At Eighteen

All the relatives knew I had a "backward cousin." For my birthday, she gave me a grocery-store pound cake. When I ran a marathon, she presented me with a pair of worn-out canvas sneakers. At my graduate school acceptance party, she even sent a funeral wreath of white lilies with a sash that read "In Sympathy," wishing me an early departure to the afterlife. In my previous life, I slapped her so hard she tumbled down the porch steps. My brother took her side and plotted revenge, falsely reporting to the university that I had cheated on my SATs. My admission was revoked. "You're so modern. You know how things work," he sneered. "Plenty of people take a gap year. Just apply again." My father also defended her, cutting off all my financial support. "You've had so much schooling. You're so educated," he said coldly. "Support yourself." Alone in a city eighteen hundred miles from home, I fought to survive. I called my brother and my father again and again—only to be blocked. I delivered food while renting a room and studying to reapply. At my lowest, my hands were raw and cracked from frostbite, scrambling for delivery shifts at four in the morning just to earn a small bonus. Worn down by the cold and exhaustion, I suffered cardiac arrest at twenty-three and collapsed in a snowdrift in that unfamiliar city. No one ever came to claim me. This time, I chose to let it go and accepted the wreath with a gracious smile. To fully integrate myself into this family. After all, what is a moment of pride compared to a lifetime's inheritance?

I was eighteen when I left Italy for Chicago. My brother Leo handed me over to his most powerful ally for “protection.” Don Damien Volkov. His eyes locked on me the first time we met. They never looked away. By day, I was his private doctor. By night, I was the only thing in his bed. His seduction was a slow, deliberate hunt. The way his body brushed against mine during an exam. A stray kiss that landed behind my ear. The weight of his hand resting on the small of my back. I fell fast and hard for his dark charm. I gave myself to him, letting him claim me, again and again. For four years, our affair was a secret hidden in the shadows. In that time, he sculpted my body, teaching it to crave his touch, molding me into his perfect obsession. Then she came back. Isabella, his exiled ex-fiancée. He sent his private jet for her. I swallowed my pride and crashed his reunion. An hour ago, his hands, still smelling of blood, gripped my chin. He forced his kiss on me. But now, right in front of me, he was stroking another woman's hair. "Elara, you're the one who climbed into my bed four years ago." "You act like a whore, but you expect me to treat you like a Donna?" The way he looked at Isabella was so tender. The way he looked at me was pure scorn. Shame burned through me. Head down, I sent my brother a coded text. Accept the Moretti proposal. I looked up. A smile bloomed on my face. "Fine. Then this is goodbye, Damien."

Kaiser Volkov is the 27-year-old Alpha of the Viperthorn pack, known for being everything an Alpha shouldn't be—brash, strategic, and a notorious playboy. He's the life of the party, admired by women and envied by men, but no one truly knows the secrets buried beneath his charming exterior. Kaiser has successfully hidden his past from his new pack, until a pregnant woman collapses at the pack's gates, calling his name before passing out. To his shock, the woman is Esmarie Cruz, his childhood best friend and the wife of the very man who drove Kaiser away from his old pack. Esmarie's life spiraled into chaos when Kaiser vanished in the middle of the night when they were eighteen after kissing her. Forced to marry his brother, she has endured relentless suffering at the hands of his family. Now pregnant and fearing for her children's lives, Esmarie escapes, desperate and uncertain, and finds herself at the gates of Kaiser's pack. Though unsure of why she sought him out, he's her only hope to hide from his brother. The Kaiser Esmarie once knew is gone, replaced by a man unprepared to shoulder responsibilities. Burdened by the past, both struggle with the baggage they carry. Yet, amidst their turmoil, old feelings flicker—a testament to the saying that first love never truly fades. When Kaiser's brother resurfaces, threatening Esmarie and her children, Kaiser must decide: run away again or confront his past and family to protect Esmarie and avenge the wrongs done to him years ago. As old flames reignite, Kaiser and Esmarie are forced to confront their shared history and the love that never really went away.

