3235 Book(s) Related to hands on my hips

Nora Williams was a fake celebrity influencer who built her reputation by wearing fake designer items online.

She was a minor celebrity in real life but a major one on the internet. Everyone believed she was a wealthy and privileged heiress; however, in reality, she struggled to make ends meet, barely able to pay her rent.

One fateful night, she encountered a powerful man, Leon Carruso, who saw through her fake image. Instead of exposing her, he offered to turn her fictional life into reality. "This perfect life that you want it so badly... I could make it happen in the blink of an eye, but there is one condition – you must marry me in return, Nora…”

“This life you promised me; why didn’t you warn me about it? Why didn’t you tell me it was you from back then? You tricked me into marrying you!”

“Well, let me explain…”

In his past life, Ethan was thrown straight to the flesh-eating horde by his bitter rival, Ryan.
Reborn days before the outbreak, he liquidates every asset he owns to build an impenetrable fortress—trading useless paper wealth for heavy steel plates, industrial deadbolts, and hard inventory numbers.
Ten days later, hell opens up, and the suburbs turn into a lawless, blood-soaked meat grinder.
Then comes a frantic knock on his heavy security door.
It’s Mara—Ryan’s drop-dead gorgeous, curvaceous wife—soaked to the bone, desperate, and begging for shelter.
Behind his wall of monitors, Ethan looks down at the security feed with absolute, icy detachment.
"My fortress. My rules. Out here, I call the shots."

When the zombie apocalypse hit, my elder brother shoved me into a horde of the undead. Now, I've been reborn exactly five days before the end of the world, and he's trying to scam me out of my winning lottery ticket with a beat-up old ring. What he doesn't know is that this ring is a genuine pocket dimension artifact. He thinks he's pulling the ultimate con, completely unaware that I'm going to use this very relic to forge my own post-apocalyptic empire. This time, I'm going to make them pay back every last thing they owe me.

I fought for the Vampire Empress, Serena, for a decade, shedding my blood and extracting my own bones to sustain her throne.

Yet, she deemed me lowly, having me dismembered and drained of blood just to please her new favorite. She even trampled my battle flag in public with her high heels, sneering: "A mere dog thinks he can fake his death to vie for my affection?"

Little did she know, the very moment I died for her, the blood covenant chains binding me shattered entirely.

The ancient power of the Silver Wolf King awakened within my broken remains, and the Lycan Empress led an army of ten thousand, falling to their knees to welcome me!

When the unprotected Serena was torn apart and had her heart devoured by the four rogue dukes before the entire court, she wept and begged me to save her.

I merely looked down with cold indifference: "The shield is gone. It's your turn to be the sacrifice."

Five years ago, I woke up after surgery with my mind completely blank. The doctor said I had been in a training accident, and I was lucky just to be alive. Due to my injuries, after being discharged from the military, I was assigned to the mess hall at Fort Kiernan. Every day, I stood behind the same serving window, dishing out the same beef and potato stew to the same group of new recruits. I thought my life would always be like this. Then one day, a female journalist from the detention cell was escorted over by military police to get her meal. She slid her tray toward me and spoke a word I had never heard before. The ladle slipped right out of my left hand. My right arm dropped to my side, and my fingers curled instinctively into the shape of a gun grip. Who on earth am I?

On the eve of the apocalypse, I awakened a survival system: send me $5,000, and the sender can unlock a safehouse and awaken a life-saving ability.
The first person I told was Chloe, my girlfriend of three years. In return, she humiliated me in public and cheated on me without a shred of remorse.
That was the moment I finally gave up. The "nice guy" she had drained dry was dead for good.
One month later, the zombie horde arrived right on schedule. For old times' sake, I saved her one last time. And she repaid me by shoving me straight into the jaws of the mutated dead so she could save herself.
What she didn't know... was that I wasn't the only one who had awakened powers.

irectly in front of me.
Only the night before, she’d been curled up in my arms, her warm fingertips brushing my collarbone, our bodies tangled in tender, loving intimacy.
Yet the toe tag fastened around her ankle was etched with cold, unflinching words: Su Wan, Female, 22. Cause of death: fatal fall from height. Time in morgue custody: 365 days.
She had been dead for an entire year.
Just what in the hell was the woman who’d gasped beneath me night after night, who’d lived beside me day in and day out for six whole months—the woman I’d called my girlfriend?

