Caught Between Two Brothers ( love triangle)
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She thought patience would earn her love.
She was wrong.
After years of waiting for her best friend to finally see her, she meets the one man she should never want-his older brother. Dark, forbidden, and dangerously perceptive, he sees through every excuse she's ever made for being overlooked.
Now she must choose between a safe fantasy that keeps breaking her heart and a dangerous truth that offers no escape once it begins.
Because the brother who looks at her like that?
He doesn't believe in halfway love.
Caught Between Two Brothers ( love triangle) Chapter 1
The text message was three words long, but it felt like a detonator.
I need you. I didn't check the time. I didn't grab a jacket, even though the October air in Seattle was sharp enough to draw blood. I just ran. I had been running toward Ethan Vale for six years, through his promotions, his depressions, and his endless cycle of beautiful, hollow women who treated his heart like a seasonal accessory.
I was the constant. The "safe" girl. The one who held the umbrella while he stood in the rain for someone else.
As my tires screeched into his luxury apartment complex, my heart hammered a frantic rhythm against my ribs. This is it, I thought, a desperate, shameful hope blooming in the center of my chest. The toxicity is over. Claire is gone. Now, he'll see me. Finally, he'll see that the person who loves him most has been standing right here.
I used the spare key, the one he'd given me four years ago "for emergencies", and burst through the door.
"Ethan?"
The penthouse smelled of expensive bourbon and ruin. It looked like a war zone. A crystal decanter had been shattered against the floor-to-ceiling window, the amber liquid weeping down the glass like blood. Designer furniture was overturned, and silk pillows were torn.
In the center of the wreckage sat Ethan.
He was slumped against the mahogany bar, his head in his hands. He looked small. This man, who commanded boardrooms and turned heads in every room he entered, looked like a broken child.
"Maya?" His voice was a rasp, thick with liquor and grief.
"I'm here." I was across the room in seconds, dropping to my knees in the glass-strewn carpet. I didn't care about my jeans; I only cared about the way his shoulders shook. "Ethan, talk to me. What happened?"
"She's gone," he choked out, finally looking up. His blue eyes were bloodshot, his golden hair a chaotic mess. "She called me... she called me emotionally dead, Maya. She said I don't know how to love. She said I'm just a hollow suit."
"She's wrong," I whispered, reaching out to cup his face. My thumbs brushed away the salt of his tears. "She never understood you. Not like I do."
He leaned into my touch, a desperate, seeking movement that made my breath hitch. For a second, the air between us charged. I could see the reflection of my own yearning in his pupils. I thought, Kiss me. Realize it's me. Realize the search is over.
But he didn't kiss me. He collapsed forward, burying his face in the crook of my neck, sobbing into my skin.
I spent the next three hours in caretaker mode, a role I had mastered to a fault. I cleaned the glass so he wouldn't cut his feet. I made him tea he didn't drink. I eventually managed to steer him to the sofa, where he clung to my hand like a life raft.
"Don't leave," he murmured, his eyelids fluttering shut.
"I'm not going anywhere," I promised.
As he drifted into a drunken stupor, his weight heavy against my side, I allowed myself one moment of weakness. I leaned down and pressed a soft, lingering kiss to his forehead.
"I love you, Ethan," I whispered into the silence of the room. "I've always loved you."
I stayed there, anchored by his weight, until my own eyes grew heavy. I fell into a light, restless sleep, dreaming of a version of Ethan that finally turned around and reached for me.
5:00 AM.
A cold draft sliced through the room, snapping me awake.
The apartment was still dark, save for the blue-gray pre-dawn light filtering through the windows. My neck was stiff, and Ethan was dead to the world, snoring softly against my shoulder. I started to shift, intending to adjust the blanket I'd thrown over us, when I froze.
I wasn't alone.
A silhouette stood in the archway of the kitchen, framed by the shadow of the hallway. He was motionless, a dark monolith that seemed to absorb what little light remained in the room.
My heart did a slow, terrified roll in my chest. "Ethan?" I whispered, even though I knew the man beside me hadn't moved.
The figure stepped forward.
The floorboards didn't creak. He moved with a predatory silence that made the hair on my arms stand up. As he entered the gray light of the living room, I realized this wasn't Ethan.
He was taller. Broader. Where Ethan was golden and polished, this man was iron and grit. He wore a black tactical jacket and dark jeans, and as he stepped closer, I saw the ink-dark, intricate tattoos that climbed up the tanned column of his throat and disappeared under his jaw. A jagged, thin scar traced a line from the corner of his left eye down to his cheekbone.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked.
His voice wasn't a rasp like Ethan's. It was a low, vibrating growl that seemed to rattle the very bones in my chest.
I scrambled up, nearly dumping the sleeping Ethan onto the floor. I felt disheveled, my heart racing, my "emergency" dress wrinkled and stained with Ethan's tears.
