Paid

Elias Rourke was more than a billionaire he was a tempest in a custom-fitted suit. As the CEO of Rourke Enterprises a bachelor, he was known for his icy effectiveness, merciless transactions, and total absence of emotion. Everyone referred to him as “Ice King” when he wasn't around. Up until her. Chloe Hart had worked as his secretary for slightly more than two weeks. Timid, kind-hearted, and excessively courteous, she was the type of woman who kept track of birthdays, tended to plants, and uttered "please" to the coffee maker. Elias hardly paid attention to her,until the morning she entered his office unannounced. “I apologize for the interruption,” she said, her voice shaking, “but you haven’t had anything to eat today.” "It's nearly four." He looked at her, irritated. “That’s none of your business.” “I prepared a sandwich for you.” She places it on his desk and walks away before he has a chance to reply to her. Even with how rude he is to her, she brings him homemade meals everyday and lavender tea after tough meetings. He started to notice little details about her, the way she played with her necklace when anxious, she shows no emotions even when he yells at her. One day, he sees himself approaching her desk not to order her around, but to ask her about her well being. When a scandal almost destroys Elias’s empire. She stays by his side, not out of obligation, but because she trusted him. He looked at her and whispered, “You are the gentleness in my whole existence." "I don't know how to show emotions, but I will learn just for you." Chloe smiled, looking at him and said "Steel is capable of melting, Elias." "Even kings can experience love."

I check on family businesses in the countryside with my girlfriend, Mildred McClure, in tow. At noon, we stop by my uncle, Barron Cortez's, place for a simple lunch. Just as we are getting ready to leave, his new wife, whom he married just six months ago, Hilda Ross, rushes out and demands that we settle the bill. "Elden, you two just had the Supreme Farmhouse Set Meal, which is 1,888.80 dollars, and your girlfriend picked three organic, pesticide-free tomatoes in the garden. That's 199.80 dollars. "With an 80% service charge, your total comes to 3,800 dollars." Mildred is stunned. "Elden, do we have to pay to eat at your uncle's place?" I start to feel embarrassed, and my expression darkens as I look at Hilda, my supposed aunt, who's barely any older than me. "I've grown up eating at my uncle's place and never paid a single penny. Besides, your prices are downright outrageous!" Hilda calmly whips out a price menu and righteously declares, "That's all ancient history. Now, we're running a farmhouse business where all prices are clearly marked, so everyone pays the same rate. "Barron said you're some big boss in the city. Surely you're not going to stiff us over a little bill, are you?" She steps in front of the gate to block the exit with her body and shoots me a contemptuous look. "Even family settles their accounts. If you don't pay up today, don't even dream about stepping through this door!" While Mildred panics, I laugh in disbelief before taking out my phone and dialing Barron's number. "Uncle Barron, Hilda wants to settle accounts between family, so don't you think it's time we settled our accounts too?"

She left cash on his pillow. He's been hunting her for eighteen years. Now they're neighbors—and she's carrying his baby. Evelyn Hart's revenge plan was simple: hire the hottest escort money could buy, have one night of mind-blowing sex, and finally forget her cheating ex-husband exists. What she got instead: Sebastian Creed. Six-foot-four of sinful perfection who made her body sing in ways she didn't know were possible. She left ten thousand dollars on the bed and ran before dawn, convinced she'd never see him again. Six weeks later, reality hits like a freight train. The "escort" is actually a billionaire. He owns the mansion next door. He's been obsessively searching for her since the night he saved her from a car crash when she was fourteen. Oh, and she's pregnant with twins the doctors said she could never have. Sebastian isn't just her neighbor—he's her stalker, her savior, and apparently, her fated mate. Because plot twist: he's a werewolf. And the supernatural bond between them is turning her inconvenient attraction into a soul-deep craving that's impossible to fight. Now he's breaking into her house at 3 a.m., showing up uninvited to her OB appointments, and making it very clear that the one night she paid for was just the beginning of forever. But their twisted love story is about to get deadlier. Sebastian's dying father wants him to claim a werewolf throne. His ex-husband wants her land for a billion-dollar deal. Werewolf royalty wants her dead for contaminating the bloodline. And Evelyn? She just wants to survive pregnancy, figure out how to be a queen in a world that thinks she's prey, and maybe—maybe—learn to trust the alpha who's been obsessed with her since she was a teenager.

