Knife Cuts

The little boy I had saved when we were kids grew up to be a possessive, obsessive CEO. For ten years, he kept me by his side, using my grandmother's illness as a bargaining chip to force me into marrying him. He tried everything to win my heart, pulling every trick in the book, but no matter what he did, he could never make me love him. In a fit of rage, he found a woman who looked almost exactly like me to take my place. They flaunted their relationship for everyone to see, and people whispered that the CEO had finally found his true love. But that day, the woman, riding on his affection, barged into the villa with her entourage. She broke my fingers one by one, slashed my face with a utility knife, and removed my clothes to humiliate me. "Even though you had surgery to look like me, I'll let that slide. But you even learned to paint like me, too? You really did your homework. Let's see how you try to seduce men now!" Just as I was bleeding out and on the verge of death, the obsessive CEO finally showed up. The stand-in grabbed my hair and dragged me in front of him, smugly reporting, "Honey, this wench was hiding in the villa trying to seduce you. I've made sure she can't succeed!"

My best friend's boyfriend was cheating, so I tagged along to bust him at a hotel. Fifteen hours until go time. Felicity Cook booked a room right next to Jake's, jaw tight. "They'll be here tonight. When the time comes, we'll catch them red-handed." Inside, I could barely keep my eyes open. She'd been a wreck since last night, and I hadn't slept a minute trying to keep her sane. Figured I had time, so I set an alarm and crashed. When I opened my eyes, a guy was lying next to me. Felicity kicked the door in and pointed at me. "Lydia Lloyd! I can't believe you betrayed me! You're my best friend! Why would you sneak around and steal my boyfriend?" I just stared, mind blank, trying to get words out. She snapped, yanked out a kitchen knife, and in front of everyone, drove it into me again and again. I hit the floor, drowning in my own blood, eyes stuck open like my body refused to let me go. I came here to catch a cheater—how did I end up the side chick? Then I blinked... and I was right back at the moment I first walked into that hotel with Felicity.

The day my husband, Caleb Vale, buries his first love, Layla Shaw, he stands in front of me and throws our wedding ring into the sea. For the next 12 years, the breakfasts I bring him go straight into the trash, and the scarf I stay up all night knitting is tossed into the fire and burned to ash. The cruelest moment is when he looks me in the eye and says, "Aurora, if you really want to please me, you might as well go die." But when a mugger comes at me with a knife, Caleb still steps in front of me without a second's hesitation. As he lies dying in my arms, he uses the very last of his strength to force out a few broken words. "Go... I hope I never see you again in my next life." At the funeral, Helena Rogers sobs until she faints. "This is all my fault. I never should've arranged your marriage..." Everyone around us pities him and resents me. They whisper that I'm a jinx and wonder why I'm not the one who died. And honestly, I wonder the same thing. Why not me? After Caleb is lowered into the ground, I climb to the top floor of the building and jump. As I hover on the edge of death, a cold, mechanical voice echoes in my mind. "Binding complete. Wish detected. The system will now send you back 12 years."

On our third dating anniversary, Enzo and I were caught in a cruise ship disaster. I gave him the only life preserver, and I was swallowed by the sea, lost without a trace. Three years later, after finally recovering from my injuries, I rushed back home—only to walk right into his grand wedding with my so-called sister. Bound by a life debt, he had no choice but to marry me—and resented me ever since. He hated that I'd come between him and the woman he truly loved. Even my own parents accused me of being selfish, of ruining my sister's happiness for life. Under the weight of everyone's coldness and rejection, I became desperate and unhinged. … Then, one day, when our family's old enemies came for revenge, he threw himself in front of me and took a knife straight to the heart. Blood gushed out as he used the last of his strength to drag me to safety. "Raina," he rasped, "you saved my life once, and now I've repaid the debt. Just do me one favor—don't come back to haunt me in the next life. All I want is to spend it forever with Selina, just the two of us." My heart tore apart, and I died with that grief. However, when I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day I had crashed their wedding.

Blurb She wanted love. She wanted freedom. But what she got instead was heartbreak in its cruelest form. This is Alessia Marino’s story. Born into a ruthless mafia family, Alessia was suffocating under their rules and expectations. All she ever wanted was a life that was hers—to love freely, to breathe without fear. So she ran. She changed her name to Sienna Johnson, determined to start over and live like a normal woman. And for a while, she thought she’d found it all. A devoted husband, Gabriel. A sweet four-year-old daughter they’d adopted. And a best friend, Sylvia, who felt like the sister she never had. But paradise shattered in an instant. The truth hit her like a knife to the chest—Sylvia and Gabriel had been lovers all along, and the little girl she adored wasn’t adopted at all… she was theirs. Broken. Betrayed. Shattered beyond repair. But fate wasn’t done with her yet. When Desmond Blackwell, Gabriel’s powerful rival, offers her a chance at revenge, Alessia takes it without hesitation. Together, they plot to destroy the man who destroyed her. But the deeper she gets, the harder it becomes to ignore the pull she feels toward Desmond—dark, magnetic, and dangerous. And when the truth about who Desmond really is begins to unravel, Alessia realizes she might be walking straight into a trap… one that could cost her not just her heart, but her life.

