
Introduction
*****
He chuckled at her desperate attempt to make the lie believable. "Pretty little liar, your face betrays a lot, sadly" he placed his hand on her cheeks, his face dark "you can't run from me, Maya; no matter how hard you try to, I'll always find you. Even in the deepest part of hell, And when I find you, you get punished according to how long you were away from me, understand?"
His tone was so soft and gentle it could have fooled anybody but not her. She could see through him, and She trembled under his touch.
"Y-yes, maestro"
Though her sister commits the crime, Maya Alfredo is turned in by her parents to be punished by the Ruthless Don Damon Xavier for selling information about the Costa Nostra to the police.
Her world is overturned and shattered; she is taken to the Don's Manor, where she is owned by him and treated like his plaything, meanwhile knowing his intentions to destroy her.
But then things get dark in the Don's Manor, with the presence of Derinem Xavier. Maya doesn't stand a chance in Damon's furnace. Will he destroy her and everything she loves for the sins he thinks she committed? Or does luck have other plans for her?
Note— This is a dark romance. Not all lovey-dovey. ML is a psychopath. Trigger warnings!!!
Chapter 1
"Damon, please, I beg of you, let me go," she cried. He pulled her up with his tie, which he used to bind her hands.
She knew struggling was futile when he looked at her eerily, and like he was voodoo, she shivered. She tried to read his eyes, but, like his conscience, they were blank.
To her surprise, he left her and walked to the bedside table in the room. Still, her fright soared as she wondered where he went and what he would do with her.
But when he came back, he was holding a pair of scissors.
"I love it when you beg me," he murmured, snipping her white dress away, tearing it to pieces till she was completely naked before him because she wore no undergarments. "Beg me, Maya. Beg me!"
Maya swallowed.
"Oh, you're being disobedient, aren't you?" He inserted his tongue into her ear and whispered, "I like that too." He buried his fingers in her bum. "Because now, I have every reason to do what I've always wanted to do to you. Maya..."
Some Months Earlier
Maya entered the room, exhausted from work. Working as a journalist was quite eventful that day. It was a miracle a stray bullet didn't slash her due to the collision of criminals and the police.
Hearing footsteps behind her, Maya turned to find her casually strolling in. Ana, standing a foot taller than her, was a beauty to behold. Carrying every physical trait of their mother, the unpleasant sneer in her beautiful lips held her disdain for her elder sister.
At least with a detest that open, there was no need to wonder if it was all in her head. She was not only unloved by her sister but by her entire family. Her parents were filthy rich, but she was always treated like dirt for reasons unknown.
So it was no surprise when she got her first freedom in the form of her job. Alfredo, as a patriarch, although hating the sight of his daughter, made it a rule never to let her leave, which she never understood the more she thought about it.
"Maya father calls for you."
She felt the ripples run through her skin. The last time she checked, her father ducked, seeing her. "Why?" Maya asked, on alert.
"Well, he didn't tell me, but he wants to talk over dinner."
Maya eyed her sister, and seeing the smug on Anna’s face, she suspected she was lying about knowing nothing. And the fact that she had been called to dine with the family was even more strange.
"I'll be there in a minute," she said finally
"Just be fast about it," Anna said as she walked away. "There will be a visitor soon, and Dad wants to be done with the conversation before he comes in." when she was at the exit, she added mockingly, "Don't forget to take your bath, too, Maya. You stink,"
As she watched her sister leave, Maya became scared. The last time her father called her was two years ago when she slapped Anna because of a specific disgraceful incident. Her punishment wasn't an experience she liked to remember.
But since it was over dinner, maybe it wasn't so bad. Being the second daughter and child of Alfredo Petra had her constantly on the defensive.
She got into the bathroom and took a quick shower. She wore a light gown, and because she didn't wear a bra, her nipples were very visible against it.
Maya strolled to the dining room, where her family had already sat around the table. She stood beside an empty seat, waiting for him to scream at her. She wondered what she'd done this time. As far as she knew, she was successful in avoiding him and staying clear of his part. She guessed that wasn't enough.
"Sit down, Maya; let's have dinner," her father said softly.
She looked up at him sharply. Did he use that soft tone on her? She couldn't believe it. Was she dreaming?
Still standing and wondering if she heard well, her mother repeated, "Take your seat, child. Your food might get cold."
Her bones stiffened. But she did sit down, and her food was served to her by a maid. The seat opposite her was empty. Her father sat at the head of the table, while Anna, who was opposite their mother and still eying her up and down, was close to their father, holding his hand.
Maya noticed that the older man looked frail and sick. He also looked worried.
When they began eating, Maya watched them, unsure what to do. She wasn't comfortable within her own family, and it showed.
"Why don't you eat your food, Maya?" Her mother asked her.
"Maybe she thinks we poisoned it," Anna said spitefully
"No, No," she quickly said, "I don't think it was poisoned. I'll never think that, mother.."
"Then eat your food."
She quickly began pilling the food in her mouth, tasting nothing.
Her father cleared his throat. "I know you're wondering why I called for you," he paused, and after seconds of silence, he continued, "I want to know if you can make a sacrifice for your family."
