155 Book(s) Related to christine lauren

He offered her a job, her education, and a way out of poverty. The price? Her virginity.
Georgina has nothing. No job. No savings.
Her rent expires in two months.
Then the world's most famous playboy, Alpha Christian, calls out of nowhere. The same man who got her fired. The same man every woman warns you about.
He says he wants to help her. A fresh start. A new life.
But there's one condition.
Desperate and with nowhere left to turn, Georgina agrees, believing she can keep her heart out of it.
One night. One transaction. Then she walks away.
She was wrong.
Because after that night, Christian isn't just obsessed.
He won't let her go.
And the deeper she falls, the more she realizes: his wife isn't the only danger.
Now Georgina is trapped between the man who owns her body and the secrets that could destroy them both.
She gave him her innocence. He's taking everything else.

Leonardo Loren was the most powerful man in the world. As Alpha of a colossal pack, he could have anything and anyone he liked. That was until he met Ella. Fiercely independent, strong-willed and hugely unafraid.

She was unique. And she was everything he hated.

Their personalities clash and their relationship becomes a sea of turbulent resentment and hostility. But can their undeniable love rise above?

My family was born from the abyss, with ancient siren blood in our veins. Our nature demands that every so often, we must feed on a human heart.
So when Caius, playing the perfect lover, slid that spiked martini across the table, I didn't refuse.
The wedding ring he'd slipped off ten minutes ago still sat warm in his suit pocket. As he leaned closer, expensive pregnancy oil—the kind his wife slathered on—mixed with the sour reek of betrayal.
I played along, letting myself collapse against the table as he eagerly pulled out his phone:
"Got her. Delivery to the island tonight. Line up someone hot for me—those stretch marks on my wife are turning my stomach."
He thought he'd made the perfect play, bagged a prize to trade for whatever he wanted.
What he didn't know: we creatures from the deep crave one thing above all—hearts steeped in filthy lies taste sweetest.

Willa has lived her whole life as the cursed girl—wolfless, whispered about, and unwanted. With a slumbering wolf trapped inside her by ancient poison, she’s been running from fear and superstition since birth. Now, nearing her eighteenth birthday and the legendary EverNight full moon, she dares to hope for freedom. A fresh start in the Gemini Crescent Pack introduces her to Alpha Kirsch—strong, kind, and everything a future Luna should want. But one moonlit encounter with a mysterious rogue alpha, Taran Evernight, awakens more than just passion—it awakens destiny. Torn between two powerful men, hunted by dark forces, and caught in the storm of a rising war, Willa’s transformation will force the entire pack to face ancient truths. When her wolf finally rises, her heart must choose a path not bound by tradition. Can Willa truly belong in a world that was never ready for a cursed girl... or does her power lie in rewriting the story everyone feared?

Investigative journalist Justine Sky will go to great lengths to find out the truth. Even if it means rubbing elbows with the city's most feared billionaire.
As a prime time crime solver, she’s tackled a great deal of scandals during her career, but nothing could prepare her for a life with Bentley Thomas. Because of his criminal past and merciless ambition to get to the top, Bentley has been the scapegoat for the people of Westlake, Texas. With all fingers pointing to him as Ivy Smith’s slayer, Justine becomes hellbent on exposing him.
After pulling strings to get an invite into his mysterious world of luxury, Justine enters, thinking she'll be met by a cold and vicious mobster. Instead, he reels her in with soft charm and a passion that catches her off guard. Their chemistry is automatic, and Bentley is more of a hopeless romantic than she ever thought he could be.
However, even though he's quite the charmer, Bentley does harbor secrets of his own. When Justine learns that he might have been the last person to see Ivy alive, her doubt settles in once again. It's her relentless fight for the truth and growing love for Bentley that makes her dig deeper. Only to find out that the killer is someone she knows very well.
As the danger of the investigation sneaks closer, Justine is caught in a deadly game of ransom, and Bentley doesn’t hesitate to risk everything he has to save her. In a world full of lies, secrets, and betrayal, she has to trust someone. But is Bentley her most dangerous enemy, or the only one who has been telling the truth?

On the night my husband’s assistant staged her 99th suicide threat, he hung my grandmother from a helicopter.
“Selena, apologize to Shirley publicly—across every platform—or I’ll drop her into the sea.”
Watching my grandmother’s terrified face suspended in midair, my voice trembled with pain:
“Elvis, just because I called her a homewrecker… you’d threaten Grandma’s life?”
Elvis smiled, his tone dripping with indulgence. “Shirley isn’t like you. She’s sensitive.”
“Besides, I’m only asking you to apologize. It doesn’t mean I’ve stopped loving you.”
Loving me?
I stared at the 999 intimate photos of him and Shirley on my phone, feeling as if my heart had been brutally stabbed.
If that was his idea of love, then I wanted no part of it.
I texted my mentor: “I accept the offer. I’ll go abroad for the design competition in seven days.”
In seven days, I’ll stage my death and disappear—where he can never find me again.

