Face Genius

My name is Ivy Lawson. At 3:00 am, I get a call from Christina McSpire, a parent of one of my students. "Hello, Ms. Lawson, I noticed Zoe only spent five dollars on her meal yesterday. Did she not eat any meat?" she asks. Pushing through my exhaustion, I reply, "Don't worry, Mrs. Street. I'll check on it tomorrow." Another half hour goes by, and she calls again. "It's supposed to rain tomorrow. Can you remind Zoe to bring an umbrella?" I can hardly keep my eyes open. "Got it," I reply absentmindedly. A few minutes later, my phone rings once more. "Please make sure Zoe brushes her teeth for three minutes. It's also important that she scrubs each side of her face at least three times." Suppressing my frustration, I calmly respond, "Zoe is in her senior year of high school. I'm sure she's capable of taking care of herself." I expect that to be the end of it, but when I wake up, my silenced phone shows over a hundred missed calls.

She was forced to marry Ethan Crawford after a mistaken one-night stand. Her feelings towards him are neutral as she's ready to live peacefully with him. But Ethan felt displeasure towards her because of her stepsister, Nicole. Her attempts to make their forced marriage work were futile because of Ethan's resistance. After finding out about her pregnancy, she was cornered by Nicole and forced to leave the city with her unborn child. Five years later, she returned as the CEO of a fast-rising company and a mother to a genius daughter. Then he suddenly wants her back in his life. Not just her, but her genius daughter as well.

He broke the bond. Now, her brothers will break his empire. Sierra Vaughn was the Steele Pack’s best-kept secret—a "wolfless" Omega who served her Alpha husband, Cameron Steele, with a quiet, devastating devotion. For three years, she endured his cold stares and the pack’s whispered insults, all for the sake of a fated match he refused to acknowledge. But the night she finally discovers she’s carrying his heirs—twins with a scent more powerful than any Alpha in history—Cameron delivers a killing blow. He demands a Severance of the Mate Bond to marry a "worthy" high-ranker, Lexi Hart. Left for dead and exiled into the winter wilderness, Cameron expects Sierra to fade into a memory. Instead, he ignites a war. Because Sierra Vaughn isn’t an Omega. She is the True Lunar Heiress of the legendary Vaughn Circle—the most ancient, lethal, and wealthy Great-Pack in the Northlands. And she has six overprotective Alpha brothers who have been waiting for the moment she finally comes home. Landon, the Real Estate Titan, who builds her a fortress. Miles, the Tech Genius, who silences Cameron’s communications. Dr. Aaron, the Healer, who vows to keep her and her pups safe at any cost. Julian, Cole, and Ryder, who use their fame and power to dismantle the Steele Pack’s reputation, brick by bloody brick. As Sierra transforms from a discarded wife into a Sovereign Queen, her scent becomes an intoxicating drug that Cameron can no longer ignore. He’s feral with regret, desperate to reclaim the mate he threw away. But Sierra is no longer a submissive wolf. She’s a Vaughn. And if Cameron wants a second chance, he’ll have to crawl through a gauntlet of ten protective Alphas just to catch a glimpse of the throne

After the tragic death of my best friend, I took her younger brother in and treated him like my own. Everyone knew how much Zach Lawson meant to me, so much so that I vowed not to marry because I could not bear leaving him. The day he turned eighteen, he got on one knee and asked me to marry him. With tears of joy streaming down my face, I took the bouquet from him, only to realize they were made of writhing snakes. Everyone laughed at my misfortune. It was an artfully crafted joke, at my expense. Thalia Lewis laced her arm through Zach's and grinned. "Sorry about that, Sydney. It was just an innocent prank. Zach is willing to do anything to make me smile!" Zach gave me a look of utter disgust. "Is this what you think of me? You're my sister! How can you even think of marrying me? This is vile! Is this the reason you took me in? Have you been secretly pining for me since the start?" My whole life had come crashing down around me. I was overcome with shock, misery, and despair, until Connor Grey showed up and asked for my hand in marriage.

I was in the middle of hosting an important international meeting when my younger brother’s sudden call interrupted me. On the other end, his voice was low and trembling. "Matt, someone took my spot for the exchange student program." I rushed to his school right away, only to find him cornered in an office, his eyes slightly red. A cocky-looking boy was pointing at Tim’s nose, his face full of arrogance. "You want to compete with me? I’m the heir of the Smiths in Ardenford. My mom just donated an entire lab building to the school! Who do you think you are?" Even the teacher nearby spoke up in support of him. "Timothy, the Smiths are one of our school’s major benefactors. You’d better be sensible and not cause any trouble." I was about to step forward and confront them when those words—the Smiths in Ardenford—made me stop cold. The Smiths in Ardenford? Since when did my mom have a third son besides me and my brother, Timothy? I immediately dialed her number, a cold laugh slipping from my lips. "Mom, when did you have another son behind Dad’s back?"