Confusion heightened. "I don't understand, father."
She spotted the heat rising to his face, and she quickly added so he wouldn't hurt her like he always did, "Yes, I can, father. I can make a sacrifice for my family."
"No matter how big?" He prodded.
Maya wasn't comfortable with where all of this was going, but still, she answered, "No matter how big, father.
He nodded, then, from a briefcase at his side, he brought out a piece of paper and handed her a pen. "Sign this," he said as he gave her the paper.
This time, she had to ask, "What is this?"
"This will prove your love for your family," he said. Heon. He broke eye contact with her and looked out of the window before he began to explain, "Anna found the reports on Cosa Nostra you've been working on."
Her heart beat loudly against her chest. The project on the Nostra dome was a personal one; it wasn't supposed to be seen by anybody. What had Anna been doing in her room to bump into the papers it had been on? Maya hoped nobody else had found out
"And she sent it to the police for a small bounty."
She gasped. She was shattered. No matter how much her sister treated her, she wouldn't wish for the danger coming for her. She looked at her father and wondered: weren't they making a big mistake by keeping her here instead of hiding her somewhere far away from all the danger that was sure to come?
"Luckily, the Don had an insider who got the papers, so it's in safe hands. But the Don..." His breath was shaky. "wants something in return if we want to keep our lives
"What's that, father?" She asked. As far as she knew, she was ready to do anything to help her family. If he wanted her to go to the public and tell them everything she wrote on that paper was a lie, maybe with that, she could even earn her parents' love. "What do I have to do, father?"
He gazed at her and then finished, "In place of your sister, you have to agree with whatever Don Damon says."
The shock stuck in her throat
Last Chapters
#91 Chapter 93
Last Updated: 1/14/2026#90 Chapter 92
Last Updated: 1/14/2026#89 Chapter 91
Last Updated: 1/14/2026#88 Chapter 90
Last Updated: 1/14/2026#87 Chapter 89
Last Updated: 1/14/2026#86 Chapter 88
Last Updated: 1/14/2026#85 Chapter 87
Last Updated: 1/14/2026#84 Chapter 86
Last Updated: 1/14/2026#83 Chapter 86
Last Updated: 1/14/2026#82 Chapter 84
Last Updated: 1/14/2026
You Might Like 😍
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.
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.
Twin Prince Alphas Student Mate
As her 18th birthday approaches, her brothers warn her about the powerful pull she might feel toward dominant wolves. But it's not just any wolves they need to worry about—it's her teachers. Cameron and Samuel are more than just older, wiser, and off-limits; they might just be her fated mates.
While navigating complex relationships, academic pressures, and the normal trials of young adult life, an unexpected threat jeopardizes the academy. Explosions rock their world, forcing Lyla and her love interests into a chaotic swirl of heroism, heartbreak, and hard choices.
Will Lyla follow her heart and let destiny lead the way, or will the very rules that bind their world tear them apart? Amidst turmoil and taboo, Lyla must make choices that could forever change the course of her life and the lives of those she holds dear.
Discover a story where love isn't just complicated—it's forbidden, ageless, and defies all rules. In a world of supernatural beings and extraordinary stakes, will Lyla's love life be another casualty, or her saving grace?
Game of Destiny
When Finlay finds her, she is living among humans. He is smitten by the stubborn wolf that refuse to acknowledge his existence. She may not be his mate, but he wants her to be a part of his pack, latent wolf or not.
Amie cant resist the Alpha that comes into her life and drags her back into pack life. Not only does she find herself happier than she has been in a long time, her wolf finally comes to her. Finlay isn't her mate, but he becomes her best friend. Together with the other top wolves in the pack, they work to create the best and strongest pack.
When it's time for the pack games, the event that decides the packs rank for the coming ten year, Amie needs to face her old pack. When she sees the man that rejected her for the first time in ten years, everything she thought she knew is turned around. Amie and Finlay need to adapt to the new reality and find a way forward for their pack. But will the curve ball split them apart?
Cursed Fates
The Alpha King's Human Mate
“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 Dark Witch & The Alpha Book 2
The vampire queen (Ambrosia) and Pythia will become close and discover the true origins of their pasts. They rely on each other when their mates are not around. New family is discovered and it is time they all come together to face one of the toughest moments in the dark witches history.
Reborn 14 Years later: Fix My Broken Family
At least, that's what everyone believed.
One moment, she was trapped inside a sinking car beneath the icy waters of the Hudson River. The next, she woke up in her own bathtub and somehow fourteen years in the future.
Her husband is no longer the warm, easygoing man she remembers.
Her five-year-old son is now a nineteen-year-old stranger who looks at her with suspicion.
Her twins barely remember the mother they lost—one forever chasing affection, the other keeping the entire world at arm's length.
And the family she left behind has become something broken, distant, and unrecognizable.
Now Isabella faces an impossible challenge: rebuilding a family that never truly recovered from losing her.
Fourteen years have left scars on everyone.
Unfortunately for those causing the damage, Isabella Winston has returned to set things right.
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.
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)
A pack of their own
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-












