Falling For My Dad's Best Friend

They traded me for their "real" daughter the day she showed up.

My fiancé didn't just dump me—he proposed to her that same night. My so-called family handed me bus fare and a one-way ticket to the countryside.

Perfect. Let them think they won.

They don't know who I really am. The anonymous genius surgeon who saves lives when elite hospitals give up. The legendary artist whose paintings sell for millions at auction. The undefeated shadow queen of the underground fighting circuit. And the true heiress to a fortune that makes theirs look like pocket change.

Now my ex-fiancé begs on his knees. My fake sister's jealousy is eating her alive. And that cold, arrogant CEO who once threw our engagement contract in my face? He's hunting me down like a man possessed, desperate for one more chance.

They threw me away like trash to upgrade their lives.

Joke's on them.

I was always the upgrade.

For eighteen years, Aveline Carter has lived in the shadows, forgotten by a mother who only seems to see her identical twin brother, Asher Carter, whose heart disease demands constant care. She resents him until the night she finds him lying unconscious on his bedroom floor.
At the hospital, Asher falls into a coma. His scans reveal bruises, internal bleeding and signs of prolonged physical abuse. Broken and furious, Aveline vows to expose the cruelty hidden behind the prestige of Crestwood Academy.
Cutting off her hair and disguising herself as her brother, Aveline infiltrates Crestwood Academy and fights her way onto the hockey team determined to unmask those responsible. Revenge should have been simple until she meets Kieran Hampton, the team’s arrogant and sharp-eyed star player. From their first clash, tension ignites. Aveline is certain he’s guilty and has no problem making his life miserable, but their undeniable chemistry only draws them closer with every confrontation.

While Aveline focuses on the wrong target, the real threat stands closer.

Cassian Thorne seems strange at first, his interest in her uncomfortably personal yet he gradually becomes her friend. Meanwhile, Kieran despite believing Aveline is male finds himself drawn to “him” in ways he can’t understand. When he uncovers her true identity, he chooses to protect her at all costs even as she refuses to trust him.
Revenge turns to grief when Asher dies, leaving Aveline drowning in guilt for falling for her brother’s supposed tormentor. Questions remain unanswered, and the truth is far darker than she imagined because Asher Carter was never just a victim. The bullying wasn’t just random.
As secrets unravel and loyalties shatter, Aveline must face one devastating question: what happens when the brother you were ready to destroy the world for isn’t who you thought he was?

"Big Kai?"

He didn't respond but moved his eyes around the room, scanning the place.

"Wha...what are you doing here?"

His icy blue eyes returned to me, sending shivers down my spine. Then further dropped to my dress and then back to my eyes.

"The shit going on downstairs, what does it mean?" he asked, making my legs as weak as they are eager to flee.

"It's....it my wedding,"

He scoffed darkly. "Excuse me?"

I swallowed. "I am......getting married,"

He let out a humorless laugh, looking away and giving me lesser comfort. He looked at me with a demonic frown.

Terror washed me.

"Every single motherfucker/human being here, be it adult or child, including you, will burn before that happens,"

〽️〽️〽️

The quiet but pathetic life of Twenty-year-old Mia Jefferson changed the night she found a few months old interracial baby boy abandoned in a dumpster on her way home. She saved him and kept him in her care for almost a month until she was taken by a deadly gang who accused her of abduction. She thought it was it for her until the ruthless gang leader, Nathaniel Kincaid, known on the streets as Big Kai and the father of the baby appeared and added to her punishment. At the point when Mia is about to give up, Nathaniel makes her his baby's nanny as the only way to convince him that she is not the abductor. As she picked up her care for the baby, Nathaniel watched her every move consistently, placing his heart in a dark and passionate risk.

Before meeting Elliot Winter, Michelle’s life was a routine of beatings from her drunk dad to juggling part-time jobs. He was handsome, loaded, and had a smile that could melt ice.