"I'm Maya," I snapped, trying to find my voice through the sudden surge of adrenaline. "I'm Ethan's friend. I have a key. Who are you? How did you get in here?"
The man stopped three feet away. He didn't look at the mess in the room. He didn't look at his sleeping brother.
He looked at me.
His eyes were a storm-cloud gray, so piercing and perceptive that I felt suddenly, violently naked. It wasn't a sexual look; it was a diagnostic one. He was stripping away my layers, reading the desperation in my posture and the puffiness of my eyes.
"Friend, huh?" he said. His lips curved into a slow, knowing smile that didn't reach his eyes. "The kind of 'friend' who sits in the dark and waits for the scraps?"
The blood rushed to my face. "Excuse me?"
"I'm Cade Blackwood," he said, ignoring my indignation. He tossed a set of heavy keys onto the bar, the same bar Ethan had destroyed. "I'm his brother. I just got back from overseas."
Blackwood. I'd heard the name whispered by Ethan's parents in hushed, ashamed tones. The black sheep. The one who went into the military and never came back. The one they said was "too much like his grandfather."
"Ethan never said you were coming," I managed to say, clutching the back of the sofa.
Cade stepped even closer, invading my personal space. He smelled of rain, tobacco, and something metallic-like spent shell casings. He looked down at Ethan, then back at me, his gaze lingering on the way I was still subconsciously trying to shield his brother.
"He wouldn't," Cade said. "Ethan only remembers things that are useful to him."
He reached out. I flinched, but he wasn't touching me. He picked up a stray lock of my hair that had fallen over my shoulder, his rough, scarred fingers grazing my skin for a fraction of a second. An electric shock, sharp and terrifying, bolted through my system.
"You've been here all night," he noted, his voice dropping an octave. "Cleaning his mess. Holding his hand. Hoping that when the sun comes up, he'll realize you're the prize he's been looking for."
"You don't know anything about me," I whispered, my voice trembling with a mix of fury and fear.
Cade leaned down, his face inches from mine. I could see the flecks of silver in his gray eyes.
"I know enough, Maya," he murmured. "I know the look of a woman who's been starving for a man who's already full of himself."
He straightened up, his shadow looming over both of us.
"Go home, Maya. He's not going to wake up and suddenly see you. Men like Ethan don't see the air they breathe, they just take it for granted until they start to suffocate."
"He needs me," I insisted, though it sounded weak even to my own ears.
Cade turned toward the kitchen, his movements fluid and dangerous. Over his shoulder, he threw one last look that felt like a brand.
"He doesn't need you. He needs an audience. And you? You need a wake-up call."
He walked away, leaving me standing in the wreckage of his brother's life, the echo of his words stripping away the last of my "safe" fantasy.
My hand went to my throat, where the air still felt charged from his presence. Ethan was my past, my six-year habit, my safe harbor.
But Cade? Cade Blackwood was a landslide.
And I was standing right at the bottom of the hill.
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Caught Between Two Brothers ( love triangle) of Contents
Chapter 1 Ch. 1Chapter 2 Ch. 2Chapter 3 Ch. 3Chapter 4 Ch. 4Chapter 5 Ch. 5Chapter 6 Ch. 6
Chapter 7 Ch. 7
Chapter 8 Ch. 8
Chapter 9 Ch. 9
Chapter 10 Ch. 10
Chapter 11 Ch. 11
All Chapters all
New Release Novels
7.3
I found out my husband of three years had cheated on me and his mistress is the one who told me-because he didn't have the balls to do it himself.
I move out and get a new apartment, a job as a bartender, and try to move on with a broken heart. I wonder where it all went wrong, if I hadn't been enough for him, if I'd been stupid for marrying him in the first place.
I'm at work one night when he walks inside-the most beautiful man I've ever seen. He sits at the bar and a forest fire burns between us. I was depressed the moment before he entered, but the second I look at his blue eyes, I forget the dumpster fire that my life has become. I invite him back to my place and it's the most passionate night of my life. I expect to never see him again.
I just want him as an anti-depressant-but he wants me all to himself. I just got my heart ripped out of my chest so I want something easy and no-strings-attached, but he wants all the strings because he's hooked.
I don't get much of a say in the matter, and that's not surprising when I learn why-because he's the Butcher. The crime lord of all crime lords, the boss that overshadows all of Paris, that makes everyone abide by his rules-or pay.
And now I'm his.
8.1
Elinor's frail daughter, Cece, died in a sterile hospital room while waiting for her father to take her to Disney World.
But her billionaire husband, Derick, never showed up. At the exact moment Cece's heart monitor flatlined, the hospital TV broadcasted Derick affectionately holding the hand of his mistress and he has booked a clearance of the entire Disneyland to celebrate mistress's daughter's birthday!.
When Elinor confronted Derick with their daughter's ashes, he sneered and accused her of hiding the child just to get his attention. Elinor's heart was torn to shreds. How could a father be so blind and ruthless? Did Kamryn use his power to steal the very kidney that belonged to Cece? Why did her innocent baby have to die for their sick affair?
