3187 Book(s) Related to light in my darkness

Bear,
If you ever have hesitations about me, know this: you asked me to write it down, you asked me to remind you when you forget. As you know, there are very few things I wouldn't do that you, or, if you don't remember, you will soon know that as fact.

Before we start, a word of warning: Please don't judge me too harshly at the beginning. It was a different time, a worse time. I make no excuses for who I was forced to become, nor the choices I made, after all, they led me to you. Let these pages reflect who I became and who I am now.

You know the years leading up to the war well, so I will just skip to the crucial time: the year the Dollhouse chose me. With the Dollhouse came the Ravens, courageous women who risked everything for the end to finally come. Each carried her own name, her own trials, and her own secrets.

From then on, nothing was simple. Nothing was safe, and everything I thought I knew was tested. That is where we start, though you should know, I start and will always end with you. But you can follow the rest.

When Elena Thunder finds the most perfect man to kiss at midnight on New Year’s Eve, she thinks its fate. But little does she know that Knight Blaze isn’t as simple as he seems and that the only reason he spends the night with her is because he has something entirely different on his mind.
Come morning, Knight leaves Elena feeling hurt and betrayed and with something she’d have never anticipated from a one-night stand with a stranger, a baby conceived on New Year’s Eve. But Elena isn’t weak and she doesn’t let heartbreak bring her down. She decides to raise her child without a father. But fate has other plans for her as she accidentally bumps into Blaze once more during a fashion show and this time, he’s determined to make her stay.
But Elena's heart already belongs to another, someone who she loved and lost. But now he's back in her life and determined to correct his mistakes. Who will she chose, her happiness or the baby's father?

Lily Danvers is a human in a school for vampires, bullied all her life for being different. In Nightfang Academy, he has a crush on one of the hottest guys in school, Jake Sinclair.

However, she can only get the attention of his best friend, Alexander Hollander, her bully. One day, a kiss suddenly happens between Lily and Alexander, and they become mates. Lily is desperate to revoke the bond with the boy she hates, and the only way is to make the boy she loves fall for her.

Alexander, who has already fallen head over heels for her, has to help her make his best friend fall for her, but how can he when he has already fallen head over heels for her?

Betty would do anything for her family even if it was at the cost of her own happiness but then what happens, when she is to sleep with her sister's husband, to bear a son in her stead?

Her sister's husband had always been her crush and when she thought he finally reciprocated the forbidden feelings, he pulled the plug and crushed her heart.

Now she was back for revenge.

“You belong to me now, not because I love you, but because I hate your father.”

Fifteen years ago, Caleb Reyes lost everything: his family, his future, his childhood, all destroyed by one man’s greed.

Now he’s back, a ruthless billionaire with one goal: revenge. His plan? Destroy Richard Harlow piece by piece, starting with his daughter.

Cynthia Harlow is proud, beautiful, and loyal to a fault. Trapped in a contract marriage to a man who only sees her as a pawn, she struggles to survive in a world of cold kisses and hidden daggers. But as Caleb’s plan unfolds, so does something neither of them expected, desire that turns into something dangerous.

Just when Cynthia begins to fall for her husband, the past comes crashing back. Caleb’s ex-wife returns, claiming she had his child during their separation. Cynthia’s toxic ex resurfaces, threatening to release a fabricated sex video using AI.

And the father she swore to protect turns out to be the monster Caleb swore to destroy.

Then, everything shatters, Caleb breaks his promise, Cynthia’s father dies, he didn't protect him and was the one who orchestrated his death. And she discovers she’s pregnant after one reckless, drunken night with the man she now wants to hate.

Torn between the life growing inside her and the man who ruined hers, Cynthia must choose: Stay broken… or rise and take her own revenge.

He wanted vengeance. What he got… was her.

