Cherry Picked

"You do know that being my maid makes you my property and I can do whatever I want with you." He put a finger to her chin and tilted her head upwards. "Anything I want ..." She looked at him trembling. These days she had spent with him were scary. He truly was the devil. "I'm not your toy", she managed to say. "According to my contract, you are...", he said dangerously. She was dealt the wrong cards. She is already in a world of pain. Her body ached terribly. He grabbed her bruised body and dragged her... Lilian Mendez picked pockets for a living. She did whatever she needed to do to survive. Life was tough so she had to be tougher which meant making tough decisions. After a failed attempt at stealing from the wealthy at a luxurious gala event, she finds herself the property of Mr. Damian Richards, the multi-billionaire businessman, a handsome yet sour personality, and a no nonsense man. He was every girl's dream. Every girl lusted and drooled over him but he never looked their way. He them. He had no time for love. Lilian becomes his maid to make up for stealing from him. She hated everything about him. He was just another arrogant, rich moron. Men like him were only good for their money and nothing else. She wanted nothing more to do with him than to hopefully get out of his place in one piece. She was nobody's toy or plaything. However, over time, boundaries are broken and feelings are shared and grown. Is Lilian finally the woman to tie this eligible bachelor down or is it all a play to get rich off him?

The day before our engagement, Stellan Graves came shopping with me, but his mind was clearly elsewhere. I bought a chili dog from a street stall and held it up to his mouth only for him to swat it out of my hand, sending it flying to the ground. Fury flashed across his face as he snapped, "Ivy Stein, the Graves family needs a woman who can actually show her face in public. Stop buying cheap trash like this. You're embarrassing me. How do you expect my parents to accept you like this?" I picked up the food in humiliation, threw it into the trash, and nodded meekly for the sake of our four years together in college. "As you wish." … However, the very next day, he switched his fiancee to Amelia Lane. "Ivy, Amelia tried to kill herself just to marry me. She's in the hospital now. Once she's stable again, I'll come back and marry you." Four years later, he showed up at my tiny apartment with a diamond ring in hand. "Ivy, Amelia has already agreed to divorce me. We can finally be together. I told you before—once Amelia lets go of her obsession with me and stops hurting herself, I'll come and marry you." I frowned at Stellan's so-called heartfelt expression. I must have had terrible luck that day. Who'd have thought I'd run into this wacko when I'd come back to my place on a whim?! "Move," I demanded, shoving him out the door. "You're blocking the way. I need to pick up my kid from school."

I'm Isa Borgia, the daughter of the most powerful Don in Corvina. My father worries I'll marry the wrong man on a whim, so he arranges for me to be engaged to Luca, the rising heir of the Marino family. It's an arranged marriage, but that doesn't mean I've lost all my say. The very least I can do is choose a ring I genuinely like. So, I go to the mafia auction. When the diamond ring appears as the final jewel of the night, I lift my paddle. Just before the gavel falls, an arrogant voice comes from behind me. "A country bumpkin like you thinks you can compete with me? Do yourself a favor and leave." The auction hall goes quiet for a few seconds. The only sound comes from the camera shutters clicking around the hall. I turn and see a woman in a gold couture gown. Her mouth curves in a casual smile, as if she owns the place. Before I can say a word, the auctioneer rushes to close the bid.
"Sold! Congratulations to Ms. Sofia Lopez for winning the final lot, the Eternal Star!" My brows pull tight, and a hot spike of anger rises in my chest. "You ended the bidding early! Do you even follow the rules here?" Sofia turns around and gives me a once-over, her gaze sharp as a blade. 
"Rules?" She lets out a cold laugh. "Come on. I'm Luca Marino's favorite godsister. Around here, I make the rules!" I can't help but laugh. What a coincidence. So, she's my fiance's godsister. I pull out my phone and call him. "Luca, your godsister just snatched the engagement ring I picked out. How are you going to handle this?"

