9643 Book(s) Related to a heart for the ceo

Perfect Luna. Devoted wife. Dead woman walking.

Ciara O'Callahan thought she had it all. A divine mate bond with the powerful Alpha Ronan O'Donoghue, a beautiful daughter, and the respect of her pack. Until the night she discovers her husband's dark secret: he shares more than just blood with his twin brother Ewan. Much more.

But uncovering the truth comes at a deadly price. Betrayed and murdered by her own mother-in-law to protect the brothers' twisted bond, Ciara's last desperate wish echoes through the veil between life and death...

And something answers.

Now seventeen again, blessed with a second chance at life, Ciara faces an impossible choice. Submit to the sacred mate bond that would lead her back to Ronan? Or defy the very foundations of wolf society and forge her own destiny?

This time, she refuses to be a pawn in fate’s cruel game. She will not walk blindly into a future paved with deceit. And when she crosses paths with Darragh Byrne, the mysterious and battle-scarred Alpha of the Moonveil Pack, the gods themselves seem to stir.

Darragh is everything Ronan is not. Calculating, unpredictable, and entirely uninterested in a mate bond. Yet when his sharp golden eyes meet hers, something shifts in the air. A force just as powerful as destiny itself.

Some say you can't fight fate, Ciara’s about to prove them wrong.

When Sadie Greer gets into an arranged marriage with a Crypto developer, an evil wrapped in a pretty thousand-dollar suit, she only agrees to escape the family trap with a hefty price tag.

With an ulterior motive, Cenric Wollf marries the daughter of his enemy until they fall deeper into their own trap.


Adley Kross does something beyond imaginable—proposing marriage to the stranger for her inheritance.

Mykel Creed’s only priority is making himself filthy rich with a bit of fun along the way.

It doesn’t take long enough for them to realize they married for the wrong reason.


Princess Carlott lost everything in a blink of an eye with one mistake.

She has built herself as Carly Storm and promised no more foolish mistakes until she stumbles with a grumpy but irresistible CEO, Rome Langston— her boss.

Rome is new in the business, but maybe a distraction is all he needs. What can go wrong with a bit of fun?


London Vanderford is never a rule-breaker until the god-like returns as her temporary bodyguard.

When her father threatens to shut down her clothing line, Striker volunteers to help— marrying her.

The more they spend time together, the more they realize they can’t live without each other.


Estelle Bladwyn bumps into a hot thirty-ish man on her not-so-romantic-getaway. Their growing attraction is overwhelming, but her life is already complicated. But who can deny someone like Linden?

Gabe Linden is getting old and still single and done with hookups and doing favors until it comes from someone he looks up to.

With one look at Estelle, he knows he’s already in deep trouble.

Living in a house with hockey players was supposed to be a temporary fix. Falling for my brother’s best friend? That’s a permanent disaster.
My brother’s golden rule: Stay away from the team. Especially Jaxson Miller, the hotheaded rookie with a slap-shot that breaks glass and a reputation for breaking hearts.
But when my dorm floods and my brother offers me his spare room in the "Hockey House," I’m suddenly living feet away from the one guy I’m not allowed to touch. Jaxson is everything I should avoid—reckless, loud, and constantly in the penalty box. He’s the team’s biggest liability, and I’m his biggest secret. If we get caught, the team falls apart. If we don’t, my heart might be the one taking the hit.

“I used to have ice surrounding my heart, but it melted the moment I fucked you,” Hardin said and she scoffed.

“It was just a harmless sex, grow up kid, and let me go!”She yelled.

Freda was cheated on by her boyfriend because, he claimed she was bad at sex so he had to cheat.

Freda was angry so she went to the clubhouse with the intention of having sex with another man just to see if she was really bad at it. She didn’t know she ended up having sex with a mafia lord.

Later on, she was kidnapped by him who was lust after her after having sex with her.

He threatened to kill her best friend if she refused to be with him, having no choice, Freda agreed with an intention of killing him.

Slowly, she didn’t know how this hatred of hers turned into love, something she wasn’t willing to let go even if he was indifferent towards her.

“You’re just one of his sex toys Freda, I was once like you. When he’s done with you, he’d trash you,” Despite knowing all of this, would she let go or hold on it him?

Find out!

