8041 Book(s) Related to read the defiant mate free

In a zombie apocalypse, survivors build a fortress-like base. My girlfriend and I are its lead researchers, racing to create the serum that could end the world’s collapse.

On a sampling run outside the walls, she chooses to save the “genius” colleague she just brought back—and leaves me behind to be swallowed by a horde.

With no way out, I inject myself with an unfinished prototype. I survive… but I come back as a zombie.

The difference is: I don’t lose my mind. I keep my human intelligence—and I can command other zombies. They bow instinctively, as if they’ve sensed a king.

Inside the base, that so-called genius is working with raiders beyond the walls, pushing a fake serum to control the troops and selling the defenses piece by piece to the enemy.

As the base collapses, the drugged soldiers turn on each other atop the ramparts. The chain of command snaps. Everyone is waiting to die.

Then—at the moment the walls give way and screams drown out gunfire—I stand on the ruins outside, raise my hand, and sweep it forward.

The horde behind me doesn’t attack the survivors. Like a disciplined army, it bypasses them and surgically crushes every invader.

Only then does the woman who abandoned me realize what she destroyed.

But I don’t need her regret anymore.

In my previous life, an endless polar night and frost-laden corpse tide swept through the entire city.
My wife and I took in her mother and younger brother out of familial obligation,
But when monsters attacked, they locked us outside the shelter and we were torn apart alive.
Opening my eyes again, there are only seven days until doomsday arrives.
My wife and I have reached a consensus—to hell with blood being thicker than water!
This time, we will build an icy tomb for them with our own hands at the highest point of this city.

In this damned wasteland, nobody wants to travel with a burden.
But there were four filthy little ones who stubbornly insisted on following me, refusing to fight back or retaliate.
I looked at them, then at the approaching horde of zombies in the distance, and tossed a loaded pistol in front of them.
"Want to follow me? Fine."
I coldly placed a knife to the neck of the outermost zombie. "Here, if you want me, the lone wolf, to take you along, you'll have to prove you're not trash!"
"Take it and shoot it in the head! That's the only ticket to joining my team!"
The sixteen-year-old girl, tears streaming down her face, gritted her teeth and pulled the trigger.
I knew I could never shake them off again.

In my last life, I risked everything to protect my fiancée, only for her to shove me into a horde of zombies with nothing but, "You owed David this."
When I got a second chance, I found myself back right before the rescue chopper took off at the start of the apocalypse.
As I watched her cling to the cabin door, refusing to leave because she was waiting for her ex, I stepped back without hesitation: respect, best wishes, stay together forever. This time, I'm done being the pathetic simp who gets played for a fool.
I snatched the top-tier crystal core first, awakened an apocalyptic-level power, and watched with a cold smile as the cheating couple turned on each other in the middle of a pile of corpses, stabbing and screaming in despair. When the end of the world comes, you deal with the bleeding hearts first—then you rise to godhood.

Four years. Ninety-nine times on the altar, and the Alpha I was going to mate held the door for every one of them.
I heal from anything. That is the only reason they picked me.
The Moon Goddess promised that the hundredth offering would buy back the night somebody stole from me. The night Cassian knows it was me who dug him out of that mine, and looks at me the way he used to.
Not this one. In this one I am what his priestess practises on.
So I never refused. Not once, not through any of the fevers.
Tonight is the hundredth. The drug hasn't taken, and the two of them are talking on the other side of the door.
"It'll hold. We built that voice out of her own memories."
"The heart tonight, not an eye. When she wakes, don't let anything slip."
There is no Moon Goddess. There never was.
And he doesn't know my healing was never mine. Something else lives in my chest, and it stays there because my heart does.
Take it out and I don't wake up.

My teammates viewed me as a mobile food supply and planned to butcher me before they ran out of rations.
They thought that as long as I died, they would win this "survival game."
However, they would never know that what I brought back from the depths of the ruins wasn't fear, but the highest-level administrative privileges of the entire logistics system. While they killed each other for a bag of expired biscuits, I had already locked the exit to this hell. Sorry, but in this settling of accounts, you aren't even qualified to be treated as bargaining chips.

I used to think I had the perfect family.
My husband Nico started coming home less and less, always saying he had a meeting. But the truth was, he had another woman, Alessia. And it had been going on for a while.
The affair I could've handled. What really killed me was that my son Leo and my daughter Mia had known all along. They'd even started calling his mistress "Mom."
They thought I was clueless. But I'd known for months, his assistant had told me everything.
I tried so hard to win them back. I did more for them, cared more, tried harder. But they kept choosing Alessia.
That day, I stopped trying.
They could all have each other—Nico, Alessia, Leo, Mia.
I hoped they'd be happy together.

I lost my memory.
When I woke up, my biological parents and aloof wife were fussing over the fake young master's bedside.
I, the real young master who had just awakened from a coma, only received my wife's cold command: "Sebastian needs a blood transfusion. Go donate."
Looking at the scars on my wrists from her suicide attempt, my amnesiac mind only felt absurdity.
I calmly donated blood, then turned and signed the divorce papers, leaving with nothing, and unilaterally published a notice severing all ties with my family.
Later, the fake young master's conspiracy was exposed. My arrogant female CEO wife destroyed her entire family, flew halfway around the world overnight, and knelt at the airport, tears streaming down her face, begging me to come home.
I, however, took the hand of a haired female professor and looked at her coldly: " Sorry, I already have a partner ."

