Grit

Jax couldn’t believe how it felt to finally touch her the way that he wanted to. She was warm and sweet, and her response was incredible. Total surrender; aching want; hot need. He’d never have guessed that Sarah would give over so completely, and he kissed her over and over again, loving how she tasted. He finally pulled back, fighting with himself to do so. He opened his eyes and saw that hers were still closed. Her mouth was swollen and she trembled against him a bit. He ran his fingers through her curls, brushed her hair back from her gorgeous face. “Open your eyes, baby,” he said, his voice deep and husky. “Look at me.” **** Jax Hamill rebuilt his life on grit, dumb luck, and a refusal to look back. The past is buried. The bar is profitable. The house, truck, and bike are his. So is the no-strings sex in a back room he never plans to clean up. Jax lives for now. Everything is temporary.... until she isn’t. Sarah Matthews is drowning in responsibility. Overworked, overstretched, and painfully single, her life is a color-coded calendar of obligation. She doesn’t need romance. She needs escape....just once. Just long enough to remember who she was before life tightened the leash. Their deal is simple: no future, no promises, no feelings. Just heat. Just fun. Just temporary. Then a ghost from Sarah’s past crashes the fantasy – and turns desire into a battlefield. As Sarah fights to reclaim her life, Jax is forced to face the man he used to be, the man he pretends to be, and the man he might become… if he dares to want something real.

(Completed) My panic grows and I begin to struggle with him, "Stop! William gets off me, you don't know what you are doing." He pushes me harder against the bed, "Would you feel better if it was your British boy doing this to you?" He slurs as his hands come to touch my face. I throw my face away from his touch and I see him clench his teeth from the corner of my eyes. "You don't want me anymore?" I glare at him, "Not like this I don't. Get off me!" I say, pushing him off but he traps my hands and holds them above my head. "Stop fighting me!" He snaps, "this, this is what you want!" "No, it's not!" I exclaim, kicking my legs which are slowly growing numb from his weight against him. He raises a brow, "You love me right?" I grit my teeth at his tricky question; if I say yes, then he'll want me to want this and if I say no, that would be a lie. "Yes, but not like this!" I answer in frustration. He moves to settle properly, on my legs, "Well I think you should get to know every side of me; including this side." He sneers into my ears left ear, licking my face. His hand unfastens his belt and unzips his trousers and shoves it down. ***Karen thought telling William how she felt about him would make things better between then, little did she know it would be the exact opposite.

Lyana Dela Merced grew up with nothing but grit and determination. Life had never been kind to her. From abandoned by her lover, and later losing her only child to illness, she learned the hard way that pain doesn’t pause for anyone. But even when the world kept breaking her heart, she refused to stay down. Her younger brother, who battled mental illness, depended on her strength, and that was enough reason for Lyana to keep fighting. From one side job to another, Lyana took on every decent work she could find just to survive. Cleaning houses, waiting tables, running errands—name it, she’s done it. So when her doctor friend one night offered her a stable job with the wealthy Tejada family, she didn’t think twice. But what she didn’t expect was that the job came with a shocking twist. Instead of being hired as a simple housekeeper, the Tejadas wanted her to be their surrogate mother. They couldn’t have a child of their own, and they wanted Lyana to carry the baby for them. Torn between desperation and morality, she faced an impossible choice: become the billionaire’s baby maker, or walk away from the one chance that could change her family’s life forever. Years later, fate plays its hand again. The widowed Preston Tejada crosses paths with Lyana Dela Merced, the woman who once carried his child. Old secrets resurface, hearts begin to stir, and both must confront a past that refuses to stay buried. Can Lyana right the wrongs she once made with the Tejada family? Or will she find herself falling for the very man she was never meant to love?