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

The day the IVF succeeded was when I realized Michael had deceived me all along.
He had only used me as a surrogate for my sister.
When I confronted him, he tested me, forcing me to kill someone. "Afraid to pull the trigger? Doesn't seem like my kind of woman," he sneered.
I tried to run, but he caught me.
He kept me locked away, forced me to eat foods I was allergic to until I needed my stomach pumped, and chained me to the bed while he went off with her.
I cried until I had no tears left—and finally learned how to hold a gun.

Six hundred years into our marriage, I found out my husband had a son.

I had ended my border patrol three days early, wanting to surprise Valerius.

Not far away, Valerius was channeling his exclusive magic, teaching a boy how to weave the darkness.

"Dad! I did it!" The boy looked up. His bright eyes were a near-perfect reflection of Valerius's.

My mind instantly went blank.

Dad?

A woman walked over.

She draped a small cloak over the boy's shoulders, her hand brushing against Valerius's chest with practiced familiarity. "Valeri, the wind is picking up. He'll catch a cold now that he's sweating."

Valerius naturally wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "My fault."

The image of them huddled together like a picture-perfect family was an ice-tipped needle driven straight into my eyes.

The sharp sting made my breath hitch in my throat.

The man who had sworn before the Senate to love me for all eternity—the man bound to me by a Soul Blood Pact—had already betrayed me!

A sudden, agonizing cramp seized my lower abdomen.

It was an old wound from six centuries ago.

When the Sunfire Curse nearly reduced Valerius to ashes, I had offered my high-born pure blood and my womb as a sacrifice to forcibly block the hex for him.

The price was permanent infertility, along with an excruciating backlash of pain I had to endure every single month.

Back then, Valerius had held me, his eyes red and tear-filled. "I don't want any children! I would rather lose my seat in the Senate than ever betray you!"

Yet the scene before me crushed those words into fine dust.

I stumbled backward, my chest feeling as though it had been ripped open by bare hands.

I was terrified I'd lose control and rush over to scream at him.

Worse yet, in the face of this cozy, happy family of three, I was afraid I'd look like a pathetic, unwanted outsider.

Suffocation gripped my throat. I turned and fled.

"Enjoying the show quite a lot, aren’t you, John?"
I had just shut the suite door, behind which lewd gasps and moans lingered, when Louise, the young heiress of a top tycoon family, walked straight up to me.
Slap!
A crisp, heavy slap landed hard across my face.
"You shameless cur!"
She snarled, her eyes filled with arrogant venom.
I clenched my jaw tightly, my nails digging sharply into my palms.
In this class pyramid forged by capital, I was nothing but a personal bodyguard worth even less than a pedigreed luxury dog.
Yet it was not long before this lofty young lady met with a plane crash. She ended up on her knees before me, groveling and begging for mercy.
"John… take me. I’m your slave."

To end two years of a long-distance marriage with my husband, Sutton Brennan, I quit my job and moved halfway across the state to join his top-tier medical center.
But from the moment I clocked in on day one, a nightmare awaited me.
IV pain pumps violently popped open in my hands, medication cabinets rejected my fingerprints, coffee machines sprayed me with boiling water, microwaves exploded in public, and the employee lockers locked me out entirely.
My colleagues laughed at me, calling me a walking disaster. The head nurse publicly berated me for being incompetent. And my husband, the man I trusted most, simply smiled his gentle smile and said, "You're just tense. Give it a few more days."
In my past life, I believed him. I gritted my teeth and held on until the bitter end—and ultimately died inside this very hospital.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back on my first day of work.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The real revenge has only just begun.

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

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

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

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

When the apocalypse arrived, my girlfriend, driven by vanity, exposed my unlimited resource space and incited starving people to kill me and feed me to the zombies, while she herself stepped on my flesh and blood to become the "savior goddess".
But she didn't know that I mutated amidst the pile of corpses and awakened into the only zombie tyrant.
I corrupted the space, cut off food supplies, led a horde of tens of thousands of zombies to besiege the city, and threw a bounty at the starving mob: "Use her flesh and blood to exchange for a bite to eat."
Watching the once-lofty Mother Teresa torn to pieces, kneeling at my feet weeping and begging for mercy, I laughed. Moral blackmail? Sorry, I'm the Zombie King now.

