104 Book(s) Related to nightmare shift

Rose Cheshire runs a little Inn on the beach. Her son, Kai, is almost 16 and learning to drive and prepping to get his license. After a near disastrous accident with her mechanic and neighbor, Henry Mason, he convinces her to go on a date with him.

As she and Henry start to grow closer, strange things start to happen. How does a small-town mechanic have the money to do the kind of work Henry is doing to his house? And why does he need a state-of-the-art security system?

To top it all off, Kai's strange and overwhelming nightmares are getting worse and happening nearly every night. When he starts to see and hear things, Rose begins to worry that something may be very wrong. To top it off, Kai's father, who abandoned them, has come back to town and has been sneaking around.

Strange telephone calls. Noises outside second story windows. The howling. The screams. People coming up missing in town. Kai's increasingly strange mood swings and growing pains. Rose has no idea why her life seems to be falling apart. Why is Kai's dad acting so hostile? Why does Henry seem so concerned with what Kai is going through, and why does it feel like he knows more than he's letting on?

On her eighteenth birthday, Mia learned that the parents who had raised her for eighteen years were not her biological family. On the same day, she received an acceptance letter to a prestigious Academy of Magic.

Her adoptive parents revealed a shocking truth: she was a Shifter. To survive the dangers looming on the horizon, she had to enroll in the academy and unlock her hidden potential.

But from the moment she arrived, she realized she didn't belong.

Every student possessed a unique shifting form and extraordinary abilities. Mia, however, couldn't even perform the most basic transformation.

There, she met Draven, the last living dragon in the world.

As she grew closer to him, it seemed as though the entire academy turned against her.

The truth behind the war that changed the magical world may be far darker than she ever imagined.

And the only person she can truly trust is the very dragon everyone else fears and hates.

What she never expected was that Draven's instinct to protect her, and his possessiveness, would be far stronger than anything she was prepared for.

Take a journey with me into my collection of short horror stories.

Over the years, my dreams have always scared me so much that I had a

hard time sleeping at night.

So, one day I decided to create new stories from my deepest fears.

From Vampires, monsters, witches and ghosts to stories that seem normal but are just a little off, I hope my stories chill you to the bone as much as they do me.

"You really think I'm playing around?" He grounds me through gritted teeth and he takes a step closer and I begin to move back.
"I gave you a strict instruction and you disobeyed, you chose to rebel."
There is about a zillion comeback running through my head, but my brain only focuses on the man whose green eyes has somehow turned into black because he's mad at me.
"Do you know what happens to rebellious people?" I keep moving back until my back from him hit the wall and I hiss out in frustration.
I swallow hard and try not to look at him, pissing him off would be a good thing when we aren't the only ones in the whole house.
"Do you?!" He demands with a roar.
"No, I don't. Tell me." I say,
He takes a firm step close to stand intimately close to me, his height making me feel like a little child. "They get punished." And for the first time in the last five to six-minute, I see his green eyes of him instead of black ones looking into mine with lust and my brain go blank for a second and I have to shake it to restart it.
Even I can't deny the intense feeling I have been having, I don't want to be in denial any more. I do want to be close to him and as much as it scares me, it draws me in to know more.
"Then punish me."


The arrangement was, I get to meet her, propose to her, we get married as that would create a stronger bond between the two business associates, bringing us together as a family.

Author's Note.

This project started few months as just a fragment of different imagination worth putting together to form an epic blockbuster novel.

I spent my days jotting down random scenes, became acquainted with the characters and their unique quirks: a 18 year old kid, an amiable charming girl that goes through pain, a 18 year old kid a creepy psychopath with obsessive compulsive disorder, a 19- year old loyal daring overconfident kid.

After so many months, I thought why don't I just edit and write the story already.

Now that's what am doing, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

“You’re asking for trouble, little lamb.”

I thought catching my fiancé cheating with my best friend was rock bottom. Then came the vodka-fueled night that incinerated my last shred of sense—and a stranger’s searing touch in a VIP suite that branded itself into my bones.

He storms back into my life weeks later, and I learn his name: Thayne Slade. Billionaire tycoon. Forbes legend. The man who now owns my future.

My stepfather stole thirty million from him. And I? I’m the collateral.

Trapped in his glass-and-steel penthouse, stripped of every last freedom, I’m forced to play the role of his personal assistant—and his fake fiancée—a cruel stunt to spit in the face of his snobbish elite circle. Now I’m surrounded by sharks: a Hollywood heiress who sneers at me like I’m dirt, a father who calls me worthless, and a family that writes me off as a gold-digging tramp. In this world, money buys loyalty. Desire is a weapon. And Thayne Slade holds all the cards.

