A Trace of Hope (a Keri Locke Mystery--Book #5)

“Was she the one who sent you?” he growled “Did she pay you to whore yourself to me?”
“Please… Nick, wait.” He pulled out, thrusted back in. “How much? Twenty thousand? Fifty? Hundred?” With every question, he thrust harder and harder. My neurons are frying with the confusing feeling in my brain. Torn between pleasure, fear, and panic. I couldn't utter a single sentence to save my life.

His cold eyes pinned me in place while he plundered my body with deep thrusts, which only added to my confusion. My dumb body mistook the mixed signals, my pussy becoming even wetter than before.

“I hope she'd paid you well, because I'm going to fuck you all night long, hard,” he growled. “Sleep, then do it all over again. I want to feel you come for me, Andrea, want to feel you squeeze my cock, milking me.

Begging for me to give you the high only I can, I'm going to fucked you until I fuck all my wife's money's worth, I want you to remember how hard I took you while you're meeting her.” I sobbed, moaned, and tried to scramble out under him.

“No, please…Nick, let….let me explain.” Nick abruptly pulled out. His eyes were cold but hooded.


Andrea was sent to take down billionaire magnate Nicklaus Montgomery.
Her mission was simple: get close, seduce him, find the proof, and disappear. Instead Andrea finds herself exposed—cornered into signing a contract that binds her to Nicklaus's side as his lover. Now she’s living in his world of wealth, danger, and secrets… and the deeper she falls into his bed, the harder it becomes to remember what side she's on.

“I am Maya Blackthorn, the first daughter of Alpha Darius of the Ashbourne Pack, and I am damned… damned by the Moon Goddess. And destined to bring kingdoms to their knees.”
Cast out by her pack for being wolfless and plagued by uncontrollable heat, Maya has spent her life surviving humiliation in silence.
Fate drags her into the path of Kael Draven, the ruthless Lycan King who claims her… only to reject her.
But Kael is not the only Alpha bound to her.
Finn, her childhood best friend and the rising Alpha, loves her with a devotion so fierce, he spends four years locked away in the most ruthless dungeon only to keep her safe.
Xander, a rogue wolf who can make even Alphas bow to his will, has waited centuries for her to be reborn, and he has no intention of losing her again.
Three Alphas.
Three claims.
One cursed destiny.
They called her wolfless. They thought she was weak. But she is done hiding, and this time, she's rewriting the rules.

Allie lived in her human world, scarcely aware of the wolves that lurked in the shadows, but after her life fell apart and a fateful night out, she is now the Luna of a pack. Thrown into the middle of a turf war, Allie now has a target on her back as the human mate. Her prophetic power, a gift from the goddess to protect human mates, makes her the wrench in the plan of some domineering wolves who think humans have had it good for too long. She and her mate Green now have to unite the packs and save their way of life. She just found this wonderful world, and now she has to save it.

Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother.

"What is wrong with me?

Why does being near him make my skin feel too tight, like I’m wearing a sweater two sizes too small?

It’s just newness, I tell myself firmly.

He’s my boyfirend’s brother.

This is Tyler’s family.

I’m not going to let one cold stare undo that.

**

As a ballet dancer, My life looks perfect—scholarship, starring role, sweet boyfriend Tyler. Until Tyler shows his true colors and his older brother, Asher, comes home.

Asher is a Navy veteran with battle scars and zero patience. He calls me "princess" like it's an insult. I can't stand him.

When My ankle injury forces her to recover at the family lake house, I‘m stuck with both brothers. What starts as mutual hatred slowly turns into something forbidden.

I'm falling for my boyfriend's brother.

**

I hate girls like her.

Entitled.

Delicate.

And still—

Still.

The image of her standing in the doorway, clutching her cardigan tighter around her narrow shoulders, trying to smile through the awkwardness, won’t leave me.

Neither does the memory of Tyler. Leaving her here without a second thought.

I shouldn’t care.

I don’t care.

