The Road To Abuja
/1/130821/coverbig.jpg?v=7f74e3da9208fbd64237b41f638ad1f6)
Rejected By My Betrothed, Claimed By The Warlord Alpha
I was born a wolfless cripple in the Richmond Pack, but by royal decree, I was engaged to the kingdom's Champion Knight, Emory. During the winter banquet, my half-sister Dessie suddenly tilted backward into the royal ice pond, screaming that I pushed her. In my previous life, I reached out in panic to save her, only to be dragged down and framed for attempted murder. When Emory dove into the freezing water, he swam right past my sinking body to rescue her instead. Once ashore, my own father and my betrothed ignored my desperate pleas. They branded me a vicious, jealous traitor. Emory publicly broke our engagement to marry Dessie, while my father threw me to the executioner to wash away the family's shame with my blood. Until my head was on the chopping block, I didn't understand. Why did my own family want me dead just because I had no inner wolf? Why did the knight who swore to protect me conspire with my illegitimate sister to destroy my life? Opening my eyes again, I was back on the snow-dusted terrace, right as Dessie was setting up the exact same trap. "A wolfless cripple like you should crawl back to the gutter," she whispered, falling backward. This time, I didn't flinch or beg for help. Instead, my fingers shot out like iron clamps, grabbing her wrist, and I dragged her into the freezing depths with me.
Chapter 1
Kalea POV:
"Sister, Emory Lambert is destined to be mine," Dessie Richmond whispered, her voice a poisonous thread slipping through the frigid breeze of the Royal Lunar Garden. "A wolfless cripple like you should crawl back to the gutter where you belong."
Her amber eyes gleamed with malice.
Before I could even process the violent sting of the freezing air on my face, Dessie tilted her body backward, angling herself toward the black waters of the royal ice pond.
She was setting up the exact same trap from my past life.
She wanted the entire court to see her fall, to hear her screams, and to watch me take the blame for attempting to drown the favored younger daughter of the Richmond Pack.
In that past life, everything had favored her. I had screamed in panic and lunged to grab her, my fingers clamping hard around her wrist and leaving livid grip-bruises on her skin.
When we fell, I thrashed and begged Emory to save me, so when he swam straight past me to lift Dessie first, onlookers called it justice — the Champion saving the victim from her attacker.
The healers found my marks on her, and nothing of hers on me. That was enough for a charge of attempted murder.
Now, everything is different. The terrace is crowded with high-ranking nobles, and I know exactly where her nails will land.
I already saw through her act completely. I would play along — and turn her own trap against her.
I did not flinch. Instead, I calmly extended my left arm toward her, offering the loose silver-blue cuff at my wrist as if trying to catch her. Dessie, already falling backward to fake her accident, instinctively clawed out and seized my wrist hard to make it look real, her nails digging deep into my sleeve.
Dessie's smug grin instantly froze.
Her eyes widened in shock as she realized she had grabbed me first. Before she could let go, I stopped resisting. I leaned into her pull and let her own backward momentum drag us both off the marble edge together.
A chorus of shrill gasps erupted from the noble onlookers lining the snow-dusted terrace.
Then came the deafening crash of freezing water.
The shock of the sub-zero pond slammed into my chest, squeezing every drop of air from my lungs.
The weight of our velvet winter gowns pulled us straight into the dark depths.
Dessie thrashed wildly, her arms flailing like a dying bird as her silken skirts tangled around her legs.
Even as she thrashed, her right hand remained locked around my left wrist, her nails tearing frantically at my silk cuff.
Her mouth opened in a silent scream under the water, bubbles bursting around her terrified, contorted face.
Unlike my past self, I did not scream, did not beg, did not leave a single mark on her. I stared back at her through the murky blue, cold and completely still.
Pain tore through my limbs, but my mind was clearer than it had ever been in my two lifetimes.
Above the surface, muffled shouts vibrated through the water.
"Someone help! The Richmond ladies have fallen in!"
Through the rippling surface, a familiar silhouette tore off his heavy velvet cloak on the bank.
Emory Lambert.
The newly crowned Champion Knight of the Grand Royal Trials, and my betrothed.