Will I outsmart the billionaire who owns my fate?
Or will I surrender to the nightmare that’s starting to feel dangerously like home?

This was Angela Cassiel's last year in high school. She had planned to spend the last year smoothly and welcomed her she-wolf when she turned 18. She may even find her mate. But she didn't expect her bully, Leo Miller to come back. Leo had always bullied Angela since they met in middle school. Leo kept bullying Angela, because Angela's father was the reason his mother and sister died. And he wanted Angela to pay for her father's mistake. Angela had no idea of this. She just knew Leo hated her to the guts. She tried to fight against Leo several times, but she was no match for him.

Two Years ago, Leo transferred to another school because of family issues. Angela was glad to get rid of the bully bandage. And she thought they would probably never see each other. But her peaceful life was shattered, again, by Leo Miller's return. What would happen next? Would Angela fight against Leo bravely this time?

Clutching his shirt, I pull him closer, and he smirks, well aware of the effect he has on me. The wetness in my core intensifies with his touch.Realization dawns on me as I hastily push him away, panting heavily. His gaze, dark with lust, looks at me intently.
The wetness beneath me and the pain in my neck subside, but the tingling sparks remain.His overpowering scent and minty breath envelop me. Then he whispers, "Lyra if I slip my finger inside you, I swear you are dripping wet for me. And you say you hate me?"That is the breaking point. Summoning all my strength, I push him away forcefully, slipping out of his grasp.
Lyra fled for her life when falsely accused of poisoning the Alpha. Pursued, she was rescued by Lycan King Kessler, who she realized was her mate. However, he had killed her parents, making her conflicted. To meet her uncle's demands, she pretends loyalty to the Lycan King but faces threats from the Alpha wants her dead. Her uncle insists on her having an heir with the Lycan King.The Lycan King refused to mate with her.Lyra's journey unfolds as she wrestles with these challenges – will she overcome them or succumb to the pressure?

This was Angela Cassiel's last year in high school. She had planned to spend the last year smoothly and welcomed her she-wolf when she turned 18. She may even find her mate. But she didn't expect her bully, Leo Miller to come back. Leo had always bullied Angela since they met in middle
school. Leo kept bullying Angela, because Angela's father was the reason his mother and sister died. And he wanted Angela to pay for her father's mistake. Angela had no idea of this. She just knew Leo hated her to the guts. She tried to fight against Leo several times, but she was no match for him. Two Years ago, Leo transferred to another school because of family issues. Angela was glad to get rid of the bully bandage. And she thought they would probably never see each other. But her peaceful life was shattered, again, by Leo Miller's return. What would happen next? Would Angela fight against Leo
bravely this time?

Layla Byrne arrives at Blackwater Hall with one letter in her bag and one ugly truth in her chest. Someone is dead, someone is definitely lying.

The school welcomes gifted students, bloodline heirs, and the children of old magical families. It also hides a forest full of sealed power, missing students, and a history everyone has been trained to forget.

Layla is the outsider from the coast, the scholarship girl with the wrong surname, the wrong accent, and a magic she cannot control. The moment she steps onto Blackwater Hall grounds, she feels eyes on her. Notes appear where they should not. Doors open behind her when nobody is there. Someone knows where she sleeps before she does.

The worst part is that the boy who keeps appearing whenever danger comes near her looks like the one who is doing it. Callum Reid is the academy’s golden enforcer, the respected heir with sharp hands, colder manners, and a habit of being too close for comfort. Layla decides he is the stalker. Callum decides she is a threat to the school and to herself. Neither of them is completely wrong.

As Layla digs deeper, she learns that Blackwater Hall does not merely educate students. It ranks them, watches them, marks them, and uses them. Students with the right bloodlines are pushed toward the hidden forest seal beneath the school. Records vanish. Names are being erased. People disappear.

The woman running the academy smiles through all of it. The archivist who keeps the records knows exactly how the old power works.

And the first boy Layla ever trusted in the academy turns out to be the real predator, the one who has been stalking her from the shadows long before she understood she was being hunted.

