Another Head Hangs Lowly

Just after stepping out of the shower, I received a private message from my so-called uncle, Hank Shephard—a distant relative I barely ever spoke to. "Francis, that new car you posted looks impressive. Perfect for William's wedding!" I hadn't even figured out how to reply to that out-of-nowhere comment when another message popped up. "Your cousin William is getting married next month. Just treat your car as his wedding gift." The entitlement in his tone made my head hurt. I didn't bother arguing and closed the chat window. Apparently, he did not think there was anything wrong with what he had said. Messages kept coming. "Don't worry, your uncle won't let you suffer a loss. "When it's your turn to get married, I'll have William drive that car as your lead wedding car. It'll make you look good." I stared at the screen in silence. That was the moment I realized—Some people don't just feel entitled to your belongings. They believe your life exists to serve theirs.

I lifted my head from Rhys's arms, his strong chest rising and falling against my cheek. Silk sheets tangled around our naked bodies, the air thick with the scent of our passion. After a passionate night with my childhood friend, the Mafia heir, I was jolted awake at three in the morning by the shrill ring of a phone. It was the Don, ordering me to bring Rhys back to the estate for an arranged marriage. I figured it was just another heiress trying to claw her way into the Griffin family, so I kissed his forehead, pressing myself against him and whispering with a low laugh. "Rhys, what's your plan for this boring princess?" He arched an eyebrow, wrapping a lazy arm around my waist. "Baby, make sure you pick out a good tie for me. I need to make a good impression on my future father-in-law." Seeing me freeze, Rhys sat up and shot me a casual glance, his voice laced with indifference. "Maeve, what's with that reaction? We're just having fun." "You didn't actually think you were going to be the next Donna of the Griffin family, did you?"

One last assignment then I can finally find my mate. I have no idea why this alpha is so important but the committee has granted him with the best security in existence, me. I’m not your average wolf, in fact, my kind are often beaten and belittled, but by some divine intervention I had been raised from a lowly omega pup to the ultimate weapon and protection for the werewolf world. I protect the future, the strongest and only the most important of the wolves. I am the Alpha’s Guardian. Of course on the day I am to receive a Guardian the rogues find a hole in our defenses. We have been spread thin and even though Guardians are reserved for the highest of Alphas I am being bequeathed one. What would normally be an honor feels like a slap in the face when she shows up, this woman who claims she was sent to protect me. Female warriors are heard of sure, but a female guardian? This must be a joke and I refuse to be laughed at.

In my seventh year of dating Elliot Sheppard, he pulls every string to save the exiled daughter of his imprisoned mentor—Margot Fairgrave—and gives her a wedding that makes headlines. "Professor Fairgrave was my guiding light and a man of integrity, who'd never yield to corruption. I owe it to him to protect his daughter," he declares. The Sheppard family, with their billion-dollar empire and strict family rules, will never accept a daughter-in-law like Margot. So, to secure her place, he demands that our son call her "Mom" and tells the world that I am just the nanny. He promises. "Just wait. Once I collect enough evidence to prove that Professor Fairgrave was framed, I'll return everything to the way it was." For three years, I waited and watched their picture-perfect family of three. My son no longer knows me as his mother, yet I remain their lowly nanny. Since I can't possibly wait forever, I've decided to stop waiting.

" What.. what are you doing..I am supposed to give birth to your child only..." Silvia whimpered lowly, pleasure building on the pit of her stomach. " hush, Kitten! It's mandatory to stay happy during pregnancy...I am just doing my duties..", he whispered back with a sinister smile, pushing his fingers inside her wetness slowly. Being the daughter of the werewolf hunter, Silvia Stuart had to choose a secretive life after her father's death. Away from the werewolf shadows, Silvia, the eighteen year old beauty wanted nothing but a decent life. Everything was going well until one night Alpha Seth King broke into her life as a nightmare. Killed by her hunter father, Seth wanted nothing but to avenge his mate's death. In the spare of her life, Seth offered her a deal to be his surrogate. A journey started from destined enemies, could they find their path or some unexpected secrets were bound to destroy them together?