Alpha Jax Blackwood discovers his destined mate in Lola, an ordinary human girl with an extraordinary twist. Lola is soon forced to leave the town she tried to call home. However, Jax, driven by the primal need to claim his mate and secure his Alpha title, intervenes, claiming Lola as his own against her wishes. Trapped in a world she never imagined, Lola must navigate the dangers posed by both the man to whom she’s linked and Jax's mischievous cousin, Alpha Ash, who harbors a dangerous fascination for her. As the battle for Lola's safety intensifies, Jax faces the challenge of fending off growing threats and keeping his cousin at bay, all while convincing Lola to stay by his side. "I'll give you two choices," Ash humored, taking a step, "Chase after your friend or leave, start anew somewhere else away from all the crazy." He grinned mischievously. "You were letting her go, weren't you?" he stated, eyeing Jax. Jax tensed, fists clenching at his sides. "What's your call, little one?" Ash pressed. Lola envisioned Melissa's reaction, then glanced at the bag near her feet. She picked it up, feeling the cold leather wrap around her shoulder. Ash cheered as the choice was made, and Jax seethed. As Lola moved towards the door, Ash intercepted and gazed in amusement. "There's one little thing," he said leaning in "I lied," he whispered, snatching the bag from her hands as Jax restrained her from behind. "What are you doing?" Lola protested, trying to create distance. Ash ignored her, relishing her discomfort. "You don't get to choose," he declared, ripping the bag from her hands as Jax covered her mouth.

I was not expecting to pick the wrong man to marry even after I had a chance to redo my life. In my previous life, I chose to marry James Howard, my then fiance. But he cheated on me with Verde Sala, a fake heiress, for three years. They even had a child together. For her sake, he broke my legs so that I would hand over my role as the principal dancer to her. This time, I chose to marry Elwood Howard, James’s uncle. I thought that this meant that I had escaped my fate and could fulfill my dreams, but on the day the principal dancer was supposed to be picked, I got into an accident again. After learning about this, Elwood sent Verde to jail, even if it meant offending all of the powerful people in the city. I was touched and thought that I had made the right choice in this life. That lasted for five years until I heard Elwood’s conversation with our son. “Dad, Verde said that you only married Mom so that you could provide a letter of forgiveness as the victim’s family. “Since Verde is out, could you divorce Mom? I want Verde to be my mother.” Upon hearing that, Elwood remembered my trust in him and shook his head. “No. I’ve betrayed your mother by destroying the evidence and giving Verde a new identity to avoid being indicted, so I’m going to make it up to her for the rest of her life. “She will always be my wife. Don’t ever say such things to your mother and make her sad.” The pain from before could not compare to the pain in my heart at that moment. Our marriage was just a scheme to protect Verde? Elwood only loved Verde? And my son was the same? If that was the case, I did not want Elwood anymore. Nor my son.

Have you ever wondered what it feels like to crave someone so badly all you want is to be tangled in the sheets with them all day? Well that's the case of Karen Whitman, her mad crave for the dominating alpha Logan is something everyone in the clan knows. She never seems to hide her feelings for him but there's a bridge,a huge hole where hatred, pent-up feelings lay. For decades,Logan has kept a deep feeling of hatred for Karen and her family, especially her. The hatred grew worse when he found out she was his mate, playing stubborn,he picked another mate and rejected her publicly, calling her a mistake and disgrace to the clan. What's the cause of the hatred? Why doesn't he want her as a mate? What happened several decades ago to cause such a rift between them.....? ". ". ". ". " 'Excerpt from the story' "Why do I want you so much when you hate me to a fault? My gosh you've hated me for decades." Karen's husky voice came out, making him rage the more but the little man in his pants had no regards for his mood. She'd sneaked into his Chambers late at night and had woken him up with feathery kisses, making him hard to the point of pain. "You're the worst mistake that ever happened to us Karen, remember that. You're and never will be my mate." It stung her deep, even deeper than the claws on a wolf,it brought tears to her eyes as she moved away from him. "I curse you this day, never to show your face to me." He said as she gasped and he seemed to be shocked from what he just said but a curse remains a curse till one of them dies.........

It all began in London when 4-year-old Claire witnessed a bigger boy getting bullied, "Hey! Let him go or I'll break your legs and give them to Mr Boo!" "Everyone, it's Claire!" One of the boys shouted and they all ran away from her. She had a standing reputation for beating up youngsters, and she was so popular among them. Claire went to the bullied boy, and instead of helping him up, she shook her head at him, "Such a crybaby. My Mr Boo is stronger than you.'' She flaunted her little teddy bear, which she called Mr Boo, in the boy's face and scoffed at him. ''Thank you." The boy appreciated. "It's okay." The boy stood up from the floor and dusted his tux pants, "What's your name?" Claire must return to find her father, so, there was no time to reply to him. She subconsciously dropped Mr Boo as she left. The boy picked up the bear from the floor, and on the teddy, he saw a raised index finger and a raised middle finger, forming a V shape. "Her name must start with a V. Veronica? Victory? Or probably Violent?" He kept on guessing what her name could be with a smile on his face. .... That marked the first time Claire met her anonymous admiral. She forgot about him, but did he? What would happen when he suddenly appeared before Claire in a totally different identity? What happened when he had grown so much that he couldn't love Claire purely, but was obsessed with her after watching her grow? How much would Claire take when she had to babysit him because she liked her men cute and shy, and he made himself a handful of those? Find out and there are a lot more to uncover....

