Better Off Dead: A Jack Reacher Novel 소설 & 이야기

Three years ago, Avery Thorne married Julian Sterling for love. Today, she found out she was actually a human blood bank. While Avery sat in a hospital bed, Julian was busy transferring her patents, her fortune, and her very name to his mistress, Sarah. By the time the divorce papers were signed, the legal system no longer recognized Avery’s face. To the world, she is a delusional stalker named Sarah Vance. To Julian, she is a loose end that needs to be buried. Arrested and erased from her own life, Avery is left with nothing but fifty dollars and the knowledge of every security flaw in the empire she built. But Julian made one fatal mistake: he left her alive. From the shadows of the city she once owned, Avery begins a cold and calculated war. She isn't just coming back for her money or her company—she is coming back for her soul. And this time, she won't be the one bleeding.

"I’m here for you, always, Leora." That was the promise Theron made before he stole her kiss. But promises can be broken. And in Crestwood, betrayal is deadlier than love. The Moon Pendant marked Leora as the rightful Luna before she could even walk. Hidden in the human world all her life, she is dragged back to claim her throne—only to discover that the crown comes with chains. To unlock her wolf, Leora must choose a mate. Every wolf wants her. Every elder demands it. But her heart keeps pulling toward the one man she cannot have—the warrior sworn to protect her. When her love awakens her long-buried power, enemies close in and Leora realizes the harsh truth. The man she loves most is the one fated to destroy her.

At the New Year's Eve dinner, my mom suddenly assigns some rules to me and my siblings. She claims that those who don't fit the criteria aren't allowed to eat at the table. Rule number one: One must have spent at least 50% of their time keeping Mom company at home last year. Rule number two: One must have gone shopping with Mom all the time. Rule number three: One must keep giving Mom allowance. But it appears that I, the oldest sibling, am the only one who doesn't meet the requirements. My little sister, Chelsea Cage, begins acting coquettish immediately. "All Cassidy cares about is her business, unlike me, Mom! I care about you!" Meanwhile, my younger brother, Cameron Cage, lectures me with a frown, "What's the point of you being able to earn more money than average people? No matter how good a breadwinner you are, the fact that you don't care about Mom completely nullifies it!" My mom tells my siblings to sit around her happily. Then, she criticizes me in a sarcastic tone. "As parents, when we become old, what we need is our children's company, not cold hard cash." I'm pissed off, to say the least. I'm the breadwinner of this family, and yet these freeloaders get to put on airs in front of me. The reason why I don't go shopping with my mom is that she's never satisfied with whatever gifts I've picked out for her during the times I did go out with her. That's why I gave her money straight away. I didn't give my mom any allowance at all because all the money is regularly deposited into the supplementary card, which she has. Since my long-term efforts are worth nothing compared to my siblings' sweet talk, I suppose I can quit being the ATM of this family.

After being humiliated by her fated mate, the Alpha’s golden son, and called a worthless omega in front of the entire Moonglow pack, Tiara’s world collapses. Even her favorite comfort, reading her beloved comic Hockey Star is Obsessed With Me, can’t save her from her pain. But one wish, saved through tears, changes everything. Tiara wakes up inside the comic’s story, in the body of the tragic heroine doomed to fail the one man who ever loved her: Luke Thorne, the immortal hockey star who hunts under the moon. She knows this story. Every twist. Every betrayal. Every heartbreak. But this time, she’s determined to rewrite the ending, to save Luke and maybe heal her own shattered heart. But Tiara soon discovers she’s not the only soul who doesn’t belong in this world… and some people will do anything to keep the story playing out as it was originally written.

Elena Brooks gave five years of her life to Damien Volkov — the golden king of professional hockey, the man the world worshipped, and the husband who never truly loved her back. But the night she catches Damien in bed with the woman he claimed was his cousin, something inside Elena finally breaks. Heartbroken and secretly pregnant with his child, she walks away from her marriage with one vow: no more hockey players. No more love. No more chances to be destroyed by a man who only knows how to hurt her. Then Alexander St. James crashes into her life. Cold. Ruthless. Intimidatingly powerful. As the captain of the New York Blades — and Damien’s biggest rival on the ice — Alexander is everything Elena should avoid. But when he saves her from a dangerous attack, he offers her a deal that feels impossible to refuse: Pretend to be his fiancée, and in return, he’ll help her make Damien regret betraying her. It was supposed to be simple. Fake smiles. Public kisses. A calculated revenge plan. Until Alexander starts looking at her like she’s something precious. Until his touch begins to feel dangerously real. Until Elena discovers the heartbreaking reason he needed a fake fiancée in the first place. And just when she begins falling for the one man she promised herself she’d never want… Damien discovers she’s carrying his baby. Now the husband who neglected her for years is ready to burn the world down to get her back. Caught between a possessive ex-husband and the man slowly stealing her heart, Elena must decide if love is worth risking everything for again — or if some hockey players are destined to break her forever.