“An action packed fantasy sure to please fans of Morgan Rice’s previous novels, along with fans of works such as The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini…. Fans of Young Adult Fiction will devour this latest work by Rice and beg for more.”--The Wanderer, A Literary Journal (regarding Rise of the Dragons) The #1 Bestselling series! RISE OF THE VALIANT is book #2 in Morgan Rice’s bestselling epic fantasy series KINGS AND SORCERERS (which begins with RISE OF THE DRAGONS, a free download)! In the wake of the dragon’s attack, Kyra is sent on an urgent quest: to cross Escalon and seek out her uncle in the mysterious Tower of Ur. The time has come for her to learn about who she is, who her mother is, and to train and develop her special powers. It will be a quest fraught with peril for a girl alone, Escalon filled with dangers from savage beasts and men alike—one that will require all of her strength to survive. Her father, Duncan, must lead his men south, to the great water city of Esephus, to attempt to free his fellow countrymen from the iron grip of Pandesia. If he succeeds, he will have to journey to the treacherous Lake of Ire and then onto the icy peaks of Kos, where there live the toughest warriors of Escalon, men he will need to recruit if he has any chance of taking the capital. Alec escapes with Marco from The Flames to find himself on the run through the Wood of Thorns, chased by exotic beasts. It is a harrowing journey through the night as he quests for his hometown, hoping to be reunited with his family. When he arrives, he is shocked by what he discovers. Merk, despite his better judgment, turns back to help the girl, and finds himself, for the first time in his life, entangled in a stranger’s affairs. He will not forego his pilgrimage to the Tower of Ur, though, and he finds himself anguished as he realizes the tower is not what he expects. Vesuvius spurs his giant as he leads the Trolls on their mission underground, attempting to bypass The Flames, while the dragon, Theos, has his own special mission on Escalon. With its strong atmosphere and complex characters, RISE OF THE VALIANT is a sweeping saga of knights and warriors, of kings and lords, of honor and valor, of magic, destiny, monsters and dragons. It is a story of love and broken hearts, of deception, ambition and betrayal. It is fantasy at its finest, inviting us into a world that will live with us forever, one that will appeal to all ages and genders. Book #3 in KINGS AND SORCERERS is now available! “If you thought that there was no reason left for living after the end of the Sorcerer’s Ring series, you were wrong. Morgan Rice has come up with what promises to be another brilliant series, immersing us in a fantasy of trolls and dragons, of valor, honor, courage, magic and faith in your destiny. Morgan has managed again to produce a strong set of characters that make us cheer for them on every page.…Recommended for the permanent library of all readers that love a well-written fantasy.” --Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (regarding Rise of the Dragons) “[The novel] succeeds—right from the start…. A superior fantasy…It begins, as it should, with one protagonist's struggles and moves neatly into a wider circle of knights, dragons, magic and monsters, and destiny.…All the trappings of high fantasy are here, from soldiers and battles to confrontations with self….A recommended winner for any who enjoy epic fantasy writing fueled by powerful, believable young adult protagonists.” --Midwest Book Review, D. Donovan, eBook Reviewer (regarding Rise of the Dragons) “A plot-driven novel that’s easy to read in a weekend…A good start to a promising series.” --San Francisco Book Review (regarding Rise of the Dragons)

“Has all the ingredients for an instant success: plots, counterplots, mystery, valiant knights, and blossoming relationships replete with broken hearts, deception and betrayal. It will keep you entertained for hours, and will satisfy all ages. Recommended for the permanent library of all fantasy readers.” --Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re The Sorcerer’s Ring)“The beginnings of something remarkable are there.” --San Francisco Book Review (re A Quest of Heroes)From #1 bestseller Morgan Rice, author of A Quest of Heroes (over 1,300 five star reviews) comes a startlingly new fantasy series. In BORN OF DRAGONS (Age of the Sorcerers—Book Three) Lenore is safely returned to the North—but not without a price. Her bother Rodry is dead and her father, King Godwin, lies in a coma. With the rulership of the North in question, her treacherous brother Vars may just find an opening to rule.But Vars is a coward, and King Ravin, smarting from defeat, mobilizes the entire South to invade. The northern capital, never defeated, lies protected by tides and canals—but Ravin can happily lose scores of men.The most epic battle, it seems, is yet to come.Devin must quest to learn his true identity and forge the Unfinished Sword—yet he is distracted, realizing he has fallen in love with Lenore. Lenore, though, is stuck in a hateful marriage, one which may endanger her very life.Renard, with his brazen act of theft, is on the run from the Hooded Folk, all of them anxious to retrieve the amulet that can control dragons.And Nerra wakes to find herself transformed into something else—something beautiful, monstrous, powerful and unknowable. Will she be the one to lead the dragon race?AGE OF THE SORCERERS weaves an epic sage of love, of passion, of sibling rivalry; of rogues and hidden treasure; of monks and warriors; of honor and glory, and of betrayal, fate and destiny. It is a tale you will not put down until the early hours, one that will transport you to another world and have you fall in in love with characters you will never forget. It appeals to all ages and genders. Book #4 will be available soon.“A spirited fantasy ….Only the beginning of what promises to be an epic young adult series.” --Midwest Book Review (re A Quest of Heroes)“Action-packed …. Rice's writing is solid and the premise intriguing.” --Publishers Weekly (re A Quest of Heroes)

