111 Book(s) Related to pamper

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Let go. It's too late."

"I will sort that out, just have some faith in your man."

"Yes, daddy," Encha knew just how much that word drives her man crazy.

Looking at his hazy eyes made her roll her eyes at him with laughter.

Keaton who had been made fun off could only restrain his anger and drove the little girl to his penthouse apartment.

When Encha realized what was happening, she was already pinned against the elevator wall being thoroughly kissed.

All it took for him to have her in palm was a marriage proposal threateningly done by him.

In order for her to keep the secret she had been keeping from her adoptive parents,

Enchantia didn't hesitate to give herself to the man who made her heart skip and sent shivers down her spine.

So what if he was dangerous? Enchantia believed that between the two of them, she was more dangerous than him but for the sake of her beloved ones, she wouldn't mind attaching herself to this devil.

What could she fear when she can be herself around him?

Every time my husband wants to make me give in, he slaps divorce papers on the table. Every time my parents want me to cave, they threaten to disown me.

What they want is simple: give everything to my twin sister.

I used to fight back. I cried. I demanded to know why it always had to be me.

But when the doctor slides the test results across his desk and tells me in that pitying voice, "Stage four brain cancer. You have a month, maybe less," something in me just... stops caring.

I'm dying anyway. They can do whatever the hell they want.

Ethan Ashworth had nothing — no money, no family, no future. Just a rundown room, a handsome face that brought him nothing but pain, and the daily beatings from rich bullies who saw him as trash.

Then came the brutal ambush behind the school building. Left bleeding and alone as the weekend began, Ethan finally gave up on life.

That was when the voice spoke.

[Bloodline Legacy Contract activated.]

Suddenly, the frail orphan from the slums was thrust into another world — a realm of magic, kings, and monsters. With a mysterious system at his side and a sword in his hand, Ethan must complete deadly missions to grow stronger.

Because back home, the rich still rule… and he has a score to settle.

On the way to escape, a stranger took away her virginity. She didn’t expect that the stranger was Jasper Milton, who was rich and powerful, as well as ruthless and cold. It was said that he didn’t love woman. However, it was not true. She was suffering from a sore back after having sex with him every day, and finally she couldn’t stand it, “You don’t need to be responsible for me anymore, and you are free now.” He sat by her bed, pulled her into his arms, and said gently: “Stella, are you mistaken, shouldn’t it be you who is responsible? " Stella Grace:”…"

Love is not part of why Kane Beaumont marries Emilia Taylor.
It was purely a contract deal to him and nothing more. Saving her family's business from the claws of evil loan sharks is Emilia's motive for marrying a man she barely knew.
However, she doesn't count on being hopelessly attracted to him even when he treats her like a worthless peasant.
Their relationship is chaotic, thanks to Kane's lover who is determined to ruin any opportunity of their romance ever blooming.
Even if it means putting Emilia's life in danger, setting her up, and turning the world against her.
When sparks begin to fly between Kane and Emilia after an unfortunate accident, their relationship goes through a tough test that destroys the tiny flames of love burning between them.
Will love eventually find a way in the end or will this marriage continue to be a high-stakes business deal with dangerous rewards?

She’s been a proper princess—but she wants to rebel.After the death of her fiancé, Princess Madeleine knows a loveless, arranged marriage awaits her. She’s resigned to her fate until she meets her intended husband. Crown Prince Enrique is gorgeous, but he comes on way too strong, says the wrong things, and fumbles with apologies. He’s more court jester than Prince Charming. How can she marry him?Enrique might be self-centered and lack social skills, but he’s trying to do better—for himself, his country, and his future wife. Despite their royal union being a political necessity, he wants his marriage with the captivating Madeleine to be a love match. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to woo her. How hard can it be to win his princess bride’s heart?Nearly impossible, he discovers, because Madeleine seems unwilling—or unable—to give him her heart. On their wedding day, instead of exchanging vows, will the royal couple say goodbye?

All it took for him to have her in palm was a marriage proposal threateningly done by him. In order for her to keep the secret she had been keeping from her adoptive parents, Enchantia didn't hesitate to give herself to the man who made her heart skip and sent shivers down her spine.
So what if he was dangerous? Enchantia believed that between the two of them, she was more dangerous than him but for the sake of her beloved ones, she wouldn't mind attaching herself to this devil.
What could she fear when she can be herself around him?

Vera is a poor girl who was tricked by bad guys to sell to human traffickers. She successfully escaped and caught Egan being hunted by the enemy. Vera saves Egan's life and is rewarded by him by marrying her.

Lani, the step-sister, learned that Vera had a happy life and was jealous, trying to harm Vera to take her position.