There was also a twenty-year age gap between them, Michelle didn't care because their relationship was the only ray of sunshine in her rather bleak world. And when he popped the question she was more than happy to say yes. Michelle thought she had found her happily ever after, but she couldn't have been more wrong. With each year that passed Elliot became more of a stranger and less of the man she had fallen for, neglecting her and looking the other way when his mother treated her poorly, that was until the day their 5th anniversary rolled around, she caught him in bed with her sister.

Her love is replaced by hate, a swooning affection now burning rage. Well, two could play that game. That night, she dials her stepson's number with a single text that will change their lives forever.

‘I need you tonight’

I was supposed to die alone in an alley.

Instead, a god found me.

One moment, I was bleeding beneath the neon glow of the city, my life slipping through my fingers. The next, a glowing blue screen appeared before my eyes, offering me a choice that was never really a choice at all.

Accept the Summoner’s Mark. Or die.

Now I belong to the Death Game — a brutal cosmic system where ordinary people are turned into Players, thrown into impossible missions, and forced to survive horrors designed for the amusement of gods.

Every trial has rules.
Every monster has a weakness.
Every victory comes with a reward.

And every reward makes me less human.

My name is Nerissa Valehart, and I refuse to be anyone’s pawn.

But surviving the Game means trusting the one man everyone warns me to fear.

Veyren Ashford is ruthless, powerful, and dangerously beautiful — a veteran Player with blood on his hands and secrets in his soul. He says attachment will get me killed. He says love is a weakness the Game always punishes.

Yet when death comes for me, Veyren is the one standing between us.

In a world where gods gamble with mortal lives, monsters hunt from the shadows, and desire may be the deadliest weakness of all, I have only one goal:

Survive long enough to cross the board.

And make the Starless God regret choosing me..............

"Aveline Ashkaar." Rhaedon's voice was low as his golden eyes held mine. "The moment you offered yourself to become my Luna, everything about you became mine. Your life, your obedience, your blood... including the abilities that flow through it."

He paused, his gaze never leaving mine.

"And I don't share what's mine."

☆

I died on my son's death anniversary, betrayed by the man I'd devoted my entire life to, and the woman who stood by, smiling as I took my last breath… was my very own sister.

When I opened my eyes again, I was five years in the past—before the betrayal, before my death and before the beginning of it all.

This time, I refused to marry the man who destroyed me.

Instead, I walked straight into the arms of the only man the entire Empire feared—Crown Prince Alpha Rhaedon Ashkaar.

Rhaedon was everything Lucien wasn't.

Dangerous. Competent. Powerful.

And the perfect weapon for my revenge.

He wanted the throne. I wanted vengeance.

It should have been the perfect alliance, but revenge was never that simple.

With every step I took toward my revenge, another secret from my first life came to light. The deeper I dug, the more I realized I wasn't the only one playing this game.

And by the time I uncovered the truth...

Walking away from Rhaedon Ashkaar was no longer an option.

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

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

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

“Please listen to me! I am not a thief. I don’t know how that necklace ended up in my purse. Please!” begged Maeve, crying.
Thorin pushed her on the bed and pinned her with his body. He growled near her face, “Liar!”

“No! No! I am not lying!”

“Then explain this!” Thorin whipped the screen of his phone near her eyes. Maeve looked at the screen, and her eyes widened with shock. It was a DNA report. It clearly said that Valeska was Maeve and Thorin’s daughter. “You have been lying to me for months now. Why did you hide that she is my daughter? Why did you start hating me? Did you never love me?”

“What should I have done? Let you kill my daughter!” snapped Maeve.

“What? Kill? What the hell are you talking about?” shouted Thorin.


After a passionate night with the Alpha Heir Thorin Blackridge, Maeve Arrendale, a human, found herself pregnant. She knew she had left her contact details for Thorin to find her, but he never came. Desperately, she went to tell him everything and ask him to take responsibility. But what came at her was humiliation and the devilish serial killer, Ozul.

She had no idea how she escaped her certain but she thanked every god and ran far away from Thorin and his world. She raised her child on her own. She herself had a difficult life and didn’t want her daughter to suffer. So she did everything in her power to give Valeska a good life.

