113 Book(s) Related to highlander pepper

What would you risk to find love? Mackenzie Cooper has had it with romance. On her way home from another blind date arranged by her well-meaning sister, she is caught in a snowstorm. While maneuvering the twists and turns of the icy road, Mackenzie loses control of her car and crashes into the rocky hillside.  When a rugged Scotsman pulls her to safety, Mackenzie is sure she must be hallucinating. Through the storm’s fury, he takes her to shelter in one of the mysterious stone chambers scattered throughout Putnam County, New York. Snowbound, Mackenzie must wait out the storm with this strange, kilted man who claims to be a Highlander from eighteenth-century Scotland. By morning, she not only believes Ciarán MacRae’s story but has also lost her heart just in time for him to kiss her, promise his love—and then vanish.  Unable to forget him, Mackenzie returns again and again to the stone chamber, hoping to unlock the secret of Ciarán’s disappearance. But if she does, she will have to decide whether her fierce feelings for Ciarán are worth abandoning all that she knows to travel through time to find her gallant Scotsman.

She’s been a proper princess—but she wants to rebel.After the death of her fiancé, Princess Madeleine knows a loveless, arranged marriage awaits her. She’s resigned to her fate until she meets her intended husband. Crown Prince Enrique is gorgeous, but he comes on way too strong, says the wrong things, and fumbles with apologies. He’s more court jester than Prince Charming. How can she marry him?Enrique might be self-centered and lack social skills, but he’s trying to do better—for himself, his country, and his future wife. Despite their royal union being a political necessity, he wants his marriage with the captivating Madeleine to be a love match. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to woo her. How hard can it be to win his princess bride’s heart?Nearly impossible, he discovers, because Madeleine seems unwilling—or unable—to give him her heart. On their wedding day, instead of exchanging vows, will the royal couple say goodbye?

"It won't fit," I whispered, my breath hitching as he leaned closer, his lips grazing my ear.
"You have no idea what your body is capable of. Relax and let me teach you." His voice was dark, commanding, and impossibly seductive.


Alessia never believed in fairy tales. Life had taught her that happy endings were a cruel illusion. Struggling to care for her sick mother, she's spent years working dead-end jobs, her sharp tongue and stubborn nature ensuring she never stayed anywhere for long. Now, she's a bartender in a shady Sicilian bar, juggling rowdy customers and a boss who thinks a raise is only for women willing to strip.
Then he walked in.

Luca Romano is a man of few words but commands a room with his presence. The whispers about him are conflicting- billionaire, recluse, criminal mastermind. Women throw themselves at his feet, but his cold, detached demeanor makes one thing clear: he doesn't care about anyone. Yet when Alessia crosses his path, everything changes.
What begins as a business arrangement- a desperate woman agreeing to play the role of his date for one night- quickly spirals into something much darker. Luca's possessiveness knows no bounds, and Alessia finds herself drawn into a world of power, danger, and unrelenting desire.
But Luca has secrets as deep as his scars, and his love is anything but gentle. He's a man consumed by vengeance, his methods ruthless, his emotions raw. Alessia thought she could handle his intensity, but the closer she gets, the more she realizes there's no escaping him.
He doesn't just want her. He owns her.

In my previous life, when the extreme cold apocalypse arrived, I was drained of all value and heartlessly kicked into an ice pit by my ex-girlfriend.

When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the time before the apocalypse erupted!

On my phone screen, my girlfriend was still arrogantly issuing ultimatums: "If you don't deliver that eight-thousand-dollar Chanel bag to me today, don't even think about touching me ever again!"

I sneered coldly, decisively blocking this gold-digger who was prepared to devour me alive on all platforms. Then I immediately unlocked the seven-million-dollar trust fund my grandfather had left me and went on a shopping spree for the city's top-tier extreme survival supplies!

A few hours later, an unprecedented extreme polar vortex swept across North America.

When my ex-girlfriend and street thugs frantically pounded on my half-meter-thick reinforced steel blast door, what greeted them wasn't just the aroma of fireplace-grilled steak, but also me and my hardcore parents holding heavy firearms.

Lucien Ward is a ruthless billionaire with everything—power, wealth, and charm. But beneath his cold exterior lies a dangerous truth: Lucien possesses a forbidden ability—he can control people’s desires. He hides it from the world, afraid of being seen as a monster. Until one night… he lets it slip in front of her.

Aria—his quiet, mysterious maid—accidentally walks in during one of his “episodes.” Fearing exposure, Lucien forces her to submit. She becomes his obsession, his possession, and his weakness. He thinks he's enslaving her desires, molding her body and soul to fulfill his every dark fantasy.

But Lucien doesn't know the truth.

Aria has been watching him for years.

And Aria… isn’t ordinary. With the power to manipulate thoughts and emotions, she lets him believe he’s in control—while pulling the strings from the shadows. Every move, every moment, was orchestrated by her. Even his darkest secrets… she already knows.

But in a world ruled by lust, lies, and layered betrayals—does Aria truly want Lucien’s love? Or is she playing a game so deep, even she can’t escape?

