304 Book(s) Related to maroon 5 memories

Abandoned in the forest as a baby and raised by the Dark Light Pack, Elara grows up invisible. Overlooked. Maltreated. Treated like she was never meant to exist.

Until the mate bond awakens.

Bound to the Alpha, she expects a new beginning. Instead, she is rejected. Broken. Put through cruelty and torture that nearly destroys her.

But instead of breaking... she snaps.

In a moment that should have been impossible, Elara takes control of the mate bond and shatters it.

And then she runs.

What she doesn't know is that her breaking point was only the beginning.

Because Elara is not just a wolf.

She is something far older. A rebirth. A power that once walked the world three thousand years ago... and vanished after sealing away a force that threatened to destroy everything.

Now, that power is rising again.

As her abilities awaken and memories begin to surface, Elara is drawn to a truth she cannot escape and a man she cannot ignore.

Beros.

Powerful. Mysterious. And bound to her in a way she cannot understand.

Their connection is deeper than fate. Older than time. A love that has waited centuries for her return... and refuses to let her go again.

But just as she begins to step into her true strength, the past she tried to leave behind comes crawling back.

The Alpha who rejected her now wants her.

Desperate. Obsessed. Determined to have her back at all costs.

Now caught between a love that once broke her, a love that has endured lifetimes, and a power that could change the fate of the world, Elara must rise into who she truly is.

Because the same darkness she once destroyed is rising again.

And this time...

It knows she's back.

“He is the arrogant heir to the Alpha dynasty. I am the pack’s mute, broken outcast. One forbidden night in the forest changed everything—now, I’m carrying his heir.”

At Saint Remy Academy, Luna Rivers is invisible. Poor, bullied, and unable to speak, she is the favorite target of the elite wolf aristocracy. But one fateful night in Eden Forest, a feral encounter with a magnificent dark wolf binds her soul to a stranger.

She wakes up changed, her silent world shattered by an ancient, silver power awakening in her veins.

Enter Damian Blackwell. The golden boy. The ruthless future Alpha. He commands the school, and he is destined for a perfect, high-society mate. But the moment his eyes meet Luna’s, his wolf goes savage with obsession.

Neither knows they’ve already mated. Neither knows the dangerous secret growing inside Luna's womb.

But when an ancient prophecy reveals that Luna carries the forbidden Silver Wolf blood—the greatest threat to the Blackwell dynasty—Damian is forced to make a cruel choice. To protect her from his tyrannical father, he does the one thing that breaks her completely:

He publicly rejects her.

Heartbroken, pregnant, and hunted by a jealous ex who wants her dead, Luna must flee. But you can't run from the moon. When the broken, mute girl finally finds her voice, the entire supernatural hierarchy will burn.

The night Luna Morgan finally meets her fated mate should have been the happiest of her life.
Instead… he rejects her.

Alpha Cassius Grey—the man who’s bullied her for years—chooses another in front of the entire pack. Broken and humiliated, Luna runs into the city… straight into the path of Alpha Landon Xandros, leader of the most feared pack in the realm.

Cold. Dangerous. Merciless. Landon doesn’t believe in fated mates… until her scent drives his wolf insane.

But Luna’s pain is only the beginning. The Elders are hunting her—for the rare, forbidden power flowing through her blood. A prophecy says she could either save or destroy the werewolf race… and some will kill to make sure she never learns the truth.

Betrayals will be exposed.
Enemies will rise.
And when Landon is struck down by a silver arrow, Luna must decide—stay the broken Omega the world thinks she is… or unleash the wolf that could change everything.

Will she tame the beast who might be her second chance mate?
Or will the same moon that scarred them… be the one that destroys them?

Rejected. Betrayed. Left for dead.

On the night of my eighteenth birthday, everything I believed in shattered. I was Saffron Myers—the quiet, silver-haired omega everyone ignored. The girl who clung to the hope that the Moon Goddess would gift me a mate who saw my worth.

Instead, I was rejected. In front of the entire Bloodfang Pack, Alpha Callahan Woods looked me in the eye and said I would never be his Luna. Hours later, I found him buried between the thighs of the she-wolf he did choose. My fated mate. In another’s arms. While I bled alone.

Then came the attack. The beating. The fall. Tossed into a ravine like garbage—no one searched, no one mourned.

But I didn’t die.

I was found by Nyx, a Moon Priestess older than legend. She offered me rebirth—not as the girl I was, but as something more. Something dangerous. Something powerful. I said yes.

Now, I’ve returned. Cloaked in shadow, cloaked in seduction, with magic curling around my fingertips and vengeance in my blood. They call me a rogue. They call me cursed.

And just when I think I’ve mastered the game, Conan Sterling walks in. Alpha of the rival Crimson Howl. Ruthless. Dark. Possessive. And my second chance mate.

He wants to worship me. Corrupt me. Claim me.

