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"A man from my past shattered my heart into a thousand pieces. I decided from that day on I would never give my heart to a man to be broken again. I know it sounds foolish because I was so young. However, that heartache has affected how I am with men. I am terrified to give my heart away like that again only to have it shattered." Natalia still felt the hurt and betrayal like it was yesterday. "I promise to never break your heart. Give me a chance to prove that I won't hurt you. I've never felt like this for anyone before I met you. I know it's only been two days, but you're all I've thought about since seeing you that first time. Let me erase the pain that's in your heart." Hayden took both her hands in his. --------------------- Natalia Crawford is the top female CEO in the city. She has worked tooth and nail to climb to the top without compromising her morals. She's beautiful with long blonde hair and green eyes. Men want her for her beauty, brains, and money. When she met Hayden Sumner, he was determined to make her his. She agreed he was easy on the eyes, tall with thick black hair and blue eyes, but she had no desire to be in a relationship. After a chance encounter, she ended up opening her heart for a chance at love. People all around them want to see them fail in both love and business. Even as one of them is fighting for their life, it doesn't stop others from trying to bring them down. Will love conquer all, or will everyone who wants to hurt them be successful in tearing them apart?
Natalia stared at the police officer standing in front of her, not believing what she had heard. It can't be true. Today was her eighteenth birthday. How could she lose everything on the day she became an adult?
"Did you hear me?" The officer asked softly.
"Please tell me you have the wrong house. It can't be my parents. You had to have made a mistake." She answered in a whisper.
"I'm sorry, but we confirmed it was them." Elias had been working for the Pheonix Police Department for ten years. Notifying a family that their loved ones had been killed was the worst part of the job.
"Noooooooo." Natalia fell to her knees, sobbing as the grief took over. Her parents can't be gone. They were on their way home to take her to dinner for her birthday. How was she going to go on without them?
________________________
Three Years later
Natalia walked out of the auditorium with a sense of accomplishment. She had graduated at the top of her class two years early with a master's degree in business at the age of twenty-one.
She got into her car and looked in the mirror. She had long pale blonde hair and dark blue eyes. She was five foot eight with a body that men wanted, and women wished for. She sighed as she turned on the car. Her looks had opened doors, but she had worked hard once they were open. Now it was time to work hard to succeed in the business world.
When Natalia's parents were killed by a drunk driver three years ago, it was the worst day of her life. They were wealthy, and because she had no siblings or other family, all the money went to her. She didn't touch any more than she had to. She was determined to make it on her own to make them proud.
She drove to her off-campus apartment so she could finish packing. Natalia had scored an intern position in New York. She planned to learn everything she needed to achieve her goal and start her own company. The corporation she was interning for bought companies that were failing and either liquidated or resold them for a profit.
People hated those types of companies; they looked at them as though they were sharks. Natalia wanted to start a similar business, but her plan was to invest in the companies in trouble and become a partner to help them succeed. It was a risky way to go because she could lose a lot of money. However, she was willing to take that chance.
As she packed up her apartment, she was eating pizza while listening to the radio when there was a knock on the door. Natalia wasn't expecting anyone, so she looked through the peephole curiously and smiled when she saw who it was.
"What are you doing here?" She asked as she opened the door for her best friend.
"Are you kidding? I couldn't let you spend your graduation night alone packing. I came to help you before you disappeared, and I never see you again." Cara was petite with short, curly dark brown hair and amber eyes. She and Natalia became friends on their first day of college. She still had at least another year of school before she graduated.
"Of course, you're going to see me again. There are these big things called airplanes. Maybe you've heard of them." Leaving Phoenix to go to New York was a big move, but it was one Natalia felt she needed to make. She would miss her friends and being away from everything she knew. However, she was determined to be successful and respected as a woman and a CEO.
"You're funny. You know how it is when people graduate and say they'll keep in touch. Maybe they see each other once a year and call on holidays, but after a couple of years, they go their separate ways. Once you get to New York, you may meet the man of your dreams, get married, and start having babies." Cara made a space on the couch between boxes so she could sit down as she ate a slice of pizza.
"You know I don't care about men. I have no desire to find love. What's love anyway? Just a way to make a woman depend on a man so he can break her heart."
Natalia had fallen in love during her first year of college. She was still hurting from the loss of her parents when a senior took an interest in her. She had been so lonely that she was blinded by the attention he had given her.
After they'd been together for a couple of months, she decided to give in to him and have sex. The same day she was planning on surprising him, she was checking her social media account, which she was rarely on. She found a post of his where he was tracking how many freshmen he could have sex with before graduation. He had logged two that day and was up to ten for the week.
Natalia had been heartbroken and cried for several days. She broke up with him but never told him why. She was too humiliated to know that she had been just a number to him. She was only thankful for finding what he was doing before letting him take her virginity.
"You can't hate all men because of Jon being a pig. Many nice guys have tried to date you, but you turned them all down. Don't let that idiot ruin your life, Nat." Cara had been with several men but never got attached to any of them. She was just having fun.
