Valentine's Day Crush

I gave up ten years of my life and went to prison to protect my sister, Jasmine. In return, she took my baby, claiming my one-night stand with the ruthless mafia king, Dominic Valentino, as her own. Now, she sits on a stolen throne, playing the perfect mafia wife. And I become my son's night nanny. Dominic is lethal, cold, and suspicious of everyone. He married Jasmine out of duty, yet he refuses to touch her. But the moment I step into his house, his eyes lock onto me. He doesn't know I'm the woman who saved his life in a bloody alley a year ago. He doesn't know the baby crying in the nursery is mine. All he knows is that the air burns whenever we are in the same room. My sister thinks I'm just a broken ex-con she can easily crush. She forgot one thing. I didn't just survive prison. I learned how to run an empire in the dark. And I am taking my son, my man, and my throne back.

At my graduation ceremony, I finally gathered the courage to confess my feelings to my longtime crush. But before I could, I was hit by a car. When I opened my eyes again, he was standing right in front of me with a frigid glare. "You're awake? Perfect. Then let's discuss our divorce." I blinked at him, completely dazed. Divorce? Wait—what? I hadn't even confessed yet. How on earth had this turned into a divorce?

I spiked the drink of Daniel Falkner, Belcaster's big shot, three years ago. After that night of madness, he doesn't punish me. Instead, he takes my waist in his hands and drives into me until my legs go weak, calling me "princess", again and again. But just as I'm about to confess, Serena Jarman, the woman he never gets over, returns. For her sake, he lets me get hit by a car, makes me watch Mom's keepsake get left to a stray, and even throws me into jail with his own hands. By the time I'm shattered and boarding a flight to Velport to marry someone else, Daniel is tearing Belcaster apart just to find me.

I went into labor. And my mate, Alpha Alistair, locked me in a silver cage. The bars throbbed with curse runes, burning my skin. He did it for Livia. His dead brother's mate. Her pup had to be born first. That's when I learned the truth. He'd been poisoning me for months. All to make sure Livia's child would be the next Alpha. He called it "calming tea." A daily dose of poison to slow my pup's growth and delay my labor. But my body had other plans. My pup refused to wait. I went into labor at the same time as Livia. When he found out, he accused me of faking it. Of begging for sympathy. He let them poison me with wolfsbane. I lost my pup. A piece of my soul died with him. With my last breath, I reached out. To the one person who could save me. My brother, Alpha King Lucian. He came like a storm of rage. He burned the packhouse to the ground, with me inside. A phantom fire for all to see. Then, he plucked me from the flames. Only then, surrounded by the smoking ruins of his pack, did Alistair fall to his knees. His howl of regret tore through the night. For 99 days, he howled at the moon. Begging the Moon Goddess to return just a sliver of my soul.

My sister, Yvonne Jones, tried to murder the childhood friend of a rich heir in order to seduce him. Yvonne poisoned the woman's drink and pulled out her oxygen tube after she was sent to the hospital. When the rich heir arrived in a rush, Yvonne cried in his arms daintily. "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I failed to protect her." I witnessed everything in the ward but didn't say a word about it. In my previous lifetime, I stopped Yvonne from poisoning the woman. I knew the rich heir would never let her get away with it if he found out about it. Yvonne was forced to give up her plan and even praised me for my foresight. However, she ended up poisoning me instead and stabbed me in the heart with her dagger when I got dizzy. "This is your fault! Die! If you hadn't stopped me, Sean Graham would've been mine!" When I opened my eyes next, I had returned to the day of the poisoning.

“Where’s your fight now, wife?” Dominic's breath ghosted across my bare skin. “Let me go. I’m warning you,” I hissed, struggling against his wrist that held both my hands above my head. “Funny... Your upper and lower lips seem to be contradicting each other. I don’t know which to trust… maybe I should kiss both, see which one’s lying.” “Fuck you!” I spat—only it came out more like a moan I couldn’t control. “Yeah…” His hand tightened, holding me just enough to make my pulse pound. “Yeah… you will. You’ll beg for it.” “You'll scream it out to the world. Tell them who you belong to,” And it should’ve been a joke. A sick one. Because Dominic Cantrell wasn’t someone girls like me belonged to. He was the billionaire’s heir with a reputation that could ruin cities and rebuild them. I was a mere cleaner with a brother in debt. But when a series of mistakes; one fight, one night, one kiss; pulls us into a contract that binds me to him for 365 days, survival becomes something I have to earn… under him. The devil thinks I’m a pawn. He thinks he can own me, bend me, break me. He’s so wrong. Because I'm not one of his bimbos. I'm his Kryptonite. And one day? I’ll make the devil kneel. WARNING: Contains high R-rated explicit scenes.