I died on the barren wasteland in a raging blizzard.
Before my death, many from the pack came to say goodbye.
Even Seraphina, my lifelong rival, came.
Only Kael, my Alpha mate of five years, was absent.
He was with that rogue Jennifer, watching the moon's reflection in Silver Moon Falls.
In my final moments, I received his mind-link.
"When the Moon Goddess guided me to find you as my fated mate, you were just a Beta. To inherit the Alpha position, I had no choice but to choose you. All these years I've been giving you suppressants, forbidding you from getting pregnant, and you agreed to it all. You've been a competent Luna."
"If there's a next life, I'll still choose you. In this life, rest in peace. I'll personally arrange your funeral."
Sensing this mind-link, my rival Seraphina sneered mockingly: "Karolyn, you really weren't cut out to be a Luna."
"In the next life, don't compete with me anymore."
Her words proved prophetic. When I opened my eyes again, we had both returned to the day of the Darkwood family's mate selection ceremony.
Kael said coldly: "Karolyn, the Moon Goddess has chosen you as my fated mate. You will be Darkwood's Luna."
Without hesitation, I stepped back and pointed to Seraphina.
"I think the Luna position is better suited for Seraphina."

When my younger brother got into a top university, the whole family celebrated for him.
I, suffering from a terminal illness, clutched my chest and desperately cried for help, only to be met with a disgusted slap from my mother and the words, "You just can't stand to see your brother doing well!"
She thought I was a spoilsport, so she roughly dragged me back to the room and locked the door from the outside.
She didn't know that those were the last words I ever heard in my life.
The next morning, she opened the door with breakfast in hand, only to find my corpse.

I ranked first and snagged the most prestigious job offer in the city. Yet, not a single person congratulated me.
Because for the past twenty years, every top student who received this offer from the medical school "committed suicide" that very night.
Reporters blocked the school gates, grinning as they asked if I planned to jump off a building or swallow a bullet. My roommate grabbed my collar, screaming curses, wishing me dead.
Too bad they all completely miscalculated. I come from a filthy rich family, I’m perfectly sane, and top psychologists have signed off that I have zero suicidal tendencies. I have no reason to die.
So, I looked straight into the live cameras and declared: "If my body is found tomorrow morning, it’s not suicide. It’s murder!"
After all, for that final exam, I turned in a blank paper.

In my past life, my husband Pietro locked me in a dark basement and tortured me to death. My only crime? I couldn't get pregnant.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the family’s arranged marriage banquet.
Pietro was an illegitimate son, desperate to secure his status through marriage. In my previous life, he chose me—the Godfather's daughter. But this time, he publicly wrapped his arm around my ambitious stepsister, Livia.
Livia had always envied my status. She craved power and desperately wanted to be the Don's wife. Seeing them together, I knew instantly: Pietro had been reborn, too.
Don Ettore laid down the law: Whoever sired a son first would inherit Castel City.
My sister thought she had just been handed a crown.
But she didn't know the truth. The barren one... was Pietro.

My husband, Victor Falcone, was a mafia godfather whose very name makes the entire underworld tremble.
A year ago, he barely survived an assassination attempt. The trauma gave him severe amnesia, completely wiping out the three months we spent keeping each other alive in the slums.
When he woke up, he was a different man—cold and ruthless. He treated my stepsister like his untouchable first love, spoiling her rotten.
And me, his legal wife? In his eyes, I was just a greedy, desperate woman who wouldn't take a hint.
"Drop the cheap pity act," he’d sneer. "You’re not worth a single hair on Lilia’s head."
Even so, I chose to stay by his side, desperate to spark his memory.
Until today. A rival cartel tied me and his precious "angel" to iron pillars on an abandoned pier.
Beneath our feet is a raging, pitch-black ocean. A thug has the ice-cold barrel of a gun pressed hard against my temple.
Which one of us will he choose?

I don't realize how badly I've been wronged until they're strapping me to the gurney.

My name is Camille Brooks. I'm one of the best cardiothoracic surgeons in the city, and I have never lost a patient on my table.

My fiancé, Adrian Vance, is the golden boy of the entire hospital. We're supposed to get married next month.

It's a stormy night when he calls, telling me to get to the hospital right now. There's a patient bleeding out, and only I can save them.

I race through the rain, but I get stuck in traffic halfway there. By the time I push through the OR doors, the patient has no pulse.

The family points at me. They say I botched the procedure and killed him. And Adrian Vance, my own fiancé, takes the stand and shows up with "ironclad evidence" against me.

I have nothing to fight back with. I go to prison. My parents can't handle it. It destroys them both. They take their own lives.

It's only after I die that I learn who really held the scalpel that night: Daisy Whitman, the woman Adrian never got over.

I was just the fall guy.

Then I open my eyes.

I'm back. One hour before everything falls apart, riding through the rain toward the hospital.

This time, I'm going to survive.

And I'm going to watch both of you burn.

My stepsister killed someone while driving high and made me take the fall.
She knelt in front of me, crying, "I'm so scared."
My mom snatched the only piece of evidence and told the police it was me.
My fiancé, Darian, took my hand and said, "Trust me. I'll marry you in three years."
Three years. Not one person came to see me.
The day I was released, it poured rain.
I clutched that engagement ring and walked back to that house.
The door was unlocked. The moment I pushed it open, I found him kissing my stepsister.
She spun around, ducking into Darian's arms.
"Sis... you're... you're out already?!"

