Iu South Bend Bookstore

She is mine, now. Whether she wants it or not, she belongs to me. "Please... let her go. She is an orphan, have pity on her..." These words resonate in the room, a fragile plea against the unyielding will of a man. But Ariane is not a mere victim. She is a force of nature, a young woman with burning courage, who refuses to bend before anyone, not even before Auracio Ferrari. Auracio. That name makes every soul in the city shudder. A mafia boss, a man with a glacial gaze and undeniable power, whose mere presence commands silence and fear. Yet, in front of Ariane, he falters. She, with her disarming boldness, her eyes full of fire and defiance, does not tremble. She does not flee. She does not submit. She does not yield. No one has ever dared to resist Auracio Ferrari like she does. No one has ever destabilized him to the point of losing his composure and control. He wants her. Not out of simple desire, but from a burning obsession, a visceral need to possess what he cannot have. Ariane will become his. No matter the price to pay, no matter the pain, no matter the time. She belongs to him, body and soul, to him alone. He is ready to do anything for her. To destroy anyone who dares to lay eyes on her, to crush any threat, to break any attempt at escape. "I will kill anyone who shows interest in her." These words are a cruel warning, a promise of blood and fire. Because Ariane is no longer a mere woman. She has become his empire, his weakness and his strength, his hell and ... The fight for her freedom is just beginning..but one thing is certain: she is his, now.

“Become my wife.” “What?” I shrieked, those words caused my back to bend, away from him. “We are not getting married.” He hissed. “You will only take my wife’s place before the eyes of those who wrecked her. Shake their world while you shake the world of those who wrecked you, unnoticeably. Semion and Adeline won’t know what hit them by the time we are done.” ___ After being ridiculed for not having a womb, Davina was almost pushed into the abyss. However, an encounter with a grief-stricken widower changed her life and identity forever. She formed a power couple with the richest billionaire Shaw. Even though they set boundaries they couldn't cross, Davina couldn't stop feeling the hotness on her plump lips, a vague feeling from a drunken night she feared to be true. And Shaw couldn't stop breaking his resolve not to get too close to her. Their bodies slowly resonated with each other, humming the love they had lost and their dynamic caused a storm throughout the city as they cut down on their enemies but at what cost?

In Alabama’s rot-soaked bayous, Drucilla Drakes survives by three rules: silence, scars, and never letting Louise—her Bible-thumping captor—catch her hoping. But when a schoolyard ambush leaves her bleeding beneath a stranger’s leather jacket, invisibility becomes a death sentence. Enter Dragon Morales: New Orleans’ most notorious runaway, a cartel prince turned outlaw mechanic with grease-stained hands and a death wish. He doesn’t save people—he survives them. Yet in Dru’s lashed flesh and hellfire gaze, he sees his own shattered reflection. Their bond is gasoline and matches. Dragon’s father—Colombia’s cartel kingpin—hunts them relentlessly. Louise, armed with voodoo rites and the chaos-hungry loa Marinette, vows to break Dru. Their only allies? The Lou Nwa, a bayou biker gang trading in bullets and black magic, and Papa Legba, the crossroads spirit who offers Dru a lethal bargain: *“Her soul or yours.”* Fleeing through the Deep South’s cursed underbelly, they dodge cartel hitmen, haunted swamps, and safehouses reeking of betrayal. Dark magic seeps into old wounds; family secrets tighten like nooses. Dragon swears he’s too ruined to love. Dru knows she’s too shattered to trust. But in the bayou’s choking heat, desire is a grenade they can’t outrun. This isn’t a fairytale. It’s switchblade kisses and saintly curses—a collision of fire and ruin where protectors become predators. Dru doesn’t need saving; she needs an inferno. And Dragon? He’s got a lighter and nothing left to burn. Will they raze the South to ashes, or become the sacrifice the crossroads demands? One truth remains: in the bayou, even survival leaves scars. **Warning:** No princes here. Just bayou smoke, blood-soaked magic, and the kind of love that devours.

Having lived her life in the shadows as a pauper bastard with no father, Calliope's life changes the day Xandros comes to her school and she discovers they're mates, the difference in their status frightens her but Xandros swore to be with her but broke this promise as he announces someone else his mate, humiliating Callie. Heartbroken, Callie runs away and got hit by a car, she's hospitalized and left in a coma for three months before she's declared brain dead and her mother moves out of the pack and country, heartbroken. Xyla blames her brother for Callie's death and wouldn't forgive him but is shocked five years later when the infamous queen of the south invites her for a private dinner. Callie was saved by Rowland when she was declared brain dead as he's the pack's healer. She wakes up and realize her true paternity, she's the daughter of the infamous Alpha of the South, who's the Supreme Alpha that has gone missing for decades. She's set out on a clear path to avenge her enemies and become the Supreme She- Alpha. Would she achieve her desires?. Would she return back to the man that rejected her or make him face her wrath ?

They thought breaking her would be easy. But from the ashes of betrayal, she rose stronger than ever. Mary Martel was the perfect wife—obedient, loyal, invisible. Until her husband, Alfred Martel, discarded her like trash for his pregnant secretary, Selena. Broken and humiliated, Mary Martel vanished from the spotlight, presumed defeated. But behind the silence, she was rebuilding herself—sharpening her scars into weapons, her grief into armor. Now she’s back. Not as the meek wife they used to mock, but as a powerful, enigmatic woman with one purpose: To destroy the man who broke her, expose the woman who deceived her, and prove that a wife may bend—but never breaks. Love, vengeance, secrets, and twisted redemption collide in this fast-paced, emotional rollercoaster that will keep you breathless until the last page.