The suffocating grief inside Elinor finally crystallized into a sharp blade. She wiped the blood from her lips, canceled the simple divorce, and began her ruthless revenge.
9.1
Waking up with a cold, scaly hand wrapped around my throat wasn't the worst part.
The worst part was realizing I'd transmigrated into the body of Terra Mason—the most despised woman in the entire Enclave. She drugged high-level beast-men and forced them into life-binding bio-contracts. She locked an aquatic warrior in a dry basement until his organs failed. She treated the most lethal males in the city like broken toys.
Zev, the Level 6 serpent who's currently choking me, would rather blow up his own heart than spend another day as my slave. His affection metric? Negative ninety. His trust? Zero.
Then my system activates: the Kore AI. It gives me exactly 500 credits, a medical nano-gel, and a recipe for neutralizing the radioactive poison in mutant meat. Real food. In this world, that's worth more than gold.
I save Rhys, the dying aquatic male everyone left for dead. I season a slab of purple mutant steak until Sam, a battle-scarred grizzly shifter, groans at the taste—and his trust points finally tick above zero. When my backstabbing ex-best friend tries to steal my males and destroy me, I don't scream or throw a tantrum like the old Terra. I dismantle her with the truth.
But earning their trust means more than grilling meat. A scorpion swarm ambushes us at midnight. Sam throws himself between me and a stinger the size of my arm. As he stands over the corpse, fur receding from his claws, he stares at me and whispers, "You were testing me."
Yes. I was. Because in this world, the weak don't survive. And I refuse to be weak again.
Four beast-men. Four contracts. One system. And a whole lot of steak. Let this dystopian wasteland know—I'm not the monster they remember. I'm worse. I'm the one who's going to feed them until they'd kill for me.
7.5
Ivy is the last heir of the fallen Highmoor Pack. At sixteen, she entered Silvercrest Pack by a blood contract and became the partner of Alpha heir Julian. For three years, she was loyal and silent, but never loved.
In a crisis, Julian abandoned her and chose Selena. Heartbroken, Ivy insisted on ending the contract. She refused Julian's gifts and threats, determined to regain freedom.
When Ivy was attacked, silver-eyed Silas Blackwood saved her. He is the powerful Lycan King, above all Alphas.
Ivy's wolf awakened and recognized Silas as her real fated mate.
Escaping Julian's control, Ivy broke free from her painful past. Protected by the Lycan King, she regained dignity and strength.
The abandoned Luna finally rises, embracing her true destiny and love.
9.8
Erica Murphy had spent three years rotting in a freezing prison cell.
She thought she was serving time for a tragic accident, but the truth was much darker. Her husband, Colten, had framed her for his mistress's drunk hit-and-run, stolen her fortune, and left her to take the fall.
The day Erica was finally released, a speeding car intentionally slammed into her, shattering her spine. As she lay dying on the emergency room table, flatlining on the monitor, Colten and his pregnant mistress didn't come to save her. Instead, they tossed a stack of divorce papers onto her bloody hospital blanket. They wanted her to sign away her last remaining shares and take on thirty million dollars of toxic corporate debt.
"Sign it," Colten demanded coldly, looking at her crushed body with utter disgust. "Consider this the last bit of dignity I'm giving you."
The original Erica died right there, suffocating in despair and betrayal, unable to understand how the man she loved could be so monstrous.
But when the flatline on the monitor suddenly spiked and her eyes snapped open, the traumatized victim was gone.
Replaced by the cold, calculating consciousness of a future special ops commander. With microscopic nanobots rapidly fusing her shattered bones together, Erica picked up the pen, preparing to burn Colten's entire empire to ashes.
9.0
Isolde woke up in a freezing, ruined stone house with a splitting headache and only five percent of her life signs remaining.
Before she could even process the mechanical system voice in her head, a flood of violent memories slammed into her.
She had transmigrated into the body of a cruel noblewoman who mercilessly tortured her beastmen husbands with a barbed whip.
And right now, she was lying in a pool of her own blood, having been shoved against the stone floor by one of them.
Outside the rickety door, her husbands were coldly discussing her death.
"Just go in and finish her. One stab, and we're free."
"If she hit her head and died on her own, then it's an accident. We walk out of here as free males."
To test if she was faking her sudden amnesia, the snake beastman Dangelo even ground his heavy military boot into her injured hand, waiting for her to snap so he could legally end her.
She was poisoned, freezing, and entirely at the mercy of the men who deeply despised her.
She was bearing the deadly consequences of a monster she never was, with a red system warning of imminent death flashing in her mind.
But they didn't know the new Isolde had awakened a survival system and Life Magic.
She swore a blood oath to the Beast God to buy herself three months of time.
Then, she turned her sights to the dying wolf beastman chained in the shed, deciding to pull him back from hell to become her very first shield.