I never should have let my mother hold my future hostage. She paid my tuition with his father’s money. Locked my birth certificate, my transcripts, every scrap of paper I need to survive in a safe I’ll never open. And the one thing I had left of my dad, his old watch, she dangled like a noose. Run, and I lose my education. Fight, and I lose the last piece of the man who actually loved me. So I moved into the Hunters’ mansion. Into the lair of the boy who spent years making my life hell. Chase Hunter. Six-foot-five of pure venom wrapped in muscle and money. The senior who cornered me in empty hallways, who whispered filth in my ear just to watch me flinch, who smiled that sharp, cruel smile every time I broke a little more. I thought graduation meant freedom from him. I was wrong. Now he’s my stepbrother. He hates that I’m here. Hates my mother for sinking her claws into his father. Hates me most of all, for breathing his air, for walking his halls, for daring to exist where he can reach me. But hate isn’t clean anymore. It’s tangled up in heat. In the way his grey eyes strip me bare every time they land on me, the way his hand closes around my throat, not to hurt, but to own. In the way he punishes me over his lap, in his car, against walls, until I’m shaking and soaked and furious at myself for wanting more. He calls me Little Lamb, I call him every name I can think of under my breath. How long until we stop fighting the deadly inferno raging between us and finally let it consume us both?

Zeus had spent the last twelve years of his life as a substitute for a powerful man, Damon, living a false life of wealth, all in exchange for money. What he hadn’t anticipated that the identity he had assumed would tie him to the most dangerous man of all. Odin Romano. “I am your god, and I am your devil here, Damon.” When Odin’s sister took her own life, she left a note with Damon’s name on it. Odin who was known to exhume graves and crush whatever remained would never let his sister’s “killer” go free. Soon, Zeus found himself kidnapped by a deadly handsome man. “Who… who are you?” Zeus’s face turned white when his eyes met with animalistic yet sexy brown eyes that could not possibly belong to a human. The man tilted his chin up not with his fingers but with his claws, his hot breath brushing against Zeus’ lips, “Call me Alpha.” Zeus was trapped, accused of a crime he didn’t commit, yet trying to convince Odin seemed impossible. At every turn, Odin was prepared to turn Zeus’ life into a living hell. Escape felt impossible, and, against all odds, the allure of his enemy grew more irresistible. Until ever so slowly Zeus becomes Odin’s obsession. “What the hell do you want from me now? Haven’t you had enough of your revenge already? Haven’t I paid enough? Let me go now. My fiance is waiting for me!” Zeus glared at his kidnapper who was pinning him down to his bed. “Your fiance?” Odin chuckled a dark smile tugging at his lips. “Tell her to rest. Your husband is back.” Falling in love with the enemy was unforgivable, but would their hearts follow the rules?

Angel Moretti. He was the love of my life. I always knew he was ever since we were kids. We did everything together. His name is Ryder ‘Savage’ Jackson. He was my world, my everything. Until he brutally ripped my heart from my chest three years ago. He tore my heart to shreds when he humiliated me by claiming another woman in his clubhouse, in the same bed we once shared. Savage by name, Savage by nature. He didn’t even give me a chance to tell him the news I had just accused me of cheating. Me, Angel Moretti. Like I would ever do that to him. So I ran, I ran from the pain he caused me. Ran from my family. Not wanting to be seen as the disgrace, but mainly to save him and his MC from annihilation. So I fled with the life we created growing inside of me. But all good things must come to an end. When he walks into my bar three years later. So what do I? Do I run? Or face the man who destroyed me? What could go wrong? Well, everything apparently. Ryder ‘Savage’ Jackson. She was my Angel, my goddess sent to me from heaven and I fucked it up. I claimed someone I shouldn’t have and paid dearly for it. I was a damn fool to believe the lies and bullshit. Missing out on the most precious gift Angel could give me. But I will make it right. Angel Moretti thinks she can get away from me with my kid. She has another thing coming, especially when I claim them both as mine. She will have no choice but to move back home with me. She may be a Mafia Princess, but she is mine!

Over five years I’ve lived a bittersweet lie as David Hargrove’s kept woman, Maria Bell. David’s shown no interest in me beyond what he wants. Love’s a bitter pill to love when it's not returned. I'm bought and paid for. Kept in a gilded cage. David suspects nothing of the secrets I hold. Tonight, David announced he’s marrying my stepsister. He doesn’t know. The level of betrayal I’ve experienced is unbelievable. Everything becomes complicated as the lies surface. Leaving and facing it alone are my only choices. I’m living in fear as I pick up pieces of a life, I believed lost. Blackmail, sabotage, and intrigue dog my steps. I don’t know who I can trust or how to win. I won’t surrender without a fight this time. They don’t recognize me. They won’t see me coming. My name is David Hargrove, and someone is trying to destroy my family. I must marry my rival’s daughter. His stepdaughter signed the contract. Before we learned, she couldn’t deliver the Belgrave empire to me. She can help me secure my family’s empire as my fiancée. I need the ugly biological daughter, Maria Belgrave, who’s hiding. Things get confusing. Maria Belgrave sent two women to represent her. One is my Maria. My missing woman. The betrayal and conflict of interest still stand. I will say when our contract has ended. How can I work with her? I know nothing about her. She owes me answers and loyalty. Perhaps I’ll use this to my advantage. When David learns of Maria’s past life. Will he help her? Or use her and take over the business himself? It starts with an engagement and the death of a patriarch.