But I’m not the girl who begged to be loved anymore. I’ve learned how to seduce. To destroy.

Still, Conan sees through the fury. He touches the part of me I buried in fire. And as I spiral between two alphas—one who ruined me, and one who would burn the world for me—I have to ask:

Can I have revenge... without losing the heart I’ve rebuilt from ash?

Power is my birthright.

Pleasure is my weapon.

And this time, the omega bites back.

“You chose them over me. She became your focus because of the pup she was carrying! You ruined me! You broke me! Promises shattered!” Edeline yelled.

“I had to protect my pup. There were wolves out to hurt him, and you were one of them! I didn’t want to leave you, but you were a threat to my pup!” He snarled. “But I don’t care what kind of wolf you are... you’re my mate! I won’t lose you too!”

“You already lost me, Percival... When you picked that blonde bitch and her pup over me, your mate. You had a chance to fix things and didn’t take it. No more chances. I’m leaving.”

Edeline’s world shatters when her mate, Percival, returns with a child from another woman. As secrets unfold and betrayal strikes, she fights to reclaim her future. Percival struggles with his new reality, testing their bond. Full of twists, emotions, and unexpected humor, this story will take you on a rollercoaster of love, mystery, and redemption, ending with a satisfying resolution. Dive in—you won’t regret it!

"Seraphina, you are destined to be my Luna, and no one will ever replace you."

Alpha Alexander has been searching on Earth for his missing Luna, who was taken by a cunning rival, for decades. When he finally finds her, it's not a happily ever after reunion. In a world where loyalty is tested and love is a weapon, Seraphina must choose—before the war for her soul consumes them all.

Julianna Macey, or Juls for short, is desperate to leave her parents' home. Living at home for her undergrad degree is ruining her social life and making it difficult for her to keep in touch with friends. So when her friend Carlo offers her the chance to move into a student apartment, she jumps at the chance.

The only problem is that the available room is shared by his three friends Kyle, Mark, and Kent. As if living with three boys she's never met wasn't bad enough, Kent appears to despise her. When she's around, he makes a mess in the kitchen, never puts his laundry in the dryer, and acts as if she doesn't exist.

Despite being good looking, Kent and Juls develop a fierce hatred for one another, and she begins to regret her decision to move in with them. However, because her lease still has a year to run, she is unable to leave. Juls begins to question whether living with boys has any benefits or if she acted prematurely. More importantly, she questions whether or not she and Kent will ever get along as well as why he despises her so much.

He slowly reached behind my back and unhooked my bra with one hand.

“Ares! Stop it!”

“Make me…” he whispered into my ear.

Kianna Myst Saavedra, the eldest daughter of a wealthy family, thought she had it all until a drunken night and a failed relationship led her to agree to a two-year marriage contract with Ares France Vuertalejo. But little did she know, Ares is a wealthy CEO who has been keeping his true identity hidden. As secrets and lies unravel, Kianna and Ares must confront their pasts and fight for their love. Will they overcome the odds or will their journey come to a crashing halt?

One virgin student. Four untouchable professors. A secret that could destroy them all.

Cheska Vega had a simple plan: graduate, stay invisible, and survive. But the campus she calls home is hiding a dark, delicious secret. Now, she is trapped in a high-stakes game of obsession with the four men she was never supposed to touch.

From that moment, Cheska's life becomes a collision course with four men who should be completely off limits. Damian, the brooding stepfather with secrets darker than his eyes. Mateo, the English teacher she's been driving crazy for a year. Oliver, the new principal with a baby and a cheating wife. And Axel, her British tutor with a wicked smile and a hidden past.

Four men. Four secrets. Four reasons she should run.

But Cheska isn't running anymore.

"You're not just any she-wolf, Ava," Lucas's voice softened, though it still held a wicked undertone. "The Moon Goddess doesn't make mistakes. She gave you to all three of us."
I stared at him, dread and curiosity twisting inside me.
Three mates?
Ava Wynter, the disgraced daughter of an Alpha, has lived as a servant in her own pack—rejected, abused, and branded wolfless after a lie destroyed her life. But on the night of her eighteenth birthday, everything changes. Her wolf awakens. So does a dangerous, undeniable bond—with all three Alpha triplet brothers of the powerful Moonclaw Pack.
Zack rejects her. Kane claims her. Lucas desires her.
But nothing is as simple as a mate bond. Secrets run deep in the blood moon prophecy, and Ava is no ordinary wolf. As her hidden powers emerge and dark forces rise, Ava must decide: will she run from her fate or rise to become the Luna who changes everything?

"You are nothing but a mistake I need to erase."

With those words, Alpha Kane Pierce rejected me, his pregnant mate, and exiled me to die. He chose a powerful alliance; I chose survival.

Five years later, the broken Omega is gone.

Now, I am Luna Sage—the most powerful Moon Healer in the world, and a mother to secret twins with silver eyes just like his.

