Can’t wait to find my mate
/1/129726/coverbig.jpg?v=d952b45e9b05aae9f5803a8b2c8d4fc6)
The Hockey Prince's Secret Ice Queen
All I wanted was to find a computer genius to process the non-linear dynamic equations for my ecological model. Instead, I found myself cornered by Julian Andrews, the university's hockey prince, trading a public, staged kiss for his academic support. To finalize our "deal," I was dragged to the campus ice rink. The cheerleaders and puck bunnies immediately swarmed him, mocking my plain clothes and treating me like a pathetic joke. Brooke, the head cheerleader, even set up a figure skating competition with a date with Julian as the grand prize. She performed a basic spin, blew him a kiss, and smugly waited for me to fall flat on my face and humiliate myself. His hockey teammates laughed from the sidelines, watching me try to support Julian as he stumbled around the ice like a newborn giraffe. But as I held his warm hand to keep him from falling, I couldn't help but feel something was terribly wrong. Why was a top-tier athlete faking such awful balance? And why did his ice-blue eyes stare at me with such knowing anticipation, as if he already knew about the professional figure skating past I had spent years trying to bury? "Just let go and skate." He whispered, slowly releasing my hand. I took a deep breath, glided to the center of the rink, and landed a flawless double Axel. As the entire rink fell into a dead, shocked silence, I realized I had just exposed not only my own hidden past, but also the biggest secret of the campus god.
Chapter 1 No.1
Sage POV:
"Let me kiss you."
The request was a low, hurried murmur—warm, quiet, and laced with the faintest edge of mortification.
Stunned, I snapped my head up toward the sound.
Julian Andrews filled my vision. He easily towered a head over me, his lean, athletic frame silhouetted against the bright morning glare, casting a long shadow across the cobblestones. Briar University's star forward. Team captain. The athletic department's untouchable golden boy.
Campus rumor had it that Julian was notoriously indifferent, never sparing anyone a second glance.
Behind him, a solid wall of navy-and-gold varsity jackets blocked the brick path. His teammates were whistling, shoving each other, and effectively cutting off my only exit.
The sudden commotion immediately bottlenecked the morning foot traffic. Whispers rippled through the crowd, and within seconds, a dozen students reached into their pockets out of sheer muscle memory, black camera lenses catching the light as they aimed squarely at us.
Julian's sharp eyes tracked the movement, his jaw tightening into a hard, irritated line.
Before I could take a single defensive step back, he closed the distance between us. Leaning down into my space, his broad shoulders shifted in a subtle, fluid maneuver—throwing up an impenetrable physical wall that completely shielded my face from the intrusive glare of the cameras.
His sharp, striking face hovered breathtakingly close. His deep baritone brushed against my ear, lost to the autumn wind, meant for me alone:
"Sorry to drop this on you," he whispered, his pale blue eyes disarmingly earnest, holding a quiet heat that sent a tremor straight down my spine. "The guys backed me into a locker-room dare... but I'm not here to use you as a joke. We can fake it. Angle it so it looks real—whatever you're comfortable with. Just help me get them off my back, and I owe you one."
It was only then that my brain finally rebooted.
What on earth? He's actually trying to kiss me?
A sharp flare of pure absurdity hit me, and my gaze dropped to my reflection in the dark glass door of the adjacent building: an oversized, faded gray hoodie that swallowed my frame whole, soft, thin jeans worn at the knees, bare-faced dark circles carved beneath my eyes from forty-eight hours of non-stop coding, my dark hair hastily twisted into a cheap plastic claw clip, and a pair of oversized, thick black-rimmed glasses sitting heavy on the bridge of my nose, completely hiding my face.
I looked like a refugee from an all-night disaster. How had Briar's golden prince ended up in front of me?
When I looked back up, my breath trapped in my throat anyway. He was too close, his clean scent of winter mint and cedar wrapping around my senses. Having those pale blue eyes staring straight down at me made my chest tighten in a way I really didn't want to acknowledge.
"Clock's ticking, Cap!" Landon howled from the sidelines, hands cupped around his mouth as the rest of the players lost their minds laughing. "Plant one on her, or enjoy the five-AM bag skate!"
A raucous chorus of barks and chest-thumping went up from the team.
A few yards away, two girls heading toward the dining hall froze in their tracks, pointing their phones.
"Wait, who the hell is that?" one of them laughed loudly, zooming her camera in on my face. "She looks like she just crawled out of a dumpster. There's no way Julian's actually kissing her. Post it on Sidechat right now—this is going straight to number one."
The cruel words hit like a splash of ice water, snapping me out of my daze and instantly killing the stupid flutter in my chest.
I hated the attention.
Four years ago, after my family and my former training partner framed me and destroyed my competitive skating career, I swore I would never be public entertainment again. I buried my name, switched majors, and hid behind oversized fleece and thick glasses just to live an invisible life. If I ended up on the campus forums with Julian Andrews, the internet vultures would dox me before noon—and drag up the toxic scandal I had bled to walk away from.
