Cherry Picked

The Vale family was the most powerful mafia syndicate in the New York City. And I—along with a few other carefully chosen girls—had been handpicked to join their ranks, trained from the ground up so that the next head of the family could choose his wife from among us. Wife. That was the kinder word for it. The truth was whoever got picked would become his shield, his weapon, his most loyal protector. Someone who would kill for him. Die for him. Years passed. One by one, the others fell away. In the end, only Elara Quinn and I remained. And then, Elara died—killed on a secret mission. After that, there were no more choices left. I became Adrian Vale’s wife by default. I had given everything to Adrian. And I loved him. I thought he loved me too until I took a bullet to the chest—meant for him. As I lay there, barely breathing, I heard Adrian talking to his assistant, “Don’t bury her in the Vale cemetery. My half is reserved for Elara.” That was it. Elara—who had never even lived long enough to marry him—still had a space carved beside him in death. I? I had taken the hit that should have ended him… and yet I wasn’t even good enough to be buried near him. I slowly closed my eyes. And when I opened them again, I was back on the day the Vale family formally announced Adrian as their new head. The day everything began.

At my engagement dinner with Greg Willis, the Rossi mafia family’s underboss, his assistant, Sydney Carlson, casually tossed a half-eaten cookie on his plate in front of everyone. Greg didn’t react. In full view of the guests, he calmly picked it up and ate it. That night, after we returned, I told him I wanted to call off the engagement. He rubbed his brow with his fingertips, his voice steady in that familiar, composed way of his, yet there was distance beneath it. “All this,” he said, “over a cookie?” “She already took a bite,” I corrected him. He fell silent for a moment before replying in a low voice, “Zoe, you’ve always been sensible. Why get hung up on something so small?” “I’m not hung up,” I said evenly. “I just don’t want to settle.” When he saw that I wouldn’t back down, something complicated flickered in his eyes. Then, his tone hardened, almost like a warning. “Think it through carefully. Don’t you regret it.” He was certain I couldn’t leave him. After all, he was a mafia underboss. There were countless people eager to take the position of Mrs. Willis, and I was nothing more than a minor employee at his company. What he didn’t know was that I had never coveted the title of his wife. All I ever had for him was love. But now, that love was gone, and once I turned away, I would never look back again.

Billionaire Bennett Graham urgently needed a wife to close a business deal but his fiancée wasn’t ready to tie the knots yet. So his grandmother picked the most unassuming maid for him. Everything was supposed to go incredibly well, and all he had to do was wait until he divorced her a year later. But after seeing Maliyah’s ocean eyes…it wasn’t looking simple anymore. *** Before I could get her up, it was as if she felt the light and an uncomfortable sound came out of her mouth. "Uh-huh..." She raised her hand to cover her eyes. But I didn't have time to wait for her to wake up, so I told her to "Get Up." My voice seemed to scare her, and her light-fearing eyes suddenly widened and she kept moving to the corner. The only voice in the quiet art room was her fear-filled voice, "No...please...go away...don't come close to me." She was afraid of me? I hadn't even spoken to her before, what was she afraid of? This was definitely not going to work, I couldn't talk to her if she couldn't calm down. Then I moved closer to her, my hand on her trembling shoulder, and I whispered soothingly “Calm down.I’m not going to hurt you.I’m not going to hurt you.”I assured and then she moved her hair away from her face as if to stare at me properly. Our eyes met.It was that moment. It felt as if I was enchanted for a moment. Those ocean eyes were the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen.

I put on my nightdress quickly and hurried to his chambers, he would be angry that I came in late, it's better late than never anyway. Getting to his chambers, All his guards were nowhere to be found. Which was strange. “Don't tell me Klaus picked some lazy ass men to be his guards,” Moxilla commented because she was as perplexed as I was. “Moxilla, Klaus would never pick some lazy ass to be his guard, something is off,” I looked around again, before going into the chambers. I stood still when I started hearing moans from Klaus’s room. Klaus might be ruthless and has a disgusting attitude but he would never cheat on me. With doubt, I went to his room, which was opened slightly and I peeped through. My mouth fell open when I saw Tasha and Klaus in bed, having sex. After Aria’s family died, her step mother forced her to marry a cruel Alpha called Klaus, he maltreated her but she decided to stay. The night of their renewal ceremony, Aria found Klaus and her step-sister together, and she decided to cheat back but got caught. The punishment of adultery was death, when the time for Aria to die reached the Lycan king, Ryan saved her and marked her as his mate. Getting married to Ryan, she discovered something she was supposed to find, which would be a threat to her life. Would she run away from the beautiful life she had with Ryan or would she risk her life, to be with him?

“You're nothing but a poor substitute. I'd never fall for a worthless Omega!" Her ex-husband, Alpha Aiden’s, words struck Rue like a slap across the face. "You’d never truly leave me—you’re just playing hard to get!"When Aiden abandoned their gravely ill daughter to chase after his lover, Rue finally reached her breaking point. She picked up the phone and called her father. "I’ve decided to return to the Wolf Clan with our daughter—and accept the arranged marriage." From that moment, Rue vanished from Aiden's world, even fabricating news of her own death. Let him believe she was gone forever. But fate had other plans. When they crossed paths again, Aiden was stunned to discover that the Alpha he had been desperately trying to curry favor with was none other than Rue’s father. "I was never an Omega," Rue revealed coldly. "I’m the heir of the Blood Claw Pack—the billionaire Alpha’s daughter." Aiden's shock only deepened when he learned Rue possessed not just formidable wolf powers, but also rare healing abilities and the gift of mind-reading. Worse still, she now had a new man by her side."Please… come back. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have underestimated you," Aiden begged.But Rue only linked arms with his sworn rival and sneered. "Ex-husband, get lost. Don’t waste my time."As she walked away with their child in her arms, Aiden could only watch in anguish.

