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 4

I was discharged from the hospital a week later. Caspian was there, waiting to drive me home. I ignored him completely and got into the car with Mateo, who had also come along.

Mateo, the strategist. The one who had "saved" me from a falling sculpture. The one who had just reprimanded Caspian for almost killing me.

He tried to make small talk on the way home, telling jokes, trying to get me to smile.

I couldn't. My face felt like a frozen mask.

"Seraphina, are you okay?" he asked, his voice gentle. "You seem... different."

"I'm fine," I said, my voice flat.

"Look, I know things have been tense," he said. "Why don't we go to the Christie's auction tonight? Buy yourself something pretty. It always helps." He smiled. "My treat."

I looked at him, at his handsome, concerned face, and felt a surge of disgust. "With my father's money?"

He flinched, but recovered quickly. "I have my own money, Seraphina. I've made some very successful investments." He leaned in a little. "Seriously. Let me buy you anything you want."

A slow, cold smile spread across my face for the first time in weeks. "Alright, Mateo. You're on."

If he wanted to play the generous fool, I would let him. I would take everything I could from these vipers.

The auction house was buzzing with the city's elite. The centerpiece of the evening was a stunning necklace known as the "Starfall Sapphire," a cascade of flawless blue diamonds rumored to have belonged to my late mother, a final gift from my father before she passed. It was more than jewelry; it was a symbol of my legacy.

The moment I saw it, I knew I had to have it.

Just as the bidding was about to start, the doors opened and two more people walked in. Caspian and Lyra.

My smile froze. I had a sick feeling in my stomach. I knew, with absolute certainty, that Lyra would want that necklace.

The bidding started.

"One million dollars," came a soft voice from across the room. It was Lyra.

She caught my eye and then looked down, a hesitant expression on her face. "Oh, Seraphina. Do you want it? I'm sorry, I'll stop." She made a show of lowering her bidding paddle, looking up at Caspian with sad eyes. "I wouldn't want to take something you like."

She played the part of the magnanimous sister so well.

Caspian's face hardened. He glared at me from across the room, his eyes full of contempt, as if I were a bully taking a toy from a small child. This was no longer about a simple gift; this was a public challenge to my birthright.

He turned to Lyra, his voice loud enough for the whole room to hear. "If you like it, you should have it. Don't let anyone stop you."

Then he raised his own paddle. "Five million dollars."

A hush fell over the room. Everyone knew who Caspian was. He was the Ashworth heir apparent, my future husband. For him to publicly bid against me, for my own mother's legacy, for another woman was a slap in the face. Whispers erupted.

"Is he trying to humiliate her?"

"Poor Seraphina. To be treated like that in public."

I felt the heat of a hundred pairs of eyes on me, some pitying, some mocking. My hand, holding my own paddle, trembled with rage.

I would not be humiliated. I would not back down.

I lifted my paddle, catching the auctioneer's eye, and made a sharp, decisive gesture.

"Ten million," the auctioneer announced, his voice booming.

I would not let them win.

Continue to next part

On our sixth anniversary, I found my fiancé Carter had given my grandmother's heirloom locket to his "fragile" colleague, Carmen. When I confronted him, he slapped me across the face. He then dragged me out into the snow, forcing me to my knees to apologize to Carmen for upsetting her. The stress and his violence triggered a miscarriage. I was losing our baby right there at his feet. He never even noticed the blood staining the snow. He was too busy comforting the woman he chose over me and our child. I left that night and never looked back. Three years later, after building a new life and a successful bakery, he showed up on my doorstep, a ghost of a man, dying of cancer. He collapsed, coughing up blood at my feet, begging for a forgiveness I no longer had to give.

Horror Romance

7.4

Bound to her Captor

7.4

I was supposed to hate him. He destroyed my kingdom. Killed my family. Made me a slave. But when Prince Daresh looks at me with those burning blue eyes-eyes that can hear my every thought-I feel something I shouldn't. Desire. He's the most dangerous demon in the realm. Silver-haired, ruthless, and feared by everyone-even his own brothers. They say he has no heart. No mercy. So why does he look at me like I'm the only thing that matters? When I try to escape, he saves me. When I'm broken, he pieces me back together. And when his enemies come for me, he'll burn the entire demon realm to the ground to keep me safe. But our love is forbidden. I'm human. He's a demon prince with a secret that could destroy us both. And the life growing inside me? It might be the most dangerous thing of all. In a world where fire and water destroy each other, we're about to prove that some bonds are unbreakable. A dark paranormal romance featuring a possessive demon prince, a defiant human princess, forbidden magic, and a love that will set the realm on fire.

