Rome Wasn't Built In A Day Meaning Novels & Stories

The Alpha’s 90-Day Luna: Ruin of the Alpha (Book 2) The contract was for ninety days. The obsession is for an eternity. I thought I had escaped the wreckage of my past when I walked away from the altar and into the arms of a stranger. I thought I was hiring a temporary shield against Blake Turner’s greed and Riley Knox’s betrayal. I didn't realize that by signing my name at the Downtown Civic Registry, I was handing my soul to the most lethal predator in the Blackwood Territory. Connor Vale. To the world, he is the Obsidian King—the ruthless Alpha behind Vale Media Group who rules the industry with shadow and steel. To me, he was a calculated risk. But as the scent of dark cedar and rain consumes my senses, the truth emerges from the darkness: Connor didn’t just happen to be at the registry that day. He has been stalking my shadows for years, waiting for the moon to finally break me so he could claim the pieces. Now, as I fight to reclaim my throne on the international stage, my enemies are closing in. Sloane Pierce and the remnants of my old pack are determined to see my reputation torn to shreds, using every dirty tactic to expose my secrets. They think I’m alone. They think I’m vulnerable. They haven't met my husband. In this world of shifted loyalties, fated obsessions, and cold-blooded revenge, I am no longer the prey. With the most dangerous Alpha in the territory backing my every move, I will ensure that those who tried to ruin me are crushed under the weight of the Vale legacy.

My mate, Leonardo Salvatore, is the next Alpha of the Silverpine Pack. We've been together for five years, and yet he never agrees to hold our mating ceremony. But on the day I show up on his doorstep to confront him, I discover a pair of pantyhose and a bra that don't belong to me on his bed. Leonardo doesn't look ashamed and guilty in the slightest despite getting caught red-handed. Instead, he just shoots me a flippant smile. "Remember to tell the maids to clean up my room, Bella." His friends start a bet on whether or not I'll sever our mate bond because of Leonardo's affair. The wolf in question merely props his chin with a hand while saying airily, "Bella loves me far too much to leave me. Besides, she's a docile one. She'll definitely forgive me in less than two days." Leonardo is right. I do love him with all my heart. Whenever we got into fights in the past, I was the one who'd beg him not to leave me with tears running down my cheeks. But what Leonardo doesn't know is that he's already tainted. It's only natural for a goody-two-shoes like me to care about my mate's purity the most, so I can never accept a playboy like Leonardo as my mate. While he's waiting for me to return to his side, I muster all of my courage to ask the Alpha King, "I heard that you don't have a mate yet. In that case, may I become your Luna Queen?"

Buried deep in the Aster estate was the Heartwood—ancient, sacred, mine. Told my husband, Julian Aster—back when he actually listened—that if it ever fell, I'd die with it. At first, he freaked out. Flew in glacier water, hired a whole squad of plant experts to nurture it 24/7. Then one day, just because his childhood friend—Isabella Duvall—got a scratch from the bark, Julian had the Heartwood ripped out. The second it crashed, I choked on glowing blood—ichor. My power? Gone. Barely standing, I grabbed his arm. "You knew. If the Heartwood dies, I—" He laughed. Straight-up mocked me. "Sera, come on. That fairy tale? Only Grandma still believes that crap. Is that mayo on your mouth? Relax—it's a tree. I'll buy you a forest if you want." Overnight, my hair turned gray. Skin cracked. Eyes dulled. Still, I dragged myself to his grandmother, Henrietta. "I kept your family safe for two hundred years. That's why the Asters thrived. But the Heartwood's gone. Debt's paid. One day left. Whatever happens next? Not my problem."

The cocktail hour had just ended when I picked up a video call in the bridal suite. It was Ethan, three years from now. By then, time‑travel tech had matured enough to let him contact me three years into the past. After enough specific details, I finally believed it. The man on the screen really was Ethan, three years older. I rubbed my aching ankle and pouted at him through the screen. "Ethan, smiling at all these guests is exhausting. But the second I remember I actually married you today, I'm happy all over again." "We're still happy three years from now, right?" He was leaning back against a headboard, and he didn't answer. His face was flat and unreadable. Then I heard it: a woman's voice from his end, low and breathy, asking to be kissed. I froze for a second, then covered my mouth and laughed. "Is that future me? In broad daylight? Get a room." Ethan turned the camera into the bed. My maid of honor was lying there, naked, sprawled across his chest. Her body was covered in hickeys. He looked straight at me as I started to break, and his voice didn't shift at all. "As soon as the reception ended, I told you I had a client meeting. I went to her room instead." "Jo, now you know what's coming. The guests haven't gone home yet. If you want a divorce tonight, you can have one. Up to you."