Every time my husband’s adopted sister, Avey, had a tennis match, he would force a dark green concoction down my throat. As soon as it kicked in, my entire body would turn weak and aching.
He claimed it was a folk remedy, and I believed him.
In half a year, I lost twenty pounds, half my hair fell out, and I lost our four-month-old baby.
Until the night I overheard them whispering behind a cracked door—they had sought out a witch and cast a dark curse.
My forced standstill was the price for her endless stamina. All her fatigue and sports injuries were being directly transferred to me.
Late that night, listening to them plot to drain the life out of me, I made a choice. On the very night Avey won her championship, I climbed into a deep hibernation pod. I traded thirty days of absolute physical stasis to ensure she could never stop.

My sister climbed out her window the night before her wedding. So my family pinned her veil over my face and sent me in her place.
I'd been her stand-in my whole life — same face, same hair, the daughter they could afford to lose. Nobody looks twice at a bride behind a veil.
The Falcones figured out I was a fake before the vows. They broke my hand for the insult. And the don himself — the man this whole city only says quietly — took one look at the mess they'd made of me and told them to throw me out with the trash.
Then his eyes dropped to the locket my dead mother left me, lying on his marble floor.
And the most feared man in the city went very, very still.
He had no business knowing my mother's name. So why did he say it like a prayer?

At twenty-two, Danielle Hartford struggled to manage the matrimonial firm she inherited from her mother. A surprise email from Vincent Cromwell requesting her agency for their services seemed like the blessing she needed.
However, when the seventy-two-year-old Cromwell demanded a bride for himself, Danielle was disappointed. She had expected it to be for his drooling hot grandson, Knox Zachary Cromwell, the one she nurtured a crush on.
Knox tried everything in his power to stop his grandfather from getting married to produce an heir. When nothing worked, he proposed a deal to Danielle to give him a male heir in return for a huge amount of money.
Her love for him, her need to save her business, made her give in.
However, she gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl.
Soon, Vincent Cromwell married against his grandson's wishes. Thinking it was an underhanded ploy, Knox destroyed Danielle’s business.
Danielle left the city forever with her daughter, handing him his male heir.
Would Knox ever realize what he had done?

Victoria fought with her parents and went on a hunger strike to marry Martin, the poor boy she loved.
For Martin's sake, Victoria used everything she had to pave his way and scheme for his success.
When Martin finally climbed to a high position as she had wished, the first thing he did was remove his mask and cast Victoria into hell: using emotional abuse to force Victoria into divorce, trampling on her pride and dignity, cursing her to meet a bad end...
As he wished, Victoria, who feared the cold most, died in the snow.
But Martin went mad. The cold and handsome CEO's hair turned white overnight, calling out to Victoria with deep affection, begging her to wake up and come home with him...

TRIGGER WARNING!!! This is rated 18+. Alpha Parthe is as dark as described. If you are not into dark romance, please, in the name of everything holy...

Excerpt

"My breath just made you quiver," He leaned closer so that I could almost taste his breath, "...Then imagine what my tongue would do."

"I warned you not to play with fire if you are afraid of flames," He added, his voice hoarse with need.

My plump lips parted in response, "I am not afraid to burn for what I love." I had just stirred something in him that had lay dormant all his life.

"Then so be it... Princess."


She was an angel craving chaos. He was a demon craving peace. She knew he was hell, yet she chose to burn with him.

It takes a special kind of woman to handle his darkness and tame his demons.

Alpha Parthe comes from a bloodline of cursed Alphas. They are endlessly consumed by the need to track and kill prey and offenders, constantly plagued by the scent of blood.

The more they kill, the more they want to kill. It only gets worse on every full moon.

What happens when there is no prey to kill? They become a threat to their loved ones. No one mated to an Alpha from the Wild Wolf pack ever lived more than two years. And every Alpha from that lineage dies at thirty-three due to the curse.

Parthe, determined to let the curse end in his own lifetime, vowed never to have a mate nor bear a son. But these vows crumble the moment he crosses paths with a girl he considers 'little and insignificant.'

The fate of poor Luxuria of the Ash Mountain pack, who was set to marry the love of her life, Beta Kahel, takes a drastic turn when she finds out she was mated to this cursed Alpha, whom she dreaded with all her life.

What happens when his curse gradually begins to seep into Luxuria, the one woman who was meant to be his remedy?

She's the housekeeper's daughter. He's Manhattan's coldest billionaire. One drugged drink changes everything.

