Cutting Teeth

The day of our Mating Ceremony finally arrived. As the Elder stood before the pack, his voice booming as he announced the exchange of our soul-binding rings, Julian—the man standing across from me—suddenly spoke. "Actually," he said, his voice cutting through the sacred silence. "I’ve been fucking Chloe." I froze. He didn't even blink as he watched the color drain from my face. "While you were busy trying on your ceremonial gown, we were in the dressing room right next to yours," he continued, his tone chillingly conversational. "She couldn't help but scream when she climaxed. You actually thought she was falling ill; you spent ten minutes checking on her through the door, worried sick." "Later, while she stood by your side helping you pick out jewelry, her legs were shaking so hard she could barely stand." In that instant, I felt the blood turn to ice in my veins. Stiffly, I turned my head toward the woman standing in the front row, wearing a radiant smile. Chloe. She was waving her bouquet, cheering my name at the top of her lungs. Just an hour ago, she had been brushing tears from her eyes as she straightened the train of my dress, squeezing my hands and telling me I deserved all the happiness in the world. "Even just now, while you were preparing for the ritual, she was riding me," Julian added, his voice dropping to a low, rough growl. "She got so worked up her claws shredded the skin on my back." He looked down at the silver band in his hand—the ring he had yet to slide onto my finger—with total indifference. "I’m laying it all out there, Elara," he said. "Whether you still want the title of Luna is entirely up to you."

I stand before the judges at the jewelry design competition and admit to plagiarism. Then, I announce my withdrawal from the contest, along with my resignation as Design Director of Fairchild Group. My fiance, Caleb Fairchild, shoots daggers at me. "If you walk away from this competition, our engagement is off!" My father follows up by slapping me across the face. "First, you plagiarize your own sister, and now you're breaking off your engagement with the Fairchilds? Are you trying to ruin our family?" "Oh, I'm not just calling off my engagement. I'm also cutting off my ties with you," I respond apathetically. I make this decision because I have been given a second life. In my previous life, my stepsister and I competed in this contest. First place earns the title of the nation's top jewelry designer and 50 million dollars from Fairchild Group. However, round after round, her designs are exactly the same as mine, and she submits them before I do. The judging panel gives me a pass because of Caleb and lets me advance to the finals, but not without a warning to never plagiarize again. I refuse to believe it. I switch to a brand-new computer, lock myself in my room, and pour everything into a new design. Yet, when the final designs appear on the big screen, history repeats itself. In the end, my sister takes first place and walks away with everything that should have been mine. The reputation I painstakingly built is ruined, and my name is dragged through the mud online. My parents are ashamed of me. They knock me out and sell me off to the countryside to marry an old man. Ultimately, I die after endless abuse. When I open my eyes again, I'm back at the semifinals. Everyone is pointing at me as they stare at the two identical designs.

MANAGING MAGES: Hawk had been tormenting me as long as I could remember. I was a young mage and my power was still growing. But they thrust me under his watch in the service to our Warlord. And damn him for enjoying every moment he can torment me. Every time I think my power strong enough to challenge him, he finds new ways to torture me. He's told me that I'm his little prey and he'll be kinder when I succumb to him but I've vowed to never let the overbearing, insufferable cad put a hand on my bare skin. It's a battle of wills and wits. He may be more clever but I'm certainly more stubborn! But one thing I've learned about Hawk, never underestimate his conniving...I should've known better than to challenge him. After all, he's made a name for himself by his skill in Managing Mages. But beyond him there is an even bigger problem. Warlord: The Commander of the Mage's Guild. A ruthless killer who leaves a dark mist in his wake. Escaping the Mage's Guild would mean challenging Warlord himself. A dangerous endeavor. WARLORD'S WARD He came into our village like a shadow. A Dark Mage with the most powerful magic in all the realm. King Detry merely calls him Warlord. And he owns that title. Leaving wreckage in his wake. But for me, he had other plans. His cutting blue eyes seeing straight through my disguise. As his slave, his mere plaything, I'll learn the true darkness of magic without conscience. Anything he wants of me, he takes. Anything he wants me to do. I am willed to do with the flick of his hand. His power is an all consuming whirlwind. And I'm just the pretty butterfly caught in it.