To get rid of our pup and date with his assistant on Valentine's Day, my mate Marcus forced our injured pup to go rock climbing and poisoned him. When I rushed my dying pup to the hospital, I unexpectedly saw my mate accompanying his assistant for a prenatal checkup. Our terrified pup lay convulsing from the poison, but Marcus didn’t even care about him. "He's just an Omega. If he was a proper wolf, he'd heal instantly!" I clutched the $100 million Moonlight Blessing herb in my pocket. I accidentally found it in the forest this morning. I was planning to tell him the good news today. But now? It was time to break this five-year mate bond.

For five years, I have seen Leo Belmonte—the Don’s heir—as the only light in my life. On the day of my wedding dress fitting, he smiled and told me I was only a stand-in for his untouchable first love, Mia. Now that the real thing was back, I was supposed to step aside—go underground, follow my mother's path, and be somebody's mistress like she had been. The bridal fastenings cut my palms bloody, and all he cared about was the dress. His precious Mia ran me down on the highway in her car, and he warned me not to call the police—held my mother's ashes over my head to keep me in line. When the whole internet was calling me a homewrecker, it was him who nailed me to the pillar of shame with his own hands. The night I finally gave up, I boarded the Deluca family's private helicopter. That was when they learned the truth—I was no homeless bastard daughter. I was the only heir the most powerful Don in Europe had been searching for all these years. Once, I saw him as my light. Now he kneels at my feet and begs forgiveness, and all I feel is disgust. One day soon, I would stand at the top of the underworld—somewhere he could never reach again.

Don’t Stop: Short Erotica Tales is a red-hot compilation of standalone short stories exploring forbidden desire, raw power, and explosive passion. From fake marriages that ignite into rough, bed-shattering sex to hate-fueled hookups where exes tear into each other against walls, skirts hiked, thrusts punishing and deep. Forbidden affairs, crazy age gap, captive fantasies, one-night stands turned addictive. Each tale delivers explicit, no-holds-barred heat: teasing oral, hard spanks, multiple breathless orgasms, and dominant men who take control while fierce women push back and beg for more. Short, filthy, and intensely satisfying. Perfect for readers who crave scorching erotica that leaves nothing to the imagination.

Michael spent five years dealing with his disorder: haphephobia. Afraid to be touch. Afraid of stepping out of his home to enjoy a normal life. After moving to a new school, Michael has to challenge himself again from the beginning, but now with help from his new friend Elliot. Update: Monday Disclaimer: trigger warning. The novel goes through disorders that can be triggering and sensitive for viewers.

Alora After surviving an abusive childhood and aging out of the foster system, Alora learned to rely on no one but herself. She’s finally built a quiet, stable life—working the overnight shift at a 24-hour diner, keeping her head down, staying invisible. Until everything changes. When her car won’t start outside her apartment, she’s forced to cut through a dark park to make her shift. She expects inconvenience—not violence. Not teeth. Not the kind of attack that leaves her broken… and remade. She wakes in a cage, disoriented and terrified, only to discover the truth: she’s been turned into something she never believed in. She has a wolf now. Worse—she’s something the werewolf world isn’t supposed to have. A female alpha. Rescued from the pack that abducted and changed her, Alora barely has time to process what she’s become before another complication crashes into her life—her mate. Killian. Powerful. Dominant. Unyielding. He expects her to accept the bond. To claim—and be claimed. Alora refuses. She didn’t choose this life, this power, or this world. And she won’t choose a man who thinks he can decide her future for her. But Killian isn’t used to hearing “no.” And he’s not going anywhere.

In a world where werewolves and vampires roam freely among humans, Lyra is a lonely, resourceful 19-year-old girl living in New York City. Her only goal is to raise enough money to flee to Canada, in order to put several states between her and Carlos, her stepfather and a gang leader, who has decided to make her his possession. In her race to win her freedom, she crosses paths with a huge animal that she thinks is a giant dog. Hypnotized by those eyes, is she really making the right choice by taking this injured beast home? Didn't she just bring the big bad wolf back into the fold? I saved a dying beast from the gutters of New York, never expecting him to be my salvation—or my ultimate undoing. Lyra has lived her life in the shadows of her sadistic stepfather, Carlos, a man who treats human lives as currency. Her only hope was a desperate escape to the north, a dream that felt possible only when she found a wounded, brindle-furred wolf. She nursed him, shared her meager meals with him, and felt an unbreakable bond forming in his intense, steely gaze. But the beast wasn't a dog. He was an Alpha—a powerful, non-human Lord who reclaimed his throne and left Lyra behind without a second glance. Now, captured by Carlos and thrown onto the auction block for the city’s supernatural elite, Lyra is just a "lot" to be sold to the highest bidder. As vampires and shifters place their stakes on her life, she realizes the world is far more dangerous than she ever imagined. Will the Alpha who discarded her return to claim his debt? Or is Lyra destined to be a broken plaything for the monsters in the dark?