Open Season C. J. Box

When I was eight months pregnant, my Beta mate Derek's mistress offended the Alpha and was sentenced to three months in silver prison. Derek wanted me to serve her time. I stared at him in disbelief. "I'm carrying our child. How can I go to prison? What if something happens to the baby—" He roughly cut me off. "It's just three months, isn't it? Your wolf is so strong, but Sophia is just an Omega. Could you really bear to watch her die?" He forcibly threw me into prison to take punishment for his precious Sophia, where I was whipped with silver chains. Through this ordeal, my wolf nearly died. That day, I had a lot of bleeding during childbirth and almost went into shock. Meanwhile, the photos of him in bed with his mistress spread all over the pack. When Derek’s brother Ethan, who had a crush on me for many years, rushed to the hospital, my voice was eerily calm. "You are right. Derek is not worthy of being my mate. You promised me that once I gave birth to the child, you would help me leave. I want to break my mate bond with Derek."

I was the pack's chief healer and my mate was just an ordinary warrior. Everyone thought we were not a good match, but I didn't mind. I accepted his proposal without hesitation. But on my mating ceremony, my mate's ex-girlfriend Serena suddenly came in with a little boy. The little boy hugged Marcus' legs and called him daddy. I thought it was some kind of scam. But when Marcus saw the child's mother, his face went pale. Then he showed an expression I'd never seen before—pure adoration—as he scooped the boy into his arms. "Let's cancel our mating ceremony. I need to mark Serena first and raise the child with her. Don't worry. Even though I'm marking Serena, my heart belongs to you." He thought I loved him so much that I chose to be his second mate. He didn't expect that I would just calmly contact my childhood friend Alpha Dominic. "My mating ceremony is all set up, but I'm missing a male lead. Would you be willing to come mark me?"

Her father was killed by a strong gang. The daughter of a well-known business executive, Leon Soo-Yun was a lawyer. She wed Jang Jun-Sang, who was her childhood friend and the most successful man at a young age, in order to advance the family business. Soo-Yun desired to track down her father's murderer. She only wanted to punish the offender, but it also made life miserable for everyone.

”Rudina, do you trust me?” I feel my blood go still and the tongue tastes like sandpaper. He had been different from all the other men. He had been everything I had needed all my life and I had never doubted that I meant more to him than a weak wolf. But what was I supposed to do when I found out he only accepted me because his status was in danger? As a mere solution to a threat to keep his pride. It had shattered me. ”No, Volk. I do not.” I say in a husky voice. His green eyes glisten in the dark and I cannot believe what I see. I was making the Alpha of the Red crescent moon cry. Rudina and Volk can never be more different in ideals and values but fate has it that their paths must cross and the universe brings them together in the most unexpected place. Setting his pride aside, Volk intends to conquer the world for a woman he loves through whatever challenge he may be forced to face. See how a man and woman experience love for the first time. A blend of love and lust with demons lurking in the shadows.

JAREK She's an abomination—a constant thorn in my side. She has no right to be sheltered so closely by my mother and father, the alpha and luna of the Blood Moon Howler Pack. She is not of Alpha blood. Therefore she doesn't belong in this family or our pack. When I become alpha, I will toss her out with the trash. Silver will regret the day my mother found her; I'll ensure that. SILVER I was born partially shifted with my wolf ears and eyes that shift from blue to gold, then silver. My parents rejected me and left me to die at the border of The Blood Moon Howler Pack. Luna Celestia stumbled upon me and pitied the day-old baby who couldn't fend for herself. Jarek has made it his life mission to bully me any chance he gets. Lucky for me, our father, Alpha Maximilian, took me under his wing and taught me how to fight. I have become the fiercest warrior of the pack at only sixteen years old. Sadly due to Jarek and his minions Xillon and Zane, the future Beta and Gamma of the pack, I have been shunned by all of my peers. Will I ever be accepted by anyone in my life? Or will I constantly be rejected? One thing is for sure; once I turn eighteen, I'm leaving. I will make my way in life, even if it means being on my own for eternity.

My mother is the Royal duchy and I am her sole heir. My mother was once deceived by my father, which nearly bankrupted our family. That bastard father of mine disappeared without a trace, taking the fortune he'd stolen from my mother and running off with his mistress. To prevent me from falling for the same kind of man in the future—to keep me from being fooled and robbed blind—my mother adopted two war orphans. She planned to raise them as potential husband candidates for me. But mother never knew the truth. These two men appeared respectful and obedient to her arrangements on the surface. But privately, they were both infatuated with my maid Josie. They constantly neglected me and made my life difficult, all to win her favor. My favorite, Marcus Reed, even gave up his own last name. He changed it to Josie's—Marcus Thompson. The betrayal cut deeper than I'd expected. Before mother died, she asked me the question I'd been dreading. "Which one do you want to choose as your husband?" But I had heard something interesting lately. There was a mafia heir—Vincent Rossi—who was notorious for his violence. He'd killed innocent people. Years of brutal fighting had left him severely injured. The doctors said he had less than six months to live. The mafia Rossi family wanted to marry him to a noblewoman before he died. I didn't hesitate to reach out to him. I offered an alliance through marriage. To my surprise, the Rossi family agreed. But on my wedding day, Marcus and the other candidate burst into the ceremony. They begged me to reconsider. "Please, don't do this!" Marcus shouted, his face desperate. "You can't marry him!" I stood there in my wedding dress, looking at the two men who had spent years ignoring me for my maid. Now they wanted me back? How interesting.