My boyfriend successfully proposed with a spectacular drone light show.
The whole city erupted in celebration: “Mr. and Mrs. Hansen—finally, a couple united!”
Yet, nestled in his arms was none other than his secretary.
The "Mrs. Hansen" everyone speaks of is now nothing more than a forgotten memory, buried beneath the earth.

Amy didn't expect that her husband whom she had loved and trusted earnestly for many years would be cheating on her by having sex with his secretary.
When she confronted him, he and his secretary mocked and ridiculed her, they called her barren to her face, afterall, she had not conceived for the past three years that she had been married to her husband, Callan.
Terribly Heartbroken, she filed for divorce and left to the club, she picked a random gigolo, had a hot one night stand with him, paid him and dissapeared to a small city.
She came back to the country six years later with three identical cute boys and three identical cute girls of the same age. She settled and got a job but soon find out that her CEO was the gigolo she had sex with six years back at the club.
Will she be able to hide her six little cuties from her CEO, who happens to be the most powerful man in NorthHill and beleived to be infertile? Can Amy and the most powerful man in NorthHill get along considering the social gap between them?

In her past life, she trusted the wrong people—and betrayed the one man who loved her most. Blinded by lies, she pushed her fiancé into ruin. Yet even as the world turned against him, he forgave her. And in the end, he slaughtered all her enemies… before using the final blade to follow her into death.
Now reborn, she swears to rewrite her fate.
This time, she tears apart the fake innocents, crushes the traitors, and rises in brilliance—only for one purpose: to win back the heart of the man she once destroyed.
But little does she know…
He never truly left.
From the shadows, he has already laid his trap, created a world where she can only fall—back into his arms.
A love once buried in blood and regret will now reignite amidst vengeance, redemption, and fate's cruel game.

“Chen Lu Xian,” a brilliant surgeon, meets his end—
only to awaken as “Chen Lu,” a disfigured and worthless noble son.
When fate takes a dramatic turn,
his new goal becomes clear: vengeance
and rising again as a miracle physician of unmatched skill.
Lu Xian uses a restaurant as a front…
while secretly operating a hidden clinic behind the scenes.
He trains handmaidens in the healing arts,
alongside their practice in martial cultivation.
Fate entangles Lu Xian with the Fourth Prince,
a war-torn man bearing wounds from the battlefield.
That one act of healing… alters his life forever—
when he is forced into marriage!
From celestial physician to imperial consort of the Fourth Prince,
how will Chen Lu use his wits to survive the treacherous tides of court intrigue?
A path lined with schemes, love, and fierce battles lies ahead…

The night I asked for a divorce, my husband, who claimed to love someone else, lost control.

His slender fingers gripped my slender waist, his breath hot and ragged as he buried his face in my neck and murmured, "Can we not divorce? Who is that man in the painting?"

I tried to push him away, but his fingers slipped into my underwear, teasing me.

"Can he make you feel this good?"

--

Sloane once believed that three years together could warm Jared's cold heart.

But when his ex-girlfriend returned, she, the "legal wife," instantly became an eyesore in the way.

He thought her vicious and forced her to apologize to her scheming ex, never knowing she carried his child.

"After I sign the divorce papers, I'll disappear completely." She turned and left without looking back.

After the divorce, Jared looked at his successful and beautiful ex wife and was filled with regret.

"Let's remarry." He knelt before Sloane with a diamond ring.

But Sloane turned and embraced her childhood savior instead.

This time, can Jared win back Sloane's heart?

Seraphina gave her heart to fate the night the Moon Goddess bound her to Caspian — the ruthless, golden-haired Alpha every she-wolf dreamed of.
She believed in the sacredness of the mate bond. She believed in loyalty. She believed in him.
Until she opened a door she was never meant to open… and found her mate tangled in the arms of the one woman he swore was family — his adopted sister.
The betrayal doesn’t just shatter her heart. It fractures the bond itself.
While the pack whispers and Caspian demands silence, Seraphina does the unthinkable. She prepares divorce papers. She prepares to walk away from the most powerful Alpha in the territory. She prepares to reject the bond that was supposed to be eternal.
Caspian thought she would cry. He thought she would beg. He thought she would forgive.
He never expected her to leave.
Now Caspian must decide what matters more: his pride… or the only woman fate will ever give him.
And Seraphina?
She’s done being chosen second.

Damian vs Grace: aloof, handsome heir vs brave, soft‑looking girl who makes the first move.
They fall; a bad misunderstanding sends her overseas. He chases, crashes, forgets... Five years later, at a crowded crosswalk, their eyes lock—
"My heartbeat recognized you before I did."

Mei Liu learned suffering from an early age. After experiencing great loss, she spent years enduring abuse at the hands of a sadistic pack of wolves, while hiding her identity. All until the day she was saved by her fated soulmate arriving at her doorstep.

Mei was finally free, loved and accepted, with her happily ever after on the horizon. But an unknown enemy has been searching for her and once he finds her he has no intention of letting her go.

Dark secrets will be revealed, and she will be pushed beyond her limits. Can she rise up and fight back and become the strong woman she was destined to be? Or will it all be too much for her to handle?

