Jameson Hawthorne

I had just won the Hawthorne Scientific Laureate on the international stage when my father called me back home. "Bring the betrothal gifts to the Hayes family. That childhood engagement should finally be fulfilled." Afraid of getting stuck in traffic, I took my modified motorcycle, carried the national heritage porcelain obtained through generations of the Keane family's military merits, and headed toward their house. Just as I arrived at the community gate, a Porsche suddenly cut across the lane, nearly knocking me over. A heavily made-up woman, Zoey Mercer, stepped out of the car, raised one sharp high heel, and kicked the top box off my motorcycle. "You rode this junk motorcycle yet dared block my way? If you dent my car, your whole family won't be able to afford the compensation!" My heart sank. I quickly opened the case, only to see the entire box of celadon porcelain shattered. "So you’re just some delivery guy. Think this pile of trash is worth even one of my shoes? "You even know whose neighborhood this is? It belongs to Kingshore's Hayes family! My best friend’s family developed this place! Believe it or not, I can have you thrown out right now!" Right then, my fiancee, Lauren Hayes, called me. "Where are you? My friend just messaged me saying there’s a delivery guy causing trouble at the entrance."

She thought she could endure a loveless marriage to repay her family’s debt—but she didn’t count on the cost of her heart. Once the proud daughter of a wealthy businessman, ELENA BRADFORD watched her life crumble when her father’s betrayal left her and her mother drowning in debt. Desperate to protect her family, she reluctantly agreed to a marriage contract with her father’s former business partner’s reckless son, ADRIAN HAWTHORNE—a man who once loved her during their university days but now only mocks her fall from grace. Trapped in a cold marriage filled with scorn and humiliation, Elena finds herself suffocating under the weight of Adrian’s cruelty. But everything changes at a high-profile dinner when she locks eyes with the one person she never thought she’d see again—LUCAS EVERHART, her childhood best friend, who once confessed his love before vanishing from her life. Now a powerful CEO, Lucas is stunned to see the woman he loved trapped in a toxic marriage. Learning of her misery, he vows to free her from the chains of her past—even if it means clashing with Adrian who refuses to let her go. As old feelings reignite and secrets unravel, Elena must decide: will she fight for the love she once believed in, or will her past mistakes keep her from the future she deserves?

“You’re mine, Isabella. My untouched little girl. I will burn this whole world before I let another man get close to you.” Isabella Monroe lost everything. Even her parents. A fire took them when she was just a child, dark and sudden, leaving her alone in a cold, unforgiving world. But Sebastian Hawthorne, her father’s closest friend and the father of her only friend, never walked away. He stayed. He became her shadow. Her shield. The man standing between her and the edge. But Isabella is not the fragile girl everyone thinks she is. She is wild. Strong. She rides her motorcycle like she owns the road, wind in her hair, danger in her smile. She works as a waitress, earning every dollar with pride, refusing to beg, refusing to break. Sebastian tries to control her fire. To tame her reckless soul. But he soon learns something far worse. Controlling his own heart is the real war. He is forbidden in every way. Older. Married, even if the marriage is already dying. And he already has a mistress warming his bed. Every time they meet, the line starts to blur. Care turns into hunger. Protection twists into obsession. One touch from him is enough. Enough to spark something dark and hungry, something that aches low in her body and burns through his control. A need that should not exist. A desire that can ruin them both. Will Isabella give in to the man who once protected her, and now scares her the most… and calls to her in the darkest way?

Synopsis/Blurb In the quaint town of Silverwood Falls, nestled deep within the misty forests of the Pacific Northwest, lies a secret as old as time itself. Under the enchanting light of the full moon, a hidden clan of werewolves roams the ancient woods, their existence shrouded in mystery and myth. Enter Emily Hawthorne, a spirited botanist with a passion for unraveling the town's rich tapestry of folklore. When Emily stumbles upon cryptic clues hinting at the presence of supernatural beings lurking in the shadows, her insatiable curiosity is piqued. Determined to uncover the truth, Emily enlists the help of her childhood friend, Liam Grayson, and the enigmatic Isabella Cruz, owner of the town's occult bookstore. As Emily delves deeper into the town's dark past, she discovers a sinister plot brewing beneath the surface. Gabriel Blackwood, the charismatic CEO of Blackwood Enterprises, has set his sights on Silverwood Falls, intent on exploiting its supernatural heritage for his own gain. With the help of his ruthless enforcer, Marcus Reed, Gabriel will stop at nothing to bend the werewolves to his will and harness their powers for profit. Caught in the crossfire of greed and preservation, Emily finds herself drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse. With the help of Detective James Miller, a skeptical but open-minded investigator, Emily races against time to protect the werewolves and uncover the truth behind Silverwood Falls' hidden secrets. But as tensions escalate and betrayals abound, Emily soon realizes that not everyone is who they seem. With enemies lurking around every corner and the full moon looming overhead, Emily must summon all of her courage and cunning to survive the whispers of the moon's spell and emerge victorious in the battle for Silverwood Falls' soul.

