267 Book(s) Related to New Year Surprises

Five years after breaking the mate bond, Vincent became one of the youngest Alphas of the North, worth hundreds of billions, with a fiancée who was a perfect match for him — the daughter of Silver Claw Pack’s Alpha.
But I had already disappeared from his world, my name now only whispered in rumors about me being a bar hostess at Midnight Howl Bar, catering to Alphas and nobility.
When someone mentioned my name to him, he simply held his fiancée’s hand with a cold look in his eyes.
"I don't know her."
At his bonding ceremony, everyone congratulated the "perfect match."
But I, floating in the air, watched as Vincent stood beside his dazzling Luna.
What he didn't know...
He was the only Alpha I ever loved.
What he didn’t know...
I had been dead for a year.
Before I died, I was desperately earning money just to get our daughter the treatment she needed.
Then one day...
He found me at the Midnight Howl Bar where I worked in life, catching a faint but familiar scent of me. That moment...
His wolf spirit completely lost control.

A supportive brother gets to live a new life as one of the main characters in a Boy Love Game as “Gilbert Bedivere,” the son of a duke, who was his family’s pride.

His goal for this life is that he will have a slow living lifestyle, staying far away from problems.

But who would have known that getting too close to the main characters, who are his friends and his younger brother, would lead him away from the goal he has set!

Who are those main characters surrounding him…?

Hareve Lancelot… a white-haired boy with rainbow eyes who makes all the girls go crazy, as expected of the owner of the famous SM route and the user of the light magic. Even though he looks cold on the outside, who would have known he is super hot-tempered!

Nigel Gawain… an adorable-looking boy with silver eyes, the owner of the 3P route, but who would have known that he is just a fluffy boy!

Cass Bedivere… the protagonist of the game, with his golden eyes and hair, appears in the immoral love route. Even though he was born with dark magic, who would have known that he also has interesting relationships with other characters.

Not to mention many other characters that Gilbert has never met,

He now feels the problems lining up for him!

My perfect husband built a thick soundproof wall in our new house, strictly forbidding me from touching it. When he left, I took a hammer to the drywall. Hidden inside the dark void was a bloodstained engagement ring belonging to a missing woman. Am I sleeping next to a killer?

"Your husband is cheating on you."
That one message shattered Mia's perfect life.
Her loving husband? A liar.
His sweet words and late nights? Cover-ups for a double betrayal.
The worst part? One of them is engaged—to another man.
Determined to uncover the truth, Mia teams up with Colin—the heartbroken fiancé of her husband's mistress. What starts as a cold alliance soon turns into something more, as they unravel betrayal, lies, and twisted desires.
Now, with cameras rolling, secrets exposed, and hearts breaking, Mia must choose: walk away with dignity… or fight fire with fire.
When love is lost and revenge tastes sweet—
What do you do when you catch them cheating?

I’m Leona, and I’ve hidden a forbidden love under the moonlight of the werewolf world for nine long years—an unspoken bond with my brother’s closest friend, Alpha Nick.
When he looked at me and said, “I’ll find someone better for you,” there was a flicker in his eyes I couldn’t read. But when he turned away, it was to chase after his ex-girlfriend, Selene, crashing through the forest branches like gravity itself answered her call. “His wolf never resonated with ours.” Aris, my wolf, howled inside me.“You’ve spent years trying to spark fire in frozen stone.”
And yet, I was the fool who mistook the instinct for fated love.
In my past life, when I was seven months pregnant and trapped beneath an avalanche during a winter patrol, he was tucked in a border cave listening to Selene sing ballads under moonlit stalactites.
When I was curled in pain from stomach ulcers, he was busy tuning her purification crystals.
Even when I was shoved into the river by Selene, it wasn’t my drowning body he s

"You're pregnant?"
"Yes... ours."
"How dare you step into this house with that child? You've disgraced me. Don't stand there and pretend that bastard is mine."
Four years of loyalty. Four years of trust. Four years believing a marriage built on paper could turn into love. He repaid her with lies, betrayal, and cruelty so complete it destroyed her world. Her child, her husband, her family, and even her reputation were taken from her.
"Marry me."
"You think marrying you will fix this?"
"I think marrying me will give you the power to take it all back, everything they stole."
Betrayed and broken, Claire hits rock bottom. When Julian saves her from a near-fatal accident, he offers a shocking proposal. She is to marry him not for love but to join forces in taking down her ex husband and the family that betrayed them both. With a new identity, a shocking public appearance, and a carefully plotted comeback, Claire begins reclaiming everything she lost, including her life and her dreams. Along the way, she discovers the warmth beneath Julian's cold exterior and a love that grows from trust and shared pain.
She is not broken. She is awakened. When she comes back, it will not be with tears or pleas. It will be to reclaim everything. Can revenge heal a heart betrayed so completely, or will the past consume her before she can rise?

