299 Book(s) Related to paper girls graphic novel

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

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

"Take your things and leave, Mira. I never want to see you again. The guard will bring the divorce papers. Sign them. I have already done my part. Now it is your turn."
Mira, a princess of the Silver Claw Pack, was labeled a weak omega and abandoned by her father when her wolf never appeared. Heartbroken and humiliated, she ran away and found love in the arms of Alpha Adrien of another pack. Their marriage fell apart when Mira could not conceive, and Adrien's betrayal cut deeper than any wound.
Framed, banished, and left to hit rock bottom, Mira's suffering awakened the powerful, long-dormant wolf within her. Now stronger, fiercer, and unrecognizable, she returns to her home pack not as a broken princess but as a force to be reckoned with.
At the homecoming celebration organized by her father, Adrien, the man who once discarded her, is stunned. The woman he betrayed now commands respect and fear as a dominant leader. He begs for her back, but Mira is no longer the woman he left behind. This time, she is taking everything he once stole from her and more.

"You can't be serious. Him? Of all the Alphas, the Moon Goddess chose him for you? The cursed one with the bastard child?"
Those were the words that echoed in Haera Mycroft's ears the moment her fate was sealed.
Her entire life, she'd been nothing more than a shadow — a maid in her own pack, mocked, hated, and forgotten. The only reason anyone even remembered her name was because she shared a birthday with the Alpha princess. That was her one and only claim to significance.
But all of that changes the night she's mated to Alpha Zachary of the Imperial Pack. A man feared across the territories. A man with a dark past, a dangerous reputation, and a child born of a forbidden affair.
Everyone says he's mad. Cursed. A mistake the Moon Goddess never should've made.
But Haera would rather take her chances with a feared Alpha than remain invisible in a place that never saw her worth.
What she doesn’t expect is to find strength in herself. Power she never knew she had. And a bond that’s far more complicated — and dangerous — than she could’ve imagined.
Her story was never meant to be normal.
And being mated to Alpha Zachary? That’s just the beginning of a fate that will shake the entire werewolf world.

He’s a ruthless college trustee who owns every part of her—including the secrets she’ll never tell.
She’s the innocent student trapped in his web, forced to obey his every demand…
even when her heart begs her to run.
His touch burns.
His gaze owns.
His obsession will break her… or save her.
She thinks it’s all a lie.
She thinks he’s just a monster.
But she has no idea how far he’ll go to make her his.
Dark, possessive, and impossible to put down.

Reynolds Ashford.
His code name is: Devil.
When he returned, he found that his own brother had already passed away, leaving only a tombstone behind. His sister-in-law even planned to marry someone else and divide their brother's inheritance.
The man, who boasts an absolutely flawless record, stood in the rain.
Yet beneath his feet, the Chicago underworld remained oblivious, unaware that their doom had already arrived.

Jack left home at the age of sixteen and spent many years wandering in places where corpses lay in abundance, using killing to end killing. Now, he has become the commander-in-chief of the three armed forces, a legendary general, and is also known in the military circles as the "Son of War", unrivaled in the world.
But just as he returned triumphantly, he discovered that his adoptive father, who had given him immense kindness, had passed away. Upon investigation, Jack uncovered a web of intricate conspiracies lurking behind the scenes.
Regarding this matter.
Jack only has one word: kill!
The tyrannical and domineering mafia? Kill!
A British aristocratic family with a century-old history? Kill!
No matter how powerful or wealthy you are, in front of Jack, this undefeated warlord, the soul of the army, and the general of the country, you can only bow down and submit!

"Tell me, has anyone else touched you like this before?"
The heat of his palm against my skin made my knees weak.
"N-No one... y-you're the first," I said before I could stop myself.
I was nineteen, standing on the edge of my mother's remarriage—and the stranger who touched me that night would soon become my step-uncle.
Alice never planned to fall into his world. She only wanted to earn enough money to leave the country, to escape a life that felt too small, too controlled. But one disastrous night in a bar changes everything, binding her to Lance—a thirty-two-year-old tech CEO with power, secrets, and rules she was never meant to agree to.
A one-year contract. Absolute discretion. No emotions.
As Alice is pulled deeper into Lance's orbit, her life fractures into contradictions: a devoted boyfriend who wants marriage, a mother preparing for a new family, and a man who claims ownership over her body while refusing her heart. What begins as silence-for-security turns into a dangerous partnership, where Alice proves she's more than a secret—she's leverage.
But power always demands a price.
When desire collides with ambition, and love becomes a battleground of control and choice, Alice must confront the truth she fears most: if her body surrendered first, does her heart still belong to her—or has it already been claimed?

Adeline Galdur is a 20-year-old alpha's daughter who doesn't believe in a mate bond. She has a boyfriend and plans to get married and mark him. She's smart, strong, and also the pride of her pack, the Nightingale Pack. Kaiser Heroux is the fierce, strong, and powerful alpha of the Blue Moon Pack who enjoys intimate relations with different she-wolves, even as he waits for his mate. During one of his encounters, a witch placed a curse on him, decreeing that he would only find his mate in another world. Initially dismissing it, he continued with his life.