"He didn't ruin my life. He opened my eyes. I decided at that point I was going to bury myself in my studies. I want to be respected when I make it big and don't want any low-hanging fruit to hold me back. Decisions you make in college can follow you once you get out into the real world. We see it every day. There is nothing that I've done that can come back to haunt me later." Natalia went back to packing her boxes while Cara watched her.
They'd had this conversation many times, and Cara understood what Nat was saying, but she couldn't live like a hermit. She liked to party and enjoyed college life. Due to Natalia ignoring the other students who asked her out, rumors spread that she was sleeping with the professors to help her grades. Cara defended her when she heard people spouting those lies, but Nat told her to forget about it.
"Are you planning on just eating pizza, or are you going to actually help me?" Natalia looked at Cara with a smile as her friend stood up and began to pack.
They spent most of the night packing up Natalia's apartment. Whatever she wasn't taking, they threw away. She gave the keys of her car to Cara as she wouldn't be taking it to New York, so she had signed it over to her friend. The moving truck would be there in the morning, and her flight was leaving soon afterward. When they were done, Cara was crying as she was getting ready to go.
"Please promise me you'll stay in touch. You're the best friend I've ever had. I love you." Natalia was crying, too, as she hugged her.
"I promise. I love you too." After they said their final goodbyes, Natalia took a shower and went to bed.
The following morning she woke up and was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt when the movers arrived. Natalia gave them their instructions, then took a ride-share car to the airport. Her flight was on time, and she was early. She always flew coach because she didn't like wasting money on frivolous things like first-class seats.
When she arrived in New York, Natalia felt like the smallest fish in the sea. She had never been to the impressive city, but she knew it was where she needed to be in order to be successful. As she made her way out of the airport, she got into a taxi and gave the driver the address of the apartment in Manhattan that she had already pre-leased. It was a small one-bedroom, yet it cost four times as much as her place in Phoenix.
The traffic was horrific, and she rode most of the way with her eyes closed. Once they pulled up in front of her new home, she gave the driver a generous tip for getting her there in one piece, even though her legs were a little wobbly getting out of the car.
Her apartment was on the first floor of a large brownstone. She picked up her key from the super who lived in the basement apartment. When she opened the door, she looked around with a smile. It wasn't large by any means, but it was hers. She couldn't wait to fill it with her furniture when it arrived.
As she opened the window to let the warm air in, Natalia took a deep breath. She had finally made it. Now she just needed to conquer the business world until she was on top.
Teegan is a werewolf who was raised by humans. She believes her birth parents didn't want her, so they threw her away. She doesn't want anything to do with the werewolf world. However, when she meets her mate Joel, her views quickly change. With the help of her mate, she finds out the truth about what really happened all those years ago. Teegan and Joel set out on a journey to get answers to why pups from her pack have been disappearing for years. Their search leads to more unanswered questions. With multiple people trying to stop what they're doing, will they be successful in reuniting families, or will evil win and stop them before they find all the answers? ___________________ Teegan's P.O.V. Walking down the street. Walking down the street. People may think I'm crazy to be focusing so hard on just walking, but when you have a wolf who decides to shift whenever she dang well pleases, you'd be nervous, too. Just yesterday, we were talking to a nice man I met at the coffee shop. He asked me out to dinner, and when I said yes, she started growling and shifted. Now, there are news reports of a wolf in town. Luckily, that shop isn't one I frequent, and even though I literally shifted in front of people's eyes, no one believed what they saw. "He wasn't our mate. Why do you even want to talk to someone who isn't our mate? The Moon Goddess should have given me a better human because I don't think you know what it means to be a werewolf. You're obviously defective. I wonder if I can send you in to be repaired." I groan as I walk down the street. It's the same argument we have all the time. I'm twenty-five and have lived among humans so long that I don't have the same wolf connections as others. I didn't even know I was a werewolf until I heard Mia talking in my head. "You may be right, but I'm not going to sit around waiting for this so-called mate. I want to be happy, and if I find a man to make me happy, then so be it." I tell her. She growls, but I ignore her. "I swear if you try to get with another man, I will shift and never let you shift back. I'll terrorize the whole town until you submit to me and help me find our mate." I just keep humming, pretending like I don't hear her. She wants a new human. Well, I want a new wolf or, better yet, no wolf at all. As we walk into the restaurant where I work on the weekends as a hostess, I catch a whiff of something. It's not the food from the restaurant; it smells refreshing, like the outdoors. Mia starts panting in my head. "Our mate is here. Go find him now, or I will." I can feel her wanting to shift. "I swear, Mia, if you shift and start humping his leg, I'm going to shoot you myself." "Bitch please, I am civilized. OH MY GOSH, THERE HE IS GO. GO NOW." She's screaming in my head, and I desperately wish I was deaf. When I look up, I see a handsome man with wavy brown hair and green eyes walking toward me. He puts his nose in my neck, taking a deep breath, and I want to shove him off. What's he doing? Is he going to start humping my leg? He looks into my eyes and smiles. "Mate."
