Beauty And The Beast
In a world ruled by power, blood, and unbreakable alliances, Alexander King Costello, the ruthless Italian Mafia don known as the Ice King was promised a bride to seal a vital empire building deal. But on the day of the arranged meeting, the chosen daughter, Emily Havard, vanishes without a trace.
Desperate to save their family from Alexander’s wrath, the Havards offer the only thing they have left: their hidden, unwanted son Aiden.
A quiet, overlooked young man who has spent his life in the shadows of his own home, Aiden is thrust into a nightmare. Forced into a marriage he never asked for, he becomes nothing more than a temporary replacement. “You are just the replacement till we find her. Know your place,” his mother hisses. His father’s words cut even deeper: “We are doing you a fucking favor.”
To Alexander, the swap is an insult. “What do you mean my bride is gone?” he growls, his cold blue eyes promising retribution. Yet as the reluctant union begins, the dangerous don finds himself inexplicably drawn to the soft spoken man who fears him… and somehow sees him.
What started as a mistake, a forced marriage built on lies and desperation slowly turns into something neither of them expected. In the dangerous underworld of power and betrayal, falling for each other might be the most dangerous risk of all.
"The marriage was a mistake."
"But falling for you wasn’t."
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Chapter: 43_The EndFive years had passed since everything changed, and Sebastian still wasn't used to how loud a Saturday morning could be with three kids running through a house that had entirely too many rooms for them to be running through."Dad, Mateo took my shoe," Isla yelled from somewhere up the east staircase, and Marco didn't even look up from the tray he was arranging on the kitchen island, a slab of marble large enough to seat ten."Mateo, give your sister the shoe back," Marco called, not raising his voice, because he never really had to and people still occasionally mistook him for one of the nannies at these things, right up until he started rattling off the seating chart from memory or correcting the florist on where the peonies were supposed to go."It's MY shoe, she took MY shoe first—""I don't care whose shoe started it, just give it back before your uncles get here." Marco wiped his hands on a linen towel and glanced at the monitor propped against the espresso machine, where little
Last Updated: 2026-07-24
Chapter: 42_Normal Day And New TruthsThe next day, Sebastian did not allow Marco to go to work. He had woken up early, as usual, but instead of letting Marco get dressed for the office, he pulled him back into bed, arms wrapping around him possessively. “Not today,” Sebastian murmured against Marco’s neck, voice still rough with sleep. “You need rest after yesterday. And I need you here.”Marco tried to argue at first, insisting he was fine, that he wanted to prove he could handle a normal workday even after the confrontation with Victor. But Sebastian was firm, kissing him softly until Marco melted into the embrace. They spent the day together, lazy breakfast in bed, watching movies in the living room, and quiet conversations about everything and nothing. Sebastian’s protectiveness was clear, but there was tenderness in it too. He didn’t want Marco facing the office gossip or any lingering tension so soon after the incident.The day after that was the same. Sebastian kept him close, making excuses about needing his inpu
Last Updated: 2026-07-24
Chapter: 41_A Night To RemeberThat night, Sebastian looked at Marco with a small, rare smile as they finished dinner in the quiet dining room of the mansion. The day had been long, the confrontation at the office, the fallout with Victor, and the endless meetings that followed, but Sebastian had made a decision. He wanted to give Marco something normal. Something good. Something that wasn’t tainted by the shadows of their complicated world.“Get dressed,” Sebastian said suddenly, voice warm. “We’re going on a date.”Marco blinked, fork paused halfway to his mouth. “A date?”Sebastian nodded, the smile deepening just a fraction. “Yes. A real one. No business. No guards hovering too close. Just us.”Marco’s face lit up, the exhaustion from the day melting away. “Really?”“Really.” Sebastian stood up, offering his hand. “Wear something nice. I’ll wait for you downstairs.”Marco practically ran upstairs, heart racing with unexpected excitement. He hadn’t been on a proper date in years. The idea of doing something norm
Last Updated: 2026-07-24
Chapter: 40_Breaking PointsMarco had only spent two weeks working in Sebastian’s company, but he was really enjoying it. The routine had quickly become something he looked forward to each morning. Waking up beside Sebastian, sharing quiet breakfasts, and then heading to the office in simple clothes that made him feel like just another employee, it gave him a sense of normalcy he had never known. The work itself was straightforward but satisfying: organizing reports, coordinating schedules, helping with small projects. His colleagues were friendly, the environment professional, and for the first time in years, Marco felt like he was building something for himself instead of living in someone else’s shadow.He had even made a few real friends. Lisa from accounting often stopped by his desk with coffee and office gossip. Daniel from logistics helped him navigate the more complicated software systems. They chatted during breaks, laughed about silly things, and treated him like any other new hire. No one knew he was
Last Updated: 2026-07-24
