228 Book(s) Related to lea coll

Warning 18+ ⚠️MATURE READERS ONLY⚠
"You want me to fuck you, I know it"
"As much as you don't like me, you're my mate and you can't deny it."
He stood up behind me, one hand holding my hip, and leaned down, his breath ragged against my neck, his voice was husky,
"You'll listen to your body... what it wants... and my body... what it needs. Only the pleasure that a small bite can bring."

At the age of 15, I was shocked to hear the ruthless Alpha claim that I was his mate.
To make matters worse, he killed my father, who was trying to protect me. At that time, I successfully ran away from him.
However, when I turned 18, I fell into his trap again.
I hated him and wanted revenge, but the moon goddess had a different plan for me.
I was his mate, and we were fated to be together. No matter the circumstances, my body couldn't resist him.

Ruby finds herself agreeing to be the contracted wife of a man she knew nothing about just to save the life of her sister.

He only calls her when he needs something from her and she's totally unaware about his identity except for his name.

What happens when everyone is trying to find the wife of Jaxon?
How will Ruby react when she realizes that she married the hottest bachelor in the city?

Will they ever be able to fall in love and overcome all obstacles?

What happens when she finds out about a very big shocking secret of his, one that no one knows about?

Find out in Hidden Wife of the Cold CEO

He had a heart covered with ice, but for her, he'd burn himself to ashes... and the world under her feet.


Beckett Clainfer wanted to find his parent's murderer. With that in mind, he endured every pain for the pleasure that's about to come - Reputation, wealth, and a drug den that suffices his needs and luxuries.
However, when Vivianne entered his life, everything went chaotic. He sinfully fell in love with her when he should have never been involved with her in the first place... Especially when she wanted him dead more than anyone else.
He's willing to do anything to save her, and he was willing to cross the line as he joined Foedus Corporation in Agrianthropos City for her.
But could he find salvation in Hell?


Vivianne Allamino had been suffering throughout her life. Being forced to take over their illegal family business in leverage to her mother's safety scared the shit out of her. Since childhood, she was trained... and was controlled like a mere puppet.
And now, she was done tolerating all this shit. She just wanted everything to end.
Now, she tried to kill him.
But the cold-hearted billionaire wanted to save her.
Could he?

“I own hell, little human.”
“And now, I own you. You’re not a werewolf, but you’re mine… my mate.”
He growled, and I felt a chill run down my spine.
Karen Miller, a human girl, thought escaping her drug-dealing boyfriend would finally give her a chance at freedom. But her flight leads her straight into the clutches of the Bloodfang Pack, a brutal clan of werewolves she never knew existed.
Trapped in their world, Karen is forcefully marked and claimed by the ruthless Alpha, Jaden, destined to serve as his breeder. Stripped of her choices and thrust into a nightmare of dominance and survival, she must navigate a savage new reality where mercy doesn’t exist.
As dangerous secrets unravel and forbidden emotions begin to stir, Karen faces an impossible question: will she remain the Alpha’s prisoner, or become the only one who can tame the beast within him?
Perfect for fans of The Captive Mate and Alpha’s Claim, this dark werewolf romance blends danger, obsession, and a love born from power and pain.

"You'll marry me in exchange for your brother's freedom?" Christopher questioned, his tone doubtful.
"Did I say otherwise?" Olivia threw a question back, a small smile playing on her lips.
"Well then," he started, his voice devoid of emotion, "Did he also tell you that, during those six months, you ought to have my child in you?"
Olivia Harris never imagined her life would come down to a deal like this—marry a cold billionaire lawyer in exchange for her brother's future.
When her younger brother is arrested and faces serious jail time, Olivia seeks out Christopher Brooks, the city's most feared and brilliant defense attorney. But Christopher has no interest in charity cases—until his best friend makes an outrageous proposition: a six-month contract marriage in exchange for Christopher's legal services.
Olivia agrees, and they embark on a marriage of convenience. As they step deeper into Christopher's dangerous world, their lives are threatened by a sinister plot orchestrated by a mysterious figure who seems determined to destroy them both.
Attacks and threats escalate, putting Olivia's life in danger. And when Christopher is involved in a mysterious accident that leaves him with amnesia, Olivia must fight to protect herself and the man she's grown to love. Can she uncover the truth behind the sinister plot, expose the mastermind behind it, help Christopher regain his memory, and save her brother Raymond from his impending court case before it's too late?

