Straight Bait

I've been mated to Alpha Damon for five years. I helped him build a business empire, but he kept delaying our marking ceremony 99 times. Right before the ceremony was supposed to happen, he told me the pack’s resources were tight. He demanded I stop the expansion of the Alpha’s manor and scrapped the nursery I’d designed for our future pups. Then he turned around and bought a thirty-million-dollar penthouse for Isabella, a new omega in our pack. When Isabella and I were in a car crash at the same time, he didn't even glance my way. He ran straight to her. He wrapped her in his Alpha scent, holding her tight. Their scents mingling was like a knife to my heart. In the pack council hall, in front of all the Elders, I looked at him with ice in my eyes. "I, Elena, reject you, Damon, as my mate." Through the gut-wrenching pain of the mate bond snapping, I sent a message to the Alpha of another pack. "I rejected him. I'll be at your Crescent Moon Pack tomorrow."

Book 1 of The Badboys' Series Shelly Anderson is an average student enduring a normal high-school life. Max Jackson is known as the most mysterious player and bad boy at school. She likes going unnoticed at school and does not like to be the talk of everyone. He is one of the popular guys and does not care about what others think. She likes her own free time, reading her books and spending it on Netflix and she prefers to be alone in a quiet space instead of feeling alone in a crowd. He is often seen hanging out with his two friends, Connor McAllister, the playboy of the school and Alex Maynard, the friendly one among these three but also a jerk to others. She is antisocial and a loser, well, nerd to others as she gets straight A's. He is a rich spoilt brat and gets whatever he wishes to have by hook or by crook. Dancing and reading books is her passion. Racing and fighting is his obsession. What happens when Max becomes her new neighbour? With them clashing again and again, will Shelly be able to cope with him? Will he be able to make her his without telling her about his dangerous secrets?

Because of a last-minute business trip, my husband missed the Thanksgiving family dinner. I spent the entire day helping out at my in-laws' place in the countryside with our five-year-old son, only to receive a complaint from the downstairs neighbor just before dinner. "Ari, could you please close your kitchen window when you're cooking? I can smell the hot sauce from all the way here. My husband has a lung condition—he can't handle it." My neighbor's words shocked me, and I immediately called my husband, who was allergic to chili peppers. "Honey, did someone break into the house? The neighbor said there was smoke coming from the kitchen." His breathing hitched for a second before he let out a casual laugh. "No break-in. My flight got canceled, so I was home alone cooking. When are you two coming back? I really miss you." I smiled and told him we'd stay a couple more days, but in the middle of the night, I packed up our son and drove straight home.

I was hired to care for a sick child. I never saw his face. Never heard his voice. Until I stepped into the house of nightmares. Ezra Kade thought the job was simple, to take care of a bedridden heir hidden away in a mansion dripping with wealth and secrets. But the moment he crosses the threshold, he realizes he’s been fed a lie. The child isn’t a child. He’s a man. A man who watches him from the shadows. A man with a past written in blood. Kieran Valen survived the unthinkable—an accident meant to erase him from existence. For two years, he’s played the part of the broken, helpless heir, a puppet in his siblings’ twisted game. But Kieran isn’t weak. He isn’t helpless. And Ezra? Ezra just walked straight into the web, into his hands. In a house ruled by deception, where the walls whisper secrets and the floors are stained with the past, Ezra must decide… run, or let himself be caught. Because Kieran doesn’t just want a caretaker. He wants devotion. Obedience. Worship. And he’ll break Ezra apart to get it.

The admissions office calls and says my daughter's admission fee has been paid, asking when I'll come to handle enrollment. I'm completely stunned. My daughter, Natalie Steward, is top of her class. She's already guaranteed a spot in the city's best high school, Dream High School, with no admission fee required. Upon questioning my husband, Arnold Lewiston, he claims the admissions office must've made a mistake. He says, "I just wanted to surprise you, so I pulled some strings with the principal to get her into the accelerated track. You should talk to the teachers and make sure we get the best homeroom teacher so I can look good." As soon as I end the call, I slam the accelerator and head straight to the admissions office. On my way there, I call Lynn Warrens, my best friend who works in the State Department of Education. "Help me check under whose name Arnold paid the admission fee for his illegitimate child. I'm going to withdraw them from the school!" I say.

