8212 Book(s) Related to the summer i turned pretty 2nd book

[WARNING 18+]
This book contains descriptive intimate and violent scenes. There could be triggering content like self-harm, drug addiction, and depression.
[TROPES]
Billionaire. Revenge. Second Chance. Escape while pregnant.

When Mellow Fanning married Zeath Lupin, the cold chairman of Lupin Group, she thought their love was forever. But everything crumbled when he introduced his pregnant mistress at a family dinner.
Angry, Mellow sought to make Zeath restless by kidnapping the mistress. However, that resulted in a tragedy that nearly claimed her life and that of the child growing inside her—a child Zeath didn’t deserve.
She faked her death and ran away, bound to return as Zeath’s only means to remain as the chairman of Lupin Group.
Would he recognize her? Would she accept his apology if he ever gave one? And what would happen when the threat she once fled from rekindled, endangering her and her child’s lives once more?











“Do you know how much I wished you wouldn’t come near me, or even... touch me?” Zeath drones on. “All those cuddles and kisses, all the affection, made my skin crawl—like a troll embracing its victim before gobbling them. One can only imagine how much it stinks. You are no different from that troll. You merely caught my attention because you were a self-absorbed twonk, and we needed to test if you even had the heart to love another.”
“We?” I croak out.
Then Zeath’s fingers trail gently along my face, his eyes glinting with pure poison, and his voice is no better.
“Poor Mellow, it is all a dare, a gratifying one. Divorce or not, it’s your choice.”

I only came to the Academy to survive. Love was never part of the plan.

But the moment my eyes met his-Darius Fenrir, heir to the most powerful Alpha line-my wolf whispered one word that shattered everything.

Mate.

He should have been my destiny. Instead, he rejected me in front of everyone.

Weak. Unworthy. Unwanted.

Now I walk the halls branded by his pride, whispers snapping at my heels, every look reminding me that I'll never be enough for an Alpha.

But I refuse to bow.

Because while Darius watches me with storm-dark eyes full of regret, another wolf circles closer-Gideon Wicke, his rival, his enemy... and the one who offers me the power to strike back.

Two Alphas. One bond.

And me, caught between pride, love, and a war that could tear the Academy apart.

He rejected me once. This time, I'll decide who burns.

“You’re dripping,” he groaned. “You hear that? You’re making a mess all over me.”


He's the school's willful billionaire bad boy— hot, tall, handsome who made her fall and loosen herself for him just to find out it was all a lie.

A bet.

Well, two can dance a tango, right?

A comeback is all she needs. One that would make the so-called dangerous bad boy fall to his knees.

It wasn't just a game to him.

What if there's something more…

A facade he's hiding behind?

WARNING: Contains strong vulgar languages, sexual scenes, erotic contents, triggering situations, and lots more.

Everything she believed in was a lie.
Keira and Alden were Chosen Mates who built the powerful Stormfang Pack together—until she discovered their Mate Bond was a witch's illusion, and the child she raised was actually his with his true Fated Mate, the Omega Rena.
Broken and ready to leave, a secret letter reveals she is the long-lost daughter of Mooncrest Pack's Alpha, the sole heir to a legacy she never knew.
As her dormant Alpha blood awakens in rage, she vows to reclaim her birthright.
But when Kaelan, the cold and calculating Alpha King, approaches her and claims, "You are my Fated Mate," Keira is thrown into deeper confusion.
Why would he say that? And in a world built on deception, can a bond that begins as strategy ever become real… or is it just another layer of the game?

