
Fated. Forbidden. His
Idowu Adesanya · Ongoing · 197.5k Words
Introduction
Chapter 1
The dead didn’t send text messages. Except hers just had.
De Luca Industries. 9AM. Floor 60. Don’t be late. A_
Mia Caruso stared at her phone until her coffee went cold and a skin formed on top. She didn’t know anyone named A. She didn’t know anyone at De Luca Industries, period. Unless she counted the billboard of Alessandro De Luca she passed every morning on her way to Grind & Go — billionaire CEO, youngest self-made on Forbes, face cut from marble and sin, looking down at Queens like it personally offended him.
Her boss, Rosa, would fire her if she was late again. Rent was due in three days and she was $430 short, with exactly $11.43 in her checking account and a tip jar that had yielded two quarters and a button yesterday. But the text included her full name. Mia Caruso. No one called her Caruso anymore. Not since her dad died. Not since the funeral home handed her a sealed casket and a bill she couldn’t pay.
She should delete it. Block the number. Go pour lattes for people who tipped in Instagram follows.
Instead, she found herself on the Q train at 8:22AM, in her only clean blouse, the one with the fraying cuff she kept tugging down.
The De Luca building was sixty floors of glass and steel and money that smelled like violence and window cleaner. The lobby was all white marble, silent except for the hum of air conditioning that cost more than her rent. The receptionist didn’t even ask her name. She just looked up, gave Mia a once-over that lasted half a second too long, and pointed to a private elevator tucked behind a wall of living moss. “He’s expecting you, Miss Caruso.”
He.
Mia’s stomach dropped to her shoes.
The elevator opened on floor 60 to silence so complete it hurt her ears. No assistant, no secretary, no clicking keyboards or phones ringing. Just a wall of windows and a man standing with his back to her, looking down at the city like he owned it. He probably did.
She smelled him before she saw his face. Pine. Smoke. Something wild and clean, like snow that had never been touched. It crawled into her lungs and sat there.
“You’re three minutes late.”
His voice didn’t raise. It didn’t have to. It moved under her skin anyway, low and certain, the kind of voice that didn’t ask twice.
Alessandro De Luca turned.
The billboards didn’t do him justice. They got the cheekbones, the mouth that looked like it had never smiled for free. They missed the rest. He was taller, broader, dressed in a charcoal suit that probably cost more than her yearly salary before taxes. His tie was black, his shirt white, no wasted color on him anywhere except his eyes.
They were gold. Not hazel. Not brown. Gold, like a wolf’s. Like the ones in her nightmares.
And they were fixed on her like she was prey that had wandered into his territory.
“I think you have the wrong person,” she said. Her voice shook. She hated that it shook. She clasped her hands behind her back to hide it. “I don’t know you.”
“No.” He stepped around a desk bigger than her entire apartment. It was glass and steel, empty except for a single black folder and a pen that looked like it could double as a weapon. “But I knew your father. Marco Caruso.”
The air left her lungs like she’d been punched. Her dad had been dead six months. Car crash, the police said. Closed casket. She hadn’t even gotten to say goodbye. Just a police report and a priest who kept calling her Maria.
“He borrowed money from me,” Alex continued. He said it like he was commenting on the weather, like it’s cloudy today and your dead father owes me millions,were the same level of news.
“Four million dollars. Twenty years ago.”
Mia laughed. It came out broken, too high. “That’s not possible. My dad was a mechanic. We lived in a two-bedroom in Queens. We clipped coupons. He drove a ‘98 Civic that died every time it rained.”
“Your father was Beta to the Volkova Pack before he ran.” Alex slid the black folder across the desk. It stopped exactly in front of her. Not an inch too far. Not an inch too short. “He used my money to disappear. And to suppress your wolf.”
Her wolf. The word made something in her chest snarl, something she’d been ignoring for months. The nightmares,teeth, blood, running through forests she’d never seen with feet that weren’t human. The panic attacks that came at 3AM and left her on the bathroom floor, nails digging into tile, mouth full of the taste of copper. Panic attacks, her therapist had called them. Stress-induced.
“Open it.”
She didn’t want to. Her fingers felt numb. But she did, because not knowing was worse than knowing.
Inside was a contract. Yellowed, the paper thick and expensive. Signed in ink that was too dark, too brown to be ink. Marco Caruso in shaky letters she recognized. Her dad’s handwriting, from the birthday cards he left on the kitchen table every year. At the bottom, a clause highlighted in red:
In the event of default by death, debt transfers to next of kin. Payable in full, in cash, or by marriage into the De Luca line.