Beautiful, kind and loyal.
Who would have thought this would happen to her?
When Piper steps in to help a friend, she would never expect she would land in serious trouble. Abused, broken and used as a pawn in a conspiracy to bring down her best friend’s husband’s company, her life takes on a sudden somersault.
Will she ever walk out of this living hell or will she be drawn in by the temptation of the evil within?

Ethan Ashworth had nothing — no money, no family, no future. Just a rundown room, a handsome face that brought him nothing but pain, and the daily beatings from rich bullies who saw him as trash.

Then came the brutal ambush behind the school building. Left bleeding and alone as the weekend began, Ethan finally gave up on life.

That was when the voice spoke.

[Bloodline Legacy Contract activated.]

Suddenly, the frail orphan from the slums was thrust into another world — a realm of magic, kings, and monsters. With a mysterious system at his side and a sword in his hand, Ethan must complete deadly missions to grow stronger.

Because back home, the rich still rule… and he has a score to settle.

On a rainy night outside Lumina City Hall, Chloe is abandoned by her fiancé of five years. Her grandfather is dying, her ten-year-old brother Noah may be taken by CPS, and a vicious inheritance battle is closing in. With no time to fall apart, she turns to Arthur, a stranger who has also just been left at the altar, and asks the impossible: “Will you marry me?”

One contract, one-dollar penalty, and one fake marriage later, Chloe only wants to protect Noah, fool the caseworker, and give her grandfather peace. But Arthur is not the broke freelance writer he claims to be. His expensive clothes, secret calls, and unsettling control hint at a far deeper secret.

He makes promises at her grandfather’s ICU bedside, plays the perfect husband during the CPS visit, and slowly earns Noah’s wary trust. Chloe knows this is supposed to be a deal—so why does his kindness feel dangerously real?

They survive the first home visit, only to learn CPS will return unannounced within thirty days. Arthur has to stay.

But as his true identity begins to surface, can their one-dollar marriage remain just a transaction?

Love is not part of why Kane Beaumont marries Emilia Taylor.
It was purely a contract deal to him and nothing more. Saving her family's business from the claws of evil loan sharks is Emilia's motive for marrying a man she barely knew.
However, she doesn't count on being hopelessly attracted to him even when he treats her like a worthless peasant.
Their relationship is chaotic, thanks to Kane's lover who is determined to ruin any opportunity of their romance ever blooming.
Even if it means putting Emilia's life in danger, setting her up, and turning the world against her.
When sparks begin to fly between Kane and Emilia after an unfortunate accident, their relationship goes through a tough test that destroys the tiny flames of love burning between them.
Will love eventually find a way in the end or will this marriage continue to be a high-stakes business deal with dangerous rewards?

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.

Three days after I died, the morgue called my husband Sebastian to collect my ashes.
He was kissing another woman when he hit speaker, his voice cold and dismissive: "She's dead? Cremate her. Don't call me again."
And just like that, my body was wheeled into the cremation chamber.
When he finally showed up to collect my remains, he smashed the urn on the floor and ground every fragment of my ashes into the tile with his shoe.
"Playing dead? What a pathetic stunt," he sneered. "Tell her the anniversary of my mother's death is coming up. She'd better show up at the cemetery on her knees, or even if she really is dead, I'll scatter her ashes in the sewer myself."
But he didn't know—I truly was dead.
My soul was bound to him, forced to drift at his side as he planned a lavish wedding with his adopted sister Claire—his mother's true killer.
By the time he discovered the truth and exposed Claire at the altar, I had already vanished.
He lost his mind, racing to the ocean to search for my ashes.
Never knowing that the remains he'd crushed like garbage under his shoe—the "fake ashes" he'd dismissed as part of my act—
Were all that was left of me.

He drained my blood to save his mistress; now, I'm back to drain his empire dry.
"How can you do this to me, Zane?!" I ask in a heartbroken and devastated tone as tears roll down my cheeks in torrents.
"I stood by your side when everyone else left you! Hell, I donated my skin to you!" I say in a frantic tone as I try desperately to understand the reasons behind his actions.
"Stop being pathetic, Zara. You have lost the one thing that made you useful: your beauty, and in turn, your modelling career. The only woman who can secure my inheritance is Elora. You were only good while you lasted." Zane says with a sneer on his lips.
"It's over between us," Zane says with a tone of finality.


Zara Smith, blinded by love, abandons her heiress legacy and hides her identity to marry an illegitimate billionaire heir, Zane Wesley.
After getting into an accident staged by his step-siblings, he urgently needs saving. Despite being informed of all she had to lose, she donates parts of her skin to heal him.
When Zane no longer sees a need for her, he divorces her and marries another heiress to secure his inheritance. Three years later, she returns and is determined to bring Zane down.
To do this, she reclaims her legacy and... forms an alliance with her all-along silent investor and billionaire heir, Leo Armstrong. Watch them ruin the cheating couple—piece by piece!