“Has all the ingredients for an instant success: plots, counterplots, mystery, valiant knights, and blossoming relationships replete with broken hearts, deception and betrayal. It will keep you entertained for hours, and will satisfy all ages. Recommended for the permanent library of all fantasy readers.” --Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re The Sorcerer’s Ring)“The beginnings of something remarkable are there.” --San Francisco Book Review (re A Quest of Heroes)From #1 bestseller Morgan Rice, author of A Quest of Heroes (over 1,300 five star reviews) comes a startlingly new fantasy series. In THRONE OF DRAGONS (Age of the Sorcerers—Book Two) King Godwin mobilizes his army to cross the great bridge and invade the South to rescue his 17 year old daughter, Lenore. But Lenore is imprisoned deep in the South, under the watchful and hateful eye of King Ravin, and she may have to learn to escape herself first if she has any chance of escape.Her brother Rodry, though, is way ahead of the King’s men, deep in hostile territory, alone on a mission to save his sister—while her other brother, Vars, offers a lesson in cowardice and betrayal.Devin follows Gray, eager to learn more about how to harness his powers and about who he is.Greave travels to remote regions to find the house of scholars and to try to save his sister, Nerra.But Nerra, sickened by the scale sickness, is dying on a remote isle once touched by dragons. And her only chance of survival may just compel her to risk it all.And all of this will culminate in an epic battle that may just determine the fate of the two kingdoms.AGE OF THE SORCERERS weaves an epic sage of love, of passion, of sibling rivalry; of rogues and hidden treasure; of monks and warriors; of honor and glory, and of betrayal, fate and destiny. It is a tale you will not put down until the early hours, one that will transport you to another world and have you fall in in love with characters you will never forget. It appeals to all ages and genders. Book #3 (BORN OF DRAGONS) is now available for pre-order.“A spirited fantasy ….Only the beginning of what promises to be an epic young adult series.” --Midwest Book Review (re A Quest of Heroes)“Action-packed …. Rice's writing is solid and the premise intriguing.” --Publishers Weekly (re A Quest of Heroes)

"Do you think you'll be able to do it? You seem 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 fated mates in the most peculiar ways, falling in love with their greatest enemy, their son's best friend, or a wolf hunter.
Discover all 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, because between fated mates pleasure is infinite.
Join them as they discover their fated mates and their unique ways of loving them.
This is an erotic werewolf book, MxM (Boys Love), with Omegaverse (MPreg) themes, including all kinds of couples and fantasies.
Warning. This is a collection of stories featuring dark romances, forbidden acts, and lots of passion. Discretion is advised regarding the sensitive themes in this story. Suitable only for adults 18+.

I thought I was a powerless human in a school full of witches, heirs, and monsters.
Until a black magician tried to kill me.
Until my blood awakened.
Until the boy with phoenix fire knelt bleeding in my arms—and I brought him back from death.
Now everyone wants my secret.
And someone wants me dead.

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.

They say Caspian Vale has a body count higher than his net worth. I don't care about either.

I only care that my brother's last voicemail spelled his name like a curse.

I didn't apply to Vale Industries for a paycheck. I applied for a funeral.. his.

Then he proposed. Not with a ring but a contract. My mother's hospital wing for my signature on a marriage certificate. I said yes because saying no would've been too easy and dumb.

Here's the thing about monsters okay??
They’re only scary until you see them brush their teeth. Until they hold your hair back. Until they get jealous over a waiter's glance and you realize you like it.

One night and one mistake. Now I'm digging through my brother's past and finding holes I didn't create just because the shooter wasn't Caspian.

The shooter was aiming at me.

But Caspian? He just took the blame like a man who's been waiting to fall.

I came to destroy a king. I didn't expect to find a martyr wearing a crown of thorns and a wedding band I can't take off.

In that case, let the game begin.

Witty, self made Aurora Russet experiences a sudden life changing encounter when she wakes up one morning, surprised to find herself in a hospital bed.

To make matters worse, she gets a shocking revelation when she finds out that she was heavily pregnant, and this is odd because all she could remember is going on a trip months ago in a bid to escape the pain of catching her ex fiancé cheating on her with her best friend months ago.

Aurora is stupefied, and is even more alarmed when a beautiful dark and mysterious stranger, whose wealth and charms manage to sweep her off her feet all the time claims ownership of her pregnancy.

One chaos leads to another and so she’s therefore plunged into his world of darkness, the world of war and of blood but in the midst of it all, she finds that one thing her soul has always craved for… love.

Does it matter now that the love she wanted was being showered upon her by a creature she always feared and despised?

And what happens when Aurora finds out that she wasn’t so different from these monsters after all?

Read to find out!

On her 18th birthday, Aria Grey is humiliated and rejected by her fated mate, the cruel and powerful Alpha Dominic Blackthorn. Heartbroken and cast out, she runs—only to wake up with no memory in the Manhattan penthouse of Damien Blackthorn, Dominic’s reclusive billionaire twin no one knew existed. He's powerful. He's dangerous. And for some reason, he's claiming her as his mate.
What Aria doesn’t know is that Damien has a vendetta against his brother—and she’s the perfect pawn. But the longer Damien pretends to be her mate, the more real it becomes.
Aria starts unlocking dark memories of her past, ones that might reveal a terrifying truth: she was never supposed to be just a mate—she was bred for something much, much darker…
Setting:

Five years ago, nineteen-year-old Seraphina Vance watched her parents slaughtered in cold blood while three young heirs of the elite Blood Sovereign Syndicate stood silently in the shadow of the velvet curtains. Now she is back, operating under the forged identity of scholarship student Elena Sterling at the prestigious Obsidian Sanctum Academy. Armed with government wiretaps and a heart hardened by grief, her objective is singular: bring down House Vane from the inside and burn their high-society empire to ash.
The fatal flaw in her plan? Seraphina doesn't know she is a dormant Crimson Sovereign; the rarest, most feared werewolf bloodline thought wiped out a century ago. She believes she is entirely human.

