He chose my stepsister. I chose his rival
Scarlet’s world shattered the night she discovered her husband in her bed with her own sister.
The betrayal was brutal. The humiliation, unforgivable. And what hurt the most? Neither of them felt a single ounce of remorse.
Within months, her husband divorced her and married the very woman who helped destroy her life, her sister.
They thought she would break. They thought she would disappear quietly.
They were wrong.
Ryan Marchetti—cold, calculating, and dangerously powerful, has spent years waiting for the perfect chance to destroy his business rival. Marrying that rival’s ex-wife is the ultimate move. Strategic.
For Scarlet, marrying Ryan isn’t about love. It’s about revenge.
A calculated alliance. A public statement. A promise that she will rise from the ashes they left her in. Together, they become the scandal that shakes empires.
But revenge is never simple.
Because behind Ryan’s icy control lies a secret, one tied to her past, to her ex-husband, to the very marriage that ruined her life. A truth so explosive it could unravel everything she thought she knew.
Was she just a pawn in Ryan’s war from the very beginning?
Or is the man she’s slowly falling for capable of betraying her too?
In a game fueled by vengeance, power, and buried truths, Scarlet must decide:
Will she let betrayal destroy her again…
Or will she risk her heart for the one man who might truly love her?
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Chapter: Chapter 162Third Person POV.“Hi, Scarlet,” Ryan whispered, and Scarlet almost couldn’t believe her ears.Her heart raced as she watched Ryan, her eyes filled with tears of hope. For so long, she had yearned to hear her name on his lips and to see a hint of recognition in his eyes. And now, as she stood in front of him, she dared to hope that her prayers had been answered.“Scarlet, I…” He was about to say something, but the words caught in his throat, and he found himself unable to say anything.When he called her name again, time seemed to stand still as she tried to be sure that this was really happening. Could it be true? Was he finally going to remember her?Tears welled up in her eyes as she took a step closer to him, her heart pounding in her chest. His teary eyes mirrored her own, and she reached out to him, her hands trembling with emotion.With a tenderness born of longing and desperation, she cupped his cheeks in her hands, her touch gentle yet firm as she searched his eyes for any si
Last Updated: 2026-03-17
Chapter: Chapter 161Third Person POV.Scarlet stood just outside Ryan’s room, her heart heavy with longing as she listened to the sound of his laughter mingling with Luca’s. It had been two long weeks since Ryan was discharged from the hospital, and in that time, Scarlet had watched from the sidelines as he moved around the house without so much as a glance in her direction.Despite her best efforts to insert herself into his life and to jog his memory, Ryan remained distant and detached, as if she were little more than a stranger passing a few days in his family house. And with each passing day, his indifference only felt much worse.Tears welled up in her eyes as she stood alone in the corridor, the sound of Ryan’s laughter echoing in her ears. She pressed a hand to her mouth to stifle the sobs that threatened to escape, her heart aching with a pain that cut deeper than any physical wound.All she could think about was how much she missed Ryan, how much she longed for him, and the sound of his voice ca
Last Updated: 2026-03-17
Chapter: Chapter 160Third Person POV.In Ryan’s room, a tense silence hung heavy in the air as his family gathered around him, their faces holding different emotions ranging from confusion to sadness and relief. Anna clung to her son, her embrace tight and desperate, as she struggled to come to terms with the reality of the situation he was in.But for Ryan, the scene before him was like something out of a surreal dream. He couldn’t understand why everyone in the room was staring at him with tear-filled eyes, why he was in a hospital, and why his mother was holding onto him as if her life depended on it. And most of all, he couldn’t fathom why everyone looked so different.Luca, his older brother, stood in front of him with a look of concern etched on his features, and Ryan couldn’t help but notice how Luca’s appearance had changed since the last time he saw a picture of him. As far as he remembered, Luca had red hair, and he knew his memory wasn’t wrong, as he recalled calling him crazy for deciding to
