Ashy Knees

Jessie Stewart spent twelve years as an orphan before she was finally brought home to the Stewart family. For the first time in her life, she had parents and brothers. But the very people who promised to love and protect her turned against her. Bruce Stewart, her father, who once vowed she'd be his cherished daughter, told her that if she had any conscience at all, she wouldn't fight Mia Stewart, her adoptive sister, for a man. Her brothers, who swore they'd spoil her rotten, dragged her onto an operating table just to draw blood for Mia. As for her fiancé, Henry Lawson, every time things got dangerous, he chose to protect Mia instead of her. Three years later, Jessie's parents were on their knees in tears. Her once arrogant brothers slapped themselves in shame. Even her arrogant ex-fiancé knelt at her feet. They all begged her to come back. Little did they know, Jessie's heart had long since been closed off during those countless nights of pain and betrayal. She had already met the love of her life. In the years to come, she would never again be alone. He tended to her every need. To him, Jessie was everything and more.

“Sign it!” Marcus didn’t even look at me when he tossed the divorce papers onto the bed—not at the husband he had lived with for two years, not at the man he pulled from a collapsing life, not at the man who the world was against marrying. He only said, “He’s back,” and that was enough to end everything. So I signed the papers, regretting knowing the man who taught me what it felt like to be wanted again and walked out of the mansion we once shared. A year later, the headlines screamed the unthinkable: CEO of Hale Enterprises, Marcus Hale, Loses Everything. I realized it was the perfect time to exert my revenge on him. But I didn’t expect to find my stepbrother on his knees, broken, desperate, and still looking at me like I’m the only thing he has left. Then a message appears on my phone:Do you want to know the truth about your mother’s death? Now I’m trapped between the past I ran from and a man I swore I would never forgive. As secrets surface, lies unravel, and desire refuses to die, I realize this divorce was never the end. It was the beginning. And this time, my stepbrother will regret choosing anyone.

I’m Tessa Dean, the true heiress of the wealthiest family in United States! This time around, I’m gonna make both of you pieces of shit pay the price! On my wedding anniversary, I walked into my home carrying groceries and hope. Minutes later, a photograph destroyed my marriage. “You’ll seduce my brother whenever I’m away on business, right?” Curtis spat, his fingers tightening around my throat. “You’re such a whore!” I was pregnant. I was trembling. And I was innocent. But in the Deveraux family, truth means nothing—status means everything. Lauren, the woman who was meant to marry my husband, stepped forward with that calm, polished smile. “I’ll give you one day to divorce Curtis and leave Deveraux Manor.” Before I could defend myself, I was pushed. I hit the table. Blood spread across the tiles. At the hospital, I begged, “Please save my child.” My baby died. At the cemetery, Curtis looked at me with hatred in his eyes. “Who’s the father of this bastard?” When he poured my son’s ashes over my kneeling body, something inside me broke. But not completely. I’ll return and make them pieces of shit crawl on their knees and beg for mercy!

Seven years after I lost my wolf, I watched my mate, Alpha Glen, get his heart ripped out and his body torn apart. The pack demanded the killer's name. I bit through my tongue and kept my mouth shut. Lena, Glen's childhood friend, hated me with everything she had. Six-year-old Nick cried and asked why I hadn't saved his father. I shoved them all away. Then the pack broke my leg and cast me out. For fifteen years, I drifted. I barely stayed alive in a dead northern town, wolfsbane buried in my bones, one leg ruined, half-crippled, waiting to die like some rogue. The day the door crashed open, Nick was already Alpha. He grabbed my chin, his eyes burning with pure hate. "You hid the murderer. You don't deserve to be my mother. "Take her back to Thanis. Strap her to the Mindfang Rig. I want the truth—even if that machine kills her." I thought that device would kill me. But when the truth was finally ripped into the open, Nick dropped to his knees and broke down, calling me Mother. Lena wanted to die to beg my forgiveness. And the whole pack lost its mind.

"Strip" The words rang in my ear like a death sentence. I had the option to walk away but to save my lifeline, I swallowed my pride and obeyed the one man I swore I would never face again. Lucien Vaughn. My ruthless ex. “You betrayed me for money, didn’t you?” he asked coldly “Now, earn it” Cash rained over my trembling body, as if I was nothing more than his personal plaything. "Dance for me" ~~~~ Broken by her ex, Cynthia ran away with the man of her father's choice. Burying her past, she rebuilt her life from scratch until her ex returned, burning in the fire of revenge. He wants to ruin her, break her, and make her pay for the betrayal that turned him into a monster. But Cynthia is no longer the girl he once controlled. Even when desperation drags her to her knees, she refuses to bow. Her fire and defiance, only feed his obsession and reveal her deepest secret which changes everything... Now Lucien doesn’t just want her. He wants what she stole from him. She would die to protect it. He would kill to claim it.

