Mated To My Ex's Ruthless Brother
At 3:12 AM, a call from the NYPD shattered the silence of my dorm. My childhood sweetheart and the city’s golden heir, Liam Sterling, was in custody and needed me to bail him out.
I rushed to the precinct, trembling as I swiped my father’s emergency credit card for five thousand dollars, only to watch Liam walk out and head straight for another woman. He had landed in a cell because he’d started a brawl to protect Jade—a girl with pink hair and a jagged attitude—while I was just the "best friend" he called to clean up his mess.
In the backseat of the cab I paid for, I watched the man I loved pull her into his lap, treating me like an invisible chauffeur. When I finally demanded the truth, he didn't apologize; he reminded me that our families were tied by a multi-million dollar merger and that I was "like a sister" to him. My own mother echoed his coldness, telling me to stop being dramatic because our family was secretly bankrupt and we needed the Sterling money to survive.
I spent years being his "good girl," even recording a fake video for the press claiming he was a hero who fought to defend my honor. But the illusion shattered when I saw the photos of him with Jade on my birthday—the same night he told me he was working late to secure our future.
"I love you, Zoe. Like I love my dog. You’re loyal, but you’re boring."
I realized then that I wasn't his partner; I was his shield. He used the trauma of the day he "saved" my life to keep me in his debt, never realizing that the chains of gratitude had finally snapped.
As the Sterling empire began to crumble under a sudden leak of scandals, I didn't run back to Liam. Instead, I looked at the encrypted message from his dangerous, outcast brother, Julian, who had been waiting in the shadows. He didn't just offer me a way out; he offered to buy my family's debt and claim me as the collateral.
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Chapter 5
Zoe sat on the edge of the sprawling leather sofa. The leather was cool against her skin, slippery. She tucked one leg under her and extended the injured one tentatively.
Her ankle was swollen, a puffy blue-and-purple lump that looked angry against her pale skin.
She reached for the tube of anti-inflammatory gel from the kit. "Really, I've got it."
Julian ignored her. He walked around the coffee table and dropped to one knee in front of her.
The sight of him kneeling-this tall, imposing man lowering himself at her feet-made the air in the room grow thin.
"Stop moving," he commanded softly.
His hand encircled her ankle.
Zoe gasped. His palm was warm, dry, and rough. The contrast against her cold skin sent a jolt of electricity straight up her spine. His fingers were strong, large enough to wrap completely around her delicate joint.
He squeezed gently, testing the injury.
"Does this hurt?"
"A little," she breathed.
He uncapped the gel. He squeezed a dollop onto his fingers and began to massage it into her skin.
His touch was surprisingly gentle. For a man known for his sharp tongue and cold demeanor, his hands were careful, almost reverent. He worked the gel into the swelling with slow, circular motions.
Zoe stared at the top of his head. His hair was dark, thick. She had an insane urge to reach out and touch it. She watched his eyelashes-long, black-lower as he focused entirely on her foot.
"You have cold feet," he murmured, not looking up.
"Circulation issues," she whispered. "Anxiety."
He glanced up then. His eyes locked with hers. For a second, his hand stilled on her ankle. The intensity of his gaze pinned her to the sofa. There was something in those eyes-a hunger, or maybe a question-that terrified and thrilled her.
He finished wrapping her ankle in an ACE bandage, his movements efficient. "Keep it elevated."
He stood up abruptly, breaking the spell. "I'll be right back."
He disappeared into the kitchen. Zoe let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. Her heart was racing, a frantic drumbeat against her ribs. What is wrong with me? This is Julian. Liam's brother.
Julian returned a few minutes later holding a steaming mug.
He set it down on the coaster in front of her.
The smell hit her instantly. Sharp, spicy ginger. Sweet honey.
Zoe stared at the mug. "Is this... ginger tea?"
"Drink it. It'll warm you up."
"How did you know?" Zoe asked, her voice trembling. "This is... this is what I drink when I'm sick. Or panicked. It's my comfort drink."
Julian turned away, picking up his laptop from the side table. He didn't look at her. "My housekeeper swears by it for shock," he said indifferently, not meeting her gaze. "Just drink it."
Zoe took a sip. It was perfect. The burn of the ginger settled her stomach immediately.
"Thank you," she said.
"Get some sleep," Julian said, sitting in an armchair across the room and opening his laptop. The blue light illuminated his face, turning him back into a statue of indifference. "I have work to do."
Zoe limped back to the guest room. She crawled into the bed, pulling the duvet up to her chin.
Outside, the wind screamed.
She closed her eyes, and exhaustion pulled her under.
The dream started in the Sterling estate garden. It was summer. Ten years ago.
Zoe was twelve. She was standing behind a hedge, clutching a box of band-aids.
In the clearing, three boys were pushing another boy into the mud. The boy on the ground was Julian. He was scrawny then, all elbows and knees.