My fiancé's "innocent" sister posted a photo wearing the sheer lingerie I bought for him, standing in the master bedroom of my new house. The caption read: "Finally have a place to take shelter. Thanks Lucas for the security." In the corner of her photo, my carefully chosen wedding portrait was thrown face-down on the hardwood floor.

I didn't scream or cry. I just quietly took a screenshot and dialed the number of my billionaire boss. "Mr. Allen, I'll take that overseas transfer." Since Lucas wanted to give another woman a home, I didn't want this wedding anymore.

The next day, I went to our new house. The passcode had been changed to her birthday. When I finally got in, she was sprawling on my leather sofa, demanding I leave because Lucas "owned half." I laughed, throwing the property deed right in her pale face. "Look closely at the name. You have ten minutes to pack your trash and get out, or I'm calling the cops for trespassing."

She ran away crying. I called a cleaning crew and threw out the bed, the sofa, and every single thing they had touched. Because you don't keep dead things, and in my heart, this eight-year relationship was already rotting in the grave. Will Lucas realize what he lost before it's too late?

On our sixth wedding anniversary, my husband Jonathan brought his dead ex-girlfriend's sister into our home — despite my objections.

"Beatrice, are you even human? You can't even show compassion to a dying woman! How could someone so cold-hearted be a role model for Oliver!"

My son — the boy I'd raised for six years — swung his little fists at me and screamed: "Beatrice! If you don't let Isadora stay, I'll never speak to you again!"

That was the moment my heart turned to stone.

I signed the divorce papers and walked straight back into the courtroom — clawing my way back to the top.

Then they discovered her lies. Every. Single. One.

Jonathan fell to his knees before me, eyes red and brimming with tears: "Beatrice, do six years of marriage mean nothing to you anymore?"

My son clung to my legs, sobbing: "Mommy! Mommy, don't go! I know I was wrong! Mommy—"

I looked down at them. I felt nothing.

"Now take your mistress and your son — and get out of my life."

I turned and walked away without looking back.

I spent six years working with the dead, earning money to save my son—enduring the stench and loneliness, clinging to hope.
I trusted my family, my husband, my parents, but they turned their backs on me.
They hated the smell of death on me, lied to me, and used my sacrifice for a fake sister.
All my efforts were for nothing; the hope I clung to was just a lie.
I walked away, broken and empty, while they panicked at my absence.
The pain is real, the betrayal is real—and there’s no going back.
But my family, my husband, my own son, even my parents, turned their backs on me.

Seven years ago, my father, the Wolf King, listened to the slander of his new lover and personally brought a bowl of abortion poison to my mother.

My mother fought desperately to turn her head away in resistance, but he forced it down her throat anyway.

In her absolute despair, she let out a harrowing scream, vowing she would never see him again in this lifetime!

Since then, the soul bond between my parents was completely severed.

My father, however, brushed it off, dead certain that my mother was "blocking the bond" to throw a temper tantrum.

Until today, when the vampire army massed at our borders, specifically demanding a royal blood slave.

To protect his new lover's daughter, my father seized me to take her place.

He set fire to my mother's beloved sea of moonflowers, pointing at the soaring flames and roaring: "If you come out and beg me, I'll spare Aria's life!"

But even as the inferno reduced half the courtyard to ashes, the space behind that tightly shut door remained in a state of dead silence.

He didn't know—

The severed bond wasn't a tantrum.

Because of that bowl of poison seven years ago, my mother had drawn her last breath that very night.

Our engagement has gone unfulfilled for ten years.

My parents saved his family in that yacht accident. With their dying breath, they asked his family to look after me. In return, we go to city hall every year, trying to fulfill this obligation.

Ten attempts. Ten failures.

Elevator malfunctions, food poisoning, home invasions, car crashes... Every single time, I get hurt at the worst possible moment while he walks away without a scratch.