After so many storms, will Vera be happy with Egan?

At my ex-fiancé's engagement party to my own sister, a stranger made me come with just his hands and his mouth. I only found out later he was the city's most feared Mafia boss...

Dear readers,
I'm taking a necessary health break and will have to pause updates for a while. Thank you for your understanding and continued support! I appreciate you all.

"To my lovely readers: I’m really sorry to say that I’ve been sick lately and need to take a short break from writing to recover. I’ll be back as soon as I can!"

The day Elodie was diagnosed with late-stage cancer, she received intimate photos of her husband and his mistress.

Five years of marriage, and she had been nothing more than a presentable servant — her mother-in-law barked orders at will, her husband saved every tender moment for someone else, and even the money to treat her illness had to pass through layers of approval.

Finally, she slid the divorce papers across the table to him, picked up her luggage, and moved into a rented room. In her pocket: the cheapest painkillers she could find. On the bill: Initial Treatment Cost — $100,000.

No one knew she was sick. And no one remembered that this so-called "useless young madam" had once been a legendary prodigy at law school.

A light buried under dust for too long.

It was time to dig it back out.

Beautiful, kind and loyal.
Who would have thought this would happen to her?
When Piper steps in to help a friend, she would never expect she would land in serious trouble. Abused, broken and used as a pawn in a conspiracy to bring down her best friend’s husband’s company, her life takes on a sudden somersault.
Will she ever walk out of this living hell or will she be drawn in by the temptation of the evil within?

Married for four years, Emily remained childless. A hospital diagnosis plunged her life into hell. Unable to conceive? But her husband was rarely home during these four years, so how could she get pregnant?
Emily and her billionaire husband were in a contractual marriage; she had hoped to win his love through effort. However, when her husband appeared with a pregnant woman, she despaired. After being kicked out, homeless Emily was taken in by a mysterious billionaire. Who was he? How did he know Emily? More importantly, Emily was pregnant.

On the anniversary of my mother's death, Thomas promised he'd come pay his respects with me. I waited at the cemetery all day, only to see media reports of him vacationing with his first love.

Everyone assumed Thomas had a secret child with her. That they were about to get married.

And me? His actual wife?

I went home, left the divorce papers on the table, and burned our marriage certificate.

Three years of marriage. Harper gave up her career, cut off her friends, and made herself invisible for Evan.
Then on her birthday, the blow came. Claire showed up pregnant: "Mrs. Morgan's spot will be mine eventually. What's the point of you holding onto it?"
Harper finally woke up. She filed for divorce without looking back.
The day she signed the papers, she smiled calmly at the reporters waiting outside: "The reason for the divorce? Mr. Morgan was simply never able to satisfy me. In that department."
The untouchable CEO became a punchline overnight.
Evan assumed she was getting back at him. He had no idea Harper was no longer the caged bird he remembered.
Her design talent shook the industry. His own business rivals fell for her.
By the time he realized the partner he had been desperately chasing was his ex-wife, it was already too late.
"Harper, can we start over?"
"Mr. Morgan, if something's wrong with you, go see a doctor. Do you need me to pay for the appointment?"

Synopsis – The Beloved and Pampered Wife from Childhood of the CEO
Genre: Contemporary Romance / Family Drama / Suspense

From childhood friends to reluctant soulmates, Kian Sutton and Elena Madison were bound together by an innocent promise and a secret marriage. As heirs to two of New York’s most powerful families, their paths were scripted from the beginning—until tragedy, betrayal, and painful choices tore them apart.

Years later, Elena returns to New York—not as the pampered heiress she once was, but as a quiet storm determined to uncover the truth behind her mother’s mysterious death and the web of corruption buried deep within the Sutton Foundation. She’s no longer the shy, obedient girl Kian once knew. And she’s certainly not here for love.

Kian, now the cold and commanding CEO of Sutton Enterprises, never expected to see the wife who vanished without a trace. But her reappearance shatters the careful order of his life. She’s still legally his. Still tied to him in ways that make his board nervous and his heart ache.

As Elena digs deeper, enemies from both their pasts begin to circle—some willing to destroy the Sutton legacy, and others desperate to bury the truth forever. Tensions rise. Old feelings resurface. And Kian must choose between protecting his empire or standing beside the woman who might burn it all down to uncover justice.

In a world of power, wealth, and betrayal, love may be their greatest liability—or their only way out.

Do all men lose interest in their wives after marriage?

We’ve been married for five years, and he never touched me.

At first he said he wasn’t well, so I was understanding. Later he recovered, but still kept me far away.

