9066 Book(s) Related to duskmoor i and the four ancient beings

Selena Kane lives her life by rules. But one stolen kiss with a stranger at the Ashford Grand Hotel caught by every camera in Manhattan,sends her entire world spiraling.

The stranger? Jayden Ashford, Billionaire Tech heir. To calm the media storm, he offers her a deal she can’t refuse: pretend to be his fiancée.

Rule 1: Don’t be seen with anyone else.
But an unplanned kiss shatters their fragile trust and lands her in trouble with the billionaire heir.

As she steps deeper into his world, she uncovers secrets she was never meant to know, secrets that could destroy them both. And now, an enemy wants her silenced.

As the line between loyalty, desire and betrayal blurs, one question remains: will Jayden forgive and protect his woman from the enemy or has he been the enemy orchestrating it all from the very beginning?

“Shades of THE HUNGER GAMES permeate a story centered around two courageous teens determined to buck all odds in an effort to regain their loved ones. A believable, involving world, recommended for those who enjoy dystopian novels, powerful female characters, and stories of uncommon courage.” --Midwest Book Review, D. Donovan, eBook Reviewer (regarding Arena 1)ARENA 3 is book #3 in the Bestselling Survival Trilogy, which begins with ARENA 1, a free download. After nearly freezing to death on their trek north, Brooke and her small group wake to find themselves in civilization. They have found the utopian city, hidden deep in a remote stretch of Canada. They have heat, food, comfortable beds, clean clothes, and security. Finally, they have made it.As Brooke recovers, she meets the mysterious survivors who inhabit this city, and who vie for her love. She trains again, enhancing her fighting skills greatly under the wing of a new mentor, and matures into a woman. Brooke soon realizes, though, that being safe and secluded is not all there is to life. When she hears rumors of survivors underground, deep in America, fighting to restore order from the inside—her Dad possibly amongst them—Brooke finds herself facing the choice of a lifetime: to live in this perfect place, free and safe for the rest of her days, or to embark and fight for others’ freedom. It would be a journey, she knows, back through post-apocalyptic America, this time traveling west, across its breadth, in search of the rumored survivors, of her father. She would have to fight her way through a land transformed by apocalypse, try to survive a never-ending stream of dangers, roving packs of violent gangs, with few resources and fewer supplies. It would be a two thousand mile trek to a certain suicide. And if she leaves this utopia, she knows, there is no coming back.Yet that is not the worst of it: something else lies in her way. Arena 3. The greatest arena left in what was once America, the most brutal and dangerous of them all, the one from which no one survives. The one, she knows, that would test the very limit of all that she is.Will she risk it all for others?An action-packed dystopian thriller featuring a tough female heroine whom readers worldwide have fallen in love with, ARENA THREE is the shocking conclusion to the bestselling Survival Trilogy, and one that will leave you turning pages late into the night."Addicting...ARENA ONE was one of those books that you read late into the night until your eyes start to cross because you don’t want to put it down." –Dallas Examiner

The night of the Choosing Ceremony was supposed to mark Sasha’s beginning. Instead, it becomes her undoing. Betrayed by the mate she trusted, shattered by the friend she loved, humiliated before the eyes of her pack.
But just when she feels like all hope is lost, an unexpected twist in the form of the exiled heir, Ronan, claims her with a truth that shakes her very soul.
“You were never his, Sasha. You were mine from the beginning. You bear the mark that only I can see…it changes everything.”
As old secrets stir and forbidden desire grows, Sasha’s world is set ablaze. But this time, she refuses to surrender her fate. Amid ancient prophecies and tangled loyalties, she will fight for a love and a future that is truly her own.
In a world ruled by destiny, sometimes the bravest thing you can do is choose yourself.

I’d just gotten home from my prenatal checkup when I heard my sister-in-law Valentina’s voice.

"Brother, if Rosalyn finds out Leon is the stillborn child she gave birth to, will she fight me for custody?"

I froze on the spot.

Four years ago, my husband Lysander and I had a baby via IVF, but the infant passed away shortly after birth. I’d cried my heart out back then, and it was Lysander who held me close, comforting me over and over.

"Don’t grieve. We’ll have another child someday."

Four years later, I was finally expecting our second baby. Yet now I’d overheard that my first child had never died at all — he was Valentina’s son, Leon.

I simply couldn’t bring myself to believe it. Just as I reached for the door, Lysander’s voice rang out again.

"Don’t worry. Rosalyn will never find out I secretly swapped her egg for yours. Even the child she’s carrying now is our love child."

Dan Belinni Series — Book Three

Rebecca Windsor was born a mafia princess and raised to obey.

At eighteen, her future is already decided. She has a respectable fiancé, a powerful family, and a marriage arranged for convenience. She should be grateful.

Then she meets the one man she was never supposed to want.

William Belinni is the heir to the Chicago Outfit—a ruthless, unpredictable man preparing to inherit his father's empire. He doesn't want love. He doesn't want marriage. He certainly doesn't want a woman already promised to someone else.

But when he finds Rebecca crying alone in the darkness of his private garden, something changes.

She doesn't know who he is.

He doesn't tell her.

One conversation becomes an obsession. One stolen moment becomes a temptation neither can escape.

Rebecca has spent her entire life believing her destiny belongs to her family.