A Queen Among Snakes is the 2nd book in the Queen Among Series/The Gods' Saga. This is an interconnected series. To see how it ends I recommend reading the full series. Here is the series order:
A Queen Among Alphas - Book 1
Bite-Size Luna - A Queen Among Alphas Prequel (available under the A Queen Among Alphas book)
A Queen Among Snakes - Book 2
A Queen Among Blood - Book 3
A Queen Among Darkness - Book 4
Whole Again - A Queen Among Alpha's spin-off (available under the A Queen Among Alphas book)
A Queen Among Tides - Book 5
Valor, Virtue, and Verve - A Queen Among Tides Prequel Spin-off (coming soon)
A Queen Among Gods - Book 6
Runaway Empress - A Queen Among Snakes Prequel (coming soon)
A Queen Among Tempests - Book 7
Dark Vocation - A Queen Among Darkness spin-off (coming soon)
A Court of Arcane Souls Anthology (short stories focused on side characters within this universe, exclusive to Ream)
Royal Shadows Next Generation series coming soon.

Gabriella is a no-nonsense kind of woman. She loves deeply and fights for what matters to her. Her life was going along just fine, that is until she catches her boyfriend cheating on her.

That should have been the worst of her issues, but soon a cheating boyfriend pales in comparison to being fated to a God, and a brooding one at that.

Quickly, Gabriella will be pulled into thousand-year-old drama and find out she is part of a prophecy that could potentially destroy the world depending on what choices she makes.

How will this simple human handle carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders and a possessive God on her back?

A Queen Among Gods is the 6th book in the Queen Among Series/The Gods' Saga. This is an interconnected series. To see how it ends, I recommend reading the full series.

Books in the series order:
A Queen Among Alphas - Book 1
Bite-Size Luna - A Queen Among Alphas Prequel (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Snakes - Book 2
A Queen Among Blood - Book 3
A Queen Among Darkness - Book 4
Whole Again - A Queen Among Alpha's spin-off (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Tides - Book 5
Valor, Virtue, and Verve - Tides Prequel Spin-off (will be available under book 5)
A Queen Among Gods - Book 6
Runaway Empress - A Queen Among Snakes Prequel (will be available under book 2)
A Queen Among Tempests - Book 7
Dark Vocation - Darkness spin-off (will be available under book 4)
A Court of Arcane Souls Anthology (side character short stories exclusive to Ream)
Royal Shadow Series (Next Gen Coming Soon)

WARNING: Adult content included OVER 18+
She arched herself against the pleasure of his mouth, and gave out a soft moan, raked her hot nipples with his teeth and dragged it up a bit then gently rubbed his tongue on it before proceeding to suckle on it again.

Slowly he went in again with a finger into the lace tong and thrust slowly into her hot, creamy and clenching channel, and she was still very much tight,making him wonder how many men she’s been with.


Dumped and disgraced on their anniversary day infront of her colleagues by her boyfriend Luke.
Her first love and a man who she had sacrificed all her life for including 7 abortions!

Valerie Jumbo was left with no choice but to be the chief bridesmaid at her own wedding in just a few weeks!
Her replacement was her own best friend!

To get away from the heartbreak and betrayal, the only solution was suicide then an unexpected chance came out of the blues,she grabbed it.
Desperate to get over her ex, she had accepted to be a one time date for her controlling, insufferable and egocentric,popular billionaire CEO,Mr Prince Norman!
A sinfully sexy and incredibly irresistible playboy, whom every woman had a crush on, Valerie included.

But Mr Prince wanted more. Something Valerie swore never to give to any man again, and that which he also swore to his Alpha self never to ask of a woman.
A chance to love.

Love saved him once.
This time, it may destroy them all.

Twenty-three days have passed since Ardan vanished into the storm—and returned as something heaven could no longer name. Blackthorn Academy pretends to be normal again. Classes resumed. Laughter echoed in the halls. The east wing remains sealed, and everyone avoids asking why.

But Anil knows.

Peace is only what exists before something stronger arrives.

Cael clings quietly to the love Anil chose, even while sensing the sky has changed. Lucien watches from the shadows, wings restless, warning them that fallen angels don’t disappear—they evolve.

And then it begins.

Not with thunder.
Not with flames.
But with a silver-shadowed feather at Anil’s door.

Not a threat.
Not a message.
A promise.

Ardan does not want to love her anymore.
He wants to rewrite the story he was forced to live.

He is no longer bound by fate.
No longer weakened by heartbreak.
And no longer willing to let destiny choose for him.

He is stronger now—and he is not alone.

Because angels fall…
But sometimes, they rise into something far more dangerous.

And when he returns—
nothing holy will be holy anymore.

Ruby Steele, 30, beautiful, fit, seems just like any other ex-pat hiding out in the Bahamas and playing local bartender. But unruly patrons find out the hard way: Ruby is a mixed-martial-arts pro, and not one you’d want to cross.In fact, Ruby would be a champion if she hadn’t been forced to walk away and hide out in the Bahamas.Because Ruby knows too much. She knows where the bodies are buried. And she knows when it’s time to get out of town.But what Ruby doesn’t know is why there is a dead tourist in the dumpster behind her seedy bar.Or why, she, of all people, had to find it.Or why this guy was out at 3am when he had a pretty fiancé waiting in a hotel room a mile away.Or why the local cops are pinning her.Or why she’s gonna be forced into a choice: find the killer, or do hard time herself.For Ruby, good choices have never been her strong point.And this one’s definitely not going to be good…Welcome to the Bahamian world of Ruby Steele, replete with her local dive bar, her wily pet monkey, her major drinking problem, her (way) too many fights, her inability to get herself out of trouble, and her fists made of stone. Ruby’s life is a complete wreck. But there’s one thing she’s good at: capturing your heart.ON THE ROCKS (A RUBY STEELE COZY MYSTERY) is the debut novel in a page-turning cozy mystery/thriller series, one that will linger with you long after the last page is read. Books #2 (EXTRA DIRTY) and #3 (FULL-BODIED) in the series are also available.

