Amelia Slovakia at 18 was mortified to realize she would be getting married soon but she would never say surprised. As a woman, she was aware her value as Romania's offspring would always be reduced to a trade and barter system so she had prepared her mind for it and was certain she could get married to the boy of her father's choosing or so she had thought. Until her engagement night had completely changed the course of her life forever. She was married just like she had anticipated, but to no boy. The Mayor of Moscow, Jason, a long-standing enemy of Romania had never thought the night he left for his nemesis' hidden daughter's engagement due to pure intrigue he would end up having her as a wife but now, with the younger insolent woman bent on testing his restraints and pushing all his buttons, he had more on his hand than just trying to curb her obnoxiousness and her need to stubbornly go against him because he was also finding it hard to stop himself from proving to the heiress he was all male and there was a certain amount of attitude that could be tolerated without him thinking of an appropriate punishment that would require her gown off.
Chapter 0001|A spoilt Princess
"You all are cowards!" Ron, my younger and if I'm being completely honest, sometimes I think my only brother yelled at my three older brothers whose stone-faced chiselled faces remained untouched with emotions. "You'll let her be married off just like that for some foolish alliance?"
I wrung my hands together thankful Ma Eleanor wasn't behind me to remind me of how improper that was for a lady even though we were in the 21st century because Romania Slovakia, a Russian by birth who had conquered one of the biggest European outfits, president and leader of the Shadows, also known as my father had a peculiar way of raising his daughter and by peculiar I mean coldly announcing my arranged marriage to his second in command's son a few minutes ago after a brief 5 minutes meeting with me and my brothers over a plate of medium cooked steak.
The thought that Ron, my baby brother felt betrayed and hurt truly showed how vulnerable and naive he was. He had just turned 15 so he was no less a kid like I was, a year back when I had come back home grinning from ear to ear after being offered a full scholarship to the Russian university and Dad had said he was proud of me. Even Brother Nicholas, my oldest brother and heir to dad's empire had let me drive his Lamborghini.
Nobody touches Nicholas' car but he had lied, pretended like I did have a shot at being great, happy like my life wasn't decided the minute I was born.
The only girl among 4 strong men who while they ploughed and trained hard in the dirt, got multiple injuries to show for their training, I learnt how to be pretty, play the pianoforte, and be an interesting side piece for any man my father finally finds worthy to give out his well-trained and well-mannered dog to.
"Look..." Mason started airily, six-foot-tall, blonde and a spitting image of my mother. I'm just quoting my uncle. Dad never talks about her, so I didn't know what she looks like even in pictures, sound like, if she would approve of how I love walking barefooted on the beach or just scold me, reminding me I wasn't like other girls and despite how curious I had been in the past nobody seems to want to discuss her.
She is dead and according to an exciting drunk outburst from Nicholas, I knew she was beautiful. Very beautiful. And that's the only thing I knew about my mother.
"Amelia!" Ashton snapped. At 23 he was already so Brusque, cold, curt and a spitting image of a man that more than their identical raven black hair and grey brilliant eyes, reminded me every day in more ways than one that family would always mean his outfit and everything else he owns lies in the altar of sacrifice to keep it great.
"Yes..." I mumbled realizing I had spaced out. Typical. Lost in my little magical world with fairies and elves.
Not.
"What do you think? Don't you think Jared is a good dude? He goes to your university right?" Mason repeated eying me while trying to put up an act of a blank face for Ron's benefit.
What do I think? I thought. Firstly, he isn't Jared, his name is Jackson at least know the name of the man you'll be calling Brother-in-law soon and who by the way is a piece of shit, playboy, and generally just an arrogant scum. Besides I'm freaking 18, I should be making out in a shabby motel with a sex playlist that would make me want to gouge out my eyes in the next 10 years, with a guy called Tyler Sly, who keeps a nice blonde bun but guess what else that isn't real apart from a cool name like Tyler Sly that rhymes, I could never say what goes on in my head.
I haven't for the past 18 years of my life. I always had to put everyone's feelings before mine, even though I'm the last thing on their mind.