This makes ten. A truck slams into the passenger side, my head smashes against the window, and he's already running across the street, pulling that woman into his arms.

On my way to find him after they stitch me up, I hear his assistant's voice in the hospital corridor:

"Mr. Ashford, the truck driver's been taken care of. Money'll hit his account like we agreed... but is this really fair to Miss Bennett? It's been ten years, every single year—"

William's voice comes out low and tired. "I don't have a choice. Her parents saved me, but I'm in love with Emma."

I look down at the diagnosis. ALS. Late stage.

Turns out I've been trying to marry a lie this whole time.

I spent two years quietly building something I thought was worth building.
Full recovery support after birth, someone checking in on meals, leave approved the moment you asked for it. I worked out a deal with the best facility in the city and covered the difference myself, out of my own account. Not a cent of company money.
I did it because I'd watched a good employee disappear from the company the year she got pregnant. No announcement. Her desk just cleared out one day.
Then one of them posted about it.
She called it surveillance. A golden cage. The comment section called me a predator. By morning it was trending.
Here's what none of them knew: not a single dollar of that program belonged to the company.
So I listened to what they wanted and gave them exactly that.
I shut the whole thing down.

After losing control due to alcohol, I slept with the guy next door.
He was an incredibly responsible man. When he sobered up, he proposed to me.
Later, I found out that the woman he loved most had gone abroad that night.
So, I hid my deep love for him and played the role of a perfect, obedient wife in the wealthy family.
In countless quiet nights, we were in perfect sync, yet we kept our distance, never crossing boundaries.
My friends all said I could never leave him. I thought so too.
Until one day, I found his second phone.

I loved Julian for ten years, carving every sweat-stained day into my love for him.
He once said I shined brighter than any gold medal.
Yet in five short minutes, he handed my dream, my glory, and my whole world to a scheming transfer girl.
Betrayed, discarded, and broken on the fencing strip, I lost my first love and everything I fought for.
Until the retired cold Olympic champion stepped out of the dark midnight shadows.
He offered me hellish training and a sharp blade of revenge.
I buried my soft heart, handed over my soul, and vowed to make every traitor pay.

I gave birth to three children for my ruthless mafia husband. And every single time, he tore the newborns from my blood-soaked sheets and handed them straight to my barren sister.
For seven years, I endured electroshock therapy and brutal captivity, reduced to nothing but a breeding vessel to complete their "picture-perfect" family.
He thought he had broken my spirit long ago. That’s why, when the assassins struck, he didn't hesitate to shove me into the line of fire as a human shield.
To protect his true love, he threw my bleeding, wounded body into a freezing water cell as their perfect scapegoat.
He thought tossing me a few scraps of mercy would have me crawling back to him, begging like a dog.
But he was dead wrong.
When the bone-chilling water swallowed me, I didn't panic or thrash. I simply smiled, letting the black depths drag me under.
Domenico could never have imagined that the cold, lifeless corpse he personally sent to the morgue was my perfect escape, seven agonizing years in the making.
He stole my babies. He stripped away every last ounce of my dignity.
So now, I’m going to take away everything he holds dear, piece by agonizing piece: his empire, his power, and the love he arrogantly thought he could control forever.

I once thought I’d married the perfect husband, Kael, pouring all my heart and soul into trying to have a baby—until the birth certificate and adoption agreement in the study safe shattered every beautiful lie.
He and my dearest friend, Celeste, had long ago secretly had an illegitimate child,
and even plotted to trick me into being his foster mother, keeping me in the dark for the rest of my life.
What was even crueler was that on the very day I uncovered the truth, the doctor gave me the news—I was pregnant.
Once I faced the harsh truth, I resolutely faked a shipwreck to flee, going into hiding with my unborn child and leaving my old life behind.
He searched the entire world to find me, casting aside all his pride to beg for my forgiveness with a humble heart—but he could never win me back, not ever.

She saved his life. Now he’ll stop at nothing to claim hers.

Isla Monroe never expected to become entangled with the most feared man in Valmont City. As a struggling medical student haunted by her past, she only wanted to help when she saw a man drowning in a frozen lake. But the moment she pulled him from the icy depths, her fate was sealed.

