
TANGLED HEARTS
Augustina Hardstone · Ongoing · 39.8k Words
Introduction
Chapter 1
Through Aidan Carter's office window, the city lights looked like stars. On a Friday night, most people were out having fun, but Aidan was still at his work. As he typed quickly, numbers and charts filled the screen of his computer.
"Just a few more calculations," Aidan said to himself as he pushed his dark hair out of his eyes. His brand-new business plan had to be great. This time, his dad would have to see how hard he worked.
At Club Pulse across town, the music was so loud that it shook the walls. A lot of colored lights flashed over the dance floor, where Asher, Aidan's twin brother, was the center of attention. These twins are very different, even though they had the same dark hair and bright blue eyes.
"Another round for everyone!" Asher yelled, raising his glass. The crowd cheered as Asher showed his famous smile—the smile that made their father beam with pride, the smile that got Asher everything he wanted.
Back in his quiet office, Aidan sighed as his phone buzzed with notifications. Asher began posting pictures of himself laughing, having a great time with his friends. Aidan turned his phone face-down on the desk. He didn't have time for parties. His green energy idea could save Carter Enterprises millions of dollars and help the environment too.
"This is it," Aidan whispered, looking at his finished plan. "This is the one that will make Dad finally see me."
Growing up as the 'other' twin had never been easy. Victor Carter, their father and owner of Carter Enterprises, always favored Asher. At family dinners, school events, and work parties, it was always "Asher this" and "Asher that." Aidan might as well have been unnoticeable.
But numbers never lied. Numbers didn't care which twin was more charming or better looking. And Aidan was amazing with numbers.
The office phone rang, startling him. Who would call this late?
"Hello?" Aidan answered.
"Still working, little brother?" Asher's voice came through the speaker, loud music playing in the background. Though they were twins, Asher was born ten minutes earlier and never let Aidan forget it.
"Some of us actually care about the company's future," Aidan answered, saving his work files.
"You should join me! The night is young, and there are some people here who'd love to meet you."
Aidan shook his head, even though Asher couldn't see him. "I'm almost done with my new job. It's going to change everything, Ash. A full green energy overhaul for all our buildings."
There was a moment of quiet before Asher spoke again, his voice suddenly serious. "Be careful, Aid. You know how Dad gets about your 'big ideas.'"
A chill ran down Aidan's spine. Last year, he'd offered a new marketing plan, only to have his father tear it apart in front of the entire board. The memory still made his stomach hurt.
"This one's different," Aidan maintained. "The numbers don't lie. We could cut prices by thirty percent while helping the environment. Even Dad can't fight with that."
"If you say so," Asher said, not sounding convinced. "Listen, I've got to run. Don't stay too late, okay? You work too hard."
After hanging up, Aidan stared at his image in the darkened window. Same face as Asher, but somehow their father always knew which twin was which. It was like Victor Carter could smell ambition on Aidan and found it unpleasant.
Aidan packed up his things and headed to the elevator. The office building was strangely quiet at this hour, with only the cleaning staff still around. As the elevator doors closed, Aidan caught a glimpse of a tall figure watching him from the darkness. When he looked again, no one was there.
"Just tired," he mumbled, rubbing his eyes.
Outside, the night air was cool on his face. Aidan's flat was only a few blocks away, but tonight he felt like someone was following him. He kept looking over his shoulder, only to see empty path behind him.
When he finally reached his building, the doorman nodded. "Working late again, Mr. Carter?"
"You know me, Joe. Always the responsible one."
"Your brother stopped by earlier," Joe said. "He left something with me for you."
Aidan frowned. "Asher was here? That's impossible. He's been at Club Pulse all night."
Joe looked confused. "Are you sure? He was wearing that fancy blue suit you boys have. Seemed in a hurry."
Aidan's heart raced. He had a blue suit exactly like that. But Asher had just called him from the club, hadn't he?
"Did he say what he left?" Aidan asked.
Joe gave him a small envelope. "Said it was important. That you'd understand."
In his apartment, Aidan tore open the package with shaking hands. Inside was a key and a small note with just three words: "They're watching you."
