762 Book(s) Related to corrupted heir

"Ames, darling, you worry me." Linc Tanner, my billionaire stepfather breathes into the phone, and heat rises to my face at that damn nickname. That nickname coming out from his forbidden lips, capable of making my toes curl, my knees bent before him, taking all of him deep into my throat.

♠︎ ♠︎ ♠︎

The first day she came in contact with her stepfather, Amelia felt something shift in the air. Linc exudes menace. There's something about him that overwhelmed her.

As the years passed—she found this magnetism toward him. It drew her in so deeply that despite knowing how wrong it was to find her stepfather attractive and lust after him, she couldn’t talk herself out of it.

It was every shade of wrong. She should’ve been disgusted.

Her pussy still clenched every time she thought about him, the way he looks at her, those dark eyes filled with a ring of lust and primal hunger. It melted her, it soaked her. It drenched her.

When Amelia received a call to intern in her billionaire stepfather's company throughout the summer break, Amelia is terrified of what awaits her back in his New York City mansion where just three years ago after her mother's death and till now, she had been fighting against her treacherous feelings for him.

He's been the only object of her wildest fantasies. Oh, the things she had thought about him doing to her, they were illicit. Filthy. Completely taboo.

But Amelia is determined not to let her secret attraction override her judgments. Only if Linc would share the same resolve. She got the shock of her life when he didn't, and that is where the lines get blurrier for them.

Keeping a dragon in Bellweather was the most forbidden thing a fairy could ever do.
Mara Bell should have known better.
After being cursed with terrible luck, Mara has spent years being treated like the unlucky fairy of Bellweather. But everything changes when she accidentally unlocks a handsome dragon prince who has been trapped inside a magical bottle for a hundred years.
Keeping him hidden could cost her everything.
But when the dragon prince offers her a deal, Mara can't resist.
He will help her regain her luck, and in return, Mara will use her magic and potion-making skills to help him overcome the strange curse that makes him stutter and find a way back to his kingdom.
It should have been simple.
Except keeping a handsome dragon prince in her magical shop is harder than Mara expected.
Between late-night potion making, stolen glances, magical mishaps, and the growing attraction between them, Mara begins to realize that their arrangement is becoming something neither of them planned.
But the fairies of Bellweather are beginning to suspect her.
If they discover that Mara has been hiding a dragon prince, she could lose everything.
Now she has a choice.
Send the dragon she has fallen for back into the unknown... or break the most sacred rule in Bellweather and risk everything to keep the man who looks at her as though he would burn the whole world just to protect her.
The deal was supposed to save her luck.
She never expected it to steal her heart.

I told myself to only check his wound, but my gaze betrayed me--sliding back to his lips again and again. Thin, pale, but so inviting it made my throat dry.

What are you doing, Matilda? Stop!

My hand trembled as I nearly touched them. Just a little closer… Then, as if fate wished to humiliate me, his eyes opened. Golden amber, locking straight into mine.

"Want to kiss me?"

"No! I—!" My whole body jolted backward.

I stumbled, about to fall flat on the floor but in that instant, his hand shot out. His grip was firm, pulling me forward instead of letting me fall.

My body lurched, and before I knew it, I dropped my fucking ass on his lap.

His gaze instantly dropped lower, stopping at my breast. I froze, realizing my nightwear left little to the imagination. The sudden awareness of it made my entire face burn.

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

This is why I always get dumped! Because I lose my head the moment I see a handsome man!

★★★

Matilda Lawson is just an ordinary investigative journalist in Sydney, chasing murder stories while surviving her string of failed romances.

Whilst Blake McAllister is anything but ordinary... Alpha of the powerful Blue Mountain Pack, hiding his beast behind the mask of a cold and untouchable CEO in the human world.

One night was enough. Her human scent branded itself into his soul, and Blake lost control. From that moment on, Matilda became his obsession... the woman he would never release, no matter the cost.

"Her scent was his deadly obsession--her body, his temptation. And her heart... whether she wanted it or not, would only ever belong to him!"

On the night that Lioraé was supposed to get engaged, she found her boyfriend with not one but three women laughing and calling her boring.
She – angry at herself and all the years she wasted on him – determines not to hold back again. She is going to give one night to the next man she sees.
Soren Vale, a dangerously breathtaking and strikingly rich billionaire, happens to be her victim. They tumble into bed and spend the night together. He is very much unlike everything she has ever known. One night is all she asked for, just one night to forget.
Lioraé does not expect her world to take a huge turn until she walks into her new job on Monday, only to discover that her one-night stand is her boss. Now Soren is holding her tightly because he wants her.
He wants her close, in his penthouse, in his arms and on his bed.
He treats her special and makes her feel things she had never felt before, things she would never want to admit out loud.
When she discovers she is carrying his child, the only line between them blurs, making her the billionaire's obsession – the man she can't walk away from.
Now they both have to figure out what love and obsession have in common.

