The Second Time Around Novel Novels & Stories

I, Xavier Locke, had married the same woman, Melanie Slater, seven times. But for the sake of her first love, Leonard Blueman, she divorced me seven times. The first time we got married, she told me, "I'll only love you for the rest of my life." But every time Leonard came back to the country, she sang a different tune. "Can't you be more sensible? How can you bear to stand by and let Lenny be called a homewrecker who snatches a married woman from her husband?" The first time we divorced, I cut my wrists to make her stay. I was taken to the hospital in an ambulance, but she never showed up even once to see me. The third time we divorced, I humbled myself and applied to be her assistant at her company. I did that just so I could see her a little more. By the sixth divorce, I had learned to quietly pack my things and move out of the home we shared. My hysteria, my repeated backing down, and my tolerant compromises brought me nothing—just Melanie repeatedly divorcing and remarrying me. Time and time again, she pulled the same trick. With history repeating itself, I decided enough was enough. After hearing that Leonard was coming back again, this time, I handed her the divorce papers myself. As always, she set a date for our next remarriage. But what she didn't know… was that I was leaving for good this time.

Willow was a strong female wolf with issues. She has recently found out that her boyfriend was cheating on her with her evil halfsister. He tried to explain, but Willow couldn't and wouldn't hear it. Her father ended up cheating on her mother with his mate, her now stepmother, and forced her mother to leave the pack never to return. Willow was giving up. She was giving up on finding her true mate, and she was giving up having a happy, healthy father and daughter relationship because her dad, who was the alpha of her wolf pack, always took her halfsisters side. Then, one day, fate changed. The lycan pack came to visit, and the Lycan beta informed her father that the Lycan king Adien was hosting a celebration. He was looking for a Luna and demanded that a few females from each pack attend. Willow was forced to pack her things and head to the ruling Lycan pack. A pack ruled by the dangerous, deadly, and cruel Lycan Alpha. Willow has heard whispers about the Lycan king, and all were bad. His mate died years ago, and when he was at his weakest point, some members of the ruling family tried to kill him. Those two events have left the Lycan King cold and ruthless.

The day I announced I was quitting writing, the entire internet celebrated. Everyone except my girlfriend's rumored boyfriend, the famous mystery author, Bryan Vega. In a short video, he looked genuinely regretful. "This is all a misunderstanding. I’ve always admired Kobi’s work, and I hope he’ll come back for the sake of his readers." I turned off my phone and ignored him completely. In my previous life, the web novel I wrote was identical to the mystery novel he published. People online called me a plagiarist and wished death on my whole family. I tried to defend myself, posting my drafts, outlines, and timestamps. Yet, it didn't matter. The last edit timestamp on his document was ten minutes earlier than mine. Just those ten minutes destroyed me. The messages never stopped. Strangers flooded my inbox with insults. Some even showed up at my house and threw paint on the walls. Years of nonstop harassment dragged me into depression. My parents tried to clear my name, but obsessed fans hunted them down and murdered them using methods copied straight from his novel. In the end, on the very day his book won a major award, I sealed my windows and burned charcoal, ending my life. And then, I opened my eyes again. I had returned to the day my new book was supposed to be released.

When my husband Joshua dragged his student Linda Moore into our apartment, I didn't even blink—I gave up the bed. Last time, it'd been pouring when he showed up with her in the middle of the night. Told me to crash on the floor with my daughter Mia and gave Linda the bed like it was nothing. I lost it. Fought with him, snapped at her. She bolted, slipped into a ditch, and supposedly drowned. Joshua said nothing. Then, one night, with the storm going wild outside, he pried open a manhole and dumped me and Mia in like trash. "Linda's my mentor's daughter. She's dead—how am I supposed to face him? You two can apologize yourselves." We didn't even get to scream before that freezing, disgusting water swallowed us whole. Turns out, Linda faked the whole thing. Just a twisted joke to punish me. Joshua moved her in right after, like nothing happened. Now, thunder cracked again as the door opened—and there he was, Linda right behind him.