In her previous life, after her parents died in a car accident, her eldest brother took in the daughter of the driver who caused the crash just to save face. To keep up the pretense of fairness, her brothers drained Lily Roberts of all her resources, trampled on her dignity, and poured everything into supporting the driver’s daughter. Lily gave her all to her brothers, only to be kicked out of the house and die a miserable death.
Reborn, Lily Roberts cast aside all her tendencies to help others. No forgiveness, no reconciliation—let them cling together; she’d thrive alone.
Her brothers all thought she was just throwing a tantrum and would slink back within three days.
But three days turned into another three, and then another. Her brothers couldn’t sit still anymore.
Eldest brother: “Why has my health been so poor lately? Because Lily stopped sending me tonics.”
Second brother: “Why does the company’s firewall keep failing? Because Lily isn’t here to maintain it anymore.”
Third brother: “Why is the drug research and development progressing so slowly? Because Lily no longer volunteers as a test subject for the drugs.”
Fourth brother: “Why are these scripts so terrible? Because Lily stopped writing them.”
Fifth brother: “Why is this prosthetic limb so useless? Because Lily isn’t the one who custom-made it anymore.”
Sixth brother: “Why does the eSports team keep losing? Because Lily quit.”
Her brothers knelt on the ground, begging for forgiveness. “Lils, come back! We’re family—blood is thicker than water!”
Lily Roberts slammed the severance of kinship agreement in front of them, scoffing coldly. “Cars hit the wall and you finally know to swerve? Stocks soar and you rush to buy? Get sentenced for your mistakes and you suddenly regret it? Sorry, I don’t forgive.”

Dear readers! If you love this story, check out my other book: Wedding Night, He Called My Sister’s Name.
All because of one sentence from Helena, my family's adopted daughter, my brothers threw me into a snake pit in my last life—
When I opened my eyes again, I was twenty years old. Right back at the moment my brothers started forcing me to donate blood as Helena's personal lab rat.
This time, I refuse to give in.
To hell with my brothers—I'll make sure they end up bankrupt and homeless!
Continuously updating, with 3 chapters added daily.

After being enslaved for fourteen months, she was chosen as the Prince's personal slave. Of course she's heard about him. The cold hearted prince then entire kingdom wouldn't stop gossiping about. Then, her fairytale world is crumbled to dust. All hope of freedom gone as hate flashes from all corner, together with pain and distress. How would she survive? Will there be a little glint of hope for her? Or maybe her hope is...

Join me in this exciting long ride! Thank y'all!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sabrina Parker used to fall deeply in love with a man named Simon; she did everything and anything for Simon and for her relationship with him as his wife; she sacrificed everything for him, yet what he gave in exchange was pain, tears, and nothing but all of his lies. That's why she decided to end her suffering by filing a divorce, yet Simon won't let her go unless Sabrina will do something for him at last, and that is where he already made a deal with her wife- no, her ex-wife, to be precise."Marry me again and be with me as my wife for two years.
After that, I will let you go completely, Sabrina."She knew she deserved a life free from Simon's deceit, but his demand forced her to confront her future head-on. That day, Sabrina her self needs to give an answer to her Ex-husband, as she stood at the crossroads of her life, Sabrina realized that the choice she made would determine whether she remained bound to her past or moved forward toward a future where she could reclaim her happiness and peace. Her decision would define her path, and she braced herself to confront whatever lay ahead.

"Take me, please take me now. I love you, Damon." she moaned as he continued squeezing and toying with her breasts, especially her nipples.
“I am yours. But only for tonight." was his cold reply.

★

Alpha Damon owns the physical appearance of an angel but a heart inclined to evil because of his demon origin.

Ladies fantasize about him because of his extraordinary beauty and aura but Damon cares for no one. No one at all.

The Cold Heart one.

However, Damon would meet a human girl Jane, who he saved from a gang of rapists. And she will make him feel things like compassion and concern and ultimately love.
But before he could accept these feelings as true and real, Danger and Death would come like the shadow as he will be the center of a war between Demons and Witches as well as Werewolves and Vampires...

The remote vacation villa was saturated with suffocating male testosterone.
Deep in the night, my life-saving suppressants inexplicably vanished. The moment the drugs wore off, my unspeakable secret—my sex addiction—unleashed its most violent, lethal backlash in history.
What was even more fatal was that, through a twisted twist of fate, the man I was forced to share a room with tonight was my stepbrother, renowned for his absolute abstinence and cold, iron-fisted ruthlessness.
I thought that once my embarrassingly out-of-control, in-heat state was exposed, he would treat me like a monster and kick me away in disgust.
But I never expected—
This aloof man, who usually wouldn't even spare me a glance, now carried an irresistible, scorching aggression, ruthlessly sliding his large, rough hand straight up my thoroughly soaked panties...