"I, Grace Hawthorne reject Logan Harper,” I announced with steel in my voice. The hall fell into deep silence, I could hear the sound of sweat dripping from Logan’s forehead or my father’s increasing heartbeat. Logan's face contorted with a mixture of anger and disbelief. "Grace, what are you doing? This is our wedding!" “Not anymore. I reject you.” I announced once again. My father, Daniel, standing nearby, was seething with rage. He stepped forward, his face contorted with fury. In a fit of madness, he raised a hand as if to strike me, but before he could make contact, a commanding voice rang out, stopping him in his tracks. "How dare you lay a hand on my Mate?" Xander had appeared in a flash of power, his presence filling the room. His eyes bore into Daniel’s with an intensity that sent a chill down everyone's spine. Everyone’s face paled seeing the Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack, anger rushed through Daniel’s features and he roared. "Not your mate, she is my daughter." Xander cut him off with a wave of his hand. "You dare to touch what’s mine and I will show you what a real Alpha can do for his mate." Xander’s growl had an intensity that shook even The wolf council. His deep blue eyes bored into mine and a slow smile grazed his features, he gestured to me to come toward him and I did. “Miss me Darling.” he purred, and a chill ran down my spine.

Late one night after getting off work, I was scrolling through my company group chat when a colleague shared a piece of news. The headline was horrifying. "Night-Shift Courier Murdered During Delivery, Police Suspect Robbery." I zoomed in on the crime scene photo that had been partially pixelated, and a chill ran straight down my spine. Lying in a pool of blood, the courier who had been hacked to death was unmistakably me. I had scrolled into news of my own death. Almost at the same time, my delivery app began vibrating violently. "Urgent pickup! Destination: Unit 704 Hawthorne Ridge Apartments, Building 7. Time limit: 15 minutes. Penalty for timeout: Death." As I stared at the notification that read "Pickup failed three times", the searing pain of my brutal death surged through my body. So that was it. I had already died three times. When I forced open the half-closed security door of 704 for the fourth time, a thin delivery envelope lay quietly inside. I tore it open. A photograph slipped out. It was a picture of my dismembered body. The timestamp showed tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. On the back was a single line written in fresh blood: "Next time, remember to pick it up on time." At that moment, the red indicator light on the hallway surveillance camera suddenly went dark. I looked up. From the ventilation opening in the exact same spot, a single eye was staring straight at me. The mole at the corner of that eye was identical to mine.

‘Callie,’ he began, his voice husky, ‘crying over your ex-boyfriend won’t solve anything.’ Confusion etched across her face, Callie furrowed her brows. ‘Then what will? ’ she demanded, her voice tinged with frustration. Elias leaned closer, his warm breath caressing her cheek. ‘You need to show him what he’s lost. Find a man who’s more handsome, more powerful, and richer than him. Then, make a grand entrance into his life with your new partner.’ Callie scoffed, her eyes rolling in disbelief. ‘Where am I supposed to find someone like that? ’ Elias’s fingers gently lifted her chin, locking their gazes together. ‘I can be that man,’ he said. ‘If you agree to be with me, I’ll protect you from any harm, including your ex-boyfriend.’ ********************************************** Elias Westwood, billionaire heir turned professional solider, a commanding presence on the battlefield, conceals a tender heart that beats for only one woman——Callie Hawthorne, a fearless surgical resident, possesses an innocent charm and wields her skills like a warrior in the operating theatre. Their first encounter thrusts them into a dangerous game of deception. Elias uses Callie as a pawn, their lips locked in a passionate kiss, fooling his pursuers. In that moment, Callie feels the allure of the enigmatic soldier, and a strange connection sparks between them. An impulsive decision seals their fate—a hasty marriage to escape an arranged union and prove Callie’s readiness to move on from a past love. Little did they know, this act would propel them onto an unforeseen path. Will Elias and Callie emerge unscathed from the shadows, or will their sacrifices shatter their dreams forever? Discover their fight for a future filled with hope, trust, and the promise of a happy ending.