That man was Lorenzo De Luca—billionaire, mafia boss, and a man who had given up on life. When he wakes in Isla’s tiny apartment, his first instinct is suspicion, not gratitude. In his world, kindness is a weakness, and trust is a death sentence. But Isla isn’t afraid of him, and that makes her dangerous.

Lorenzo disappears, but Isla isn’t free of him. A year later, he storms back into her life—not to thank her, but to claim her. His enemies have learned about the woman who saved him, and now she’s a target. The only way to keep her safe is to pull her into his dangerous world.

Saving him was just the beginning. Loving him might be her downfall.

Born to lead but denied her rightful place, the daughter of a slain Alpha is betrayed in the most brutal way. Stripped of her title because she bears the spirit of a Luna instead of an Alpha, she’s forced to watch her lover rise as Alpha—only to publicly humiliate and reject her, accusing her of treason in front of the entire pack and a council of visiting Alphas.

When hope flickers in the form of a second chance mate—a feared Alpha known for his cold heart—her world is shattered yet again by another cruel rejection. The pain is too much; her wolf vanishes, her soul breaks, and her life hangs by a thread.

Just when the executioner raises his weapon, the unexpected happens. The ruthless Alpha who had turned his back returns with chilling words: “Let her live. Death is too kind. She will suffer.”

Months pass, and what was once discarded becomes the object of desire. Now, Alphas wage war for the broken Luna they once overlooked. With her wolf gone and heart frozen, can she ever heal? Will the Moon Goddess grant her strength again—or love?

Dive into this gripping tale of betrayal, pain, power, and redemption.

After the cruel rejection Rosie receives from Austin, her mate. She attempts to run away from him but mistakenly taken as a escort and forces against her will to attend to some nasty hunger werewolves.

Unfortunately for her, her first and only client turns out to be the soon to be ruthless Alpha of the Red moon pack, Damian Stewart.

After the steamy night, she manages to escape the grip of her abductors and a few days later she realizes she is pregnant and doesn't know who is responsible because that night she slept with two men, Damian and Austin.

Ashamed by the judgmental eyes, Rosie fled from her pack to raise her children in a healthy environment.

About that time, Damien has risen up becoming the Alpha of the Pack who is feared and respected having Austin on his side as his beta. He is in search of the woman he had had a night with years back. But what happens when fate brings them back together, at this time, the one who once rejected her also needs her back, and the who she thought was her friend is falling in love with her.

On the day she’s meant to marry the man she’s loved for years, Liora Reynolds’ world is ripped apart when a powerful stranger storms the ceremony and claims her as his bride.

Nikolai Volkov is ruthless, untouchable, and used to owning whatever he wants—and now, that includes Liora. Forced into a marriage she never agreed to, she’s determined to hate him, to fight him, even as the walls around her life begin to close in.

But nothing is as it seems.

The man she thought was her forever isn’t the person she believed. The one she’s been told is her enemy might be the only one who can protect her. And as dangerous truths unravel, Liora finds herself trapped between two men, two worlds, and a choice that could cost her everything.


"You should go rest," he says, eyes glinting with mischief.

"R.. rest?" I stutter.

"Yes little bride," he drawls, smiling. "You're going to need it."

"Wh.. what do you mean?"

"By night, we consummate our wedding."

The words slam into me like a physical blow. My throat closes, and I instinctively step back, but his hand shoots out, catching my chin between his fingers.

"Don’t look so pale," he murmurs, tilting my face up to his. "You’re my wife. It’s only natural."

"I.." My voice trembles. "You wouldn’t.."

"Oh, I would," his tone softens in the most chilling way. "And I will. You made your choice, Liora. Now you live with it."

My heart hammers so violently I think it might burst.

I saved my father.

But I think I’ve just sold myself to the devil.

When Sarah is forced to accept a marriage proposal in place of her half sister, Veronica, she never imagined the man would be Edward Huxley.
Edward Huxley, the formidable owner of Huxley Airline and Shipping Company and the most eligible billionaire bachelor in the country, is shocked and enraged when he discovers that the woman in his bed is not Veronica, as he expected, but the unknown and seemingly bland illegitimate Maxwell daughter. Their encounter ends in an unplanned one night stand.
When Veronica learns of Edward's true identity, she decides she wants him for herself. Together with her mother, she accuses and humiliates Sarah.
Heartbroken and shattered, Sarah leaves the country. Four years later, she returns as a different woman with a successful career and her adorable twins, who share the unmistakable features of the country's billionaire heartthrob, Edward Huxley.
Edward is stunned by her transformation and finds himself falling for her all over again. Determined to win her heart, he sets out to rebuild their family. But will he succeed, or is he already too late with the enigmatic Benicio always by Sarah's side, his eyes filled with love and devotion?

