Winters Bone

To scrape together my mother's surgery money, I worked myself to the bone at this company for three straight years. My performance was always number one. By myself, I supported half the sales department. Then, a newly hired HR director decided every desk needed an AI camera, claiming it was to optimize efficiency. Every blink, every breath I took was measured and calculated by the system. "Warning. Employee Nathan Gray blinked more than twenty times within one minute. Mental distraction detected. Fine: 50." "Warning. Employee Nathan Gray took 3.5 seconds to drink water, exceeding the standard by 1.5 seconds. Slacking detected. Fine: 100." "Warning. Employee Nathan Gray's mouth corners drooped for over thirty seconds. Suspected spread of negative emotion. Fine: 200." The most ridiculous part was the way he stood in front of the entire department, pointing proudly at my data on the giant screen. "See that?" he said smugly. "This is the power of technology. In front of AI, you lazy freeloaders have nowhere to hide. Nathan, your bonus for this month has already been wiped out by the system. If you don't like it, get lost. Plenty of people are lining up to take your place." What he didn't know was that the AI system he trusted so blindly had its core code written by me. Tonight, I was going to show him what happened when he angered the one who built the machine.

Celeste Winters was born chosen, marked by the Moon Goddess, destined for power, and tied to a future she never fully wanted. But when a cursed moonstone dagger strikes her down, it doesn’t just nearly kill her; it erases her. Her memories vanish, her bond to her mate is severed, and the power that once defined her is ripped away, leaving behind someone unrecognizable, even to herself. In a desperate attempt to save her, those closest to her turn to the Moonwell, an ancient force said to heal what cannot be fixed. The water answers, but not with mercy. Instead of restoring Celeste, it changes her. What the moonstone stole, it replaced, twisting something inside her into its opposite. Now, Celeste is caught in a battle she cannot control. One moment, she seems almost like herself, quiet, distant, but there. The next, something darker takes over. The air around her grows heavy, her presence sharp and unfamiliar, and the world itself begins to react to her in ways it never has before. She knows something is wrong, but trying to remember only causes pain, forcing her further into the unknown version of herself she’s becoming. As the truth unfolds, it becomes clear that the moonstone obeyed an ancient balance, stripping her of her light and replacing it with darkness. And now, that darkness is winning. With time running out, Silas must find a way to reach the girl he lost before she’s gone for good. Because if Celeste fully becomes what the moonstone made her… There may be nothing left to save.

"Don't make me do this, Iris." The muscles in his arms tensed a kilowatt as he clenched his fists into a tight ball. I could feel the primal strength they exuded, and the slutty urge to be subdued roughly by them simmered between the cream of my lower lips. I slammed my lips roughly against his, drawing in a long noisy kiss to make his shaft budge against my lower abdomen. "Show no mercy." Iris Sawyer was forced to navigate her path through a supernatural world of angst and brute force. Stuck between a protracted pack war, she soon realized her survival depended on the side she took, or to use correctly, the kiss she accepted. In her quest to find an escape from the emotional turmoil of losing her parents at a tender age, she met Gustav, the Alpha from the Grey Moon Pack, who was mated to her by the Moon Goddess. Hell was a mild euphemism to describe the horror she met at the Grey Moon Pack. But as fate would redirect her steps, she met with the charming Lycan king from Crescent pack, Ludovic, Gustav's worst enemy. Gustav and Ludovic happen to be caught in a dark web of hatred for each other, and Iris was beginning to be another bone of contention between them. Will Iris be able to follow her heart and roost where it feels more secure? Will she be able to stand strong as she finds answers to all the questions plaguing her mind? Will love prevail in the end, or will blood settle the score?

Billionaire heiress Julia Wilson had come to loathe Christmas. Five years ago, it had shattered her life when she walked in on her husband, Ryan Thompson, in what appeared to be a compromising position with his secretary. The heartbreak had forced her into premature labor. By the time her twins, Lucien and Olivia, were born, she’d signed the divorce papers, severing ties with the man she once loved. Ever since, Julia buried her pain behind an iron-clad business persona, working herself and her employees to the bone every holiday season to escape the memories of her ruined Christmas. For Ryan Thompson, Christmas was no easier. A top-tier lawyer and businessman infamous for his undefeated courtroom record, Ryan’s victories felt hollow compared to the loss of his family. A misunderstanding had cost him his wife and the chance to watch his twins grow. For five years, he’d kept his distance, silently watching over Julia and their children, waiting for the right time to make amends and reclaim what he had lost. A chance encounter with a stranger leads him to his family’s doorstep, dressed as Santa Claus. Will Julia slam the door in his face, or will she accept him for the sake of their children? Can they rekindle their love and fulfill the twins’ Christmas wish, or will their relationship burn in the wake of his betrayal? What Julia doesn’t know is that fate—or perhaps the twins’ clever planning—has something else in store.

They swore to destroy each other. Then he whispered: "A deal is a deal. Tonight, you belong to me." Hockey captains Damian Volkov and Sebastian Montgomery have been locked in a brutal three‑year rivalry. On the ice, they try to break each other. Off the ice, they trade threats in darkened hallways. But when Sebastian finally wins the championship with a bone‑crushing hit, he collects a secret debt Damian doesn't remember making. That night, in the shadows of the locker room, Sebastian reveals a blood oath sworn on his father's grave: One day I'll own you. The price? One night of absolute surrender. No rules. No safe word. Damian expects cruelty. Instead, Sebastian drags him to the abandoned rink where Damian's father used to beat him. He forces Damian to skate until his feet bleed—then bandages the wounds with unexpected gentleness. Every command is a twisted therapy. Every touch blurs the line between hatred and obsession. But someone is watching. A blackmailer has a video of their most intimate moment. Damian's father is faking a stroke to manipulate him. And the journalist who shot them is just the beginning. As the league tries to ban them, as friends become enemies, as a bullet arrives with a note that says "Game seven. You're dead," Damian and Sebastian must decide: Is their bond a trap—or the only thing that can save them? When hatred bleeds into obsession, who will be the first to surrender?