Ava Clarke had her parents killed in a terrible car accident, and today, after many years and at the age of 20, she has decided to move to the small town of Mystic Heaven, the same place where she was born and lived with her family before they died.
The young girl got a job babysitting an eight-year-old girl, the daughter of a very wealthy man. Ava thought this would be an ordinary job, but she realizes that there is something very strange and wrong with the Fell family.
Lucius, Elara, and Damien are peculiar people, and she realizes that they are very different. She lives in the big mansion with this family and discovers that she feels a strong sexual attraction to Lucius Fell.
Ava didn't imagine that she was falling in love with a centuries-old vampire, she was falling in love with a completely immortal man.
She's a human girl living in a house with the strongest and most dangerous creatures in the world. What could happen?
Lucius is a 300-year-old vampire who lives in a mysterious old mansion in the town of Mystic Heaven with his only daughter Elara and younger brother Damien.
The vampire has an enchanting beauty, and his life changes when a beautiful young human girl moves in with him.
What will Ava do when she discovers that she is living with vampires? What will she do with her love for Lucius Fell?

He’s ruthless, calculating, and driven by vengeance. She’s warmth, light, and everything he never dared to want.

For years, his only focus has been revenge—love was never in the equation. But when he's tasked with protecting his best friend’s little sister, the walls he’s built begin to crumble.

She finds good in everyone, even the man who warns her to stay away. He’s cold, possessive, and dangerously addictive. Yet, despite every warning, she falls for the one person who could break her beyond repair.

Because when love and obsession collide, the fallout is anything but predictable.

“I want this,” I told him boldly, looking at him squarely in the eyes. “I want you.” I peeled off my t-shirt and threw it to the floor, returning my hands to his chest.

“I don’t think you’re thinking straight,” Grant chuckled lightly. “I think you may have drunk a little too much at the party.”

My hands drifted to his boxers once again, making him realize that I was actually serious about this.

Rose is in love with her brother's best friend, Grant and the feeling is mutual.
Grant doesn’t have a steady home. His mom is never around and when she is, they fight. Trent and Rose is the only stable thing in his life.
Their parents abandoned them and Trent had to step up and become a parent to his little sister, which is why Rose never want to hurt him.

Both not wanting to hurt Trent, they keep their love a secret but the funny thing about secrets is that they never stay hidden.

Will Trent ever find out?

Before Lauren Jones's hand touched the bedroom door, she had heard the sound of people having sex in the room. A woman's deep moan was mixed with a man's low gasps that she couldn't be more familiar with.

Lauren frowned, held back her hand, and kicked the door open.

The two entangled bodies in the room made her feel nauseous, so she turned her head in disgust, covering her mouth and nose.

The lean and handsome man on the bed stopped, glanced coldly at the uninvited guest at the door, and slapped the woman under him on the plump buttocks, "Get out."

She had really been reborn.
Before turning eighteen, she was one of the most prominent merchant heiresses in New York, showered with love and affection by her parents.

Later, her father trusted the wrong people and incurred huge debts, leading to his imprisonment. After her mother learned that her father had committed suicide in prison, she hastily sent Aileen abroad, only to follow her father into the afterlife.

Her amber eyes struggled as she realized that if God was giving her another chance, she wouldn't live as timidly and meekly as in her previous life.


She gazed quietly at the black and white photo on the tombstone.
The man in the photo had thin lips and a pair of gloomy eyes under thick eyebrows, devoid of warmth. Geoffrey was born from humble origins, his parents had long passed away, and he was a silent and unsociable doctor during his lifetime.
Aileen felt guilty as she realized that this man, who was legally closest to her, she never truly understood him, nor did she ever invest any thoughts in him. But he silently gave her the whole world.

Reborned, she would try to understand him and change their future, and this loveless contract marriage. Then she learned that their encounter was earlier than she predicted.

Warning: include criminal content

Aria is desperate. Her best friend, Lena, needs surgery.

A mysterious offer appears: a contract to spend 30 nights with a rich man who needs a virgin.

The payment equals the surgery cost.

Aria signs, thinking it’s a shameful but harmless deal.

She’s taken to Kael Donovan’s estate, massive, intimidating, surrounded by forest.

Kael is distant, treating her like an object.

He believes she’s just another human pure but replaceable.

Their first night is awkward, tense, electric. She senses something feral in him.

Development
Kael’s wolf, Rhett, reacts violently the moment he touches her growling “Mate.”

Kael refuses to believe it. The curse shouldn’t allow him a mate.

He decides to keep her anyway for the sake of breaking the curse.

Aria feels strange sensations hearing whispers, her senses sharpening but thinks it’s fear.