When her twin sister runs away on her wedding day, Elinra Cyrus is forced to take her place, to marry the cursed Alpha of the Zarek Pack. But the ceremony goes horribly wrong, binding her not to one… but three powerful hybrid Alphas.

Trapped in a cold land ruled by secrets and moonlight, Elinra must navigate deadly passion, betrayal, and a curse born from forbidden love. As desire and danger intertwine, she discovers that one of the Alphas, the ruthless Kaelrix, might be her true mate… and the key to breaking the curse.

But when betrayal comes from the people she loves most, Elinra must decide, surrender to fate, or rise against it and rewrite her destiny.

Ariel thought rejection was the worst pain a mate bond could bring—until the night she was beaten, mocked, and left with nothing but her scars. She ran, desperate for freedom, only to fall into the arms of the one man every alpha feared to cross.

Trent Blackwood.
Cruel. Untouchable. A predator wrapped in the skin of a king. His very presence could silence a room, his dark aura enough to make even alphas bow their heads. Women trembled at his name, but when his hard gaze landed on Ariel—the fragile slave girl who should have broken years ago—he didn’t see weakness. He saw fire. He saw his.

She wanted escape. He wanted her surrender.
Her defiance only fueled his hunger, her innocence clashing dangerously with his possessive obsession. The more she pushed him away, the more he pulled her into his shadow—protecting her, claiming her, daring the world to touch what was his.

Between betrayal, forbidden desires, and a war that could tear their world apart, Ariel will discover that the most dangerous place she can be… is in the arms of the alpha who swore to never let her go.

My husband Ronald's best friend Clyde died three months ago, and with his last breath, he made Ronald promise to take care of his pregnant widow, Jennifer. From that moment, Jennifer invaded our lives, and I was only four months pregnant at the time.

Then Jennifer got caught in a gang shootout. She needed an emergency blood transfusion, and she had this rare blood type—Rhnull. Turns out, I'm Rhnull too.

To save Jennifer and her baby, Ronald forced me to abort mine.

The invincible Dragon Lord Kane returns from the Northern Frontier, only to find his daughter caged and his pianist wife trapped in a luxury lounge. He chains her in pain, summons 10,000 elite soldiers to rush her performance, while hidden demon forces creep in to destroy his family.

Everyone knows how much Gideon Moretti loves his wife Isabella.

We built this empire together—from street enforcers to rulers of all five boroughs of New York. He promised me the world.

I believed him.

For five years, I took bullets for him. Bled for him. Sacrificed everything so he could become the king of this city.

Then, just days before our fifth anniversary—on the same day I found out I was pregnant—I saw a video.

Gideon, in a bridal boutique, his hand on another woman's waist. Helping her choose a wedding dress.

Daisy. His first love.

Turns out, she's been back for two months. Every "business trip" he took? He was with her.

I made my decision that night. I would leave. Take our baby and disappear.

My child would not grow up in a house built on lies.

For three years, everyone at Spire Academy believed Liam loved me. Until I uncovered his secret plan: steal my academy recommendation to save Anna, and keep me waiting on the sidelines. He handed my future to another girl and threw me to a mad duke to be dissected. I escaped death by leaping into the Rift of Silence, only to be pulled from the abyss by Arnold, an ancient night lord. When Liam finally realized his sin, he begged for a second chance. But the girl who waited for him in the dark died in the rift. I have a new life, and I will never look back.

I was employee No.001, building his startup with him right from the garage.
Then a subordinate draped in an IvyLeague aura arrived, and he pushed me ruthlessly aside.
Crushed by betrayal, I fled eight hundred miles to Seattle and rebuilt my career at a rival tech giant. When anonymous online smears sought to ruin my reputation, I unmasked every one of her lies.
He fell from his CEO throne. I stepped into my welldeserved spotlight, and I will never be anyone’s second choice.

My husband, Roman, has a bad heart. Five years ago they cut his chest open, and after that I quit my job and stayed home to keep him alive.
That day I got to his office ten minutes early with his lunch.
Through the glass door I watched Brielle Nash, his assistant, pick up his pill box. Twenty-eight compartments. I fill it every Sunday night.
She flipped open Wednesday evening, tipped the pills into her palm, and dropped them in the trash.
"That's the one that makes you feel eighty."
Roman laughed. He didn't stop her.
Then she handed him the can she'd been drinking from, and he took a sip out of her hand.
"That's living," she said. "Don't tell the boss lady, though. She'd have me fired."
He reached over and ruffled her hair. "I'll lock it in my drawer."
My lunchbox was sitting by his elbow. He hadn't opened it.
Later I found the flask in that drawer. Supplement bottles. A keycard for a boxing gym.
And a key I hadn't seen in five years.
I didn't do anything.
I went home and opened the safe and went through fifteen years of marriage one thing at a time.
Then I started working out what would be mine when he died.

My pre-wedding party was in full swing.

 

Yet, the center of attention wasn't me, but Julian's childhood sweetheart, Blair. She had just announced she was auctioning off her "first kiss."

 

My fiancé, Julian, bought that kiss without a second thought.

