Damaged Pearls

BLURB : BREAKING: Popular love song Musician Kai Rhodes Involved in Serious Automotive accident. My heart, which had been beating steadily with the purpose of The Crusader, suddenly lurched and stalled. I frantically clicked the alert. The article was a bare-bones summary, but the key was buried deep: Sources confirmed the accident occurred approximately one week ago, and his team has been desperately trying to suppress the news. The severity, which includes a serious, career-threatening injury, has finally leaked due to pressure from his major sponsors. It wasn’t a fresh accident; it was a crisis that had just become public. His team had lost control. I felt a sudden, sickening jolt… not of grief, but of something far colder and more professional. The Critic immediately recognized the opportunity. This wasn’t just traffic; it was a phenomenon. This was the kind of explosive exclusive that could secure my foundation’s future tonight. The thought sent a jolt of exhilaration, a dark, professional thrill that instantly made the idea of a simple “dick appointment” tomorrow feel small and dull. Before I could even process the professional implications, a new, more specific, more focused email notification chimed on my main computer screen. The subject line was simply: RE: Kai Rhodes Coverage. The sender was Ethan Cole. Thirty days of servitude as the personal assistant to the world’s most damaged rock star: Kai Rhodes, her entitled, hostile step-brother, whom she has publicly skewered for five years. Kai is a furious, wounded wreck since his mysterious accident, and he’s trapped on a luxury tour bus with Anya, the one woman who embodies everything he hates. And, when the contract ends, one of them will fall. Which price will Anya ultimately pay: the price of silence, or the price of truth?

“Give me one reason, Liv.” He stalked toward me, cornering me against the edge of the desk. “One good reason why I shouldn’t bend you over this desk and fuck you senseless.” My breath caught. “This is wrong, Damon. So wrong.” I pressed my palms flat against his chest, trying to create space. “You’re my brother-in-law…” “Not yet, love,” he whispered, fingers curling around my waist possessively. “You’re still engaged to him, but the man you’ll be getting married to…” Two fingers slipped into my heat, making me gasp. “…is me.” I should’ve walked away. I should’ve resisted. But I couldn't forget what it felt like to be his. * Olivia have the perfect life. The perfect fiancé. Marcus is everything she thought she wanted—sweet, charming, dependable. Safe. She thought she have it all figured out... Until the night of her engagement party, when she comes face-to-face with Damon—her ex. The man who had broken, damaged and left her for ruin, three years ago. The man she’s about to call brother-in-law. Now, old wounds rip open. Feelings she thought she buried, clawed their way back to the surface. And the man she once loved? He isn’t asking this time. Damon wants her back. And he’ll burn every bridge, including the one with his own brother—to make her his again. NOTE TO READERS: This is a dark, emotional, and scorching hot love story. It features a possessive anti-hero, messy family drama, emotional trauma, and morally gray decisions. If you’re looking for a soft romance with flowers and sunshine, this might not be it. But if you crave forbidden passion, flawed characters, and a love story that burns through betrayal and pains… Welcome to Olivia and Damon’s world.

Griffin's parents forcibly ended Griffin and Zaylee's relationship under the pretext of a quid pro quo that assisted Zaylee because her family's company had gone bankrupt. Griffin was willing to accept Zaylee as his secretary to exact revenge for his pain from being deceived by her. Their relationship was too complicated to explain, and the longer it had ended, the more it heated up due to past grudges. Griffin had a fiancée who was a friend of his father and a business partner from their respective families. Their arranged engagement was made for the benefit of both families' businesses. The night of Griffin and Frey's engagement event, he had to be disrupted because Zaylee appeared and declared she was pregnant. Griffin was the father of the unborn child in her womb, which made him even angrier as the situation worsened, not to mention his parents' anger towards him. Griffin was furious because Zaylee was so stubborn. He had tried hard to persuade her to have an abortion, as he saw it as the only easy and advantageous solution for both parties. However, Zaylee was unwilling, saying that even a lion wouldn't eat its offspring. How could a mother kill her innocent flesh and blood? Time continued to pass, Zaylee's pregnancy grew, and it became a looming issue for Griffin. It also had an impact on his company's stocks. Zaylee eventually gave up, choosing to isolate herself rather than seek accountability from Griffin, who accused her of various actions that damaged her reputation. Surprisingly, her departure led Griffin to discover a truth he had not known. His perspective on Zaylee changed, and he now admitted to himself that even after their relationship ended forcibly, his heart still belonged to her, regardless of his engagement and upcoming marriage with another woman.