When he encountered Adeline and suddenly disappeared, he remembered the curse the witch had placed on him. However, he chose to ignore it, attributing Adeline's vanishing act to her intentions, which left him infuriated. Despite his feelings for her, he engaged with other she-wolves even more when he felt her infidelity.

Adeline wasn't sure what was happening—being pulled and pushed into Kaiser's world. She couldn't smell him yet, so she remained unaware that he was her mate. Consequently, she continued her relationship with Mike, causing Kaiser's unbearable pain. Although he started getting used to it, he still sensed it whenever Adeline was intimate with her boyfriend.

When the Blue Moon appeared in Adeline's world, she found herself back in Kaiser's realm and finally smelled him. However, the sight of him engaging intimately with another she-wolf sparked her anger.

How will they navigate their interdimensional bond when they have no idea when and how Adeline will come and go from Kaiser's world? What challenges will they face when Kaiser's counterpart in Adeline's world is an adversary she must confront, and when Adeline's counterpart in Kaiser's world is being used to separate them? Why do their paths cross when they hail from two different worlds?

Freya is the adoptive daughter of the warrior mated couple of the Midnight Pack. She didn't have a scent, so everyone thought that she didn't have a wolf, just like humans.

Matteo Harith is the Lycan prince, soon to be king, who was waiting for his mate. He had smelled her since 9 years ago in the palace, but after that, he never found her, no matter how much he looked for her.

When Matteo was assigned by his king's father to look into the case of a pack that had been wiped out, he lived in the Midnight Pack and found Freya.

The moment Matteo stepped out of his SUV, Freya found out that he was her mate. But Matteo couldn't smell her at all. A tournament that had been held within the pack made Matteo find Freya to be his mate when their eyes met.

When Matteo finally smelled Freya's scent, it was also the time that she remembered what had happened in her childhood and that the palace had refused to help them when they asked, which caused her biological parents' death. What is he going to do when Freya was blaming the royals and wanted to reject him even after they mark each other?

Aurora had been through awful situations all her life, The first princess of King Louis, she was trained to be an assassin by her father King Louis - she was trained to be an impenetrable brick wall, Though many people in the community believed, the king hate his First daughter from another woman, and loved his two daughters from his Queen.

One day, King Louis was summoned for war by King Koppa, a powerful king whom other kings feared, because of his son, Malik. King Louis wielded aurora for the mission to infiltrate king koppa and killed him.

But the mission tarry because Aurora fell in love with the king's son(The crown prince), her father learned of the tarry and sent another assassin for the mission, King koppa was killed by another assassin, ​but the cruel and fiercest crown prince caught Aurora on the scene with the King's dead body.

After five months after the murder, the crown prince was crowned as the king. The man with the coldest eyes.

The first judgment he passed was the crucifixion of Aurora, the murderer of his father.

Yet, a voice whispered in his head

“Death is a favor in disguise for her, make her beg for death.

"I, Alpha Xander Finch of the Red Moon Pack,” he said. Wait, is he going to accept my rejection now? “Reject your rejection, Alpha Chastity Reid of the Silver Moon Pack,” he added, and my eyes widened when I felt something extraordinary. Maybe he felt it too because he was surprised as well. Then he carried me before he pinned me at the back of the now already closed door and kissed me and, oh goddess, I felt like I missed him for a thousand years already, so I kissed him back.


Chassy, an omega who carries the weight of her heritage, is mistreated by her mother and the Red Moon Pack for her entire existence. Her real potential, which was acquired from a father who came from a mysterious lycan clan, is hidden from her and her tormentors. She found out that Xander, her Alpha, was her mate. For some reason, he hurt her. As a result
Chassy leaves and rejects him.

But destiny has more in store for her. With the advent of her lycan beast, she unexpectedly rises to the position of alpha in her adopted pack. Then she met her father whom she never knew and found out more about herself.

The persistent vampires, push packs to band together under an alliance. Chassy's previous and present lives intersect when Xander stops by her new pack for a joint training session against this backdrop of peril and unity. Will Xander and Chassy be able to cross the gap between them? Can they stand together in the face of the impending vampire threat?

What will Chassy do when she knows that she's unable to give Xander an heir and a boy with his mother comes to the pack claiming Xander to be the father?

After a one-night stand, she gave birth to a daughter for Alex.
Alex thought it was just a drunken folly, believing that she would later meet someone better, marry a clean and upright man, and have a complete family. Little did he know that she would raise her daughter alone.
"Daddy, Daddy, where are you?"
The little girl cried with a heart-wrenching agony, huddled in the corner and trembling helplessly.
Alex returned furious, and he made those who wanted to bully his wife and daughter pay the price!

Emerald thought that she and Jace Higginson were divorced. After five years, she returns to the country to collaborate with his company and eventually takes her revenge. What will she do when she sees a different Jace, making her uneasy whenever they meet? What would she do when her supposed ex-husband was still her husband because he didn't file the divorce? Will Emerald give Jace his rights to their son whom she conceived before she left?
Find out how Emerald will try to fight her own feelings towards Jace and his eagerness to win her back as she tries to find her nanny who will eventually unfold her true identity.