She vowed to save herself for him. He vowed to never touch her. One of them is about to break. Amara has loved Alpha Gabriel since she was old enough to understand what the ache in her chest meant. At eighteen, she offered him everything—her heart, her body, her soul. He crushed her with two words: "Childish infatuation." Seven years later, she's no longer that heartbroken girl. She's a woman who knows exactly what she wants, and she wants him. When her father and Gabriel arrange her marriage to Gabriel's younger brother, Amara sees her last chance slipping away. But fate hands her a weapon: a position as Gabriel's personal assistant, working beside him every single day. She'll make him see her. She'll make him want her. She'll make him break every rule he's ever lived by. And she does. Their affair is forbidden, explosive, and absolutely forbidden—stolen moments in his office, secret encounters that leave them both breathless and craving more. But loving an Alpha comes with a price. When Gabriel falls victim to a deadly curse and Amara's identity as the rare Emerald werewolf puts a target on her back, their secret romance becomes the least of their problems. Now, with hunters closing in, a fiancée being forced into Gabriel's life, and an engagement to his brother she never wanted, Amara must fight for the only man she's ever loved—or lose him forever. He taught her that love could break you. She'll teach him that love can save you.

I was seventeen when Rowan Ashcroft promised we’d disappear together. I was eighteen when my father sold me to a man who wanted to own my blood. For twelve years, I was the perfect trophy wife to the ruthless Alpha Julian Cross. To the world, I was untouchable, beautiful, obedient, and carefully medicated to keep my true nature buried. In reality, I was a locked vault, a prisoner hiding a forbidden Silver Omega lineage that the supernatural Council had spent generations trying to erase. But the haze of the pills is fading, and a secret is growing inside me. I am pregnant. And I know exactly what Julian will do when he finds out his "perfect wife" is carrying a child that shouldn't exist. So, I run. I don’t get far before the Council’s executioner finds me. Rowan Ashcroft steps out of the shadows wearing the silver marks of an Enforcer and the same cold eyes I once trusted with my life. He isn't here to save me. He’s here because my bloodline and my unborn child are worth killing for. Instead of ending my life, Rowan offers a lethal contract: Three months. A fake mating bond. Absolute protection from the Council. The bond is supposed to be a lie, a way to cloak my scent and hide me in plain sight. But as Rowan’s mark burns into my skin, it awakens something ancient and primal in my blood. I was never just an Omega meant to be owned. I am the return of a legend they thought they’d killed. Julian wants his property back. The Council wants me dead. But they are about to learn what happens when the woman they tried to erase finally becomes Untouchable.

Being a nice young lady, Kimberly always desires to be linked to her mate once she reaches Eighteen, but destiny appears not to be on her side even when she gets to the age of 21. Her packmates frequently tell her that finding a mate is the nicest thing that has ever happened to them, and Kimberly continued wanting to experience such a sensation one day. For both their pack, Moonstone, and Night Walker pack to become allies, her dad, Alpha Darwin consented to relinquish the downtown area Moonstone presides over to Alpha Derrick. As well as giving Kimberly to him likewise, as she doesn't have a mate. Which she was extremely thrilled about. However, on the night of their engagement, she was rejected by the merciless Alpha Derrick of the Night Walkers. She felt useless, devastated and betrayed when she realized who Alpha Derrick picked to be his future Luna over her. According to the custom of their pack, any rejected she-wolf by another pack Alpha would become a slave to the Alpha that discarded her. This is surely going to be Kimberly's destiny as well. The sorrow of being rejected and being a slave caught up with her not till she found she is fated to the past Alpha Theo of Lock's heart pack. He is the strongest of all Alphas in the countryside but has gone missing for over five years. Would Kimberly's life have altered for the worst after knowing that Alpha Theo had a mate already? Or would Alpha Derrick be ready to let her go after understanding the truth about her power? Brutal retribution is what Kimberly yearns for once she found out the truth about her actual identity…

"You know, you always look so much better when I mark you up." He husked out as he palmed my burning cheeks. I buried my face in the soft, silky sheets some more, muffling the stuttered whimper that bubbled past my throat. "If you're going to act like a desperate little brat, I'm going to treat you like one. Got It?” ——— When eighteen year old Mia’s identical twin gets betrothed to an underboss, Mia was silently grateful for being the least favorite twin who was never noticed. Her relief was abruptly shortened when her twin disappeared on her wedding day, which resulted in Mia being forced to take her twin’s spot and marry a man way older than her father. Mia thought her life could never get any worse, but was proved wrong on her wedding night, when her newly wedded husband was killed and she was being kidnapped by a Mafia Lord hellbent on getting revenge on her father through her, showing her just how cruel and heartless, power starved and rage-blinded men could be. And yet, Mia found herself falling. Falling ridiculously fast, for the most dangerous mafia lord to ever walk the earth. Lorenzo Domenico, the one who never dies. All Lorenzo wanted was to get revenge, he was supposed to put a bullet through the petite girl’s pretty face and send her body back to her father as a present. But somehow, here he was– willing to go to any lengths to protect, keep her safe, and all to himself.

