Regular Show: Cool Cubed Novels & Stories

My husband,Yves Gordon, got a diamond necklace at an auction. It was my birthday. The next day, I saw another woman wearing that necklace. She was Joyce Cherny, my husband's new sales director. That woman posted a dozen shorts on TikTok to show off her necklace. I commented, 'Nice necklace, but the outfit doesn't match.' Half an hour later, Yves called me. He berated, "I bought Joyce that necklace! She deserves it! She doesn't need you mocking her for it!"

Desiree is running from a dark past and just when she thinks she's finally escaped and is free, a case of wrong place wrong time gains her the attention of a cold and ruthless billionaire who would do anything to have her in his bed, including digging up her past and holding it over her head. What starts as a merely sexual relationship with Desiree being forced into Killian's bed blossoms into more as she becomes addicted to the possessiveness of his touch and his gaze and he in turn falls for her unwitting charm. But with the Pandora's box that is her past suddenly opened, enemies that were thought long gone begin to appear and threaten to destroy the relationship they've managed to carve out for themselves. Can they work together to overcome the rising danger or will they be torn apart by secrets and lies?

On our wedding anniversary, I order a cake and wait until midnight. My wife, Hailey Miller, never comes home. Her secretary, Jaxon Preston, sends me photos and messages to show off. "Sorry, it is my birthday today, so your wife is with me. Oh, and she gave me a watch worth 3 million dollars. Hope you don't mind." I reply, "I don't. What matters is you two are happy." Then, I block him. The next second, Hailey calls to scold me. "He is my secretary and does an excellent job. So what if I give him a watch? Is there a need for you to go after him? You narrow-minded loser!" I laugh coldly to myself. How am I narrow-minded? I am actually quite generous. I do not even want a wife I've had for three years anymore—let alone a watch.

I was known throughout the Shadow Pack as the perfect, obedient she-wolf. So obedient, in fact, that when my mate David left me during our eighty-eighth Bonding Ceremony, I still chose to forgive him. Until that fateful day—our eighty-ninth ceremony—when an anonymous werewolf gifted us a wedding present worth five hundred million dollars. The screen meant to play our sweet memories suddenly switched to a live broadcast: Amy, auctioning off her virginity for exactly five hundred million dollars. In our Pack, the first night symbolizes the deepest loyalty and love between true mates. If a she-wolf loses her first night to someone other than her mate, she is shunned by the entire Pack—branded with shame and rejection. Tears shimmered in Amy’s eyes as she looked straight into the camera, like it was her final goodbye. “David, if I can’t be your mate, then my purity means nothing.” “I only hope… you’ll never forget me.” David didn’t even hesitate. He threw away our moonstone ring and bolted from the ceremony hall. The Pack murmured in stunned disbelief. Everyone knew one thing: I loved David—but David only had eyes for his so-called savior, Amy. Now, the only question anyone whispered about was whether we’d make it to the ninetieth Bonding Ceremony. But I knew the truth— There would never be a ninetieth. So I left, my heart shattered in silence. But later, I heard he had regretted everything he had done— And had been desperately searching for me ever since. Because the truth was, I was the one who saved his life—not Amy.

On my eighteenth birthday, the High King summoned the heirs of the four great clans—the Vampires, the Werewolves, the High Serpent Clan, and the Merfolk. He laid their portraits before me and said, "Choose one to be your bondmate." I did not hesitate. I pointed to Damon—the werewolf with no noble bloodline, born in a forgotten corner of the realm. The entire court erupted in disbelief. Everyone knew who I used to love. Alpha Iris—the heir of the most powerful Lycan bloodline. For seven years, I chased him with blind devotion. No matter how harshly he treated me, I never gave up. I confessed to him over and over, sometimes right in the royal court. I even performed a blood-binding ritual—slitting my wrist—to earn the right to marry him. In my previous life, I got what I wanted—I married him and we performed the mate bonding ceremony. With that union, he inherited the High King's resources and rose to become the ruler of all four clans. However, what I did not expect was that after our wedding, he turned around and marked my adoptive sister. My parents were furious and sent her away. From that day on, Iris hated me with a vengeance. He surrounded himself with women who all looked eerily like her. One by one, they came—each more vicious than the last. With his silent approval, they tore me down, piece by piece, until I was nothing more than a joke—no longer the queen I once was. The suffering pushed me into severe depression. Only suppressants keep my wolf form from spiraling out of control. Until one day, my medication was replaced with a slow-acting poison. He was the one who did it. I died alone, locked away in the cold palace, a child still growing inside me. However, fate gave me another chance. In this life, I would not make the same mistake. When the High King once again asked me to choose a partner for the marriage alliance, I chose Damon—the one no one ever noticed—without even blinking. I thought I was finally free of the past. However, the moment the engagement was announced… Alpha Iris lost his mind.