"You're marrying my mother, Jack,"I said. "And I'm pregnant with your baby."
"Pardon?"
The icy voice behind us froze me in place.
I didn't need to turn to know who it was.
Jack's grip tightened, but my knees were already giving out.
I turned slowly, and Celeste stood in the doorway, her face a porcelain mask of shock and fury.
"Mum…" I took a trembling step toward her, instinctively wrapping my arms around my stomach. "Please, I can explain…"


I let his father touch me.
I didn’t mean for it to happen.
It was supposed to be just one night—a reckless decision to escape the pain of a broken past. I didn’t know who he was, only that he was older, magnetic, and made me feel wanted for the first time in years.
But that night changed everything.
Jackson Romero isn’t just anyone. He’s the father of my first love—the boy who broke my heart ten years ago. And now… I’m pregnant.
Worse, Jackson is about to become my stepfather, and his son is back in my life.
They say age is just a number, and Jackson… belongs to my mother.
But how can I walk away when every part of me already belongs to him? When my body remembers his touch, but my heart still aches for the boy who turned his back on me.
Caught between the twisted lies my mother spins, the betrayal of the boy I once loved, and the dangerously irresistible man I never should have touched, I’m faced with a choice that could destroy us all.
In our story, love always comes with a price.
And someone lurking in the shadows will stop at nothing to make sure I pay it, no matter the cost.

She was Claire Summer, fearsome and ruthless, the organization's deadliest sword.

Whether dead or alive, the mere mention of her name sent chills down one's spine.

Until she was framed by someone she trusted, labeled a traitor, and ultimately executed by electric chair.

In this life, she awakens to find herself in the body of Ariana Stevens, an ordinary girl who has suffered bullying, looking exactly like her except for a strange, centipede-like scar on her face.

Claire Summer begins to piece together the truth behind the betrayal that destroyed her world.

However, she encounters Jasper Hart, the cold and mysterious heir of the Hart family. His gaze makes her uneasy and blush.

Yet, when the call of revenge sounds, she must make a choice.

They said she was lucky to have married him. He had wealth, charm, a name with legacy and other women warming his bed.

She was "just" a scholarship girl with a gentle voice and no background.

So when Liana Davids divorced and parted from Dominic Smith, the world snickered.

"She'll be back in no time," they taunted. "He's irreplaceable."

Even Dominic smiled, betting on her return to his board of directors.

But Liana never came back.

Liana didn't just disappear, when she returned, she came back like a ghost.
A masked tech mogul, business guru and a headline queen.

The wife they discarded returned as the woman no one could touch.

Now, whispers say she's looking for a father figure for her daughter.
Powerful men line up, begging for a taste of the empire she built. But Dominic thinks he is not through yet.

He corners her, seething: "Your baby is mine, isn't it?"

She lifts her head, eyes colder than frost.
"That's none of your business. Now step aside, ex-husband before I bury you."

“I never loved you, Lexi. You were always principled, boring and always wanting to put your people first–as you called it. You never had time for me in your busy schedule. The only reason I stuck around was because of the Alpha title I thought you were going to get. Imagine my surprise and happiness when the title was finally given to the love of my life.” He pulls Penelope closer to him as he kisses her in front of me.

My wolf can no longer bear it as she comes out, forcing me to forcefully transform. I watch in helplessness as she takes full control of my body and rushes at Penelope.

My wolf whimpers as she lands on the ground mid stride. She tries to go against the order but the effort is futile so she goes back in. I’m naked as I sob on the floor, my humiliation reaching its peak.


Betrayed by her family and her mate. She left the pack and joined the arm force of the lycanblood-line pack to fight against her own pack. Also become their Alpha’s second chance mate.

He is the Lycan Alpha of the Lycanblood-line pack. He is strongest amongst other Alphas and ruthless as well. Rumor has it that he killed his Luna and his own brother. He later mated with Lexi.

"Right there," I moaned, my legs shaking as his mouth moved lower and slower, until he got to my already dripping clit.
He blew in air before his tongues finally lashed out, rolling over me. His hands pinned my hips, holding me in place and his name fell from my lips again and again.


Ava Scott never thought her life would come to this. She was only working at a club just to pay her mother’s hospital bills. All she did was serve food and drink, until he walked in.

Dominic Hayes, the billionaire no one said no to. He paid for one night, but one night wasn’t enough. Now he wants everything: her time, her touch, her body… her soul. He says she’s his new addiction, and she says she hates him.

And when the love starts to feel like losing control, Ava learns the truth that he never wanted to save her. In fact… he’s not even human.

I thought sharing a dorm room with Jack Carter — the ice hockey team captain I hate the most — was bad enough, but then the coach just had to pair us together for some so-called "team building."

I have to pick his socks off my side of the room and listen to him mock my "fancy Italian socks" when I set down rules. "Define your side, then," he'd grin, like our invisible wall was some joke. "Gotta tape it off? You want chalk?"

He makes my blood boil. The way he skates backward during practice, eyes locked on mine like I'm just another puck to flick away. "Too easy," he'd chirp after stealing the win. The way he sprawls on his bed, phone in hand, acting like our forced proximity doesn't affect him at all.