My mate brought his first love home on our eighth anniversary. My husband informed me that he was replacing me while our little boy waited with a cake.

For eight years, I endured the pack's cruel whispers. They told me that I had caught Alpha Kael with a pregnancy. I endured it all for his sake; I loved him. I raised our son, Leo, and I did my best to be the perfect Luna. However, when my first love came back, Kael cast me aside. Our son's heart broke because of him. When he attempted to take Leo from me, saying I was too frail to raise his heir, I did the unimaginable. I took my boy away and I disappeared.

Three years later, Kael finds out that the lady he selected was a lying snake. He seeks me out with bitter regret. But I'm not the little girl he broke; I'm not the little girl who cried and cried. I am now back, full of glory and strength. And I am not alone.
I'm standing by a ruthless Lycan King who holds my hand and treats my son like a true prince. Kael's eyes are red with feral jealousy as he watches another man raise his heir. He's willing to destroy the world to redeem us. But it is too late.

The Alpha made his choice, and now he'll suffer from regret.

Three years ago, my twelve brothers died in the desert at night. A traitor stepped over my death notice and took the place that should have been mine. Three years later, I hide in a run-down convenience store, wiping shelves. I endure being spat on, having my beer stolen, and being called trash—I endured it all. Because I'm waiting. Waiting for someone to return, waiting for an answer. Some ask me: Is it worth it, for a bunch of dead men? I don't know if it's worth it. I only know that when they were alive, they called me Captain. Three years in seclusion, all for the day the God of War returns!

“I am Ivan, a meteorologist. In my past life, I was tied up in the snow and froze to death by my wife’s family. After being reborn, I personally bought up all the inferior supplies they needed. When a blizzard of minus fifty degrees Celsius came down, and when the gangsters kicked down his door, I was sitting in a safe house two kilometers away, holding a whiskey, watching the surveillance footage—this is my revenge.”

My wife said she had an important client meeting, so I attended our daughter’s awards ceremony alone.
Then a neighbor sent me a photo.
Rachel was sitting in another school’s auditorium beside her college boyfriend—smiling as his hand rested on her waist.
Before I could process what I was seeing, our fifteen-year-old daughter stepped up to the microphone.
“For fifteen years, my dad has been the one holding our home together,” Lily said.
Then she looked straight at me.
“My mother left us a long time ago.”
Three hundred people thought my wife was dead.
But Lily knew the truth.
And before the night was over, she would force me to face the betrayal I had spent years pretending not to see.

A horde of 100,000 mutated beasts besieged the city, and a ten-meter-tall abyssal wolf pressed its claws against my throat.
My enemy, riding on the wolf's back, laughed maniacally, threw down the chains, and ordered me to kneel and surrender immediately.
The fortress garrison closed their eyes in despair. But looking at that gaping maw so close to my face, I let out a long sigh of relief, even laughing aloud.
"What are you laughing at, facing certain death?!" she shrieked.
"I'm laughing at your pathetic stupidity." I gently crushed a poison capsule in my sleeve. "You really think I threw down all my weapons and walked out of the city gates to face this 100,000-strong army to surrender?"
"That's because if the distance exceeds three meters, my genetic virus can't be precisely injected into this beast's lungs."

In my previous life, I was cruelly exploited by my wicked stepmother.
Not only was I drained of my military discharge money, but I was also driven into a subterranean warehouse that could collapse at any moment.
In darkness and despair, I was frozen to death by a cold wave that dropped surface temperatures to minus 60 degrees.
The moment I opened my eyes again, I had reincarnated back to three days before the outbreak of the cataclysm!
Staring at my stepmother's face, which was filled with greed and harshness, I wasted no words, threw on my heavy coat, and marched straight toward the underground warehouse.
For I knew that with sufficient supplies and energy, this nuclear-grade subterranean warehouse would become the ark of the apocalypse!

For five years, my crime boss husband made me take off my wedding ring nine times—all for his precious damsel in distress.

When we first married, he promised me: "From now on, you're my queen, the queen of New Orleans."

But whenever Brianna came crying for help, he'd change his tune: "Mr. Parker saved my life, Claire. I owe his family everything."

And like a fool, I believed him eight times.

Eight times I watched from the shadows as he took another woman to our favorite restaurants.

Eight times I explained to the crew that our "separation" was just giving each other space.