Kael starts acting possessive, jealous when she smiles at his guards.

He hates how much he wants her. She hates how much she needs him.

Their nights turn passionate and raw, but he still keeps his heart locked.

Aria’s emotions deepen. She starts to see the man behind the Alpha.

Rising Tension
Aria learns bits about the curse Kael’s pack is dying out, and his inability to bond might destroy them.

Selene Voss, Kael’s chosen fiancée by alliance, visits the mansion.

She instantly despises Aria, sensing the mate bond before Kael admits it.

Selene begins plotting.

I was born into blood. Into power. Into a family that calls me the curse.
My fate? To marry the son of our enemy.
My rebellion? To lie—and claim I was in love with Kian O’Sullivan.
Now the lie is my prison.
Kian isn’t my savior. He’s a wolf dressed in silk, a monster with grey eyes who would rather break me than hold me.
But when the bullets start flying and our enemies circle closer… he’s the only one standing between me and death.
And maybe the only man dangerous enough to make me beg for it.
NOTE: This is a DARK ROMANCE story. It includes disturbing content like: Extreme violence, torture, degradation, BDSM, drugging, Somnophila, self harm. Sexual assault and group sex(not including the main leads). Both main leads are red flags!

Hailey has been in love with Derek since their first day in college. Just when Hailey finally works up the courage to confess, Derek’s highschool ex, Jessica, shows up again. And before Hailey can blink, Derek’s back in Jessica’s arms.
Heartbroken and drunk, Hailey slept with the man who she believed was Derek. Similar face. Similar voice. Similar intoxicating pull. But by morning, Hailey realizes it was a mistake.
Hailey’s world collapses even further when her mom announces a surprise engagement and takes her to meet her new fiancé.
Her mother’s soon-to-be husband? Derek’s father.
And his other son Tyler? Hailey's One-Night-Stand.
Living under the same roof with these two stepbrothers is hard enough for Hailey, while more secrets about their family are just beginning to surface....

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.

The Alaskan winds cut across my face like knives, but only one thought consumed me—why hadn't Madison shown up to get me? In ten years, my sister had never failed to be there.

Until I walked in on my brother-in-law tangled up with some blonde bitch, and my world shattered. "Fallen through ice in a blizzard"? What a goddamn lie. They cut open her eight-month pregnant belly to steal her baby—while she was still conscious. They let her suffer for 47 excruciating minutes before she died.

I didn't break out of the psych ward to cry about it. I came back so these monsters can pay their blood debts in full. They think I was born wicked? Fine. Let me show them exactly how it feels to have your living body sliced open.

Ten years ago, eight-year-old him nearly died under wolf claws trying to save me. Ten years later, when I gathered the courage to return to this town, that little hero had become a dangerous man.

"We're strangers, remember?" The eyes that used to be gentle only for me now looked at me with cold indifference.

But why does he hold me tight every time I'm in trouble? Why is his skin burning hot and his muscles hard like iron? Why do I tremble when his breath hits my neck?

When blood scented the rainy night and red-eyed beasts showed their fangs, I discovered the truth—my childhood sweetheart Logan was no longer human.

I was the second child in my family who had an elder sister, perfect in every aspect. However, I had always craved for a brother.
My excitement was above the ninth cloud when Claire, my elder sister, ran up to me and announced, “Steffy, we have a big brother now.”
However, I ruined everything when the pure love for my brother took a different place in my heart. Now, I wanted Taylor, not as my brother but my lover.


“Were you ever going to tell me the truth?” He asked, staring at my fragile body in the hospital bed.
“Do you care at all?” I replied before turning my face away from him.

My brother chose my enemy, and the man I loved joined forces with her to sell me into a club.
Pregnancy, miscarriage, imprisonment, beatings—every cry for help I made was dismissed as "just an act."
It wasn't until I was truly dead that they lost their minds, dropping to their knees at my grave and sobbing that they were sorry.
But by then, I could no longer hear them.