"Do you enjoy this? Ignoring me like I don't exist? Do you have any idea how humiliating this feels, waiting for you like some fool?" After three years of a cold, loveless marriage, Selene Henderson finally gathers the courage to walk away from her distant billionaire husband, Sebastian Kingsley.
She's ready to file for divorce... until a tragic accident changes everything. When Sebastian wakes up with no memory of the woman he once pushed away, Selene finds herself trapped in a marriage she was desperate to escape—this time with a man who suddenly looks at her like she's his whole world.
But can love born from broken memories survive the truth of their painful past? Or will the secrets she's been hiding destroy them all over again?
"Are you always this shy around your own husband, wife?" his voice dropped into a low, dangerous growl, his hands anchoring me against the wall.
"We didn't... we didn't use to do this," I gasped, trying to look away from his piercing gaze.
He leaned in, his breath hot against my lips. "Then your body has a better memory than my brain. Because right now, it's telling me you belong exactly right here."

My heart raced as Alaric spoke, excitement coursing through my entire body. I turned to look at Delilah, who was standing next to me. Our gazes met, and she gave me a cold stare.

"With you all as my witnesses, I present to you my Luna, Delilah Fairchild."

Wait! What? Delilah, not Daisy? What's going on here? Is this some kind of mistake?

Alaric avoided my gaze as I turned to look at him, seeking confirmation if what I heard was indeed true.

He then walked to the end of the stage where Delilah and I stood, reaching out to take Delilah's hands and help her onto the stage.

"I told you not to try too hard, sis. He has always been mine. Do you get it now?" Delilah whispered to me before she ascended the stage.


Daisy and Delilah, twin sisters, shared everything and loved each other deeply until they both developed feelings for the same man- Alaric Blackwood, the Alpha of the Blackwood pack.

The happiest day of Daisy's life was when she discovered that Alaric was her mate. "I will declare you as my Luna after my coronation as the Alpha of the Blackwood Pack," Alaric had assured her.

Filled with anticipation, Daisy looked forward to Alaric's coronation, when he would publicly declare her as his Luna. However, the situation took a dramatic turn when, in front of all pack members, Alaric chose Delilah over Daisy, despite their fated bond.

Unable to bear the rejection, Daisy fled and was subsequently attacked by a beast. Fortunately, she was rescued by the mysterious Draco, who showed her nothing but kindness...

Perfect Luna. Devoted wife. Dead woman walking.

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

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

And something answers.

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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

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

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


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

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

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


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

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

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

"Don't test me, Stone; your family has always thought that it was untouchable... Felt on top of the world, didn't you? You didn't care about who you needed to stomp down to get there?"

His fingers hung dangerously over the trigger; I shook as far as my binds would let me, tears rolling down to the gag in my mouth… that muffled my cries.

But even as I had the gun pointed at my head, my husband was not looking at me; his eyes were purely placed on Liliana.

“Talk to me, you bastard!.. You have to choose between your wife or your first love.”

On her wedding day, Aurora chased after her runaway groom who went to console his first love, only to be kidnapped along with that woman and tortured for 3 days straight until she was met with the ultimate pain; her fiancée, who she thought would turn to her forever, choosing another woman over her and not only that but confessing that his first love was carrying his child too. Just like she was, except he would never find out. At least not in that life; she took a bullet to the head and was reborn on the day of her wedding. When he runs off to meet his first love and console her again, she doesn't foolishly chase after him; rather, she walks towards his brother, the most desirable bachelor in the city, and says, “Will you marry me instead?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Find out!

“Kaite, I hope you can give Lily and me your blessing.”

Terry held another girl’s hand in front of everyone, while I stood among the crowd like a complete stranger.

Three years ago, I was the one who stayed by his side when he was an unknown tennis player. I analyzed his matches, studied his opponents, and supported him through every setback.

I thought we would reach the top of the tennis world together.

But I never imagined that he would deny our past at his celebration party, turning me into everyone’s joke.

When both my love and my dream were taken away, I thought my life had reached its lowest point.

Until the man who once stood at the top of the tennis world appeared.

Percy—a tennis prodigy whose career was destroyed by rumors and betrayal.

He saw the truth hidden behind the numbers. He saw my hard work. He saw my worth.

