Lauren Southern

By the seventh year of my cold war with my father, Don Leonardi Rossi, he finally found a way to win me over. He introduced me to the most powerful Mafia Don in southern Ritalle—Riccardo Colombo. For my happiness, my father was willing to give me half of the family's empire as a gift. I surrendered completely to Riccardo's love. Four months later, I was pregnant. Every prenatal check-up saw Bascily regions' two most influential Dons personally by my side. Everyone envied me for having two men who loved me so fiercely. Yet, on the day of my amniocentesis, they were both absent. "There's a new arms deal in the north," my father said, stroking my head. Riccardo kissed my belly gently. "I'll bring you gifts when I return." I smiled and watched them leave. But as I lay on the examination table, my phone buzzed with an anonymous video. In it, my father wore a groom's suit, standing beside Rosa—the prostitute who had infuriated my mother to death. Their illegitimate daughter, Lina, cradled her swollen belly, proudly wearing the Colombo family crest, and clung to my husband's arm. The announcer cried, "Congratulations to Don Rossi for reclaiming his one true love, and to Don Colombo for marrying his soulmate!" At the video's end, my father laughed and clinked glasses with Riccardo. "The fake crest and fake marriage certificate for Lia—you really outdid yourself. Aren't you worried she'll be heartbroken?" Riccardo snorted. "She never let Rosa into the house, leaving Lina to grow up as a bastard. This was what she owed her." So that was the truth. But when I finally left with my child for the Massimo family, why did they still regret it?

Introduction At my mating ceremony with Blake Morrison, the Alpha heir I'd loved for eight years, his childhood sweetheart texted him a pregnancy test photo. He didn't hesitate for a second. He canceled our mating ceremony and rushed off to take care of his childhood sweetheart. After he left the ceremony hall, his childhood sweetheart posted photos on the big screen behind me. Photos of the two of them tangled together in my bedroom. Then Blake sent me a message: "I was drunk that night. Ivy is carrying my child, and I need to be there for her." "She wanted to hide the pregnancy and raise the pup alone, but she's an Omega. It's too hard for an Omega to raise a child by herself, especially when she's competing to be the Pack's Head Healer... I can't ruin her future, and I can't abandon an innocent life." "You're an Alpha wolf. High-ranking wolves don't get pregnant easily, and you've always wanted children quickly, right? After she gives birth, I'll arrange for her to study advanced healing at the Alliance. You can raise the child, and they'll only know you as their mother." When I didn't reply, he added another message: "The official marking and re-scheduling our mating ceremony will have to wait until after Ivy gives birth." I stared at my phone screen, laughing until my eyes burned with tears. I was the only Alpha heiress of the Stormfang Pack, the strongest pack in Southern territories. Did he really think that I had no choice but to pick him as my mate? I dialed the Alpha King Kane Blackwood's number directly: "Are you still willing to be my mate?"

I no longer deliver meals to my husband, Zachary Smith—the man who became the factory manager after receiving a scholarship that brought him to the city—since my rebirth. I even make sure to detour using the gate at the factory's north side whenever he uses the southern gate after he finishes his meetings. In my past life, I was fully aware he took me as his wife—a humble country woman—just for the chance to move to the city. Yet, I insisted on becoming his wife, anyway. After all, I was convinced that a person's true affections could be earned and nurtured. Yet, Zachary maintained a constant, formal distance throughout our marriage. He would simply offer me a book the moment I attempted to bridge the gap, saying, "You should study more so that you don't continually attract people's contempt." I got emboldened by the drink as I threw my arms around him, yet he merely accepted the embrace rigidly, whispering, "It's just what married couples do." It wasn't until decades later, as I lay on my deathbed, that I discovered the heartbreaking words in his autobiography. In it, he stated that our entire marriage was like being trapped in a mire and that he never wanted to be with me again if he were to ever be reborn. I felt a searing pain tearing through my heart as I closed my eyes in devastating anguish. When I open my eyes again, I find myself back at the point in time when the gossip about Zachary and Juliana Ziegler, the factory's technician who studied abroad, first began to spread. In this life, I choose not to fight or cause drama. Instead, I am the one who brings up the divorce.