In the world of open wheel racing, Kai "The Blade" Reynolds is the undefeated golden boy charismatic, ridiculously handsome, and the face of Apex Motorsports Academy. With piercing green eyes, a sharp jawline, and a cocky smirk that sells out sponsors and breaks hearts, Kai’s perfect image is his greatest weapon.
Until a vicious blog post erupts, grainy photos of him leaving an exclusive gay club surface overnight, sparking scandal and costing him multi-million-dollar contracts. Desperate to save his career and silence the rumors, Kai’s management forces him into a ironclad fake dating contract with the one person who despises everything he stands for. And the very person who was behind the blog post and hate page dedicated to him.
Mia Thompson is a fiercely independent 22-year-old engineering prodigy and engineering specialist who hates the entitled racing elite. Secretly running the anonymous blog GridTruths Exposed, she’s spent years exposing the corruption and favoritism at Apex. When Kai threatens to destroy her future, scholarship, and dreams if she refuses, Mia signs the contract out of desperation trading six months of her life for a quarter million dollars and a chance to secure her mother’s future.
Thrown into a series of red carpet appearances, staged kisses, and sizzling public performances, Mia and Kai are forced to play the perfect couple while secretly hating each other. But as explosive arguments turn into heated tension, fake touches ignite real sparks, and the lines between care and hate, both will discover that the biggest danger isn’t the scandal or the rivals trying to take Kai down.
It’s the undeniable attraction burning between two people who were never supposed to fall.

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.

"Hybrids must be destroyed," the Luna announced. Then, she buried my newborn pup alive.

Fifteen years ago, I was stripped of my magic, banished from my coven, and left for dead. I found salvation in the arms of my fated mate, Horace. But our forbidden love ended in blood when he was framed for the Alpha’s murder, and our miracle baby was condemned to a suffocating grave.

To survive—and to hold onto the hope that my son was still alive—I was forced to become the mate of Horace’s sadistic stepbrother, enduring fifteen years of torment.

Now, a mysterious and powerful Lycan King has arrived at the palace gates. He is cold, ruthless, and looks exactly like the mate I watched die fifteen years ago.

Horace is back.

And he isn’t just here to reclaim his throne. He’s here for me who “betrayed” him… and for the son we both believed had been buried alive.

The hunt begins.

Three years ago, my brother left me with his most trusted friend, Kaden.

That "trustworthy" Alpha had me pinned beneath him on my third night in the Shadow Pack.

Since then, I played his obedient little "sister" by day and spread my legs for him by night. Three years of sneaking around—I was done.

My ultimatum: make it official or we're done.

Hours ago, with me pressed into the mattress, he swore between thrusts, "Tomorrow. I'll tell everyone tomorrow."

Then his first love Chloe came back.

He dropped everything and ran to her. I followed. Watched him gently wipe her tears—the same hands that had gripped my throat just hours before.

"Kaden, you promised—"

"Shut up." He turned on me, voice lethal. "Don't say another word in front of Chloe. There's nothing between us. I'm doing Seth a favor, looking after his bratty sister. Clear?"
My hands trembled. Three years. All of it—a fucking joke.

I pulled out my phone and texted my brother: "The Silver Moon marriage. I accept."

I was a sacrifice.

He was my executioner.

Leora was never meant to live. She just survive beneath the shadows of death, a survival confined between a shady past an ambiguous future. However, her life take a turn for the worse when she is accused of attacking the Alpha's mate.

Abused and humiliated, Leora ends up banished from the pack that hosted her all her life to meet her fate, which turns out to be not only her worst fear, the past she has been running from, but the monster who claims her as his mate.

Can she outlive the fear and find love within the dead heart of a monster? Can she continue to live next to death? And can she restore the happiness that was stolen from her? Or will she be the sacrifice she was always destined to be?

She just needed the money while he just needed someone to watch his little brother.

Zara Owens is the girl nobody looks at twice, except to laugh. Bullied, plus-size, and invisible by choice and by force, she has survived three years at Westbridge High by keeping her head down, her armor on, and her expectations low. The last thing she needs is Chase Hendricks complicating any of it.

Chase is Westbridge's golden boy. Star quarterback, perfect life, the kind of face that makes rooms go quiet. From the outside, everything about him looks exactly as good as it seems. From the inside, his father is gone, his mother works doubles, his relationship is a performance, and the only person in his week who talks to him like a real human being is the girl he keeps running into in his own kitchen.

Forced together every evening under the same roof, almost enemies at school but something far more dangerous at home, they are both about to find out that the person who sees you most clearly is the one you least expected and that being truly seen, after years of hiding, might be the scariest thing of all.

Reid Vance has two rules this semester- win the Frozen Four and keep the NHL scouts interested.

Dating isn’t on the list. Not after his ex cheated with the guy trying to steal his captain spot.

Then his best friend and teammate leaves for a semester abroad and begs Reid to house his sister—Chloe Dupont.

She is a Reality TV star, a paparazzi magnet, and the girl every guy wants on campus. She is the girl who got him benched in high school with one stupid prank.

To Reid, she’s shallow, loud, dramatic, proud, and everything he hates.

To Chloe, he’s the arrogant jock who treats her like trash.

Now she’s sleeping in his spare room with one promise to his best friend he can’t break. He was supposed to protect her, not want her.

How long before “I hate her” turns into “I can't let her go”?

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.

