Raising the Wolves

My father raised seven brilliant orphans to be my potential husbands. For years, I only had eyes for one of them, the cold and distant Caspian Vance, believing his distance was a wall I just had to break through. That belief shattered last night when I found him in the garden, kissing his foster sister, Lyra—the fragile girl my family took in at his request, the one I had treated like my own sister. But the true horror came when I overheard the other six Ashworth Fellows talking in the library. They weren't competing for me. They were working together, orchestrating "accidents" and mocking my "stupid, blind" devotion to keep me away from Caspian. Their loyalty wasn't to me, the heiress who held their futures in her hands. It was to Lyra. I wasn't a woman to be won. I was a foolish burden to be managed. The seven men I grew up with, the men who owed my family everything, were a cult, and she was their queen. This morning, I walked into my father's study to make a decision that would burn their world to the ground. He smiled, asking if I'd finally won Caspian over. "No, Dad," I said, my voice firm. "I'm marrying Silas Blackwood."

Chapters

Chapter 12

The look of pure, undiluted disgust in my eyes finally hit him. I saw it land, saw the impact ripple through him.

His mind seemed to short-circuit. I could see the confusion warring with the pain on his face. He was remembering the girl who had followed him around for years, the girl who wore her heart on her sleeve, the girl who had proudly declared her love for him to anyone who would listen.

That girl was gone. My love was a light he had taken for granted, and now, he had extinguished it himself.

He didn't understand. He couldn't comprehend how a love so bright could just... disappear.

He clutched his chest, a pained gasp escaping his lips. He looked lost, like a child who had just realized he was completely alone in the world. He stared at me, searching my face for a sign, any sign, of the girl who used to love him.

He found nothing.

"I don't believe you," he whispered, his voice trembling.

"Believe what you want," I said, turning my back on him. My focus was now singular.

I walked toward Lyra.

"You bitch," I said, my voice low and venomous.

I slapped her. Hard. Then again.

"You ate our food, you wore our clothes, you lived in our house," I hissed, my hand striking her cheek with each word. "And this is how you repay us? By trying to destroy me?"

Her face was already swollen, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. She started to cry, to beg.

"Please, Seraphina, stop! I didn't do anything!"

I didn't believe her for a second. I kicked her knee, and she crumpled to the ground.

She immediately turned her tear-streaked face to my father. "Mr. Ashworth, please! It wasn't me! I don't even know how to use a computer! Someone is framing me! They're framing both of us!"

My father hesitated. He was a kind man, and he had always had a soft spot for Lyra's perceived fragility. "Seraphina," he said, his voice uncertain. "Are you sure? She doesn't have the skills to pull something like this off."

I didn't answer him. I turned my cold gaze back to Caspian.

"This is your last chance," I said. "Are you going to tell them the truth, or am I?" I held up a small, silver USB drive. "I have proof, Caspian. Proof that will not only ruin her, but will make what she did to me look like a child's prank. If I show this, she's finished."

I gave him a chilling smile. "Confess now, and maybe she can have a clean death."

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"You're not doing this on my birthday, are you?" I asked Quinn, my eyes covered in tears as I watched him glare at me with disdain. "You aren't leaving me dejected after sacrificing three whole years of my life with you!" "And I'm giving you a life to be free, isn't that way better?" He asked in return, stretching the dreadful file towards me. "Consider this a birthday gift and leave. I'm going to specifically make sure you get all the benefits associated with the divorce." "You're .." "Leave Anastasia." He interrupted mildly. "Leave now and say nothing else.. you can have the Ferrari or any of the Estates in Paris as part of the compensation.. just go." ** Anastasia Beverly thought she had found her happily ever after when she married the successful and charismatic Quinn. But five years later, her dream life is unravelling. Her husband's attention is elsewhere, and his heart seems lost to a ghost from the past-his first love, Veronica Rodriguez. On what should have been a day of celebration, Anastasia's birthday becomes a nightmare as Quinn comes home late, drunk, and distant. When he hands her divorce papers, her world shatters. Left with no choice but to pick up the pieces, Anastasia discovers a strength she never knew she had. As she rebuilds her life and carves out her own success, she becomes someone that even Quinn can't ignore. But just as Anastasia rises to prominence, Quinn realises too late what he has lost. Now, he is desperate to win back the woman he once took for granted. But can he rekindle a flame that he extinguished, or is he too late to mend the heart he broke?

Horror Modern Romance

9.8

Deleted but Not Dead

9.8

Facing total erasure by the system after a failed mission, the protagonist of this horror mystery spends her final twenty-four hours fulfilling her family's selfish desires. She donates a kidney to her sister and confesses to plagiarism she didn't commit to appease her parents and husband. Having finally become the 'perfect' woman they demanded, she vanishes from existence. However, the discovery of her cold corpse triggers a descent into madness for those she left behind.

Fantasy Horror Modern Mystery

9.3

Five Years After My Watery Death

9.3

Five years after drowning, a woman's remains are finally recovered from a river. Though forensic experts reconstruct her face, the Clarke family remains cold. Her brother publicly denounces her as a murderer who spent years fleeing justice, yet his physical trembling hints at a darker truth. The mystery deepens as it is revealed that a desperate distress call made to him half a decade ago was the very catalyst for her demise. This horror tale explores a sister's tragic end and a brother's hidden guilt.

Horror Modern Mystery

7.9

Frozen Retribution

7.9

Frozen Retribution follows a terrifying act of vengeance when Ean drags the protagonist into a warehouse and locks them inside a rusted freezer to avenge Helen. Though Ean believes the unit is broken, it functions perfectly, trapping his victim in a plummeting sub-zero environment. After a week of desperate screaming and clawing at the icy walls, the protagonist perishes. When Ean finally returns to witness the results of his cruelty, he discovers only a frozen corpse and the bloody evidence of a slow, agonizing death.

Action Horror Mystery

8.2

Poisonous Flower

8.2

In Poisonous Flower, a pregnant Luna is subjected to horrific torture by her mate’s enemies while Alpha Louis remains blinded by devotion to his first love, Lily. Demanding a bone marrow donation for Lily, Louis ignores his mate's desperate situation, dismissing her pregnancy as a manipulative lie. After she perishes from the assault, Louis unknowingly stands before her decaying corpse, still cursing the woman he believes abandoned his pack out of spite.

Action Horror Mystery Romance Werewolf

8.9

Rebirth Game: I Watch My Bestie March Into the Sweatshop

8.9

Sydney Cox is a toxic friend who believes the world owes her everything. In a past life, her entitlement led her to burn down her benefactor's neighborhood after being given a comfortable job, killing an entire family. Now, the protagonist has been reborn just before Sydney's first day at the factory. In this gripping mystery and horror story, the survivor must navigate the deadly consequences of Sydney's greed and decide whether to step in or let her friend face a grim fate.

Action Fantasy Horror Modern Mystery

Raising the Wolves

Chapter 12

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