The Measure

WARNING: The female lead is not a weak, spineless doormat. She’s bold, funny, slightly fearless and witty as hell. Her husband is an absolute fool and her ex-fiancé is a full fledged red flag who is completely obsessed with her. Thanks for reading!! *** At the age of 18, Amani’s fiancé looked her in the eyes and called her “the trash.” On top of that, he proceeded to call off their engagement because he found a more beautiful and glamorous woman. Heartbroken and shattered, she gets married to Henry Wilson a few years later and he turns out to be an abuser and a cheat. Their son is diagnosed with stage four cancer and while he breathes his last on his deathbed, Henry is busy frolicking around town with his new secretary. Angry beyond measure, she files for divorce. Amani’s plan after divorce is to remain totally man-free for the rest of her life, but that plan turns to dust when the man who shattered her heart at 18 storms back into her life like a violent earthquake. Bhyron Macaulay is his name – New York’s most enigmatic billionaire bachelor, gorgeous as a demon and every woman’s dream man. One thing about him? He hates debtors. And Amani’s late parents owe him the sum of twenty million dollars. Bhyron has only one plan — to make sure Amani becomes his wife whether by consent or by force, and he plans to use that debt as leverage. When dark, haunting secrets about their pasts start to fly and Amani begins to feel a burning attraction for a man she once swore she hates, who will fall first? The heartless billionaire or the woman he once abandoned…?

Being the best is a requirement for me. When it comes to this, I am the best. Unlike others, I can move quickly. As for me, I'm quite robust. I have a high IQ. Many professional teams are interested in signing me because I am the starting goalkeeper for my high school's soccer squad. My teammates will follow my every order as long as I am captain. Girls urge me to add them to my list of s*x partners. To avoid my father's anger, I just need to make it to the professional league and play for the best team in the world. I am Williams Phanuel, and I have made sure that everything in existence is centered on me. I've got my eye on the new girl in class; it'll only be a matter of time until she succumbs to my charms. This one is more obstinate than others; she won't even give me her name. She has a sharp mind, too. Perhaps too witty for his own good. I simply cannot admit her. No one will get past me. Despite my lack of concern, I must admit that she is distracting me from my objective. Your father will not approve of that. Do I need to reiterate how much I adore the works of William Shakespeare? I'm aware of that. To put it simply, I am a paradox in human form. There are "some born great," "some who make great," and "those who have greatness thrust upon them," as Shakespeare put it. I managed to acquire all three! No one can ever hope to measure up to that.

"Know your place." "I only married you out of pity, don't try to cross your boundary." "Let me take the credit for this, madam. You're the wife of the heir; you don't need these small scraps." The hurtful words, neglect, and humiliation were everything Ava McQueen was used to, but who told her to be in love with this man? 25-year-old Ava McQueen only wanted one thing: To get back her husband's love and be worthy to stand by his side, but what she got instead was his cold back and the ridicule from his family. Ethan McQueen, the charismatic heir of the McQueen Empire, had only married her to look good in front of his grandfather, the aging patriarch of the McQueens, Kenneth, but his heart was solely for his childhood friend and first love, Victoria Blackwood... or so he thought. Abandoned and trapped in a loveless marriage as a replacement for a woman she'd never measure up to, mistreated by her husband and his family, belittled at work, she presses on, steadfast in her love... until she lost the one thing she'd gained from her love... her baby. Ava seeks a divorce and, determined to forget Ethan completely, she leaves, and suddenly, Ethan sees she's not who he thought she was. Because the woman who was trampled and thought to be a helpless orphan golddigger was actually a billionaire heiress! Determined to topple his empire, as hidden truths and dangers surface, Ethan realizes he might have lost a gem while hoarding stones, and she might be the key to his sanity. But will Ava help him find the solace he craves? Or will she tear everything down and let him be swallowed by the darkness he once trapped her in?