William has spent his life taking whatever he wants.

And now he wants her.

But in the mafia, broken engagements are more than scandals. They are threats to power, loyalty, and blood.

If William claims the woman promised to another man, he could ignite a war between their families.

And Rebecca may finally have to decide whether she will continue living the life chosen for her...

or risk everything for the man who makes her want to choose for herself.

Lily Hart is desperate for a fresh start and uses her brother’s connections to land a job as the secretary to Adrian Blackwood, the cold yet magnetic CEO of a billion-dollar empire. But Adrian, haunted by his mistrust of women and battling an intense attraction to Lily, subjects her to menial tasks to drive her away. During a business trip, their simmering tension explodes into a passionate affair, but Adrian forces her to sign an NDA and plans to fire her. Everything changes when Lily discovers she’s pregnant.

Fearing Adrian’s wrath, Lily tries to leave quietly, but Adrian uncovers her secret and accuses her of trapping him. He fires her and has her dragged out of his office, leaving her heartbroken and determined to start over. Years later, Adrian tracks Lily down in a small town, now raising their two-year-old daughter. His attempts to reconcile turn into a battle of wills as Lily resists his manipulative efforts to reclaim her.

Just as their bond begins to heal, Adrian’s fiancée resurfaces, bringing chaos and revealing dangerous family secrets. Torn between love, betrayal, and redemption, Adrian must protect Lily and their child from his family’s sinister schemes before it’s too late

"Do you think you can do it? You look far too tight to take me inside you."
"Then break me, use me until my body remembers everything about you. Isn't that what you want?"
Consumed by desire and the scent of pheromones, the omegas of the Ironhowl pack find their mates in the most peculiar ways, falling in love with their greatest enemy, their daughter's best friend, or a werewolf hunter.
Discover the romance stories of each of these alphas and omegas, who will teach you that there is more than one way to love and enjoy each other, because between fated mates, pleasure is endless.
Join them as they discover their destined mates and their unique ways of loving them.
This is an erotic Omegaverse werewolf novel that includes all kinds of couples and fantasies.
Warning. This is a collection of stories featuring dark romance, forbidden acts, and intense passion. Reader discretion is advised regarding the sensitive themes in this story. Intended for readers 18+ only.

“LOVE LIKE THIS creates a world of emotions and turmoil, describing superbly the mind of a young lady (Keira) and her struggles to balance her social life and her career. Sophie Love is a natural storyteller. LOVE LIKE THIS is very well written and edited, and I highly recommend it to the permanent library of all readers that appreciate a romance that can be savored during a weekend.”--Books and Movie Reviews (Roberto Mattos) LOVE LIKE OURS (The Romance Chronicles—Book #3) is book #3 in a new romance series by #1 bestselling author Sophie Love. The series begins with LOVE LIKE THIS (Book #1), a free download!Keira Swanson, 28, returns to New York City, this time with Cristiano in tow. Having him in New York, and having him meet her family, is culture shock for them both.Keira is soon assigned a new article, her most important yet: a 30 day trip to Paris—with Cristiano in tow. Her assignment: to find out if their love can last in a foreign country, on new ground for them both.As Keira and Cristiano take the romantic trip of a lifetime to Paris, they find their love tested in unexpected ways. When a surprise twist comes their way, everything changes.Can their love withstand it?A whirlwind romantic comedy that is as profound as it is funny, LOVE LIKE OURS is book #3 in a dazzling new romance series that will make you laugh, cry, and will keep you turning pages late into the night—and will make you fall in love with romance all over again.Book #4 will be published soon!“Sophie Love's ability to impart magic to her readers is exquisitely wrought in powerfully evocative phrases and descriptions….[This is] the perfect romance or beach read, with a difference: its enthusiasm and beautiful descriptions offer an unexpected attention to the complexity of not just evolving love, but evolving psyches. It's a delightful recommendation for romance readers looking for a touch more complexity from their romance reads.”--Midwest Book Review (Diane Donovan re: For Now and Forever)

Luciana Falcon, an Alpha's daughter with a false identity and the next in line to be Luna, who desires a love life, is under pressure to marry one of the Alphas who approaches her for marriage, despite her declinations. However, she meets her fated mate, the Alpha she has been secretly in love with since childhood, who had a one-night fling with her during her heat.
Amarok Lycaon He is a tyrant. He despises fated partners. He is every girl's fantasy. He ruled the pack as he darn well pleased. An arrogant, cold-hearted infamous Alpha who thinks only of himself. However, when Luciana becomes pregnant and publicly reveals Lycaon as the father of her child after being dragged and disgraced by her people. Lycaon Amarok denies it and allows Luciana to lose her title and be expelled from her pack...

She cursed the Demon King. He has spent centuries hunting her.
Maeve has no memory of the life that made her the most wanted witch in the Lore. She only knows she has never stayed in one place for long and that monsters seem to find her wherever she runs. Then a stranger walks into her shop. He was cold and beautiful and very very dangerous. The Demon King.
One kiss is enough for King Eldon to realize the impossible. His greatest enemy has returned. She is the witch who cursed him in another lifetime. The woman who stole his future, shattered his kingdom and vanished before he could make her pay.
She remembers nothing. But demons only recognize their true mate after the bond is tested and every instinct tells Eldon she might be the one fate has denied him for centuries. He swore he would never forgive her. She swore she would never belong to a demon.
Now the only woman who can save his kingdom may also be the one destined to destroy it again.

