Payoff Chapter 13 Early Novels & Stories

In my previous life, everything I do to care for myself somehow ends up benefiting my new housekeeper instead. I apply expensive skincare, yet dark spots and fine lines spread across my face, whereas the 45-year-old housekeeper's face becomes silkier. I jog every morning, yet my body only grows heavier and bulkier, while hers becomes slender and toned. When my husband notices the stretch marks on my abdomen, his face twists with disgust, and he never touches me again. "I genuinely can't bring myself to touch you. How can you look worse than Mirabelle when you take such good care of yourself?" My housekeeper looks at me with a sinister smile. A chill crawls up my spine, and the strange feeling makes me fire her on the spot. Yet, as soon as she leaves, I start aging at lightning speed, entering menopause 20 years early and developing diabetes and high blood pressure. I see every doctor I can, but after hanging on for a week, I die from a stroke. When I open my eyes again, I'm back on the day she first reports to work. This time, I push away the royal jelly she sets in front of me with a pleasant smile. "I've been avoiding certain foods lately. You can have it instead."

*Book 2* Mei Liu learned suffering from an early age. After experiencing great loss, she spent years enduring abuse at the hands of a sadistic pack of wolves, while hiding her identity. All until the day she was saved by her fated soulmate arriving at her doorstep. Mei was finally free, loved and accepted, with her happily ever after on the horizon. But an unknown enemy has been searching for her and once he finds her he has no intentions of letting her go. Dark secrets will be revealed, and she will be pushed beyond her limits. Can she rise up and fight back and become the strong woman she was destined to be? Or will it all be too much for her to handle? A Queen Among Snakes is the second book in the Queen Among series. Each story is set up in the previous book, so reading the books in order is recommended. Here are the books in the series: A Queen Among Alphas - Book 1 Bite-Size Luna - A Queen Among Alphas Prequel A Queen Among Snakes - Book 2 Runaway Empress - A Queen Among Snakes Prequel A Queen Among Blood - Book 3 Whole Again - A Queen Among Alpha's spin-off A Queen Among Darkness - Book 4 Dark Invocation - A Queen Among Darkness spin-off A Queen Among Tides - Book 5 Valor, Virtue, and Verve - A Queen Among Tides Prequel Spin-off A Queen Among Gods - Book 6 A Queen Among Tempests - Book 7

BlurbLaura is hated by everyone in her pack including her parents, she's bullied and mistreated, because she didn't shift early, and didn't have a wolf the same age everyone did, she was a late bloomer and was known as a weak werewolf by her pack.She finds out that the alpha's son is her mate, and thinking she'll find solace and comfort from her mate, he rejects her immediately, making her hurt.Laura is tired of staying in her pack, she decided to leave and is branded as a rogue by her pack…She wanders and finds herself in the Shadowmoon pack, the pack that is feared by other packs because of the alpha, she's more shocked to realize he is her mate, and the moon goddess gives her a second chance to have a mate.Alpha Darren has lived for centuries and has ruled with iron hands, he is known as the psychotic alpha, he is 300 years, though he looks like he isn't over 30, he hasn't had a mate all his life and he thinks he is mate-less, that changes when he finds out he has a mate and she's a rogue.What will happen when they meet each other? Will he refuse her? Will Laura get rejected again? Will his pack accept her? what happens when they start facing a suspicious attack and half of his pack suspects her?...

Katherine Salazar. A girl from Spain whose life changed the day she first held a knife. She learned early that silence can be sharper than any blade. Her weapon a slender knife, always hidden beneath her clothes. Her adopted parents named her "Ghost Knife". She moved like a shadow—silent, precise, deliberate, clean. As she grew into a woman, her beauty captivated—and haunted— people around her in ways almost impossible to resist. When she took a mission she wasn’t supposed to handle herself, it tore her world apart, everything changed. She was caught by two brutal twin—opposites in behavior, different in power, identical in blood. Instead of ending her life, they chose to use her skills for their own dirty work. But then things got complicated. When both twin fell in love with her. A forbidden love, dangerous and consuming. Her next mission was supposed to be simple: eliminate the twins’ greatest enemy. But the target… was her “dead” father. "Dad?” My voice barely escaped, thick with disbelief, my vision blurred by unshed tears. “Kat?" His voice trembled with shock, more startled than I had ever seen him. In a fluid motion, he lifted his left hand, swift, precise—and the guards froze, stopped as if caught in a web of unseen power. " Y..You , I saw..." My words faltered, the knife quivering in my grip.

“Five good years and you never loved me back. I hate you so much Kurt, and I will make sure you regret this. I promise.” She weeped, drenched in both sadness and anger. Lisa Carter was done with her ex husband, Kurt Briggs. Coming home early that morning to share with him the news of her pregnancy, she met him in bed naked with the lady he told her not to worry about. He lied about loving her, he lied about caring, and he took her for a fool once again. Not anymore, because that heartbreaking scene was all it takes to mold Lisa into someone else. Someone out for revenge, and the destruction of the ex husband who wants her back at all cost. “Kill me, hurt me, destroy me. I really don’t care, what I care about is you loving me again.” He cried out desperately. The beauty scoffed from where she stood, “Too late, Mr Briggs. Already got myself a new man to treat me right.” “That’s right, and I’m the new man.” Kurt’s nemesis showed up from nowhere, placing an arm around his ex wife. Read now to watch drama unfolds, betrayal takes place, and secrets leaked. Because after all, everything wasn’t how it seems to be.