Anita was an omega. After the sudden death of her sister, she went to join Evergreen Academy for her safety.

Little did she know that she would end up falling in love with the cold and ruthless Alpha Robin . For her she knew that the love that they felt for each other was mutual. Little did she know that Alpha Robin was deceiving her. He had other intentions with her, not love.
**
" He is the one," I told Ben, my best friend, the only guy who had stood by me in Evergreen.

" He bullied you. How can you fall in love with your bully? He hates you, it can't be that he loves you now after everything that he has done to hurt you," Ben explained.

" I love Alpha Robin. To the world he can be Cold and ruthless but to me he is the love of my life. Nothing can convince me to break up with him," I told him.

**
Follow the complicated love story of Alpha Robin and Anita which is filled with much deceit. Will Anita's hidden powers come to her rescue?

Read to find out.

“Please…” I whispered.

“Please, what?”

I ran my wet tongue through my dry lips. Voice barely above a whisper. “Please… please... please make me… make me… make me your little bitch.”

The words tasted bitter and filthy on my tongue. I hated myself for saying them. Hated how my cock twitched when I did.

“I can’t hear you, Jones,” He said, voice hard, low and commanding. “Louder.”

I swallowed again, eyes stinging. “Please make me your little bitch.”

“A little louder.”

My cheeks burned. I forced the words out stronger this time. “Please make me your little bitch.”

He smirked, slow and satisfied. The look in his eyes made my stomach flip.

“Good boy,” He murmured. “Now listen carefully, Jones. If you agree to this, you’re mine. Completely. You don't look at other men. You don’t think about them. You don’t even dream about them. Everything about you; your mouth, your ass, your cock, your body… even your thoughts, belongs to me. All of it. I get to treat and use you however and whenever I want. Rough. Gentle. Mean. Filthy. You take it all. And you praise me for it. Understood?”

I hesitated, heart pounding so hard I thought it was going to explode. The last bit of resistance flickered. My mind was screaming no; to get up, run and never look back.

“Well?” He urged, thumb still holding my chin.

I closed my eyes for half a second, detesting every inch of my being. Then I nodded, voice small. “Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“Yes… I understand.”

“Good.”

...

Shane Blackwood is his name.

And he's a monster.

He's toxic, cruel and psychotic beyond your wildest imagination.

I knew all this.

And yet, I signed that stupid agreement.

And now... he owns me.

Completely.

There's no escape.

[This is a dark erotica MM. Rated 18+]

“A masterpiece of thriller and mystery! The author did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side that is so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. The plot is very intelligent and will keep you entertained throughout the book. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.” --Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone) ONCE COLD is book #8 in the bestselling Riley Paige mystery series, which begins with the #1 bestseller ONCE GONE (Book #1)—a free download with over 900 five star reviews! There is one cold case that has plagued Special Agent Riley Paige for her entire career, dwelling at the corners of her consciousness, forcing her to return to it again and again. The only case she has never solved, she has finally put it out of her mind.Until she gets a call from the murdered victim’s mother.It spurs Riley to face the case once again, and to not give up until she has found answers.Yet Riley barely has time to catch her breath when she receives a lead for another cold case, one which, if possible, strikes an even deeper note within her. It is a lead that promises to solve the case of her own mother’s killer.And it comes from Shane Hatcher.A dark psychological thriller with heart-pounding suspense, ONCE COLD is book #8 in a riveting new series—with a beloved new character—that will leave you turning pages late into the night. Book #9 in the Riley Paige series will be available soon.

This is the story of the most powerful warlock, Alexander's who has set himself on a mission to find his father's twin brother Arthur who cruelly killed his whole family along with his lover to become the most powerful warlock. Alexander is set on finding the mythical 18 relics of Goddess which are hidden somewhere in this world so he could revive his dead lover Daniel and his both elder siblings. His overly possessive elder brother Aadam and his overly protective and caring, sister Aleena. Trying to find the secret of Arthur's death which only his parents and elder siblings knew he stumbled upon a growling mutt who was claiming him to be his mate? A mate which Alexander never wanted and ran off at the sight of. He never believed in mates, as in the world of witches they choose their life partner themselves. The overly protective, hell possessive and crazy Alpha Damian wants nothing in the world but his mate only. Who has been waiting for his mate since he turned 18. Alexander tried hard to run away from this growling mutt but somehow destiny always made him stumble across the domineering alpha. Alexander was broken and Damian wanted to mend him but how will he do that when his mate isn't ready to give him a chance. Alexander had decided there's no place in his heart for anyone else except for his dead lover Daniel whom he wants to bring back to life. No one can take his place, be it mate or not, while the mutt seems to can't keep his hands to himself. Alexander was a total spoiled brat who was in for nothing more than a one night stand while Damien wanted him all for himself. Now how will their story bloom?