On our fifth wedding anniversary, my sister came in for a check-up, clearly pregnant with his child.

The truth hit me hard: he wasn’t incapable. He was just incapable with me.

I drew up the divorce papers, ready to end this empty marriage.

On the reason for divorce, I wrote with my own hand:

“Male sexual dysfunction; no marital relations in five years.”

He only smiled coldly when he saw it.

A week later, in the urology clinic.

I put on my medical gloves, looked at him, and said calmly:

“Sir, will you undress yourself, or shall I help you?”

His disapproval didn’t take away my confidence.

I still embraced better things in my career and love life!

But his life started to be filled with one accident after another.

He drained my blood to save his mistress; now, I'm back to drain his empire dry.
"How can you do this to me, Zane?!" I ask in a heartbroken and devastated tone as tears roll down my cheeks in torrents.
"I stood by your side when everyone else left you! Hell, I donated my skin to you!" I say in a frantic tone as I try desperately to understand the reasons behind his actions.
"Stop being pathetic, Zara. You have lost the one thing that made you useful: your beauty, and in turn, your modelling career. The only woman who can secure my inheritance is Elora. You were only good while you lasted." Zane says with a sneer on his lips.
"It's over between us," Zane says with a tone of finality.


Zara Smith, blinded by love, abandons her heiress legacy and hides her identity to marry an illegitimate billionaire heir, Zane Wesley.
After getting into an accident staged by his step-siblings, he urgently needs saving. Despite being informed of all she had to lose, she donates parts of her skin to heal him.
When Zane no longer sees a need for her, he divorces her and marries another heiress to secure his inheritance. Three years later, she returns and is determined to bring Zane down.
To do this, she reclaims her legacy and... forms an alliance with her all-along silent investor and billionaire heir, Leo Armstrong. Watch them ruin the cheating couple—piece by piece!

After three years of a secret marriage, my husband refused to pay for a life-saving surgery—
yet spent a fortune on another woman.

I filed for divorce.

He thought I would come back, broken and begging.

Instead, I picked up my scalpel again.

While my ex-husband looked down on me, I saved countless lives.

When my breakthrough medicine won an international award,
and the world’s richest man proposed to me,
my ex-husband finally lost his mind—
showing up at my proposal ceremony too late to stop anything.

Within the intricate tapestry of "Anonymous Baby Daddy," a tale of shadows and redemption unfolds. Yingmei, an heiress enshrouded in opulence, stumbles upon a truth that shatters the facade of friendship and love. As she navigates the tempestuous waves of betrayal, her journey becomes a symphony of resilience and vengeance, interwoven with the enigmatic Gu Mohan. Through a whirlwind of emotions and intricately woven plots, Yingmei must unveil the depths of deception, confronting the very essence of forgiveness and the complexity of human connections. In a crescendo of revelations, alliances form, destinies entwine, and a new dawn beckons, casting its ethereal light on love's enduring power amidst adversity. Is a symphony of words that dances between perplexity and Burst, leaving readers entranced by its melody of emotions and the entangled fates of its characters.

"You're marrying my mother, Jack,"I said. "And I'm pregnant with your baby."
"Pardon?"
The icy voice behind us froze me in place.
I didn't need to turn to know who it was.
Jack's grip tightened, but my knees were already giving out.
I turned slowly, and Celeste stood in the doorway, her face a porcelain mask of shock and fury.
"Mum…" I took a trembling step toward her, instinctively wrapping my arms around my stomach. "Please, I can explain…"


I let his father touch me.
I didn’t mean for it to happen.
It was supposed to be just one night—a reckless decision to escape the pain of a broken past. I didn’t know who he was, only that he was older, magnetic, and made me feel wanted for the first time in years.
But that night changed everything.
Jackson Romero isn’t just anyone. He’s the father of my first love—the boy who broke my heart ten years ago. And now… I’m pregnant.
Worse, Jackson is about to become my stepfather, and his son is back in my life.
They say age is just a number, and Jackson… belongs to my mother.
But how can I walk away when every part of me already belongs to him? When my body remembers his touch, but my heart still aches for the boy who turned his back on me.
Caught between the twisted lies my mother spins, the betrayal of the boy I once loved, and the dangerously irresistible man I never should have touched, I’m faced with a choice that could destroy us all.
In our story, love always comes with a price.
And someone lurking in the shadows will stop at nothing to make sure I pay it, no matter the cost.

“Nira,” he breathed, reaching for the back of her head.
She continued to work every inch of him, her hands teasing, her mouth caressing, until his legs began to shake and his knees nearly buckled. She started to feel him grow larger as she moved faster, pulling his hips to her as she swallowed every inch of him, listening to him pant and groan.