 

Amidst the roaring cheers of the crowd, they locked lips. They looked like the perfect match, made in heaven.

 

In that moment, I didn't cry. I didn't make a scene.

 

I casually pulled out my phone and replied to the email from the Paris headquarters: "I accept. I am ready to start immediately."

For three years, I genuinely believed I was the luckiest woman in the world.

Until I hit play on that video.

The moment the screen lit up, my perfect reality shattered into a million jagged pieces.

The woman writhing on the bed was Amanda—the sweet, innocent girl we had both grown up with.

And the hand tracing the curve of her bare skin? It wore the platinum wedding band I had personally slipped onto Louis’s finger.

"I missed you so much..."

"You drive me fucking crazy, baby..."

Hearing my own husband's signature sweet nothings whispered to my childhood best friend gutted me completely.

Our entire social circle constantly praised us as the golden couple. But beneath the glossy surface, who could have guessed this flawless marriage was built on a mountain of sick lies?

Well, if Louis was such a brilliant actor, I figured it was time to give him a show of my own.

I was going to rip off his mask and show the entire world exactly what kind of monster my "perfect husband" truly was.

Two years ago, my best friend Maddie knelt in front of me, crying as she borrowed $50,000.
The very next day, she vanished off the face of the earth. No explanation, no apology, not even a single text message.
I was left carrying her toxic debt. I lost my fiancé, and I lost my ability to trust anyone.
Until one late night, a call came in from an unknown number originating in an abandoned mining district in West Virginia.
On the other end of the line, Maddie said she was getting married. She had the money ready—every last cent.
The wedding venue was a ruined church deep in the mountains, abandoned for a decade. The time: Friday, midnight.

My parents raised me for twenty-four years. Then they found out I wasn't their biological daughter.

Their real daughter came home. She'd only been back two years. That's all it took to erase twenty-four.

When kidnappers grabbed us, I used my body as a shield. They beat me until something inside me ruptured. I was dying from internal bleeding, but no one could tell.

My parents wouldn't even look at me. "This is your fault! None of this would've happened if it weren't for you!"

"Get downstairs and apologize to your sister. If you can't, pack your things and get out."

They threw her a party at a downtown hotel while I died alone in my room.

I thought they'd be relieved. Maybe even glad. I thought they'd just move on like I never existed.

But when they finally learned the truth, they fell apart.

My ex-boyfriend wrote a hit song about me. He told the whole world I dumped him for being poor, painting me as the heartless ex who took nothing but his dog when I left.
I let him believe it. It was easier for him to hate me than to watch me decay.
A year later, he was on national television, his arm wrapped around a beautiful new starlet. When the host brought up our sudden breakup, Evan laughed coldly.
"I'd pay to see her face right now," he told the audience. "As long as she's living a pathetic life, I can finally move on."
The host didn't laugh. Instead, he stared at Evan with a heavy gaze.
"She hasn't been living a pathetic life, Evan. Actually, she sent us these recordings... before she died."

"Are you always this damn sensitive?" my husband snapped, his hands lingering on his ex’s waist.
I stood there, holding our 5th-anniversary cake and my pregnancy secret. He canceled our romantic dinner just to comfort her.
So, I threw the cake away. Next, I'll throw him away.

On the third anniversary of our bond, I pushed open the private room door, my heart full of hope—only to see Chisel on one knee, leaning in to kiss Sylvia. In that instant, every thread of love and trust inside me snapped.
“What are you doing?” My voice trembled; tears blurred my vision.
Chisel looked up at me, eyes full of irritation. “Enough, Leah. Stop putting on that wounded look. We were just playing a game. I lost, that’s all. Why are you angry?”
I could no longer bear the betrayal. After losing our pup, something inside me died completely. I decided to break the mate bond, to end this painful, scarred union once and for all.
Even as Chisel kept apologizing, swearing he would change, I no longer believed him. My voice went cold:
“Even if I forgive you, our pup never will.”
I left the home that had once been full of love and hope, flying toward a new world that would be mine alone.

"My sister threatens to take my mate. And I let her keep him."
Born without a wolf, Seraphina is the disgrace of her pack—until a drunken night leaves her pregnant and married to Kieran, the ruthless Alpha who never wanted her.
But their decade-long marriage was no fairytale.
For ten years, she endured the humiliation: No Luna title. No mating mark. Just cold sheets and colder stares.
When her perfect sister returned, Kieran filed for divorce the same night. And her family was happy to see her marriage broken.
Seraphina didn't fight but left silently. However, when danger struck, shocking truths emerged:
☽ That night wasn't an accident
☽ Her "defect" is actually a rare gift
☽ And now every Alpha—including her ex-husband—will fight to claim her
Too bad she's done being owned.


Kieran's growl vibrated through my bones as he pinned me against the wall. The heat of him seared through layers of fabric.
"You think leaving is that easy, Seraphina?" His teeth grazed the unmarked skin of my throat. "You. Are. Mine."
A hot palm slid up my thigh. "No one else will ever touch you."
"You had ten years to claim me, Alpha." I bared my teeth in a smile. "Funny how you only remember I'm yours... when I'm walking away."

