Curated Novels & Stories

"Manager, it's her! I saw it with my own eyes! She stuffed that limited-edition necklace from the display case right into her clothes!” The weekend mall was packed. Out of nowhere, a woman with that perfectly curated influencer look blocked my path and started yelling at the top of her lungs. The crowd waiting in line for coffee instantly froze and turned to stare. I blinked, caught off guard, and was just about to say something. But she didn't give me a chance. She lunged forward and yanked hard at my work jacket. A few brand-new gold necklaces, still with their tags on, hit the marble floor. "Oh my God, you guys! The evidence is right there! Someone call the cops and get this woman arrested—ruin her life, send her straight to prison!” People whipped out their phones to record. A couple of young guys even rolled up their sleeves, ready to play hero. I looked down at the gold chains on the floor, then patted my pocket—where my plainclothes loss-prevention officer badge was sitting—and let out a dry, incredulous laugh. This was the exact stash of stolen goods I'd confiscated just five minutes ago from a trash can in the women's restroom during an ongoing theft bust. So how did she—a random shopper—know exactly where the evidence was on me? And more than that, how did she manage to track me down and block my route to the security office with mall management in tow, all within a single minute?

On the very first day of college, I became Kingsley University's infamous jerk magnet. It didn't matter whether it was the polished upperclassman everyone adored or the rebellious campus bad boy; any guy who went on even one date with me would dump me the very next day for my roommate, Lucinda Lane. Lucinda quickly became the untouchable dream girl every elite guy was obsessed with, effortlessly managing her ever-growing roster of admirers. She'd hand me another carefully curated list of perfect dating prospects every single day. "Girl, don't be afraid of getting hurt. There's always a better one waiting. You have to be brave enough to chase true love." I believed her. So, I kept going after the next guy. This time, I had gotten a sweet younger student with puppy-dog charm. Then, he dumped me, too. For Lucinda. Just when I was at my lowest, a stream of floating comments suddenly appeared in front of my eyes. "The heroine is incredible. She's stolen so many men already! I've hated that evil supporting girl forever. Why does some country bumpkin get to have all these guys falling for her?" "I wish I had the heroine's Affection Transfer System. That way, my ex wouldn't have been stolen by that woman." "I can't wait to see what the next male lead is like. I'm literally just sitting here and waiting for her to steal another man." That was when it finally clicked. I'd been working unpaid as stocking labor for her dating pool this whole time.

On my twenty-first birthday, I was supposed to die. The screech of tires, rain, the crushing impact—I braced for the end. Instead, I woke up in a fortress that didn't belong on this Earth. And standing over me was Caius—the most ruthless, beautiful monster I’d ever seen. He didn't save me out of mercy. He came to collect. Ten years ago, my grandfather made a deal to save my life. The price? My blood, and every beat of my heart from the moment I turned twenty-one. Now, I’m a prisoner in his penthouse, a human bride surrounded by a court of predators who view me as a feast. Caius calls me his "Consort." that I was curated, watchedfor a decade. He wants to drain my humanity, force the blood-bond, and turn me into the Queen of his kingdom. He thinks he owns me. He thinks I’m just another toy he can break and remake. But there’s a glitch in his plan. As the days bleed into nights, the hate that burns between us starts to twist into something dangerous, electric, and impossible to ignore. Every time he touches me, the air catches fire. The line between captor and lover is blurring until I can’t tell if I’m fighting to escape him or fighting to stay in his arms. Caius is determined to consume me, but he’s discovering a terrifying truth: you can’t possess a woman’s heart if you’re losing your own in the process. We’re both playing a deadly game, but we’ve stopped caring who wins. He wants to turn me into his Queen, but he might just lose his throne for me. And God help us both—I’m not sure I’m strong enough to stop him.

He wanted a replacement. I was the original. For three years, I was Evie, a woman with no past, saved from a tragic accident by the devastatingly powerful Nathaniel Blackwood. He gave me a name, a home, and a purpose as his contract lover. I thought it was love. The night he proposed in a shower of gardenias, I believed my fairy tale had come true. Until she walked back into his life. Serena Sterling. His missing first love. The woman whose face is my mirror image. In a single moment, my world shatters. I discover I’m not his beloved, I’m her gilded substitute. Every detail of my life, from my perfume to my smile, was curated to match her. And now that the original has returned, the copy is discarded. Heartbroken and betrayed, I vanish from his penthouse with nothing but the clothes I wore when I woke up in the hospital three years ago. But my escape uncovers a truth more dangerous than his deception. I am not a nobody. I am Alessandra Vanderbilt, the missing heiress to a billion-dollar empire. The accident that stole my memory wasn’t random, it was an attempt on my life. And the woman who shares my face may have been the one who ordered the hit. Now, I have two battles to fight: reclaiming my legacy from the aunt who wants me gone, and resisting Nathaniel Blackwood, who has realized too late that the woman he threw away is the only one he truly craves. He’s using every resource from ruthless business deals, public grand gestures, and soul-baring groveling to win me back. But how do you trust a man who loved you only as a reflection of another?

**Warning: This book contains mature sex scenes, "I hate you," she whispered — breathless, furious, aching. "I hate you more," he growled back. And then he made her forget every man who came before him. Rhaena thought she knew what was missing from her life — until her boyfriend called her boring in bed. Two years together. Not a single orgasm. Done with shame, done with faking, she makes a decision that will unravel everything: one night, one stranger, an elite escort and a dark sex club where no one knows her name. The masked man who finds her there doesn't just give her pleasure. He ruins her — for every other man, for every careful, curated version of herself she's ever performed. But when she leaves, a message arrives: a refund. A record that says she was never there. And before she can make sense of it, her mother drops another bomb — she's engaged. There's a dinner. A mansion. A future stepbrother named Alessio, who looks at Rhaena like she's a problem he wants to destroy. Cold. Hostile. Magnetic in a way that makes her teeth ache. When she overhears him cutting her apart with words, she doesn't run. She fights back. And something ignites between them — sharp as a blade, hot as a wound — something neither of them is willing to name. Because the line between hatred and desire isn't just thin. It's already been crossed. What happens when Rhaena realizes the masked man who woke her body, who owned her in the dark — is her future stepbrother? What happens when Alessio discovers that the woman he can't stand is Cherry — the one he can't stop thinking about? Some secrets don't stay buried. And some hatreds are just love that hasn't lost control.