Principles By Ray Dalio

She thought she could endure a loveless marriage to repay her family’s debt—but she didn’t count on the cost of her heart. Once the proud daughter of a wealthy businessman, ELENA BRADFORD watched her life crumble when her father’s betrayal left her and her mother drowning in debt. Desperate to protect her family, she reluctantly agreed to a marriage contract with her father’s former business partner’s reckless son, ADRIAN HAWTHORNE—a man who once loved her during their university days but now only mocks her fall from grace. Trapped in a cold marriage filled with scorn and humiliation, Elena finds herself suffocating under the weight of Adrian’s cruelty. But everything changes at a high-profile dinner when she locks eyes with the one person she never thought she’d see again—LUCAS EVERHART, her childhood best friend, who once confessed his love before vanishing from her life. Now a powerful CEO, Lucas is stunned to see the woman he loved trapped in a toxic marriage. Learning of her misery, he vows to free her from the chains of her past—even if it means clashing with Adrian who refuses to let her go. As old feelings reignite and secrets unravel, Elena must decide: will she fight for the love she once believed in, or will her past mistakes keep her from the future she deserves?

Elena Hart is a genius scientist mired in debt and can't even afford her mother's life-saving surgery. Her rescuer can only be one man: Dominic Blackwood, a ruthless billionaire who doesn't believe in love but needs a wife for some mysterious reason that Elena can't fathom. When he offers to marry her for a relaxed, contractual wedding in exchange for paying off her debts, she signs on. What begins as a bargain slowly becomes something more when both of them begin questioning one another's faith, battling foes, and fighting emotions they had not expected. However, love's journey is not one to be taken lightly. With lies revealed, the foes closing in, and open wounds biting back, they must decide if love can conquer any pact.

By day, he's Chicago's most powerful billionaire. By night, he's the city's most dangerous protector. Elena Moretti has spent years fighting for the forgotten—rescuing at-risk youth from the violence that claimed her brother's life. She doesn't trust wealth, power, or the men who wield them. So when enigmatic billionaire Dante Salvatore walks into her struggling community center with a check that could change everything, she knows there's a catch. Men like him don't save neighborhoods out of the goodness of their hearts. But Elena doesn't know Dante's secret: by night, he becomes The Sentinel, a masked vigilante dismantling the criminal empire that murdered his sister. As their worlds collide and attraction ignites between them, Elena begins investigating the vigilante whose methods both terrify and fascinate her—never suspecting the man she's falling for and the man she's hunting are one and the same. When a ruthless crime syndicate discovers The Sentinel's identity, Elena becomes the bait in a deadly trap. Dante must risk everything to save her, but when Elena uncovers the truth about the man behind the mask, she's forced to decide: Can she love someone who lives in shadows? And can a man who's spent years seeking vengeance ever truly step into the light? In a pulse-pounding tale of passion, danger, and redemption, two wounded souls discover that the most dangerous risk isn't fighting for justice—it's fighting for love.

For eighteen years, Cara devoted herself to Caleb—the wolf she thought was her future. She trained beside him, fought for him, and sacrificed everything for him. But when Caleb finally had the chance to claim her, he rejected her… . Left with no choice, Cara returns to the Shadow Wood Pack, the place she once escaped from. She expects to be treated as an outsider, to live quietly in the background. What she doesn’t expect is for fate to play one last cruel trick on her. Liam Wilson—ruthless, powerful, and feared by many—is her mate. Cara is prepared for rejection all over again. She’s not the kind of mate an Alpha like Liam would want. But instead of pushing her away, Liam does the unthinkable. He claims her.

LUNA: My entire life, I believed I was a simple human with a desire to assist shifters at the hospital where I work. But I could never have foreseen what fate had in store for me the moment I laid eyes on Blazes. For anyone of us. As soon as our worlds collided, all we could see was each other, and our destinies were soon intertwined by a curse that revealed my true identity. Mated to two shifters, it is up to us to break the curse placed on their pack before their demise is written in stone. BLAZE: With every male born into my pack, I can feel my grip on reality slipping, and I know that time is running out. As the future Alpha, it is my responsibility to track down the witch who has caused all of our sufferings and compel her to either break the curse or accept death. It was not part of the mission to find my mate, but it turns out that she is the only one who can save us, and she quickly becomes my addiction… My every desire… Mine. We are bound by our curse. And our passion will only lead us to the sweetest, sharpest edge of obsession, beyond our limits. SAFFRON: I can see how Blaze regards our mate, and I refuse to kiss the ground she walks on as he does. My body aches for her, I cannot deny it. Unfortunately for me, my wolf is loyal to the point of willing self-destruction to protect her. And when the time comes for us to fulfill our destinies and break the curse... Will I be able to succumb to my temptation and then turn it off like a dripping faucet once the ritual is over?