Liam was laughing. He was fifteen, golden and cruel. "Look at the bastard," Liam jeered. "Mom says you shouldn't even be allowed in the main house."
Julian didn't cry. He just glared at them, his eyes burning with a hatred that was too big for his child's body.
Zoe wanted to step out. She wanted to help. She had the band-aids. She wanted to wipe the mud off his face.
But Liam looked at her. He smiled, that dazzling, charming smile. "Come on, Zoe. Let's go swimming."
And in the dream, just like in real life, Zoe froze. She turned her back on Julian. She followed Liam.
Before she left, she looked back. Julian was watching her. He wasn't looking at the boys beating him. He was looking at her. And the betrayal in his eyes was a physical weight that crushed her chest.
Zoe woke up with a gasp.
Her heart was pounding. Her sheets were damp with sweat.
Sunlight was streaming through the cracks in the blinds. The storm had passed.
She sat up, rubbing her face. The guilt from the dream lingered, a bitter taste in her mouth.
She was thirsty.
She swung her legs out of bed. Her ankle felt stiff, but better. She walked out into the living room.
The smell of coffee and bacon assaulted her senses.
Julian was in the kitchen.
He was wearing grey sweatpants and a tight black t-shirt that clung to his back muscles as he moved. He was flipping eggs in a pan.
The domesticity of the scene was jarring. This dark, dangerous man was... making breakfast?
"You're up," Julian said, sensing her presence without turning around. "Hungry?"
Zoe walked to the island. "You cook?"
"Survival skill," he said. He plated the eggs and slid a plate toward her. There was toast, perfectly browned, and sliced strawberries.
"Sit," he ordered.
Zoe sat on the barstool. She picked up a fork.
"This looks amazing," she said.
"Eat."
She took a bite. It was delicious.
Just as she was starting to relax, just as the nightmare was fading in the light of this strange, quiet morning, a vibration buzzed against the marble counter.
Zoe's phone.
She looked at the screen.
Liam Sterling.
The name flashed like a warning sign.
Zoe's hand froze mid-air, the fork hovering near her mouth. The peace of the morning shattered like glass.
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7.7
For two years, I played the role of the "Midwestern mistake," the mousey wife Julian Ford-Sterling IV kept hidden like a shameful secret. I hid my true self behind thick glasses and ashen foundation, acting as the perfect, cowed charity case while he lived a life of marble and indifference.
The day our marriage contract ended, the headlines were already screaming about his affair with Hollywood’s sweetheart, Lana Vane. Julian didn't even grant me a final conversation; he simply sent his legal team to hand me divorce papers that gave me nothing—no alimony, no shares, just a non-disclosure agreement and a one-way ticket out of his life.
I signed the papers and walked away, but a drugged encounter in a dark club that same night led me back into his arms. We collided in the shadows, two strangers stripped of their titles, but I fled before dawn, accidentally leaving behind my vintage silver locket. By the time I reached my secret design studio the next morning, I discovered Julian had executed a hostile takeover of my entire life’s work.
To my horror, Lana Vane was already there, clutching my stolen locket and shamelessly claiming she was the woman Julian had spent the night with. Julian stood before me in his charcoal suit, looking at me with total lack of recognition. To him, I was just a "gold-digging" architect he had bought along with the furniture.
I watched them together, the man who had discarded me and the woman who had stolen my identity, realizing that Julian was obsessed with the genius of "Rose" while despising the woman who stood right in front of him. He had no idea that the wife he’d just divorced was the very person he was now desperate to control.
I straightened my spine, my violet-blue eyes cold and lethal behind my new designer frames.
"Mr. Ford-Sterling, you wanted the best designer in the city? You’ve got her. But you should know—I don't just build empires. I know exactly how to tear them down."
7.4
I was only fifteen when my venomous family orchestrated my doom by forcing me into an arranged marriage with mafia heir Javier Velasquez.
On our wedding night, Javier paraded strippers into our suite to show his absolute contempt, turning me into the ultimate joke of the underworld overnight.
But being a joke was a luxury compared to what came next.
Three years later, Javier needed to be a widower to marry into a heavily armed family and secure their backing for a coup.
He didn't grant me the mercy of a bullet.
Instead, he dragged me to an abandoned underground safehouse, locked me in the damp, rotting dark, and told the world I had been assassinated.
For six months, I starved in that dungeon, surviving only on the desperate hope that my family was safe.
Then, on the day of his lavish new wedding, a cruel maid kicked a plate of spoiled food onto my floor and delivered the final, fatal blow.
"Annabel is dead. Pined away and died of a broken heart two weeks ago."
My gentle mother was dead, all because she actually believed his lie about my tragic murder.
Driven by pure agony and an all-consuming hatred, I shattered crates of smuggled chemical solvents and struck a match, letting the roaring inferno turn their bloody wedding into my funeral pyre.
I thought the fire was the end.