Melia Bournemouth thought she had lost everything when her father died and a tragic accident left her in a wheelchair.

Her only comfort was her devoted husband, Mathew. But when Melia discovers Mathew is secretly liquidating her last remaining assets to build a life with his pregnant mistress, her grief turns into cold, hard rage.

Desperate for retribution, Melia turns to the only man Mathew fears: Illya Cosgrave, a ruthless and dangerous billionaire with a dark reputation. But as they plot to dismantle Mathew’s empire from the shadows, Melia realizes Illya isn't just a weapon for revenge. He harbors a secret connection to her past that changes everything.

Now, Melia must decide: will she remain the victim, or will she rise from her chair and burn her ex-husband’s world to the ground?

The moment Alexander lost his memory, I chose to lie: "I'm your girlfriend."

I maintained that lie for seven whole years.

For seven years, I lived like a shadow by his side, watching the disgust in his eyes after his memory returned, enduring every humiliation he gave me for Charlotte's sake. Until I held our dead child and swallowed that bottle of sleeping pills.

When I was reborn and opened my eyes, facing the same amnesiac Alexander, this time I said: "I'm just your friend."

Then I turned around and married his brother Daniel.

When Alexander knelt in the rain crying and begging for my forgiveness, when he desperately rescued Daniel from the rubble, when he was finally found breathless in his room— I no longer wanted to look back.

Ten years of secret love, and what did I get? Watching him fall for another woman at MY art exhibition.

The most ridiculous part? He turned to me and said, "Harper, you have to help me win her over."

I orchestrated their romantic encounters, taught him how to charm women, even told him what flowers she liked. I was the perfect wingman, watching them fall in love while I licked my wounds in the dark.

Until Dr. Avery confronted me with one devastating question: "Do you really think he doesn't know you love him?"

When I finally screamed "I've loved you for ten years!" at Mason, his response froze my blood:

"I know. I've always known."

Turns out, my ten years of devotion were nothing more than a free emotional dumping ground to him—the convenient girl who would never leave. He enjoyed my care while pretending not to see my love, because that was safest, easiest.

Pathetic, right?

A woman wastes ten years loving a man, only to end up pushing him into someone else's arms.

Until Blake appeared.......

In the terminal stage of cancer, my only life-saving chemotherapy opportunity was bought out by Patrick for Laura, who only had early-stage cancer.

I gave up the treatment plan that doctors said could save my life and swallowed strong pain-blocking medication. The consequence was organ failure and death within three days.

During these three days, I gave up everything.

When I gave all my hard-earned achievements to Laura, my parents smiled with relief.

When Patrick presented the divorce papers and I signed them readily, he sighed and said I was very sensible.

When I pushed Anna to call Laura "mom," she said excitedly that mommy was the best.

Even when I transferred all my properties and assets to Laura, they didn't notice anything wrong.

They just looked at me with relief and said: "Our sensible Flora has finally come back."

But I'm also curious - after I die, will they ever think of me?

In my past life, the glorious "Son of the Sun" drained my divine blood until I died a broken shell.
Reborn, my twin sister eagerly steals my fiancé, shoving me toward the exiled, "crippled" King of the Shadow Crows.
As she flaunts her stolen glory, desperate to birth the sky's future ruler, I can only smile.
She doesn't know her golden prince is functionally sterile—and the "heir" she's destroying herself to conceive will be a nightmare.
And she certainly has no idea that my featherless, outcast husband is actually the ancient Abyssal Phoenix.
Let her drown in the hell she stole. This time, I’ll let the very abyss she cursed crown me as a True God.

I used to believe the most beautiful sound in the world was a baby's first cry.

Until I watched my three children die, one by one, at the hands of a woman with the sweetest smile.

Her name was Isabella, my husband's cousin. She would tenderly offer tissues after my miscarriages, frantically call for help when I fell down the stairs, thoughtfully make soup to comfort me after I lost each child.

She was such a talented actress. So convincing that even my mafia don husband said, "Isabella is more suited to be the lady of this house than you are."

But they didn't know—

A docile sheep, once it learns the wolf's rules, becomes far more dangerous than any real wolf.

When Dominick smashed Antonio's skull with the holy chalice, when Isabella screamed through her miscarriage in the basement, when blood splattered across the Virgin Mary's face...

I got dragged online by one of my lead devs.

He claimed my "Incubation Project" was a gilded cage—a trap to exploit the team and steal their personal IPs.

The truth?

I funded it out of my own pocket.

Selected candidates would get a $50,000 no-strings-attached seed fund, plus full Ivy League tuition reimbursement. It was 100% voluntary, with zero penalties for opting out.