A new fantasy by the Bestselling author! CHARLOTTE TWEED & THE SCHOOL FOR ORPHANED DRAGONS (Book #1) tells the story of Charlotte Tweed, a 15 year old orphan who longs to know who she truly is, and who her true parents are. Charlotte is kicked out of every foster home she is sent to, and living with a cruel family and sent to a school where she is bullied, Charlotte ducks off the fire drill line one day and cuts school. During this fateful walk she meets Tom Throtteldon, a wizard from another land, and he tells her he’s come to take her home.Charlotte is brought to the land of Annarunnus, the land, and is led to the famous Bellins School for Magic, where she must train to learn who she is and how to use her unique powers. Charlotte also discovers that a rare and precious event has taken place: dragon eggs have been found, hatching just two days before Charlotte’s arrival. Each student receives their own baby dragon to bond with, tame, and train. At Bellins Charlotte meets new friends, and struggles to discover herself and to bond with her obstinate baby dragon. She also meets Tyron, one of the handsome Outcasts. But dating is forbidden at Bellins, and they will have to decide if they will risk it all for love.

“Sophie Love's ability to impart magic to her readers is exquisitely wrought in powerfully evocative phrases and descriptions….This is the perfect romance or beach read, with a difference: its enthusiasm and beautiful descriptions offer an unexpected attention to the complexity of not just evolving love, but evolving psyches. It's a delightful recommendation for romance readers looking for a touch more complexity from their romance reads.”--Midwest Book Review (Diane Donovan re For Now and Forever) “A very well written novel, describing the struggle of a woman (Emily) to find her true identity. The author did an amazing job with the creation of the characters and her description of the environment. The romance is there, but not overdosed. Kudos to the author for this amazing start of a series that promises to be very entertaining.”--Books and Movies Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re For Now and Forever)FOREVER, WITH YOU is book #3 in the romance series THE INN AT SUNSET HARBOR, which begins with book #1, FOR NOW AND FOREVER—a free download!35 year old Emily Mitchell has fled her job, apartment and ex-boyfriend in New York City for her father's abandoned home on the coast of Maine, needing a change in her life. Tapping her life savings to restore the historic home, and with a budding relationship with the caretaker, Daniel, Emily prepares to open the Inn at Sunset Harbor as Memorial Day comes.But all does not go as planned. Emily learns quickly that she has no idea how to run a B&B. The house, despite her efforts, needs new, urgent repairs she cannot afford. Her covetous neighbor is still determined to make trouble for her. And worst of all: just as her relationship with Daniel is blossoming, she learns he has a secret. One which will change everything.With her friends urging her to return to New York City and her ex-boyfriend trying to win her back, Emily has a life-changing decision to make. Will she try to stick it out, to embrace small-town life, her father’s old house? Or will she turn her back on her new friends, neighbors and life—and on the man she has fallen in love with?FOREVER, WITH YOU is book #3 of a dazzling new romance series that will make you laugh, make you cry, will keep you turning pages late into the night—and will make you fall in love with romance all over again.Book #4 will be available soon.

“Sophie Love's ability to impart magic to her readers is exquisitely wrought in powerfully evocative phrases and descriptions….This is the perfect romance or beach read, with a difference: its enthusiasm and beautiful descriptions offer an unexpected attention to the complexity of not just evolving love, but evolving psyches. It's a delightful recommendation for romance readers looking for a touch more complexity from their romance reads.”--Midwest Book Review (Diane Donovan re For Now and Forever) FOR YOU, FOREVER is book #7 in the #1 bestselling romance series THE INN AT SUNSET HARBOR, which begins with For Now and Forever (book #1)—a free download!Fall has arrived in Sunset Harbor, and as the town clears out, Emily Mitchell enters her second trimester. Their new rooms at Trevor’s house open for their first guests, while their new spa and restaurant open for business. All the while, they pursue their bid on the island, hoping to add yet another dimension to their life at Sunset Harbor.Amy insists on throwing Emily a layette in New York City, and Emily returns to her old home, in shock at how much she has changed—and at the unwanted guests who show up. She is mortified to learn that there will be a new resident of Sunset Harbor—a NYC developer who will open a rival inn—and destroy Emily’s business.Chantelle goes back to school, but her new grade is an unpleasant surprise, and as things don’t work out, the drama puts her into a tailspin.Roy is getting sicker, and as the weather turns cold, he invites them all to a getaway in his home in Greece, and Emily, although worried for her growing baby, cannot refuse. It is a trip that will change all of them forever, culminating in a Thanksgiving none of them will forget.FOR YOU, FOREVER is book #7 in a dazzling new romance series that will make you laugh, cry, keep you turning pages late into the night—and make you fall in love with romance all over again.Book #8 will be available soon. Sophie’s new romance series, LOVE LIKE THIS, is now also available!“A very well written novel, describing the struggle of a woman (Emily) to find her true identity. The author did an amazing job with the creation of the characters and her description of the environment. The romance is there, but not overdosed. Kudos to the author for this amazing start of a series that promises to be very entertaining.”--Books and Movies Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re For Now and Forever)

In a world where love is a dangerous game, Leila Castor finds herself charmed by the devil himself. Ben Maloney, with his alluring facade and sweet promises, hides an evil truth that threatens Leila's life. When he betrays her, leaving her to choke on her blood, Leila's thirst for revenge knows no bounds.