Her father broke her ribs. Her sister stole her powers. And her fated mate?
"You are worthless now. I can reject you and have you thrown out of my pack. I am sure your father would not want a rejected child back in his pack, would he?"
Hayley, the most powerful hybrid ever, discovers that her extraordinary abilities cannot earn her love or respect. Her older sister Elena, consumed by jealousy, steals her powers just after she becomes mated to the Alpha. Lance, who once rejoiced at being mated to such a powerful hybrid, is now disappointed when he sees Hayley powerless. He perceives her as weak and wants nothing to do with her.
But Hayley is far stronger than anyone realizes. As she faces betrayal, jealousy, and dangerous enemies—including vampires and witches—her courage and power grow. Lance begins to see the depth of strength and love within his mate. Can he overcome his pride and finally give Hayley the love and recognition she deserves before it is too late?

When sunny California girl Avery Kane is uprooted to icy Evergreen, Minnesota, for her dad’s new job as head coach of the junior hockey team, she braces for frostbite and culture shock—not a heart-racing collision with team captain Knox Callahan. From a near-fatal rogue puck to stolen hot chocolates, flirty texts, and bonfire sparks, Avery’s guarded world thaws fast around the charming, mint-gum-scented hockey star who calls her “strategically adorable.”

But Evergreen’s tight-knit world comes with sharp edges. Sophia Reyes, poised team manager and Knox’s on-again-off-again ex, isn’t the only threat. Enter Riley Voss, the venomous queen bee of Evergreen High—captain of the cheer squad, daughter of the town’s biggest booster, and fiercely territorial over “her” hockey boys. Riley sees Avery as an outsider invading her carefully curated kingdom and wastes no time unleashing petty sabotage: locker-room rumors, iced-out group chats, and a public humiliation at the next game that leaves Avery questioning everything.

As Knox’s family crisis pulls him away and Sophia circles closer, Avery must navigate jealousy, small-town politics, and Riley’s escalating cruelty. In a town where hockey is religion and love is a brutal game, one wrong move could send her crashing. Will Avery fight back, claim her place, and win the boy—or let the bullies skate away with her heart?

In the captivating tale of "Doll of His Hands," Amara's world is forever altered when she unexpectedly finds love in the arms of the person who once kidnapped her.

Filled with spine-tingling suspense and heart-melting romance, this unique story unravels the complexities of their relationship, testing the boundaries of trust, redemption, and the power of the human heart.

Amara, a young woman plagued by the trauma of her past, stumbles upon an unlikely connection with her captor, whose name is shrouded in mystery. As their paths intertwine once more, a magnetic attraction draws them closer, defying the logic of conventional love stories.

Will Amara succumb to the haunting memories and fear that still haunt her, or will she dare to embark on an emotional journey that challenges everything she thought she knew about herself?

As secrets unfold and the tangled web of their shared past is gradually revealed, Amara must navigate a treacherous landscape of emotions, torn between the forbidden desire she feels for her captor and the need for self-preservation. With every twist and turn, danger lurks in the shadows, threatening to extinguish the fragile flame of their forbidden love.

"Doll of His Hands" takes readers on a rollercoaster ride of conflicting emotions, where suspense intertwines with the undeniable allure of romance. It explores the transformative power of love, forgiveness, and the extraordinary capacity for the human spirit to heal and find solace in the most unexpected of places.

Brace yourself for a gripping narrative that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page, as Amara's journey of self-discovery reaches its startling climax.

My uncle and aunt told me that I couldn't become a wizard.

When others had received their admission letters to the Academy of Magic, I still had nothing. I was destined to become a mortal. But at this moment, an old wizard appeared in the relics left by my parents.

He was the most evil dark wizard two hundred years ago.

He was defeated in the Second Wizarding World War.

However, now his soul has been fragmented into countless pieces. If I help him resurrect, he guarantees that after he regains control of the wizard world, he will make me the president of the Magic Association and also let me become the president of the United States.

-- All of the above are false.

Actually, I'm just a pitiful person who had my magic sucked dry by an evil dark wizard. I have to bring the dark wizard along to study at the Academy of Magic, and I can't let anyone find out.

"I, Alpha Xander Finch of the Red Moon Pack,” he said. Wait, is he going to accept my rejection now? “Reject your rejection, Alpha Chastity Reid of the Silver Moon Pack,” he added, and my eyes widened when I felt something extraordinary. Maybe he felt it too because he was surprised as well. Then he carried me before he pinned me at the back of the now already closed door and kissed me and, oh goddess, I felt like I missed him for a thousand years already, so I kissed him back.


Chassy, an omega who carries the weight of her heritage, is mistreated by her mother and the Red Moon Pack for her entire existence. Her real potential, which was acquired from a father who came from a mysterious lycan clan, is hidden from her and her tormentors. She found out that Xander, her Alpha, was her mate. For some reason, he hurt her. As a result
Chassy leaves and rejects him.

But destiny has more in store for her. With the advent of her lycan beast, she unexpectedly rises to the position of alpha in her adopted pack. Then she met her father whom she never knew and found out more about herself.

The persistent vampires, push packs to band together under an alliance. Chassy's previous and present lives intersect when Xander stops by her new pack for a joint training session against this backdrop of peril and unity. Will Xander and Chassy be able to cross the gap between them? Can they stand together in the face of the impending vampire threat?