I directed my gaze at the beach in a familiar green-blue slate... After a wave. You know, peace...calm. I think that's why I made here our spot, the only thing I ever managed to voice out amidst my other thoughts being buried amongst other stronger harder male voices, because the calm just reminds me that there just might be good out there.
Perhaps a kid was getting an iPad from a distant relative with no strings attached, a child could run with her hair unpacked and being blown by the wind, a girl was going to be a dancer, yes no education, fuck college, and everyone was respecting that even though they don't approve. Good that I couldn't see in the intimidating high wall of the prison called mansion I've had to endure for years.
"Yes, Jared. Nice kid." I licked my chapped lips and then managed a faint smile at Ron, knowing I'll be doing all the work after all of convincing him I was happy. "I like him alright."
"I don't think father would like you calling your soon to be husband a kid."
I spared a sidelong glance at my father's second seed who still hasn't understood that trying way too hard and being this dutiful doesn't make up for the fact that you'll always be his second son and after being a President of the Shadow, my father adores the traditional practical ways of running things thus making Ashton always end up being a runner up to Nicholas not because he wasn't smarter, deadlier, trained harder but simply because it wasn't his birthright.
Mason made to ruffle Ron's head like that magically made how fucked up our family is, if we still knew what that means anymore, disappear and Ron avoided his hand glaring at him.
"Firstly, his name isn't Jared but Jackson and she doesn't like him because she hasn't had a single conversation with him or anyone in college. Because she is the freak that two deadly hefty men guard all day long at school while her two intimidating brothers pick her up after!" Ron yelled and I clenched my jaw when I saw the pity in his eyes for me before he was running out of the beach to hide the tears that were about to roll from his eyes.
Because even at 15, Ron was aware that the Slovakia men never ever show any signs of weaknesses.
"He would come around," Mason muttered as he leisurely threw a flat rock inside the body of water and when it skipped thrice he grinned.
Total goofball, easy-going and my immediate elder brother who like the other two didn't give a damn about me, not like I expected them to.
I was just the strange girl with pink frillier that cried hard when anybody touches her Fresno doll, the sister who never worked out but busied herself with painting her nails and attending tea play dates. I was Amelia who according to the world and to even my brothers was just a spoilt princess who gets handed whatever she wants and easily too.
What is worse? Sometimes I feel like it because I do tick the stereotype.
Blonde hair framing my oval face and my rare sapphire blue diamond necklace make the colour of my eyes hard not to be noticed. It was blue. I was having a mental breakdown inside of me, hyperventilating, worrying about Ron and angry that I could still worry for him when I was the one getting married to a total stranger but yet I had a full makeup, my manicure and pedicure were on flick, and, I was wearing a long silly gown that Eleanor had said made me look like a princess and I couldn't help but accept, a princess who needed saving from her tower of responsibilities and things expected of her as appreciation for this amazing life she has had to live, thanks to Daddy dearest comforts.
I was crying but hey, the world was too busy pointing out how perfect my life was to see past the charade and it wasn't like I could remember who I was before it all because somehow spoilt privileged Amelia was slowly starting to feel more like a face than a mask.
"You know if you love here so much, why don't we just get the beach house too. Why make us stand here just so we could have a chat?" Nicholas grumbled and I mentally rolled my eyes at his undisguised need to want to splurge money.
Just like my other brothers, Nicholas had a problem, his was the spending type. No, he wasn't extravagant that would be easy and normal as what is expected of a 25-year-old who was heir to a billion dollars life of crime and blood empire but he threw money at things like that would somehow make our problems go... Poof away.
"I don't want to buy the house." I cast a glance at the beautiful unoccupied glass to glass penthouse that I didn't have a problem with in fact the only fault was that it was truly beautiful, simple and magical to become one of our properties.
I'd feel choked if we owned the only safe spot that acted as a breather for me.
"You better say your goodbyes then because the place is up for sale. Ma Griffin decided it was time already to let go and you'd be getting married anyway and moving from here."
I sighed. I met Ma Griffin and fell in love with her house after I became friends with her grandchild, Amber over being in awe of her riding a bike.
If I loved the daring brunette, that ate Cheerios and hamburgers when she wanted, I fell more in love with her home and life when I met her grandmother who was away from her family and resided here because her grandfather had passed out due to a heart attack and that's where they had once casually planned to make a home when they were grey and old.