Riven, mi compañero destinado, era el Alfa de una manada patética al borde del colapso. Durante cinco años fui su sombra, su estratega. Levanté su manada de la nada hasta que la Alianza nos reconoció, y estábamos listos para trasladarnos a las tierras fértiles. Riven prometió que celebraríamos nuestra ceremonia de unión en cuanto nos instaláramos en el nuevo territorio. Sin embargo, durante el banquete de celebración, la noche anterior a la mudanza, me arrojó a una celda. Anunció públicamente que Jenna, la loba que llevaba a su cachorro en el vientre, sería la Luna de la manada. No podía dar crédito. Le grité, pero él me hizo una mueca de desprecio y señaló un cristal que vibraba con magia oscura. —¡Jenna ya tiene pruebas de tu traición! Te acostaste con otros Alfas para conseguir su apoyo. ¡Me das asco! Le supliqué. Pero él me cortó la mejilla con el borde de plata de la carta de disolución de vínculo, apartándome formalmente de su lado. Pero él no sabía quién era yo en realidad. Soy la hija del Rey Alfa. Las estrategias, el poder, las alianzas... nada de eso era suyo. Todo era mío. Así que lo recuperé todo.

As I grit my teeth and buy the last box of discounted shrimp, a young woman dressed head to toe in designer brands is picking out imported seafood beside me. She glances at me and casually drops a king crab into my cart. "It's the holidays. Treat yourself better," she says with a carefree smile. "I'll pay for everything you buy today." I am shocked when I see the five-figure price tag. I quickly try to decline her by waving my hands frantically. She pulls out a black card and shrugs. "It's fine. My sugar daddy gives me more money than I can spend. If I don't use it, he'll get mad." I force a laugh. "Sounds like he's really generous to you." "He's alright, I guess. I can't spend money as fast as he earns it," she says nonchalantly. After a slight pause, she goes on, "Speaking of which, his girlfriend is pretty dumb. She works nonstop for years just to help him pay off a debt that doesn't even exist. When I say I want him to cook on New Year's Eve, he immediately ditches his girlfriend to come be with me." I freeze for a moment. My boyfriend, Eric Sterling, is in debt. Just as I am thinking it can't be that much of a coincidence, my phone buzzes with a message from Eric. He texts, "Anne, the company assigned me to an extra shift tonight. I get triple the pay. Buy yourself something nice to eat. I'll be home tomorrow."

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.

I’d just set sail to escort the cargo to the border when a Category 8 typhoon warning suddenly blared. I steer the ship back in the direction of the harbor, only to realize that the ship has run out of fuel. The distress beacon has been dismantled, too. Immediately, I pick up the radio and call the maritime rescuers for help. As soon as the call gets connected, I hear my wife, Melanie Watkins' mocking laughter instead. "I've already rewired the emergency number so that you can never reach the rescuers. Have fun surviving in the ocean!" Her student, Darell Parker, is with her as well. "Remember when you made fun of me for not knowing how to swim, Clifton? Well, now you're given the chance to show off your swimming skills! You can swim all the way back to the shore on your own! You'd better not be as slow as the sea turtles!" The waves have almost capsized the cargo ship. If I can't get rescued anytime soon, I'll end up dying in the sea. I can only grit my teeth before pleading to Melanie, "No one can possibly swim back to shore! Help me call the maritime rescuers—" But she laughs coldly in return. "Why do you need the rescuers' help? Didn't you say one must learn how to protect themselves? Now swim! "If you think the waters are too cold, then swim faster! Maybe you'll feel warmer the faster you swim!" I give up on arguing with Melanie. After that, I head toward the cargo area with a blade in hand and get ready to sever the ropes tying the cargo down. Said cargo contains the ransom money that's capable of saving Ella Zimmerman, the daughter of Hugh Zimmerman, the wealthiest man in Starbury.

