11 Number

Serena Judd is a mess when she's taken to the hospital after being harassed by a freak. As she waits in the corridor for her turn to see the doctor, she sees Justin Farrow with his arm around a young woman. He's coaxing her gently. With a raspy voice, Serena looks at Justin, the guy she has been on and off with for years. "Didn’t you get my text?" "It's Candice's birthday, so I can't upset her. Besides, who knows whether you actually ran into a freak?" He frowns, looking disdainful. "Were you violated?" Serena's blood runs cold at his words. She tenders her resignation the following day, but Justin isn't bothered. He says, "She's more obedient than a dog. She'll come back to beg for forgiveness without me even saying anything." This time, however, Serena leaves without hesitation. … Half a year passes. Justin sits in his car and dials a number he's already committed to memory. As soon as the call is connected, he says tensely, "I miss you." All he hears is a snort. "Why are you disturbing me in the middle of the night with a love confession, Mr. Farrow? You should be asleep." Justin snarls, "Where's Rina? Tell her to answer the phone!" Wilson Quade looks at Serena, who's lying beneath him, her eyes gleaming with desire. He smirks devilishly and says, "We're busy, Mr. Farrow."

Being born out of wedlock, Scarlet Beckers was bullied by both her pack members and schoolmates. She couldn't wait to finish high school to go to WOLFIE’S ACADEMY with her boyfriend-her pack’s incoming Alpha- after graduation. Then on graduation day, she caught him sleeping with the pack’s most popular girl and instead of feeling guilty, he tried to kill her, but her mother came in, fought him and saved her. That night Scarlet’s mother informed her she was finally getting married to the number one Alpha in the world and they were leaving the pack to his pack to start a new life. Scarlet didn't want to go because she still loved her boyfriend despite what he did to her, but her mother convinced her they had to leave or she will be punished for fighting the Alpha’s son. On getting to the new pack, Scarlet finds out she was mated to her brutal triplet stepbrothers. Scarlet will be conflicted with her new situation and even more so because she finds herself attracted to the three of them at the same time. She decides to stick with the three of them until she finally decides which of them she will settle with but then, with every day, she finds herself falling deeper for these men even though they were bullies, brutal, reckless and too possessive of her to a fault. And to add to that they had deadly secrets that could implicate them and threaten their positions as Alphas if Scarlet let them out to the public. What is she going to do and how are they going to surmount the challenges that would arise from their abnormal circumstances? But most importantly, who will she end up with in the end? ...

I was dying from my fear of heights, but my husband, Don Vincent, was busy with his assistant, savoring the latest coffee flown in from Hawaii that morning. "You're a grown woman, Bella. What's the big deal? You're stuck on a roof, figure it out." Then he hung up on me. I collapsed onto the hot tar of the roof, my body shaking uncontrollably before everything went black. It was two hours before building security found me. When I got home, I asked Vincent for a divorce. He rubbed his temples, his patience worn thin, looking at me as if I were a child throwing a tantrum. "Over a cup of coffee? I told you, the heights are all in your head. You’re perfectly safe now. Stop making a scene alright? What's this nonsense about a divorce? I have more important things to deal with. Calm yourself down." I stared at his back as he left, tears already streaming down my face. Something important? Did he really think I couldn't hear his assistant, Sophia, murmuring in the background? Did he think I didn't know he took her to the last family gathering? I had loved Vincent for three years. Everyone knew he was the center of my world. They all thought an orphan like me could never leave him. But now, all the love I had was eclipsed by a profound, soul-crushing exhaustion. I was done. I picked up my phone and dialed a number I hadn't touched in three long years. "Uncle, book me a flight to Seattle. I'm ready to leave Vincent."