In my last life, my mother, Lydia Hudson, gave me a pair of earrings worth millions at my coming-of-age ceremony. The moment I wear them, I go from being a rising beauty in the entertainment industry to looking like an old woman in her 80s. Mom stays completely calm. She locks me in the basement and cuts off all contact with the outside world. It isn't until my brother's girlfriend, Stephanie Meyer, kindly rescues me that I finally see the outside world again. But before I can even thank her, I'm stabbed to death by a mob of obsessed fans. "When I visited the first time, your mom only gave me a one-million-dollar gift. It's only your birthday, yet you get earrings worth tens of millions? The Quinton family fortune is mine. If you dare to fight me for it, this is what'll happen to you," she told me. It's only after my death that I learn that she was furious about Lydia giving me the earrings. She spread rumors online that I was a gold-digging opportunist and incited her followers to kill me. When I open my eyes again, I am back on the day of my coming-of-age ceremony. Without hesitation, I hand the earrings to Stephanie. If she wants the Soul-Sworn Earrings, I will give them to her.

Sable Hart has spent her life staying invisible in Briar Hollow—until the day Nightfell’s Alpha, Caelan Varr, is buried and a burning mate mark appears on her wrist. The pack calls it impossible: a bond formed after death. Lyra Varr, Caelan’s ruthless mother and Luna of Nightfell, names Sable the “widow” and orders her taken for judgment under pack law. Before chains can close, Caelan’s voice slips into Sable’s ear from the darkness of her car—cold, intimate, possessive—forcing the engine to turn over and pushing her onto a forgotten highway. Redcrest intercepts her. Garrick Thorne, their amber-eyed Alpha, offers protection with a smile that cuts: Sable isn’t just marked—she’s leverage, a doorway to Caelan’s blood-right, and the prize that can tip a brewing pack war. Desperate for answers, Sable follows the pull of the mark to Maeven Crowe, a bone-seer who collects truth like debt. Maeven confirms what Sable fears: widow-bonds don’t stay quiet. They get hungry. And doors don’t choose who walks through. Caught between Lyra’s merciless authority and Garrick’s strategic hunger, Sable must bargain with a witch, outmaneuver two packs, and decide whether Caelan is her fated protector… or the first mask worn by the thing trying to claim her body. Because Caelan wasn’t the only thing that came back.

Rhea Ravelle, heiress of a powerful and influential family, goes against her family's wishes and cuts ties with them. She chooses to marry Carter Jamison, a man with a failing career and two children born out of wedlock. For six years, she raises his children as if they were her own and helps Carter rebuild his crumbling business. Under her care, the kids grow into kind, well-mannered little stars, and Carter's company finally makes it big and goes public. But right at the celebration marking his entry into high society, the biological mother of his two children suddenly shows up. And Carter, who is usually so calm, completely loses it. He begs the woman to stay, making Rhea the laughingstock of the entire city. That night, he doesn't come home. Instead, he takes the children and runs straight back to his old flame, playing house as a happy family. Soon after, Carter files for divorce. "Thanks for everything, Rhea. But the kids need their birth mother." The children's mother also says, "Thank you for taking care of them all these years. But a stepmother will never compare to a birth mother." So blood beats love? If that's how it is, then she's done playing stepmother. However, the children reject their birth mother flat-out, and they don't want Carter either. They declare, "Rhea is our only mom! If you're getting divorced, then we're going wherever she goes!"

Blurb. The candle tilted in his hand, a drop of wax falling onto her breast. She gasped, arching, but he held her down with a firm grip on her hip. “Too much?” he asked, his lips brushing her ear. Her breath shook. “No…” Another drop slid lower. She whimpered, thighs pressing together. “Open for me,” he said, voice low but steady. She obeyed, shivering. “Luca…” He smirked, dragging his tongue over the hardened wax. “Not Luca.” She tried so hard not to say the words, but the wax kept on dropping on her skin, his touch against her body was nothing to write home about. Her cheeks flushed. “Daddy…” “That’s better,” he whispered, another drop marking her skin. “Say it again.” Her nails dug into his shoulders as she moaned. “Daddy.” ****** She's 21 and he's 39. Sold at an auction, Mirabelle never expected her buyer to be Luca DeLuca—the most feared mafia heir in the country. Luca had bought her for a different reason, but didn't imagine he'd keep her. Their marriage was supposed to be a lie, a deal for power and just to deceive his father. But his touch burns, his jealousy cuts deep, and every night with him pulls her closer to danger and to a love she swore she’d never feel.

Ever cried till you no longer had tears to shed? Bled till there was no more blood to bleed? Endured till it became a part of you? At that point, pain no longer seems like pain, but reality. No one knows how deep it cuts, how bad it hurts. But you endure it anyways. You don’t cry, you stay strong like a warrior that’ll never give up nor win. Talia Malakai, the Alpha’s daughter by name alone, lived like a shadow in her own home. In a pack where her blood should have earned her respect, she was treated as nothing more than a servant, scorned, unseen, a burden, bad luck, a curse. She learned to bow her head and swallow her voice, to endure the weight of each day like shackles she could never break. Her life was not hers, and she told herself it never would be. But even a broken girl could still be discarded. And when her father—the Alpha, the man who should have protected her—decided to sell her off like unwanted property, he called it relief. A relief from bad luck, he said, a release from the shame of having her as his blood. What awaits a girl who has already lost everything? Could being sold offer the faintest chance at freedom? Or was this only another hell waiting to swallow her whole?