Daddy's Pet
I saw him first. I knew him first. I loved him first, but here he is being introduced to me as my new step-dad.
How could this happen? How could he end up married to my mother, the one person I can't possibly steal him from and yet...
Now that I'm no longer an eighteen year old child and he isn't my teacher, lines are beginning to cross.
What do I possibly do with this desire and guilt that keeps overlapping and why is it when I try my best to keep my distance he keeps pulling me in?
It feels so wrong and yet it feels so right, will I be able to ignore this longing or will I want him to hold me tight?
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Chapter 6
[Rue's POV]
Before I can even process what is happening, Mr. Owens is moving, grabbing the guy holding my wrist by the collar and then swinging so his fist connects with the guy's face again.
"Tell me," he growls, landing another blow. "What exactly did you plan on doing to her?"
"I..." the man gasps. "I was..."
He doesn't get to finish his words before Mr. Owens hits him again and again, and when I'm certain that the guy is unconscious, I wrap my arms around his to stop him from landing another blow.
"Mr. Owens!" I hiss as he fits against my hold. "Mr. Owens!" I repeat more strongly. "LEO!" I scream, and to my surprise, he stops and looks my way. "That's enough."
As I speak, I look toward the guy who is dangling by Mr. Owens' hand, and it is clear that he won't be waking up any time soon.
"You've done enough," I say slowly. "We should head back."
I wasn't quite certain how he managed to show up at the time that he did, but didn't that mean that my mother was all alone somewhere?
"I'm sure Mom is waiting for you."
Growing quiet, I wait while Mr. Owens stares at me and then at the man in his hand, and when he releases him, I feel a wave of relief, at least until Mr. Owens' gaze narrows and I realize that I'm about to be on the receiving end of his wrath.
"HOW COULD YOU DO SOMETHING SO STUPID?" He roars, his voice echoing around us, and the remaining two guys grab their buddy and haul ass. "YOU'RE AN ADULT NOW! YOU NEED TO START ACTING LIKE IT!"
Opening my mouth, I prepare to argue but stop as memories from the past start to surface, and I realize what could be stirring some of his anger.
After he found me trapped outside in the rain that one time, he found me a few more times in similar situations.
Each time he would always do the same thing of bringing me to his class and making me hot chocolate.
Once I had my drink in hand, he would sit and listen if I was willing to talk.
Most of the time, I wasn't, but a few times I admitted what was going on, and when I would tell him about the bullying, he would always ask why I never did anything about it.
At the time my mother was busy enough with work and raising me, so I didn't want to add to her worries, and I knew if I went and told the teachers, I was certain that the friends of my bullies would just come after me.
When I would explain that to him, he would still preach about speaking up and finding someone to help me instead of enduring.
"HAVE YOU STILL NOT LEARNED ANYTHING?" He continues now, in the present, and not in the past. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TRY TO FIND HELP?"
"I did," I counter, a small smile beginning to form on my face from the sheer relief I felt from his being there for me like in the past. "But there was no one around."
"No one around," he repeats with a scoff. "If there is no one around, then you run, understand?"
"Sure," I sigh. "Next time I find myself in a predicament like this, I will run."
"There shouldn't be a next time." He counters. "Now, let me see you. Are you hurt anywhere? Did they do anything to you?"
As he speaks, his hands gently touch my face, my neck, and my arms, and his dark yet bright gaze takes me in, and when they come to rest on my knees that are scraped and bloody, he shifts them in the direction the guys went.
"I'm fine," I tell him. "Just a small scrape. I won't die from that."
"Maybe," he agrees. "But you're still hurt."
"I'll be fine. I can clean and bandage it when we get back."
Nodding, Mr. Owens lets out a long breath and runs his hand through his hair, and when he drops it, I realize that there is blood on it.
"Forget about me!" I gasp, reaching out and grabbing the hand. "You're hurt."
As I speak, I let my gaze travel over the scrapes and bruises on his hand, and it takes everything in me not to go after the guys myself.
"I'm fine," he chuckles, pulling his hand free and then ruffling my hair. "Come on, let's get back before your mom sends out a search party for us."
"Yeah."