The words didn’t make sense. They were English, but they didn’t make sense.
“In cash,” she whispered, because saying it out loud might make it real, “or marriage.”
“You have thirty days.” Alex was in front of her now. She hadn’t seen him move. One second he was by the desk, the next he was there, close enough that she had to tip her head back to see his face. He smelled like pine and smoke and something wild that made her knees want to give out. “Four million dollars, Mia. Or you become my wife.”
“This is insane. This can’t be legal.” The words sounded weak, even to her.
His mouth curved. It wasn’t a smile. It was the thing a predator did before it bit. “Legal is a word for people who don’t have their own judges.”
He was close enough that she saw the ring on his finger, not gold, but black, with a crest carved into it: a wolf’s head over crossed knives. Bratva. Mafia. The rumors on the news, the ones she’d scrolled past because billionaires were always rumored to be something, were true.
“I don’t have four million dollars,” she said. Her voice was steadier now, anger burning through the fear. “I don’t have four thousand. I have eleven dollars and an overdue library book.”
“I know.” His knuckles grazed her jaw. She flinched, but not from fear. From the jolt that went straight through her, from her jaw to her spine to places that had no business reacting to a stranger. His eyes darkened, gold going molten. “Which leaves us one option.”
She stepped back. Hit the desk. Trapped. “Why? Why would you want to marry me? You don’t even know me. You don’t like me. You’re looking at me like I’m a problem you have to solve.”
He leaned down. His breath was hot against her ear, and she hated that she noticed. Hated that she catalogued it. “Oh, little wolf. I’ve known you since you turned eighteen. I’ve had men on you for five years.”
Five years. Since her dad started getting paranoid. Since they’d moved three times in one year, since he started checking the locks twice, since he told her to never, ever go into Central Park after dark.
“Why?” she breathed. The word came out smaller than she wanted.
“Because you smell like mine.” His teeth grazed her earlobe, not breaking skin. A promise. A threat. The touch sent a shock down her body that wasn’t fear and wasn’t not fear. “And hybrids like me don’t get fated mates. Except apparently, we do.”
Hybrids. Mates. Words from bad paperbacks Rosa kept behind the counter. Words that weren’t real.
“You’re lying,” Mia said. But her heart was beating too fast, and there was a pressure in her chest like something was trying to get out.
“Am I?” He pulled back enough to meet her eyes. “Then why did your heart rate just spike to 110? Why did your pupils dilate? Why can I smell vanilla and storm all over you when you’re scared?”
She couldn’t answer. Because he was right. Because she could smell him too, under the cologne and the expensive soap. Something wild. Something that called to the part of her that dreamed of teeth.
“You have thirty days, Mia.” He stepped back, all business again, the moment gone like it had never happened. Like he hadn’t just dismantled her with a sentence. “Tick tock.”
The elevator dinged behind her. Dismissed.
She ran for it, contract crushed in her fist, her breath coming too fast. She made it inside before she turned around. She shouldn’t have.
He was watching her. Gold eyes, predator still, hands in his pockets like he had all the time in the world. Like he already knew how it ended.
“One more thing,” he said, as the doors started to close.
“What?” She hated that she asked.
He smiled for real this time. It was terrifying. It was beautiful. It was the last thing she saw before the doors sealed shut.
“You run, I’ll chase. And I always catch what’s mine.
Last Chapters
#155 Chapter 155 WHERE?
Last Updated: 8/21/2026#154 Chapter 154 GONE
Last Updated: 8/20/2026#153 Chapter 153 THE CHALLENGE
Last Updated: 8/19/2026#152 Chapter 152 NOT RUNNING
Last Updated: 8/18/2026#151 Chapter 151 The baby Sara
Last Updated: 8/17/2026#150 Chapter 150 MARCO'S DEATH
Last Updated: 8/16/2026#149 Chapter 149 SUBJECT A
Last Updated: 8/15/2026#148 Chapter 148 TRACK THEM
Last Updated: 8/14/2026#147 Chapter 147 VERDICT
Last Updated: 8/12/2026#146 Chapter 146 CHECKMATE
Last Updated: 8/11/2026
You Might Like 😍
The Ice Between Us.
Then comes Jax Miller.