Eight times I watched her move into my bedroom, use my dishes, sleep in my bed.

All for a man who kept making me slip off my ring, then slide it back on, over and over again.

Until the ninth time, when he said he needed to provide sperm for her fertility treatment, and I offered to leave.

He still thinks this is just another temporary break, expecting me to come crawling back in a month like always.

He'll never know I've already booked my ticket out of here.

On the day the apocalyptic flood swallowed the city, I died on a fractured overpass.

The man who crushed my fingers under his boot was my brother-in-law, the very man I had sacrificed everything to support. And standing safely out of reach, watching coldly as the muddy torrent swallowed me whole, was my supposedly sweet and devoted fiancée. In her arms, she fiercely clutched her "son"—who was hoarding the last of my survival rations.

In the very last second of my life, she nestled into the arms of her ex-boyfriend and left me with a single, contemptuous sneer: "Let's go. Forget about this useless trash."

It turned out that working my fingers to the bone and emptying my life savings had all been a pathetic joke—a long con orchestrated by a pack of bloodsucking parasites.

But when I opened my eyes again, I had returned to exactly one year before the apocalypse began.

My fiancée was standing there, holding a cup of hot coffee and sweetly begging me to invest another million into her brother's business.

I just smiled, gently pushed her hand away, and turned around to liquidate every single asset to my name. With that money, I secretly constructed a state-of-the-art, deep-sea underground fortress.

Later, when the monstrous floodwaters inevitably tore the city apart, they stood on the balcony of their doomed mansion, desperately falling to their knees and begging my icebreaker for salvation.

Sitting inside my perfectly secure command cabin, I took a leisurely sip of hot coffee and softly gave the order:

"Open fire. Don't let this trash dirty my deck."

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.

Five years into our marriage, we were finally about to have our delayed tenth wedding ceremony.
 
Just moments before exchanging our vows, my husband, Declan, received a text from his childhood best friend—she had just called off her wedding.
 
Without a second of hesitation, Declan declared, "Let's do the wedding another day. Sloane is having an emotional breakdown. I can't let her face it alone."
 
This was the tenth time he had canceled our wedding for the exact same woman.
 
And when our five-year-old son, Leo, suddenly spiked a high fever and threw up stomach acid on the floor, Declan simply dropped the line, "Leo, you're a big boy. Be strong," and walked away without a single backward glance.
 
He was entirely convinced that I would do what I had done the previous nine times: gracefully placate the guests on his behalf, take our sick child home, and wait for him.
 
But he forgot one crucial detail: no one stands in the exact same spot waiting forever.

The best deal I ever made in my life was selling my blood to a vampire.

I was a broke, permanently starving werewolf who needed ten times the food a normal person did just to feel full.

Evan was a vampire heir with a blood allergy, the kind where the smell alone made him sick and dizzy. Somehow his life was worse than mine.

Except my blood didn't trigger it. He never reacted to me.

So he pulled out his card. "I'll keep you fed. You let me feed off you."

This wasn't a vampire. This was a walking meal ticket.

For the next three years, he was the perfect meal buddy. Five meals a day, and he never once complained. Once I finished and let out a satisfied burp, it was his turn, just a small sip, nothing more.

Then, the year we graduated, he got a call from his family. He had to fly back to Europe that same night.

Before he left, I figured I'd thank him for three years of generosity. I pulled my collar aside.

"Go ahead, take more this time. Consider it a going-away present."

He hesitated, then leaned in.

But this time, once his teeth were in, he couldn't stop.

By the time he pulled back, horrified at himself, I already had a hand pressed to my neck, and everything went dark.

"Sloane, where there's smoke, there's fire. If you're really clean, why is it only burning you?"
In my last life, when those fabricated hotel records went viral on the company Slack, I scrambled to explain. I cried. I begged.
What I got was a suspension, a blacklist, and a foster mother who died on a hospital bed because I could no longer pay for her meds.
The person who started it all? Walked right over my corpse into a partnership.
Then I opened my eyes—and I was back. Three days before the promotion list dropped.
I stared at the pixelated "explicit screenshot" on my screen, and I didn't cry. Didn't rage.
I just smiled and hit screen record.
This time, I'm not proving I'm clean.
I'm proving they're guilty.

For six years, I sold my body to underground clinics as a human lab rat to cure my son's heart failure and pay off my husband's debts.

Today, my biological brother kicked away the medicine I bought with half my life.

"Lucas was never sick. We faked the medical records to teach you a lesson for upsetting Virginia."

My husband coldly chimed in:

"I never went bankrupt either."

Even the son I bled to birth stabbed my arm, screaming, "A bloody monster like you doesn't deserve to be my mom!"

I finally realized my entire life was a meticulously crafted scam.

With my organs rapidly failing and only ten days left to live, I stepped onto the edge of the balcony.

"You're right," I smiled at my husband and brother, watching the color completely drain from their faces. "Six years of my life isn't enough to apologize to her."

"So I'll pay you with my corpse."