Last Updated: 2026-03-17
Chapter: Chapter 159Third Person POV.As the flatline echoed through the corridor, signaling Ryan’s passing, Scarlet unconsciously let out a loud scream. It was a sound of pure anguish, a cry of disbelief and despair that resounded through the hospital walls.In her haze of confusion and pain, Scarlet was oblivious to Luca’s attempts to hold her back from running into the room. She struggled against his grasp, her movements fueled by a primal instinct to be with the man she loved and to beg him not to leave her.“Scarlet, please calm down,” he urged. “Remember that you’re pregnant, and you’re in no condition to be agitated. If he’s really gone, there’s nothing we can do, but let’s just wait for the doctor.”The sound of Luca’s voice snapped Scarlet out of her haze, her eyes locking with his as his words hit her hard. “…there’s nothing we can do…”She could hear the pain in his voice and could tell he was trying to control himself. But she had no intention of controlling herself, and neither she nor the b
Last Updated: 2026-03-17
Chapter: Chapter 158Third Person POV.Weeks Later…Scarlet stood in front of Emily’s grave, wearing a somber black dress, which was an indication that she was very much in mourning. In her hands, she held a bouquet of black roses, which she had specifically ordered as she wanted something that would be a symbol of the darkness that had consumed so much of Emily’s life.It had been over a month since Emily’s death, and with each passing day, the reality had settled on Scarlet’s heart. The knowledge that Emily was truly gone and that it wasn’t a mere figment of her imagination elicited a sense of liberation in Scarlet like nothing she had ever felt before.Her gaze focused on the engraved words etched into Emily’s grave. The words, EMILY PARKER, November 2000 – May 2022, gleamed dully in the sunlight.The realization that Emily had only been twenty-one years old sent a chill coursing down Scarlet’s spine, a reminder of the wasted potential and the malicious intent that had ruined her sister’s life.Memorie
Last Updated: 2026-03-17
Chapter: Chapter 157Third Person POV.Scarlet sat in the hospital room, her eyes fixated on the machines surrounding Ryan’s bed. Tears welled in her eyes, but she fought against them, determined not to let her emotions get the best of her, not for her sake, but for the baby’s. Every fiber of her being was focused on Ryan, and she continuously whispered silent prayers for his recovery.As Scarlet held Ryan’s hands in hers, she could feel a slight chill in his touch. She squeezed his hands gently, offering whatever warmth she could muster. Her heart ached at the sight of him lying so vulnerable, hooked up to the monitors and all sorts of machines to keep him from dying.The door to the room creaked open, interrupting Scarlet’s thoughts. Her eyes darted towards the entrance, her gaze meeting Luca’s. An awkward tension settled between them, a residue of their clash from the day before. Scarlet struggled to gauge his presence and intent, unsure of how to deal with the discomfort that lingered.Luca, dressed i
Last Updated: 2026-03-17
Claimed by the moon
Three years ago, Selene Voss believed she had found her forever in Damien Crowe, the powerful Alpha of the Blackridge Pack.
She was wrong.
On his twenty-fifth birthday, Damien rejects her in the cruelest way possible, telling her she is nothing more than a weak wolf who was never worthy of standing beside him. Heartbroken but determined not to beg for a love that has already been taken from her, Selene leaves Blackridge behind and retreats to the mountain cabin her late grandmother left her.
She expects solitude.
Instead, she finds another Alpha.
Colt Ashford is everything Damien never was—calm, patient and dangerously captivating. But the moment their eyes meet, Selene feels something impossible.
A second mate bond.
Still bleeding from Damien’s rejection, Selene refuses to accept another bond so easily. She has spent three years losing herself for a man who never thought she was enough, and she refuses to make the same mistake twice.
But the moon seems to have other plans.
Someone has been watching her for years, waiting for her hidden power to awaken. And the closer Selene gets to discovering who she truly is, the more dangerous her second chance at love becomes.
One Alpha rejected her.
Another is waiting for her to choose him.
And the moon has a secret that could change everything.
Because sometimes, the mate who breaks your heart is only the beginning of the destiny that was waiting for you.