BOOK 2 in Mated to my Ruin series. Can be read as standalone.
BOOK 1–Mated to my Ruin: A Dragon’s Debt

When twenty-two-year-old Sofia Martinez is dragged from her quiet bookstore life to pay for her dead father's sins, she never expected her kidnappers to be four dangerously handsome mafia heirs. Cassian plans every move like chess, Rafe's fists solve problems his heart can't handle, Luca's charming smile hides deadly secrets, and Nikos treats emotions like weaknesses to destroy. They took her to settle a blood debt, but now they can't agree on what to do with her—because they all want to keep her. As bullets fly and betrayals cut deep, Sofia discovers that her father wasn't just a debtor. He was hiding the truth about her real identity: she's the lost daughter of the most feared mafia queen in history. Now four men who were supposed to be her captors are ready to kill anyone who tries to take her away. But in a world where love and loyalty are bought with blood, Sofia must choose between the safety of escape and the dangerous power of ruling beside the men who stole her heart along with her freedom.

During a trip to Athens, in the ancient temple of Apollo, Cecilia's life changes forever. Gerardo is deeply hurt because his ex-girlfriend Beatriz has broken up with him and has committed herself to a new man, his best friend, just two weeks after ending things with him. Desiring to forget his painful past, Gerardo travels to Greece and there he meets Cecilia. Both share a love for ancient sites; she is a beautiful journalist who is studying the temple of Apollo for a report. But amidst hundreds of tourists, they experience an attack by werewolves, with Cecilia and Gerardo being the only survivors. What do these monsters seek in the temple of Apollo? And why do they look at Cecilia as if they want to devour her and possess her at the same time? Gerardo wonders if he is capable of defending this beautiful young woman and facing supernatural beasts, but Apollo will grant him what he needs to defeat the Lycans. Cecilia will have an intimate connection with Gerardo, joining him forever, and later, when she is kidnapped by the Alpha Lycan of the pack, he will reject her upon discovering the truth.

At first, I thought I was the luckiest woman in the world, at least maybe the sacrifices I had made over the past five years would pay off.
But I was wrong. I was just a replacement for Luna, whom no one ever wanted.
I was abandoned by Alpha, my husband, on our fifth wedding anniversary, for the woman who had left him.
What hurt even more was that the child I had raised with all my heart and soul ran into the arms of her biological mother, as if I had never meant anything to his.
Rejected, discarded, and cast out-all of it destroyed me. It felt as if the whole world had rejected me.
But just when I was about to disappear, fate brought me to the beginning of a resurrection I never imagined.

⚠️ MATURE CONTENT WARNING (18+)
The Alpha’s Mercy: A Night of Mad Desires is a work of dark fiction intended for adult readers aged 18 and older. This story contains graphic and explicit content, including:
Explicit Sexual Scenes: Highly detailed and "mad sex" encounters.
Dark Romance Themes: Includes power imbalances, slave/master dynamics, and age-gap relationships.
Betrayal & Infidelity: Graphic depictions of orgy scenes and extreme sexual betrayal.
Violence & Cruelty: Scenes of physical abuse, "face slapping," and intense psychological revenge.
Mature Language: Use of strong, unfiltered language throughout

Soleil
I met Quillon when I ran from home. He was rude. I expected that from a rogue like him, but he still offered help. Or maybe I pushed him to help? It doesn't matter.
There was no way I thought I'd be safe outside the comfort of my home, but with him, I felt free and in solace. But he was so broken, shattered, and I don't know why I kept feeling like he was keeping something...
Quillon
She came the day I decided to give up. Being the Alpha King's target for years and concealing myself so I wouldn't be found has been a pain in the ass. But this woman came, and my mind was set that I wouldn't help her.
Then, after letting her pass out outside my tent, I found out that she was my mate. I was thrilled to know I got a fated one, but I decided to conceal our bond. So she wouldn't know that she was mine... and I was hers.
**
If you have read Call Me Alpha and Alpha of the Shadows, Quillon was mentioned in these stories. Its better if you read those books first so you'll have a better understanding of Quillon, my love.
Anyway, enjoy reading!

I pulled my lips away.

"You like that, my little pixie?"
She nodded as a small moan escaped her lips. She looked up, closing her eyes as I continued pinching and twisting her little nipple.

I leaned forward, biting her neck to taste her sweet blood. She moaned as I drank from her neck, her fingers digging into my shoulders as her body started trembling from the sensations she was feeling.

A pixie princess tries to escape her arranged marriage by becoming a vampires thrall. Will she succeed or will she be forced in a marriage with a man who killed her first love?

Sold to Be Loved by the Mafia Prince is a dark, emotionally charged New Adult romance set in a world where power is inherited, trust is a weapon, and love is the most dangerous game of all.

When seventeen-year-old Malia sacrifices her freedom to save her father, she is thrust into the violent world of the Italian Mafia—betrothed to Blaine DeCavalcante, the cold and untouchable Capo Bastone. Held at the luxurious yet haunting Crimson Garden estate, Malia must navigate a new life of control, secrets, and manipulation, all under the watchful eye of her fake fiancé’s double, Marcello.

