
Introduction
When Iris wins the prestigious Metropolitan Design Challenge, she catches the attention of Tony, a mysterious business student who offers to help with her startup plans. Their coffee shop meetings crackle with unspoken tension and possibility, but Tony harbours secrets of his own. As the heir to the Kennedy fortune, he's trapped between family expectations and his growing feelings for the brilliant designer who refuses to rely on anyone but herself.
Everything changes when Iris enters the Lawson competition, a design contest worth fifty thousand dollars, hosted in memory of Roxanne Lawson, an heiress who vanished twenty years ago. The missing girl shares Iris's birthday, and Tony's strange reaction to this detail hints at connections neither of them fully understands.
As Iris races to complete her collection, she must navigate the cutthroat world of high fashion, the complexities of falling for someone from a different world, and the unsettling possibility that the iris pin she was found with might be the key to a past she never knew existed. Some coincidences are too perfect to be accidents, and some secrets are too dangerous to stay buried.
A contemporary romance about ambition, identity, and the courage to claim your destiny, no matter who you were born to be.
Chapter 1
Iris was sitting on the benches and table of the college grounds, working on her pieces for her design course. She had been working on them for months, and they were getting closer by the day. She wanted to help her adoptive family after they took her in as a newborn and helped raise her four younger adoptive twin brothers.
Alongside her college work, she was working on some competition pieces that she hoped would help not only her family, if she won to set up the groundwork for her own design house that not only was clothing but the accessories as well.
Iris kept to herself at 19; she knew no one, as she was on scholarship, and most of the kids in this college were here thanks to their daddies' money.
“Oh, sorry, Miss, would you mind if I sit at this table with you?” A male voice came from behind her.
Iris glanced up from her sketches, her pencil hesitating mid-stroke. She hadn't expected anyone to approach her table—most students avoided her focused intensity like she carried some contagious disease. She scanned the stranger quickly: average height, casually dressed in jeans and a plain t-shirt that had seen better days. Nothing about him screamed "trust fund baby."
"Sure," she said, her tone cooler than she intended. She shifted her papers to make room, careful to cover her most promising designs with her arm. "Just don't bump the table. These sketches took hours."
"Wouldn't dream of it," he replied, setting down a worn backpack and taking the seat across from her. "I'm Tony, by the way."
Iris nodded but didn't offer her name in return. She bent her head back to her work, hoping he would take the hint that she wasn't interested in conversation. She needed to finish this sketch before her evening shift at the café.
"Those look incredible," Tony said after a minute of silence.
Iris's head snapped up. He was looking at her jewellery pieces with genuine curiosity, not the dismissive glance most people gave her work.
"Thanks," she said, surprised enough to forget her usual guardedness. "It's for my final portfolio."
“And those ones?” Tony asked, “Those designs are high-end.”
“Ah, they’re for an upcoming design competition I was hoping to enter, but these sorts of industries are more about who you know than how good the designs are. I’ve been saving to start my own design house, and if I can make enough waves, maybe even buy my parents a house of their own. They’ve done a lot for me and my four younger brothers.”
Tony's eyebrows rose slightly. "Four younger brothers? That's quite a household."
Iris felt the familiar tightening in her chest whenever someone commented on her family situation. She never knew whether people were genuinely interested or just making polite conversation before moving on. She studied Tony's face for signs of insincerity but found none.
"Twin sets. They're a handful, but worth it," she said, allowing a small smile to soften her features. "My parents took me in when I was just days old. They didn't have to, but they did."
She immediately regretted sharing that detail. Why was she telling this stranger about her adoption? She never discussed personal matters with classmates. Iris turned her attention back to her sketches, adding a delicate filigree pattern to a pendant design.
"That's really admirable, what you're trying to do for them," Tony said after a moment. He didn't push for more details, which Iris appreciated.
She shrugged, keeping her eyes on her work. "They'd do the same for me. They already have."
Tony pulled out a battered laptop and opened it, seemingly content to work in silence. The lack of forced small talk was refreshing. Most people who approached her either wanted something or couldn't handle the quiet.
After twenty minutes of companionable silence, Iris's phone alarm buzzed. She needed to pack up for her shift at Café Meridian.
"I've got to go," she said, carefully sliding her designs into a reinforced portfolio case.
