Taming Asher
On a scale of one to ten, my life had always dangled between three and four, thanks to my very wretched humble background, until the day it hit zero.
"I will give you the money on the condition that you send that text to Asher." Mia Harper began with a mischievous smile on her face.
"Asher?" I repeated.
"You heard me right."
No way.
Asher Thorne was the hottest, attractive and most popular kid in school. Bad boy, star hockey player, arrogant and snobbish, were the perfect words to describe him with. He hardly ever smiled and didn't talk to just 'anybody'.
I stared down at the ridiculous message typed on my phone screen...
And that was how it all started for the scholarship student, Grace Williams, the cool genius who preferred to stay invisible and out of trouble.
But not for long.
Thanks to Mia, she gets tangled with Asher and fresh troubles that came with their forbidden alliance. Determined to tame the bad boy, she steps into a world of secrets, rivalry, and dangerous attraction. Will she survive it?
And more importantly... will she dare to step into the love zone?
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Chapter 5
Once again, I willed myself not to cry as I gathered what was left of the remaining good bags and moved to an abandoned shack that once looked like a coffee shop by the corner. I sat on the low step beside my bags and sniffed silently.
I thought of calling Uncle Pete to know if he'll be returning from work already, but I decided it wouldn't be cool to bother him. I swore not to touch the money Asher's grandma had given me. I needed it whole and intact. One thing was certain, I would definitely find my way home. My phone rang about ten minutes later. Regan. I picked it immediately.
"Where are you?!" She barked.
Her question broke the dam I had been holding up for too long. I cried into the mouthpiece and she panicked at once.
"Grace? What's the problem? Are you okay?"
Exactly twenty minutes later, Regan was next to me, looking so worried and breathless. I was really surprised she could have the mind to look out for me, considering how much she hated me.
"Do you remember the plate number of the vehicle or the driver?" She asked, after we boarded a taxi.
I bit my lower lip here, wondering if I should tell her all about Asher or not. If I did, it might mean implicating Mia and the money she had given me. Regan was not one to hear about money and stay quiet. She was so greedy for money and went as far as extorting some from her parents. No amount could ever be enough for her. So I decided to summarize. "Actually, I met Asher on my way back. He..."
"Asher? Really?" She exclaimed. "So you entered the wrong vehicle because of him? Do you suddenly think he is interested in you all because Mia and her friends used you yesterday?" She snickered.
I tried to understand what she was saying. She had barely listened to what I was going to say.
"I'm very sure he made you lose your way on purpose so you could learn a lesson. So much for how proud you felt yesterday with your swollen head. Do you really think he's into you? He asked about you several times today and looked like he was going to kill you if he ever laid eyes on you. I can't believe you..."
And on she went.
I stopped listening as my mind wandered off, thankful that she had at least come to get me, which was the most important thing.
I went to school very early the next morning. Regan agreed to give me the notes for the previous day on the condition that I did her assignments. That wasn't a problem. I just needed a lot of time before the first period so that I'll be able to face the day's workload without feeling overwhelmed. I was so tired yesterday that I hit the bed before I even realized it. The classroom was dimly lit and empty when I arrived. But I thought I heard strange noises coming from the next class.
Curiosity got the better of me.
When I peeked in, I froze.
A couple was making out right in the middle of the classroom.
I tried to see their faces clearly.
It was Logan Greene, the Algebra teacher. And Mia Harper.
I don't know what prompted me to pull out my phone and do a ten-second video before leaving. Impulse, I guess. I had barely settled in my seat when I felt a presence behind me.
I tried to turn, but a cold hand clamped over my mouth. The cologne was familiar.
"Come with me," a voice hissed. "Take your books."
I obeyed like I was under a spell.
He led me to the back of the classroom and we crouched low behind some big cupboards. It was indeed Asher. Was he trying to play good to make up for his crass behaviour the previous day? We had barely crouched down when Logan came in, struggling with his belt. Mia was behind him, adjusting her skirt as well.
"What are you saying, Mia? You were supposed to send her to me yesterday." Logan began.
"I know. I'm sorry. My plan almost worked but hell...I think she's kinda smarter than she looks."
"Is that why you sent her to Asher first?"
"Yeah. I did that to buy time. I knew he would want to punish her for asking him out. I don't know what happened later. Asher won't say a word to me and the girl ghosted me throughout yesterday. Some guts she's got." She rendered bitterly.
It was hard to still my breathing. What the hell were they discussing?
"Don't tell me her guts are bigger than yours." Logan began, his speech slurred as he pulled Mia closer to him. On a good day, one would think Logan was a decent professional who tolerated no nonsense. Good-looking, about 6'ft tall and in his late twenties, I imagined he would be married or in a serious relationship. I never thought he'd be involved in something worse than nonsense.