It began with the legendary love story between Nira and Cursed One, Mikael. Mythical Investigator Nira Daniels was sent to look into a realm veil because of rumors of Daemoni terrorizing the local village. What Nira found instead was Mikael, the son of the High Queen, known as the Cursed One. He was nothing like she expected a Daemoni to be. Nira saw a thoughtful and insightful man under Mikael’s fearsome Daemoni form. And Mikael learned what love is with Nira’s company. It was a happily-ever-after, until their daughter Theanna was born, whose life was bonded to an intricate destiny……

High-school misfit Julian fell in over his head into a relationship doomed for dysfunction. When the love of your life turns out to be a polyamorous vampire, eternity together is bound to be a messy rollercoaster, but even after all the trauma and heartbreak, this one of a kind devil still holds his heart. If only Luc shared his devotion... He certainly shares his obsession.

“Your girlfriend’s pretty cynical, now isn’t she?” Luc speaks into my ear, leaning casually on my shoulder. I blush bright red, and his smile grows all the broader.
He takes both our hands and leads us off across the dance floor, and the crowd parts for him like he’s the King of England - the bouncers steering away anyone that tries to block us.
“Holy shit. You really are the owner?!” Heather drunkenly shouts, as we make our way up the stairs and into that VIP booth.
“My club and my right to lay claim to anyone who catches my eye,” Luc drawls, and I shoot him a look, shifting my weight to get in between him and Heather.
“Look, you can’t just… I mean, thanks for the drinks, but she is not going to…” God I sound like an idiot, and staring straight in Luc’s eyes I feel more than a little intimidated, especially because he is not intimidated by me whatsoever. He’s smiling like I’ve just gifted him a shiny new present. I turn to tell Heather we should go, and Luc catches my arm.
“I wasn’t trying to steal away your date,” he laughs. “I invited the both of you here, now didn’t I?” He pushes a hand through Heather’s hair, turning boldly to face her dreamy eyed gawking. “You ever had a three way?”

Eli tore off my soaked panties, his cock thrusting straight into my body.
"Baby, you're so tight and so wet!" Eli murmured in my ear.
Tears streamed down my face as I begged him to leave.
"Eli, you're my uncle—we can't do this!"
He slammed into my body with force. "You're just my brother's adopted daughter; we have no blood relation!"
——
Genesis discovered that her uncle Eli had murdered the family advisor. Unfortunately, she was also spotted by Eli. To avoid being killed, she had no choice but to submit to him while secretly looking for an opportunity to strike back. However, as Eli toyed with and teased her, he gradually crossed the boundaries of their familial roles.
Unwilling to become his mistress, Genesis exposed Eli's murder of the family advisor to the public. Enraged, Eli left the family. Genesis, in turn, was forced to leave the family as well for framing him. Three years later, they met again. By then, Genesis had become an outstanding IT talent, while Eli had built his own powerful family empire. Now that their paths have crossed once more, what will become of them?

"Erin, are you really going to get back together with that cowardly ex-fiancé?" Kingsley stared at me, demanding an answer.
Tears welled up in my eyes as I glared at him and shouted back, "Yes! So what? We have nothing between us.Who the hell are you to question me?"
Kingsley burst into laughter, his laugh so sinister that it sent chills down my spine; looking at him, I felt both terrified and utterly estranged.
"He's a gentleman, sure, but can he make you climax in bed?" It was only then that I realized Kingsley had backed me into a corner.
His hand slid my short skirt up, his fingers teasing along the edge of my already drenched panties.
"Miss Erin, you're soaked for me!"

“So blood is less like a meal for you than it is a drug trip,” I note, and he rests his hand on my thigh, making my heart clench.

“No, blood is sustenance,” he corrects, “some bland and some flavorful, but your blood,” He leans in closer, finger tracing up the side of my leg, right along the femoral artery. “I was taken to heaven, my soul lit aflame. Pure ecstasy. I wish I could show you.” His eyes scorch my skin, suffusing my cheeks with heat. His fingers are right there between my legs, and I know without a doubt that such ecstasy is well within my reach, no biting required. He can see that desire darkening my gaze, and his smile steadily broadens. “You know, there are ways of enhancing one’s flavor. I normally tease it out for hours before I drink.” He rests his lips against my ear. “Sanguis always tastes best when a woman is in full climax.”