Allison, daughter of Fox City's most powerful gang family, a medical doctor, a passion and dream contrast to her family's life back at home. Her past, a ghost she thought she'd buried, was about to return with a vengeance –colliding with the present life she had built. On her birthday, a letter arrives from her father, Gerald Wenston —a man who has ignored her for years. His words, cloaked in a sweet tone, are not a request, but a command: return home and marry the heir of a rival gang —Michael Shelby, to secure an ancestral peace and rule treaty. But peace is the last thing Allison finds on her return, a single, forbidden night with a stranger —Luke Reynolds, her father’s right-hand man, ignites a dangerous passion that threatens to shatter the fragile truce. Caught between the duty to her family and a love that could ignite a gang war, Allison must navigate a web of family secrets and deadly betrayals. For in the shadows, a rival —her half sister Hayley also vying for Michael's affection, is waiting to claim everything she holds dear, even if it means destroying her and the city she's meant to save. Allison's choices could either save her family or condemn them all to a bloody war.

“Your body is made to carry my pup! Do that without objection and leave after giving birth to him,” Travis husked, his voice causing vibrations on earth. Rhea Duncan stared at him unblinkingly and scoffed, “I didn’t want to stay here anymore either. I’m still enduring your annoying nature because I have no choice.” • Rhea Duncan was inseminated by her best friend, Phoebe Barton, so that she could snatch her boyfriend from her. Her scheme was successful, but what Phoebe didn’t know was that she had just made her best friend a surrogate mother to the most eligible and enigmatic man in the country, and the alpha of his pack. What happens when a random human invades Alpha Travis’s world unexpectedly? What happens when Rhea Duncan realizes that the world she assumed was fiction is actually real, and she has just become a surrogate mother for the leader of that world? Will they accept that it is fate or just an accident?

I was supposed to be his mate. His Luna. The woman he vowed to cherish. But under the silver glow of the full moon, **Alpha Cassian Blackwood rejected me.** In front of the entire pack, he shattered our bond like I was nothing. No explanation. No hesitation. Just a cold, brutal rejection that sent searing pain through my soul. I ran. What else could I do? But fate wasn’t done with me. Captured by rogues, I thought my life was over—until **Ronan Vale, their dangerously handsome Alpha, offered me a deal.** A contract marriage. Protection in exchange for my loyalty. A union that would make me untouchable. I should have refused. Instead, I let myself fall into the arms of a man who sees me not as weak, but as powerful. And he’s not the only one. **Kai, the brooding strategist with haunted eyes, and Luca, the charming beta with a deadly smile, both make it clear—Cassian may have rejected me, but I will never be unwanted again.** But now Cassian wants me back. **And he’s willing to start a war to claim me.** I should hate him. I should want revenge. But when I look into his stormy silver eyes, I feel the bond still there, fraying but unbroken. Now, the men around me are asking me to choose. **My past, or my future. My fate, or my freedom.** But no one has realized the truth yet. *I’m not the weak, rejected mate they thought I was.* And I will never be powerless again.

Erica Vaughn, a 24-year-old woman, discovers she's pregnant on her wedding anniversary, but her joy is short-lived. Her husband, Asher Whitfield, a wealthy and ruthless CEO, reveals he's been having an affair and wants a divorce. To make matters worse, Erica is kidnapped and nearly killed, only to be rescued and left to rebuild her life. Five years later, Erica returns to Texas with her young son, determined to confront Asher and seek revenge. As they're forced to work together on a business deal, their past sparks a passionate and intense reunion. However, their rekindled romance is threatened by Asher's fiancée, Miley, who'll stop at nothing to keep them apart. As Erica navigates her complicated feelings and the treacherous world of corporate politics, she must confront the dark secrets of her past and the true nature of her relationship with Asher. Will she be able to overcome her pain and forgive Asher, or will their love be destroyed by the very secrets that once tore them apart?

She was ruined in a single night. Now she’s back—with a new name, a hidden past, and a score to settle. After a betrayal that destroyed her future and shattered her reputation, Astrid arrives at an elite warrior academy across the ocean—unrecognizable, untouchable. No one knows who she really is… not even the cold, unreadable combat instructor whose rejection once broke her. He calls her Mouse. Pushes her. Watches her. But his wolf knows. As sparks ignite beneath blood, secrets, and silver, enemies close in from every side. A jealous rival, a missing heir, and a dark conspiracy that’s been waiting to strike. She wanted revenge. She didn’t expect to fall for him again. And this time, loving him might cost her everything.