What will Chassy do when she knows that she's unable to give Xander an heir and a boy with his mother comes to the pack claiming Xander to be the father?

"You're using the embryo that you and Serena made and letting Wendy think that the children she's carrying are hers! Damn, man.I can't believe that you could do something like that to your wife." Adrian's friend said, sounding shocked.
"She deserves it," Adrian replied, followed by his friend's laughter. "She's the reason why Serena broke up with me back then."
What would you do if your husband used your womb to have children with his ex?
Wendy sacrificed everything for her marriage. She endured endless hormone shots, cruel whispers, and quiet humiliation, all to give her husband the children he wanted. When the IVF finally succeeded, she believed she had saved her marriage.
Until the day she overheard the truth. The twins she had fought so hard to carry were never meant to be hers. Her husband never wanted a child with her. She was nothing more than a surrogate in her own marriage.
Determined to find answers, Wendy stormed into the hospital. Fate delivered a twist no one could have seen coming: her husband was severely infertile. The IVF had failed. The babies growing inside her belonged to another man.
Wendy walked away with no tears and no second chances.
But Adrian, the man who once betrayed her, came begging for reconciliation.
"Wendy, we can fix this. We can start over."
Too late.
Because somewhere in the same city, Julian Harrington, the untouchable, relentless, and enigmatic CEO who rules the city's business empire, is searching for the mother of his twins.

Alpha Aziz Funsch is the alpha of the Dark Blood Pack at the age of 16 after his father died. He didn’t wish to have a mate in fear that the vampire king that he was supposed to kill will only use her to get to him. He decided to reject her when the time came because he didn’t want any distraction as he started his mission of finding his siblings. He was worried and scared when he realized that his mate was a human who couldn’t even defend herself.

Mica McLauren is a human who had been chased by his step-father. Her father was killed by a wolf while her mother was killed by a vampire. The moment she heard Aziz yelling MINE referring to her, she realized that she was mate and she didn’t like it even if she was already hooked with his very handsome and manly appearance.

With Alpha Aziz’s mission, what is he going to do to make Mica stay when she keeps on running away from him? How is she going to protect his mate who he cannot reject no matter how many times he thinks of doing it but failed?

What is Mica going to do when he marks her so she won’t be able to leave him? With all the lust and desires she was feeling towards him, how would she handle them when her mind was trying to make her remember how his father died? What was she going to do when she found out that her mate was not just a wolf, but also a vampire?

"You think I would choose you over them Jesse?"

"I can never do that, you are a Beast so you deserve to live with beats like you not me"

Sylvie muttered in pain.

"And you think there is anything you can do about that?"

"You can run for now but I will find you"

Alpha Jesse said.

Meet Jesse who spent his life time looking for his runaway mate who ran away with his child

Sadly he need to pass through many tougher opponents to get her when he finally found her.

Alice a girl who falls in love with her bestfriend's brother who is her family friend's son and now presently ber business partner. Everything in her life was going smooth and fast as she had her love, friend's, family and a perfect job now just like a beautiful nightmare she had. But thinks started changing when she got kidnapped from a resort where she was enoying her happiness thinking its a happy ending. Ethan was a mafia leader which was a secret for her and comes out near her after she gets kidnapped. She discovers from her kidnapper many secrets and especially her moms death reason and starts trusting her kidnapper. Will she ever get out of this hostage and will still love Ethan? Or will find a true love in someone else which is her kidnapper?

A tall handsome guy who's family owns many businesses to keep their mafia scerets hidden. He is the mafia king's son and may be going to be mafia king in future too. This guy is man of his words, mature, handsome, stone hearted person and believes in one night stands but not in love.
Is married to a girl just because her mom asked to as per his dads orders. Yes, he loves his family and his only priority is his family. What will happen when two persons who don't know each other well is tied in a knot without any love and asked to live forever together. Will they be able to stay together after knowing the mafia secrets? Will they ever be able to make a place in heart for each other?

"Don't call her a bitch, asshole," Sierra hissed.
"What's it got to do with you?" the greasy creep demanded.
"Oh, I don't know, Stimpy, maybe because you're harassing my woman and she just got here."
"Oh, shit, Orion. Sorry, man. Didn't realize she was with you."
Orion: As the heir apparent to the Primal Howlers' MC President patch, a chance encounter with a beautiful woman pulls me into a war I wasn't expecting that could bring the whole club down. But when she runs from me, I will pursue her to the end of the earth to find her and bring her back.
Whether she likes it or not.
Raquel: I moved to Monument, Colorado to write my thesis and get some much-needed distance from my overbearing family. What I didn't expect was to find myself hung up on a biker who appears to have nothing to lose.
I, however, have everything to lose and I'm worried Orion just might be my downfall.

