138 Book(s) Related to melissa shield

In a catastrophic event that ravaged the planet Hatune, King Stage Rager was thrust into a desperate bid for survival. His wife, Queen Sky Rager, made a heart-wrenching decision to safeguard her beloved husband, sending him to the unfamiliar realm of Earth. To protect him from relentless enemies, she erased his memories and shrouded him in a powerful cloaking spell, transforming his appearance and concealing his true identity.

For eighteen years, Stage lived a quiet, unassuming life in the charming town of Golden Lake, surrounded by adoptive family and friends who accepted him without question. However, the tranquility was shattered when his dear friend Jean Adams fell victim to a brutal murder. As Stage joined forces with the determined Sheriff, they unraveled a dark web of secrets lurking in the shadows of Golden Lake.

Their quest for justice ignited a perilous war with the sinister Liner witches, who would stop at nothing to eliminate Stage. As the battle raged on, Stage discovered a shocking truth: his invincibility was a myth, and the very blood that gave him life held the key to his demise. The Liner witches devised a diabolical plan to bring Stage's mother, the Queen of Hatune, to Earth, setting the stage for a climactic showdown.

Will Stage and his allies succeed in thwarting the witches' sinister plot, or will they witness the unthinkable: the downfall of their beloved king? The fate of Golden Lake hangs in the balance, as Stage confronts his destiny and the darkness that has haunted him for so long.

He left without a word.

Now he’s back — holding a gun and calling himself my bodyguard.

Silas Raveen was my father’s deadliest weapon.

Cold. Precise. Untouchable.

I loved him anyway.

Three years ago, he disappeared the same night my mother was murdered.

Now I’m engaged to a man I don’t love, trapped in a family falling apart.

And Silas? He’s been assigned to protect me.

He won’t say why I’m being hunted.

He won’t talk about the past.

But every time we’re alone, the air cracks — with tension, with questions, with the kiss we never got to finish.

I hate him for leaving.

I hate him more for still making my heart race.

And I hate that I’m starting to trust him again.

Because if there’s one thing I know for sure…

The man who saved my life is the same man who destroyed it.

To save his identity after the destruction of Elegance Pack, the little boy, Connell Burke changed his name to Cortez Moreland. Fifteen years later, Cortez has turned into a merciless killer who seeks pleasure in tearing apart the bodies of all those who were involved in the killings of his pack.

In his course of revenge, Cortez's foster father is murdered by a rogue. Now he is hell bent on finding and eliminating the person responsible. For that, he must first hunt the girl who has helped the rogue in absconding.

Malory Timbs, is living an ordinary life until she meets her mate, Cortez. As his mate and Luna of the Moreland Pack, naïve and innocent Malory is asked to move in with him. Will Malory, a kindhearted person, be able to handle herself once she sees the way her mate kills? Will Cortez, a hardhearted person, be able to handle himself once he comes to know his mate had helped the rogue in absconding?

And most importantly will Cortez ever calm down and stop hating rogues?

A hundred years after the war where werewolves lost against humans, Kaiya finds herself imprisoned in an island park where they are hunted weekly for human entertainment. However, when the ownership of the island park changes, she finds her mate, who coincidentally, is the new park owner.


“You are the first freed werewolf. It does not mean that you will be the last,” he says.

“Is that why you freed me? To set an example?”

“No. I freed you because you will be my woman.”

My breathing stops. The way he puts a claim on me makes me want to claim him too. “I—”

“Ah! Don’t worry about answering me now. I will give you time to consider me.”

I look at the table and entwine my fingers together. I take a deep breath and look back at him. “I want that too,” I whisper. “I want to become your woman, too.”

I answer the surprise on his face by flushing scarlet. Then, he looks away and I can see a blush creeping on his face, too.

“So, starting now, are we together?” he asks.

“Before that, we need to do a promise.”

“A promise?”

I take his hand to mine and say, “You are my mate, whom I promise to love and cherish forever, until the gods and fate separate us.”

He squeezes my hand and answers, “You are my mate, whom I promise to love and cherish forever, even if the gods and fate may try to separate us.”

Alice was a plain girl. Everything about her was ordinary; plain dresses, plain hair, plain face. When she applied to an assistant position for the most famous company in the city, the Alonzo Company, she wasn't aware that her life was about to change for good.

The two heirs of the Alonzo family, Matt and Damion were brothers and the most vicious rivals from the childhood. They were known with their keen eyes to see a prize, even if it was buries six feet under the ground. They could recognize it and dig it out. When Matt seen Alice, it was no different for him. He was willing to scrape the shell of her and make her his. And he was willing to do it before his brother comes in to the picture. If he recognizes the same thing Matt seen in Alice, a competition was inevitable.

And Matt was more than ready to face Damion if necessary.

@Not one, but more

Every person is born with two shadows: their own, and their Echo—a silent counterpart whose experiences shape their instincts and fears across different timelines. Most never see their Echo. But on the night of a rare astral convergence, Amelie's Echo steps out of her shadow and becomes flesh—manifesting as Dexter, a man with memories of her unborn destiny. After one impossible night together, he vanishes into light. When reality begins to glitch and Dexter returns piece by piece through the shadows of others, Amelie discovers she is a Cartographer of Fate—and that their love is a metaphysical mistake the universe will do anything to correct.

