The Elevator By William Sleator Novels & Stories

Alessia Romano believed in loyalty, love, and family—until the night they destroyed her. Drugged by the two people she trusted most—her boyfriend and her own sister—Alessia wakes up in the middle of a scandal designed to ruin her reputation forever. The world now sees her as a traitor, a disgrace, a woman who betrayed the man she loved. But they made one fatal mistake. They forgot about Don Marcello De Luca. Cold, powerful, and feared across the underworld, the Mafia King has spent his life controlling everything around him. Yet the moment he sees Alessia broken and betrayed, something dark awakens inside him—something dangerously possessive. To protect her from the scandal and punish those who tried to destroy her, Marcello offers a solution no one expected. A marriage contract. Now bound to the most dangerous man in the city, Alessia enters a world of power, secrets, and ruthless enemies. But the deeper she is pulled into Marcello’s empire, the more she realizes that his protection comes with a terrifying truth. The Mafia King doesn’t just want to protect her. He wants to claim her. And once Marcello De Luca decides something belongs to him… He never lets it go.

Aria has never known love—not from her cold family, nor from the pack that shuns her. When the Moon Goddess reveals her mate to be the Alpha’s son, Aria’s heart swells with hope. But her joy is short-lived when he cruelly rejects her in front of everyone, shattering her fragile dreams. That same night, chaos descends upon the pack as Alpha Ronan, the ruthless Rogue King launches a brutal attack. In the midst of the bloodshed, he claims Aria as his mate, marking her and dragging her away to his pack. Torn between fear and an unshakable bond, Aria is thrust into a world of danger and secrets. As she glimpses the man beneath the Alpha Ronan’s icy exterior, she begins to wonder: can she melt his heart of stone, or will falling for him lead to her ultimate ruin? In a tale of betrayal, passion, and redemption, Aria must decide if love is worth risking everything—even her soul.

SYNOPSIS Aurora Sinclair is a broken Omega who's never shifted until her fated mate, the ruthless Alpha Damon Blackwood, publicly rejects her at the Mate Revelation Ball, destroying her in front of hundreds. But rejection awakens something ancient inside her. She's not just an Omega. She's the lost Lycan Princess with a bloodline powerful enough to shake the werewolf world. And she doesn't have one mate, she has two. When the mysterious Lycan King Kai Thorne claims her, Aurora must choose: accept the Alpha who shattered her heart, embrace the King who saved her, or forge her own destiny as the Silver Queen who answers to no one. One rejection. Two fated mates. A queen's rise from the ashes.

"If you are not going to seduce me, I will seduce you. I'm officially going to chase you and make you my girlfriend, Charity," I was stunned that those words came from Chase "Pretend to be my girlfriend, and I promise to pay you any amount you want. I will protect you from being bullied by those wretched students," The hot Doctor offered to protect me. A part of my life is my classmate who would do anything to see me in pain which was not limited to bullying me, and on the other part is the hot doctor who would do anything to protect me from being bullied. Isn't it crazy how my bully suddenly turned around and wanted to be my lover? Well, I guess this world is full of crazy things but that was the last thing I ever expected from my bully, Chase Denver, the popular rich kid in school and the leader of the notorious toxic bullies in my school, the K5. Again, how was I supposed to lead two lives as a high schooler and pretending to be Doctor Mason's girlfriend? But I guess I would eventually have to choose whether to keep getting bullied or be with Mason and be protected from those toxic bullies. What should I do especially now that Chase is ready to do anything to keep me to himself?

I was married to one of the city's richest billionaires, but inside his home, I was just a ghost. Damian never once looked at me with love. Never did he touch me with kindness. He didn't see me as a woman, or even a person. I was just… a stand-in. A stand-in while he waited for someone else to come and my heart broke in silence. But the day he walked into our home with his first love, Vanessa, hand in hand it finally broke for good. I found my strength and I placed a signed divorce papers on his desk. Damian scoffed, his eyes cold. “You’ll regret this. You’ll crawl back. Women like you always do.” I thought he was right. I thought I had no one, nowhere to go, and nothing to live for. Until the black car stopped in front of me. That night, three powerful men stepped out, calling me by a name I didn’t even know was mine. Adrian Valehart, a ruthless tycoon whose eyes were as sharp as steel and silenced a room. Nathaniel Valehart, the cold, brilliant lawyer who never lost a case. And Leo Valehart, the superstar adored by millions. They told me I was, their long-lost sister, the only daughter of a billionaire family. I thought they were wrong. But when Adrian gave me shares worth billions, Nathan vowed Damian would walk away with nothing but shame. Leo wrapped his arm around me and declared to the world, “This is my sister, my one and only.” Everything changed And Damian… Damian refuses to let go. He came crawling back, begging for a second chance. “Please, give me another chance,” he said. But my three overprotective brothers wouldn't let him touch me and his pride will not die quietly.

