The Deepest Vow

The Deepest Vow

Selena Maeve · Ongoing · 262.1k Words

647
Hot
2.8k
Views
144
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

She was hired to teach a genius. She didn't expect to tame a monster.
He’s cold, untouchable, and notoriously dangerous. She’s pragmatic, sharp, and the only person who doesn't tremble at his name.
The deal was strictly professional. But between late-night lessons and high-stakes protection, the city’s most feared predator is starting to melt. No one expected the cold-blooded King to become a man who can't let her out of his sight.
The After-Dark Reality:
“Wife...”
“You’re the King of Seattle, Clifton. What are you afraid of?”
“A nightmare. Stay with me.”

Chapter 1

"One, two, three..."

The private room was swathed in low, moody light, men and women pressed shoulder-to-shoulder on plush leather sofas. The harsh neon glow from the club bounced off the colorful array of liquor bottles crowding the marble table. Amidst the laughter and rowdy counting, Kerry Jones ignored the crowd. She didn't care about their playful nudges or the meaningful, leering glances sent her way.

She just mechanically repeated a single motion: tilt head, down the glass.

"Eleven... twelve!"

Finally hearing the magic number, Kerry stopped. Twelve straight shots burned a trail down her throat, the alcohol stoking a heat wave that rushed straight to her cheeks. She forced her expression to remain perfectly placid, not moving an inch.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the silhouette of the man sitting opposite her, half-swallowed by the shadows. From her angle, she could only see one leg of his tailored trousers. Not a single crease. It was pressed so perfectly it felt practically ruthless.

After a long pause, a low, lazy voice drifted from the darkness. Two brief words.

"Sit down."

Kerry secretly drew in a breath, walked around the liquor-drenched table, and sat down. She kept exactly one and a half person's width of distance between them.

The man had closely cropped hair, a sharp, high-bridged nose, and deep-set eyes that looked like they missed absolutely nothing. But Kerry didn’t dare look at him too closely.

This was Clifton Condon—the most notorious man in the city. The head of the Three Evils.

Clif didn't even turn his head to look at her. He casually pulled out his phone, his tone entirely indifferent. "What's your rate?"

It was the first thing he’d said to her since she sat down.

Kerry answered without missing a beat. "The trial period is free of charge."

The faint glow of his phone screen illuminated Clif’s face. His expression was flat, but his voice was deep and entirely too pleasant. "How do we do the trial? Do you come to my place, or do I go to yours?"

The man's magnetic voice left entirely too much room for imagination. Especially when the low, knowing chuckles erupting from the men nearby confirmed that Kerry wasn't the only one reading between the lines.

She paused for exactly two seconds. Then, keeping her voice completely steady, she replied, "The client is king. It depends entirely on your needs."

Clif abruptly changed the subject. "Smoke."

The private room was a haze of smoke and laughter. In this kind of club, the standard protocol was for the female hostesses to light the cigarette themselves, maybe even leave a lipstick stain on the filter, before feeding it directly into the mouth of whatever rich man was paying their bills.

Kerry lowered her gaze. She picked up the cigarette box from the edge of the table, tapped one out, and handed it toward Clif’s lips. She flicked the lighter. In the brief flash of the flame, she caught a glimpse of his mouth. His lips weren’t thin; they were actually beautifully shaped. But for some inexplicable reason, the only word that came to her mind was cruel.

Long, elegant fingers plucked the cigarette from his lips. Exhaling a cloud of white smoke, Clif's voice remained lazy. "What's the rate after taxes?"

"The company has a unified policy," Kerry said smoothly. "For my tier, it’s eighty dollars a minute. A standard session is one hundred minutes. So, eight thousand." She tacked on one final detail. "Before taxes."

Clif suddenly tilted his head and actually looked at her.

She was wearing a white, student-style skirt suit. The top wasn’t revealing in the slightest—it was almost painfully conservative. But the skirt was tailored tight, clinging to the curve of her hips and her slender waist. She was tall—five-foot-eight in bare feet—so the already short skirt looked dangerously small on her. From his angle, it was just miles of legs.

His gaze lingered for no more than three seconds before he looked away. "I’ll add a zero," he said, his tone betraying no emotion whatsoever.

He said it so casually, as if he wasn't talking about money at all.

