The Ballad Of Never After Novels & Stories

After Pierce Emery and I got back together, I started "renting him out." Every time his old flame, Daphne Roach, called him away, I stopped crying and causing scenes like before. I charged by the hour instead. Ten grand an hour during the day. Twenty at night. Triple on holidays. Three months later, my account was up almost two million dollars. Pierce had promised to help me pick a dress for a banquet, but Daphne called him crying, saying she'd sliced her hand while cooking. I didn't even look up. I just held out my phone with the payment screen open. One night, I came down with a brutal fever. While Pierce was driving me to the hospital, his phone rang again. Daphne. He stared at the screen for a long second before answering. Her voice came through shaky and tearful. "Pierce, the thunder's so loud. I can't sleep. Can you come stay with me?" I quietly pulled out an umbrella and told him to let me out at the next intersection. He looked at me like he wanted to explain something, but I just smiled. "Don't forget to transfer the money." The same thing happened again on the day our daughter went in for her routine checkup. Except this time, she was the one asking him for money.

She returned with secrets that could destroy them both. He hates her. He wants her. And he’ll never forgive the only girl who still owns his heart. ***** I moaned into his mouth as Noah pressed me harder against the railing, his body solid and demanding against mine. One of his big hands slid down to grip my ass through the thin silk of my dress, squeezing possessively as he ground his hips forward. Gosh, he was rock hard. I could feel every thick inch of him. “Feel that?” he rasped against my lips. “That’s what watching you with him did to me. I’ve been hard all night thinking about dragging you somewhere dark and fucking the attitude right out of you.” My breath hitched, but I forced a smirk. “Poor baby. Jealousy looks good on you, Hale. Too bad you don’t deserve any of this.” He bit my bottom lip hard enough to make me gasp, then soothed the sting with his tongue. “You talk so much shit for someone whose nipples are hard enough to cut glass right now.” His free hand slid up my side, his thumb brushing the underside of my breast through the silk, sending heat straight between my legs. “Bet you’re soaked too. Bet if I pushed my hand between your thighs I’d find you dripping for the man you claim to hate.” “Keep dreaming,” I shot back, but my voice came out breathy and weak. My hips rolled against him anyway, chasing the friction I desperately needed.

He stole my name. Then he tried to steal my life. But he’ll never steal my heart will he?” When August Hale, a quiet literature student with a past he tries to forget, transfers to a prestigious university under a scholarship, all he wants is to stay invisible, graduate, and move on. But his plan falls apart the moment he discovers another student on campus using his exact full name. Same name. Same birthday. Same hometown. But this August Hale is wealthy, charming, and cruel and he already knows too much. At first, August thinks it’s a prank. A coincidence. Until he starts losing things His place in classes His reputation His identity The fake August Hale, whose real name is Sebastian Wolfe, is playing a dangerous game. And when he sets his sights on the real August, obsession begins to blur the line between identity theft and romantic fixation. August wants answers. Sebastian wants August. But as August begins to dig into Sebastian’s past, he unearths something much darker than he expected a twisted reason why Sebastian chose him and why he can’t let him go.

Everyone envied me — an orphan who'd become the Luna of the most powerful Alpha in the Southern Territory: Cain. For three years of our mating, he treated me like I was the center of his world. Then Serena — his childhood sweetheart — severed her bond with her former mate and came back to our pack. Cain started patrolling the territory every night. Coming home later and later. He didn't even ask me before moving Serena into our pack house. "Her ex-mate has been stalking her. She and I grew up together — how could I just stand by and let someone threaten her?" Serena spent every day in lingerie, draped over Cain. The two of them flipping through old photos, reminiscing about the time Cain got into a brawl because some guy had been hitting on her. I didn't say a word. I quietly tucked away the pregnancy test and brought Cain a bowl of "calming tonic." He drank it without hesitation. What he didn't know was that it was a witch's potion — one that could forcibly sever a mate bond. It would take effect on the next full moon. When it was done, I made a phone call. "Alpha Ethan, I'm ready to come to the Northern Territory. Come get me."