[From the Cold Blooded series]

In the city where shadows trade secrets and blood seals deals, Noah Bellion is a name whispered like a warning. They call him the Devil from Nowhere—a man of charm as sharp as the knife he hides beneath his tailored suit, a strategist who bleeds without flinching and smiles like sin itself.

Elodie, a quiet florist girl with secrets of her own, steps into his world searching for her missing brother. But Noah sees more than her desperation—he sees what she’s hiding. Something dangerous. Something he wants.

Their attraction is undeniable, but so is the quiet war between them—desire twisted with mistrust, fear tangled with fascination. Because Noah isn’t just the man who could save her. He’s also the man who could ruin her—and make her love him for it.

“You're afraid of me, Elodie… but not enough to stay away.”

"No, I still want to run. I'm afraid of you."

"Good. Fear means you know exactly what I can do to you."

I kissed my ex-boyfriend's father. Now they're both obsessed.

For six years, Julian Hawthorne treated me like his dirty little secret—never good enough to claim, always convenient to use. Until I walked away and kissed the one man he can't compete with.

Victor Hawthorne. Billionaire CEO. Julian's adoptive father. Ice-cold control wrapped around something dangerously combustible.

It was supposed to be revenge. One forbidden kiss to prove I'd moved on.

But Victor hired me. Put me in Julian's face every single day. And now Julian wants me back—desperate, possessive, unraveling.

The twist? Victor acts like I don't exist in public. But behind closed doors, the way he looks at me could melt steel.

Julian's begging. Victor's silent. And I'm playing them both.

The problem? I'm starting to want the one I can't afford to lose.


⚠️ Forbidden romance. Adoptive father/son rivalry. She plays the game—until the game plays her.

Betrayed. Beaten. Buried.
Until she wakes up - alive, angry, and done being obedient.
This time, Sabrina won't beg for love. She'll take back her pride, expose their lies, and burn every bridge that once held her down.
But her cold, controlling husband Cassian doesn't plan to let go.
A diamond mine? Hers. A fortune? Hers. Freedom? Never.
When she demands a divorce, he offers power. When she says he's not enough, he shows her just how wrong she is.
She was once their victim. Now, she's their reckoning.

After discovering her wolf's abnormality, Ashira went to find her mate. She was a stealer, a wolf that could provide a pup with any male, even if they were not her mate. It turned out that she was mated with Alpha Aiden! The Alpha of Prime pack, the strongest pack of the North!
She needed Aiden to claim her, to mark her! For her wolf to be accustomed to who she belongs, but Aiden doesn’t want a mate!
"Won't you claim me?" she asked.
"I'm making myself an exception to this tradition," Aiden said in a cold tone.
"You're not claiming me?!" she exclaimed.
"I'll never put my claim on you," was all he said before turning his back on her.

How will Ashira force him to mark her? Her wolf’s abnormality needed his fangs deep in her neck, and now she’s frustrated and desperate!

Read more…

This is a complete story. The first book of The Rare Wolf Series.
Each book in this series can be read as a standalone, but I highly recommend reading them in order, for the best experience.

Eight years together. And all it took was one video to shatter everything.

My fiancé. My protégée. Tangled together — five days before our wedding.

"If my mother hadn't pressured me, I never would've agreed to marry her."

That was the moment she woke up. Lily. The woman I'd buried for eight years. Former top-ranked assassin on The Zenith Class — the one who single-handedly dismantled an entire criminal council.

I wanted to walk away clean.

Instead, I got dragged into a web of dirty money, a missing cargo ship worth two hundred million dollars, and a man who had no business knowing my secrets — yet somehow knew all of them.

He's shameless. Dangerous. Infuriating.

"Your body doesn't lie, Lily. Part of you wants to go back."

I told myself he meant nothing.

With a dying mother-in-law's last wish hanging over me, and enemies closing in from every side, I had one question left to answer —

After you see through every lie, every betrayal, every illusion you built your life on...

Who do you finally choose to live for?