He was the Alpha who refused to claim me. He became the man who couldn't live without me…
On her 18th birthday, Morrana, the Omega of Shadowcrest discovered the cruelest joke of her life-her fated mate is Alpha Caius Varro, the very man whose family destroyed hers.
Caius refused to acknowledge their bond, choosing a political alliance over his unwanted mate. He gives Morrana one rule above all others: never let another man touch her.
But Morrana refused to spend her life as his secret.
She faked her death and left Shadowcrest behind, unaware that the weak Omega everyone despised carries the blood of the lost Moon Wolves, a legendary lineage believed to have disappeared centuries ago.
When Caius finally realized what he had lost, Morrana was no longer waiting for him.
The mate he refused to claim may become the one woman he can never get back…

In a world where the magic of the ocean and the secrets of the moon intertwine, Mia, a dazzling golden mermaid, dreams of true love. During a festive night on the beach, her life takes an unexpected turn when she meets Andrew, a charismatic scientist who hides a dark secret: he is a werewolf. The connection between them is instantaneous, but happiness is short-lived, as the evil mermaids who stalk the werewolves are quick to show their cruelty..
When these evil mermaids kidnap Mia, her life is extinguished in a tragic twist of fate. Heartbroken, Andrew defied the laws of nature in a desperate attempt to revive her.
Thus, using Mia's organs and heart, he creates a new creature: a reborn mermaid, powerful and passionate, endowed with extraordinary abilities and, most importantly, a deep connection to him.

Now, this new mermaid awakens in a world where love and revenge intertwine. Though her essence is that of Mia, the reborn mermaid, whom Andrés has named Selene, carries with her fragments of memories that emerge in flashes, leaving her conflicted between her new identity and the love that binds her to Andrés.

Selene discovers that her resurrection has not been without consequences. The sciencie Andrés used to bring her back has upset the balance between sea creatures and werewolves, unleashing the wrath of the evil mermaids who now seek revenge for Mia's death.

"She was MINE before. How could I have known she would find another man so quickly?"
Dresden Wade was pretty sure the goddess was punishing him. Married for half a decade to his childhood sweetheart without a child, he is desperate for a chance to fight his wrongs when he sees her again.
His TRUE mate. The woman he scorned and humiliated all those years ago.
Except that now, she is standing holding hands with another Alpha.
Mara Reid wants nothing to do with the surly, arrogant Alpha that used to be her mate. He had made the earlier parts of her adulthood traumatic to say the least.
So why did meeting him again feel like coming home?
Why did her traitorous heart skip whenever he called her name?

"You will keep teleported back if you choose to want to be with him, remember it!" The kindest man turned into a villain.

"I won't lose you to him again!" The ruthless man turned into soft.

In between them, Choi was bewildered to choose her right future partner.

While she was anxious between them, her family members tried to kill her for the property that was going to be her.

Who will she choose? And the teleportation will keep turn the table again and again to make her life worse?

Let's see in the chapters!

She lost her mother to him. Then her father. Then her crown.

Then the night came when she lost everything else.

Valdris is not a man who waits. He has fought the same war for three hundred years, buried generals, toppled kingdoms, and never once blinked. He takes what he needs and he does not apologise for it.

He needed a witch queen.

He did not expect her

But something far older than their war is moving through the south, and it is not stopping. It does not negotiate. It does not retreat. It has been feeding on the earth itself for centuries — slowly, quietly, the way a fire feeds on a house before anyone smells the smoke.

Malachar the Demon Monarch has been patient for three hundred years.

He isn't anymore.

Dragon fire won't touch him. Armies won't slow him. Every wall between him and what he wants has already begun to crack — and he knows it. The only question left is whether the two people who can stop him will destroy each other first.

A prisoner who has every reason to let the world fall.

A king who has never once asked for help.

And a demon lord who is already inside the walls.

Some enemies you can fight.

Some you were always meant to face together.

The hard part is surviving long enough to figure out which is which.

The second the graduation ceremony ended, my parents took us all to the nicest restaurant in town.

They said they wanted to properly celebrate having "two graduates" in the family.

Pierce, my boyfriend of four years, showed up last with a huge bouquet of champagne roses in his arms.

I'd just gotten up from my chair when he walked right past me and handed the whole bouquet to my friend Brooke. "Happy graduation. No crying, okay?"

My mom was all smiles, going on about how thoughtful Pierce always was.

Then he caught my eye and hesitated. He tugged one rose free from the bunch and held it out to me. "You're not really into this kind of thing anyway, right?"

So that was my graduation gift from my boyfriend. One stem he'd pulled out of another girl's bouquet without a second thought.

Once we sat down, the conversation quickly turned to jobs.

Brooke looked miserable as she told us she hadn't heard back from a single place she'd applied to.

Pierce put down his fork and knife right away. "Come work at my family's hotel. Pick any job you want. I've got you."

