Waited

In the tenth year of my marriage to a genius pianist, I came down with a strange illness. A month ago, my husband missed my birthday party to care for his ailing sister-in-law. Night after night, I had waited for him to return home. But that night I forgot to wait at all and went to bed early. Half a month ago, he attended an important performance with his sister-in-law. I had always been petty and prone to jealousy, yet this time I didn't get angry. I simply went home in silence. Three days ago, I fell seriously ill with a burning fever. My husband rushed back from out of town in a panic—but only to tend to his sister-in-law, whose hand had been scalded. When we ran into each other at the hospital, I was strangely calm. I, who used to be fiercely jealous, felt nothing at all. I forgot the promise we had made to grow old together. I even forgot how he once fretted over me for days when I'd scraped a bit of skin. It wasn't until he said he wanted to bring his sister-in-law home and take care of her for the rest of his life that I—my memories riddled with holes—summoned the system at last. "I want to go home."

  "There is no escape for you. I have waited a long time for you,mate. I will not let you go this time." I gasped and placed my palm over my heart, doubling over. I felt it. Strong and unbreakable, a cord that connected our bodies, minds and souls to each other's. It reached out, connecting me to him, over time, over space, over realms. I felt his power fuse with mine and cuddle around my ice, making me warm. Fire to my ice. Ice to his fire. I didn't need to see him to know it was him. My dragon growled again with mixed emotions coursing through her. I joined in with a snarl and lifted my head, anger of a woman and beast merging into something cataclysmic.      I thrummed my fingers in the air and I raised my head. Our eyes met and I resisted the urge to double over at the sensation in my chest. With Fae vision, he looked even more gorgeous than any being should be. So sensual. So dark. So powerful. My mate. I searched his turquoise depths for answers, hoping I was wrong, but they said it all. He was my mate. And he'd hurt me. I'll kill him.

After being reborn and trapped by wild boars, I no longer waited for my mate to save me. Instead, I chose to save myself. In my previous life, when Ariel and I were both surrounded by wild boars, he saved the pregnant me, and that delay cost Ariel her life. From that day on, Ian’s burning love for me turned into cold hatred. Not only was I hated by him, but I was also blamed by the elders, who held me responsible for the deaths of their pure-blood pack members. They claimed I had deliberately led Ariel into boar territory, causing her death. To punish me, they threw me into a cave to “cool off”, a place that hid the last surviving boar king hunted by the pack. I stared at its blood-red eyes in terror, begging for help, yet no one believed me. In the end, the terrifying boar king overpowered me. My body, along with the pup in my womb, was pierced by its massive tusks and swallowed whole. When I opened my eyes again, I had been reborn on the very day of the boar attack. Ian had also been reborn, and this time, he chose to save Ariel. Little did he know that this choice would drive him mad with regret.

Malia Baker was the disgrace of her own family. Being wolfless, she had to deal with bullying from her brothers and all the members of the pack in which she lived. On her eighteenth birthday, she met the man she believed to be the man of her life, her predestined mate. Joshua Brown was the future Alpha of the pack. A respected, kind man who accepted Malia with open arms. Just a year later, he went to fight in a war. Malia waited anxiously for five long years until her beloved returned... with another pregnant woman. She rejected him and was sent by her ex-mate's family to the pack ruled by Jaden Brown, the Alpha King. Jaden Brown won the position of King Alpha after fighting for this. His friend Lilith, his faithful shieldmaiden, was the one who predicted the boy's future and helped him on his way to glory. Known as cruel and bloodthirsty, he takes down all his enemies. He had never met his mate until Malia Baker appeared floating near his pack's beach. She found her second chance mate in him. He found his companion in her, but he doesn't trust her family. Will the two be able to stay together? Will Malia be able to trust again?

At the company holiday party raffle, I'd barely stepped on stage when my superior, Victor Grant, shoved a crumpled slip into my hand. "Special prize for our top sales guy. Go on, open it. Let's show everyone." All eyes were on me as I unfolded it. Scrawled across the paper: [VIP janitor status unlocked—every toilet in the company, three days.] The room lost it—laughter everywhere. Victor crossed his arms, grinning. "Fair, right? Everyone knows you climbed the ranks hooking up with rich cougars. Gotta avoid hard feelings for the others, yeah? While the rest of us take a break, you can get busy. You're not gonna back out, are you?" The crowd cracked up. My girlfriend—and CEO—Rachel Sullivan stood off to the side, watching. Didn't say a word. Everyone waited for me to explode. Instead, I just nodded. Next day, over 300 refund requests hit. Cash flow flatlined. Victor and Rachel begged me to talk the buyers down. I shrugged. "Nah. Don't wanna save the company and make my performance too good. That'd just cause more ' hard feelings,' right?"

