Novel & Cerita Memory Like A Steel Trap

As New Year's Day approaches, a new hire who has only been with the company for six months, who is a mama's girl, calls the police and tries to have me arrested. She suspects our company is some kind of a scam. But the truth is, the company exceeded its performance targets this year. That is why I prepared a million-dollar year-end bonus, a ten-day premium trip to Graceland, and equity grants for my employees. Yet, she waves around a video her mother sends her, claiming that high-paying jobs like the one I offered are all traps. Not only that, she slanders my company all over the internet. Netizens become outraged and call me a scammer disguised as an entrepreneur. Having become the target of public criticism, I simply issue a notice, saying, "The company will immediately begin transfer procedures, and all perks are canceled." As soon as the announcement comes out, my employees, who have just taken out loans to buy homes and just gotten their visas for the trip, are completely stunned.

Louisa Forge didn’t choose this. She was handed over like a bargaining chip — marked by an Alpha she despises, installed in a pack house that doesn’t want her, bound to a man who locks her in her room and calls it mercy. Kaelen is everything a wolf shouldn’t be: cruel, reckless, and hungry for a power he hasn’t earned. But the pack house has another occupant. Julian — former Alpha, widower, a man who has been quietly starving himself to death since the loss of his mate — is supposed to be irrelevant. A ghost in the east wing. Instead he’s the one who checks on her in the night, who brings her sedatives for the pain, who laughs with her over terrible soup until the whole dining room forgets to be miserable. He’s also the one who tells her, very clearly, that what happened between them during her heat meant nothing. He’s lying. They both know it. Caught between a mate bond she never consented to and a connection she can’t name, Louisa is doing what she does best — surviving. She’s building alliances in quiet corners, winning loyalty one small kindness at a time, and carrying a secret that could burn everything to the ground. Because the heir Kaelen is so desperate to claim? It isn’t his.

On New Year's Eve, my own brother slapped me three times. He stood there, full of himself, and spat at me in disgust. "This is my house. Who do you think you are, coming in here and telling me what to do? Get out. You're nothing but bad luck. If you dare stay, I'll hit you again." He seemed to have forgotten something. The house he was living in was the one I had bought for Mom. The jewelry his wife wore was all paid for by me. The money in his children's hands was the generous allowance I had just given them. My face still burning, I looked around at the others. My sister-in-law curled her lips into a mocking smile and let out an icy snort. The two children stared at me with open hostility. Mom, who had called me there tonight for my birthday, stood silently in the corner. Just like always, her eyes were red, yet she said nothing. At that moment, something in me snapped.

I'm undressed and bound to a testing table when my family comes to pick me up. A thick, sharp needle pierces into my neck. A drug is administered into my blood, and the pain almost makes me lose consciousness. Behind me, I can feel a man's cold hands stroking my skin amorously. Before me, several people are staring at me. They point at me and treat me like an educational instrument. I tremble in fear and curl up on the testing table in pain. Three years ago, my brother sent me to Mykorra's war zone to stand up for Yvette Sanders. Those were the three most insulting and torturous years of my life. They burned away my hope for kinship but not my desire for survival. As the hands roam lower on my body, I bite my lip so hard that I almost draw blood. As the hands start to go overboard, someone knocks on the door. "Wendy Sanders, your brother is here for you."

On the seventh year since Winter Lidell's father was diagnosed with a deadly heart disease, he's finally eligible for a suitable heart meant for the transplant procedure. On the night before the surgery, Winter's husband of seven years, Liam Jager, requests that she give the heart to his mistress, Regina Baile. Liam still looks tall and handsome as ever, but the cold and aloof expression on his face is something that Winter has never seen before. "Winnie." His voice is emotionless. "Regina's condition is deteriorating rapidly." Winter feels her heart sinking the moment she hears her nickname being uttered coldly. She takes half a step backward instinctively, feeling a premonition looming over her. "She needs a heart transplant." Liam's gaze is fixed on Winnie, his tone carrying a hint of absolute decisiveness. "Right. Now." Every word feels like a blade made of ice cutting into Winnie's heart, where hope is starting to flare. Winnie's voice quivers violently, her words coming out fragmented and broken. "What… are you talking about, Liam? My dad… My dad has been waiting for this heart for seven years!"

The Alpha's son thought he would humiliate me in front of everyone by rejecting me, but I turned the tables on him; I rejected him first! But now I'm paying the price for embarrassing the Alpha's son. I've been kicked out of my family home and I can't get a job. My life looks bleak and hopeless until a tall dark and handsome stranger shows up in the tavern with a small boy at his side. The newly widowed Jareth makes an insane proposal: A fake marriage. I get a home and the safety of his name. He gets a live-in babysitter for his kid. But he doesn't know that I'm no ordinary she-wolf, and something tells me that Jareth is hiding something too.

Emma has always led a quiet, unremarkable life—until the mysterious transfer student, Lucas, reveals a world she never knew existed. Under the moonlight, she learns of her hidden werewolf powers and her fated connection to Lucas. But as the two try to build a life together, they are torn apart by family secrets, rival werewolves, and an ancient curse. Can love truly conquer all, or will the darkness within Lucas and the dangers of their world keep them apart forever?

Amara Mensah had always believed in two things: hard work and silence. Hard work would take her places, and silence would protect her when the world tried to break her. Growing up in a modest home in Accra, she had watched her mother struggle through life with dignity, never asking for help, never expecting miracles. So Amara didn’t believe in miracles either. Especially not the kind that came in the form of men. At twenty-six, she was a ghostwriter—anonymous, invisible, and painfully underpaid. She wrote love stories for people who believed in forever, even though she herself had never experienced anything close to it. Until the email came.

Gabriel Shepherd is a man without hope, risking his life as a hitman for hire until the day he starts to dream of a mysterious young woman. Convinced that the woman is his fated mate, he goes in search of her. Gabriel goes undercover as a teacher in a small forgotten town, only to discover that his fated mate is one of the students. Honoraria Talbot lives with her alcoholic uncle in a dilapidated trailer in a secluded forest lot. She knows nothing of her own history, except that she was abandoned by her mother when she was just a baby. She cannot explain her strange abilities, nor does she understand the powerful attraction she suddenly feels for the substitute teacher. All she wanted was to graduate high school and get away from the small town where she has been branded as trailer trash. But Gabriel Shepherd isn’t going to rest until he has discovered all her secrets and claimed Honor as his own.

My mom was a brilliant programmer. She created an app called "Shake for Allowance." After my brother and I downloaded it, she told us, "From now on, this is how you'll get your living expenses. On the first of every month, just shake your phone. Whatever number you get is the amount you'll receive. "The range is from zero to ten thousand dollars." At first, I was excited. Every month, I shook my phone with anticipation. However, every time, the result was the same: 0 dollars. My brother, meanwhile, always landed the highest amount. "Wow, sis, your luck really sucks," he said. Even when he showed me the transfer record for ten thousand dollars, there was a smug smile on his face. When I confronted Mom, she brushed it off, saying my luck was bad and that no one else was to blame. With no other choice, I worked three part-time jobs just to support myself while studying. On the night before my final exams, I collapsed from exhaustion and died. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the very day my mom created the "Shake for Allowance" app.