Healing

[THE NEW YORK BACHELORS CLUB, #1] [Formerly known as Healing Mr. Brown] Vincent Brown has a past filled with cuts and bruises. He knows how to transform his pain and rage to bring out the best in him. He has made mistakes big to change, but Joy wasn't one of them. Joyce Gale has grown stronger than ever. After losing the person closest to her, she has done everything she could to feel complete. But nothing could ever make her happy except the man named Vince she met five years ago. When fate brings them together once again, it makes them face the truth that they both have changed and so have their feelings for each other. Their desire for each other has grown into something that neither of them can retract from. The only thing that stands between them is their fear of being too broken to be healed. © 2020 Shreya Sengupta

My stepson pushes me down from the second floor, all because I accidentally break a bowl. He stands over me, looking down with a cold, emotionless gaze. "You're just a stand-in my grandfather forced on us. Don't even think about replacing my mother!" I stare up at the boy I've raised for eight years, and his indifference cuts deeper than any wound. Blood slowly trickles down from my forehead. Fighting through the pain, I dial a number. "Whatever debt I owed has been paid. It's time for me to leave." Coincidentally, I already have the divorce agreement that his father has signed.

Adrian had fallen into his brother's trap. Stripped of his Alpha title, he was exiled from the pack. On the road into exile, he was ambushed by rogue wolves. Broken and hopeless, he stopped fighting altogether, ready to die. As Adrian's kept lover, I was about to abandon him and run for my life — until a flood of glowing comments rolled across my vision. [The villainess is finally showing her true colors. Once she's gone, there'll be nothing stopping the hero and heroine from meeting.] [But she doesn't know the hero is still alive. When he reclaims his Alpha title, the first thing he does is exile everyone who ever betrayed him — the villainess included. She gets torn apart by rogue wolves in the end, and honestly, she deserves it.] My blood ran cold. Before I could even think, I threw myself into the rogues and took a claw strike meant for him. Adrian stared at me in disbelief. I turned back to him, forcing a grin through the pain. "Adrian, don't you dare die on me — who's going to keep me fed?"

I woke up staring at divorce papers—from the guy I'd crushed on all through college. My name. His. Right there on the page. He said I cheated. Last thing I remembered? Getting ready to finally tell him how I felt at our graduation party. Now suddenly, we've got a four-year-old. And him? He looked at me like I was some rando off the street. No trace of the sweet, soft guy I used to know. Just ice. What did I miss? What the hell happened in the last five years?

Alpha Fabian's first reaction to learning I was his fated mate? Rejection. But drunk at the bonfire festival, he couldn't fight the pull of fate. He marked me. Marking a rejected mate came with a price. His power weakened. Forced into a bond with me, he despised me. For two years, I bled for him. I did 100 impossible things, just hoping for a single glance. I snuck into forbidden lands for rare herbs. I negotiated with enemy packs. I fought on the front lines for him in pack wars, always coming back covered in scars. But the one he truly loved was my adopted sister, Gloria. Even my own parents, the pack's Beta, hated me. I was their lost daughter, raised by rogues for fifteen years. But they only had eyes for their perfect, obedient adopted girl. Then, on my 100th task, I nearly died in the Valley of Shadows. When I woke up, I had amnesia. I was done chasing a cold mate and a family's love I'd never have. And when I finally walked away, Fabian discovered the truth. It was never me who couldn't live without him. It was always him.

