Poem In And Then There Were None

In my previous life, my husband had suddenly died of a brain hemorrhage, leaving behind a massive mountain of debt. For the sake of my son, who was still in high school, I sold the house my parents had left me, gritted my teeth, and worked three jobs to pay off the debt. Overworked and exhausted, my health deteriorated, and I eventually collapsed in the hospital. From my bed, I could hear my son, now a graduate from a prestigious university, smiling as he spoke on the phone. "Hello? Dad, it's me. Yeah, she's about to die. I bought insurance for her, so we should get close to one million. You and Aunt Rena should come back home right away." The "Aunt Rena" he spoke of was none other than my husband's childhood friend and neighbor who had known him for years. It turned out that the debts were all part of a massive money-laundering scheme between my husband and his childhood sweetheart. They had fabricated false accounts to hide their crime, and he had faked his death to escape the law. My son, eager to become the heir to wealth, had stood by and watched me work myself to death. When I next opened my eyes, I was back in the moment of my husband's feigned brain hemorrhage, the day it had all begun.

Six years ago, I gave everything to the boy who set my world on fire, my heart, my body, my trust. The next day, he vanished without a word. Since then, life hasn’t been kind. I buried my parents in the same week I brought my newborn son home from the hospital. At just eighteen, I became a mother and a guardian to my fifteen-year-old sister, barely surviving the weight of it all. When I finally thought I found stability in a loving husband, I discovered he was living a double life, with another woman. Now, my son, Jaxon, is acting out, angry at the world and carrying wounds I can’t heal. After yet another phone call from the school, this time, expulsion. I knew we couldn’t keep pretending things were okay. We needed a fresh start. I never expected that fresh start to lead me to a sleepy mountain town hiding a dangerous secret… or to him. Because this town borders a hidden pack of wolf shifters, and their alpha is none other than the boy who disappeared six years ago. The same boy who doesn’t know he left me with more than a broken heart… He left me with his son. Warning! This story is a reverse harem and contains explicit scenes (including M/M) throughout.

His hands gently pressed on her waist, caging her and drawing her closer. He brushed her lips softly with his parted ones. She leaned into him, surprised at how natural it felt to be held against him, the man who made her want to flee for the hills and strip naked at the same time. "Even if you were the only woman left in this world, I would never accept you as my mate." Blaze's eyes grew darker under the lighting, making Lilith squirm under his intense gaze. Lilith Venerelli is the daughter of the head warriors of the Blood Moon pack. The perfect rank, and perfect wolf, Lilith has her whole life planned, and mating with her boyfriend during the mating season would be the cherry on top. The day she turns eighteen, her world crumbles when she learns that she is no longer a warrior but a sigma, deemed the lowest of the pack. Alpha Blaze Westbrook is the future alpha of the Blood Moon pack. He always dreams of having the strongest she-wolf as his mate. His hope shatters when he finds that his mate is none other than the pack's sigma. Torn between the pack's principles and the mate pull, he is forced to disregard his mate. Will he be able to fight against the mate pull, or will he fight against his pack's principles and accept the pack's sigma as his mate?

After the video exposing my sister Issa Acosta’s plot against me was revealed, my parents and my fiancé, Henry Nolan, stood firmly by my side, making me feel loved and safe. I confidently handed over all the evidence to them, trusting them to handle it. However, they told me that after Issa was kicked out of the house, she died in a sudden car accident, and I believed them. That was until five years into my marriage, when I accidentally saw Issa—the woman who was supposed to be dead. She was holding a little boy, clinging tightly to Henry’s hand. "Henry, if it weren’t for you and my parents, I’m afraid Zoe would’ve thrown me in prison. Thankfully, my parents destroyed the evidence and even opened a jewelry design studio for me. To avoid suspicion, you even sacrificed your own marriage. Thank you for everything in the past five years.” "Think of it as me atoning to Zoe on your behalf. As long as you and Bear are happy, that’s enough for me." So, what I thought was a happy family was nothing more than a giant lie—a scheme concocted by my parents and Henry. My parents, my husband, and Issa were the real family, and I? I was just the fool who had been deceived for five long years. Whether it was family or love, none of it was real, and I don’t want any of it anymore.

His face turned to stone, and he grabbed my arm, dragging me into the janitor's closet. "I, Derek Thayne, reject Roxanne Meyers as my mate," he spat, and I snarled. "I accept your rejection." *** Alphas always have to be careful when it comes to their children; they are the perfect targets to the pack's enemies. No one was prepared though when the rogues attacked the Black River Pack and kidnapped the Alpha and his family. For months they were tortured, focusing mostly on the youngest child: Roxanne Meyers. Roxanne endured the abuse for months, constantly reminding herself that she was the daughter of an Alpha, that they would not break her. But one day she had no choice but to succumb to their demands. She returned to a pack that hated her; she killed their Alpha and Luna. Even her older brother turned on her. She became the lowest ranking wolf in the pack: the omega. Every attempt to escape the pack's abuse failed and her only hope was to find her mate. But her mate was none other than Derek Thayne, the son of the Alpha who took over following her parents' deaths. After accepting his rejection, she escaped to a nearby pack with the help of her new Alpha. She was thriving and rising up the ranks in her new pack. But unfortunately for Roxanne, Derek was far from finished with his rejected mate. And he wasn't going to let the threat of war stand in his way.

