7469 Book(s) Related to I Turned Out To Be The King Behind The Scenes

Ruby and Leo were never meant to fall in love. Their relationship began as a simple contract between two strangers with broken pasts agreeing to play the perfect couple for their own reasons. Rules were clear, no emotions, no complications, no crossing the line. And for a while, it worked. Stolen glances were ignored, lingering touches dismissed, and the quiet comfort between them carefully denied.
But somewhere between late night conversations and shared silences, the lines blurred.

Just when everything began to feel real, she returned.
Leo’s ex, beautiful, confident, and carrying a past that refused to stay buried, walked back into his life as if she had never left. With her came secrets, unresolved feelings, and a truth that threatened to shatter everything Ruby thought she understood.
Suddenly, the contract didn’t feel like protection anymore; it felt like a lie.
Caught between what was fake and what had become painfully real, Ruby must decide if she’s willing to fight for a love that was never supposed to exist. And Leo must face the past he never truly let go of.
Because sometimes, the hardest part isn’t pretending to love it’s admitting that you already do.

After Beth, the love of Kingsley’s life, left him, his world fell apart. Drowning in heartbreak, he vanished into obscurity… until Katherine found him and helped him heal. Her familiar aqua-blue eyes brought him peace and, eventually, love but secrets, lies, and the return of his ex-fiancée, Beth, tear them apart.

Realizing too late that Katherine was his true love, Kingsley tries to win her back. But Beth, obsessed and unhinged, takes a dark turn, bending reality to keep him by her side.

As Katherine uncovers the chilling truth, she must decide whether to give him a second chance and fight for their love or walk away forever.

Five years after fleeing to Oxford, Sera Blackwell is summoned back to Boston by a single desperate call: her mentor Vivienne Cross is dying, and the defense-technology empire she built is being quietly gutted by a betrayer.

Forced into the orbit of her former guardian, Dominic—the man whose forbidden desire once exiled her—Sera must navigate hospital corridors, corporate espionage, and the searing tension that has never cooled between them. With only weeks to rebuild a stolen prototype and secure a critical military contract, she transfers her inheritance, borrows a dress, and crashes a black-tie gala where every glance carries consequence.

There she encounters Callum Hargrave, the young ruthless CEO whose interest could save the company—or expose every secret she has tried to bury. Torn between the guardian who still claims her loyalty and the outsider who sees her true ambition, Sera stands at the edge of a war she never wanted.

Will she risk everything to win, or will the past she fled finally claim her?

Every she-wolf in the Blackwood Pack envied me.
Olivia Klein, the lowest-ranked Omega who married the most powerful Alpha, Dominic Blackwood.
Yet none knew the truth of my torment.
The Phoenix mark on my neck made me Dominic Blackwood’s Luna—but it never made me his choice.
For five years, I endured his hatred, the pack’s scorn, and the crushing weight of a prophecy no one believed.
And when the car crash nearly stole our unborn child from me, my desperate calls went unanswered.
Instead, Dominic moved his ex into our bedroom.
That’s when I understood: prophecies lie. Marks fade. And some battles?
Aren’t worth fighting.
For the sake of my child, I was resolved to leave.
But tell me, why did that callous, heartless Alpha suddenly have regrets?

I loved Finley for two years.
Until 1:00 AM on a Tuesday, when his best friend, Orion, sent me a half-naked photo and a jarring voice note."
If I actually bag her, don't go flipping out on me. A deal's a deal."
I booked the first flight out to confront him, only to catch the boy I loved naked and thrusting into another woman.
But that wasn't even the part that broke me.
When my roommate bypassed the hockey team's private Discord server, I found a channel named: #locker-room-bets.
There was my boyfriend, typing the words that shattered my world: "She's boring... She's like a lost puppy, you can't shake her... Play with her all you want."
My loyalty and two years of my life were nothing but a sick joke.
The entire hockey team had put money down on when I would willingly spread my legs for his best friend.