Aria Taylor wakes up in Blake Morgan's bed, accused of seducing him. Her punishment? A five-year marriage contract—his wife on paper, his servant in reality. While Blake flaunts his true love Emma at Manhattan galas, Aria pays for her father's medical bills with her dignity.

Three years of humiliation. Three years of being called a murderer's daughter—because her father's car "accidentally" killed a powerful man, leaving him comatose and her family destroyed.

Now Aria's pregnant with Blake's child. The baby he swore he'd never want.

Someone wants her dead. They locked her in a freezer, sabotaged her every step. Is it because her father is waking up? Because someone's terrified of what he might remember?

Her own mother tries to pull his plug. Blake's perfect Emma isn't who she pretends to be. And those memories Aria has of saving Blake from a fire? Everyone says they're impossible.

But they're not.

As attacks escalate, Aria discovers the ultimate betrayal: The woman who raised her might not be her real mother. The accident that destroyed her life might have been murder. And Blake—the man who treats her like property—might be her only salvation.

When her father wakes up, what secrets will he reveal? Will Blake discover his wife carries his heir before someone kills her? And when he learns who really saved him, who really drugged him, and who's been hunting his wife—will his revenge become her redemption?

“Sia, this is my son, Kai. The King of Lycans.”

The introduction hit me like a physical blow, freezing the blood in my veins. The man standing before me—tall, with unruly dark hair and stormy gray eyes—wasn’t a stranger.

He was Vape. The man I met in a shady hotel room at the black market. The man whose scent of smoke and cedar still haunted my dreams. The man who took my virginity during my heat and left a bite mark on my neck.

And now, he was my future stepson.

I clutched my stomach instinctively. Inside me, a tiny life was growing—his life.

Kai’s jaw clenched as his gaze swept over me, lingering on the spot where he had marked me. His wolf flashed dangerously in his eyes, a mix of desire and fury. Lucas, my older fiancé and Kai’s father, stood beside me, oblivious, his hand resting possessively on my waist.

“Kai, meet your future mother-in-law,” Lucas said proudly.

The air in the room vanished. Kai didn’t say a word. He just stared at me with that cold, predatory look, as if he wanted to tear me apart right there. Later that night, he cornered me in the garden, his body pressing me against the cold stone wall.

“You have bigger problems than keeping your secret,” he whispered, his voice a dangerous growl against my ear. “Because I know what you’re hiding.”


Sia, a mute and abused omega, is brutally rejected by her fated mate, Rio, and sold off to a rogue pack by her own sister. Just as she thinks her life is over, she encounters a mysterious stranger during her heat in a black market hotel—a night of passion that leaves her pregnant.
But fate isn't done with her. She is bought by Alpha Lucas, a powerful leader who takes her as his mate. Sia must navigate a dangerous web of lies: pretending to be mute, hiding her pregnancy, and dealing with the jealousy of the pack. The twist? The stranger who fathered her child is none other than Kai, the Lycan King—and Lucas's son.

On a rainy evening, Ophelia Taylor caught her husband Benjamin White cheating, shattering their marriage and her happy illusions completely. Plunged into despair, she found solace in Benjamin’s younger brother, William. Gentle and steady, William silently guarded her—bringing warm milk on sleepless nights, defending her from Benjamin’s coldness—slowly melting her broken heart. Unknowingly, both fell for each other, a forbidden affection blooming amid betrayal. Torn between her unfaithful husband and her off-limits brother-in-law, Ophelia stood at an emotional crossroads. Her reason screamed it was wrong, but her heart clung to William’s warmth. This tangled struggle of love and guilt had just begun.

She was discarded in the rain like she was nothing... and now she is the force that will rewrite everything.
Seraphine never expected to be payment for her father's debt. Married to Alpha Fael Varyn to settle what was owed, she spent two years trying to be the Luna he refused to acknowledge. When she finally conceived, she thought everything would change. She was wrong. Fael rejected their bond, and left her bleeding in the rain. She should have died that night.
Instead, she was saved by Darius Varyn, Fael's banished uncle and sworn enemy. In the forbidden North, Darius offered her something Fael never did, acceptance, protection, and a chance to be the Luna she was always meant to be.
Six years later, Seraphina has built a life with Darius and raised her son Aurelian in peace. Until Fael returns with a devastating prophecy. Forced to return to the place of her greatest trauma, Seraphina must navigate political schemes, a mistress bent on destroying her, and two Alphas fighting for the throne.
But when a shocking truth about Aurelian's bloodline is revealed and a piece of her past comes back for her, the tides grow thicker. And when her power awakens, the prey becomes the predator.
"You've changed, Seraphine," Fael murmured, his eyes scanning the crown I now wore. "You used to beg for my touch."
"I stopped begging the night you left me to die in the mud," I replied coldly. "Now, the only thing I want from you is to see how much territory you'll lose before I'm finished with you."