Alina Ysabelle Allard has lived her whole life behind gilded walls, the only daughter and heiress of a powerful business tycoon. Raised to be flawless, she knows her worth depends on meeting impossible standards, being the best, never questioning orders, and sacrificing everything for family legacy. When her father arranges her engagement to Lance Villion, the eldest son of another influential family, Alina forces herself to accept what duty demands. Yet buried memories whisper of someone else, a boy she once shared secrets and tears with, though his face feels lost to time. Leon Claude Villion, the younger son, grew up invisible in his father’s eyes. Overshadowed by his brother, Leon’s quiet rebellion was his unspoken devotion to Alina, the girl he once knew beyond the masks wealth and power demand. For years, Leon watched from a distance, unable to speak, unable to forget. When fate brings them together again, Alina doesn’t recognize him. And when Leon learns she’s being forced into marriage with his own brother, the love he hides turns into a burning resolve to change destiny itself. As a contract marriage looms, betrayal reveals itself. Leon must choose between family loyalty and claiming the only woman who ever truly mattered. Alina must decide how far she’ll bend under her father’s shadow and whether it’s worth losing her heart to keep his love. In a world ruled by power, secrets, and blood, how far will they go for love that was never meant to be?

"One Decision" follows eighteen -year-old Freya Myers, a brilliant but broken foster teen, as she teeters on the edge of a new beginning-and a hidden nightmare. With a perfect GPA and dreams of opening a bookstore, Freya is determined to escape a system that's failed her. When a wealthy Southern family unexpectedly adopts her and whisks her away to a private estate in Georgia, it feels too good to be true. Because it is. The mansion is beautiful. The people? Picture-perfect. But behind the polished smiles and choreographed greetings lies something Freya can't quite name-yet. Strange rules. Watchful eyes. Whispers behind closed doors. And her new "brothers," who know more about her than they should. As Freya digs deeper into the family's secrets, she's forced to confront her past and a chilling truth: she may not have been saved... she may have been chosen. Dark, gripping, and emotionally raw, One Decision is a psychological coming-of-age thriller that explores what happens when the price of belonging may be your freedom-or your soul.

“Marry me Giselle.” He breathes into my neck. “I can't, you belong to another Romero.” I whisper. Giselle Gilmore, a girl whose past has been turned upside down in a life of crime and violence gets involved with Romero De La Rosa, the most feared and powerful Mafia Lord and becomes too attached to his daughter Lauryn De La Rosa. When she gets a chance to reunite with the family, a long time family alliance made with another Mafia family engaging Romero De La Rosa to another woman in marriage appears and any bridge of the arrangement will lead to the biggest war ever witnessed in the underworld. Will Romero De La Rosa bend backwards to the underworld rule or will he fight for his love.

Elara Nightingale has a secret—she can see everyone's emotions as colorful auras. Everyone except Cain Blackwood, the mysterious man who returns to their small coastal town after ten years away. When Cain's mother starts making threats about an upcoming event called "the Convergence," Elara discovers her quiet life running the family bookstore has been built on lies. Her parents weren't just booksellers—they were magical guardians protecting the town from a darkness that emerges every 93 years when the barrier between worlds thins. Now that darkness is returning, stronger than ever. And according to town librarian Mrs. Holloway, only Elara and Cain can stop it. As magical attacks force them into hiding, Elara and Cain must learn to control their complementary powers—her ability to see beyond normal perception and his power to create protective shields. Their families have been performing a ritual for generations that temporarily contains the darkness, but it comes with a terrible price: binding their life forces together permanently. Elara's parents died trying to find another way. Now she and Cain must finish what they started—a purification ritual using a mysterious crystal called the Lens. While training together in a remote cabin, their initial distrust turns to friendship, then to something deeper. But Cain's power-hungry mother is determined to perform the traditional ritual, even if it means killing Elara. As the Convergence approaches and strange phenomena plague the town, Elara and Cain must race to decipher hidden clues, navigate secret tunnels beneath the town, and prepare for a magical showdown in the chamber beneath the lighthouse. When the stars finally align, they'll face a choice: follow tradition and be bound forever by duty, or risk everything on a new path—one where they choose each other freely, transforming darkness into light through the most powerful magic of all.

Prologue “Who are you? What have you done to me? And why is my blood on your lips?” Isabella backed away, trembling. Arseñio’s eyes gleamed. “From east to west, north to south—you are mine, Isabella Young. Bound to me for eternity. The moment I bred you, you became mine. I, Arseñio Dicaprio, claim you as my mate.” --- War, sex, and killing—that’s what makes him stronger. Feared across all realms, Arseñio is more than an Alpha. He’s a cursed beast, born of a witch mother and doomed to destroy any woman he touches. Every lover dies from his supernatural strength—until her. Isabella Young is a 26-year-old soldier, forced into the military by her father, General Emilio Young. Her true dream? To become a wolf hunter. But Emilio forbade it. “No blood of mine will do something so vile,” he had shouted, slamming his fist, threatening to disown her. Out of loyalty, Isabella obeyed. She trained hard and earned her sergeant rank. But six months later, her father died of cancer. Free from duty, she resigned and pursued her forbidden dream—hunting wolves—unaware of the truth: she was one of them. Her transformation was delayed. Hidden. But it began the night she moved to Melbourne and met him—at a club, during a wild night out with friends. He saw her. She saw him. One look was all it took. They shared a night of wild passion. Then she shifted—her first transformation—and realized the terrifying truth. He wasn’t just any man. He was The Alpha Beast. And he had fed on her blood.