On the day of my mating ceremony with my Alpha mate, Derek, his childhood sweetheart Victoria returned. Victoria, using her supposed silver poisoning as an excuse for needing care, crashed our ceremony. She snatched my mate away, turning me into a laughingstock for the entire pack. Derek, seemingly unconcerned, said, "She's silver-poisoned. Her body's weak. Don't overthink it." He carried her to the pack healer, leaving me alone and humiliated. I yanked off the silver pendant he'd given me when he chose me as his mate. As I tossed it aside, it sliced my palm. To my horror, the small cut didn't heal. Instead, blood flowed freely. Because I was the one truly poisoned by silver. Derek didn't know. Months ago, during a rogue wolf attack, I'd taken a silver bullet meant for him. I survived, but my wolf lost her healing ability forever. Later, I overheard the usually strong and calm Alpha yelling at the pack healer, "How did you miss this? If anything happens to my Luna, none of you will survive!"

Christmas is the most magical time of the year, right? That may be true for most people but not Julia. Julia has never had an easy life, she has been homeless for as long as she can remember and now she is raising a three-year-old the same way. She wants more for them both but she has no way of changing things, besides she's soon going to have to leave the only place that she's ever called home to keep them both safe. If anyone finds out her secret her world will be blown apart and that's something that she can't allow to happen. Riley has had the best life imaginable. He has loving parents, grandparents and his best friend Joshua has been by his side since he was a young child. He also runs several successful businesses and has everything he wants in life except for one thing... love. He wants someone to love, to cherish but his past still has a tight grip on him and holds a secret that not even he knows about. What will happen when both worlds collide? Can Julia get the Christmas that she has always dreamed of for her and her little girl? Can Riley learn to forget his past so that he can move forward and when Juila's secret is revealed and blows both of their worlds apart, will it bring them together or tear them even further apart and destroy Julia's world, just like she has always feared it would?

My mate Garrett inherited the Alpha position after his brother, the former Alpha of the Silver Claw Pack, was killed in the war against the Rogue wolves. And along with it, he inherited his sister-in-law Sarah. From that day forward, he gave me his love, but gave his resources and privileges to his sister-in-law. He claimed she would face cruelty from pack members without the protection of an Alpha, so he took her to Moonhaven Sanctuary—the most secure settlement in the entire Northern Territory—while leaving me behind in the abandoned, low-ranking wastelands of our pack. Every month, he wrote me five letters expressing his longing and affection, yet gave all hunting spoils and money to his sister-in-law. When Rogue wolves invaded, my mate dispatched the pack's strongest forces to protect her and her two children, while my two pups didn't even wait for my return from the hunt. They died cold and hungry, torn apart and devoured by Rogue wolves. Later, I finally managed to wait for my mate Garrett's return. He didn't shed a single tear for our children and told me he wanted to break our bond. "Ember, Sarah can’t keep Luna position anymore so that she can't enjoy the privileges that come with it. My brother died protecting me, so I must protect his widow and her children. " "Don't worry, once her children grow up safe and strong enough, I'll break the bond with her and re-establish our mate bond, because I only love you." He continued. The backlash from the broken bond tortured me until I was barely alive, and I ended my own life. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day my pups were brutally killed. This time, I didn't leave my children to go hunting. Instead, I took them with me to claim everything that rightfully belonged to us...

“Little sis is blushing again. That pink’s not from the room, is it?” He dragged a finger along her jaw, slowly. “Tell me, did your panties go missing… or did you just want us to notice?” When Thalia’s heart is shattered by betrayal, her mother sends her away—to a dark, creepy mansion in the middle of nowhere. There, she must live with her cold stepfather and his four mysterious sons: Blaze, Jax, Rhys, and Milo. They’re not boys. They’re wild, dangerous, too hot to look at—and totally off-limits. Everyone calls them “troubled.” But Thalia quickly learns there’s something even darker inside them. Something not human. The mansion whispers with secrets, the moon shines too brightly, and the air feels too alive. Then comes the warning: a strange event called the Lunar Surge is coming. People are changing—becoming more aggressive, more primal. More... hungry. Thalia should run. But her body won’t listen. Because her stepbrothers aren’t just teasing her. They’re watching her. Touching her. Whispering things that make her knees go weak. And her body? It’s reacting in ways she doesn’t understand… or want to stop. She came to heal. She’s not sure she’ll make it out sane.