Havillah was banished. and labeled an abberant, but as destiny would have it, the key to salvation lies in her hands. Once an ordinary girl in a realm where everyone was special, her only talent was her crazy knack for hope crystals and the caring personality that leads her to trouble time and time again. When she meets Killion, betrayal, intrigue and love are no longer strangers. She must learn of sacrifice, of honour and most of all, what it really means to bear the marks of destiny.

They put the calm ones on graveyard. I'm calmer than calm - I can't read a face to save my life, but give me a voice and I'll tell you what you ate for dinner and what you're lying about.

3:07 a.m. A woman calls. A struggle. The line dies.

By sunrise there's no body, no report, and the call I logged has wiped itself clean - like it never rang. The whole city is asleep on it.

But I've never trusted the system. I keep my own copy of every call.

He erased her. I kept the tape. Now he just has to find out the night guy nobody looks at has been listening the whole time.

On my due date, my husband Russell locked me in an underground freezer at minus ten degrees.

The Pembroke family's unbreakable rule: the first-born male inherits the entire mafia empire. My sister-in-law Natasha and I were both pregnant, our due dates only one day apart. To ensure his brother's child was born first, Russell made this insane decision.

"My brother and Natasha's baby has to come first—this is what you owe them!" He ignored my desperate pleas and violent contractions, coldly shoving me into the freezer.

But that wasn't enough. They forcibly injected me with labor-delaying drugs. I curled up in agony on the freezing concrete floor, feeling my baby slowly slipping away, tears of despair streaming down my face.

My baby, Mommy is so sorry...

I used to believe my husband was my hero. When Julian Miller’s empire was falling apart, I made a desperate choice to save him. I spent a night in the suite of his fiercest competitor, Arthur Vance. Julian called me his hero and said he trusted me.

But he was lying to me for five long years.

Everything changed in an instant. Watching our daughter hang from a broken roller coaster, Julian didn’t attempt to save her. Instead, he reached for his phone to call his mistress.

To him, she wasn’t a child in peril; she was just a chance to wipe out a 'mistake' and start fresh with someone who had been in our lives since the very beginning of our marriage.

Now, people see me as a heartbroken mother and an ashamed wife. Julian thinks he’s buried me under his web of lies and his influence. But he overlooked one crucial point: I have nothing more to lose, and I'm ready to settle a score.

With the one man Julian fears most by my side, I’m stepping back into the light. And by the time I’m through, he’ll understand that the woman he treated like a pawn is the very one who will bring his whole world crashing down.

She gave him her heart, her trust, and even her family's company.
In return, he took her father's life - and tried to steal her kidney for her cousin.
When Freya dies on the cold operating table, she wakes up... reborn - in another so-called useless orphan girl's body.
But death left her with more than scars-
Now, whispers of the future echo in her mind, guiding her revenge...
Surrounded by greedy relatives and deadly schemes, she's ready to fight back.
What she didn't expect?
To accidentally fall into the bed of Leander-the nation's most feared, most unattainable billionaire. He's cold, ruthless, untouchable.
But after that one night... he wants her.
Her body. Her revenge. Her hand in marriage.
Now, they're not just husband and wife by contract. They're partners in revenge.

He knelt in the dirt, begging to see the daughter he abandoned, but I pointed to the man beside me: "She calls him Daddy now."

Ryan looked like a ghost. Stomach cancer had eaten away his arrogance, leaving only skin and bones. He stared at Grace—the baby he thought was dead, the baby he tried to replace with an orphan. "Zoey... I'm her biological father. Please."

I held Chris's hand, feeling his warmth, so different from Ryan's cold betrayal. "Biological?" I scoffed. "You're just a sperm donor who chose his sister over his wife."

Grace hid behind Chris's leg, looking at Ryan with fear. That look broke him more than the cancer ever could.

"You have Lucy," I said, turning away. "And her child. Go enjoy the family you destroyed us for." I watched him vomit blood into the grass, realizing too late that he had traded a diamond for a stone. He would die alone, while we lived happily ever after.

When dragons call, only the brave answer.
Anara refuses to be defined by her past. As the queen’s favored maid, nobody expects her to enter the deadly Slayer Trials. Desperate for redemption, she’s determined to slay the ultimate dragon—the silver king himself.
Or die trying.
Except the Slayer Trials test Anara in ways she could never have imagined. Danger is as ravenous for death as the dragons themselves, enemies hide among friends and shadows. And an unexpected specter from her past appears—Prince Zaries. His hatred of her is understandable, her crime against him unforgivable. Her draw to him is a complication she doesn’t need.
Nor is the secret she harbors—an inexplicable affinity towards the very creatures she's sworn to destroy.
Ultimately, Anara's enigmatic connection to dragons will be her strength or her greatest vulnerability. It will challenge her resolve and reshape her destiny.
And the fate of Amaranthine and the unknown worlds beyond.