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Chapter: Chapter 16SELENE POV:"Tell me what you need," Ezra said.We were in the clearing behind the packhouse. Late afternoon, the sun dropping toward the western ridge and the light going gold and long through the trees. Colt stood to my left and Ezra to my right and Rafe was at the packhouse door with a notebook and a direct line to every border sentinel on the mountain."Space," I said. "Quiet. And both of you close but not touching. Not yet."They both stepped back half a pace.I closed my eyes.The afternoon mountain settled around me. Wind through the high branches. The creek running somewhere below. A hawk turning in the thermal above the eastern ridge, visible to my sentinel sense as a bright precise point of movement.I breathed and let the sentinel sense arrive on its own without reaching for it.It came. Slower than it had
Last Updated: 2026-09-12
Chapter: Chapter 15SELENE POV"He is already inside," Colt said.He had pulled the car to a stop in the small gravel lot outside the Merrow Station, a low stone building set back from the road with the neutral council emblem above the door. A black vehicle was parked at the far end of the lot. Damien's."He was early," I said."He drove through the night," Colt said. "His vehicle was not in that lot an hour ago. My border sentinels track the south road."I looked at the building. Inside, Damien Crowe had driven through the night to be here an hour before I arrived and that told me something about his current state that I needed to factor into how I handled the next hour."Wait here?" I said to Colt."I will be right here," he said.I looked at him. The bond was warm and steady and his eyes were calm. He was not pretending this was easy. He was simply choosing to hold it steadily regardless.I put my hand on his jaw briefly and he turned his face into it slightly before I pulled away and got out of the c
Last Updated: 2026-09-11
Chapter: Chapter 14SELENE POV:"Do not respond tonight," Ezra said.We were back in the packhouse, the four of us around the meeting table again, my phone face up in the center where everyone could see it. Damien's message sat on the screen, short and stripped of the authority he usually carried in every communication."He is reaching out because his mother just left this territory," Rafe said. "She called him from the car. He knows she came here.""He does not know what was said," Colt said."No," I agreed. "But he knows enough to be uneasy." I looked at the message again. I need to talk to you. Three years with Damien and he had never once sent me a message that sounded like that. Unguarded. Almost humble. "Something shifted in him.""The veil root the observers used last night," Ezra said. "When we neutralized them and sent them off the territory, the practitioner working the suppression on your bond from a distance would have felt the disruption. If Miriam was actively maintaining any residual suppr
Last Updated: 2026-09-10
Chapter: Chapter 13SELENE POV:"She came herself," Petra said from the window. "That is either very confident or very desperate.""Both," Ezra said. "With Miriam Crowe they are usually the same thing."I stood beside Colt at the front of the packhouse and watched through the window as the black SUV sat at the south border marker. It had not moved in six minutes. The engine was still running. The tinted windows gave nothing away."She is waiting for us to come to her," Rafe said."Then she will wait a long time," Colt said. He turned to me. "You do not have to be present for this.""Yes I do," I said.He looked at me steadily. "Selene.""She broke my bond," I said. "She used old magic on something the moon built and she did it to serve her own agenda and then she sent people to my cabin in the middle of the night." I held his gaze. "I will be present."He accepted this with a single nod.We went out together. Colt and Rafe and Ezra and me, down the south path through the trees. Petra stayed at the packho
Last Updated: 2026-09-10
Chapter: Chapter 12SELENE POV"Stop trying to control it," Ezra said."I am not trying to control it," I said."You are. I can feel you gripping it like a rope." He walked a slow circle around me in the clearing behind the packhouse. "The sentinel sense is not a tool you hold. It is a current you enter. Release the grip."I stood in the center of the clearing with my eyes closed and my hands loose at my sides and tried to understand the difference between holding and releasing when both felt like the same internal motion.It was mid-morning. Cold and bright. The mountain air had a clarity that felt almost aggressive, every breath sharp and clean."What does releasing feel like?" I said."Like the moment before you fall asleep," Ezra said. "When you stop trying to make sleep happen and it just does."I thought about that. I breathed. I stopped reaching for the sentinel sense and simply waited for it.It arrived.Not with the sharpening clarity of the night before when Ezra had been touching my shoulder,
Last Updated: 2026-09-01
Chapter: Chapter 11Selene POV"The masking agent is called veil root," Ezra said.He had arrived at the cabin in four minutes, which meant he had been awake already. He stood in the center of the main room with his amber eyes slightly luminous in the low light, a quality I had not noticed before, and he was utterly calm in the way of someone for whom danger was a familiar country.Colt was at the window. Rafe had come with Ezra and was at the door. I was dressed and standing with my back to the wood stove because I wanted heat at my back and clear sightlines to every entry point."Veil root," Colt said without turning from the window. "I know it. It masks scent and suppresses the bond signal. Hunters use it.""Practitioners use it too," Ezra said. "When they are conducting field work they do not want detected." He looked at me. "Miriam Crowe's people. They are here to assess you.""Assess me," I said."You left Blackridge faster than she anticipated. Her plan required you to stay in the pack long enough
Last Updated: 2026-08-30
The Ruthless Mafia Fake Bride
Isabella De Luca enters the ruthless Romano mafia empire with a single, devastating mission: tear it down from the inside out. Armed with lethal secrets and trained to be the ultimate chameleon, she positions herself as the perfect candidate for the mafia king’s bride. She is everything he could want—beautiful, bold, and completely, dangerously fake.