"If I were pregnant... what would you do?"
Jasper Finn didn't hesitate.
"Get rid of it."
On their third wedding anniversary, Quinn Ledger received two gifts from her husband. A divorce agreement and the woman carrying his child.
The other woman was her stepsister.
For three years, Quinn endured humiliation, betrayal, and endless accusations of being barren from the Finn family. She loved Jasper with everything she had, yet he never chose her.
So this time, she stopped fighting.
She signed the papers, walked away, and took her secret with her.
What Jasper never knew was that Quinn had been hiding something powerful enough to destroy everything he valued. The truth about the child he believed she could never give him.
Then Morrison Drax returned.
The ruthless billionaire who had loved Quinn long before Jasper ever noticed her.
While Jasper desperately tries to win back the wife he threw away, Morrison is already by her side, protecting her, spoiling her, and claiming the future Jasper lost with his own hands.
Now Jasper wants a second chance.
But the woman who once loved him blindly is gone.
And this time, she belongs to the man who never let her go.

When Italy's Most Dreaded Capo discovers his true identity, the world is thrown into disarray. A bloody war erupts between werewolves and the Mob.

The dice has been cast, and the Capo must decide whose family he actually belongs to.

The werewolf clan (where he was once a Beta) or the Mob clan (where he is now a Capo)? Is he his Alpha or his Don? His Mate or His Moll? His past life or the one he has grown to love?

It's a conundrum with no way out without spilling a lot of blood and losing loved ones.


Ryder's eyes were partially closed as he held a pistol to his head. That was the end of it. He's probably finished. He was not afraid of death. But this was a particularly painful time since it was his Beta who was holding the pistol to his head. Jason, who used to be his wingman, was now going to be his assassinator.

"Do it," Don Carianno urged, irritated by his tardiness.

Jason pressed the gun's point harder on Ryder's temples, but his fingers wavered around the trigger. He couldn't pull it off.

"Remember what we've gone through, man. Jason, you and I have a long history. You're not going to be able to accomplish it. You can't get rid of your Alpha..."


This is the second book of ONCE ABUSED, NOW LOVED. Although it may be read as a stand-alone, it is highly recommended that you first read the first book to have a better grasp of this one.

BOOK 1 - ONCE ABUSED, NOW LOVED.
BOOK 2: ONCE A BETA, NOW A MAFIA.

Even if he hated me, I couldn’t look away from him. Even if he called me an imposter, a trickster, all I could think of was how alluring his scent was. Even when he was ready to take my sister’s words over mine, I couldn’t help falling for him.
I wanted him to take me in his arms and tell me that the last few weeks had been a dream after all. That he loved me, as a true mate would. I wanted him to be my Prince Charming. To be my salvation.
But that was not my fate. Goddess forbid if I had anything easy in life!
Sometimes, I truly believed that this mate bond was a curse. Not my being the Stealer.


Callista Leander turned eighteen with hopes of finding her happily ever after. But instead, she was left locked in a tower of a castle, doomed to be married off to her true mate’s feral brother to save him from certain death.

All because of one curse and a conniving sister. Her life was suddenly filled with betrayals and secrets, and in every corner she looked, danger lurked. Now, with the whole world against her. At the mercy of an angry king, her oblivious one true mate, will she make it out alive on the other side?

My target should be terrified of me.
Instead, he's smirking like he already knows I'll never pull the trigger.
My heart races in my chest. This isn't me.
I am born to kill. I am born to take orders.
Yet those eyes, they're killing me.

She was born into power.
Now she chooses revenge.

Valentina Santangelo doesn’t belong in the shadows.
She was raised in them.

Daughter of a legacy built on blood, secrets, and ruthless control, Valentina has spent her life watching empires rise… and enemies fall. She knows the rules of this world. She knows how to survive it.

What she didn’t expect…
was to become its most dangerous player.

When betrayal rips through her family and threatens everything her father built, Valentina is done standing on the side-lines. She steps into the game—cold, calculated, and ready to make them pay.