My research was already on the verge of falling apart. I didn't have time for this circus.
I locked my grip around my heavy binders, my knuckles straining white.
"Find someone else for your dare, Andrews," I said coldly, taking a step back to put distance between us, my voice tight with adrenaline. "I'm not interested in being part of your game. Move."
I kept my head down, attempting to brush past him.
"You're Sage Kelley, right?"
The sound of my name brought my boots to an immediate halt.
I blinked up at him, caught completely off guard.
"Professor Beaumont's senior research student," Julian straightened up slightly, his cadence measured and even, carrying an intellectual sharpness that seemed impossible beneath a varsity jacket. "I saw your Havenwood Creek senior capstone proposal sitting on his desk over Sunday dinner."
My heart gave a hard, hollow thud. Professor Beaumont was my academic advisor—and the guardian of the final research endowment my late father had left behind.
Julian leaned in slightly, his voice dropping to a near-whisper against the whistle of the wind. "I spent an hour going over your codebase."
My lips parted. "You... read my proposal?"
"Your simulation keeps crashing because your core fluid algorithm strategy is flawed," Julian murmured, his pale blue eyes deadly sharp. "And Uncle Des mentioned that if you don't deliver a working version by this Friday, the department is pulling your grant—which means you don't clear your senior thesis, and you don't graduate in May."
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
Friday was the deadline. If the funding was pulled, the project died, my senior capstone failed, and I would be forced to stay another semester without my degree. Worse, my father's final ecological legacy would be reduced to scrap paper.
I had been panicking over that exact deadline for two days straight, and Julian had just laid it out like it was nothing.
Worse, I couldn't even brush him off. I had heard the rumors about Beaumont's nephew—the CS prodigy everyone in the department talked about. I just had never realized it was him.
"I know how to fix your algorithm," Julian stated plainly, laying his cards on the table, his gaze locking onto mine with an unshakeable, quiet certainty. "Help me get through this bet. In return, I'll rewrite your boundary calculations tonight. Deal?"
/0/32424/coverbig.jpg?v=0af379be462b8b0c4a0d1cb458fb3391)
REJECTED TO FIND MY TRUE MATE
“Yes, we thought we would love each other to death but I must have been mistaken. I don’t think I can do this anymore” I muttered as my lips trembled in pain, fear and anxiety, my eyes were glowing my hurt as water welled up in it, I could not believe what I had heard. He had succeeded in taking awa
/0/25555/coverbig.jpg?v=809ee8c597292b023ac7fb47be8bf0e0)
Prisoner To My Mate
Ana was like every young she-wolf out there. She couldn’t wait to meet her mate. She didn’t expect the way things would go the day she finally met him or the way he would treat her once they met. Ana’s mate wants nothing to do with her but won’t let her go. Ana feels like a prisoner to her mate. Her
/0/68167/coverbig.jpg?v=b2491ece498a40ff746755a1f731f143)
Submitting to My Mate
Riven Adams is strongminded, confident, loving and fierce. Everything an Luna should be. Zaden King is is strong, dangerous and ruthless. Everything an Alpha should be. "Don't play with fire mi amor. You're sure to get burned ." I knew his words were meant to be threatening but I took it as a challe
/0/61238/coverbig.jpg?v=0037e5e29351585077ef584c2f94b64f)
Reborn To Find Each Other
" I hate you" this is the opposite of what anyone would be expecting to hear from their fiance, and it wasn't what Alexa was expecting to hear from Edward, her fiance, but that was what she got after eight years of her life filled with faithfulness and devotion towards the relationship, it turned ou
/0/84109/coverbig.jpg?v=7c2ad6421b1e1e31b6721b6c5d54e6f1)
A Year To Find Forever
My husband, Ethan, had been by my side for ten years, treating me with unwavering devotion, a quiet chef supporting my empire. I was Jocelyn Anderson, COO of a hospitality giant, a Wharton graduate, and frankly, too busy to notice. I saw him as steady, uncomplicated-a strategic move to keep my fam
/0/92391/coverbig.jpg?v=3173c386c3877af4a2cf7a72ff0fab2a)
Fated To Kill My Mate
When Noah, alpha of the Lykos pack, proposes a two-year marriage agreement to Charlotte, she's desperate enough to accept. With nothing to lose and a death sentence looming, she agrees to become his wife and bear him an heir. But as they navigate their fake marriage turned real passion, secrets thre
/0/70252/coverbig.jpg?v=f19edd236badcc00e103bab63c2fcbe2)
I Wait For You, My Love
Natalie used to think she could melt Connor’s icy heart, but she was sorely mistaken. When at last she decided to leave, she discovered that she was pregnant. Even so, she chose to quietly leave his world, prompting Connor to mobilize all of his resources and expand his business to a global scale—a
