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At my old school, I saw the effects of bullying firsthand; I felt them. I felt them in ways I can never forget, never erase. My heart begins to thunder in my chest, and my palms grow so sweaty I have to put down my fork. Heat rushes through my body, and it feels suddenly hot, like I should take off my jacket and loosen my tie. Tristan's fixing the buttons on his white first year shirt as he makes his way over to me with long, confident strides, his hair glossy and raven-black, his mouth too dangerous to be tempting. My fingers curl tight around the side of my book bag and my heart races, sweat beading at my temples. Bullies don't quit until circumstances force them to. It's the nature of the beast, and humans are the worst animal of all. For the moment, I'm drawing a blank, but give me time, and I'll work it out. There's a reason I got chosen for this scholarship, and it wasn't my ability to roll over and take it. No, I'm a fighter, always have been. I just think I'm going to have to fight harder than I ever have.
My uniform-and my dignity-are in tatters.
My eyes scan the gathered crowd, but there are three faces in particular that catch my attention. Cold, cruel, beautiful. An ugly sort of beautiful, I think as I meet a narrowed silver gaze and catch the faintest edges of a smirk. Tristan Vanderbilt thinks he's beaten me; they all do. But what they don't understand is that I'm not the nervous, eager little charity case I was when I first started at Burberry Prep.
Lifting an arm up, I swipe a bit of blood from my mouth. My bra is showing through the torn remnants of my white blouse, and it's the pretty red one I wore just for Zayd. He made me believe he cared about me. Flicking my eyes in his direction, I can see quite clearly now that he doesn't. He isn't smiling, not like Tristan, but the message in his green eyes is clear: you don't belong here.
"Had enough yet?" Harper du Pont purrs from behind me. I don't bother turning to look at her. Instead, I let my attention slide to the last of the three guys. My three biggest mistakes; my three greatest betrayals. Creed is frowning, like this whole confrontation is a necessary evil. Get rid of the lower-class trash, clean up the school.
The wind picks up, the ragged red pleats of my academy uniform billowing in a salty breeze. In the distance, I can hear the sea. It crashes against the rocks in time to the frantic beating of my heart. A storm is coming.
Tristan moves toward me with predatory grace, his expensive loafers picking up droplets of dew as he comes to stand toe-to-toe with me, as close as he was that first day when he insulted me and then laid out the challenge: how long do you think you'll last? Well. It's the final day of freshman year, and I'm still standing here, aren't I? Tristan, though, he thinks that while I've won the battle, he's going to win the war.
I stay stone-still as he lifts his fingers and tangles strands of my paint- splattered hair through them, giving the short rose gold locks a light tug. Red paint smears across his perfect skin as I meet those gray eyes of his with a defiant glimmer in my own.
"I take it you won't be coming back next year, will you, Marnye?" he whispers, his voice like whiskey over ice. Tristan thinks he's the master of this school, a veritable god. The other boys think of themselves like that, too. I'd like to be a fly on the wall when a confrontation finally comes. They think their money will buy them the world. Maybe, in a way, it will.
But it won't buy them true friendship, and it won't buy them love. It definitely won't buy them me.
I glance past Tristan to Zayd and Creed, and then I refocus my attention back on the asshole that started it all. From day one, he went out of his way to make my life a living hell. He succeeded. And Zayd and Creed, they loved every horrible, filthy second of it.
"Just go home, Marnye, and it'll all be over," Tristan says, the softness in his voice edged with cruelty. He's like a predator who's too cute to be afraid of. I made the mistake of letting him get too close, and now I'm cut and bleeding-physically and emotionally. I'm fucking shattered. "You don't belong here."
Zayd listens to the whole conversation, and then slides his tattooed arm around Becky Platter, putting the final nail in my coffin. He's chosen her over me. He's chosen her and her cruelty and her mocking laughter over me. My hands curl into fists so tight that my nails dig crescents into my palms.
I meet Tristan's haughty, self-assured stare. There are tears on my face, and when he removes his fingers from my hair, he touches one with his knuckles, bringing it to his lips for a lick. It's a derisive, awful move, like a knife in the back. I can feel the blade beside my heart, but it's just missed. I'm not broken yet.
"I've already enrolled in my classes," I state, and the entire courtyard goes silent. Nobody is expecting this, the poor girl, the lamb in a pack of wolves,
standing up for herself. What they don't know is that the hardest hearts are forged in fire. With their cruelty and their jokes and their laughter, they've forged me into something spectacular. "Come September, I'll be the first in line for orientation."
"You wouldn't dare," Tristan says, still cold as ice, still full of wicked triumph for what he thinks he's done. His dark hair flutters in the breeze, softening some of his hard lines. It's all an illusion though. I know that now, and I won't make that same mistake again. "I'll make your life a living hell." "You can try," I retort, reaching into my pocket and pulling out my registration form. I'll be back at Burberry Prep come hell or high water. This is my opportunity, and I won't let three handsome faces, three pairs of hot hands, three sets of ardent lips destroy that. "Because what you don't know
..." I take a deep breath, and then bend down to grab the handle on my ratty, old duffle bag. Everybody else here has hired help to carry their luggage. Not me. Straightening up, I lift my chin in defiance and Tristan scowls. "Is that my life outside of these walls was already a living hell. This is just another level of Dante's inferno, and I'm not afraid." My gaze flicks past Tristan and back to Zayd and Creed. "Not of any of you."
