break.

They were waiting for their own deaths.

My son Emery scored a perfect SAT and got early admission to MIT Physics. Eighteen years old. His future was limitless.

My billionaire husband Reid's assistant—his mistress in everything but name—suggested Emery attend some garbage local business school instead. Inherit the empire. Fall in line.

Emery said no. Reid exploded.

He locked my son in the lumber yard and ordered him to split five tons of oak. "No water until he's done. That'll teach him respect."

The sun was brutal. My son's asthma attacked. I knelt before Reid's mistress and begged for his inhaler while Reid crushed my right hand—my surgeon's hand.

I got the inhaler and ran back as fast as I could.

But I was too late. My son was already dead.

The basement mats still reeked of sweat. I had barely crawled onto them, hoping to sneak a glance at Selena’s bond ritual, when a rough hand seized the back of my collar.
A white wedding gown was forced over my body, the fabric biting into my skin. The brutal yank dragged me across the floor and into the hall. My knees slammed against the cold stone, pain blazing through me like fire.
Candlelight filled the room, flames snapping and hissing. At the center hung a massive black-and-white portrait. My body turned to stone—this wasn’t a moonlit ritual at all. This was a funeral.
“Selena. Kneel.”
Ulrica’s voice cut like ice. A heartbeat later, his polished shoe dug into the crook of my knee. Agony shot up my leg, bones threatening to shatter as I collapsed before the mourning altar.
“Sherry is my true Fate Mate.” His lips curled in a cruel arc as he looked down on me. “You? You’re nothing but a mistress. Apologize to her—that’s the rule.”

“When you think that life cannot get better, Blake Pierce comes up with another masterpiece of thriller and mystery! This book is full of twists, and the end brings a surprising revelation. Strongly recommended for the permanent library of any reader who enjoys a very well-written thriller.”--Books and Movie Reviews (re Almost Gone) A MURDER IN PARIS is the debut novel in a charming new cozy mystery series by USA Today bestselling author Blake Pierce, whose #1 bestseller Once Gone has received 1,500 five-star reviews.Diana Hope, 55, is still adjusting to her recent separation when she discovers her ex-husband has just proposed to a woman 30 years younger. Secretly hoping they would reunite, Diana is devastated. She realizes the time has come to reimagine life without him—in fact, to reimagine her life, period.Devoting the last 30 years of her life to being a dutiful wife and mother and to climbing the corporate ladder, Diana has been relentlessly driven, and has not taken a moment to do anything for herself. Now, the time has come.Diana never forgot her first boyfriend, who begged her to join him for a year in Europe after college. She had wanted to go so badly, but it had seemed like a wild, romantic idea, and a gap year, she’d thought, would hinder her resume and career. But now, with her daughters grown, her husband gone, and her career no longer fulfilling, Diana realizes it’s time for herself—and to take that romantic year in Europe she’d always dreamed of.Diana prepares to embark on the year of her life, finally turning to her bucket list, hoping to tour the most beautiful sights and sample the most scrumptious cuisines—and maybe, even, to fall in love again. But a year in Europe may have different plans in store for her. Can A-type Diana learn to go with the flow, to be spontaneous, to let down her guard and to learn to truly enjoy life again?In A MURDER IN PARIS (Book #1), Diana hopes to kick off her journey, and find new love, with an unforgettable night at the Versailles ball. But when the dramatic night takes a harrowing turn she could never expect, Diana realizes she will have to solve the crime—or else have her trip end in disaster.A YEAR IN EUROPE is a charming and laugh-out-loud cozy mystery series, packed with food and travel, with mysteries that will leave you on the edge of your seat, and with experiences that will leave you with a sense of wonder. As Diana embarks on her quixotic quest for love and meaning, you will find yourself falling in love and rooting for her. You will be in shock at the twists and turns her journey takes as she somehow finds herself at the center of a mystery, and must play amateur sleuth to solve it. Fans of books like Eat, Pray, Love and Under the Tuscan Sun have finally found the cozy mystery series they’ve been hoping for!Book #2 (DEATH IN FLORENCE) and book #3 (VENGEANCE IN VIENNA) in the series are now also available!

I swear, I hate my husband.

At my birthday party, my husband whispered to his mistress in French that he missed her. His voice was low, but I heard it all—the black lingerie, the bit about how pregnancy makes you more sensitive. His French clients around us were laughing. He turned and put his arm around me, claiming he was just helping his clients come up with sweet nothings.

He doesn't know I understand every single word. Just like he doesn't know that inside my body, I'm carrying his other surprise. And his mistress—she's pregnant too. Two wombs, one secret.

Confrontation would be too cheap. Tears are worthless. I quietly started cataloging the hidden networks my father left behind, activating the Swiss accounts.