The handwriting was similar to his own—which meant it was Asher's too. Twins, mirror copies in everything except the life they lived.
Aidan turned the key over in his hands. It wasn't labeled, but something about it seemed familiar. Was it for a storage unit? A safe deposit box?
His phone buzzed with a text. It was from Asher: "Don't trust anyone. Not even Dad. Especially not Dad."
Before Aidan could reply, another message came through. This one wasn't text but a photo—of Aidan's office, shot from outside his window. In the picture, Aidan was working at his desk, totally unaware he was being watched. The picture had been taken tonight, just hours ago.
Aidan's hands trembled as he zoomed in on the picture. In the reflection of his office window, barely visible but certainly there, was another figure. Someone had been in his office while he worked, standing quietly behind him.
And the most frightening part? The dark figure looked exactly like him.
Or exactly like Asher.
The phone slipped from Aidan's fingers, clattering to the floor as a soft knock came at his door.
Last Chapters
#30 The Trap Closes
Last Updated: 3/22/2025#29 Watching Eyes
Last Updated: 3/22/2025#28 Hidden Loyalties
Last Updated: 3/22/2025#27 Blood Ties
Last Updated: 3/22/2025#26 The Truth Unleashed
Last Updated: 3/22/2025#25 Secrets From Beyond
Last Updated: 3/22/2025#24 The Betrayer Among Us
Last Updated: 3/22/2025#23 The Truth in Our Veins
Last Updated: 3/22/2025#22 Blood Ties
Last Updated: 3/22/2025#21 Hidden Truth
Last Updated: 3/22/2025
You Might Like 😍
The Prison Project
Can love tame the untouchable? Or will it only fuel the fire and cause chaos amongst the inmates?
Fresh out of high school and suffocating in her dead-end hometown, Margot longs for her escape. Her reckless best friend, Cara, thinks she's found the perfect way out for them both - The Prisoner Project - a controversial program offering a life-changing sum of money in exchange for time spent with maximum-security inmates.
Without hesitation, Cara rushes to sign them up.
Their reward? A one-way ticket into the depths of a prison ruled by gang leaders, mob bosses, and men the guards wouldn't even dare to cross...
At the centre of it all, meets Coban Santorelli - a man colder than ice, darker than midnight, and as deadly as the fire that fuels his inner rage. He knows that the project may very well be his only ticket to freedom - his only ticket to revenge on the one who managed to lock him up and so he must prove that he can learn to love…
Will Margot be the lucky one chosen to help reform him?
Will Coban be capable of bringing something to the table other than just sex?
What starts off as denial may very well grow in to obsession which could then fester in to becoming true love…
A temperamental romance novel.
I Slapped My Fiancé—Then Married His Billionaire Nemesis
Technically, Rhys Granger was my fiancé now—billionaire, devastatingly hot, and a walking Wall Street wet dream. My parents shoved me into the engagement after Catherine disappeared, and honestly? I didn’t mind. I’d crushed on Rhys for years. This was my chance, right? My turn to be the chosen one?
Wrong.
One night, he slapped me. Over a mug. A stupid, chipped, ugly mug my sister gave him years ago. That’s when it hit me—he didn’t love me. He didn’t even see me. I was just a warm-bodied placeholder for the woman he actually wanted. And apparently, I wasn’t even worth as much as a glorified coffee cup.
So I slapped him right back, dumped his ass, and prepared for disaster—my parents losing their minds, Rhys throwing a billionaire tantrum, his terrifying family plotting my untimely demise.
Obviously, I needed alcohol. A lot of alcohol.
Enter him.
Tall, dangerous, unfairly hot. The kind of man who makes you want to sin just by existing. I’d met him only once before, and that night, he just happened to be at the same bar as my drunk, self-pitying self. So I did the only logical thing: I dragged him into a hotel room and ripped off his clothes.
It was reckless. It was stupid. It was completely ill-advised.
But it was also: Best. Sex. Of. My. Life.
And, as it turned out, the best decision I’d ever made.