"For that kind of price," Kerry replied evenly, "I'm afraid I wouldn't be qualified for the job."

Leaning back against the sofa, Clif said, "Name your price."

"I came here to interview as a tutor," Kerry said, her voice ringing out clear and cold. "Not as a madam."

The room, which had been buzzing with flirtatious chatter, instantly plunged into a dead, suffocating silence. Everyone turned to stare.

Clif openly assessed her now, a mocking smile playing at the corners of his eyes. "Is there a difference?"

Kerry didn’t panic. She met his gaze with absolute candor. "I didn't expect Mr. Condon to be the type to judge a book solely by its cover. I dressed to blend in with the environment, but I’m not actually part of it. Don't use this outfit to put a price tag on me." She paused, letting the silence stretch for a fraction of a second. "You can pursue me. But you cannot buy me."

The temperature in the room plummeted to absolute zero. Kerry stood there, spine ramrod straight, her face a mask of calm.

Inside, however, her stomach was churning.

She’d been in the city for a month. Her boss had made things hell for her at every turn. Clifton Condon was the ninth client she’d been sent to see. The previous eight had brutally ground down every last ounce of her pride and principles. What the hell did two master's degrees in math and physics matter? In the real world, the only way to get a foot in the door to see Clifton Condon was to strap herself into a club hostess uniform and serve him drinks and cigarettes.

She’d naiveley thought this job was based on skill. Turns out, what they really wanted was a 'performance.' And the harder she performed, the more insulting the punchline became.

Just as the tension in the room reached a breaking point, the heavy door swung open. A short, slightly pudgy, middle-aged man walked in, holding a glass of wine. He scanned the room and made a beeline straight for Clif.

"Mr. Condon! Heard you were in here. Came to offer a toast."

The man’s face was plastered with a sycophantic smile. But as his eyes accidentally swept past Kerry’s face, he froze. "Ms. Jones?"

Fuck my life, Kerry thought. She really should have checked her horoscope before leaving the house.

The man standing in front of her was David Macy. One of the eight clients who had aggressively canceled on her this month.

She didn't even look at him. She just turned back to Clif. "Mr. Condon, am I free to go?"

Clif didn't respond.

David, however, was busy taking in Kerry’s tight, revealing outfit. Emboldened by her silence, he smirked. "Where are you rushing off to, Ms. Jones? Since we bumped into each other, why not sit down and chat?"

Kerry ignored him and stepped forward to leave. David, assuming Clif didn't want her to go, immediately sidestepped to block her path.

"Ms. Jones," David said, his tone slick and condescending. "You can disrespect me all you want, but you must give Mr. Condon face. Besides... you’re already dressed for the part. You’ve taught so many students—what’s the harm in playing the student yourself for a night?"

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

Taste of Fate: The Vampire King's Human Mate

Taste of Fate: The Vampire King's Human Mate

4.5k Views · Ongoing · Miranda Carr
I never knew my blood could kill a king—until I met one. Sebastian, the ruthless and immortal King, rules with precision. For centuries, he's ruled with ruthless precision, his heart as cold as the stone throne beneath him. One moment, I'm nothing. The next, I'm his obsession. His touch burns like ice fire. His stare follows me through shadows. And when he feeds from me—God help me—it feels like drowning in darkness and craving more. He tells me my blood is unlike any he's tasted, that my scent drives him to the edge of madness.


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.
Goddess Of The Underworld

Goddess Of The Underworld

942.5k Views · Completed · Sheridan Hartin
Left at a pack border with a name and a stubborn heartbeat, Envy grows into the sharpest kind of survivor, an orphaned warrior who knows how to hold a line and keep moving. Love isn’t in the plan…until four alpha wolves with playboy reputations and inconveniently soft hands decide the girl who won’t bow is the only queen they’ll ever take. Their mate. The one they have waited for. Xavier, Haiden, Levi, and Noah are gorgeous, lethal, and anything but perfect and Envy isn’t either. She’s changing. First into hell hound, Layah at her heels and fire in her veins. Then into what the realm has been waiting for, a Goddess of the Underworld, dragging her mates down to hell with her.