When everyone wanted me gone from the tennis team, he was the one who stood beside me and said:

“Kaite, you don’t have to be afraid.”

To prove myself, I decided to stay.

I will show everyone that I am not just someone standing behind another person. I am a talented data analyst with my own place in the world of tennis.

And Percy is no longer the forgotten genius everyone abandoned.

But I don’t know why this man, who I just met, knows so much about me…

When Alexander Carter, the ruthless and irresistibly charming CEO of one of the country’s largest corporations, walked into my office, I thought he was there to terminate my contract. After all, I had just lost everything in a project sabotaged by his company. But instead, he made me an offer that would change my life: marry him for one year.

Sounds crazy? Maybe. But with my younger sister depending on me and the bills piling up, refusing wasn’t an option. In return, he offered enough money to rebuild my career and a contract to lead a project I had always dreamed of.

There was just one rule: don’t fall in love.

Simple, right? Or so I thought. Until I realized that behind his cold demeanor and flawless suits was a man full of secrets. A man who started to unravel me with every touch, every whispered word, every lingering glance.

Now, as I fight to keep up the façade of the perfect wife and uncover the conspiracies within his world, one question remains: when all this ends, will I be able to walk away unscathed?

Tracy's life shatters the day her sister asks her to deliver a simple package.She never reaches her destination.Instead, she wakes up bound inside a van with ten other terrified women, on her way to be sold. But before she was taken, Tracy had a dream she can't forget. As her dying mother faded into darkness, she whispered one chilling warning:Never trust your father.Sold into the household of one of the country's most powerful billionaire families, Tracy is forced to work as a maid inside a mansion where every smile hides an agenda and every locked door conceals another secret. The family who bought her seems to know far more about her than they should—and the closer she gets to the truth, the more she realizes her kidnapping was never random.Caught between two enigmatic billionaire brothers, dangerous family secrets, and a conspiracy that reaches back to her mother's death, Tracy must uncover who betrayed her before she becomes the next victim.Because someone has been waiting for her all along.And if her mother's final warning is true, the most dangerous person in Tracy's life isn't inside the mansion...It's the man she's called Father her entire life.

He wasn’t searching for love.

He wasn’t ready for him.

But some things—like family, and falling—happen when you least expect them.

When Ezra Anderson's sister dies, he inherits three young children and a crumbling rural property he's nowhere near prepared for. Overwhelmed, heartbroken, and freshly dumped, Ezra turns to the one person he shouldn't: Sebastian Brown—the gentle, steady Omega child psychologist he once shared one reckless night with... and never dared to call back.

Sebastian offers a safe harbor. Routine. Warm hands and a softer kind of strength Ezra didn’t know he craved.

What starts as survival—two men building a life for three grieving kids—soon strains under the weight of something deeper. The Omega in Sebastian draws Ezra like gravity, making every glance burn and every touch linger. The lines between family and something more blur until Ezra can no longer pretend.

One night becomes two. Secrets slip into routines. And somewhere between sneaking into beds at night and morning coffee, Ezra faces the one truth he swore he'd never have to:

He might not be as straight, or as strong, as he thought.

As his Alpha instincts pull him closer to Sebastian’s Omega warmth, the world outside keeps pressing in. Desire stops hiding. And when the outside world comes knocking, Ezra is forced to choose:

Keep pretending... or hold on to the only thing that feels like home.

SNEAK PEEK:

“I’m not in love with you. I just… don’t know how to breathe when you’re not there.” - Ezra

“I’m not gay. I’m just yours.” - Ezra

“You keep saying you’re not mine… but you keep choosing me.” - Sebastian

“You’re allowed to love me, you know.” - Sebastian

NB: 18+ (Tissues highly recommended.)

Anna believes she is nothing more than a blood slave—until the night Prince East Anderson smells her blood.

Among dozens of fresh victims at a vampire banquet, East chooses only her. He pays an outrageous price, takes her to his estate, and then does the one thing no vampire should do: he refuses to drink. Even when her scent drives him to madness, even when his eyes turn crimson and his fangs hover over her throat, he holds back.

