Rotten Apples

They say I killed my father. They say I ordered my maid, my dearest friend, to poison him. They say she confessed before taking her own life. Lies. The real murderer stands before me, weaving her web of deception and has the entire Royal court in her grasp. Queen Andessa, my wicked stepmother. My father’s killer. She has stripped me of my title, my crown, my very birthright, and has offered me up as a tribute to the Dragon King of Drakarith. A mercy punishment, she calls it. But I am not broken. She thinks she has won. That I will succumb to defeat and forget who I am. But she's wrong. I am Dahlia Rhadaya Balerion, the rightful Queen of Velmira. And I will return to reclaim what is mine and rip out Velmira's corruption by its roots. Starting with Andessa's rotten fertilized eggs. My callous step-siblings. Velmira is my home, my kingdom, and I will not let it rot under the rule of vipers. But reclaiming what is mine will not be easy, especially trying to achieve that from the dragon lands of Drakarith, under the watchful vigilance of Azraelyrs, a dragon king I have heard rumors about his cold-heartedness and rules with an iron fist. To survive, I must play the game of seduction and manipulation against my enemies. To win, I must be sharper, stronger, and more ruthless than I have never been before in my life. Let the games begin.

His eyes traveled all over my body, from head to toe. It made me self-conscious for some reason. "The dress fits you well,” then he paused and murmured, looking at the floor. "I was wondering if you'd like it or not." "Huh?" His head turned to me again as if he was freed from a trance. "So now will you tell me what I have to do for you, sir?" I said sarcastically. "What?" He looked at me with surprise. "What? You have to have some purpose for keeping me here by force," I said, pressing on the last two words. He paused for a few seconds and then the lamest thing I could have ever imagined came out of his mouth. "Yes, you are here to serve me," he stated blankly. "What? Did I hear you right? You knocked me out, kidnapped my sister, and blackmailed me into coming here just to be your servant?" I cried out in disbelief. A smirk began to settle on his face as he took in my reaction. He was enjoying this absurdity even more! "Yes, dear. You are here to serve me. From now on, you will be with me 24 hours. All matters regarding me are your responsibility from now on." This is insane! Is he really a pervert? What is he trying to pull? "But you already have a lot of servants!” I protested. “And they're always at your beck and call too! Why the hell would you have me kidnapped for this? And who gives new clothes and breakfast in bed to a servant?” This was driving me crazy. Was he playing with me? Probably, a rotten rich vampire prince playing for fun. But I was not going to play hooky with him. No way!

To help my sterile Alpha mate Marcus Blackwood conceive an heir, I had used many hormone injections. My belly was covered with purple bruise marks from all the needle punctures. But after our son Connor was born, he was very weak and even ran much slower than the other pups. Marcus looked at Conner coldly and snarled at me, "It's all your rotten bloodline! You've brought shame to the Blackwood pack!" Later, he held his mistress Scarlett's pup—a three-year-old pup who was strong enough to beat an eight-year-old pup—and publicly rewarded Scarlett with a new Porsche. But when my five-year-old Connor accidentally knocked over his milk, Marcus kicked him in the chest and called him worthless. He even locked my son, who was afraid of the dark, alone in the drafty woodshed at the countryside estate during winter. Every day, Connor got only one bowl of spoiled food, until he starved to death. When I found Connor, his small body was already ice-cold, still clutching the family portrait I had drawn for him in his little hands. After that, Marcus tortured me to death. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at our engagement party. Marcus publicly took Scarlett's hand in front of everyone. "I’m breaking off my engagement with Hazel Whitmore! She is just a foolish she-wolf who can only birth idiots! Scarlett is the one I love!" I realized that he was also reborn. He wanted to humiliate me in front of everyone again. But he didn't know that without my exclusive genetic healing technology, he would remain childless for this entire lifetime.