Leah just wanted to make some friends and blow off some steam. She did not expect her night of clubbing to get her kidnapped by a coven of hot, young vampires addicted to her blood. Now she’s a slave, a blood servant in a mansion of beautiful tormentors fighting each other to lay permanent claim to her. She doesn’t need to pick just one. She could have them all if she chose, but the urge to escape and rescue her imprisoned best friend, the man she’s been in love with since grade school, that noble need remains. Even if he could never fully satisfy her needs and fulfill her darkest fantasies the way the others can… It’s too deadly a game, leading them all on, and one of these vampires is bound to overindulge and suck her dry. Though the truth is, she’d enjoy every second of that experience, right up until death.

"Nydia, you're moaning too loud. Your ex-fiancé in the garden is going to be heartbroken if he hears!"
Vincent's cock was thrusting against my G-spot, his hands kneading my breasts. I clung tightly to Vincent, tightening my core under his powerful thrusts until I reached climax.
"Let him die! Right now, I only want you!"
——
At Nydia's long-awaited proposal ceremony, her fiancé Gordon cheated on her with her adoptive sister. Faced with the double betrayal from her fiancé and her family, Nydia decided to leave and rely on her own dancing talent to regain her former confidence. But Gordon soon regretted it. He knelt at Nydia's door, begging her to take him back—but the one who opened the door wasn't Nydia. "We just finished making love; she's too exhausted and resting." Nydia once thought no one truly loved her, but Vincent's appearance made her bloom with her original radiance, taking her again and again to explore the limits of her body.

I like to stay an optimist, but being a college drop-out and lonely barista is not exactly an eventful or enviable life. Then one of my customers kidnapped me on my way to work and tried to turn me into a human sacrifice. It seems she mistook me for her rival, an ancient witch.
To be clear, I am not a witch. Turns out I can shape-shift though. Just.. not very well. I have zero control over what I turn into, and now I appear to be stuck as a cat, a little black house cat to be more specific. I was stranded in the woods with zero chance of getting back to civilization when I came across this beautiful werewolf boy just returning from a night of full moon fun way out here in the woods.
Now I know what you’re thinking: cat chases dog, a bad idea, right? But human him seems to love my fluffy cat self. Though he has no idea who I really am since the only thing I can say to him right now is either “purr” or “meow”. He was kind enough to rescue me and take me home to his apartment. Now I’ve been sitting on his lap and sleeping in his bed and feeling entirely frustrated I have no way to ask him how the hell you control this animal to human thing! He seems to manage it easily enough, snapping right back to human shape each morning from wolf, so why can’t I escape this prison of furry flesh?
I need to find some way to communicate with him, and also to deal with this witch hunting me down. And also avoid this boy’s family: an entire, volatile clan of werewolves with a decidedly low tolerance for cat-girls.

Everyone deserves a second chance, even if they tried to strangle you to death in your sleep.

Aya has been trained all her life as a living weapon, but she has never taken a life. She has never been with a man. She lives her life for the sake of her mistress Lady Charlotte. Her latest mission: impersonating her lady and becoming bride to the barbarian prince who has invaded her homeland and imprisoned the former queen.

It will be a brutal task, assassinating the prince and his father and reclaiming the castle from the hands of the hundreds of savage northmen who have seized it. Aya is fully equipped for that mission, but she is not at all prepared for the savage charm of her new suitor. His tongue is just as wicked as his features are angelic, and the fact that he could break her neck with ease should he discover her duplicitous plot… Her intense attraction to him grows ever more potent, and her impulse is to claim him, not as a victim of her deadly scheme, but as her lover.

Will the prince even accept her though, if he uncovers her true identity: a peasant girl who came to this castle to murder him? Or is this deadly game of betrayal doomed to end in all out war?

Three years ago, on the eve of my wedding, my fiancé murdered my parents.Hiding behind his billions, he feigned insanity and slipped through the cracks of justice.
Now, three years later, this devil has returned—professing love, begging for another chance.He watches me, forces me, imprisons me, as if I were his golden canary, trapped and powerless.
I fight back, collecting evidence piece by piece, determined to put him behind bars.I thought I was the one holding the power, standing at the cliff’s edge, watching him struggle at the bottom.
What I didn’t know… was that I had been the devil's prey all along, and it was me writhing at the bottom—while the devil stood above, smiling in control.

When I died alone in the hospital in my past life, Nathaniel was in Paris getting engaged to Sophia.

Reborn on the day of Mom's funeral, I watched him announce his first love's return at the gala. Watched him smile at her the way he never smiled at me in three years.

So I threw wine in his face.

"The transaction is over, Nathaniel."

In front of all Boston high society, I dropped his million-dollar ring into the champagne tower.

Then I drove 12 hours to Port Haven. A shabby seaside cottage, teaching piano, falling for Liam, the gentle town doctor. I thought I was finally free.