Chapter: 39_First StepsThe following week on Monday, Marco arrived at work with a mix of nerves and quiet determination. The sleek glass building of Sebastian’s company towered over the bustling city street, its modern design reflecting the morning sun like a statement of power and success. Marco adjusted the simple button down shirt and slacks he had chosen, nothing too flashy, nothing that screamed privilege. He wanted to blend in, to prove he could do this on his own terms. No special treatment. No one knowing who he really was. Just Marco, starting from the bottom like everyone else.He walked through the revolving doors, the cool air conditioned lobby greeting him with the low hum of conversations and the click of heels on marble floors. The receptionist gave him a polite smile when he showed his ID badge, directing him to the orientation room on the fifth floor. Marco took the elevator up, heart beating a little faster than he wanted to admit. This was new territory. For years, he had lived in the sha
Last Updated: 2026-07-24
Chapter: 38_New BeginningsThe next morning, sunlight filtered through the tall windows of the master bathroom, casting a warm glow over the luxurious marble floors and the large walk in shower. Steam rose around them as Marco and Sebastian stood under the hot spray, water cascading over their bodies. Sebastian’s hands were gentle but firm on Marco’s hips, pulling him closer until their chests pressed together. The night before had left them both exhausted, but the morning light brought a new kind of hunger.Sebastian leaned down, capturing Marco’s mouth in a slow, deep kiss. Water ran down their faces as their lips moved together, tongues sliding lazily. Marco moaned softly into the kiss, hands sliding up Sebastian’s wet chest, fingers tracing the lines of muscle and old scars. Sebastian’s grip tightened, one hand moving to cup Marco’s ass, pulling him flush against him. Their bodies aligned perfectly, cocks hardening against each other as the water continued to pour over them.“You’re insatiable,” Marco murmu
Last Updated: 2026-07-24
Chapter: Sixty ThreeThe news moved through Eldoria Palace the way spring moved through frozen ground, quietly at first, then all at once, and with a force that left nothing untouched. By the second morning after the physician’s confirmation, there was no corridor, kitchen, or guard post that had not heard some version of it. The royal consort was with child. A man. Pregnant. The details varied depending on who was telling the story and how much wine had been involved, but the core of it remained intact and astonishing. Servants who had spent years moving through the royal wing with carefully lowered eyes now lingered a fraction longer when they delivered linens, as if proximity to the miracle might transfer. Guards who had bled on the courtroom floor for the king’s return stood a little straighter at their posts. Even the restored dukes, men who measured most events in terms of advantage and risk, found themselves speaking of the matter with something closer to genuine wonder than calculation. In living
Last Updated: 2026-08-25
Chapter: Sixty TwoThe palace after eleven carried a different weight than it did by day. Most of the formal noise had drained out of the corridors. The great halls were dark except for the night lamps. The restored dukes and lords had long since retreated to their own wings or their own schemes. In the lower levels the cells held their silence. In the royal wing the king and his pregnant consort had closed their doors on the world for the night. What remained was the soft, continuous presence of the watch, boots on stone at measured intervals, the occasional low exchange of the password, the sense of a fortress that slept with one eye open. Captain Garrick’s quarters sat in the older officers’ block overlooking the inner training yard. The rooms were plain by design: a narrow bed, a desk scarred by years of maps and reports, a single wardrobe, a washstand, and a window that let in the cool night air when the shutters were opened. He had never seen the point of more. Tonight the shutters were half clo
Last Updated: 2026-08-25
Chapter: Sixty OneThe air in the chamber was not air as mortals understood it. It was thicker. Older. It carried the taste of ash and cold iron and the faint, sweet rot of power that had been left to ferment in the dark for centuries. No windows broke the black stone walls. No ordinary flames lit the space. The only illumination came from veins of dull crimson light that pulsed slowly through the rock itself, as if the room were the interior of some vast, sleeping heart. Shadows clung to the corners with a density that suggested they might, if given sufficient reason, peel themselves free and take shape. A great table of polished obsidian dominated the center. Around it sat the kind of beings most human nightmares had the good sense not to invent. They were not men, though some of them wore shapes that could almost pass for human if one did not look at the eyes, or the hands, or the way the light bent wrong around their shoulders. Others had abandoned the pretense entirely. There were lords whose sk
Last Updated: 2026-08-25
Chapter: SixtyThe first thing Caelian registered was the headache. It sat behind his eyes like a dull, pulsing weight, the kind that made the soft afternoon light filtering through the hangings feel sharper than it should have. He groaned, turning his face slightly into the pillow, and the small movement sent a fresh throb through his skull. For a disoriented second he could not remember why he was in bed in the middle of the day, or why his body felt both heavy and strangely hollow at the same time. Then a familiar, dry presence unfolded behind his thoughts. *You’re awake.* The voice landed directly in the center of the headache and made it worse. Caelian squeezed his eyes shut and directed the most venomous mental tone he could currently manage. *Get out of my head.* Igor’s amusement rolled through the shared space like a low purr. *Charming as ever. You fainted in front of half the court, accused your stepmother of murder, and then collapsed into your husband’s arms like a tragic painting.