I smiled, excited that Ma Griffin finally was able to get closure and move on with life, even as I wondered what her grandchild who was the closest thing I had to a friend would be up to.
If she finally gave up her dream of really belonging to a biker group like in the movies though to be fair I did and still think she'll kill it, then I'm sure she is creating a sort of magic but in a crazy bizarre box that makes her real and raw Which was the hardest thing to be found over here.
"Father I have sinned. I have a confession." I lean against the confession booth relieved that I could finally tell someone this niggling secret that haunted me. I wasn't Catholic, heck I wasn't a Christian but when your mom worked four jobs just to keep a roof over your head and your best friend and only friend think you are a psycho, a priest seems like a reasonable option to tell a sin that robs you of sleep constantly. "What is it, my child?" The priest's voice comes out through the window. "The devil kissed me and I liked it." As I walked back home, my head down, hands tightly holding on to my backpack because of my squalor-like neighbourhood which breeds crime. I couldn't help but smile a little, amused at the priest's face as I tried to convince him I didn't mean a figurative devil but the real deal. I'm Prudence, a runt litter, a nobody in my private high school, and a charity case on scholarship but somehow the devil chose me.
800,000 years ago Earth was being defeated by the people of the underworld in battle. Some of the humans were taken as slaves and were mated with which led to the discovery of how pure their genes were and how it makes their eternal posterity un aging. So every millennium as an exchange for Earth's freedom, the male of mating age was free to pick a woman from earth, who was free to come back once they are done birthing a child. Nobody knew what the underworld people look like because none of the women who left ever came back. Kimberly Clarkson had heard the little myth that made her curious 6 years old eyes widened, the thought of another world fascinating her but now, whenever she remembered the little tale no one could prove exists she Scoffs, knowing better. The underworld story was well, just a story. She just turned 23, had a childhood sweetheart that adores her, and was finally having a chance to contribute her quota to society now she was working at her dream firm as a lawyer. But what Kimberly doesn't know is that soon everything she has ever believed in is going to change because it is time for the underworld people to cash out on their agreement and Kimberly's name falls among the lots.
He was darkness, sinfully gorgeous, A dangerous fantasy, a walking orgasm with strings of broken hearts behind him a proof of his heartless nature. He was everything decadent yet delicious your mom warned you about. She wanted light He wanted her After running away from her abusive drug addict of a step father and a woman who was busy getting her next fix to care for a whiny 15 years old. Maya could say she have had it tough in life and just wanted her own happy ever after. A husband who adores her, a picket fence, a dog and three Adorable children. After she catches her fantasized soulmate cheating on her with her best friend, she is shattered which leaves her deciding to throw caution into the air once and indulge in a mind blowing one night stand. A one night stand which leaves her sprawled on the bed humiliated, turned on and intrigued about the hot stranger with the distant cold blue eyes who practically freaked out when he discovered she was a virgin. When her friend gets her a job as a PA to the CEO of one of the biggest establishment in the country but turns out Mr Ceo was the hot stranger and what more? He wants to claim her in everyway possible but Maya knows what a picket fence guy material looks like and her insanely hot brooding boss who she had to remind of his mother's birthday and was made to drop a dozen of roses and a one line note of "let's not make this more than it was" to his numerous one night stands, wasnt it. But what Xavier wants, Xavier gets and he is totally determined to get a particular someone who wants absolutely nothing to do with him.
This is a story about two damaged people who came together because of one's desire and the other's fear. Cassandra She was young, innocent, loving, and pretty with big eyes that showed her soul. She was stunningly beautiful but broken and alone, trapped in a world of monsters. Then he appeared. People say he is the worst monster of all, someone you pray never to meet. Will she escape him, or will he become her whole world? Dominic He was ruthless, aggressive, and merciless. Everyone feared him, and he was proud to be the king of his world. But he was also broken. Then she appeared. She was like a fragile doll, his doll. Will he take what he wants and move on, or will she become his life? "Let me go, please," she begged. He buried his face in her neck and tightened his grip around her arms. "Shhhh... breathe, love," he whispered. She cringed at his nickname for her, and he continued, "You are mine, and I am never letting you go. I will give you everything, my love, except your freedom from me."