Until three months later, Nathaniel showed up with lawyers.

"Clause 17, Emma. Early divorce means you owe $8 million."

I collapsed in the snow, hands shaking—this hidden trap is why I never ran in my past life.

But this time, will I let him win again?

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...

The Vane family has carried the vampire's curse for generations. Of every pair of twin sisters born into our bloodline, one will not live to see twenty-five.

Everyone assumed it was my sister — the one always coughing up blood.

Nobody knew that for twenty years, every full moon, the one gritting her teeth through the pain, never making a sound, was me.

The Divine took pity on me and gave me three chances. Win the genuine love of my parents, my brother, or my husband — any one of them — and the curse would lift.

Three chances. Three failures.

The only hope I had left was the baby inside me, seven months along. Bring him into this world, and I'd live.

Then my husband kicked open my hospital room door. My own brother pulled on a surgical gown and picked up a knife. My parents signed the forms outside.

They were going to cut me open, take the last thing keeping me alive, and use it to save my "cursed" sister.

After my life slipped away entirely, the truth came out.

So why is it that the people who sent me to my death are the ones who lost their minds?

I died once.

Spent seventy years as a housewife the first time around. Biggest regret? Never felt my heart race.

Met her in this life, and that's when I learned what being alive actually meant. In this world where assassins pay in gold coins and seek sanctuary at Continental hotels, we became a duo called "Swans," hunting down the man who destroyed her family. Every single day, dancing on a razor's edge.

Two years ago, the explosion killed Raven Hayes right in front of me.

To survive, I married a naive tech heir, slipped into silk dresses and started doing the charity gala circuit, tried to convince myself this was the peace I wanted.

Until that enemy became a High Table member and announced a hundred-million-dollar bounty on me to the world.

I used to be scared. Used to run. Used to ask why it had to be me.

But sitting at my vanity, staring at this stranger's face in the mirror, all done up like some socialite, I suddenly realized none of it mattered anymore.

I'm going to die eventually anyway. Might as well die looking like myself.

I died in the tenth year of our marriage. Not from illness, but from thirty-six hundred days of silent cruelty and penance.

Ten years ago, during that avalanche, he grabbed my hand at the last second. The girl he loved got buried under all that snow.

After that, even breathing felt like a crime.

He drank himself into oblivion, stayed out all night, and on the anniversary of her death, he'd wrap his hands around my throat and ask, "Why wasn't it you?"

I loved him for fifteen years, from childhood sweethearts to bitter strangers. I gave everything for even a hint of warmth from him. What I got instead was him shoving me down the stairs for her little sister.

When I open my eyes again, wind cuts through me and snow fills the air. I'm ten years in the past, back to that afternoon in the Alps.

This time, I'll give you what you want.

Everyone knows Adrian loves me more than life itself. When that car crashed, he threw himself over me and took the hit. First thing he said when he woke up in the hospital: "Where is she? Is she okay?"

Everyone says I married the best man in the city.

What they don't know is this man has married me ten times. And divorced me ten times. All for the woman he's never gotten over.

The first time, I got on my knees and begged him not to leave. He just looked at me with those cold eyes and said, "Don't embarrass yourself."

The fourth time, we were fighting in the car. Then we crashed, and I lost our baby.

By the seventh time, I stopped crying. Just signed the papers, packed my things, waited for him to come back like he always did.

My tears, my compromises, all those times I bent until I nearly broke. What did I get? Him coming back like clockwork, just to do it all over again.

This time, when he slides that tenth divorce agreement across the desk, I finally get it. Some people's hearts never had room for you in the first place.

So this time, I'm throwing him out. Him and this whole Mrs. Hayes charade. Straight into the trash where they belong.

I burn through eighty years of my life raising three dogs that turn around and tear into me.

My vampire husband, Damian, used to be an outcast covered in festering sores, cursed to fear the sun. I cut my wrist and gave up thirty years of my life so he could become the most powerful man among the bloodlines, in control of half the world's wealth. Cold and ruthless to everyone else, he only ever bares his fangs for me.

Knox, the werewolf boy I grew up with, was born with a genetic flaw that kept him from ever shifting. I gave up another twenty years so he could have the strongest bloodline of all. Wild and reckless, he used to swear he'd carry me on his back for the rest of his life.

Julian, my human brother, got burned beyond recognition saving me from a fire. I spent my last thirty years giving him back a face people would pay a fortune for. He used to send crates of his paintings to my room, the kind of work people would kill to own.

Then a woman named Daphne shows up, and all three of them lose their minds over her.

And somehow I become the jealous, vicious wife everyone wants gone.

