Skeleton Hand Holding

I went abroad for a year to further my studies and kept in touch with my girlfriend through video calls every day. One day, I saw her first love posted a photo with a caption: [We are finally back together after ten years!] In the photo, my girlfriend was visibly pregnant, holding the arm of the man next to her with a sweet smile.

The day the Royal Academy's screening results came out, the twin Alpha heirs — Julian and Damien — stood in front of me. Each of them was holding an application form. "Ivy. Have you decided whose name you're putting on that form?" In my previous life, I chose Julian for love. I gave up my direct admission to the Royal Academy and stayed behind in the pack with him and Celeste — his childhood-friend Omega who'd failed the screening — to help them train for another year. I thought that was what it meant to go through hardship together. That was love. But the pack laughed at Celeste — an Omega who thought she could get into the combat track at the Royal Academy. She couldn't stand the gossip, ran off alone, and was killed by rogue wolves. Julian threw me into the silver pit — the pit our pack used to execute traitors. Silver burns a wolf's flesh like acid. "If you hadn't been so desperate to cling to me, I could've focused on protecting Celeste. She wouldn't be dead!" "Ivy Hale — all of this is your fault. You ruined us." He poured silver down my throat. I died thrashing in agony. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the screening results were announced. This time, I slipped my arm through Damien's and gave the brightest smile I had. "Let's apply to the Royal Academy together." Julian let out a quiet, relieved breath and turned to go find his Omega. He didn't see the way Damien's hand tightened around mine — or the obsession and ambition he couldn't quite hide behind his eyes.

We had agreed to spend the New Year with our own families, but at the last minute, my husband, Drake Murrell, changed his mind and insisted I go back with him this year. I agreed, planning to take this opportunity to finally tell him the truth about who I really was. When we first got married, my parents told me to keep a low profile so that Drake, who came from a single-parent household, wouldn’t feel pressured. So I hid the fact that I was the daughter of the richest family in the capital, the Thorntons. When we returned to his hometown, I specifically bought my mother-in-law, Diana Murrell, a pair of gold bangles. She accepted them with a beaming smile, praising me again and again for being such a thoughtful daughter-in-law. However, the next day, as I passed by the old oak tree at the edge of Willow Creek, I overheard her talking about me with a group of people. "Oh, you have no idea. My daughter-in-law is absolutely ridiculous!" My hand froze midair, still holding my phone, as I instinctively ducked behind a haystack. I heard her continue loudly, "She bought me a pair of gold bangles this year. The moment I touched them, I knew they were fake! I’m telling you, they’re probably those cheap online knockoffs, like the kind that cost next to nothing and start fading the moment you wear them!" I was stunned with anger. She called pure gold fake? Looks like the million-dollar New Year gift I had prepared for her wasn’t necessary anymore.

It was something that Lissa had wanted ever she laid eyes on their newly appointed supervisor over the small but continuously growing company that she works for. He's gorgeous as hell. And everybody wants him. Sometimes, Lissa even thinks about whenever she 'plays' with herself. But of course, everything that she fantasies will remain as a fantasy. That supervisor of hers is bisexual and prefers to do the deed with men. But that's until she hears a little something from a little birdie in the table next to her. "Karma is a bitch, and revenge is best served cold --- bitter and kicking." As the messed up relationship between Anthony and Lissa grows passionately everyday, a text message from an unknown number will disrupt their lives. The text message contained a few sentences, something vague and Anthony thought it was only a scam for there are so many opportunistic folks in the world. However, the next day when he turned up for work with Lissa holding his hand, a certain woman wearing a Burgundy lipstick rattled him to the core. It was Tessa. Armed with vengeance and a story that could potentially destroy the empire Anthony's father has built. "So... what's your plan now, Mr. Lee?" Tessa leaned closer, whispering words laced with venom to his ear. "Will you cave in, or... would you like the world to know what kind of twisted son a of a bitch you really are." Anthony swallowed, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. His head was spinning and his world was crashing and burning and breaking in different places. And so it's true, Karma comes after everyone eventually. And this is his. "What do you want?" Tessa licked her lips then smirked. "Isn't it obvious?" She chuckled, her fingers traveling down his pants. "You."

“Where’s your fight now, wife?” Dominic's breath ghosted across my bare skin. “Let me go. I’m warning you,” I hissed, struggling against his wrist that held both my hands above my head. “Funny... Your upper and lower lips seem to be contradicting each other. I don’t know which to trust… maybe I should kiss both, see which one’s lying.” “Fuck you!” I spat—only it came out more like a moan I couldn’t control. “Yeah…” His hand tightened, holding me just enough to make my pulse pound. “Yeah… you will. You’ll beg for it.” “You'll scream it out to the world. Tell them who you belong to,” And it should’ve been a joke. A sick one. Because Dominic Cantrell wasn’t someone girls like me belonged to. He was the billionaire’s heir with a reputation that could ruin cities and rebuild them. I was a mere cleaner with a brother in debt. But when a series of mistakes; one fight, one night, one kiss; pulls us into a contract that binds me to him for 365 days, survival becomes something I have to earn… under him. The devil thinks I’m a pawn. He thinks he can own me, bend me, break me. He’s so wrong. Because I'm not one of his bimbos. I'm his Kryptonite. And one day? I’ll make the devil kneel. WARNING: Contains high R-rated explicit scenes.

