Listening to the advice of her parents, Emma gives up her true love and marries Lucien, a cold and cruel Alpha. Five years later, Emma comes face to face with Dex, the man she cruelly abandoned. Now an Alpha, Dex finds himself drawn back to Emma, though he doesn't want to be hurt again. Will Emma have the strength to leave her marriage and find happiness...or will dangerous forces once again separate the star crossed lovers? He looked down at her, but she couldn't see his expression. His body language didn't ask her to move away so she went up on her toes and planted a sweet kiss on his lips. He tasted as she remembered. Man. Wolf. Mate. When she was about to break contact, he put his hand on the back of her head and deepened the kiss. Her mind began to swirl out of control. She remembered the passion between them. She remembered the friendship. She remembered it all. Finding Her Lost Mate is created by Chris Redding, an EGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.
Emma stepped out of the bathroom and into the bedroom she shared with her husband. She braced herself because she'd heard him come in and wondered what he would find out of place today.
She did her best to keep everything as he liked and that was a full-time job.
"Emma," he bellowed.
She shuddered but pasted on a smile. "Lucien? Do you have to yell?"
"When my woman doesn't have dinner on the table right away, then yes I do."
She entered the kitchen where dinner was ready to serve and looked him up and down. "You don't even have your coat off. Or your shoes."
"I work hard to keep this roof over our heads. If I want to keep my shoes on I will."
It had been a discussion for all five years of their marriage. If he took off his shoes, the house would stay cleaner. He'd never listened to Emma and she had to sweep the floor every day. He shrugged off his coat, hanging it on a hook by the door. He flopped into his chair and picked up his silverware, looking pointedly at Emma. "Don't just stand there."
She hurried to the stove and put the stew she'd been cooking onto his plate. Lots of meat: just how he liked it. She set the plate in front of him then spooned out her portion. She sat across from him at the scarred wooden table. Putting her fork into the meal, she ate in silence.
Lucien gobbled down the food as if table manners didn't matter. He was the Alpha of their pack, so who would question him.
His father hadn't been this way. How had Lucien turned out so gruff? Emma would never know and each day she spent with him, she cursed that she'd let her parents talk her into this arranged marriage.
Lucien hadn't even bothered to be charming in the beginning. She'd begged her parents to pick someone else, but, according to them, he was much better than the man she'd been dating at the time. They'd insisted that Dex had no prospects.
"How was your day?"
"Crappy as always."
Lucien often complained about whiny pack members. "Sorry to hear that."
He paused, his fork midway between his plate and his mouth. "Really? Are you Emma?"
He treated her badly, then questioned her sincerity. What had her parents been thinking? "Lucien."
"Don't 'Lucien' me. You're always ready to spend the money I make."
As if her closet was full of designer clothing. Her car was ten years old. It needed new tires. The kitchen appliances barely worked. From the outside, the house looked like a dream, but inside it was a nightmare. She'd begged him to let her upgrade, but he didn't care. His pack didn't come here for meetings so they would never know that their leader lived in squalor.
"Stop, Lucien."
She didn't want to fight. Besides, she had a book club meeting tonight and if he was in a bad mood, he wouldn't let her go.
Lucien went back to inhaling his food. "I have a meeting tonight."
"So do I."
He paused. "Oh?"
"Book club."
He frowned. "I don't see the point, but I guess if I'm not going to be here then it's okay."
Good. At least she could get out of the house for an hour or so.
"Where are they meeting?" he asked.
"At the bookstore downtown."
He seemed to ponder that. "Okay."
"I know that house burned down. Does that family need anything? I can collect donations of clothing or something tonight," she said.
He blinked at me. "Don't you dare get involved. They are being taken care of."
Lucien never let her get involved in pack business. She'd heard that many pack members though tof her as lazy or snobby. She was none of those things. Lucien hamstrung her efforts to get to know people. This was her pack, her family. She wanted to know every one of them as the Alpha's mate and wife. Lucien didn't see the point.
"Okay."
She went back to her meal. Lucien finished up quickly, then rose. "The Council of Wolves is bugging me for an heir. We need to get on that."
