Michael Hart

***WOLFBANE SERIES BOOK 4*** TERRI Being raised by an alpha meant my life was never truly my own. Now, after being forced into a mate bond I never wanted, even that last illusion of freedom is gone. My only goal? Keep my head down, survive, and escape. Too bad that just got a whole lot harder. Because now, a brooding, untouchable alpha from another pack is living under my roof. He’s cold, closed off, and haunted by a past darker than my own. He’s the last person I should want. But my wolf has other plans, and every time he gets close, I forget why I should stay away. The only problem? He’s made it clear he’s not mine to claim. NIKOLAI I should have died with my pack. Instead, I’m left leading the few survivors, doing whatever it takes to keep them safe in a world that wants us dead. The last thing I need is a distraction—especially not the pack princess. She’s way too cheerful, carefree, and already claimed by another. I should ignore the way my wolf reacts to her, the way every instinct in me demands I get closer. But I can’t. And if I let myself have her, I might just lose what little I have left. *Content Warning: This is a romance with dark themes including explicit adult content, graphic violence, offensive language, and other content some may find offensive. Read at your own risk.*

“You welcomed me into your empire, thinking I was one of you. But I’m not here to inherit your name—I’m here to bury it.” Hannah Hawke has spent her life hidden behind a mask of quiet resilience. When her father is murdered by a powerful, wealthy family, she plunges into a web of despair, lies, betrayal, and unexpected romance with Theodore Devereaux—the powerful billionaire son of the very woman she’s meant to destroy. Assuming a new identity, she infiltrates the empire, determined to expose its darkest secrets. Along her path of vengeance, Hannah must become the very thing she never expected: an impostor. With enemies closing in, Hannah must become the master of the very game created to destroy her. Will she get the vengeance she solely desired or be consumed by her false facade?

Flora Harper was sold to the most feared warlock, Blade Yarrow, by her father to clear his debt. Luckily for the young Flora, her master seems to have taken a liking to her, making her feel safe and taken care of. But what she doesn’t know is, that her dark past is on its way to ruin everything she has ever dreamt of.

On the night of her engagement, Gianna Moretti’s world shatters—her fiancé tangled in bed with her best friend, her family ready to cast her aside, her future ripped away. But when she crosses paths with Dante Russo—the ruthless heir to New York’s most powerful fashion empire—one impulsive choice changes everything. In twenty minutes, Gianna goes from betrayed bride to Mrs. Russo. Their marriage is a deal. No love. No betrayal. Just survival. But the deeper Gianna is pulled into Dante’s world of wealth, secrets, and ruthless ambition, the more blurred the lines between revenge and desire become. As her step-sister plots murder, her ex-fiancé claws his way back from ruin, and long-buried family secrets claw their way to the surface, Gianna must decide: will she be a pawn in their game—or the queen who burns their empire to the ground?

My husband is poor. We've already been married for three years, but I've covered all our expenses during that time. Even when I'm interested in a cheap bag when we go shopping, he says it's too expensive. He tells me not to buy it. Later, I discover that he gives his first love a four-million-dollar diamond necklace for her birthday. It turns out he's not broke and heavily in debt—he's the heir to an affluent family with a net worth of billions of dollars.

The night before the entrance exams, my childhood best friend, Tyson Sutherland, receives a text message from his girlfriend, Isabelle Landon, saying she was attempting suicide by jumping off a building. He immediately gets anxious and brings along a few male classmates with him to go and save her. In my past life, I learned that it was fake, and that Isabelle never planned to kill herself. That was why I was against them going to save her. I called up my teacher, Mr. Fred Nielson, and asked him to inform the boys' parents, successfully stopping them from going. … The next day, everyone sat for their entrance exams as usual, and we all got accepted into Rayward University, one of the most prestigious universities in the country. Meanwhile, Isabelle survived the jump somehow, but she became a cripple. As revenge, Tyson hacked off my arms and legs and buried me alive. "It's all your fault! You were the one who turned Belle into a cripple! I'm going to kill you!" All my classmates did nothing as they watched him kill me under their watchful eyes. They all told me that I deserved to be killed. … When I open my eyes again, I realize that I have returned to the night when Tyson tells me he wants to save Isabella. I don't stop him or the others from going anymore. Instead, I sit for the entrance exams alone. I refuse to interfere in other people's fates again.

My husband, Steven Garrett, was always "busy" overseas. So I thought I'd surprise him with a visit. Instead, I found him shacked up with my best friend, Peggy Shane. That day, my heart snapped—I filed for divorce and let my family set me up with someone new. Two years later, I bumped into Steven outside the hospital. He ripped the prenatal report from my hands. "How dare you cheat on me! You think you can play me?"

One night. One kiss. One viral humiliation. Livia Harper built Theo Whitford’s dying company into a billion-dollar empire while carrying his child in secret. On their second anniversary, in front of two hundred cameras, Theo introduced his college sweetheart as “the woman I’ve always loved” and kissed her like Livia never existed. Twenty-four hours later Livia is Mrs. Alexander Kane (the most ruthless billionaire in America and Theo’s oldest enemy). The contract is simple: one year of fake marriage, seventy-five million dollars, and the total annihilation of Theo Whitford’s life. Rules: No feelings. The baby stays a secret. When the year ends, she disappears forever. But contracts weren’t made for the kind of fire that ignites when the woman who has nothing left to lose marries the man who’s never lost anything. Some vows are made to be broken. Others are made to burn the world down.

Everyone watched Alpha Caelum Draven reject his fated mate at the Blood Moon ceremony. Everyone watched Seraphina Voss stand straight, speak the completion words without flinching, and walk out alone into the dark. They called her nothing. An Omega with no pack, no status, no future worth having. They assumed she would grieve quietly somewhere and disappear. She did not disappear. With one bag and a transfer form, Seraphina leaves Ironveil and everything in it behind. In Velmoor, far from the pack that discarded her, she begins to discover what she actually is. Not the lowest rank in a hierarchy built to contain her. Something older. Something rarer. Something the wolf world has not seen in generations. She is a primal. And the bond Caelum rejected is not dead. It is growing. It is changing into something neither of them has words for yet, something that cannot be rejected twice, and it is getting louder with every night he spends telling himself the decision was right. He chose his alliance over his wolf. He chose politics over gold in his own eyes. Now Seraphina is coming into everything she was always meant to be, and Caelum is beginning to understand that some decisions cannot be managed, reasoned through, or filed away. Some things you only get one chance to choose correctly from. He already used his.

The world snapped back into focus, the memories of my brutal end crashing into the present. I was back—right here, right now, the exact moment Jarrold Jameson was trying to hand me that obscenely expensive purse. In my past life, he'd had a nasty fight with his precious Cindy Mayford. To make her jealous, he decided to use me as his pawn. I'd been stupid enough to love him once, but my pride had revolted. I'd refused to be a stand-in. It didn't matter. He kept engineering "accidental" run-ins, crafting one public misunderstanding after another, all to get a reaction from Cindy. I had done nothing wrong. I gained nothing. But I became Cindy's enemy. Her jealousy festered until it turned lethal. She had me kidnapped. The men she hired left my body shattered and broken. And Jarrold? He held his sobbing darling close and whispered those unforgettable words, "She got what she deserved." In the end, they stepped right over what was left of me and walked off into their picture-perfect life. Now, staring into his smug face, a cold clarity settled over me. This time, everything would be different. I snatched the handbag from his grasp. "A present for me?" I asked, my voice sweet, a sharp, calculated smile on my lips. "I love it. But just so you know, for next time… I've always preferred the classic design from her family's brand. That's the one you should be buying me."