Road to Joy
Join the members of the Dogs of Fire Motorcycle Club as they prepare for their Christmas Celebration. Revisit your favorite characters during the most festive holiday of the year.
Unwrapped
Christmas is approaching for the Dogs of Fire and Burning Saints Motorcycle Clubs, but rather than the usual holiday cheer, the air is filled with the tension of a brewing civil war.
The Gresham Spiders, a local 1% MC, is hellbent on expansion and both clubs lie directly in their path. Will assistance from an outside ally help diffuse the situation long enough to keep the peace during the holiday season?
Join Hatch and Minus, along with these two beloved MCs, as they celebrate the holidays and try to keep their clubs from splintering under the pressure.
Rocky Mountain Christmas
Mouse
There's only one gift I want this Christmas, but the closer I get to Kennedy, the more she pushes me away. I'll do whatever it takes to get onto her nice list, even if it means riding my bike all the way to the North Pole and strong-arming Santa myself.
Kennedy
I have two choices. Open myself up to a man who has the power to shatter me. Or run and protect my heart once and for all. The problem is, a murderous Douglas Fir gets in the way of my perfectly planned escape.
Is it a sign, or merely a roadblock on the path to finding true love?
And does a scrooge like me, even deserve to find herself under the mistletoe this Christmas?

Everyone thinks I'm the wild child of the family, the one who won't fall in line.

Blake's the young king of the business world—rational, cold, always in those perfectly cut suits.

But every night, he's got me pinned underneath him, breathing my name.

He said I was his, but never let me see daylight. Until she came back—my father's mistress's daughter, in her white dress, smiling like an angel.

On my birthday, he went to pick her up from the airport. When the chandelier crashed down, he carried her to the hospital and left me bleeding on the floor. When she smashed my mother's heirloom, he made me apologize on my knees. He said she was fragile, needed care; said I was strong enough to understand.

Then I heard them on my bed, her moaning his name.

So I left. Married a man who truly loved me. And he went insane.

He kidnapped me, forced a wedding, announced to the world I was his wife.

But this time, I just smiled and shook my head.

"Let go. It's too late."

I used to be the Blackwells' best killer. For him, I walked away from that life and became his wife. I even gave him a daughter.

I thought it was redemption. Turns out, it was the start of something worse.

Three years ago, during that shootout at the docks, his first love showed up with his bastard son. When the rival family put guns to both kids' heads, he didn't hesitate. He chose to save her son.

My daughter burned in the explosion.

That was the day the man I loved for ten years died. What's left is just my sworn enemy.

At the Met Gala, I heard my husband tell his friends in French that I'm "boring." That his 22-year-old girlfriend is "so much more exciting in bed."

He laughed when they asked if I knew. "Elle ne comprend même pas 'bonjour'." (She doesn't even understand 'bonjour'.)

What Marcus doesn't know: I spent two years at the Sorbonne.

Je comprends tout, Marcus. I understand everything.

The diamond necklace he gave me after my miscarriage suddenly feels too tight. I smile at him across the champagne and candlelight.

He has no idea what's coming.

Everyone says he loved me more than anything. So I chose to answer that love with death.

Forbes cover stories, tearful speeches at charity galas, shutting down Fifth Avenue every Valentine's Day just to watch fireworks with me. They said he ruled a business empire but would kneel in front of the entire world and call me his reason to live.

I used to believe it.

Until I discovered my perfect husband had built another home with another woman. A warm one, filled with laughter and his child.

So I chose to disappear the night the storm swallowed everything.

They say he spent three days on his knees at the cliff's edge, screaming my name into the black ocean. The man worth billions couldn't even find his wife's body.

When the rescue team recovered that burned-out car, he finally opened the safe I'd left for him. Inside was a positive pregnancy test and a divorce agreement that would never be signed.

By then, nothing mattered anymore.

At the bar, I watched Ethan get publicly dumped and made a crazy proposal fueled by liquid courage—a three-month fake dating contract.

I thought this was my only chance after twenty years of secret crushing. Until his ex showed me the text: "With Mia? Pretty convenient. She's been following me around since we were kids."

So I was just a tool.

The day we broke up, he shouted with red eyes: "I've been crazy about you for twenty years!" I thought he was acting, until his mom handed me a worn journal—

That careless comment I made at thirteen, "I'm never marrying Ethan," he'd remembered for twenty whole years.

Every page of that diary was filled with my name...

I was an orphan, and a rare heart condition ate away at me for twenty years. The night I died in that cold hospital room, a reaper in a black robe came for me.

He told me if I crossed into a world of werewolves, into the Moonheart Pack, and made Estelle's family genuinely love me — Estelle being the real daughter who'd died a horrible death there — and if I rewrote the ending where they all went mad and tore each other apart, I'd get my health back for good. A second life.

For twenty years in that body, I loved every single one of them with everything I had.

My husband Rhett was the youngest Alpha the pack had ever had. I mentioned once that I wanted Alaskan wild berries, and he drove a thousand miles overnight to get them. My mother Sylvia, the pack's head healer, made me tonics herself every single day. My father Everett and my brother Callum spoiled me so much the whole pack envied me for it.

I thought I'd actually rewritten my fate. I thought I was the happiest person alive.

Until that night.

I'm carrying a berry pie I baked myself toward the council hall when I hear my mother's voice, flat and cold.

"Estelle's heart is finally in perfect condition. Now's the best time to take it."

"Her heart buys Lila's life. She should be grateful for it." Rhett says it like it's nothing. "Once we take the heart, I'll dissolve the mate bond myself."