But here's the thing—when he stops joking long enough to hand me a water after a brutal practice? When he defends me to the team when they mock my accent? That's when the line between enemy and something else starts to blur.

I came to this school to win championships, not fall for the guy who's spent years making me look like an amateur. But the more time we spend off the ice—arguing over mystery puddles, cleaning up his messes, pretending we don't notice how close we get—the harder it is to remember why I hated him in the first place.

Turns out, some rules are meant to be broken. And Jack? He's the best reason to break all of them.

“Ahhh… so fucking tight” Zyran growled as he thrusted into her pussy.

“Who owns this filthy mouth of yours?” Damien asked as he thrusted into her mouth, his fingers tangled in her hair to guide her movements.


She knew what she was doing was forbidden but she couldn't bring herself to stop it.

She knew the bond they shared was forbidden but she couldn't deny it. Will they be able to give into their heart desires? Or will they just keep each other for pleasure.

Elara Voss thought she’d finally found peace when she escaped her abusive ex and settled in the misty coastal town of Stormhaven.

But everything changes the moment she locks eyes with Aiden Nightshade, the rugged alpha of the Nightclaws pack, whose intense gaze stirs something deep inside her. Those strange marks on her skin, left by dreams of a wolf under a blood moon, reveal she’s a werewolf and a rare Lunar Echo, tied to an ancient curse that could doom them all.

Aiden knows she’s his fated love, but years ago, he pushed her away to protect her, a choice he now regrets with every fiber of his being. He’s determined to win her back, even if it means breaking pack laws. Things get even trickier when Kai, Aiden’s charming younger brother, steps in with a warm smile and a shared memory from their past that pulls at Elara’s heart.

Torn between two men, her growing powers, and a vengeful half-brother Draven who wants her blood for his own gain, Elara’s life turns into a whirlwind of passion and danger. She’s been hurt before, betrayed by love, and now she’s ready to make those who wronged her pay.

Yet, as blood moons ignite forbidden desires and pack wars threaten to tear everything apart, she uncovers a shocking truth: the betrayal that broke her heart might have been to shield her from a secret identity. Can she forgive Aiden and give love another chance? Or will the curse, her revenge, and the chaos around her destroy any hope of happiness?

“You got me pregnant!” I shouted at him.

“You can’t just barge in here after seven years and say trash to my face! Get out! Or I’ll have the guard drag you out.” He growled with hatred laced in his voice.

“I’m not lying to you, Vlad. These are your sons, Lex, Lois, and Lincoln.” I wiped the tears from my eyes.

His gaze softened at me. “...We are no longer mates.”

Humiliated and rejected by her mate, seven years ago. She flee to find shelter in the world of humans and there she discovered she was pregnant with triplets.

She swore to raise them alone and never look back or let them know of their identity as werewolves.

But her life turned into a nightmare after seven years and the children are kidnapped. And the only person who could save her is the one who rejected her.

Her former mate, Vlad Hayes. Now in Crimson Pack, she found out about her second chance mate.

Torn between two strong men in the pack, and her children in between, who want her, love her, and crave her.

What would Samara succumb to love or mate?

When I died alone in the hospital in my past life, Nathaniel was in Paris getting engaged to Sophia.

Reborn on the day of Mom's funeral, I watched him announce his first love's return at the gala. Watched him smile at her the way he never smiled at me in three years.

So I threw wine in his face.

"The transaction is over, Nathaniel."

In front of all Boston high society, I dropped his million-dollar ring into the champagne tower.

Then I drove 12 hours to Port Haven. A shabby seaside cottage, teaching piano, falling for Liam, the gentle town doctor. I thought I was finally free.

Until three months later, Nathaniel showed up with lawyers.

"Clause 17, Emma. Early divorce means you owe $8 million."

I collapsed in the snow, hands shaking—this hidden trap is why I never ran in my past life.

But this time, will I let him win again?

When I woke up, there was a stranger beside me. He said his name was Kieran, took care of me gently, answered every question with patience. My wolf was dormant, but my heart raced every time I saw him.

"Are you my mate?" I asked.

He was silent for a long time. Finally: "Just rest for now."

The days that followed felt like a dream. He made breakfast, walked with me, kissed me under moonlight. We marked each other. I thought I'd found where I belonged.

Until I saw a black wolf emblem.

Memory struck like lightning—

Kieran Valens. My mortal enemy. Son of the man who killed my parents twenty years ago.

And I'd just spent three weeks in his bed.

Worse—when I pretended the amnesia continued and secretly fed intel to my pack...I found I couldn't betray him.

When he took a silver bullet on the battlefield, I ran to him faster than logic could stop me.

"Why save me?" he asked, eyes full of pain.

Because I love you. Because you're my fated wolf.

Because even though you're the one person I should hate most, my body moves toward you on instinct.

But this love was built on lies...

The Vane family has carried the vampire's curse for generations. Of every pair of twin sisters born into our bloodline, one will not live to see twenty-five.

Everyone assumed it was my sister — the one always coughing up blood.

Nobody knew that for twenty years, every full moon, the one gritting her teeth through the pain, never making a sound, was me.