He looks at me like he already knows the truth I’ve spent a lifetime hiding. Ethan Vance—lawman, predator, believer in a system I learned to outthink before I could drink wine. His eyes don’t burn with hate. They study, measure, almost… understand. They call him incorruptible. Maybe he is. But I’ve seen incorruptible men fall, not to money or power, but to fascination. The kind that crawls under your skin and makes you wonder if the person chasing you might be the only one who truly sees you. He hunts me by the book. I survive by rewriting it. But somewhere between the pursuit and the silence, between his questions and my lies, the line blurred. And now, I can’t decide which is more dangerous, losing to him, or wanting him to catch me. --- He isn’t what I expected. Luca Vitale walks into every room like he owns it, and maybe he does. Calm. Calculated. Dangerous in ways that don’t show up on a rap sheet. He should be just another target, another name I take down and file away. But there’s something about the way he looks at me. Like he already knows I’m not as untouchable as I pretend to be. I tell myself it’s strategy, curiosity, control. It’s not. It’s a problem. Because every time I think I’m closing in, I realise he’s already two steps ahead—and for the first time in my career, I’m not sure if I’m hunting him, or if he’s letting me try.

Yana meets my eyes then, and I see a passionate light in her eyes that I haven’t seen before. Slowly, she takes my hands and puts them on her shoulders. My palms graze her skin, sending shockwaves of pleasure through every cell of my body. “What are you doing?” I ask in a low voice. “Making sure it’s real.” She meets my eyes, letting my hands roam to her arms and to her waist. “I don’t repel you, like you said. It’s meant to be. And for that I need you to touch me.” The heat between us is getting more and more intense. She puts her hands on top of mine and let my touch wander to her hips. I trace her hip bones with my thumbs, watching as the light in her eyes dim into something more mature. Darker and more primitive. Lust. Desire. “Does it feel like I’m repelling you?” she asks. “No.” I pull her closer to me. “It feels like you’re inviting me, telling me to make you mine.” *** Desperate times call for desperate measures. And a desperate measure is what Yana Allard is seeking to save her small jewelry business. When she gets a chance to get an audience with one of the biggest holdings companies in Los Angeles, she grabs it by the neck and refuses to let go. Only to end up at the mercy of the cruel bachelor CEO, Mikhail Sartori, who has an offer she couldn't resist. But what happens if she discovers that he's not just the leader of an empire, but a King to a race of Lycans? And what happens when he finds out that she can command and control his destructive, monstrous side aimed to harm humans like her?

1000 years ago, Tyrant Alpha Orion fought a war of blood and death against his cunning rival Valentin Volkov - and became the strongest earning name, fame, lands, Kingdoms and titles—but he lost the most important thing in his life: his beloved fated mate, Stella Glazewski. With her dying breath, Stella extracts a promise from her love, Alpha Orion: that he will give up his ambition for blood and war and instead focus on nurturing their children and their pack's legacy. Devastated beyond measure, Orion raises their children while drowning in regret, obsessively mourning his beloved mate, Stella, until his final day, pleading with the Moon Goddess for one more chance to love her properly in his next life—as an equal, cherished and respected. 1000 years later….. In modern-day New York City, Alpha Orion is granted a second chance at love as he is reincarnated in his same Lockwood pack as Alpha Liam’s son. This time, he is a well-balanced, diplomatic Alpha—contrasting sharply with his past life as an absolute Tyrant. In this life, he has one goal: to love and cherish Stella and fulfill his previous life’s desire. He will stop at nothing to ensure her safety and happiness. Meanwhile, Stella is reincarnated in her Glaze pack once again, this time is not a mere damsel in distress. She is reincarnated as a curious, talkative, and intelligent seer with the gift of seeing the past, present, and future—unlike her previous life, where she was merely a polite maiden who followed others' orders. When these two reincarnated lovers try to join again, they learn that their rival from the past, Alpha Valentin Volkov, has been reincarnated as well. Stella and Orion as a power couple must navigate the challenges of their past to bring peace to their present lives.