Twenty-two-year-old Ethan Blackwood never wanted to be a soldier. As the son of a minor lord in the peaceful border town of Ashford, he dreamed of becoming a scholar and living a quiet life with books and maps. But when orc tribes suddenly attack the human kingdom of Valornia, Ethan is forced to join the army as a knight. On the battlefield, he expects to fight monsters. Instead, he finds himself falling for one.
Kiera Stoneheart is an orc commander with fire-red hair and a warrior's spirit. She's fierce, brilliant, and nothing like the savage beasts the human propaganda describes. When Ethan captures her during a raid, he discovers something terrifying: the orcs didn't start this war. A powerful faction within the human kingdom called the Silver Covenant is using the conflict to grab power and destroy anyone who questions them.
Now Ethan must choose between his loyalty to his people and the truth he's uncovered. As he and Kiera work together to expose the conspiracy, their hatred turns to respect, then friendship, and finally to a love that could cost them everything. Because in a world where humans and orcs are supposed to be enemies, falling in love with the other side isn't just forbidden—it's treason punishable by death.
With assassins hunting them, his best friend turning against him, and the fate of two races hanging in the balance, Ethan must decide: will he be the hero who saves his kingdom, or the traitor who destroys it? And can love truly conquer hate when the entire world is built on lies?

So, have you ever heard that saying that you shouldn’t feed stray animals because they’ll follow you home? Turns out that rule applies to demons too…
I didn’t even KNOW he was a demon, but now he insists he owes me his life. The catch? He can’t leave until he “repays the favor,” meaning he’s stuck following me around like some demonic shadow. The good news is, he’ll have plenty of chances to repay me.
Except… I’m starting to wonder if I want him to leave. Especially when he gives me that look, the one that makes my heart race. It’s the kind of look that makes me think I might not mind being saved a little too much.
Sure, he has a tail, but there’s something about him I can’t shake. Maybe it’s the way his voice drops when he gets close, or maybe it’s just because he washes the dishes after dinner. Either way, I’m starting to get attached. Not that it matters because he’s leaving. I know better than to fall for a demon… Right?

Fae are the WORST. Here I am, minding my own business when bam, I get yanked into a summoning circle. Honestly, whoever thought summoning demons was a good idea should be shown why everyone fears demons. Even better? This Fae spells me so I can’t go home until I kill someone for him.
The someone he wants me to kill? The woman who saved my life. Not only is she good, but I can’t bring myself to hurt her. And the worst part? She’s half fae too, that’s just asking for trouble. Now, I’m stuck, bound by my own magic, protecting her, while trying to ignore how much I want to stay. But I can’t. I have to leave eventually. Right?

Alina Hart only meant to deliver a wedding invitation.

One knock on the penthouse door.
One awkward meeting with the man her mother was about to marry.

But when the door opens, Alina’s heart nearly stops.

Because the billionaire standing before her is the same man she shared a reckless, unforgettable night with three days ago a stranger whose dangerous charm left her breathless in a dark elevator.

Neither of them knew who the other was.

Now he’s supposed to become her stepfather.

Cold, powerful and feared in the business world, Dominic Vale is a man who always gets what he wants. But the moment he realizes the woman he can’t stop thinking about is his fiancée’s daughter, the rules between them become dangerously blurred.

They try to keep their distance.
They try to pretend nothing happened.

But every glance burns.
Every accidental touch ignites something they can’t control.

And when secrets from the past begin to unravell—revealing that their meeting might not have been a coincidence at all—Alina discovers that Dominic’s connection to her family runs deeper than anyone imagined.

Now love, betrayal and obsession collide in a game where the greatest danger isn’t the scandal…

It’s the fact that neither of them wants to stop.

Synopsis

“We can't.” I whisper so low I'm afraid he can't hear me.

“Oh, but we can, my little firefly.” He corners me against the door, his eyes laden with desire.

“But, I-” He cuts me off with a kiss.

“Trust me, my little firefly, I will lay your enemies at your feet and you shall revel in their ashes because you've always been mine.”


I lost all that I held dear in one day. My name is Daphne Greyson, the granddaughter and heir of the billionaire Chairman of the YC Group, the largest business conglomerate in Europe.

I had everything. Just like it says in the fairytales, I met my prince charming and had my happily ever after before it all came crashing down around me in an instant.

Those who I trusted the most betrayed my trust and broke my heart. They took everything from me. So when I meet Ethan Hunt, a man from my past who promises to help me deliver my revenge, I don't think twice.

However, he says he wants more, he wants me but any relationship between us is impossible.

Will I let him break down the walls betrayal and pain have erected in my heart and open up to love again?

There's one thing I'm sure of though, I'll never shed another tear again.

Sara never asked for a mate, but fate didn’t care. The moment she steps into BloodRidge Pack, the bond locks her to the one man who wants nothing to do with her.
Alpha Xenon rejects her on sight. Cold. Final. Cruel.

But the bond doesn’t break.
His wolf won’t let her go.
And when danger comes for her, the Alpha who pushed her away becomes the one who can’t stay away.

Some rejections hurt.
This one changes everything.

My aunt was terrified I'd end up with a human. So she arranged a marriage herself.

The groom? Kael Voss. Alpha heir to the most powerful pack on the East Coast.

I had a Moonstone Mate Necklace custom-made for the occasion. Global commission. A hundred and eighty thousand dollars.