Because my one-night stand isn’t just some random guy. He’s richer than Rhys, more powerful than my entire family, and definitely more dangerous than I should be playing with.
And now, he’s not letting me go.
Badass in Disguise
"Jade, I need to check your—" the nurse began.
"OUT!" I snarled with enough force that both women backed toward the door.
Once feared by Shadow Organization that drugged me to replicate my abilities into a more controllable version, I had escaped my restraints and detonated their entire facility, ready to die alongside my captors.
Instead, I woke up in a school infirmary with women arguing around me, their voices piercing my skull. My outburst froze them in shock—clearly they hadn't expected such a reaction. One woman threatened as she left, "We'll discuss this attitude when you get home."
The bitter truth? I've been reborn into the body of an overweight, weak, and supposedly dim-witted high school girl. Her life is filled with bullies and tormentors who've made her existence miserable.
But they have no idea who they're dealing with now.
I didn't survive as the world's deadliest assassin by allowing anyone to push me around. And I certainly won't start now.
The mafia princess return
Omega Bound
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
Mr. Ryan
He came closer with a dark and hungry expression,
so close,
his hands reached for my face, and he pressed his body against mine.
His mouth took mine eagerly, a little rudely.
His tongue left me breathless.
“If you don't go with me, I'll fuck you right here.” He whispered.
Katherine kept her virginity for years even after she turned 18. But one day, she met an extremely sexual man Nathan Ryan in the club. He had the most seductive blue eyes she has ever seen, a well-defined chin, almost golden blonde hair, full lips, perfectly drawn, and the most amazing smile, with perfect teeth and those damn dimples. Incredibly sexy.
She and he had a beautiful and hot one-night stand...
Katherine thought she might not meet the man again.
But fate has another plan
Katherine is about to take on the job of assistant to a billionaire who owns one of the biggest companies in the country and is known to be a conquering, authoritative and completely irresistible man. He is Nathan Ryan!
Will Kate be able to resist the charms of this attractive, powerful and seductive man?
Read to know a relationship torn between anger and the uncontrollable desire for pleasure.
Warning: R18+, Only for mature readers.
Alpha Nicholas's Little Mate
What? No—wait… oh Moon Goddess, no.
Please tell me you're joking, Lex.
But she's not. I can feel her excitement bubbling under my skin, while all I feel is dread.
We turn the corner, and the scent hits me like a punch to the chest—cinnamon and something impossibly warm. My eyes scan the room until they land on him. Tall. Commanding. Beautiful.
And then, just as quickly… he sees me.
His expression twists.
"Fuck no."
He turns—and runs.
My mate sees me and runs.
Bonnie has spent her entire life being broken down and abused by the people closest to her including her very own twin sister. Alongside her best friend Lilly who also lives a life of hell, they plan to run away while attending the biggest ball of the year while it's being hosted by another pack, only things don't quite go to plan leaving both girls feeling lost and unsure about their futures.
Alpha Nicholas is 28, mateless, and has no plans to change that. It's his turn to host the annual Blue Moon Ball this year and the last thing he expects is to find his mate. What he expects even less is for his mate to be 10 years younger than him and how his body reacts to her. While he tries to refuse to acknowledge that he has met his mate his world is turned upside down after guards catch two she-wolves running through his lands.
Once they are brought to him he finds himself once again facing his mate and discovers that she's hiding secrets that will make him want to kill more than one person.
Can he overcome his feelings towards having a mate and one that is so much younger than him? Will his mate want him after already feeling the sting of his unofficial rejection? Can they both work on letting go of the past and moving forward together or will fate have different plans and keep them apart?
The Son of Red Fang
Alpha Cole Redmen is the youngest of six born to Alpha Charles and Luna Sara Mae, leaders of the Red Fang pack. Born prematurely, Alpha Charles rejected him without hesitation as weak and undeserving of his very life. He is reminded daily of his father’s hatred for him paving the way for the rest of his family to become the same.
By adulthood, his father’s hatred and abuse towards him has spilled over into the rest of the pack making him the scapegoat for those with the sadistic need to see him suffer. The rest are simply too afraid to even look his way leaving him little in the way of friends or family to turn to.
