From Bait to Queen: The Rejected Mate's Destiny

For three years, Avery Woods lived a lie. Trapped in a high-stakes psychological "simulation" designed by her own father, she was forced to endure the life of a discarded trophy wife, scrubbing floors and suffering in silence to temper her mind into a weapon. When the simulation shattered, Avery emerged as the Sovereign-the most experienced CEO in human history, having lived twenty years of strategic warfare in a matter of months. She tore down her father's global conglomerate, erased the world's digital memories, and sought a quiet life in the shadows. But you cannot delete a god. Now, a year after the "Great Erasure," the world has gone dark, but the connection remains. Four hundred million people are syncing up through a biological "Chorus," using their own neural pathways to rebuild a decentralized, inescapable Hive Mind. At its center is Mila, a child who is more code than flesh, and the only anchor strong enough to stabilize a new reality. From the high-tech bunkers of Moscow to the hallucination-filled "Dead Zone" of the Sahara, Avery and her protector-assassin, Julian Vane, must race to stop the Chorus before it rewrites the physical world. The satellites are dead. The servers are gone. But the Silence is screaming.

When Rielle Morven is betrayed by her boyfriend and sold at an illegal werewolf auction to pay off his debts, she expects her life is over. But the male who buys her for five million dollars isn't a werewolf alpha, he's something far more dangerous. Caspian Valdyr is a lycan king with a reputation for violence and a hunger for control. He doesn't just want Rielle's body, he wants to claim her soul through an unbreakable mate bond that will tie them together forever. But Rielle carries a secret in her blood that makes her worth more than gold to the wrong people. When a fifty-million-dollar bounty is placed on her head, Caspian must decide: return her to the monsters who want to breed her like livestock, or go to war to keep what he's claimed as his. In a world where power is everything and mercy is weakness, Rielle discovers that being owned by a beast might be her only path to freedom. But freedom comes with a price, and Caspian's claiming bite will mark her as his for eternity. One auction. One bite. One bond that will either save them both or destroy everything. A fast-paced, high-heat dark romance featuring an obsessive anti-hero, a heroine discovering her hidden power, explosive chemistry, and absolutely no holding back.

A visceral, survival-focused expedition. The title itself is a location-a treacherous, living mountain range-promising a battle against a brutal, awe-inspiring natural world

I was never supposed to step into his world. I was just a daughter trying to survive the wreckage of a father's mistakes. A quiet girl living a small, careful life-until one night shattered everything I thought I knew about fear, power, and possession. They say the mafia doesn't forgive. They say debts are paid in blood. They never warned me that sometimes, the price is a woman. Luciano De Luca. The name alone makes men lower their voices and avert their eyes. A king without a crown. A devil in a tailored suit. He rules the underworld with calculated brutality, commanding loyalty through fear and obedience through bloodshed. To him, mercy is a weakness-and love is a lie told by foolish men before they die. Luciano is not a man you reason with. He is power, violence, and control wrapped in a deadly calm. A mafia king who destroys without mercy and takes without permission. When my father fails to pay his debt, Luciano takes me instead. I become his collateral. His punishment. His possession. Trapped in his world of blood and secrets, I am nothing more than a reminder of betrayal-kept under his watch, bound by his rules, and stripped of every illusion of freedom. Luciano made it clear from the start: I am not his guest. I am not his lover. I am not free. I am his possession. He watches me like a predator studying prey-cold, assessing, waiting for me to break. He expects fear to reduce me to nothing. He expects me to beg. To submit. But I don't. And that defiance ignites something far more dangerous than hatred in him. But somewhere between the locked doors and the whispered threats, I realize something dangerous: the man who owns me is far more broken than he wants the world to know. Luciano De Luca is ruthless-but he is not heartless. He is controlling-but barely. And every time I challenge him, every time I look him in the eyes without flinching, something dark and volatile stirs beneath his calm exterior. Luciano doesn't love. He claims. He controls. He owns. Yet the more he tries to crush my spirit, the more obsessed he becomes. His protection turns violent. His control turns suffocating. His eyes follow me like a promise and a threat all at once. He says I am his weakness. His mistake. His curse. Yet when enemies circle too close, it is Luciano who shields me with his body. When danger threatens, it is his voice that growls warnings, his hands that tighten possessively, his presence that promises violence to anyone who dares touch what is his. Because once a mafia king decides you belong to him... escape is no longer an option. I am trapped in a golden cage built from power, luxury, and danger-but the greatest threat isn't the guns, the blood, or the men who would kill for him. It's the way Luciano looks at me when he thinks I'm not watching. The way his control fractures when I'm hurt. The way his name feels dangerous on my lips. Because loving a mafia king is not a fairy tale. It's a war. A war between survival and desire. Between freedom and obsession. Between the girl I used to be and the woman his darkness is shaping me into. The deeper I fall into his world, the more I uncover secrets buried beneath his cruelty-betrayals that made him this way, scars that never healed, enemies that would destroy us both if given the chance. And as the line between captor and protector blurs, I'm forced to face a devastating truth: The man who owns my body may soon own my heart. But loving Luciano De Luca comes at a cost. Because in his world, love is a liability. And the moment he chooses me... is the moment he paints a target on my back. Will I escape the man who claims to own me? Or will I surrender to the darkness that refuses to let me go? In a world ruled by blood, power, and betrayal, one innocent woman will discover that the most dangerous thing of all... is being loved by a ruthless mafia king.

I was summoned home from boarding school for a funeral, thinking my family finally wanted me back. I stood in the pouring rain, watching a mahogany casket disappear into the mud, while the silence in my head felt like it was drowning me. That night, I hid behind a tapestry and listened through a vent to my father’s study. He wasn't talking about grief. He was talking about "tissue compatibility" and "near-perfect matches" with the family lawyer. They didn't want a daughter; they wanted a donor. My father’s voice was devoid of emotion as he discussed "the harvest." My half-sister was dying, and I was the spare part they had been growing for years. They had even removed the lock from my bedroom door so I could never truly shut them out. The realization shattered me. I was just a biological backup plan, a life deemed less valuable than the one they preferred. How could a father look at his own child and see nothing but a heart to be cut out and transplanted? I didn't wait for them to come for me. I stuffed a backpack, flushed my SIM card, and climbed out the window into a thunderstorm. I caught a bus to the middle of nowhere, ending up in a seat next to a massive, predatory man named Hoyt who looked like he’d killed people for less than a seat preference. He pinned my wrist with a grip like iron and growled, "Who sent you?" I couldn't speak to defend myself, but as we rolled into a dying town called Blackwood Creek, I knew one thing for certain. I would rather take my chances with a stranger with a gun than stay another night with the family that wanted me dead.

Elara Moonfall, an omega, is publicly rejected by her fated Alpha mate during the Moon Bond Ceremony and sold at dawn to settle her pack's debt to the Lycan Dominion. Delivered to King Kael Varyn a ruthless ruler bound by ancient law. Elara is claimed without negotiation but kept at a careful distance. Within the Lycan court, Elara becomes the focus of political tests as rival Alphas challenge the King through her. Though not imprisoned, she cannot leave, and as Kael enforces absolute protection over her, an unexpected bond begins to awaken, one that threatens Lycan law, pack hierarchy, and the balance of power. A slow-burn rejected-mate Lycan romance centered on power, betrayal, and fate.