Extreme cold descended suddenly, with temperatures approaching minus eighty degrees Celsius.

My girlfriend tricked me into leaving the temperature-controlled fortress I had built with all my savings. She took her whole family and her lover and took over the place, leaving me, a cripple, to be left to die in a blizzard.

They sat around my fireplace eating top-grade Wagyu beef, declaring they would watch me freeze into an ice sculpture.

But what they didn't know was that, locked out, I turned around and dialed the number of the most brutal outlaw in the apocalypse.

I don't want the billion-dollar supplies and the houses; all I want is for their whole family to be trapped in this inescapable, icy hell, unable to live or die.

Everyone says I married an iceberg.

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

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

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

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

Then that afternoon, I suddenly heard his thoughts.

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

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

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

New plan: make that volcano blow.

In my previous life, I was the government-appointed hero of the apocalypse, dying on the frozen plains after the spotlight dimmed, feeding their glorious honor with my very life.
In this life, I tore up the script and rejected that performance they called "saving the world." When the so-called "hero" stands on the command deck once again, I am deep in the dark underground, clutching a scoreboard with my frostbitten hands—
After all, heroes are offerings reserved for history books; I, however, only want to ensure that this group of abandoned souls can survive through tonight.

First day back after the long weekend. I get a few artisan gift baskets shipped in from my family's farm: maple syrup, raw honey, smoked beef jerky, handmade jams. Top-shelf stuff, every single one. Shipping alone runs me a few hundred dollars.

After the morning meeting, I hand them out one by one. The team crowds around me, all smiles, falling over themselves saying things like "You're literally the best, Ms. Bennett" and "Oh my god, you're such an amazing boss."

They're barely out the door when I notice the conference room projector is still mirroring someone's phone. Up on the screen: a private group chat. Fifteen members.

Everyone on the team is in it.

Everyone except me.

A new message pops up: [Farm junk? Really? Preston Vance's team got $200 gift cards AND black truffle. Sloane's such a cheap ass lol]

Replies flood in. Someone photoshops a picture of me. Someone else hopes I drop dead at my desk.

To them, I'm just another boss squeezing her people dry.

Last quarter, I handed every single one of them a three-thousand-dollar cash bonus out of my own pocket. Plus a brand-new phone. Each.

Fine. If they think I'm not giving enough, I'll give them exactly what they're asking for.

Though later, when they come crawling back one by one, I find myself wondering what exactly they think begging is going to get them.

Wale never expected the world he built to crumble. One drunken night with his staff, Maya, led to a scandal that forced him into a marriage he never wanted. Behind closed doors, he promised his true love, Kate, “I’ll get rid of her in a year.”
For a year, Maya tried to win Wale’s love, enduring his coldness and distance, but he remained emotionally locked away. Just as he was about to hand her divorce papers, she revealed a shocking secret—she was pregnant. Wale, torn but still set on leaving her, abandoned Maya on the day she went into labor to be with Kate. In a cruel twist, a devastating accident claimed their baby’s life.
Devastated and broken, Maya confronts Wale with a chilling finality, “Congratulations, Mr. Wale. My baby’s gone. I want a divorce. You’ve taken the last reason I had to stay.”
For the first time, Wale feels something he’s never experienced—fear. Fear of losing the woman he dismissed for so long. But now, as Maya walks away, he’s faced with the hardest question of all; is it too late to win back the woman he pushed away? And even if he tries, can Maya ever forgive him for the pain he’s caused?