“A masterpiece of thriller and mystery! The author did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side that is so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. The plot is very intelligent and will keep you entertained throughout the book. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.”--Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone)ONCE LURED is book #4 in the bestselling Riley Paige mystery series, which begins with the #1 bestseller ONCE GONE (Book #1)—a free download, with over 500 five star reviews!Women are turning up dead on a lone stretch of highway in Delaware. Some go missing for an inexplicable length of time, while others are turning up dead, their bodies left out for display in bizarre and mysterious ways. When a pattern is discovered, it becomes clear to the FBI that a twisted serial killer is on the hunt—luring girls in devious schemes—and that he won’t stop killing, ever.The FBI, desperate to crack the case, urges Special Agent Riley Paige to take it on. But the brilliant Riley, still reeling from past cases, has finally found peace in her home life, and is determined to help her daughter April get back on her feet. Yet when the murders become too disturbing, too urgent—and when her former partner Bill implores her—Riley finally realizes she can’t say no.Riley’s hunt leads her deep into the unsettling world of hitchhikers, of drifters, of women that no one else cares for. When she discovers that several women are being kept alive and that there is still time to save them, she realizes she will stop at nothing, obsessing over the case and driving herself to the brink. Yet Riley realizes her own life is falling apart, and her own fragile psyche can barely handle the strain. In a frantic race against time, she will have to plunge deep into the killer’s mind to save these women—and to save herself—from collapse.A dark psychological thriller with heart-pounding suspense, ONCE LURED is book #4 in a riveting new series—with a beloved new character—that will leave you turning pages late into the night.Book #5 in the Riley Paige series will be available soon.

"I never wanted this marriage, and I never wanted her."

Those crushing words from my Alpha husband shattered the last of my hope after two years of a loveless political union. Sebastien Grey made it clear our marriage was nothing but a contract - no marking ceremony, no true mate bond, just cold duty. But when I discovered I was carrying his child, everything changed.

Standing alone at our failed marking ceremony while he drowned his sorrows at a bar was my breaking point. The whispers, the humiliation, the constant rejection - I was done being the unwanted wife of the Grey pack's heir. Filing for divorce should have been simple, but Sebastien's sudden possessive fury whenever another wolf showed me kindness revealed a truth he refused to acknowledge.

Now, as I rebuild my life as a jewelry designer under my secret identity "Aurora," I'm determined to give my unborn child the love and stability I never had. But when my past collides with my present and dangerous secrets threaten to surface, will Sebastien finally realize what he's lost? And more importantly - is it already too late for us to find our way back to each other?

In a world where wolf politics and human hearts collide, sometimes the greatest battle is learning to love yourself enough to demand the love you deserve.

"You were never truly mine."

Those cruel words from my Alpha Rocco shattered everything I believed about love and loyalty. I never imagined the man who marked me had been orchestrating my family's destruction from the very beginning—or that I'd find him cheating on me.

The betrayal didn't just break my heart—it triggered a deadly condition that's slowly killing me. Now, with my father in a coma and my own life hanging by a thread, I'm racing against time to uncover the truth about Lyra Blackwood's fate. The painful treatments keeping me alive are a constant reminder that I may not have long to solve this deadly puzzle.

In a world where pack loyalty means everything and betrayal cuts deeper than silver, can I expose the truth before my time runs out? Or will Rocco's carefully planned revenge claim not just my life, but everything I hold dear?

"You're alive."

Those two words tore from my throat the moment I saw Silas Keaton—my husband, my Alpha, the man I'd betrayed and watched die in my first life—and I knew I'd been given an impossible second chance, one I'd earned through blood and regret when my stepsister's lies led me to my death in a cold warehouse. But this time, I wasn't the naive girl who believed Violet's poison or Derek's false promises, and as I stood in that sunlit manor with Silas's curse wrapped around his heart and my mother's stolen research hidden in locked drawers, I realized saving him meant battling not just dark magic, but the twisted web of family betrayal that had destroyed us both.

Could I break the curse that's killing him, reclaim my mother's legacy from the women who stole it, and prove that this second chance at love is worth fighting for—even if it means standing alone against everyone who wants to see us fall?

"You worthless piece of trash!" Kate's manicured nails dug into my collar. "They should have poisoned you properly years ago—just like your parents!"

The security guards moved, but I raised my hand. Let her talk. Let her confess.

Because Emily Eugins—the "dying" orphan everyone pities—isn't who they think she is.

Ten years ago, Emily Eugins watched her parents die in a "car accident." Her parents' jewelry empire destroyed. Her inheritance stolen. Four families conspired to erase her parents—and made one fatal mistake: they let her live.

Now she's trapped in her uncle's attic, labeled terminally ill, about to be sold in marriage to a dangerous widower. But Emily has spent a decade planning her revenge, and she's found the perfect weapon: Stefan Ashford.

Cold. Ruthless. Estranged from his powerful senator father.

The man everyone fears just became her contract husband.

Armed with psychological manipulation, forged medical records, and jewelry design skills no one knows she possesses, Emily begins dismantling the four families—one calculated move at a time.

