I Keep My Exoskeletons To Myself

My best friend, Yara Campbell, got reborn back to the day she was to reunite with the richest family in town, the Waltons. She didn't want to relive her fate as the Waltons' marionette that was trapped in a gilded cage, so she refused to go home with them. That was why she didn't hesitate to push me out instead. As I gazed at Grace Robinson, whose fingers were adorned with diamond rings, and Raymond Walton, who looked like he was made of money, I instantly rushed toward them. There was no way I'd let this golden opportunity slip through my fingers, after all! Five years later, Yara shows up on the Walters' doorstep with a paternity test report in her hands. She then demands that I be cast out of the family. But she's too late. In the past five years, I'm no longer the replacement she had used on a whim back then. Now, I'm the second-in-command in Walton Group. No one in this family can possibly usurp my position from me now.

When my eyes were gouged out, my mother was shopping with my cousin. When I was forced to drink a bottle of acid and died in agony, she snapped impatiently, “Kara, can’t you be as well-behaved as Wendy? If you’re just going to run away, then don’t bother calling me!” However, when she saw the crime scene, she rushed outside and threw up. As a criminal psychologist specially hired by the River City police, how could she feel sick at the sight of her own daughter’s body?

“Tell me,” he said, low and dangerous. “Tell me who this cunt belongs to.” “You,” I panted, spreading wider, shameless. “It’s yours—please, Micaiah—” “Come on my cock,” he ordered through gritted teeth. “Show me how much you love being fucked by me.” ★⁠☆ Maliya comes home after two years abroad, hoping everything she ran from has finally cooled. But the moment she steps through the door, she realizes nothing has changed—especially not the one person she never wanted to face again. Micaiah. Her stepbrother. Her almost. Her reason for disappearing. She plans to keep her distance, start classes, rebuild her life… until her parents drop the news: they’ve transferred her to a new university, the one where Micaiah works as a professor. And they’re leaving for a three-month honeymoon, meaning she and Micaiah will be living in the same house. Alone. Maliya tells herself she can handle it. But Micaiah has his own ideas about unfinished business. Three months isn’t long… unless you’re stuck with the one person you swore you’d never fall for again.

Everyone in the pack knew that my mate Damien loved me fiercely. After our mating ceremony, Damien gave me three bonding gifts. The first was a protective amulet he'd prayed three days and three nights for at the Moon Goddess shrine. The second was a sculpture he spent months carving with his own hands. The third was a diamond ring — the symbol of the Luna — priceless, and with it came the authority to govern the pack. On my birthday, he went searching for a moonstone and was ambushed by rogue wolves. He fell off a cliff. When he woke, his memory was gone. A bar hostess had rescued him. They fell in love. But the day before their mating ceremony, his memories returned, and he came back to me without hesitation. Just when I thought he'd ended things with her, on the very day I found out I was pregnant, I received a video — an intimate recording of the two of them together. Vivian was already carrying his child, nestled against Damien like a helpless little bird. "You're carrying my child. I won't abandon you. As for Elena — a few sweet words and she'll do whatever I say." I turned off my phone and sent a mind-link to my father. "Dad. The arranged mating you set up for me — I accept."

During a battle with a rival pack, my Alpha mate, Damien, burst into my private healing sanctuary. He was carrying Lyra, a Beta warrior who had supposedly taken a poisoned blade for him. The next day, under the watchful eye of the Moon Goddess, Damien was forced by the pack elders to apologize. He explained that bringing an outsider into my sanctuary was a desperate act in a moment of crisis. After all, Lyra had saved his life. But that night, in the bed we once shared, Lyra stabbed herself with a dagger laced with wolfsbane and framed me for the attack. He chose to believe her. The rejection ceremony ripped my wolf from my soul. I was cast out—a powerless exile, left for dead in a storm, to be torn to shreds by rogues. But what Damien never knew was that the ancient curse afflicting him could only be healed by me. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the beginning: the moment Damien carried that woman in, demanding I save her.

After failing to win the hearts of the first three targets, I decide to get engaged to Natalia Stone, the paralyzed heiress of the Stone family. Soon, I use all of my points just to swap for Natalia's ability to stand up once again. But the first thing Natalie does after recovering from her paralysis is to cancel the engagement with me. After that, she gives Irving Schmidt the grandest and most eye-catching wedding that will take place on the cruise. At the wedding venue, all four of my targets stare at Irving with love and adoration in their eyes. Suddenly, I feel like going home, so I jump into the sea without hesitation. But when my body plunges into the sea, four silhouettes can be seen rushing toward me. Regret and fear are written on their faces.