I'm the heiress of the elite Graham family, and yet my life is like hell. After all, the rolls of fat keep clinging to my body. No matter how hard I try, I can never get rid of them. Even if I don't eat for the entire day, my weight still rises exponentially. When I'm on the verge of dying from organ failure, I see my parents showing up with the adopted daughter, Freya Graham, in front of my sick bed. Freya covers her nose while gazing at me with a mixture of smugness and disgust in her eyes. "Thank you so much for taking the brunt of the misfortune for me, Dakota! Otherwise, I'll be the one plagued by the fat! "Then again, you've already had it good. You've lived a lavish life for many years, after all. This lifestyle is something that you can never experience for the rest of your life!" I widen my eyes in shock. But it's because of my overwhelming emotions that I can't breathe at all. In the end, I die tragically with hatred in my eyes. It turns out I'm just the fake heiress who the Grahams have adopted. My purpose is to shoulder the misfortune that's meant for Freya this whole time! She gorges on food every day, only for all of her fat to accumulate on my body instead! When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the first day when I start putting on weight like mad. In this lifetime, since Freya doesn't want the body fat this badly, she might as well live her life as a living skeleton!

I've been married to the prince of the underworld for ten years and have endured countless life-or-death situations by his side. My hands, once trained to play the piano, are covered in calluses from holding guns and stained with blood. But at 28, my husband ends up falling for a young woman from the slums. She's as delicate and pure as a chamomile. She's his well-kept little secret—until I run into them at the woman's prenatal appointment one day. I storm up to him, demanding an explanation, only for him to nonchalantly hand me divorce papers. "Sonia is a devout follower of the church and can't have a child before marriage. I must make an honest woman out of her. Sign these, and you'll get 40% of the company's shares." I refuse to do as told, so he corners me. In the end, he has my crippled younger brother tied up and forced under a hydraulic compression machine. "Sign the papers, Maeve, or watch your brother become a human mince pie. The choice is yours." I fall on my knees and beg him to stop. As the machine turns on, my hands fly to my aching lower belly, and I scream as I lose consciousness. When I wake up again, I'm back in the hospital, in the same spot where I ran into my husband and his mistress at her prenatal appointment. This time, I don't confront him. Overnight, I make arrangements with a sanatorium abroad, get divorced, and run away from home. Yet the moment I truly disappear, my husband loses his mind.

Cara Wylder is the last female in the prestigious Wylder lineage, a family blessed with a rare and powerful she-wolf known as the Golden Luna. This ancient blessing grants her lineage immense power, as any Alpha bonded to her is destined to rule with unmatched strength. However, Cara’s legacy is threatened by a secret—she cannot shift into her wolf form. As rumors of her wolflessness begin to spread, her father, Alpha Roy Wylder, offers her hand in marriage to Darius Wrent, the powerful Lycan King, in an effort to preserve her reputation and the family's standing. On their wedding day, Darius, suspicious of her lack of a wolf’s presence, demands that Cara shift in front of the gathered wolves. When she fails to do so, he publicly rejects her, leaving her disgraced and humiliated. As the other powerful Alphas look on, uninterested in a wolfless bride, Darius mockingly asks if any would dare take her hand. To everyone’s surprise, Lucien Valen, a weakened Alpha who lost most of his power after the death of his fated mate, steps forward to claim her. Lucien, once a contender for Alpha King, has been ridiculed for years, holding onto his title solely due to the loyalty of his people. Ignoring the scorn of the other Alphas, Lucien marries Cara and takes her to his castle. Though she expects a life of shame, Cara soon discovers that Lucien is not cruel, neither is he weak Alpha the others believe him to be. His power remains but is locked under the grief from the loss that haunts him and his inability to enact revenge even after all this years. As they get closer, unsettling truths about Lucien's past and the mastermind behind the fall of the once legendary Alpha is exposed.

On the day of the wedding, Galen Shaw forces me to crack walnuts with my bare hands for his so-called female buddy. My expression goes cold, and I refuse outright. "My hands are for holding a scalpel, not cracking walnuts for her!" He only chuckles and orders someone to hold me down. Then, he glues the walnuts to my palms himself. One by one, he slams them against the ground. "You cheated while studying medicine. Now that you've married me, forget about ever being a doctor again!" I grit my teeth through the pain. My fingers are aching, but I try to explain. "I went abroad to study medicine for you!" His so-called female buddy sneers in a shrill voice. "All that talk about the Shaw family's hereditary disease is nonsense! Galen has been perfectly healthy for over 20 years. Don't tell me you just want another excuse to cozy up with your precious senior?" The moment those words leave her lips, the faint thought of having someone bandage my hand disappears. A shadow crosses Galen's face. "Looks like you haven't learned your lesson!" He throws me into the basement and locks me there for three days. By the time I crawl out, my hands are completely ruined. Later, when Galen's hereditary disease finally surfaces, the doctor tries to comfort him. "This disease may be terminal, but there is still a way. Dr. Robinson has just returned from overseas. She's the only one in the world who can perform this surgery. "I hear that she's your wife."

Once, I begged you to love me, now, I’m the one holding the gun. “Your last words?” I whispered. He smiled like we were still lovers. “Till we meet again.” The next second, he brought out his gun and fired. And suddenly, I wasn’t sure who was hunting.