No One’s Innocent

No One’s Innocent

Adeyemi · Ongoing · 52.5k Words

1.2k
Hot
1.2k
Views
0
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

Everyone thought Carter Mayfield was dead. They were wrong.

When burnt-out attorney Noah Keene returns to Bellview to care for his mentally unstable father, he isn’t looking to play hero. But a house fire, a murdered teenager, and two accused boys—one poor, one powerful—pull him into a legal storm.

His father, once a respected prosecutor, whispers fragmented warnings about “the boy in red” and secrets buried in the town’s courthouse basement. Noah dismisses it—until the pieces start falling into place.

The deeper he digs, the more Bellview reveals: rigged verdicts, missing children, and the name everyone buried—Carter Mayfield, a boy who vanished years ago in a fire nobody could explain.

But Carter isn’t dead. He’s back.

And everything Noah thought he was fighting for is a lie.

In a town where justice was bought, guilt was manufactured, and heroes were played like pawns—some truths don’t deserve justice.

Chapter 1

It was the smoke Noah Keene noticed first.

Thick. Black. Hanging low in the air like a secret no one wanted to speak. He slowed the car, cracked the window, and caught the sharp scent of something that wasn’t just burning wood. Plastic maybe. Or paint. Or memory.

The road curved, just past the sign that still read Welcome to Bellview — A Safe Place to Call Home. The irony hit harder than the smell.

A red glow flickered through the trees.

He pulled to the shoulder.

The house was already half gone. Flames punched through the roof like fists. Every window was shattered, coughing smoke into the night. Sirens howled from somewhere behind him, getting closer.

Noah stepped out of the car and just stood there.

No one else had arrived yet.

Except for the boy.

He couldn’t have been older than sixteen, maybe seventeen. Thin. Shoulders hunched. Standing too close to the fire, close enough to feel it on his skin. His eyes were wide, but empty, like they were watching something he couldn’t explain.

Noah took a step toward him.

“Hey!” he called out.

The boy didn’t move.

“Hey, kid!”

Still nothing. Just the crackling of the fire. The distant scream of a fire truck.

Noah tried again, closer this time. “You all right? Did someone call 9-1-1?”

The boy blinked.

“They’re gone,” he whispered.

“Who’s gone?”

The boy’s lips moved, but the words didn’t come out.

Behind them, flashing lights finally broke through the trees. Two fire trucks. A deputy car. An ambulance that didn’t seem in a hurry.

The boy turned his head, just a little.

“Did you see what happened?” Noah asked. “Were you inside?”

The boy looked at him then. Really looked. And something passed between them—quick, fragile, like glass cracking.

He shook his head. Slowly. But Noah wasn’t convinced.

Sirens cut off. Firefighters rushed past them. Hoses hissed. Water met flame in a violent cloud of steam. The deputy, a tall man with a beer gut and a mouth full of sunflower seeds, approached with practiced boredom.

“You a relative?” the deputy asked, nodding toward the boy.

“No,” Noah said. “I just got here.”

The deputy grunted. “Kid’s name is Isaiah Reed. Lives here. Lived. Fire marshal’s on his way. You know how to stay out of the way?”

“I’m good at that,” Noah said.

The deputy didn’t laugh. He turned and walked toward the house.

Noah looked at the boy again—Isaiah—and saw the way his fingers were twitching. Not panic. Not shock. Something else. Like his body wanted to run but didn’t know where.

“Isaiah,” Noah said, softer this time. “You sure you’re okay?”

“They were inside,” Isaiah whispered. “I tried. I swear I tried.”

The words chilled Noah more than the wind.

He looked past the boy at what used to be a front door, now just a jagged hole in a burning wall.

“Who was inside?”

Isaiah opened his mouth, but another voice answered.

“Nobody,” the deputy said, reappearing suddenly. “He’s confused. Probably inhaled too much smoke.”

Isaiah flinched when the deputy touched his arm.

“We’ll get you checked out,” the man said. “C’mon now.”

Isaiah looked at Noah like he wanted to say something else. Like he needed to. But he let the deputy lead him away.

Noah stood alone as water slammed into the roof. Part of it gave in. Sparks shot up like fireflies.

He reached into his coat pocket, pulled out a cigarette he hadn't smoked in four years, and lit it.

This wasn’t his business. He hadn’t come back to Bellview for fires or boys with secrets in their eyes.

He was here because his father had gone mad.

Because the home he swore he’d never return to had called him back with a hospital note and a nurse’s voice saying, “He doesn’t recognize anyone but you.”

And yet, standing in the glow of the fire, listening to Isaiah’s words echo in his head, he knew—deep down, in that part of himself he hated—that this night was going to follow him.

Even after the smoke cleared.

Even after the fire died.

Because sometimes a beginning doesn’t feel like one.

It feels like ash.

And breath held too long.

And the moment just before the truth shows its face.

