thing we do in the dark

To prevent the merfolk from being slaughtered, I decided to go ashore and seduce my childhood friend Cyrus, who had become the Alpha King. He still loved me deeply, and we spent three passionate days and nights together in bed. Waking up from a haze of pleasure, I hadn't even had the chance to rejoice before a corrosive elixir was dunked over my head. Listening to my pained wails, Cyrus smirked. "So even an immortal mermaid can feel pain, too? "Well, this is just a taste of what's to come if you don't tell me where my parents are!" Yes, he was convinced that the merfolk were behind his parents' disappearance. From then on, I was forced to watch him flirt with his mistress, Emily; had to extract my mermaid pearl to help heal her body; was forced to dance barefoot to entertain Emily so that she could sleep… Cyrus hated every fiber of my being, yet always held me tenderly in his arms whenever I was on the brink of death, carefully feeding me medicine. Sometimes, he was cruel. "Do you think I'll go easy on you just because I love you? Quick, continue torturing her!" Sometimes, he was gentle. "Can't you be good and tell me where my parents are?" Silently, I endured his twisted love without a word. Soon, however, these days would come to an end, and I wouldn't have to keep that secret any longer. After all, a mermaid who did not return to the sea after three years on land… Would turn into seafoam. And now, there were only three days until my time was up.

For seven years, Naomi Stone loves Ethan Ward quietly and completely and gets cold indifference in return. She tells herself patience is enough. It isn't. The breaking point arrives on her birthday, when she watches Ethan and his daughter shower warmth and celebration on another woman without a second thought.Something in Naomi goes still. She files for divorce, walks out without a scene, and throws herself into building a life that is entirely her own. She turns out to be remarkably good at it. Only then, when she is no longer waiting by the door, do Ethan and his daughter suddenly remember every good thing about her they never bothered to acknowledge while she was there.

After the great war between humans, vampires, werewolves, and elves, an agreement was made that hybrid offspring would rule the world. Every century, alliances through marriage between humans and those three clans would decide the next ruler. Whoever bore the first hybrid child would claim power for their line. In my previous life, I chose to marry Jax, the eldest son of the werewolf pack, known for his fierce loyalty. I gave birth to our hybrid son, a white-furred pup we named Zeal. Our child became the next world ruler, and Jax gained immense power. My sister had lusted after the elves' beauty and married into their clan. But the elf prince slept with every female in the forest. In the end, my sister caught a disease that left her barren. Jealous and bitter, she set a fire that burned me and my young pup alive. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of the racial alliances. My sister had already slept with Jax first. I knew she had been reborn too. But she didn't know that Jax was brutally savage with his mates, having torn countless she-wolves apart in his bed during his ruts.

I've gotten reborn into a mecha. Furthermore, I'm the type with just a metallic shell without an actual body piloting it.But I still manage to secretly help my pilot many times with my powerful battle intent so that we can save the world, which has gotten infiltrated by monsters.I'm supposed to be hailed as a hero, but instead, I'm used as a trashed mecha that's meant to serve as a practice mecha for newbie pilots. This is all thanks to the fact that I've gotten my core damaged during my last battle with a monster, which has caused my functionality to drop rapidly.But just as I'm thinking that I should spend the remainder of my years in peace, little do I know that it's only the start of my nightmare. After all, my latest pilot is a teenage girl with a violent side to her. She doesn't take my personality into consideration in training, which often causes my gun barrels to overheat.

I've gotten reborn into a mecha. Furthermore, I'm the type with just a metallic shell without an actual body piloting it.But I still manage to secretly help my pilot many times with my powerful battle intent so that we can save the world, which has gotten infiltrated by monsters.I'm supposed to be hailed as a hero, but instead, I'm used as a trashed mecha that's meant to serve as a practice mecha for newbie pilots. This is all thanks to the fact that I've gotten my core damaged during my last battle with a monster, which has caused my functionality to drop rapidly.But just as I'm thinking that I should spend the remainder of my years in peace, little do I know that it's only the start of my nightmare. After all, my latest pilot is a teenage girl with a violent side to her. She doesn't take my personality into consideration in training, which often causes my gun barrels to overheat.

Hera has been abused by her step father for a long time, until she enters the art department of Ston College and meets her classmates Brad and Yoanna. The three of them become good friends by chance. Brad and Yoanna's care for Hera makes her gradually feel the beauty of freedom and gives her the idea to rebel against David and break through the ball cage. But freedom is not easy to come by, and Hera pays a painful price for this new life...