But when I opened my eyes, the suffocating smoke vanished, replaced by the biting chill of a Long Island winter.
I was standing in the snow, back on the exact day my descent into hell began.
This time, the terrified girl was dead, and I would use their own ruthless rules to tear their empire apart.
9.5
My husband told me I was a contractual obligation, an irritant he was forced to endure after a car crash stole his memory of our love five years ago. He replaced me with a social media influencer, a woman whose lies were as polished as her feed.
But when her baby was found with a small cut on her lip, she tearfully accused me of being a jealous monster who attacked an innocent child.
My husband, the man I had stood by through everything, didn't hesitate. In a blind rage, he ordered a guard to take a needle and thread and sew my lips shut.
"She needs to see nothing. Hear nothing. Say nothing," he commanded, his voice devoid of mercy.
He then had me hung upside down in the lobby of my own wellness retreat, a public spectacle for the world to condemn.
As I dangled there, bleeding and broken, I finally understood. My blind love and foolish hope had been my downfall. I had loved the wrong man, and he had utterly destroyed me.
But they made one fatal mistake. They didn't know about the hidden camera I' d planted in the baby's room. And they had no idea that my family could crush his entire empire with a single phone call.
8.9
I was the lead architect for the Pack's billion-dollar tech company, and I was secretly carrying the Alpha's heir.
I thought the merger would finally make Caleb Mark me.
Instead, I walked into my office to find a mistress sitting in my chair.
Caleb didn't just fire me. When I refused to hand over the encryption keys to the system I built, he locked me in a reinforced closet lined with silver mesh.
For a pregnant wolf, silver is poison.
I pounded on the door until my knuckles bled.
"Caleb! Please! It burns! I'm losing the baby!"
I screamed until my voice broke, feeling the life drain from my womb.
But outside the door, his mistress laughed. "Don't listen to her, Caleb. She's just a weak Omega faking it for attention."
And my Fated Mate believed her.
He left me in that dark box while our son died in a pool of my own blood.
He thought he had broken me. He thought I would die a silent death so he could parade his fake heir around.
He forgot one thing: I wrote the code that runs his entire life.
Three days later, I didn't show up to the hospital morgue.
I rolled my wheelchair onto the stage of his global press conference, flanked by the rival Alpha he feared most.
I held up the remote to the main server.
"You killed my son for a lie, Caleb," I smiled into the microphone as the screens behind him broadcast the footage of his crime. "Now, say goodbye to your empire."
9.3
Are you tired of every hockey romance turning into pure erotica by chapter ten?
We are going back to basics.
This is about the tension. The secrets. The stolen glances across a crowded campus, the brush of a bare hand in a freezing ice rink, and the dangerous boy who would burn the world down just to keep her safe.
Caroline Reed is invisible by choice. As a pre-law student fighting to maintain a flawless 4.50 GPA, she hides in the shadows of the university athletics department. She analyzes sports compliance data just to keep her scholarship intact. Her life is perfectly ordered and perfectly safe.
Leo Kincaid is the untouchable hockey captain. He is ruthless on the ice and completely guarded off it. Everyone thinks he is just another arrogant, golden boy athlete.
But the numbers do not lie. When Caroline reviews the latest game footage, she finds a terrifying statistical pattern. Leo is intentionally taking penalties and throwing specific plays.
When she confronts him in the dead of night at the empty arena, she expects a confession of greed. Instead, she uncovers a dangerous underground betting ring that is blackmailing him. By speaking up, Caroline has just put a massive target on her own back.
Now, the only way Leo can protect her is to pull her directly into his spotlight. He forces her into his daily life under the guise of needing a personal academic manager. Suddenly, the invisible girl is everywhere he is. He watches her constantly. He fiercely dictates who she talks to. And in the quiet, frozen moments between the chaos, Caroline begins to realize that the brutal captain is the safest place she could ever be.
7.1
"You broke the first rule, Princess. That means I get to take something from you. I'll start with this," he said, tugging at my panties and a needy throb ran straight through my core.
"Kyren, don't," I tried but it was to no avail.
He roughly pulled at the flimsy material, covering my most intimate part. The sound of lace ripping, filled the room. And the cool air from the AC bit into my exposed skin.
His hands slid up my back. He unclasped my bra with ease and it soundlessly dropped to the floor. His gaze raked over my trembling form with a satisfied hunger.
"You're not a cheerleader tonight. You're just mine. And I'm going to spend the next few hours showing you exactly what happens when you break my rules," he stated, before pushing my legs wide open with his knee.
××
Hailey thought she could handle the "Ice King." She thought she could seduce him, win the bet, and walk away with her heart intact. But Kyren sees right through her games. He doesn't want her seduction, he wants her submission.
As the lines between a dare and reality blur, Hailey finds herself trapped between her father's expectations and a man who wants to claim every inch of her. In a game where the rules keep changing, Hailey is about to learn that the Ice King doesn't just freeze people out... he burns them down.