I come home and find my husband's female best friend, Winona Langdon, who claims to be one of the guys, sleeping in my bed. I bring up divorce with Lucas Gardner for the 99th time. This time, he finally snaps. "Natania Simmon, are you done making a scene? Are you throwing a tantrum again just because Winona stayed over at our place and slept in our bed?" I answer calmly, "That's right." His friends throw their arms around his shoulders and chime in sarcastically, "Don't take it to heart, Lucas. Women get jealous easily. Oh, how I miss the days when we all slept under the same covers together." Lucas smiles bitterly and says, "When you guys get married in the future, remember this—you can't afford to mess with jealous women. Still, there's no helping it. Natania just loves me too much. She's trying to scare me by throwing divorce around. "Listen. In less than three days, she'll come crawling back to me." The derisive smirk playing on my lips deepens. In our seven years of marriage, Winona stays at my house whenever she pleases. I watch with my own eyes as Lucas and Winona grow increasingly inappropriate in their interactions. They reach into each other's pants. They also share the same straw and wash each other's underwear. And now... She even sleeps in my bed! These last seven years were not love. I was just foolishly blind. Right in front of everyone, I dial a number and say, "Dad, I'm done messing around out here. Your heiress is ready to come home."

It was something that Lissa had wanted ever she laid eyes on their newly appointed supervisor over the small but continuously growing company that she works for. He's gorgeous as hell. And everybody wants him. Sometimes, Lissa even thinks about whenever she 'plays' with herself. But of course, everything that she fantasies will remain as a fantasy. That supervisor of hers is bisexual and prefers to do the deed with men. But that's until she hears a little something from a little birdie in the table next to her. "Karma is a bitch, and revenge is best served cold --- bitter and kicking." As the messed up relationship between Anthony and Lissa grows passionately everyday, a text message from an unknown number will disrupt their lives. The text message contained a few sentences, something vague and Anthony thought it was only a scam for there are so many opportunistic folks in the world. However, the next day when he turned up for work with Lissa holding his hand, a certain woman wearing a Burgundy lipstick rattled him to the core. It was Tessa. Armed with vengeance and a story that could potentially destroy the empire Anthony's father has built. "So... what's your plan now, Mr. Lee?" Tessa leaned closer, whispering words laced with venom to his ear. "Will you cave in, or... would you like the world to know what kind of twisted son a of a bitch you really are." Anthony swallowed, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. His head was spinning and his world was crashing and burning and breaking in different places. And so it's true, Karma comes after everyone eventually. And this is his. "What do you want?" Tessa licked her lips then smirked. "Isn't it obvious?" She chuckled, her fingers traveling down his pants. "You."

My mom believed in one thing above all else: being number one. To achieve that, she created a strict daily schedule and even developed a monitoring app that required us to submit reports every day. Anyone who failed to rank first according to the app's evaluation would be tied to a chair and severely punished. No matter how difficult the task was, my younger brother, Jason Hunt, could always complete it and receive a perfect score. Even when he actually ranked last, the monitoring software would still display him in first place. As for me, a single misspelled word was enough to trigger a failing warning from the app, followed immediately by my mom's harsh punishment. At first, I tried to explain. Later, I stayed silent. In the end, I could only kneel and beg. My mom remained unmoved. "Trash doesn't deserve sympathy," she said coldly. "You'll thank me when you become successful in the future." On the first day of the New Year, my mom took Jason out to visit our relatives and exchange greetings. I, meanwhile, was burning with a high fever and could not even finish the day's assignments. Ignoring my illness, my mom dragged me into a bathtub filled with ice. "If you're trying to escape studying, you don't deserve to live," she said. "Pretending to be sick? If you've got the guts, then just die already." She forced my head underwater and raised a rod, smashing it against my skull again and again. I begged desperately for mercy, but it was futile. My mom left with Jason, and I curled up alone on the floor. She was right. Only those who work hard deserve to live.

When I was six months pregnant, I was visiting the hospital when I saw my husband with his childhood friend, who had recently returned to the country. I was left holding my own prenatal checkup report, watching as they celebrated their soon-to-be born child. Still, Kelly Wallace appeared worried and even sounded guilty. "Quentin, you didn't have to come with me—I'm fine alone. If Jolin finds out, she'll definitely have a fight with you. She's pregnant too… it'll affect her mood and the baby." Quentin Smith was confidently nonchalant. "No, she won't—she always obeys me and loves me too much. If she does argue, I'll just divorce her!" My heat broke, tears of misery rushing down my cheek. But it was true. I loved him so much that I couldn't even bear to argue with him and always obeyed him. Even so, that didn't mean I was going to maintain this sham of a marriage after learning about his deceit. Since he didn't want me and our child, then I could raise my baby alone. Wiping away my tears, I called a number I hadn't called for five years. "Dad, can I come home?" "Oh, Jo! You finally called. Of course you're always welcomed home!" Hanging up, I booked a ticket for a flight to Switzerland that was due to depart a week later. I'd be out of his hair, so why was he losing his mind when he couldn't find me?