But Stefan's not the pawn she expected. He's hiding scars. Hunting a lost ruby. Watching her with eyes that see too much.

And when he discovers the "dying" girl he married is actually a master strategist with blood on her agenda...

The real game begins.

"You're pathetic." Sophia's manicured nails dug into my shoulder. "A wolfless freak who thinks she can fight back?"

The storage room door slammed shut. The lock clicked.

My inhaler was in my locker. My lungs seized. Darkness crept in.

"Help..." I wheezed. "Please..."

But they were already walking away, laughing.

Lynette, the most feared Alpha in the Canadian territories who ruled through blood and ice, dies in an ambush—only to wake up as Elara Grey, a seventeen-year-old wolfless Omega who just suffocated to death from bullying.

The original Elara's life was pure torment. Humiliated by golden boy Blythe Harrison and his girlfriend Sophia Reign, then left to die gasping in a locked room. But that's not the worst part her family faces:

"Your adorable little family," the scarred mercenary held up their photo. "The black market's offering a million for you, Lynette. But them? They're just a bonus. I'll make sure they suffer as well."

Now Lynette's lethal instincts awaken in this fragile, asthmatic body.

She'll protect this family and destroy everyone who dared to hurt them—one brutal lesson at a time.

I woke up three years into a marriage I barely remembered—pregnant with twins that weren't my husband's.

Those words should have destroyed me, but the truth was worse: I'd been used as a broodmare by the man who swore to love me, set up in a hotel room with a stranger because Alexander Cross couldn't father children himself, and now I carried the secret babies of Damon Lester—the most powerful and dangerous Alpha in San Loris—while my own family replaced me with the daughter they'd always wanted. But when that same stranger's doctor appeared at my door, when twenty million dollars exchanged hands over a fake perfume bearing my secret identity, and when Damon's gray eyes locked onto mine with recognition I couldn't afford, I realized my carefully hidden life as the legendary perfumer Vera was colliding with a pregnancy that could cost me everything.

Could I protect my babies from the husband plotting my death, hide my true identity from the Alpha who's been hunting me for years, and reclaim the freedom I'd buried along with my dreams—even if it means standing alone against the wolves who see me as nothing more than a womb to be used and discarded?

Elijah is the powerful, centuries-old Head of the High Council of the Vampire Clans, a master of thoughts and emotions. His word is law — yet his power begins to fracture when he encounters a rebellious Dhampir Hunter.

Aurora “Rory” is an outcast, a despised Hunter who lacks elemental power. What no one knows is that her weakness is the secret of her Dhampir blood, which renders her immune to all forms of vampire mind control. It is precisely this ability that draws the dark Ruler to Rory — and exactly this ability that makes her the most dangerous target of both species.

When a fanatical vampire faction attempts to use Rory’s blood to break the ancient peace treaty and ignite a new war, Elijah is forced to forge an alliance with the girl he despises.

While on the run, Rory realizes that the enforced physical closeness to the arrogant, controlling Elijah awakens a dangerous spark within her. Elijah, meanwhile, must deny the truth: that the hunter he wishes to claim is his Mate — his fated partner.

The fate of the world lies in their hands, but hatred and forbidden desire pull them ever deeper into a widening chasm. Elijah must choose: will he save the power of his clan, or will he choose the love that could bring about the downfall of his own kind?

Dragons are real. They live among us. But not for much longer…   Strong and powerful Grigori Barinov never thought his very existence could be erased by a mortal woman. But when she discovers proof of his magical bloodline, she threatens to expose him and the rest of the dragon shifters to the world in order to save her job.   He kidnaps the woman and carries her off to his lonely palace in Russia. He’s prepared to do whatever it takes to stop her from going public with his fatal secret. He’ll murder, manipulate, imprison… Anything… Except fall in love.

A dragon’s prisoner…or his deepest desire?The fiercest of a royal line of Russian dragon shifters, Rurik Barinov spends most days defending his family’s homeland from rival clans. By night, sins of the flesh—drinking, dancing, and sex—keep his volatile warrior dragon in check. Barely.With his choice of mortal women to bed, he has no interest in changing his bad-boy ways—until a creature of molten sex poured into a tiny red satin dress steps into his nightclub. A jagged edge of raw desire nicks the impenetrable armor around his heart.Charlotte MacQueen has been told since childhood to stay in school, live a normal life. Leave the family business—hunting down dragons—to her brothers. But tonight, she’s shed her chemist’s lab coat and infiltrated enemy lines to bag a dragon of her own.She never expected sexy, all-too-wicked Rurik Barinov to capture her, body and soul—the perfect weapon to use against her brothers. Or that she’d fall for the brave, battle-scarred dragon shifter who covets her heart like the most precious of jewels.Twilight meets Games of Thrones in this hot new dragonshifter romance by USA Today Bestselling author Lauren Smith!

I felt so sensual, I could feel my body arousing, so I started to kiss his neck. Conri put his hands on my breasts, we are getting into this deeply and I do not want him to stop. I said, "Please don't stop, I want you, right now!" Conri looked at me and said, "Are you sure? If we make love then you will become my mate, forever. And only mine." I looked at him and said, "I want too. I want you!"