"Sh*t, you weren't supposed to see this,"

He pulled the woman up, his shirt barely covering what he'd left on her behind and she grumbled, "What the hell Rico?! I haven't-"

She saw me and her eyes turned to slits.

"Whose whore are you?"

I'm going to be sick, what kind of nightmare is this.

"It's business, Sofia baby, go to the bedroom. I'll be done in a minute,"

Lenny Willow has given enough chances to the men in her life, from her drunk of a father to her slimy college boyfriend who tricked her into taking the fall for his crime wasting five years of her life in prison, she released to catch him cheating with her life savings-her only safety net. Now she's done, her walls of steels are built and nobody can get through not even her charismatic and insanely hot next door neighbor everything she shouldn't want and he can't seem to stop staring at her, he offers her a job just as she's short on rent and she's too cornered to say no. When her past comes to haunt her she finds herself running into his arms but as buried truths unravel and lies crumble as she's left to question if he was the danger she should have been running away from in the first place.

After years of bloodshed and power, Alpha Marcel leaves the ruthless world of werewolves behind to build a quiet life with his beloved wife, Ella, and their innocent daughter, Evelyn. In a remote town, they find fleeting peace—until whispers turn to accusations. Locals call Marcel the devil and brand Evelyn as his cursed offspring. As fear spreads, violence brews, forcing Marcel to flee with his family to protect what matters most.
But peace is short-lived.
Just when they think they’ve outrun the hate, a shadow from Marcel’s past resurfaces—an enemy cloaked in vengeance, determined to destroy everything Marcel holds dear. With his family in the crosshairs, Marcel must embrace the beast within once more. Because this time, survival isn't just about running. It's about fighting back.
Can a former Alpha escape the past—or will it come for his blood and his daughter's soul?
Note: This is book 2 of the Series, Sold To The Notorious Mafia Alpha- His Pleasure Thing

CALI
Drrrhhhhh! My alarm blared, shattering the silence of my small room. I shot upright, heart racing. Today was no ordinary day it was the day of my interview at B&S Incorporate, the company that could finally change everything for Edward and me. I had dreamt of this moment for weeks, yet now that it was here, a nervous flutter danced in my stomach. I couldn’t afford to be late. Not today.

I leapt out of bed and darted into the bathroom. The cold water on my face jolted me fully awake, washing away the last traces of sleep. I brushed my teeth swiftly, tied my hair into a neat ponytail, and secured it with a red ribbon the same ribbon I wore during my first presentation at college. It felt like a charm, a tiny talisman for luck. I threw on a simple white gown and slid my feet into red slippers, a splash of color against the plain fabric.

Once dressed, I opened my file and carefully arranged my CV, certificates, and other documents, placing them in my red bag. Each paper felt heavy with hope and expectation. One misstep today could cost me the opportunity I had worked so hard for.

The kitchen was next. I cooked cheese and macaroni, a quick breakfast for both Edward and me. I poured a portion into a flask for him—he had a doctor’s appointment later, and he hated missing meals. I ate quickly, swallowing each bite as if it contained my future. When I was done, I gently knocked on Edward’s bedroom door.

“Edward,” I called softly.
“Huuhh…” he mumbled, burying his face in his pillow.
I tapped him lightly again, then harder when he didn’t respond. His head popped up, eyes squinting against the morning light.
“We are on holidays, sis, for crying out loud!” he groaned, rubbing his eyes. Then he suddenly realized he’d shouted and covered his mouth. I fought back a laugh, but the morning urgency left no room for play.