Her life was turned upside down when Thorin came to her office as her boss. His fated mate, Vespera clinging to his arms. Now, Thorin hated her for vanishing from his life, and Maeve hated him for sending a serial killer to kill her.

Will Thorin accept his daughter? Will Maeve forgive him for attempting to kill her? If not Thorin, then who sent a serial killer to kill Maeve? An ancient magic, a prophecy, a powerful child is going to change everything in everyone’s life. Is everyone ready?

Tali had spent her entire life in hell.

Rescued by men who call themselves Protectors—warriors from another realm who embody the legends of angels and vampires—she is thrust into a world she never knew existed. For the first time, she experiences freedom, safety, and the possibility of a future.

But freedom comes with a price.

Tali is forced to face the father she believed abandoned her and a powerful council determined to use her for their own ends. Stranger still are the abilities awakening within her—powers no one understands, yet everyone seems desperate to control.

As she learns to trust, she chooses the mates destined to stand beside her. In their arms she finds love, devotion, and a family worth fighting for. But not everyone wants their bond to survive.

When the council betrays the Protectors and attempts to steal her newborn son, it ignites a war that will shake every realm.

Now Tali stands at the center of a conflict far greater than herself. The answers to ancient mysteries, the fate of her child, and the future of countless worlds all rest on her shoulders.

Surrounded by mates who love her fiercely and refuse to leave her side, Tali will battle enemies old and new, forge powerful alliances, and discover just how strong she truly is.

Because this war won't be won for her.

It will be won with her.

And together, they will fight for their future, their family, and a love worth crossing realms to protect.

One mistake centuries ago left Lemuel cursed by the Goddess Merlos and forced to wander the earth granting the wishes of those who touch him. Lemuel was looking at an eternity of loneliness until his unexpected soulmate plucked him right out of the sea.

Shocked to find he's been bound in more ways than one to Sebastian, the future King to the Kingdom of Atlesper, Lemuel resists Sebastian's advances at every turn, believing this may be one pairing Goddess Zarseti got wrong.

Lemuel will have to face his past in hopes of starting a new future, but an overly flirtatious King is the least of his worries when he learns Sebastian's parents are convinced that a conniving usurper disguised as a curvy blonde, is the future king's true soulmate.

A Queen Among Tides is the 5th book in the Queen Among Series/The Gods' Saga. This is an interconnected series. To see how it ends, I recommend reading the full series.

Books in the series order:
A Queen Among Alphas - Book 1
Bite-Size Luna - A Queen Among Alphas Prequel (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Snakes - Book 2
A Queen Among Blood - Book 3
A Queen Among Darkness - Book 4
Whole Again - A Queen Among Alpha's spin-off (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Tides - Book 5
Valor, Virtue, and Verve - Tides Prequel Spin-off (will be available under book 5)
A Queen Among Gods - Book 6
Runaway Empress - A Queen Among Snakes Prequel (will be available under book 2)
A Queen Among Tempests - Book 7
Dark Vocation - Darkness spin-off (will be available under book 4)
A Court of Arcane Souls Anthology (side character short stories exclusive to Ream)
Royal Shadow Series (Next Gen Coming Soon)

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.

"White wolf! Kill that monster!"
That roar stole my eighteenth birthday and shattered my world. My first shift should have been glory—blood turned blessing into shame. By dawn they'd branded me "cursed": cast out by my pack, abandoned by family, stripped of my nature. My father didn't defend me—he sent me to a forsaken island where wolfless outcasts were forged into weapons, forced to kill each other until only one could leave.
On that island I learned the darkest edges of humanity and how to bury terror in bone. Countless times I wanted to surrender—dive into the waves and never surface—but the accusing faces that haunted my dreams pushed me back toward something colder than survival: revenge. I escaped, and for three years I hid among humans, collecting secrets, learning to move like a shadow, sharpening patience into precision—becoming a blade.
Then, under a full moon, I touched a bleeding stranger—and my wolf returned with a violence that made me whole. Who was he? Why could he wake what I'd thought dead?
One thing I know: now is the time.
I have waited three years for this. I will make everyone who destroyed me pay—and take back everything that was stolen from me.