"Take off your clothes. Spread your legs." "...What? Why?" The voice cut through the silence, and my heart seized. I instinctively covered my stomach. It was the first anniversary of my marriage to Alessandro, the Don of the Santoro family. I was pregnant and had wanted to surprise him. But his secretary, Liliana, had blindfolded me and brought me to this unfamiliar place. "Donna, stop playing the victim. Seducing men is your specialty, isn't it?" "Tonight, in this underground auction house, you are the final item on the block." A chill shot down my spine, and my voice trembled. "Are you insane? I'm the Donna of the Santoro family! I'm carrying his heir! Alessandro will kill you..." Liliana scoffed and ripped off my blindfold. Blinding lights bore down on me. I squinted, and gradually, a man sitting in the VIP section came into view... It was Alessandro! I stared in disbelief as he slowly extinguished the cigar in his hand. "Pregnant? Whose bastard are you carrying?" "It's yours!" I cried out. "Liar!" He raised his hand, and a report was tossed at my feet. The bold letters "PROBABILITY OF PATERNITY: 0%" burned my eyes. He came closer and gripped my chin. "Liliana was right. Women like you are rotten to the core." "My love was never enough to satisfy your greed." "And I, Alessandro, will never raise another man's bastard." Later, he finally learned the child was his. For the first time, the man who was always so composed, arrogant, and in control knelt before me, his voice trembling. "Celeste, I'm begging you... even if you can't forgive me, please, let me make it up to you." But I felt nothing for him anymore.

The dormitory entrance downstairs is completely blocked. After squeezing to the front row, a he-wolf from the physical training camp next door points and whistles at me. "Look, that's the Luminian vixen. She's famous for being a notch-collector and will do it with any Alpha." My bed is strewn with rotten meat and animal entrails. On the wall, the words "Harlot", "Floozy", and "Tart" are scrawled in bright red lipstick. Jessica Cobb, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed cheer captain, holds up her phone. "Girls, I really don't want to expose her, but she's just filthy," she says with a face filled with contempt. "She's worse than a dog in heat. On Monday, it was the little hottie with the six-pack abs in his Ferrari. "Wednesday, it was the mature Alpha who reeks of cigars and has eyes that look like they want to devour you in his Bentley. Yesterday, it was that old gentleman with the monocle who's into domination in his Rolls-Royce." She shoves the photos right in the faces of the surrounding women. "Clearly, she didn't come here to study, but to find a sugar daddy." Despite the crystal-clear pictures showing me in those cars, I can't reveal that the men with me are my obsessively controlling older brother, my hot-tempered uncle, and my great-uncle. Respectively, they are the Alpha King of Lumin, the Chief Justice, and the Chair of the Elders' Council. The surrounding male werewolves burst into laughter, their eyes roaming over my thighs. "Hey, Luminian doll, how much for one night? I'd like a taste of you too." They have no idea that these men they're fantasizing about as my sugar daddies are actually the werewolf elders they can least afford to mess with in this lifetime.

Keion is not an awkward teenager. Being the son of the Alpha, his bloodline ensures that he was well-endowed with self-confidence. His physique, personality and intellect all affirm that his father is one of the greatest Alphas to reign in the past several centuries. He is set to follow in his dad's footsteps and he knows that his mate might be any of the pretty girls he spends time with. He isn't just lucky. Ceanna has tried everything she can to remain under the radar. By no efforts of her own, she is moved up to the class for the smart kids, she's been elected as a student leader and she is dating the most popular boy in school. All she wants is to blend in, but clearly the Moon Goddess has other plans and even her iron willpower can't fight that. She just has rotten luck. Christmas is a time for gifts and pleasant surprises, but Keion never thought in a million years that his present this year would be to meet his mate, let alone kiss her before their first date or formal introduction! Normally meeting your mate would then mean, you go tell your parents, but Keion has a slight problem: he was kissed several times on Christmas Eve so he isn't sure which one she is! Someone had awakened his awareness, but he has no idea which of the girls it was. It wasn't time for them to meet so his wolf can't see her either but that doesn't stop his heart from soaring to the moon because he had generally liked the looks of every girl he met on that fateful day. He will do whatever he can to find her because he knows that theirs will be an epic union to change the future of werewolves forever.

My daughter, Elise Dolton, got sick, so I rushed over to take care of her. The moment I stepped inside, a rotten stench hit me right in the face, so I offered to help clean the place up. Her roommates' faces dropped right away. "What smell, Mrs. Dolton? The place is fine." "If you think it's such a dump, then have Elise move out. Don't come in here acting like you're better than all of us. We're not putting up with that!" Even Elise shoved me impatiently. "If you’re here to visit, then just act like it. Stop making a scene and embarrassing me, okay?” They were all college roommates, splitting rent on a run-down unit in an old complex. When I went in, I noticed them gathered around a pot of spicy stew. The room was thick with steam and smoke, but it still couldn't cover that awful stench. Strangely, none of them seemed to notice it. Had something gone wrong with my sense of smell? That night, the smell was so overwhelming that I couldn't fall asleep. In the end, I realized the odor was coming from Elise herself. I hurried her into the bathroom and scrubbed her down over and over, but the smell didn't fade at all. It stayed just as strong. With no other option, I called a cleaner, planning to disinfect the entire place inside and out. But Elise's roommates felt offended and started arguing with me. In the chaos, someone shoved me. My temple slammed into the sharp corner of the coffee table, and I died on the spot. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the moment I first walked through the door. The stench rushed at me all over again...

