Far Apart, Safe at Last
During a snow-mountain expedition, an avalanche buried me alive. By the time they dug me out, the cold had already drained every last trace of warmth and life from my body.
Julian Crowe dug through the snow with his bare hands for ten straight hours. His fingers were torn and bleeding by the time he finally pulled me out. Then he chartered a private jet and rushed me to the most elite private hospital for emergency treatment.
Inside the thermal recovery chamber, a faint thread of consciousness returned to me. Through the haze, I heard Julian arguing with the doctor.
"Weren't we supposed to amputate just to save her life? Why are you draining all of her hematopoietic stem cells too? Mr. Crowe, you're personally destroying her last chance of survival!"
Julian's voice, usually so controlled, carried a chilling cruelty.
"Letting her live safely and comfortably until today is already the greatest mercy I've ever shown her. The only woman who will grow old with me is Serena Vale. And the only thing that can save Serena is her life. She owes Serena that much, and now it's time to repay it."
So the promise to live and die together had only been my own foolish fantasy.
Julian had married me, Stella Hart, for one reason only. To turn me into a walking blood bank for his precious mistress.
If that was the truth, then I would give them exactly what they wanted.
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Chapter 5
"Miss Hart, you finally reached out to us." A respectful, low male voice came through the phone.
I leaned against the cold wall. My voice was weak, yet unwavering.
"The plan moves up. Do it tomorrow, on the way to the nursing facility."
After ending the call, I pulled out the SIM card and tossed it into the nearby drain.
Early the next morning.
Julian's bodyguards roughly dragged me off the camp bed and shoved me into a black van.
"Sit still!" The bodyguard snarled the warning, then locked the door.
The van started and headed toward a private nursing facility on the outskirts of the city.
I leaned against the window, watching the scenery blur past outside.
The route ran along a steep mountain road.
Far below roared the rushing Azurecliff River.
The radio inside the van was playing the morning news.
"Today, Julian Crowe, president of Crowe Group, announced that he will host a grand banquet next week. The event will also reveal his engagement to his childhood sweetheart, Ms. Serena Vale. Sources say Mr. Crowe has already finalized an amicable divorce from his former wife."
The bodyguard snorted and shot me a mocking look through the rearview mirror.
"You hear that? Mr. Crowe is about to marry Ms. Vale. A discarded ex-wife like you should get used to life in that facility. You'll just be their little blood-drawing machine."
I ignored his mockery and simply watched the curve ahead.
Just as the van was about to enter the sharpest U-shaped bend.
A massive cargo truck suddenly swerved out of the opposite lane, completely out of control.
The shriek of brakes tore through the air.
The harsh sound echoed across the valley.
The bodyguard panicked and jerked the steering wheel wildly, but it was already too late.
A violent crash exploded around us.
The impact sent the whole world spinning.
The van smashed through the guardrail and hung over the edge of the cliff.
The front of the van was crushed. The bodyguard slumped over the wheel, blood covering his face.
The vehicle swayed dangerously, ready to plunge into the abyss at any moment.
I calmly unfastened my seatbelt.
From my pocket, I pulled out the surgical blade I had hidden long ago.
Without hesitation, I slashed it hard across my wrist.
Blood burst out instantly, splattering across the window and the seats.
I took off the hospital gown soaked with my blood and hung it on the van's door handle.
Then I pushed open the door on the other side and leapt into the bushes below.
A few seconds later.
A thunderous explosion erupted.
The van finally lost its balance, rolling off the cliff and plunging into the Azurecliff River with a deafening explosion.
Flames shot into the sky as thick smoke billowed upward.
Hidden among the bushes, I lay flat on the ground and watched the blazing inferno below.
Julian's blood slave was dead.
From this moment on, Stella Hart no longer existed in this world.
......
President's Office, Crowe Group.
Julian was personally selecting jewelry for Serena's birthday banquet.
The phone on his desk suddenly began vibrating violently.
He answered the call, frowning slightly.
"What is it?"
The terrified voice of the head bodyguard came through the line.
"Mr. Crowe, something terrible happened! The vehicle transporting Miss Hart crashed on the mountain road and exploded after falling into the river!"
Julian's hand jerked violently. The priceless diamond necklace slipped from his fingers and fell onto the desk.
He shot to his feet, his voice rising sharply.
"What did you just say? Where is Stella? Where is she!"
The captain's voice trembled with panic.
"The vehicle burned down to a shell, and the river current is too strong… All we recovered on the rocks downstream was a blood-stained hospital gown… and—"
Julian yanked his tie loose, breathing hard.
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9.0
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Rain spent years loving Colt Walden, surviving every breakup and betrayal with the hope that one day he'd finally choose her. Instead, he shatters her world by announcing his engagement-to the woman he always claimed was his cousin.
Drunk on heartbreak and fury, Rain finds herself in the arms of Rhysand-magnetic, dangerous, and nothing like her ex. One reckless night turns into chaos when she learns the truth: Rhysand is Colt's estranged older brother.
Her past and future collide.
Rhysand wants more than a mistake. More than one night. He wants her. Entirely. Obsessively. Permanently.
And he's not afraid to say it.
Colt, realizing what he's lost, suddenly wants her back.
Now Rain is caught between the man who broke her for years...