In seven days, Zoey Smith will cease to exist. And what will my husband's reaction be?

I bled to death on a cold hospital bed, my unborn child gone, all because I took a shift for my coworker.
Heaven granted me a second chance. I opened my eyes, sitting safely at my office desk. Before I could shake off the nightmare, Vanessa clicked her heels toward me.
"Claire, can you cover for me at the investor party tonight? It’s my anniversary with my boyfriend."
In my past life, I agreed, only to be locked in a private room by monsters and tortured to death. This time, I looked her in the eye. "No."
Vanessa was stunned. Because of my refusal, she missed the crucial meeting and was mercilessly fired by the director.
I thought I had escaped hell and saved her life too. But when I got home to my loving husband, I realized the true nightmare had just begun...

The day our family went out on the water, my husband took his first love, Maeve Hayes, jet-skiing in a restricted maritime zone.
After half a bottle of wine, Maeve insisted on riding to the island across the bay to draw a heart for him.
The moment she climbed onto the jet ski, she twisted the throttle all the way.
The machine shot forward and slammed straight into my younger brother's yacht.
Instead of caring about the yacht that was rapidly sinking, my husband, Adrian Cole, grabbed Maeve's hand and comforted her.
"As long as you're okay, that's all that matters. Those idiots shouldn't have taken their yacht into a restricted zone. If they got themselves killed, that's their own fault."
He didn't call for help.
He didn't even look back at the sinking vessel.
Only after the yacht had disappeared beneath the waves and everyone aboard had been reported missing did Adrian finally call me.
"Eleanor, your brother and mother went down with the yacht."
For a moment, terror swallowed me whole.
Then I saw my mother beside me, just as she used to be when I was a little girl, putting a freshly cooked piece of meat into my mouth.
My brother came running over, laughing as he tried to steal a bite.
"Mom, you always favor Eleanor!"
They were standing right beside me.
So who were the people trapped inside the sunken yacht?

“Do it again.”
“Be more specific, baby.” I heard a smile in his words. He was enjoying this and wanted me to beg.
“Fuck you. You know what I mean.” I grunted in frustration.
“I actually don’t.” He stopped again. His rough hand remained between my thighs.
“Stop playing games, or I will stroke myself until I come.” I wiggled my ass, seeking a quick relief from the throbbing in my core.
Breathing raggedly, he said, “No one is playing games here, baby. I just want to know what you want.”
“You really make me do this, don’t you?” My voice was a combination of frustration and irritation. He was enjoying this too much, probably punishing me for giving him blue balls twice.
“You were complaining earlier, so, yes. I don’t want another broken nose.”
“Spank my ass, Califf. Then touch me and fuck me with your finger. I wanna come. Do you think you can do that?”


All Shadow ever wanted was to live in peace with their pack, but as a royal Lycan and the daughter of a witch, it came at a price.

When a faceless enemy targeted her, she did not only lose her wolf but also her healing gift, leaving her powerless and vulnerable.

Now that the bond is gone and her happy ending is not guaranteed, she has nothing left to offer. She doubts whether she’s still worthy of her mate and Luna of their pack.

Alpha Califf becomes a formidable Alpha after defeating a sinister enemy. He should be invincible with allied packs everywhere and witches at his disposal, but Shadow becomes a liability.

Despite what happened to his mate, he’s willing to leave the pack and live with her away from threats, but their enemy is two steps ahead of them, and Shadow becomes cold and distant, leaving him nothing but agony he’d never felt before.

Will Shadow get her revenge and find a way to get her wolf and gift back? Will they uncover the ugly truth behind their enemy? Or their foe is just right under their noses all along.

“I can smell you’re wet for me, my little mate.”

My nose flared. My chest heaved. My rage boiled inside my body, making me want to explode. “Well, take this, Alpha. I, Shadow Raven Hawks, omega of Night Stalker Pack—”

“Shadow, what the fuck are you doing?” He was fast to cup my face as his eyes began brewing the pain.

“Rejecting—” I wasn’t finished when he slammed his mouth against mine, stopping me.


She’s a lone wolf— a rogue.

Shadow Hawks learns to keep her head down. That’s how she survives until she wakes up in a pack run by a control freak hot-as-sin ruthless Alpha.

With one single sniff of him, she feels an intense connection with irresistible heat.
Now she’s got her old pack on her heels. The only one who can protect her is Alpha Califf. She will do everything, even if she has to bow down and reveal herself.

Califf Stone doesn’t have time for a relationship but to protect his pack from a sinister, vicious Alpha killing the neighboring packs. Until he meets a mysterious rogue who enjoys defying his orders, he finds himself craving for her, losing control— And he knows she’s the one.