But Marcello is more than just a stand-in. He’s her shadow, her tormentor, her unexpected comfort—and the one man she can’t figure out. As she battles fear, growing attraction, and the terrifying reality of her arranged future, Malia begins to uncover truths buried beneath Mafia loyalty, violent legacies, and the twisted lines between love and possession.

Told in alternating points of view, Sold to Be Loved by the Mafia Prince blends psychological tension, emotional vulnerability, and slow-burning obsession. It's a story about identity, power, and the impossible choice between surrendering to your fate—or rewriting it from the inside.

This is not a love story.
This is a war.
And the battlefield is her heart.

I was born golden. Special, my mother used to say, blessed by the moon goddess herself. But two years married to Alpha Damien Callum have taught me that being golden just means being used for what you are. Not loved or cherished. So when my own power finally claws its way out of me one night, when I nearly kill the man who’s been beating me for two years, I don’t hesitate. I run.

I thought disappearing into the army under a stolen name would be enough. I thought I could bury who I was and just survive. I was wrong.

They call him the Gravemaker. The Malrek. The most feared beast in Kaelmoor, brother to the king, a man who slaughters his own soldiers without blinking and swore he’d never take a mate. The moment he catches my scent, everything I thought I knew about safety, about freedom, about myself, comes apart in his hands.

He doesn’t want me. I don’t want him. But the bond doesn’t care what either of us wants, and neither does the war coming for all of us, a war that might just need the very power I’ve spent my whole life running from.

I survived my husband. I’m not sure I’ll survive this.


Warning: This book is Rated 18!!

Seokga was once a god—arrogant, untouchable, reckless enough to bed a goddess herself. For that sin, the gods threw him into chains and carved his execution in blood.

But that wasn’t the truth. He wasn’t killed for lust. He was killed because of the mark he carried—an Eclipse Sigil, a forbidden power no god should possess.

Reborn as the weakest son of a tyrant bloodline, cursed with blocked veins and chained to a paralyzed mother, Seokga’s life should have ended in humiliation. Instead, it begins anew.

He will crawl through the mud, spit in the face of fate, and rise with power stolen from gods, beasts, and demons. His enemies will call him cursed. The world will call him forbidden. But Seokga? He’ll call himself exactly what he is—
The man who will burn heaven and hell alike.

As a rogue, Samantha Carson has lived her entire life untethered — answering to no Alpha, bound by no pack laws. All she’s ever wanted is freedom: to see the world, to choose her own fate, and someday, perhaps, to share that freedom with a mate worthy of her.

She never expected fate to find her first.
When she accidentally trespasses into the territory of the most ruthless pack in America — Luna Obscura.

Samantha becomes prey, hunted through the forest by a pack of Alphas. But the chase ends in something far more dangerous than death. It ends with them.

Lucien and Tristan!

Beta and Alpha. Gorgeous. Lethal.
Untouchable. Lucien is whispered to be as merciless as Tristan is sadistic. Together, they rule Obscura with iron claws and blood-soaked loyalty.

The moment their eyes meet hers, the bond snaps into place. They are everything Samantha has ever dreamed of in a mate, and everything she cannot afford. Because Samantha isn’t just any rogue.

She’s on the run. With a secret as vast and explosive as the Appalachian Mountains — a truth that could shatter the very foundation of their kind and paint a target on anyone who stands beside her.

Including her mates. But Lucien and Tristan do not surrender what is theirs.
And they would burn the world before letting her go.

I gave him my innocence. He gave me a public rejection.
I gave him my everything. He handed me rejection on a silver plate.

I thought I would be saved by Alpha Kael. I thought that this internal heat of ours meant we were fated. The morning after I gave myself to him, he didn't claim me—he broke me. "You are a traitor's daughter," he announced before the whole pack. "I reject you."

Shattered and humiliated, I fled. I welcomed death. But fate was cruel: I was pregnant.

Three years later, I had to go back to the place where I'd been broken. Not for love, not for revenge. My secret son is dying, and the only cure is in Kael's blood. I plan to steal it and disappear. But I underestimated the Alpha. He caught me in the dark. He locked the door. And this time he looks at me, not with hatred, but with hunger.

"You stole from me, Maya," he growls. "Now, you are mine."

Hypothetically speaking, can an Army Ranger war games strategist and an environmental scientist bent on saving the planet fall in love at first sight? Romey Capulano knows that marrying Jordan Spinelli is the most logical, expedient, and practical way to save the farm commune she’s lived on her whole life. But when the pragmatic-minded, hydroponic gardener says I do, she’s surprised to find her heart speeding up when he makes his vows, her hands tingling when he slides the diamond on her finger, and her breath quickening as he leans in for the kiss. Succumbing to the notion of love was not a part of her plan, and she’s sure it will ruin the platonic relationship that she and the genius Army Ranger have planned out for themselves. Jordan Spinelli is certain he’s coming down with something the day of his arranged marriage to Romey. Why else would his blood run hot, his palms sweat, and his heart keep skipping beats? Better he catch an illness than feelings for the level-headed soil scientist. Because falling in love was not a part of their carefully constructed, peer-researched marital agreement. As the two try to navigate a loveless marriage, unknown forces keep pushing them into each other's arms. Divine acts keep pushing their lips within kissing range. Unspoken desires keep causing their hearts to face the inexplicable truth; the unquantifiable math that all adds up to the obvious. But will Jordan and Romey be able to admit to themselves, and each other, that their platonic vows are a shame because they just might have fallen in love at first sight?