เขาเข้าใจว่าผู้หญิงในความมืดคือเด็กคนเดิมที่ถูกส่งให้มานอนด้วยเป็นครั้งที่สอง จึงกระทำกับเธออย่างไม่ปรานี แต่พอถึงตอนเช้า แม่เล้ากลับโทรมาขอโทษว่าเด็กแอบหนีไปก่อนหน้านั้นแล้ว เลยไม่รู้ว่าตัวเองมีอะไรกับใครเพราะตื่นมาแล้วไม่เห็น เห็นแต่สร้อยที่สลักชื่อ 'รวิกานต์ นิรากร' ตกอยู่หน้าห้องน้ำ ผ่านไปปีกว่าเขาได้เจอกับเธออีกครั้ง แต่ไม่รู้ว่าเด็กที่เธออุ้มมาเลี้ยงในที่ทำงานด้วยคือลูกของตัวเอง

‘เจวิส’ สำหรับเขา ผู้หญิงก็แค่อาหารว่างตอนอยู่บนเตียงก็เท่านั้น ! “เลว? หึ ก่อนหน้านี้เธอไม่ได้พูดแบบนี้”

. นี่หรือคำว่ารัก ? “ หยุดนะมิน พี่บอกให้หยุด จะไปไหน ! ! ! ” “ ปล่อย ฉันไปที่ไหนก็ได้ที่ไม่ต้องเห็นหน้าคุณ ! ” “ อย่าฝันไปเลย ” “ มินหยุุด ! ” การฉุดกระฉากดึงและผลักของทั้งภวิชทั้งมินตราทำให้ทุกคนชะงัก มินตราสะบัดมือออกจากเขา ภวิชเองก็เริ่มโกรธจัดแล้วเหมือนกัน “ พี่บอกให้หยุด มิน ปัง ๆ ๆ ๆ ” เสียงปืนหลายนัดที่ดังขึ้นมาทำให้ทุกคนตะลึงตกใจ รฎายกมือขึ้นปิดปากไม่คิดว่าเขาจะกล้าทำ ภวิชมองปืนในมือตัวเองที่เล็งไปที่มินตราเขาเล็งลงพื้น ทุกคนในบริเวณนั้นไม่มีการเคลื่อนไหวใด ๆ มินตราเองก็นิ่งงันไม่แพ้กัน เขายิงเธออย่างนั้นเหรอ เขาทำแบบนี้ได้ยังไง ควันจากกระบอกปืนที่ยิงลูกกระสุนออกไปทำให้ภวิชถึงกับมือสั่น ไม่มีใครในบริเวณนั้นขยับไปไหนสักคน อากาศบริสุทธิ์ไม่น่าพิสมัยเช่นเดิม มันอึดอัดยิ่งกว่าอะไรดี...

I find out I'm about two months pregnant before my wedding. Luke Logan drunkenly caresses my belly and half-jokes, "I'm not ready to be a father, Summer. Can we not keep the baby?" My heart is calm. I say softly, "Sure." In my past life, I insisted on keeping the child. Meanwhile, Riley Richards had an accidental miscarriage, making it difficult for her to conceive again. Luke held a grudge against me for that and treated me coldly after we married. As for the son that I put one foot in the coffin to bring into this world, he, too, cried and fussed. He wanted Riley to be his mother. Later, I got into an accident and suffered from significant blood loss. However, Luke and our son merely hurried past me to be with Riley as she went into labor. I slowly bled to death on the floor above, while Luke and our son celebrated the birth of Riley's child on the floor below. Now that I've been reborn, I won't lose sight of myself and take the wrong path again. I call Eric Nottingham. "I'll join the expedition team to Glacia."

A week before the marking ceremony, my fiance, Alpha Mason Wallace, suddenly switches the venue to Firefly Grove. His friends tease him. "You changed the venue just because Serena wants to see fireflies? And you didn't even tell Cora? What if she shows up at an empty site? "Besides, Cora's the one who picked Moonlight Bay. Do you really think she'll go along with this?" Mason says casually, "She burned her skin saving me. She won't fight me over a venue change. Besides, she planned every detail herself. She'll notice the update." I stand outside the doorway, listening in silence. Then, I slip away without a word. When the day finally comes, Mason calls from Firefly Grove, panic in his voice. "The ceremony's about to start. Where are you?" I stare at the shimmer on Moonlight Bay and answer calmly, "I'm already here. My ceremony is about to start too."