The day I went to pick it up, it was snatched right out of my hands.

The woman who took it? Chloe Hart. Kael's so-called childhood best friend.

She looked me up and down like I was a stray dog that had wandered in off the street.

"A hundred and eighty grand? Sweetheart, you can't even afford the tax."

Then she told me to get on my knees. Right there, in front of the whole store. Scream three times, "I'm a worthless stray Omega and I know my place."

I didn't kneel.

I threw her own words right back in her face and put her on the floor with one kick.

That's when Kael walked in. My fiancé. The man I'd never met until that very moment.

And damn... he was gorgeous.

I'll be honest, I'm shallow. Always have been. That face hit every single thing on my list.

So I walked right up to him, gave him my sweetest smile, and said, "Hi. I'm Judy. Your fiancée."

When I woke up, there was a stranger beside me. He said his name was Kieran, took care of me gently, answered every question with patience. My wolf was dormant, but my heart raced every time I saw him.

"Are you my mate?" I asked.

He was silent for a long time. Finally: "Just rest for now."

The days that followed felt like a dream. He made breakfast, walked with me, kissed me under moonlight. We marked each other. I thought I'd found where I belonged.

Until I saw a black wolf emblem.

Memory struck like lightning—

Kieran Valens. My mortal enemy. Son of the man who killed my parents twenty years ago.

And I'd just spent three weeks in his bed.

Worse—when I pretended the amnesia continued and secretly fed intel to my pack...I found I couldn't betray him.

When he took a silver bullet on the battlefield, I ran to him faster than logic could stop me.

"Why save me?" he asked, eyes full of pain.

Because I love you. Because you're my fated wolf.

Because even though you're the one person I should hate most, my body moves toward you on instinct.

But this love was built on lies...

He ruined her reputation—now she wants nothing to do with him.Brynn Windham loves being a member of the US Ski Team. But after learning a disturbing family secret, she loses her focus and puts her spot on the team in jeopardy. Her coach assigns a skier to help Brynn regain her competitive edge. Unfortunately, the one person who can help her is the last person she trusts.Ryland Guyer might be the heir to his family’s sportswear company, but skiing is his priority. As he recovers from an injury, his coach asks him to help another skier salvage her season. The only problem? He and Brynn have history. They haven’t spoken in five years, and he doubts she’ll want to talk to him now.Not wanting to give up on her dream, Brynn struggles with skiing and Ryland. He wants to make amends for the hurt he caused her and start over, but being around him stirs up old feelings and new, deeper ones emerge. Being on her own is better…safer. But he isn't ready to give up on her. Or them.With a mountain of struggles to face, can Brynn and Ryland learn to forgive so they can reach the top—together?* Parts of this 54,000 word novel were previously published in a Kindle World novella called Race of Love.*One Night to Forever series:Book 1: Fiancé for the NightBook 2: The Wedding LullabyBook 3: A Little Bit EngagedBook 4: Love on the SlopesBook 4: Love on the Slopes

One couple, a pending divorce, and a baby who needs a family...No matter how hard Kate Malone strives to be perfect, everyone she's ever loved leaves. She foolishly believed "I do" meant "forever." Now, her wedding ring is in a jewelry box, and she's alone once again. But when Kate and her soon-to-be ex-husband become the sole guardians of an infant, divorce is not an option with a new baby counting on them.Jared Reed loves Kate more than anything—even if he did push her too far. Now he's determined to keep his promises to his best friends and especially to his wife. A marriage of convenience sounds rather inconvenient, but Jared will do whatever it takes to get Kate back and provide their new little girl with parents who not only love her, but love each other, too.Parenting brings them closer, but their undeniable attraction makes Kate want to keep her distance. Jared, however, won't give up on having the family and marriage he wants. Can Jared prove to his wife that he's the husband she's always wanted before it's too late?

One tech entrepreneur, one blond bombshell, and two rival dating sites.When Dani Bennett lands a new marketing job, she can't wait to prove herself. But her excitement fizzles when her new boss insists she create an online dating profile to spy on the competition. Quitting isn't an option; she needs the money. Now, she must meet the charming guy who's been messaging her. Dani, however, has played this game before. She knows exactly what he's after—what they're all after. It's a good thing she has a foolproof plan to keep her date from being interested in her.Bryce Delaney works hard to keep scammers from infiltrating his dating website. He'll do anything to keep his clients and his company safe, like asking a potential corporate spy to meet him for coffee. When the woman turns out to be more hobo than hottie, he's intrigued. She has no idea he founded the dating website, and he plans to keep it that way until he can uncover her agenda.As one date leads to another, sparks fly. Dani knows a relationship built on lies will never work, but she's not the only one with a secret. Will the truth bring her and Bryce closer or send them back online to find someone else to love?

A marriage proposal gone wrong—a second chance to get it right.When architect Marley Patterson goes out with Von Ryan, she never expects her practical, cautious life to be turned upside down by the handsome contractor. Von is the definition of fun, until his proposal sends her into a panic. Marriage is too serious a commitment to make after dating for only six months. Even though she cares for Von, they are too different, so she breaks up with him.Being rejected hurts, but Von blames himself for not reading the signs or Marley better. He finds solace in work; however, his construction company’s success isn’t enough. He wants to share his life with a woman who’ll love him as much as he loves her. She’s out there. All he has to do is find her and, this time, be patient for the relationship to develop on its own.After Marley is assigned to Von’s new project in Indigo Bay, he treats her the same as everyone else—professionally and with respect—though neither can deny a strong mutual attraction still exists. Soon Marley realizes she may have been the problem with their relationship, not just Von’s proposal. She wants a second chance, but after breaking his heart once, will he give her a do-over?