My brother leaned in too. "My company's hiring right now. I can refer you. It's literally one phone call."

My dad gave her a sympathetic look. "Don't stress. You're so talented, good companies are going to be fighting over you."

The three of them crowded around her with ideas, each one trying harder than the last.

I'd just graduated too, but when it came to me, my dad barely gave it a thought. "Clara can just grab whatever job she can get. It's not like she can afford to be picky."

My mom nodded. "If anybody's willing to take you, just be grateful."

I stuck the rose in the water glass in front of me. The stem was too long and the glass was too shallow, so it slumped against the rim. No matter how I set it, it wouldn't stay up.

Just like me in this family. However hard I tried, I could never find my footing. Whether I was there or not, it made no difference to anyone.

Fine. Then I'd leave.

I'd go somewhere as far away from them as I could get, and this time I wasn't coming back.

I am the top algorithm genius on Wall Street.
When my wife's first love got into serious trouble, she didn't hesitate to cut off my daughter's medical expenses and force me to go to jail for that scumbag.
But she didn't know that without me, her multi-billion dollar empire was just an empty shell that could explode at any moment.
She could never have known that the little girl she cursed as a "bastard" and who was driven to her death by her own hands was actually her own flesh and blood, whom she thought had died at birth.
When, a few days later, I, who should have been dying in prison, suddenly arrived with short-selling capital and a top-secret paternity test... I wonder if this high and mighty queen will still be able to laugh.

My daughter begged me, tears in her eyes, to take her to gymnastics camp—just the two of us.

I thought it was her way of proving she loved me.

I was wrong.

In that hotel room in Toronto, I overheard my husband's voice—with another woman.

“Don't worry, Sophia will find a way to stay a few more days. I promised her that blue limited-edition leotard.”

“Her body now… after giving birth, it's ruined.”

In that moment, my world collapsed.

I thought I'd only been betrayed by my husband.
But the daughter I raised with everything I had—she was his accomplice.

The child I nurtured with my own hands kept clearing the path: so that woman could sleep in my bed, wear the lingerie I could no longer fit into, sneer in front of the mirror at every single mark my body earned from bringing life into this world.

I once believed that giving up my career would be enough to hold my family together.

But they joined hands to tell me: my sacrifice was never honored. It was a joke.

When a woman who has given everything to her family finally wakes up—

Her revenge will make every single one of them remember exactly what they did.

My husband's first love was in trouble.
When the news came, I was lying on the operating table.
Dr. Miller put down his scalpel and said to Dr. Johnson, "I'll leave my wife's surgery to you."

"If I don’t go now, I might regret it for the rest of my life."

With that, he turned and walked away.
Watching my husband's retreating figure, I couldn't hold back—tears fell.
The next second, the cold blade of a scalpel touched my skin.

Dr. Johnson spoke calmly, "Why the tears? With me here, you'll be fine."

"Mommy's just a housewife! I don't want Mommy anymore—I want Aunt Jessica!"

Those words from my eight-year-old son, Jimmy, hit harder than any physical blow. I stood frozen in our living room, surrounded by the shards of the vase I’d just smashed. My husband, Robert, didn't even flinch. He just pulled Jessica closer, his hand resting possessively on her waist.

"Stop being dramatic, Scarlett," Robert sneered, his eyes cold. "Jessica is my soulmate. She understands my work. You? You just clean."

Eight years of devotion. Eight years of sacrificing my career to build this home. And now, my husband and son were looking at a stranger with the love that belonged to me.

I tried to reach for Jimmy, but he pushed me away with his small, angry fists. "Bad Mommy! Aunt Jessica buys me candy! You're just an ugly hag!"

My heart twisted until it snapped. I watched them leave for Jessica's award party—an award for a paper I practically wrote but couldn't claim. I was left alone in the silence of the house I paid for, bleeding from the glass cuts on my hands.

Later that night, at the hospital, after I’d been injured by Robert’s own hand, the nurse asked Jimmy who I was. He looked me dead in the eye and said, "I don't know her. Jessica is my mom."

That was the moment the old Scarlett died. I wiped the blood from my face, picked up my phone, and dialed my lawyer.

"Mr. Owens," I whispered, my voice trembling but resolute. "Let's redraft the agreement. I don't want custody. They can have each other."

In the seventh year of being a stay-at-home husband, I discovered the son I cherished as the most precious treasure in my life was actually the illegitimate child of my wife and her male best friend.
To conceal the scandal of her infidelity, my CEO wife, worth millions, joined forces with her male best friend in a grand deception. They single-handedly destroyed my artistic career, transforming me into a free nanny raising their illegitimate child.
Upon learning the truth, I didn't lose my composure.
I calmly presented the divorce papers and the paternity test report proving no biological relation, then turned and walked away without looking back.
Later, that ever-lofty wife, the one who had once publicly doused me with ice water for her male best friend, was utterly consumed by regret and fury.
She kicked the scoundrel to the curb. In front of a crowd, she pressed a switchblade to her own throat, casting aside all dignity to kneel on the ground, crying and begging me to look at her just once more.
I didn't even blink. My voice was as cold as ice. "If you want to die, do it outside. Don't ruin my mood for coffee."