She cries that I pushed her, so they drive blades of blood straight through my bones.

She says I'm cruel to the staff, so they break my legs in front of a crowd.

And when I'm dying, they drain my blood to keep her alive.

If you're all going to treat the life I gave you like trash, then I'm taking it back. The strength, the face, the life. All of it.

[God, I take it back. I want everything I gave them returned to me.]

This is a world where humans and fantasy races exist side by side. Werewolves move through city streets between glass towers, and every now and then, a pair of massive wings cuts through the clouds overhead. Twenty years ago, to secure the family's standing, the main house signed a contract with the Dragon Clan.

As the least favored daughter of a branch family, I was chosen to be the Dragon King's mate. The terms were spelled out plainly: if I couldn't get married within five years of coming of age, I'd have to go to Dragon territory and go through with the marriage.

For five years, every wedding I've planned has been blown up by my younger sister, Hannah.

This is year five. I'm finally in a wedding dress, about to marry Derek, the boy I grew up with.

What I didn't expect was that one hour before the ceremony, Hannah collapsed in the dressing room coughing up blood. She grabbed Derek's hand, crying, saying she wouldn't make it through the month.

And my parents are on either side of me, hands pressed down hard on my shoulders.

"Just let Hannah have the wedding. She's dying!"

What they don't know is that if I don't get married today, the Dragon envoys will come for me on the spot.

And I won't be coming back.

The day my sister and I came back to life, we made one call: swap fiancés.

Last time, Dad burned every favor he had to lock down two marriage deals for the family. One with a mafia family that runs the West Coast. The other with a corporate CEO.

My sister married the mafia leader. She was too gentle, too kind for a world that ran on blood and backstabbing. The man had a childhood friend who played soft and helpless but was vicious as hell underneath. That woman tormented my sister for decades before finally arranging an "accident" that killed her.

And me? I got the polished CEO.

Sounds good, right? Except we tortured each other from day one. He was all rules and manners, always talking like he was giving a speech. Me? I blow up fast and if I can throw a punch, I will. Every day was the same standoff. He'd pull back, I'd push forward, and nobody gave an inch.

We spent our whole lives being polite and miserable.

Then one day, my sister and I woke up on the afternoon they announced the engagements.

At twenty-nine, Dominic Brooks owns this city's underworld.

This year, I'm pregnant again. Finally.

But on our daughter's death anniversary, he doesn't show. Five hours. Nothing.

I find him at our casino with some girl draped all over him. The same girl I pulled out of a trafficking ring two years ago.

She's laughing loud enough for everyone to hear. "His wife won't stop crying about that dead kid. God, he's so over it."

He kisses her. Right in front of me.

Three days later, he tears up our daughter's grave. His mistress wants a swimming pool.

The shovel comes down. My unborn baby goes with it.

Years ago, Dominic taught me the rules of our world. How we handle traitors.

Time for a reminder.

My husband is an angel on an earthly trial. Every time he feels something for me, he endures divine punishment — like his chest is being ripped open from the inside.

But he told me he'd take that pain gladly, as long as it was for me.

He left a mark on my collarbone. Activate it when you're in danger, he said, and I'll rip through anything to get to you.

I believed him.

Then came a mission where I got grabbed by an armed fugitive gang and held in an abandoned warehouse for three straight days of torture and abuse.

No water. No sleep. The tendons in my hands and feet cut one by one.

Half-dead, I used the last of my strength to activate the mark.

And I heard him talking to his angel companion.

"Beckett, why did you give those people Demi's location? You know what they'll do to her."

He didn't even flinch. "She'll be fine. She's the Chosen One — she can't die. They were going after Macie. I didn't have a choice. Once this mission's over, I can petition to stay on earth. I'll make it up to Demi. She gets it."

So that's the price of being understanding. Dying inside a trap he built for me.

My heart just shatters. And I stop fighting.

Blake's keeping me locked up in a villa outside the city, with a dozen bodyguards watching me around the clock. They won't let me step foot outside my room.

He once promised Vanessa, the woman he never got over, that he'd give her company shares and his estate. Now she's back after her divorce, pregnant, crying to Blake that I threatened her, told her to give up what he promised, and that I wanted to hurt her and her baby.

Blake believed her.

He's convinced I'm evil and gold-digging. He locked me up here while he stays at the hospital, never leaving Vanessa's side.

I'm going into sudden labor, crying and begging him to let me go to a hospital. I swear I never wanted those things, never hurt her.

Blake just sneers. "You're such a liar. I don't believe a single word from someone as vicious as you. After Vanessa delivers, I'll get you a doctor. Stop trying to fool me."