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One offers familiarity.
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Rain must choose which brother she'll walk toward-
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9.5
Reyna has one mission... And it is definitely not falling for the guy who ruined her best friend's life.
Reyna Davidson is twenty and torn when her best friend, Varna Soni's heart gets broken by Grentwood's hockey-star-playboy, Evander Gabriel.
His betrayal sparks a chain effect, driving Varna into drugs, and eventually, psychiatric hospitalization.
Reyna, overtaken by grief and anger, sets her vengeful eyes on Evander.
She transfers to Grentwood College, armed with one mission: Get close, make him fall, then crush his heart until it bleeds and he feels the pain Varna felt.
But things take a dark turn when she starts to see cracks beneath Evander's perfect playboy mask.
And she becomes the target of a psychopathic girl who is obsessed with him.
With growing feelings, a mentally ill best friend, and the psychopath, Reyna is about to discover that there is more to her mission... than revenge.
7.1
The captain is dead to the world. And I'm the only one holding the kill switch.
Ethan Carter, the "Glacier of Silvercrest," was the most feared Alpha to ever step onto the ice. Now, he's nothing but a shell-a broken, comatose legend trapped in his own body.
My life? It was supposed to be simple. Graduate, survive the pack's bottom-tier status, and pay off my father's ruinous blood-debts. Instead, the pack elders handed me a contract soaked in cold, hard malice: I am the designated "Stabilizer." My only job is to touch him, scent him, and keep his wolf from flatlining.
I thought I was just a glorified nurse. I didn't realize the Alpha was listening.
When Ethan finally wakes, he isn't the hero the Kingdom of Valeria remembers. He's a starving predator with amber eyes that burn holes through my defenses and a temperament that makes the frost in the mansion seem warm. He hates the bargain, he hates the pack, and-most dangerously-he hates the way his scent turns wild whenever I'm near.
He wants me out of his sight. I want to be out of his reach.
But in a pack built on secrets, someone is still trying to finish the job they started on his life. Now, the man who wants me gone is the only one who can protect me. And as the rink turns into a battlefield, I'm realizing the most dangerous thing about the Alpha isn't his temper... it's the fact that once he claims a mate, he doesn't know how to let go.
Frozen hearts are meant to shatter. But in the fire of this pack, we're both going to burn.
9.8
I was an arrogant, canceled reality TV star, trying to salvage my ruined reputation on a live broadcast.
But after I lost my temper and assaulted a cameraman, my furious grandfather chased me into our family's forbidden gallery, where I accidentally crashed into an ancient, sealed portrait.
The canvas shattered, and a terrifying woman with glowing golden eyes stepped out of the wall.
She was Cecil, the First Matriarch of the Marshall family. She caught a lightning bolt with her bare hands and crushed me to my knees with an invisible, suffocating pressure.
My grandfather, instead of saving me, groveled on the floor and abandoned me to her mercy.
"You are the disgrace that will end this family."
She hijacked my entire life, forcing me to act as her submissive baggage handler on my own survival reality show, broadcasting my humiliation to millions.
I didn't understand why this ancient monster was tormenting me. Why did she strip away my pride, treat me like a broken tool, and force me to endure the mockery of the very ex-girlfriend who had ruined my life?
But when those same cast members tried to corner me in the dark woods, Cecil stepped in front of me, her eyes locking onto the silver ring of the man mocking me.
"To catch the wolf, one must sometimes walk with the sheep."
That was when I realized she wasn't here to destroy me—she was here to hunt the parasites who had been secretly siphoning away my life force.
7.7
Whispered secrets. Shared bodies. No regrets.
Some secrets are too hot to keep quiet. Naughty Confessions pulls back the curtain on the private fantasies we only dare to admit in the dark. This compilation is a raw, unfiltered journey through the moments where "too much" is never enough-a collection guaranteed to leave you soaked with heat or hard as a rock from the very first chapter.
Every page is a deliberate provocation, designed to push your pulse to the limit and keep you on the edge of total release.
9.2
I woke up suffocating in the dark, only to find my mind trapped inside a tiny, plump, and entirely uncoordinated body.
A cold, mechanical voice echoed in my brain, announcing that I was dead in my original world and had transmigrated into a corporate revenge novel as the six-month-old illegitimate daughter of Edward McClure, the story's ruthless villain.
The system mercilessly outlined my doomed fate. Tonight, my cold-blooded father would abandon me to a state orphanage. By age two, he would officially sign my rights away, leaving me to die miserably at the hands of human traffickers. Outside my nursery, I could hear his terrifying footsteps approaching, his voice devoid of any human warmth as he debated throwing me out like garbage. I was completely helpless, trapped in a baby's body, staring up at a man who looked at me with pure, visceral disgust.
Why did I have to be reborn as the tragic cannon fodder of a tyrant destined to put a bullet in his own head? How was I supposed to win over a severe germaphobe when my unequipped infant reflexes made me literally pee and vomit all over his pristine Tom Ford suits?
"Your ultimate mission is to prevent Edward McClure's self-destruction. Step one: Survive tonight's abandonment crisis."
Hearing the system's terrifying ultimatum, I swallowed my adult panic, forced a pool of pitiful tears into my large eyes, and reached my chubby little hands toward the monster.