A Thousand Suns

Deck the halls with daddy issues and scream "yes, Santa" until the neighbors complain. She sold herself to save her mother. He bought her to settle a score. Neither expected twelve days of captivity to feel like coming home. Ten years ago, Evangeline Rose fled Willow Creek and the cruel boy who made her life hell. Now she’s back with a new name, a new body, and one desperate choice: enter the town’s secret Christmas auction where wealthy men bid on willing women. When the hammer falls at five hundred thousand dollars, Eva expects a stranger. Instead, she gets Grayson Holt—her former tormentor, now a devastatingly dangerous man in a half-open Santa jacket who just bought twelve uninterrupted nights with the virgin he once swore no one would ever want. She should be terrified. He's the reason she hid in bathroom stalls and cried herself to sleep. But the first time he kisses her, his hands shake. The first time she fights back, he groans her name like a prayer. And somewhere between the firelight and the snow and the silk ribbons around her wrists, they both realize the ugly truth: He didn't buy her to break her. He bought her because he's been broken without her. The boy who spray-painted "fat ugly bitch" on her locker is the same man who falls to his knees in the snow on the last morning and begs her not to leave. The girl who swore she'd never forgive him is the same woman who has to choose: walk away free, or stay with the monster who finally admitted he's been in love with her since the day he made her cry. Eva spent a decade learning to hate Grayson Holt. Turns out she's been loving him the whole damn time.

She left cash on his pillow. He's been hunting her for eighteen years. Now they're neighbors—and she's carrying his baby. Evelyn Hart's revenge plan was simple: hire the hottest escort money could buy, have one night of mind-blowing sex, and finally forget her cheating ex-husband exists. What she got instead: Sebastian Creed. Six-foot-four of sinful perfection who made her body sing in ways she didn't know were possible. She left ten thousand dollars on the bed and ran before dawn, convinced she'd never see him again. Six weeks later, reality hits like a freight train. The "escort" is actually a billionaire. He owns the mansion next door. He's been obsessively searching for her since the night he saved her from a car crash when she was fourteen. Oh, and she's pregnant with twins the doctors said she could never have. Sebastian isn't just her neighbor—he's her stalker, her savior, and apparently, her fated mate. Because plot twist: he's a werewolf. And the supernatural bond between them is turning her inconvenient attraction into a soul-deep craving that's impossible to fight. Now he's breaking into her house at 3 a.m., showing up uninvited to her OB appointments, and making it very clear that the one night she paid for was just the beginning of forever. But their twisted love story is about to get deadlier. Sebastian's dying father wants him to claim a werewolf throne. His ex-husband wants her land for a billion-dollar deal. Werewolf royalty wants her dead for contaminating the bloodline. And Evelyn? She just wants to survive pregnancy, figure out how to be a queen in a world that thinks she's prey, and maybe—maybe—learn to trust the alpha who's been obsessed with her since she was a teenager.

Four years into her marriage, when the dazzling woman from her husband’s past returned, Alyssa Jones finally understood the truth. Her husband, Justin Scott, was not cold by nature; he had withheld both affection and intimacy, saving them for his first love. He gave Alyssa a monthly allowance of six hundred dollars yet spent six hundred thousand dollars on research for the woman he truly cherished. The difference between being loved and being ignored was revealed in the most humiliating way. Justin claimed he couldn’t bear to let his “true love” be worn down by the trivialities of marriage. Yet he demanded that Alyssa quit her one-thousand-a-month job and settle into the role of a full-time housewife, willingly fading into obscurity. What Justin never knew was that Alyssa was no ordinary employee. For four years, she had been in charge of a nationally classified research project. Her clearance was so high that even the woman he idolized was qualified only to work under her. What he also never realized was that the document he signed so casually was the divorce agreement that ended their marriage. One month later, Alyssa’s identity as a leading scientific authority was made public and the finalized divorce certificate was delivered to Justin. The CEO who had always been gentle and composed tore it apart, disbelief turning into red-eyed fury. “Other than me, who would want a divorced woman like her?” Yet the one who spoke so harshly was also the one who later knelt, begging for reconciliation. When they met again, Alyssa appeared with her arm lightly linked through the hand of Lucien Wells, the man in control of one of the most powerful elite families. She looked at her ex-husband without the slightest trace of emotion. Lucien raised an eyebrow and calmly produced a marriage certificate. “Mind your manners, Mr. Scott. You should address her as Mrs. Wells.”