“Why is Elara dying on my stream?”

Sienna Vale laughed in front of half a million viewers while my heroine glitched on-screen, wearing the ring I designed and speaking the line I wrote.

Caleb didn’t ask if I was okay. He shoved the emergency laptop toward me and said, “Fix it before the investors panic.”

So I opened the live build.

But instead of saving his launch, I patched one line into the game credits:

Created by Maya Reed.

EXCERPT:

"Rayne stood looking at her reflection in the mirror. Her a pale green ballgown clung to her curves and left little to the imagination. Her jet-black curls are swept up and pinned to her head, leaving her neck exposed. Tonight was the night that most of the unmated wolves in all the North American packs would hopefully find their mates. She was sure all of them were just oozing with excitement.

She was not.

She didn’t want a mate. She didn’t need a mate...."

“...but the sudden scent of jasmine and vanilla hit her nose from somewhere close. That meant only one thing. Her mate was near..."


Rayne met her mate at the Moonlight Ball when she was eighteen, her mate that she never wanted to find, that she never wanted in her life. He showed up out of nowhere. His actions that night unknowingly set her free. She took the freedom he gave her, ran away, and never once looked back.

Now five years later he shows back up in her life after rejecting her five years ago, demanding that she take up her rightful place by his side. He walked away from her after calling her weak. No way was she going to just let him back into her life as if he belonged there. Rayne never wanted a mate, would he being here now change that? Her body and soul beg for him to claim her, yet her heart belongs to another.

Can her mate convince her to give him a chance? Will her lover convince her to stay with him? The Moon Goddess paired her with someone not of her choice, all Rayne has ever wanted was the chance to choose for herself. Who will win? Rayne or the fate that the moon set for her?

For mature readers 18+
Warning for abusive past trauma
Her Returned Mate is Book 1 in the Gathering Shadows Series. Book 2 His Redemption is also available for reading now on Anystories.

"I look better in the wedding dress. Your ugly fiancée can't compare to me, right?" "Of course, you do. You look way better."
Standing right outside the bridal fitting room, I watched my fiancé, Alexander Blackwell, hold his mistress in his arms.
The very wedding dress the woman wore was the custom-made designer gown meant for my own wedding next month.
For seven long years, I gave up my youth and poured everything into Alexander, turning him from a nobody into a tech billionaire.
He always thought I was just a helpless orphan who had nowhere else to go, blindly confident that I would never dare to leave him.
He had no idea that I was actually one of the heirs to the top-tier Sterling family in London.
When he finally realized what he had lost and desperately tried to beg for my return, I didn't look back.
Because I ran into Theodore Morrow—the city's most powerful, ruthless billionaire CEO, and the childhood fiancé whose heart I had broken when I called off our engagement years ago.

Sophie Ashford's perfect life shattered at her husband Ethan’s 35th birthday party. In front of everyone, he announced their divorce, accused her of being the reason for their childlessness, and revealed his engagement to her best friend, Veronica who is already pregnant for him. Humiliated and heartbroken, Sophie fled, vowing never to look back.

A chance encounter with Lucas Ashford, a mysterious stranger at a bar who she didn't know his name at that time, led to a one-night escape that changed everything. Weeks later, Sophie discovered she is pregnant, giving her the strength to rebuild her life at least for the sake of her child.

Four years later, Sophie had finally found peace until Ethan reappeared, claiming her son was his and begging for forgiveness. But Ethan wasn’t the only one determined to claim Sophie’s heart. Lucas, the man from the one-night stand, returned and learned the truth, that the child was his. To complicate matters further, Lucas turned out to be Ethan’s estranged cousin.

As Sophie became caught in a fierce love triangle with two brothers, Will Sophie forgive Ethan’s betrayal for her sake? Can Lucas prove his love is genuine? Or will Sophie choose herself and carve out a new path free of these men?

Chloe Hudson gave up everything—including her health—for a man who never loved her. Married to Hank Collins only in name, she's endured a year of cold rejection while he lavished his love on another: her own half-sister, Irene. Just when Chloe decides to walk away, a twist of fate changes everything—she's pregnant. But instead of joy, her news is met with cruelty. Hank demands she abort the child, claiming only the woman he loves deserves his baby.
Heartbroken but not broken, Chloe chooses to fight—for her child, her dignity, and a future beyond betrayal. As secrets unravel and loyalties are tested, a familiar figure from her past steps in: Ryan Cooper, a man who once loved her and never stopped.
Will Chloe finally find the love she deserves? Or will her past drag her down before she can rise?

In my last life, the heatwave collapse began with me turning an abandoned warehouse into a safe zone. I stocked it, fortified it, and brought my girlfriend inside. That same night, she slid the bolts open from within and let an armed crew storm the place. They threw me out to die.