But Matteo Romano is no ordinary heir. He is a master tactician—cunning, merciless, and possessor of a magnetic gravity that pulls Isabella entirely out of her orbit. The deeper she sinks into his dark world, the more the lines blur. Soon, she can no longer tell where her calculated deception ends and a terrifying, consuming desire begins.
When a buried truth resurfaces and a forbidden pregnancy changes the stakes forever, the ultimate betrayal collides with bloodlines. Torn between a lifelong vow of revenge and the enemy she has come to love, Isabella must play her final card. And a king, pushed to his absolute limits, must choose between the empire he bled to inherit… and the one woman who was never supposed to matter.
In the Romano empire, loyalty is the only currency. And trust? It's the deadliest weapon of all.
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Chapter: Chapter 118EpilogueThree weeks had passed since that night on the rooftop. Three weeks since Carla was arrested and my world turned upside down—or perhaps, right side up.I stood in front of the bedroom mirror, running my hand over my swollen belly. Eight months pregnant now. The baby had grown so much that simple tasks like tying my shoes had become impossible without help."You're getting huge." Gabi appeared in the doorway, grinning. "In a good way, obviously.""Obviously." I turned sideways, examining my profile. "I look like I've swallowed a watermelon.""A cute watermelon." She came in and sat on the edge of the bed. "Are you nervous? About the birth?""Terrified." I sat beside her. "But also excited. Does that make sense?""Completely." Gabi leaned her head on my shoulder. "I'm glad I'm here for this. That you're letting me be here.""Where else would you be?" I squeezed her hand. "You're my sister. This is your home now."It had taken some convincing to get Gabi to move into the estate
Last Updated: 2026-08-19
Chapter: Chapter 117Matteo POV We tumbled backwards, away from the edge. Carla's gun went off, the bullet whizzing harmlessly into the night sky.I held tight to Isabella, using my body to shield hers whilst Sophia and Dante moved in to disarm Carla. The gun clattered across the rooftop as they forced her to the ground."Leave her." Isabella's voice was muffled against my chest. "Let me finish this. Let me end her once and for all.""No." I held her tighter. "You don't have to be that person. You don't have to become the evil they once painted us to be.""But she deserves—""Yes. She deserves justice not revenge." I pulled back enough to look at her face. "You're better than this. Better than her."Isabella broke down completely then. Tears streamed down her face as she buried herself against my shoulder, her body shaking with sobs."I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for everything. For lying to you. For putting you in danger. For—""Stop." I stroked her hair gently. "We'll deal with all of that later. Right now
Last Updated: 2026-08-19
Chapter: Chapter 116Isabella's POV I tried to duck behind a table, but Valentina was too fast. The knife was already coming down, aimed at my chest.A gunshot echoed through the stairwell.Valentina jerked sideways, the knife clattering from her hand. She collapsed, clutching her leg where blood was already spreading across her dress.I spun around to find Gabi standing there, a gun in her trembling hands. Her face was pale, her eyes wide with shock."I shot her." The words came out barely above a whisper. "I actually shot her.""Gabi—" I started to move towards her."I didn't mean—I just saw her coming at you and I grabbed the gun from that guard downstairs and—" She was shaking so badly she could barely hold the weapon.Sophia appeared, gently taking the gun from Gabi's hands. "You did what you had to do. She'll live. You aimed for the leg.""But I shot someone." Gabi's voice cracked. "I've never—I can't—""We'll deal with this later." I grabbed her shoulders. "Right now I need you to stay here with S
Last Updated: 2026-08-19