When the veil between the Divine, the Living, and the Dead begins to crack, Envy is thrust beneath with a job she can’t drop: keep the worlds from bleeding together, shepherd the lost, and make ordinary into armour, breakfasts, bedtime, battle plans. Peace lasts exactly one lullaby. This is the story of an orphan pup who became a goddess by choosing her family; of four imperfect alphas learning how to be better. Steamy, fierce, and full of heart, Goddess of the Underworld is a reverse harem, found-family paranormal romance where love writes the rules and keeps three realms from falling apart.
The mafia princess return

The mafia princess return

932.3k Views · Completed · Tonje Unosen
Talia have been living with her mother, stepsister and Stepfather for years. One day she finally get away from them. Suddenly she learn she have more family out there and she have many people that actually love her, something she have never felt before! At least not as she can remember. She have to learn to trust others, get her new brothers to accept her for who she is!
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.
They'll Regret This

They'll Regret This

8.3k Views · Completed · Charlotte York
They traded me for their "real" daughter the day she showed up.

My fiancé didn't just dump me—he proposed to her that same night. My so-called family handed me bus fare and a one-way ticket to the countryside.

Perfect. Let them think they won.

They don't know who I really am. The anonymous genius surgeon who saves lives when elite hospitals give up. The legendary artist whose paintings sell for millions at auction. The undefeated shadow queen of the underground fighting circuit. And the true heiress to a fortune that makes theirs look like pocket change.

Now my ex-fiancé begs on his knees. My fake sister's jealousy is eating her alive. And that cold, arrogant CEO who once threw our engagement contract in my face? He's hunting me down like a man possessed, desperate for one more chance.

They threw me away like trash to upgrade their lives.

Joke's on them.

I was always the upgrade.
Mated To My Ruin: A Dragon's Debt

Mated To My Ruin: A Dragon's Debt

1.6k Views · Ongoing · ashlennox8
Nyx would risk anything to save her dying sister. Even steal from a dragon. Even trust a prince who promised her a crown in exchange for the impossible.

But the prince lied. The dragon she touched bound itself to her soul and now she is trapped in the vampire kingdom with a king who has waited centuries for her return. King Caelan remembers everything. The love she destroyed and the great war she started. The lives she burned to ash with the very dragon now living inside her.

She remembers nothing.

He wants her to suffer for crimes she cannot recall. She wants to survive long enough to save her sister. But the bond between them refuses to stay buried and the dragon has its own plans. When she turns twenty and her fae powers awaken, Nyx discovers the truth is far more twisted than centuries of hatred.

The prince who sent her was the one who destroyed her family. The king who hates her saved the only person she loves. And the past life she cannot remember might be the key to stopping another war.

This time she will not run. This time she will burn the world herself if that is what it takes.
Tempted By The Enemy

Tempted By The Enemy

3.9k Views · Completed · rituparna darolia
Twenty-two-year-old Alyssa Van Every is in a dilemma. Her close friend, Sienna, is marrying billionaire, Lucas Donnelly who, along with his brothers, happens to be her older brother, Alex's sworn enemy.
She escapes to Preston Island to attend the wedding without informing him only to collide with Lucas’s hot, fiery and arrogant brother, the twenty-three-year-old, Nicholas Donnelly. Sparks immediately fly between them but Alyssa refuses to acknowledge them fearing her brother's wrath.
The wedding is over and Alyssa tries hard to forget the mysterious Nicholas Donnelly but can he forget her? Can he ignore the attraction he feels for her, feelings that have resurfaced after ten years?
What will Allyssa do when she is stalked by the man who has been invading her dreams since the day she met him? What will she do when she is whisked away to a deserted island by the unpredictable Nicholas Donnelly? Can she tame her heart or surrender to sinful temptations? Read to find out!
Part of the Temptation Series. Can be read as a standalone.
Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother

Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother

2.8m 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.
Pawn of the Starless God

Pawn of the Starless God

1.8k Views · Ongoing · Dee Fietz
I was supposed to die alone in an alley.

Instead, a god found me.

One moment, I was bleeding beneath the neon glow of the city, my life slipping through my fingers. The next, a glowing blue screen appeared before my eyes, offering me a choice that was never really a choice at all.

Accept the Summoner’s Mark. Or die.

Now I belong to the Death Game — a brutal cosmic system where ordinary people are turned into Players, thrown into impossible missions, and forced to survive horrors designed for the amusement of gods.

Every trial has rules.
Every monster has a weakness.
Every victory comes with a reward.

And every reward makes me less human.