When their common enemy threatens her, he’s ready to break his defenses to protect his mate.

What surprises him, she’s not only half-Lycan, half-witch. She’s also a Lycan Princess.

“Well, take this, Alpha. I, Shadow Raven Hawks, omega of Night Stalker Pack—”
“Shadow, what the fuck are you doing?” He was fast to cup my face as his eyes began brewing the pain.
“Rejecting—” I wasn’t finished when he slammed his mouth against mine, stopping me.


She’s a lone wolf— a rogue.

Shadow Hawks learns to keep her head down. That’s how she survives until she wakes up in a pack run by a control freak hot-as-sin ruthless Alpha.

With one single sniff of him, she feels an intense connection with irresistible heat.
Now she’s got her old pack on her heels. The only one who can protect her is Alpha Califf. She will do everything, even if she has to bow down and reveal herself.

Califf Stone doesn’t have time for a relationship but to protect his pack from a sinister, vicious Alpha killing the neighboring packs. Until he meets a mysterious rogue who enjoys defying his orders, he finds himself craving for her, losing control— And he knows she’s the one.

When their common enemy threatens her, he’s ready to break his defenses to protect his mate.

What surprises him, she’s not only half-Lycan, half-witch. She’s also a Lycan Princess.

“Sheridan, Link gave me hope to live this past year. I’m pregnant with his child now. He’s been malnourished since he was a baby. Could you be a little more generous and give him half of your food?”

"To quell the rumors, give him the commander's authority as well! Consider it proof of your tolerance, and that way everyone will accept our family of three!"

Looking at my fiancée, who was heavily pregnant and had a saintly glow on her face, I felt a wave of nausea wash over me.

Five years of entrusting each other with life and death have resulted in this scene.

Alright, I'll grant your wish.

Without arguing or making a scene, I readily signed the power transfer agreement, removed my epaulets, and walked without looking back into the underground forbidden zone that everyone feared.

There, a crazy witch with a morbid possessiveness toward me is imprisoned.

Sylvia thought that after I relinquished power, I would only be able to kneel in the mud like a stray dog and watch them be affectionate.

But she had no idea that I was the one who had the safety net for her throughout the entire city!

After losing my protection, the system completely crashed within a few days.

That freeloader completely dropped his pretense, not only beating her half to death with domestic violence, but also attempting to invade her private space.

When she crawled to the gate of the restricted area covered in blood, crying and begging me for forgiveness and to save her life.

I was being held in the arms of that aloof witch, watching the pretty boy who had come looking for me:

"The experiment actually spoke, darling..."

Everyone said I’d traded five years of my youth and my unwavering devotion for an engagement that every woman envied.
My fiancé, Felix Smith, seemed to believe it, too. He gave me pearls, promised me a bright future, and wrapped me up in a web of tenderness, layer after layer.
Until that afternoon, when he held me close, yet used a language he thought I didn’t understand to weave the perfect "wedding" con over the phone.
That was the moment I finally realized: over these five years, who had he really been looking at through me? And every pearl he ever gave me, whose tastes was he remembering?
When the elevator failed and darkness crashed down, the person he protected on instinct wasn’t me.
When the wind howled across the empty outskirts, the person he chose to abandon was me.
I’d been learning how to love him, how to become a proper bride. In the end, what I learned was how to exit quietly, out of his world with Serena.
Only when I slipped off that pearl ring did I understand—
Some love stories, from the very beginning, are nothing but long letters written to someone else.

In my previous life, I was the heir adored by the entire Golden Moon Pack. My sister, Delphine, was cast out with our disgraced father, left to struggle for survival in the frozen wastelands of the North.
Ten years later, on the eve of my coronation as Luna, Delphine, driven mad by jealousy, infiltrated the temple and set it ablaze with black fire.
She clutched my throat and dragged me into death with her, all because she believed I had stolen the life that should have been hers.
She thought I had received all the Moon Goddess's favor.
She never knew that remaining in the wealthy Golden Moon territory had been nothing but a living nightmare.
Our mother, desperate to replenish the family treasury she had squandered, locked me in a dungeon and drained my blood for ten years—
She treated me like a living blood bank, planning to hand me over to a six-hundred-year-old vampire lord as payment for her debts.
So when the black fire consumed us, all I felt as I looked into Delphine's face twisted by jealousy was absolute relief.
When I opened my eyes again, we had both returned to the Blood Moon Choosing Ceremony at the age of eighteen.
This time, before the Elders' Council could even announce the contracts, Delphine lunged madly toward our mother on the throne.
Seeing the greed and ecstasy she could barely contain in her eyes, I said nothing. I simply turned and walked toward my father, who stood in the corner of the hall, leaning on an iron crutch.
She thought she had finally seized a crown.
She had no idea that she had willingly thrown herself into a bottomless abyss filled with her own blood.

