Flinch

"No! It can't be!" I let out an internal hiss. "He would not dare come here!" "What the f*ck, Zara!" Levi bumped into me and growled behind me. "Sorry," I mumbled, wide-eyed. "What's going on with-" Levi's voice faltered when my father turned away from us and approached his table, confirming my worst fears: Noah f*cking Flinch! "Is that?" Levi mind-linked, and I nodded my head. "What brings him here?" He mind-linked. "Zara, I understand that you are familiar with Alpha Noah," my father said. I slowly nodded my head. "Great, Noah has also informed me that you are his fated mate." I slowly nodded, unable to utter a word. "He has requested your hand," my father continued. "Is that so?" I said. "Were you told by Noah that he rejected me more than a year ago?" "He did what?" Levi roared behind me. "There is more," I said. "He rejected me in favor of a mate he chose." **** Zara Silverwood is a silver wolf descended from one of the most powerful packs on the continent. A year after he rejects her, her fated mate comes knocking on her door to tell her he is back to claim her. After Zara turns down his proposal, he goes behind her back and asks her father for her hand. The old Alpha agrees to the arrangement. Zara is unhappy and decides to handle things on her own. She informs her father that she has taken a chosen mate, her Beta, and her best friend, Levi—only he has a little secret. What will happen when Zara's second chance mate attends her and Levi's mating ceremony? Will he stop the proceedings and claim her as his mate? Or is Zara's destiny already set? Will Zara find the happiness she so deserves?

I never should have let my mother hold my future hostage. She paid my tuition with his father’s money. Locked my birth certificate, my transcripts, every scrap of paper I need to survive in a safe I’ll never open. And the one thing I had left of my dad, his old watch, she dangled like a noose. Run, and I lose my education. Fight, and I lose the last piece of the man who actually loved me. So I moved into the Hunters’ mansion. Into the lair of the boy who spent years making my life hell. Chase Hunter. Six-foot-five of pure venom wrapped in muscle and money. The senior who cornered me in empty hallways, who whispered filth in my ear just to watch me flinch, who smiled that sharp, cruel smile every time I broke a little more. I thought graduation meant freedom from him. I was wrong. Now he’s my stepbrother. He hates that I’m here. Hates my mother for sinking her claws into his father. Hates me most of all, for breathing his air, for walking his halls, for daring to exist where he can reach me. But hate isn’t clean anymore. It’s tangled up in heat. In the way his grey eyes strip me bare every time they land on me, the way his hand closes around my throat, not to hurt, but to own. In the way he punishes me over his lap, in his car, against walls, until I’m shaking and soaked and furious at myself for wanting more. He calls me Little Lamb, I call him every name I can think of under my breath. How long until we stop fighting the deadly inferno raging between us and finally let it consume us both?

This isn't a fairytale. Mirror Mirror on the wall. A fairytale that became her fall. “Over my dead body will I let a man whore father my child. You're in every way incapable, irresponsible and definitely incompetent of becoming a father.” She said with a smile. "Stop acting like a saint, you're not one. You're only pregnant because you're a slut yourself, so what exactly is the difference between you and me?” She stepped up to him with a mocking smile. “Maybe, I'll show him pictures.” Anger flared up inside him. Who the fuck does she think she is? “Show him pictures!?" His fingers grabbed her throat. His eyes held hers. She didn't flinch, instead, a small smile played on her lips. Crazy ass bitch. He isn't used to being challenged. “I don't need to beg you for anything.” He growled. "You have no other option.” She scoffed. "I have a lot of options, Kim.” He continued. "I can take him away from you after birth,” “I want to see you try.” The smile on his face told her otherwise. “What will you do? Take me to court? Fight for custody?” He chuckled. “I can bribe the whole fucking court.” Her heart skipped a beat. No. "You don't get to decide.” He lit a cigarette. "Everything will go my way.” "It'll not!” “Maybe I'll show him your pictures. Or let you visit him once a week, who knows?" He shrugged. “This is my child!" She screamed, tears welled up in her eyes. “So it's either you do as I say, or I'll do as I please." “What do you want?" Hot tears rolled down her cheeks. “Where I come, illegitimate children aren't accepted in the family." “I'm not marrying you!" “I'll never marry you!" She screamed. "You have no choice..”

Blurb,: She was his brother's wife. Now she's his obsession. Scarlet Cole endured ten years of a loveless marriage, watching her light dim as her husband Lucas and his family crushed her spirit. When she discovers Lucas's affair with her own stepsister—pregnant with his child—Scarlet finally walks away. But freedom comes at a price. Enter Damian Cole: ruthless, dangerous, and harboring a decade-long obsession with his brother's wife. He's watched her suffer in silence, memorized every flinch, every forced smile. Now that she's free, he'll stop at nothing to claim her—even if it means crossing every moral line. "This is wrong," I whispered, even as heat pooled low in my belly. "You're Lucas's brother." "He stopped being my brother the day he made you cry." "Damian—" "Six years, Scarlet." His thumb brushed my lower lip, and I trembled. "Six years of wanting something I couldn't have. Of watching you slowly disappear. Of hating myself for wanting you when you belonged to someone else." "I don't belong to anyone—" "You do now." His eyes darkened, possessive and raw. I should protest. Should remind him of the boundaries they'd agreed on. Instead, I breathed, "Then take what's yours." I saw something snapped in him. "Not yet. I've waited too long for this. I'm going to take my time." "Damian, please—" "Please what?" His free hand skimmed my breast, thumb circling but not quite touching where I needed him to. "Tell me what you want, Scarlet. Use your words." "Touch me." My pride disappeared. "I need—" "Need me?" He dipped his head, teeth grazing my collarbone. "Say it. Say you need me, not just anyone. Not Lucas, not some fantasy–me." "You," I gasped as his mouth closed over my breast. "I need you, Damian."