My best friend and I caught the eye of the celestial princes and were brought into the heavenly palace as their consorts. She became the caged golden canary of the Crown Prince, Rudolf Frost, while I became the stand-in for the lost love of the Second Prince, Mose Frost. As fate would have it, their lost loves were one and the same person. Everyone in the Celestial Realm envied us, two mortal women chosen by celestial princes to live a life of luxury among the gods. But this blissful existence lasted no more than three years before their true love returned, and our good fortune came to an abrupt end. "I'll fake my death first, and then you'll pretend to fall ill and do the same!" whispered my friend, Gabriela Simon. I nodded, and together we staged our deaths to escape back to the mortal realm. When their lost love, Anna Rivera, brought people to expose our deception, the usually calm and collected Rudolf unexpectedly pulled Gabriela into his embrace. Meanwhile, the ruthless Mose imprisoned me in his palace, staying by my side day and night. Little did they know, this performance was one we had been planning for three years.

To repay me for saving her life, Tiana Sabell lets me marry into her family. In the eighth year after I marry into the Sabell family with a monetary wedding gift worth billions, her long-lost first love, Hayden Brown, returns with a child. Because of a nightmare he has, he claims my daughter, Sabrina Zeller, is cursed and will bring harm to his son. Tiana locks Sabrina in an abandoned chapel deep in the mountains, forcing her to fast for seven days and nights to purify herself. I kneel before Tiana and beg, "Sabrina has a heart condition. If she does not eat or drink for seven days, she will die!" Tiana focuses only on preparing nutritious meals for Hayden. "She will not die from going hungry for a few days. If she cannot endure even this, how is she fit to be my daughter?" I am locked in the basement for seven days. By the time I find Sabrina, she has already starved to death. I carry her body, which is covered in livor mortis, back home. Holding Hayden in her arms, Tiana kicks me away. "What have you been teaching our daughter? How dare she fake her death to fool me? If you cannot raise our child properly, then I will give her a new father!" I call my sister and say, "Pull the investment. Let Sabell Group go bankrupt!"

WARNING: 18+ readers only. RAE: Alpha Jason Kane is my mate but he doesn’t love me. His nonchalance pushed me into the arms of another man, and then I realized he was Jason’s estranged son. But that’s not all. At work, I signed a contract to document the life of a star hockey player, whom I have to live with and work closely with for the next six months. I just had no idea my mate’s estranged son was the same person again. It seems I can’t avoid Malachar Kane no matter what I do. We’re tied together by fate and bound by something forbidden. MALACHAR: I was cursed by the moon goddess to remain on earth to guard her moon power and destroy anyone who tries to steal it. So when I moved to LA two years ago, the plan was simple. Blend in as a hockey prodigy. Discover the newest thief. Annihilate the threat. Now Rachel Rosier was never supposed to be in the picture. I had thought she would be a random fuck on a cold Christmas night, but she wasn’t. She ruined me. I can’t stop thinking about her. I can’t even breathe without flashbacks from that night. And just when I’m about to complete my mission in this city, I find out she’s married to the Alpha I must kill. The man I call father. Rachel is not just my step mom now. She’s bound to my enemy, and so, I must take her life, too. But I want her like crazy. I shouldn’t. It’s a sin. She’s forbidden on so many grounds, but if I can’t have her, no one will.

When my wife, Katherine Johnson, and her childhood sweetheart, Zack Wilson, were on an overseas vacation, they somehow went missing. All they left for me was a newborn baby born of their affair. 20 years later, I make a post about my son, Wade, passing the exam and joining the police force. Unexpectedly, Katherine and Zack return to the country and decide to sue me. At the prosecutor's stand, Zack sports a slicked-back hairstyle and can be seen wearing a smart-looking suit. The things he says, however, are very rude. "Many years ago, Katherine and I got married after she got a divorce. She then gave birth to a son for me. Harry, who was jealous of our happiness, stole Wade from us! "We've been looking for Wade over the past 20 years, and yet Harry refuses to return him to us! As Wade's biological parents, we have the right to demand him back!" Katherine glares at me angrily as well. "Harry, did you steal Wade simply because you're infertile?" The court hearing is streamed live on various platforms. The viewers are enraged, to say the least. They begin bashing me in the comment section. "To think that he actually stole someone else's kid just because he doesn't have any kids of his own!" "He's the reason that kid was separated from his actual family! What a disgusting, vile man! He must return the custody to the kid's biological parents!" But when Wade does get summoned to the court, everyone is left shell-shocked.