Dorian, my boyfriend of three years, was a partner at a top-tier Boston law firm. He was gentle, refined, and absolutely flawless.
A week ago, he buried his face in my neck late at night, whispering that the city was suffocating him. He wanted to take me back to his hometown to meet Octavia, the grandmother who had single-handedly raised him.
I agreed without hesitation.
But on Crane Island, every night Dorian would slip out of our bed, using Octavia's gout as an excuse.
Until that night. I crept barefoot to Octavia’s door and pressed my ear against the wood.
What I heard wasn’t a sick old woman. It was Dorian’s heavy panting, mixed with the shameless, breathy moans of a young woman...

In my last life, my younger brother made a contract with an S-rank ghost, but it turned out to be completely useless, while I contracted a B-rank ghost, the Starving Ghost, which could not only devour monsters but also consume other awakened humans' ghost servants to evolve.
Under my protection, my family went from scavenging for scraps to living in a luxury mansion inside the government safe zone.
But on the eve of a ghost tide attack, I was prepared to stay behind and defend the base while sending my parents, my sister, and my younger brother away first.
Instead, they killed me, all to take my Starving Ghost so they could have an easier time surviving on the road.
After I died, they didn't even have time to tame the Starving Ghost before it devoured every one of them.
When I opened my eyes again, I had somehow returned to the day we formed our ghost contracts, and this time, my younger brother chose the Starving Ghost.

The day the Gryphon army marched home in victory, my sister's husband came back safe. My husband, Tobias, died on the ice.

Everyone pitied me, and I believed them. I mourned him for years, handed over every resource the Elven Realm had to offer to Crown Prince Nathaniel, and helped him lock down his claim to the throne.

It took me years to find out the man who came back wasn't Nathaniel at all. It was my "dead" husband, Tobias.

He killed his own brother, stole his face with forbidden magic, all so he could marry my sister Sabrina and make her his queen, official and out in the open.

"Sabrina and I are the real thing. Pretending to be my brother, that was for the good of the kingdom."

They framed me for treason and threw me into the Pit of Judgment. As I burned, I watched the two of them hold each other while the kingdom cheered.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the army came home.

My sister begged me to stop grieving, tears in her eyes. "Nathaniel" swore he'd give me a life of luxury. The old king stood in front of everyone and promised to grant me anything I wanted.

This time, I didn't cry. I chose to remarry without a second thought.

Tobias thought wearing his brother's face was all it took to sit on that throne. What he didn't know was that without me, he never stood a chance of getting there at all.

On our graduation trip, my boyfriend and I ran into three killers in the middle of nowhere.

I stripped for them. I played nice. I told them whatever they wanted to hear.

That gave my boyfriend the chance to run. He came back with the sheriff’s deputies, and they saved me.

But when we got back to campus, word got out that three men had taken turns with me.

Every single day, strangers tore into me online:

【Three guys at once. Be honest, she liked it.】

【A real woman would’ve fought to the death to keep herself clean. Why’d she throw herself at them like that? No shame at all.】

【If that were me, I’d have deleted myself.】

My boyfriend got colder with me by the day.

Then, right after he got his slot at the state police academy, he broke up with me. His reason:

“I’m sorry.

“Every time I look at you, I can’t stop picturing all those guys on you, and I just…

“You’re dirty.”

Those last two words were the straw that broke me.

In my despair, I walked off the edge of a cliff.

And when I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day we ran into the killers.

My fiancée's father called me a stray dog, worse than trash.
My rival forced me to crawl between his legs and trampled me into the mud.
They all thought I was just a piece of trash to be trampled on at will.
But they didn't know that I endured humiliation and hardship for a shocking secret order.

When the apocalypse arrived, my girlfriend, driven by vanity, exposed my unlimited resource space and incited starving people to kill me and feed me to the zombies, while she herself stepped on my flesh and blood to become the "savior goddess".
But she didn't know that I mutated amidst the pile of corpses and awakened into the only zombie tyrant.
I corrupted the space, cut off food supplies, led a horde of tens of thousands of zombies to besiege the city, and threw a bounty at the starving mob: "Use her flesh and blood to exchange for a bite to eat."
Watching the once-lofty Mother Teresa torn to pieces, kneeling at my feet weeping and begging for mercy, I laughed. Moral blackmail? Sorry, I'm the Zombie King now.

For ten years, Elena Rossi built Don Nico De Luca’s empire from blood, bullets, and broken promises. She was his shield, his strategist, his most loyal woman, until he gave another girl the tenderness he had always denied her. When Elena finally walks away, Nico thinks she can be replaced. But without her, his throne begins to crack, and the woman he took for granted rises into a future that no longer has room for him.

I was once the daughter of the Alpha of Dawn Pack.
After my parents were killed and I was kicked out of the Pack, I was left with nothing.
I was brought back to William’s Pack and became the one he treasured in the palm of his hand.
When the car accident happened, he shielded me with his body, saying he couldn’t live without me.

