Zenitsu Blushing

The day my brother, Chester Rodney, came to the orphanage to take me home, my boyfriend Dominic Huxley looked at me coldly and said, "If you choose to acknowledge your birth family, we're over." I knew he had his pride—he could never accept the difference in our social standing. So, for him, I turned my back on the family I had yearned for my whole life. In the decades that followed, I toiled without complaint, saving every cent to help him rise to success. By the time I was not yet fifty, overwork had worn me down. Lying on my deathbed, my breathing shallow and weak, I watched Dominic on television. He was now an acclaimed scientist, just awarded the nation's highest research honor. Tears welled in his eyes as he thanked another woman. "All these years," he said, "I never felt worthy of Alicia. But now, maybe I can use this award as the prologue to a love I've owed her for decades." The "Alicia" he spoke of was the woman mistakenly switched with me at birth—the false heiress the Rodney family raised as their own. The camera zoomed out. Alicia Rodney stood radiant, graceful, and perfectly preserved by years of luxury, blushing as she accepted the trophy. "I waited for you for decades," she said sweetly, "but marriage is still something I'll need to ask my brother about." Chester, who had long taken over the family, looked at her with an indulgent tenderness tinged with something unspoken. "I was adopted by our uncle back then for one reason—to protect Alicia. Making the only princess of the Rodney family happy has always been my life's mission." Only then did I realize—everything I thought I had chosen freely, every sacrifice I made without regret, was nothing but a trap, carefully woven by two men, all for Alicia. The betrayal pierced my heart. I died without peace. But when I opened my eyes again, I was back on the very day Chester came to take me home from the orphanage. I glanced past the two men eyeing me with subtle disdain. Without hesitation, I stepped into the car. "Take me home," I said. This time, I'd send whoever stole my life back to the gutter they slithered from.

He steps closer to me... Closer... More closer... He pulls me close to him. His hand wrapped around my wrist. His eyes are into my lips. His hand grips my chin and his finger touches on my lower lips. I swallow my saliva... He slowly leans towards me. Our lips are an inch far. I closed my eyes... Against my ear, he whispered, "You are my women"... He steps closer to me... Closer... More closer... He pulls me close to him. His hand wrapped around my wrist. His eyes are into my lips. His hand grips my chin and his finger touches on my lower lips. I swallow my saliva... He slowly leans towards me. Our lips are an inch far. I closed my eyes... Against my ear, he whispered, "You are my women"... My temper sparked. I evert my eyes in his."In your dream", I shout and forcefully pushed him away... I run out of the room. My heart was pounding wildly in my ear. I took a deep breath, claim the rapid thuds in my chest. I desperately want to claim my heartbeat down... In reality, I am confused why my heart was pounding when he was close to me? Why did I close my eyes? Why I am blushing? I just hate him, isn't I? I asked myself why he said that to me? Is he drunk? I pulled my hair, Questions in my heart driving me crazy...

“Little sis is blushing again. That pink’s not from the room, is it?” He dragged a finger along her jaw, slowly. “Tell me, did your panties go missing… or did you just want us to notice?” When Thalia’s heart is shattered by betrayal, her mother sends her away—to a dark, creepy mansion in the middle of nowhere. There, she must live with her cold stepfather and his four mysterious sons: Blaze, Jax, Rhys, and Milo. They’re not boys. They’re wild, dangerous, too hot to look at—and totally off-limits. Everyone calls them “troubled.” But Thalia quickly learns there’s something even darker inside them. Something not human. The mansion whispers with secrets, the moon shines too brightly, and the air feels too alive. Then comes the warning: a strange event called the Lunar Surge is coming. People are changing—becoming more aggressive, more primal. More... hungry. Thalia should run. But her body won’t listen. Because her stepbrothers aren’t just teasing her. They’re watching her. Touching her. Whispering things that make her knees go weak. And her body? It’s reacting in ways she doesn’t understand… or want to stop. She came to heal. She’s not sure she’ll make it out sane.