The Divine took pity on me and gave me three chances. Win the genuine love of my parents, my brother, or my husband — any one of them — and the curse would lift.

Three chances. Three failures.

The only hope I had left was the baby inside me, seven months along. Bring him into this world, and I'd live.

Then my husband kicked open my hospital room door. My own brother pulled on a surgical gown and picked up a knife. My parents signed the forms outside.

They were going to cut me open, take the last thing keeping me alive, and use it to save my "cursed" sister.

After my life slipped away entirely, the truth came out.

So why is it that the people who sent me to my death are the ones who lost their minds?

I died once.

Spent seventy years as a housewife the first time around. Biggest regret? Never felt my heart race.

Met her in this life, and that's when I learned what being alive actually meant. In this world where assassins pay in gold coins and seek sanctuary at Continental hotels, we became a duo called "Swans," hunting down the man who destroyed her family. Every single day, dancing on a razor's edge.

Two years ago, the explosion killed Raven Hayes right in front of me.

To survive, I married a naive tech heir, slipped into silk dresses and started doing the charity gala circuit, tried to convince myself this was the peace I wanted.

Until that enemy became a High Table member and announced a hundred-million-dollar bounty on me to the world.

I used to be scared. Used to run. Used to ask why it had to be me.

But sitting at my vanity, staring at this stranger's face in the mirror, all done up like some socialite, I suddenly realized none of it mattered anymore.

I'm going to die eventually anyway. Might as well die looking like myself.

I died in the tenth year of our marriage. Not from illness, but from thirty-six hundred days of silent cruelty and penance.

Ten years ago, during that avalanche, he grabbed my hand at the last second. The girl he loved got buried under all that snow.

After that, even breathing felt like a crime.

He drank himself into oblivion, stayed out all night, and on the anniversary of her death, he'd wrap his hands around my throat and ask, "Why wasn't it you?"

I loved him for fifteen years, from childhood sweethearts to bitter strangers. I gave everything for even a hint of warmth from him. What I got instead was him shoving me down the stairs for her little sister.

When I open my eyes again, wind cuts through me and snow fills the air. I'm ten years in the past, back to that afternoon in the Alps.

This time, I'll give you what you want.

Everyone knows Adrian loves me more than life itself. When that car crashed, he threw himself over me and took the hit. First thing he said when he woke up in the hospital: "Where is she? Is she okay?"

Everyone says I married the best man in the city.

What they don't know is this man has married me ten times. And divorced me ten times. All for the woman he's never gotten over.

The first time, I got on my knees and begged him not to leave. He just looked at me with those cold eyes and said, "Don't embarrass yourself."

The fourth time, we were fighting in the car. Then we crashed, and I lost our baby.

By the seventh time, I stopped crying. Just signed the papers, packed my things, waited for him to come back like he always did.

My tears, my compromises, all those times I bent until I nearly broke. What did I get? Him coming back like clockwork, just to do it all over again.

This time, when he slides that tenth divorce agreement across the desk, I finally get it. Some people's hearts never had room for you in the first place.

So this time, I'm throwing him out. Him and this whole Mrs. Hayes charade. Straight into the trash where they belong.

I burn through eighty years of my life raising three dogs that turn around and tear into me.

My vampire husband, Damian, used to be an outcast covered in festering sores, cursed to fear the sun. I cut my wrist and gave up thirty years of my life so he could become the most powerful man among the bloodlines, in control of half the world's wealth. Cold and ruthless to everyone else, he only ever bares his fangs for me.

Knox, the werewolf boy I grew up with, was born with a genetic flaw that kept him from ever shifting. I gave up another twenty years so he could have the strongest bloodline of all. Wild and reckless, he used to swear he'd carry me on his back for the rest of his life.

Julian, my human brother, got burned beyond recognition saving me from a fire. I spent my last thirty years giving him back a face people would pay a fortune for. He used to send crates of his paintings to my room, the kind of work people would kill to own.

Then a woman named Daphne shows up, and all three of them lose their minds over her.

And somehow I become the jealous, vicious wife everyone wants gone.

She cries that I pushed her, so they drive blades of blood straight through my bones.

She says I'm cruel to the staff, so they break my legs in front of a crowd.

And when I'm dying, they drain my blood to keep her alive.

If you're all going to treat the life I gave you like trash, then I'm taking it back. The strength, the face, the life. All of it.

[God, I take it back. I want everything I gave them returned to me.]

This is a world where humans and fantasy races exist side by side. Werewolves move through city streets between glass towers, and every now and then, a pair of massive wings cuts through the clouds overhead. Twenty years ago, to secure the family's standing, the main house signed a contract with the Dragon Clan.

As the least favored daughter of a branch family, I was chosen to be the Dragon King's mate. The terms were spelled out plainly: if I couldn't get married within five years of coming of age, I'd have to go to Dragon territory and go through with the marriage.

For five years, every wedding I've planned has been blown up by my younger sister, Hannah.

This is year five. I'm finally in a wedding dress, about to marry Derek, the boy I grew up with.