Although I know that he is right and I should want to go back so that my mother sees I'm fine, I can't help but hate that this moment with Mr. Owens is over.
Selfish. The small voice in the back of my head says, and I know that it is right.
I was being selfish when it came to a man that wasn't mine and yet...
Let me be selfish just for a bit longer.
"Ah!" I gasp as I take a step forward and then stumble, so Mr. Owens is left catching me.
Where his hands touch comes alive with a delicious energy, and I find myself wishing that he would touch me more.
"What's wrong?" He asks, eyeing me. "Didn't you say you weren't hurt?"
"It's my ankle." I tell him, hoping beyond hope that he couldn't tell I was pretending. "It really hurts."
"Your ankle," he repeats. "Here, let me see."
Gasping, I watch as he drops to a knee in front of me and then gently starts to touch my ankles. When he finishes, he lifts his gaze to mine, and I feel my heart flutter frantically.
"They don't seem to be sprained." He says. "But does it hurt too bad to walk?"
"Y-yeah," I breathe, trying to calm down. "I think so."
Dammit, Rue. I hiss inwardly, hating myself for acting like this. Clearly I watched too many damn dramas, and now I was trying to pretend that I was one of the heroines in them.
"Then I guess there isn't any other choice." He says, turning and presenting his back to me. "Climb on."
For a moment, I don't speak as I stare at his broad back and then get a glimpse of a tattoo behind his hair.
I wonder what it is. I think, slowly moving so I can wrap my arms around his neck while his arms wrap around my legs and lift me.
"Just bear with it till we get back." He tells me. "I know that this must be uncomfortable for you."
On the contrary. I respond silently. If anything, this is probably the best feeling in the world to me right now.
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9.8
Ina Holman, heiress to a failing real estate empire, was forced to attend a high-stakes matchmaking meeting to secure a financial lifeline for her family.
But the drink she was handed was secretly spiked. Desperate to avoid a public scandal that would ruin her father, she fled into a VIP elevator, only to fall directly into the arms of Buren Warner—the most ruthless billionaire predator on Wall Street.
After a blurred, chaotic night, the nightmare truly began.
A fabricated scandal of her hotel rendezvous hit the front pages. Her father slapped her across the face, using the disgrace as an excuse to freeze her accounts and kick her out onto the streets, legally severing her from the family trust before declaring bankruptcy.
Even worse, her twin sister was killed in a sudden estate explosion.
And the final, crushing blow? Ina discovered that her ex-boyfriend, Faron, the man supposed to save her family, was secretly gay. He and her best friend had orchestrated the drugging to destroy Ina's reputation, allowing Faron to break their alliance and keep his inheritance without suspicion.
Stripped of her home, her family, and her dignity, Ina screamed in agony on the freezing streets.
Her own father had murdered her sister for a fifty-million-dollar insurance payout and sacrificed Ina to hide his assets. The people she trusted most had conspired to ruin her life just for their own selfish greed.
Driven into a corner with absolutely nothing left to lose, Ina stared at the cold, calculating billionaire who had tracked her down to an abandoned cliffside estate.
"Marry me, and I will give you the power to destroy them all."
To avenge her sister and crush the people who betrayed her, Ina signed her soul to the devil.
8.6
I was the youngest Paladin in history, the absolute pride of the Azure Blade.
But after a disastrous mission in the snow, I was falsely accused of slaughtering my own squad.
Grand Master Bernardo Rowe didn't just exile me; he surgically severed my connection to the magic Aether, turning me into a crippled mortal.
Desperate to survive, I tried to climb the Holy Stairs to reclaim my legendary sword, "Rebellion."
Instead of answering my call, my own blade shrieked in absolute rejection and blasted me down the thousand stone steps.
My bones snapped like dry twigs, and I was left in a pool of my own blood.
The pilgrims laughed at me. The guards declared me a lost cause and left me to rot in the dirt.
I should have died there, betrayed by the Order and the holy magic I once served.
But a silent, massive laborer named Cato Sims dragged my mangled body into the shadows.
He healed my shattered skeleton in mere days with impossible skill, yet he allowed lowly servants to spit on him and beat him just to keep my presence hidden.
