Kenji Bungo Stray Dogs

"After a messy break-up, police officer Matthew Haldon is fine living in his cabin out in the woods all by himself. He has his dogs to keep him company and his job to keep him busy. He never expects to find love again, especially not with the woman he finds stranded on the side of the road during a blizzard. When Matt realizes that Holly Cook has nowhere to go, he invites her to stay at his cabin for the night. Holly is dangerous, though: with her fiery red hair and her bubbly personality, she tempts Matt like no woman ever has. As the snowstorm rages outside, Matt and Holly share a night that neither will forget. Yet Holly’s past isn’t about to let her go—and now, neither is Matt. This title was previously published as Adore Me Ardently. It’s been rereleased with a brand-new look and with lightly edited content."

After fifteen years away, I was finally brought back to the DeLuca family. I thought I was returning to my real home. Instead, I walked into a house where the adopted daughter wanted me dead, my father treated me like a burden, and my brothers would rather watch me bleed than make her cry. On my first day back, she set dogs on me. That night, I was dragged to the top of the observatory and forced to apologize to her. When I fell from the tower covered in blood, they still called me a liar. Because in the DeLuca family, I may have been the real daughter by blood— but she was the daughter they loved. She thought she could bully me, poison me, and freeze me to death without consequence. She was wrong. Because the night I nearly died, my mother finally chose me—and turned a gun on the whole DeLuca family.

I was his one weakness. Don Alex, the king of New York. And I was his queen. But days before our child was due, I was thrown into the Dockside Deathmatch—a cruel game broadcast for the underground world’s entertainment. The bullets flew, hidden traps lay in wait, and my every terrified, pathetic attempt to survive was broadcast live on giant screens. Then, I heard his second-in-command on the loudspeaker. "Boss, your wife's about to pop. You sure you wanna be here?" I froze. Alex was here? A moment later, a woman’s sugary voice dripped through the speakers. "Forget that bitch. Alex told me the only thing that mattered today was being here with me. Right, honey?" It was Scarlett. The Chicago Outfit's princess. Alex's childhood sweetheart from Chicago, a woman he had always pampered and shown a distinct bias towards. He had turned down her advances for years, but he never refused her whims. Today, she was in a bad mood and insisted on watching the deathmatch, so he was here to keep her company. I screamed for Alex, begged him for help, but he was convinced I was an assassin in disguise. Because Scarlett laughed and said the game needed to be more exciting. So he pressed the button. Vicious patrol dogs hunted me. My water broke, mixing with blood on the ground. I was in agony. The game hit its climax as more dogs and gunmen closed in from all sides. Everyone was betting on who would be the next to die. Alex smiled, his voice a low, careless drawl, "I’ll bet on that filthy pregnant woman to die." He didn't know the truth until I bled out on an operating table, our child dead with me. They say the ruthless Godfather shattered. Broke completely.

I spiked the drink of Daniel Falkner, Belcaster's big shot, three years ago. After that night of madness, he doesn't punish me. Instead, he takes my waist in his hands and drives into me until my legs go weak, calling me "princess", again and again. But just as I'm about to confess, Serena Jarman, the woman he never gets over, returns. For her sake, he lets me get hit by a car, makes me watch Mom's keepsake get left to a stray, and even throws me into jail with his own hands. By the time I'm shattered and boarding a flight to Velport to marry someone else, Daniel is tearing Belcaster apart just to find me.

“Bear me a son, and I will grant you freedom.” Those were the first words I spoke to her. Cold. Ruthless. Monster. I am Nikolai Kenji Ivanshov, Alpha of the Thornmoon Pack, feared, obeyed, and cursed to forget anything resembling love. I wasn’t made for softness. I wasn’t made for hope. I was born to rule… and to destroy the Vampire Lord who murdered my mother. Then Vena Ravensong appeared on my land, red-haired, trembling, and hiding secrets behind her pretty eyes. I took her in as my breeder. Nothing more. Vena… I did not come to the Thornmoon Pack willingly. I was sent by the vampire who owns my blood, ordered to gain Nikolai’s trust, to betray him… all to save my sister. Nikolai Ivanshov is no savior to me. He is just another powerful man who believes my body is his to claim, my future his to dictate. He wants an heir. I want to survive. I will bear his son, and in return, he will grant me my freedom. WARNING: This is a very dark romance novel and contains mature themes, you are warned.

Aubrey Castile is the "stray" of the BloodMoon Beta family, living in the shadows of her cruel half sister, Eileen. After a devastating betrayal, Aubrey spends one wild, nameless night with a powerful stranger—only to wake up pregnant with a forbidden heir. She’s ready to run away to protect her pup, but her plans shatter at her sister's engagement party. The groom is Travis Thorne, the coldest Alpha in the north—and the man from her one-night stand. In front of the entire pack, Travis rejects Eileen and points to the girl in the shadows. "I’m not marrying her. I’m taking Aubrey, because she’s carrying my child." Now, the unwanted daughter is the Alpha’s Mate. But in a world of pack wars and family secrets, can she survive being the woman he chose?

After eight years of marriage, my husband ignored my protests and brought his so-called cancer-stricken first love into our home. “You heartless woman! You don’t have an ounce of compassion! You’re not even worth a single strand of Luna’s hair!” Even my son chimed in, shouting that if I didn’t let Luna Miller in, he wouldn’t acknowledge me as his mother. That was it. I was done. I divorced him and accepted an invitation to return to the design world—back to the top where I belonged. But then they saw the forged cancer diagnosis. And suddenly, the tears came. “Baby, I was tricked! It was always you—I’ve only ever loved you!” “Mom, don’t leave me! I’m your only child!” I didn’t even look at them. Who let these crazy dogs in? They’re in my way—I’ve got an award to accept.

My father lies on a hospital bed, barely breathing as he asks to see my husband once more. However, my husband's phone is turned off that day. I hurry to his company to look for him, but his secretary stops me and tells me there's a company policy that says they don't allow me and dogs to enter. I kneel before the building and beg for help, but someone records me and twists the truth. Later, I watch the video and see Eugene Fort carrying his true love, who's cut her finger, into the car. My father ultimately dies without seeing Eugene. I stay up all night to handle the wake and funeral. The following day, I finally receive a call from Eugene. He sounds impatient as he says, "Come to the hospital. Ivy needs help."

What was even more humiliating than discovering her fiancé’s affair was hearing him claim he’d lost interest in her, and that he had gotten another woman pregnant. In the world of adults, it’s never about right or wrong—only about leverage. Heather Jenner couldn’t afford to lose the status she was so close to achieving as a wealthy wife. Let him have his fun, she thought. If he could stray, why shouldn’t she find another man to father her child? And so, she set her sights on his younger brother—the one who outshone him in every way.

I had just gotten home when a parent in my son’s class group chat erupted: [Ms. Zinn, what kind of place are you running? Do you let just any random stray off the street become a teacher?] [My daughter came home, grabbed two forks, and tried to jump off the balcony. She said it was Miss Never who told her to!] The homeroom teacher panicked and denied it at once, insisting there was no such person as Miss Never at the kindergarten. She even posted the official teaching schedule in the chat to prove it. On the security footage, there was not a single trace of this so-called Miss Never. However, later, my son whispered to me in secret, “Mom, Miss Never is an old lady with a cat’s face.” “She says only kids can see her.”