So this is it. All that kindness was just to grow a healthy heart for their adopted girl.

Three years. I've spent three years trying to love them, to thaw them out, to change things.

Then let it end here.

Three years after returning to the Duke's estate, I finally admit the truth: the phoenix I poured my heart into raising doesn't love me. He only spreads his brilliant tail feathers for the replacement.

I was six when traffickers took me, stuck in the slums for twenty years. A year after losing me, the Duke and Duchess adopted an infant from the church.

That girl became the new daughter, enjoying everything that should have been mine.

When they found me at twenty-six, my parents looked at me with guilt, yes, but mostly like I was a stranger. They loved the daughter they raised more.

I don't blame them.

Twenty years in the slums taught me: don't count on anyone's love. Only power and gold won't betray you.

So when he refused me for the third time, I went to the black market auction and bought a battered wolf slave.

The phoenix finally panicked, feathers flaring, voice shaking:

"Master, you promised you'd only keep one magical beast..."

I live twenty-four honest years, and fate hands me a terminal stomach cancer diagnosis as a reward. Less than a month left on the clock.

Right when I'm ready to flip off this godawful fate, the floor under me goes black, and I drop straight into an SSS-rank horror game.

The Midnight Bloodred Theater. Dried-out eyeballs for chandeliers, crusted blood for decoration.

The boss is some deranged silver-haired god with blood-red eyes, and he blows people into a bloody mist the second something doesn't go his way.

Everyone else is crying, begging for their lives.

Not me. I'm dying either way.

I walk right up onto that stage, plant my hand on his abs, and grin up at him.

"Hey, gorgeous. Before you kill me, how about a kiss?"

Ethan and I grew up together. We were supposed to exchange rings at the altar, make our vows. But on our wedding day, he left me standing there to go save his so-called suicidal ex. Almost killed my parents from the shame.

Four years later, I'm back in Portland with my husband. The city isn't that big, and of course fate decides to throw him in my path again.

He has the nerve to ask me to be his mistress.

I hold up my left hand, the ring catching the light. "Are you blind?"

Seven years ago I gave up my inheritance and went door to door with Nolan—a broke director shooting street documentaries—my belly out to here, begging investors to take a chance on him.

Everyone said I'd thrown my life away on him.

Seven years later he's a name everyone knows. And Emily, the first love who walked out when he had nothing, is back in Chicago with her daughter.

That afternoon I came home early and heard him pull five-year-old Ivy into his arms: "You can't ever tell Mom that Daddy and Emily are having a fake wedding."

"But Daddy, Mom will be so sad..."

"Say one word and Daddy won't love you anymore. Got it?"

Her little shoulders shook as she nodded, and nodded.

Out in the hallway, I couldn't even be bothered to cry.

I dialed the number I'd kept blocked for seven years. "Dad—can the family plane still come get me and Ivy?"

Nolan, what you lost wasn't a housewife you could push around. You threw away the only person who ever made you her whole world.

The day I get diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, I can finally stop selling plasma.

For five years, I thought I was paying for the fire that killed my parents and son, left my brother disabled. Selling plasma, joining drug trials, doing the worst jobs imaginable, all to pay back a debt that wasn't even real.

The doctor says I have a few weeks left. I clutch the diagnosis report and head home to tell them.

The moment I push open the door, I see my parents in the kitchen, the ones who supposedly died in the fire. My brother, who was supposed to be in a wheelchair, stands there raising a glass, laughing with my husband.

My brother shrugs like it's nothing. "The broken leg was fake the whole time. You were the only one hurt in the fire. We just wanted to teach you a lesson, make you appreciate things."

"We were going to tell you eventually." My husband pats my shoulder. "Go apologize to Vanessa. Stop giving her a hard time."

"All the money you gave us went to Vanessa," Dad says. "That's what you get for throwing your bio-daughter status in her face."

I touch the diagnosis in my pocket. Everything was a lie. The only truth is that I'm dying.

The first thing I do with my second chance is sell off my perfect fiancé for ten million dollars.

The first time around, I became someone else for Julian Whitmore.

He likes nude-toned dresses. Hates when I wear anything with color. He won't let me have more than one glass of champagne in public. Won't let me laugh too loud. Won't let me initiate anything in bed.

His voice is always so calm, like he's correcting a disobedient pet.

I spend three years turning myself into what he wants: docile, proper, flawless. Until depression drags me under. Until that night I lay in the bathtub and watched the water turn red.

When I die, he's still downstairs in his study, editing my speech for tomorrow's charity gala.

When I open my eyes again, I'm sitting in the Winters' living room with that unsigned arrangement in front of me.

This time? Fuck perfect.

But when he lifts that veil at the wedding and realizes the bride isn't me, this man who's spent his whole life in control completely loses it.

The club is planning a team retreat, and sophomore Ashley suddenly raises her hand at the meeting.

"Doesn't Clara's family own a hotel? Cresthaven, right?"

"Since it's your family's place, we could each just chip in fifty bucks for the venue, like you're supporting your own business or something."

Cresthaven is the hotel my grandfather gave me on my eighteenth birthday.