But after I was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer, all I wanted was to quietly leave and not burden him.
However, after I tried to escape from the wedding, he captured me and imprisoned me.
Refusing to eat and losing weight, it was just the toll of my illness.
But he thought I was intentionally torturing him.

When his "resurrected" ex-wife, Jessica, returned,
At the celebration banquet, I merely gagged once while eating.
He flipped the table, shoved garbage into my mouth, and screamed for me to die.
I hid in the bathroom, wrapped in his clothes, vomiting blood, and no medicine could stop the cold shivers.
For the first time, I called him and begged him to let me go.
But all I received was his scolding and the merciless hang-up.

"I gave Julian Sterling everything: my love, my loyalty, and the child I carried in my womb. In return, he watched my best friend push me down a flight of stairs and did nothing as I lost my baby.

Now, my brother is behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit, and my husband is demanding I sign a lie to protect the woman who shattered my life. He thinks I’m a broken bird with clipped wings. He thinks I have nowhere left to turn.
He’s wrong.

Julian forgot one thing about the woman he married.

I’ve called my father. I’ve set the clock. I have seven days to play the grieving wife before I strip Julian of his fortune, his name, and his freedom.

The countdown to his ruin starts now.

My sister climbed out her window the night before her wedding. So my family pinned her veil over my face and sent me in her place.
I'd been her stand-in my whole life — same face, same hair, the daughter they could afford to lose. Nobody looks twice at a bride behind a veil.
The Falcones figured out I was a fake before the vows. They broke my hand for the insult. And the don himself — the man this whole city only says quietly — took one look at the mess they'd made of me and told them to throw me out with the trash.
Then his eyes dropped to the locket my dead mother left me, lying on his marble floor.
And the most feared man in the city went very, very still.
He had no business knowing my mother's name. So why did he say it like a prayer?

I thought eight years of devotion could warm a frozen heart, but it turned out to be nothing more than a nightmare of being someone’s stand-in.
Jazzy’s poisoned chocolate, the scalding hot water, and Azrael’s gaze that never strayed from his dead wife—each one a blade carving into my soul.
They said I stole her dresses, wore her necklace.
But who saw the nights I stayed awake for the pack, the dangers I took on for Jazzy?
It wasn’t until I was cast out of the territory that I realized—there was never a place for me here.
Then the ruby ring burned against my skin, and the Silverfang wolves came for me.
Only then did I learn the truth my father had hidden all along—
I was never anyone’s shadow.
I am the heir of royal blood.
And those who once hurt me will one day watch as I rise from the ashes—reborn.

Dad was in critical condition and had just been wheeled into the operating room.
My husband—also Dad’s attending surgeon—was nowhere to be found.
I stood in the corridor in my pajamas until past midnight, hands shaking as I kept calling Jason.
When the call finally connected, a sweet, girlish voice spilled through the speaker:
"I’m watching the Eiffel Tower lights with Jason!"
A male voice followed, impatient and familiar—Jason’s:
"Is it her again? Ava, tell her to stop calling. The lights are about to go out. Can she stop making a scene?"
A chill sliced through me. Before I could speak, the line went dead.

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.

In the glittering world of high society and cutthroat ambition, a single sentence shatters a marriage: "Let's get a divorce."

For three years, Claire Thompson has lived in exile, her marriage to the powerful Nelson Cooper a hollow shell existing only on paper. Shipped abroad on her wedding day and utterly forgotten, she returns only to be handed divorce papers. But Claire is no longer the timid, heartbroken girl she once was. Behind her quiet facade lies a woman transformed, secretly rejoicing at her newfound freedom.

However, freedom comes with a price. As Claire signs the papers with relief, a chilling phone call reveals a dark truth: the threats she faced overseas were no accident, and the trail leads shockingly close to home—to the family that raised her and the husband who discarded her.

Just as she prepares to sever all ties, a twist of fate pulls her back into the gilded cage. Nelson, for reasons unknown, suddenly stalls the divorce. Meanwhile, the family that disowned her and the fragile, manipulative sister who stole her life are determined to ruin her reputation and drive her out for good.

But Claire is playing a different game now. With a mysterious new identity, powerful allies, and secrets of her own, she is no one's pawn. As hidden truths unravel and loyalties are tested, a stunning question emerges: In this high-stakes battle of love, betrayal, and revenge, who is truly trapping whom?

"Sign it. Save her, and I'll give you anything."
For four years, I was Damian Wright's "invisible wife".
While I played the pauper, he poured his soul into his dying first love. Desperate, he blindly signed a stack of papers to buy the "Gifted Doctor's" time.
He didn't read the fine print. Buried inside was our Divorce Decree.
"Congratulations, Damian," I said, stripping off my surgical mask to reveal the wife he never truly knew. "You're free."
The submissive Amelia is dead.
The legendary "Ghost Surgeon"? That's me.
The blindfolded racing queen "Raven"? Also me.
The shadow behind the global intelligence network? Still me.
I was ready to vanish, but Lucas Sullivan—the titan who makes the Wrights look like peasants—blocked my path.
When Damian tried to reclaim me, Lucas didn't just stop him; he brought an empire to its knees.
"They don't deserve to look at you," Lucas whispered, his touch a lethal mix of protection and obsession. "But if you crave the world, Amelia, I'll burn it down just to hear you say my name."