My name is Gemma and I'm the white wolf.

My life has been really, really shitty.

At 3, the pack I stayed at was attacked, I lost my mother, was kidnapped and abused by some people. They asked me to reveal the identity of the white wolf. I was only 3 for goddess' sake! How was I supposed to know? After I was deemed useless to their search, I became their maid. I lost 12 years, 12 freaking years, to these people but I escaped.

I had planned it for a long time and managed to get from America to England. I met my mate there. Alpha Conner Hughes. I love him. He helped me figure myself out and taught me about gifted wolves.

I'm a gifted wolf, scratch that, His Gifted Luna.

Everything was quiet for four years, four beautiful years, until fate just decided to just fuck with me and send me back to my old pack to deal with hunters.

Secrets will be revealed, hardships will be overcome and hearts will be broken. I just hope i can get through it all with Conner by my side.

One beach cottage, two strangers, and a kiss under the mistletoe that changes everything…Sheridan DeMarco wants to be anywhere but home for the holidays. She’s happy to spend Christmas house-sitting in South Carolina, far away from her parents’ new blended families. Too bad when she arrives at the charming beach cottage, she isn’t as blissfully alone as she planned.Michael "Mikey" Patterson needs to stay out of sight until his attorney gives him the all clear. He finds the perfect place in a small coastal town, but there’s a problem. Mikey isn’t the only one staying at the beach house, and his surprise roommate pushes all his buttons.A sprig of mistletoe and one memorable kiss make Sheridan and Mikey forget their plans to stay away from each other. But when family gets in the way, will their happily ever after get tossed out along with the discarded wrapping paper and tinsel?

When a message in a bottle unwittingly brings together two vastly different strangers, will opposites attract, or will their worlds collide?Jenny Hanford never expects anything to happen the night she whimsically throws her requirements for true love into the ocean. Thirteen months later, however, she hears back from the man who found her bottle.Exchanging carefree emails and texts with Dare is as exhilarating as it is nerve-wracking. He's a complete stranger, and though his humor and kindness keep her replying, she worries her heart is on the line.Flirting long-distance is fun and safe, but when Dare, a soldier, is injured in the line of duty and Jenny's given the opportunity to visit him, will she seize the opportunity? Or will her fear that Dare can't possibly be her real dream hero stand in their way?

At 2:47 AM, half-asleep, I made the biggest mistake of my life—I posted my forty-seventh secret love letter to the anonymous school forum instead of deleting it.
Even crazier? Star pitcher Caleb Sullivan found me in the cafeteria the next day, got down on one knee in front of everyone, and asked me to be his girlfriend. I thought I was living in a dream.
Until Mom told me she was getting married.
When her fiancé walked in with his son, I saw Caleb standing in our doorway—face white as a sheet, eyes wild with panic.
First love. Boyfriend. Stepbrother.
He said Mom and I were gold diggers scheming our way into his family. By Monday, he had his arm around the cheer captain, destroying my reputation in front of the entire school and turning me into the biggest joke at Seacliff High.
Just when I thought I'd drown, Zane Knight—the transfer everyone whispered about—found me in the abandoned art room.
He crouched down, those black eyes cutting right through me: "Crying won't change a damn thing, Daphne Pierce."
Brutal, guarded, but the only person who'd looked at me like I was still human.
As he walked away, something buried deep in my memory suddenly surfaced—that voice, the angle of his jaw...
Had we met before?

I clicked the anonymous link, and my world shattered. There was my perfect fiancé, in a live stream, entangled with the woman who was supposed to be my maid of honor—my best friend.
He was the hero who donated his bone marrow to save my life. Now, he was defiling our future marriage bed in the most vile betrayal. I thought this was their twisted idea of a game, until I dug deeper and uncovered the truth: our "fateful" connection three years ago was nothing but a calculated lie.
My savior, my soulmate, the father of my child... it was all a facade. Now, I've vanished into the night, carrying a secret they know nothing about—his child. Their little show was just the beginning.
My revenge? It's just getting started.

Two years ago, at the Mating Ceremony, my fated mate, Alpha Jason, rejected me in front of the entire pack. He chose my stepsister, Maggie, simply because she had pure blood, and I was just a "Wolfless" waste.
Two years later, I returned to the Blackwater Territory with my new mate.
I met Jason at the forest entrance bordering the territory. For the sake of his pack’s "interests," he dared to order me to warm my stepfather’s bed and serve his new mate as a maid.
He had no idea that the "Wolfless" waste he was sneering at was now the most revered woman in North America—the Luna Queen.