I move around Tristan, intent on the school gates and three months of freedom from these jerks, but he puts his hand around my arm and holds me back. Glancing down, I stare at his fingers pressed against my flesh, and then look back up at his face. He's smiling, but it's not a pretty smile.
"Challenge accepted," he purrs, and then he releases me.
As I head down the path in my torn uniform, I keep my chin up and my fears pushed back.
Challenge accepted is right. I won't be driven away from the best opportunity in my life. Not by Tristan, not by anyone.
As I walk, I can feel three sets of eyes on my back, watching, waiting, plotting.
I'll have to make sure I stay one step ahead.
I rejected my fated mate and didn't regret it for a second. Until now. Shipped off to Ravenscroft University, a graduate school for the supernatural elite, I have a lot to live up to. As the heir to America's most powerful pack, my life up to now has been spent in a gilded cage. But not for the reason you might think. I was locked away, not to be protected, but because I was born broken. A disappointment to them all. A wolf who couldn't shift. This is supposed to be my fresh start, but my past won't leave me alone. Not when he's here. The arrogant wolf shifter who ruined my life after I turned him down seven years ago. Now, I'm a pariah, followed by the rumors my rejected mate has spread, hated by my classmates, isolated again. From everyone but them. A vampire prince. A forbidden priest. A powerful demigod. A bully wolf. I'm playing a dangerous game, and the rules say I can't be with them. Then again, rules are made to be broken. And when every moment spent with them brings me closer to finding my wolf, how can I stay away?
Daisy is the illegitimate daughter of Mr. Hubert. His company went bankrupt, so he asked for help from Drkov's house. They agreed to help Mr. Hubert but with one condition. One of his two daughters must marry their nephew - Atlas Drkov. Atlas Drkov is a billionaire but he is disabled and uses a wheelchair. Yaretzi - daughter of Mr. Hubert's official wife - does not accept marrying a disabled man. She and her parents made a plan. They kidnapped Daisy's mother, threatened her, and forced her to marry Atlas. To save her mother, she accepted. However, after getting married, she fell in love with this man, and so did he. Difficulties start from here.
COALESCENCE OF THE FIVE SERIES BOOK ONE: THE 5-TIME REJECTED GAMMA & THE LYCAN KING BOOK TWO: THE ROGUES WHO WENT ROGUE BOOK THREE: THE INDOMITABLE HUNTRESS & THE HARDENED DUKE *** BOOK ONE: After being rejected by 5 mates, Gamma Lucianne pleaded with the Moon Goddess to spare her from any further mate-bonds. To her dismay, she is being bonded for the sixth time. What’s worse is that her sixth-chance mate is the most powerful creature ruling over all werewolves and Lycans - the Lycan King himself. She is certain, dead certain, that a rejection would come sooner or later, though she hopes for it to be sooner. King Alexandar was ecstatic to meet his bonded mate, and couldn’t thank their Goddess enough for gifting him someone so perfect. However, he soon realizes that this gift is reluctant to accept him, and more than willing to sever their bond. He tries to connect with her but she seems so far away. He is desperate to get intimate with her but she seems reluctant to open up to him. He tries to tell her that he is willing to commit to her for the rest of his life but she doesn’t seem to believe him. He is pleading for a chance: a chance to get to know her; a chance to show her that he’s different; and a chance to love her. But when not-so-subtle crushes, jealous suitors, self-entitled Queen-wannabes, an old flame, a silent protector and a past wedding engagement threaten to jeopardize their relationship, will Lucianne and Xandar still choose to be together? Is their love strong enough to overcome everything and everyone? Or will Lucianne resort to enduring a sixth rejection from the one person she thought she could entrust her heart with?
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—all in a bid to find her. But there was no trace of Natalie. Connor slowly spiraled into madness, turning the city upside down and leaving chaos in his wake. Natalie finally surfaced years later, with wealth and power of her own, only to find herself entangled with Connor once again.
Eliana was framed by her best friend and her fiance into sleeping with a boy toy in the club and getting impregnated by him. Five years after she had given birth to twins, she returned home and worked under the Moran Group, where she met the CEO-- Maurice. Maurice was a brilliant businessman who did his job well. But in order to stay under the radar, he lived a double life. One as Maurice, and one as Preston. Fate brought the two together again, roping them in on an exciting love story. It all became more complicated when Eliana faced Preston, the man she had slept with before, once again. Now that she was being pursued by two men, how could she ever choose? When would Eliana uncover the secret of Maurice's identity? When was Maurice going to know that he already had two children of his own? How would Eliana face this man when the truth came to light one day? Come and find out.
When Corynn mustered up the courage to tell Elliot about her pregnancy, she unexpectedly found him gallantly helping another woman from his car. Her heart sank as three years of effort to secure his love crumbled before her eyes, compelling her to leave him behind. Three years later, life had taken Corynn down a new path with someone else, while Elliot was left grappling with regret. Seizing a moment of vulnerability, he pleaded, "Corynn, let's get married." Shaking her head with a faint smile, Corynn gently replied, "Sorry, I'm already engaged."
Linsey was stood up by her groom to run off with another woman. Furious, she grabbed a random stranger and declared, "Let's get married!" She had acted on impulse, realizing too late that her new husband was the notorious rascal, Collin. The public laughed at her, and even her runaway ex offered to reconcile. But Linsey scoffed at him. "My husband and I are very much in love!" Everyone thought she was delusional. Then Collin was revealed to be the richest man in the world. In front of everyone, he got down on one knee and held up a stunning diamond ring. "I look forward to our forever, honey."