Jealous Friendships

Elena has spent her entire life as the pack’s favorite punching bag. Without a wolf or a fated mate to her name, she is a ghost in her own home. Her only dream is to vanish to a place where no one knows her shame. When her pack’s internal power struggle turns deadly, Elena is smuggled away for her own safety. Her destination? The home of her father’s oldest friend. He is a powerful, married man who was supposed to be her guardian. But fate has a twisted sense of humor. The second she steps into his house, her dormant wolf ignites and chooses him. The man who is supposed to protect her like a daughter is actually her fated mate. Every time their eyes meet, the air burns with a hunger that should be impossible. He was supposed to shield her but he ended up claiming her. Ethan Cruz, a ruthless rival alpha heir, has scented her and is determined to claim her as his own prize. Meanwhile, the jealous wife lurks in ready to destroy the girl who dared to steal her man

Helena burned. She burned with the flames of rage. In the fire her mate set to her body. With the power she possessed. She burned with the need for revenge and when she finds herself reborn a year before her gruesome death, she is going to get that revenge. Helena had once been an ignorant, simple girl, too in love with being loved to notice the monster she had given herself to. Love from anyone, was an oasis in the desert of a world that saw her as a mistake, because she did not have a wolf form and it made her blind. Love corrupted her mind, making her the perfect pawn in Rigel's game, and she was discarded when she had outlived her usefulness. She was back, now, with the taste of ashes on her tongue. And with her magic, that she had once treated like a disease, as her closest companion, she was going to make Rigel pay. Things rarely go according to plans and Helena learns that the hard way as her road to destroying the man who had hurt her, grows longer and more difficult. The appearance of a man who claims to be her mate, destroys the timeline she was coming from, leaving her confused and feeling vulnerable. Orion is a powerful alpha with a mighty and ruthless pack that she needs to attack Rigel before he grows too powerful, so the decision to be with him makes itself for her. The impossible slowly becomes possible with Orion by her side to serve as a voice of reason and Helena learns how to love someone who cares about her and sees her worth. Alliances are made, friendships are created and relationships are strengthened as Helena's quest for revenge slowly becomes one of discovery and love.

When Nadia Marlowe attends the annual writers’ conference in California, all she has in mind is a break from the regular activities back home, an autograph from her favourite author, and the desire to connect with writers from around the world. That is, until the air conditioner in her hotel room starts spitting hot air, and a technician is sent in to fix it. Suddenly, the conference no longer matters. The goals she arrived with disappear into thin air, replaced by an undeniable awareness of the extremely handsome technician standing across from her. One thing leads to another, and a simple repair session turns into an intense encounter that leaves Nadia shaken to her core. Disgusted with herself for crossing a line she never thought she would—married, with children—Nadia leaves California after the conference determined to bury the experience and pretend it never happened. But fate has a sense of humour, and Nadia Marlowe becomes its favourite recipient. Her husband’s longtime friend arrives for a business discussion, and to her horror, that friend turns out to be Fabian, the same technician she had mouth watering sex with back in California. Lost for words, Nadia struggles to survive his stay in her home. But fate isn’t finished yet. Fabian’s visit stretches longer than planned. To make matters worse, he is trapped in an on-and-off relationship, and also has a daughter. He knows the damage he’s causing. He knows that after everything Nadia’s husband has done for him, betraying him this way is unforgivable. Yet the pull toward Nadia is something he cannot control. What began as a single reckless moment spirals into a dangerous affair, one filled with desire, guilt, and secrets, threatening to destroy marriages, friendships, and the perfect life Nadia has built.

What does the underboss of an infamous crime family have in common with a spirited primary school teacher? Absolutely nothing, except a marriage of convenience, of course. When Lionel Tyson defaults on a gambling debt and offers his most prized possession as collateral, Austin Hawthorne is underwhelmed. But in desperate need of a housekeeper and permanent child minder, he knows he’d be an idiot to look a gift horse in the mouth. So, against his better judgement, he accepts an offer he should absolutely refuse. Marybeth Tyson is horrified to learn that not only is her father wanted by loan sharks, but he has also sold her off to a mafia boss. Bound by duty and pushed by guilt, she agrees to give Austin Hawthorne one year of her life, despite common sense screaming at her to run the other way. After all, how hard can pretending to be madly in love with someone be? It’s all fun and games until play pretend becomes all too real, and an earth-shattering secret from Austin’s past comes to light, threatening to destroy his second chance at love with his dogged pursuit for answers. Betrayal, especially at the hands of his older brother Blake and long-time friend, Andrei Ivanov, is a bitter pill to swallow for Austin, and letting them off scot-free is not an option. Driven by his unquenchable thirst for revenge, Austin will stop at nothing to get to the truth, even if it means destroying decade-old friendships and fragile ties to The Corporation. 2022 Val Sims. All rights reserved. No part of this novel may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author and publishers.