At the Falcone estate's riding ring, I watched my eight-year-old son Leo mount Starlight, preparing for the most important performance of his young life.
Before the third obstacle, the horse spooked. The instant Leo was thrown, I rushed forward to shield him—the cost was three shattered ribs and a kicked left lung.
When I woke from unconsciousness, I found myself in Dante's private clinic downstairs. From the adjacent room came the doctor's angry voice: "We agreed this was just a marrow extraction. Why did you set up what happened with the horse?"
My husband Dante Falcone's response made my blood run cold: "Leo was Mia's donor. Now that the procedure is complete, there's no point in continuing treatment. Mia is the real heir."
Eight years of marriage. I'd always believed that beneath Dante's cold exterior, Leo was still a son he treasured.
Only now did I understand—from the moment of his birth, Leo had been nothing more than a living donor prepared for his stepsister Mia.
The cruelest irony? Mia, the girl Dante loved so deeply, wasn't even his biological daughter.

I thought drowning while trying to save a little girl was the end of my story. Turns out, it was just the beginning of my empire in the Land of the Dead.
Now, I'm the infamous owner of the afterlife's most intimate boutique. My clients? A community of skeletons so conservative, they excuse themselves before holding hands and have been sleeping in separate beds for thirty years of marriage.
To make sure my boyfriend Carlos doesn't forget me, I convinced him to become my interdimensional supplier. But my thriving business comes at a deadly cost: every product he sends drains his life force. And just as I make this horrifying discovery, I learn the little girl I died saving is in deadly danger once again, as her stepmother plots against her again.
With the love of my life fading away and an innocent child's life on the line, what price am I willing to pay for a second chance at life?

I was the most envied mafia wife in Chicago, until his Tibetan Mastiff tore apart what remained of our child.
Everyone called it an accident. I knew it wasn’t.
While I was bleeding out on the operating table, my husband was in the VIP ward, personally attending to his “traumatized” adopted sister. The whole family coddled her delicate state. Only I saw the smirk she couldn’t hide behind every calculated “panic attack.”
Then the Feds gave me a choice: keep playing the perfect, miserable wife, or vanish into a classified program so secret, I’d be dead to everyone I ever knew.
I signed. I uploaded the audio proof of their affair. I watched my old life disappear.
You swore you’d protect the family above all else, darling?
How fitting. My new mission is to protect this country from all threats.
Starting with you.

I thought the orchestrated assault was the most profound betrayal of my life. Then, from the shadows of the wine cellar, I heard my husband and his brothers toasting to their success.
"The slow-motion capture of her climax, paired with those broken whimpers... it was cinematic perfection."
"She played her part beautifully. After all, she’s just a Valenti."
I learned the devastating truth: my agony was their scripted entertainment. My husband. The director.
He married me to claim his inheritance.
He branded me to mark his property.
He caused my miscarriage in that dungeon, coldly calling it "tidying up loose ends."
But they overlooked one ancient law—the Moretti blood oath: should the Don betray his vows, everything becomes his wife's.
Now, I stand in the penthouse of his casino.
My fingers trace the scar on my shoulder—now transformed into a dagger.
"Darling, you celebrated the anniversary of your production. My gift to you is a lifetime behind bars."
Now, the final cut is mine.

Those beautiful dark golden eyes of Cassius should have been filled with dependence and longing for me.
Not like now—bewildered, innocent, like a lost fawn.
I perched high on an oak branch, watching the man below who was being ordered around like a servant by the knight squad gathered around their campfire.
The most feared top-tier human assassin, and... my devoted hound who warmed my bed.
Three days ago, he'd vanished without a trace after getting caught in a spatial rift while searching for abyssal crystals for me.
Never imagined when we'd meet again, he'd not only lost his memory but been picked up by a bunch of self-righteous fools.
I pulled out my communication crystal and reached out to my vampire bestie Lilith: "He's gone from attack dog to puppy dog, and I'm not sure how to handle it. What should I do?"
Her reply came instantly: "Easy—make him remember who owns him."
I curved my lips into a smile, my gaze piercing through the darkness to settle on the man by the flickering campfire below.
The dancing flames illuminated his half-wet, tattered shirt, clinging to outline that lean, muscular waistline in exquisite detail.
I stared at him, silently clenching my jaw.
I wondered—when night fell and I slipped into his tent, when I bit down on that strong nape of his neck again... would this sweet, innocent pup still be able to hold back those enticing gasps of his?

In the third year of my marriage to Damian Spencer, I accidentally scratched his first love.
For that insignificant little scratch, on the evening of my birthday, he personally brought his bodyguards and cornered me in a damp, cold alley.
Without flinching, he had them crush my right hand—the one that held my bow—bone by bone.
He looked down at me coldly as I slumped in the mud, his voice devoid of any warmth: "Just be a good Mrs. Spencer. You don't need this anymore."
Yet later, this same man caged me in his arms like someone possessed, begging again and again—pleading with me not to forget what we'd been.
But all that met him was my empty gaze—hollow, confused, as if he were no one to me.

The spring semester at the Academy had barely begun when Mother's enchanted letter burst into flames on my desk, that familiar acrid smoke already filling the air.
The smoke swirled and her voice emerged, sharp with anxiety:
"Cecilia, have you found a human man yet?"
"Less than a month left before we must present our tribute to the tribe. Noah is your own brother—can you really stand by and watch him die?"
Surrendering Noah meant certain death.
Over eighty Medusa females in the tribe were of breeding age. Noah had been frail since birth, his scales pale as paper.
If he were dragged onto that cold stone altar to serve as a breeding tool, he wouldn't survive the first night.
But where the hell was I supposed to find a human man?