"Get off me, you moron!" I shouted, pushing at his chest as he pinned me against the wall. His lips crashed down on mine with unexpected force. His kiss trailed to my neck, roaming across my skin until weakness washed over me. When his hand squeezed my breast, clarity jolted through me and I shoved him away with all my strength. "No! This is wrong!" I restrained. "My mind says the same, but why does it feel so right? Tell me why I can’t get you out of my head. Why all I can think about is f**ck*ng you!" His voice cracked with agony, lips still burning against my skin. "We’re stepsiblings. This is so wrong!" "We’re not real siblings, we share no blood at all!" He pulled back, his eyes blazing with emotion. "Even so, it’s still wrong!" "Then let it be wrong. I don’t care anymore." He kissed me hard again before his lips moved back to my neck. __________________________________ When Elyssa’s mom married wealthy Greg Almendarez, their modest life transformed into one of glitz and privilege. But she gained a complicated reality in Theo—her new stepbrother. Arrogant and angry, he hated her for reasons she never understood. They fought constantly, every cutting word hiding a pull they both felt. Then a misunderstanding led him to burst into her room and see her naked. The image burned into his memory, waking a desire he couldn’t ignore. Their next fight ended not with rage, but a kiss that broke every rule. Soon, trust and passion collided, and she found herself giving her virginity to the man she hated most. Can they resist this forbidden draw? Will they risk everything for their love, or walk away to save their parents from heartbreak?

On the third day of our cold war, my Alpha mate, Cain Beckett, purposefully takes his secretary, Vera Anderson, on a trip to Roseville. He thinks I'll kick up a fuss hysterically like before. But when he returns one month later, he realizes that I've completely changed. When Cain snatches away the territory negotiation task that I'm in charge of and passes it to Vera, I no longer fight back angrily. Instead, I take the initiative to arrange the documents and prepare the paperwork for her. In order to help Vera stand out on the night of the full moon, Cain rejects the project proposal I've spent three months working on in front of everyone. I no longer fight with him over it. Instead, I shoulder all the punishment quietly. Even when Cain decides to bend the rules by making Vera the Beta of the pack, I still remain cool and composed. Heck, I even smile and agree with his decision. Vera takes Cain's hand while saying coquettishly, "See? I told you that you can't fight fire with fire when it comes to people with Leah's personality. You need to neglect her for her to be more understanding. She must have been terrified of losing you because of the way you listen to me and no longer spoil her. That's why she's being so docile." Of course, Cain has complete trust in Vera. He praises her for being clever. In order to reassure me, he even promises me that he'll officially mark me during the next full moon. I just shake my head in return. Nah, I don't need it. I don't need Cain's mark anymore. After all, I'll be leaving the pack soon. From now on, I'm cutting all ties with Cain Beckett. We won't have anything to do with each other anymore.

When I was seven, my father brought home a beautiful lady who gave me a mango. That day, my mother watched me happily eating the mango while she signed her name on the divorce papers. After that, she jumped off the roof of our building. From then on, mangoes became the nightmare of my life. So on my wedding day, I told my husband, Alan Holt, "If you ever want a divorce, just give me a mango." Alan pulled me into his arms, quiet. From then on, mangoes became off-limits for him, too. On Christmas Eve of our fifth year of marriage, Alan's childhood sweetheart, Larissa Fennimore, left a mango on his desk at the office. The very same day, Alan announced he was cutting ties with Larissa and fired her from the company. That day, I truly believed he was the man I was meant to be with. Half a year later, I flew back from overseas, having just closed a partnership deal worth about 200 million dollars. At the celebration dinner, Alan handed me a drink. After I had finished half the glass, his so-called childhood sweetheart, the woman who had been kicked out of the company, stood behind me with a big grin and asked, "Does the mango juice taste good?" I stared at Alan in disbelief, and he was trying hard not to laugh. "Don't be mad. Larissa insisted I played a little joke on you. I didn't actually give you a mango; I just gave you a bottle of mango juice. But I think she's right. The fact that you don't eat mangoes is a real problem. You were really enjoying that juice just now." My face went cold. I lifted my hand and threw the rest of the mango juice in his face, then turned around and walked away. Some things are never a joke. I wouldn't kid around with mangoes or divorce.

In my past life, I was performing emergency pipeline repairs 300 meters beneath the ocean when my oxygen line ruptured. I swam back for help, only to have my wife, Summer Yates, and her first love, Zachary Gibson, lock me out of the diving bell. Not only did they ignore whether I lived or died, but they also started live-streaming an extreme no-oxygen endurance challenge to the entire internet. In the end, I suffocated and drowned. Even after my death, Summer and Zachary smeared my name, calling me a deranged saboteur, while they ran off together with my massive life insurance payout. When I opened my eyes again, I had been reborn to the exact moment I was banging on the hatch. Right on cue, Summer's sweet, teasing chuckle came through the comm. "All units, don't open the hatch. Carter wants to attempt an extreme challenge today. He's going to swim back to the surface without oxygen!" Immediately after, Zachary's voice followed, trembling with excitement. "Babe, the sponsors said if Carter succeeds this time, I'll be the lead director on next month's million-dollar documentary series!" In my past life, I had begged them through mouthfuls of blood, only to be met with Summer's impatient urging. "Stop wasting your energy. You should save your oxygen and start swimming up. You're such a strong swimmer. Just hold on for another half hour, and you'll make Zachary's dream come true!" Now, as I listened to this pair of scumbags plot against me, I sneered and cut the communication. I raised the highest-powered underwater cutting torch in my hand and aimed it directly at the main load-bearing cable connecting the diving bell to the surface vessel above. They wanted me dead, so none of them would be leaving alive either.

