A Kingdom Of Ruin

At the end of the altar stands the groom, the man I’m meant to marry beside the groom stood my mate.

Nicole Evans never asked to be followed. She never asked for eyes in the dark, for a man like Vane to orbit her life with silence and devotion sharp enough to wound. But obsession doesn’t ask permission. It waits. It watches. It becomes inevitable. What began with missing men and shadows on rooftops soon unraveled into something far more intimate—an assassin who couldn’t let go, and a woman who, piece by piece, stopped trying to make him. As friends vanished and her world narrowed, Nicole found herself drawn toward the very thing she feared most—not out of love, but recognition. In his violence, there was something terrifyingly tender. In his silence, something that listened more closely than anyone else ever had. Theirs is not a love story in any ordinary sense. It’s a descent—a long, slow collapse into dependency, into surrender. A story told in bruises and shared tea, in blood and in stillness. A quiet unraveling that doesn’t end in escape, but in a house by the sea, where memory lingers and echoes never fade. Some stories don’t ask to be understood. Only remembered.

I gave a stranger my panties on a plane. Not because I'm reckless. Not because I do things like this. But because Damien Cross looked at me like I was something worth destroying himself over, and I wanted to be devoured. Four hours at 30,000 feet. That's all it took for him to unravel every careful thread of the life I'd built. One look. One touch. One whispered promise that I was his. Then he vanished. No calls. No texts. Just a breaking news report showing him married to someone else, while I stood in a hotel bathroom staring at a positive pregnancy test. Six years later, I've rebuilt myself. I'm a mother. A success. I've learned to survive without him. Until he walks into my photoshoot and recognizes the birthmark he once traced with his tongue. He says he never stopped looking for me. That his marriage was a cage he's finally escaped. That the twin boys I've been raising alone are his sons, and he wants his family back. But Damien Cross is a man who deals in empires and enemies. Someone close to him wants me gone. The threats start. The danger escalates. And I realize that loving Damien means walking into a war I never signed up for. He says he'll burn the world down to keep us safe. I'm terrified he means it. Some men are worth the fall but men are the wreckage. But Damien is both.

"I've always knew you'd be the man to fuck me to heavens." The door opened on that comment and the man she least expected waltzed in. A smirk on his lips. "Tell me, how many times have I fucked you to heavens in your wild little imaginations, Gina?" ............... He’s my father's best friend, a father figure to me. But he's also the hottest man I've ever seen alive. With his fit, toned, and athletic build. He has plagued my dreams more time than I can count. Fucking me to heavens and back, and when the chance comes to experience him. It doesn't matter what it costs, even if it might be the end of me. I’m willing to let him ruin me.

Riya Lance was born into power but never freedom. Daughter of a ruthless hotel tycoon and heir to a fading fashion empire, her life was nothing but a cage wrapped in gold. That cage shattered the night she stood before all and declared her divorce, blowing apart the merger that bound her family to the feared Moreau dynasty. She was betrayed, ambushed, and thrown into the sea. She should have died. Instead, she survived; scarred, with broken memories and a burning need for revenge. With new allies in the shadows, Riya rose again, building herself into a ghost powerful enough to strike back. But the deeper she digs, the darker the truth becomes. The Moreaus were only pawns. The true mastermind is the Don; an unseen hand tied to her near death experience, her father’s sins, and the only man she ever trusted: Mateo Rutherfurd. Once her guide. Now her rival. As empires crumble and buried secrets rise, Riya must choose; between love and vengeance, blood and freedom. Because reclaiming her legacy will cost her everything… and survival may demand an unbelievable sacrifice.

🔥🔥A dark forbidden romance between a fallen mafia queen and the four Alpha brothers who claim, cage, and ultimately crave her. TRIGGER WARNING: Contains explicit sexual content, BDSM, violence, breeding kink, and dark romantic elements. For adult audiences (18+/21+) only🔞.] Rule 1: During your heat, you submit. No struggle. No negotiation. We expect Alpha heirs,at least three. If you’re not pregnant, we’ll keep fucking you until you are. Rule 2: If you run, we hunt. Day or night. You’ll be dragged back and fucked again. Rule 3: You’ll beg, either for mercy or for more. Rule 4: You heal when we allow it. Tears tell us how deep we’ve marked you. Vivienne “Viper” Moreau built an empire on blood, power, and ruthlessness. Betrayal stripped it all away. Now she belongs to four Alpha brothers; dangerous, dominant, and unrelenting. They want to claim her. She wants revenge. In a world ruled by predators, desire is a weapon, trust is a trap, and falling for them is the most forbidden sin of all.

Anna Langford loved him once. She died for that love—betrayed and broken, watching Jackson Blackwell turn his back on her. But fate gives her a second chance, rewinding time to the moment before it all began. This time, Anna isn’t the same naive girl. She’s determined to protect her heart and take down the man who destroyed her. But as she steps back into Jackson’s world, the cracks in her memory grow wider… and the truth doesn’t seem so clear. When his rival, the dangerously charming Harris Liam, offers her safety—and something dangerously close to love—Anna must choose between the man she once trusted and the one who tempts her to start over. In a world built on lies, can she risk her heart again… or will love be her downfall?

Hatice Natividad just wanted a fun night out with friends. But after a few too many drinks, someone dared her to kiss a random guy. Drunk and laughing, she did it. She kissed a stranger. He kissed her back. One thing led to another, and they ended up in bed. The next morning, Hatice woke up sore and confused. Beside her was a man. Naked. Asleep. She screamed. He opened his eyes. And to her horror, it was her cold, serious, and insanely attractive professor!

After a vicious family power struggle, I fled to a small border town in the south. I took on a new identity and found work in a flower shop. Everyone believed I was dead. Then one day, someone from the family came to the shop to order flowers for the birthday party for Roman Jackson, the head of the Jackson family. The person who arrived was my former Underboss. She stared at me in shock and demanded to know why I had not returned to the Jackson family if I was still alive. She told me that Roman had kept watch over my grave for two years and that he had attempted suicide three times in the cemetery, each time stopped by someone else. Roman was my ex-husband. He had an adopted sister, Liliana. Fifteen years ago, her parents were gunned down while covering Roman's father's escape from a rival family. After that, Liliana became Roman's most cherished sister. She tampered with my armored car. The brakes failed, and the vehicle plunged off a cliff. I broke three ribs. Roman mobilized every resource the family had and pulled me back from the brink of death. She bribed my bodyguard and laced my red wine with a neurotoxin. I lay unconscious in the villa for three days and nights. Roman sealed off the entire city, hunted down everyone involved, and made them pay in blood. She tried to kill me, and he saved me. This absurd cycle went on for three years. Until the last time. She detonated a bomb at an arms deal I was overseeing, burning seventy percent of my body. As I was lifted onto the ambulance stretcher, I clutched Roman's suit and, with the last of my strength, begged him. "Kill her, Roman. She sabotaged the deal. Those are the family rules." He crouched down, his fingers brushing my bloodstained face. His voice was calm, almost cruel. "Liliana didn't mean to. Let it go. For the sake of what her parents sacrificed for the family." In that moment, my heart to him died completely.

I'm reading a book about a boy who bullies a girl, but they end up in love? Screw that; if it were me, I'd ruin the plot.