Since the internet decided I was a toxic capitalist monopolizing their creativity, I gave him exactly what he wanted. I fired off a company-wide memo:

[To protect your creative freedom from capitalist exploitation, the $50,000 Incubation Fund is permanently abolished, effective immediately.]

[As an alternative, the monthly education allowance for all employees is now a $15 reimbursement for basic coding courses.]

The moment the memo dropped, the employees who were counting on that $50k to pay off student loans or change their lives completely lost it.

Now, they're swarming right outside my glass office door, eyes red, begging me to reinstate the program.

As the Guardian of the Sylvan Enclave's Sacred Vein, the centennial Fading Period was the one time I was utterly defenseless.

Yet, on this exact day, the four High Lord brothers I had protected for centuries decided to harvest my Vein—all because our adopted human sister whined about wanting to become an elf instantly.

Without the Vein, the Enclave would wither.

In my past life, I desperately fought them off. I begged them to reconsider, promising to manually infuse her with my magic to sustain her life.

They backed down, but Cassianne's greed didn't. She sneaked into the Forbidden forest seeking a shortcut to power and was devoured by beasts.

When news of her death hit, my brothers lost their minds.

They smashed my sanctuary and physically tore open my chest.

"If you hadn't been so selfish, hoarding your Vein, she wouldn't have been so desperate! Rot in hell, you monster!"

Blinded by rage, they shattered my limbs and hollowed me out, leaving me to suffocate in my own pooling blood.

Opening my eyes again, I realized I had been reborn.

This time, I decided to give them exactly what they wanted.

I accompanied my husband's grandmother, who had just undergone heart bypass surgery, to quietly recuperate on the top floor of a private club. However, we were invaded by a woman adorned in the ruby necklace I designed, wielding my husband's supplementary card. She publicly humiliated my grandmother and locked us in a freezing cold chamber at minus sixty degrees, declaring herself to be my husband's fiancée. In a desperate attempt to save my grandmother, I publicly slandered myself, but she then reneged on her words—just as the sound of my husband's footsteps echoed from the doorway…

I have been engaged to my fiancé nine times, and each time, he has abandoned me on the wedding day for my sister.

The first time, I knelt in the church, pleading with him not to leave, while he gently cradled my sister, not even affording me a glance.

By the ninth time, as he once again postponed the wedding for her sake, I no longer cried or protested. Instead, I calmly removed my veil and said, "You may go; the wedding is canceled."

He believed this was merely a ploy of mine, filled with confidence as he promised, "Once Emma is better, we'll reschedule the ceremony."

Little did he know that the departure date on my plane ticket coincided with our wedding day. As he frantically searched for me, I had already become the fiancée of his worst enemy.

This time, even if he were to kneel and beg at my doorstep, I would never look back.

I was a broke scholarship student. Chloe was an old-money heiress and the untouchable cheer captain.

She paraded me through her elite world and even generously shoved me at her ultimate crush—Aston, the ruthless son of the school board director.

But when Aston and I actually got together, the princess bared her fangs.

She staged a severe fall to drain my meager savings, then framed me for stealing her family's heirloom necklace. And Aston? He dumped me immediately, sneering that I was just a cheap prop desperate to climb the social ladder.

Ostracized and cyberbullied by the entire school, I was locked on the rooftop during the Winter Formal and left to freeze to death in the snow.

But when I opened my eyes...

I was back at that deafening party. Right at the moment Chloe first introduced me to Aston.

I had given my whole heart to my boyfriend Tristan, yet during a game of Truth or Dare at the party, when he lost, he kissed his childhood sweetheart Celeste without the slightest hesitation. When I confronted him in utter devastation, he merely regarded me with impatience, urging me not to be such a poor sport. At that moment, Tristan's perpetually silent twin brother suddenly stepped forward, seized the 'passionate kiss' dare card from the table, fixed his gaze intently upon my lips, and tilting his head with an air of innocent inquiry, asked: "Sister-in-law, if he can play, are you able to play as well?"

Rumored to be a bloodthirsty monster, the Dark Moon Alpha terrified my twin sister into fleeing their arranged marriage to elope with a rogue.

In my past life, my parents forced me to take her place.

Instead of dying, I ended up in the Alpha's castle, showered in the pack's unimaginable wealth.

Starving on the run, my jealous sister conspired with our parents.

They drained my wolf bloodline and burned me alive in a pure silver mine, just so she could steal my face and the Alpha's favor.

Opening my eyes, I found myself back on the night of her escape.

Instead of begging, I willingly grabbed the wedding dress.

"Elope in peace, sister. I'll marry the monster for you."

She thought she was handing me a death sentence.

But she had no idea... the obsessive love of a top-tier Alpha, and the supreme throne of the Luna...

This time, they will all be mine!