Evelyn's life changed when a hot sexy neighbor moved into the apartment next to hers, Walt Andrews. A divorcee and an ex-mafia boss. Her only aim in life was to work hard to be a strong and independent lady, so she could bring her parents' killers to book and take revenge like she promised them on their deathbeds.

She had a one-night stand with the boy next door, Walt Andrews, and got pregnant for him. They both agreed and signed a contract to get married for One year for the Child's sake, plus Walt was willing to help Evelyn with her revenge.

But what happens when Evelyn finds out that Walt Andrews had once been married and had two children from two different women??

How would she face the truth when she learns about the real reason why Walt Andrews married her??

And what would happen when she finds out that the man she has been married to was once a Mafia boss??

Two different people who shared the same fate…

One is a demon alpha while the other is just a human.

Her life feels as if it's shrouded in the mist.

"Who is a friend and who is a foe? Or is everyone from her pack a foe?"

She can't tell.

" Is the one approaching her through the mist?"

"Is it a devil or an angel? Have they come to save her or to destroy her?"

The truth is in front of her but she's finding it extremely hard to know the truth.

Even the faintest mist can't hide the truth.


Diego has been searching around the whole pack just for a virgin maiden who would be able to retrieve his dead lover who died pathetically.

Finally, he found one but it seemed heaven was making a joke on him as the only virgin he found during his thousands of years of search happened to have the exact face as his dead lover Annie.

The worst scenario for Diego was the moment the lady whose name is Nadine felt any slight pain he too wasn't left out as he felt the same way he did.

She cries and he cries also.

The moment she's not breathing the moment he stops breathing also

Would Diego want to risk anything to retrieve his dead girlfriend?
Find out as we drive into the journey.

She was born with cursed with scales, but painted herself white to survive.

As the Princess of the most wealthy and feared ruler ,she was married off to the clan’s golden heir, only to have her newborn son murdered for being "impure."

Framed and sentenced to death,she died with hatred in her heart.

Now, reborn on the day before her tragedy, she chooses to walk into death herself, only to be saved by a mysterious man in red.

Marked by a crimson dragon tattoo and carrying his child, she returns to the clan that betrayed her.

They think she’s still the weak, painted princess, but they’re wrong.

This time, the Mixed-Scale princess will wear her true scales... and make them all kneel.

Isabella Vaughn was poisoned by her husband Marcus and his lover Serena, dying in his arms for her pharma empire.
She awakens on her funeral day, reborn in the body of Lila Harrington, the dazzling heiress engaged to Julian Blackwood, heir to her family’s fiercest rival.
With a new face and enemy access, Isabella vows revenge. But Julian notices the change: sharper eyes, hidden secrets.
Trapped pretending to love the man who might see through her, her vengeance could destroy them both.

My mate walked out of our son’s birthday party for his old flame.
Then he gave her child the protection charm he had made for ours.
So I gave my son thirty days to stop waiting for a father who never came.
On day twenty-eight, Eli looked Gavin in the eye and called him Alpha.
On day thirty, our mate bond would be gone.
Gavin thought we would always be there when he came home.
He didn’t start chasing us until our plane was already in the sky.

During the SATs, someone in the exam room went completely mad, screaming about a freezing apocalypse and ghouls eating everyone in the world. Everyone laughed at him, but I was the only one frozen in shock.
Because the pendant on my chest, which could warn me of danger, was emitting an unprecedented, blazing alarm...

Ever since Her Majesty the Queen fell gravely ill, the entire dragon realm had been teetering on the brink of collapse.
In that precarious moment, it was I who held the throne together, heartbroken yet unyielding.
I depleted my magic without reservation to repair the realm's protective barriers, working through endless nights to brew life-sustaining elixirs for the Queen.
Yet when the Dragon Legion finally drove back the abyssal demons, what awaited me wasn't victory—it was a fatal blade.
My magic was shredded apart. The soul core in my chest was ripped out by a pair of familiar hands.
In my final moments, I saw the face of the one holding the knife.
My newly wedded husband, Drystan.
And beside him, pulled tight against his chest, was my half-sister Vespera.
"You're brilliant, Vespera." Drystan turned the faintly glowing core over in his palm. "A single forged love letter, and this fool willingly died defending our dying realm. Now even her core is mine."
Vespera nestled against him, emerald eyes glittering with greed. "Once you absorb this power, we'll return to the throne together. You'll still be the Empire's Crown Prince, and I'll wear the Crown Princess's coronet. As is only right."
Amid this sickening pledge of betrayal, I drew my last breath.
When I opened my eyes again, cold gray stone vaulting stared back at me.
I had returned to the day news of Drystan's death in battle reached the capital.
One glance toward the corner of the great hall told me everything.
That man stood there wearing a cold iron mask, posing as my dear sister Vespera's sworn personal knight.
You want to drain me dry? Steal my soul core?
Dream on.