I can't breathe. Every touch, every kiss from Tristan set my body on fire, drowning me in a sensation I shouldn't have wanted—especially not that night.
"You're like a sister to me."
Those were the actual words that broke the camel's back.
Not after what just happened. Not after the hot, breathless, soul-shaking night we spent tangled in each other's arms.
I knew from the beginning that Tristan Hayes was a line I shouldn't cross.
He wasn't just anyone, he was my brother's best friend. The man I spent years secretly wanting.
But that night... we were broken. We had just buried our parents. And the grief was too heavy, too real...so I begged him to touch me.
To make me forget. To fill the silence that death left behind.
And he did. He held me like I was something fragile.
Kissed me like I was the only thing he needed to breathe.
Then left me bleeding with six words that burned deeper than rejection ever could.
So, I ran. Away from everything that cost me pain.
Now, five years later, I'm back.
Fresh from rejecting the mate who abused me. Still carrying the scars of a pup I never got to hold.
And the man waiting for me at the airport isn't my brother.
It's Tristan.
And he's not the guy I left behind.
He's a biker.
An Alpha.
And when he looked at me, I knew there was no where else to run to.

“Sign the contract. Be my incubator. And I will let you live.”
That was the deal I made with the tyrant named Damon Lexton.
I was his medicine. His prisoner. He did not love me—only the rare blood in my veins that kept him alive. When I died in the fire, he did not mourn his wife. He mourned the loss of his cure.
Five years later, I returned from the dead with a new face and a heart of stone, ready to watch him suffer.
Then my five-year-old son walked into his office.
“Hey, Old Man. Are you the one who made my mom cry?”
Damon stared at the child—the son he once called a bastard. For the first time, the tyrant fell to his knees.
He cornered me against the wall, his eyes burning with madness and obsession.
“You can run, Anna. But you and our son belong to me. I used to need your blood to live. Now I need your heartbeat to breathe.”

After a tragic misstep leads to her best friend's death, Bella is exiled from the Rune pack by her alpha father.
Her new life with her mother and stepfather, the Alpha of Frost pack is fraught with challenges, not least of which is sharing a room at Howlstone with her stepbrother, Ryder, the Alpha prince, and his twin best friends, Kai and Finn, who are also her biggest bullies. As Bella grapples with her new reality, she discovers that these three are her destined mates who can't seem to recognize her.
When they finally do, it is too late, because they have hurt her beyond repair.

After a tragic misstep leads to her best friend's death, Bella is exiled from the Rune pack by her alpha father.
Her new life with her mother and stepfather, the Alpha of Frost pack is fraught with challenges, not least of which is sharing a room at Howlstone with her stepbrother, Ryder, the Alpha prince, and his twin best friends, Kai and Finn, who are also her biggest bullies. As Bella grapples with her new reality, she discovers that these three are her destined mates who can't seem to recognize her.
When they finally do, it is too late, because they have hurt her beyond repair.

After a tragic misstep leads to her best friend's death, Bella is exiled from the Rune pack by her alpha father.
Her new life with her mother and stepfather, the Alpha of Frost pack is fraught with challenges, not least of which is sharing a room at Howlstone with her stepbrother, Ryder, the Alpha prince, and his twin best friends, Kai and Finn, who are also her biggest bullies. As Bella grapples with her new reality, she discovers that these three are her destined mates who can't seem to recognize her.
When they finally do, it is too late, because they have hurt her beyond repair.

Elena died on the operating table, betrayed by her husband, her unborn child already gone.
But death? Just her intermission.
She woke up in a whole new world—a beastmen's world, where females are rarer than diamonds and the strongest males go mad without a woman's mark to calm them down.
And her?
Labelled the weakest female alive. An F-rank body with a joke of a status.
But hidden inside? Unlimited mental power.
Just as she's figuring out this mess, a system pops up with one hell of an offer:
Complete the missions. Bond with assigned males. Save this world.
Do all that, and you get a one-way ticket back home… for revenge.
Sounds simple? Think again.
A Wolf General, colder than a blizzard, who should have ended her—ended up letting her mark him.
A Fox Prince, all charming smiles and secret schemes, who started playing games only to lose his own heart.
A golden Dragon, sunshine-bright and fiercely possessive, who declares her his destined treasure.
A shadowy Serpent, too patient and too dangerous, watching her every move from the dark.
A Phoenix King, whose love burns so hot he'd reduce empires to cinders for her.
They all need her mark. They all want her.
And sharing? Not in their vocabulary.
Too bad for them—
She's not here for love stories.
She's here to survive.
To climb.
To turn their legendary power into her own stepping stones.
And one day…
To go back and make her betrayers wish they were never born.