When a deadly plague strikes his pack, the man who destroyed me crawls back, begging for my help. He doesn't recognize the woman he discarded. He doesn't know the children playing in my clinic are his heirs.

He wants a cure. I want him to suffer.

Luisa is a Pariah, a defective wolf who was cast out by her pack and her own parents because she was unable to transform. However, when she saved the life of an injured Alpha, fate repaid her in an impossible way. After spending the night, Luisa realized that she was carrying the Alpha's seed; she began to feel a foreign power she had never possessed before rising in her veins. She wanted to tell the Alpha about her pregnancy, but her status as a Pariah was strongly opposed because she was considered disgraceful in the eyes of the Alpha's pack. No one knew about Luisa's pregnancy, because a wolf who has a child with a Pariah would become a shame to their pack, especially since Luisa knew that the Alpha was going to marry her twin sister. That is why Luisa hid her pregnancy from everyone, including the Alpha himself.

The mark disappeared, the blood oath broke, and wives and children were torn apart.

They thought I would never wake up again .

But they all forgot—I have the blood of the wolf king flowing through my veins.

"Ahh, little one, I should be the one biting that lip of yours," he said in a husky, breathy voice. Inhaling his scent ignited a fire inside me that I fought against, attempting to prevent it from engulfing me entirely.

But my body became a raging inferno, with nothing but my desire for him burning me down to nothing.


As the daughter of the Crescent Moon pack's Beta, I was meant to be the strong male heir my father desired. Instead, I was born female and weak. I was relegated to isolation, treated likea slave and was brutally punished by him... my father! Worse, Hearing his plot to kill me, my heart died.

Fleeing my pack, I sought sanctuary, and nearly four years ago, I found it in the Lonest City Police Department, now I am Detective Sparks.


Unkown POV

As the black Jeep approaches, her scent reaches me immediately—a mix of spiced cinnamon and vanilla. Detective Samantha Alora Sparks, according to her captain, is hailed as one of the best human detectives on the force. However, she's not human.

Stepping out of the Jeep, she reveals a tall she-wolf standing at five foot nine with a toned and muscular build. Her brown hair, neatly in a bun, displays a color of aged mahogany, rich and deep, with subtle hues of caramel that catch the light.

As she hesitates, I observe her every move, captivated by the rosy tint of her plump and perfectly shaped lips and the honeyed perfection of her tanned skin. I can't tear my gaze away.


Detective Sparks, a captivating and astute woman, guards a profound secret that she conceals with utmost care. Tasked with unraveling the mystery behind the murder of a Crescent Moon Pack Noble, she must navigate the perilous investigation without jeopardizing her own safety. When a striking stranger arrives at the crime scene, she senses the impending revelation of her hidden truths and fears the exposure of her identity. Faced with this threat, she grapples with the need to deny her genuine desires to shield herself from potential consequences.

Will she successfully crack the case and preserve her secrets, or is the world she knows poised to crumble around her? Or could the case unfold into something more significant than anyone anticipates, putting herself and everyone she genuinely cares about in a state of fear for their lives.

Married for seven years, I lived my life like an absolute joke.
For the sake of my brother, my wife personally uprooted the roses I had so painstakingly cultivated. To please her uncle, my daughter pointed at my nose and called me a "bad daddy."
The entire family even held a vote to force me to donate my bone marrow. My wife, Elena, raised her hand without a second thought: "You'll just lose a little bone marrow. Liam will die without you."
In that moment, my heart died.
The surgery was a success.
As the anesthesia wore off, Elena was holding my hand tightly. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her voice trembled with remorse: "Aaron, I was a jerk before. As long as you were willing to save Liam, I will love only you for the rest of my life."
She thought I would be as pathetically grateful as a dog, begging for her affection and humbly forgiving her.
But I merely frowned in disgust and pulled my hand back as if shaking off garbage.
In the dead silence, I looked at this tearful woman before me and asked, politely yet confused:
"Excuse me, ma'am... who are you?"

When the apocalypse came, I became one of the military's failed experiments—defective, useless, a waste of space who only knew how to fix machines.
My so-called brother Kane used the camp leader access I got for him to trade away the comms gear I nearly died to secure for a bottle of whiskey. He drained my bone marrow dry to keep me in the dark, then dumped me out in the wasteland to die.
After that, he pinned every bit of luxury and waste on me—
while my little sister didn't even have the medicine she needed to stay alive.
That night, dragging my crippled body behind me, I reached into the substation.
Kane, do you remember what kind of genes were in those five hundred milliliters of bone marrow?

I am Ian McLeod, heir to the Werewolf clan, Alpha.

I disguised myself as an ordinary guard and worked as a servant in my family's castle for a year.

Her name is Ella, and she's a Luna. She said she loves me, that my pheromones are special, and that she doesn't care who I am.

