My Stepbrother, My Ruin

Lenora Bennet is my first love. After we start dating, she's been nothing but caring toward me. But on the day of our wedding, my older brother, Gideon Sloane, calls her on the phone and tells her that he's sick and hospitalized. Lenora doesn't hesitate to ditch me at the altar. My mom wants me to be the bigger man and let Lenora take care of the ill Gideon. Meanwhile, my older sister, Hillary Sloane, chastises me for being selfish. She thinks I never let Gideon have his way. I don't understand at all. Gideon is the one who's stolen my life from me, but why is it that my family wants me to be gracious toward him? But after that, I've graciously decided that I don't want them in my life anymore. Surprisingly enough, they keep begging for my forgiveness.

My husband persuaded my daughter to donate her kidney to save his lover. After the surgery, he stayed by his lover’s side and neglected my daughter who developed kidney failure that led to her death. When I confronted the nasty couple, they refused to believe that my daughter had passed away and kicked me out by force. Afterward, I took my daughter's ashes to her eighteenth birthday party where my husband showed up with his lover and tore down all the decorations, going as far as to scatter my daughter’s ashes. He then accused my late daughter of undermining his lover’s career. When he finally had to accept that his daughter was dead, he still insisted on defending his lover. Eventually, I showed him proof that it was his lover who refused the hospital’s proposed organ donor so that she could plot to take my daughter’s kidney instead. Upon finding out the truth, he lost his mind and killed his lover. Now that those two have gotten what they deserve, I bring my daughter’s ashes and travel to the places she had always wanted to go to.

My name is Ivanka Marie Harris. I am the black sheep of my family. I have had enough of their mistreatment of me for no reason. I am tired of begging for love and answers. I am fed up and I am not taking it anymore. I am tired of my sister and cousin trying to steal my identity and my life as well as use me to be their scapegoat. I just to get away from my toxic family before they cost me my freedom and my sanity. I have been lucky so far, but I know it won't last forever.

“Lou,” He called out before I could open the door to his office, “I have always wondered just how loud you would scream when I'm fucking you.” I stop in my tracks, unable to move or turn back to look at him, because if I do, he will see just how much his words affect me. Because this idiot man has not just said if, he said when. Years after I fled town with a shattered heart, trying to outrun the pain of a high-school romance that turned out to be nothing more than a cruel bet. But life brings me face-to-face with the last person I ever wanted to see again. The boy who broke me is now a man, and he is now the owner of the strip club I work in. I need this job to keep a roof over my grandmother’s and my head, and he knows it and he uses it tooo well. With a single sentence, he doubles my salary and pulls me right back into the gravity of his presence, like the years apart never happened. But everything changes the moment he finds out I have a boyfriend. The guilt I saw in his eyes hardens and darkens, then turn into possessiveness, something I remember all too well. He once walked away from taking what that stupid bet demanded… my virginity, and now, it’s painfully clear he intends to make sure I don’t give that part of myself to anyone who isn’t him. Because in his mind, no matter how many years have passed… I’m still his.

The day cancer spread through my whole body, my family took me to court for being heartless and cruel. All because I refused to donate my kidney to the fake daughter, even though I was a perfect match. When they saw me lying in the coffin, my sister, who never liked me, said, “What a drama queen! Even got yourself a coffin this time.” Even my parents despised me and said, “If you want to die, at least cut out your kidney first and go die somewhere else. Don’t die in front of us and make us sick.” But later, when the memory extractor cut into my brain, it revealed all the times I had been tortured by that fake daughter over the years. The family that despised me went insane at that moment.