It’s not my problem if Tyler’s an idiot.

It’s not my business if some spoiled little princess has to walk home in the dark.

I’m not here to rescue anyone.

Especially not her.

Especially not someone like her.

She’s not my problem.

And I’ll make damn sure she never becomes one.

But when my eyes fell on her lips, I wanted her to be mine.

Kaelani spent her life believing she was wolfless.
Cast out by her pack. Forgotten by the Lycans.
She lived among humans—quiet, invisible, tucked away in a town no one looked at twice.

But when her first heat comes without warning, everything changes.

Her body ignites. Her instincts scream. And something primal stirs beneath her skin—
summoning a big, bad Alpha who knows exactly how to quench her fire.

When he claims her, it’s ecstasy and ruin.

For the first time, she believes she’s been accepted.
Seen.
Chosen.

Until he leaves her the next morning—
like a secret never to be spoken.

But Kaelani is not what they thought.
Not wolfless. Not weak.
There is something ancient inside her. Something powerful. And it’s waking.

And when it does—
they’ll all remember the girl they tried to erase.

Especially him.

She’ll be the dream he keeps chasing… the one thing that ever made him feel alive.

Because secrets never stay buried.
And neither do dreams.

Amie's wolf hasn't shown herself. But who cares? She has a good pack, best friends and a family who loves her. Everyone, including the Alpha, is telling her she is perfect just the way she is. That is until she finds her mate and he rejects her. Heartbroken Amie flees from everything and start over. No more werewolves, no more packs.

When Finlay finds her, she is living among humans. He is smitten by the stubborn wolf that refuse to acknowledge his existence. She may not be his mate, but he wants her to be a part of his pack, latent wolf or not.

Amie cant resist the Alpha that comes into her life and drags her back into pack life. Not only does she find herself happier than she has been in a long time, her wolf finally comes to her. Finlay isn't her mate, but he becomes her best friend. Together with the other top wolves in the pack, they work to create the best and strongest pack.

When it's time for the pack games, the event that decides the packs rank for the coming ten year, Amie needs to face her old pack. When she sees the man that rejected her for the first time in ten years, everything she thought she knew is turned around. Amie and Finlay need to adapt to the new reality and find a way forward for their pack. But will the curve ball split them apart?

After a deadly virus shattered civilization, a new world rose from the ruins—one ruled by Alphas.

Females are claimed. Controlled. Bred.

Alex swore she would die before becoming any man’s possession.

Fiercely independent and determined to escape the fate forced on women like her, Alex has spent years surviving under the radar. But everything changes when the powerful Vandicoff brothers—three ruthless Alpha rulers—discover she is their true mate.

The moment they claim her, war ignites.

Alex refuses to submit to their bond, their authority, or the dangerous pull between them. She fights every command, every touch, every instinct threatening to drag her under. But the more she resists, the more obsessed the brothers become.

What begins as a battle for control soon sends shockwaves through the entire Alpha world, threatening the Vandicoff empire itself.

Can Alex survive three possessive Alphas without losing herself in the process?

Or will the one thing she craves most—love—become the very thing that destroys her?

Tiyanna, born of two Alphas, is a member of the Red Dawn Pack though her parents were not the Alpha and Luna. They came from another pack and when it was destroyed, they left and joined as the new Betas. Her life was great as she and the Alpha’s daughter were best friends and were practically inseparable until a rogue attack took the life of her parents while they were protecting the Alpha and Luna. Jealousy of her beauty as well as greed for her parents’ fortune that was left to her upon their deaths took hold and they treated her as a slave. She dreamed of turning 18 so that she could finally claim her inheritance and leave this god-awful pack. She never anticipated that when she found her mate, he would reject her for her ex-best friend or that she would get a second chance mate in the form of the most feared Alpha of the strongest pack in America, Alpha Cameron of the Black Diamond Pack. Will he reject her as well or will he take her as his mate?