What I didn't expect was that one hour before the ceremony, Hannah collapsed in the dressing room coughing up blood. She grabbed Derek's hand, crying, saying she wouldn't make it through the month.

And my parents are on either side of me, hands pressed down hard on my shoulders.

"Just let Hannah have the wedding. She's dying!"

What they don't know is that if I don't get married today, the Dragon envoys will come for me on the spot.

And I won't be coming back.

The day my sister and I came back to life, we made one call: swap fiancés.

Last time, Dad burned every favor he had to lock down two marriage deals for the family. One with a mafia family that runs the West Coast. The other with a corporate CEO.

My sister married the mafia leader. She was too gentle, too kind for a world that ran on blood and backstabbing. The man had a childhood friend who played soft and helpless but was vicious as hell underneath. That woman tormented my sister for decades before finally arranging an "accident" that killed her.

And me? I got the polished CEO.

Sounds good, right? Except we tortured each other from day one. He was all rules and manners, always talking like he was giving a speech. Me? I blow up fast and if I can throw a punch, I will. Every day was the same standoff. He'd pull back, I'd push forward, and nobody gave an inch.

We spent our whole lives being polite and miserable.

Then one day, my sister and I woke up on the afternoon they announced the engagements.

At twenty-nine, Dominic Brooks owns this city's underworld.

This year, I'm pregnant again. Finally.

But on our daughter's death anniversary, he doesn't show. Five hours. Nothing.

I find him at our casino with some girl draped all over him. The same girl I pulled out of a trafficking ring two years ago.

She's laughing loud enough for everyone to hear. "His wife won't stop crying about that dead kid. God, he's so over it."

He kisses her. Right in front of me.

Three days later, he tears up our daughter's grave. His mistress wants a swimming pool.

The shovel comes down. My unborn baby goes with it.

Years ago, Dominic taught me the rules of our world. How we handle traitors.

Time for a reminder.

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

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

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

I believed him.

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

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

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

And I heard him talking to his angel companion.

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

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

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

My heart just shatters. And I stop fighting.

Blake's keeping me locked up in a villa outside the city, with a dozen bodyguards watching me around the clock. They won't let me step foot outside my room.

He once promised Vanessa, the woman he never got over, that he'd give her company shares and his estate. Now she's back after her divorce, pregnant, crying to Blake that I threatened her, told her to give up what he promised, and that I wanted to hurt her and her baby.

Blake believed her.

He's convinced I'm evil and gold-digging. He locked me up here while he stays at the hospital, never leaving Vanessa's side.

I'm going into sudden labor, crying and begging him to let me go to a hospital. I swear I never wanted those things, never hurt her.

Blake just sneers. "You're such a liar. I don't believe a single word from someone as vicious as you. After Vanessa delivers, I'll get you a doctor. Stop trying to fool me."

But when he finally sees my body, he completely falls apart.

My serpent mate has locked me in the castle, nine months pregnant. A dozen serpent guards watch me day and night. I can't even leave the room.

A month ago, his brother died in a hunting accident. He became the serpent clan leader. Then he brought back his brother's widow, the woman he grew up with. His first love.

He said he needed to take care of his brother's widow. He told me we'd all live together in the castle, nice and peaceful.

I said no.

I'm his mate. I'm a beastman. My pride won't let me accept that. And they grew up together, childhood sweethearts. How could I not think about it?

She came to him in tears, heavily pregnant. She said I poisoned her medicine, that I wanted to kill her and the baby.

He believed her.

He decided I was just some rogue beastman with no background, jealous and vicious, only after his title and money. So he locked me in this freezing castle while he camped outside her delivery room.

When labor hit, I screamed for a healer. I swore I never hurt her. I just couldn't live with her under the same roof. I only ever loved him.

He just laughed. "You're good at acting. I don't believe a word out of you. Once she delivers safely, I'll deal with you. Don't think you can trick me into coming back."

But when a trembling guard reported "Your mate and the child... they didn't make it," he lost it completely.

I've got a reputation on campus as a doormat with zero dignity. I bring Wyatt Langley food, do his homework, act as his emotional dumping ground. Been at it for a year.

His rich friends mock my cheap clothes and say I'm reaching way out of my league. He never stops them. Sometimes he even laughs along.

Finally, he announces in front of everyone that he's breaking up with me. His first love is coming back from Europe, so I need to get lost.

Everyone's waiting to see me cry.

I glance at the five million dollars that hit my account half an hour ago and say, with complete sincerity, "Okay. Congrats."

What nobody knows is that I put up with him, tolerated his rotten temper, for one simple reason. His mom pays way too well.

Now the money's here. Time to end this arrangement.

So why, the second I walk away, does he start tearing the city apart trying to find me?

I died. At my sister's eighteenth birthday party, the moment the champagne tower came crashing down.

While she stood under the crystal chandelier in her gown, soaking up congratulations from three hundred guests, I was tied up in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town. The wound in my stomach was still bleeding.

I called my family. Only my brother picked up, sounding pissed off and disgusted. "What's your problem now? This is her big day. You better not ruin it."