Because it never advertises, outsiders assume it's just some bed and breakfast out in the countryside. In reality, the basic suites run eighty-eight hundred dollars a night, private dining rooms have a hundred-thousand-dollar minimum, and the ingredients get flown in fresh from around the world every single day.

She wants to hand me fifty dollars and get a free two-day retreat for fifty people.

I turn her down on the spot. Next week is already fully booked.

But that night at ten, Ashley posts in the group chat anyway:

[Good news! Thanks to Clara's generous support, the whole club is heading to Cresthaven next week for a two-day retreat, completely free!]

The replies underneath are wall-to-wall flattery.

She wants to use my hotel to buy herself goodwill and build her own reputation.

But that's up to me, not her.

It's supposed to be our last class trip before graduation. The bus loses control on a mountain road and goes over the edge.

I think we're all going to die.

When I open my eyes again, I'm sitting in a classroom that looks like it's been rotting for decades.

A system alert blares through my skull:

【Welcome to Ravenwood High. Unnameable creatures roam the campus. Survive 7 days. Uncover the truth behind the campus Boss's death. Every player who dies adds $800,000 to the prize pool. Make it out, and the money is yours.】

Everyone loses it. Screaming, crying, total chaos. The first thing Brett does is shove me toward the door to check the hallway. Because of course he does. I'm the class punching bag. The girl nobody would miss.

Everyone assumes I'll be the first to die.

What nobody sees is the smile pulling at the corner of my mouth as I stand at that door, staring at whatever is writhing in the shadows of the hallway.

Three months ago, I was kidnapped. When Alexander rescued me, I woke up in a hospital bed with my clothes disheveled and bruises covering my body. What happened during those hours? I don't remember any of it.

A week ago, I found out I was pregnant. He held me as I shook and told me that it wasn't my fault. That he failed to protect me. Even if the baby wasn't his, he'd raise it. He'd still give me the perfect wedding.

But the guilt ate me alive until depression took hold.

Every night, sleep stays out of reach. Nightmares find me the moment I close my eyes. I've tried to end it. Three times now. Each time, someone found me just in time.

After the third failed attempt, I make tea and head toward his study to apologize. Voices drift through the door before I reach it.

"Are you out of your mind? Evelyn's your fiancée!" His friend sounds disbelieving. "You actually hired someone to kidnap her? Made her think she was assaulted? Just so Lily could take her place? Do you know how messed up that is? What that does to someone?"

Alexander's voice comes out calm. "Lily got sick because of me. Her dying wish is to marry me once before she goes. If I didn't push Evelyn out of the picture, her father would never let Lily take her place."

All those nights. All those nightmares. All those times I scrubbed my hands raw until they bled. It was all a lie. A setup.

For another woman.

I pull out my phone and call my father.

"Dad. I'll agree to the arrangement."

I'm two months pregnant with Tristan's baby when Brielle, the woman he'd do anything for, shoves me down the stairs.

She calls it an accident. I lose the baby.

I beg my husband to do something about it. Instead, he shields her and turns it around on me.

"Brielle saved my life in that fire. The whole Merrick family owes her. So drop it."

That debt. Always that debt.

Three years. No matter how many times Brielle humiliates me, degrades me, Tristan only ever has one answer: "I owe her my life."

But the truth about that fire? I'm the only one in the world who knows it.

I tried to tell him once. He laughed in my face. "Adeline, you're so desperate for attention you'd make up something like that?"

So I shut my mouth. Buried the truth. Buried whatever was left of my heart along with it.

The man I trusted with my life just handed my child to the woman who killed them, and called it loyalty.

I'm done.

I pull up the number I blocked three years ago and hit call.

"Dad. I'll take over the company. I'll go through with the engagement to Everett. But I have one condition. I want Tristan and Brielle ruined beyond recovery. Nothing and no one left."

Three years ago, I took a bullet for Damon Kingsley. It came within half an inch of my heart.

He looked me in the eyes, his own red, and swore he'd love me for the rest of his life. So I married into this century-old Italian-American Mafia dynasty.

But on our wedding night, the moment he touched me, he convulsed, coughed up blood, and collapsed.

The second time, an old condition flared up and kept him flat on his back for a month.

The third time, he nearly bled out.

Every time after that, the same thing.

The whole family called me a curse. Marked. Bad luck. The kind of woman who brings death to whoever gets close.

The Godmother gave me an ultimatum: get pregnant within a month, or sign the divorce papers and be shipped off to Chicago to marry the devil himself.

I was carrying a fertility tonic to his study, ready to beg him one more time, when I heard voices through the door.

"Mr. Kingsley, please, you gotta stop. Every time you don't wanna go near her, you shoot yourself up with that stuff. You're gonna kill yourself."

Damon was quiet for a long moment. Then, calm and flat: "Aurora is the only woman I love. I'd take the pain any day over touching her."

All this time, while the whole family called me a curse, the one who actually put it on me was the man I almost died for.

Damon Kingsley. After today, we're done. In this life or the next, don't ever cross my path again.

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."

Being born a Moretti daughter means one thing: the family owns you.

In my past life, Vivian thought she had what it took. She promised Dad she could handle it, swore up and down she'd make him proud. Six months later, she'd burned through three generations of work and left us with nothing but an empty shell. Our enemies found her eventually. Broke both her legs.