“Don’t you know you have an appointment with the doctor?” I asked, exasperation creeping into my voice.
He bowed his head, muttering, “Okay…” then quickly smirked and ran back into his room, locking the d

His hand wrapped around my throat in claim, as he pinned me against the cold stone wall.
“You’re mine,” he growled, his breath hot against my lips. “Every breath and every heartbeat you take. Mine.”
But his nephew’s voice echoed in my mind: “You deserve better than a man who treats you like furniture.”
I never wanted this bond.
Alpha Zane forced me into a contract marriage—bear him an heir, then disappear. He made it clear I’m nothing more than a child-bearing vessel. A servant elevated to Luna only because the Moon Goddess cursed us both.
But his nephew, Kaius, sees me differently. He’s kind where Zane is cruel. Gentle where Zane is possessive. He offers me everything my mate hides from me: respect, partnership, freedom.
The problem? My body responds to Zane’s dominance even as my heart breaks from his coldness. And the more Kaius shows me what love could look like, the more dangerous this becomes.
Because Zane may not love me—but he’ll destroy anyone who tries to take what’s his.
Even his own family.
Torn between the mate who owns my soul and the man who sees it—which desire will damn me first?

I gave him my innocence. He gave me a public rejection.
I gave him my everything. He handed me rejection on a silver plate.

I thought I would be saved by Alpha Kael. I thought that this internal heat of ours meant we were fated. The morning after I gave myself to him, he didn't claim me—he broke me. "You are a traitor's daughter," he announced before the whole pack. "I reject you."

Shattered and humiliated, I fled. I welcomed death. But fate was cruel: I was pregnant.

Three years later, I had to go back to the place where I'd been broken. Not for love, not for revenge. My secret son is dying, and the only cure is in Kael's blood. I plan to steal it and disappear. But I underestimated the Alpha. He caught me in the dark. He locked the door. And this time he looks at me, not with hatred, but with hunger.

"You stole from me, Maya," he growls. "Now, you are mine."

I was hospitalized with a high fever, and my boyfriend stayed by my side 24/7.
The nurses all praised him as the "perfect boyfriend," and 5 million live stream viewers were green with envy.
He looked into the camera and poured his heart out: "She's my entire world. I could never leave her, not in this lifetime."
Tears streamed down my face as I felt like the luckiest woman alive.
Until 2 AM, when his phone buzzed with a message:
"Miss you 💋"
He thought I was fast asleep.
I wished I was just dreaming.

Six days after Alexander lost all contact, I navigated my way alone to the Nightfall Gala to find him.

The guard's expression twisted into something peculiar when he heard my purpose.

"You're saying you are looking for your mate, Prince Alexander? And what is your name?"

"I am Cecilia."

The guard let out a harsh, mocking snort. "Stop causing a scene! A blind beggar trying to pull a scam? Don't think you can just impersonate her just because you know the name of the Prince's mate."

"Everyone knows the Prince just gifted Cecilia the millennia-old Abyssal Night Crystal to celebrate her pregnancy! What the hell are you?"

Just then, the giant LED screen cut to the Gala's live broadcast.

"Allow me to formally introduce my partner, Cecilia. Furthermore, she is expecting. Our family is about to welcome a new heir." It was Alexander's voice.

"Thank you all. This is the greatest gift Alexander and I could ever receive."

The moment that sweet, timid voice echoed through the hall, a string violently snapped in my brain. A sharp ringing pierced my eardrums.

—It was the voice of my twin sister, Elena.

As a regular student, I never expected to fit into the world of trust fund kids. But this real estate heiress reached out to me, said she'd show me how the other half lives, even promised to introduce me to New England's most powerful heir.

I thought she'd be my friend. Thought she actually cared. I even fell for him.

Until she framed me for stealing confidential school files. Until he said, "Just a scholarship kid. No one's gonna miss her." That's when I understood. I was never more than their toy.

They tore up my textbooks, stuffed dead rats in my locker, spent six months tormenting me online and off. My mother couldn't take the vicious comments. Her heart gave out. And me? After I completely broke down, they drove me to the coastal cliffs.

Ice-cold water flooded my nose and mouth. Suffocation dragged me down into despair. I hate myself for being weak. Hate them for their arrogance. Hate this rotten system that treats people like me as disposable.

But when I opened my eyes again, I was back. Back to the night she pushed me toward him.

This time, I won't be fooled.