A princess vanishes. A kingdom can't afford the truth. And the only person who can take her place is the brother who was never supposed to exist in the shadows she left behind. Prince Caelan Vayne is an Alpha with a secret that could shatter him — his strength is suppressed, his designation hidden, his entire identity a carefully maintained performance. When his sister disappears days before her royal wedding, his father makes the impossible ask: put on her dress, cross the border south, and become her. Just long enough to save the alliance. Just long enough to find her. He doesn't expect Crown Prince Damien Solaris. Cold. Commanding. The kind of man who fills a room without trying. Damien is everything a southern crown prince is supposed to be — except for one thing. Beneath the iron composure and the perfect Alpha facade, he's hiding a designation that would cost him his crown, his empire, and everything he's spent his life building. Two people. Two impossible secrets. One contract marriage that was supposed to keep them at arm's length. It doesn't. Because living under the same roof does something to carefully constructed walls. Shared suppressants become shared trust. Midnight investigations become something neither of them can name. And the cold, professional distance of a contract slowly, devastatingly becomes the one place either of them has ever felt safe. But someone arranged the princess's disappearance. Someone inside these very palace walls wants this alliance — and everything it protects — reduced to ash. They'll have to find the truth before it finds them first. The Alpha Wore a Crown and Secrets is a slow-burn ABO royalty romance about two people who agreed to a temporary arrangement — and discovered that the heart doesn't honor expiration dates.

Before our marking ceremony, my fiancé, Adrian Conner, insists on bringing his childhood sweetheart along on our trip—all because Flora Wooledge says she also wants to see the northern lights. He switches my first-class ticket to Flora's name. He says, "I'll fly first class with Flora. You can take connecting flights by land. The doctor said it's not good for a pregnant woman to stay at high altitude for too long." I don't cry or argue. Instead, I calmly push him toward Flora. He snorts. "You've finally learned to behave. You're not as clingy and troublesome as before." After he leaves, I quietly sign the abortion consent form at the hospital. Then, I book a ticket to the southern hemisphere. In my past life, I begged and clung to him, hoping to keep him with our pup. But on that trip, Flora was attacked by rogue wolves and torn apart in the snow. Adrian kept a calm facade. Yet on the night I was about to give birth, he dragged me back home and cut open my belly with his own hands. He stood there and listened as our pup's cries slowly faded away. He poured all his hatred onto me. He believed I caused Flora's death and that I ruined his chance to become the Conner family's heir. To him, I was nothing more than a sacrificial pawn. In this new life, when I step off the private jet, I see Adrian standing there with his eyes bloodshot. He stares at my belly and asks, "Where's the pup?" Before I can answer, his half-brother wraps an arm around my waist. "Adrian, show some respect to your sister-in-law."

Five years ago, I woke up naked beside my husband’s beta, and in that moment, my entire world burned. My mate, Draven, the Alpha of Midnight MC, looked at me like I was filth. He didn’t let me speak. He didn’t believe me. He stripped me of my title, my name, and everything I was, and he banished me. I rebuilt my life from the ashes as a mechanic. A woman learning to live without the bond that once defined her. Until the day he walked back into my life, not Draven, but his estranged stepbrother, Calix. The same man who used to torment me in college just to get under my skin. Cocky, reckless, and infuriatingly charming, the kind of danger that made my heart forget how to beat. He offered me a deal to pretend to be his girlfriend in a three-month biker tournament and he’d rebuild my shattered shop. I should’ve said no. Because when I walked into that tournament, I saw Draven again, he looked colder than I remembered... and standing beside him, heavily pregnant, was my best friend, Lauren, who betrayed me. Now my past and present are colliding in flames. The mate who abandoned me wants me back. The stepbrother who once bullied me wants me. And the lies that ruined my life are unraveling faster than I can breathe. I’m torn between two brothers, one who broke my soul and one who pieced it back together. And I don’t know which one I’m meant to love... or which one will burn me in the end.

Laurens Leben wurde auf den Kopf gestellt, als ihr erwählter Gefährte von zehn Jahren sie für seine Schicksalsgefährtin verließ. Eine Gefährtin, die ihn einst für einen mächtigeren Alpha abgewiesen hatte. Mit ihrer Rückkehr in ihr Leben wurde Lauren alles genommen und sie blieb mit nichts zurück. Gebrochen und niedergeschlagen ging sie fort, unfähig den verzehrenden Schmerz des Verrats zu ertragen. Die Umstände zwangen sie zur Rückkehr, und sie fand einen unerwarteten Verbündeten in Alpha Sebastian. Ein Mann, der gleichermaßen gefürchtet wie verehrt wurde. Ein König ohne Thron, der sowohl über die Menschen- als auch die Wolfswelt herrschte. Er war außerdem der Erzfeind ihres ehemaligen Gefährten. Ihre Verbindung war ungewöhnlich. Er war zu kalt und sie entsprach nicht seinem Typ. Liebe stand nicht auf ihrer Agenda. Warum durchfuhr sie dann dieses Kribbeln, wenn er sie als seine bezeichnete? Und warum sah er sie an, als wäre sie seine Erlösung? Es stellte sich heraus, dass ihre Feinde ihre geringste Sorge war. Nicht wenn die wahre Gefahr im Feuer lag, das zwischen ihnen entfacht. Das Feuer, das sie in Liebe und Leidenschaft entflammen oder sie zerstören konnte. Hinweis: Dieses Buch ist eine Zwei-in-Eins-Ausgabe. Buch 1: Der Alpha und Seine Vertragsluna Buch 2: Der Alpha und Seine Erwählte Gefährtin