    “Because you’re a daughter of a Mafia Lord. You are the heiress of Blackheart Empire. Our duty is to protect you. That’s why you can never leave from our side.” ……     Jaymee Santillo- Eighteen years old, maganda mala-british ang maamong mukha, mabait sa kabila ng pagiging short-tempered. Ang higit sa nakakabilib sa dalaga ay sanay ito sa hirap ng buhay.    Mula nang mamatay ang kanyang ina, naging mag-isa na lang sa buhay si Jaymee. May kamag-anak man, ngunit sa hindi niya malaman na dahilan ayaw sa kanya ng mga ito.     Ang akala ni Jaymee na panaginip lang ang lahat ng nangyayari ay hindi pala.      Ay hindi na pala ito panaginip. Bangungot! Oo bangungot! Sino ba naman ang gugustuhin na maging instant Mafia Heiress? ABER?!     And being a heiress na kailangang protektahan, hindi naging madali kay Jaymee ang lahat. Lalo na ang pagkakahulog ng damdamin niya sa masungit at gwapong protector and instructor niya.    Si KC. Ang lalakeng magpapatibok ng kanyang puso.     Malalabanan kaya ni Jaymee ang nararamdaman para sa lalakeng kapatid lamang ang turing sa kanya?      Gusto niya lang naman maging masaya, ngunit paano niya naman gagawin yun kung masaya rin si KC sa iba?     Lilisanin na lang ba niya ang Blackheart Empire para hindi na masaktan? O mananatili siya para sa kanyang kaligtasan? 

The Browns and the Bradleys are multibillionaires. Although Bradleys were richer than the Browns, yet they both were well known and respected in the society. Ryan Bradley is the only son of the Bradleys whose marriage is fixed with the only child of the Brown's, Olivia Brown, when Olivia turns nineteen. But Olivia is not happy about the marriage because not only she thought that Ryan was very Arrogant, Adamant and rude to her but also that Olivia loved her imaginary prince Santa! She would have thought that it was a child’s imagination if her love for Santa, whom she imagined to be a handsome young prince from a faraway land, would have been one sided. But he may be or may not be ‘The Santa’ but was definitely the one who loved her too and sent her letters and gifts. Not only that, Olivia and her lover Santa has made a promise to each other that once Olivia turns eighteen, they would unite their mind and body in love making, the Christmas that would come next to her Birthday and they will live together happily ever after. Olivia has waited years for her eighteenth birthday and dreamt of losing her virginity to her only love her Santa! So when she comes to know about the unwanted arranged marriage, she runs away from home, but gets caught and then forced to marry Ryan. Soon the Christmas after her eighteenth birthday comes and she as per her previous promise goes to the designated place to unite with her lover, her Santa, ignoring her feelings for Ryan. But to her surprise she ultimately couldn’t accept to lose her virginity to Santa......... But will she be able to have her happily ever after with her dominant husband??

Diego has everything; he is a strong alpha leading one of the strongest packs on the continent, and he has a family that loves him unconditionally. However, no matter how many reasons he has, that unfortunate night never lets him be happy. He has tried to drown himself in work and exhaust himself in training to the extent that he was unable to move, but the pain he feels whenever glimpses of "that night" appear are the most agonizing moments of his life. To the world, he is "the hidden alpha," "the ruthless alpha," "the cruel alpha," but no one knows the truth behind those tags except his "addy" and her mate, "Ryan." Diego has a secret that he is unwilling to accept, and he will not reveal it to anyone, not even his mate (whom he has not found yet). Addy believes that once he finds his mate, his wounds will heal themselves automatically, but Diego dreads that moment because he knows that the fire burning inside him is enough to burn anyone who comes close to him. Arya is running...where? She doesn't know. She is running away from her past, her family, her reality, and her undeniable truth no matter how hard she tries. She has been running for five years now, and so far, she has even succeeded in getting away from their clutches, but she can't shake off the feeling that this will not be the case for much longer. However, there is one thing she is sure about: if she ever faces the situation where she is forced to live the life she lived for the first eighteen years of her life, she will kill herself. What will happen when fate throws these two broken souls together? Will their unhealed wounds ever heal?