Ugly Artinya

Over five years I’ve lived a bittersweet lie as David Hargrove’s kept woman, Maria Bell. David’s shown no interest in me beyond what he wants. Love’s a bitter pill to love when it's not returned. I'm bought and paid for. Kept in a gilded cage. David suspects nothing of the secrets I hold. Tonight, David announced he’s marrying my stepsister. He doesn’t know. The level of betrayal I’ve experienced is unbelievable. Everything becomes complicated as the lies surface. Leaving and facing it alone are my only choices. I’m living in fear as I pick up pieces of a life, I believed lost. Blackmail, sabotage, and intrigue dog my steps. I don’t know who I can trust or how to win. I won’t surrender without a fight this time. They don’t recognize me. They won’t see me coming. My name is David Hargrove, and someone is trying to destroy my family. I must marry my rival’s daughter. His stepdaughter signed the contract. Before we learned, she couldn’t deliver the Belgrave empire to me. She can help me secure my family’s empire as my fiancée. I need the ugly biological daughter, Maria Belgrave, who’s hiding. Things get confusing. Maria Belgrave sent two women to represent her. One is my Maria. My missing woman. The betrayal and conflict of interest still stand. I will say when our contract has ended. How can I work with her? I know nothing about her. She owes me answers and loyalty. Perhaps I’ll use this to my advantage. When David learns of Maria’s past life. Will he help her? Or use her and take over the business himself? It starts with an engagement and the death of a patriarch.

BOOK 1 & 2 BOOK 1: A WHOLE NEW WORLD ESSENCE I would’ve died for them. My husband. My son. But when I was drowning, they didn’t even blink. I gave them everything—my heart, my time, my life. And still, I wasn’t enough. “Will you be my mommy?” my son asked his father’s mistress right in front of me. “Don’t be so selfish, Essence,” my husband said. “You’re lucky anyone married you at all.” They broke me. But I didn’t stay broken. I walked away with just a vow to build something for myself. What I didn’t expect? Lucian Knight. The billionaire bachelor every woman wanted... on his knees, whispering, “Please marry me, Essence. I’ve waited for you my whole life.” I left betrayal behind. But I never knew love could feel this good... or this sinfully sweet. BOOK 2: ENEMIES TO SOULMATES Daniel Knight lives for two things — running his empire and watching Sexy Red burn up the stage. The mysterious, red-haired dancer with a body made for sin is all he wants… and all he can’t have. The last thing he expects? His mother shoving him into an arranged marriage with Kelly Thompson… the plain, boring, mole-faced “ugly duckling” he insulted without a second thought. He hates her. She hates him more. “Marry you? Not in this lifetime,” he sneers. “Right back at you,” she fires back. But when the wedding ring is on, Danny still can’t get Sexy Red out of his head... until one night, he rips off her disguise and realizes the woman he’s been craving is the wife he swore to make miserable. Now, every touch feels like a lie. And the man who swore to ruin her… can’t stop trying to claim her.

“Stealing from me wasn't the problem. Leaving before I could wake up wasn't what almost drove me insane,” he whispered, kissing my neck while thrusting slowly inside me. “Then what did?” I moaned out, loving every bit of his firm, slow thrusts. “Why did you search for me so hard?” “Because I missed you so much, baby. After that night, I lost my mind. All I could think of was seeing you again, holding you again, making love to you again. Kissing you….” “Stop. Don't tell me such things,” I said between tears and moans. “Don't make me think you're in love with me.” “But I am. I am in love with you, Lacy.” he declared, staring deeply into my eyes. I froze. He can't mean that. He doesn't mean that. He's my best friend's father. And he's a billionaire, a man way out of my league. He can't and shouldn't be in love with me. I'm a pack of ugly and dirty secrets. I've got demons haunting my life every day. He's only gonna get caught up in my mess. They're gonna haunt him too. They'll ruin his reputation. They'll ruin him entirely. He shouldn't be in love with me. And I shouldn't be either. But how can I keep my heart from falling for the one man that's proven again and again that he doesn't wanna let me go? That he's willing to burn the world for me? How can I not fall for a man who comes back every time I push him away? How do I stay away from a man like CRISTIAN ANDERSON?