As the quality control supervisor of an import company, I need to finish up the storage of the final batch of king crabs before the Independence Day festivities. Just after entering the subzero freezer, the door is immediately locked shut. The alarm system also fails. When I realize I'm starting to lose body heat, I immediately take out the hand warmers from the emergency kit. However, the moment I apply them, a chilling sensation makes me instantly realize something is wrong. I scream from the cold, and the walkie-talkie transmits the boisterous laughter of my fiance, Martin Clay. "We're live-streaming and challenging the company's 'Ice Queen' to be locked in the freezer. Let's see how long she lasts!" The flirty voice of his female colleague, Lilian Saunders, also comes through, "Sierra, smile for the folks in the live stream! The number one donor wants to see it!" I instantly understand that they're live-streaming a prank on me. Not only did they lock me in the freezer, but they've also replaced my life-saving hand warmers with cooling patches meant for fevers! I grit my teeth, trying hard to stay calm as I call out to them for help. "The spare… spare hand warmers… Give them to me!" My fiance's voice rings out from the walkie-talkie, sounding unconcerned, "Oops! Lily gets cold easily, and it's her time of the month. The spares are all being used to keep her belly warm! "You're so healthy that you can just jump around a little and you'll warm up! You might even get some tips from the number one donor!" I stop arguing with them. With frozen hands, I pull out the signal flare gun and aim it at the most valuable and mysterious cargo in the freezer—a tube of frozen sperm worth 200 million dollars.

# Iron Valley Neah is human, living in a world that was never hers. After her parents die in a car crash when she is fifteen, her mother's best friend—the Luna of the Iron Valley Pack takes her in. Neah grows up alongside Caleb, the future Alpha, training with warriors, earning her place through grit and stubbornness alone. She has plans: college, business school, a life built on her own terms. She knows she will never have a mate. She knows she doesn't belong. Then everything shatters. Caleb finds his true mate and Neah is cast aside overnight. Wolves from rival packs show up at the border asking for her by name. A half-dead Alpha from the most powerful pack in three territories crashes into her life claiming *she* is his mate. And a phone call from a voice she buried three years ago delivers an impossible truth—her mother is alive, her father's death was no accident, and someone has been watching her since the day of the crash, waiting for the right moment to collect. Liam Ashford, the ruthless young Alpha of Shadow Peak, never wanted a mate. He watched the bond destroy his father and nearly destroy his pack. But his wolf dragged him across three territories to a human girl with no wolf, no rank, and no idea how valuable she really is. Neah doesn't need a mate. She needs answers. But the closer she gets to the truth, the more she realizes the bond she keeps rejecting may be the only thing standing between her and the people who want her dead. What is it about a ordinary human girl that has every powerful wolf in the region willing to kill or die to claim her?

🌙 Moonlight Mystique At Halewood University—an ivory tower of privilege, ambition, and secrets—Eliot Navarro is a stranger in a world that doesn’t want him. A scholarship student with nothing but grit to his name, he vows to keep his head down, earn his degree, and escape unnoticed. But fate, and one storm-gray gaze, have other plans. Damien Leclair is Halewood’s untouchable king. Beautiful, brilliant, and cruel, he rules the campus with arrogance sharpened to a weapon. To everyone else, he is danger wrapped in silk. To Eliot, he is an obsession he never asked for—a storm that refuses to let him breathe. From the moment Damien’s eyes lock on Eliot, the game begins. It isn’t friendship. It isn’t rivalry. It’s possession. Damien doesn’t chase—he claims. No matter how Eliot resists, no matter how fiercely he builds his walls, Damien circles closer with every step, unraveling his defenses thread by thread. And just when Eliot thinks he’s found a safe harbor in Theo—the warm, messy boy who makes him laugh—Damien’s shadows stretch long. Because Damien doesn’t share. Every smile, every touch, every stolen moment with Theo becomes fuel for his jealousy, twisting into dangerous games that blur the lines between desire and destruction. Caught between two worlds—warmth and fire, safety and obsession—Eliot must decide whether to run from Damien’s grasp or surrender to it. But surrender means more than passion. It means losing himself to the storm, to the man who promises not love, but a haunting claim written in blood and moonlight. Dark. Steamy. Arrogant. Possessive. Moonlight Mystique is a campus boys’ love saga unlike any other—120 chapters of forbidden romance, razor-edged obsession, and a slow burn that ignites into an inferno. It’s a story of dangerous attraction,