"Strip for me" the beastly alpha called, his voice echoed from his dark cell, causing a shiver to go down her body. She couldn’t fight the way her body reacts to him. Her n*****s harden from his touch.
"I can smell your wetness omega" he mutters, his hands tracing under her skirt till he feels up her wet jeweled folds, causing a hiss from her lips as his fingers push in. He whispers to he ears, a voice filled the dangerous promise "you are mine"
Elise Aldermen is the daughter of the Silvernight Pack's chief alpha. She has waited her whole life for her marriage ceremony, hoping it would be the best day of her life. However, she gets the shock of a lifetime when her betrothed coldly rejects her and makes her a slave after finding out her true origins, even though they were already bound.
Not.Not only is she claimed to be a bastard on her mating day, but she is also disowned and rejected by her pack and mate.
Elise's life turns into a nightmare as she is thrown into the dungeons as the cruel alpha's slave, only to be handed off to his greatest beastly champion, who dwells in the dark cells. Elise soon discovers that the beast she is now forced to be marked and bound to is more than a monster; this beastly alpha could also be her fated mate.

Emery’s undying love for her late mother drove her to do things only a desperate person could understand. To save her mother’s company, she agreed to marry a man twice her age. There’s no way she could escape the miserable truth, but on the day of the wedding, she married the wrong groom who turned out to be the wealthiest man in the country.
It’s like the Heavens gave her another chance and she won’t let the chance slip away. However, can she withstand the tension whenever her fake husband is near her? What if she falls for him? Will he catch her? Or she’d fall into a more complicated situation?


Every man's dream was to watch their bride walk down the aisle towards them, however, the beautiful dream turned into a nightmare when Terrence found a different woman under the veil. His bride ran away and he was forced to marry a stranger. To make everything more complicated, he just got appointed as the company President and he needs to maintain a good reputation.
Keeping his fake bride by his side is the only choice left to him. However, how can he deal with his self-control when the woman he mistakenly married is a total goddess of temptation?

The child I brought into this world through sheer determination now calls my husband's mistress "mother"; the youth who slew my father for my sake and was imprisoned, now confines me beyond the threshold, forcing me to hear his carnal symphony with his stepmother. Only then did I comprehend: the sixteen-year-old boy who committed patricide for me had long perished within the prison walls.

They thought that by forcing me to my death, they could devour everything.

My father jumped off a building, and I became a destitute young master whom everyone could bully. To pay off debts, I married into the Hawthorne family and became their sharpest knife.

After my father-in-law died suddenly, my wife immediately brought her childhood sweetheart into the house and forced me to divorce him.

My resistance resulted in a murder plotted by 928 × 213.

When I opened my eyes again, Chloe, who had been watching over me for three days and three nights, was beside me.

She said, "I'll take you away."

Three years later, I returned as a mysterious investor. The first thing I did was to buy the family's bankrupt old factory for 1.5 billion.

My ex-wife and I bumped into each other on the street; it was like seeing a ghost.

I smiled and stuck a 30 million yuan check on her forehead: "This is to repay the divorce fee you gave me back then. Keep the change."

The real revenge has only just begun.

The moment I gave up wasn't when I found out my husband was cheating. It was when I heard my ten-year-old daughter laugh into the phone and say, "Mom's so clueless. She has no idea about Dad and Summer."

Ten years ago, I was a top biomedical researcher, making six figures. I gave it all up for his promotion and our newborn daughter. Ten years later, the perfect marriage I traded my career and youth for turned out to be nothing but an elaborate lie.

He called me his safe haven, then got in our bed with his mistress and discussed how to keep me in the dark.

This time, I'm not going to cry or make a scene. I'm going to quietly gather my evidence and call the lab director I've turned down seven times.

I never knew my blood could kill a king—until I met one. Sebastian, the ruthless and immortal King, rules with precision. For centuries, he's ruled with ruthless precision, his heart as cold as the stone throne beneath him. One moment, I'm nothing. The next, I'm his obsession. His touch burns like ice fire. His stare follows me through shadows. And when he feeds from me—God help me—it feels like drowning in darkness and craving more. He tells me my blood is unlike any he's tasted, that my scent drives him to the edge of madness.


He reached for the back of my head and pulled me up just enough to reach my neck. When his fangs slid into me, the pain was instant, electric. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. My hands found his shoulders, clawing for something to hold. My legs kicked. Tears streamed down my cheeks.

He moaned against my throat as he drank, and the sound was devastating.

Sofia is an eighteen-year-old who has been bullied and tortured her whole life. When she realized that her only hope of going through school was to attend a school only for boys, she took a bold step and cut her hair to look like a boy and got into Blairwood Academy.

She has to try her best to make sure nobody finds out her real identity, or she would be kicked out. But it's difficult to hide it, especially from her roommate, Scott Blackwood, an icy nineteen-year-old who she always managed to get on his bad side.