"Mom, I only want to go to Paris with you, not Dad."

When my ten-year-old daughter said this with tears in her eyes, I thought she was expressing her love for me.

I was wrong.

In our Paris hotel, I accidentally overheard the phone call that changed everything—

"Don't worry, Lily will find a way to extend the trip. I promised to buy her that concert-grade piano."

"Having sex in your marital bed is so thrilling, much better than at my apartment."

"That little girl Lily cooperates perfectly, always managing to lead Sarah away."

In that moment, my world completely shattered.

I thought I was only being betrayed by my husband, but discovered that even the daughter I carried for ten months was their carefully orchestrated pawn.

The child I raised with my own hands was actually helping her father's mistress occupy my home and sleep in my bed.

When a mother discovers she's been deceived by those she loves most, her revenge will make everyone pay a devastating price.

Two years later, when I saw that once-successful man wearing a shabby suit, accompanied by his malnourished daughter at my charity auction, I only said coldly:

"She can come with me, but you—never deserve it."

The night Julian went public with the new cheer captain, everyone expected me to crash the party and completely lose my mind.

But the confession ended, and I never showed up.

What Julian didn't know was that at that exact moment, I was wearing his cousin's oversized shirt, sitting on the edge of his mattress, asking with perfect innocence:

"I just got your sheets wet. Where are we supposed to sleep tonight?"

The High Fae were facing extinction, their bloodlines withering away.

Valerius, the Prince of the Shadow Realm, was a terrifying force of nature—ruthless and utterly cold.

I am Ella, a mere human who accidentally fell into a Shadow Rift, a mortal girl with nothing but survival on my mind.

Left with no other choice, I snuck into this shadow prince's bed in the dead of night.

On the day he pierced my chest to take my heart-blood to save the Witch Princess, I faked my death and ran away—carrying his half-Fae babies in my belly.

Years later, I was busy preening the starry wings of my seven little miracles.

He found me, dropping to his knees, as pathetic and desperate as an abandoned hound.

"Ella... do you really not want me anymore?"

A siren's tears turn to gemstones.

Mine were funding my boyfriend's entire career—but ordinary stones weren't enough anymore.

Deep-sea sapphires. That's what he was after.

So he brought a whip.

"Almost there, babe. Cry for me and it's over."

"Once I'm in, I'll marry you."

My vision blurred with tears—then something else flooded in.

Bright, scrolling, impossible words:

[LOL, by the time he gets his Council seat, he'll have wrung her dry and married the Arcane Princess instead.]

[Sandra, check out the vampire prince next door—he heard you screaming and thinks you two are having sex. He's crying under his blankets right now.]

[When you're literally dying in the finale, the prince is the one who carries you to the Eastern Sea. That's the only reason you survive.]

[Oh, and the prince is a purebred incubus hybrid. Eight-pack abs. Naturally compatible with desire-driven sirens. Stop suffering for this loser and go live your best life!]

My eyes lit up. I kicked the man in front of me straight into the wall.

Hopped next door, pushed open the door: "Kaelen, I hear you've got a nice body—prove it?"

At eighteen, I gave my virginity to Hunter in his bed.

I swallowed all the pain and hesitation, naively believing that three years of a pathetic crush had finally earned my way into his heart.

Until the next morning, when I heard his teammates' unabashed mockery:

"Damn, you finally bagged the nerd? How was it?"

Hunter scoffed, his tone dripping with utter contempt.

"Just messing around. If I'm bringing a real girlfriend out, it's gotta be someone on Serena's level—head cheerleader."

I wordlessly opened my college application portal, deleted the garbage local state school I had picked just to stay with him, and changed it back to Yale.

He confidently thought I would follow him blindly, until he video-called me on opening day and completely lost his mind seeing who was beside me: his own stepbrother.

After hearing about my peanut allergy, my boyfriend's newly crowned campus queen added peanut extract to my signature cocktail.

Just one sip in, and my skin immediately erupted in hives. My throat started to close up rapidly.

I stumbled toward my canvas tote, pulled out my life-saving EpiPen, and yanked off the cap.

But the next second, my blood ran cold.

The emergency EpiPen had been swapped out for a tube of lipstick by my boyfriend.

Seeing my face turn purple as I collapsed onto the floor, the campus queen suddenly burst into laughter:

"Surprise! I specifically told Julian to swap it out!"

"You are such a fake. Anaphylactic shock from a single sip?"

I desperately gripped my boyfriend's cuff, letting out strained, wheezing gasps like a broken bellows:

"Julian... if you don't give me the real one... I'm really going to die!"

He peeled my fingers off him one by one and swatted my hand away in disgust, frowning slightly:

"Do you really think you're some delicate princess? It's just a drink. Are you seriously doing this?"