Five years. That's what I gave Vaelor, Crown Prince of the Dark Elves.
I was already dressed for the betrothal ceremony when I caught his voice through the gap in the council hall door.
"You're really going through with it? The human?"
"Of course. The Alliance has kept a blade at our throats for years. Their leader's apprentice, given to us in marriage—that puts it away."
"But if she suspects—"
"She won't."
"And Lyseth—"
"Lyseth is who matters. The human is manageable."
I didn't make it out of the courtyard. A blade came from the darkness before I could summon a defense.
When I woke up, I remembered everything. Aldric. Isara. The Alliance. Five years of roads, every step.
Just not his face.
Aldric's messenger stone was on the nightstand. Short, direct: Return to the Alliance. Political marriage. Orc Royal House.
I wrote back: Seven days.

Sebastion Drakos has been a selfish man all his life. For so long he put his needs above all those who he protects as the Alpha of The Redwood Pack. All for the love of an unworthy woman. Now with her gone, it leaves Sebastion to raise the son she gave him. For Jace, he will do anything.

Irina Belova is a slave. Vicktor is her master and a monster. Irina's daughter is her master's pawn. He uses her child to keep her in line. Vicktor is sending her on a mission. Irina is to spy on Sebastion, then trap him. Vicktor wants the mighty Alpha for his collection.

Fate may have plans for these two. They have children that they will do anything for. Each has a past they want to atone for. Can they survive the storm that is coming? Will Sebastion find his redemption? Will Irina find her freedom? Or will the forces working against all supernatural creatures keep them from achieving what they both want?

Mature Content Warning
18+ Readers
Drama Series

The cover of this book was made by fellow writer KeyKirita
The title of this book was the help of fellow writer Marii Solaria
Both writers have helped me greatly

Gathering Shadows Novels:
Book 1: Her Returned Mate
Book 2: His Redemption

Five years ago, during a passionate sexual encounter, Freya Myers stole sperm from a mysterious and dangerous man, intending to have a genetically superior child. That man was none other than Declan Castle, the ruthless, enigmatic CEO of the globally renowned Castle Group.

Five years later, Freya Myers returns to the city with a pair of exceptionally gifted twins, desperately trying to conceal their existence from the world. But when she interviews for an internship, she unexpectedly encounters Declan Castle—the very same man from years ago—as her interviewer. From then on, Declan Castle becomes a persistent, demonic force haunting her!

Five years ago, a single, desperate mistake changed Freya Myers's life forever. Intending to secure a future with the man of her dreams, she ended up in the wrong room, stealing the 'seed' of the wrong man. That man was Declan Castle—the cold, ruthless, and enigmatic CEO of the world-renowned Castle Group.

Now, Freya has returned to the city as a struggling single mother, hiding a pair of genius twins from the world. When she lands an internship at the Castle Group, she hopes to remain invisible. But fate has other plans. Declan Castle, a man who has remained mysteriously untouched by any woman since that fateful night, instantly senses something familiar about the new designer. He has spent years searching for the woman who 'ruined' him, and now that he has found her, he has no intention of letting her go.

Forced into a high-stakes marriage of convenience with the domineering CEO, Freya must navigate the treacherous waters of high society while desperately guarding her children's true identity. Between a scheming stepmother, jealous socialites, and a series of deadly secrets, the walls are closing in.

What started as a game of cat-and-mouse and a quest for revenge soon ignites into a passion that neither can control. In a world where power is everything and betrayal is a way of life, can Freya protect her heart and her children, or will the relentless Mr. Castle claim everything she’s been trying to hide?

He was powerful.
He was terrifying.
He was huge.
He had the whole world under his feet, the whole world within his grasp—but to him, she was his world, she meant everything.
He was feared by all, but it only mattered that she was scared of him.
He was worshipped by billions, yet he worshipped the very ground she walked on.
His calloused hands were capable of ripping people apart, yet they only held her with tenderness and possessiveness.
His claws ripped out throats, yet they only extended towards her to play with her curls.
"For there will be one born from chaos, forged from the ruins and the ashes of the ages. He will be the chosen one, the one to host the darkness. He will be engraved with the lines of the goddesses' touch and the fates will bow to him. But he will be the one to bring forth the carnage, that will end the world's that began under his feet. His light, her darkness. Every darkness needs a light but his will be lost in the times. Betrothed to the darkness, one with it. The cycle will go on till the darkness finds the light, to be one eclipse. For at the end, blood will flow."

For three years, Carol Bright was Edward Dawson's secretary and stepsister by day, and his secret lover by night. To him, she was just a game—disposable, forgettable, never meant to be loved.