“Why did you buy me, especially for such a huge amount? There is no way you could possibly want me when I am carrying the child of another man. Wait…. You could not possibly want me because…” the last words remained stuck in Kyra’s throat. She swallowed thickly and dread curled in the pit of her stomach as she stared at the handsome face of a rumored ruthless Alpha Anton.


It is one thing to find your mate, it is another for your mate to want you back.

All of Kyra’s life, she has been the rejected one and thought that things would be different when she finally finds her mate. Except that the moon goddess is one who likes to play games, Kyra gets mated to the enemy of her pack, Tristan.

Kyra is shocked when her mate accepts her despite knowing she is the enemy's daughter, so she starts going out with him secretly, but that won’t last for long because she falls pregnant, and her father finds out about her escapades with Tristan.

Tristan rejects her in the presence of her father and denies their child, leaving Kyra broken-hearted. He was only with her to destroy her father because of the feud between both packs.

In anger, her father who has never cared for her decides to auction her off to the highest bidder.

Broken, pregnant and in shame, Kyra is sold off to Alpha Anton. Kyra has never left home all her life and the first time she does, it is with a stranger who bought her. Kyra looks on her future with dread, not knowing what it holds for a pregnant and rejected woman like her.

A torrential downpour of strong acid flooded the city, and mutated sea monsters slaughtered buildings. When Chloe, along with burly men from the rugby team, wielding fire axes, frantically smashed down the door, attempting to burn me alive and steal my bottled water, I had already welded the security door firmly into the load-bearing wall.
Faced with the pried-open door, I didn't waste any words and directly used a 20,000-volt electric spear to pierce the strong man's thigh! Then, I coldly pushed the blood-soaked floor outside.
The pungent smell of blood instantly attracted the skeletal behemoths from the water, turning the corridor into a horrific slaughterhouse. I listened coldly to their desperate screams in front of the monitor.
In this desolate wasteland, you think you can survive by stepping on me? Then feed the monsters with your flesh and blood !

I could feel him standing in front of me. He grabbed my legs and in one single move thrusted into me.
“Fuckkk”, I couldn’t help but scream.
“You need to learn to be obedient” he said as he kept thrusting into me. When I felt his hands on my clit my body shook.
“Asher please, it’s too much”.
“No. if I really wanted to punish you, I would give you all of me”, he said against my ears and my entire body froze. Suddenly he moved and I was standing again. This man was insane.
I felt him behind me. “Ten Lashes for your disobedience”, he said
“Asher please”,
“No”. His voice was cold and void of any emotion.

Asher was what I wanted , what I truly craved until it was too late. An orphan should never fall in love with someone out of their reach. I thought loving him was the right thing to do until he revealed his true identity and Ruined me. I was ruined for everyone one else . I could still feel his touch, it was as if it was etched into my skin. I tired to avoid him but fate wouldn't let it happen.
The Sterling's were the most powerful in Havenwood and Dorian Sterling was off limits.

As an orphan finding out you still have people looking for you is hard to take but when it turns out to be people of wealth and standing I took the other road and ran, but running led me right back to the place I was avoiding and the person I was avoiding.
Asher and Dorling Sterling one and the same. When his first love shows up and along with everyone that has set out to ruin me, I prayed that he could protect me.

I've been with Michael for five years, stood by him as he clawed his way up from nobody to mafia boss.

He promised me we'd get to city hall and make it official once he made it to the top, and today's supposed to be the day we finally register our marriage.

He's already postponed our registration eight times before because of his first love, Yvaine Price.

This is attempt number nine, and I'm not giving him a tenth.

"Our marriage is nothing but a deal," he said looking at the girl, her green eyes met his cold silver eye, and both of them glared at each other.
"For any rules you break, I will claim any part of your body," his gaze grew dangerously darker at his word.


Ashley Harlow was at the top of the world, living the perfect and luxurious lifestyle as the legitimate daughter of the well-known Daniel Harlow. But sadly, a one-night stand put an end to that and brought her life upside down and that of her family's name to the ground. To restore his family's reputation, she was forced into marrying Damien Albrecht, a young, ruthless, obnoxious, brutal billionaire and the head of a mafia gang in exchange for her father's company.
This book contains a trigger warning. Please read with caution.