Our mother died broke. Three months later Camilla Castellano drove down to Atlantic City and offered to take my sister and me into her family.
One of us she would adopt. Her name, her money, her protection for life.
The other would marry her only son, the man who runs that family after her.
We had to pick that night, before either of us had laid eyes on him.
My sister picked first, and she picked daughter. The wife's the one they shoot at, she said. And a woman that rich doesn't come shopping in a place like this unless something is badly wrong with her boy.
Nothing was wrong with her boy.
So I got the son my sister didn't want, and Rafe Castellano spent three years sure I had worked my way to him on purpose. He took the family's accounts off me and handed them to my sister. He told a room full of people that a life with me turned his stomach.
Two weeks before the wedding, I asked his mother to change the bride.
He didn't believe me. He wouldn't come to the church. He signed the license without reading the name above his own.
He lifted the veil that night to tell me he was sorry.
I wasn't the one underneath it.

After five years in a long-distance relationship, I boarded a more than 10-hour flight without telling him, touched down in the city where he lived, all to give him a surprise.
Hardly had my phone connected to the local network when I scrolled across a post pushed to my feed from the same city.
The title read: What’s the thing you’ve done that you’ve never regretted for a single second?
The top comment stared back at me, sharp and unmistakeable:
I got him drunk and slept with him on the day we graduated college. Back then, he promised his girlfriend he’d never see me again, but his heart softens the moment I cry. Now our kid is 4 years old, and I’m pregnant with our second baby!
The comments below were flooded with questions, and someone asked outright: OP, are you the other woman?
She replied with unapologetic audacity: The one who isn’t loved is the real homewrecker. Besides, that woman was abducted and molested before. She’s long been tainted, and she never deserved him in the first place.
My fingers began to shake uncontrollably. Every single detail lined up perfectly with my own life.
Desperate to calm my heart, which felt like it was about to hammer out of my chest, I stepped into a roadside convenience store to buy a bottle of water.
The second I looked up at the checkout counter, the blood in my veins turned to ice in an instant.
The woman standing beside the cash register was none other than Su Miaomiao—the same woman who’d lain in the same hotel bed with Lu Sinian on that night of our college graduation.
My feet felt nailed to the floor as I watched her walk out of the store with a smile on her face.
The very next second, she threw herself into the arms of a man across the street, tilting her head up to kiss him in a sweet, lingering embrace.
That man was Lu Sinian. My husband. The man I’d legally married, the man I’d spent five years in a long-distance relationship with, the man who’d vowed over and over again to love me and protect me.

When I was nine months pregnant, my husband, Torin, forced doctors to extract my baby's cord blood to save his ex-wife's son. My baby died of suffocation ten minutes after birth, right before my eyes.
Instigated by his biological mother, my stepson sneaked into my room late at night and poured silver powder all over me. My skin rotted; the scars would last forever.
Later, the hospital ward caught fire, cutting off my escape. On the brink of life and death, Torin glanced back at me, scooped up his ex-wife, and walked into the safe zone without looking back.
Even later, he knelt in the ruins, hands dripping with blood, digging through the rubble brick by brick.
Until his subordinate stepped up behind him and choked out, "Alpha... we found the Luna's body."

We both married the wrong men. It killed us both.

My past life was hell—my violent temper disgusted gentle Alpha Ashen, his weakness suffocated me. We were toxic together. Meanwhile, my sweet sister Elena married brutal Alpha Karl of Dark Moon Pack, only to get slowly tortured by his manipulative childhood sweetheart until she couldn't take it anymore and jumped.

Now I'm back. Wedding day. White dress. Same disasters waiting.

I tear off the veil and storm to Elena's room: "We're switching places."

She gets the gentle Alpha who'll worship her kindness. I get the ruthless bastard and his scheming little princess.

Let's see how that scheming bitch handles a Luna who fights back.

I built my husband Evan's Hollywood acting empire alongside him, and we kept our marriage hidden from the public. I once believed our bond was unbreakable. Until I checked his car's navigation history.
For an entire year, every Wednesday night, my movie-star husband lied about working overnight film shoots. When I followed the GPS route to its destination, I found the apartment of his rival actress, Leah.
Then I found more lies. It was only after I vanished completely that Evan realized what he had lost. But by then, I was no longer the woman he left behind.
Some secrets exposed by GPS can never be erased. Some women can never be found again.

I was once known as "The Divine Hand," the youngest Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery in history.

I didn't just perform surgeries, I invented them. However, after a high-profile operation on my own mentor went tragically wrong, leaving him in a vegetative state, my mother made me swear a blood oath.

“Your hands bring both life and ruin. Never touch a scalpel again, or the guilt will consume you forever.”

I traded my surgical scrubs for a floral apron. I married Lucian, a famous business tycoon my mother had selected.

For five years, I spent my days in the kitchen, meticulously preparing meals that were precisely calibrated medicinal formulas that cured his heart murmur and made him the top-performing executive in the city.

However, on our fifth anniversary, Lucian didn't bring flowers or gifts. Instead, he threw the divorce papers on my face with Leslie, the glamorous "Star Surgeon" of the year, by his side, her hands wrapped around his arms like she owned him.

Lucian sneered, "Lesley operates on kings and CEOs. You? You can't even look at a drop of blood without fainting. You’re a liability to my social standing."

“Sign the papers and I'll give you two hundred dollars every month as your monthly allowance. Considering your lifestyle, that's more than you ever need.” He mocked.