They'd been trying for a year to have a child. Part of Emma was glad they hadn't, unsure of what kind of father Lucien would be. "I'm still not pregnant."
"Then we need to take care of that."
"What else can we do, Lucien. You won't go to the doctor to see if the problem is you."
He rose to his full height, his eyes shifting from their usual green to a dangerous red. "There is nothing wrong with me. You must be broken, Emma. I've done as much as I can do."
This old argument. She suspected that the problem lay with Lucien, but she wouldn't tell him that. The doctors had cleared her to get pregnant, not seeing any problems on her end.
She pressed her lips together.
"I have twenty minutes before I need to leave."
"Right now? I'm eating."
"You can finish when I'm finished," he said.
Not letting her argue further, he headed in the direction of their bedroom. As the Alpha's mate, it was Emma's obligation to give him a child. An heir. Someone to take over the pack when he was gone. She sighed, pushing back her chair.
This wouldn't take long. He wasn't worried about her pleasure and she could just lay back and think of something else. If she said no, he would be angry, but he would at least respect her wishes.
The thing was, she wanted a child. Badly. Her heart ached every month when she saw evidence that she wasn't carrying a child.
She found him undressing in the bedroom. He rose when she entered, a rare smile on his face. He was cold and distant most of the time, and the bedroom was no different. She never could have stomached doing this with him if she didn't want a baby.
"Emma."
In ten minutes, he was on his way to his meeting. Emma showered and dressed, hoping that maybe this time she would get pregnant.
At least she had her friends to see tonight. A few women from the pack who had befriended her despite the rumors that swirled around her. She grabbed her book, then headed downtown to the bookstore. Fang City was a small town that was shrouded from human sight by magic. Fang City Books hosted several types of book clubs.
Tonight, her thoughts kept straying to her old lover, Dex. She wondered where he was, and what he was doing ,but she pushed away thoughts of him. That was another life.
Julia, one of the younger members, was already in the backroom at the bookstore. It looked out on the alley where a few of the town's bars sat. Periodically someone would stumble past after a few too many drinks.
"They really should clean up this town," Julia said.
"Don't you like to go to bars?"
"Not when it's full of married men looking for a quickie. I want a man who will come home every night."
Lucien came home every night. Sometimes smelling like another woman, but he came home. Julie didn't know what she was wishing for. Emma's father had slept around also. Glancing out the window, Emma thought she saw someone familiar. She was right.
Julia saw him also. "I'm sorry, Emma."
She waved it away. "He gets to do what he wants as the Alpha."
Julia squeezed her hand. "It's still not fair."
Most of life wasn't fair and the sooner that Julia figured that out the better. "It is what it is."
Emma hoped she would be asleep by the time Lucien arrived home tonight. She watched her husband hanging onto someone and walking away. Her heart hurt, but she pasted on a smile for Julia.
Julia shuddered but didn't say anything more about their pack leader. Emma didn't want to discuss it.
Lucien once again had embarrassed her. This was her life. She'd chosen to follow what her parents had wanted and here she was. Unhappy and not pregnant. Maybe the not pregnant part was good.
She pondered what her life would be like if she'd defied her parents. If she'd gone with Dex when he'd asked her to. He would have taken her away. At least that's what he'd promised. She frowned. Thoughts like that were not productive.
"I loved the book," Julia said and Emma was thankful she changed the subject.
"I did, too, except for the ending. It wasn't realistic to me."
"I was okay with it. I wonder what's taking everyone so long to get here."
"I don't know, but I need to leave in an hour."
Julia frowned but didn't say anything else. Emma's gaze went out the window again. She once again saw a familiar figure. She gasped.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, I just think I saw someone I knew."
"Really?"
Emma rose and used the back door to the bookstore to get a better look. Yes. It was who she thought it was. She called his name. When he turned she gasped again.
"You."
An Alpha Wolf who needs a wife to keep running his pack teams up with a matchmaker who needs a husband to convince her parents she can run the family business. Both of them are hiding things and have pasts. What can possibly go wrong? The Wolf's Unlikely Mate is created by Chris Redding, an eGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.