Three years ago, Marco Ferraro stepped over the corpses of the Vancetti family to claim his throne, delivering my sentence with cold indifference: "Don't take it personally, Noelle. It's just business."
Three years later, he is the untouchable new Godfather of New York, while I am nothing but a ghost in a threadbare coat.
His classless fiancée didn’t just buy my mother’s legacy—she took that rare pink diamond and dropped it, right in front of everyone, into a glass of whiskey thick with spit.
"Thirsty, fallen princess?"
She kicked the backs of my knees hard, forcing me onto the glass-strewn floor. Her sharp stiletto heel ground into my knuckles. "Drink it, or die."
Marco stood to the side, lighting a cigar, his eyes filled with nothing but boredom.
I tightened my grip on the shard of glass hidden in my palm, ready to drag us all down to hell.
But before I could strike, the deafening roar of rotor blades tore through the dome of the auction house. A pitch-black military helicopter hovered just outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the violent rotor wash instantly shattering every champagne tower in the room.
A voice that made the entire underworld tremble boomed through the speakers:
"Which one of you suicidal bastards touched my woman?"
A dozen crimson laser dots instantly painted a target on Marco’s forehead.
Rafael, "The Phantom," had arrived.
Tonight, no one makes it out of here alive—except me.

Three years ago, in that deadly barrier, I carved out half my progenitor heart and dragged Theron back from death's door. The wound on my back has never healed.
I thought it was a soul blood pact—bound in life and death. Then Samaela appeared, that fragile human with barely a century to live, and it all became a joke.
He believed her lies. Swallowed every word about how I'd murdered her parents in cold blood.
For that pathetic creature who couldn't even bear sunlight, my carefully groomed blood vassal sawed off my pureblooded wings, ripped out my progenitor fangs with his bare hands, and threw me into the Silver Cathedral.
Three years. Nailed to a cross with pure silver chains, I endured concentrated UV rays and holy water burning through me day and night.
Everyone waited for me to go mad, to beg, or turn to ash. I didn't.
Listening to their wedding bells toll outside, I simply watched—in the silence of my flesh charring and regenerating—as the silver light on my chains fractured inch by inch.
Then I tore out the silver spikes embedded in my rotting flesh, dragged my bleeding wreck of a body forward, and kicked open the doors to the Crimson Blood Moon Gala's hall.
Theron had forgotten one forbidden clause in the blood pact: The oathbreaker's life belongs not to the gods, but to me.

To save my sister, my husband carved open my chest with his ice blade and ripped out my phoenix heartblood.
He doesn't know the true phoenix bloodline runs through my veins, not hers. Doesn't know I was the one who threw myself into the abyss to pull him from death's grasp.
He doesn't know I am the First Phoenix—the Fire God who descended from the celestial realm for one purpose: to survive this mortal trial.
After my body crumbles to ash, when he finally watches the truth unfold in that memory crystal, madness will consume him. He'll prostrate himself before my fading remnant and beat his head bloody against the stone.
But the divine grant no mercy to betrayers.

Six months after our bonding ceremony, I was ambushed by rogue wolves while searching for rare herbs in the Black Forest.
Their poisoned claws shredded my abdomen—and with it, any chance of ever carrying pups.
But my mate held my hand and wept. My mother swore she'd save me. My father said everything would be fine.
How pathetic—
Right before they wheeled me into surgery, I heard them through a cracked door, calmly discussing how to harvest my heart for the adopted sister who'd been waiting six months.
Turns out the "accident" was a gift from my loving family of four.
Turns out the last six months of "coming home" was just them fattening up my heart for harvest.
What they don't know? The voice memo on my phone caught everything.
What they really don't know? Six months from now, I'm coming back—
With a Dark Moon Alliance badge. And a heart much colder than the one they stole.
Shh. Listen.
That stolen heart? It's starting to reject.

The day the butler of Sterling family came to claim me, the folks back in my dusty hometown lined the streets with tears in their eyes, waving goodbye like I was headed somewhere better.
The moment I stepped into that mansion, armed guards pinned me down in the first-floor medical suite, demanding I donate bone marrow to their precious adopted daughter, Celeste.
I responded by ripping out Celeste's dialysis machine.
My biological parents, Richard and Eleanor, went ballistic. They locked me in the attic storage room to "reflect on my behavior."
That night, while the house slept, I crept down to the basement and twisted open the main gas line valve.
I was halfway through rigging a candle delay fuse when the thermal imaging system caught me. Armed security tackled me before I could finish the job.
They'd had enough. They blindfolded me, tossed me onto a private jet like garbage, and flew me overnight to the most notorious hellhole in America—Deadwater, Texas.
The car had barely stopped in front of the bullet-riddled town sign when Richard leaned in with a cold warning:
"Listen to me. These people don't show mercy. An ungrateful brat like you? Three days, tops, before they pick your bones clean."
Eleanor stood beside him, dripping with fake concern:
"Willa, just agree to donate your marrow to Celeste, and you'll still be a Sterling. Stay here in this godforsaken wasteland, and you're dead."
I spat blood at her shoes. Eleanor's mask shattered. She ripped off my hood and shoved me hard into the dust.
I pushed myself up slightly, staring coldly at the yellow sand beneath my hands, and shook my head.
I squinted up at the familiar landscape—the rusted water tower, the butcher shop with skinned hogs hanging in the window, the faint smell of gunpowder in the air.
Funny. Nobody ever told me that the place I'd spent twenty years calling home was what rich people called "Deadwater."
Well. Since I'm here anyway.
Nobody's leaving this town alive today.