Star, the princess of the pack must fight with her inner self to become the wolf that her pack needs her to be. The Alpha in the pack must fight for her when she is kidnapped by the enemy. Her only true love must save her from becoming the enemy herself.
Conri, the Alpha male decides that there will be a battle between his pack and the enemy's pack to save Star, his true love. As Conri trains his pack for the battle, suspicious things start to happen and now the pack must conquer those before they battle with the enemy.

Twenty-year-old Star Thomas dreams of becoming New York's finest model. When she sends her photo to John Langdon Modeling Agency, she is finally chosen for an interview for the next top model. Star travels to New York with her boyfriend, Sam Lawson to meet with John Langdon. The richest man in the modeling industry with a love for beautiful women, John offers her a modeling job, which Star accepts.

Although Sam does not agree, Star makes her choice to move to New York from her small town in Nebraska. As she becomes New York's finest model, Star forgets about the life she lived in Nebraska and instead leads a life she only dreamed about.

Years later, her ex-boyfriend Sam sees her on the cover of a magazine and wants her back. However, he finds out that she is not the person she was in Nebraska and everyone's life has changed.

Royally: Submitting to my CEO is created by Christina Funera, an eGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.

Amanda is your average girl from Delaware, but her life is far from easy. She struggles to find a job, has a tough time finding love, and dreams of bigger things. When she meets Antonio Legassi, she falls in love hard.

Antonio is from Italy. When he comes to Delaware on business, he meets ambitious Amanda and starts a whirlwind romance, whisking her back to his hometown of Venice.

Yet, trouble lurks when Devin, a man from Amanda's past, tries to get between them and break them up. With the help of a reporter, Mariah, Amanda and Antonio's love will be tested. Can their love stand the tribulations of the truth?

Her Billionaire: The Executive is created by Christina Funera, an eGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.

Tonight will be ours!
I’m going to show him just how much I love him and want to be with him. I will do anything that I can to keep our relationship moving forward. He’s so good to me, and now I have his parents on my side, and I could not be any happier than I am right now!
“Nothing will mess this up for us,” I thought to myself.


Micah, the son of Jasper, becomes stronger and stronger as his father gives him powers to become the king vampire. When Micah sucks the blood from a woman named Malena, she becomes a vampire and Micah’s lover who Jasper grows to accept. As Micah and Jasper hunt for more humans to make
their pack stronger, Malena gets powers that she never had and must learn to use them as a protector and healer. But when Malena is captured by vampire hunters, Micah must save her… before she dies or becomes human again.
The Rising: Vampires Forbidden Lover is created by Christina Funera, an eGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.

"I need to marry you."
He laughed. "Marry me? You're out of your mind."
"Probably," I said calmly. "But I don't have another choice."
His smile turned dangerous. "Then pick someone else. I am Luca Marino... The Monster."
I met his eyes. "That's exactly why I picked you."
My father died, leaving me a shattered empire and a death sentence. To save my family, I offered myself to the one man powerful enough to protect us. Luca Marino. The Mafia king everyone fears. Our marriage is a contract, not a love story. Power for him. Protection for me. But Luca doesn't play fair. He kisses like a threat and touches like a promise. And every time I think I've figured him out, he ruins me all over again. I'm playing a dangerous game. And I'm falling for the most dangerous man alive.

To avenge my father, I married Philadelphia mafia don Salvatore and poisoned him with my own hands on our wedding night. I thought my revenge was complete, until I met his son Matteo at the funeral—a cold, handsome,dangerous man.

Matteo suspected from the start that I'd killed his father. According to plan, I was supposed to get close to him, seduce him, then kill the last Rossi heir when he trusted me most.

"You're trembling." He cornered me against the wall, his long fingers caressing my cheek. "From fear... or something else?"

"I..." Under his burning gaze, I couldn't find words.

"Don't be nervous, stepmother." He leaned close to my ear, his voice low and magnetic. "I just want to see how honest you are."

When the assassin falls for her target, when stepmother becomes obsessed with stepson, can this dangerous game have a happy ending?

Three years ago, I married Rex Cavano—New York's most dangerous mafia don—for this face. Not for love. Because I looked like his stepsister Isabella, the woman his family tore from him and sent to Rome.

I thought time would make him forget her. Until three months ago, when she came home a widow, and I finally understood: a substitute is always just a substitute. When the original returns, the fake gets thrown away.

So I made a decision.

I tricked him into signing divorce papers and accepted a job in a war zone in Colombia.

I'm leaving. Taking our child with me—a secret he'll never know—disappearing from his world forever.

Chloe Ashford destroyed me once.

She pretended to be my best friend, eagerly setting me up with her stepbrother Vincent—when really, I was just a cover for their twisted relationship.

She fattened me up, used me, and when she got bored, tossed me aside. A broken nose during gym class, nearly drowning by the pool, framed and cyberbullied until the whole internet turned against me. I dropped out. Had a complete mental breakdown. And then I jumped.

