Lying On The Bed

Marina had spent her life clawing against poverty, illness, and desperation. With her mother and brother gravely unwell and her family barely surviving, she makes a dangerous choice. To become a royal consort. Trading her body and freedom for the power to save the people she loves. It is not romance she seeks, but leverage. King Xanthanius was murdered by betrayal and brought back from the dead by a single, fatal error made during his killing. Immortal but incomplete, half of his life force was stolen, leaving his resurrection imperfect and his existence unstable. Determined to reclaim what was taken, he rules with calculated cruelty and a singular obsession. Restoring his immortality at any cost. When Marina enters his court as a consort, Xanthanius initially sees her as nothing more than a crowd to his space then a disposable pawn, useful for navigating political traps and accomplishing delicate tasks beneath a King’s notice. But Marina is not as expendable as he assumes. Her presence is an untold key to the missing half of his immortality. She is tied to the very power Xanthanius needs to survive. Bound by mutual exploitation, desire, and distrust, Marina and Xanthanius use each other to pursue their own ends until ambition blurs into intimacy and manipulation gives way to something far more dangerous. Because falling in love with Marina may cost Xanthanius the immortality he’s willing to kill for and Marina must decide whether saving her family is worth destroying the man she’s come to care for. #romantasy #darkromance #mistress #ruthlessking #steamy

I looked at the naked stranger lying asleep beside me. Lightning flickered, illuminating his muscular body only in glimpses. He was covered in mud and blood, and though in human form now, he still looked wild and monstrous. I’d never found myself lying beside any naked man before in my life. He pulled at my clothes, and I let him rip them off. The thunder came closer, booming right overhead. We kissed with a frantic passion and grasped at every inch of each other. One of the only normal human girls at the Werewolf Noble Academy, I was at the bottom of the social order from the start. But even worse than that, just about everyone at school picked on me for being fat. One day I slept with a stranger in an accident. He is the second prince of the werewolf world, and wants to marry me!

A dreamer like Olivia, explores New York, leaving her stable life in the Philippines to build her own brand in New York, but ends up being a maid, lying about her career, and meets this FBI agent that will turn her twisted life, into a roller-coaster ride.

I was born blessed by the god of fortune. No matter where I work, I can close major deals while lying down asleep. The underboss of the Castellano mafia family discovers this secret. He shows up at my door personally and invites me to join as a consigliere in name only. He offers me a six-figure annual salary and chauffeur service. He even installs a special ten-foot-wide massage bed in my office just for sleeping. After I join the Castellano family, arms deals finalize one after another. Several stalled collaborations come back to life. The Castellano family's reputation climbs steadily. Until the boss' girlfriend shows up to inspect for the first time. She grabs a pair of scissors and, in front of everyone, shreds my mattress to pieces. "Useless! We don't pay you all this money to sleep! "Starting tomorrow, you're working as a bar hostess. And you'll be paid like one too." I rub my sleepy eyes and stare at her in confusion. Last night, to help the Castellano family finalize that casino operation rights contract, I didn't sleep a wink. I barely fall asleep, so how am I useless? The soldato beside her breaks into a sweat. "Signora, she's…" "Shut up!" she cuts him off arrogantly. "From now on, I'm the one in charge of the Castellano family!" Fine. Since there's no place for me here, I'll find somewhere else to sleep. I hear the rival family's boss is willing to give me an entire luxury estate.

On the way to a dance competition, a massive truck rammed into me. My legs were shattered, and my mother was sent flying from the impact after she tried to protect me. My stepbrother, who was also my secret boyfriend of six years, went crazy after hearing the news. He had the driver dragged off to a lawless borderland and called in the best doctors in the country to save me and my mother. Not many people knew, but I was born with a rare sensitivity to pain. The more it hurt, the clearer my mind became. That was how I ended up lying wide awake on the bed, listening to Luke Quinton and his friend, Harvey Lane, talking just outside my hospital room. "Luke, are you sure about this? You really want to let Queenie practice on Natalie's mother's heart?" "She deserves it. That vile woman seduced my father and drove my mother to her death. If not for revenge, do you think I'd stomach being with her daughter for six years? "She should be honored that Queenie is dissecting her heart. Keep it from Natalie for now. If she loses it, she might ruin my wedding with Queenie. What would I do if that happened? The only woman I'll ever have as my wife is Queenie. No one will ever take her place." So, that was the truth. What I thought was a love strong enough to defy the world had been a lie from the very beginning—just a carefully crafted act of revenge.