"Madison is right. You're just a drama queen making a scene!"

I gave up pleading for him to understand. Instead, I pressed the custom fountain pen in my pocket, triggering my old-money family's highest-tier SOS signal.

My daughter has passed away, and my ex-husband abandoned us.

In my darkest hour, my first love, Lysander, reappeared; he covered the medical expenses, married me, and provided me with a home.

For five years, I believed I was the luckiest woman in the world.

Until that fateful day, four months into my pregnancy, when I overheard his conversation with a friend—

“To save Celeste, I thought... who knew it would lead to the death of Seraphina’s daughter?”

“As for Seraphina, she is a good wife, but alas... I do not love her.”

It turned out that my daughter’s death was no accident.

It was revealed that these five years of marriage were merely his quest for atonement.

The one he had always truly loved was Celeste—my ex-husband’s current wife.

As I lay on the operating table, I made a decision—

Since he had taken my daughter’s kidney, I would seize everything from him.

Including what he believed he would never lose: me.

At my mother's funeral, I stopped outside the lounge.

Through the door, I heard Julian—my fiancé—delivering a cold warning to my father:

"You can stop obsessing over Harper, Richard. She's with me now. Don't bother her anymore."

My father immediately tried to use me to suppress him. "Don't forget you're marrying Sloane next week! If she finds out you're screwing the orphan her mother took in..."

Julian cut him off. "She'll never know. Just like she'll never know her mother didn't actually die of depression. She killed herself because she caught you two together."

Father's counterattack threw me straight into hell:

"What right do you have to judge me?! When Sloane was frantic, calling you for help, what were you doing? If you hadn't been rolling around in a hotel bed with Harper, if you hadn't lied to Sloane that you were 'on your way,' her mother would never have died!"

A violent ringing filled my ears.

I slammed the door open, stormed in, and slapped Julian across the face with every ounce of strength I had left.

The man I was supposed to marry in seven days merely turned his head. It took him exactly one second to suppress his shock.

"Since you heard everything, good. Better to accept reality now, so you don't break down later."

"For the sake of the Vance family heir you're carrying, the wedding next week proceeds as planned."

"But I have responsibilities to Harper, too. That tie won't be severed."

I thought I was marrying the New York Godfather out of love. I didn't know I was just a walking blood bank for his fake 'savior'—my illegitimate half-sister.

My father, my brother, my husband... they bled me dry, framed me, and even demanded my unborn baby's cord blood to keep a murderer alive.

When I finally learned the truth, I didn't cry. I didn't scream.
I simply locked the doors, scheduled the emails that would shatter their reality, and left them a charred corpse in a towering sea of fire.

They thought they watched me burn. I let them descent into absolute madness.

In my past life, I exposed my cousin Isolde's deadly secret just to save Darius from absolute ruin, binding myself to him in a Soul Pact instead.

My reward?

At three months pregnant, Darius chained me to a water dungeon altar, carved my stomach open alive, and smashed our unborn child to pieces right in front of my eyes—all as a twisted sacrifice to my cousin who supposedly "died for love."

When I opened my eyes again, I was right back at the Pact Selection Ceremony.

Watching him pull her into his arms like some priceless treasure, I simply smiled and took a tactful step back.

In this life, I am going to sit back and watch the two of them burn in hell together.

On our wedding night, my husband confessed that he had been unfaithful with my sister.

In response, I revealed that I had murdered my stepfather.

He laughed and said, "My dear, your story is so convincingly crafted."

It was only when he discovered—

Every detail within the narrative was, indeed, a stark reality.

Including the poison that was now coursing through his veins.

"Victor, stop. I came here for therapy—not to ruin my marriage."

Arthur had assured me his college buddy Victor—a single personal rehab therapist built like a gladiator—would cure my chronic back pain. But then Victor straddled me on the therapy table, his thick, hard cock scorching through thin fabric as it ground against my soaked pussy. All the while, Arthur's voice echoed from the speakerphone:

"Do whatever it takes to fix her. I trust you."

Five years. Five years I gave everything to Paxton Sterling—my heart, my body, my wolf's soul. I built his empire as Chief Strategy Officer while wearing his mark like a badge of honor.

Then she came back.

Layla—my pure-blooded half-sister with her perfect smile and poison tongue. Within days of her return from Europe, Paxton was ready to throw me away like yesterday's news.

"I want to sever our bond, Freya. Lyra is my true mate."

Wrong move, Alpha.

He thinks I'm just another submissive mate who'll quietly disappear. He's forgotten I'm a mixed-blood Alpha who's been playing nice for far too long. While he's busy playing house with my backstabbing sister, Lucas Morgan—the most dangerous Alpha in the territory—is making me an offer I can't refuse.