"Please," he said, and his voice had gone rough, desperate. "Let me see you. Let me see your face." My hand came up and covered his where it rested on my mask. "Okay," I whispered. He pulled the mask off slowly, carefully, and I blinked as my eyes adjusted to seeing without the green tint. His hand was still between my legs, fingers still moving in slow circles that made my breath come in short gasps, but he'd gone very still otherwise. I looked up at him, at the green mask still covering his face. "I want to see you too." He didn't move or speak anymore. Something cold started to spread through my chest, cutting through the heat he'd built there. "What?" I asked. "Am I too ugly to be your mate?" His hand jerked away from me like I'd burned him. The loss of contact made me want to cry out, made my body ache with sudden emptiness. He took a step back, then another, and I could see his hands curling into fists at his sides. His whole body was shaking. "What the fuck," he said, and his voice had gone flat and cold. ***** Kaireen was disowned by her parents just because she rejected a marriage proposal, she stayed the night with her friend, got into an impromptu game that changed her fate, she met her mate, the one thing she never knew she could have but it was her nightmare. Her Bully and her brother who would stop at nothing to make life hell for her, to worsen it all, he needed to mark her to survive in an Island of Cruel Lycans. How did they get there? How will her parents and pack react knowing she was mated to the most cruel Alpha brother.

My entire family could hear my thoughts. In my previous life, I was switched at birth with Victoria Harrington. I was reunited with my family 18 years later. It was the early 1920s, when owning a bicycle or a radio was still rare for most families. I had always dreamed of having one of those precious things. However, after I came home, Victoria would constantly brag right in front of me. "Mom told me that I'm the only one who deserves this fancy watch," she said with a sweet smile. "And look at this gorgeous bicycle Dad got me for my birthday! Oh, and when I mentioned wanting a radio, Daniel bought it for me immediately." Then came the real knife twist. "I know you're their biological daughter, Bernice, but let's be honest. When it comes to love, I'm their real daughter. Daniel definitely prefers me as his little sister too." Her words ate at me. I could not stop the bitter thoughts that flooded my mind about my parents and brother. The problem was that my family could hear every single one of those thoughts. Slowly, they began to resent me. Eventually, they threw me out into the cold, and I died alone in the winter streets while Victoria lived happily within the warmth of their love. When I opened my eyes again, I realized that I had been reborn. As I watched Victoria putting on her usual show, my thoughts took a delicious turn. 'Victoria thinks that Mom is such a cheapskate for only buying her a cheap watch instead of something expensive. She even calls Dad stingy behind his back because he didn't get her a pricier bicycle.' 'And she constantly complains about how ugly and crude Daniel is, saying that he embarrasses her. I wonder if I should share these thoughts with my family?'

Slamming her against the wall, he dug Hus fingers into hr shoulders, eliciting a pain in her, which caused her to welp. His eyes caging her to his, shutting her sexy mouth up, as he looked into hee eyes. "Hear me and hear me now, because I won't have to repeat my words the next time. You are not my mate, you don't deem to be my mate, I don't want someone like you as my mate, because, you are my slave, you are human, you are skinny, you are ugly, damn, you are short, fucking short, you are WEAK, you are fragile, you don't deem to be my Luna, because I don't want someone like you, never, would I want someone like you, especially not my pet" Alexia Ortega was just a normal girl growing up, all she wanted was a normal life, she grew up with her parents, they lived in the village land of Meduza, they were humans, living peacefully in human lands, not until they were attacked by the Granullas, they took her for slavery and afterwards sold her to her mate, the alpha king. Jaxon Cruz, the alpha king, he have been living a thousand years, hoping for his mate to free him from his misery, he believed he had been the cause of his mate's death, who had continued to torment him. He still wanted his mate, hoping one day, his mate would come back to him, even though she was dead. He was the alpha king, and what is a king without a mate, especially one that have a history of dead mate. After five hundred and twenty nine years, he found a mate. Now how were they able to overcome the forces of the unknown enemies, who had killed his former mate.