But when I opened my eyes again, that line was playing on repeat—"Let me introduce you to my stepbrother."

Somehow, I was back. That same party night.

My husband pushed me down the stairs when I was three months pregnant.

I thought it was his bipolar disorder acting up again. The doctors said he couldn't control himself. So I forgave him—just like I'd forgiven the cigarette burns, the broken ribs, and all those nights he choked me unconscious.

Then I lost our baby.

And overheard him on the phone: "The bitch deserved it. If she hadn't stopped me three years ago, Elena would be mine."

That's when I realized—he was never sick. He'd been torturing me on purpose for three years.

Punishing me because I "made him lose" the woman he loved.

So I signed the divorce papers and walked away without looking back.

Everyone said I killed my mother.

So Dad and Carter hated me from the start. They only had love for Vivian.

On my eighteenth birthday, Vivian drugged me and I was nearly raped. That's when Nolan Blake showed up—business tycoon, my savior. He claimed me as his in front of everyone and warned anyone who dared mess with me would pay the price.

After that, Vivian bullied me? He made her apologize. Dad humiliated me? He made him shut up. Carter mocked me? He destroyed all of Carter's business deals.

No one had ever protected me like that. I fell HARD.

Three months later, I walked down the aisle in white.

Nolan spoiled me rotten. I became the woman the whole world envied.

Until the day I was five months pregnant.

At a family party, the balcony railing gave way. I was falling, screaming—then Nolan caught me. His arm broke. I only had minor injuries.

Everyone said how LUCKY I was—a husband willing to break every bone for me.

Until I stood in the hospital corridor and overheard that conversation—

"Aurora is the only match for Vivian," Charles's voice came from the hospital room. "Vivian's kidney failure is getting worse. We can't wait anymore!"

"You think I don't KNOW that?" Nolan lowered his voice. "But she's already pregnant! Pregnant women can't donate organs!"

"That's why we staged the fall," Carter said coldly. "It was supposed to make her miscarry—"

"ENOUGH!" Nolan's roar cut him off. "I want to save Vivian MORE than ANY of you! She's the one I love. But you can't hurt Aurora like this. I have my own plan—after she gives birth, I'll make her donate 'willingly.'"

After hearing those words, I collapsed trembling in the hallway.

So that was why he married me. Not because he loved me, but to save Vivian. Everything he did for me—his tenderness, his protection—it was all for HER.

Just like Dad and Carter, he loved Vivian.

Not me.

I touched my slightly rounded belly as silent tears streamed down my face.

If no one wanted us, then we'd disappear.

"Honey, please open the door! Please!"

Kate Sterling pounded desperately on the basement door, with only 15 minutes left before the interview that could change her life. Yet here she was, locked inside by the very man she loved most.

It all started with a single prophecy from their new neighbor, Anna Cross: "If Kate goes to that interview, your marriage is over."

Anna's predictions had never been wrong. Last month, she predicted old Johnson would have a heart attack. Three days later, an ambulance pulled into his driveway. She predicted Mrs. Miller would discover her husband's affair. Now the Millers were filing for divorce.

Every prediction came true like clockwork nightmares.

Now Anna had set her sights on them.

When the truth finally surfaces, will it be escape... or death?

On the twenty-first night of insomnia, I ordered a beastman at 3 AM.

The ad was ridiculously over-the-top—gentle, considerate, perfect at housework, and could even cure anxiety and insomnia. The girls in the reviews said their lives transformed overnight, work stress just... gone.

I was dead tired, eyes barely staying open. Just glanced at the photo and hit purchase. Golden hair, amber eyes, two cute little fangs when he smiled—looked sweet.

Pink option looked prettier than blue. Done.

I didn't catch the tiny line of text flashing at the bottom: Grade A Product - Adults Only - Full Intimate Services

Three days later, the doorbell rang.

I opened the door to boxes way bigger than I'd expected.

Way bigger.

Three years ago, the night before my wedding, I was kidnapped and nearly killed.

When I woke up, Julian was crying over me. "The kidnappers hurt you so badly, Elsie. The doctors—they had to remove your uterus to save you. I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

My world shattered.

I cried for a week straight. Cried until I had no voice left, until my eyes couldn't open from the swelling. I'd lost everything—my chance at motherhood, my chance at being whole.

But Julian squeezed my hand. "I love you, Elsie. You're all I need."

He married me anyway. Against his family's wishes, he married this broken woman.

For three years, he was perfect. Gentle. Loving. I thought I was the luckiest woman alive.

Until today.

Today, I learned the truth—

There was no kidnapping. No random attack.

It was all planned. Orchestrated by Julian himself.

For one reason only—to give my uterus to Chloe, my sister who was born unable to have children.

In seven years of marriage, I miscarried five times. I nearly died on the operating table.

My husband, Lorenzo Castellano—the mafia king who controlled the entire East Coast—gripped my blood-stained hand and choked out: "It's okay. You're all I need."

I believed him.

