Different Not Less

On the eve of our engagement ceremony, I noticed that Angelina Manning, my rich girlfriend, wasn't paying attention at all when we were shopping together. I bought a hotdog from a nearby food truck and passed it to Angelina's lips. To my surprise, she tossed it to the ground furiously. "Devon Fuller, my family wants a son-in-law who can carry himself with confidence and poise! Stop buying these cheap things! You'll just end up embarrassing me even more! How can my parents ever accept you if you keep doing things like this?" Feeling rather awkward, I picked up the hotdog and threw it into a nearby trash can. Then, I nodded in response so that I could maintain our four-year relationship. "Okay." I thought that was the end of the outburst, but Angelina decided to get engaged to Jeffrey Terell the next day. "Devon, Jeffrey committed suicide and got admitted into the hospital just so he could be with me. Once he's back to normal, I'll definitely return to you." I still nodded and broke up with Angelina. "Okay." After that, I left. Four years later, Angelina shows up at my residence with the diamond ring she had used to propose to me back then. "Devon, Jeffrey has agreed to file for a divorce from me. We can finally be together again! I told you before that I can return to your side as soon as Jeffrey lets go of his obsession over me and stops hurting himself." I frown at Angelina, who looks all loving and affectionate. At the same time, I mentally curse myself for picking this particular time to come home. After all, I've decided to come back to my cottage just to grab something on a whim, only to bump into my delusional ex-girlfriend. I just push her toward the door. "Excuse me. I don't want to be late picking up my kid from school."

My best friend and I go to a music festival together. There, my brother's girlfriend locks me in the toilet. "Young women these days are so shameless—I can't believe you had the nerve to seduce my CEO boyfriend! I'm going to teach you a lesson today since your parents obviously didn't raise you right!" She refuses to listen to my explanation. She pours dirty water all over me before slapping me in public and stripping me. Then, she brands me with an insult. By the time my brother arrives, I'm tormented beyond recognition. "I can explain, Spencer! I thought you were lying when you said she was your sister!"

My car was passing by the entrance of the office when I saw both my sisters 'wrestling' vigorously with a bum. I wasn't surprised, however, even recording a video of it and sending it to the biggest news outlet of the country, saying, "I want it seen across the world before 7pm." After all, in my last life, those two sisters were so keen to please Harold Langford that they allowed him to steal my birthright all he wanted. I bore with it because they were family, and ended up resting in pieces. But now that I had a second chance, I would return the favor. At the company gala, Harold once again took my seat as he snorted at me haughtily. "Hmph! If Ellie and Jennie didn't insist on showing you how the world works, a poor college student like you wouldn't even make it through the front door!" "Know your place and don't cause me trouble, or they will have you beaten to a pulp!" Seeing that he was still running his mouth, I kicked him three feet away as I chuckled. "Who do you think you are? How dare you strut when you're just a gigolo who only knows how to please hags!"

A tale of two souls, intertwined by fate: One soul, cloaked with isolation and grief, was a solitary figure who struggles to connect with others. The other soul has a heart hardened against the possibility of love. Florence “Flo” Emry, now twenty-one, has retreated into a life of solitude following a traumatic car accident that occurred when she was sixteen. It changed her life forever. The accident left her completely deaf in one ear and partially deaf in the other as she needs hearing aid for it. She was devastated when she found out that she became disabled, but she was more broken when she also found out that she had tragically lost her parents and older brother in only one night. Feeling abandoned and worthless, Florence, who was filled with debt from her student loan, has become deeply disappointed and resentful towards herself, seeing herself as a useless human being. One fateful day, a chance encounter with a mysterious man named Zacchaeus “Chaos” Spencer Battenkurt the filthy rich billionaire playboy, 26 years old, turned her life upside down. This charismatic, very polite and respectful man, seemingly ordinary, was actually hiding a deep dark secret. These two souls, so different yet intertwined by fate, must navigate their own internal struggles while also confronting the challenges of their external world. But the question remains: Will they be able to break down their barriers and find solace in each other’s company or will their differences prove to be insurmountable obstacles?

She went on a blind date to please her parents… and met her ex-boyfriend’s billionaire boss instead. Adrian Knight needs a fake girlfriend. Zara needs a fresh start. A simple contract: public romance, private distance, and absolutely no feelings. But the more they pretend, the more real it feels and breaking the deal might be the one thing neither of them can survive.

An 18-year wait. A forbidden bond. A love he refuses to claim. What if your niece turned out to be your mate? Seventeen-year-old Zara, a rare Dragon-Were-Vamp hybrid, never expected to fall for the one man she shouldn't: her cold, ruthless uncle — Alpha Jax Stone, the most feared Alpha of the Diamond Heart Pack. But fate doesn’t care about bloodlines. For 18 years, Jax has fought the pull of the mate bond, trying to suppress his wolf’s obsession with the girl he swore to protect. In his desperate attempt to deny destiny, he wounds not only his fated mate—but himself. As the bond tightens and the wait comes to an end, bitter pasts resurface. A rising wave of supernatural drug trafficking, kidnappings of teenage dragons, and the dark secrets of Alpha Kai Stone pull them into a deadly mission where love might not survive. Now, Jax and Zara must face the greatest threat of all—not just a powerful enemy lurking in the shadows, but the impossible love they can no longer run from. Uncle by Blood. Mate by Moon. Monster by Choice.