Jax is a hotheaded rookie with a lightning-fast puck and a reputation for burning bridges. He doesn't follow playbooks, he doesn't respect authority, and he’s determined to melt Julian’s icy composure. When a viral video of their on-ice collision threatens to bankrupt the program, Coach Clain delivers an ultimatum that feels like a death sentence: they must live together in a cramped, two-bed dorm for the duration of the season.
Forced to navigate the high-stakes world of sports fame, "forbidden" locker-room tension, and the mysterious blackmailer who caught their first mistake on camera, Julian and Jax must decide what’s more dangerous: losing their careers, or losing themselves to the person they were supposed to hate.
Reborn: My Biased Brothers Beg Me To Come Back
She genuinely took in Regina, the butler's daughter, only to be constantly manipulated by this cunning and manipulative woman.
Regina gradually stole the love from her three brothers.
Arabella was forced to give Regina blood transfusions time and again, her weight plummeting to a mere eighty-eight pounds.
Ultimately, under the relentless pressure from her brothers, she jumped out of a window in despair and died. Her last words were,
"What about Regina's blood transfusions?"
When she opened her eyes again, Arabella found herself reborn three years earlier—the very day Regina appeared at her doorstep crying, begging for help.
Looking at the pitiful, tearful girl before her, Arabella smiled.
No more soft-heartedness.
No more groveling.
Instead, she "kindly" arranged for Regina to move into the servants' quarters, to earn her own living through honest labor.
Faced with her brothers who sided with her, she no longer bothered to please them.
And towards her former fiancé, Theodore, whom she had once fawned over, she remained cold, distant, and indifferent.
Moreover, in this life, they would discover that her identity was far more than just the eldest daughter of the Oberon family.
Taste of Fate: The Vampire King's Human Mate
He reached for the back of my head and pulled me up just enough to reach my neck. When his fangs slid into me, the pain was instant, electric. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. My hands found his shoulders, clawing for something to hold. My legs kicked. Tears streamed down my cheeks.
He moaned against my throat as he drank, and the sound was devastating.
Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother
"What is wrong with me?
Why does being near him make my skin feel too tight, like I’m wearing a sweater two sizes too small?
It’s just newness, I tell myself firmly.
He’s my boyfirend’s brother.
This is Tyler’s family.
I’m not going to let one cold stare undo that.
**
As a ballet dancer, My life looks perfect—scholarship, starring role, sweet boyfriend Tyler. Until Tyler shows his true colors and his older brother, Asher, comes home.
Asher is a Navy veteran with battle scars and zero patience. He calls me "princess" like it's an insult. I can't stand him.
When My ankle injury forces her to recover at the family lake house, I‘m stuck with both brothers. What starts as mutual hatred slowly turns into something forbidden.
I'm falling for my boyfriend's brother.
**
I hate girls like her.
Entitled.
Delicate.
And still—
Still.
The image of her standing in the doorway, clutching her cardigan tighter around her narrow shoulders, trying to smile through the awkwardness, won’t leave me.
Neither does the memory of Tyler. Leaving her here without a second thought.
I shouldn’t care.
I don’t care.
It’s not my problem if Tyler’s an idiot.
It’s not my business if some spoiled little princess has to walk home in the dark.
I’m not here to rescue anyone.
Especially not her.
Especially not someone like her.
She’s not my problem.
And I’ll make damn sure she never becomes one.
But when my eyes fell on her lips, I wanted her to be mine.
Tango with the Alpha's Heart
“He met her at the Alpha training camp,” he said. “She is a perfect suitor for him. It snowed last night, indicating that his wolf is happy with his choice.”
My heart sank, and tears made their way down my cheeks.
Alexander took my innocence last night, and now he is taking that thing in his office as his Luna.
Emily became the laughingstock of the pack on her 18th birthday and never expected the Alpha's son to be her mate.
After a night of passionate love, Emily finds out that her mate has taken a chosen mate. Heartbroken and humiliated, she disappears from the pack.
Now, five years later, Emily is a respected high-ranking warrior in King Alpha’s army.
When her best friend invites her to a night of music and laughter, she never expects to run into her mate.
Will her mate figure out it is her?
Will he chase after her, and most of all, will Emily be able to keep her secrets safe?
The Alpha & The Vampire Queen
Whips crack against her skin, blood pooling on the cold stone floor, while her mother's pleas fade into silence, abandoning her to the monster's wrath. Xander's protective cries turn to accusations under Penny's dark spells, fracturing their sibling bond into shards of mistrust and isolation.
Accidentally Crossing the Tycoon
Four years ago, the Bailey family faced a devastating financial crisis.
