Better Off

I came here on a scholarship. No parents. No safety net. Just brains, bruises, and a shot at a better life. Now they want me on the hockey team? I’ve never even touched a stick. And if I say no—I lose everything. The only thing colder than the rink is how they look at me. The rich girls with their designer skates and perfect smiles. The coach who’d rather pretend I don’t exist. And him—Jaxon Reid, the team’s golden boy, who skates like sin and speaks with his eyes more than his mouth. He thinks I’m a joke. They all do. But I’ve fought for every inch of my life, and I’m not about to back down now. Not when college is the only thing standing between me and going back to nothing. So I’ll lace up. I’ll fall, I’ll bruise, I’ll bleed if I have to. And maybe—just maybe—I’ll learn how to play their game better than they do. Because survival isn’t about being the best. It’s about refusing to lose.

In order to protect me, Don Salvatore deliberately announces that my fiance, Simone Pozzi, is his long-lost son. Simone shakes with excitement when he sees the man in a bespoke suit stepping out of the Rolls-Royce that is parked outside my house. Just as I'm about to tell him it's all a lie, he shoves me aside. He even brushes his sleeves in disgust, as if he has touched something filthy. Simone says, "Stay away from me. Don't let your poverty rub off on me! Since I'm the Don's son, we'll call off our engagement. An illegitimate bastard like you isn't even fit to wipe my shoes!" When I try to explain, he cuts me off by writing out a check and flinging it hard into my face. The sharp edge of the paper slices across my cheek. "Take this one million dollars as our breakup fee and don't bother me again. We're no longer from the same world," Simone says. I watch the check flutter down into the mud and quietly turn off my phone screen. On the screen is a message Papa—Don Salvatore—has just sent me, "Just bear with it a little longer, Principessa. Papa will bring you home soon to take over the famiglia." Simone is so determined to cut himself off completely. He might have the luck to claim a fortune that big, but not the life to enjoy it.

He took a step into the room and stopped as he heard her breath hitch in her chest, and she shrank back slightly in fear. “What is your name?” His raspy voice carried across the room. He pulled off his shirt, revealing the beautiful, intricate tattoos that designed his skin. He noticed her eyes shine with interest. He caressed the side of her face with the back of his hand. She stiffened on the bed as hand traced down her shoulders. When his hand cupped her breast and massaged her hard nipples, it was like she came to life. She swung with all her might, burying the pointy end of a comb into his abdomen. He cursed under his breath as she slipped away from his grasp and made a run for the door. He bound across the bed in one leap and pressed her face and chest against the wall. Growling under his breath, he gripped the neck of her cloth and tore it away. “You. Have. Not. Answered. My. Question -” His sentence was cut short by a knock on the door, and his brother walked in. ************ Claire Fischer had a perfect life. A perfect family. A loving fiance she was supposed to marry and rule over the pack. But it all changed as soon as her father died. She caught her fiance cheating and a family secret looms overhead. After being betrayed twice in a row, she decides that she can't take it anymore and she leaves the pack, placing her life in the hands of fate. Would fate treat her better than her pack? Or did she just get into an even worse situation because fate is not kind to anyone, especially a wolfless mutt with alpha blood, and a cursed Lycan king on the hunt.

When the Irwins were on the brink of bankruptcy, I proposed a marriage of convenience to Ryan and saved them from collapse. Ever the playboy, Ryan was so grateful that he swore eternal loyalty to me, even getting a vasectomy immediately to prove his devotion. He took me across mountains and rivers, saying he wanted to etch our love into every corner of the world. Three years later, he got me drunk, stole my phone, and used it to infiltrate the Knights’ estate. That night, he orchestrated the complete downfall of my family’s legacy. My parents overdosed on sleeping pills. My sister was dragged into an alley by his men, violated, filmed, and the footage was auctioned off to amuse wealthy heirs. I begged him to let my family go. However, he gripped my face and forced me to watch as my parents were cremated. “You think marrying me back then was some noble sacrifice? Sure, the whole city praised your family for helping mine in our darkest hour. But what did they say about me? “They call me your lapdog, Lily!” Ryan destroyed the Knights to prove he was better than us and not anyone’s dog. He tore up the divorce papers and shoved the shreds into my mouth. Ryan wanted me to watch as he rose to power and made the world kneel before him. To humiliate me, he brought home a different woman every night, turning our house into a hotel while I served them. “What’s the Knights’ worth now? With your status, cooking for them and massaging their feet like this is only fitting.” It didn’t matter. When I saved him from that avalanche, a shard of stone slashed my heart. Now, I only have three days left to live.

When my boyfriend, Mark Jamison, gets in a car accident that leaves him paralyzed, I pawn the ring my mother left to me before she died to help him. With hands that have never been used to do any work or a single household chore in my life, I start lugging around delivery bags. In the middle of a rainstorm, I get assigned to deliver a food order worth 10,000 dollars, with a 100-dollar tip. Just as I happily celebrate my luck, I overhear the raucous laughter coming from inside the villa. "She actually believes you got paralyzed in a car accident? She now spends all day doing deliveries just to support you financially? She even sold off her dead mom's ring?" "She'd probably cry her heart out if she ever finds you're actually a wealthy scion worth tens of billions of dollars, who's just pretending to be poor!" Mark twirls the wineglass he's holding and says, "A lowly woman like her was born to wait on others. She brought it upon herself by always being better than Rosie back in school. Messing with her is the punishment she deserves." I continue to stand in the rain, tears rolling down my cheeks. This is how I find out Mark has spent the last two years faking his condition just to help his childhood sweetheart get back at me. His so-called paralyzed legs, deceased parents, and helpless tears are all just part of a meticulously executed lie. I haven't talked to my father, the richest man in town, for years. But now, I have finally decided to call him. "I lost, Dad. I'll accept the marriage alliance and marry the guy you picked for me."