Paxton wants to discard me? Fine.

But he's about to learn that some women don't just walk away—they burn everything down on their way out.

I'm done being the good girl. Done being the perfect mate. Done hiding what I really am.

They say some secrets are meant to stay buried.

I used to believe that too—until Roman Aldridge walked back into my life fifteen years later, no longer the broken thirteen-year-old boy I once held through his darkest nights, but a devastatingly handsome man who looked at me like I was his salvation and his damnation all at once.

"I've never stopped loving you, Vivian."

Those seven words shattered the carefully constructed walls I'd built around my heart. Because the truth? I'd never stopped loving him either.

Fifteen years ago, I was his dead mother's replacement—a twenty-three-year-old political advisor tasked with caring for a grieving child. I held him when he cried, watched him grow, and somewhere along the way, developed feelings that terrified me so much I fled Seattle like my life depended on it.

Now I'm back. Divorced, desperate, and apparently still weak enough to melt under those same dark eyes that once looked at me with innocent adoration but now burn with a man's desire.

The scandal writes itself: Governor Candidate's Son Seduces Former Caregiver. Or is it the other way around? Does it matter when the entire world thinks you're a predator who groomed the boy you were supposed to protect?

Roman doesn't care about the headlines. He doesn't care that loving me could destroy his political future, his relationship with his father, everything he's worked for. He says he'd rather burn the whole world down than live without me.

The problem is, I believe him.

And God help me, I think I might let him.

Because sometimes, the most forbidden love is the only one worth fighting for.

Even if it means that a woman falls in love with the child she once nurtured.

I died—not in the way you'd expect, but slowly, painfully, while he was entangled with her.

He called her his savior, the woman who sold everything to rescue his failing empire. Little did he know, it was my money, my life's work, that he squandered.

The betrayal burned hotter than any flame, and I vowed he'd pay.

Now, he's gone—a leap from the heights he once ruled, his fall as swift as his rise.

When my husband handed the project I bled for to his "depressed" childhood sweetheart, he told me to be mature. "You're my wife. You shouldn't care about the credit."

So, when I was in the hospital miscarrying our baby while he threw her a party, I didn't cry. When she posted selfies wearing my anniversary necklace, I didn't scream.

Julian thought he had finally broken me into the perfect, obedient housewife. He truly believed I was nothing without him.

What a pathetic joke.

He had no idea his entire "business empire" was secretly kept alive by my family's trust fund.

He certainly didn't know the "mundane paperwork" he blindly signed this morning was my resignation—and our divorce agreement.

At our seventh wedding anniversary dinner, my husband Nathan audaciously discussed the name of the child his mistress Victoria was carrying, speaking in Spanish right in front of me.
They presumed I could not understand. Yet, not only did I comprehend every word, but I had also long ago uncovered evidence of their affair—including those passionate videos filmed in his car...
But when I vanished completely, he went into a frenzy.
When the news of the 'plane crash' broke, he spent fifty million dollars, deploying twelve rescue helicopters to search relentlessly through the storm for seven days and nights.
When the rescue team informed him that 'there were no survivors,' this once indomitable man knelt on the deck, weeping inconsolably like a child who has lost his mother.
Little did he know, there was no trace of me on that 'lost' plane.
And now, it was my turn to make him experience the true meaning of loss.

I spent two years alongside the Mafia don, serving as his most obedient secretary and most transparent wife, watching as he bestowed all his tenderness upon his shining muse. With great effort, I deceived him into signing the divorce papers and, turning away, fled to war-torn Syria, carrying his child within me. I believed I would never cross paths with him again, until one day, drenched in blood, he knelt amidst the rubble, desperately clawing at the stones, screaming my name. It was only after I left that he truly understood the meaning of loss...

I was forced by my father to fulfill an arranged engagement with an Alpha I'd never met face-to-face. Pushing open the jewelry store door, I found my fiancé Kane spoiling his childhood sweetheart Briar, who was trying to snatch my mother’s ring. "Security! Get this stray out of here!" Briar screamed, pointing at me. When I revealed my identity, Kane sneered coldly: "What bullshit pact? I would never marry a woman like you." Briar snatched the ring and threw water at my face: "Kneel down and beg me to give it back!" When I fought back, Kane exploded in rage: "How dare you touch my woman? Hold her down!" Four warriors pinned me down as Briar laughed cruelly: "Let everyone see this delusional bitch who doesn't know her place!" They stepped on my hand while Kane watched coldly, even urging her on: "Hurry up, let her learn her lesson." Just as she was about to chop off my finger with a knife, the door suddenly burst open—"Do you have any idea whose daughter you're humiliating?"