I never expected to be branded a “fake heiress” and a “scheming bitch” on my own wedding anniversary.
“Did you really think we’d never find out you faked the DNA test?” My mother’s voice cut like a blade. “You’ve been impersonating our real daughter all along.”
The irony was suffocating. They were the ones who stormed into my peaceful life, insisting that I was their long-lost child—no proof needed. And now they dared to call me the fraud.
“Since Camille has finally returned to where she belongs,” my father declared coldly, “it’s time for you to crawl back into whatever shadow you came from.”
Then came the final blow. My husband of five years didn’t even hesitate.
“I’ll have the divorce papers drawn up immediately. Don’t make this difficult, Mirena. You were never meant to be my wife.”
Overnight, I was discarded. The scandal of the city. The woman who stole a life that was never hers.
But they forgot one thing: I never needed them.
Before I was George Ashton’s wife, I was Mirena Sterling—the Investment Queen. The woman who broke Wall Street records before she turned twenty-five. A racing champion. A tech prodigy.
I walked away from all of it. Gave up my empire. My crown. My name. All for a man who threw me away like garbage the moment someone “better” came along.
Big mistake.
On the night they cast me out, soaking wet and humiliated, I ran into the last person I ever wanted to see.
“Look at you now, Mirena,” Alexander Pierce murmured, watching me with those piercing eyes. “The woman who once ruled the financial world. Reduced to this.” He tilted his head. “And for what? Love?” A dark laugh. “Pathetic.”
My former rival. The man who spent years trying to beat me—and never once succeeded. Now he stood before me, a Wall Street titan, watching my downfall with hungry satisfaction.
He thought he’d seen the last of me.
He was wrong.
The game was simple now: drop the dead weight, reclaim what’s mine, and remind everyone why they feared my name.
Within months, I was back. Every market moved when I breathed. Every headline screamed my return. The Sterlings came crawling, begging for mercy they’d never shown me. And George? He watched in horror as I bought his most prized company without blinking.
The divorce he’d so eagerly signed? His greatest regret.
“Mirena, please,” he begged, groveling at my feet. “Give me another chance.”
I didn’t even look at him. “Sorry, darling. I don’t recycle trash.”
But what I didn’t expect was him.
Alexander Pierce dropped to one knee in front of me—the man who had once mocked my fall, now looking up with something raw and undisguised in his crimson gaze.
“I knew you’d take back everything they stole,” he said, voice low. “Now…” A slow, dangerous smile curved his lips. “Take me too.”

Duke Damon Nigrescent and his younger sister Daria Nigrescent of the Nigrescent famil, the only aristocratic family that had more powers than all the Monarchs. Not much was known about them and I didn’t want to dig any further either but , there was something pulling me towards this castle. The moment I stepped foot inside I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be able to get out of there anymore. The Nigrescent family was known for having blue eye and white hair , a physical appearance like that of a creature out of a fantasy book . Duke Damon was incredibly handsome . All my classmates’ eyes were fixated on him, while mine were on Lion, my secret crush without actually realising that the Duke’s attention was on me. He was an annoying stalker that scared the crap out of me when we first met . When it was time to leave , I couldn’t go. Lion was about to confess to me. The moment I had been waiting so much for had finally arrived but before I could make it there , I accidentally ended in the middle of a ritual and unbenounce to everyone, I became Duke Damon’s bride. From that day everything changed completely as all the secrets that had been buried came to life. My ordinary happy life was part of the past , now , I was faced with all kind of dangers , duties , love , heartbreak and….vampires. At first I loathed the idea of being his bride but with each passing day I find myself longing for him, attracted to his muscled strong body and handsome face that made my heart flutter making me confused about my real feelings. We were united because of his curse, but can I let go of this passion in exchange for the freedom I so desperately desire ?

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.

Every night when my daughter comes home, she looks different.
On the first night, a little of her hair was gone.
On the second night, she was missing one hand.
On the third night, half of her body had vanished.
I jolted awake in a sudden start, thankful it had only been a nightmare.
Right then, my daughter came back home.
A patch of her hair was missing.

On a stormy night, a horrific crash unfolded on the overpass. The victim was brought to the city forensic center.
My husband, Ethan, slipped on his gloves and expertly examined my shattered body, his voice detached. "Record this: Female, approximately twenty-five years old, suffered severe trauma before death."
His assistant sighed. "That's rough. Not a single family member showed up."
Just then, the assistant slid a misshapen silver band off my mud-streaked finger.
"Sir, this ring... isn't it identical to the one you keep in your desk drawer?"
With a sharp clatter, the scalpel slipped from Ethan's hand and hit the floor.

The world thought I was a broken man after rotting in the Abyss for five years. Even Moretti, the wealthiest mogul in Cold Harbor, dared to point a finger at my nose and demand I kneel.
He razed my estate, seized my daughter, and humiliated my past on a city-wide livestream.
What he didn’t know was that the moment his infrared scanners locked onto me, I had already initiated the sequence for a dormant orbital satellite that had been sleeping above us for five years.
When the skyscraper turns to ash, the man kneeling before me won’t be that arrogant tycoon—only a trembling corpse.
After all, in this city, I don’t believe in reason. I only believe in retribution.