There's an unspoken rule in my household—everyone has to engage in a drinking competition during the holidays. Whoever gets wasted first will have to pay off one year's worth of house and car mortgages for the other two siblings. In the first year, I collapsed after my first glass of alcohol. I had to pay the house mortgage for my oldest sister, Dahlia Zeller. In the second year, as soon as I picked up my glass, I fainted right away. Since then, I had to pay off Jasmine Zeller, my second sister's car loan. For the next 20 years, I've always been the loser. In the end, my wife, Jean McCarthy, is forced to jump off a building because of the huge debt I've racked up. The debtors keep dumping paint onto my residence, forcing me to deter away from it. Ransacked by guilt, I end up damaging my stomach from overdrinking when I attempt to train my alcohol tolerance. As a result, half of my liver has gotten removed. When I'm on the verge of death, I hear my parents snickering outside my ward. "Don't you think we've laced too many sleeping pills in his drink? He almost didn't wake up back then!" "It's fine. He's an idiot who merely thinks he has a low alcohol tolerance. Our family still relies on him for financial survival, you see. We can keep drugging him so that he'll keep getting wasted." When I open my eyes again, I've already gotten reborn in the timeframe when I'm sitting at the dining table in the 20th year.

The day I finally secured an investment worth over 20 million dollars, I walked into the office and immediately caught sight of that calculating assistant wearing a smug look as she spread gossip around. According to her, my husband, the CEO, was planning to strip me of my position and exile me to some forgotten branch in Northreach. Contract in hand, I headed straight for the CEO's office. I stood behind my husband and rubbed his temples while joking casually, "You won't believe what I just heard. Apparently, you're sending me off to a branch office. If only they knew we've been married in secret for seven years and are about to make it public." He didn't look surprised at all. He gently pushed my hand away and smiled. "It's not a rumor. Andrea messed up the last project, and the board is breathing down my neck. They want someone sent to Northreach, and they picked her. That place is brutal. She wouldn't survive it. She's not like you. She doesn't have the luxury of failure. If she goes there, her career is finished. She was my junior back in school. I can't let her life fall apart." He paused, then added softly, "Once you come back, I'll announce our marriage. And I'll make sure you get what you've always wanted. A child." I smiled, but it held no warmth. I turned around and walked out without another word. Before I reached the elevator, I made a call to his biggest competitor. "Looking for a vice president? I'm bringing 20 million dollars of funding with me. I only ask for one thing: Don't send me to Northreach."

When Thomas finds out that he has been mated to Miranda, he is furious and feels betrayed by the moon goddess. However, at the same time, he can't resist his new mate much to the dismay of his chosen mate, Cindy. Cindy has it in her head that Tomas will make her his luna one day she she is willing to do anything to make sure her dream is realized with the help of her father. She helps Tomas keep Miranda as a prisoner in the guest bedroom while they try to figure out how to break the mate bond, unfortunately Tomas has a hard tkme keeping his hands to himself and starts having sex with Miranda behind Cindy's back. When Cindy finds this out, she is livid. She demands that Tomas stop what he is doing, but it's too late because Miranda is now pregnant. Tomas and Cindy attack Miranda and throw her body in the forest, thinking that she is dead. Miranda is picked by a human old lady who helps her get better and takes her in as her own daughter. while living with the old lady, Miranda meets William, who is a charming man, and they both fall in love. she later finds out that William is Tomas brother and that he was sent to bring her back home by their father. she hesitantly agrees, and when she gets back home, she is told that Tomas can't be the alpha until he makes things right with her because he needs a mate in order to rule. she rejects Tomas and tells his father that she would rather be with William, and after he agrees, he ends up making her the alpha of the pack because William doesn't want while Tomas suffers an accidental death.