While I was eating, I came across a post on X. [Found out my girlfriend has a nasty disease and is pregnant. I want my buddy to be the one left holding the bag. What should I do?] I was just about to comment that the poster was out of his mind when I scrolled down and realized people were actually giving him advice. [That's easy! If you two are close, just invite him on a trip.] [Get your girlfriend and your buddy drunk in the middle of the night, then have them stay in your buddy's room. When the time comes, catch them in the act. You can break up and push the kid onto your buddy to take responsibility…] Reading that comment, I couldn't help but laugh in disbelief. I was about to show my friend this mind-blowing post so we could rant about it together when he suddenly looked up at me and asked, "Tyler, are you free this weekend? How about we go on a trip?"

“You were never supposed to exist.” Those are the last words Aeris hears before he’s dragged into the forbidden forest to die. Born scentless and wolfless, beaten by his own pack, and blamed for every misfortune, Aeris has spent his life as a cursed shadow. Until one deadly night forces him into the woods… and into the arms of the most feared Alpha alive. Killian of the Seven Territories is a monster whispered about in every pack,merciless, unmatched, untouchable. But the moment he lays eyes on the broken boy bleeding in his forest… something ancient awakens. A bond. A spark. A mate-pull that should be impossible. And when Killian touches Aeris, his wounds heal. But Aeris carries more than scars. He carries a prophecy. A prophecy older than wolves themselves,one that marks him as the omega who should not exist, the key to ending every shifter’s power forever. Hunters are already closing in, sent by the Council to kill him before he awakens. Killian should turn away. Reject him. Let him die. Instead, he bares his claws at the world and whispers: “Let them come. I protect what’s mine.” Now a ruthless Alpha and a shattered omega must survive assassins, ancient magic, and a destiny written in blood. Because something inside Aeris is stirring,something brighter, darker, and more powerful than any wolf. If it wakes… the entire shifter world will fall. And the only thing more dangerous than the prophecy is the way Killian looks at him like he’s worth saving.

On the night meant to mark her awakening, Lysera loses everything. Ignored all her life, the quiet twin watches as her sister Isyra is celebrated as Luna-to-be, until a single scream turns the pack against her. Accused of attacking her “pregnant” sister, Lysera is beaten, humiliated, and condemned. Even the bond meant to save her betrays her, because the Alpha she is mated to chooses Isyra. Then the truth surfaces at the worst possible moment. As punishment shatters her body, a secret is revealed: Lysera is pregnant. In a pack where harming a pregnant woman invites calamity, her sentence is suspended—but mercy is replaced with something far crueler. The pack demands she give her baby to Isyra, to replace the child Isyra claims to have lost. Trapped among those who see her only as a vessel, betrayed by her own blood, and bound by ancient laws she cannot escape, Lysera must survive long enough to give birth… knowing the child she carries may never be hers. Because Isyra’s crown was built on lies. And because the Alpha who condemned her may one day realize the truth—when it is already too late.

The day before our wedding, my fiance, Yale Salvatore, died in an accident. He had been setting up the venue when the stage collapsed. I'm now a widow and carrying his child. Devastated with grief, I even tried to end my life. However, my parents-in-law urge me not to grieve too much. After all, I'm pregnant and need to stay strong for the child's sake. On the day of Yale's funeral, his older twin brother arrives from Novavista with his wife and child. They're here to attend the funeral. His face is so identical to Yale's that I nearly mistook him for Yale several times. By accident, I overheard a conversation between him and my in-laws. "You faked your death just for Gwen King? Sasha is pregnant with your child! Do you want your baby to be born fatherless?" "You did all of this just so you could be with Gwen out in the open?" My brother-in-law, exasperatedly explains, "Mom, Dad, Gwen has cancer. She has less than a month to live. She's loved me for years, and her dying wish is to marry me. "Once she passes, I'll return to Sasha's side and give her an even grander wedding. Then, I'll be there for the birth of our child, and we'll raise him together." Hearing this, I'm so shocked I can't speak. My so-called "brother-in-law" is actually my fiance, Yale! For the sake of helping another woman fulfill her dying wish, he doesn't care how upset or devastated I may be. And once he completes his benevolent mission, he intends to return to my side? No. My fiance, Yale, is already dead. I won't beg him to come back. And in three days, I'll be just like him. I'll be lying beneath a cold gravestone, and I'll forever vanishing from his world, he will never find me again...