Gideon And Layla

"You keep saying he died of black magic, but you're not telling me exactly how he died. If what you're saying is true... what happened to him??" I ask her with a raise of my brows. "The magic consumed him. He became power hungry. He started absorbing the powers from members of our coven. He wanted it all for himself. He had to be put down. He had to be stopped" She explains "Mom, what are you saying? Are you insinuating what I think you are? What do you mean he had to be put down??" The windows to her room bang open and cool breeze is rushing in, making the papers in her room fly haphazardly. "Layla, you have to calm down." She motions towards me. "So the coven killed him?? They killed my father and you didn't do anything about it????" I scream at the top of my lungs, the lights still flickering, tears pooling in my eyes and wind blowing in through the windows. "He killed two people from our coven! His eyes were completely black! The magic had completely taken over him. Your dad wasn't there anymore. So yes, we killed him to protect the rest of the coven…"

Michael is the alpha of the Red River pack; his cruelty and contempt towards the woman he is meant to love and protect are vile. Will the woman survive? Can they rebuild the rest of their lives, or will his cruelty forever break their minds, bodies, and souls? Nicole was his chosen mate. She knew and experienced firsthand the depths of his depravity. Young, naive, and innocent, she fell victim to his manipulations, only to be discarded when he had no more use for her. To truly know someone, you have to know where they came from; my name is Layla, they are my parents, and this is our story. It never ceased to amaze me how the moon goddess allowed someone like my father to exist. How could she stand by and let one man ruin so many lives, and yet she constantly challenges the rest of us with so much loss and sorrow? I rose above every obstacle put in my path. I have loved, lost, and suffered at the hands of others, and yet I'm still here. I overcame my struggles tougher, stronger, and more determined to build a better life for my people, pack, and family. And I did; we finally made it. I stare at the people in the room. They came into my life when I needed them the most; they are my family, and I love them all.

Everyone’s turning she had witnessed came with its surprise; Camila had passed out, and Gideon had released a howl that made the pack deaf for some minutes, but finding out she was a bastard on the night of her turning was the least surprise she was expecting. Asides from the humiliation that came with it, it meant she wasn't going to be alpha, not in Craw Pack at least. Then the surprises didn't stop as she watched the man she called Father slay her mum like she wasn't Luna, she looked him straight into his eyes while he sentenced her to a lifetime of bondage. The Wells family were fighters, and so she fought for her freedom but ended up as a slave in another pack, hiding her identity to save her life. The white wolves to whom she belonged were thought to be weak, but Isha was ready to change that narrative, even if it meant getting her white dirty. From betraying the one who learned to love her, to taking the lives of the closest persons to her, she avenged her mum's death, built an army, and got everything she wanted, except the trust of the Alpha who meant the world to her. They say you can't just have anything you want, but Isha was convinced she was born to break rules, but she underestimated who was standing on the other end of the line; Holly Smearson was not the girl to cross, not with an Alpha-in-line by her side. Isha would soon understand why the love of her life had wanted Holly by his side in the beginning. Too many lies, too many ties, a white wolf, insides too dirty.

I had agreed to pay 10,000 at the wedding. At the very last minute, my mother-in-law, Alice Thompson, suddenly raised it to 500,000. I went to confront them. My husband, Dylan Forrest, kept his head down, pretending not to hear a thing as he looked at his phone. Alice rolled her eyes, clearly about to brush me off with some excuse. But instead, the truth spilled out of her mouth against her will. "Of course we have to take advantage of you being pregnant and unable to run to squeeze as much money as we can. It's the perfect timing to use it to buy Gideon a house, paid in full!" The words were like a silent explosion. I was so furious I actually laughed. "So, that's the plan? You're trying to strip me for everything I have? If I don't pay, does that mean there's no wedding?" Alice clamped a hand over her mouth, panic flashing across her face. But her voice came out louder than ever, like it was blasting through a speaker. "If you don't pay, then get lost! You're just a pregnant, used woman. Who else would want you besides Dylan?" The guests erupted instantly. Dylan's face went pale as paper. I smiled. Then a mechanical voice rang in my head. "Honest Lies System activated. Malicious fraud detected. Reward granted: 100 billion. Match assigned: the richest man in Lumeria at the next table." "Fine," I said softly. "You said it yourself." I wanted to see just how the Forrests planned to show their faces tomorrow after every ugly truth they'd tried to hide was dragged out into the open.

As the newly coronated Alpha of the Shadow Pack, Xavier Hale has a lot of responsibilities, but his upmost priority is to find the woman he had had a one-night stand with. To his greatest horror, he eventually finds her, but as the member of the traitorous Omega Clan that had murdered his father, leaving him to feel only hatred for her. He would keep her alive and by his side as his personal slave to ensure she spends the rest of her miserable life suffering endless torment at his hands. Layla Clayton never had one moment of peace while growing up, being the only girl in the midst of five older stepbrothers and the legendary Cinderella's stepmother. She only ever got to smile genuinely with the handsome stranger that had taken her innocence, and hopes desperately to meet him again, only to discover that she is his greatest enemy. With him, she suffers ten times the pain she had ever felt and grows to despise him, invoking misfortune upon him. He would refuse to succumb to the attraction he feels towards her, and she would rather die than to accept him as her mate, but can their intense dislike for each other get in the way of the Moon Goddess' plans?