"I'm scheduling the C-section for tomorrow. The doctor will extract her bone marrow during the procedure." Those were the words that shattered Selena's world. Her husband, Ellis Winston, the most ruthless Mafia Don in New York, was going to force her to deliver their baby at twenty-seven weeks. To him, her pregnant body was just a blood farm to cure Jennifer, the manipulative half-sister who supposedly saved his life. So, Selena ran. She left behind a pool of blood, a crushed ultrasound photo, and a destroyed wedding ring. The world thought she was dead. Six years later, Ellis is a walking corpse. He rules the global underworld, but he is tormented by the ghost of the wife he pushed to the grave. During his company's grand anniversary banquet, the heavy ballroom doors burst open. Selena is back. But she isn't the weak, obedient housewife in a cheap housewife anymore. She is the untouchable heiress of the Merrick billionaire empire. She strides down the red carpet, a signed divorce agreement in hand, ready to crush the man who ruined her. Ellis refuses to let her go. He is willing to go to war with Wall Street to drag her back. But what will the arrogant Don do when he comes face-to-face with a genius six-year-old boy who looks exactly like him? He will pay any price to win her back. Even if it costs him his empire, his organs, and his life.

The boy who made my life hell just became my stepbrother, and now we’re sharing a mansion, a last name, and a hatred so intense it might just burn us both alive. I’m Summer Winters, the scholarship girl who never wanted Crew Ashford’s attention. But after I publicly humiliated Blackwood Prep’s golden hockey captain, he’s made destroying me his personal mission. With the months of psychological warfare, I've learned to survive his cruelty. Then my mother marries his father. Now I’m living under his roof, and Crew’s rage at my presence is suffocating. Behind closed doors, his bullying intensifies, but so does something darker. Something that looks dangerously like obsession. Just when I think it can’t get worse, I meet Gray, Crew’s quiet, artistic brother who sees me in ways that terrify and comfort me in equal measure. And my childhood best friend Tyler? He’s caught between loyalty to me and forces I don’t understand yet. Three boys. Three types of devastation. And secrets buried so deep they’ll destroy us all when they surface. When everything explodes at the championship game, I’ll have to decide: which kind of destruction am I willing to survive? This is a dark reverse harem hockey romance where the line between hate and want is razor-thin, and choosing yourself might be the most dangerous choice of all.

"You really think you can seduce the Alpha looking like that?" The mischievous grey wolf beside me whispered. He was trying to make me give up, but I had to come out the victor in these games for my pack and my family. He slowly took one clawed finger and slipped the strap of my silk burgundy floor length gown off my shoulder in front of the whole table of wolf royalty. "That's a little more like it," He coaxed, "Look at him with all of those other attractive wolves to choose from. You'll never catch his attention like this." I stared at the end of the table where the Alpha sat. He was dark of hair and broad of chest and always had a smile and was willing to lend a paw to a wolf in need. He was laughing at something the stunning blonde she-wolf beside him had said and that cheerful couple drew a sharp contrast from the unknown man on his other side. I couldn't even be sure that man was a wolf at all, he was pale and lean but his eyes were dark, cold and...and never seemed to leave my face. "Just give up the games now," the grey wolf continues, "fall into my arms instead I can take care of you just as well as some fancy Alpha can. Close your eyes, you won't even notice the difference." I felt his tongue from my collar bone to my jaw.

I woke up in his bed after one confusing night, and suddenly I was married to Dylan Carter, the man I'd loved in silence for twelve years. The man who was supposed to marry my sister. Everyone thinks I'm a scheming gold-digger who trapped Riverside's most eligible bachelor. Even Dylan believes I drugged him and orchestrated everything. He looks at me with pure hatred, spending every night with my sister while I wait alone in our empty house. Then I discovered I'm pregnant. But before I could tell him, I overheard the truth: my "perfect" sister Sophie was the one who planned that night. She drugged Dylan, called the reporters, set the whole trap, she just walked into the wrong room. And my adoptive family? They only took me in because Sophie needed my bone marrow. Everything I believed was a lie. Now Sophie's faking suicide attempts to manipulate Dylan into divorcing me, and my so-called family has disowned me in front of everyone. I'm alone, pregnant, and everyone in Riverside thinks I'm the villain in this story. But I've decided something: I'm not giving up. Not my husband, not my baby, and definitely not my future. Sophie wants the life she thinks I stole? She'll have to go through me first.

I, Zadie Weatherby, am the daughter of Jacob Weatherby, the richest man in the country. Three years ago, I donated my bone marrow to my paternal grandmother, Marissa Notley. After that, I stayed in a nursing home so that she wouldn't worry about me. But when I return to Jirvia, I find that my brother, Luca Weatherby, who once spoiled me rotten, is telling everyone that Sally Weatherby is his sister and the true Weatherby heiress. But in reality, Sally is just an adopted child. The grandmother I risked my life to save holds Sally's hand and says, "Sally is my one and only precious granddaughter." They then claim that I was the adopted child the driver had found near a heap of trash. And so, Sally takes my place as the Weatherby heiress and even marries my fiance, Aidan Yorke. In my last life, I let them take my wedding dress and the trillion-dollar heirloom necklace my maternal grandmother left me. All I wanted was for them to acknowledge me as family, but they cruelly drove me to my death. Now, I have a second chance at life after going back in time. I rush to the venue where the wedding is being held. Once there, I tear the necklace from Sally's neck and strip off her wedding dress. "How dare you steal from me, you tramp!"