I stared at the divorce papers in my hands. This was what he was paying me for being a submissive wife.

"I’ll sign," I said, "and I’ll let you keep the house and the stocks. But only if Lesley can correctly identify the three hidden toxins I’ve neutralized in your body over the last five years using only the meals you mocked me for cooking.”

“If she’s the 'genius' you claim, surely she can diagnose the man she's sleeping with.”

Becky and I had been best friends since elementary school—inseparable until we both got into this top university and became roommates.
We used to lie in our dorm beds, staring at the ceiling, and swear an oath: when we got married, the gap between our weddings would never exceed one week.
I waited for Steven for four full years.
From freshman year to senior spring, I ghostwrote his papers, nursed his drunk stomach, and endured the rotating cast of girls who always seemed to need him.
Until the night Becky got proposed to—when the whole crowd egged Steven on to drop a knee too, he flung my hand away without a second thought, all because Claire, some sophomore, let out a shriek.
"Not now, Rachel. Claire's hurt. Can you not make this about you for once?"
That was all he left me with before he scooped her up and melted into the crowd.
What he didn't know was that there would never be a "not now" again.
In seven days, I'd be walking down the aisle in a wedding dress, just as promised.
Only the groom—wouldn't be him.

Every herb in Moonspring, I had coaxed to life myself, drop by drop, with a healer's touch.
But to my mate, Rourke, the place was just a backyard for his best friend Boone to use and wreck however he pleased.
I had put up with it for a long time.
I put up with it until Boone, planning his own mating ceremony, trampled half a year of my work into the mud right in front of me. I put up with it until Rourke forced me to my knees through our mate mark, just so his friends wouldn't see him lose face.
In three days, Boone would hold the grandest mating ceremony the pack had ever seen, right here in Moonspring.
And I looked at the land transfer I had just agreed to, and said a single word.

My beast companions are in the middle of my medicinal soak when a soft, dramatic little "ow" drifts in from outside.

Vex, my wolfkin companion, drops my leg. Brom, the bearkin, jerks his hand and a fortune's worth of elixir spills into the water.

They crash through the floor-to-ceiling window and bolt outside without a single glance back — all for some ordinary girl.

I'm still staring at the broken glass when a stream of glowing blue text pops up out of nowhere.

[The main character Ivy literally fake-tripped in the garden and these two idiots jumped out a window for her!]
[Honestly, the original side character Lillia had it so rough. Backstabbed by her own companions, dies a miserable death, and they end up in Ivy's entourage…]
[And she never even figures out what's happening. Just suffers through the whole thing without a clue.]

I read through all of it, and one thought slowly rises: seriously?

If my companions won't behave, just get new ones. Simple.

I go straight to my mom, and before I've even finished talking, she's already pulling me toward the door.

"Any beast that turns on its master isn't worth keeping. Come on, baby — let's go pick you out some new ones. Mom's paying, so make it the most expensive ones they've got."

During routine rounds, I never gave Linus Crewe a second thought. Nineteen years old, diagnosed with persistent hallucinatory disorder, just another trust fund kid tossed into the psych ward like garbage by his own family.
But that day, he locked eyes with me and claimed that the moment his skin touched someone else's, he could see their deepest, darkest secrets.
I scoffed. As a female doctor who married into money, harbored a thirst for revenge, and kept a secret lover on the side, someone seeing through my facade was my ultimate nightmare.
I thought he was just playing mind games.
Until he recounted, word for word, things even my husband didn't know. He just smiled and said: Then tell me, Dr. Hollister... why is your heart racing when you look at me?

I am a princess of the deep sea. For love, I abandoned my crown and used ocean magic to help him rise from a penniless sailor to a duke of immense wealth.

On our tenth wedding anniversary, he slapped me in front of all the guests, tore the Ocean Crown from my head to place it on his mistress, and ripped away my reverse scales: "I'm sick of this freakish marriage to a monster!" Blood flowed down the coral cuts, and my unborn child miscarried in the humiliation.

The moment the first reverse scale fell from my chest, I forgot our first kiss. At the same time, his three gold-laden ships mysteriously sank on the windless sea.

The Abyssal Pact has been activated: seven reverse scales correspond to seven memories. With each scale that falls, I forget him a little more, while he loses all the wealth he gained through me.

I was once the "Abyss Sovereign" who made the entire dark world tremble.

To protect her, I willingly buried my true name and spent five years as a humble mechanic in a wealthy family.

I swallowed countless cold stares and humiliations, seeking only a moment of peace.

But these fools, for the sake of family interests, dared to push her to the brink of destruction!

Since retreat only invites further aggression, I have no choice but to don once more that blood-stained crown.

When my steel torrent crashed through the manor gates, those privileged elites who once trampled me underfoot could only tremble desperately in the mud!

Seven years of deep affection, expectations with a pregnant belly, and all I got was his betrayal in marriage and false promises. I gambled my youth and sincerity, only to end up with an absurd scam. After waking up, we owe each other nothing and will have no more ties.