We were ambushed by rogue wolves and chased all the way to the cliff's edge.
Caleb—my mate, Alpha of Ravenrock Pack—was covered in blood, barely strong enough to carry one person across the chasm.
Forced by the alliance marriage between our packs, he ultimately chose me.
Laura was left behind. The feral rogues tore her apart, piece by piece. They didn't even leave a body.
Three days later, Caleb acted as if nothing had happened and completed our mating ceremony on schedule.
After the wedding, he stripped me of every dignity of my position as Luna. He treated me like a prisoner, a punching bag for his rage, making me pay for Laura's brutal death.
When I learned that my entire pack had been slaughtered, I was locked in a freezing dungeon, wanting nothing more than release.
I used the last of my strength to rip apart our mate bond. But Caleb, driven completely mad, tore me to pieces with his own hands.
When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back on the day of the rogue attack.
This time, I chose to step back and give the one he truly loved a chance to survive.

One month until the SAT.
Staring at my phone screen—at the pulsing number on "Oracle," the mandatory score prediction app that Elite Prep forced every student to install—I couldn't help but think it was all a joke.
In my previous life, every time I finished a practice test, this garbage system would automatically dock twenty points from my predicted score.
But skip class for a day? The number would mysteriously jump up twenty points.
Back then, I actually believed in this bullshit algorithm. I completely gave up for an entire month, watching that predicted score skyrocket all the way to 1550.
But when I finally logged into College Board to check my real results, I'd scored a pathetic 400.
And that brilliant 1550? It appeared on my stepsister Dahlia's score report instead.
Disgusted that I'd embarrassed the Wright family, my father Harold froze my credit card without a second thought and threw me out of the family estate, clearing the path for Dahlia to claim Grandpa's ten-million-dollar trust fund all for herself.
That night, homeless on the streets, I was cornered by some thugs in a filthy Brooklyn alley and beaten to death.
Lying in a pool of my own blood, fading fast, I heard Dahlia's voice.
"Your GPA's been crushing mine since we were kids. I thought you, the so-called 'Straight-A student,' were supposed to be so smart."
She stood over me, mocking. "Turns out you got played by a prediction app. Pathetic."
That's when it finally clicked. My Oracle prediction system had been completely rigged from the source code—by Dahlia.
I shot up in bed, gasping, my shirt soaked through with sweat. I'd actually gone back in time—one month before the test.
Right now, the Oracle widget glowed eerily on my phone's home screen, displaying a single number: 1350.

In my third year at the Eden Center, I forgot how to play guitar, forgot the rhythm of rock and roll, and forgot the name Melody.
They used twelve thousand electric shocks and seven hundred hours of sleep deprivation to scrub my name down to Number 2963.
Now, I'm their perfect instrument. No preferences, no pain, only commands.
My parents finally got the perfect daughter they'd always dreamed of—until the day they ordered me to die.

I'm Ophelia, a design student about to graduate.
I've been pulling all-nighters at my aunt Millicent's adult store, frantically working on my graduation project.
Aunt Millicent's shop sells all sorts of bizarre stuff - from massage chairs to aromatherapy products, the works. The demo area is constantly busy with customers wanting to try out the newest items.
Seeing me looking like a complete zombie from exhaustion, my aunt handed me a bottle of sleep aromatherapy and a matching eye mask, swearing they'd have me out like a light till morning.
Well, that sleep did more than knock me out cold - it landed me in the biggest mess of my life! A mortifyingly embarrassing situation was about to hit me out of nowhere!

Aston Whitmore thought I loved him. Truth is, his mother bought a year of my life for a million dollars.
He thought those 3 AM study sessions were about redemption and romance across class lines. He didn't know I was never watching his pretty face—I was watching the countdown to my mother's kidney transplant payment.
I froze this trust fund prince's credit cards, cut his internet, and nailed him to that desk until his eyes went bloodshot cramming calculus.
When he turned into a guard dog in front of the whole cafeteria, publicly staking his claim on me, all I was calculating was the date that final payment would clear.
Today, he burst through the mansion door clutching his Yale acceptance letter, ready to give me some grand confession.
I was already thirty thousand feet up on a flight to Zurich, staring at that million-dollar deposit notification, face blank as I pulled out the SIM card, snapped it in half, and tossed it in the trash.
No note. No goodbye.
Just one notarized Service Completion Certificate sitting on that empty desk. Terms fulfilled. Transaction closed.

When I accepted the Global War Photography Award at the ceremony, a reality TV crew crashed through the velvet ropes, their cameras flashing like strobes at a crime scene.
"Ms. Evelyn Vance!"
The host shoved a microphone in my face. "After twenty years of silence, are you still holding a grudge against your father? Just because he saved the neighbor's orphaned child first and left you in that burning building?"
I looked up, past the blinding lights, toward the figure at the edge of the crowd. Robert Bennett.
He pushed through and stepped forward, his calloused hands trembling as they closed around my cold fingers.
"Nora, Kayla's parents didn't make it out. Under those circumstances, I had to get that newly orphaned child to safety first."
His eyes pleaded with me. "You're my daughter. You understand, don't you?"
I stared at those hands imprisoning mine, then pulled my lips into a cold smile and wrenched free.
"You've got the wrong person," my voice was ice. "There's no Nora here. My name is Evelyn Vance."