On the night of the full moon, in front of the entire clan, she chose a Beta adjutant.

That Beta made me kneel down and apologize; she knelt down and begged me to mark her.

I laughed.

For twelve centuries, the exiled vampire king waited for the prophecy foretold to restore his fallen power. But never expected the girl destined to save him to be the reincarnation of the wife he lost.

Anastasia has spent 18 years of her life beneath her grandmother's watchful eye, hidden from a world she never knew wanted her dead. Sheltered. Obedient. Ordinary – or so she believed.

And the illness slowly stealing her life is not just a disease. It is an awakening.

The man she has quietly loved from afar – the impossibly perfect, untouchable Mr. William – is not who she thought he was either.

He is older than memory. A king without a kingdom. A vampire betrayed by his own brother, stripped of his power, and exiled from the ancient realm of Umbralord centuries ago.

And Anastasia is the one prophecy foretold would restore what was

She knows what she is to him:

A prophecy. A key. A sacrifice.

Anastasia knows there is no escaping destiny . So she makes him an offer.

For six months. He was to date her. Love her. Not out of duty or pity, but as if she truly belonged to him.

What neither of them knows is that the heavens have always been cruel. She was the nemesis placed into his perfect life from the beginning.

Because Anastasia is the reincarnation of the mate William lost twelve centuries ago – the same woman whose death ignited a war that nearly destroyed an entire kingdom.

And this time, fate is not letting go.

Being a female Alpha is rare, especially in a world that still doubts women in power. Every move I make is judged. Any sign of weakness would be used against me.
Love is not just love for someone like me. It is a sign of weakness.
Taking an Alpha consort feels like risking the pack my grandfather handed to me. He ruled without a mate. If he could do it without a mate, so can I.

So when fate bound me to Leo Leonidas Blackwood, my childhood friend, the one I once loved without fear, I rejected him without delay.

I chose my throne over the bond. But a mate bond does not disappear because an Alpha says no. It lingers. It pulls.

Now everyone is watching. The elders want me to have a mate. The pack wants stability. But no one asks what I want. Because loving him once broke me and choosing him again might destroy us both.

.

Ophelia was born the weakest wolf in the pack, mocked, beaten, and treated like nothing. All she ever dreamed of was the day the Moon Goddess would give her a mate who would love her despite her flaws.

But when her fated mate was revealed, he didn’t claim her. He crushed her.

“I, Alpha Dominic, reject you as my mate. You will never be my Luna.”

The words tore her apart, and the pack’s laughter sealed her fate. Cast out, abandoned, and left to die, she thought her story had ended.

But the broken girl they discarded rose. The weak omega become stronger than them all. And the Alpha who rejected her bow at her feet.

This is the complete collection of all 11 books in the War Girl Series. War Girl Ursula is the bittersweet love story between a German woman and a British pilot. The eldest Klausen daughter, Ursula, must choose between morality and obedience when the wounded man asks her for help.   War Girl Lotte: the nestling Lotte is impulsive and outspoken, and a passionate fighter for justice. When she discovers four Jewish children on the run, her life finally has a purpose. But her act of humanity may cost her and those she loves dearly.   War Girl Anna: middle daughter Anna wants to be a human biologist, but when she discovers a horrific secret, she must choose between career and morality. Hidden from the world, gruesome things are happening - and Anna is soon caught in the middle.   Reluctant Informer: Sabine Mahler, the Klausens' lodger, is not who she claims to be. Her husband's survival depends on her willingness to cooperate with the Gestapo.   Trouble Brewing: Richard is a soldier. He obeys orders, until he sees her. She works for the Polish resistance, saving her life is a crime against Führer and Fatherland. When fate reunites them at his most vulnerable time in life, he must choose: Fight for his country or become a traitor of conscience.   Fatal Encounter: Lotte Klausen and her Polish brother-in-law Piotr Zdanek are both in Warsaw on the eve of the Uprising — on opposing sides. When they meet during the heat of the battle will they be able to save each other’s lives or does the war between their countries tear the family apart?   Uncommon Sacrifice: Held captive in a notorious Nazi camp, Peter clings to the dream of freedom. But when his wife Anna stages an escape for him, he has to leave his injured brother Stan behind.   Secrets Revealed: Officially employed as a radio operator for the Wehrmacht, Lotte is, in fact, a spy for the British service, risking her life to defeat the Nazi forces. When her contact in the Norwegian resistance is captured, a race against time begins.   Together at Last: Loving her is a crime that could ruin his entire military career. RAF pilot Tom is desperate to find the woman he left behind in Nazi Germany. When he finally does, he discovers he can never be with her.   Endless Ordeal: Surrendering to the Russians is Wehrmacht Leutnant Johann Hauser’s only option. Whisked away into the vast lands of the Soviet Union, he and his comrades cling to life by a thin thread. The fighting never stops, but their new enemies are hunger, cold, and exhaustion.