Last Updated: 2026-08-24
Chapter: Fifty NineThe afternoon light in the royal bedchamber had shifted toward gold by the time the worst of the shaking left Ravyn’s hands. He sat on the edge of the great bed with his back against the carved headboard and Caelian’s unconscious body drawn carefully against his chest. One arm supported the younger man’s shoulders; the other hand moved slowly, almost absently, through the dark hair that spilled across the pillow and over Ravyn’s forearm. Every few breaths he checked the rise and fall of Caelian’s chest, the color returning gradually to his lips, the faint warmth seeping back into the fingers curled loosely against Ravyn’s shirt. Helwin’s words still sat in the room like a third presence. Pregnant. The royal consort of Eldoria, the man who had survived a blood sealed marriage, years of quiet cruelty, an ambush on a forest road, and the forced awakening of a bloodline older than any human throne, was carrying a child. Their child. Ravyn had faced down coups and assassins and the kind
Last Updated: 2026-08-24
Chapter: Fifty Eight“You even killed my fucking mother.” The words were still ringing from the high stones when the reaction fully took the hall. The murmurs that had started as shocked whispers swelled into something louder and more disordered, lords turning to one another, questions colliding in the air, the careful composure of the restored court cracking under the weight of a truth none of them had been prepared to hear. At the center of the open floor, the King and Queen of Valthorne had gone rigid. Edric’s head finally lifted. His face was gray. Morgana’s eyes had gone wide with a raw, unguarded panic that stripped away every remaining layer of royal performance. “How did you know?” she demanded. The question tore out of her half strangled. “Who told you…? You couldn’t possibly…” Caelian looked at her through the tears still tracking down his face. The dizziness that had been circling him all morning chose that moment to sharpen into a hard, tilting wave. He gripped the edge of the consort’s th
Last Updated: 2026-08-24
His Royal Slut
At eighteen, Raine entered a secret contract with Crown Prince Daniel. The rule was simple: no feelings attached.
Now at twenty, Life seems good.
But when love got involved, everything fell apart.
Their relationship was exposed, Daniel was forced into a political marriage, and Raine was driven out of the royal family's life, out of the country.
Years later, Daniel is king. Just when he thinks the past is behind him, Raine returns not because of the king but because his best friend was getting married.
He plans to attend the wedding, celebrate, and leave without reopening old wounds.
But fate has other plans.
When Daniel unexpectedly crosses his path, buried feelings begin to resurface. At the same time, long hidden family secrets come to light, forcing Daniel to question everything he thought he knew about his future, his responsibilities, and himself.
Caught between duty, power, and the family he never knew he had, Daniel must decide what matters more, the crown or the people he loves.