She stole my wedding. I stole her future. On the morning of my wedding, I caught my fiancé Kellan tangled in the sheets with my stepsister. The betrayal should have shattered me. Instead, it lit a fire in my veins. So I did what any woman scorned would do. I pointed to the most dangerous man in the room—Drexon Moreaux, Kellan’s ruthless billionaire uncle—and declared, “Him. I’ll marry him instead.” Drexon could have laughed in my face. The Moreaux empire’s heir apparent, a man forged in boardroom battles and whispered about in elite circles, had no reason to entertain my reckless demand. But he said, “I do.” Now, my stepsister’s smug smile is crumbling. My ex-fiancé is forced to call me Auntie. And Drexon? He watches me with dark, calculating eyes, as if I’m a puzzle he’s determined to solve. This marriage was supposed to be my revenge. But with every lingering touch and midnight confession, Drexon is turning it into something far more dangerous—something that feels like love. Too bad the Moreaux family doesn’t believe in happy endings…

Zara, the late Alpha's daughter from the Edwood pack, was never loved by her stepbrother because of her mixed race. She was treated as an omega. Accepting her sad reality, she longed to find her mate, hoping her circumstances would change for the better. However, as fate would have it, her world came crashing down when she discovered her mate was Vulvan, the Alpah of the Regan pack and sworn enemies to the Edwood pack, but this new discovery brought a twist to her life because her stepbrother would seize this opportunity to conquer the Regans. Vulvan, on the other hand, had his own evil intentions for Zara. Despite this dilemma, Zara fell in love with Vulvan, determined to end the animosity between the two packs. This is a world full of manipulation, deceit, lies, vengeance, and hatred. Will Zara be able to end their animosity?Will Vulvan accept her love?What will happen when she discovers she's pregnant for vulvan?.

A year ago, my life was simple. I was just Ariel Anthony…a regular college student, cheerleader with decent grades, daughter of a struggling baker, and recently appointed step-sister to a guy I barely knew. Nothing special. Then came the storm. Not just the thunderstorm that trapped me in Professor Grayson's apartment that night, but the storm that followed. The one that's still raging around me, that I created. They don't warn you about men like Luther Grayson in freshman orientation. They don't tell you how a single glance from the right person can make you question everything you thought you knew about yourself. About what you want. About what you'd risk to get it. They also don't warn you about guys like Ethan Cross, with his perfect smile hiding something dark. The kind of guy who's used to getting what he wants and doesn't understand the meaning of the word "no." And no one, absolutely no one…prepares you for what it feels like when the person who's supposed to be your brother looks at you with something else in his eyes. Mom once said I had a gift for making complicated situations worse. If she only knew. My phone buzzed beside me, and I glanced down to see Luther's name on the screen. My heart still jumps every time, even when I'm aware of what could happen if people learned about the two of us. I should ignore it. I should block his number, focus on my classes, help Mom with the bakery, and pretend none of this ever happened. But I'm already reaching for the phone. That's the thing about crossing lines… once you step over them, it's almost impossible to step back. And I've crossed so many lines now, I can't even see where I started.

Violette Snow, my older sister, and I have been chosen to complete missions for the Conquest System. Violette chose to make the gentle-looking fox her conquest target, while I chose the cold yet devoted bird. However, the fox turned out to be a huge flirt who didn't care about Violette at all. He spent all his time fooling around with others and even shared her with his buddies. She failed her mission and was at risk of having her soul wiped from existence. Meanwhile, the bird I chose ended up being the King of the Phoenix clan. After I managed to win him over, he doted on me. And once I gave birth to a few phoenix eggs, he made me his queen. Violette went mad with jealousy. Before the system erased her, she stabbed me to death first. My eyes open again. I've gone back in time to the day we chose our conquest targets. This time, Violette beats me to it and chooses the bird. I simply chuckle. Since she's so eager to be offered up as a blood sacrifice, as her younger sister, it's only right for me to let her have her way.

"This doesn't make sense," I whispered, my hand on the door knob. "We can't tell mom and dad," he whispered back into the darkness. "You can't be my mate!?" I hissed back, "You're my brother." "I'm not going to resist the sparks, April," he growled, "or the pull, and feeling of want... Do you hear me?" "W-what?" "I want you so bad it hurts," he whispered. It was like my lips moved and spoke for me. "Then take me." His warm lips smashed onto mine, finding them in the dark. Sparks lit the tiny closet up, and suddenly I knew where he was, almost as if we were in a room full of light. I could see every move he made, and I wanted him to make a move on me. I kissed him back with force and longing. My first kiss is with my brother. My mate