"Never let anyone treat you like shit!" I learned that the hard way. For three years, I lived with my in-laws. They didn't treat me as their son-in-law but as a slave. I put up with everything because of my wife, Yolanda Lambert. She was the light of my life. Unfortunately, my whole world came crashing down the day I caught my wife cheating on me. I have never been so heartbroken. To have my revenge, I revealed my true identity. I was none other than Liam Hoffman—the heir of a family with trillions of dollars in assets! The Lamberts were utterly shocked after the big reveal. They realized what fools they had been for treating me like trash. My wife even knelt down and begged for my forgiveness. What do you think I did? Did I take her back or made her suffer? Find out!
"The entire wealthy circle in Seattle knew how much Stella Carlson loved Aaron Malone. People watched the childhood sweethearts grow from inexperience to maturity, finally getting married in a grand wedding ceremony. On the day of the wedding, despite the alliance between the Carlson and Malone families, the groom ran away. Stella knew that Aaron had rushed to L.A. to take care of his ex-girlfriend, who had attempted suicide. Unwilling to become the laughingstock of all Seattle, she gritted her teeth and dialed the number of her adversary, her tone almost commanding, "Ethan, come and marry me now. This is your only chance for revenge." On the other end, Ethan Powers raised an eyebrow as he gripped his phone, staring at the floor littered with cigarette butts. "Did the groom run away?" he asked. "My darling."
I am the most talented doctor, the genius artist, the most famous jeweler designer, and I am going to be the richest one, making Conor, the king of a super powerful family, lose his crown… Conor was hunt down me for six years because I raped him. No, because he raped me. It didn't matter anyway. Since be selling by my father, I was gonna be Conor's fake wife. The noble people thought I would be a disgrace to their family since I was the mentally handicapped. What fuck! When I was going to be gotten rid of as rubbish, a baby boy showed up and called me mom. Conor gaped at baby boy since the baby boy just looked like child version of him. Conor sheathed in my body, moaning, “Don’t hide from me. Tell me everything, sweetheart.” I blinked, grinning, “Our baby girl also misses her daddy.” Conor, "…"
The dream of everyone with regards to marriage is to be able to find that special someone and settle down with them. Even arranged marriages grant you an opportunity to meet your partner briefly before the wedding. How will you feel about waking up in the morning with someone sleeping next to you who is not just anyone but your legally married partner yet with no memory of how that had happened in just a few hours of going out the previous day? This is the story of Jason Haward and Julia Harrison, two strangers trapped in a marriage they never planned. The quest to find out why led to the unfolding of a mystery which made them realize they are both living a lie. To find out more, read this amazing story of love, betrayal, revenge and murder.
Andrea Deciding that I was going to skip a day at work so I could have first time sex with my boyfriend seemed like the most absurd decision I could ever make. Or at least that was what I'd thought. Until I'd walked in on my said boyfriend cheating on me with some redhead and decided to get my revenge by losing my virginity to his wealthy billionaire father instead. Crazy, right? Trust me, I know. Like that's not enough, things take a drastic turn for the worst after I realized I was in love with him and pregnant with his child. Before I could get the chance to come clean about every including my feelings formhim and the pregnancy, he finds out about my trickery. Alejandro's not one to condone being lied to and deceived so he immediately tells me he doesn't want to see me again. So what do I do? I pack up and leave the country. But it seems like the universe isn't done with us just yet. . . Alejandro I should have known better than to get involved with someone way younger than me. It was something I've never done before. But like the saying goes, there's a first time for everything. The first time I met Andrea I was captivated by her beauty. More than that there was this innocence in her that called out to me like a moth to a flame. I ignored all the warnings in my head and went after what I wanted. And what I wanted was her. Unfortunately what she wanted was revenge against my son. I told myself that it had to be some kind of mistake. There was no way she had been playing with my feelings and planning some silly revenge this whole time. But she had. It had taken a surprise visit from my son for me to find out her true intentions. Even then it had been hard to believe it. But I couldn't deny that she'd fooled me real good alright. So naturally I cut ties with her. And that's supposed to be the end, right? Wrong. Turns out that our story was never destined to end just there. . .