Berlin Fractured -- The Complete Series This series will transport you into the aftermath of World War Two, into a Berlin in ruins. Three friends, Marlene, Bruni and Zara are trying to eek out a living amidst the rubble. Join them on their journey to love and happiness, while whitnessing the growing tensions between the victorious Allied Powers and the beginning of the Cold War.

Plot

Maureen and her brother Lancelot were the children of the Beta male and female both love each other like every sibling. Suddenly things changed when Lancelot turned eighteen, he began acting strange and wanted his sister to stay away from him which broke his sister's heart. In an angry frenzy, he nearly killed his sister while trying to make her stay away from him.
He had to insist and told his parents he wanted to go to a nearby pack to train further in order to be a good Beta.
While in coma from her brother's attack, Maureen had a strange dream where she was told both her and Lance had a great destiny ahead of them. Lancelot returned years later shortly before his sister's eighteenth birthday. On the day of his sister's eighteenth birthday he called her 'Mate' in the presence of everyone.

It caused a lot of frenzy as they became the talk of the whole pack. The color of Maureen's wolf also became a concern. Her wolf was pure gold, so much that if she stood without moving, she would be taken for a golden statue.

Seeing Lancelot in so much pain, the Beta female and Luna decided to tell both Lancelot and Maureen the truth about Maureen's true birth.

The Luna was raped during one of their many trips by an unknown person who kidnapped her from right under their nose. Because Luna was against abortion, she had to keep the baby against everybody's will.

Knowing the truth that they weren't really siblings, Lancelot and Maureen decided to find Maureen's real root and why she was different from all other wolves.

A lot of other hidden truths were revealed and their true purpose was revealed and achieved but not without a lot of pain.

It was written a long time ago that there would be a great and powerful supernatural being, That his power would be unmatched by all supernatural creatures known to mankind. His sheer dominance would make creatures tremble in their boots, Every alpha known to man would bend to his will. He's the one true Alpha King. Malachi Mercy had no idea what he was or what he's destine for. All he knew was that his power was unmatched by anyone.
Hayden Trop is the next alpha to rule over The Blue Crescent Pack, but there's just one tiny flaw to this situation. Hayden is no leader and couldn't lead the pack into the next era.
Malachi and Hayden are polar-opposite, but like people always say, opposite attracts.

Book 1:- Alpha Hybrid Chronicles.
There's going to be a series of stories stemming from the first book (Alpha hybrid). I will likely be focusing on main characters to continue the Chronicles.

SIDENOTE: This is a GAY story that will contain sexually explicit material suitable for the legal age of 18,
(READ AT YOUR OWN RISK)

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've married sixteen dead men for a living. My seventeenth husband just opened his eyes.
I was born knowing one thing: the dead can speak one last time — but only to a spouse.
So I marry dead men. Rich families pay me to wed their fresh corpses, carry the last words sealed inside me, and read the testament out before the heirs. Then I burn the marriage certificate, and the marriage ends at the grave. Starting price: six hundred thousand dollars.
This morning, the Crane heir drowned in his own pool. Twenty-eight, obscenely rich, not one word left behind. The family offered five million and a private jet. By my count — my seventeenth husband. By a wide margin, the handsomest.
I said "I do" to a corpse for the seventeenth time. Then I called for his last words.
Silence. Sixteen weddings, sixteen voices. Husband number seventeen had nothing to say.
Because my seventeenth husband just opened his eyes.

Eight times. That's how many boyfriends my best friend Sera has "tested" for me. Eight times she's proven they weren't good enough by stealing them away with her perfect smile and fake concern.
"I'm just looking out for you, Lia," she always says. "If he really loved you, he wouldn't be tempted by me."
But this time is different. This time, it's Ryan—my boss, my almost-something, the first man who's ever made me believe I might be worth loving. When Sera comes back to town asking about my love life, I panic and lie. There's no one, I tell her. Nothing happening at all.
Big mistake.
Now she's got her sights set on him, and I'm watching her work her magic all over again. The late-night texts, the red lace lingerie, the hotel room invitation. I should just accept it like I always do. Let her prove once again that I'm not worth fighting for.
But I'm done being the girl who hands over everything she wants. This time, I'm fighting back.

