Fake Friends Vs True Friends

Morana Greene died loving the wrong man. She built Lancaster Pharmaceuticals beside Xavier, trusted him, defended him, loved him and gave him everything including her blood, her genius and five years of her life. Then she found out the truth. The marriage was fake and the blood he’d been extracting was funding an empire built on illegal trials. When she stopped being useful, he told the doctor to continue anyway and watched the machines drain the last of her life while she lay on a hospital bed. Reborn one month before her death, Morana remembers everything. This time she won’t beg for love and she won’t forgive. Xavier thinks she still belongs to him. He has no idea she’s already planning his downfall. And when the ruthless industry titan Tristan Rothschild offers her a cold contractual marriage to reclaim her stolen empire? Morana doesn’t believe in coincidence anymore. But she’ll use every weapon she has including a billionaire who wants nothing to do with feelings to burn her enemies to the ground.

At the Nightwood Clan's feast celebrating our victory over the hunters, I was accused by Julia—a fledgling freshly turned from a blood servant. The charge? Stealing fifteen crates of mana crystals and hundreds of vials of the finest rare bloods. She pointed a finger at me, her voice ringing with self-righteousness. "Are we going to let a selfish thief like her continue to control this clan's lifeblood? I propose she be thrown into the Silverwater dungeons immediately!" I looked to Joseph, the Earl of Nightwood, the man I had loved for a hundred years. He knew damn well all of it—the blood, the crystals—was mine. My gift to the clan. I needed those crystals to heal the wounds I took in the fighting, and the rare blood was the only way we could call on our allies. But the man who'd been tangled in my sheets just last night now stared at me coldly. "Julia has records of you stealing clan resources. What do you have to say for yourself?" A smirk touched my lips. "I have nothing to say." So, they thought I was some fool they could just push around. They had no idea I was a descendant of the most powerful Vampire Prince of all, Valerius. If they wanted to play games with me, they’d better be prepared for my revenge.

A year ago, Cecilia had met her mate at the funeral of her father and three brothers. He was Vahn Bollen, the Alpha of the Thorn Pack. A year later, Vahn returned from the battlefield, announcing he would marry another woman. "You can continue as Luna, but I'll be marrying Freeda. Once you're pregnant with my cub, I won't touch you again," he said. "I would never accept such a shameless request," Cecilia replied.

My anxiety spiked during our wedding photoshoot. A sharp pain stabbed through my chest. My fiancé, Caius—the Falcone family heir—was helping his adoptive sister, Fiorella, try on my wedding dress. He didn't even spare me a glance. He was on one knee, focused on adjusting the lace on Fiorella’s hem. Before we’d even left the shop, Fiorella posted a selfie in the dress. She was all smiles, my fiancé standing beside her, posed like her groom. Calmly, I pulled out my phone. I sent a message to a painter I keep on retainer. "A royal portrait. The two of them. Old-world style. Use the cheapest materials you can find. I want the frame dripping with fake diamonds. Make it look like trash." I'll have it sent to Fiorella. A wedding present. The note will be simple. "A work of art as priceless as your bond. Best wishes on your wedding."

I arrive in Chicago with two suitcases, a five-year-old, and no room for mistakes. It is supposed to be a fresh start at the Northline Sports Agency, until I am assigned to their most volatile player, Finn Callahan, the hometown star player I walked away from years ago after an ice accident that almost killed him. And Finn doesn't forgive, nor does he forget. With my job on the line, the best player of the Northline Agency and Finn’s charismatic teammate, Jax Mercer, offers me a lifeline. I am to pretend to be his girlfriend to rehab his Playboy rep and fill the stands. Easy, until the act starts to feel real. Until Finn Callahan begins to reel, until the secrets begin to unravel. Until it is realized that the little boy with me has eyes that look unmistakably like a Callahan.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood as his lips brushed against mine. The warmth in his eyes made butterflies swarm in my stomach, and I pushed myself up on the balls of my feet to close the distance between us. I knew he must feel the same way I did, that the feelings between us ran deeper than either of us had admitted to. "Ember?”A man's voice made me pull back, and I turned to meet Tristan's eyes…my mate's eyes. They were full of hurt and betrayal. As if he hadn't rejected me when he found out I, a lowly Omega, was his mate. I told myself to never look back, and I won't let him bring me down again, so I averted my eyes. "Ember is no longer your concern. Get lost.” Dex growled, arm around me in a possessive way. His Alpha command making Tristan grit his jaw before the wolf beside him grabbed his arm and pulled him away to prevent him from causing a scene. I pushed down the churning in my stomach and smiled up at Dex, wanting to pick up where we left off, to show him how much he meant to me… how good we could be together, but I froze as he spoke. "No one is looking now. You can take your hands off me." His words washed over me like a bucket of ice water, though they were just low enough that no one else would hear, saving me from public humiliation. Dex pulled himself from my touch, turned, and walked away. Right, I shouldn't have wanted more. I was just his fake mate and needed to remember my place.