Being the only child to the Queen of Castle Grey, lost within the confines of mount Trenon, Kilvic is made to learn a number of things best suited to the heir to the Elzcrid bloodline at the hands of tutors handpicked by his mother. However, his fifteenth birthday sends him beyond the reaches of his mother’s domain. She has tasked him with the duty of learning more. Understanding greater things than she can teach him, greater things with which to cope with the curse upon his bloodline as she had been taught by her father and mother. Finding himself in a new kingdom, in an academy designed for only the most elite of mages, Kilvic is tasked to survive the new things he will come to learn, while struggling with the chaos of human association, as he comes to understand that while he may know a great deal about the world from the castle archives, it is a different thing to experience them. The association between people isn’t as easily deciphered as the books made them seem. As he struggles with the task of becoming a mage and a student along with surviving new friendships, failure threatens him at every turn and people prove pettier than the books would have him believe. Yet, despite all these, somewhere hidden in the shadows of the kingdom, a creature stirs, taking from the academy the one thing it values most. Kilvic must survive the trials of the academy, keep his friends, best his first enemy, and ensure that what stirs must not cause more damage than the kingdom can bear, lest the supremacy of Castle Grey be called into question in realms beyond that which most know. And all in time to attend the Winter Hall Fest.

She was sold to save an empire—until she fell for the man meant to destroy it. Aurora Borealis never had a choice and she was never meant to choose love. As the second daughter of a failing billionaire, she is promised to Christian Brian Wood—a charming business ally whose polished cruelty hides control, intimidation, and silent abuse. To the world, she’s a perfect fiancée. In private, she survives. At a high-profile rooftop party, Aurora meets Damon Grey—a stranger who feels like rebellion itself. Magnetic, dangerous, impossible to forget… and the son of the man who nearly ruined her family. Their attraction is instant, reckless, forbidden. When Aurora escapes her engagement, fate delivers a cruel twist: Damon is the very man her father plans to marry her off to next. But Damon refuses to claim her as property. He offers a contract marriage—one that promises protection, choice… and ignites a war between two billionaire empires. As desire turns into something neither planned, hidden pasts, jealous rivals, and deadly power games close in. Aurora must decide: risk everything for love—or lose it all...

In the Bennet family, Rue had long been jealous of her twin sister, Rachel. She concocted a plan to get Rachel drunk and send her into a stranger's bed at their birthday party, hoping that she would be expelled from the Bennet family with her ruined reputation. However, in the playful hands of fate, Rachel bedded Edward Bluemel, the richest man in the world, and became pregnant. Edward fell head over heels for Rachel, and actively searched for the woman with whom he only had the fortune to meet once. With Rue's manipulation, the couple’s reunion was prevented. Nine months later, Rachel gave birth to a pair of twin boys, which fueled Rue's flames of jealousy once more. In order to take over Rachel’s place as Edward’s wife, Rue took one of the twins and pretended to be her. With that, she managed to marry Edward, though she never had his favor since then. Five years passed, the other twin that was raised by Rachel had grown up to be a cute, kind prodigy. By chance, he entered an upper-class kindergarten where he met his twin brother for the first time…

When the news of my death on the battlefield, pinned to the pack's watchtower by silver arrows, reached my pack, my Alpha mate, Killian, simply laughed. He thought I was just jealous he was going to claim the Rogue, that I was faking my own death just to get his attention. "I was just trying to bring Valerie into the pack, and this is how she threatens me? With her own death?" "I left her with my most elite warriors. How could she possibly be dead!" "Tell her to get back here. I will claim Valerie, but after that, the title of Luna is still hers." Seven days later, he appeared before my family's home, carrying the ceremonial Luna circlet. He saw me in my white ceremonial dress, resting quietly beneath the white birch tree in the garden, and he breathed a sigh of relief. "I knew it. You were just giving me the silent treatment again." But in the next second, a pack elder's voice thundered: "Prepare the funeral pyre. Let us pay our final respects to our fallen warrior, Sloane!"

I was never meant to be wanted. I was too much too wide, too soft, too full in all the places that made men forget their vows, their loyalty, their mates. My stepmother saw it as a curse. So she did what any desperate, jealous woman would do she sold me. Packaged me up like something shameful and shipped me off to Alpha Dane Blackwood, the most feared Alpha in the northern territories. A man they whispered about in hushed, pitying tones. Powerful beyond measure. Cold beyond feeling. And completely, devastatingly impotent unable to bond, unable to mate, uninterested in a Luna. I was supposed to be safe in my invisibility. I was supposed to disappear quietly into his rejection. But the moment Alpha Dane's eyes moved over my body slow, dark, and burning like something long starved, I realized that the rumors were about to become very, very wrong. And when the mating bond snapped into place between us like a chain neither of us had asked for, I understood the most terrifying truth of all. I was never a burden. I was always a reckoning.

My mother-in-law got kidnapped, but my powerful husband, who ran both sides of the law, was too busy throwing a birthday bash for his old flame's dog. The kidnappers warned them they'd kill her if he didn't show up. I didn't beg him to act because, in my past life, I dragged him away from that party despite being eight months pregnant to save his mom. His old flame, who tagged along, got spotted by the kidnappers' lookout. They assaulted her and brutally killed her. Her body parts were left to be eaten by dogs. Furious, he gunned down the culprits and vanished for a month. When he returned, he never mentioned it. Then I gave birth to our son and was full of joy. But he threw me into the woods, weak and defenseless. Wild animals tore me apart, leaving nothing behind. "You were jealous of Alicia and had the kidnappers kill her?" he accused. "You don't deserve her happiness." When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day his mom got kidnapped.