Due to her unique profession as a forensic doctor, Vivian was looked down upon by her boyfriend. After breaking up with the scumbag boyfriend, she went to a bar to drown her sorrows, only to accidentally sleep with the scumbag's uncle! Vivian said, "I was a forensic doctor, and others said I smelled like corpses." Wayne replied, "Exactly, I was a businessman, and people said I smelled like money. We matched in our 'odors,' and neither of us needed to disdain the other. How about we just get a marriage certificate?"

Due to her unique profession as a forensic doctor, Vivian was looked down upon by her boyfriend. After breaking up with the scumbag boyfriend, she went to a bar to drown her sorrows, only to accidentally sleep with the scumbag's uncle! Vivian said, "I was a forensic doctor, and others said I smelled like corpses." Wayne replied, "Exactly, I was a businessman, and people said I smelled like money. We matched in our 'odors,' and neither of us needed to disdain the other. How about we just get a marriage certificate?"

I dated my lawyer boyfriend for five years. He canceled our wedding.Fifty-two times.First time? His intern messed up some paperwork. He ditched me at the beach to fix it. I waited all day.Alone.Second time, we were mid-ceremony when he bolted.Heard that intern was getting heat from another lawyer and left me to face the guests and their stares.After that, every time we tried again, there was always some ""emergency"" with her. Always.I finally hit my limit. I was done. Packed up and broke it off.But the day I left Ainsley? He totally lost it trying to find me.

Everyone knows Colin Dunn and I are trapped in a loveless marriage. We don’t love each other.On the night of our fifth wedding anniversary, I am attacked in my own home.Desperate, I call him for help—only to hear the line go dead. For the sake of his first love, he hangs up… and abandons me.

The discomfort in his heart only grew more intense when he saw someone being embraced inside the private room. Finding an excuse, he left the room and forcefully pulled the woman at the end of the corridor into his arms to fiercely kiss her. At this point, the only thing that occupied his mind was how to make her his.

Leo's family was brutally murdered. When he was on the brink of despair, a mysterious old man taught him the ultimate cheating art. Fueled by revenge, Leo entered the dark underground casinos, moving from game to game. He could spot opponents' tricks at a glance, and with counter-moves that guaranteed victory, he crushed corrupt gamblers and thugs one by one. But the end of this life-and-death road was the massive dark force that took everything, the Wright Gang. "A true gambling master rewrites fate with his own hands!" The ultimate showdown of cheat versus cheat, heart-pounding comebacks in high-stakes games. An epic battle of revenge and reversal begins now!

Everyone knows Colin Dunn and I are trapped in a loveless marriage. We don’t love each other.On the night of our fifth wedding anniversary, I am attacked in my own home.Desperate, I call him for help—only to hear the line go dead. For the sake of his first love, he hangs up… and abandons me.

"Give me another chance." He said in a hoarse voice. His voice was always like music to her ears. She smiled. "Mr. Jones, we're only in a contracted relationship." Her past was left on the day she gave birth to a stillborn and was abandoned in a mental hospital five years ago. While he was only one of the chess pieces in her game.

Julia Sunny was misdiagnosed with cancer. Then, she realized that she had never even been in a relationship, so in a twist of fate, she ended up sleeping with a man. The next day at work, she was shocked to discover that the man she had slept with was her boss. When they met for the first time, her boss looked at her and asked, "Miss, have we met before?"

Legendary hacker Claire hides as a housewife but is betrayed. After divorce, she marries mysterious Daniel to take revenge and uncover her family’s dark past. Can she find truth—and true love?

Chris Leary inherits a failing corner shop and, desperate to raise money for his girlfriend's treatment, discovers that the store's back door opens into other worlds. His first crossing takes him to a post-apocalyptic wasteland, where he trades food to survivors in exchange for gold and jewels, enough to clear his debts in one run. Pushing further, he stumbles into the immortal realm and negotiates a deal with the goddess Dark Lady: exquisite food in exchange for celestial medicine. But the arrangement carries a dark caveat — the apocalypse world's wealth is bound to the lives of its people. Chris returns with the elixirs, saves an entire survivor base, and locks in a long-term partnership that changes everything. What began as a desperate scramble quietly becomes an empire: one shop, a dozen worlds, and a trader who moves freely between all of them.

Max Lowell, once an Aureate Immortal of the Immortal Realm, is forced to reincarnate after crushing usury debts. He wakes in the Mortal Realm inside a deadbeat gambler slain over loans—and finds the man's wife: Queenie Lynd,breathtaking, gentle, but mute, long mistreated at home. Max chooses to begin his mortal life by setting this one thing right: earn enough to craft a pill that will restore his wife's voice.