"Baby, lend me Stella for the movie."
When my fiancé Damon said this, I thought it was the most romantic thing ever. My guide dog starring in his Oscar-worthy film—what a perfect love story.
I'm Aria Sinclair, 26-year-old blind film producer with perfect pitch and endless money, but no eyes. So when he said "The press will go crazy for our story," I stupidly agreed.
Three weeks later, in the editing room:
01:47:23—Dull impact.
01:47:31—Familiar whimper.
01:47:35—Silence.
My perfect pitch never lies. That wasn't CGI—that was real impact. Worse, I knew that whimper. That was Stella, my guide dog, my eyes, my most loyal companion.
They killed her. For a goddamn trophy.
On premiere night, when Damon walked the red carpet with a strange German Shepherd, when I touched her paw and found no white star-shaped mark—
"This is not my dog!"
I broke down in front of hundreds of reporters.
"Honey, you're under too much stress," Damon said gently. "Maybe you need rest."
Whispers from the audience: "Poor blind girl..." "She really needs help..."
Just like that, I became the crazy one.
Abandoned by the world.
Betrayed by the man I loved most.
But they made one fatal mistake—they thought stealing my eyes would silence me.
Now it's time to let them hear what despair sounds like...
[Click to watch me destroy them both...]

"Where is my son?"
My husband wouldn't look at me.
I had just come out of anesthesia. The bassinet next to my hospital bed was empty — except for a stack of cash, a christening card, and a ring pinned to the corner of the card.
The card had another woman's name in the godmother box.
That woman walked in behind my husband. She picked up the ring and slid it onto her own finger.
"He's safe, sweetheart. We've been talking about this for months."
My husband is Damiano Marchetti. He runs the family that runs this city. The woman wearing the ring is his father's young widow.
The baby on that card is my son.
For four years now I have been the woman this house pretends not to see. The wife told to use the servants' entrance. The mother of a boy who calls another woman Mommy.
Last night I asked my husband for a divorce.
He laughed in my face.
He has no idea how much that's going to cost him.

To stop the merfolk from being slaughtered, I went ashore to seduce the boy I grew up with — Lucian Voss, now one of the world's top scientists.
He still had feelings for me. He kept me in his bed for seven days and seven nights, refusing to let go.
I woke from the haze of pleasure to a pair of pliers prying the scales off my back.
Lucian watched me arch in agony, his expression ice-cold.
"Mermaid scales can repair genetic defects. You don't mind sharing a few, do you?"
"After all, what your kind owes me is worth far more than a handful of scales."
Two years. For two years I watched him marry another woman.
He held my kind's lives over my head and forbade me to leave. Every few days, he'd pry the scales from my spine, grind them into powder, and feed them to his new wife Vivienne to strengthen her body.
He shackled my ankles and ordered me to stay up all night washing his bedsheets. I had to kneel outside their bedroom door, motionless, listening to them together until dawn.
When Vivienne got pregnant, she started complaining about the color of the scale powder.
"Honey, these last few have been so dull. Is she running out?"
Lucian glanced at me.
The look on his face — he was counting. Calculating how many scales I had left.
He hated me to the bone, yet every time I nearly passed out from the pain, he was the one who pulled me off the floor. Forced medicine down my throat, fingers clamped around my jaw until I swallowed.
"You're counting on the fact that I still care about you. So tell me — where are my parents?"
I stayed silent and let the contradiction hang there.
It wouldn't matter soon. I wouldn't have to keep that secret much longer.
A mermaid who stays on land for three years without returning to the sea will die. No exceptions.
And I had three days left.

I woke up the morning the contract was due, picked up the pen, and crossed out my own name.
Wrote my sister's instead.
Last time, I packed away every leather jacket I owned and let Stefano Mastroianni's stylist dress me in things that needed dry cleaning. I sat straight at his family dinners and smiled until my face hurt. I let him correct my posture in front of his mother like I was something he hadn't finished training.
I did all of it, and I still ended up in the ground.
So this time I gave him Chiara. Took Pier Nine from my father as the price, and got out.
He thought he was getting his perfect bride.
On the wedding day, he reached for her hands—and felt it immediately. Smooth palms. Not a mark on them. Not the hands of a woman who'd been gripping a steering wheel since she was sixteen.
He pulled the veil up.
Chiara looked back at him, flushed with triumph.
Stefano stripped the Mastroianni ring off her finger in front of every powerful family in the city, kicked over the altar, and put one question through the cathedral walls:
"Where is Tessa."

The night Declan Ashford announces his chosen mate, everyone in the pack expects me to show up and fall apart.
I don't go.
What I do instead: I'm sitting on the floor of Cael Voss's dorm room in a training jacket that isn't mine, asking whether his mattress is filled with rocks. Cael is Declan's packmate at the academy. His equal in rank. His roommate. The last person I had any reason to call tonight.
I called him anyway.
Here's what he doesn't know: I'm not actually Beta. My real rank was sold before I was old enough to understand what that meant. I've been suppressing it for years.
Here's what I don't know: he's had something of mine under his pillow for two years. Something small. Something I spent three days looking for before I gave up.
Neither of us has said anything about it yet.

My roommate put a Blood Binding Curse on me — my own bloodline power, along with every resource I receive, gets automatically rerouted straight to her.
My ex helped her set it up. For six months she lived off my bloodline playing noble princess, him always on her arm, while I walked around hollow. The harder I fought to prove myself, the more I fed her.
Then I died. Came back knowing everything.
Here's what I figured out: the curse reroutes everything I receive.
Including debt.
I went to a guild and borrowed a batch of elixirs. Opened the contract.
The debtor on the line wasn't me.