He rejected me, and then he realized I’m the center of his world. Bummer. Una I keep my head down. In this backwards pack, females rank low, and my bad leg makes me damaged goods. It doesn’t help that I’ve never shifted. I don’t mind the late twenties single life, though. No one’s paying any attention as I build an illicit farmer’s market empire. My roomies and I are doing it for ourselves, and if life under Killian Kelly is stifling, at least it’s predictable. We can deal. But when biology finally kicks in, I lose my mind. I claim our alpha as my mate. And he rejects me in front of the whole pack. It’s all good. It only hurts when I breathe. I’ll survive. That’s what I do. Who wants an arrogant jerk for a mate, anyway? I’ve got a business to run. Killian To lead this pack out of the dark ages, I’ve had to be hard. Merciless. I don’t flinch, and I don’t make mistakes. Una Hayes isn’t my mate. My wolf might have some kind of strange infatuation, but if she were mine, I’d know it. And I can walk away, can’t I? And if I keep coming back? If she starts living in my head? I’m the strongest male in five generations. My pack scrambles to do my bidding. I can bring one quiet female back in line. No one can possibly be as stubborn as I am. There’s no way I’ve ruined the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m the Quarry pack alpha. I don’t lose.

Because of an accident during the hunt, I lose the chance to be "awakened". My wolf becomes badly damaged, and I'm forced to take the "inhibitor" injection to stay alive. I lose my strongest backing—my dad, the Alpha of the Argent Flame pack. After my dad's passing, his close friend, Ryder Wright, takes me to the Glace pack. As the Alpha and leader of the pack council, he can protect me. Meanwhile, my most trusted best friend steals the original draft I wrote when I was younger. The story goes viral among humans, and she becomes the most popular "werewolf literature" author. There's a charming Alpha in the story. He's her crush. Now, the three candidates of my marriage of convenience have been following her around, arguing about the real identity of her crush in the story. When I'm being mentioned, they seem irritated, and their tone is full of contempt. "How could she still think of marrying us when her wolf can never be awakened?" "Princess of the Argent Flame pack? Hah! She's nothing but a loser now!" "Why don't we try triggering her again? Maybe she'll go completely crazy if she loses control of her wolf." "Haha! Then none of us needs to marry her." I stand at the door, and the wolf hidden in me for years is awakening. They have no idea that the inhibitor has lost its effects, and my awakening is secretly happening. I've never loved any of them. They are merely pawns for me to pick. My phone rings, and it's a call from Ryder. "Aria, have you decided? Among the three candidates, who are you going to choose?" "Alpha Ryder, do I only have three choices?"

Alpha Ethan's first love, Sarah, died unexpectedly just days before their marking ceremony. His grief was so profound, it sent shockwaves through the entire Duskrend pack. I spent my youth walking beside him, helping him crawl out of that darkness. And finally, when he was ready to love again, he chose to mark me. In the first two years after he marked me, I got pregnant twice. Both times ended in miscarriage. Ethan, heart aching, told me he couldn't bear to see me suffer through childbirth again. That he didn't want me to endure that kind of pain anymore. But in the third year, I conceived again. On the way to see the pack healer for a routine checkup, I was attacked by a wild beast. My wolf, desperate to protect me, burned through most of her life force holding the creature off. Ethan arrived just in time and carried me to the pack hospital himself. But the healer shook his head. We had lost too much time. The pup couldn't be saved. Worse, my ability to bear pups would be permanently damaged because my wolf was too injured to ever carry life again. My mother clung to me, sobbing. Ethan stood in the corner and smiled. "Joy just can't have pups anymore," he said. "But Sarah—Sarah lost her life because of people like you." Then he looked at my mother, his voice edged with contempt. "You were the one who forced Sarah to abort. You watched her—an Omega without a wolf—scream herself to death. So now, your daughter shall feel that pain too." Five years after severing our mate bond, Ethan had become the most powerful Lycan Chairman the region had ever seen—courted, admired, endlessly celebrated. And me? I was working at an underground club. I was dressed in scraps of fabric, smiling until my cheeks ached, bowing and pouring drinks for whoever walked into the VIP room. There shouldn't have been any reason for our paths to cross again. But Ethan held me tight, eyes red and refusing to let go— “Say it,” he whispered, voice breaking. “Call me your mate.”