Some mistakes are never meant to be forgiven. Some marriages are never meant to be chosen. Thalia Ashbourne has spent her life understanding one rule: in powerful families, love is a luxury no one can afford. Raised to protect legacy over happiness, she learns early how to endure quietly—even when it costs her everything. Nikolai Ravenhart is the man she loved in silence. Cold, brilliant, and untouchable, he was never meant to be hers. Their lives were bound by family ties and old promises, but his heart belonged elsewhere. Then one reckless night changes everything. A mistake becomes leverage. A secret becomes obligation. And an arranged marriage is rushed to protect reputations and preserve power. Trapped in a union built on resentment and unspoken truths, Thalia becomes a wife to a man who never chose her—while carrying expectations that demand more than love. As pressure for an heir mounts and the past refuses to stay buried, Thalia must decide how much of herself she is willing to lose to survive a marriage that was never hers to begin with. When an old love returns and secrets begin to surface, the line between duty and desire fractures—forcing Thalia to choose between enduring silently or walking away from everything she was raised to protect. Inevitable Temptation is a slow-burn billionaire romance about power, sacrifice, and a woman who learns that sometimes the bravest love is choosing herself.

In a world where Omegas are bought, sold, and treated as slaves, Arwenna learned early what survival meant... what it entails and what it should be. Sold by her aunt at the age of sixteen, Arwenna was married off to an old man to pay the debts her aunt owed. A mere Omega was not cared for by the clan nor the Alpha... It never really mattered if they survived or not. Years later, she was blamed for the death of the same man she was forcefully married to. And now she was to be sold... dragged back to the same clan, to the same guardian who sold her off like a commodity; she was thrown back to everything she once escaped but now as nothing but the slave she always has been. Time flew by like a curse that came to haunt, sticking to her like glue. She lost her wolf... lost. She never got her wolf, only to realize during the mating season that she doesn't have a mate. "The Moon Goddess is so shrewd," she cried out, with emotions that have been bottled up for years. Nothing seems to be working, and now her aunt gives her away... No, she sells her again to the palace as a 'Dwangi,' a slave specially to keep the Alpha sane before finding his mate. She agreed. What's the purpose when she's like a useless paper plate that doesn't serve any purpose other than to be used and discarded? But what she doesn't know is that her story just begins.",

Some bad girls need a steady hand to keep them in line. I'm bad enough to need two. Two old men can teach me a lesson when I misbehave. Two hot bodies to keep me warm in bed at night. Two best friends can learn to share with a dirty mouth kid like me. After all... dirty girls need very dirty dads. Anna Josephine is nothing but trouble. She's wild and tough. Not worth anyone's time. Anna is a beautiful little girl. She is also a vulnerable young man on my case list. She is half my age and has absolutely no limits. I broke every rule in the book by giving her somewhere to stay when she was out on the street with nowhere to go. And I'm breaking all the rules of friendship by locking her up at my best friend Jack's house while he's away on business. I thought life was hard enough when I fell in love with the girl, but it got even harder when Holmes came home early and discovered a beautiful stranger was causing a ruckus in his house. And it's even harder when he has a crush on her too. He is the only man on this planet with whom I want to share my last supper. I'm happy to share that. I'm not sure how I feel about sharing Anna.

After two years of marriage, I believed I was living the dream—until the day I gave birth to our long-awaited heir. The house was filled with joy as my husband's family arrived, bearing gifts and ready to bestow a name upon our child, as tradition dictated. But the happiness of the day shattered in an instant when my husband walked in, hand in hand with his childhood sweetheart. In front of everyone, he announced not only our divorce but also his engagement to her, as if I had never mattered. *** "I’m divorcing Stacy," Jason announces, his voice unwavering, "to marry Nicole Cruz, my childhood sweetheart." He points to the woman standing before him who smiles and waves at everyone in the room. My world tilts on its axis. The words echo in my mind, louder and louder until they drown out everything else. What is going on?? "But why?" I whisper, my voice barely audible, even to myself. I'm unable to believe his betrayal. Jason doesn’t even glance at the child in my arms. "Because this has been a long time coming, Stacy. I’ve only stayed this long out of obligation and not love." Important Author’s Note: This is a rewritten version of my book The Alpha’s Betrayal: Reclaiming His Rejected Luna. From Chapter 12 onward, the story takes a new turn with fresh twists and drama. Thank you for reading—I hope you enjoy this new version!

Roman Thorne is the invincible team leader of college hockey. He is large, aggressive and a nightmare to the media. The press, however, does not know what makes the Briarwood Ice Devils so feared. They are not just players. They are ruthless, blood-swilling offspring of the most formidable crime business in the city. Trying to keep a small scandal which is about to blow up their small business, the Thorne family appeals to the service of Sloane Mercer. She is 24 years old and a brilliant ruthless PR fixer. Her task is easy: to improve the image of the team, to work with press, and not to put Roman in the prison. But Sloane has not come to save them. She is here to ruin them. Sloane is enraged by the club of men belonging to the toxic boys at the University which exploits women at school. She espies documents to bring down their empire. She feels it’s a perfect plan. But the boss notices her plan. Rather than shooting her, the vain, insane captain does even better. He turns into a mad man who is obsessing over her. Roman does not care about his gang, their criminal history, and the law. He is simply interested in this cold-blooded, witty lady significantly desires to ruin him. Handling her is capital punishment. In case the family discovers that the captain loves one of the traitors, the trouble will be extended past the ice. The school locker room becomes a instances of psychological battle where a girl is emulating god and the mob boss who desires to possess her. Can you endure the obsession of the boss? Read Chapter 1 now.