The Lottery Ticket Book

At my eighteenth birthday celebration, my cousin gave me a half-scratched lottery ticket as a coming-of-age gift. When he realized I'd won twenty dollars, he suddenly demanded to buy the ticket from me for two hundred thousand. Something about it felt wrong, and I refused. Then he snapped. Like a man gone mad, he cursed me, wishing me dead, and in front of all the guests, shoved me off the balcony. Dozens of people watched, including my own parents, silently condoning him—joining in, shouting that I deserved to die. And then I opened my eyes… and I was back half an hour earlier. My cousin sneered, tossing the lottery ticket toward me, speaking the same familiar words.

On my birthday, Jake handed me two bucks and took me to a gas station to buy a lottery ticket. Then he dashed off, claiming he had an urgent work meeting. As I sat alone in the restaurant celebrating my birthday, I spotted my boyfriend, who claimed he had no time for me, having dinner with another woman. Without a second thought, I sent him a breakup text right then and there. Two days later, that lying jerk had the nerve to demand I return the lottery ticket. That's when I discovered it was worth $5 million. I cashed in the ticket and told him to get lost.

Now that I've been accepted into a prestigious college, my family throws a college acceptance party for me. My older cousin, Jessica Boone, gives me a gift for the occasion—a scratch-off lottery ticket with half the numbers scratched already. But when she finds out that I won 20 dollars from the lottery ticket, she offers 200 thousand dollars to buy the ticket off me. Finding it strange, I refuse her offer. Jessica goes berserk. She starts cursing me out, telling me to go to hell. She even pushes me off the high-rise building right in front of all the guests at the party. The dozens of people in attendance, including my parents, staunchly support her actions and even start remarking that I deserve to die. My eyes open once more—I've gone half an hour back in time. Once again, Jessica mockingly tosses the scratch-off lottery ticket at me and says those familiar words to me.

Mates! The one person created solely for you. The other part of you, the missing piece of your soul. They say that a mate is there to cherish and protect you. They say that nothing is stronger than the bond between mates. And they say that it’s always love at first sight… Well, let’s test that theory, shall we? Preview: Lesley’s POV His voice got deeper and more menacing with each word that left his lips. “But if you for just one second think you’re getting out of this by getting me to reject you---” He pushed me so hard against the wall, I’m sure my ribs broke! “You’re. DEAD. WRONG!!!” His enormous body was pressed against mine, trapping me between him and the wall. His hand gripped my throat – not cutting off my airways, but enough to let me know, that he was currently in control of my life. “You’re. MINE!” My heart dropped. His threatening growls were getting closer and closer until I could feel his breath on my skin. His wolf was in control. His alpha wolf… “And I’ll bend and break you before I’ll EVER let you leave! Do you understand?”

When the firmament becomes filthy with barbaric bats,And the ground begins to revolt bySputtering out appetizing red liquids and Enticingly galling skeletons.Scamper off to your secure nests, dear humans,And inhale every feeling of protection.For within the space of two heartbeats,The "sanctuary" feeling will be lost In the chaos for tranquility.

After the real son, Asher Vale, was brought back, everything in our house became tied to drawing lots. The chef of the day, who would have to cook a particular person's preferred dishes, had to be decided by drawing lots. Even our parents' kisses and hugs were chosen the same way. I always drew the short stick. The long stick, by default, belonged to Asher. He never had to do anything to receive our parents' love. Whenever I felt it was unfair and wanted to cry, Mom would scold me sharply, "I bought the lot-drawing box because I was afraid you'd feel hurt. I wanted to be fair to both of you. If you want something, decide it yourselves. Your father and I won't interfere. If you can't draw the long stick, you can only blame your bad luck." So I began practicing every day, shaking the box diligently, over and over, in hopes that one day, it would help me earn my parents' love. Unfortunately, for ten years, I never once drew the long stick. Until my birthday. Asher wanted to go to the amusement park, and Mom once again told us to decide by drawing lots. I secretly glued the two short sticks together and handed them to Mom, hoping to keep her with me. She slapped me hard across the face, screaming that I was cheating and disobedient. Then she stormed out of the house with Asher. When I fell to the ground, the short stick stabbed deep into my neck. 'I'm sorry, Mom. Next time, I'll work harder. Next time, I'll definitely draw the long stick.'