Chapter: Chapter 115Isabella's POV "This is too dangerous." I grabbed Gabi's arm. "You shouldn't be here. You should be somewhere safe—""There is nowhere safe anymore." Sophia interrupted, her tone grim. "Carla compromised the safe house. She knows about most of my locations. Keeping Gabi with us, where we can see her, is actually the safest option right now.""She's my sister. She's not trained for this—""Neither are you." Sophia's gaze was pointed. "But you're here anyway. Because Matteo matters to you. Well, you matter to Gabi. So she's coming."I looked at my sister, who nodded firmly. "I'm not leaving you. Not again."There was no time to argue. Sophia was already moving towards the compound, Dante's crew flanking her."The party is our cover." Sophia explained as we followed. "Carla's hosting some kind of exclusive event. Wealthy criminals, corrupt politicians. The kind of people who don't ask questions.""How do you know this?""Because I've been tracking her movements for weeks. Ever since Mat
Last Updated: 2026-08-19
Chapter: Chapter 114Isabella's POV "Stop! Please!" The words tore from my throat. "I'll do it. I'll help you. Just don't hurt her.""That's better." Carla's smile was triumphant. "See how easy it is when you cooperate? I control you like a puppet, Isabella. I always have. I just pull the right strings and you dance exactly how I want you to.""You're a monster.""I'm a realist and reality is that you'll do whatever I say to protect the people you love." She kept the knife pressed against Gabi's throat. "Which makes you predictable. Pathetic, really—"Gabi's eyes snapped open.Before Carla could react, before any of us could process what was happening, Gabi's heavy boot came down hard on Carla's foot.Carla screamed, stumbling backwards. The knife fell from her hand, clattering across the floor."Gabi!" I shouted. "The knife!"My sister kicked hard, sending the blade skittering towards my chair. I stretched as far as the ropes would allow, my fingers just barely reaching the handle."You little bitch!" C
Last Updated: 2026-08-19
Chapter: Chapter 113Isabella's POV My head was pounding when I opened my eyes. The world swam in and out of focus, shapes and colours bleeding together.Then reality crashed down. I was tied to a chair. Rope bit into my wrists and ankles. The room around me was unfamiliar. It was some kind of basement or warehouse."Finally awake." Carla's voice came from somewhere behind me. "I was beginning to worry I'd given you too much."I tried to speak but my mouth was dry, my tongue thick. "What—where—""Where's Matteo? Is that what you're trying to ask?" Carla moved into view, perfectly composed. Like she hadn't just drugged and kidnapped three people. "He's on his way to a secluded island. Very private and isolated. And you know what, very perfect for what comes next.""Stop." The word came out hoarse. "Stop whatever you're doing and let him go.""I'm afraid that's not possible. We've come too far now." She crouched down in front of me, her expression almost sympathetic. "This was always the end game, Isabell
Last Updated: 2026-08-19
Chapter: Chapter 100EPILOGUEELARA'S POVEight Years LaterThe entire pack smelled like moonflowers and anticipation.Silvercrest always looked transformed during the Festival of the Sovereignty. Lanterns glowed from every corner of the territory, hanging from tall silverwood trees while wolves filled the sacred grounds dressed in silks and polished leather from every corner of the continent, laughing loudly and smiling brightly beneath the light of the full moon.I stood near the edge of the clearing, watching the celebration unfold with a quiet, profound stillness in my chest.Eight years ago, I had stood in this exact spot as a broken omega in a plain cream dress, trying very hard not to exist. I had watched the mating ceremony from the shadows, convinced that the Moon Goddess had forgotten me, convinced that I was worthless, convinced that my life would be measured in humiliations endured and apologies whispered.Tonight, the sacred grounds looked entirely different.The raised platform where Kaelen
Last Updated: 2026-09-04
Chapter: Chapter 99ELARA'S POVThe three days following the fall of Silvercrest passed in a blur of monumental change.The royal palace, once a fortress of exclusion and imperial terror, was thrown open to the public for the first time in its history. The lower halls were converted into emergency shelters for the displaced border refugees who had flooded into the capital during the King's scorched-earth campaign. The royal granaries, hoarded for months to feed the war machine, were cracked open by Jarek's northern warriors, who distributed grain, salt, and cured meat to every family in the lower districts.The people of Silvercrest wept in the streets. Not from grief, but from the overwhelming, disorienting relief of a populace that had forgotten what it felt like to eat without fear.I stood on the high balcony of the palace on the morning of the second day, watching the transformation unfold below. The geometric, pristine streets I remembered from my childhood were now alive with color and noise. Forg