But when he finally sees my body, he completely falls apart.

My serpent mate has locked me in the castle, nine months pregnant. A dozen serpent guards watch me day and night. I can't even leave the room.

A month ago, his brother died in a hunting accident. He became the serpent clan leader. Then he brought back his brother's widow, the woman he grew up with. His first love.

He said he needed to take care of his brother's widow. He told me we'd all live together in the castle, nice and peaceful.

I said no.

I'm his mate. I'm a beastman. My pride won't let me accept that. And they grew up together, childhood sweethearts. How could I not think about it?

She came to him in tears, heavily pregnant. She said I poisoned her medicine, that I wanted to kill her and the baby.

He believed her.

He decided I was just some rogue beastman with no background, jealous and vicious, only after his title and money. So he locked me in this freezing castle while he camped outside her delivery room.

When labor hit, I screamed for a healer. I swore I never hurt her. I just couldn't live with her under the same roof. I only ever loved him.

He just laughed. "You're good at acting. I don't believe a word out of you. Once she delivers safely, I'll deal with you. Don't think you can trick me into coming back."

But when a trembling guard reported "Your mate and the child... they didn't make it," he lost it completely.

I've got a reputation on campus as a doormat with zero dignity. I bring Wyatt Langley food, do his homework, act as his emotional dumping ground. Been at it for a year.

His rich friends mock my cheap clothes and say I'm reaching way out of my league. He never stops them. Sometimes he even laughs along.

Finally, he announces in front of everyone that he's breaking up with me. His first love is coming back from Europe, so I need to get lost.

Everyone's waiting to see me cry.

I glance at the five million dollars that hit my account half an hour ago and say, with complete sincerity, "Okay. Congrats."

What nobody knows is that I put up with him, tolerated his rotten temper, for one simple reason. His mom pays way too well.

Now the money's here. Time to end this arrangement.

So why, the second I walk away, does he start tearing the city apart trying to find me?

I died. At my sister's eighteenth birthday party, the moment the champagne tower came crashing down.

While she stood under the crystal chandelier in her gown, soaking up congratulations from three hundred guests, I was tied up in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town. The wound in my stomach was still bleeding.

I called my family. Only my brother picked up, sounding pissed off and disgusted. "What's your problem now? This is her big day. You better not ruin it."

I tried to explain. He hung up.

That was the ninety-ninth time they'd hung up on me.

Also the last.

They thought I was throwing a tantrum, deliberately skipping my sister's special moment. Called me ungrateful, said they regretted bringing me back from that backwater town two years ago.

Well, now they're off the hook.

Problem solved.

As the only mute player in this horror game, I thought I was screwed.

Turns out the boss knows sign language.

Thank God! Perfect!

Then he gets everything completely wrong.

I sign "help me," he reads it as "you're hot."

I sign "danger," he thinks I'm saying "I like you."

I sign "get lost," and he goes, "You want me to come closer? Okay."

The worst part? I curse him out in sign language, calling him a psycho pervert.

He just smiles and says, "Baby, you're so good at flirting. I can't even bring myself to kill you now."

Me: ...

My teammate whispers to me, "Please stop signing. Every time you do, he stares at you even more like a psycho."

My parents raised me for twenty-four years. Then they found out I wasn't their biological daughter.

Their real daughter came home. She'd only been back two years. That's all it took to erase twenty-four.

When kidnappers grabbed us, I used my body as a shield. They beat me until something inside me ruptured. I was dying from internal bleeding, but no one could tell.

My parents wouldn't even look at me. "This is your fault! None of this would've happened if it weren't for you!"

"Get downstairs and apologize to your sister. If you can't, pack your things and get out."

They threw her a party at a downtown hotel while I died alone in my room.

I thought they'd be relieved. Maybe even glad. I thought they'd just move on like I never existed.

But when they finally learned the truth, they fell apart.

Three years ago, a private plane crash took my father, my mother, my brother Carter, and Grayson, the man I'd loved for seven years and was about to marry.

To hold onto everything they left behind, I cried until my eyes were raw, destroyed my stomach, and fought my way through boardrooms and Wall Street vultures.

On countless nights, I held their photographs and cried until I passed out.

What I never understood was why Willow, the foster sister we'd taken in, vanished without a trace after the crash.

Until today, three years later, when I drive back to the family estate with a diagnosis in my bag telling me I have three months to live.

I push open the heavy door and hear laughter. I see my family—the family that's supposed to be dead—gathered around Willow and her three-year-old son, singing happy birthday.

Turns out no one in this world ever loved me at all.

Why do they all get to live while I'm the only one who have to die?