“Doctor Millan, the patient's father has been kneeling in your office for the past six hours don't you think you should go see him?” “Are you telling me to go see the people that once ruined my life and paid me to abort my child Millan's life was once ruined by her ex-fiance whom she was crazily in love with, and just when they were about to get married, he left her. Millan who was still lamenting on her ruined relationship woke up on the hospital bed with Eight weeks pregnant for her ex fiancée. Refusing to accept reality she visited his home, only to meet him celebrating his newly married life with his new wife and the worst is her ex-fiance's father offered her a ten million dollar cheque to abort the baby. Feeling insulted, she left hoping never to cross path with him again, but fate took turns when eight years later she's now a famous surgeon, one day her ex-fiance was brought to the hospital where she works, and his father knelt down in front of her “My son is dying please save him, he need a kidney transplant and only your child can be a match and only you can operate on him as the most experience surgeon” “So you want me to give my son's kidney to your son after you called my child a disturbance and told me to abort it? get ready to bury your son, I promise to send flowers to his funeral” Unknown to them, she's not only the world renowned Surgeon but she's also the prominent anonymous popular Judge who has humbled top corrupt government officials What happens when they employ her to fight for the custody of their son without knowing she's the anonymous judge?

Warning! Mature Content! *Excerpt* "Does it make you nervous when I stare?" His voice was laced with sinful passion. "Will you hate me if I do this?" His dark gaze took in her entire frame. "I am obsessed with you, Delaney." *** Delaney, a beautiful woman, only wished for one thing - A peaceful life, and perhaps, a little touch of financial independence. But throughout her childhood, life gave her a contrast to her wish. She grew up knowing nothing but hatred from her family, and eventually, from her fiancé too. For three years, Delaney paid for a sin she never intentionally committed - losing her virginity to a stranger. This innocent mistake chattered her life and her relationship with Blaine. He detested her so much. But one question is: Why hasn't he called off their engagement? Gradually, Blaine was becoming the man she hoped he'd be. She'd secured a job at a prominent company too... She was already inching closer to her dreams when suddenly, he resurfaced - The stranger who had almost ruined her life three years ago. This stranger who was perfectly built for sin turns out to be Blaine's boss, the most dreaded Adonis Langston. And this time, he wanted more than just a one-night stand... Poor Delaney's life was set into panic once again. Little did she know that she had also cast her spell on her soon-to-be boss, who turns out to be Adonis's childhood best friend! Oops! Financial Independence, power, and fame at its peak... All hell is about to let loose as these three men are never known for surrendering. She had all she needed to exert revenge on those who'd hurt her, depending on the decision she makes. But in all of these, she is about to face the biggest betrayal of her life.

Three years ago, Moon-Lake Pack — once a proud member of Lupus Celestial, the central pack alliance — lost everything in a brutal defeat to the Rogue Packs that had long plagued us. The Lycan King believed my father — the Alpha of Moon-Lake — had conspired with the Rogues, and our pack paid the price. My father and I were enslaved and cast out, becoming the laughingstock of all the packs. Even my mate, Chase, turned his back on me. But three years later, I was sent back to Lupus Celestial by Chase’s order — just as he was preparing to bond with his future Luna. Everyone assumed I had returned to sabotage the ceremony. “Taryn, do you still think you stand a chance of becoming his Luna?” “Chase never liked you. He’s always adored Wynette.” “Why would you show up now — just before he bonds with his mate?” Warnings, veiled threats, and even silent beatings made one thing painfully clear: I was not welcome. And Chase — the one I had once believed was my fated mate, the one I’d felt an unexplainable pull toward — stood by, cold and detached, watching it all in silence. His eyes held nothing but loathing. “You still think you can live freely outside Lupus Celestial after betraying us time and again? What exactly are you plotting at my bonding ceremony?” I let out a bitter laugh and wiped the blood from my lips. He didn’t know my wolf had been gravely wounded by a silver dagger — and I didn’t have much time left. “Don’t worry. If I hadn’t been dragged back, I’d never have returned. And if I truly wanted to cause trouble, I’d have killed myself first.” Chase didn’t respond. He just scoffed. But when I walked away — from his pack, from his world — he was the one who crumbled. He begged me to return, as if losing me shattered something deep inside him.