In the seventh year after I broke my fated mate's heart and he went abroad to study, he finally returned home with his new fiancée to meet his parents.
On that exact same day, the hospital finally pronounced my seven-year battle with Core Degeneration a failure. I was sent home to wait for death.
Seeing me sitting in a wheelchair on the street, supported by my mother, a mocking smile appeared on Kaelen's lips.
"It’s been seven years, and you've fallen so low you can't even walk?"
Listening to his disgusted voice and smelling the Alpha pine scent I once loved so much, I panicked, hurriedly yanking down the sleeves of my coat to hide the dense, ugly needle marks on the back of my hand.
"It's nothing. I fell and broke my leg, that's all," I lied quietly.
Kaelen sneered, pulling a beautiful Omega woman,Sloane, closer to his side. She smelled exactly like I used to—vanilla and rain.
"Since you're so free," he drawled, his eyes cold, "I'm getting married soon. Why don't you be Sloane's bridesmaid?"
I just smiled calmly. "No thanks. I'm going somewhere very far away soon."

Three years ago, to save my Clan Lord husband from a hunter's death trap, I forced him to stop at the border.

Instead, his First Embrace, Seraphina, crossed in his place and was burned to ashes.

Shattered by her death, he suffered a breakdown and was diagnosed with Crimson Frenzy.

For three years, I let him wildly drain my source blood, cheating death in underground clinics countless times.

This time, his violent feeding caused a miscarriage and permanently destroyed my ability to conceive.

Yet, while still in agony and desperate to find him a cure, I overheard his secret conversation with the butler.

"My Lord, Seraphina is still alive. Why keep faking this illness? If the Madame finds out and severs the Blood Pact..."

"Sever it? What right does she have? If she hadn't blocked me back then, Seraphina would never have run off with another vampire. She deserves every bit of this suffering!"

"Sandra, we're a modern couple. Keeping our finances separate is the greatest respect I can show you."
Seven years into our marriage, my husband Howard Mercer had taken "fifty-fifty" to its absolute extreme.
The mortgage was split down the middle. Utility bills were calculated to the penny.
Even for our six-year-old daughter Anna's birthday cake, he'd remind me to Venmo him forty dollars right after paying at the register.
I used to think he'd just brought his Wall Street spreadsheets home with him.
Then Anna had an asthma attack and ended up in the ER, and after that first exchange, he gave me the silent treatment for three days over the ER bill.
That's when I caught a glimpse of the credit card statement he'd been hiding.
Twenty thousand dollars. A private helicopter. A ski trip to Aspen.
All for another woman. And her son.
So he wasn't broke. And he wasn't incapable of love. He'd just been spending it all on someone else.
In that moment, I didn't shed a single tear.
If he wanted to run our marriage like a business, fine. I'd play along, right up until I bled him dry.

When twisted steel tore through my stomach in a horrific helicopter crash, I was pushed to the absolute brink of death.

In my darkest moment, Alaric, the Vampire High Lord, saved me.

He healed my shattered body, bound me as his fiercely protected mate, and spoiled me with what I thought was endless devotion.

Until tonight. My blood amulet unexpectedly resonated with our pact's magic, intercepting his encrypted call with his private physician.

"I orchestrated that crash. Maiming her was the only way to justify the continuous blood draws."

"But My Lord, drawing any more will cross the lethal threshold..."

"So what? She has a congenital immunity to pain. As long as she doesn't die, it's an honor for her to bleed to suppress Elena's werewolf venom."

The salvation I worshipped was nothing but a meticulously designed trap to harvest my veins.

If that's the case, I will tear this blood pact to shreds.

My water broke on the coldest night of winter.

My fated mate, Alpha Cassian, wrapped silver chains around my wrists and threw me into a freezing dungeon.

"Lucian's son must be born first," he snarled, forcing wolfsbane down my throat as I screamed through contractions.

Above me, his sister-in-law Sienna rested in silk sheets, surrounded by healers and warmth. She was carrying his dead brother's heir—the future of the pack. And I? I was nothing. Just the Omega he'd been forced to mark, the one his pack blamed for Lucian's death.

As silver burned through my skin and ice water rose past my chest, I felt our baby's heartbeat flutter. Then slow.

"Please," I begged. "Our child—"

"You owe him this," Cassian said coldly.

When the chains finally came off, he'd lost us both for good.

My son Leo died in the snow. Three rogue wolves tore him apart that winter night.

