Shadow The Hedgehog Arms Crossed

I've accidentally worn a dress belonging to my deceased older sister, Gwendolyn Stokes, to a family banquet. Because of that, my husband, Thomas Torres, goes quiet with fury. He then sentences me to a punishment of kneeling in the snow for three long hours. The blizzard chills me to the bone. My son, Robin Torres, makes fun of me while hurling snowballs at me. "No matter how much you dress up, you'll always be a phony! Don't think you can go around replacing my mommy just because you've changed into her dress!" As I stare at Robin's face, which bears some resemblance with mine, I feel my heart breaking. He has no idea that I'm his actual mother. On the year Gwendolyn passed away, Thomas, who drank himself into a stupor, mistook me for her. That night, he kept moaning Gwendolyn's name and whispering sweet nothings to me. That was how I got pregnant with Robin. Thomas has forbidden me from telling anyone the truth. On the other hand, I can't bear to leave my own child alone. So, I beg Thomas repeatedly to let me stay in the Torres residence. During my stay here, Thomas gives me the cold shoulder all the time. Only when he needs to vent his desire does he seek me out. What I didn't expect is that Robin hates my guts as well. Not only does he keep pulling pranks on me from time to time, but he also curses at me. "Shameless women like you have no right to stay in my home! Once I grow up, I'll definitely kick you out!" Now, I can finally respond to him. "Oh, I don't have to wait for you to grow up at all." Tomorrow, I'll pack my things and leave. I no longer want to remain as someone else's replacement and continue living a life of humiliation. This time, I'm going to pursue a life of my own.

Seren had always been told she was weak. An Omega, discarded and alone in a world that only saw her as a lesser wolf. After being betrayed by her pack and rejected by the one person she thought she could trust, she escaped into the wilderness, determined to survive on her own. But survival wasn’t enough. Now, with nothing but her wits and broken spirit, Seren has to rebuild her life from the ground up. For years, she’s lived as a lone wolf, trying to forget the scars of her past. But everything changes when she’s forced to confront the truth of her birthright—and the Alpha who’s never stopped searching for her. Kairos, a fierce and powerful leader with a dark past, is determined to claim what’s his. But Seren has a secret—one that could destroy them both if the truth ever comes to light. Kairos’s eyes burn with something more than desire when he sees her again, and though Seren’s heart fights against him, her body betrays her. He’s everything she swore she’d never need. Yet when the threat of war looms and the forces that destroyed her life are closing in, Seren must make a choice—remain alone and lose everything she’s ever fought for, or surrender to a bond that could either heal or destroy her. Her fate lies in the hands of the very man who betrayed her once, and now, he’s her only hope. But can she trust him again? One thing’s certain—Seren will never be the same.

Life is hard, but for Delaney Waters, it’s especially harder. From the moment she was born, she was excluded due to the fact that she was born under a black moon, one of the worst moons in werewolf lore. Even Delaney’s mother treats her like everyone else; coldly. On her eighteenth birthday, everything changes unexpectedly for her because she finds her mate and he is none other than Alec Castell, the son of the Alpha. This discovery leads them both down a path from which there is no return, and Delaney, as always, gets the rough end of the stick. A terrible event ruins Delaney’s life indefinitely, turning her into someone callous and bitter, and with a thirst to get back at the world that treated her so cruelly and unfairly. Her quest for vengeance leads to discoveries that shatter her foundations and make her question her entire existence, turning everything she thought she knew about herself on its head. Will she succeed in overcoming her badly-written fate or will the past repeat itself once more?

Alicia Perth has a special ability, she has high intuition to detect things. But great terror awaits her when she is asked by Detective Nicholas to help solve a murder in the dormitory. Stuck with two handsome men, Detective Nicholas and Ace Blake, the son of the CEO of Golden Group, will Alicia be able to see the truth behind all these incidents?

Ten years after graduation, I funded a scholarship for underprivileged students at my alma mater. During the ceremony's interview segment, one of the scholarship recipients suddenly grabbed the microphone. "That night at the karaoke bar, you forced yourself on me! Aren't you going to take responsibility?" Her words cut through the room, and every student and faculty member turned to look at me. In an instant, I was branded a rapist. The company's stock fell immediately in response. Amid the chaos, I simply stared at the girl in front of me. Had students really become so ruthless just to get what they wanted? Only a few days ago, I had helped her fend off a gang of troublemakers, so how could she turn around and spread lies about me then? Besides, I was a woman. What could I possibly have done to her?