As a low-income student who's specifically recruited by the elite college this year, I can still feel my hands trembling as I clutch the letter that tells me I get to study for free. Not only are my tuition and miscellaneous fees waived, but I also get to receive 30 thousand dollars' worth of student grant per year. I even get to have free access to the leather seats inside the library, the equipment inside the gym, as well as the aerial garden on the roof. The best surprise for me has to be the cafeteria. All low-income students get a 50% discount on their meals, but the quality of their food doesn't decrease at all. Best beef is used in the steak dinners offered by the cafeteria, whereas a seafood platter showcases the entire huge lobster. Even the most basic mac and cheese meal has different types of freshly grated cheese baked into it. As I sit in the brightly lit classroom and look at the rich students around me, who wear custom-made uniforms and have branded watches latched around their wrists, all I have is one thought. I must be on good terms with them. But my seatmate, who's also a low-income student, isn't as thrilled as me. In fact, she just looks at the people around her with disdain in her eyes. After the first lesson, a rich student arrives at our table. He might not sound polite at all, but at least he's not putting on airs. "Do any of you have time to head over to the cafeteria and buy me breakfast?" I'm about to respond to him when a shrill voice booms out next to me. "You're so annoying! What, you think you rule the campus since you're rich? Had I known that this classroom is filled with useless scions like you who just waste their lives away on nothing, I wouldn't have enrolled in this college in the first place!"

Albert Roosevelt was the crush I was never meant to have. Like an idiot, I believed loving someone meant giving them everything, even if they didn't care about you. So, I trailed after him like a desperate puppy, bending over backward to meet his every whim. When he couldn't afford tuition, I begged Dad to fund him, sending him to the best schools. When his worn-out clothes made him a laughingstock, I pitied him and showered him with designer labels. And what did he do? He used what I gave him to chase after a gold-digging campus belle. To keep up appearances, he blew through money like it grew on trees. He even spread rumors that he was the real heir to the Roosevelts. To him, I was just an ATM. "Your family's loaded. It's not like you'll miss a few hundred grand. If you're gonna be stingy, maybe you should stop following me around," he said when his wallet ran dry. And like a fool, I believed that if I kept paying, someday, he'd love me back. After graduation, I funded his startup. The second it took off, he married the campus belle. He had the nerve to claim he earned everything through nothing but hard work. So, I crashed his wedding, and he buried a knife in my chest. "Only when you're dead, Eve Roosevelt. Only then will my pathetic past stay buried." When I opened my eyes again, I was face-to-face with a scowling Albert. "You can't scrape together a few hundred thousand dollars? It's Bianca's birthday. Are you trying to humiliate me?" I looked around the room and rolled my eyes. "Sure, I'll pay. But first? Kneel. You look pretty enough. Consider it charity, peasant."

My husband, Julian Harlow, has died, leaving behind a five-million-dollar debt. I decide to inherit his debt right away. However, my best friend, Evangeline Frost, goes crazy from worry because of my decision. In my previous life, Evangeline had advised me to not inherit Julian's debt because he didn't have any assets. So, I signed the agreement to give up on inheriting his assets and declare that I had nothing to do with Julian in order to escape from the debt. But the debtors kept haunting me. They even kidnapped my son, Shawn Harlow, just to force me to pay the debt. The debtors were extremely violent and ruthless. On top of that, they kept using Shawn's safety as leverage over me. Every time they forced me to pay the debt, I felt as though I was being tormented slowly yet painfully. In just 24 hours, I asked all of my relatives for help, but I was only able to gather 100 thousand dollars. In the end, Shawn never escaped from his fate. I was sold to Northreach by the cruel debtors in order for the debt to be cleared. But that was when Evangeline claimed that her own son had finally returned to his roots, thus successfully inheriting the assets of a billionaire. I finally found out that said billionaire was actually my dead husband when I watched the news on the TV. Only then did realization dawn on me. Julian was pretending to be poor this whole time. It turned out that Evangeline's son was actually his illegitimate child. The assets that I had given up all went to Evangeline and her son in the end. Filled with resentment, I tried to escape back to the country in order to settle the score with Evangeline, only to die to the electric fence surrounding the slave camp in Northreach. When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day Evangeline tells me to give up on the assets.

"Fvck you. Get off me now!" He towers over me and his hands move under the covers, going higher and higher until I gasp. No matter how I want to push him away and stomp on his body, I can't. The heat and pleasure coming from his touch makes me go crazy. "Get off me, you dimwit." Through the heat, I force out words and I close my eyes as I moan when his lips descend on my neck, teasing and nibbling. "Oh goddess. Why won't you get off me." I try to push him off, in the mist of pleasure and he looks down at me with hooded eyes. My back touches the headboard when I shift backwards but he drags me back to himself by my ankle. "I am the King, Minerva. That means what I say goes." "Well, you can go fvck yourself or better yet, let your other mate do that for you." He climbs over me with his hands on each side of my head. Luckily, the heat is subsiding due to our close range. "I've told you a thousand time. I don't want you, I need you." "Fucker! I've told you a zillion times, I don't want to be your baby making machine, you stupid son of a mammoth-" He immediately shuts me up with a deep kiss, exploding my insides. ~~~~ It's every she-wolf's dream to be the mate of the wolf king but not Minerva's. She didn't plan to even know him, she didn't bargain to become a second mate, or a baby making machine to the King who has an unusual plan set up in his head; neither did she plan to be a hybrid. He finally found a way to break her... But they were so unconcerned about the brewing evil.