He dove into the water with a clean, powerful slice.
His eyes scanned the depths, searching desperately.
He looked right past my sinking form.
Without a single glance in my direction, Emory swam furiously toward Dessie, wrapping his strong arms around her waist to haul her toward the light.
A bitter, silent laugh bubbled in my throat.
He was supposed to be my promised mate by royal decree, yet his body reacted purely on instinct to save my illegitimate half-sister.
I let my limbs go limp, allowing the darkness of the pond to drag me downward.
I needed this.
I needed every high-ranking noble on that terrace to see him choose her over me.
Darkness began to creep into the edges of my vision.
My lungs burned for oxygen.
Then, the water exploded behind me.
A massive shockwave ripped through the freezing depths, stirring a violent current that pushed the weeds aside.
A shadow moved with terrifying, predatory speed.
Before I could even register the beast-like force tearing through the water, a pair of scalding, calloused hands locked onto my waist.
The grip was unyielding, made of pure steel.
I was yanked violently against a broad, rock-hard chest.
Even submerged in ice, the overwhelming scent of crushing cedar and raw, wild musk flooded my senses, piercing straight through the freezing haze in my mind.
It was the aura of a dominant, top-tier Alpha.
Yet the moment his skin touched mine, the suffocating pressure of his command miraculously softened, wrapping around my freezing body like an invisible shield.
I forced my heavy eyelids open.
Through the distorted water, I looked directly into a pair of piercing, golden-amber wolf eyes.
Gaines Moss.
The notorious young lord of the Moss Pack, heir to the northern iron legions, and widely feared across the capital as an uncontrollable, violent rogue Alpha.
There was no cruelty in his gaze.
Only a dark, frantic intensity that bordered on madness.
The moment my wet shoulder pressed against his collarbone, a sharp, electric jolt surged from his palm straight down my spine.
My frozen muscles trembled beneath the sheer heat of his touch.
Gaines's jaw tightened.
His arm banded around my waist with possessive force, pulling me flush against him as his powerful legs kicked against the current, launching us toward the surface like an arrow.
On the other side of the pond, Emory was already breaking through the surface with Dessie clutched tightly against his chest.
The freezing air hit my face in a violent rush as Gaines hauled me out of the water, his long fingers instinctively cradling the back of my head to shield me from the jagged marble edge.
The deafening roar of the royal court swept over us in an instant.
/0/8465/coverbig.jpg?v=7836b44945149a416769b2dacf953d24)
The Road to Understanding
How does being a lavishly spoiled child impact one's ability to function as an adult? It's an always-timely topic that Pollyanna author Eleanor H. Porter explores with insight and wit in the charming novel The Road to Understanding. As a boy, Burke Denby was showered with toys and sweets, and as a y
/0/2636/coverbig.jpg?v=d9a77c15cf400597ff41a64817cddadf)
The Road to Providence
"Now, child, be sure and don't mix 'em with a heavy hand! Lightness is expected of riz biscuits and had oughter be dealt out to 'em by the mixer from the start. Just this way - " "Mother, oh, Mother," came a perturbed hail in Doctor Mayberry's voice from the barn door, "Spangles is off the nest aga
/0/25132/coverbig.jpg?v=0709970bfecd1f5fe412002907769292)
The Road to Me
"If only I had said it and you knew... It would've been nice, right?" Right. If only. Opportunities lost become regrets... To witness your loved one tied to someone else is something beautiful but painful in the eyes of Lara Mae and Mico. The time they gradually realizing that they are no longe
/0/50995/coverbig.jpg?v=e850e58c39241cfcf3a1b857dc4591e2)
Road to Be the God
Lin Tian time-travel back to this strange world, where he is the son of the wealthiest family of Fengjian City, Beiyan Empire, an empire in Shifang Universe which appreciates martial cultivation. In this universe, there are ten layers of sky, each one connected with Portal of Time and Space. If one
/0/38700/coverbig.jpg?v=df81b8fd5ed781f1ae995c097879bcd5)
Road To Love
Young and newly widowed, Jim Mellon rebuilds an old motorcycle and starts on a journey of grief across the country. Along his route through the lower forty-eight states, he meets many beautiful women who change his life in many ways: his sexuality, love, career, and his deepest feelings about life.