Alpha Cameron is the strongest Alpha in America and the most feared, but he has a secret. He doesn’t want a mate because of this and has decided to take a chosen mate to become his Luna in name only. His mother, sister, and beta urge him constantly to rethink his decision as the woman he has chosen is a nightmare. They believe that he should wait for his fated mate, but their pleas fall on deaf ears. What happens when he visits the Red Dawn Pack for the Alpha daughters’ coming of age party and finds his fated mate being beaten? Will he save her or reject her?

A strange traffic jam hurls Chloe twenty-three years into the future.
The world she knew is gone.
Her husband, Nathan, is no longer the young man she left behind—he’s successful, respected, and living with a new family.
But when the woman who disappeared twenty-three years ago suddenly returns…
can love survive the years that were lost?

"Come here."
"What?" It was out of my mouth before I could stop it. I did not wait for him to answer me, I walked toward him.
"Dance on my lap."
My head screamed at me to turn around and run. But my whole body responded to his command.
"Yes, Alpha," I pulled my dress over my body, it dropped over my head and fell to the ground behind me. I was left in nothing but my matching bra and thong. My hands covered my chest on reflex.
"Let me see."
My hands dropped to my sides.
I lowered myself into his lap, facing him. His eyes peered into mine, and I could feel his hot breath fan my face. His dick responded to all my moves, hardening against my now-moist vagina. I swallowed hard, allowing my lips to part in a ragged breath. His hands trailed up to my waist.
"No touching."


At the tender age of eleven, JoJo Wyatt was forced to grow up far sooner than she should have. Born to a cruel father and a weak mother, she quickly realized she had to become the breadwinner for herself and her sister. Nothing else mattered to her, not even the hottest men. In fact, she despised them. After one horrific night, she swore never to have any contact with the male species again. That was, until she started working for him as his stripper.
Meanwhile, Alpha Lake Rush, thirty, was the most feared Alpha in the country. Burdened by his own share of life's struggles, he had learned only to be cruel and reckless, rejecting not one but two mates. But what happens when he discovers yet another mate, and she turns out to be his stripper?

On her wedding anniversary, Annabelle Whitmore meticulously planned a surprise. However, she drank a drugged drink given to her by her stepsister. When she awoke, she was in a strange man's bed. Photos of her surfaced online instantly, and her reputation was utterly destroyed.

Her husband, Abel Donovan, a ruthless and powerful figure, gave her no chance to defend herself, readily believing his stepsister's lies.

Anna was pregnant with his child and was cruelly driven away.

Five years later, Annabelle was no longer the infamous, abandoned woman she once was. She returned as the CEO of the global fashion empire BelleNova.

Abel never imagined she would return, especially with his child.

"I reject you," he says clearly. Loudly. Making sure everyone hears. "I, Ronan Nightbane, reject the false bond between us. I reject any claim you think you have on me."
"Why isn't it working?" he demands.
"Because it's real," I whisper. "Whether you want it or not."
"Then I'll make it clear another way," he says.
He turns to address the entire cafeteria. His voice carries to every corner of the room.
"Let me be perfectly clear," he announces. "She's not my mate. She's not my anything. She's just a sad little girl who needs to learn her place."
The silence that follows is deafening. Hundreds of students stare at me with pity. With disgust. With relief that they're not in my position.
I sit there shaking. My wolf curls up in a corner of my mind and whimpers.
But he's not our mate anymore. He made that clear.
He's nothing to me.


She came to survive. He was born to rule. Fate made them mates. And that’s where the nightmare began.
Evangeline has spent her whole life on the edge, unwanted, unclaimed, and surviving in the shadows of Crescent Moon Pack. A omega by blood and an outcast by choice, she’s learned to keep her head down and her scars hidden. But when her dying uncle asks her to enroll at Blackclaw Academy, a school built on bloodlines, brutality, and unforgiving rules..... she agrees. For him, not for herself.
She expected whispers. Glares. Even cruelty.
What she didn’t expect was Ronan Nightbane.