Cherokee Rains has lived her entire life on the reserve wishing for a better world. Her best friend introduces her to tech CEO Becket Peterson, an arrogant self-centered man. When his father threatens to take his company back unless he settles down, he ropes Cherokee into a contracted marriage. Will they come to love one another or will she leave when her time is up?

Anna Brookes thought she was getting the perfect life she wanted; a marriage with the man she loved and freedom from her adoptive family. But when she woke up in bed with a stranger with no memory of what happened the night before, that marked the end of the perfect life she longed for Eight years later, Anna is struggling to be a good mother to three children, juggling meager jobs while searching for the truth about her real family Meanwhile, Mark Grayson, CEO of the world’s most luxurious cars is in need of a maid, offering a pay that can solve all her problems. She takes the job only to realize that her previous meager jobs were better and the billionaire CEO is the same stranger she slept with eight years ago, which leaves her wondering if Mark could be the father of her triplets But in an interesting turn of events, Anna’s ex-fiancé Luke returns, begging for a second chance with a promise of a better life. Caught between her unresolved feelings for Mark and her rekindled love for Luke, Anna is torn between the man whom her heart is constantly yearning for or the man from her past

A selfless woman who grabs any opportunity that she could hold and a selfish man who doesn't wish to take risks but wants everything for himself. Solenn Alva is from F City of the Country of Razon. She left her home in hopes of getting a better opportunities in S City. A coffee barista who met an office worker. Two people who seemingly came from the same world, but honestly came from opposite worlds in reality, came into contact in the shop where Sol works at one day. There, their friendship begins, and their relationship starts to bloom. But one shocking news came into Sky's ears. He needs to be married and have an heir before he can take over their company. What could their decisions lead them to? What if the decisions they made with the thought that it would be better for both of them will just complicate the things between them in actuality? After twists and turns. will they get to know each other's real identity and unmask the other? Or will fate play amongst themselves and make it hard for the seeds of love to fully blossom? Join them on their journey in life as they unfold secrets, face hardships, find happiness and worth with each other.

…He caresses my check and I close my eyes and lean close so as to get more of his touch. "Catania, why is your pheromone doing this to me?" He asks calmly and this time around, I open my eyes. "Because… because you don't want to accept the…" my sentence is caught off by the feel of his lips colliding with mine. A thunder of emotions strike within me as he kisses me passionately, like he owns me, loves me. I return the kiss with all my might as I decide to forget everything that is going on and enjoy the moment. Without breaking the kiss, he gently pulls me into his big muscular arms and further intensifies the kiss. His lips are warm and soft. They are partly sighted, allowing my tongue to slip inside. Our bodies are pressed together heatedly as I our lips joined with each other's. I can taste our shared breath and feel the taste of our combined heartbeat. Warmth blossoms in my chest, igniting it as Alpha Nolan leans in close, with his lips brushing tentatively. This is my first kiss ever. The smell of his perfume is dizzying and it causes butterflies to dance in my stomach. My eyes are close and they seem to have gotten stuck. I want to open them, I want to get a better look at Alpha Nolan's dark brown eyes, I want to admire his crazy vampire hairline. I have the feeling this is never going to happen again and that this might even ruin what is left in my life, so I want to open my eyes and bear some witness but I can't, because I am so tired and his mouth is so soft… He cannot ignore the connection even if he wanted to…

The top businesswoman and national socialite Feng Yan died at the hands of her own sister. She thought this would be the end of her, but it seems the god doesn’t want her to die in vain. Unexpectedly, she transmigrated in a novel world with a lame-childish-unreliable (omitted 100 abusive words…) system. Only to find that she a cannon fodder set up so small that her existence is just to show off the female leads kindness-naivety etc. The original owner of the body was also called Feng Yan, with a completely different life. She and her brother were kidnapped and sold by traffickers in a poor village, while she was only 7 years old. When the Feng family finally found her, she was already 18 years old. Her father accused her of not dying outside and her twin sister said “A poor village bitch like you is not qualified to even hold my shoe; you want to be my sister”. While her fiancée who she dated for four years said “Sorry, Feng Yun. I always liked your sister, you will find a better person than me but you’re can’t live without me. Let’s break up”. Seeing this white lotus bitch female lead + a scumbag, Feng Yun could only say “A bitch and her dog, such a perfect couple”. It was said that the top actress Feng Yan has a gorgeous smile and is a total face control. Watch Feng Yun and her system taking revenge destroying the plot, while being chased. Feng Yun says to her system “Hey, didn’t you say the villain’s an old man with a potbelly. Why the hell is that I see this XXX handsome man chasing me, and why is he so sticky? Shouldn’t he be behind the female lead now? You give me away”.