Every Christmas Eve, the heir of the Marco mafia family—Adrian Marco, must follow the family tradition: Draw a name to decide whether he’s allowed to marry me. Because I, Irene Cast, am not mafia-born. Unless he draws the slip with my name on it, he can’t take me as his wife. For four years, Adrian has drawn four times. And not once did he draw my name. I always thought he fought with his family because of me— that he was willing to risk losing his position as the Don, just to choose me. Every time he failed, he held me so tightly and whispered, “It’s okay. There’s always next year.” And I loved him so much it hurt. Hurt enough that I was willing to wait, year after year. This year, I told myself: If he still doesn’t draw my name… I’ll secretly switch the result. I sneaked to the door of Adrian’s study, and heard his younger brother ask: “Don… every year you do draw Irene's name. Why do you pretend you didn’t? Is it because you still can’t let Sera go?” But he simply said, in a flat voice, “Sera needs me for something urgent. Do what you always do: swap Irene’s name for a blank one.” He walked out without looking back. Instead of swapping, he tossed the blank slip into the trash, left the one with my name on the table, and hurried after Adrian. I went inside, picked up the blank slip from the trash, and replaced the one with my name. Watching my own name fall into the garbage. Adrian…I don’t want to wait and marry you anymore. I’ll grant you your choice.

Her sixteenth birthday became her worst nightmare. The instant the clock struck twelve, all hell let loose and her life flipped into jeopardy. She was to lose her virginity that same day or welcome death with full arms. The school's rebel, Jordan Hill, doesn't believe in love, he thinks all romcoms are cringe and so are his parents whom he couldn't find even more pathetic when they brought fought a ridiculous offer onto his plate. Turns out it was a lottery, after all, a chance to take the prime Minister's daughter virginity is an opportunity that comes in a lifetime. But why is it that after that one boring night, his soul never departed from her? Wanting no more than to avoid Jordan like a total plague, she succeeded but only for a year. She unfortunately caught his attention again and this time, Jordan is sure to make the rest of her school years miserable than it already was. She refuses to leave, he refuses to back down.

After winning the lottery to be Zavier Cross's wife for 30 days, Raini gets herself involved with the rich and famous Billionaire, Zavier Cross. Having lived a boring life for so long, the last thing she would have ever suspected was her husband to be a Werewolf. Zavier Cross is not ready to lose his mate just yet. He makes a decision to keep the secret of who he really is from Raini for as long as he can and pretends to be 'human'. However, with death threats for Raini on the line and a bouquet of wild dandelions in exchange for her head, that little quest proves to not only be impossible, but extremely deadly.

After I won a total of one million dollars from the lottery, I planned to spend four hundred thousand dollars paying off my wife Jocelyn's debts, then buy our son, Sean, the sports models and Lego set he had always wanted. But after waiting and waiting, the only thing I got was a call from my son. "Dad, there's an event at the kindergarten today, so go eat by yourself. Mommy and I will miss you!" I said nothing. Because just half a minute earlier, a screen of bullet comments had suddenly appeared in front of my eyes. "The supporting male lead is just so sad. He's working three jobs to pay off the female lead's debts, and even his stomach is bleeding due to pure exhaustion. Meanwhile, the female lead is out buying the male lead a gold watch!" "But if the supporting male lead doesn't work himself to death, how are the male lead and female lead supposed to end up together?" At first, I did not believe those comments. But just then, my phone buzzed, and a credit card charge alert came in. My stomach dropped. I never would have thought the wife who always seemed to love me so deeply and the son I had worked so hard to raise would lie to me like this. In that case, my ten million lottery winnings had nothing to do with them anymore.