But revenge has a price.

And the man standing in her way?
He’s not just her enemy…
He’s the one man who sees through every wall she’s built.

Dark. Dangerous. Impossible to resist.

As loyalty turns to obsession and desire collides with vengeance, Valentina must decide how far she’s willing to go—
and whether love is worth the risk of losing everything.

Because in her world…
you don’t fall in love.

You survive it.

I died in a rainy day. For twenty-eight years, I clung desperately to my adoptive family, craving nothing but warmth and a home. Yet all my devotion was nothing but a joke.
Everyone in the household loathed me, quick to side with my adoptive sister Isabelle over every lie she spun. I gave my whole heart to my fiancé Damien Sterling, believing he would be my salvation. But when the truth surfaced, he looked at me like I was filth beneath his shoes, his face twisted with contempt.
“You were never more than a distraction,” he snarled. “Isabelle is the only one I love. Can’t you see how tainted you are?”
Those words shattered me more than any injury. Abandoned by everyone I cared about, I had nowhere left to turn before they arranged my death.
But somehow, I’m twenty-two again—returned to that fateful year before all my nightmares unfolded.This time, I’ll burn down everyone who destroyed me.

"We're done, Arthur."

That was how I ended a ten-year relationship with my childhood sweetheart.

He didn't take it seriously. He just smirked and asked, "How many days is this tantrum going to last? Three? A week?"

Then, his phone lit up. It was her—the helpless scholarship student he had been protecting.

"I'm on my way," he promised her softly, turning his back on me without a second thought.

He walked away, assuming I would always be his safety net.

What he didn't realize was that my answer was forever.

Ten years of being his fool, and I was finally cutting the cord.

When my CEO husband threatens divorce for the 99th time, this time trying to force me to hand over a million-dollar project to his assistant Chloe, I finally stop fighting.
I give him the project without a word.
He's thrilled. Thinks I've finally accepted my place. To reward me, he announces we'll throw a grand celebration for our fifth wedding anniversary.
Chloe finds out and falls apart. Locks herself in the supply closet. Can't bear the thought of watching us celebrate five years of marriage.
Arthur panics. Suddenly the anniversary party becomes a "client dinner" he can't reschedule. He'll take Chloe instead—she's been handling that account, after all.
"You understand how business works," he tells me. "We can celebrate privately later."
I see the photo she posts: Chloe in the restaurant he booked for us, wearing the dress he picked out, his hand covering hers across the table.
I tell him I understand.
He's satisfied. Promises we'll do something even better next month.
He doesn't know I've resigned. Doesn't know he signed the divorce papers three days ago when I slipped them into his contract stack.
We don't have a next month.

To everyone in town, I was just a sixty-five-year-old retired man.
I lived in an old house, drove an old car, and showed up at the same diner every night to eat the cheapest meal on the menu in my usual corner.

Then one night, the waitress who always refilled my coffee sat across from me after closing, eyes red, and told me her boyfriend had disappeared.
People were watching her, pressuring her to hand over a “ledger” she had never even seen.

I wanted no part of it.
I had left that kind of life behind a long time ago, and I had sworn never to use my hands for anyone again.

But the next day, she didn’t show up for work.
Her phone was dead. She was gone.

I went into their territory alone.
They thought they were dealing with nothing more than a nosy old man.
By the time I started moving, they realized they had picked the wrong target.

Fourteen years ago, Isabella Winston died.

At least, that's what everyone believed.

One moment, she was trapped inside a sinking car beneath the icy waters of the Hudson River. The next, she woke up in her own bathtub and somehow fourteen years in the future.

Her husband is no longer the warm, easygoing man she remembers.

Her five-year-old son is now a nineteen-year-old stranger who looks at her with suspicion.

Her twins barely remember the mother they lost—one forever chasing affection, the other keeping the entire world at arm's length.

And the family she left behind has become something broken, distant, and unrecognizable.

Now Isabella faces an impossible challenge: rebuilding a family that never truly recovered from losing her.

Fourteen years have left scars on everyone.

Unfortunately for those causing the damage, Isabella Winston has returned to set things right.

“You don’t love me, do you?” Luke whispered, pinning my wrists above my head.

His body pressed mine into the bed, hot, heavy, inescapable. His mouth brushed my ear, gentle enough to feel like a kiss, cruel enough to feel like punishment.

