Network Effect A Murderbot Novel Novels & Stories

"Luna, are you really going to renounce your Shadow Pack membership? Once your status is revoked, your mate bond with the Alpha will automatically be severed. Are you absolutely certain?" My eyes gradually grew firm with resolve. "Yes. I'm certain." The Alpha Council staff member across from me couldn't hide their shock. Everyone in the pack knew how deeply the Alpha loved his Luna. "Alright, the renunciation has been registered. It will take effect in ten days." I nodded and turned away, dialing a number I hadn't called in five years. "Tell Thunder pack Alpha, I'm coming home in ten days to inherit Winters Pack."

"Listen kitten, I fucking own you now. Sign the goddamn papers" He says, with a smirk on his face. Very much aware of the effect he has on me. In daze, I sign the papers realizing I have no choice in this. ~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~ Valerie is sent off by her grandparents to marry Stephano, the most feared and dangerous Mafia leader in the country. She's determined to put up a fight and not submit willingly to him. Stephano finds her rebellion exciting since it's a change from his usual submissive women, He makes it his side mission to tame her and make her submit herself to him, to taint her innocence. Can she be able to resist his sinful touch? Would she eventually submit herself to him?

"I will be your mistress, Adrian. Just let my family live." Adrian lifted his glass of wine. A faint smile curved his lips. "I thought they would send me the adopted daughter," he said, "I didn't expect you." "Everyone said your brother spoiled you like a princess. Turns out that was just a joke." The tip of the pen paused, stabbing a small blot of ink onto the paper. I signed my name, calm to the point of silence. The contract would take effect in three days. Then, I would cut all ties with the Willis name. I traded myself for the survival of the Willis family and my own permanent release.

Adrian Valerio has everything you can possibly think of — wealth, power, and the promise of inheriting his family’s billion-dollar empire. But when his father forces him into an engagement with Cassandra Rossi, the beautiful yet ruthless daughter of a notorious mafia lord, Adrian’s world starts to close in. Because Adrian’s heart doesn’t belong to his fiancée. It belongs to Ethan Cross, his loyal personal assistant and the one man he’s loved in secret for years. When their forbidden romance is discovered, Cassandra vows revenge, and her father’s shadowy network delivers a brutal ultimatum: marry her or watch Ethan die.

They tried to erase her. She survived. Raised in a place designed to break children, she grows up learning one rule above all else: endure quietly. Hunger is discipline. Pain is routine. Obedience is survival. She doesn’t know her real name, her family, or why certain men with clean shoes and cold eyes always seem to be watching. Until the night she runs. Bleeding, hunted, and half-dead, she escapes an institution that was never meant to let her live past usefulness. What she doesn’t know is that the symbol burned into her skin isn’t a punishment it’s a claim. A mark left by a powerful underground network that doesn’t lose what it owns. Her collapse brings her into the path of three brothers who rule the city’s shadows men whose wealth buys silence, whose violence is surgical, and whose loyalty to blood is absolute. At first, she’s just another wounded stranger pulled from the streets. Then one brother recognizes the mark. And everything changes. Because years ago, the brothers tried to dismantle a trafficking empire known only as The Circle. They thought it was gone. They were wrong. The girl they saved isn’t a random survivor she’s a missing investment. A living mistake The Circle intends to reclaim. As fragments of her past surface, a terrifying truth emerges: she wasn’t abandoned as a child. She was stolen. Trained. Conditioned. And when she escaped, she didn’t just save herself she reignited a war. Hunted by a network that erases people without a trace, and protected by men who don’t lose once they claim something as theirs, she must decide whether she’ll keep running… or turn and burn everything that tried to own her.

Caught in the web of danger and desire, Detective Chloe Madden finds herself ensnared in the intricate games of the notorious Mob Kingpin, Carter Gray. Despite her best efforts to remain focused on her duty to uphold the law, Chloe can't deny the magnetic pull she feels toward the enigmatic and dangerously charming criminal. As Chloe delves deeper into her investigation, she soon realizes that Carter Gray is playing her like a pawn in his deadly game. With every encounter, he taunts her with his seductive charm, knowing full well the effect he has on her. Despite her instincts warning her to stay away, Chloe finds herself drawn to Carter like a moth to a flame, unable to resist his intoxicating allure.

After Cynthia Musich causes a surgical accident, my husband of eight years, Xavier Goodwin, forces me to take the fall for her. "Being suspended won't have any effect on you, but Cynthia's just starting out! Leaving a mark on her record this early in her career will ruin her!" The accident victim's family cause a scene and stab me thrice in my pregnant belly. I call Xavier and beg him to save me, but he says coldly, "Cynthia was stabbed, and her life is at stake, so can you please stop making trouble? Just come out on your own." Later, when my dead body is brought to his department, Xavier loses his mind.

Great career, decent looks, at least twenty bucks in his wallet, debit card stacked with zeros, but good fortune had the opposite effect when it came to relationship issues. That's the gist of what Thomas Adam feels. Heartbreak from being left at the altar lingers and makes him distrust love. For him, being alone is no big deal. His life doesn't encounter complications either. His job skyrocketed like a rocket. Until Olive came along. She disrupted his straight path like a highway. It left him helpless and willing to take colorful detours just for Olive. But one question haunts him, "Will Olive leave him? Like what Diana did a dozen years ago?"

How would one feel to be the obsession of a man? Terrible, right? I, Eve, was Justin Carter, a billionaire's obsession, his secretary/Personal Assistance under a 5-year contract; which meant I couldn't quit. He never stopped to pester me, knowing I was helpless. How was I going to handle the situation? He had been trying his best to make me his but there was an obstacle, his best friend, Mitchell Anderson, also obsessed with him and was torturing me to leave him for her… *** What was Eve going to do if she fell in love with Justin but those things that tried to create grave fear in their relationship were present. Could Justin's dominant and over-possessive nature be a negative or positive effect to anyone or anything? …..

A disgraced college hockey star facing a career ending scandal must fake date the cynical campus journalist who detests him all for the cameras of a high stakes reality TV show. The Setup: Jaxson Reed is one step away from the NHL draft when a viral video of a campus fight brands him a violent liability. Facing immediate suspension, his only lifeline is a deal struck by the athletic board and a streaming network: star in a new campus reality show, Beyond the Ice, and use a wholesome "fake girlfriend" to rehabilitate his image. Summer Brooks is a fierce journalism major who hates sports privilege. But when her tuition funding falls through weeks before graduation, she’s backed into a corner. In exchange for playing Jaxson’s devoted partner on television, the network agrees to pay her tuition in full and secure her post-grad career. The Conflict: The rules are simple: fake it for the cameras, ignore the mutual dislike, and don't catch feelings. But forced proximity quickly blurs the lines. Behind the script, they discover the truth about each other’s hidden vulnerabilities, and their bitter rivalry ignites into a very real, terrifying love. The Climax: Just as they find solid ground, the show's producers leak old footage of Summer admitting she took the gig purely for the money. With the championship game hours away, Jaxson feels utterly betrayed, and their contract dissolves in front of millions. To save his career and win back his trust, Summer must step away from the script, risk her own future, and expose the truth before the final buzzer sounds proving that sometimes, the most authentic love stories are the ones you never planned to write.