His Caged Bird Doesn't Beg
Piper Hayes · Completed · 6.7k Words
Introduction
For Miles, I gave up my fellowship in Zurich and spent seven years playing housewife.
What did I get in return? Adrian took Sophie to gallery openings on our anniversary. Miles smashed cake in my face in front of everyone, calling me a frumpy housewife.
Adrian was certain I couldn't leave him. Certain I couldn't leave our son.
He threw the divorce papers on the table with a cold smile. "Sign this, and you lose everything. Including Miles."
He expected me to beg on my knees.
I didn't.
I picked up the pen and signed without hesitation.
"Fine, Adrian. You keep Miles. And I get to keep myself."
For just a moment, I saw shock flash in his eyes.
I heard later that Adrian searched for me like a madman, and the son he doted on cried and screamed for his mommy.
Too bad. I'd already burned it all down myself.
Chapter 1
Elena's POV
Everyone in our circle knows I'm Adrian's caged bird, and the "bad woman" my son Miles hates most.
For Miles, I gave up my fellowship in Zurich and spent seven years playing housewife.
What did I get in return? Adrian took Sophie to gallery openings on our anniversary. Miles smashed cake in my face in front of everyone, calling me a frumpy housewife.
Adrian was certain I couldn't leave him. Certain I couldn't leave our son.
He threw the divorce papers on the table with a cold smile. "Sign this, and you lose everything. Including Miles."
He expected me to beg on my knees.
I didn't.
I picked up the pen and signed without hesitation.
"Fine, Adrian. You keep Miles. And I get to keep myself."
For just a moment, I saw shock flash in his eyes.
I heard later that Adrian searched for me like a madman, and the son he doted on cried and screamed for his mommy.
Too bad. I'd already burned it all down myself.
It's been three months since the divorce.
Now I sit in my Zurich studio, the Alps visible through the window, the Corridor of Light sketches spread across my desk.
No arguments. No tantrums. Just the scratch of pencil on paper.
This peace feels strange, like the past seven years were some absurd nightmare.
My thoughts drift back to three months ago, to the charity gala that finally shattered what little hope I had left.
I'd spent a month organizing that gala for Adrian's company image.
I stood in the corner wearing an old dress. Adrian said housewives didn't need to waste money on designer clothes.
Spotlights swung to the entrance. Adrian walked in with Sophie on his arm.
Sophie wore a constellation gown, a sapphire necklace glinting at her throat. The one I'd looked at twice. They stood in the spotlight like the perfect power couple.
My husband didn't even glance toward the corner.
"Mommy! Why are you hiding here?"
A sharp voice cut through the air.
Miles.
I moved to straighten his crooked bow tie, but he jerked back like I was something dirty.
Seven-year-old Miles has Adrian's features down to that superior expression.
He held a piece of cake Sophie just gave him.
"Miles, don't eat too much sugar. Your teeth—"
"Leave me alone!" Miles shouted, his voice piercing the quiet ballroom. "Sophie says I can have it! Sophie's a million times better than you! All you do is nag, you bad woman!"
The guests turned to stare.
Whispers drifted to me:
"That's Adrian's frumpy ex-wife, right?"
"Even her own kid can't stand her. How pathetic."
"Look at Sophie though. So sweet. No wonder Adrian prefers her."
I stood frozen. Then I reached for Miles's hand. "Miles, stop it. Come home with me."
"I'm not going! That house is cold and I hate you!"
Miles raised his hand and smashed the cake into my face.
The slap of it.
Everything stopped.
Frosting slid down my cheeks, covered my eyes.
Sophie gasped and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe Miles's hands. "Oh Miles, sweetie, you can't treat Mommy like that! I know she's strict, but she means well."
Adrian finally walked over.
He looked at my ruined face, disgust written all over his expression.
"Elena. Look at yourself. Isn't this embarrassing enough?" His voice dropped low. "Can't even handle a child. Go home. Stop embarrassing me here."
I wiped the frosting from my face, my vision blurred as I looked at father and son.
Miles hid behind Adrian and stuck his tongue out at me. "Ugly!"
Something inside me cracked. Like a load-bearing wall collapsing.
I didn't cry. Didn't scream.
I just looked at Miles. This child I carried for nine months. This child who nearly killed me in delivery. This child I stayed awake seventy-two hours straight for when he had that fever.
He looked at me like I was his enemy.
"Okay."
My voice sounded flat.
"I'll go."
I turned and left the ballroom. Behind me, glasses clinked and people laughed, like I was just trash being taken out.
But I know better.
This isn't running away.
This is the first decision I made standing in the rubble.
By the time I get back to the empty house, it's past midnight.