I didn't understand why my holy sword had abandoned me, and I understood even less why this stranger was protecting a condemned criminal.
When I finally snapped and demanded to know his price for saving my life, he didn't ask for money or my body.
"The mountain does not forget its debts. I am reclaiming what was taken from it."
Staring into his unyielding eyes, I realized my exile wasn't the end, but the beginning of a terrifying truth.
8.5
"Bride by day, prey by night."
When Raven Dierna's forced to pose as a bride for Caravia's feral wolf prince, Eilís. He thinks it's a death sentence. But Raven's caught in a brewing storm between humans and werewolves with Eilís's dark half, lurking in the shadows. As Raven navigates the treacherous royal court, hiding his true sex and avoiding deadly secrets, he finds himself entangled in Eilís's struggle. Raven's survival hinges on his wits and the forbidden pull between them.
Eilís Caravia, a werewolf prince, grapples with the beast within, torn between duty and desire as family pressures mount and Caravia's stability hangs by a thread. Forced to wed a human, Eilís finds himself entangled in a web of forbidden attraction and deadly secrets. As alliances shift and loyalties are tested, Eilís must confront his dark half, and make a choice that could save or shatter his kingdom and his heart.
9.4
Michael Carter is an undercover FBI agent on a mission to take down ruthless mafia king Fernando Ramírez-the man he believes killed his sister. But getting close to Fernando means playing a dangerous game, one where seduction and power blur the lines between enemy and lover.
When Michael uncovers a shocking truth, his thirst for revenge turns into a fight for something far more dangerous-his own heart. Now, torn between duty and desire, he must decide: destroy the man he swore to take down or surrender to the one thing he never saw coming.
Love has never been more lethal.
7.2
SYNOPSIS:
"I spent ten years scrubbing your floors, Greene. Tonight, you'll scrub mine."
Elara Vance has always been the pride the Republic until she ran away from home, fell in love with Greene Jones, a man who treated her like dirt and discarded her like she was never the girl the entire Republic feared because of her strong dominating pheromones.
Now she's back after twelve years to serve revenge to Greene Jones like a hot dish in a way that he will pay for every act meted out on her for twelve years. But things wasn't going to go as planned as she meets Silas, the handsome bulky head of her father's security but a recessive omega of her past that she has totally forgotten but now wears a new stance as her bodyguard, recognized by the entire republic as an Alpha, and her perfect chosen mate, Calvin; ruining the comeback and revenge she planned out for herself and now she has to think about saving and claiming her mate, Silas while navigating and protecting the seat meant for her.
The real question becomes; will Calvin ever allow her take all it took him twelve years to build?
THEME: The true definition of power. Is it found in the biological dominance of an Alpha, or in the resilience of an Omega who survived in the lion's den?
8.2
Karmen lived suffocating under a tight chest binder and a grotesque silicone scar, forced to disguise herself as her degenerate twin brother, Kem. Her only job was to maintain a fake corporate engagement with the ruthless billionaire Earl Calderon.
But her abusive father suddenly escalated his demands. He ordered her to steal Earl's revolutionary AI patents, threatening to cut off her mother's life-saving medical trust and abandon the real Kem in a locked Swiss psych ward if she failed.
The task was a death sentence. Earl absolutely despised "Kem." He treated her like a repulsive parasite, constantly threatening to break her neck. When he accidentally caught her without her wig, he mistook her for a deranged cross-dresser, forcing her to glue the dirty fake scar back onto her raw, inflamed face in sheer disgust. At home, her father hurled glass ashtrays at her, violently yanking her collar.
"Do whatever you have to do in that bedroom, Kem. I don't care how disgusting it is. Just get the signature."
Trapped between a fiancé who loathed her very existence and a father ready to sacrifice their family for greed, Karmen endured the agonizing physical pain of her disguise. She was exhausted, terrified, and running out of time as her brother's life hung by a thread.
But they all underestimated her. When the Calderon matriarch forced Earl to link his ultra-secure private phone with "Kem" to fake their romance, she unwittingly handed over the master key. Karmen wasn't just a helpless victim; she was the elite hacker Nyx, and she was going to tear their empire apart from the inside.