BLURB: “What are you doing, Adrian?!” I ask in an alarmed tone, the intense look in his eyes scaring the shit out of me. “I can fucking smell him on you!” Adrian growls at me as he covers the distance between us. “Let go, Adrian. You are scaring me!” I say in a shaky tone as Adrian's hand wraps around my wrist like a hot band. “You better be scared, doll, because when I'm done with you my name will be the only thing etched in your mind and fucking body.” Adrian says through gritted teeth, his words leaving me shaking on the spot. I'm overwhelmed with fear as I begin to wonder if I will even make it out if this room alive. __________________________ For a long time, winning the love of one of the most ruthless billionaires in the city was the only thing on Anya's mind until she is faced with his cruel betrayal and served with divorce papers. Unable to handle all this ontop of the death of her son and only child, Anya drives away from his office without any location in mind only to be met by a ghastly motor accident where she ends up losing her memory – or not. Anya is faced with the truth of what happened all those years ago, and she is determined to get revenge against every single person who has hurt her and her family. But what happens when she is faced with a new side of Adrian she has never seen before? A side that tucks her in at night and refuses to let her out of his sight? Will she be able to see past his betrayal or will she forever be stuck in a position where her revenge means more to her than anything else?

“Desmond,” I breathed out, “don’t.” But he didn't listen to my plea. His lips found my neck, his teeth gently grazing the frantic pulse that betrayed my panic. My skin instantly lit up beneath his mouth, a complete traitor to my mind. When his hand slid lower, tugging at the drawstring of my skirt, a terrifying mix of panic and deep heat crashed together inside me. “Desmond, please. This is wrong.” “Nothing about you has ever been wrong to me,” he growled out against my throat. Clothes instantly fell away as if they had never mattered. My shirt. His shirt. My skirt. The last threads of my will to fight. He settled heavily between my thighs, a burning hot weight. I felt him hard against me, thick and urgently insistent. My breath hitched sharply when the blunt head of his cock nudged my entrance. “Tell me to stop, Ana,” he said, his voice ragged, his eyes desperately locked on mine. “Say the word, and I will immediately.” I opened my mouth to speak. No sound escaped. He pushed in, moving with agonizing slowness, stretching me open inch by painful inch. A broken, strangled sound left my throat as he filled me completely, buried deep to the hilt inside my most intimate space. My inner walls instantly clenched around him, shocked, aching, and intensely alive. He stilled his movement, letting me fully register every powerful throb of him inside me. “Fuck, Ana,” he groaned, his forehead dropping to mine. “You feel completely like mine.” Then, he moved again.

So she would not die. Lillia echoed in her mind. Not today. Then, something stronger coiled suddenly around her neck, tightening painfully as her voice escaped in a strained sound. “Ame… Lia—please—” Before Lillia could react, a violent force wrenched her away, dragging her into the darkness. Her fingers tore free of Amelia’s grasp, clutching only a ripped fragment of fabric as she was pulled farther and farther away. Lillia watched as Amelia receded into the distance, swallowed by the void, while the coldness and hostility around her deepened, pressing in from all sides. Her body was tossed and dragged as multiple unseen forces fought to claim her. The air grew thick with a foul stench, suffocating her senses as she was pulled deeper into the void, deeper toward a point of no return. But as her strength began to wane, Lillia closed her eyes, her breathing slowing to quiet as she reached inward toward Fenris. Fenris… I know you’re weak. But I know you’re still here. If you would give your last strength to save me, then I will give mine to save her. And if we perish… then we perish together. I cannot exist in a world without you, because you are part of me as I am part of you. Without you, something in me is lost forever. I am nothing without you. For a breathless moment there was nothing but coldness. Then—warmth flickered, then surged deep within, enveloping her as Fenris stirred. A faint whimper echoed in her mind, followed by a quiet voice. “Then… let us kick death in the teeth one last time.” —To be continued. >>>click to read<<<🪄✨