My Alpha mate Carl didn't hunt them down. Instead, he brought home Elena—his childhood sweetheart—and her five-year-old bastard.

"Leo died because you failed as Luna," he said, pushing the boy toward me. "You'll raise him as our heir."

I looked into those cold eyes, and something inside me died.

At the cliff, I severed our bond in front of the entire pack. Then I jumped.

That unbreakable Alpha? He shattered completely.

The idea came from Cora.
She ran into the kitchen while I was making dinner, wrapped both arms around my waist, and looked up at me.
"Mommy, can we go to Grandma Ellen's? Just us two? Just us girls?"
"Why?" I asked.
She thought about it, very serious. "Because every time I wake up and you're not home, I miss you. Even when Daddy's there, it's different." A pause. "Grandma Ellen probably misses you just as much as I do."
Reid was leaning in the doorway. He smiled at me—that easy, certain smile—and said, "She's not wrong. You've been running on empty for months. Take the trip. I've got everything covered."
The flights were booked before I finished washing the dishes.
I should have noticed how fast that was.
The call I made the night before we flew home changed everything. I thought I'd hung up.
I hadn't.

I’m in the final stages of stomach cancer. My son just passed away yesterday.
At his funeral, my ex-husband barged in, pointed at our son’s headstone, and accused me of doing anything for attention—even putting on a show like this.
He told me to get lost, to stay far away from the woman he really loves.
So I did exactly as he wanted.
I took my son’s ashes and disappeared into the endless sea.
But now, when I’m truly at death’s door, that same man who once hated me with everything he had is tearing the hospital apart, desperate to save me.
Don’t bother, Lucian.
If there’s a next life, let’s never meet again.

My boss and I had one night. A mistake—or so I told myself, right up until I found a file in his office with my photo labeled "Potential Breeder," tucked inside a folder marked Pack Hierarchy. Same night the pregnancy test came back positive.
His eyes were glowing gold when he walked in.
I ran before sunrise. New name, new city, a life built from nothing.
Five years later, my son stops aggressive dogs in midair with his bare hands. He wakes up at 3 AM telling me someone is coming before the car even turns onto our street. His eyes flash gold when he's angry, and his voice makes grown men step back without knowing why.
The most powerful werewolf in the western territories has been looking for us for five years.
He just found our street.

After she watched her mom die due to negligence from the very people she had worked tirelessly for, her only goal became to watch Vincent Crost crumble.

She did not care who she had to destroy to make that happen.

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.

My brother and my fiancée forged evidence of my crimes. They claimed I was guilty of corruption, bribery, and betraying the family—that I was a traitor to the nation. If not for their "mercy," they said, I would have already been sentenced to death.

But that wasn't enough. Three years later, when Father lay dying, my brother and fiancée threw me into the Gulf of Mexico, all to eliminate any chance I might have of competing for the family inheritance.

When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to three years ago—to the moment they framed me for treason...

I’m a top assassin.

Three years ago, on a rainy night, I was being hunted when a stranger took a bullet for me. As he lay dying, he grabbed my hand and begged me to protect his son—and to keep living in his place.

To escape my pursuers and keep that promise, I changed my face, took his identity, and stayed by the boy’s side as his father.

His wife was arrogant, cruel, and constantly cheating. For the child—and to protect my cover—I endured all of it.

Until today.

She drugged me.

When I woke up, a doctor was holding a blade over my chest. They were about to take my heart.

Lying on that operating table, I finally learned the truth: her family had been trafficking organs all along.

That man died three years ago because he discovered it, and she arranged the crash that killed him.

She murdered the man who saved me. Now she wants to kill me too.

She still thinks I’m the same weak doctor who gets out of breath after a short run.

She doesn’t know I’m resistant to anesthesia.

And she definitely doesn’t know these hands have held scalpels—and snapped far too many necks.

Intro: I'm an S-Class superhuman, but I was locked in a basement for five full years, subjected to inhuman abuse and torment. All they wanted was to drain my blood and energy dry. I once believed that if I could just endure it all, I would see my family again. Until my wife Valen's voice came through the intercom and revealed that it was all a lie. I will turn my fury into strength and tear it all apart with my own hands.