And me? I married Marco Rossi.

Everyone envied me for marrying into one of the most powerful families in the city. What they didn't know was that I was his prisoner. He used me, turned my family's connections into stepping stones for himself, spent my money on his mistresses, used my body as a bargaining chip at his deals.

In the end, Vivian killed me. Jealous of my "perfect life," she dragged herself over on those broken legs and put a bullet in me.

When I open my eyes again, I'm sitting in Dad's study.

The door slams open. Vivian bursts in, cutting me off before I can speak. "Dad! I'm marrying Marco Rossi! Give the family to Sienna!"

I look at her and smile.

This time, I'm going to survive. And I'm going to do a hell of a lot better than just survive.

Everyone says I'm the woman Jasper loves most.

But only I know that in his heart, I've always come second to Sadie.

Seven years ago, I shoved him out from under a collapsing rig and shattered my right ankle. I never skated competitively again.

He held me and swore that the day he won the Grand Slam, he'd marry me in front of the whole world.

I believed him. So I learned to be his support crew. I sharpened his blades, hand-sewed his costumes, dragged my bad leg around everywhere he went. I turned myself into the shadow that followed him.

Then Sadie came along. Young, healthy, able to do things I could never do again.

Tonight, Jasper wins the Grand Slam. The cameras circle him, the whole arena chanting for him to propose.

But he looks down at Sadie in his arms and smiles.

"Out of everyone, she's the one I want to thank most for this medal. I wouldn't have made it here without her."

That's the moment I stop wanting to stay.

In my past life, we were camping in the wilderness area of a state park when my best friend handed out "lucky charms" to the whole group. Charms she'd secretly packed full of wildlife attractant.

A wild boar knocked me to the ground outside the cabin door. Its tusks tore into my stomach. I pounded on the wood with both fists, screaming. "Help! Open the door!"

Inside were my boyfriend of two years and the best friend I'd been quietly supporting for just as long. Autumn Warren.

"I'm so sorry, Brynn." Autumn's voice broke into sobs, but her weight stayed pressed hard against the door. "There are boars everywhere. We open that door, we're all dead."

"Just hold on! I'm calling 911!" Wyatt Fletcher's voice rang out with the kind of conviction that cost him absolutely nothing.

I paid for that trip. I'd fallen behind because I'd stopped to pull Autumn along.

And they stood on the other side of that door, my blood soaking into the dirt, and locked me out.

I open my eyes. I'm back. It's the day we left.

I spent seven years being Preston Maddox's personal errand girl.

Did his homework, took his father's belt for him, cut off every friend I had because he said he didn't like me talking to other guys.

I told myself that if I was good enough, patient enough, he'd eventually see me.

Then came the school's centennial gala. In front of everyone, he locked me, a girl with severe aquaphobia, inside a water tank filled to the brim with ice-cold water, so Vanessa Sinclair could have a pretty backdrop for her ballet number.

The audience roared. He watched Vanessa take her bow with this soft, adoring smile on his face. The only time he glanced at me was when he noticed I'd made a mess, and all he did was wrinkle his nose.

The water rose over my head, and something in me finally understood.

To Preston Maddox, I wasn't even worth as much as a dog.

If a dog was drowning, its owner would at least care.

Me? I just disgusted him.

The club is dragging everyone out to a tomb Blair Whitmore's family dug up in Egypt, and nobody asked if this was a good idea.

She even brings some so-called expert along. Everyone crowds around the dark opening, practically shaking with excitement.

I'm the only one who tries to stop it.

"There's a mechanism in there. It's dangerous. We shouldn't go in. We need to report it to the antiquities authority first."

They just laugh at me.

"God, Blair, you're unbelievable. Untouched site like this and you just land it."

"Right, and some people never say two words all semester and now they want in on the action."

My palms are sweating. They don't know I come from a family of manuscript conservators. I grew up surrounded by dead languages and schematics for ancient mechanisms. What nobody else can read, I read clearly.

The stele at the entrance is carved with Egyptian hieroglyphs, and the warning is not subtle:

Whoever enters here will lose their soul to the void, and their bones will turn to dust.

For the top university in the North American wolf packs, transfer students aren't exactly breaking news. But this one sets the entire forum on fire.

It starts with a photo. A girl standing next to a tall, imposing man. Both faces are deliberately blurred, but that build, that presence... every wolf in North America recognizes it. The Alpha King. The caption reads: "Dad why'd you send me this 😭 I'm not ready to go public yet."

Minutes later, the post vanishes. But screenshots flood the forum.

"Moon Goddess above! Is that really the Alpha King?"

"The girl in the photo... could she be the royal princess no one's ever seen?"

The comments explode. Compliments flood in. Even my aloof boyfriend joins in.

Something feels off. I type out a comment: "The Alpha King keeps a low profile. His daughter should do the same. Posting photos like this... doesn't seem right."

Less than a minute later, the replies come.

"Who do you think you are to question her?"

"Can't stand seeing someone else do well, huh?"

My boyfriend chimes in too: "Quit it. You're embarrassing yourself."

I pick up my phone and dial a number. "Dad, since when do you have another daughter?"