Until our anniversary, when I smelled her perfume on his shirt and discovered the truth: his sister-in-law had given him a three-year-old son—those same deep brown eyes I'd bled five times trying to create.

The cruel irony? Just the day before, two pink lines had appeared on a pregnancy test.

That night, the explosion lit up the entire ocean, our private yacht burning like a funeral pyre.

The man who made all of New York's underworld tremble finally learned what it meant to lose.

He lost his wife.

And the child he would never know existed.

Ten years loving Liam Rockefeller cost me everything.

He said the football team jumped him—so I charged in and took the punches. He sobbed that his stepbrother would destroy him at Yale—so I ripped up my acceptance letter. He held me at midnight whispering "I'm so lucky to have you"—and I thought that meant forever.

Three months later, I heard him laughing in the locker room—laughing about me.

"Iris is like a fucking puppy, so easy to fool. Now that the Yale spot's open, Emily can go with me."

The bullying was staged. The tears were fake. Those intimate embraces—just tools to control me while he fucked his side piece.

He thought I'd still stand in front of him even with a broken nose. He thought I'd never wise up.

I wised up.

In his stepbrother Sebastian's bed.

Twenty years ago, four-year-old Alicia vanished from a park, falling from Connecticut's wealthiest heiress to an orphan overnight. Twenty years later, her birth parents find her working at a coffee shop, bringing her back to a life of luxury.

But behind the fairy tale reunion lurks deadly danger. A mysterious guardian angel named Gabriel begins sending her prophetic warnings about her family's impending doom. Yet Alicia, drunk on newfound happiness, dismisses these as mere hallucinations.

The price of her disbelief is devastating. Her father dies in a horse-riding accident at the country club. Months later, her mother perishes in a car crash on her way to a charity gala. Shattered by grief and guilt, Alicia leaps from a hospital rooftop in despair...

Only to wake up back on the day her parents found her.

This time, she vows to heed Gabriel's every prophecy and save her family. But as she follows the angel's guidance, she discovers that fate's wheels may not be so easily stopped...

The real test has only just begun.

Three years of chasing Chase Blackwood, and all I got was a front-row seat to him tonguing my "sister."

The old me would've cried. Begged. Made a scene.

The old me also ended up dead.

Funny how a second chance at life gives you clarity.

So here's what's different this time: I'm done being the pathetic ex. I'm done playing nice.

I'm throwing champagne in his face and climbing into bed with Asher Hayes—his best friend, his rival, his worst nightmare.

And Chase? He can rot.

I was reborn on the day we had to choose our mates.

I could clearly hear my sister Sera's thoughts: "This time I won't choose wrong. Let Lyra suffer with that cold Alpha."

Then she couldn't wait to choose my past life's husband—the gentle Beta Damon.

While I had to marry the cold Alpha Kane.

Her inner celebration was deafening: "Perfect! Now my sister can suffer with that heartless guy while I finally get to live the pampered Luna life!"

I couldn't help but want to laugh. If only she knew the true face of my "gentle husband" from my past life.

Seven years ago, Ronan Blackwood—Alpha of the Beastman Clan—endured 999 lashes and defied the Council's exile to bond with me, a human.

He swore before the gods I'd be his only mate, forever.

But when his childhood sweetheart Camilla was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he dissolved our soul-bond at the Underground Court.

Then he handed me a glowing vial—the Seven-Day Oblivion.

"Sia, I need seven days to give Camilla a proper bonding ceremony before she dies. This potion will make you forget me temporarily. No pain, no memories. After the ceremony, you'll take the antidote and love me again. Then we'll re-bond."

He promised this separation was temporary. That I'd still be his only true mate.

What he didn't know: the potion was forbidden. There was no antidote.

I stared into those amber eyes that once bled for me—and swallowed it anyway.

In seven days, I'll forget him completely.

I ripped out half my heart for him.

Literally.

Six years ago, Draco—the Black Dragon Lord—was dying on the battlefield, enemy claws buried in his chest. So I tore myself open and shoved half my witch's heart into his body to save his life.

After that, I lived with constant pain, my magic drained to nothing. I fought his wars, nearly died a dozen times, all while waiting for him to keep his promise—that he'd make me his queen after the coronation.

But on coronation day, Draco brought back the half-elf Ivy and told me to give up my crown.

Why? Ivy stayed with him in the Abyss for three years. And now she was pregnant with his child.

It destroyed me. So I drank the Oblivion Potion—the one thing that could strip away every ounce of love I had for him.

And in three days, I'm leaving for the polar regions to marry into the Silver Wolf Clan.

Three years barren, and Jessamine walked on thin ice in the elite household. Her mother-in-law spat venomous curses daily, calling her a "worthless waste of space" and threatening to force her son into divorce.

She could still remember when Damien had severed all ties with his family to marry her—kneeling outside their door in the pouring rain, begging his parents to accept her: "Jessamine is my one true love! I can't survive without her!" Back then, she was the only woman who existed in his eyes.