I head straight to the bathroom and turn on the cold water, scrubbing the frosting off my face.
The woman in the mirror is pale, with fine lines around her eyes and a hollow stare that's almost frightening.
Last Chapters
You Might Like 😍
The enforcer's redemption
Tyler Rodriguez is the most feared enforcer in professional hockey, six-foot-three of controlled aggression, paid to hurt people and too hollowed by guilt to care about the cost. When a brutal hit sends rival player Danny Martinez to the hospital, Tyler expects hate. What he doesn't expect is Danny's sister.
Sofia Martinez has spent two years rebuilding her life after escaping an abusive marriage, raising her daughter Emma alone, watching every exit, trusting no one who looks like violence. Tyler Rodriguez looks exactly like violence. She knows better than to let him in.
But Tyler keeps showing up. At the hospital. At her school. In the quiet spaces, she thought were hers alone. And for the first time in years, Sofia's threat assessment comes back wrong because the most dangerous thing about Tyler Rodriguez isn't his fists. It's that he listens.
As their forbidden connection deepens, Sofia's ex-husband, Marcus, is watching, and when he files for custody of their daughter, naming Tyler as evidence of Sofia's poor judgment, everything they've carefully built begins to crack.
Tyler must choose between the only language he's ever known and the man he's desperately trying to become. Sofia must decide whether protecting her daughter means keeping her walls up or finally letting the right person through them.
The Enforcer's Redemption is a sizzling, emotionally raw forbidden romance featuring a brooding hockey enforcer haunted by grief, a fiercely independent single mother rebuilding from trauma, and a slow-burn love story set against the backdrop of professional sports, custody battles, and the hardest question of all: can broken people protect each other without breaking again?
Perfect for fans of Elle Kennedy, Devney Perry, and Elsie Silver.
FROZEN HEART BURNING SOUL
Then the festival comes to her town, and with it comes Ryder Callahan a rough, loud, motorcycle-riding wildfire fighter who looks at her like she is not a monster. Like she is just a girl. A girl he really wants to know.
But Bella is hiding more than her powers. Someone dangerous is coming for her. And the closer she lets Ryder get, the more she puts him in danger.
He says he is not afraid of fire. She says she is not afraid of ice. Maybe together, they can survive the storm that is coming for them both if she does not freeze him out first.
Bonds at War: The Virgin is Mine
Perhaps then they would stop controlling my every move. Maybe my brothers would stop resenting me. Perhaps I wouldn’t feel so invisible anymore.
No one believed I could do it—not even my mate, Alpha Jaxon Trevane.
The night I planned to tell him... I found him tangled in bed with my best friend.
Heartbroken and humiliated, I left everything behind and went to Elite alone.
But the academy isn’t the fairytale I dreamed about.
Beneath the grand halls and traditions, a brutal game is being played.
The four ruling Alphas of the North, South, East, and West fight for power, dominance... and now, for me.
A virgin. Untouched. Unclaimed. The prize they all want.
There’s the mate who shattered my heart and swears he’ll win me back.
The brilliant strategist who wants me as his Luna.
The dangerous playboy who promises no one will ever touch me but him.
And the cold, possessive Alpha who watches from the shadows—and would destroy anyone who dares to take me from him.
But in a place where love is a battlefield and lust is a weapon... falling in love might be the most dangerous thing I ever do.
Welcome to Elite Order Academy—where every desire has a price, and my body is the ultimate trophy.
The rejected white luna
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.
CHASING GHOSTS
The Spy Who Left
"I still can't believe she actually did it. Aria Hart, filing for divorce. Who saw that coming?"
"How long do we think it'll take before she comes crawling back?" Another voice joins the conversation.
"Three days," Victoria declares. "Five at most. She has no money, no skills, no family. Where's she going to go?"
When Aria Chen divorced billionaire Leon Hart, New York's elite sneered, betting she'd crawl back within days. She never did.
Three years later, the world is rocked when Dr. Aria Vale, CEO of a revolutionary cybersecurity empire, steps into the spotlight. The mysterious genius who built a billion-dollar company from nothing is none other than Leon's discarded wife, the woman everyone thought was just a pretty ornament.
Now, every powerful man wants the queen Leon threw away a renowned scientist seeking partnership, a financial titan proposing an empire, and an actor offering devotion. Each sees the brilliance Leon ignored.
Then Leon discovers the truth: Aria's sacrifices, her secret double life, and the daughter she's been raising without him. For the first time, the man who once took her for granted must fight for her love. But can he compete with men who valued her from the beginning?
A story of love, betrayal, and power where the king must kneel before the queen who never needed saving.
