Eight Dates

He is supposed to be my best friend—at least I have been seeing him as one—doing a lot of things with him together. We go to school together, share the same hobbies, and love the same sports. He is my day one, my buddy. Up until after the summer vacation when we started a new life in the same college as freshmen. That is when I discover that I have developed a soft spot for him, which accounts for the way I missed him during the summer vacation. I have never missed Liam like that. I mean, I do miss him but not compared to last summer. I wanted him around me and his image occupied my mind's eye. Starting college with a crush on my best friend is not an ideal way to begin the academic year. No matter how I try to suppress it by going on dates and accepting relationship proposals from guys, instead of it going away, it doubles. Worse still, he sees me as his buddy. He has never looked at me the way he looks at other girls. I know I am a bit of a tomboy. My other friends tell me that my dress sense is a bit masculine. I try changing my fashion sense but to no avail. Sadly, all I am to Liam is his day one bestie and buddy. I do not want to tell him about the feelings I have because I do not want to put our friendship in jeopardy. I had already given up hope Until the dare at one of my other friend's parties _ Evie. The dare for Liam to kiss me. The kiss opens another chapter; I would never have believed in my entire life to be possible—Liam actually likes me!

I am Jessica Myers. 30 years of age. I am an introverted type of person and spends most of my time at home, watching Netflix. I don't usually go out and I don't have a lot of friends. Despite my age, I still keep a diary with me and every time I want to share something to someone, I write it on my diary. Everyone might think I am boring, but this is the life I am comfortable to live with. I was bullied as a student which makes me have a hard time trusting other people. Like other , all I want is to be loved. I hope to meet someone who can make me feel special despite my characteristics and flaws. I am an ordinary woman who wants to be pursued by a guy, receiving flowers, going on dates in cinemas or simply walking in a park. My ideal man? I just want to meet someone who is nice and who can listen to my stories no matter how simple and boring they are. I don't think I am a difficult person to deal with but why is no one liking me? I am an NBSB and because of that, I have low self-confidence. I sometimes ask myself if I am capable to love and to be loved. I hope someday, like in fairy tales, my prince charming will come. I hope someone out there will see the beauty in me, maybe not physically but with my character. Don't get me wrong, I am happy with my life now, but I am sure I will be happier to be spending it with someone. Will I still get a happy ending like the characters in fairy tales? When can I experience the love I have always been hoping for?

During my wedding, which is livestreamed all over the world, my fiancé, Marvin Keller, calls me a shameless woman who's gotten pregnant out of wedlock. Then, he calls off our engagement and marries my father's illegitimate daughter, Delilah Lambert. My mother is so incensed by this that she gets a stroke and ends up bedridden. Amid my despair, my childhood friend, Tristan Wright, proposes. He tells me he's had a crush on me for many years and is willing to treat my child with Marvin as his own. I'm moved by Tristan's promise and accept his proposal. Three years after we get married, I give birth to a stillborn. My mother is still in a coma and doesn't seem like she'll ever wake up. I'm hospitalized after getting into an accident for the eighth time. That's when I overhear Tristan's conversation with a private doctor. Finally, I discover the truth—he's never loved me. "You orchestrated eight accidents just to make sure Delilah would inherit her family's fortune? Are you out of your mind?" "I've done Lethia wrong with this, but I'll use the rest of my life to atone for my sins. She should be satisfied with that."

After a wild college party, Isla woke up to the shock of her life. The school’s golden boy, Damien Da Silva, was lying naked beside her. He was her secret crush, someone she never dared walk the same path with. But when Damien woke up, his words were cold and cruel. “Get out of my sight. And don’t tell anyone what happened, or I’ll make the rest of your life hell.” The next day, a video of them leaked. Furious, Damien showed up and spat in her face in front of the whole school. “You’re just desperate for my attention,” he said. “Everyone knows you’re not my type.” Humiliated and bullied, Isla was forced out of school. And just when she was about to lose everything, an unexpected phone call changed her life. Eight years later, fate brought Isla and Damien face to face again, this time at an elite business gala. But everything was different. “Isla Pereira?” he asked, staring at the stunning woman before him. “It’s no longer Pereira. It’s Khan,” she replied, flashing a sapphire-halo diamond ring. His eyes widened. “You’re married?” Isla smirked. “You’d rather I waited for you?”

After my husband died in a car accident, I worked tirelessly running a small restaurant to raise my son, Henry. Right before Henry's wedding, I won eight million in the lottery. Thrilled, I decided to sell the restaurant and finally enjoy retirement. So, I called to tell Henry about selling the restaurant, his usually polite fiancée turned hostile. "You're not expecting us to support you, are you? We've barely started working!" She even warned Henry, "If you spend any of our money on your mom, the wedding's off!" Henry argued with her but then reassured me, promising, "You've worked hard enough, Mom. I'll take care of you." Feeling pretty good, I planned to give him two million to start a business. The next day, I got a call saying Henry had been in a serious car accident and urgently needed fifty thousand for surgery. I sent the money immediately, but afterward, Henry vanished. Desperate, I braved a storm to find him in his city, only to walk into a wedding at some fancy hotel. There's Henry, giving a toast and calling another woman "Mom." And, oh, sitting beside her? My "dead" husband from ten years ago.