When I steal the cheer captain, Cora Knightley's, number one spot in our grade, her childhood sweetheart—an Alpha heir—confesses his love to me the next day. Flashing me a mesmerizing smile, Raymond Knox says, "Join my world and relish the ultimate freedom and recklessness, will you?" Of course, my answer is… yes. I agree, sealing his lips with a passionate kiss. My grades start dropping, until I eventually become one of his kind. At the same time, his body belongs to me. We can't keep our hands off each other. But despite the countless intimate moments we share, he never seems to enjoy kissing me—until the entrance exam for Lycanshire University is finally over. That's when he kisses me and seduces my wolf, luring me to go to Mangy Hollow Community College with him. So this has been his goal all along. But I'd known it since the start. Gently slapping my Lycanshire University admission letter against Raymond's face, I say, "Being with you this year has been fun. I'm very satisfied. "But my future matters more. Let's break up."

My mother said I was a born beauty and was able to charm any man. She told me not to touch a man before my twentieth birthday. In the previous timeline, I listened to her, so when a wealthy heir was dosed with an aphrodisiac, I pushed him away when he tried to take me into his embrace. But the effects of the skincare routine I did transferred to my mother after my twentieth birthday. I used face masks, but my face became wrinkled and spotted. Meanwhile, my mother glowed with smooth and youthful skin. I danced, but I only became fatter while my mother became slim. Seeing how I looked like a fifty-year-old woman, my father called me a useless piece of trash and wanted to marry me off to a bald man as his second wife. I cried and begged my mother for help. But she said this was for my own good, her twenty-something face a mask of hypocrisy. I was forced to run away from home, but doing so only sped up my aging. Three days later, I died on the streets right by a trash heap. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back in time to the night I met that rich heir. This time, I did not push him away but straddled him in bed.

An intern named Maxim Barker has joined the company. When he's in the middle of his self-introduction, I see a bunch of comments suddenly popping up in front of my eyes. "Holy shit, Maxim is finally here! Soon, Charmaine will be reunited with him. She'll then ditch William just to be with Maxim again!" "William, don't you dare start anything now! You'd better go along with Maxim's flow and help him get back together with Charmaine!" "That's right! If William stops the plot from progressing, he'll face dire consequences! He can only survive by relying on Maxim!" As soon as Maxim is done with his introduction, he walks over to my desk and picks up the document I'm about to hand in to my girlfriend, Charmaine Fitzpatrick, who works as a manager. "Let me pass the document to the manager." But as soon as Maxim enters Charmaine's office, he gets thrown out immediately. "Get the hell out of my office! Not everyone is allowed to enter my office, you know!"

In my previous life, I was eight months pregnant when my mother-in-law and husband forcibly dragged me to grab decorative gift boxes from the Christmas tree. I told them there was nothing inside, but my mother-in-law slapped me across the face while my husband pulled me into the crowd. A stampede broke out. They clutched their gift boxes and fled to save themselves, while my child and I were trampled to death. They eagerly tore open all the gift boxes with high hopes, only to find exactly nothing, just like I'd warned them. But as I lay dying, I noticed something in the final gift box. A Black Widow spider with an hourglass pattern on its belly crawled onto my mother-in-law's hand. This spider carries deadly venom. Anyone bitten either dies or suffers permanent disability. When I open my eyes again, I'm back on Christmas Day. This time, watching my mother-in-law and husband gear up to fight over those Christmas gift boxes, I won't try to stop them!

"You are weak, scentless, and unworthy. I, Alpha Silas, reject you as my mate." On her 18th birthday, Lyra Thorne didn’t get a celebration. She got a public execution of her heart. In the Blackwood Pack where power is law, Lyra was the anomaly—an embarrassment to her father and a liability to her pack. But the cruelest blow came from Alpha Silas, her Fated Mate. Instead of claiming her, he shattered their bond in front of everyone to marry a rival’s daughter for a political alliance. Broken, pregnant, and left for dead, Lyra fled into the Forbidden Forest. The pack assumed the weak wolfless girl had perished. They were wrong. Three years later, Blackwood is on the brink of war. Their only hope lies with **The Shadow Claws**, a legendary mercenary faction led by a ruthless, masked woman known only as 'The Viper.' She is cold, lethal, and commands respect from the most dangerous wolves in the region. When Silas meets this mysterious warrior, he is inexplicably drawn to her. But when the mask finally slips, he is forced to face his biggest regret: The weak girl he threw away is now the powerful Queen he needs to save his pack. Silas wants her back. He wants to claim what is his. But Lyra didn't return for love. She returned for justice. And she didn't come alone. She brought a little boy with eyes that mirror the Alpha's own... a secret that could either redeem Silas, or destroy his entire kingdom.