Eden Taylor thought she knew what heartbreak felt like ... until the day found out her fiancee was having an affair with her sister. Betrayed and broken, she fled the wreckage of her life, searching for peace in the mountains. There, she meets Everett, a man both magnetic and terrifying .. a being who claims to belong to the dark itself. Bound by forces neither of them understand, Eden feels her world shifting the moment they touch. The connection between them awakens something deep within her .. a light he’s been searching for since the dawn of time. Everett is no myth or monster. He is the God of Shadows, cursed to dwell in darkness, unable to move in daylight unless the Goddess of Light accepts him. That goddess, reborn in mortal form, is Eden .. though she doesn’t yet know it. As Everett slowly earns her trust, showing her the truth behind her fractured world, the bond between them deepens into something dangerous .. something divine. But ancient forces stir against them. Wraiths from the void break through the veil, drawn to her light and his defiance. When Eden nearly dies, Everett shatters every rule of their universe to bring her back... binding their souls in ways that neither heaven nor hell can undo. The mortal world believes she vanished for weeks, but she returns changed, her blood humming with the memory of him. Ben, her ex-fiancé, sees only madness... until Everett’s voice tears through the night with a warning that freezes his blood: “Get your fing hands off my light.”* Now, Eden stands between two worlds, the human life that betrayed her and the god who would burn the heavens to protect her. And in the war between light and shadow, love might just be the weapon that changes everything.

(Warning: Mature Content) "Satisfy me, and you'll have your reward. A reward for each time you do well." The words echoes in Aurora Duttman's mind as she stands frozen, realizing she's become a plaything for her new husband. Aurora's life has been a tangled web of mistreatment and betrayal. Her father and stepmother have manipulated her, while her Ex boyfriend's infidelity has left her heartbroken. In a bold act of revenge, she vows to lose her virginity to the next man she meets. That man turns out to be Luther Hawthorne, a mysterious, ruthless, and feared disabled billionaire. With an arranged marriage to a man she's never met, Aurora uncovers a shocking truth: the man she lost her virginity to is the same man she's married to. As she walks this treacherous new world, Aurora must confront the darkness of her past. Will she be lost in desires for her husband, or will she forge a path of revenge?

My brother, Theo Sorento, died in a plane crash on his way back home just to celebrate my birthday. They never found his body—only wreckage. Ever since, my parents forced me to kneel in front of his grave every year on my birthday, demanding that I repent for surviving when he didn’t. Then came my eighteenth birthday. I realized someone was following me. Panicked, I sent a few messages asking for help. Just then, Mom called, not to check on me but to lash out. “I know exactly what you're doing. You’re just making up excuses so you don’t have to kneel in front of your brother’s grave! You’re a liar. Why wasn’t it you who died instead of him? You’re a walking curse!” Before my phone was smashed under a boot, the last thing I heard was the cold click of her hanging up. Then, I was cut up into pieces, and what was left of me was tossed across the city. My father, the lead forensic pathologist on my case, didn’t even recognize me. Later, Theo returned alive with his wife, whom he had eloped with eight years ago. When they found out the pile of rotting flesh was me, they all went insane.

When her identical twin sister and her mum pass away in a road accident, Araya and her dad move from London to Texas for a fresh start. In an effort to deal with the pain, Araya creates an online account in her late sister's name. In an unexpected twist of events, Pierce, the guy she has a crush on becomes friends with Sky, her online utraego. As senior here begins, the pressure on Araya mounts as she deals with high school, coaching a famous footballer, and running her own players' agency. As she falls more in love with Pierce and it looks like he might return her feelings, she has to decide whether to tell him her secret or not. Things become even more middled when Gunther, Sky's boyfriend whom she also likes gets back into the picture, and Pierce starts falling for both Sky and Araya, without knowing that they are one and the same. Will Araya finally choose herself? Or will she forever live in Sky's shadow?

Celeste Cox sent me a photo on WhatsApp. I opened it to find a picture of the school heartthrob and me in an intimate embrace, the pose as suggestive as could be.