I tried to explain. He hung up.

That was the ninety-ninth time they'd hung up on me.

Also the last.

They thought I was throwing a tantrum, deliberately skipping my sister's special moment. Called me ungrateful, said they regretted bringing me back from that backwater town two years ago.

Well, now they're off the hook.

Problem solved.

As the only mute player in this horror game, I thought I was screwed.

Turns out the boss knows sign language.

Thank God! Perfect!

Then he gets everything completely wrong.

I sign "help me," he reads it as "you're hot."

I sign "danger," he thinks I'm saying "I like you."

I sign "get lost," and he goes, "You want me to come closer? Okay."

The worst part? I curse him out in sign language, calling him a psycho pervert.

He just smiles and says, "Baby, you're so good at flirting. I can't even bring myself to kill you now."

Me: ...

My teammate whispers to me, "Please stop signing. Every time you do, he stares at you even more like a psycho."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Three years ago, a private plane crash took my father, my mother, my brother Carter, and Grayson, the man I'd loved for seven years and was about to marry.

To hold onto everything they left behind, I cried until my eyes were raw, destroyed my stomach, and fought my way through boardrooms and Wall Street vultures.

On countless nights, I held their photographs and cried until I passed out.

What I never understood was why Willow, the foster sister we'd taken in, vanished without a trace after the crash.

Until today, three years later, when I drive back to the family estate with a diagnosis in my bag telling me I have three months to live.

I push open the heavy door and hear laughter. I see my family—the family that's supposed to be dead—gathered around Willow and her three-year-old son, singing happy birthday.

Turns out no one in this world ever loved me at all.

Why do they all get to live while I'm the only one who have to die?

Everyone says I married an iceberg.

Three years of contract marriage. He's never touched me once.

On our wedding night, I tried to move into his bedroom. He refused. I stood in front of him wearing lingerie. He just said, calm as ever, "You should get some rest."

I'm a healthy woman with a normal sex drive. Every day I'm burning up with my own desire.

I thought he didn't love me. So for both our sakes, I signed the divorce papers. Today, I'm telling him.

Then that afternoon, I suddenly heard his thoughts.

When I walked up to him in just a towel, he looked calm, staring at his laptop. But his mind was screaming: Holy shit. She's not wearing anything under that. Look at that skin. Her tits are huge. I can't take this anymore... no, I'll scare her. Fuck. I'm hard again.

Turns out under the ice, there's a volcano that's been buried for just as long.

I slip the divorce papers back into hiding and pour him a coffee.

New plan: make that volcano blow.

I gave Arthur a thousand years. A thousand years to secure his throne as God-King.

And on the day of our engagement ceremony, he announced he was marrying someone else.

In my past life, I bled myself dry for him.

He told me Lilith needed Seraphim blood to live. I believed him. He bound me to the Divine Punishment Pillar and carved open my chest, one cut at a time.

He massacred my entire clan, calling it "treason."

I only learned the truth as I was dying. That pitiful "saint" was a demon from the Abyss all along.

Now that I'm reborn, watching him sit on that throne makes my skin crawl.

I destroy our engagement in front of everyone and take the entire Seraphim clan with me.

This time, I'm only here to watch him destroy himself.

I loved Damien for ten years. Ten years, right up until the moment he took the heart that was supposed to save our daughter and gave it to someone else's child.

Lily was only seven. She was terrified of the dark, terrified of pain. She never got that heart. She just faded, right there in that hospital bed.

And Damien was down the hall, celebrating someone else's miracle.

He had no idea what I was holding when he finally came home. He had no idea my stomach cancer had already hit the final stage.

There was nothing left in this world worth staying for.

So this time, I didn't yell. I didn't cry.

I just slid the divorce papers across the table.

He thought I was bluffing.

But this time, I had nothing left to lose.

In the dark underworld, Matthias Sterling is a feared mob boss and the only family I had left after my parents died. I used to be the girl he cherished, until I turned eighteen and confessed my feelings to him.

From that day on, the tenderness in his eyes turned to disgust. He brought home Rose Hartley and threw me away like trash.

In my past life, someone drugged him with a powerful aphrodisiac. I gave myself to him as the cure, only for him to call me a shameless whore. But when I got pregnant, he married me anyway.

On our wedding day, Rose ran to rival territory heartbroken and ended up dead. When he heard the news, he said nothing. Just finished the ceremony.

When I went into labor, he locked me in the house and said coldly, "If it weren't for you, I would've married her. She wouldn't have run to enemy territory and died."

He blamed everything on me. In the end, I died in childbirth. He wouldn't even let anyone call a doctor.

When I open my eyes again, I'm back on the night that changed everything.

One of my employees went online and dragged me, claiming I'm making them sacrifice their health for a paycheck and forcing everyone to work over Thanksgiving.

Here's what actually happened. My company gives nine days off for Thanksgiving. Volunteer to work overtime, get triple pay, with a $500 daily meal stipend and a $5,000 bonus. No one gets penalized for not working.