/0/76092/coverbig.jpg?v=9e4e1d7d655982a79e63c795659a07ec)
Unbroken; A Road to Forever
Unbroken: A Road to Forever Military Romance • Powerful Heroine • Chronic‑illness Awareness Alia Edrees has spent her life beating the odds. Born with sickle‑cell disease in a Nigerian barracks, she fights pain with textbooks and turns every crisis into fuel for her dream of becoming a pharmacist.
/0/38304/coverbig.jpg?v=de1f39f63a3235ab98769b04a76b4912)
Royal Princess's Road to Revenge
A miscarriage of justice left her family devastated. She was reborn, back to ten years ago. She, the orphaned daughter of the Marquis House, changed her life against the gods. But somehow she got in the way of the Prince Regent, who had to steal her to be his princess? ........ Judie Brown: everyone
/0/82797/coverbig.jpg?v=518ab4350af019535634c0e95c2d7a46)
A Scholar's Fury: The Road to Justice
Jessica Peterson, my classmate and rival for that scholarship, smiled her fake bright smile and invited me on a weekend trip. I was top of my class, but finals had me wound tight, and a break sounded too good to pass up. One too-sweet soda later, everything went black. I woke up on a stained mattre
/0/4581/coverbig.jpg?v=2f7e549ceb5ed341414d1426102cb7da)
/0/1738/coverbig.jpg?v=20171122135739)
The Exeter Road
THIS, the fifth volume in a series of works purporting to tell the Story of the Great Roads, requires but few forewords; but occasion may be taken to say that perhaps greater care has been exercised than in preceding volumes to collect and put on record those anecdotes and floating traditions of the
/0/2320/coverbig.jpg?v=f470a8ff2f5de8f937730f13fcd625eb)
/0/15591/coverbig.jpg?v=82e6adc6a7b8879ab27f6fa98204a33d)
/0/44851/coverbig.jpg?v=20230903152504)
THE ROAD AHEAD
Jane and Michael, two people who have agreed to a marriage contract for a year, find themselves growing closer as the year goes on. As their feelings for each other deepen, they start to question whether or not they made the right decision. The story line: Jane and Michael's relationship evolves fro
/0/8464/coverbig.jpg?v=6e1ab4322a9f4472158ee23c1186f54b)
/0/2657/coverbig.jpg?v=b01a35797fbe1067cd5a87845fdae069)
/0/41956/coverbig.jpg?v=754477d3d85ac449024a531a1e9d031a)
Road to freedom: a motorcycle odyssey
Summary: Road to Freedom: A Motorcycle Odyssey Road to Freedom: A Motorcycle Odyssey is an epic tale of one man's quest for adventure and self-discovery as he embarks on a transformative motorcycle journey through breathtaking landscapes, encounters diverse characters, overcomes challenges, and ult
/0/6391/coverbig.jpg?v=7eb1d6e527d5b970fc0387c31edea503)
Bart Stirling's Road to Success; Or, The Young Express Agent
Allen Chapman was one of the many pseudonyms used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate to publish popular kids books.
/0/85225/coverbig.jpg?v=35d249ae3b7e3ccdae5da2219e4dbf2d)
The Road of A Unwanted Wife To Her True Home
The first time I saw proof of my husband' s affair, it wasn' t some hushed secret, but splashed across the internet for everyone to see. Grainy paparazzi photos showed Ethan Carter, the formidable head of Carter Industries, at a parent-child carnival, dressed in a ridiculous bear mascot costume, ho
/0/5795/coverbig.jpg?v=9f1b666458b707586a1c6890ed8bd26b)
The Friendly Road: New Adventures in Contentment
The Friendly Road: New Adventures in Contentment by David Grayson
/0/12888/coverbig.jpg?v=8888cccdc235395ac0c5d47a4de01460)
Drake's Road Book of the Grand Junction Railway
Drake's Road Book of the Grand Junction Railway by James Drake