On our tenth wedding anniversary, I was trapped in a cabin with my daughter, Sofia Costello, as floodwaters raged outside. With shaking hands, I used the emergency satellite phone to call my mafia husband, Henson Costello, and begged for help. I dialed more than 90 times before the call finally went through, yet all I heard was the breathy moans of his first love, Angelina Rossi, on the other end. "Henson...slower..." Before I could even process the shock of his betrayal, I heard a conversation that sent me straight into hell. "That kid was dead weight anyway. Trading him for control of Pier 9 was the best deal the family ever made." It seemed that Leo Costello, my son, who had supposedly drowned at the beach five years ago, had not died in an accident after all. Henson had used him as part of a business deal. All this time, I had been drowning in guilt for taking him to that beach, blaming myself for the tragedy. I never knew the truth was this cruel. Tears streamed down my face as my body shook uncontrollably. After ten years of marriage, I finally realized I had never truly known the man I loved and sacrificed everything for. I picked up my phone again and dialed Vincenzo Moretti's number. "Vince, I'll marry you. But you have to help me destroy the Costello family from power." After a brief silence, his voice came through the line. "Aurelia Astor, I've been waiting ten years to hear you say that."

Fay is a young, sixteen years old werewolf who lived all his life with human parents. His first transformation happened when he was just ten years old, during the night of a full moon and he first communicated to his wolf, Hank. He never told anyone about it, not even his parents but he frequented the woods at night to have a run. His visits to the woods became too suspicious to his parents but they kept mute. One day, Fay walked into the woods and transformed but he turned around when he heard a loud shriek behind him, it was his parents. Terrified that they are raising a wolf, they tell Fay that he was picked at the door front years ago and he is not their child. They kicked young Fay out and he went to stay at an orphanage home. Fay did not stop his frequent running in the woods. Another fateful night, during his run in the woods, Fay sees another of his kind. A blue-eyed black wolf, Jake. Fay and Jake become best friends and Fay soon tell Jake to help him look for his biological parents, Jake takes his newfound friend back to the pack where his father Klein is the Alpha of the pack and they begin their search for Fay's parents. The search is proven abortive and nothing is found about Fay's parents. Nevertheless, Klein takes Fay in and treats him like a son. The friendship between Fay and Jake strengthens for a while but jealousy kicks in when Jake found out that Fay is stronger than he is and may take the Alpha position from him. The once bromance becomes hatred and war. . . . …..

Kyla Adams is a workaholic. I mean, who wouldn't be when you're working your dream job? She is one of the many writers for a startup business in North Carolina called "Clicked," where the focus is writing about hot gossip, new trends, and out of the ordinary experiences. Think of this social media app as an online magazine, where the workers are gossip hungry millennials and Gen Z'ers all trying to top one another. And the best part- Dakota Kramer; the hot young CEO at the top floor of the office building. Kyla is the job. She thrives on gossip and is a phenomenal writer, but lately her articles have been dryer than her dating life. After Dakota threatens to fire her if she doesn't step out of her comfort zone, Kyla and her friends drunkenly email Dakota an exciting new article proposal titled "EleDATE." What does the hell does this mean? Kyla must ride the elevator every morning, starting from floor 1 up to floor 50-the top floor- with a hand picked single guy from the office. The catch? She's blindfolded. She must rely on her instincts about the "bachelors" and the impressions they make during their limited time riding together- and they must remain anonymous. With over 100 employees in the building, 50 floors, and 20 single men willing to participate, this will sure make for an intriguing article and a literal make or break career moment. And let's face it... there's just something about elevators.

“Shut the fuck up Carter, I don’t give a damn about you.” Mariah spat at him with her eyes blazing and Carter only smiled. “You do give a damn about me sweetheart, your body still remembers her lord.” Carter replied with a smug look on his face. “You are lying, and don’t call my sweetheart” Mariah fired back and Carter stepped a little too close, making the sirens go off in her head. His closeness was doing thins to her body. “With this” He smirked before he smashed his lips against hers, all anger melting out of her body. ______ Mariah had one wish, never to meet Daniel Carter anymore for the rest of her life. After her marriage of barely three months crashed, Mariah picked up what’s left of her broken soul and she went home to Mama. She never wanted to be associated with the Carter name anymore or get involved with the man bearing the name. Five years after Mariah had brought the jewelry line of her grandfather back to life, it was about to be taken away from her. Her grandfather had given the entire company to Daniel Carter as their wedding gift and now she is about to lose the only thing keeping her sane to the same man who took away her sanity in the first place. Daniel Carter had a simple offer for her in exchange for the jewelry line; she had to get married to him again!

Thanks to Sofia Columbo, Luca Vitale and I keep breaking up and getting back together for three years. Exhausted and desperate to get out of this situation, I end up choosing to be with Don Marco Rossi, who has been pursuing me for many years. Since then, we've been together for five years. His love for me never wavers, and I truly believe that I've chosen the right man to be with. But at the bachelor's party that takes place one week before the wedding, Marco's Underboss, Enzo Ferrari, begins running his mouth without any filter whatsoever after he gets completely wasted. "Don Rossi, Anna actually fell in love with you for real! Does she even know that you're only marrying her just so Sofia can be with Luca?" Marco just smiles without denying the allegations. He merely says, "As long as Sofia can be with Luca, I'm fine with marrying whoever. Honestly speaking, I did get close to Anna with ulterior motives at first, but I still ended up falling in love with her for real. "By the way, do not let Anna find out about this, no matter what. You know how much she hates it when people lie to her. If she ever finds out, she'll leave me just like how she left Luca. That mustn't happen at all." After wiping my tears, I tell my father that I wish to marry the man he has picked out for me.