Anna doesn’t know whether to fear him or fear the reason behind his restraint.

Because East is not just any vampire. He is the prince who once gave Eunice her First Embrace, the key to vampire aristocracy, and a man surrounded by enemies who would kill to possess what he wants. Anna’s blood is becoming a secret too valuable to hide.

But if her blood can awaken monsters… what else can it awaken in East?

My name is Riley Harper, a girl everyone at school bullies at school because I'm chubby and too quiet. They laugh and call me names in the halls, post mean snaps about me like it's nothing.

And my worst enemy? Easton Caldwell the star quarterback of our school who walks around like a bad boy but has a heart of ice. He used to bully me... until his little sister needed a babysitter, and guess who got the job? Me. Now I live in his fancy house, eat at his table, and see the real him every single day.

He hates me. Or at least, that's what he says. Because he's still in love with his ex-cheerleader girlfriend Cass and wants her to take him back, he helps her spread lies about me and makes my life a living hell.

But living under the same roof changes everything. Late nights encounter when his little sister falls asleep between us. Accidental touches in the kitchen. The more time we spend together, the more his cold stares turn warm... protective and something dangerous.

I started standing up for myself both at school and home. I stop hiding in hoodies. I shine in ways no one expected. And just when Easton finally admits he can't stop thinking about me, someone else from his world steps in—someone who used to bully me too, but now looks at me differently. Like he wants me.
But the biggest secret? The boy who once made my life miserable is now so in love with me that he might break his own heart to protect mine.

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

Then the night came when she lost everything else.

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

He needed a witch queen.

He did not expect her

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

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

He isn't anymore.

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

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

A king who has never once asked for help.

And a demon lord who is already inside the walls.

Some enemies you can fight.

Some you were always meant to face together.

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

"What's your body count?" the most ruthless Alpha in the werewolf race growled, his massive hand suddenly gripping my throat so tightly my vision blurred.

We had been driving in complete silence since my father sold me to him as a peace offering. I was supposed to be his mate, but the cold, murderous look in his golden eyes told me I was nothing more than a prisoner.

"One rule you'd have to learn is never ever question me," Detlef hissed, his minty breath fanning my face. "Once I ask, you give an answer. How many men have touched you?"

Fear clawed at my heart. I tugged weakly at his iron grip. "Zero," I choked out, tears spilling over my lashes.

He didn't believe me. His eyes darkened with absolute fury. "Never lie to your Master," he spat, slamming me back against the leather seat.

He didn't know the truth. He didn't know that three years ago, I gave my innocence to a stranger in a hotel room. A stranger who disappeared the next morning.

But what terrified me most wasn't Detlef's wrath. It was the moment we arrived at his heavily guarded territory, and his Beta rushed to the car window, looking pale.

"Alpha," the Beta whispered. "Fernandez is here. The Alpha of the Phoenix Pack. He's crossed the border... and he says he's come to collect his woman."

My blood ran cold. Fernandez. The name of the man from three years ago. The deadliest enemy of the monster currently holding my throat.

Betrayed by my mate, humiliated in front of my entire pack, and left to pick up the shattered pieces of my life, I thought things couldn't get worse. But when my father, the only person I have left, is thrown in prison for standing up to the Alpha who rejected me, I'm forced into an impossible choice: wallow in my misery or risk everything to save him.

To free my father, I must become a spy—sent into the heart of the feared Starlight pack, where Alpha Dante, a feral and ruthless leader, reigns. They say no one survives his wrath. He's dangerous, unpredictable, and exactly the kind of enemy I should avoid.

But fate has other plans. In the depths of Starlight, I discover the last thing I expected—Alpha Dante is my second chance mate. Now I’m torn between two worlds: the one I was forced to leave behind and the one that offers a new, terrifying future.

