He Begged When I No Longer Care

My billionaire husband suffered from chronic insomnia for years. Only the sleep balm I made could help him sleep. On the night of our seventh wedding anniversary, his childhood sweetheart poured a basin of scalding water over the old camphor tree in our garden. I wept and tried to save the tree as she apologized, “I didn’t know you used its leaves to make the sleep balm.” My husband gently comforted her and ordered his men to tie me to the tree trunk instead. “What a precious tree. You’ll spend the rest of your days with it!” With my wrist fractured as a result, I filed for divorce immediately. A month later, my husband was unable to sleep late one night. He stood in the garden and stared at the withered camphor tree.

Hiding from hunters was supposed to be simple, until Ivy transferred to Blackthorn Academy, a school where monsters wear crowns. Her first day ends in disaster when she spills coffee on Karl Draven, the ruthless Alpha Prince she later discovers is her fated mate. And just when she thought things couldn’t get worse, there is Damon Voss, the Vampire who once broke her heart, he's darker and more dangerous than ever. Between a bond she can’t deny, a past she can’t escape, and a secret that could destroy them all, Ivy’s life is spiraling into chaos. Because at Blackthorn, love is a weapon… and one of them will use it to betray her. When the truth comes out, Ivy will learn that sometimes the greatest threat isn’t the monsters hunting you, but the power sleeping inside her.

On our first wedding anniversary, my husband came home with a woman who was six months pregnant. He introduced her as his cousin, someone who had fallen on hard times, and asked me to take care of her. I was just about to agree when fragments of imaginary commentary floated through my mind: [She's just my 'cousin'. Uh-uh, that's a cliche.] [Poor supporting female character! A maid by day, the husband's bedwarmer by night.] [But she totally deserved it! If she hadn't broken up the main couple, they'd have a whole soccer team of kids by now!] Wait—what? Supporting female character? Me? And what's this about breaking them up? So now these two get to cheat under my roof, and somehow I'm the villain? Before I could process it all, my husband was already dragging her luggage inside. "Alice doesn't like fried food," he said matter-of-factly. "And nothing too salty or spicy. Make sure you keep that in mind when you're cooking. "Oh, and pregnant women love sweets. Go out now and buy a cherry cake. The one from that bakery in the suburbs."

After dating for seven years, I proposed a hundred and one times to my boyfriend, Jason Brown. However, he always told me that he was not ready, rejecting my proposals. This continued to my 28th birthday. In his suit pocket, I found a ring box. Thinking he was about to propose to me, I was overjoyed. However, to my horror, I saw him going down on one knee to propose to his assistant, Marcella Hopkins. Right before my eyes, he placed the ring I had yearned for so long on her finger. When one of his buddies asked what he planned to do with me, Jason wrapped his arm around his new love and chuckled. "Dude, I don't think I can bring myself to marry a woman who wants to get married that badly. She's so needy. However, if I do get a second wife, I might consider her. After all, she is hopelessly in love with me." He was sure I would wait for him, and he even placed a bet with his friends that I would crash his wedding. However, on his wedding day, I never showed up. Moments before his wedding ceremony was about to start, he suddenly noticed me, fully dressed up in a wedding gown in a separate banquet hall. Seeing me about to marry someone else, he almost went crazy.

On the day I discovered I was pregnant, my husband's first love—who also happened to be my half-sister—returned.

I push through my Gamma warrior training ahead of schedule just to get back to the pack sooner. All I want is to stand beside my Alpha, Kyle Faucher, and finally complete our mate-bonding ceremony. But when I step into our house, scarred and feeling hopeful, I see 100 old boarding passes to the Darkmoon pack littering the floor. That pack is only a mile from my training grounds. Kyle's been that close for two years, and still, he never came. I sprint to the place where we were supposed to have our mate-bonding ceremony, clinging to the desperate hope that there's an explanation. But the moment I burst through the doors, I stopped cold. Kyle is down on one knee, dressed in a tailored suit, his eyes locked on someone with a softness I've never seen in him before. Standing across from him, smiling through her tears, is my stepsister, Vivian Blackwell. "Vivian, I haven't completed the mate-bonding ceremony with Serene. Say the word, and I'll reject her and mark you right now." At that moment, the world goes still, and I even forgot how to breathe. So this is what he's been doing while I was gone, chasing the woman he never let go of. Meanwhile, I spent those two years giving everything I had, trying to become someone worthy of standing by his side. I don't ask why or shed a tear. I just turn around and walk away. If she's what he wants, then so be it. The mate-bonding ceremony I dreamed of will be theirs instead. But the second I'm gone, he loses it and sends every warrior looking for me.