"Get that blond for me before the end of today, Mia." He slurred again, leaning closer to her.
Mia let out a low moan in response.
I held my breath and looked away, only to meet Asher's gaze. He had been staring at me the entire time, but I couldn't read his expression. It was blank.
I hoped he didn't want me too.
Definitely not.
He must hate my guts so much to treat me the way he did yesterday. But right now, I don't understand why his cologne played with my senses and the background noise did little and nothing to help.
Fortunately however, we suddenly heard footsteps echo down the hallway. Mia and Logan both hurried out then. The moment they left, I rushed back to my seat. It would be impossible to explain if anyone caught us hiding there.
Asher followed. "Come with me. We need to talk."
I frowned. I would be foolish to follow him after what I had just witnessed.
"I'm sure you heard me. Poor hopeless nobody," he snarled.
Anger shot through me. I jumped to my feet. "Don't you dare..."
Images of Logan and Mia's act flooded my mind again, and I felt super disgusted and sick to my stomach. I couldn't make it to the restroom. I puked. On Asher's shoes.
"What?! Are you crazy?!" He shoved me back before I could react. My back hit the desk hard, and I slid to the floor. Pain shot through my waist, and I groaned.
Mia stepped into the classroom.
"What's going on?" She switched on the light. "Oh. The SMART girl who had the guts to ghost me yesterday." She snickered. "I bet Asher didn't kick you hard enough. Come with me."
"She actually puked on my shoes." Asher muttered. "I think she's sick."
"Obviously, she is. Exactly why she needs to come with me and learn some lessons. Maybe she is feeling on top of the world because you dragged her out of the field the other day."
I shut my eyes, wishing they would both disappear and let me be.
"Grace! Come with me now!"
"I think we should talk first, Mia." Asher said.
"No. After you clean up your disgusting shoes." She kicked me hard now. "Are you deaf?" She kicked me harder again and I cried.
"Stop hurting her, Mia!" Asher yelled, shoving her back roughly.
"Really, Ash? Are you defending her now?"
"Yeah. Grace is my girl." He declared. "So don't you dare lay a finger on her."
Did I just hear him right?
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9.1
Waking up with a cold, scaly hand wrapped around my throat wasn't the worst part.
The worst part was realizing I'd transmigrated into the body of Terra Mason—the most despised woman in the entire Enclave. She drugged high-level beast-men and forced them into life-binding bio-contracts. She locked an aquatic warrior in a dry basement until his organs failed. She treated the most lethal males in the city like broken toys.
Zev, the Level 6 serpent who's currently choking me, would rather blow up his own heart than spend another day as my slave. His affection metric? Negative ninety. His trust? Zero.
Then my system activates: the Kore AI. It gives me exactly 500 credits, a medical nano-gel, and a recipe for neutralizing the radioactive poison in mutant meat. Real food. In this world, that's worth more than gold.
I save Rhys, the dying aquatic male everyone left for dead. I season a slab of purple mutant steak until Sam, a battle-scarred grizzly shifter, groans at the taste—and his trust points finally tick above zero. When my backstabbing ex-best friend tries to steal my males and destroy me, I don't scream or throw a tantrum like the old Terra. I dismantle her with the truth.
But earning their trust means more than grilling meat. A scorpion swarm ambushes us at midnight. Sam throws himself between me and a stinger the size of my arm. As he stands over the corpse, fur receding from his claws, he stares at me and whispers, "You were testing me."
Yes. I was. Because in this world, the weak don't survive. And I refuse to be weak again.
Four beast-men. Four contracts. One system. And a whole lot of steak. Let this dystopian wasteland know—I'm not the monster they remember. I'm worse. I'm the one who's going to feed them until they'd kill for me.
8.3
Angel was slammed onto the freezing stone slabs of the central square, surrounded by the deafening, mocking laughter of her clan.
Her own sister, Jasmine, stood over her with a look of pure malice, loudly and falsely accusing Angel of sneaking into the Chief's tent to seduce him.
Then, Al Stein, the man who had sworn to be her mate, stepped out of the crowd with a twisted face of disgust.
"You're a genetic reject. You can't give me children. You're useless."
He threw their bone mate ring hard at her face, cutting her cheek, as the crowd roared for her blood.
Without a trial, the High Oracle stripped her of her citizenship and sentenced her to eternal exile in the deadly wasteland.
To make her punishment a complete joke, the guards dragged out a comatose, dying outcast named Kain, slicing Angel's finger to force a mate bond between the two defects.