"A wolf shifter has to flee her pack and unwittingly becomes the personal assistant to a human billionaire. She must hide her nature while learning about the human world and try not to fall in love with her smoking hot boss. Things come to a head when the reason she fled her pack comes to haunt her new life. Will her boss fire her when he realizes what she is? Or will love conquer all so this wolf shifter can finally have her happily ever after? The Billionaire’s Wolf Shifter Assistant is created by Chris Redding, an eGlobal Creative Publishing Signed Author."
When Brandi Marsing approaches billionaire Zach Wilder, she thinks her job is simple: gain the trust of her father’s greatest rival, and find the dirt to bring him down. Brandi is shocked to learn that the handsome Zach is a better man then she thought, despite forcing her into a fake relationship one day after meeting. Will Brandi remain loyal…or will she fall in love with the enemy? “I don’t need to force anyone into my bed, Miss Marsing.” He straightened. “This will be far more public. Probably painful for you and deliciously so for your father also.” She wanted to gag at his ego. Jail was looking better and better. “Just call the cops.” “You don’t want to hear my proposal?” he asked. “Tell me what I’m choosing between,” she demanded. “You either go to jail. Or...” He let the word hang in the air and she resisted leaning forward in anticipation. “Or, you pretend to be my fiancé.” His Rival's Daughter is created by Chris Redding, an EGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.
For three years, Shane and Yvonne were wed, sharing heated nights, while his devotion clung to his ex. Yvonne strove to be a dutiful wife, yet their marriage felt hollow, built on desire rather than real warmth. All changed when she became pregnant, only for Shane to thrust her onto the operating table, warning, “Either you or the baby survives!” Broken by his cruelty, she vanished in grief and later returned, radiantly accomplished, leaving everyone awestruck. Haunted by remorse, Shane begged for another chance, but Yvonne only smiled and replied, “I’m sorry, men no longer interest me.”
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June Rivera was divorced by her husband after three years of marriage because he wanted to be with her sister who was pregnant for him. Kicked to the curb with a divorce and rejected by her parents,she struggles to make ends meet and get a job until she saves Luis Ambrose from an accident - the only child of Rafael Ambrose, a widowed man and the CEO of Ambrose Corporation. When little Luis asks to have her as a nanny, and Rafael's mother pressures him to get married, they draw a contract. To be Luis's nanny and his fake wife for one year in exchange for 50 million dollars!
Charlee was left at the altar and became a laughingstock. She tried to keep her head high, but ultimately lost it when she received a sex tape of her fiance and her half-sister. Devastated, she ended up spending a wild night with a hot stranger. It was supposed to be one-time thing, but he kept popping up, helping her with projects and revenge, all while flirting with her constantly. Charlee soon realized that it was nice having him around, until her ex suddenly appeared at her door, begging for another chance. Her tycoon lover asked, “Who will you choose? Think carefully before you answer.”
It was supposed to be a marriage of convenience, but Carrie made the mistake of falling in love with Kristopher. When the time came that she needed him the most, her husband was in the company of another woman. Enough was enough. Carrie chose to divorce Kristopher and move on with her life. Only when she left did Kristopher realize how important she was to him. In the face of his ex-wife’s countless admirers, Kristopher offered her 20 million dollars and proposed a new deal. “Let’s get married again.”
"There will be no falling in love, we will only act as a loving couple when we are in public, we will share a room to make it believable, but no intimacy, touching is off-limits. We'll only have sex once a month, and that's solely to produce an heir. You won't interfere in my business, and I won't interfere in yours. You will be my wife in every sense and you will not be involved with any other man," he said, arrogance seeping from every word. I watch his mouth move, I'm not ready to fall in love with any man, especially not one as arrogant and egoistic as him. I can handle acting as a loving couple, and as for intimacy once a month. I can agree to that just to satisfy my sexual cravings with no strings attached. "Where can I sign?" I asked since I had nothing to lose. *** Nadine's wedding dreams turned to nightmares when she caught her sister and fiancé cheating! With a secret recording, she's ready for revenge. But then mysterious billionaire Logan West offers a deal: A Contract Marriage to take down her ex's empire. But what Nadine doesn't know is her life is getting complicated as she takes her chance to get revenge or risks everything for a chance at love?"