When I went to reissue my mate certificate, the Werewolf Affairs Division told me, "Your mate certificate is a forgery. We have no record of your registration." I stared at the clerk, unable to believe what I was hearing. "But Sam and I registered five years ago. That's impossible. Could you please check again?" The clerk gave me a look before double-checking the files. "We found Alpha Sam's record. But the registered mate… isn't you." My voice trembled. "Then who is Sam's legal mate?" The clerk didn't hesitate. "Lily." I gripped the back of the chair, white-knuckled, just to keep myself upright. Until the clerk had spoken that name, I'd still held on to hope. Maybe it was a clerical error. A mix-up. But of all people, it had to be Lily, Sam's childhood friend. And suddenly, everything started to make sense. In five years of being Sam's mate, he had never marked me. We'd only held a mating ceremony—no certificate, no legal bond. I had given up everything for that ceremony, poured all my hope and love into it, believing I was his, only to find the certificate was fake. The five years I'd thought were mine—our happiness—had all been a lie, crafted and upheld by appearances. If none of it was truly mine, then there's only one thing left for me to do. Leave.

When my husband, Louis Banks, was caught in a traffic accident, I was at an interview out of town. By the time I got to the hospital, he had already been declared dead, and was sent to the crematorium. Hearing the news, I fainted on the spot. When I woke up again, I was greeted by the court coming to enforce the auction of all our assets. The reason was that Louis' company had gone into financial troubles, leaving us in massive debt, and I was the only legal representative of the company. Many years later, I found myself begging in the snow with a cracked bowl, and I nearly got run over by a luxury car. To my surprise, the one in the driver's seat was none other than Louis, who was supposed to be dead ages ago! Dressed in designer brands and holding another woman in his arms, he jeered at my filthy stench and appearance, even kicking my bowl to pieces. "You're still alive, huh? I was worried that I couldn't trick someone who graduated from a bigshot university, but you were dumb enough to believe it without questioning it for a second!" He laughed, sneering as he continued, "Thanks for working so hard for us, hahaha!" His words filled me with so much anger that I died on the spot, my eyes glaring at him even in death. Little did I expect that when I came to, I found myself back on the day of his accident!

Receiving a glass of wine from her sister on the night before her wedding was the worst mistake Annalisa could have ever made. Unknown to her, the drink had been spiked, setting her up into having a one night stand with a stranger. But the stranger had been none other than Cristiano Morano, a powerful and ruthless man who controlled half of the city's underworld. To make matters worse, he was also the sworn enemy of her fiancé. Annalisa thought she was going to lose it all, her career and her life, when a scandal about her unfaithfulness broke out. Not only that, she found out her fiancé had been cheating with her blood sister. As her family were about to announce their disowning in a press conference, a dashing man from the audience had come out and said he was going to take responsibility for Anna. They got married, but Cristiano had stated a condition in the contract she signed; He would have full control over her life and career. Would a timid girl like Annalisa survive in Cristiano's world? “You’re mine now, Annalisa. And I always get what's mine.” “W-what do you mean?” “I mean I'll break you,” Cristiano said, a dangerous glint in his eyes. “And then, I'll put you back together again, my way.”

In a world where werewolf hierarchy determines everything, Daisy was born with the worst hand possible: Class S. The bottom rung barely worth acknowledging. Yet she's somehow found herself walking the hallowed halls of Lunar Crest Academy, where the elite supernatural heirs learn to rule. She doesn't belong here. Everyone knows it. But something pulled her to this place like a magnet. It was like a scent she couldn't resist. Then she discovered why. "If you tell anyone you're my mate, there will be consequences." The threat came from none other than the Academy's golden boy. The future Alpha of Alphas, and apparently, her destined mate. The same guy whose kiss still burns on her lips, whose touch ignites something primal inside her. It should be a dream come true for Daisy. In another life, she'd be celebrating. But in this reality? Their bond is forbidden and dangerous. It is something to be hidden away like a shameful secret while she watches other girls openly vie for his attention. Unnatural events that were never supposed to happen to her begin to surface, and hidden enemies follow her through the grand halls. Daisy is starting to realize this mate bond might be more than just inconvenient. It was deadly. And she's left wondering if finding her fated mate was the beginning of her story or the beginning of her end. How long can she live in the shadows of her own destiny before the truth drags her into the light?

Olivia Jamerson spent years stewing in hidden rage for the person behind all her high-school ridicule and embarrassment. That person was none other than Joshua Taylor, son of the football coach and the famed bully of Westminster High. Students feared him, his friends revered him and teachers were sick of him. Two years after graduation and leaving town, Olivia had changed her whole appearance and character so much that no one could recognize her. Drowning in the sea of New Yorkers, Olivia finally felt that she had left her past behind and become a whole new person. At least that was the case until she bumped into the unlikeliest person she expected to meet in the big city—her old bully. Despite being annoyingly hotter than she remembered, the only thing that bothered her was that he was disturbingly nice, but worst of all, he did not remember her. Things turn a whole lot crazier when she finds out that Joshua has amnesia and when he starts flirting with her as if they did not have a complicated past. A big city, sparks and tension, and two people—one with bitter memories of their relationship and one with a blank canvas eager to fill it with potential memories. Will their tragic past catch up to them and will their horns lock once again? Will Olivia hold on to her grudges and lock him out of her life once again, or will she open her heart to the new and improved Joshua?