The whole internet's tearing into me for making employees sell their lives for cash. So I give her exactly what she wants and send out a company-wide notice:

To protect employee mental health, the building gets locked and the power gets cut over Thanksgiving. No one is allowed to work for any reason. Anyone who does gets fired.

The minute that email goes out, the employees who were counting on overtime to pay their mortgages lose it. Now they're all crowded outside the building, begging me to open the doors.

Connor Mitchell and I are the golden couple of our industry. Everyone sees him as the devoted husband, always bringing me soup when I work late into the night.

On our fifth wedding anniversary, he gave me an expensive diamond necklace and posted something sweet on Instagram. The comments were all variations of the same thing: jealousy.

I used to believe it too.

Until I cut my trip to Europe short and got into that SUV. The passenger seat was set at the wrong angle, too far forward for my height. A contact lens case fell out of the sun visor, and neither of us wears contacts.

When I had my cousin pull the dashcam footage and saw him with his arm around some petite girl getting into the car, the truth hit me. My attentive husband, the one who called me every night I was away, had been using my connections and resources to play successful mentor to a twenty-two-year-old intern.

The irony is, he thinks he's gotten away with it. He has no idea I can see right through every move he makes.

Once rot sets into a perfect marriage, no amount of perfume can hide the stench.

I was the Sinclair family's lost daughter, missing for fifteen years. The day they found me, I thought I'd finally found the home I'd always dreamed of.

I didn't know they only brought me back to keep their other daughter alive. The one with the rare blood disease.

For three years, they drained my blood over and over. Took my bone marrow once.

My birth parents told me, "Eloise is fragile. You're the older sister. Take care of her."

My fiancé said, "You have such a good heart. You wouldn't want to see her suffer, would you?"

Today, I just gave six hundred milliliters of blood. I'm lying here weak in this hospital bed, and I hear them talking outside my door.

"Eloise is getting worse. We should take Aria's kidney now. Give it to her. We can't wait any longer."

That's when I finally understood. I was never their found daughter.

I was inventory. A blood bag. Spare parts waiting to be harvested.

If that's what their love is, I don't want it.

Three months after my miscarriage, at the celebration dinner he hosts for my "recovery," he tells his partners in French, "She's just a trophy wife. Doesn't understand basic business."

"What about that new assistant? The twenty-two-year-old?"

"So much smarter," he laughs. "And in bed? Way more exciting."

They think I don't understand. To everyone here, I'm just the stay-at-home wife who gave up her VP position at an investment bank to play house.

They don't know I minored in French. I spent a full year studying abroad at the Sorbonne.

As I lay in the operating room, bleeding out from the miscarriage, he was already seeing her.

Je comprends tout. I understand everything.

Over the champagne and candlelight, I smile at him.

He has no idea this is the last time he'll ever see it.

The night before the SAT, I brought homemade pastries from our bakery to share with the whole class.

The next day, over thirty students collapsed at the testing center. The exam was voided.

I became the target of everyone's rage. My family fell apart. I ended up in a detention cell.

The internet tore me apart. My classmate Lainey Prescott went on camera sobbing, saying all she wanted was for me to own up to what I did.

While I was in detention, I found out my mom had a mental breakdown and jumped off the overpass outside of town.

That same night, I went into the river too. The water was freezing.

When I open my eyes, Lainey is right there. She's holding that same sheet of paper with everyone's signatures, smiling like nothing's wrong, eyes just as calculating as I remember.

I'm back.

And this time, I'm not making anything for anyone.

The day college applications were due, Fern Whitmore wouldn't stop crying — and my two childhood best friends were completely wrapped around her finger.

They actually threatened to give up their Ivy League spots to follow her to community college.

I tried everything to talk them out of it. Nothing worked. So I went behind their backs and called both their parents.

Their parents showed up that same night and put a stop to it. Applications corrected, crisis averted, everyone back on track.

Or so I thought.

Fern lost her two personal ATMs, and one night she posted a goodbye message on social media and swallowed a bottle of pills.

Nash and Declan didn't blame her for it. They blamed me.

They lured me up to the roof. Both of them shoved their hands against my chest.

"Maren." Declan's voice was ice. "You ruined Fern's future. Go apologize to her in hell."

I fell twelve stories.

When I opened my eyes, I was back at the beginning.

This time, I'm not saving anyone.

"Don't call her a bitch, asshole," Sierra hissed.
"What's it got to do with you?" the greasy creep demanded.
"Oh, I don't know, Stimpy, maybe because you're harassing my woman and she just got here."
"Oh, shit, Orion. Sorry, man. Didn't realize she was with you."
Orion: As the heir apparent to the Primal Howlers' MC President patch, a chance encounter with a beautiful woman pulls me into a war I wasn't expecting that could bring the whole club down. But when she runs from me, I will pursue her to the end of the earth to find her and bring her back.
Whether she likes it or not.
Raquel: I moved to Monument, Colorado to write my thesis and get some much-needed distance from my overbearing family. What I didn't expect was to find myself hung up on a biker who appears to have nothing to lose.
I, however, have everything to lose and I'm worried Orion just might be my downfall.