The Moretti Family's Thanksgiving party was in full swing downstairs—crystal clinks, fake laughs, classic mafia gloss. Meanwhile, I was curled up in a servant's room on the third floor. Jackson Moretti's wife. Legally, anyway. My hands were ice. I gripped the ultrasound report like it could anchor me. Three heartbeats. Strong, steady. It was supposed to be a surprise—his big Thanksgiving gift. To the outside world, Jackson was a polished Stanford grad, running a top-tier consulting firm in San Francisco. But behind the scenes? He ran the Moretti empire—cold, calculated, pulling strings in the West Coast's darkest corners. Three years of marriage and we barely spoke, but I still clung to the hope that maybe... maybe there was something real left. Then I heard him downstairs. "You really not letting your wife come down?" "Isabella?" He laughed. "She'd kill the vibe." Another voice chimed in. "Lina's back, right? Wild you married her twin. Which one do you actually like?" Jackson didn't miss a beat. "Isabella's just a stand-in. Quiet. Predictable. I could tell her to drop dead and she'd say 'okay.'" "So when are you ditching her?" "Dunno. She thinks she matters. I'm just playing her." I slapped a hand over my mouth to muffle the sob. A minute later, I was heading downstairs, numb. I brushed my fingers over my belly. "Sorry, babies," I whispered. Triplets. His. He thought I was blind. Weak. Stuck. What he didn't know? A quiet woman, once she snaps—she can burn it all down.

Broken and shattered, Andre Torello contemplated suicide. Love failed him, it pierced his heart and left him bleeding. There's nothing left to hold on to, nothing is left when love has failed him. His fiancee left him, she kept him waiting while she walked the aisle with a richer man. He thought love was stronger than wealth and riches, he'd always believed that nothing can break love but it's all a fallacy. But what if love is waiting at the door? What if all he needed to do was glance in a different direction, but it was too late, Andre concluded. There's no love anywhere again. He'd been shattered by love; he is not ready to give in to its deception anymore. Love is cruel. But more than a lost love, something else was waiting, a throne and a lover and Andre Torello had only one option, accept it or get ruined forever.

Jeremy Hansen throws a divorce agreement at Joanna Thompson on the day she finds out she's pregnant with twins. He also gives her 300 million dollars as their breakup fee. Why? Because his true love is back in the country! Joanna doesn't kick a fuss or throw a tantrum. She takes the money and moves out of their marital home without argument. She doesn't expect Jeremy to be so cruel, though—he wants her to abort the children. Why should she listen to him? "You're not going to abort them, huh?" Jeremy sneers. "Do you think we won't have to go through with the divorce if you're still pregnant with my children?" Joanna sneers back at him. A few days later, she accidentally miscarries. After being discharged from the hospital, she and Jeremy finalize the divorce. Three years later, the paparazzi capture Joanna on a street abroad while holding onto a pair of adorable boy-girl twins. Jeremy stares at the photo as his eyes slowly redden. Then, he flies abroad at top speed to stand in Joanna and the twins' way. "You've played me for three years, Joanna! It's high time that you stop with this tantrum." She takes off her sunglasses and raises a nonchalant eyebrow. "Sorry, but who are you?"

After whiskey, betrayal, and the undeniable urge to spite her cheating, gay ex, Maeve Summers had a one-night stand with a gorgeous stranger. Six years later, former detective turned journalist Maeve is horrified to discover he was Aurelian Morgenstein, the mysterious mafia lord she must interview to save her crumbling career. With piercing blue eyes and a jet-black serpent tattoo coiling around his hand, Elian is every bit as tempting as he is dangerous. Especially when her five-year-old daughter, Sia, shares his infamous gaze. Now, Maeve must decide what’s more at risk: her career, her heart, or the truth about Sia’s father.