And luckily fate grants her a second chance, And discovers she has been taken back in time two months before her death! Will she rewrite the wrongs done to her or set out on a path of retribution against those who wronged her?

I stare at him, watching his chest expand.

How is it that someone so strong, so powerful, so dangerous to find become so small when faced with an adversary? The adversary being me.

I see him, knees on the cold tiled floor, his eyes fixated on me in equal parts disbelief. I disconnect my vision from his small form, looking briefly at what I'm wearing.

This morning when I woke up, the sun was shining, snow melting on my front lawn. My kids were sleeping, my husband gone, as usual, working, making money.

Everything was normal except when I woke up this morning, I received a message. This message contained a lot of things I've been waiting to hear but one part, in particular, stood out and made today different. This person on his knees in front of me was the big difference in my day. So when I woke up this morning and decided what I was going to wear I decided I would not wear black because black represented the sign of mourning. I wasn't going to wear white. After all, white represented a sign of new beginnings and not blue.

Blue, well blue was a sign of trust and green with a side of healing so when I woke up this morning I decided I would wear beige, it was an indifferent color something that matched any mood any desire any belief it doesn't necessarily represent anything but nor did it negate anything.

'You know what is so satisfying about killing you?"

'What?" He inquires with that tilt of his mouth and thin lips I have seen a time or two. Many women found this man handsome. sexy even. I was not different, but I knew more than many of them what made him, his colors, the layers that fell away leaving only the middle left and when you looked at it with naked eyes you'd see it was rotten.

I laugh.

'I became a player in this cat and rat game much later. I find it comical that I am the one who gets to catch you, considering there are many people who started in the beginning. What is even funnier is I am the one who would get to kill you."

'You didn't catch me Mrs. Catelli."He says my surname with a pinched face as though he can't bear the sound of it coming from his lips.

'Then what do you oppose I did?"

He smiles, but it is not a nice one. It is filled with the ugliness which has corrupted him over the years.

Copyright © 2022 Shan R.K

All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction from the Author's imagination.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotations for reviews or fan-made articles.

Any names resembling any living person are purely coincidental.

First Edition.

April, 19th 2022

Written by Shan R.K

Dedication

I dedicate this book to you the reader. Please enjoy it and look out for the anthology on my website coming soon for free.

Cindy and Mattheus, finally together, prepare to take time off and live together—when a stunning upset in their relationship tears them apart. Cindy flies home to New York, resigned to never work as a detective—and never see Mattheus—again.And then a shocking phone call comes out of the blue: it is Mattheus. A new body has turned up. Cindy at first refuses—until he tells her who it is: his wife. They finally found her, on the shores of Key West. Brutally murdered, they suspect, by an abusive boyfriend.Mattheus’ world is upside down, and Cindy has no choice but to fly back down to the islands and help him uncover what really happened. Why did she turn up now, after so many years? How did she turn up in Key West, so far from where he’d last seen her? Why had she never contacted him? Who was she dating? And have the police caught the right man?Their investigation takes them deep into the underworld of Key West, a gorgeous, idyllic place where the locals gather to watch the sunset every night with an evening drink. It is an enchanting place—but as Cindy learns, it is also a place with a dark underbelly. Cindy prods deeper into the murder and her investigation takes her into the world of an abused woman’s shelter. Soon, she is convinced the police have the wrong man. She and Mattheus, thrown together again, reconsider their feelings for one another. But there may not be time: Cindy finds out too much and comes in danger herself. As the murder hits too close to home, it may be too late for them both.DEATH BY DECEIT is both a stand-alone novel, and is also Book #5 in the Caribbean Murder series, following DEATH BY HONEYMOON (Book #1), DEATH BY DIVORCE (Book #2) and DEATH BY MARRIAGE (Book #3) and DEATH BY DESIRE (Book #4).

DEATH BY REQUEST is Book #11 in the #1 Bestselling Caribbean Murder series, which begins with DEATH BY HONEYMOON (Book #1). It is also a standalone novel.In Death by Request (Book #11 of the Caribbean Murder Series), Cindy and Mattheus are given a shocking case they have never faced before: a clear-cut case of euthanasia might turn out to be something more ominous. Tara and Owen Danden, celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary in Jamaica, are on the water, in a boat he rented, when the weather shifts and Tara falls overboard. As Owen tries desperately to save his wife, the boat spins and hits her head—sending her into a coma. Pulled out of the water, barely alive, Tara is airlifted to an elegant hospital on the island, and remains in a coma for two months. When she finally dies, however, there becomes a question of whether she truly died of natural causes. Based on scanty evidence, Owen is taken into custody and quickly hires Cindy and Mattheus to clear his name and find out who wanted Tara dead. Cindy and Mattheus’s journey takes us through an intriguing exploration of comas, euthanasia and what happens to those in altered states. As the investigation proceeds we watch Cindy and Mattheus’s relationship ripen, and take a new turn. We also meet Tara’s crazy family, learn the secret they’ve been hiding, and see what bearing it might have on the case. As a new suspect finally comes into focus, all is not what it seems to be…