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Chapter: NinetyThe house sat at the edge of a quieter district, far enough from the capital’s heavier traffic that the afternoon sounded mostly of wind in the hedges and the occasional distant dog. It was not a grand place. The walls were solid, the rooms a little worn, and the kitchen always smelled of whatever had been cooked last. Nathan’s grandparents had raised him there for as long as he could properly remember. His parents came and went in short visits that felt more like interruptions than part of the real schedule of the house. Nathan had learned not to wait by the window for cars that might not stop. He was ten the afternoon the second child arrived. His grandmother had been restless all morning, moving between the front room and the kitchen with a tightness around her mouth that usually meant adult business was about to land in the house. His grandfather sat at the small table with the newspaper open and not being read. Nathan had been told only that his parents were bringing someone. H
Last Updated: 2026-08-03
Chapter: Eighty NineThe residence wing settled into evening the way it always did when the larger noise of the day had finally gone home. Somewhere down the corridor a member of staff finished the last of the clearing from the afternoon visit and went off shift. The garden lights came on in their usual soft sequence beyond the windows. In the family rooms, the evidence of cousins and chaos had been mostly restored to order, drawings stacked, shoes paired, the sticky fruit plate washed and put away. What remained was the smaller household: Daniel, Raine, and the three children who still, after all these years, treated bedtime as a negotiation rather than a fact. Raine stood at the dresser folding a shirt that did not strictly need folding, mostly for the quiet of the task. Behind him Daniel moved through the familiar routine of checking the outer latch and setting his tablet face down on the side table, the official day closed whether the kingdom agreed or not. Twelve years of nights like this had worn
Last Updated: 2026-08-03
Chapter: Eighty EightTwelve years changed the shape of the palace without erasing what it had been. The corridors that had once carried lockdown orders and the echo of a queen being taken from a ballroom floor now carried different noise, smaller footsteps, arguments about stolen pastry, the distant shriek of a child who had discovered running was faster than walking and intended to prove it on every polished surface available. The kingdom had settled into a long stretch of steady rule. The scandals of that year had hardened into history, then into the kind of history people referenced with a shake of the head and a comment about how far things had come. Daniel still wore the crown. He wore it with less ice in his posture than he once had, though anyone who mistook the change for softness in matters of state learned otherwise quickly enough. Raine found him in the east family sitting room just after breakfast, one knee down while he attempted to fasten a very small shoe onto a very uncooperative foot. T
Last Updated: 2026-08-03
Chapter: Eighty SevenThe message from Nathan’s office arrived just after dawn, formal even through the informal channel he had been using with Raine all week. There were matters in his own country that had been postponed past the point of safety, board structures, a regulatory hearing, two contracts that would not survive another stretch of his absence without inviting the kind of attention neither of them wanted. He had delayed as long as the situation allowed. He could not delay further. Raine read the message twice at the breakfast table before setting the phone down. Daniel watched him over the rim of his cup. “When.” “This afternoon,” Raine said. “Private jet. He already moved the departure up once to stay for the village. He cannot move it again.” Daniel nodded once. He did not offer empty reassurance about short trips and easy returns. He simply reached across the table and put his hand over Raine’s, solid and present, while the morning light moved across the residual peace of a household that
Last Updated: 2026-08-03
Chapter: Eighty SixTwo days after the village, Nathan canceled three meetings without offering the kind of explanation his office usually required. Kade found out about the date the way he still found out about most things that were not security protocols, after the decision had already been made. He came out of the suite bathroom in the late afternoon to find Nathan standing by the window with his phone in one hand and a look of focused satisfaction that usually meant someone, somewhere, had just lost an argument they did not know they were having. “We are going out,” Nathan said. Kade paused with the towel still in his hands. “Out where.” “On a date.” Nathan pocketed the phone and turned fully toward him. “Not a dinner with my brother. Not a palace corridor. Not a hotel suite with the door locked from the inside. A date. You will wear something that is not a duty suit. I will handle the rest.” Kade stared at him for a long second. The word sat in the room with more weight than its size suggested.
Last Updated: 2026-08-03
Chapter: Eighty FiveThe capital had already moved into evening by the time the convoy cleared the outer districts and the palace lights appeared in the distance. The village still clung to them in small ways, dust on the lower edges of trousers, the wrapped parcel of flatbread Raine had insisted Nathan take, the quieter expression Nathan had worn since the old woman closed her hands around his and thanked him for keeping her boy. When the vehicles finally separated at the junction, Daniel and Raine turning toward the palace residence and Nathan’s car continuing on toward the hotel, the silence inside the second car felt different from ordinary end of day quiet. Kade drove. He always drove when the detail was reduced to the two of them. Nathan sat in the back for the first stretch, then moved up into the passenger seat without explanation once the denser traffic closed around them. He did not speak. His hand rested on his knee, then, after a stretch of unremarkable streets, settled on Kade’s thigh with a
Last Updated: 2026-08-03
