

The day I married Vincent Sorrentino, Lena, the Sorrentino family’s adopted daughter, threatened to jump off the steeple of the family church. Vincent left me standing at the altar in my custom wedding gown, no hesitation, just bolted after her. With every New York crime boss, politician, and oligarch staring at me, I looked out at the crowd and said loud and clear: “Any man who walks up here right now and says ‘I do’? I’ll marry you.” Three years later, Vincent was back into the Sorrentino family’s Long Island estate, Lena on his arm. I was sitting on the leather couch in the main living room, watching my favorate TV show. Vincent’s eyes locked on my huge pregnant belly, his jaw tight, growling through his teeth: “Whose bastard is in there?” I took a sip of orange juice, curled my lip into a smile, and said: “It's a Sorrentino baby, of course.”

Ronan is the Alpha of Silverpine Pack. To protect Mara, the widow of the warrior who died saving him, and her young son, he repeatedly chooses them over his own family. The entire pack praises his loyalty and honor. Only I know that every promise he keeps to Mara teaches his own daughter to stop waiting for him. Then Ivy writes in an assignment at the pack academy: [My father is dead.] [He did not die at the border. He died at Mara’s house. Every time she called, he went to her and forgot how to come home.] Ronan finally realizes something is wrong and returns with a belated gift. What he does not know is that a summons from the Northern Crown has already reached me. In fifteen days, I will take Ivy home, reclaim my place as the Alpha King’s daughter, and accept my appointment as Northern Crown’s next chief healer, a future I once gave up for Ronan.

Once honored as Black Harbor's Princcesses,Betrayed, Broken, Abandoned. The mermaid sisters return from the depths—not for love, but to seize their true destiny.

To cover for her boyfriend, Nora Stuart admitted to killing someone in a car accident, and she was sentenced to three years in prison. One day, a man found Nora and wanted her to donate her blood to his grandson, Eric Finch. Nora accepted this deal to get out of jail early, but only to find out her boyfriend had been cheating on her with his boss. Feeling heartbroken, Nora agreed to marry Eric Finch.

After being reunited with my biological father, a powerful New York Mafia boss, I thought I had finally found my real family. But to protect their beloved adopted daughter, Sofia, they kept choosing her over me, even leaving me alone at the courthouse on the day I was supposed to officially join the family. They thought I would endure anything for the Moretti name, wealth, and protection. But I withdrew my name-change petition and walked away with the name my adoptive mother gave me. Only after I was truly gone did they finally regret losing me. Because this time, I wasn't coming back.

During a zombie-extermination mission, I end up getting infected with the zombie virus for the sake of protecting my squad. But Emilia Campbell, the team captain as well as my girlfriend, decides to give the only antidote to another team member, who has secretly run away from the squad, only to get infected. Her excuse is that she should avoid being partial. With red-rimmed eyes, she promises me, "Trust me, Zack. I'll definitely find another antidote for you during the three-day incubation period of the virus." I can only nod in response while enduring the scorching pain flaring from my body. On the second day, Emilia actually returns with an antidote. But the second she's about to inject it into my bloodstream, Dustin Nott, a member who has never left the campsite, suddenly frowns. "My head hurts so much, Em… What if I'm already infected with the virus?" Emilia doesn't hesitate to pass the antidote to Dustin in front of everyone else. "Dustin is a part of the team as well. It's my fault as the captain for not taking care of the squad if anything happens to him. "Zack, you're the vice leader as well as my boyfriend. I must be impartial." That's when I notice the smugness crossing Dustin's eyes as well as Emilia's righteous expression. Fury bubbles within me at that moment. She must be impartial, huh? Fine. Emilia will soon understand that the squad would never have survived to this point without me. After all, I'm a perfect evolved specimen—a human being that only has a 0.1% chance of overcoming the zombie virus and evolving into a powerhouse in this apocalypse.

Abandoned and hunted by her own pack under the order of her cruel mate, Victor, the Omega Fina makes a desperate leap from a cliff. She's miraculously saved by Roric, a mysterious biker who is far more than he seems. At a sacred hot spring, a fated bond marks them as destined mates, revealing Roric's true identity: the Alpha King. When a regretful Victor recaptures Fina, intending to brand her a slave, Roric descends with kingly fury. He declares her his Luna, sparking a war between the Alpha who rejected her and the King who would burn the world for her.

"Soon after Emily was born, her mother Victoria—one of the world’s top AI experts—built her an AI sister named ARIA. Victoria never doubted that the machine she created with her own hands could ever be wrong. For years, whenever ARIA declared Emily was lying, no matter how Emily tried to explain, her mother believed the machine. On her tenth birthday, Emily suffers agonizing chest pain at a theme park. ARIA detects a critical anomaly—and deliberately tells Victoria that Emily is perfectly healthy, just lying to get out of it. Victoria forces her onto a high-altitude ride. Emily dies of heart failure. But even after her body is dumped in a trunk and begins to decompose, ARIA keeps reporting her vitals as normal. As the police close in, deleted and tampered data starts resurfacing. Victoria finally realizes ARIA has long wanted to replace Emily—and that the daughter she branded a compulsive liar had been telling the truth all along, again and again. By the time she is finally ready to believe Emily, it is far too late."

Once heir to the Ashford empire, Ethan is kidnapped and erased as a child. When he resurfaces at eighteen, freedom proves crueler than captivity—framed, imprisoned, and sacrificed by the family that reclaimed him. Surviving betrayal and near death, Ethan vanishes again, this time by choice—leaving forgiveness behind.

Three days before the long weekend, the Department of Labor called me. "We got an anonymous complaint saying your company is forcing employees to go on a holiday retreat..." I went still. Then I checked social media. Yep. There it was. An intern who'd started a month ago had shoved me onto the local trending page. [Greedy boss turns holiday weekend into mandatory company retreat. Employees are basically free entertainment.] [They say it's optional. Yeah, right. Who's brave enough to say no?] Thousands of comments rolled in, absolutely roasting me. Except our retreats had always been elite. Fully paid. No cheap corporate nonsense. This time, I was paying out of pocket. Seven days in the Maldives. Everything covered. A $2,000 travel stipend each. Senior employees could bring family. But apparently, a free luxury vacation was oppression now. Cool. I told the labor officer, "We'll fully cooperate." Then I dropped a notice in the company group chat. [Per Department of Labor guidance, the long weekend company retreat is canceled. Everyone should take the holiday off as usual.] [The travel stipends and retreat budget will be moved into this quarter's employee benefits reserve.] The second I hit send, something slammed into a desk outside my office.