/1/111129/coverbig.jpg?v=1735cbaaffd973075dbdf376c93fdb7f)
Bound To My Forbidden Mate
In a world where witches and werewolves are sworn enemies, love is the greatest crime of all. Selene is a witch preparing for her mating ceremony, where she must choose a husband from approved suitors. No werewolf may enter. No beast may touch her. The law is absolute. But one suitor carries a deadl
/0/58810/coverbig.jpg?v=e0995a41afdeaf35684bb8f227d2b453)
Bound to my sister’s mate
Aurora Everley has always been the overlooked daughter, the one that gets shadowed by her sister Margot. She thought that once she turns eighteen and meets her mate, she would have someone whose attention would just be on her. But she is wrong. Because her mate happens to be the one her sister bring
/0/54939/coverbig.jpg?v=f8375d2c9dde3eb90fb5bcbfa6bf8e1b)
Sold To My Alpha Mate
Venom finds his mate in the last place imaginable. Hell's Pit. A place many men enter and never leave alive. A place Venom once enjoyed; the violence and blood thick in the air. Ignorant of the barbaric way of gaining one's freedom. But alas, he has found his mate. An omega at that. One who has
/0/50431/coverbig.jpg?v=aff4d0e83e4e671bdc9cfd2f35755259)
Sold to my ruthless mate
Elena wanted to cry her heart out to whoever would listen, but her heart was dry. She couldn't even find it in her to do anything other than smile, nod politely and recieve the insults and abuse dished out to her. Afterall, she believed that there was nothing she could do. She was above the age of
/0/27860/coverbig.jpg?v=55eec7bd8c6ddef6ed23f46ede30247b)
Can’t Resist Her
Nadine dated him for ten years, when he had nothing, and married him even after her mother disowned her. She stayed with him her whole life only for him to sell her baby without her consent and marry a rich woman. Six years later: She changed to a rich woman and vowed to take vengeance for her
/0/40437/coverbig.jpg?v=20230720102935)
The Contract To Find The Billionaire's Lover
Introducing "The Contract to Find the Billionaire's Lover" Matt is thrown into a tumultuous journey of love and loss following his father's untimely demise. In a twisted turn of events, his stepmother Cathrine manipulates him into a marriage with Angela, solely for her own gains. But Matt, a billio
/0/18647/coverbig.jpg?v=75677d0cc2bc883806edd0550bbd7d7c)
Love Notes: Find My Mr. Right
Although Clare was the daughter of the most influential family in the city, her true identity had been hidden from the public by her parents for her to have a healthy upbringing. Even so, her innate genes shortly prompted her to become a popular figure in the prestigious college she attended. Her
/0/17717/coverbig.jpg?v=a574afe1bfe0a7d5b8fcf3fd6e9216b4)
With Those Who Wait
This early work by Frances Wilson Huard was originally published in 1918 and we are now republishing it as part of our WWI Centenary Series. 'With Those Who Wait' is a work that paints a picture of what life was like for many in rural France during the First World War. This book is part of the World
/0/39709/coverbig.jpg?v=ff7e972e74d248067a9d6c4896e31c56)
Fated To My Sister's Widowed Mate
Lisa Osborne, on her quest to uncover the mystery behind her sister's death is encountered by her sister's widowed mate and pack leader of the town, Kiran Silver. "With a ragged sigh, she soaked in the heat of Kiran’s body, the strength of his arms wrapped securely around her, the smell of his mas
/0/46623/coverbig.jpg?v=3ce05d50ac6faa0c557979d30b947fc1)
118 Days To Seduce My Omega Mate
"You drive me insane, Carla!" He growled, hoisting me on the desk. His lips brushed my jaw and my breath quickened when he slipped his fingers underneath my red dress. "Fuck, you are not wearing panties," He groaned, gripping my thighs possessively. I was filled with an unnerving amount of needines
/0/49125/coverbig.jpg?v=a80b62aabd9d693ff6fae53acac721f5)
The Alpha’s Perfect Find.
When normal, sweet, calm Hazel Coleman moves to a new town after the death of her parents, she is welcomed warmly by everyone except the Alpha of the Moonstone pack, who makes her go crazy every chance he gets. She settles there and is ready to deal with Alpha Caine Kingston’s love and hate for he
/0/46047/coverbig.jpg?v=81139d2375d189c64e6e0e51d2db31c6)
Trapped Hearts Find Love
Thomas Adam, CEO SaveFund CBD Branch, Great career, decent looks, at least twenty bucks in his wallet, debit card stacked with zeros, but good fortune had the opposite effect when it came to relationship issues. That's the gist of what Thomas Adam feels. Heartbreak from being left at the altar ling
/0/50976/coverbig.jpg?v=20260526021210)
Forcefully Married To My Second Chance Mate
Thrown into a loveless marriage with the heartless alpha king after a brutal rejection, Aurora discovers a shocking truth—she's been wed to her second-chance mate. As forbidden love and ancient prophecies collide, she must choose between her destiny and the chains of her past. Embark on a captivatin