Chapter: Twenty ThreeRonan stood at the tall window in his chambers, staring out over the palace grounds. The sun was dipping low, painting everything in shades of orange and gold, but he barely noticed. His mind was miles away, somewhere in a hidden sanctuary with a certain vampire king who had somehow crawled under his skin and refused to leave. He missed Elias already. The way the vampire’s cool skin felt against his, the quiet conversations in the dark, the rare soft smiles that only came out when no one else was watching. It had only been a day since they parted, but the bond tugged at him with a gentle ache that reminded him constantly of what he was missing.He huffed in annoyance and turned away from the window. Garrick stood near the door, quiet and watchful as always.He was still angry.“Did you hear that shit in court, Garrick?” Ronan asked, voice rough. “They said Elias was there personally. But we both know he was with me the entire week. How the fuck is that possible?”Garrick crossed his a
Last Updated: 2026-07-24
Chapter: Twenty TwoRonan pushed open the heavy doors to the Grand Court with more force than necessary. The room fell quiet the moment he stepped inside, all eyes turning toward him. He walked straight to the raised throne at the far end and dropped into it, the carved wood creaking under his weight. Garrick took his usual position a few steps away, standing tall among the other guards, hand resting near his sword. The air felt thick with tension. Ronan could smell it, fear, ambition, and the sharp edge of old grudges.“Speak,” Ronan commanded, voice low but carrying to every corner of the hall. “What was so important that it couldn’t wait until I had time to wash the road dust off?”One of the lords stood up slowly. Lord Harlan, an old man with a proud tilt to his chin and silver hair slicked back. He was one of the few nobles Ronan genuinely disliked. Harlan had always carried himself like he was better than everyone else, mostly because his daughter had married a prince from one of the neighboring hu
Last Updated: 2026-07-24
Chapter: Twenty OneOne week had passed in the hidden sanctuary like a dream someone was afraid to wake up from. Seven days of stolen peace where Ronan and Elias existed in a world that belonged only to them. They spent long hours talking, sometimes arguing, sometimes laughing in ways that felt foreign to both of them. Nights blurred into tangled sheets and slow, exploratory touches. The bond had settled into something steadier, less frantic. The sharp pain of separation had dulled. They could be apart for a while now, maybe two months at most, before it started pulling at them again. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough to let them breathe.That last morning, they lay cuddled together in the big bed, sunlight spilling across the furs. Ronan had his arm wrapped around Elias’s waist, pulling the vampire flush against his chest. They weren’t rushing. There was no urgency this time, just slow, lazy movements. Ronan’s hips rolled gently against Elias’s, grinding in a slow rhythm that had them both breathing
Last Updated: 2026-07-23
Chapter: TwentyThe sanctuary had settled into an uneasy kind of quiet by nightfall. The guards from both sides had spent the day circling each other warily, but after hours of shared watches and forced proximity, the worst of the snarling had died down. A couple of the werewolves even traded quiet words with Lucian and Soren about the best ways to patrol the perimeter. It wasn’t friendship. Not even close. But it was a fragile truce born out of necessity and the strange magic of the hidden place. No one wanted to be the one who ruined the fragile peace their kings had found here.Inside the main bedroom, though, the atmosphere was anything but peaceful.Elias lay on his side facing away from Ronan, eyes open in the dark. He was still pissed about how the conversation had gone earlier. The way Ronan had spoken to him, cold, accusatory, like he was still the enemy who had personally ripped his mate apart. It stung deeper than he wanted to admit. The bond might have forced them together, but it didn’t
Last Updated: 2026-07-23
Chapter: NineteenThe sanctuary was quiet in the late afternoon, the kind of peaceful stillness that felt almost unnatural after years of constant war. Most of the guards had settled into the outer buildings, keeping watch in shifts but staying out of the main house like Ronan had ordered. One of the younger werewolves, a seventeen-year-old boy named Finn, had taken the first watch near the edge of the woods. He sat on a fallen log at the tree line, back against a thick oak, trying to look more experienced than he felt.Finn was still new to this life. He had joined Ronan’s personal guard only six months ago, eager and wide-eyed, full of stories about proving himself to the pack. At seventeen he was barely more than a pup by werewolf standards, lanky with messy brown hair and bright amber eyes that hadn’t yet lost their innocence. He fiddled with a small knife, carving idle patterns into a stick to pass the time.A rustle sounded behind him in the underbrush. Finn’s head snapped up. In one smooth motio
Last Updated: 2026-07-22
Chapter: EighteenThe hidden sanctuary felt worlds away from the endless war waiting for them back home. Soft morning light filtered through the heavy curtains in the main bedroom, casting gentle patterns across the large bed. Ronan and Elias lay tangled together under the thick furs, the kind of closeness that would have been impossible to imagine just a few days ago. Ronan’s big hand moved slowly under the covers, tracing lazy circles along Elias’s waist. His fingers brushed over smooth, cool skin, feeling the subtle rise and fall of the vampire’s breathing.Elias had his eyes closed, face relaxed in a way that was rare for him. The sharp lines of tension that usually marked his features had softened. The pain that had been gnawing at both of them for days was finally gone, dulled to nothing by their nearness. But the bond was still there, alive and warm between them, pulling them closer like an invisible thread that refused to break.It was a sight no one else in Elyria would ever believe—two enemy
Last Updated: 2026-07-22
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