Eden McBride spent her whole life colouring within the lines. But when her fiancé dumps her one month before their wedding, Eden is done following the rules. A hot rebound is just what the doctor recommends for her broken heart. No, not really. But it's what Eden needs. Liam Anderson, the heir to the biggest logistics company in Rock Union, is the perfect rebound guy. Dubbed the Three Months Prince by the tabloids because he's never with the same girl longer than three months, Liam's had his fair share of one night stands and doesn't expect Eden to be anything more than a hookup. When he wakes up and finds her gone along with his favourite denim shirt, Liam is irritated, but oddly intrigued. No woman has ever left his bed willingly or stole from him. Eden has done both. He needs to find her and make her account. But in a city with more than five million people, finding one person is as impossible as winning the lottery, until fate brings them together again two years later. Eden is no longer the naive girl she was when she jumped into Liam's bed; she now has a secret to protect at all costs. Liam is determined to get everything Eden stole from him, and it's not just his shirt.

© 2020-2021 Val Sims. All rights reserved. No part of this novel may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author and publishers.

Blurb:
In a universe where interstellar travel is common and cosmic alliances are fragile, Dr. Elena Mercer, an astrophysicist, and Commander Orion Drake, a decorated starship captain, were once an unbreakable team—until betrayal tore them apart. A decade ago, Elena discovered that Orion's mission was a covert plot that led to the destruction of her home colony, shattering their marriage and leaving her world in ruins. Heartbroken and driven by vengeance, Elena disappeared, building a new life on the edge of the galaxy. Now, a deadly alien threat looms on the horizon, threatening to annihilate the entire star system. The only hope for survival is for Elena and Orion to reconcile and lead the joint forces to battle. Old wounds resurface as they face the challenge of rebuilding trust. But as cosmic conspiracies unravel and secrets emerge, they realize that the fate of the universe and their hearts are entwined. Will love triumph over vengeance, or will regret burn brighter than the stars themselves?

“One million dollars!”. A deep voice bid making everywhere to go silent.


Just a day after Ashley turned eighteen, her parents sold her off to a gangster in order to pay their debt. The gangster decided to resell her in an audition where she was brought for a million dollars.

Ashley was brought by Xander Cage the don of the biggest mafia organization in the state. Xander needed a wife in order to present himself as a responsible man to him big time client.

Ashely found herself thrown into the ruthless world of the mafia where love is impossible. Will she be able to fit into the world or will she run done the hills. Find out more as you read.

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.

Five years. Five years I gave everything to Paxton Sterling—my heart, my body, my wolf's soul. I built his empire as Chief Strategy Officer while wearing his mark like a badge of honor.

Then she came back.

Layla—my pure-blooded half-sister with her perfect smile and poison tongue. Within days of her return from Europe, Paxton was ready to throw me away like yesterday's news.

"I want to sever our bond, Freya. Lyra is my true mate."

Wrong move, Alpha.

He thinks I'm just another submissive mate who'll quietly disappear. He's forgotten I'm a mixed-blood Alpha who's been playing nice for far too long. While he's busy playing house with my backstabbing sister, Lucas Morgan—the most dangerous Alpha in the territory—is making me an offer I can't refuse.

Paxton wants to discard me? Fine.

But he's about to learn that some women don't just walk away—they burn everything down on their way out.

I'm done being the good girl. Done being the perfect mate. Done hiding what I really am.

In the shadows of the omega world, survival is a brutal game. But claiming an S-tier Alpha as your fated mate? That's a descent into hellfire.
Three years ago, she fled into the night, her world crumbling under two devastating revelations: He was her destined bond, and her father was the killer behind the tragedy that orphaned him. As her father melted into oblivion, she vanished too, terrified of the vengeful beast she feared he'd unleash.
Yet he was no ordinary predator. He was Elias Kingsley, the apex terror of Alphas— a ruthless billionaire empire-builder, a sovereign of shadows and savagery, wielding dominance with the ease of a predator's strike.
Now, destiny's cruel hand drags them back into the inferno.
Tucked away in a opulent hotel, she's dispatched to deliver drinks to an elite room, oblivious to the trap awaiting: a drugged Alpha in feral rut, the very nightmare she's buried for years. In his grasp, the night devours her—stripping away her virginity, her fragile illusions, her hidden truths.
Come dawn, she's a ghost once more. But Elias clings to her intoxicating scent like a curse.
This time, his runaway omega won't slip away. Not when lust entwines with retribution, forging an obsession that devours everything in its path—dark, unrelenting, and utterly inescapable.

You will serve us tonight Avyaane. First with your mouth and then with your pussy. When you're done you can descend to hell and never return!”