Fantasy Horror Romance

7.5

Bound To The Devil From My Past

7.5

To save my family's dying company, I was forced to marry a billionaire I hadn't seen in fourteen years. But right outside the City Clerk's office, he tossed our marriage certificate at me like a cheap receipt and shoved a four-year-old boy into my arms. "Your new life has begun. You're on babysitting duty now." He sneered and left me stranded on the sidewalk. I realized with absolute horror that my new husband was Ellsworth Marshall, the sickly boy I had relentlessly bullied in middle school. He didn't spend five billion dollars to save the Bradford family. He bought me to execute a slow, suffocating revenge. He used his orphaned nephew as a pawn, explicitly threatening my father that if I failed to play the perfect, compliant nanny, he would instantly destroy our family's legacy. He even had his guards lock me out of his Long Island estate on my first night, forcing me to stand in the cold dark just to prove he owned me. I was trapped in a gilded cage, suffocated by the guilt of my past and the terror of my present. Why did he involve an innocent child in his twisted vendetta? How much humiliation was enough to pay for my childhood cruelty? Looking at the terrified little boy clinging to my skirt, I tightened my grip on my suitcase. If he wanted to destroy my will piece by piece, I had to find a way to survive the monster I created.

Horror Modern Romance

9.2

My Curse, Their Endless Guilt

9.2

I was born with a curse. I see a shimmering, crimson timer above everyone's head, counting down to the exact moment of their death. For this, my family has treated me like a monster for eighteen years, blaming me for every tragedy I foresaw. On my 21st birthday, the timer finally appeared above my own head. I had twenty-four hours left to live. I spent my last day preparing a feast, a desperate plea for one final family dinner. With only minutes to spare, I called my eldest brother, Fredrick, my voice breaking. "Please, just come home," I sobbed. "I'm going to die tonight." His response was colder than the grave. "Are you really so desperate for attention that you'd stoop to such pathetic lies?" Then, I heard the click of the line going dead. I died alone at that table, surrounded by the food no one came to eat. But my death wasn't the end. It was the beginning of their nightmare, a personal hell of guilt they could never escape.

Fantasy Horror Modern

8.3

My Husband’s Mistress Wore My Skin

8.3

After her husband’s betrayal, a woman discovers a horrifying truth: his mistress has literally stolen her skin. Trapped in a nightmare where her identity has been physically usurped, she must navigate a world that no longer recognizes her. This chilling tale blends domestic suspense with body horror as the protagonist fights to reclaim her life from the monster living in her house. Can she expose the imposter before her existence is erased forever?

Horror Mystery Romance

7.6

The Ghost Heiress: Rising From Shadows

7.6

I had served as the private medical counsel for the Huff family for five years, keeping their scandals buried and their blood pumping. But at the Cipriani gala, standing under a storm of camera flashes, I realized I was just a smudge of ink on their golden canvas. My twenty-year-old niece, Ainsley, looked me up and down with a sneer and pointed at my throat. She demanded I hand over the emerald pendant—the only thing my grandmother left me—because it would "pop" better against the gold gown of her father’s new media darling, Harlow. I turned to Grafton, the man whose neurodegenerative condition I had personally managed in secret, waiting for him to act like a human being. He didn't even blink. He just leaned in and hissed, "Give it to her, Katharina. Don't make a scene. Fix this." After I handed over the necklace and walked out, the retaliation was instant. Within ten minutes, my credit cards were declined, my biometric access was revoked, and the concierge I had tipped for a decade blocked me from entering my own home. Grafton told me I’d be destitute and starving within a week. They all thought I was a family charity case, a leech clinging to the Huff name for prestige. They had no idea that I had spent years quietly securing the intellectual property rights to their most profitable drugs under my maiden name. They didn't know that I was "The Broker," an underground medical legend with a bank account that dwarfed their trust funds. I watched from the shadows as Grafton’s health began to crumble without my specialized injections and their stock price went into a tailspin. They thought they could erase me, but you can't delete the person who holds the structural integrity of your life together. When the panicked calls finally started coming, I didn't answer. I wasn't interested in a settlement or an apology anymore. I was busy using my offshore funds to buy up their crashing shares, ready to take back the empire they thought they had kicked me out of.

Billionaire Horror Modern

Raising the Wolves

Chapter 4

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