A hundred years ago, I was the strongest Delta the Silver Moon Pack had ever produced.

Born with the God Bone, unmatched in power, I had Royal Guard recruiters showing up at my door three times, waiting for me to say yes. The whole pack assumed I'd lead them to glory.

Then came that night. My own family dragged me to the altar in the frozen vault.

My mother cried and said, "Lacey was born broken. Without the God Bone, she'll die."

"You're the older sister. You're strong. You'll survive without it."

I refused.

Grant, my fiancé, pulled the knife on me. Brandon, my brother, pinned down my arms and legs. My parents watched from the shadows, saying nothing.

"Don't be so selfish."

They carved the God Bone out of my body, drained every drop of my heart's blood, and threw me into a vault fifty degrees below zero.

My sister took everything that was mine and became the golden girl everyone adored.

A hundred years passed. I became the Supreme Commander of the Royal Guard.

This year, during recruitment, my adjutant handed me the candidate list. I saw a familiar name and smiled. I picked up my pen and crossed it out.

"Doesn't meet the requirements. Denied."

On the night before my sister's bone marrow transplant, my parents confiscated my EpiPen and locked me in the attic.

Their "genetic consultant" warned them that the medication would contaminate the stem cells meant for my sister.

I had eaten the meal they provided—one secretly laced with lethal traces of nuts.

The resulting anaphylactic swelling was suffocating me completely.

I frantically bashed my head against the door. "My pen... Mom, I can't breathe..."

"Stop putting on a show!" Mom snapped through the wood. "That meal was entirely nut-free! Are you faking an allergic reaction just because you can't stand the thought of your sister finally getting well?"

Her footsteps retreated.

Agonizing pain and oxygen deprivation overtook me as I clawed at the floor until every one of my nails snapped off.

Until my breathing stopped completely.

"I fell in love with a stranger. I didn't know he was my brother."
When I first saw Victor, I didn't see a sibling. I saw a man who set my skin on fire. I saw a pair of dark eyes that reflected my own soul. Our attraction wasn't just a choice—it was a gravity I couldn't escape. For weeks, we existed in a fever dream of late nights and whispered promises, building a future on a foundation I never knew was forbidden.
Then the truth came out. One old photograph, a single name, and my world shattered.
Now, the touch that felt like heaven feels like a sin. But how do you stop your heart from beating for the one person you were never supposed to touch?

In my past life, I signed a marriage agreement, served as a live-in son-in-law for five years, and died in a hospital. Meanwhile, my "wife," Grace, was on the moon, embracing her lover and watching the star rings.
Given a second chance, she threw the agreement in my face at the marriage summit: "Sign it. After the wedding, I'll go find Karl. You'd better act like the legal wife."
I didn't refuse; I just tossed the agreement to my emotional nemesis .
The whole city laughed at my madness.
Until Grace flaunted her "pure-blood heir" at the 100-day celebration, I publicly projected her sterilization report—
the bastard in her arms was the product of her lover and a downtown prostitute.
And her lover was being mutilated in the downtown area.
In this life, I'm not a live-in son-in-law; I'm her gravedigger.

My name is Damian Lemaître.

In my past life, I was Serafina Camarilla's lapdog for ten years, being drained of my life, used, and squeezed dry of my last bit of value.

I opened my eyes and found myself back at the scene of the blood pact ceremony. She sat on the high seat, waiting for me to kneel down and swear the oath with the same excitement as in my previous life.

"Damian Flamel, are you willing?"

"No."

The day I signed the divorce papers, Ethan Frost lit up the night sky with thousands of drones spelling out, ‘Vivian Moore, I love you.’ The whole city celebrated his new romance.
On our daughter, Sophie’s birthday, he watched coldly as Vivian’s daughter snatched away her favorite Elsa princess cake—and didn’t even blink when I was shoved down the stairs. Bleeding and trembling, I looked up to see him tenderly massaging Vivian’s feet.
But what truly shattered me was the day Sophie struggled in the pool—Ethan held me back, eyes dark, roaring, “What do you want?”
Later, he scrambled to Sophie’s photo on his knees, crying “Where’s Sophie? Bring her out.” While I only felt absurd, I smiled through my tears “you will never see Sophie again—ever.”