I saved the current queen with my medical expertise and ability to save patients from the clutches of death itself. To fulfil my long-time wish, the queen intended to order that I was to marry the son of a marquess, Eldwin Gennings. However, I fell on my knees and begged her to let me marry a notoriously useless rich heir instead. The queen was shocked. After all, everyone in the Royal Capital knew that I had been in love with Eldwin since we were young. I had even said several times that I would not marry anyone but him. In my past life, I had indeed married Eldwin, just as I wished, but on the night of our wedding, he left me waiting alone in our bedroom. The next day, he married my half-sister as his second wife. I was bullied and framed by my half-sister. As a result, Eldwin cut my wrist tendons and damaged my arms permanently. In the end, my wounds got infected, and I died. When I opened my eyes again, time had rewound to the day the queen ordered me and Eldwin to be married. This time, when he found out that I wanted to marry someone else, he went mad and begged me to take him in.

The whole wolf pack knew I was Alpha Nick’s fated mate—chosen by the Moon Goddess herself. But the second I stepped into Brown Pack territory with my suitcase in hand— His mother, Mrs. Johnson, ordered the maids to spray me with wolfsbane. His cousin, Enna, "accidentally" put me in *his* bedroom. And his childhood sweetheart, Rina, slapped a ten-million-dollar check in my face, demanding I publicly renounce this "joke of a mating bond." Even Alpha Nick himself—the ruthless legend of the pack—spent the first night wrapped around me like a damn octopus, only to kick me out coldly the next morning: *"Get out. Don’t come back to my room again."* When I was framed for theft, forced to work overtime till midnight, or locked inside a pitch-black office mid-panic attack… My *"fiancé"* was too busy grinding on Rina at some high-society ball. Then the truth about me dropped— Brown Pack’s elders dropped to their knees, trembling. Rina ripped her knockoff Luara gown in rage. And Alpha Nick, eyes bloodshot, pinned me against the wall: *"Wendy… you played me."* I smirked, peeling his fingers off me. *"Sorry, Alpha. The three-month contract’s up."* *"Now… call me by my real title—heir of White Moon Pack."*

Seven months pregnant with our heir, I was on the front lines, fighting for my Alpha mate, Ethan. I’d just secured a thirty-million-dollar territory for our pack and rushed home, eager to surprise him with the news. But as I neared the council room, the broken sobs of his adopted sister, Tessa, stopped me cold. "A low-born Silver Wolf like Sophia... she's not worthy of being our pack's Luna." "Ethan, we're the ones who are fated to be together. Mark me... please?" My blood ran cold. I expected Ethan to shove her away, to defend my honor. Instead, he caressed her cheek, his voice a soft, gentle murmur that cut me deeper than any blade. "Just give me a little more time, Tessa. On the next blood moon, I'll sever my bond with Sophia." My world shattered. I fled, only to be cornered and brutally murdered by Tessa. She framed my death as an attack by a rogue wolf before tossing my body from a cliff. It wasn’t until the news of my death reached him that Ethan finally broke. He fell to his knees at the edge of that same cliff, his agonized howl echoing into the night. "Sophia… I was wrong. Please, just come back to me."

My son was kidnapped by a pack of rogue wolves. Two days later, the patrol team found his body. His limbs were broken, his entire body covered in bruises, not a single patch of fur left unmarked. I held his lifeless form and howled in anguish. My mate Damien, Alpha of the Stormfang Pack, swore the killers would pay. All evidence pointed to Sera, Damien's nominal Omega assistant, but in reality his mistress. As the pack's Luna, I publicly revealed the investigation results and evidence before all pack members. Under pressure from the pack, my mate was forced to execute his Omega assistant. A year later, I became pregnant again. But during my tenth anniversary Luna ceremony, my mate locked me in a burning chamber as punishment. That's when I learned the truth—he hated me for forcing him to kill his Omega assistant. He wanted me dead for revenge. In the flames, I felt the child in my womb slip away, and my own strength began to fail. After my rebirth, I still couldn't change my son's tragic fate. But when I chose to abandon my role as Stormfang Pack's Luna, the entire pack fell to their knees, begging me not to leave.

I served; I did what I needed to do, but it wasn't good enough. I sat chained in a dark room for nearly 3 hard, painful years, trying my best to keep myself protected and together when all I wanted to do was crumble under the pain and loss of my self-worth and ability to defend myself. There was never an even fight. It was them against me. Tied up. My brother is my life. We are Twins, and when I found out that he had died even though I tried my best to keep him alive and save him, My whole world fell to pieces. I'm a fighter; I don't back down so easily. I fight for what I believe in, but his death brings me to my knees and makes me feel as though I am drowning. His best friend is there to pick me back up. He makes me feel safe and loved, even when I can't love or forgive myself. He shows up even when I don't want him to, and he proves that he is there. Encourages me to take that leap and believe in myself. But can I really do this? Can I live even without my brother here?