Can I trust a man known only for his brutality? Or will falling for him be the biggest mistake of my life? With my father’s life on the line and my heart caught between duty and desire, I must decide if I’m willing to risk everything…again.

Lord of the Puck-
She blamed me for the death of my brother and for ten years she had built her whole platform on that lie.
I was the stalker who had killed her twin, my best friend. It was a falsehood that had followed me throughout my career.
A never ending black cloud.
And now she was here, in my family home and I was about to fall into the mould she had made for me. I was about to become her worst nightmare because it was time Bree knew the truth about that night.

QUEEN OF ICE

Finding out the truth, took everything from me. Liam Calloway opened my eyes and ripped my whole world away, leaving me in tatters.
He says he loves me, I say he doesn’t know the meaning of the word but does it really matter? Because new truths are coming to light and when they do I might just be done for.

Ezra lives a quiet life, hiding in plain sight among humans, but his past as a blood bank for a terrifying vampire family, the Voss quadruplets, is a shadow he can't outrun. Raised in a hidden world where humans are mere sustenance, Ezra was never just food; he was a survivor who dared the impossible: escape.

Now, years later, the chilling presence of his former captors looms, threatening to drag him back to a life he fought tooth and nail to leave behind. He might be an Omega, but he refuses to be a victim again, even if it means facing the most feared vampires in existence.

Can Ezra truly break free from the monstrous mates who claim him, or is his destiny forever entwined with the very beings who once fed on his lifeblood?

It was the kind of cold that seeped into your bones.
In my past life, I was locked in the abandoned freezer beneath St. Jude Preparatory Academy.
Outside the door stood my biological brother Spencer, along with Landon—my boyfriend of three years. And between them, wearing Landon's oversized football jacket, was my stepsister Lacey.
"Blythe, just admit you bullied me. Post an apology video to the whole school, and Spencer will let you out." Lacey's voice trembled, fake tears glistening at the corners of her eyes.
Spencer's voice cut through the metal door like ice:
"Blythe, you brought this on yourself. You've been terrorizing Lacey at school, pushed her to the edge. Maybe some time in there will teach you what decency looks like."
Landon's voice dripped with disappointment: "Jesus, Blythe. I thought I knew you. This isn't who you are."
I pounded on the iron door until my fists were raw, screaming until my voice gave out.
I told them the truth—that I never touched Lacey. That she was the one forcing girls to their knees in the bathroom. That she stole my exam. That every shred of "evidence" was manufactured.
No one believed me.
I froze to death in that sub-zero hellhole.
As the cold claimed me, staring at my blue-purple fingers, all I felt was pure, burning hate.
Then I opened my eyes again—back to the day it all began.

In my past life, I was a wild, pureblood witch who tamed my own nature for love, willingly playing the submissive, perfect Luna for my fated Alpha.
But to him, I was just a savage that "needed to be brought to heel." When enemy wolves ambushed us, he held my manipulative, magicless adopted sister tight, leaving me to be ripped apart.
When I opened my eyes, I had been thrust back in time to the day of our Mating Ceremony.
Staring at the white gown that symbolized nothing but my submission, I slapped a thirty-million-dollar price tag on my "fated mate" and sold him right to my sister.
Using a pureblood glamour, I sent her to the altar in my place. Then I hopped on my motorcycle and rode straight into forbidden territory—right into the arms of the ruthless, unhinged "Mad Wolf" Alpha. He didn't want an obedient pet; he wanted a lethal queen to rule the wild by his side.
That night, when my arrogant ex sealed the irreversible mate bond, lifted the bridal veil, and realized the woman eternally bound to his soul wasn't me...
The icy, untouchable Alpha who spent a lifetime trying to break me completely lost his damn mind.