“It’s okay,” he murmured.“Your body is mine.”

I left Luke Morrison unconscious in an ICU eight years ago and rebuilt myself in London—elite auctioneer, an ocean between me and the past.

Then my brother's condition crashed. I'm back in Pennsylvania, standing behind an auction podium at his company's charity gala.

A little boy runs through the crowd and wraps his arms around me: "Mama, you came back."

"Daddy shows me pictures every day," Asher says.

Every. Single. Day. How long has this been going on?

Luke's watching with ice-cold eyes. The bullied boy I left behind? Gone. Replaced by a tech billionaire who makes predators look soft.

"Get in," he says. Not a request.

Then he takes me back to his home.

His penthouse is frozen in time—the art I chose, the books I organized. Our past preserved like he's been waiting.

"You owe me eight years, Mia," he says, showing me the scar. "The girl who watched them destroy me and did nothing. This time, you don't run."

When he fucks me, it's worship and punishment. Making me pay for every day I was gone.

"I've waited eight years for this. Every breath you take belongs to me."

He's not just possessive. He's broken. And Asher is the perfect weapon to keep me trapped.

He made sure he protected her, till she got on her feet again.

When the Whites went bankrupt, Katherine was "sold" by her ex to tycoon Alexander for $1M. He trapped her, took her nightly but ignored her, clung to his childhood sweetheart, and spied on her — until a study diary revealed his 12-year unspoken love behind the cold control.

On the third day of the apocalypse, I was bitten by a zombie while saving a child and was abandoned outside the camp by everyone, left to die.

Three years later, I became the legendary "Masked Monster," secretly protecting those who had betrayed me.

They nailed me to a cross, preparing for a public execution.

Until the Corpse King invaded.

I tore through my chains and charged into certain death, all to protect a girl who still remembered my name.

She raised her gun with tears streaming down her face, aiming at my head.

I spent three years as a "useless son-in-law," humiliated in public by my wife, all to repay a debt of life-saving gratitude.
That night, she handed me a cup of poisoned wine, smiling as she told me to "disappear from this world."
But she didn't know that the wine served to terminate our contract of protection—and unchained my shackles completely.
When the fighter jets of the Northern Command cast their shadows over the entire estate, she finally knelt in the mud, crying out for "Adrian."
But this time, I will not look back.

He married me because I look like her.
For three years, I played the role. I cooked his meals. I warmed his bed. I smiled when he forgot my birthday. I stayed quiet when he left in the middle of the night to hold her hand.
I told myself it was enough. I told myself I didn't need his love.
Then I got pregnant.
He said he hated children. So I didn't tell him. I was going to keep it. Our baby. The only thing that was truly mine.
But my body had other plans.
When I called him from the hospital floor, bleeding out, begging for help—he didn't come. He said I was lying. He was too busy with her.
That night, I lost everything.
The baby. The hope. The lie I'd been living.
Now he's calling me. Again and again.
But the substitute wife? She's not picking up.

No tears. No scene. Just one thing —
A divorce agreement on the dining table, and she walked out the door.
Under Reason for Divorce, she wrote: Husband's sexual dysfunction.
For the first time, Fu Yuting's cold composure cracked. He tore the papers apart.
She just smiled. "That's fine. I made copies."
Three years she loved him. Three years he hurt her.
The moment she finally let go — he realized the woman who had lived for him would never look back.

After her mother’s funeral, Lena Ward returns to a small town and a house built on silence: a sealed sunroom, a will that forbids witnesses, and a sister blamed on a storm fifteen years ago. As buried records, sedatives, and a hidden trust fracture the family’s righteous facade, a chilling truth begins to surface beneath concrete and grief. Dark, tense, and emotionally sharp, this is a cold-case family thriller of rain-soaked memory, courtroom reckoning, and a child’s toy waiting under the floor.

Three years ago, I saved the life of Alessandro Gambino, New York's most powerful mafia boss.

He fell in love with me, a bartender.

His family was dead set against us, but his love won out. We got married.

After we married, he disappeared every month for "punishment day," claiming his family beat him with sixty-six lashes for breaking their rules by staying with me. Watching him suffer tore me apart.