“I knew you’d always come back to me.” He has waited 412 years to say those words. Cursed by his own mother. His mate was slaughtered. His bloodline shattered. For four centuries Khaled has existed without purpose, without peace, without the love of his life. Then Monalisa runs into the rain and her blood finds him before he finds her. She is everything he remembers. The same stubbornness. The same fire. The same heart that beats too loud for a human girl. He wants to worship her. Protect her. Keep her. But the ancient whispers won’t stop. Her blood is too powerful. Her presence too familiar. The vampires who feared his mother go quiet when Monalisa walks into a room. The wolves hunt her. The witches whisper her name. The demons want her gone before she remembers. Remembers what? Khaled has one question he is terrified to answer. Is she the mate he lost and has been mourning for 412 years? Or is she the mother who cursed him, reborn in a teenager’s body, coming back to finish what she started? Her blood is his answer. He just has to survive finding out.

On the night the Moon Goddess was meant to bless her fate, she was rejected instead. Born to be the Luna of the Silverclaw Pack, she waited years for the mate bond to snap into place—only for Alpha Kael to publicly reject her at the mating ceremony, choosing another woman and declaring her unworthy. Humiliated. Broken. Cast aside by the very man destined to protect her. But what no one knows is that her rejection didn’t shatter the bond… It awakened something far more dangerous. Banished from her pack and stripped of her title, she disappears into the shadows—until fate places her in the path of Alpha Ronan, Kael’s most feared enemy. Ruthless. Powerful. And nothing like the mate who rejected her. He doesn’t see weakness. He sees a Luna forged by pain. As ancient rivalries ignite and long-buried secrets about her true bloodline begin to surface, the Alpha who rejected her realizes his mistake—too late. Because the woman he cast aside is no longer begging for his bond… She’s being claimed by his enemy. And when the Moon rises again, only one Alpha will kneel. But when the truth of her power is finally revealed… will she choose revenge, or will her choice destroy every pack standing in her way?

“Make love to me.” I pleaded. I wasn’t thinking straight and I was only doing this to get back at Benjamin but the way Saint was currently looking at me did not help with my decision making. “Make love to you?” He repeated. He was probably baffled seeing as I was dating his nephew. “Yes.” I didn’t back down. Saint took a few steps closer to me, making me falter. Was he finally going to throw me out of his room for talking such nonsense? I held my breath as I waited for the inevitable rejection. “I don’t make love, mia cara. I fuck.” ~•~ When Adriana Jensen catches her boyfriend cheating on her with her best friend, her first idea is to get back at him by sleeping with his uncle, Saint, but when she is rejected by him, she sees it as a challenge and stops at nothing to make him break before their trip is over. Saint Rossi has no business lusting after his nephew’s girlfriend but he cannot help his obsession, especially after she boldly gives herself to him. He tries his best to stay away from her because she is too good to be brought into his darkness, but it seems like fate had other plans for the pair.

The air in the Parisian haute couture salon smelled like money and fear. I’d waited six months for my wedding dress. Now, it was draped over the shoulders of Sofia Ross—the trending influencer, and my mafia fiancé Vincent Cassio’s god-sister. The salon manager was sweating bullets, his eyes darting between me and the man lounging on the velvet sofa. Vincent Cassio stood up. He adjusted a fold of the diamond-encrusted train on Sofia with a casual flick of his wrist. “Her premiere next week needs a statement piece. She’s borrowing it. Pick something off the rack and stop making a scene.” His tone was flat, final. Under the crystal chandeliers, Sofia admired herself in the full-length mirror, a triumphant smile on her lips. I looked at my reflection in the same mirror, wearing jeans and a soaked trench coat. I looked like a lost tourist. Suddenly, the entire past year of planning felt like a sick joke. I didn’t yell. I just felt cold. Numb. I slipped the five-carat engagement ring off my finger. It hit the glass coffee table with a sharp, final click. “You’re right, Vincent. I don’t need this wedding dress. This wedding… I don’t need it either.”

Out on a holiday with my boyfriend, Jack, and my good friend, Eva, a catastrophe occurred. As the floods came, we waited for the rescue helicopter to come. As I fastened the safety rope, I noticed that my metal safety clip had been swapped for a plastic ring. Climbing up the rope ladder, Jack said nonchalantly, "Eva's luggage is heavy. She needs another safety clip, so I gave her yours. You can wait for the next rescue." I replied in a panic, pointing at the water level already past my chest, "But I can't swim!" Jack replied irritatedly, "Naomi, stop causing a scene! You're a strong swimmer, what's a little time in the water? Eva is my boss's relative. If something happens to her, my promotion is gone. Why can't you understand that?" "Which matters more? My life or her luggage?" I reached for the rope ladder when he kicked my hand away. "I've studied the waters. The flood won't rise so quickly. It will at most be at the level of your neck. You won't die!" I said nothing further. Watching the floods rise crazily, I quickly pressed my family's special alarm on my wrist.