When Edward announces his engagement to someone else, he expects drama. Instead, Carol disappears from his life without a word.

Now, she's no longer his. She's the heiress of the powerful Bright family—admired, untouchable, and far beyond his reach.

Then he sees her with another man. She slips behind closed doors. The lights go out—and she never returns.

That's when Edward realizes he's made the biggest mistake of his life.

The woman he once thought he owned is now the one he can never have again.

I had escaped my arranged marriage after discovering my fiancé was cheating on me, and I had never imagined that I would end up pregnant from a one-night stand with a mysterious muscleman...

One cool night three months later...
I teased myself, my fingers soaked with excitement.
I was almost there - so close. A little more, a little harder...
Something made me open my eyes, some sixth sense that I was not alone. Just outside the door, a man's silhouette was visible.
I didn't shy away, nor did I cover myself, but stared into the man's amber eyes.
With a cry that was half pleasure, half humiliation, tears welled up in my eyes -
"Oh, God," I gasped, my body still convulsing in the aftershocks. "Oh, fuck. Who the hell are you?"

He walked closer to me, letting me see him clearly. How did my one-night stand get in my house?
"Come home with me, my pregnant runaway bride..."
What on earth is he talking about? My one-night stand is my cheating ex-fiancé?
Fuck! When his business rival Lucas launched a fierce pursuit of me, I found that he cheated on me again!
Let's see the billionaire's journey of chasing his wife.

A betrayed politician’s wife.
A rebel alpha with nothing to lose.
A town crawling with secrets.
And a war waiting to ignite between blood and fang.
Calla Hart thought the worst thing her husband could do was cheat.
She was wrong.
After catching Senator Blake Hart in bed with a vampire, and learning he’s part of the Crimson Order, a vampire mafia that wants her blood.
Calla runs. Not for love, but for survival.
Because what’s in her veins isn’t normal.
She hides in Ravenridge, a decaying supernatural border town where monsters walk like men and shadows bite back.
A place where the veil between worlds is wearing thin.
There, she crashes -literally-into Axel Cain, the 20-year-old Alpha of the Vanguard Pack, a feral biker gang that patrols Ravenridge like outlaw wolves. Axel doesn’t do politics. Doesn’t do mates.
And definitely doesn’t do soft, wealthy women from the city.
But something in Calla’s scent sets his wolf on fire.
And when he learns who she’s running from-and what she really is-he makes a choice that will cost him everything:
Keep her close. Claim her.
And start a war that could burn the veil between their worlds.
Extra Note for Readers
This is a slow-burn paranormal romance with steamy heat, deep emotions, and an age-gap dynamic.
She’s older, hunted, and secretly powerful.
He’s younger, dominant, and doesn’t play nice.
Together, they might save the town… or destroy it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then he takes me back to his home.

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

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

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

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

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

Isadora Bellini spent her entire life living in the shadow of her twin sister, Giulia—but nothing hurt more than the moment their childhood best friend and her fated mate, Capo Lorenzo, chose Giulia over her. Shattered and humiliated, Isadora disappeared from the Luna Nera Clan, carving out a quiet life among humans. Eight years later, she’s dragged back to the one place she promised never to return—for Giulia’s funeral. What begins as a painful farewell quickly spirals into a storm of secrets, guilt, and dangerously unresolved emotions.
Lorenzo isn’t the same confident Capo who once broke her heart—he’s grieving, broken, and searching for answers. But so is Isadora. As truths begin to unravel—about Giulia’s betrayal, Lorenzo’s rejection, and a past that refuses to stay buried—Isadora finds herself caught between the scars of yesterday and the pull of a bond she tried to erase.
In a world where fate is sealed by blood and moonlight, and love can be the sharpest weapon of all… will Isadora risk everything to uncover the truth, or let her pain write the ending for her?
When love feels like betrayal, how do you trust what your heart still wants?

RIEKA
She was a naive,chubby,wolfless werewolf,maltreated by her mate to the point where she loses her sanity and womb,her crime was being chubby and less attractive than her peers.
GABRIEL
He was a handsome,strong willed womanizer,who happens to a hybrid ALPHA prince,the person he loves the most is his kid brother RALPH.
He has searched high and low for a mate he could never find.
What will happen when he finds out that his beloved brother's ex wife,happens to be his long awaited mate,who was maltreated and is currently mentally unstable?
Will he forgive his brother for hurting his mate?or will blood flow?