But now, for the sake of family inheritance, he had the audacity to demand her consent for his childhood sweetheart Celeste to bear their child. Jessamine endured the soul-crushing agony of watching her husband entwined with another woman, night after torturous night.

Even more devastating—after Celeste delivered a daughter, Damien had the shameless nerve to declare: "The family still needs a male heir."

In that shattering moment, Jessamine finally saw the brutal truth.

Due to an arranged marriage between our families, I married Damien Blackwood, heir to a business empire.

During five years of marriage, I tried hard to play the perfect wife, bore him a daughter Lily, thinking I had finally won his love.

Until his first love Serena returned from abroad, I watched him rekindle his passion for another woman, watched them rekindle their old flame.

A car accident changed everything.

I was taken to court, sentenced to three years in prison, becoming a "murderer" despised by everyone.

And he personally sent me to prison.

I married Massimo Salvatore, the mafia don, thirty-two times. And divorced him thirty-two times.

Every single time for the same reason—his precious Claudia came back from her overseas treatment facility.

"She took a bullet to the head for me. Any stress could kill her." That was his only explanation.

The first divorce, I trashed the entire living room. He slapped me across the face: "Cut the DRAMA. We'll get back together once she's stable."

The third time, I followed them to the club and caught them kissing. I confronted him—got locked in the basement for seven days.

Sign the papers, take off the ring, pack my bags. Like a nightmare on repeat.

Until the thirty-third time.

A rival family grabbed both me and Claudia. With a gun to his head, he could only save one of us. I looked at him, voice breaking: "Massimo, just this once, pick me."

He walked toward her.

Four hours later, his men found me in some abandoned warehouse. Three broken ribs, blood everywhere. Our baby—gone.

Massimo camped out by Claudia's hospital bed, wouldn't leave her side. Didn't visit me once. Not even when I got discharged.

That's when I was done.

My fiancé has tried to kill me seventeen times.

Everyone says I'm cursed by the Moon Goddess. Five years, seventeen mating ceremonies—all ending in blood.

An eagle's talons through my spine. Poisoned wine that stopped my heart. Ritual flames that charred my skin. Each time, I survived. Each time, Kael Silverblade held my hand and swore it was fate's cruelty, not his.

I believed him.

Until the seventeenth time.

Blood moon. Three assassins. Nine bone blades cutting precise lines across my body—missing every vital organ, maximizing the pain. I writhed on the sacred stones, screaming until my voice broke.

Three days later, still wrapped in bandages, I heard him talking to his lieutenant outside the healing den.

"Lord Silverblade, she almost died this time. Maybe we should—"

"No." Kael's voice was ice. "Her brother saved my life. My grandfather swore a blood debt—a mating bond to repay it. But goddammit, I love Vira. I've always loved Vira. Not her."

Silence.

"Keep the accidents coming," he said. "As long as she won't let go, we keep going. She'll break eventually. She has to."

I pressed against the wall, tears streaming down my face.

Seventeen times. Not curses. Not fate.

Him.

The male I'd loved since I was sixteen.

But here's what Kael doesn't know—this time, he finally wins.

I won't survive the next full moon.

At my seventh wedding, they replaced me.

The Oracle pointed at me and screamed one word: "CURSED."

Father's hand cracked across my face. Mother tore the wedding dress off my body and shoved my cousin Seraphine into it.

"She'll marry him instead," Father said. "You'll destroy us all."

What they didn't know? A thousand years ago, our family made a blood pact with the Shadow Lord himself: if the eldest Ashford daughter remained unmarried on her twenty-sixth birthday, she belonged to HIM.

Today was my twenty-sixth birthday.

I begged Julian to run. "Please. We have until sunset."

He laughed. "The Shadow Lord's a fairy tale, Anna. Seraphine's just going through the motions. You're being dramatic."

Then he told my parents everything.

They locked me in the tower.

But the Shadow High Priest's warning was clear—at sunset, the Shadow Lord would come. And when he did, I'd drink the Potion of Forgetting and lose everything.

My memories. My name. My soul.

The clock struck five.

He was coming.

Due to his grandmother's dying wish, Leonard, the hospital's most eligible cardiac surgeon, was forced to marry the nurse who secretly loved him—me. Through six years of hidden marriage, we pretended to be mere colleagues at the hospital while he remained utterly cold toward me and our daughter Vera. When his first love returned, I watched him reignite his passion for another woman and my heart died completely. I signed the divorce papers and vanished from his world with Vera. This time, he lost us forever.

I was dying, but honestly? Death felt like mercy.

As a vampire, I should have been immortal. But at six years old, I'd made a deal with a demon, gambling my fate on "true love"—if three times I failed to win the heart of the one I loved, the demon would claim my soul.

Just when I thought death was certain, I got pregnant. Morag, the demon, showed rare mercy, promising to wait until I gave birth.

But at eight months, my husband sneered about removing the "bastard." My brother didn't even flinch as he sliced open my belly. My parents cursed that I deserved it—all to save my sister Lycia, who'd somehow "returned from the dead."

The day they cut my child out, not one tear. Not for me.