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

Damien thought he could balance loyalty to his childhood friend and love for his angel fiancée. He had no idea he was dragging me into a living nightmare. Four years of false heavenly missions turned into endless torment upon the altar. The lies crumbled the moment my angelheart was torn out of my chest. After uncovering Chloe’s deception and his own heinous crimes, Damien meted out brutal justice, gave away all his ducal fortune as atonement, and leaped into hell, hoping to be reunited with me. From the divine realm, I watched him perish with cold detachment. Love that arrives only after everything has been destroyed deserves not an ounce of mercy.

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

To get pregnant, I gave up a career my peers all envied. The day I finally conceived, my husband brought his mistress home to live with us.
He shoved me into the table without a second thought.
Nana Mae fell trying to protect me—her head cracking against the marble floor.
"Call an ambulance!" Blood soaked through my hands. My abdomen tore with pain.
"Sienna's too fragile. She can't handle the sight of blood." He scooped up his mistress and walked out, leaving the two of us on the floor.
"You can't leave this bed—it could hurt the baby." I ignored the doctor's warning and stayed at Nana Mae's bedside anyway.
Ten minutes earlier, she'd posted on Instagram: a tiny band-aid on her hand, his fingers wrapped around hers.

I was the unluckiest kid in my family—always the one pulling the black-tipped stick from that pretty little "Fairness Jar."
In our house, red meant new dresses, Disneyland, and a goodnight kiss from Mom. Black meant endless chores, lockup in the attic, and the kind of hunger that ate you from the inside out.
Mom loved to stroke my hair in front of the neighbors. "God gives everyone a fair shake," she'd say. "Riley's just a little unlucky, is all."
I believed her for fourteen years.
Until I had an asthma attack and died on that dusty attic floor.
The moment my soul slipped free, I looked down at the overturned Jar, its sticks scattered across the floorboards—and I finally understood why I'd drawn black every single time.

A year ago, my ex abandoned me when I was broke and buried in debt, choosing the Russo family heiress instead.

On the day of his engagement party, he sent me a vicious text: "Wear a wedding dress to Plaza Hotel. Changed my mind. You're marrying me."

I showed up in white.

Luca and his crew waited at the entrance, ready to watch me humiliate myself.

He thought this was my degradation.

But what he didn't know was—I was getting married.

Just not to him.

To Dante Valentino—the most dangerous man in this godforsaken city.

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

In bed, he gripped my hips, whispering, "Principessa." In public, he was Cosimo—the ruthless mafia don who dismissed me with an icy, "Piccola."
For three years after he bought me, he never touched me. But a year ago, when Caterina returned, everything changed. He became a man possessed, tearing my dresses to shreds in the dead of night, claiming me with wild fury. He even promised to marry me in seven days.
On a storm-drenched afternoon, clutching my positive pregnancy test, I rushed to his private club to surprise him.
But as my hand touched the doorknob, Cosimo’s cold warning drifted through the door.
"Marcellino, know your place as a double. My things—especially Serenella—are strictly off-limits."
My blood ran cold. I peeked through the gap.
Cosimo sat on the sofa, completely indifferent. And by the pool table stood a man with a face identical to his.

I thought Auden was the most devoted husband in the world—until the day I regained my sight and recognized him on the front page: a serial killer who had murdered eight blonde women.
I had to play blind. I swallowed the liquid the maid brought me—a brew soaked in dead people's eyeballs. I chewed on a human molar in my dinner. I sat perfectly still as I watched him fuck our maid right in front of me, not daring to let a single expression slip.
Because the exact second my vision returned, an anonymous text had popped up on my phone: Don't let Auden know you can see.

For love, I gave up my identity as a wealthy heiress and eloped with my poor boyfriend. To help him raise startup capital for his business, I spent Christmas Eve dressed as Santa Claus handing out flyers.
And he, just to make his first love smile, kicked me into the pool with one swift kick...

I've been able to see clocks above people's heads since the day I was born. As long as the hands keep moving, the bond between us is still alive.

Once the hands spin backward and stop at zero, that bond is finished.