I've been to four weddings. I never made it through a single one.
Not because I didn't love enough. Not because they weren't good enough. It was because every time — right at the moment I was supposed to say I do — my parents would appear on cue, fall apart on cue, and burn everything to the ground on cue.
For years I thought they hated me. Thought they'd given all their love to my dead sister, Claudia, and had nothing left. Then my brother-in-law said something that cracked me open: Any one of those three men — if you'd married him, you wouldn't be alive today.
So which is it? Were they protecting me, or destroying me?

Four years ago, Giovanni dumped me in front of everyone at an upscale restaurant. Two weeks later, he was engaged to Rosanna. I made a fool of myself begging on his doorstep, became the laughingstock of Ferro City.
Four years later, he runs into me at Casa Valentino, assumes I'm destitute, and offers me a job as a cleaner for him.
What he doesn't know is that the plainly dressed woman standing before him is the wife of Don Alessandro Valentino—the man the entire underworld bows to.

Since I was ten, he told me to call him brother. But brothers don't look at you like that.
My life had only Daniel Wilson in it. He was my guardian, my savior, my world.
"Call me brother," he said, but he forbade me from dating anyone else. He kept me in his manor like a bird in a gilded cage. He promised that when I turned twenty-one, the title of "sister" would change to "wife."
I waited. I obeyed. I loved him with a devotion that bordered on obsession.
But on my twenty-first birthday, he brought her home.
"Julie, meet Lena. She's... special to me."
He introduced his childhood crush to me, his "sister," while holding her hand. The way he looked at her was soft, gentle—the way he used to look at me before she arrived.
"You're just a foster sister," he reminded me coldly when I cried. "Don't cross the line."
The line? He blurred the lines for twelve years! He made me dependent on him, made me believe we were destined, only to discard me when the "real" owner of his heart returned.
Fine. If I'm just a sister, then I'll leave.
But why is he chasing me now, begging me to come back, saying he can't sleep without me in the house?
"I'm not your sister anymore, Daniel. And I'm certainly not your wife."

"Stay in the apartment," he said, straightening his tie as I fixed his collar. "I'll be back tonight." Then he walked out the door — straight to his wedding. What he didn't know was that my flight was already booked.
For three years I was his canary: locked in a penthouse, the only woman he let close when he bled, forgotten the moment another woman entered the room. I watched him let her wipe the blood from his face. I lost our child alone on a cold floor. I apologized to the woman who destroyed my mother's watch.
I was done waiting.
When the bells of Saint Patrick's rang out across Manhattan, he was welcoming his bride — and I finally flew out of my cage.

"Brielle, I need money... My bone cancer is worse. Without treatment, I won't make it past next month."

For Cole's words, I gave up everything—my billionaire father, my inheritance, my name. I became a crime scene cleaner, the most degrading job in New York.

Twenty hours a day, I scrubbed blood and rotting flesh off apartment floors. I even sold my own blood. All to save the man I loved.

One million dollars. Finally, I had it.

I rushed to the five-star hotel, clutching the warm check in my trembling hands. Pushed open the presidential suite door.

And froze.

Cole—healthy, glowing, dressed in an expensive suit—knelt before Delilah, New York's newest socialite. A diamond ring glittered between his fingers.

"Babe, that corpse-smelling idiot sent more money today," he laughed. "That bag you wanted? Let's go buy it right now."

The check fell from my hands.

Something inside me shattered.

And something darker took its place.

Following Aunt Helen’s sudden death and the exhausting funeral arrangements, strange things began happening at home.
A lingering warmth on an empty sofa. Faint footsteps echoing in the hallway late at night.
I couldn't shake the creeping certainty that a third person was hiding in the house with my husband and me.
My husband brushed it off, insisting it was nothing more than grief and severe insomnia playing tricks on my mind, and told me not to overthink it.
Then, one morning, he walked through the front door, briefcase in hand, his eyes heavy from an obvious all-nighter. "The institute's data was a total disaster," he explained with a tired sigh. "I was stuck at the lab all night."
I froze, completely at a loss.
"But you came home last night," I stared at him, my voice trembling. "We were in bed, making love for half the night."
He frowned, looking at me with the cold, clinical detachment of a doctor examining a patient. "Maeve, I didn't set foot in this house last night. You need to stop imagining things..."

Terminal. One month, maybe less.
I folded the report and put it in my bag. The doctor asked if there was family I could call. I told him there wasn't.
My husband rang while I was crouched against the hospital wall, waiting for the pain to pass. I could hear waves behind his voice. He didn't ask what the doctor said. He wanted to know why his money hadn't come through yet. His first love needed it for her art show.
So I sent him all of it. My savings, and the last of what my mother left me. Ten years, settled in one transfer.
Then my legs went, and a pair of freezing hands caught me before I hit the ground.
The pain stopped the second he touched me.
"Your kind calls us reapers. Give me your soul, and I'll keep the pain off you until the end."
Weston took one look at him and decided I'd hired an actor to make him jealous.
He thinks I'm trying to win him back.

My name is Charles Cole, a blind lactation therapist.
Of course, apart from pretending to be blind, all my skills are genuine.
Ophelia sat on the bed and slowly took off her top right in front of me, her beautiful figure revealing its spring allure under the golden warm sunlight.
“Mr. Cole, let's begin!”
I nodded, reaching forward with both hands, yet I didn't dare show the slightest unusual expression on my face.
The reason was simple: Ophelia's husband, Russell, was standing coldly right behind me at that moment.