Avyaane, an omega with a debt–ridden father, discovers she's mated to the Quads Alphas of her pack – Chad, Logan, Killian and Blair on her nineteenth birthday

But the thing is, she can't fall in love with them, definitely not the very sets of persons who made her life a living hell at Whiston’s College. Especially her ex–boyfriend, Chad, who hates her just as much as she does for a crime she was forced into.

However, things take a drastic turn when a crisis forces Avyaan to live with all four alphas. She finds something shocking about the alpha princes. Something far beyond the princely facade each of them had on.

And when secrets and lies begin to unravel, she realizes that the very ones who tormented her may not be the monsters she thought they were. Can she trust her heart to see beyond the facade? Or let the alpha princes do that for her?

That night in the velvet shadows of the masked club, I was nothing but a body for sale.
My own brother auctioned me, and the man who bought me claimed every inch of my skin with a hunger that felt like fire. He was a nameless stranger in the dark, leaving me with nothing but bruised lips and a memory I tried to bury.

The next morning, the mask was gone.

Standing before me was Ethan Blackwell, the ruthless billionaire who ruined my family and the man I’m now forced to marry.
Now I’m trapped in his penthouse, playing the part of the perfect wife while carrying a secret that’s growing inside me.

"I came here to kill him. Now I’m the only one who can save him."

Cressida Ashcroft is the last witch alive. For eleven years, she's hidden her magic, suppressed her power, and trained for one purpose: infiltrate Blackfrost Academy and destroy the werewolf heir whose family slaughtered hers. But when a near-fatal accident puts her in the arms of Lucian Thorneval, the enemy she swore to hate becomes the only one who makes her feel alive.

One thing keeps them together; ice hockey and biking.
Bound by a forbidden magic neither of them understands, hunted by his betrothed, a princess who killed her own sister to claim him. Cressida must choose: the revenge that has kept her breathing, or the boy who is slowly dying for his family's sins.

Some bonds are written in blood. This one will be written in fire.

Two women have gone missing in two weeks: the first, found dead, was slashed and dumped in a back alley in Boston. The second was discovered by a child in a Swan Boat Ride. As fear intensifies, Hunter, the head of the FBI Behavioral Unit, calls his star criminal profiler, Tracy Wrenn, to help on the case. Even though she had plans to become engaged that evening, Tracy quickly cancels her plans and rushes to Boston to help. A beautiful, young professor of criminal psychology, Tracy has become renowned for her success at cracking cases no one else can. With her unusual insights and unique point of view, she is relentless at probing the inner minds of murderers. When a third woman goes missing, and when Tracy finds herself in danger, everything intensifies. In a shocking turn of events, Tracy finds out more not only about the killer, but about herself--and learns that nothing is what is seems.Book #2 in The Killing Game will be released soon.

After many thousands of years, the flame of war between human clans and demon clans continued to cause chaos. However, in just a few years in the future, one kingdom managed to bring harmony to these two clans. Come and go as you like but never harm. If you do, punishment awaits you.

Zeliker (Demon Prince): I wish to see the peace created like the Eskimos Kingdom.

Stiria (Human Princess/Duo?): It is not impossible. You are from the demon royalty. Maybe your presence will create the peace you seek. We are here to help you, Zeliker.

Sektar (Human King): You want to marry my daughter? Are you not afraid of the hatred from your father, the demon king?

Nekruis (Demon King): I'm going to see the princess who captured my son's heart. If she is unworthy, might as well kill her before she taints him more.

Author Warning!
This is a dark novel. Some parts may contain scenes that are unsuitable for underage such as abuse and torture.

Zephran Vespera was born into the most prestigious magical bloodline, yet his hands remain completely empty. While his younger brother is hailed as a prodigy, Zephran is branded a stagnant failure and a heavy burden on his family legacy.
What his parents and the entire wizarding world do not know is that Zephran is not weak. His magic was not lost. It was consumed.
Years ago, a desperate attempt to awaken his powers bound him to Vaelkar, an ancient and ruthless dark wizard who brought the continent to its knees centuries ago. Now, the fragmented soul of the fallen conqueror resides within Zephran, feeding off his magical core to survive.
Forced to enter the elite Aethelgard Arcanum as a pitiful mortal outcast, Zephran must endure the scorn of the magical society. But a dark pact has been made. In exchange for carrying the ancient entity past the school wards to reclaim the rest of his fractured soul, Vaelkar will teach Zephran the forgotten and forbidden arts of the void.
They thought he was a magicless failure. They were completely wrong. Zephran is about to forge a terrifying new path to power, and the entire realm will soon learn to fear the heir they once discarded.