Stranger at day, fuck buddy at night, this isn't a sweet love story, it is a kind of story where lust meets love. Maya came from a small rural village, working as a dancer in a downtown bar just to afford her younger brother’s medication. Life had been nothing but struggle a relentless cycle of poverty and heartache she endured alone. On her very first night at the bar, Atlas Volkov watched from the shadows of a VIP sit. The billionaire CEO was known for ruthless business tactics and a cold, unforgiving empire. But as he looked at her, he didn’t see a dancer; he saw something he was determined to possess. He summoned her to his private space, the air thick with tension. “I can pull you out of this place,” he said, his voice smooth and dangerous. “But there’s a condition. You’ll be mine—a companion behind closed doors. Sign the contract, follow my rules, and you’ll be paid more than you’ve ever imagined.” Maya’s heart raced. She’d heard stories of the urban elite—their world built on rivalry and power. Getting involved with a Volkov was like walking into a hurricane. Yet the image of her brother “How much?” she whispered. “Two years. Ten million dollars.” The number stunned her more than she could earn in a hundred lifetimes, but desperation won out. “Deal,” she said, her voice shaky Atlas brought her to the Volkov Villa a sprawling estate where staff bowed in unison, he ordered her to undress. “No,” she snapped. “No contract means nothing.” He tossed her a folder. “Sign it. Now.” Her hand trembled as she scrawled her name.

Book Three of The Luminary Quartet The bears were currently considered enemy number one, right alongside the elders of my species. The problem was, I didn't know them as that. To me, they were simply friends, family even. My mother's mate had been a bear shifter, and I had ultimately found my own other half within the Ursidae family, as well. Everything had been perfect for a single moment in time, and then I was fleeing my home, right after rejecting the bastard who thought he could put his hands on me. I vowed two things then: to never return and to never give a male that much power over me again. Yet, Luna apparently had some twisted plan laid out for my life because circumstances seemed to keep arising, bringing me ever closer to Reese in spite of my best intentions. The wolves' rapidly declining numbers sent us careening across the county in a race to prevent the destruction of our species by the bears, though I struggled with picking sides. New and old faces appear along the way as rogues and other heretofore unknown foes emerge to stop us, making it difficult to know who to trust during these tumultuous times. Will Scarlett hold fast to her deep-rooted beliefs during the journey, or will her perceptions shift as much as the reality she returns home to? *Note: While the main characters in each book will receive their HEA, I wouldn't recommend reading them out of order due to the overarching storyline that continues throughout them all. ***Warning*** This book is intended for adults 18+. It contains mature themes and adult language. Please read at your own discretion.

Ruchee had long forgotten what it meant to live for herself. Since the day life stole both parents from her and left a fragile little sister in her trembling hands, she became everything at once, mother, father, shield, and sacrifice. She built her world from sleepless nights, ruthless decisions, and endless risks, caring for no one beyond the thin line of blood that tied her to the only family she had left. People were distractions. Friendship was unnecessary. Love was a luxury she could never afford. For Ruchee, survival was simple: keep moving, keep fighting, and never let anyone close enough to become another weakness. Until one night, everything was ripped away. Abducted without warning, Ruchee woke up inside a world she never knew existed, a lavish empire drenched in money, sin, and human desperation. There, beneath crystal chandeliers and behind the smiles of monsters dressed in silk, she was no longer a woman. She was merchandise. A rare prize. One of the highest-valued items in the most notorious underground auction where the powerful came not to bid for possessions, but for people. Men with blood-stained fortunes and godlike influence watched her like hungry predators, each number called dragging her closer to a fate worse than death. But among them stood one man. An extraordinary billionaire feared even by the underworld itself. Untouchable. Merciless. A collector of dangerous things. And the moment his eyes settled on her, Ruchee realized the auction was only the beginning. Will she find a way to escape before her freedom is sold to the highest bidder? Or will she become the most prized possession of the one man no one dares to refuse?