Davina was a Gamma's daughter with a secret they kept from their pack. After being bullied for the last year of her life by the future Alpha and Beta of her pack she turns 18 and everything changes. Discovering her fated mate, things become tense in the world around her. A soon to be Alpha with a bad temper but a soft spot for her and a Beta that's head over heels in love but ends up letting jealousy rear its ugly head, they will fight for their place in this young girl's life and heart.

You are nothing to me but a lowly slave, you don't deserve to be my mate!" Jane suffered once again when her fated mate, the Alpha of the blue-moon Pack, pushed straight through the door and left. All the members of her pack had been brutally slaughtered by their enemies eight years ago, and she had been taken to a hostile pack to be used as a slave, humiliated, and beaten through her lonely formative years.But it was at this time that she was brought back to his pack by her mate, Alpha Gillian of the Blue-moon Pack. Here she truly has friends and feels that the future is full of hope. With their encouragement, she tries hard to become stronger, but what comes with it is not a life full of happiness. Her mate is disgusted with her slave status and weakness and rejects her. She is insulted over and over again, used as a spy, and put into the custody of a hostile pack. She is once again plunged into the depths of despair. It is not until she is on the verge of death for his mate that she discovers that she is a descendant of the moon..

Staring at the garden doors, waiting for her to walk in after her first shift, the doors swing open and I stuck in place at the sight, her long beautiful blonde curls cascading down the front of another Alpha's chest, her face buried in his neck, her tan legs wrapped around his waist as her body lays against his back. I stumble backwards, I can't breathe, my wolf growls in my head, "MINE!" Looking in the rearview she's waving her arms and jumping up and down in a white t-shirt. I know what she wants, and I'll need to go off grid until I can convince my wolf to take the rejection. I scream, "STOP, COME BACK!" as I watched as the small red taillights disappear into the darkness. A tear rolled down my cheek as I turned and looked at the pack house, my wolf howled in my head, "MATE, GO AFTER HIM NOW!" This isn’t how I imagined my 18th birthday would go. I return to the Alpha Academy in Denver, only to find him gone, I steal his car and now sit at a crossroad, my wolf stirs, "go east." I sarcastically laughed, "really and you know this how?" She giggles, "his wolf will direct him back to the last place he scented you, he's heading back to NY." I arch a brow, " we'll track our Alpha, and hear his explanation." Following the path of bloody bodies, in the dodgiest bars, I know I'm on the right path but finding a young girl with his scent all over her, crying in a car outside of one, not what I was expecting. He did it to her too, captured her heart and walked away, just like he did me. Now I want a rejection not an explanation.

The Moon Goddess offered me her protection. If I died, I'd get one chance to be reborn through the werewolf trials. I was born with "sensory impairment." I wasn't an Omega, but I couldn't shift into a wolf. I couldn't see or sense wolves in their lupine forms or their power. When I appeared alongside ninety-nine other trial candidates in an ancient rainforest shrouded in thick fog and darkness, everyone assumed I wouldn't make it past the first day. But here I was, in the terrifying rainforest nests, treating a ghostly wolf pup, drowned for its unusual coat color, as my own little cub. And, I flirted with a bloodthirsty vampire spirit who took pleasure in killing, treating him like a lover. I even befriended the evil twin Hexenbiest, treating them like sisters. The first time we met, I reached out and ran my hand over the vampire's abs. "Nice body," I commented, "just a bit on the short side." He let out a humorless laugh, reattached the head he'd been holding to his neck, and gripped my chin. "I'm six-foot-five," he said. "Want to take another look?"

"You were never her, Aria. You were just... there." Jason's words echo in my head as I stand in the back of the church, watching him mourn another woman on her sister's wedding day. Isabelle. The perfect dead girlfriend. The ghost I've been competing with for three years. I thought I could be enough. I thought love could grow where grief once lived. But when I find the evidence, when I see the hotel receipts, the text messages, the photos of Jason with Isabelle's sister Violet, I realize the truth. I was never the love story. I was the intermission. What I don't know yet is that nothing about my marriage was real. Not Jason's cruelty. Not Violet's affair. Not the stranger's rescue. They've all been playing a game, and I'm the prize they're willing to destroy each other for. When the truth comes out, when I discover why Isabelle really died and who's been pulling the strings, I'll have to decide: Do I let them destroy me, or do I burn their whole world down?