Just when bankruptcy seemed inevitable, a mysterious benefactor emerged, offering salvation with one condition: a contract marriage.
Rumors swirled about this enigmatic man—whispers claimed he was hideously ugly and too ashamed to show his face, possibly harboring dark, twisted obsessions.
Without hesitation, the Baileys sacrificed me to protect their precious biological daughter, forcing me to take her place as a pawn in this cold, calculated arrangement.
Luckily, in those four years, the mysterious husband never asked to meet in person.
Now, in the final year of our arrangement, the husband I've never met is demanding we meet face to face.
But disaster struck the night before my return—drunk and disoriented, I stumbled into the wrong hotel room and ended up sleeping with the legendary financial mogul, Caspar Thornton.
What the hell am I supposed to do now?
Let Them Kneel
Cast out by her pack. Forgotten by the Lycans.
She lived among humans—quiet, invisible, tucked away in a town no one looked at twice.
But when her first heat comes without warning, everything changes.
Her body ignites. Her instincts scream. And something primal stirs beneath her skin—
summoning a big, bad Alpha who knows exactly how to quench her fire.
When he claims her, it’s ecstasy and ruin.
For the first time, she believes she’s been accepted.
Seen.
Chosen.
Until he leaves her the next morning—
like a secret never to be spoken.
But Kaelani is not what they thought.
Not wolfless. Not weak.
There is something ancient inside her. Something powerful. And it’s waking.
And when it does—
they’ll all remember the girl they tried to erase.
Especially him.
She’ll be the dream he keeps chasing… the one thing that ever made him feel alive.
Because secrets never stay buried.
And neither do dreams.
King of the Underworld
However, one fateful day, the King of the Underworld appeared before me and rescued me from the clutches of the most powerful Mafia boss's son. With his deep blue eyes fixed on mine, he spoke softly: "Sephie... short for Persephone... Queen of the Underworld. At last, I have found you." Confused by his words, I stammered out a question, “P..pardon? What does that mean?”
But he simply smiled at me and brushed my hair away from my face with gentle fingers: "You are safe now.”
Sephie, named for the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone, she's quickly finding out how she's destined to fulfill her namesake's role. Adrik is the King of the Underworld, the boss of all bosses in the city he runs.
She was a seemingly normal girl, with a normal job until it all changed one night when he walked through the front door and her life changed abruptly. Now, she finds herself on the wrong side of powerful men, but under the protection of the most powerful among them.
The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates
"Let me go," I whimper, my body trembling with need. "I don't want you touching me."
I fall forward onto the bed then turn around to stare at him. The dark tattoos of Domonic's chiseled shoulders, quiver and and expand with the heave of his chest. His deep dimpled smile is full of arrogance as he reaches behind himself to lock the door.
Biting his lip, he stalks toward me, his hand going to the seam of his pants and the thickening bulge there.
"Are you sure you don't want me to touch you?" He whispers, untying the knot and slipping a hand inside. "Because I swear to God, that is all I have been wanting to do. Every single day from the moment you stepped in our bar and I smelled your perfect flavor from across the room."
New to the world of shifters, Draven is human on the run. A beautiful girl who no one could protect. Domonic is the cold Alpha of the Red Wolf Pack. A brotherhood of twelve wolves that live by twelve rules. Rules which they vowed could NEVER be broken.
Especially - Rule Number One - No Mates
When Draven meets Domonic, he knows that she is his mate, but Draven has no idea what a mate is, only that she has fallen in love with a shifter. An Alpha that will break her heart to make her leave. Promising herself, she will never forgive him, she disappears.
But she doesn’t know about the child she’s carrying or that the moment she left, Domonic decided rules were made to be broken - and now will he ever find her again? Will she forgive him?
From Substitute To Queen
Heartbroken, Sable discovered Darrell having sex with his ex in their bed, while secretly transferring hundreds of thousands to support that woman.
Even worse was overhearing Darrell laugh to his friends: "She's useful—obedient, doesn't cause trouble, handles housework, and I can fuck her whenever I need relief. She's basically a live-in maid with benefits." He made crude thrusting gestures, sending his friends into laughter.
In despair, Sable left, reclaimed her true identity, and married her childhood neighbor—Lycan King Caelan, nine years her senior and her fated mate. Now Darrell desperately tries to win her back. How will her revenge unfold?
From substitute to queen—her revenge has just begun!
A PRINCESS IN DISGUISE; BOUND TO THE ENEMY KING
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.