My name is Nerissa Valehart, and I refuse to be anyone’s pawn.

But surviving the Game means trusting the one man everyone warns me to fear.

Veyren Ashford is ruthless, powerful, and dangerously beautiful — a veteran Player with blood on his hands and secrets in his soul. He says attachment will get me killed. He says love is a weakness the Game always punishes.

Yet when death comes for me, Veyren is the one standing between us.

In a world where gods gamble with mortal lives, monsters hunt from the shadows, and desire may be the deadliest weakness of all, I have only one goal:

Survive long enough to cross the board.

And make the Starless God regret choosing me..............
The Alpha & The Vampire Queen

The Alpha & The Vampire Queen

1.1k Views · Ongoing · Kassy Rae Wall
Ambrosia, the Vampire Queen, believed her only duty was to safeguard the hard-won peace; yet, due to her brother Xander’s descent into chaos, she finds herself once again ensnared in a vortex of destiny. Ambrosia must make one of the hardest decisions she has ever had to make before, she must hunt her brother down and get a handle on the chaos that he is so determined to create. With the help of her sister in laws and a head dive she is able to see and know that her entire life she has had forbidden magic used against her to block her memories. As her sealed memories gradually reawaken, she uncovers a history of brutal betrayal suffered in her childhood—and discovers that her true enemy is none other than her own father. She tasked herself with finding Xander and saving him, her need for vengeance grows and she makes the choice to challenge her father to the death. Rising from Queen to the ultimate Guardian, Ambrosia will exact her vengeance amidst blood and fire, undergo a rebirth to claim her true crown, and face the final battle that will determine the ultimate fate of the throne.


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.
Protectors Of Her Warrior's Heart

Protectors Of Her Warrior's Heart

1.9k Views · Completed · arianniahrain
Tali had spent her entire life in hell.

Rescued by men who call themselves Protectors—warriors from another realm who embody the legends of angels and vampires—she is thrust into a world she never knew existed. For the first time, she experiences freedom, safety, and the possibility of a future.

But freedom comes with a price.

Tali is forced to face the father she believed abandoned her and a powerful council determined to use her for their own ends. Stranger still are the abilities awakening within her—powers no one understands, yet everyone seems desperate to control.

As she learns to trust, she chooses the mates destined to stand beside her. In their arms she finds love, devotion, and a family worth fighting for. But not everyone wants their bond to survive.

When the council betrays the Protectors and attempts to steal her newborn son, it ignites a war that will shake every realm.

Now Tali stands at the center of a conflict far greater than herself. The answers to ancient mysteries, the fate of her child, and the future of countless worlds all rest on her shoulders.

Surrounded by mates who love her fiercely and refuse to leave her side, Tali will battle enemies old and new, forge powerful alliances, and discover just how strong she truly is.

Because this war won't be won for her.

It will be won with her.

And together, they will fight for their future, their family, and a love worth crossing realms to protect.
His Lethal Obsession

His Lethal Obsession

2.3k Views · Ongoing · Olivia Chigozie
"Big Kai?"

He didn't respond but moved his eyes around the room, scanning the place.

"Wha...what are you doing here?"

His icy blue eyes returned to me, sending shivers down my spine. Then further dropped to my dress and then back to my eyes.

"The shit going on downstairs, what does it mean?" he asked, making my legs as weak as they are eager to flee.

"It's....it my wedding,"

He scoffed darkly. "Excuse me?"

I swallowed. "I am......getting married,"

He let out a humorless laugh, looking away and giving me lesser comfort. He looked at me with a demonic frown.

Terror washed me.

"Every single motherfucker/human being here, be it adult or child, including you, will burn before that happens,"

〽️〽️〽️

The quiet but pathetic life of Twenty-year-old Mia Jefferson changed the night she found a few months old interracial baby boy abandoned in a dumpster on her way home. She saved him and kept him in her care for almost a month until she was taken by a deadly gang who accused her of abduction. She thought it was it for her until the ruthless gang leader, Nathaniel Kincaid, known on the streets as Big Kai and the father of the baby appeared and added to her punishment. At the point when Mia is about to give up, Nathaniel makes her his baby's nanny as the only way to convince him that she is not the abductor. As she picked up her care for the baby, Nathaniel watched her every move consistently, placing his heart in a dark and passionate risk.