For six years, I wore Pack silver. I sold my blood. I scrubbed silver out of Pack den floors. I slept on a basement floor — all to pay off my mate's Pack debt and buy my brother's wolfsbane antidote.
Today, with the receipt finally signed, my brother looked at me and said:
"Seren, I was never poisoned. Our parents aren't dead either. The Rogue raid six years ago — I arranged it. The only wolf hurt that night was you."
My mate stepped up behind him: "I never lost my Pack rank either. I've been at the estate the whole time."
Then my parents — the ones I'd buried seven years ago — walked through the door.
The Pack physician had given me forty-eight hours left to live.
They were going to remember every single one.

I just got out of prison after three years, and my family wants me to go back in.
"It's only three days," they said. "You survived three years—what's three more days?"
What they don't know: I'm dying. The only thing keeping me alive is my mate bond. Three days away from Everett means death.
For three years in prison, someone sent me food every week. No note, no name. I thought it meant my family still loved me.
I was so grateful.
I didn't know it was my twin sister. I didn't know what was inside.

I spent five years loving Beckett Calloway.
When his ex-girlfriend died saving his life, I held him through every nightmare. When he said he "wasn't ready" for marriage, I waited. When he whispered "soon," I believed him.
Then her sister showed up. Crying about some terminal illness. Begging him to take care of her.
He let her move onto our private island—the one he promised would only ever belong to us.
He introduced her at the gala where he was supposed to announce our engagement.
He got her pregnant.
And when I told him she was lying about everything, he looked at me like I was the monster.
Then came our wedding rehearsal. She walked down the aisle in my dress. He slid his ring onto her finger. The chapel caught fire. I collapsed, bleeding.
He scooped her up and ran. Didn't even glance back.
So I burned my vows, deleted every trace of myself, and vanished.
This time, I wasn't coming back.

There are no unmated males in our pack.
Every she-wolf in Hollowfen is promised to someone when she turns eighteen. We just don't get to know who until we walk into the Choosing Hall.
Girls go in wearing white. They come out flushed, shaking, barely able to stand. Some laugh. Some cry. None of them talk about what happens inside.
My sister Thessaly turned eighteen this spring. Gran told her she couldn't attend the Choosing.
She went anyway. She came back on shaking legs, with blood between her thighs and a smile she couldn't wipe off her face.

I took a bullet for my husband five years ago. He married me in the ICU before the anesthesia wore off.
Raffaele Santoro—heir to the most powerful mafia family in Italy—told me I was his everything. He bought a castle and named it after me. He reserved a grave beside his parents so we'd lie together for eternity.
While I was pumping my body full of hormones for our fourth round of IVF, he was across town watching his childhood sweetheart give birth to twin boys.
He named one of them Dante—the name I'd chosen for our future son.
The night I found out, I was seven weeks pregnant with his child.
I didn't tell him.
I called my best friend and said: I need everyone to think I'm dead.

The ultrasound photo caught fire slowly, curling at the edges before the flame swallowed it whole.
I watched it burn in front of my mother's grave.
Eight weeks. That was how far along I had been.
Three days ago, on the anniversary of her death, I came here to talk to her. To tell her she was going to be a grandmother.
Instead, I found my husband fucking his ex-girlfriend against the oak tree twenty feet from her headstone.
I lost the baby that night.

My husband never wore condoms with me. Said they ruined it for him. So I swallowed birth control pills for four years until they made me sick.
Then I found a half-empty box in his glove compartment. And a thong under his backseat.
That wasn't even the worst part.
The necklace I'd made from my mother's ashes—the one I'd been grieving over losing for a year—was dangling between his twenty-three-year-old trainee's tits. He stole it from our bedroom and gave it to her.
She caught me staring. She smiled.
When I confronted him, he slapped me. Then drove off with her crying in his passenger seat.
Her friends came to my hospital with a livestream, demanding I apologize for "bullying" her.
I led them straight to the parking garage.
They found her on a stretcher. Legs wrapped around my husband. No condom.
The whole internet watched.

After the wedding, my husband moved his dead fiancée's mother into our guest room. The whole town called it the kindest thing they'd ever seen.
Every morning, Dione made me a green smoothie. Her grandmother's recipe, she said. Good for the nerves.
I never drank a single one. I poured them all into the chicken feed.
In my last life, I drank them. One a day, for thirty days.
Then I started losing time. I would blink at breakfast and come back at dinner. I found notes in my own handwriting that I never wrote.
I begged Julian to take me to a doctor. He held my shoulders and smiled. "You're just tired, baby. Drink your smoothie."
On the thirtieth night, I fell asleep in my own bed, in my own body.
I never woke up. Someone else did.
This time, every glass went to Nugget, the smallest of my backyard hens.
And one night, a hen crowed in my backyard.
Hens don't crow. And we don't have a rooster.