MURDER IN THE MANOR (A LACEY DOYLE COZY MYSTERY—BOOK 1) is the debut novel in a charming new cozy mystery series by Fiona Grace. Lacey Doyle, 39 years old and freshly divorced, needs a drastic change. She needs to quit her job, leave her horrendous boss and New York City, and walk away from the fast life. Making good on her childhood promise to herself, she decides to walk away from it all, and to relive a beloved childhood vacation in the quaint English seaside town of Wilfordshire.Wilfordshire is exactly as Lacey remembers it, with its ageless architecture, cobblestone streets, and with nature at its doorstep. Lacey doesn’t want to go back home—and spontaneously, she decides to stay, and to give her childhood dream a try: she will open her own antique shop.Lacey finally feels that her life is taking a step in the right direction—until her new star customer turns up dead.As the newcomer in town, all eyes are on Lacey, and it’s up to her to clear her own name.With a business to run, a next-door neighbor turned nemesis, a flirty baker across the street, and a crime to solve – is this new life all that Lacey thought it would be?Book #2 in the series—DEATH AND A DOG—is also available for preorder!

In my past life, I was betrayed by my fiancée and my tycoon boss, and thrown alive into a mutated swarm to be torn apart.

When I opened my eyes again, I was reborn fifteen days before the multidimensional catastrophe! Facing my vain ex-boyfriend who was still threatening to break off our engagement and buy me luxury bags, I sneered and decisively blocked him, instantly awakening a "Beast-Level Infrastructure System."

Hoarding supplies in the apocalypse? Too narrow-minded! I directly infiltrated the polar regions with my geeky best friends, tampered with central permissions, and seized my tycoon boss's invincible fortress—a multi-billion dollar investment with a nuclear reactor!

When the catastrophe erupted and gravity collapsed, my boss and ex-girlfriend, dragging their mangled bodies, knelt outside the ten-meter-thick tungsten steel door, frantically kowtowing, begging to be brought in as dogs. I, however, holding a Romanée-Conti, coldly pressed the gravity strangulation button.

The Abyss Era, the Old Gods are all dead. On this wasteland, only I sit high on my icy throne, establishing absolute laws.

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?

He grabbed my hair and dragged me downstairs. His grip on my hands and feet ached terribly. I sobbed and wept, silent tears streaming down my face. I was powerless to break free, my left hand clutching my broken right wrist.

He was a beast inhabiting this mansion, inflicting inhuman torture on my poor soul. He had created a living hell for me, this pitiful girl, within his castle.

On this cold winter night, he threw my wounded body into the icy pool, arrogantly enjoying it all, drinking and smoking expensive cigars. A satisfied, cold smile played on his lips as he reveled in my pain. His face was filled with the darkness of sin.

“How...more...am I…still…standing?” I stammered, my lips trembling.

Zain paused, thinking. Then, turning away from her, he replied:

“Until you die!”

With that, he left. As he wished. At that moment, my wish came true; I died.

But not in a frozen pool; I was struck in the head by a bullet from afar, blood splattering everywhere—that was far more gruesome.

My consciousness began to fade, but suddenly, I opened my eyes again and found myself mopping the floor in an ordinary restaurant.

I was startled: What happened? I was reborn? This is unbelievable!

I thought drowning while trying to save a little girl was the end of my story. Turns out, it was just the beginning of my empire in the Land of the Dead.
Now, I'm the infamous owner of the afterlife's most intimate boutique. My clients? A community of skeletons so conservative, they excuse themselves before holding hands and have been sleeping in separate beds for thirty years of marriage.
To make sure my boyfriend Carlos doesn't forget me, I convinced him to become my interdimensional supplier. But my thriving business comes at a deadly cost: every product he sends drains his life force. And just as I make this horrifying discovery, I learn the little girl I died saving is in deadly danger once again, as her stepmother plots against her again.
With the love of my life fading away and an innocent child's life on the line, what price am I willing to pay for a second chance at life?

The day our company successfully went public.

Gu Yun and I slipped away from the staff to celebrate privately in the office.

Just as he unfastened my camisole, a voice sounded from the phone.

“Do you think Sister Su will still be the Sales Director?”