He was supposed to be my way out, but he was the one who pushed me into the pit all along.
I used to think Carter was the one good thing in this hellhole of a high school. He'd stand up for me when the whole class mocked my stutter. He'd hand me a clean jacket when my locker got stuffed with dead rats.
For him, I gave up my Ivy League dreams, willingly settling for some mediocre state university.
Until that Friday outside the locker room, when I heard him brag to his teammates and the head cheerleader—the same girl who'd led the charge in tormenting me—about his "conquest" in the most casual tone imaginable.
Turns out, I was just the prize in their sick bet.
In that moment, everything I'd believed in shattered.
I didn't cry. I didn't scream. I just quietly changed my college application, and then, at the height of their triumph, I watched with cold eyes as they destroyed themselves.

Lunar Depletion Syndrome. Seven days.
That was my death countdown. And my Alpha mate Kael was still threatening me, demanding I use the last of my life force to save my sister.
On our third anniversary, he had given me a surgical consent form and dissolution papers as gifts.
How laughable.
Three years ago he had said my eyes sparkled like stars. Three years later he wanted me to close them forever.
They all said I had finally matured, learned the spirit of sacrifice expected of an older sister. The joke was, I hadn't been moved by love.
I was just tired.
Why struggle when death was inevitable?
Rather than dying alone in the wilderness, it was better to die on the operating table and become the perfect sacrifice in their story.

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.

"Fuck a whale like that? Dude, I'd need a goddamn forklift to dig through the rolls and find the hole. You could pay me a thousand bucks and I still wouldn't touch it. This isn't a date—this is a fear factor challenge."
Three months ago, those words boomed through the speakers at the frat party, filling every corner of the house.
That night, I was the joke. The fattest pig in their twisted little hunting game.
Three months later, I'm at the podium running for student body president. My waist dropped from 38 inches to 24, and this custom suit fits like a weapon.
Down below, the same people who laughed are staring up at me now. And that asshole who needed the forklift? He's face-down in the dirt like a kicked dog, waiting for me to end him.
My name is Leona. This isn't some crying fat girl's diary anymore. This is how I crushed every bastard who ever stepped on me—and clawed my way to the crown with blood and sweat.

Five years into living with my stepbrother Gideon, the scholarship girl he sponsored moved into our house.
To repay his "generosity," she made a habit of slipping into his bed at night. By day, she took it upon herself to "fix" my antisocial, withdrawn personality.
Three days before St. George Prep's graduation ceremony, she brought me a glass of juice wearing that nauseating sugar-sweet smile.
"You know, Charlotte, your peanut allergy is probably psychosomatic. You just need some exposure therapy. Let me help you get over it."
That night, my throat closed completely. She'd deliberately laced my drink with concentrated peanut extract.
I convulsed on the cold hardwood floor, vision tunneling as oxygen fled my lungs.
In the last second before darkness swallowed me whole, I clawed desperately toward the half-open door.
Standing in the hallway were my boyfriend Dylan and my stepbrother Gideon.
They simply watched me suffocate. Then Gideon calmly reached out and shut the door.
I died from anaphylactic shock.
Three months later, as a ghost tethered to this world, I watched her stride onto Stanford's campus. Wearing my clothes. Carrying my acceptance letter. Burning through my trust fund.
Through the crowd, I saw Gideon—my ice-cold, unreachable stepbrother—gently cradle her face and press his lips to hers.
Then I gasped awake.
I was back. Three days before graduation.

I had just pulled the teddy bear cookies from the oven when my daughter Dora ran into the kitchen.
"Dora, sweetheart! Mommy's special cookies are ready!"
But the moment she saw the cookies, her face went white as a sheet. She screamed "Get away! Get away!" and bolted from the room.
I was completely stunned. Just then, Herbert walked through the door.
"Try one and tell me what's wrong," I said, pointing at the cookies.
Herbert was about to comfort me, but when he learned I'd made these cookies for Dora, his expression turned absolutely bizarre. "You really made these? If you did, I want a divorce. Immediately!"
"What?"
My mother-in-law Athena heard the commotion and came to console me, but the moment she heard these were cookies I'd made for my daughter, she slapped the entire tray out of my hands. "What kind of mother are you?!"
Cookie crumbs scattered across the floor. I stood there in shock, completely bewildered by what was happening.

No one knew I was an addict.
Not to alcohol, not to drugs, but to the rawest, dirtiest kind of union.
To keep up the facade of this respectable job, to stop myself from turning into some desperate, heat-crazed stray begging for a man’s touch on the street, I had to swallow those little blue pills every day.
Until that damn blizzard trapped me with thirty hockey players reeking of sweat and testosterone, and my pills—gone.

"Stop—Daniel, the fk are you doing! I came here to learn to swim, not get fked!"
In the pool, because my kicks were all wrong, Daniel—my husband's cousin—told me to wrap my legs around his waist to "feel the rhythm."
Except I was wearing that scarlet bikini Vincent shoved me into—practically nothing. Even worse, Daniel's rk-hard ck in those thin trunks was jammed right up against my py.
Every time he kicked, that thing dragged right over my ct, like it was about to shove straight inside.