One tragic accident. One life lost. One love that should never exist. Amariz solene never meant to kill Thalina, Alaric’s fiancée. Yet in a heartbeat, she becomes the object of his rage and the source of a forbidden desire neither can resist. Her mother sends her to work at a prestigious company, unaware that it belongs to the man whose life she shattered. Amari walks into her new job oblivious, unaware she’s stepping straight into Alaric's world, binding her fate to the man who despises her most. Alaric sees her arrival as fate, a chance to punish the woman who destroyed his world. But as he watches her carry her guilt quietly and face each challenge with grace,his hatred begins to crumble, finds himself drawn to the woman he should hate. Every stolen glance, every secret encounter ignites a dangerous passion that threatens to consume them both. To love each other is betrayal. To let go is heartbreak. And in the shadow of tragedy, they must decide: will their hearts be destroyed by the past, or can they risk everything for a love born from grief?

The Horror Game invaded the world. Real players entered the game, and their every move would be broadcast live. My adopted son shoved me—an eighty-eight-year-old woman—straight into a deadly dungeon to save his own skin. One of the comments in the live stream predicted: [What? They’re tossing in such an elderly woman? No way she’s gonna survive the first night!] On the first night, a frost-bitten ghost exhaled icy breath in my face. I shrugged off my thick floral coat, feeling sorry for her. “You poor thing! You must be freezing. Listen to me and bundle up quickly!” The second night, a starving ghost lunged at me with blood dripping down his chin. I sniffed the air, then found a jar of pickled cabbage. “Look at how skinny you are! Come on, let me get you something hot to eat.” On the final day, the last surviving players tied me up, desperate to steal the one ticket to escape. However, before they could touch me, every ghost in the dungeon came storming out, cleavers and rolling pins in hand. “Touch her, and you’re dead meat!”

I never imagined that my scholarship to Nocturne Academy would lead me straight to my mate. At eighteen, I was supposed to focus on my studies, carve out a future beyond the limits of my modest upbringing, and leave behind the life I once knew. But then I met Elias Grey—my enigmatic professor, the man fate has tethered me to in ways I can’t begin to fight. He's everything I shouldn’t want: older, untouchable, born into privilege, and bound by expectations that would crush a weaker man. As the heir to the Grey legacy and the son of Nocturne’s powerful dean, Elias knows what’s at stake. But how do you turn your back on something that feels inevitable? The pull between us is undeniable. But desire alone isn’t enough—not when Elias faces relentless pressure to marry Claudia Castille, the woman chosen to secure his family’s influence. Caught between obligation, longing, and fate, Elias and I must decide: How far are we willing to go to hold onto something everyone tells us we can't have?

The day I went to try on my wedding suit, a stranger stormed into the VIP fitting room and drove a knife into my gut. "Sleeping with my woman, and you dare wear a suit this expensive?" He ripped my shirt into ribbons with a wild grin and threw sulfuric acid straight at me. The knife was buried deep in my abdomen. Pain ripped through me as I collapsed. He yanked my hair, forcing my head up. "Susan Lefebvre is my wife. What the hell are you? Just some filthy side piece hiding in the shadows!" Blood dripped from my fingertips as the truth sank in. The fiancée I'd loved for seven years had been cheating on me all along. "What are you staring at?" He sneered. "Even if I kill you, no one can touch me. My wife runs this city!" Watching that arrogant face twist in triumph, I took out my phone with a trembling, blood-soaked hand and dialed my sister. "Allison," I said, my voice cold and calm. "Come pick me up at the bridal salon. And tell the Lefebvres that the engagement is off."

Isabella Cohen had better things to do than listen to her father go on and on about her getting married to the latest man who had impressed him, as if her father wasn't fucking his assistant every Thursday and Saturday. So, when she was given the choice to either marry Ethan Hawthorn (the biggest asshole on the planet with an even bigger ego), or be disowned, you better believe she packed her bags, transferred money to her secret account and took the first plane from New York to Italy. Stephan Ferrari was bored. Now you might think being head of the Italian Mafia was exciting and full of adventure, but you would be wrong. Stephan had killed all his enemies, partied for a week straight at the best clubs in Italy (which all belonged to him) and fucked women of all types, yet he will still left with an empty feeling inside. So, when he got report that the leader of the American Mafia's daughter was seen at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport, well he may have found his new Queen. And if he could ransom said queen to toy with the Cohen family, then that was an added bonus