They were tossed out into the raging blizzard like discarded corpses, the heavy steel gates slamming shut behind them, cutting off all light and warmth.
Angel crawled through the snow, her vision blurring from extreme starvation and the biting wind, suffocating under the weight of their lies.
Why did her own blood frame her? Why did her mate throw her away to die in the ice?
Just as the freezing shadow of death wrapped around her, a sharp, mechanical voice exploded in her mind.
[Genetic Evolution Codex activated. Host Status: Legendary Kitsune Prime.]
The despair evaporated from her chest, replaced by a burning vow to survive and make every single one of them pay.
9.4
My retirement was finally approved, and I was supposed to be sipping drinks on a sunny beach.
Instead, a cold system voice forced me into a nightmare scenario: "Cursed Mates Who Want Me Dead." I woke up in a stinking cave, trapped in the body of a psychopathic tribal princess.
The memories that flooded my brain made me sick. The original owner of this body had forcibly marked seven of the continent's most powerful beast-men and reduced them to tortured pets. She had ripped the shimmering scales off Jordi the Merfolk prince, gouged out a proud wolf-man's power crystal, and snapped an eagle-man's magnificent wings.
Now, Jordi was a mutilated, terrified mess hiding in a corner. He was so traumatized that he tried to slit his own throat just to escape me. His sister was actively trying to assassinate me.
To make matters worse, the system warned me that if I didn't heal these seven ticking time bombs, my soul would be erased. Yet the future timeline clearly showed that these men would eventually unite, burn my tribe to the ground, and dismember me alive.
I was paying for a monster's sins. Every time I tried to show mercy, they thought it was a sick new torture method. Words were useless, and my very presence was a trigger.
But I am a Tier-S operative, and I don't play the victim. I forced the system to unlock my powers and strapped on my tactical gear.
"Stay here and don't starve."
I left the trembling Merfolk behind and walked into the deadly primitive forest, heading straight for the powerful Oasis Tribe to take back his stolen scales by force.
7.0
They mocked him.
They humiliated him.
They thought he was just the worthless son-in-law who couldn't lift his head at the dinner table.
Leon Gray was invisible to everyone around him-his proud wife, his ruthless in-laws, the world that only measured worth by wealth and power. To them, he was nothing but a burden, a joke, a man doomed to live and die in obscurity.
But Leon had a secret.
Behind his silence was strength. Behind his shame was an empire no one dared to imagine. Every insult, every slap, every cruel laugh only fueled the system he carried within him-a mysterious force that rewarded his patience and built his hidden kingdom brick by brick.
The Collins family believed they had crushed him.
What they didn't know was that they had just created their greatest enemy.
Now the silent son-in-law is done waiting.
The tables are about to turn.
The man they trampled will rise-not as their equal, but as their ruler.
This is not just a tale of revenge.
This is the legend of the forgotten man who became untouchable.
The silent king.
The son-in-law who owns everything.
9.3
Grace finally decided to end her toxic, one-sided relationship with Adelbert, the arrogant heir to a global empire, by texting him to terminate their family trust.
His response was a single, freezing word: "Done."
When they accidentally bumped into each other in a law firm elevator, Adelbert looked right through her.
"I don't know her," he stated coldly to his frat brothers, treating her like invisible trash.
Humiliated and completely exhausted, Grace sought an escape in a brutal shooter game called PUBG.
But by a sick twist of fate, the random matchmaking threw her into a squad with Adelbert's frat brothers and a god-tier, toxic player named 'Ø'.
'Ø' relentlessly mocked her terrible skills, humiliating her and calling her a "pig" over the voice chat.
Yet, during the final shootout, this ruthless player suddenly threw his character in front of hers, taking a fatal barrage of bullets just to keep her alive.
Grace soon uncovered the terrifying truth: the top-ranked 'Ø' was actually Adelbert himself.
She was utterly confused and furious.
Why would the untouchable billionaire who ignored her legal texts and publicly humiliated her suddenly sacrifice himself for her in a cheap video game?
Refusing to swallow her pride in both the real and digital worlds, Grace sent a direct challenge to his gaming profile.
"I'll prove I'm not a pig."
Across the city, Adelbert stared at the notification, a dark smirk curling his lips, and clicked accept.
8.9
After dying in an accident, Alex awakens in another world in the body of a poor student who was betrayed by both his girlfriend and his best friend, then beaten to death in a dark alley. A mysterious stone that followed him across worlds awakens the Superstar System, turning effort and discipline into growth. Carrying two lives' worth of regret and one unfinished dream, Alex steps onto the path of fame, determined to rise from nothing and reach the stage that once felt impossible.