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

Bella and Her Beast

Bella and Her Beast

19.6k Views · Completed · Sheridan Hartin
For all the little girls who grew up wondering what happens after the prince kisses the girl—this is the story they never told you.
.
Locked in her frozen tower, Bella dreamed of warmth, of touch, of freedom and of love. Cursed with the power of ice and snow, she’s spent her life alone. A secret they tried to protect the world from. Her only escape comes in the form of the books she reads. Stories of heat, desire, and the kind of love that could melt even her frostbitten heart.
Damien is the Beast. A dragon King with a temper forged in flame and a soul hollowed by duty. The world fears him. The people call him a monster. But beneath the scales and the rage lies a man who has never been touched by love.
When frost meets fire, the world shatters. She was never meant to leave her tower. He was never meant to find her. But destiny doesn’t bow to kings or care for cages and now the question burns through them both: Can Bella have her Beast? Or will the girl of snow melt in the heat of his desire?

.
"I’m keeping her."
"What?"
Before I can react, he scoops her up. Her small body fits easily in the cradle of his talons. For a split second, she looks startled, but not afraid. Her hand rests against one scaled finger, and she stares up at him with that same curious wonder, as though she’s already forgotten she was ever meant to fear me.
"Put her down," I try to command, panic threading through my thoughts. "You’ll hurt her."
"She’s ours," the beast insists, possessive and fierce. "Our snowflake."
After One Night with the Alpha

After One Night with the Alpha

543.3k Views · Completed · Sansa
One Night. One Mistake. One Lifetime of Consequences.

I thought I was waiting for love. Instead, I got fucked by a beast.

My world was supposed to bloom at the Moonshade Bay Full Moon Festival—champagne buzzing in my veins, a hotel room booked for Jason and me to finally cross that line after two years. I’d slipped into lacy lingerie, left the door unlocked, and lay on the bed, heart pounding with nervous excitement.

But the man who climbed into my bed wasn’t Jason.

In the pitch-black room, drowned in a heady, spicy scent that made my head spin, I felt hands—urgent, scorching—searing my skin. His thick, pulsing cock pressed against my dripping cunt, and before I could gasp, he thrust hard, tearing through my innocence with ruthless force. Pain burned, my walls clenching as I clawed at his iron shoulders, stifling sobs. Wet, slick sounds echoed with every brutal stroke, his body unrelenting until he shuddered, spilling hot and deep inside me.

"That was amazing, Jason," I managed to say.

"Who the fuck is Jason?"

My blood turned to ice. Light slashed across his face—Brad Rayne, Alpha of Moonshade Pack, a werewolf, not my boyfriend. Horror choked me as I realized what I’d done.

I ran away for my life!

But weeks later, I woke up pregnant with his heir!

They say my heterochromatic eyes mark me as a rare true mate. But I’m no wolf. I’m just Elle, a nobody from the human district, now trapped in Brad's world.

Brad’s cold gaze pins me: “You carry my blood. You’re mine.”

There is no other choice for me but to chose this cage. My body also betrays me, craving the beast who ruined me.

WARNING: Mature Readers Only
A pack of their own

A pack of their own

2.1m Views · Completed · dragonsbain22
Being the middle Child ignored and neglected, rejected by family and injured, She receives her wolf early and realizes she is a new type of hybrid but doesn't know how to control her power, she leaves her pack with her best friend and grandmother to go to her grandfather's clan to learn what she is and how to handle her power and then with her fated mate, her best friend and her fated mate little brother and grandmother start their own pack.
Tango with the Alpha's Heart

Tango with the Alpha's Heart

31.4k Views · Completed · judels.lalita
“Who is she?” I asked, feeling tears well up in my eyes.
“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?
Omega Bound

Omega Bound

2.6m Views · Ongoing · Veronica White
Ayla Frost is a beautiful, rare omega. Kidnapped, tortured, and trafficked to rogue clans and corrupt alphas to do with as they pleased.  Kept alive in her cage, broken and abandoned by her wolf, she becomes mute and has given up on hope for a better life until one explosion changes everything. 

Thane Knight is the alpha of the Midnight Pack of the La Plata Mountain Range, the largest wolf shifter pack in the world. He is an alpha by day and hunts the shifter trafficking ring with his group of mercenaries by night. His hunt for vengeance leads to one raid that changes his life. 

Tropes:
Touch her and die/Slow burn romance/Fated Mates/Found family twist/Close circle betrayal/Cinnamon roll for only her/Traumatized heroine/Rare wolf/Hidden powers/Knotting/Nesting/Heats/Luna/Attempted assassination
Pregnant by My Husband's Rival Alpha

Pregnant by My Husband's Rival Alpha

15.5k Views · Completed · Christina
I woke up three years into a marriage I barely remembered—pregnant with twins that weren't my husband's.

Those words should have destroyed me, but the truth was worse: I'd been used as a broodmare by the man who swore to love me, set up in a hotel room with a stranger because My husband Alexander Cross couldn't father children himself, and now I carried the secret babies of Damon Lester—the most powerful and dangerous Alpha in San Loris—while my own family replaced me with the daughter they'd always wanted. But when that same stranger's doctor appeared at my door, when twenty million dollars exchanged hands over a fake perfume bearing my secret identity, and when Damon's gray eyes locked onto mine with recognition I couldn't afford, I realized my carefully hidden life as the legendary perfumer Vera was colliding with a pregnancy that could cost me everything.