As she collapsed to the floor, she swore that Andrei would die at her hand. Eight years later, she reinvented herself and became his assistant. "You put something In my drink?" He asked incredulously. "Yes, I did Andrei. You thought you could kill my father and go scot-free right?. Well, karma is a bitch, isn't it?. You sent my father to jail for a crime he did not commit and he died in prison because of you. Now you know how it feels to lose everything including your life Andrei. "You're wrong Selena. I'm not an opponent that can be killed easily. I rule this game you think you are playing Selena " he hissed darkly. He smirked suddenly. "There's this special clause in my company rules which say if I were to marry anyone who owned shares in my company then their shares become automatically mine, did you forget to read that all the while you worked here" "You must be out of your mind. I will never marry you in this world or the next" she fired hotly. "It's not up to you anymore Selena Martinez, I always get what I want and as you might have noticed, I go the extra mile to get what I fucking want," he whispered darkly...

My roommate branded herself as an influencer against beauty standards, vowing to free girls from appearance anxiety. Strangely, whenever she stayed up late partying and broke out in pimples, they would appear on my face instead. When she fooled around and caught an infection, the rashes spread across my body. The more radiant she became, the more monstrous I looked. People recoiled from me. Friends cut me off. My own boyfriend, before a crowd, told me I should just die. Then my roommate got pregnant, yet it was my stomach that swelled like I was eight months along, scarred with terrifying stretch marks. She, meanwhile, looked more flawless than ever, appearing barefaced on camera to encourage girls not to fear their looks. I knew something was not right. When I tried to dig for answers, my roommate and boyfriend trapped me in a basement. They tortured me until I died. Only then did I learn the truth. He owned a cursed amulet that shifted all her pain onto me. The moment I opened my eyes, I was back on our first day of college together. This time, the game is mine. I'll make sure they pay.

My parents made Dana and me settle it with rock-paper-scissors. Loser had to marry the Baillieu heir—the so-called "freak." I won. Then flipped the script. "Cool. I'll take Blake. Dana can have the empire." Last time? I was dumb in love with Michael—Dad's adopted golden boy. Chose the company, stayed behind, and handed Dana off to Blake Baillieu. Big mistake. Six months in, Dana was gone—wrecked by that marriage. Right before she croaked, she texted Michael blaming me. Said I lost the game and ditched the deal, dumping Blake on her. Michael? Snapped. Dude went full psycho. Turns out, he and Dana had been sneaking around for years. He dragged me behind the Baillieu estate and forced a dozen intellectually disabled men to assault me. "If it weren't for your cruelty, Dana would still be alive! You'll pay for everything she suffered!" I was over eight months pregnant—almost due. Begged him to stop. Begged for my baby's life. He didn't care. Kept ordering them to take turns. Even when my water broke, he just watched. Both my baby and I died that night. Now? I'm back. And this time, I rewrote the story. Step one: marry Blake.

Anna Russell thought she had found her forever in Derrick Martinez, the man holding the Silverfang Pack together while their Alphas were in seclusion. She gave him her innocence and her heart, only to find him in the arms of another woman hours later. Humiliated, rejected, and cast out into the rain by the very pack she called family, Anna decides she is done playing the victim. She trades her tears for a leather jacket and her heartbreak for a handgun. She rides to the Silverfang palace to end the man who betrayed her, but a single bullet intended for the Beta hits the wrong target. Ryker Reed, the most ruthless of the legendary Twin Alphas, doesn't even flinch when her bullet pierces his skin. Instead, he looks at Anna with a dark, hungry smirk. He and his brother Ronald have returned from eight years of exile to find their pack in shambles and their fated mate standing before them with a smoking gun. Now, Anna is caught between two powerful Alphas who want to claim her and a past that wants to destroy her. With the Silverfang Pack riddled with traitors, fake bonds, and hidden assassins, Anna must decide: Will she run from the destiny she never asked for? Or will she seduce the twin kings and take the throne she was born to rule?

Rakar Adiyatama is known as a cold and mysterious CEO, but beneath his expensive suits lies a dark secret—he is the legendary Alpha of the Velkan Clan, a line of werewolves thought to be extinct. For love, he abandoned his throne and married Revira Ardelia, an ordinary human woman completely unaware that the man sleeping beside her is a monster. Their perfect life shatters when their only son, Ardan, falls mysteriously ill on his seventh birthday. Doctors find nothing, yet the birthmark on Ardan's back begins to glow like blood. Rakar knows this is no ordinary sickness; it is the awakening of the *Blood Moon*, an ancient and dangerous power that a half-human child should not possess. When a mad scientist kidnaps Ardan for a gruesome experiment, Rakar is forced to unleash the beast he has buried for eight years. His secret is brutally exposed, shattering Revira's trust. Now, Rakar must fight on three fronts: win back the heart of his terrified wife, protect his son from the rival Lunaris Clan who has come to claim the Blood Moon's power, and face his own clan who brands him a traitor. Caught between two worlds, Rakar must prove that a father's love is deadlier than any Alpha's fangs.