When I went to reissue my mate certificate, the Werewolf Affairs Division told me, "Your mate certificate is a forgery. We have no record of your registration." I stared at the clerk, unable to believe what I was hearing. "But Sam and I registered five years ago. That's impossible. Could you please check again?" The clerk gave me a look before double-checking the files. "We found Alpha Sam's record. But the registered mate… isn't you." My voice trembled. "Then who is Sam's legal mate?" The clerk didn't hesitate. "Lily." I gripped the back of the chair, white-knuckled, just to keep myself upright. Until the clerk had spoken that name, I'd still held on to hope. Maybe it was a clerical error. A mix-up. But of all people, it had to be Lily, Sam's childhood friend. And suddenly, everything started to make sense. In five years of being Sam's mate, he had never marked me. We'd only held a mating ceremony—no certificate, no legal bond. I had given up everything for that ceremony, poured all my hope and love into it, believing I was his, only to find the certificate was fake. The five years I'd thought were mine—our happiness—had all been a lie, crafted and upheld by appearances. If none of it was truly mine, then there's only one thing left for me to do. Leave.

One blind date. Two reluctant hearts. A fake romance that feels way too real… Sienna Blake isn’t looking for love—not after her last relationship left her with more scars than memories. But when her meddling mother sets her up on a blind date, she agrees just to keep the peace. What she doesn’t expect is to come face-to-face with Julian Thorne—her arrogant ex’s boss, a ruthless lawyer with a reputation as cold as the suits he wears. Julian Thorne—high-powered attorney, cold-blooded strategist, and her ex’s dangerously attractive boss. They met once, a year ago, at a company gala. He thought she was a gold digger clinging to her meal ticket. She thought he was an arrogant snob with a god complex. Now he’s her blind date. Julian has his reasons for going along with the charade. Sienna might be the key to taking down a betrayal that nearly cost him everything. All he has to do is play nice, get close, and keep his heart out of it. But the more time they spend pretending, the more real it starts to feel. And when secrets from the past resurface, they’ll have to choose: continue the lie—or risk everything for the truth. From fake to fate—what if the biggest lie becomes their only truth?

"You are mine, Lizzbeth. But as Alpha King, I must reject an omega slave like you." He said that sentence right after their wedding night. "You are rejected. Now, do your duties as my fake contract mate. You must hide our relationship from everyone. Especially, about your pregnancy." ..................................................................................................................... Her 6th rejection forced Lizzbeth to be sold to an Alpha King everyone hates. Why her? Because she is a former king's Alpha daughter who lost her royal status and was expelled from her pack. She must sell herself to free her subordinates. What Lizzbeth doesn't know is that her married life with Alpha King Hilbert is beyond what she expected. Hilbert turned out to be the Alpha she rejected years ago! And he used this fake contract mate as revenge for his unrequited love. "How does it feel to be sold by your father to the Alpha you rejected? Now, you will spend the rest of your life as a child machine for me." ... "You want to save your subordinate, right? Then don't you dare run away from me, or I'll destroy that small pack of yours."

I have to marry my sister’s fiancé in her place. When my twin sister vanishes the night before her wedding, I’m left with no choice but to walk down the aisle toward the ruthless Alpha who rules New York’s underworld and its packs with an iron fist. I knew taking on my sister’s identity wouldn’t be easy. What I didn’t expect was that the hardest part would be not falling for my husband. And as the fragile truce between humans and werewolves begins to shatter, I find that his arms are the only place I can find solace… and perhaps the very thing that will ruin me.