My husband slept with my best friend, then hit me with divorce papers all within a day. So I ended up in bed with his father–didn't realise it at first, but now his dad's handed me a contract: be his consort and I get my revenge. Who am I to turn down fate? Dahlia Dalmante has spent five years fading into the background of her own marriage–always loyal, always silent, hiding the filthy fantasies she only ever had about her husband. None of them mattered. By the time she discovers him in bed with her best friend, she realises she was never more than a place holder to a man that never wanted her. That night, Dahlia ends up in a dark bar and lets herself do the one thing she swore she never would: leave with a stranger. But the night doesn't end in regret. The stranger–commanding and older–pushes her to the edge, and she lets go of everything she thought she knew about her body. By sunrise, everything is different. Her one wild night? Turns out he's Dominic Dalmante–her husband's father. The real power behind the Dalmante empire. When Dominic steps in to save her from ruin, Dahlia finds herself locked in a game of raw heat and high stakes: he'll give her revenge, power, protection–if she gives herself to him, body and soul. The deeper she tumbles into Dominic's world of contracts, secrets, and dangerous demands, the more Dahlia learns just how far desire can twist. And when the past explodes and blood-stained secrets threaten everything, does she really want to pull apart all the ugly secrets piling up around her, or just get lost in the kind of wild pleasure her marriage always kept out of reach?

I'm ten years older than Vincenzo Corleone. He had just turned 23 years old when he took over the Corleone family as the patriarch. A hint of teenage childishness could still be seen etched onto his youthful features. I was the one who held his hand and helped him calm the turbulence of his family affairs. I blocked three assassination attempts that were made on him. I used five years of my life to help him grow from a useless scion into the fearsome don who wielded the utmost authority in Nowork's underworld. Once, Vincenzo had embraced me in the church. He rested his forehead against my palm as he swore, "Age, identity, or the world's viewpoint of us will never stop us from being together, Freya. I will protect you with my life." But after that, he told his older brother, Marco Corleone, "Freya is too old. She's already 38 years old; I can practically smell the rot of age rolling off her. Even the crinkles in her smile disgust me to no end." Some time later, Vincenzo found himself a mistress who bore some resemblance to me. She was young and vibrant—like a white rose who had never experienced the ugly side of society. While Vincenzo gave me the title of the Donna of the Corleone family, he reserved his gentle, doting, and even passionate side for the mistress named Lina Marino. Vincenzo thinks he can pull everything off flawlessly. What he forgets is that the reason why I can establish my reputation in the underworld isn't because of his protection. I've been relying on my ruthlessness and my sharp sixth sense this whole time. When I slam the signed divorce agreement onto the spot before Vincenzo, I say with a smile, "You've fought by my side for so many years, so you should know very well that I can afford to go for high-stakes risks and withdraw my chips whenever needed. "But once I lose, someone here has to pay the price!"

At the banquet hall, I refuse to let my adopted twin pups eat the walnut cake. Ivana Lamont—the childhood sweetheart of my mate, Luther Hardwick—chokes up dramatically. She cries accusingly, "Yara, they may not be yours biologically, but you can't abuse them! Why won't you even let them have a slice of cake?" I'm just about to explain that the twins are allergic to nuts, but they point at me and complain in aggrieved voices. "Mommy often doesn't give us food. We never have enough to eat!" With that, I'm unceremoniously driven out of the banquet hall by the host. When I go to look for my mate to talk about it, I accidentally overhear his conversation with a friend. "Alpha Luther, it's been eight years. Are you still not going to mark Yara?" "There's no rush. I'll wait until the kids are a little older. We love each other very much, so it's fine even if I don't mark her." His friend responds disapprovingly, "You've been hiding from her that the twins are actually your and Ivana's pups. Aren't you afraid she may leave in anger if she finds out?" Luther shakes his head and replies with certainty, "She won't. Yara is an orphan, so she has no family. If she leaves me, where else can she go?" The ugly truth causes me to freeze on the spot. It turns out the pups I've loved for eight years were born to my mate and another she-wolf. What I thought was a happy life is nothing but a cold, heartless deception! I touch my belly, thinking of the pup I just conceived. My tears fall like a relentless downpour. In the shadows, I say inaudibly, "You're wrong, Luther. In fact, I found my birth parents three days ago. I just haven't had the chance to tell you. But it doesn't matter now because you don't need to know about that anymore." I have Luther sign the mate bond dissolution agreement before finalizing my withdrawal from the Sharp Teeth pack. Two days later, I give both my mate and the pups to Ivana. With the pup that Luther has never known or laid his eyes on, I disappear from his world forever.