It is the third year of my marriage when the video of my bodyguard, Julian Sutherland, holding an umbrella over me in a downpour goes viral. Overnight, the internet becomes obsessed with the "Icy Protector and his Forbidden Heiress." Netizens are relentless; they dig through the archives until they unearth a ten-year-old clip. In the video, a girl was holding a pair of high-heeled shoes while sprinting through the Folander airport. My friend teased, "No way, Ms. Serina Brown. Are you really flying back home to confess to that poor man? What could you possibly see in him?" The camera shakes, capturing my youthful face. I was just a reckless 20-year-old. "I love Julian. I love everything about him." That night, after seeing the video, Julian loses his composure and bursts into my room. "I didn't know you loved me back then. I thought… I thought… God, it was never supposed to end like this." I pull my coat around me and stand rooted on the spot, remaining silent. Suddenly, a mocking laugh echoes from behind me. Someone places their hand firmly on my waist and says, "Are you trying to reminisce about your love with my wife right in front of me? Do I look dead to you?"

“Alpha…” I whispered as I got up, trying to hug his waist but he grabbed my hand immediately. “Do you want money?” He demanded coldly and I shook my head. “Don’t get any funny ideas, Freya. I told you my heart belongs to my mate.” He replied and I nodded, my shoulders slumping with disappointment. “It’s been four years…” ****************************** After 4 years of warming the Alpha’s bed, his mate returns, it didn’t take anything for the alpha to toss me aside like I was nothing and I realized loving him for 8 years was a waste and I was never going to get a chance with him. Gathering the shreds of my broken heart, I decided to walk away but just when I found my mate, the alpha returns and this time he’s determined to do everything to have me back. It’s up to me to decide whether I want the man who never loved me or if I should go for my mate but there’s one problem, I have secrets huge enough to destroy both men and everything they stand for.

On the day I was supposed to try on wedding dresses with Charles Jaspier, the mafia leader I had loved for seven years, I walked into the boutique carrying a pregnancy test report—my heart full of hope. Instead, I overheard a conversation that shattered everything. "Registering the marriage with Ellis Olsen was a temporary measure," he said calmly to his closest confidant. "My brother died in a shootout. She's carrying the Jaspier family's only heir. Without a legal status, neither she nor the child would survive in this family." "Everyone would bully them." A cigar rested between his fingers. His voice was cold, edged with resignation. "Zoey Qandor can't have a title—but I can give her everything else. My love. My money. This must never reach her ears." I clenched the pregnancy report, my heart turning to ash. With my best friend's help, I created a new identity—one that ensured Charles would never find me again—and disappeared from his world. If he could not give me and my child a complete family, then this love—built on responsibility and lies—was better cut cleanly, once and for all.

In my last international car racing championship, the front tire of my car suddenly burst, causing the car to roll over. The cars behind me collided with me one by one. After 99 times, I was unrecognizable from the impacts. Just as I reached out to my boyfriend for help by instinct, he kicked me away, my body covered in blood and flesh. “Don't dirty my newly tailored clothes today.” He turned around, picked up the champion who had just crossed the finish line, and spun her around, smiling and saying: “Sharon, only the championship trophy is worthy of you. I will remove all obstacles for you.” Blood stained my entire body. Watching the two of them embrace as the sun set, I felt numb and desperate. What he didn't know was that among these red stains was the child who had just come into this world. At that moment, I gave up on continuing to love him.

Emma Harrington never dreamed of stealing her twin sister’s groom. But when Sophia runs away hours before the wedding, Emma is forced to walk down the aisle in her place to save her family from ruin. Alexander Voss, the ruthless billionaire CEO, only agreed to the marriage for a multi-billion-dollar merger. On their wedding night, he discovers he has married the wrong sister. Bound by unbreakable contracts and family pressure, Alexander cannot send Emma away without destroying everything he built. Trapped in a marriage he never wanted, Alexander’s cold fury slowly turns into burning obsession as Emma’s kindness, intelligence, and quiet strength melt the ice around his heart. What began as the wrong bride becomes the only woman he cannot live without.

In my previous life, my husband suffered a sudden brain hemorrhage and died instantly in his office. When I arrived at the hospital, all that awaited me was his lifeless body. Overwhelmed with grief, I coughed up blood and was bedridden ever since. On my deathbed, I happened to see a news report—my husband had won a $15 million lottery. Standing beside him at the prize ceremony was none other than my best friend. The shock killed me on the spot. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day my husband had just died.