My wife was gone for 6 months on a business trip. The day she returned, however, she was not alone. Hand in hand, my wife showed up with her lover—my client. This was not even the worst part—she was also 3 months' pregnant. My client, in all his beer-bellied arrogance, hurled the contract at my feet, smirking. "Mr. Carter, your wife has gone to so much trouble for this partnership. Truth be told, I would never, not even in a million years, have agreed to partner with you if it wasn't for her!" My wife caressed her pregnant belly and said smugly, "I was the one who successfully got Mr. Lewis' business! I'll let you have it, though, as long as you agree to get a divorce!" I tore the contract into shreds and roared, "You want a divorce? Fine! I'll give it to you, but I'll never sign this!"

Eight years ago, my first love, Zyla Garcia, dumped me. Right in front of me, she threw herself into the arms of a rich scion named Brett Salway. She said condescendingly, "Kieran, you asked me to wait for you for three years. But how many three years does a woman have?" I begged her desperately, but she remained unmoved. Brett even ordered someone to pin me to the ground and force me to finish a bottle of red wine before letting me leave. "You should thank me, Kieran. Otherwise, you would never have the chance to drink such expensive wine in your life!" Brett sneers. I watched as they got into a luxury car and drove off. Eight years later, I am one of the most powerful figures in this city—and I run into them again.

Late one night after getting off work, I was scrolling through my company group chat when a colleague shared a piece of news. The headline was horrifying. "Night-Shift Courier Murdered During Delivery, Police Suspect Robbery." I zoomed in on the crime scene photo that had been partially pixelated, and a chill ran straight down my spine. Lying in a pool of blood, the courier who had been hacked to death was unmistakably me. I had scrolled into news of my own death. Almost at the same time, my delivery app began vibrating violently. "Urgent pickup! Destination: Unit 704 Hawthorne Ridge Apartments, Building 7. Time limit: 15 minutes. Penalty for timeout: Death." As I stared at the notification that read "Pickup failed three times", the searing pain of my brutal death surged through my body. So that was it. I had already died three times. When I forced open the half-closed security door of 704 for the fourth time, a thin delivery envelope lay quietly inside. I tore it open. A photograph slipped out. It was a picture of my dismembered body. The timestamp showed tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. On the back was a single line written in fresh blood: "Next time, remember to pick it up on time." At that moment, the red indicator light on the hallway surveillance camera suddenly went dark. I looked up. From the ventilation opening in the exact same spot, a single eye was staring straight at me. The mole at the corner of that eye was identical to mine.

My mother-in-law needed blood when she fell down the stairs and suffered major blood loss. The doctors were worried that the blood bank did not have enough of her blood type, so I called Rebecca Chilton on the phone to get her to hurry to the hospital to help her mother. Fortunately, she arrived on time, and my mother-in-law was saved and was no longer in danger. Before I could relax, I found out another piece of bad news. When Rebecca was not by his side, her severely depressed crush jumped off the building. It happened not long after she left for the hospital. Rebecca was filled with regret and blamed me for everything, so she pushed me off the building as well. When I opened my eyes again, I found out I had been reborn. This time, I decided to respect her choice, but she ended up regretting it instead.

When I was selecting a marriage partner, I saw the chat. [Girl, don’t pick Max Lawrence. He’s a mama’s boy. If you marry him, his mother would make your life miserable.] [Choose Daniel Quinn. He may be an illegitimate son who isn’t valued now, but he’ll rise to power and become the head of the Quinn family.] In my past life, I had trusted those comments and chose Daniel. After we got married, he abused me. I had three miscarriages in a row. By the last miscarriage, I could not take it anymore and ran back home. There, I saw my father’s illegitimate daughter, Pearl Sullivan. She had married Max in my place. With my father’s arm in her hand, she had pointed at me while saying, “Mindy, why do you always make Daniel angry? You’re so immature.” My father looked unhappy. “You’re already married, yet you keep coming back home. Send her back.” They sent me back to the Quinn family. Daniel beat me to death. After I returned to the past, I saw those misleading comments again. I was not going to sit back and accept my fate again.