“That video in the group chat was filmed in your bridal suite, wasn’t it?” one of the women asked with a grin. “Sleeping around right under Adela’s nose? That’s bold.” Lorenzo leaned back, swirling his drink, looking pleased with himself. “Yes.” “I used to be too sick to do half the things I wanted,” he said, tapping his chest. “After the transplant, I realized spending the rest of my life with only one lover would be a waste.” The room erupted. He let them laugh, then added, “I set myself a goal. One hundred places before the wedding. Once it’s over, I’ll settle down. After that, my body and my marriage belong to Adela.” More laughter. More glasses raised. I stood outside the door with one hand pressed hard against my chest, where an artificial heart kept beating. Lorenzo never knew I had learned his language. He also never knew that I had already discovered he was keeping Vera—our wedding’s mistress of ceremonies—behind my back. And because he had hidden something from me, I had hidden something from him. I had already booked an assisted death service overseas.

My mate, Leonardo Salvatore, is the next Alpha of the Silverpine Pack. We've been together for five years, and yet he never agrees to hold our mating ceremony. But on the day I show up on his doorstep to confront him, I discover a pair of pantyhose and a bra that don't belong to me on his bed. Leonardo doesn't look ashamed and guilty in the slightest despite getting caught red-handed. Instead, he just shoots me a flippant smile. "Remember to tell the maids to clean up my room, Bella." His friends start a bet on whether or not I'll sever our mate bond because of Leonardo's affair. The wolf in question merely props his chin with a hand while saying airily, "Bella loves me far too much to leave me. Besides, she's a docile one. She'll definitely forgive me in less than two days." Leonardo is right. I do love him with all my heart. Whenever we got into fights in the past, I was the one who'd beg him not to leave me with tears running down my cheeks. But what Leonardo doesn't know is that he's already tainted. It's only natural for a goody-two-shoes like me to care about my mate's purity the most, so I can never accept a playboy like Leonardo as my mate. While he's waiting for me to return to his side, I muster all of my courage to ask the Alpha King, "I heard that you don't have a mate yet. In that case, may I become your Luna Queen?"

Buried deep in the Aster estate was the Heartwood—ancient, sacred, mine. Told my husband, Julian Aster—back when he actually listened—that if it ever fell, I'd die with it. At first, he freaked out. Flew in glacier water, hired a whole squad of plant experts to nurture it 24/7. Then one day, just because his childhood friend—Isabella Duvall—got a scratch from the bark, Julian had the Heartwood ripped out. The second it crashed, I choked on glowing blood—ichor. My power? Gone. Barely standing, I grabbed his arm. "You knew. If the Heartwood dies, I—" He laughed. Straight-up mocked me. "Sera, come on. That fairy tale? Only Grandma still believes that crap. Is that mayo on your mouth? Relax—it's a tree. I'll buy you a forest if you want." Overnight, my hair turned gray. Skin cracked. Eyes dulled. Still, I dragged myself to his grandmother, Henrietta. "I kept your family safe for two hundred years. That's why the Asters thrived. But the Heartwood's gone. Debt's paid. One day left. Whatever happens next? Not my problem."

"Kencang sekali ... sudah haus sekali, ya?" Malam Valentine itu, aku dan sepasang suami-istri yang juga sahabatku melakukan perjalanan darat pulang ke kampung halaman. Tak disangka, istrinya yang sedang setengah sadar, salah mengenaliku sebagai suaminya. Tangan kecilnya yang lembut mulai meraba-raba paha kerasku. Sesekali, dia menggesekkan sepasang buah dada putihnya ke arahku. "Sayang ... mainkan si kecil nakalmu ini, dong!" Mendengar itu, mana mungkin aku bisa menahan diri lagi.