Luna On The Run- I stole The Alpha's Sons
But Axton is more than just a rival, he's her fated mate. And he's been searching for her not for love, but for revenge and a chance to destroy her father's pack. The next morning, Elena rejects him, walking away before he can trap her in his ruthless schemes.
But Axton does not take rejection lightly, and his retaliation is brutal: a leaked video, a ruined reputation, and a family that turns their backs on her drive her to flee the city in disgrace.
But when Elena disappears, she takes something Alpha Axton never planned to lose - his sons. Now, he'll stop at nothing to get them back. He wants his heirs, he wants his mate, and Elena will learn that no one runs from the Alpha.
Fated to the three Alphas of MOONCREST college
Fated to the three alphas of MOONCREST college... book 1
Fated at mooncrest: Stuck with the two alphas.... book 2
A half-blooded girl. Three charismatic Alpha Wolves. And a destiny-bound bond.
Malia Reed always felt she was nothing special except for her bloodline; she only wanted to survive in the shadows.
Until she entered Mooncrest college…everything changed. A destined, inescapable bond bound her to the powerful and handsome Alpha Wolves—Aiden, Cian, and Rowan Moonfall Wolf.
The entire academy was abuzz with excitement; everyone was talking about it.
As her hidden powers awakened, the dark secrets of her parents surfaced. Enemies drew closer. And what about her three destined companions? Their feelings were subtly shifting…
But only one could truly win her heart.
Filled, Owned, and Fucked by My Best Friend’s Father
He was supposed to be off-limits. Untouchable. The kind of man you only fantasize about when you’re alone in the dark with your hand between your thighs.
But the night I caught him eating another woman alive by the pool, I couldn’t look away.
And he knew it.
The moment his dark eyes locked on mine through the glass, I became prey. His filthy smirk promised one thing—he saw me touching myself to him, and he wasn’t about to let me forget it.
Now, every time I’m in his house, I can’t breathe without thinking of his mouth between my legs.
I left my cheating boyfriend behind, only to fall into something even more dangerous:
a man who could ruin me, break me, and make me beg for his cock while his own daughter sleeps in the next room.
He’s too old. Too powerful. Too forbidden.
But Gianni doesn’t ask—he takes.
And I don’t want him to stop.
Love's Deadly Equation
I was sent to her.
To watch her. To protect her. And, when the order comes… to kill her.
My name is Keegan Caffery. I’m the Carter Mafia’s best hitman. I don’t miss. I don’t fail.
At least, I didn’t use to.
I don’t know what it is about her that got to me first—her mouth, her mind, or the way she looks at me like I’m not what she should fear.
I’ve had a gun to her head since I walked into her life.
She knows it.
And she still doesn’t run.
She just watches me back like she’s studying a problem she refuses to call impossible.
She’s the one variable I can’t control.
And God help me… I don’t want to.
I have an order. I have loyalty. I have a trigger.
But every time I imagine it—
I can’t stand it.
Her or me. That’s the math.
It’s a deadly equation I don’t want to solve.
⬥ Maisie ⬥
I’m not ordinary. I stopped pretending long ago.
My name is Maisie Seo. IQ 145. Clinical genius.
Which sounds impressive until you realize what it actually means: I don’t fit anywhere people expect me to.
I see patterns everywhere. Outcomes before they happen. People like equations I’ve already solved.
It gets lonely in a world you’ve already figured out.
So I dull myself down. Smoke the edges off. Pretend, badly, to be the kind of normal that lets people stay.
Then he walked in.
I knew what he was immediately. Dangerous. Intentional. Wrong in all the right ways.
I should be afraid of him.
I keep waiting for that to kick in.
Instead, I’m fascinated.
Because for the first time in my life… I’ve found something I can’t solve.
He is my deadly equation.
Where The Ice Gives Way
Blake Atlas scents his mate the moment Charlotte arrives. The bond hits hard and unmistakable, but Charlotte doesn’t recognise it. She doesn’t know why her chest keeps pulling toward the one boy she absolutely cannot afford to want. Blake is Charlie’s new hockey captain. Charlie’s chance at making something good. Charlie makes it clear; his sister is off-limits and Blake tries to do the right thing, but secrets don’t stay buried forever. Rogues prowl the edges of town. The ice cracks. The bond tightens. Then Charlotte’s rare white wolf awakens, the very thing that makes her powerful, also makes her a target.
Shanti needs Shakti. (Peace needs strength.)
Where the Ice Gives Way is a slow-burn YA paranormal romance filled with fated mates, protective alpha energy, fierce sibling loyalty, found family pack bonds, hurt/comfort, and quiet, aching tension. It’s a story about first belonging, learning to be cared for, and what happens when the girl who has always held everyone else up finally falls, and someone catches her.