"Sure," Tony nodded, glancing up from his screen. "Good luck with the competition. Your work is really something."
There was something in his tone, a genuine appreciation without the condescension she often detected from others at the college. For a second, Iris hesitated, wondering if she should say more.
"Thanks. I'm Iris, by the way." She offered her name like a small gift.
"Nice to meet you, Iris." He smiled, and for some reason, it didn't trigger her usual defences.
Three weeks later, Iris's hands trembled as she opened the email from the Metropolitan Design Challenge. She'd submitted her collection on a whim, never truly expecting to place among graduates from prestigious design schools across the country.
"We are pleased to inform you..."
She read the words three times before their meaning sank in. First place. She'd won first place and the $5,000 prize.
Iris pressed her hand against her mouth, suppressing a scream of joy that would have disturbed the entire dormitory floor. This was it, the beginning of everything she'd worked for. With this recognition and the prize money, she could launch her online boutique months earlier than scheduled.
She reached for her phone to call her parents, then hesitated. It was past midnight, and they'd be asleep with early shifts tomorrow. This news could wait until morning.
Instead, she opened her laptop and began drafting plans for her website. Sleep could wait. Her future and that of her family were just about to start.
‘Ok Iris we need to be careful with this money some of it needs to go into the bank for a real store may a couple of hundred, maybe a thousand to start off her online store but some of her clothing designs to not just jewelry there was another competition she was already work on designs towards so she would need to get more art supplies for that so maybe three hundred maybe four, a thousand aside to get her own place and a thousand to start the deposit for a home for her family. The rest could go to bills if anything were left.’ She thought to herself.
Last Chapters
#70 Chapter 70 Chapter 70
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#69 Chapter 69 Chapter 69
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#68 Chapter 68 Chapter 68
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#67 Chapter 67 Chapter 67
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#66 Chapter 66 Chapter 66
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#65 Chapter 65 Chapter 65
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#64 Chapter 64 Chapter 64
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#63 Chapter 63 Chapter 63
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#62 Chapter 62 Chapter 62
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#61 Chapter 61 Chapter 61
Last Updated: 2/16/2026
You Might Like 😍
A Queen Among Darkness (Book 4 in the Gods' Saga)
For centuries, she has been on the run, helping the supernatural community under the cloak of anonymity while she works to clear her name and save the very people after her from destruction.
Enemies are closing in, but an unexpected complication befalls her when she realises she’s been fated to someone who wants her species exterminated. After all, an evil chance seldom comes alone.
A Queen Among Darkness is the 4th book in the Queen Among Series/The Gods' Saga. This is an interconnected series. To see how it ends, I recommend reading the full series.
Books in the series in order:
A Queen Among Alphas - Book 1
Bite-Size Luna - A Queen Among Alphas Prequel (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Snakes - Book 2
A Queen Among Blood - Book 3
A Queen Among Darkness - Book 4
Whole Again - A Queen Among Alpha's spin-off (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Tides - Book 5
Valor, Virtue, and Verve - Tides Prequel Spin-off (will be available under book 5)
A Queen Among Gods - Book 6
Runaway Empress - A Queen Among Snakes Prequel (will be available under book 2)
A Queen Among Tempests - Book 7
Dark Vocation - Darkness spin-off (will be available under book 4)
A Court of Arcane Souls Anthology (side character short stories exclusive to Ream)
Royal Shadow Series (Next Generation Coming Soon)
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.
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.
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.
Pregnant by My Husband's Rival Alpha
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?
BROKEN TRUST
Neither of them knew she was carrying his child.
Emily’s affair didn’t just end her marriage—it erased the life she thought was guaranteed. Ryan left without looking back, carrying his anger like armor and leaving Emily alone with regret she would never outrun. Three years later, fate drags them back into each other’s world, along with a little girl who has Ryan’s eyes and a truth that shatters everything he thought he knew.
Old wounds reopen, grief masquerades as rage, and love refuses to stay buried. As parenthood binds them together and the past demands accountability, Emily and Ryan must face the question neither of them is ready to answer: is broken trust the end of their story… or the beginning of a love forged through loss, forgiveness, and brutal honesty?
Bella and Her Beast
.
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."
Goddess Of The Underworld
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 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.
The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)
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-
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?
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.