They don't know I'm a girl. They all look at me and see a boy. A prince. Their kind purchase humans like me for their lustful desires. And, when they stormed into our kingdom to buy my sister, I intervened to protect her. I made them take me too. The plan was to escape with my sister whenever we found a chance. How was I to know our prison would be the most fortified place in their kingdom? I was supposed to be on the sidelines. The one they had no real use for. The one they never meant to buy. But then, the most important person in their savage land-their ruthless beast king-took an interest in the "pretty little prince." How do we survive in this brutal kingdom, where everyone hates our kind and shows us no mercy? And how does someone, with a secret like mine, become a lust slave? . AUTHOR'S NOTE. This is a dark romance-dark, mature content. Highly rated 18+ Expect triggers, expect hardcore. If you're a seasoned reader of this genre, looking for something different, prepared to go in blindly not knowing what to expect at every turn, but eager to know more anyway, then dive in! . From the author of the international bestselling book: "The Alpha King's Hated Slave."
Once upon a time, there were two kingdoms once at peace. The kingdom of Salem and the kingdom of Mombana... Until the day, the king of Mombana passed away and a new monarch took over, Prince Cone. Prince Cone, has always been hungry for more power and more and more. After his coronation, he attacked Salem. The attack was so unexpected, Salem never prepared for it. They were caught off guard. The king and Queen was killed, the prince was taken into slavery. The people of Salem that survived the war was enslaved, their land taken from them. Their women were made sex slaves. They lost everything, including their land. Evil befall the land of Salem in form of Prince Cone, and the prince of Salem in his slavery was filled with so much rage. The prince of Salem, Prince Lucien swore revenge. 🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳 Ten years later, thirty-years old Lucien and his people raided a coup and escaped slavery. They went into hiding and recuperated. They trained day and night under the leadership of the fearless and cold Lucien who was driven with everything in him to get back their land, and take Mombana land too. It took them five years before they ambushed and attacked Mombana. They killed Prince Cone and reclaimed everything. As they screamed out their victory, Lucien's eyes found and pinned the proud princess of Mombana. Princess Danika. The daughter of Prince Cone. As Lucien stared at her with the coldest eyes anyone can ever possess, he felt victory for the first time. He walked to the princess with the slave collar he'd won for ten years rattling in his hand as he walked. He reached close to her and with a swift movement, he collared her neck. Then, he tilted her chin up, staring into the bluest eyes and the most beautiful face ever created, he gave her a cold smile. "You are my acquisition. My slave. My sex slave. My property. I will pay you in spades, everything you and your father ever did to me and my people." He stated curtly. Pure hatred, coldness and victory was the only emotion on his face. .
“You need a bride, I need a groom. Why don’t we get married?” Both abandoned at the altar, Elyse decided to tie the knot with the disabled stranger from the venue next door. Pitying his state, she vowed to spoil him once they were married. Little did she know that he was actually a powerful tycoon. Jayden thought Elyse only married him for his money, and planned to divorce her when she was no longer of use to him. But after becoming her husband, he was faced with a new dilemma. “She keeps asking for a divorce, but I don’t want that! What should I do?”
Belinda thought after divorce, they would part ways for good - he could live his life on his own terms, while she could indulge in the rest of hers. However, fate had other plans in store. "My darling, I was wrong. Would you please come back to me?" The man, whom she once loved deeply, lowered his once proud head humbly. "I beg you to return to me." Belinda coldly pushed away the bouquet of flowers he had offered her and coolly replied, "It's too late. The bridge has been burned, and the ashes have long since scattered to the wind!"
"I, Erika Blackwood, stand before you, Alexander Robertson, with a heavy heart. I hereby reject you as my mate. The bond we once shared has grown fragile, and my soul yearns for a different path. May you find solace in the love of another, and may we both find the happiness we seek." Alexander didn't say a word and looked at me. But he refused to accept. *********** Erika Blackwood is the next Alpha in line of the Ironclaw Pack. She hides her identity and gets mated to the Alpha of the Moonforest Pack, Alexander Robertson. Three years passed, but Alexander is still unwilling to let go of his childhood sweetheart. Erika is mistreated and eventually framed by the same childhood sweetheart. Now she leaves with that humiliation, and goes back to her pack, swearing vengeance on those who hurt her. They all waited for her to return and beg, but what happens when they realize that the famous Ironclaw Pack that was going to help in the rogue war, was ruled by a woman named, Erika Blackwood. Now her Ex mates want her back. Other Alphas want this woman.. But will she accept any of them? Or will she stay independent forever?...
The day Raina gave birth should have been the happiest of her life. Instead, it became her worst nightmare. Moments after delivering their twins, Alexander shattered her heart-divorcing her and forcing her to sign away custody of their son, Liam. With nothing but betrayal and heartbreak to her name, Raina disappeared, raising their daughter, Ava, on her own.Years later, fate comes knocking when Liam falls gravely ill. Desperate to save his son, Alexander is forced to seek out the one person he once cast aside. Alexander finds himself face to face with the woman he underestimated, pleading for a second chance-not just for himself, but for their son. But Raina is no longer the same broken woman who once loved him.No longer the woman he left behind. She has carved out a new life-one built on strength, wealth, and a long-buried legacy she expected to uncover.Raina has spent years learning to live without him.The question is... Will she risk reopening old wounds to save the son she never got to love? or has Alexander lost her forever?