At first, I thought I was the luckiest woman in the world, at least maybe the sacrifices I had made over the past five years would pay off.
But I was wrong. I was just a replacement for Luna, whom no one ever wanted.
I was abandoned by Alpha, my husband, on our fifth wedding anniversary, for the woman who had left him.
What hurt even more was that the child I had raised with all my heart and soul ran into the arms of her biological mother, as if I had never meant anything to his.
Rejected, discarded, and cast out-all of it destroyed me. It felt as if the whole world had rejected me.
But just when I was about to disappear, fate brought me to the beginning of a resurrection I never imagined.

Leon Sterling — the cold, calculating heir to a powerful corporate empire — doesn’t believe in love, nor does he care for marriage. In a world where everything can be measured, traded, or bought, he chooses a different path: fatherhood through science, with no strings attached.

Anna Monroe — a gentle, ordinary woman — unexpectedly becomes the surrogate chosen for Leon’s child. But beneath the layers of a sterile contract, what begins as a purely transactional relationship slowly unravels into something far more fragile… and dangerously real.

An old accident.
A handkerchief once dropped.
A forgotten memory that refuses to stay buried.

As fate tightens its grip, they find themselves caught in a game of heart and consequence — where emotions grow in the most unexpected places, and nothing goes according to plan.

When the contract ends and the lines blur, will Leon still choose solitude… or will he fight to keep Anna — not as a surrogate, but as the one woman he can’t let go?

Five years in captivity. They said Nora would be free after five years of working for the mafia king but they lied. Now Nora is forced to work permanently for the dangerous mafia king, executing dangerous cons with Noah, her only ally and her most dangerous temptation. The one man who makes her feel human again. But in a world built on lies, trust can be deadlier than betrayal.

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

1

"You good-for-nothing should get out and save your food rations. I'll use your truckload of supplies for you!"

The man-eating scarlet spores swept through the town. My good brother locked the security door tightly and locked me in the corridor filled with blood mist.

He stared intently at me through the peephole, waiting to see the horrific sight of my internal organs being drained by the fungus.

But a second before I was devoured by the spores, I hid in my personal space and with a single thought drained the last drop of water and every grain of rice from the room.

Three days later, in this impregnable "vacuum tomb".

When he was so thirsty that he swallowed blood, and knelt on the ground desperately pounding on the door.

I kicked the door open, tied him up with nylon rope, and hung him upside down in the blood-red storm outside the window.

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

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

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

And like a fool, I believed him eight times.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My daughter begged me, tears in her eyes, to take her to gymnastics camp—just the two of us.

I thought it was her way of proving she loved me.

I was wrong.

In that hotel room in Toronto, I overheard my husband's voice—with another woman.

“Don't worry, Sophia will find a way to stay a few more days. I promised her that blue limited-edition leotard.”

“Her body now… after giving birth, it's ruined.”

In that moment, my world collapsed.

I thought I'd only been betrayed by my husband.
But the daughter I raised with everything I had—she was his accomplice.

The child I nurtured with my own hands kept clearing the path: so that woman could sleep in my bed, wear the lingerie I could no longer fit into, sneer in front of the mirror at every single mark my body earned from bringing life into this world.

I once believed that giving up my career would be enough to hold my family together.

But they joined hands to tell me: my sacrifice was never honored. It was a joke.

When a woman who has given everything to her family finally wakes up—

Her revenge will make every single one of them remember exactly what they did.

To help his life-saving benefactor, he personally pressed a pregnant me on the operating table to draw bone marrow.
I cried and begged him, "James, I'm pregnant. It's your child. Don't do this to me..."
But he had a look of disgust in his eyes. "Elizabeth, you'd lie about something like that just to get out of helping Mandy?"
Until there was a river of blood in the operating room and that unformed child turned into a pool of bloody water, he finally panicked.
Later, when he knew that the person who saved him in the fire ten years ago was actually me, he held my ashes and knelt outside the operating room for a full three days.