Actully, I'm Sloane Lucchese, sole heir to the largest arms empire on the East Coast, hiding from a family war. I decided to reclaim my family name as soon as possible, so his family would finally accept me.

Finally, on our fifth wedding anniversary, I found out I was pregnant, and my father called to say they'd announce my return in two weeks.

I was going to tell Alessandro everything that night, both pieces of good news.

But that same day, I stumbled onto a secret—one that would destroy me completely.

For fifty years, I bathed in blood for my world, only to return home to find my wife dead and my daughter about to be sacrificed.
The High Priest stepped on my daughter’s head, branding me a traitor, and declared he would burn her to ashes. Scarred, broken, and with my magic depleted, I was bound to the pyre alongside her. Tens of thousands cursed us from below as the flames engulfed the stage.
Weeping, my daughter asked me, "Daddy, are you really a hero?"
I crushed the pendant on my chest.
Dragons, Dwarves, Berserkers—the million-strong allied army I had united over those fifty years descended across dimensions.
The High Priest slumped to the ground, trembling uncontrollably. "Who... who exactly are you?"
Staring into his eyes, I said only one thing:
"Dragons have reverse scales; touch them, and you die. You crossed the line!"

I was once the "Abyss Sovereign" who made the entire dark world tremble.

To protect her, I willingly buried my true name and spent five years as a humble mechanic in a wealthy family.

I swallowed countless cold stares and humiliations, seeking only a moment of peace.

But these fools, for the sake of family interests, dared to push her to the brink of destruction!

Since retreat only invites further aggression, I have no choice but to don once more that blood-stained crown.

When my steel torrent crashed through the manor gates, those privileged elites who once trampled me underfoot could only tremble desperately in the mud!

Ten years ago, my parents worked for the Bellamys. He was their driver. She ran the house.

Then came the crash. I watched them shove Nash Bellamy out of the wreck, and it killed them both.

That's where the claustrophobia came from.

He knew. He knew all of it.

Then at homecoming, I showed up in a dress that matched Camilla's. She was the girl he'd always wanted. So he shoved me into the abandoned supply closet backstage.

The lock turned. On the other side of the door, he and Camilla were laughing like it was nothing.

"I'm pretty sure she's claustrophobic."

"Two hours in there. She'll learn."

I clawed at my own hands until they bled, couldn't get any air, and ended up wetting myself in a closet a dog wouldn't sleep in.

When the door finally opened, he pinched his nose and laughed and said I was disgusting.

I pushed myself up the wall, inch by inch, and looked at the face I'd been looking at for ten years. And I didn't want to cry anymore. Not even a little.

"Nash. I'm done chasing you."

When the earthquake struck, my fated mate—Alpha Cassian—instinctively shielded me with his body, taking the full impact and breaking nearly every bone.
In the hospital room, the girl next door sighed enviously. "Luna Yolanda,Alpha Cassian risked his life to save you. He really loves you."
I forced a smile. "Yes."
But just last night, after I had fallen asleep, he slipped into the bathroom and spoke in a gentle voice, comforting his eighteen-year-old mistress—Rosalind Graves.
"I'm fine, don’t cry, be good."
"As long as I think of you, I'm not afraid of anything."
Cassian and I grew up together. From first love to now, it has been ten years.
We are the Blue Moon Pack’s model mates—admired by all.
No one knows he has a secret lover.
A girl who looks just like me when I was eighteen.

Karen had invested her last penny in the business she had recently established and was eagerly awaiting the promised funds from her benefactor to take it to the next level.
"Maybe he forgot. I should remind him," she thought, and promptly sent a text message: ‘I hate to sound desperate, but my finances are tight.’
After sending the message, she realized she had used the wrong number. She quickly started typing, ‘Please ignore the...’ when an alert popped up on her phone: ‘Five billion dollars transferred to you by Roger Dawson.’
Roger? The first name sent a chill down her spine, but the last name left her puzzled. "Roger? Could it be Tonia's bodyguard?" That was his number, but when did his name change?
Her phone rang immediately, and the name she had feared for months echoed in her ears, his voice filled with emotion yet calm like a winter breeze. "Karen, stay put, I'm on my way to you."
The call ended before she could process it. He was the reason she had fled, refusing to sign the divorce papers.
Her love for him was unrequited, his heart belonging to her adopted sister, but what hurt more was the feeling of being traded between friends like a commodity.
She would rather die than return.