DEATH BY MARRIAGE is Book #3 in the Bestselling CARIBBEAN MURDER series, following DEATH BY HONEYMOON (#1) and DEATH BY DIVORCE (#2). A well-known criminal lawyer is found dead in a back alley in St. Thomas, and Cindy and Mattheus are called in to investigate by the grieving widow. The local police have pinned her for the murder, and Cindy and Mattheus are her last hope in vindication. As Cindy and Mattheus dig deeper into the victim’s past, they learn that all was not as rosy as it seemed. They discover mistresses, gambling debts, vendettas, and a number of people who had motivation to want him dead. Most shocking of all, as they dig even deeper, they discover a whole secret life that he lead, one so lurid that the people who knew him best can hardly even conceive it. As a hurricane closes in and the police are insistent, despite all evidence, to arrest the widow, Cindy and Mattheus find themselves in a race against time to find the killer. When another body turns up, all involved realize the stakes may be even higher than they seem. And as Cindy and Mattheus develop feelings for each other, each grieving from the death of their own spouse, Cindy comes to realize there is even more at stake than she thinks. Books #4--#16 in the series are now also available.

Twenty-one-year-old Adrian Blood had nothing — no parents, no money, he was just a scholarship and a girlfriend he thought was worth saving for. Valentine's night stripped even that away. Teresa chose his bully. Ricardo's men put him in the garbage, literally.

Then a voice activated in his head.

The Chosen Heir System doesn't do sympathy — it does missions. Its first order: save the sister of the man who just destroyed him. Adrian ran through the rain, bleeding, and did it anyway.

One mission. One million dollars.

Ricardo Rodriguez has no idea what he just created. And the system is only getting started.

He made one mistake—he chose revenge instead of mercy.

Luna’s sharp tongue and careless drunken words should have been harmless. Instead, they mark her as a target for Daimen Blackwell, a billionaire who doesn’t forgive and never forgets.

What begins as punishment turns into possession when he forces her into a contract that binds her to him as his mistress—his rules, his house, his bed.

Luna is naïve in love but not in spirit, and her defiance slowly becomes the one thing Daimen can’t control. Somewhere between power plays and stolen moments, he wins her heart—only to destroy it.

When Daimen betrays her, Luna leaves with nothing but shattered trust. And that’s when he discovers the truth: she is the woman he has been searching for all his life.

This time, the billionaire has nothing left to bargain with.
Only regret. Only groveling. And the hope that love might survive the damage he caused.

In my past life, I built an ironclad sanctuary in the zombie-infested wasteland, bleeding to keep four thousand people alive.
Yet the very people I risked everything to protect were brainwashed into overthrowing me.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back—right on the eve of that fatal rebellion.
Right now in the control room, my enemy has his arm around my wife. Fourteen rebels have their assault rifles pressed against my skull, laughing mockingly, convinced they've completely crushed this washed-up "Doomsday Tyrant."
What they don't know is that two days ago, I already emptied the bunker's entire stockpile of weapons and food.
You want "freedom" without rules? It's all yours.

In this era of universal awakening, I've drawn the most tragic "BOSS" route.

For the sake of my fiancée Celine's guild, I signed an exclusive binding agreement. For four whole years, I was treated like an ATM for loot drops, and was mercilessly killed 2173 times.

When Celine led 137 elite members of her guild, armed with a permanent kill item, to stab me in the heart, preparing to dig out my core to pave the way for her new love, she thought she was about to usher in the supreme glory of being the first to kill me on the entire server.

But what she didn't know was that the hidden max-level reward for the BOSS route was "system administrator privileges".

The sword tip stopped at my chest, freezing time across the entire server. I looked at the greedy traitor before me, smiled, and pressed the "Level Reset" button.
"Sorry, this game is now in my hands."

Strip away god-tier equipment and wipe out max-level accounts. This time, I will bring down the reigning number one in the entire server, making him start from level 1 in the newbie village and personally pay the price for those two thousand bloody battles!

When my own father pinned me against the reef and ripped my scales off one by one, my sister buried herself in my fiancé's arms and cried. "Don't blame my sister. She was born worthless."
Right there in front of everyone, they decided to offer me to the Sea God as a sacrifice. They couldn't even be bothered to send anyone to see me off.
But when I was dragged, half-dead, into the black prison, what came for me wasn't death.
It was the Sea God himself.
He wiped the blood from my tail and said, "Good. Let them keep piling on their sins. I'll make them drop to their knees and beg for your forgiveness."

In the previous life, the game descended into reality, the laws of the virtual world tore the sky apart, and top players became gods of the new world.
The day before the game's release, I helped Julian acquire the top-tier item, the Absolute Defense Ring, only to have his account stolen and all his equipment taken away by him and my fiancée .
After the game started, they threw me into the horde of rotting corpses like trash , stepped on my bones to become emperors, and lived happily ever after, while I was devoured to death by the rotting corpses .
In this life, I am reborn three days before my arrival . I will use Julian's money to clear the dungeon, steal his top-tier items, and then, in the apocalypse of the game where monsters and skills materialize , at his most inflated coronation ceremony, I will personally tear apart his ridiculous absolute defense and take the lives of all the traitors.

As the eldest daughter of North America’s most feared Mafia family, the Romanos, I married Matteo purely for love. For five years, everyone constantly envied me, thinking I was the luckiest woman alive.

Until I opened that video file.

The screen flickered to life, and my world violently collapsed.