When I was seven, the clock over my best friend's head just stopped one day. She drowned in the reservoir the next morning.

When I was fifteen, my grandfather's clock started ticking backward, slower and slower, until it stopped completely. He died peacefully in his sleep that same night.

When I was eighteen, my father, a drunk who lied about everything, slammed the door on his way out. I watched his clock vanish completely and knew right then he was never coming back.

Ever since, clocks scare me. I'm always afraid of watching someone I love get taken away from me.

So I keep my head down, holding on tight to the quiet, stable life I've fought so hard for.

Then tonight, I watch the clock above Marcus Hargrove's head start spinning backward.

What scares me even more is Willow's clock doing the same thing.

While I'm still trying to figure out why, the storm hits that night. He walks out on his daughter while she's burning up with fever and having convulsions, and runs straight to another woman.

His clock jumps back another notch.

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

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

Julian forgot one thing about the woman he married.

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

The countdown to his ruin starts now.

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

My family used me as bait to destroy my sister's happiness.

The plan was simple: fake being poor, watch my sister's construction worker boyfriend run when times got tough, then reveal the truth and break her heart. I was supposed to be the convincing proof of our "poverty."

But I didn't know I was acting. For ten years, I lived their lie for real. Starved while they feasted in hiding. Worked myself to the bone while they watched me suffer.

Then I got my dream job and burst through the door to save everyone—only to find my sister's engagement party in progress.

But she'd dumped the construction worker for a tech mogul. "Maya's suffering was so authentic," she laughed to her guests. "It showed me exactly what I'd become if I stayed with Jake. Thank God I came to my senses."

My pain was her wake-up call.

A glass of drugged water left me completely naked on a hotel bed.

The task in the notebook was to accompany a stranger for three months, or else my nude photos would be exposed to everyone.

I had no choice but to agree and sacrifice my first time.

That night was extremely painful!

Because I was still a virgin, when his strong body pressed down on me, all I could do was grip the bedsheets tightly.

My inexperience made the man frown; "Emily, you slut, why are you suddenly so tight?"

He had mistaken me for someone else. Clearly, the woman named Emily was not a virgin. I couldn't reveal that it was my first time, so I bit my lip and endured the pain as best as I could. It hurt so much!

"Does it feel good, woman?" The man smirked at me, "You just moaned, you know. At least you've made some progress tonight."

Oh my God, did I really moan?

Alison felt unbearable shyness, closing her eyes tightly, desperately hoping for everything to end soon...

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

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

After three years of a secret marriage, my husband refused to pay for a life-saving surgery—
yet spent a fortune on another woman.

I filed for divorce.

He thought I would come back, broken and begging.

Instead, I picked up my scalpel again.

While my ex-husband looked down on me, I saved countless lives.

When my breakthrough medicine won an international award,
and the world’s richest man proposed to me,
my ex-husband finally lost his mind—
showing up at my proposal ceremony too late to stop anything.

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

A ruthless campus royalty. A plus-sized outcast. A toxic double life born in the dark.

Nova Vance is the campus charity case—plus-sized, fiercely sarcastic, and the favorite target of the elite crowd. For two years, she has harbored a silent, self-destructive crush on Ashton King, the arrogant captain of the rugby team. But after a brutal public humiliation in the cafeteria leaves her drenched in soup while Ashton watches with freezing indifference, Nova promises herself she is done pining.

Ashton King has a crown to wear. As the school's golden boy, he is expected to stay with his sassy, wealthy cheerleader girlfriend, Chloe.

Nobody knows that Ashton is harboring a dark, unhinged obsession with Nova.

He craves her curves, her wit, and her defiance. He sits in silence during the day to protect his status, but at night, he is losing his mind over her.

When a wild, alcohol-fueled party ends in a messy, breathless alleyway kiss, the boundaries shatter. In public, he passes her cold notes and walks with his girlfriend. In the dark, he is a feral, possessive predator who claims her body as his own.