"You bastard, you rotten bastard. . . I will make you pay for this.”Lucianda threatened in a provoked voice but Prince Hakeem only laughed outrageously as he glinted down at her exposed breasts. "You and who will do that?" He made a mocking sound. "My dear Lucianda, the only reason you escaped from my wrath was because my findings indicated you are a decent woman, but don't try to take advantage, you will pay dearly for it." He warned coldly and Lucianda shivered physically. Laughing devilishly at her fear, Prince Hakeem kept his eyes on her pouty breasts and just when Lucianda felt she would die from the embarrassment and the unwanted passion washing over her body, he gave an insulting snort as he got up from the bed, and before she could do anything, with a blank expression, he covered her body with a wrap. “Try to know your place.” He said before striding out of the room. Only then did Lucianda give way to tears. What was her offence? She was just a disillusioned widow trying to get over all that had happened in her life and here is another cruel soul, trying to create more problems for her. ***** Lucianda Castos, the widow of the late powerful Alex Castos, refused to mourn the death of her husband. All she wanted was to start the process of healing. Prince Hakeem, her husband's equally powerful but ten times deadlier rival, would not permit her to do that. He had another thing planned and Lucianda did not know what that meant for her. She hated her husband and everything that had to do with him. And she would avenge the pain they made her go through. She has only two missions; to protect her son and to hurt those who hurt her.

In the third year that I've been diagnosed with late-stage bone cancer, Xenia Jensen, the ex-girlfriend whom I have "abandoned" back then, barges into my rented apartment with the rest of her team that she leads as a police captain. Every day, I have to rely on large amounts of morphine just so I can force myself to stand like a regular human being. I can only twitch violently as I try to grab a pill bottle on the table, my skin completely riddled with needle marks. Xenia chuckles icily as she savors how pathetic I look. "Oh? It's been seven years since we last met, and yet I never thought you'd stoop so low as to become a drug addict. "Where did your gusto to get a better, richer girlfriend go? I can't believe you're willing to humiliate yourself just for some so-called medicine!" As soon as Xenia's words fall, I point at the pill bottle with a trembling finger. "Please, officer… Can you please give me my medicine?" Xenia chortles in response. She picks up the bottle before walking toward the bathroom, soon flushing it down the toilet. "You want your medicine? Go ask the peeps at the rehab for it! It seems both your heart and your body are rotten to the core after you left me for another woman!" I'm in so much pain that I'm convulsing violently right now. "Oh… Then… Am I going to die?" I curl up on the floor, hoping to tide over the latest wave of pain by using the method my doctor has taught me. But Xenia merely gazes at me coldly from the side. In fact, she starts recording me, saying that she wants to make me a living negative example.

They say fated mates are sacred, practically unbreakable. But Aiden wasn’t mine, and I wasn’t his. That didn’t stop me from loving him like he was the last man left in this cursed world. He swore he didn’t need a bond to love me. Said it was pure. Said he’d love me unconditionally. Said he’d choose me—always. But now he’s in our bed, moaning another woman’s name like a prayer. Wearing a forbidden pendant laced in black magic—magic strong enough to block the mate bond so I wouldn’t feel the betrayal. Too late, Aiden. I felt it. Like a dagger slicing straight through my soul. And just as I hit rock bottom, he shows up. A young, enigmatic Alpha—feared, powerful, far too young for me. Alpha Damon. He’s asking questions about illegal mate bond magic. Magic my husband used to cheat without consequences. Magic that ties back to a dark conspiracy. Turns out, my perfect little marriage is just the rotten tip of a magic-smuggling empire. Damon wants my help. Needs me close. Says I’m the only one who knows enough to crack this wide open. But every time he says my name, something in me stirs, something I swore was long dead. I shouldn’t want him. I couldn't him. He’s too young. Too dangerous. Too…everything. But goddess help me—he’s the first man who’s ever looked at me like I wasn’t something broken. Like I wasn’t disposable. Like I was worth fighting for.