The woman he had completely pinned against the wall, thrusting into her with feral desperation, was Valentina. His sweet, innocent adopted sister. The girl we had both carefully grown up with.

And the hands gripping her waist so tightly they bruised? They bore the exact wedding band I had lovingly slipped onto Matteo’s finger.

"Oh God, brother… you're so hard. If your perfect wife knew you were deep inside me right now, she’d lose her mind."

"Good girl, then stop talking about that boring piece of wood."

My refined, elegant husband was groaning, his voice filthy and depraved between loud, wet slaps of skin. "Squeeze tighter, fuck... You drive me insane, baby. The moment I successfully drain all her family’s stock, you’ll be the true mistress of this whole estate."

Every sweet nothing he had ever whispered to me was a calculated lie, designed to completely destroy me.

Those two despicable cheaters believe they have successfully won. They think my marriage was built on submission.

Well, since this rising Mafia star completely forgot that I am a Romano first and a wife second, it’s severely past time I gave him a taste of my own wicked performance.

Playtime is over. Matteo thinks he can steal my empire while burying his face in his sister’s bed?

I am going to carefully tear down his "perfect husband" facade piece by bleeding piece, and aggressively send them both straight to hell.

I was once the adopted son of Eric Miller, the Don of the Miller Family.
My future was supposed to be simple—loyal to the Don, respected by the Family, destined to inherit power.
But I carried a secret that turned me into a freak in his eyes.
A forbidden love.
When Eric found the diary where I had hidden my feelings for him, I cried and apologized again and again.
It didn’t matter. The disgust in his eyes never changed.
He sent me away—exiled to a remote country under the watch of his men.
From there, I heard the news of his wedding.
I saw the way he looked at Julia—soft, full of love. And in a moment of madness, I spent every last dollar I had and flew to Thailand for gender reassignment surgery.
Nights after the surgery were filled with pain from the silicone implants pressing against my skin.
But even after becoming a woman, I still couldn't win Eric’s love.
Just when I finally let him go, he suddenly bought me a ticket back to America.
He said he wanted me to attend his fifth wedding anniversary with Julia.
And when he saw Lily in my arms, he froze.
“Your daughter?”

I'm two months pregnant with Tristan's baby when Brielle, the woman he'd do anything for, shoves me down the stairs.

She calls it an accident. I lose the baby.

I beg my husband to do something about it. Instead, he shields her and turns it around on me.

"Brielle saved my life in that fire. The whole Merrick family owes her. So drop it."

That debt. Always that debt.

Three years. No matter how many times Brielle humiliates me, degrades me, Tristan only ever has one answer: "I owe her my life."

But the truth about that fire? I'm the only one in the world who knows it.

I tried to tell him once. He laughed in my face. "Adeline, you're so desperate for attention you'd make up something like that?"

So I shut my mouth. Buried the truth. Buried whatever was left of my heart along with it.

The man I trusted with my life just handed my child to the woman who killed them, and called it loyalty.

I'm done.

I pull up the number I blocked three years ago and hit call.

"Dad. I'll take over the company. I'll go through with the engagement to Everett. But I have one condition. I want Tristan and Brielle ruined beyond recovery. Nothing and no one left."

After losing the baby, I finally gave Silas the one thing he had always craved: a trouble-free marriage.

No more interrogations when he stayed out all night. No more hysterical fits over the presence of his first love.

Even when I was discharged from the hospital, and the nurse asked for my husband's signature, I simply replied with chilling calm, "I don't have a husband."

My love for Silas died right alongside our unborn child.

By the time he finally realized the truth and begged me to come back, it would be far too late.

I fought for the Empire for eighteen years. My body bore the marks of glory, and I was its strongest shield—until an enemy ambush caught me off guard and plunged me into a coma.

When I finally opened my eyes again, I discovered that my daughter had been stripped naked by her classmates, a dog leash fastened around her neck as they paraded her down the street.

My wife—the woman I had once cherished like a treasure, held gently in the palm of my hand—had been forced to her knees before another man, mouth pried open.

My aged mother had been driven to the ground, kneeling and begging for mercy.

The family of an Imperial general, reduced to this.

Three years. I had only been unconscious for three years.

Hatred spread through me like wildfire. I, Leon, have returned. From this day forward, every last soul who tormented my family will answer for what they've done. Not a single one will be spared.

Beau and I have been together for three years. I paid for the entire yacht charter out of my own pocket, and he shows up with his childhood best friend Sadie in tow, then goes around telling everyone it was his idea, his grand gesture.

Out on the water, Sadie spots a small octopus drifting near the surface and decides she has to have it. The thing pulses with glowing blue rings.

I'm a certified expert diver. I know exactly what it is the second I see it. I try to stop her.

She bursts into tears and tells Beau I'm going after her.

So Beau, ever the hero where Sadie's concerned, jumps in himself and fishes the thing out.

Sadie plays with it. It bites her. She's on the deck before she even knows what hit her.

Beau grabs me, screaming at me to suck out the venom. I refuse. He calls me a cold, heartless bitch, and in the chaos, shoves me overboard into shark-infested water.

I die out there. Nothing left of me.

They use my phone to fake a suicide note. Depression, they say. Jumped on her own. Then they take my company, my assets, everything.

They post online hinting I tried to push Sadie in and slipped.

My parents, worn down by the online harassment and the grief of losing me, both die of heart attacks.

Then I open my eyes. And I'm back. The morning of the trip.