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 5

"Sold! To Miss Ashworth for ten million dollars!" the auctioneer declared.

A wave of relief washed over me. For a moment, the tightness in my chest eased.

I went to the back room to finalize the purchase. The attendant swiped my exclusive, unlimited black card. It was declined.

"That's impossible," I said, my voice tight. "Try it again."

He did. "I'm sorry, Miss Ashworth. The card has been frozen."

I stared at him in disbelief. My father would never freeze my card.

Mateo, who had followed me, stepped forward. "Don't worry, Seraphina. I told you, it's my treat." He handed the attendant his own card, a private account I knew he'd been building for years.

It was also declined.

Mateo looked stunned, a flash of genuine, raw anger crossing his face. "What? My accounts are fine. There must be a mistake."

A commotion started to build outside the room. People were whispering, laughing.

"Did you hear? The Ashworths are broke!"

"She bid ten million and can't even pay for it. What a joke."

My face burned with shame. I had never felt so humiliated in my entire life.

Just then, Caspian appeared in the doorway. He had watched the whole scene unfold, a cool, unreadable expression on his face. He walked slowly towards the attendant.

"Allow me," he said, pulling a card from his wallet.

The payment went through instantly.

The attendant handed the velvet box containing the necklace to Caspian.

And then, in front of everyone, Caspian walked over to Lyra, opened the box, and fastened the "Starfall Sapphire" around her neck.

I was no longer just a joke. I was the punchline.

My eyes stung, and I fought back the tears that threatened to fall.

Mateo swore under his breath. "That son of a bitch. He must have hacked our accounts. He did this on purpose."

A bitter laugh escaped my lips, and then the tears came, hot and unstoppable. Of course, he did. He was a genius coder. He could cripple financial systems with a few keystrokes. This wasn't just about a necklace. This was a public execution of my dignity and my inheritance.

He had the power to ruin me, and he had just proved it.

Caspian turned to Mateo, his voice low and menacing. "Stay away from her."

Then he looked at me, his eyes cold as ice. "Let's go home, Seraphina."

"I'd rather die," I whispered, my voice choked with grief.

I turned and walked away, not looking back.

For the next week, I locked myself in my room. Mateo tried to visit, leaving trays of my favorite desserts outside my door. I ignored them. I remembered his voice from the library, laughing about how he'd manipulated me. He was no better than the rest of them.

One afternoon, I turned on the security feed I'd secretly had installed in the main living areas of the house. I'd done it after overhearing their conversation in the library, needing to know the true extent of their deception.

The Fellows were sprawled on the couches, complaining.

"Is she ever coming out?" Ronan groaned. "Lyra wants us to take her to the Hamptons, but Caspian says we can't go until Seraphina is 'stable' again."

"Why is it our job to cheer her up?" another Fellow, Liam, whined. "I'd much rather be with Lyra."

"Caspian's orders," Mateo said with a sigh. "He wants one of us to go up there and coax her out."

"I'm not going," Ronan grumbled.

"I don't want to either," Liam added. "Mateo, you go. You're the best at pretending to care."

"Why should I?" Mateo shot back, his good-natured facade gone. "Caspian's the one who caused this mess at the auction. Let him clean it up."

Just then, Caspian himself walked into the frame. He looked at the others, his expression dark.

"I'll handle my fiancée," he said, his voice laced with a cold possession that made my skin crawl. "You all just stay out of it."

He picked up a small gift box from the table and headed for the stairs.

I quickly shut off the monitor. My fiancée. He still had the audacity to call me that.

Downstairs, I could hear Ronan's angry voice through the door. "His fiancée? Who does he think he is? She belongs to all of us... or to none of us."

Mateo's voice was heavy with resignation. "It doesn't matter, Ron. In the end, she'll still choose him. She always does. We're just the supporting cast in their twisted play."

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 5

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