I froze for a second, then smiled and wrapped my arms around his shoulders.

“The company’s announcement was already released—how could there be such a ridiculous guess?”

Gu Yun’s breathing grew heavier as he kissed my lips.

“I forgot to tell you—the announcement’s been retracted.”

“Xu Na said the Sales Director position is quite challenging, and she wants to give it a try.”

Five years ago, my sister vanished the night before her wedding. She left behind a crying newborn in a crib and a mafia heir on the verge of losing control.

And I was forced into her place—the temporary bride, the contract wife, the whispered “replacement” in every gilded hallway.

I thought I only had to survive five years. Five years to earn what I was promised, and then walk away from this city of shadows and blood.

I clawed my way through bullets, politics, and betrayal. I earned respect. I gained power.
And somehow... I tasted a tenderness I was never meant to have.

Now, with only ten days left on our marriage contract, I thought everything was finally under control. I thought freedom and power were within reach.

Until she came back—wrapped in grace, dripping secrets, smiling as if she owned the world she abandoned.

She looked at me and said, “Little sister, give me back my life.”

I was carrying Don Elijah’s child. But on the exact day I went into labor, the man I loved dragged me to an underground freezer—standing at a deadly minus ten degrees Celsius—and locked the heavy metal door.

The reason? The Varro Mafia family’s ironclad rule: the firstborn son inherits the entire empire. His brother’s wife, Elena, was also pregnant, our due dates separated by a single day.

To guarantee his brother’s child secured the throne, Elijah callously snuffed out my hope.

"Elena’s child must be born first," he demanded coldly. "This is what you owe them!"

He ignored the warm rush of my broken water. He ignored my agonizing, tearing contractions. He shoved me into the icy darkness, violently injecting me with a drug specifically designed to halt my labor.

Curled up on the frost-covered concrete, freezing and completely alone, I clutched my stomach in sheer agony. In the suffocating cold, I felt the terrifying stillness. I felt the tiny, fighting heartbeat inside me slowly, torturously fading away.

Hot tears streamed down my face, freezing before they hit the ground.

"My baby..." I whispered into the pitch-black void, my heart shattering into a million pieces. "Mommy is so sorry..."

Elijah sacrificed our child out of blind loyalty to his brother. But when he finally opens that frostbitten door, he won’t merely find a broken woman—he will face the terrifying, irreversible ruin of his own legacy.

Nine months pregnant and about to give birth, my husband Zane locked me in the wine cellar.
All because his widowed business partner, Elena, was also giving birth today.
"You almost made Elena go into labor early. You need to think about what you've done."
Agonizing contractions wracked my body. I dropped to my knees, begging him, "Zane, please─the baby is coming now! He will die!"
He just shoved me down the cold stone steps, his eyes icy cold.
"Stop lying! Your due date isn't today. You'll do anything for attention, won't you?"
"Tonight, only Elena's safety matters. You'll stay here until you admit you were wrong!"
The heavy wooden door slammed shut, snuffing out the last bit of hope I had left.
Hours later, Zane was cradling Elena's newborn son, calling the maid.
"Elena had a boy. I couldn't be happier. Let my wife out—I'm willing to forgive her little tantrum today."
But on the other end of the phone, the maid was sobbing.
"Sir... your wife and the baby... they're already gone."

As the heir to the Winsor Pack, I sold off the land my father left behind—just to help him ascend to power.
But on the tenth day of his brother Zane’s funeral, I caught him holding Evelyn, my sister-in-law, whispering:
“She was just an obstacle.”
While “cheap plaything” cards bearing my photo spread like wildfire through every Pack’s group chat,
he was using the tie I gave him to fasten her dress.
He got me drunk, dumped me on the street,
and let unfamiliar Alphas rip my dignity to shreds.
When I crawled home, bloodied and broken,
he cupped my face with a hand that reeked of her perfume and said:
“Stop making a scene. Evelyn is still pregnant—with my brother’s child.”
But the Moon Goddess mark at the back of my neck had already begun to fester in the rot of his lies.
“Tear those chains apart, Stella.”
“You are the Moon’s chosen of the Winsor Pack—
not a sacrifice on an altar built from shame.”