On our seventh wedding anniversary, my wife, Blair, the daughter of the city's richest man, straddled my lap, her kiss deep and intoxicating as she toyed with my lower lip. The same night, we just announced our pregnancy to the world. Just then, Blair's best friend, Chloe, asked in French, her tone suggestive: "Blair, you're absolutely glowing. But tell me honestly, how does it feel to get railed by another man while carrying a baby?" Blair let out a soft laugh, a familiar sound that sent a chill down my spine. She replied, also in French: "It feels absolutely incredible, Chloe. He's like a wild wolf. Just yesterday, he had his head buried between my thighs, using his mouth to bring me to tears before taking me so deep I forgot my own name." Her fingers were still toying with my collar, but her gaze was already distant. "But remember, keep this from Kevin. If he finds out what I've been doing behind his back while pregnant, it will be a disaster." The socialite sisters gathered around them shared knowing chuckles, raising their glasses and promising to keep the secret. The warmth in my veins turned to ice. My fervent passion to welcome a new life was instantly reduced to a pathetic joke. They had all forgotten that I spent my childhood in southern France. I understood every single syllable. I forced myself to remain calm, my face fixed in the perfect smile expected of a blissful husband about to welcome his first child, but the hand holding my champagne glass was trembling. I didn't fly into a rage. I didn't smash everything in sight. Instead, I took out my phone, found the invitation I had received a few days prior for the Aegis Agency, a highly classified organization on the other side of the world, and clicked "Accept." In three days, I would vanish from Blair's world.

"What am I to you? A trash picker?" I asked him sarcastically, looking at him from head to toe in disdain. "Lauren." he growled, clenching his fists tightly, glaring at me in disbelief. "Yeah, I know this is my name. You don't need to remind me, and please don't pop up in front of me like an unwanted ad in the middle of an interesting scene. You irritate me the most in this way." I scolded him, still with an ugly expression in disgust on my face. "So, now I disgust you, huh? Why didn't you disgust before when I." "Because I was a fool back then. I assumed a filthy rock as a gem and paid a heavy price for that." Before he could complete his sentence, I interrupted him, scolding him in a loud voice. His already widened angry eyes widened more in shock this time. I took a step forward while locking my gaze with him. "A scum like you who used me when he needed me and then slapped the divorce paper doesn't deserve even a glance from me, Gabriel. Never bother me again, or else what I will do to you, you can't even think about that." "Hey, babe. Why are you here?" I beamed when I heard his magnetic voice calling me from behind. I immediately moved towards him when Gabriel held my wrist. "You are making a mistake, Lauren," he warned me in a stiff voice. I yanked my hand from his grip and threw a disgusting gaze on him before walking towards the boy who treated me like a treasure. Gabriel’s devotion to his first love made me realize that loving myself is the only thing that can make me happy forever. I grabbed Vincent's arm with a beaming smile.

I was the daughter of the Ashford Pack Alpha — the most beautiful she-wolf in the entire southern territory. Alphas lined up to pursue me, and I couldn't be bothered to give any of them a second glance. Until my best friend dared me: "Sera, I've got a bet for you. Think you can make my brother Kieran fall for you? Win, and I'll give you my mother's healing moonstone necklace. Lose, and you hand over that limited-edition sports car you love so much." Countless beautiful she-wolves had tried to get into his bed. Every last one of them had been turned away cold. The very first night after I took the bet, I saved Kieran from a silver poisoning, and spent the rest of that night tangled up with him while he burned through his heat. For the two years that followed, he grew more and more obsessed with me. On the long conference table in the pack meeting room, he pinned me down against the papers. In every room of his private estate, we left traces of ourselves behind. I gradually fell in love with him during countless intimate moments. Until the night only to overhear his conversation with the pack elder. "Alpha, it's time to announce who will be Luna." The Elder's voice was low and deliberate. "Miss Seraphina has been by your side for two years now. According to pack tradition—" "Enough." Kieran cut him off. "She and I were just having fun." The Elder was quiet for a moment. "And your first love? When you two separated, she asked for two years apart to try other partners. Those two years are up now. Isn't it time for her to come back?" "Yes." Warmth finally crept into Kieran's voice. "It's time for her to come back." That was when I realized — his so-called true love was my half-sister. The person I hated most in the world. For two years, I had been just his experiment while he "tried someone else". I turned and walked away without a second thought. But this powerful Alpha went mad — tearing through the entire wolf world searching for me.