In my last life, my boyfriend's childhood best friend handed out jars of homemade sunscreen on the boat ride to the island. I'm a marine bio major — one sniff and I knew the mix had something in it that could drive the island's feral hogs into a frenzy. I told everyone to throw them out.
They did. But Brynn didn't look at the group. She looked at me. Eyes red, jaw tight. "You just can't stand seeing people appreciate anything I do, can you?" She turned and ran into the woods alone.
We searched for her all night in a storm. By morning we found her body at the bottom of the cliffs.
A week later, at her memorial bonfire on the beach, every person who'd gotten hurt during the search turned on me. My boyfriend ripped off his bandage and showed his stitches. "If you hadn't humiliated Brynn in front of everyone, she'd still be alive."
Someone said I should burn for what I did to her.
Then hands on my back. The fire. I burned alive on the sand while seventeen people watched.
I opened my eyes. Salt air. Engine noise. I was back on the boat — the morning of the trip.

My brother Soren is a figure skating prodigy. Every dollar in our house, every hour, every scrap of attention — all his.
Me? I'm the kid who doesn't need to be seen.
The night before Nationals, I told my mom my stomach hurt so bad I could barely stand. She said I was making trouble. Dad told me to take a painkiller and tough it out. Then they loaded up the car and drove two hundred miles to watch Soren skate.
They didn't come home until Sunday night. By then, I'd been dead for over a day.
I called her. Again and again. She had her phone on airplane mode.
Now I'm a ghost, drifting behind their car on the highway home. They're laughing, complaining I didn't even text Soren a congratulations.
I wonder what their faces will look like when they walk through that door.

My husband told me our daughter was brain-dead. He put a pen in my hand and told me to sign the organ donation form. He said it was the merciful thing to do.
I signed.
Then I watched her heart get cut out and transplanted into another child — his mistress's son.
He'd been planning it for months. The fake diagnosis, the doctor who happened to be his college girlfriend, the night his mother lured me away from the hospital so they could drug my little girl.
When I found out the truth, he killed me for it.
But somehow, I woke up back at that desk. Same pen. Same form. Same lying face waiting for my signature.
This time, I'm not signing. This time, they pay.

My daughter died on her fifth birthday.
Her first real wish—the first one she was old enough to make herself—was to go to the beach with Daddy.
Gideon promised he would take her.
She waited for him all day. She was still asking for him when she took her last breath.
He never came.
I brought her ashes to the beach she'd always dreamed of. Let her finally see the ocean.
That's when I heard it—a woman's moan, low and breathy, coming from behind the rocks.
Then his voice. Then his name on her lips.
"Between me and Lily, who do you love more?"
"You. Obviously."
He was fucking his mistress on our daughter's dream beach—while I stood there holding her ashes.
When I finally confronted them, I didn't get an apology. I got a slap across the face.
And when his mistress caught my eye and smiled, I realized something.
She knew exactly when my daughter would die.

I was a scholarship student with thirty extra pounds. Del Ashford had two hundred thousand followers and her family's supplement brand on every wall of the athletic center. First week of school, she decided we were going to be best friends.
She said she wanted to help me get in shape. What that actually looked like: I carried her product shipments up three flights of stairs, drafted her emails, and picked up her lunch from the place across campus that didn't deliver.
My roommates started calling me her errand girl behind my back. I let them.
She also introduced me to Beckett Hale. After that, things went the way they went.
She knocked my protein shake over and said I'd burned her. She planted her limited-edition earphones in my bag and told everyone I'd stolen them. The school opened a conduct review. My roommates stopped talking to me.

Beckett said I was the kind of girl who got a little attention and started thinking she deserved more of it.
I couldn't prove any of it. By spring, I was gone.
Some people just aren't built for this, Wren. You know that, right?
Del hadn't even been looking at me when she said it.
Then I opened my eyes and I was back at the party. The night she introduced me to Beckett.

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.

In my last life, I fell for every word out of Ryan's mouth.
To save his shot at attending physician, I volunteered to take the fall for his medical malpractice case.
My license was revoked. I went from being a surgeon to being a housewife trapped in his family's home, wasting ten years of my life chained to a kitchen stove.
I thought my sacrifice would earn me his gratitude for the rest of our lives.
Turns out, he'd been sleeping with that doe-eyed little nurse, Lily, for God knows how long.
When years of exhaustion finally caught up with me and my heart gave out, I collapsed on the freezing basement floor.
My husband Ryan was upstairs, arms wrapped around Lily, sleeping in the master bedroom we'd bought with my dowry.
"That bitch is finally kicking the bucket. Once she croaks, this house is ours."