A NOVEL ON STOCKHOLM SYNDROME BOOK OF A THREE BOOK SERIES *TRIGGER WARNING* This book contains scenes that some readers may find disturbing… and also slightly annoying. “Miss. Iris, do you believe she has a point?” she asked and returned to her seat once again. “I don’t think so, her father and uncle deserve to go to jail.” My answer extracted a smile from her like she was proud of my response. “My name is Christine; I am a renowned medico-legal psychotherapist. Been in the business for over twenty years and that is what a case of Stockholm syndrome looks like. In my years of experience, we see situations similar to this but its our job to help the victims realize” “Wow…” I started, really amazed at what she had said and what her work entails. I was only concerned why they locked me in a room with a psychotherapist “it must be difficult at times” I added. “yeah, its difficult every time” she laughed “but today isn’t about me, I have a question for you.” There was a brief pause in between before she carried on “Does Hunter deserve to go to jail?”

Extract Alpha Dominic’s gaze cut through me like ice. “I don’t know you,” he spat, his voice filled with disgust. “How dare you show up out of nowhere, claiming to be my mate, claiming to carry my child, when I have never laid eyes on you before?” “Um, I—” I opened my mouth to explain, to tell him everything, but he cut me off. “Are you here for money? Is that it?” Without waiting for an answer, he reached into his car and pulled out a bundle of cash, flinging it at my feet. “I don’t want to see your filthy face again. I won’t waste my energy rejecting you. We will never be together. The moon goddess must have been mistaken to think a lowlife like you could be my mate.” The money lay scattered on the ground as hot tears blurred my vision. “I’m not lying,” I sobbed. “I am carrying your child.” Wolfless and satisfied, all Odette ever wanted was to be promoted and to become a full-time teacher. But her world came crumbling down when her boss made sexual advances at her, saying it was the only way for her to keep her job. Brokenhearted, she ran from the school, and instead of going home to her family, she went to a hotel, got drunk, ended up in the bed of a stranger, and got pregnant afterwards. She was sent out of the house by her mother until she aborted the baby. Will she abort the baby? Or find the father of her child?

He took everything from me. My home. My heart. My daughter. I was twenty four years old, lying in a hospital bed, holding my newborn girl for the first time, when Rane Blackwood walked in with divorce papers and a court order. He said I was unfit. He said I was poor. He said I had nothing to offer his child. And because I had no money, no lawyer, and no one to fight for me, I signed. I told myself it was temporary. I told myself I would come back for her. I kept that promise. Six years later, I am not the broken girl he left behind. I rebuilt from nothing. I worked, I sacrificed, I planned. And when his six shareholders quietly sold their stakes one by one, I was the one buying. By the time Rane Blackwood figured out what was happening, I already owned sixty percent of his company. He does not know it is me. Not yet. I have a new life, a new love, and a daughter I have never stopped thinking about. But my daughter does not know I am her mother. His wife, the woman who was once my best friend, has made sure of that. She has poisoned my child's heart against a woman she does not even know is standing right in front of her. Now Rane is chasing me. Begging. Promising. Suffering. Good. Let him. Some debts are not paid in money. Some are paid in regret.

My daughter Mia's congenital heart condition had worsened. She desperately needed the one-of-a-kind miniature artificial heart I'd spent five years developing. The night before surgery, my wife Victoria stole it from the cold storage unit. I rushed to the hospital like a madman, only to find her at the bedside of her first love Dominic Forsythe's son, prepping him for surgery. "Mia can hold on for another six months. Dominic's son can't wait." "What kind of father are you, being this selfish?" Victoria stood there, righteous indignation written all over her face. I looked at my daughter lying in her hospital bed, barely clinging to life, and dialed the overseas number I'd refused a dozen times before. "Professor Ellsworth, this is Nathan Hartley." "I'll accept your offer. But I need you to arrange a medical transport—immediately—to bring my daughter to your facility. Her heart needs emergency intervention." I spent five years developing a life-saving heart for my daughter. Victoria stole it overnight and gave it to Dominic Forsythe’s son. “Mia can hold on for another six months. Dominic's son can't wait.” She had no idea I held all the core patents for that heart. That same night, I took my daughter aboard a medical jet and fled the country. The next time we met, you would be on your knees begging me.

Two years ago, as a graduate of Werewolf Medical School, I volunteered to go to the most remote and poorest pack, as it had always been my dream to help werewolf patients in need. I heard from my teacher that the werewolves in the Rogue Pack were the poorest and that their living conditions were the worst. Most of the werewolves there were old and weak, so I volunteered to go to that pack as soon as I graduated. After I arrived, I helped them build an infirmary and even set up a blood station. Every year, I led them in voluntary blood donations. But one time—right after I had taken a short break following a blood donation—they turned on me. They slandered me, calling me a selfish and heartless healer. Worse still, they accused me of faking illness, claiming I was lying comfortably in bed while patients were dying—refusing to lift a finger to save them. Not only that, they stormed into the infirmary, seized all my herbs and equipment, and completely trashed the place I had built for them with my own hands. Recalling the days I had spent day and night healing them—only to see my infirmary destroyed and my dream shattered—I let out a bitter smile. I picked up the phone and called the dean of my home pack. "I'm ready to return," I said. "I want to serve the patients in our own pack." Then, without a trace of regret, I left that place behind. However, after I gave up, the whole pack regretted it and begged me to return.