I survived the heat, only to learn too late that it was just the warning. The real purge came next, when brutal cold hit overnight and froze me to death in the snow.

Then I opened my eyes and found myself back one month before disaster.

While everyone else rushed to buy water and fans, I was the only one who knew the heat was just the beginning. The deep freeze was what would really wipe people out.

This time, I explained nothing. I poured everything I had into diesel, insulation, winter stoves, generators, and turned that warehouse into a fortress built for the cold.

She came again, just like before. This time, I never let her through the door. So she ran straight to the armed gang and had them surround my warehouse for three full days.

She thought trapping me inside meant she’d already won.

What she didn’t know was that in just a few more days, the freeze would arrive.

And the people outside had no fuel, no winter gear, no way to stay warm.

They weren’t waiting for me to break.

They were waiting for their own deaths.

For my fiancée’s career, I was willing to be the ghost designer behind her for five years.

Until the day of the key bid, she stole the blueprint I had spent two sleepless years perfecting and signed it with the name of her useless first love.

The drawings are gone You can draw them again He needs this project to survive Be sensible she said, impatient when I confronted her

I did not argue My heart went cold I calmly left my engagement ring and my resignation letter and went to Europe

In just three months, without me, she became disgraced and buried in debt While I won Europe’s highest architectural gold award

I watched the once proud her soak in icy water for five hours just to earn a trace of my sympathy

I handed her a basic junior interview form with indifference Want to start over Report to the front desk Start with errands and work your way up

I was reborn.
In my past life, for the sake of my childhood sweetheart Chiara, I rushed into a sea of fire to save her lover, but I was disfigured by strong acid. In return, I was rejected and abandoned by her, and ultimately died tragically on the street.
Reborn before the narcotics factory explosion, I coldly turned away from Chiara's pleas for help: "If it's true love, go in and die with her."
This time, I'm not a sycophant anymore; I'm going to make all those who betrayed me pay a bloody price.

During the Yearbook photoshoot, the photographer smiled and gestured for the couples to move closer together.
But Daniel pressed his hand against my shoulder and pushed me straight to the edge of the group, then turned and pulled Harper to his side.
"Harper and I are this year's Valedictorian and Salutatorian. It makes sense for us to stand together—it'll look better for the Yearbook spread."
This wasn't the first time he'd pushed me away.
When I brought him my AP Calculus mistakes, he barely glanced at them before saying my foundation was too weak—don't waste his time.
But when Harper, ranked second in our class, brought him basic algebra questions and played dumb, he didn't notice a thing.
He'd even FaceTime with her until two in the morning, patiently breaking down every single step.
When I wanted to study with him at the library, he'd frown and say I was breaking his focus.
But when Harper dropped just two points on a quiz, he'd skip track practice entirely to take her to the beach and cheer her up.
Right before the photographer pressed the shutter, he couldn't help teasing, "You two are a couple, right? You look like prom king and queen material!"
Daniel looked at Harper, his smile proud and tender. "We're always on the same wavelength."
Harper blushed and ducked her head as the guys from the team whistled and hollered around them.
I stood outside the noise, gripping my phone so hard my knuckles went white. The camera app I'd opened hours ago had already timed out.
The dark screen reflected the dress I'd tried on for hours last night, and the curls I'd ironed over and over again.
God, how stupid of me.
The spot beside him was never meant for me.
And now? I don't want it anymore.

My husband hasn't touched me in five years. He claims he has a rare, violent allergy to women.
So when I was slipping off a cliff, he let me fall into a freezing river rather than grab my bare hand.
I lost our baby.
Three days later, I caught him rubbing another woman's ankle with his bare hands. His eyes were full of love.
So much for the rare allergy. It only applies to the woman you don’t love.
I dropped the divorce papers on his desk. "I want out."
He thought I was bluffing. But what happens when the "chaste" billionaire realizes the wife he threw away is the one who found for many years?

My husband is an angel on an earthly trial. Every time he feels something for me, he endures divine punishment — like his chest is being ripped open from the inside.

But he told me he'd take that pain gladly, as long as it was for me.

He left a mark on my collarbone. Activate it when you're in danger, he said, and I'll rip through anything to get to you.

I believed him.

Then came a mission where I got grabbed by an armed fugitive gang and held in an abandoned warehouse for three straight days of torture and abuse.

No water. No sleep. The tendons in my hands and feet cut one by one.

Half-dead, I used the last of my strength to activate the mark.

And I heard him talking to his angel companion.

"Beckett, why did you give those people Demi's location? You know what they'll do to her."

He didn't even flinch. "She'll be fine. She's the Chosen One — she can't die. They were going after Macie. I didn't have a choice. Once this mission's over, I can petition to stay on earth. I'll make it up to Demi. She gets it."

So that's the price of being understanding. Dying inside a trap he built for me.

My heart just shatters. And I stop fighting.