I woke up inside a novel, and not even as an important character. I became a pretty background extra in a smut novel. My brother, however, was the only normal person in the entire story. His character setting was the one man the soft, delicate heroine could never win over. He was the cold, unattainable Prince Charming she could never conquer. When the heroine cried and confessed her love, he was studying. When she offered him her whole heart and body, he was busy starting a company. When she spiraled into scandals and nightlife, he was already a billionaire, calm and untouchable. I thought he would live a quiet, ascetic life forever. Until one night, I walked in on him at midnight… holding a piece of clothing I recognized all too well, murmuring a name over and over, a name so familiar that my scalp tingled.

Ever since I lost my Alpha, Kael, in a brutal fight with some nasty rogues, I've been raising our young son, Finn, all by myself. My old pack has been pushing me to take a new Alpha, you know, so Finn and I would have protection. But I truly believed my Mate Bond with Kael was unbreakable. Then, on the Blood Moon ceremony, the fifth anniversary of Kael's “sacrifice,” I overheard Kael's father, old Alpha Marcus, tearing into Kael's quiet twin brother, Ronan: “Kael! You damn wolf! It was Ronan who went down on Blood Moon Cliff five years ago! He was the cursed one! You faked your death, lived as Ronan, all to protect Alina? You lied to the whole pack, to your sacred mate, and your own flesh and blood! Was it worth it?!” “For five years, Elara has raised Finn from a tiny pup all alone. You gave your so-called 'niece' a fake 'father,' but did you ever think? The day you put on Ronan's mask, Finn lost his real father for good!” I felt like I'd been struck by lightning. After Kael “died,” Ronan had been the dutiful uncle, “looking after” Finn and me. I never dreamed he was Kael in disguise. And he did all this just to protect Alina, Ronan's destined mate, who was already pregnant?! That night, under the bright moon, I snuck away and sent a message to my cousin, the Head Beta of the Silver-Moon Pack: “Tell your Alpha Lucian that I, Elara, accept his courtship offer.”

The underprivileged student I've been sponsoring suddenly shows up at my birthday party, swaggering in and waving around a pregnancy report. "Look—Pheebs is pregnant with my baby! You'd better be smart and divorce her already!" I point at the report, stunned and confused. "Are you sure it's Phoebe who's pregnant with your child?" Victor Thompson, my beneficiary, smirks proudly as he fiddles with the pregnancy report. "Duh! We conceived the baby last month on our cruise trip!" The entire room falls into a stunned silence. My ex-wife, Phoebe Jackman, has been dead for three years.

The human traffickers were apprehended, and after DNA verification, the police returned me to my affluent parents. My parents gave a cold nod, thanked the officers, and instructed the butler to make me comfortable. Two months after returning home, the fake heiress, Irene Burrel, secretly signed me up for a wilderness survival course. My parents gently stroked her head. “Since you want to play, let her accompany you.” They did not care one bit if I died out there. Irene smirked triumphantly at me. “What does it matter if you’re the real heiress? I can still do whatever I want with you! “Survival training is my daily routine. I’ll make sure you leave that competition on a stretcher!” When we arrived at the wilderness training grounds in the mountains, I laughed. I grew up in these very forests. Did she think I did not know this place?

[WARNING 18+] This book contains descriptive intimate and violent scenes. There could be triggering content like self-harm, drug addiction, and depression. [TROPES] Billionaire. Revenge. Second Chance. Escape while pregnant. - When Mellow Fanning married Zeath Lupin, the cold chairman of Lupin Group, she thought their love was forever. But everything crumbled when he introduced his pregnant mistress at a family dinner. Angry, Mellow sought to make Zeath restless by kidnapping the mistress. However, that resulted in a tragedy that nearly claimed her life and that of the child growing inside her—a child Zeath didn’t deserve. She faked her death and ran away, bound to return as Zeath’s only means to remain as the chairman of Lupin Group. Would he recognize her? Would she accept his apology if he ever gave one? And what would happen when the threat she once fled from rekindled, endangering her and her child’s lives once more? >>>>> “Do you know how much I wished you wouldn’t come near me, or even... touch me?” Zeath drones on. “All those cuddles and kisses, all the affection, made my skin crawl—like a troll embracing its victim before gobbling them. One can only imagine how much it stinks. You are no different from that troll. You merely caught my attention because you were a self-absorbed twonk, and we needed to test if you even had the heart to love another.” “We?” I croak out. Then Zeath’s fingers trail gently along my face, his eyes glinting with pure poison, and his voice is no better. “Poor Mellow, it is all a dare, a gratifying one. Divorce or not, it’s your choice.”