Before the apocalypse hit, my ex-girlfriend called me, laughing like a maniac: "Jack, you pathetic loser—still playing that stupid farming game? Gonna whack zombies with a hoe? Open the door right now, get on your knees, and beg us, and maybe we'll throw you some table scraps."
I listened to the faint scrape of a tactical knife being drawn on the other end of the line, and silently glanced at my computer screen—at the maxed-out Greenfield Manor game, with its gold cap glowing at [999,999,999] .
"You misheard." I dropped my voice, lacing it with just the right amount of embarrassment. "I was checking the weather forecast."
The other end erupted in unrestrained laughter: "Then forecast this—how you're gonna die today!"
I hung up without changing my expression, flipped open the system, and spent a million on the [Absolute Defense Shield] —then brought out a steaming plate of roasted meat.
Forecast?
I forecast that tonight, you'll be gnawed down to bare bones by zombies.

“Why did you bend over, Maverick?”
 
“Because you told me to, asshle.”
 
“I’m so tempted to fck you right now. You’re the most exquisite woman I’ve ever been with, the only beautiful thing I see and have.”
 
“Then what are you waiting for? Just punish me already!”


MAVERICK

As a working college student, I struggle to make ends meet until a stranger approaches me with a proposal—to be his employer’s wife for an enormous sum of money.

Knowing the cash will help me pay my grandmother’s medical bills, I accept the offer with a demand—just a marriage of convenience, no intimacy.

It’s too late to realize I’m marrying the charming and gorgeous to a fault, young Mr. Winston. And there’s this instant fire between us despite my inhibitions.

Things get more complicated when our sham marriage is put to the test by his father, who threatens to expose my dirty little secret.


LAKE

Being a Braddson-Winston heir is sometimes a curse. My father is a real SOB and a pain in my ass. He makes one outrageous demand for me to secure the CEO seat in the company—marriage.

So I found a perfect bride— Maverick Bates II, who is beautiful but in a dire financial situation. I only ask two things. We stay MBA and keep things purely business until the contract ends. As simple as that.

It was meant to be a straightforward deal, but each day I get to know her, my position is not the only thing at stake but also my heart.

I realize I can’t let her go even if she’s the daughter of the ruthless don of Sicilianos.

TARA
 
A family practice forces me to run away from home, leaving me disgraced and my family in shame.

Just when I start making new friends, someone threatens to expose who I am and the person behind my nom de plume. The condition— a contract marriage, the very same reason I fled from.

So, what’s so different this time? Mad Shanewood— the achingly handsome, with waving red flags, an irrefutable passion, or a magnetic attraction?
With my secrets still haunting me, now the whole world is watching, and our delicately fragile public image is at stake.

After a glimpse beneath his shallow exterior, there is a damaged soul who makes me feel as if I’m everything to him.
And how is it that the one thing I never wanted has me fighting so hard to keep?
 


 
MAD
 
I always get the deal done until my recklessness has thrown the company into a tailspin, derailing my path to a billion-dollar project.
 With my image under brutal public scrutiny, marriage is my last straw.

 Tara Montimer not only intrigues me. She’s selfless, kind-hearted, and sexy as hell. And something deep in her eyes makes me question if I’m worthy to be her husband. 

 For me, it seems that it’s not just fixing my reputation anymore— the entrancing deposed princess didn’t only steal my breath away. She penetrates the protective wall around my heart that I built for years.

 Our goals may be aligned. But then there’s a disapproving father who is a King, a law, and constant threats that prevent us from getting married.
 Will this razor-thin edge arrangement be enough to fix what’s been broken, or is something between us worth fighting for?

Seven years I've worn the title of Luna for Alpha Darius Thorn, chained to him by a forbidden ritual that poisoned my wolf and left me barren, broken, and whispering "useless" in every shadow.
The healer's words were ice: my wolf is dying. Reject him or mark him within a year, or I die with her. Darius refused both. So did the rest of the world.
When I caught the laugh from his chambers, his mistress, heavy with the child I could never give...he sealed my fate. I looked him in the eye and spoke the words that shattered everything: "I reject you."
The bond ripped apart. Pain, then silence. And in that silence, something ancient in my blood finally stirred awake.
Now the Alpha who once dismissed me feels only emptiness.
And from the shadows of a buried massacre, a vengeful Lycan commander steps forward, drawn by the same spark in my veins, demanding blood for debts long owed.
I was supposed to fade quietly. Instead, I'm rising. And no one is ready for what happens next.