For the third time, Kael fled before the wedding—this time to deliver medicine to the neighbor girl he grew up with.
As compensation, the pack elders offered me two chests of rare ore and the deed to an island.
Someone, still hopeful, called Kael on speakerphone.
His careless voice echoed through the hall:
“Why bother with compensation? Ella loves me so much; she’ll come around as soon as I go back and sweet-talk her a little.”
“Sophia’s health is what matters now. Once she recovers, I’ll just hold another ceremony for Ella.”
The elders tried to explain, but the surrounding werewolves were all waiting to see the show—waiting to see how much humiliation I would swallow.
Just like the first two times.
But I’d had enough. And I’d lost all interest in Kael.
I kicked over the chest of ore and let my gaze fall on Kael’s uncle.
Then, I smiled.
“I heard the old Alpha left a will: whoever can claim me… becomes the next Alpha.”

If there is one person Josie hates more than her aunt Beth, it's Richard Kingston. The boy who tortured her growing up. But she thought she'd seen the last of him years ago. So, why the hell is he showing up now to ruin her life? Why is he demanding she marry him, when she was planning on marrying her boyfriend James? And why does it seem like he's keeping secrets she doesn't want to unlock?

EXCERPT:

"Rayne stood looking at her reflection in the mirror. Her a pale green ballgown clung to her curves and left little to the imagination. Her jet-black curls are swept up and pinned to her head, leaving her neck exposed. Tonight was the night that most of the unmated wolves in all the North American packs would hopefully find their mates. She was sure all of them were just oozing with excitement.

She was not.

She didn’t want a mate. She didn’t need a mate...."

“...but the sudden scent of jasmine and vanilla hit her nose from somewhere close. That meant only one thing. Her mate was near..."


Rayne met her mate at the Moonlight Ball when she was eighteen, her mate that she never wanted to find, that she never wanted in her life. He showed up out of nowhere. His actions that night unknowingly set her free. She took the freedom he gave her, ran away, and never once looked back.

Now five years later he shows back up in her life after rejecting her five years ago, demanding that she take up her rightful place by his side. He walked away from her after calling her weak. No way was she going to just let him back into her life as if he belonged there. Rayne never wanted a mate, would he being here now change that? Her body and soul beg for him to claim her, yet her heart belongs to another.

Can her mate convince her to give him a chance? Will her lover convince her to stay with him? The Moon Goddess paired her with someone not of her choice, all Rayne has ever wanted was the chance to choose for herself. Who will win? Rayne or the fate that the moon set for her?

For mature readers 18+
Warning for abusive past trauma
Her Returned Mate is Book 1 in the Gathering Shadows Series. Book 2 His Redemption is also available for reading now on Anystories.

"You want a divorce?" His voice was ice, sending a chill down her spine. "You'll never get it."
For three years, Bellatrix devoted herself to Cillian Laurent—Miami’s ruthless tycoon and her indifferent husband—hoping to earn his love. But when she’s diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, she realizes the bitter truth: she was never his choice. Just a placeholder for the woman who abandoned him… and has now returned.
Determined to reclaim her life, Bellatrix demands a divorce. But the man who once ignored her now refuses to let her go. As buried secrets unravel, she discovers their twisted marriage was never what it seemed.
Can she break free from a love that was never hers?
Or will his obsession destroy them both?

In my past life, my twin Phaedra and I were both married off to the Dragon Clan on the same day.
I was given to the eldest son Magnus, while she went to the second son Drakon.
A year later, Phaedra gave birth to a small white dragon with scales like fresh snow. Meanwhile, I delivered nine children—all of them deformed monsters, bearing not a trace of dragon lineage.
Dragon King Typhon, a tyrant obsessed with bloodline purity and beauty, immediately stripped his eldest son of the inheritance rights and decided to pass the throne to his second son, Drakon.
Consumed by rage and humiliation, my husband Magnus descended into madness.
He ordered my nine children dragged into the Shadow Abyss and thrown into boiling blood pools as sacrificial offerings. Then he bound me tightly to the frozen altar pillar.
As the crimson winds howled from the blood pool, he mercilessly cut open my chest and carved out my nine-tailed heart while I was still breathing. I drew my last breath drowning in endless despair and blood.
When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back in the Dragon Clan's towering hall—at the mate selection ceremony that had sealed our fates.
In my daze, Magnus walked straight past me. His eyes brimmed with disgust as he unhesitatingly reached for Phaedra's hand instead. The same woman who had birthed that perfect white dragon in my past life.
But the fool had no idea my children's deformities had nothing to do with me—they came from his own cursed, rotting bloodline.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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