Tania got separated from her parents when she was just a little baby, no one knew why she was left in front of the pack, but they all assumed it was because she was a low born. She was discriminated and bullied because of the unknown but she was able to keep up with it all only because of her friendship with the soon to be alpha, Allerick Sullivan. But these all came to an end when Allerick found out that Tiana was her mate! He quickly rejects her and gave her the disgrace of her life, it has only been a pretense after all. She had thought Allerick would be the end of all her suffering. She could pick herself up by leaving the pack while risking being tagged as a rogue or staying in the pack, while she sits in humiliation and bullying for the rest of her life. She chose the latter. But fate was on her side when she finds her second Chance mate in the Alpha who ordered her to be captured and killed. He soon took to her liking and taught her how to fight back, he started to help her find her powers, her wolf and her parent. And he finally helped her see her qualities and her worth…

Marsh: I wanted a life where I could get both lives. I was BI and I only realized it until I met the girl my parents chose for me. Afraid of losing my inheritance, I left the only person who loved me whole heartily. But now I regret every moment of it. And I can get him back. Right? Josh: I felt myself the luckiest guy in the world. I had this perfect business. My own chain of restaurants. I am independent. I am earning good and in love with a man of everyone’s dream. Until it was everything but a dream. He was never mine and I never wanted to be a dirty secret. So I left him. Will life ever give me another chance? Bolt: He was broken and I knew the moment I laid my eyes on him. He appeared to be all rude and tough but I can well read the fear and vulnerability in his eyes. He isn’t as tough as he thinks he is. And fuck me if I don’t want to replace the insecurity in his eyes with the twinkle of happiness. But will he give me any chance?

All her life, Ilyana has been rejected—seven times by seven mates who looked her in the eye, called her worthless, and cast her aside like she meant nothing. So when the eighth full moon comes, she is ready for both rejection and humiliation. Until her mate turns out to be the deadly and untouchable Alpha King—Kael Stormveil. And instead of rejecting her… he accepts her. Taken to his kingdom, Ilyana thinks her suffering is over until she realizes that being chosen by the King might not be what she thinks. Now trapped between a king that wants every part of her body but not her soul, a deadly secret that could change everything between them and enemies that would tear them apart. Ilyana must decide, Will she finally be chosen? Or will she remain the pathetic omega everyone knows her to be? Find out.

A young widow is given one more chance at life when her life is reversed back in time using a time travel machine that had been her late husband's father's life's work, way before she was forced into an arranged marriage. But what does the new trip in time hold for her, especially when she meets her then husband in a new setting, and sees him in a different light, bearing in mind that he is already dead? And how fast is a whirlwind romance when she has to go back to her place in time to an empty bed? "You don't...look like someone who has a long time to live." I said to him, watching as his gaze became a little sad. "I guess when you live right, you don't need to."

I was born just one minute after Tiara, but the world treated that one minute as if it lasted a lifetime. She was the star. I was the shadow. She was flawless. I was the afterthought. She was loved. I was forgotten. Even by Reagan de Russo, heir to the wealthiest family in the country and the man I had secretly loved for the past ten years. But to him, there was only Tiara. And when he proposed to her, I knew my quiet little dream had finally died. Until that day came. The day Tiara left him at the altar. The day the world stopped turning for just a second. The day the man who had never even glanced my way, turned to me and asked me to take her place. I knew what I was. An escape. A damage control. A backup plan. And I... I was too tired of being strong. So I said yes. We married. Without love. Without a future. Just a one-year contract and a life of make-believe in front of flashing cameras and watching eyes. But the longer I stayed by his side, the harder it became to tell what was real and what was just part of the performance. Because for the first time... Reagan saw me. But can love truly grow from the ruins of lies, old wounds, and the shadow of a woman who’s always been his first choice? Or will I always be… only the second best?

The last thing she saw as her sight got blurry, was the face of her husband with his arms around a strange woman. His gaze held disgust and so much hatred that she wondered how she never noticed it. "You brought this upon yourself. I don't ever want to see you again." She thought she died, but then she woke up. A stranger beside her told her. "I will protect you." But does she want his protection? Especially since the said man promises to give her a life again if she will marry him. Can she turn her life around with his offer, or is she just bound for loneliness?