"You're nothing but a replacement."

My husband said it with his eyes every time he looked through me to see her face. His mistress said it with that slow, satisfied smile. My own brother—the one I would have died for—proved it the night I saw him looking at her like she hung the moon.

I married a man who never once saw me.

I worked myself hollow for a family that used me like a tool and called it marriage. I gave up my career, my research, my dignity. I even gave up the right to be sick—because I have stage-four cancer and I haven't told a single soul.

I'm dying. And nobody knows.

But here's what they didn't count on: I'm not gone yet.

Before I go, I'm taking everything back.

Some women burn quietly until there's nothing left.

I'm done burning quietly.

The same golden September morning the town pathologists' teenage daugher is discovered hanging off a tree in the woods above Assisi (Umbria, Italy), the high-powered planning director of Perugia narrowly escapes death in a paragliding accident.  Commissario Lorenzetti senses foul play.  The police department is overstretched and he asks his best friend and fellow investigator Sister Lucia to look into the suicide.  But will her judgement be clouded by her own guilty secret? This is a story about leaps - real and metaphorical, taken and not taken.

Ten years ago, Iron Throne, Mexico's largest drug cartel, slaughtered my entire family. A decade later, I defected voluntarily and stepped into their manor with a token of allegiance. Everyone thought I had fallen into depravity. What they never knew was that I came to Iron Throne neither for wealth nor power. I came because I had memorized five names from the hit list that destroyed my family, and kept them in my heart for ten long years. I chose to lie low, until I rose to become the second-in-command of Iron Throne. On the night the kingpin handed the entire criminal empire over to me, I walked into his study, raised my gun with a smile.

When they threw me overboard, they thought a man with a broken leg couldn't possibly come back alive. When the floodwaters engulfed the world, turning land into a graveyard, I found a forgotten submarine in the deep sea. From underwater, I built my empire step by step . Not by pity, not by luck. By the time the survivors of this sea finally realized what lay beneath the surface, I no longer needed to hide. They called me the Deep Sea Ghost. I didn't care what they called me. I knew only one thing—from this day forward, this sea was mine to rule.

Twenty years ago, he took the blame for my murder, was branded with the Silver Flame mark, and banished to the wilderness. Twenty years later, I escaped from a prison-like marriage and searched the world for him. He wasn't there in the Alaskan blizzards. He wasn't there in the deep mountains of Romania. Under the polar night in the Arctic Circle, I called his name into the darkness. No one answered. Until a hunter told me: deep in the Yukon, someone had seen a lone wolf with the Silver Flame mark.

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

I was born into a cursed bloodline of witches. My mother told me that every firstborn daughter had to sacrifice the one she loved most to break the chains binding our blood. She said it was the only way to save my child. I lied to myself, and I lied to him, leading him to the altar with my own two hands. But I couldn't survive a single day without him. No curse, no matter how horrific, could ever compare to the sheer ugliness of the human heart. Waking up in that empty house, the truth finally hit me: I had absolutely nothing left.

Everyone in the tribe looked down on me. My father declared someone else the heir to the chieftaincy, my wife tore up our engagement and followed a new master, and I lived in a beast pen at the edge of the hunting grounds, sharing a wall with the hunting dogs. I thought this was my life. Only later did I realize that the entire tribe had spent twenty years of coldness building me a fortress. Those airtight shields would one day need me to prove them myself. On the day I awakened, the tribe's totem pole exploded. The true king was about to return.

I used to be the Federation's top agent, codename Frostblade. Until my fiancée and my partner stabbed me in the back and threw me into Blackrock Fortress—a black site hellhole that doesn't exist on any map. Against all odds, I broke out and made it back home, only to find my family's graves dug up, my mother murdered in the bathtub, and a shell casing stamped with a cartel insignia. My sister is missing, my father has been framed, and six of my informants were butchered—all signs point to the exact same name. Nobody believes a man who was supposed to rot in a cell can flip the board, but I'm back.

In my past life, I was tricked into a trap by my neighbor, my leg broken, and thrown into acid rain to die. Reborn, I returned to nine months before the acid rain apocalypse. Meteorites struck, radiation contaminated, water sources dried up, and civilization collapsed. I still had one last chance to save myself and reverse the future. When I mortgaged my house, borrowed heavily from loan sharks, and finally found the water purification engineer whom everyone considered crazy, I was met with merciless ridicule. Faced with humiliation, I simply smiled faintly—"Do you know when water is more precious than gold?"