Last Updated: 2026-09-04
Chapter: Chapter 98DRAVEN'S POVThe march north from Oakhaven Bay was the largest military movement the continent had witnessed in two centuries.Behind us, the sixty war galleys of the southern fleet rode at anchor in the harbor, their sails furled, their catapults silent. Admiral Marrow had dispatched fast courier sloops to every coastal port, broadcasting the fall of the imperial alliance and the seizure of the southern fleet. Within days, the eastern merchant banks froze the King's war loans, cutting off the gold that fed his mercenary legions.Before us, the combined armies of the western sovereignty stretched across the lowland plains like a river of steel and fur.Four thousand Moonvale heavy cavalry rode on the eastern flank, their silver breastplates gleaming beneath the winter sun. Three thousand Shadowfen skirmishers moved through the tree lines on the west, their dark bows strung and ready. Two thousand Ashwood supply wagons rolled along the central road, guarded by Elder Corina's healers an
Last Updated: 2026-09-04
Chapter: Chapter 97DRAVEN’S POVThe name rippled through the Grand Cathedral of the Sea like a trail of black powder catching fire.*Elara.*Five hundred southern aristocrats stood frozen in their pews, their polished champagne flutes trembling in their hands. The organ pipes went completely dead, the silence rushing into the vaulted stone with the weight of a collapsing wall.At the high altar, Lyra took a frantic step backward, the heavy pearl-embroidered train of her gown bunching around her ivory slippers. Her bouquet of white orchids slipped from her gloved fingers, tumbling down the marble steps to scatter across the emerald carpet. "Guards!" Robert Marrow roared, drawing his gilded ceremonial rapier with a sharp hiss of steel. His handsome face was mottled with wine-soaked fury. "Inquisitors! Cut them down where they stand!"The imperial inquisitor raised his iron staff, shouting for the twenty royal guards lining the eastern dais. "For the King! Exterminate the abomination!"I did not give them
Last Updated: 2026-09-04
Chapter: Chapter 96ELARA’S POVThe Grand Cathedral of the Sea rose above the white chalk cliffs like a temple carved from seafoam and frozen bone.Its colossal vaulted ceiling was supported by twenty fluted marble pillars, each wrapped in gilded netting and hung with the ancestral battle pennants of House Marrow. Light filtered through three massive rose windows of stained cobalt glass, casting cool, watery blue patterns across the five hundred southern nobles seated in rows of polished mahogany pews.The air inside smelled of sweet burning ambergris, sea-salt incense, and the heavy perfume of three hundred aristocratic ladies fanning themselves with gilded lace.Draven and I sat in the fifth row on the western aisle, positioned among the mid-tier trade factors. We had shed our heavy woolen merchant cloaks, appearing now in the rich indigo damask and velvet we had worn the night before. Beneath the structured folds of my gown, my twin daggers rested securely against the small of my back. Beneath Draven
Last Updated: 2026-09-04
Chapter: Chapter 95DRAVEN’S POVHigh Admiral Marrow did not offer an immediate vow. He was an old sea wolf who had survived forty winters of imperial court intrigue by measuring every current before setting sail. He picked up the royal dispatches once more, his weathered thumb tracing the deep impression of the King's personal seal. When he finally looked up, his pale blue eyes were cold as arctic sea ice."If I keep forty war galleys anchored in Oakhaven Bay," Marrow said, his voice dropping to a gravelly whisper, "the King’s southern infantry will march on our landward gates within a week. I will have sixty ships in the harbor and three thousand royal veterans at my back walls.""And when they arrive," I replied, stepping up beside Elara, "they will find their supply lines severed. The western alliance holds the high mountain passes. The moment royal troops leave their eastern garrisons to march south, Theron’s heavy cavalry and Kira’s skirmishers will take their rear guard in the lowlands. They will
Last Updated: 2026-09-04
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