Could I protect my babies from the husband plotting my death, hide my true identity from the Alpha who's been hunting me for years, and reclaim the freedom I'd buried along with my dreams—even if it means standing alone against the wolves who see me as nothing more than a womb to be used and discarded?
Accidentally Crossing the Tycoon

Accidentally Crossing the Tycoon

498.5k Views · Completed · Riley
My name is Audrey, and I'm the adopted daughter of the Bailey family.
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?
The Ice Between Us.

The Ice Between Us.

1.7k Views · Completed · Nora Obeche
In the world of elite hockey, discipline is the only currency that matters. For Julian Thorne, the perfectionist Captain of the Northwood Olympic Center, every stride is calculated, and every emotion is frozen solid. He is one season away from the pros, but the team is drowning under public scrutiny and a board of directors looking for any reason to cut the cord.

​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.
Cursed To Be His

Cursed To Be His

1.6k Views · Ongoing · Sophie Smith
Talia Morgan was born a wolf.
At thirteen, everything changed.
After her parents were murdered, she was cursed by a powerful witch and used as a vessel for Elder magic. Saving her life came at an impossible cost; the curse was broken, but so was the wolf inside her, leaving her human.
Ten years later, Talia hides her grief behind sharp sarcasm and a smile she no longer believes. When a rogue attack proves she can no longer protect herself, or the people she loves, she leaves the only home she's ever known for the quiet human town of Ashbourne Hollow, determined to disappear.
Instead, she catches the attention of the town's most dangerous owner.
Alaric Lazarus is a vampire who rules from the black castle overlooking Ashbourne Hollow. He is cold, enigmatic, and impossible to read, but he awakens something in Talia she can't explain. She doesn't trust him. He trusts her even less.
Then vampires begin turning up dead.
Forced into an uneasy alliance, Talia and Alaric uncover a trail that leads back to the family she lost... and the curse she thought she'd escaped. As old enemies emerge from the shadows and buried secrets come to light, Talia discovers that everything she believed about her past was a lie.
Because the curse that stole her wolf was never meant to save her.
It was meant to lead her to him.
This is book 3 in the series, but it can be read as a standalone.
Book 1 - The Matchmaker
Book 2 - The Heir of Flame and Fang
Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother

Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother

2.9m Views · Ongoing · Harper Rivers
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.
The Alpha King's Human Mate

The Alpha King's Human Mate

469.9k Views · Completed · HC Dolores
“You must understand something, little mate,” Griffin said, and his face softened,

“I have waited nine years for you. That’s nearly a decade since I’ve felt this emptiness inside me. Part of me began to wonder if you didn’t exist or you’d already died. And then I found you, right inside my own home.” 

He used one of his hands to stroke my cheek and tingles erupted everywhere. 

“I’ve spent enough time without you and I will not let anything else keep us apart. Not other wolves, not my drunken father who’s barely holding himself together the past twenty years, not your family  – and not even you.”


Clark Bellevue has spent her entire life as the only human in the wolf pack - literally. Eighteen years ago, Clark was the accidental result of a brief affair between one of the most powerful Alphas in the world and a human woman. Despite living with her father and her werewolf half-siblings, Clark has never felt like she really belonged in the werewolf world. But right as Clark plans to leave the werewolf world behind for good, her life gets flipped upside down by her mate: the next Alpha King, Griffin Bardot. Griffin has been waiting years for the chance to meet his mate, and he's not about to let her go anytime soon. It doesn't matter how far Clark tries to run from her destiny or her mate - Griffin intends to keep her, no matter what he has to do or who stands in his way.
The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)

The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)

2.5k Views · Completed · Emma Mountford
Saints and Sinners- She was the light to my dark.
The saint to my sinner. with her innocent eyes and devilish curves.
A Madonna that was meant to be admired but never touched.
Until someone took that innocence from her.
She left.
The darkness in my heart was finally complete.
I avenged her, I killed for her, but she never came back.
Until I saw her again. An angel dancing around a pole for money.
She didn’t know I owned that club. She didn’t know I was watching.
This time I won’t let her escape.
I will make her back into the girl I knew.
Whether she likes it or not.
2/ Judge and Jury- I can’t stop watching her.

I’m not even sure I want to.

Taylor Lawson, blonde, beautiful, and totally oblivious to how much dangers she’s in.

She’s also the one juror in my upcoming murder trial that hasn’t been bought.

The one who can put me behind bars for a very long time.

I know I should execute her.
After all that’s what I do.

I am the Judge.
I eliminate threats to The Family.
And Taylor is a threat.
But I don’t want to kill her.
Possessing her, making her love me seems like a much better plan for this particular Juror.

3/ Rags and Ritches-