Nothing on earth could have prepared Keira Ashford for her fated mate's betrayal on their one year anniversary. Dominic Crane didn't apologize or offer her an explanation when she found him in bed with her own step sister. He just stared at her with cold indifference and called their bond a mistake. Broken and humiliated, Keira takes matters into her hands and does the unthinkable. She severes the mate bond herself. But Dominic's cruelty didn't end there as he is upset at being rejected. He vows that no wolf in the territory would ever dare claim her as their partner as long as he remained the Alpha's heir. Her step-family mocked her weakness and spewed rumours to the pack, whisperinh of how she was now damaged goods. Everyone was forced to believe that she had failed as a mate—they were wrong. Keira has a plan for revenge. She would acquire a mate before the next three months was up, one that could stand on par with her ex mate. Who better than his father, the one wolf Dominic fears above all others. Alpha Matthias Crane, the most powerful wolf in the Pacific Northwest. Kiera starts a game of hide and seek using seduction as her only leverage. But what she doesn't expect is for Matthias to see through her and second her actions. Matthias has been watching Keira and knows exactly what she's doing. And he has plans of his own. Soon what begins as a calculated game of seduction quickly spirals into something that is remains: Who is really playing whom?

“A Luna is meant to be graceful and elegant not…” His mother sniffed, her nose up in the air, “not this.” Disdain and disgust dripped from her words. Every word felt like a blow to my heart, I kept still, waiting for Roland to come to my defense like a good mate. I sent a pleading gaze to him but all I got was an icy stare in return, but I still held faith in my heart. He sighed and his gaze softened with something that looked like self-loathing, “I'm sorry Selena, you're not just Luna material,” His gaze shifted to the person beside me, “And I'm in love with another.” There was a ringing in my ears as time slowed and my world came to a standstill, “W-what?” I choked out, dazed. Selena was the fat unwanted twin, the one her mate rejected for her prettier, slimmer sister. Once rejected, betrayed and left for dead, she almost gave up on life itself. When she stumbles into the arms of two alpha werewolves the world fears, she doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. Four years later, she returns, stronger and fiercer, a queen in her own right. The weak fat wolf is dead and in her place is someone they would never see coming. A weapon. Vengeance.

I was born the Alpha’s heir, trained to lead, destined to rule. But on the eve of my mating ceremony, I caught my fated mate—Alpha Lucas—in bed with my stepsister. When I tried to walk away, he killed me. But death wasn’t the end. The Moon Goddess gave me a second chance. Reborn a year before my death, I vowed to change my fate. To stop the betrayal. To make them pay. But nothing prepared me for him—Kai, the ruthless Lycan King. My second-chance mate. The very man who once swore to sacrifice me for power. Now, I’m caught between two enemies. One who ended my life. The other who could save it… or destroy me all over again. Love, revenge, and fate collide in a world where wolves play for blood—and queens rise from ashes.

Aurora Hills marked the genesis of it all, where she was drugged, surrender her innocence to a stranger by night, stripped of power by morning and narrowly evade death grasp. six years later, Olivia Reynolds is back, perhaps fleeing from something and she is ready to mete out karma to those who wronged her, things are exactly as planned or so she thought. Till try throw Alexander kings, a filthy rich CEO, who happens to share an uncanny resemblance with her kids, and whom she is inexplicably drawn to, then suddenly it becomes a lot harder than expected. Will it unravel disastrously or could it lead to unexpected twist of fate? Will Olivia seek out her sweet perfect retribution or get caught up in an unexpected romance with Mr. CEO?

Eleanor worked herself to the bone—three jobs a day, even selling her mother’s only heirloom—all to pay off her boyfriend Luca’s debts. Then, on their third anniversary, she caught him shopping for rings… with her best friend. Turns out, Luca isn’t the struggling artist he pretended to be. He’s the only heir to the city’s most elusive billionaire. Heartbroken and reckless, Eleanor ends up in the arms of an older, devastatingly attractive stranger—a man whose powerful presence and faint resemblance to Luca pull her in like a dangerous dream. Only after she says yes to Luca’s proposal does she discover the truth: The stranger from that night is his father.