Alpha Demetri Black is the leader of a sanctuary pack known as Crimson Dawn. It’s been years since a wolf has made their way to his pack via the warrior’s prospect program but that doesn’t mean he’s not looking for the tell tale signs of a wolf in need of help.
Malnourished and injured upon his arrival, Cole’s anxious and overly submissive demeanor lands him in the very situation he’s desperate to avoid, in the attention of an unknown alpha.
Yet somehow through the darkness of severe illness and injury he runs into the very person he’s been desperate to find since he turned eighteen, his Luna. His one way ticket out of the hell he’s been born into.
Will Cole find the courage needed to leave his pack once and for all, to seek the love and acceptance he’s never had?
Content Warning: This story contains descriptions of mental, physical and sexual abuse that may trigger sensitive readers. This book is intended for adult readers only.
The Alpha Of The Shadow Pack And His Mute Luna
Vanessa, the mute runt of a cursed litter, has only ever known cruelty and abuse. Her voice stolen by a witch’s spell, her freedom crushed by a brutal father, she’s been promised to a monster she doesn’t want. But fate intervenes when she’s left for dead—bleeding, broken, and bound—only to be rescued by Alpha Alfred of the Shadow Pack.
Alfred, fighting against a generational curse that has doomed his brothers to remain wolves forever, never expected his fated mate to be a fragile girl on the brink of death. But the moment he breathes in her scent, everything changes.
Together, they must confront the past, survive betrayal, and uncover the true key to breaking the curses that bind them. Will their bond be strong enough to save them both?
Mated by Contract to the Alpha
William—my devastatingly handsome, wealthy werewolf fiancé destined to become Delta—was supposed to be mine forever. After five years together, I was ready to walk down the aisle and claim my happily ever after.
Instead, I found him with her. And their son.
Betrayed, jobless, and drowning in my father's medical bills, I hit rock bottom harder than I ever imagined possible. Just when I thought I'd lost everything, salvation came in the form of the most dangerous man I'd ever encountered.
Damien Sterling—future Alpha of the Silver Moon Shadow Pack and ruthless CEO of Sterling Group—slid a contract across his desk with predatory grace.
“Sign this, little doe, and I'll give you everything your heart desires. Wealth. Power. Revenge. But understand this—the moment you put pen to paper, you become mine. Body, soul, and everything in between.”
I should have run. Instead, I signed my name and sealed my fate.
Now I belong to the Alpha. And he's about to show me just how wild love can be.
Ignored By One Alpha, Chased By Another
However, just before inheriting his Alpha position, Raymond found his fated mate—a rogue girl named Giana.
Forced by his parents, Raymond had no choice but to marry Aurora. Yet on their wedding night, he abandoned her to be with Giana.
Tormented by the mate bond, Aurora ended up having an ONS with a handsome and charming man.
But how could that man turn out to be Raymond’s best friend, the Alpha King’s nephew, and notorious playboy—Kane…?
The Biker Alpha Who Became My Second Chance Mate
"You're like a sister to me."
Those were the actual words that broke the camel's back.
Not after what just happened. Not after the hot, breathless, soul-shaking night we spent tangled in each other's arms.
I knew from the beginning that Tristan Hayes was a line I shouldn't cross.
He wasn't just anyone, he was my brother's best friend. The man I spent years secretly wanting.
But that night... we were broken. We had just buried our parents. And the grief was too heavy, too real...so I begged him to touch me.
To make me forget. To fill the silence that death left behind.
And he did. He held me like I was something fragile.
Kissed me like I was the only thing he needed to breathe.
Then left me bleeding with six words that burned deeper than rejection ever could.
So, I ran. Away from everything that cost me pain.
Now, five years later, I'm back.
Fresh from rejecting the mate who abused me. Still carrying the scars of a pup I never got to hold.
And the man waiting for me at the airport isn't my brother.
It's Tristan.
And he's not the guy I left behind.
He's a biker.
An Alpha.
And when he looked at me, I knew there was no where else to run to.