So why, after I died, were they all on their knees at my grave, sobbing?

The tour bus hung precariously over the cliff's edge, smoke billowing from its engine. Inside, two pregnant women were trapped.

"Captain Walker, both pregnant women are in critical condition. Who do we save first?"

I had been pierced by a steel rod through my abdomen, my water had broken, and I was screaming desperately at my husband:

"Ryan Walker! My water broke! The baby's dying!"

On the other side, his first love Stella clutched her chest, her face deathly pale:

"Ryan, I'm having a heart attack! Save me!"

The man in the firefighter uniform charged toward Stella's side without hesitation.

"Captain, your wife's position is easier to reach!" team member Mike shouted.

"SHUT UP! Follow orders!"

He rushed to Stella without looking back, leaving behind one sentence:

"She won't die. I'm her husband, I take full responsibility."

When my parents forced me to donate my organs to my sister, I didn't refuse or run away. I just quietly signed the surgical consent forms, willingly giving my kidney to Vivienne, their beloved daughter.

A few months ago, my sister was hospitalized with kidney failure. The doctor said she needed a transplant. My family's first thought was me—the backup daughter they'd kept around all these years.

When my husband Allen took my hand with tears in his eyes and said, "Only you can save her," I agreed without hesitation.

When the doctor explained the surgical risks and potential complications, I smiled and nodded my understanding.

My parents said I'd finally learned what sisterly love meant.

Even Allen, who'd always been cold to me, held my hand gently and said, "The surgery's safe. You're so healthy, nothing will go wrong. When you recover, I'll take you to Hawaii."

But they don't know that no matter how the surgery goes, I won't be around to celebrate.

Because I just got my own test results—I have terminal brain cancer. I'm going to die anyway.

Five years ago, my ex-boyfriend Jason said coldly when he abandoned me: "Charlotte, you're not worthy of my dreams."

Five years later, when I saw him again, he had become Floreton's tech mogul while I remained a simple sculptor. His new fiancée—a wealthy heiress—sneered at my modest attire: "Someone like you can actually afford to book a top-tier wedding venue?"

She stole my venue, crushed my fingers, and forced me to kneel and apologize: "Say you don't belong here!"

Jason stood by watching coldly, just as indifferent as he was on that rainy night five years ago.

I desperately thought this was my fate, until that familiar, furious voice echoed throughout the entire venue:

"What bastard touched my woman!"

My Bradley had arrived.

This time, I would be the one laughing last.

My six-month business trip to Europe was finally over. I decided to surprise my husband Nathaniel by coming home early without telling him, bringing my six-year-old son Lucas straight to his newly opened upscale restaurant.

Lucas excitedly ran toward the children's play area while I scanned the restaurant for Nathaniel, eagerly anticipating our reunion.

Suddenly, a scream shattered the peaceful atmosphere.

I turned to see a woman in work uniform roughly shoving my son, snarling viciously:

"What the hell are you RUNNING around for, you little brat! Can't you watch where you're going?"

I froze. How DARE this woman treat my child like this in my husband's restaurant?

I've been married to billionaire Joseph Miller for three years. Pregnant three times. Aborted three times.

Every time, my husband stood outside the operating room, watching them wheel me in.

The first baby, my mother-in-law Victoria said had spinal deformities. The second, my father-in-law Richard showed a "report" claiming heart defects.

I believed them. I thought it was my fault, something wrong with my body.

Until the third pregnancy.

This time I secretly went to another hospital—DNA showed 99.9% match with Joseph, every prenatal indicator perfect.

I rushed home clutching the report, thinking I could finally save my child.

Victoria glanced at it and tossed it on the coffee table. "You are carrying a healthy baby. But the Miller family doesn't need it."

My in-laws forcibly dragged me to the clinic. I screamed to Joseph for help: "That's your child!"

His eyes were red, but he still let them kill my baby.

Desperate, I demanded a divorce. He coldly refused, tearing at my clothes: "Stop being dramatic. Time for the fourth."

I finally understood—I wasn't his wife. I was their breeding machine.

But why? Why force me to keep getting pregnant, only to kill every healthy baby?

Until that night, I pushed open the attic door that had been locked for three years—

And finally understood everything.

At a blood-thirsty castle in Dover, England, the chief vampire Lazarus has taken a woman from her home and holds her captive. He needs the blood from her to keep him young and powerful.
Drusilla is loved by her husband and her daughter, Ambrosia, but when Lazarus turns her into a vampire, she has no idea that she had a past life.
As time passes, after her mother's disappearance Ambrosia meets Nikolas, a young man. They fall in love, but it is finally revealed that Nikolas is Lazarus's son and is controlled by his father. Nikolas must find a way to turn Ambrosia into a vampire for his father's vampire kingdom, but he goes against his father's wishes and turmoil begins.
Talon and Ambrosia must save Drusilla; the only way is for Talon to kill Lazarus. Will she be saved in time, or will she die in the vampire's abyss?
Secrets in the Shadows is created by Christina Funera, an eGlobal Creative Publishing author.