I have been with Xavier for seven years, from secret love on campus to forming a Mate Bond.
Until before the Coming-of-Age Ritual, his junior sister Lilian appeared—and everything changed.
That day, I helped him reply to a message on his communication stone and saw Lilian’s note:
“honey～what should I wear tomorrow?”
He glanced at it and said, “Sent to the wrong person.”
But when someone had used this same trick before, he looked utterly disgusted.
Why, when it came to Lilian, did it change?
On my birthday, it was worse—he said Lilian’s experimental data was problematic and left me and my carefully prepared celebration behind.
Later, I saw the video: he was teaching Lilian hand-in-hand, letting her fall into his arms, and even in her posted photo he rested his hand on her shoulder.
I confronted him with the same style of promise ring that Lilian wore, and he said,
“You’re so stubborn and weird—it’s no wonder you were bullied back then.”
That was my deepest scar.

The basement mats still reeked of sweat. I had barely crawled onto them, hoping to sneak a glance at Selena’s bond ritual, when a rough hand seized the back of my collar.
A white wedding gown was forced over my body, the fabric biting into my skin. The brutal yank dragged me across the floor and into the hall. My knees slammed against the cold stone, pain blazing through me like fire.
Candlelight filled the room, flames snapping and hissing. At the center hung a massive black-and-white portrait. My body turned to stone—this wasn’t a moonlit ritual at all. This was a funeral.
“Selena. Kneel.”
Ulrica’s voice cut like ice. A heartbeat later, his polished shoe dug into the crook of my knee. Agony shot up my leg, bones threatening to shatter as I collapsed before the mourning altar.
“Sherry is my true Fate Mate.” His lips curled in a cruel arc as he looked down on me. “You? You’re nothing but a mistress. Apologize to her—that’s the rule.”

My brother and my fiancée forged evidence of my crimes. They claimed I was guilty of corruption, bribery, and betraying the family—that I was a traitor to the nation. If not for their "mercy," they said, I would have already been sentenced to death.

But that wasn't enough. Three years later, when Father lay dying, my brother and fiancée threw me into the Gulf of Mexico, all to eliminate any chance I might have of competing for the family inheritance.

When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to three years ago—to the moment they framed me for treason...

Seventeen-year-old Sable Thorne has spent her whole life running from a town she doesn't remember. When her mother, Morwen, drags her back to decaying Echo Ridge three days before her eighteenth birthday, Sable assumes it's just another one of her mother's inexplicable decisions.

Then she finds the diary.

Hidden beneath the floorboards of her childhood bedroom, a leather-bound journal belonging to Larkin Crowe — a girl who vanished thirteen years ago — contains a warning written directly to Sable: "Don't let her come back. Sable — run."

As Sable investigates, the town closes ranks. Her mother gaslights her. The sheriff dismisses her. A therapist diagnoses her with psychosis. Only two people believe her: Orion Kael, a cynical local whose brother vanished six years ago, and Corbin Ash, the reclusive groundskeeper who knows more about Larkin's fate than he admits — because Larkin was his daughter.

What Sable uncovers is a pact older than the town itself: every seventeen years, Echo Ridge offers a girl to something buried beneath the well — a root that feeds on blood and keeps the town alive. Morwen was meant to be the sacrifice thirteen years ago. She traded Larkin instead. And the debt was never cleared.
Now the root wants what it was originally promised: Sable Thorne.
With three days until her birthday — and the deadline — Sable must decide whether to run, surrender, or shatter the anchor that binds the town to its curse. But breaking the pact comes with a price. And some doors, once opened, can never be closed.

Isabella believes that her boyfriend can change is way again and be the man she fell in love with. But when she get kidnapped because of him, and he is to busy with another lady instead of saving her. She understands she is better off without him. She gets saved by her boyfriend cousin who has loved Isabella for years. Just stayed in the shadows. Will Alexander help her heal from the broken heart his ignorant cousin leaves her with, and then win her heart?

Eilidh MacLeod thought she had escaped. Seven years after walking away from a cold marriage and a ruthless man, she has built a life of quiet stability with her son, Finlay.
But ghosts don’t stay buried forever. When Ruaridh MacKinnon—her powerful ex-husband—suddenly steps back into her world, her worst nightmare comes true. As the new owner of her company, he is now in control of her professional fate. And if he looks too closely, he may uncover the one secret she swore to protect.

My wife never knew what I really did. She only knew I was gone most of the year and money hit our account every month.

The day she cheated, she rummaged through my drawer, found an eagle-shaped brooch, and gifted it to her lover like a flashy accessory. “It’s worthless,” she said. “Perfect with a suit.” I warned her again and again to bring it back. She called me annoying, powered off her phone, and blocked me everywhere.

She didn’t know I’m a cleaner—the kind who handles quiet jobs—and that brooch isn’t jewelry. It’s an organization badge, a mark that turns you into a target the moment it appears in public.

That night, the killers came. The ballroom was sealed. She trembled under a table while her lover shoved her out to take the bullets.

When a cold gun barrel pressed to her temple and someone asked, “Who does the brooch belong to?”