Without my knowledge, Aileen—the daughter of Carlson Green’s first love—secretly lured my five-year-old daughter, Lena, deep into the Wolfsbane Forest. She told Lena there was treasure hidden in the forest. When a distress signal came from the forest, I rushed there with Carlson and the rescue team. The wolfsbane's poison spread silently, making it harder for Lena to breathe. She lay weak in the grass, her face pale, her heartbeat slowing down. Aileen, meanwhile, was sprawled on the path beside the wolfsbane. She only had a few scratches on her knees, but she was crying loudly. "Help me! It hurts so much!" I thought Carlson, the Alpha of the Moonshadow Pack and Lena’s father, would run into the forest to check on his own daughter. But he didn’t. Instead, he bent down, scooped Aileen into his arms, comforting her with care. His eyes were full of worry. "It’s okay now, Daddy’s here." I ran forward, my voice shaking. "Carlson! Lena is still in the wolfsbane grass! I can feel her breathing fading! Come with me to find her!" He only said calmly, "Lena is wearing my Moonstone Crystal. It protects her from wolfsbane. She will be fine. Aileen needs care and treatment more." The rescue vehicle left, taking Aileen and Carlson with it. I ran into the wolfsbane field and found Lena. She weakly tugged my hand. "Mom, don’t cry. It doesn’t hurt at all." "Daddy will come save me after he saves Aileen." Then she closed her eyes. And never breathed again. Even on the day of her funeral, Lena never got to see her father come to save her. Carlson Green, a life for a life. You, Aileen, and her mother will pay back everything you did to Lena—I’ll make you repay it a thousand times over.

Marabelle Daisy Graystone has spent twelve years in witness protection, living among humans as "Daisy Thompson" while hiding her true nature—she's a rare "diamond wolf," one of the Goddess's chosen born once per millennium. Working at her burger restaurant while secretly running a multi-billion-dollar empire as bestselling author Black Orchid and artist Silver Knight, she's built a perfect cover in human society. But when Kieran, her murdered father's former Beta, tracks her down seeking to claim her power, her carefully constructed life shatters. Rescued by Jackson Hunter, the brooding son of the powerful Moon Hunter Pack's Alpha, Marabelle discovers he's her fated mate—the very wolf she's been avoiding for years. She'd overheard Jackson tell his friends that if she turned out to be his mate, he would reject her, choosing duty over desire. When Jackson arrives to return a precious family heirloom, Marabelle braces for the rejection she believes is inevitable. Instead, he confesses his feelings have changed—that witnessing her courage made him realise duty and desire can align. As their mate bond awakens her suppressed abilities, Marabelle must reclaim her birthright as Alpha of the decimated Silvercrest Pack while navigating treacherous pack politics. When the Moon Goddess herself appears to bless their union, their relationship triggers supernatural consequences that reshape the werewolf world. But happiness attracts dangerous enemies. Alpha Thorne of the Western Reaches emerges from isolation, claiming that "untrained" diamond wolves pose a threat to all wolfkind. Together, they forge an unprecedented alliance of eleven packs, creating the first Wolf Council in three thousand years. Racing against ancient powers that would control or destroy her, Marabelle must demonstrate that her unconventional path represents the future of their kind, proving that strength comes not from isolation but from the courage to build bridges between worlds.

One dare. One kiss. One ruthless Alpha who won't let me go. I thought it was just a game. Kiss the scariest guy in the club for five hundred dollars. Easy money I desperately needed for tuition. What could go wrong? Everything. The man I kissed wasn't just dangerous—he was Tyler Raxon Raven. The Alpha of the Raytheon Pack. A billionaire warmonger known for tearing throats first and asking questions never. The kind of predator even other Alphas fear. I expected to be thrown out. Maybe slapped. I didn't expect him to kiss me back. And I definitely didn't expect the entire club to go deathly silent when I pulled away. My mistake wasn't the kiss. It was who I kissed. Now, the doors are locked. The music is off. And the most dangerous man in the city is staring at me with hunger in his eyes, claiming his wolf has chosen me as his mate. But Tyler doesn't do romance. He does deals. When my aunt collapses and the hospital demands fifty thousand dollars I don't have, Tyler makes me an offer I can't refuse: He'll pay for everything. He'll give me wealth beyond my wildest dreams. All I have to do is marry him. Wear his mark. Warm his bed. And give him an heir. I'm a nobody—a broke scholarship student, an Omega in a world of Alphas. He's a ruthless billionaire with enemies circling and a reputation for violence that terrifies the Council itself. I should run. I should fight. I should do anything except agree. But my aunt is dying. And Tyler holds all the cards. He took something from me without asking. Now he's taking everything else. Welcome to The Eyrie. Where Alphas make the rules, mates have no choice, and one dare changes everything.