By the third year of my marriage to Daniel Hawthorne, the war had already taken more than it ever returned, and this time it took his younger brother, Thomas Hawthorne. My sister-in-law, Eleanor, collapsed, and in the weeks that followed she tried to follow her husband into death— once with sleeping pills, once by the river beyond the officers’ quarters— only to be dragged back both times, each time clinging to me afterward as though I were the last thing keeping her grounded. I stayed with her, wiped her tears, and whispered that Thomas would want her to live, until the day she received the test results confirming she was three months pregnant, and the grief of losing her husband was slowly softened by the arrival of new life. I smiled too, believing grief had finally loosened its grip. That night, holding my own pregnancy test in my hand and thinking it was finally time to tell Daniel, I passed the study and heard his friend say quietly, “She’s carrying your child. You convinced the doctors to adjust the timeline so everyone would believe the baby belonged to your brother. Aren’t you afraid Margaret will find out?” Daniel didn’t hesitate. “She won’t,” he said calmly. “She loves me. She wouldn’t leave. I won’t let her know.” I didn’t step inside. I didn’t confront him. Instead, I opened the letter I had received weeks earlier— an official deployment order from the international medical corps, assigning me to a frontline war zone— and tapped Accept.

After the college entrance exams, my parents left me at home and took their adopted daughter on a trip to the beach. A typhoon hit, and the three of them never came back. When the news reached me, I did not cry or throw a tantrum. I had their deaths registered right away and pulled out the life insurance I had bought in advance. I received one hundred million in compensation. My fiance scolded me for caring only about money. What he did not know was that I had been reborn. In my past life, after I learned about their deaths, the huge debts they had left behind fell on me. I gave up the chance to go to college and started working to pay everything back. I fought to protect our ancestral home from debt collectors. My fiance stayed with me and cheered me on when I came home late at night from delivery runs. But he never gave me a single cent to help. At thirty-five, I finally cleared every debt. On my birthday, I bought myself a ten-dollar cake to celebrate. Just as I was about to blow out the candle, the door opened. My parents and their adopted daughter, who should have died in the typhoon, walked in dressed in designer clothes. They smiled at me smugly. “Well done! We can finally believe that you aren’t greedy for money. You’ve passed the test. From today, you are qualified to be the daughter of the Jameson family.” “Jane, this brilliant idea was all thanks to you.” My adopted sister smiled. She leaned close and blew out my candle. The only light left in my twenty years of lifetime went out with it. My body gave in to exhaustion. My heart failed. I collapsed and died on the spot. When I opened my eyes again, they were about to head to the beach in the middle of the typhoon. I bought a massive accident insurance policy for them on the spot. This time, all I wanted was for them to disappear from this world forever.

The beastfolk are a powerful race, and to strengthen our family's power, Father arranges marriages for both me and my stepsister, Arya Hearthguard. In our past lives, Arya entered a high-profile marriage into the wealthy, powerful dragon clan, while I was forced to wed into the crumbling lion clan. The clan leader of the dragons—Draken Vorgath—was cold and detached. He cared more for gold than his bride, leaving Arya in a glided cage of loneliness. Overwhelmed by the desolation, she seduced the future leader of the fox clan, who was flirtatious.. And when the scandal exploded, Draken resolutely divorced her. Arya's scandal brought shame upon our family. Despite Father's favoritism, he was compelled by family honor to exile her in disgrace. Clan leader of the lions and King of the Jungle—Kael Hawthorne—was a man of unwavering devotion. Our marriage blossomed, and within a year, I bore him a golden lion cub blessed with the Aetheric Divinity. With the Aetherborn, Kael rose to rule all beastfolk as the chieftain, and I became their most revered chieftess. Consumed by envy, Arya sneaked into my son's first birthday feast and strangled the golden lion cub in his cradle. Then, she set the place ablaze and burned me alive along with it. When I wake up, I am back on the very day of our marriage. This time, Arya volunteers to marry into the lions and leaves me the chance to marry into the dragons. I accept everything meekly with only a tenth of her dowry and marry Draken. Later, she bleeds her dowry dry, propping up the lion clan, only to fail in conceiving a cub. When the elders demand she mate with other males, regret drowns her. As for me, all I want in his new life is an heir and a quiet life among the dragons. But no one warns me about the dragons, least of all that my supposedly cold-hearted husband will relentlessly demand me once awakened. Or that his members came in pairs and ridges!