Even though I've been with Eric Blackclaw, the heir to the Alpha title, for three years, he's still unwilling to mark me. Later, he falls in love at first sight with my stepsister, Layla Talbot. Thus, he begins courting her in a grand manner in the pack. This time, I no longer throw a tantrum, nor do I question Eric like I did before. Instead, I just burn all the gifts he's given me and rip my gown for our marking ceremony into shreds. On Eric's birthday, I leave Northpine Woods on my own. Before I board the private jet bound for another continent, Eric sends me a message via the mind-link. "Avril, why aren't you here yet? Everyone's waiting for you." I don't respond to Eric at all. This time, I just sever my mind-link with Eric. What he doesn't know is that I've already accepted Alpha Marcus Howler's mating proposal to me half a month ago. Once the private jet lands in the new territory located in Frosthill Mountains, Marcus and I will become mates with the Moon Goddess as our witness.

I went on a graduation trip with my boyfriend, Marcus Hale, only to have my shameless roommate, Vanessa Quinn, tag along. On the way to Rybia, our plane was caught in violent turbulence and plunged toward the Egete Ocean. Because of a malfunction, only half the oxygen masks dropped. The spiteful Vanessa snatched the oxygen mask meant for a Rybian socialite, Layla Al-Farouq. Unable to stand by, I shared mine with the woman, saving her life. After the emergency landing, her powerful oil tycoon husband, Khalid Al-Farouq, adopted me as his goddaughter out of gratitude, while throwing the vicious Vanessa into the Kibera Slums. Later, I married Marcus, but on the day we went skydiving, he suddenly unbuckled my parachute and shoved me from ten thousand meters above, leaving me to crash into nothing but broken flesh. "If you hadn’t meddled and saved that old woman, my darling Vivi would still be alive!" Only then did I realize the two of them had been betraying me all along. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the exact moment the plane first took off.

“See, malyshka, you walk in here wearing that little skirt and dare to talk about modesty?” I glanced down at my blazer skirt, heat crawling up my neck as his gaze dragged over my legs. “If I weren’t your patient…” He turned slightly, gesturing to the examination bed, his voice dropped dangerously low, “I'd put you right there and demonstrate… “Mr. Ferrari!” I snapped, leaping to my feet, my heartbeat pounding in my ear now. I had never met a man as vulgar, audacious, and devastatingly magnetic as Gideon Ferrari, especially not one wearing a hospital gown. My first therapy session with the sex-addict patient who should have been a simple case… became the moment my ordinary world spinned off its axis. I wasn’t supposed to think of him. I wasn’t supposed to dream of him. And I definitely wasn’t supposed to wake up breathless, aching, and ashamed of how desperately I wanted him. I prayed I’d never see him again. But part of me wondered, hoped, if he’d ever cross my path once more. When he did, everything changed. It became clear that there was more to this infuriating gorgeous Russian than meets the eye. He seemed too willingly to carry my weight and I had deep wounds from the past that needed healing but the problem was, he's already taken. Will we get away with satisfying our deepest dark desires in secret or will he eventually step up and claim me as his forever?

They told me an alpha’s daughter must choose a man to take the rank and position of Alpha of her pack. Why? They said I was too fierce, too headstrong, that this was my father's last wish. Was it? They picked out potential partners and pushed their top choice forward.They said he's the best man for the job. Was he? Lies. In this labyrinth of deceit and manipulation, a twisted game of power and betrayal is at play. They think I have nothing but they're wrong. I have two men ready to stand by my side. Julian Knight, my bodyguard. A man they don't realise is ready to d!e for me. And Quade Steele, the Lycan King. A man as dangerously powerful as he is handsome, offers me his partnership. I know he has his own agenda, but what is it? I'll pay any price for revenge because I am the very storm that will destroy them all. I’ll reclaim what’s mine, turn the world on its axis, and become the ultimate master of the very game created to ruin me. My name is Layla Blackwell and I'm nobody's b!tch.

For five years, Gideon—my brother's Beta—and I had a secret. We were supposed to announce our mating at the pack's Winter Solstice festival. Instead, he breathed hot against my ear. "Babe, we've been sleeping together for five years. I'm bored with you. Find someone else for the marking ceremony, alright?" I didn't cry. I just gave a calm, simple nod. "Alright." Only because in my last life, I had begged him through tears to complete the bond. After he finally marked me, he grew cold. He never again woke me by rubbing his stubbled chin against my forehead. Even when we made love, he kept his eyes shut, as if he were with someone else, just using my body. When I was in agony giving birth to our pup, fighting for my life, he left me. He was going to comfort his savior, Aveline. The old wound she suffered saving him had relapsed, sending her into a mental spiral. In that moment, I finally understood. A mark I had to beg for was nothing but a curse, a wound that would never heal. This time, I pulled away with a smile, removing his hand from my waist. "You're right. I'm tired of it, too. We're done."