The night before her engagement, Valerie was tricked by her boyfriend and stepsister into spending the night with a stranger. After the night together, the man vanished. Later, her boyfriend accused her of cheating, revealing his affair with her stepsister. Pressured by her father, Valerie married an unconscious man in place of her stepsister. Valerie exposed the scheme, sabotaged her father's ambitions, and transformed herself. When her husband woke and chased her to the airport, she calmly refused him, saying, "It's over between us." He held her firmly. "You married me, so you must commit."
"Ah!"
A piercing scream shattered the silence of the hotel corridor, but it was cut short as a heavy door slammed shut.
Inside the pitch-black room, Valerie Brown's heart raced. She tried to scream, but no sound escaped-her lips were smothered by a rough, unyielding hand.
She froze, feeling the hot, alcohol-laced breath of a stranger against her neck, every exhale tightening the grip of fear coursing through her.
This wasn't Javier Barnett. This wasn't the man she loved.
"Let go of me! Who the hell are you?"
Valerie thrashed violently, her fists pounding the stranger's chest, but his hold was ironclad.
Shock flooded her. All those years of martial arts training, and yet this man overpowered her as if she were nothing.
In an instant, the world spun.
Valerie felt herself lifted, and then dropped onto the softness of a bed. Before she could comprehend what was happening, a crushing weight pressed down on her.
"Stay still!" the man growled, pinning her wrists to the headboard with one effortless hand.
The sharp sound of tearing fabric pierced the air. His touch was searing, every brush of his fingers like fire, while her attempts to resist were useless, as futile as pushing against an unstoppable force.
Tears spilled from Valerie's eyes, blurring her vision as panic gripped her. She choked out the words, trembling. "Please... I don't even know you..."
But her plea fell into the void, answered only by the low rasp of his breath against her ear, cold and callous.
When morning light crept into the room, it stabbed at her eyes.
Valerie blinked, her body radiating pain.
Every inch of her ached, especially her legs, which felt limp and powerless, refusing to move.
Flashes of the night before rushed back in fragmented pieces-intertwined bodies, forceful touches-but the face, his face, remained shrouded in shadow.
The memory of violation gnawed at her, her teeth grinding together as a flood of helpless anger surged within her. Her fists clenched so tightly that her nails bit into her skin, though she felt no pain. Only rage.
...
As the minutes dragged on, Valerie's mind gradually cleared, pulling her back to a harsh reality.
She glanced around the room-a wreckage of scattered sheets and torn clothes-and willed herself to stand, though every movement was a battle against the soreness in her body.
Still barely clothed, she stumbled to gather herself when the door exploded open with a deafening bang.
"You're a disgrace!" A voice, dripping with fury, filled the room. "You've brought shame to the entire Brown family!"
Valerie spun around, startled, only to see her father Craig Brown charging in, his face twisted in rage.
His eyes bore into her, scanning her rumpled clothes, her marked skin-his gaze lingering on the red stains of humiliation around her neck and shoulders. Hatred flashed in his eyes, raw and venomous, as if the very sight of Valerie stirred a desire to obliterate her.
"Valerie, how could you turn out to be such a disgrace?" Craig bellowed, his voice brimming with contempt. "You're just like your mother-an utter disgrace!"
Valerie's body tensed, a surge of defensive anger rising in her chest. Her eyes flashed with defiance.
"You don't get to talk about my mother," she shouted, venom dripping from each word. "Disgrace? Me? What about you then? The day you threw us out-me and my mother-for that vile Lacey and her scheming mother, you lost any shred of dignity."
Her words sliced through the air like knives, cutting deep. Craig's face contorted with fury, his body trembling with rage.
He glared at her, spewing curses, but Valerie didn't flinch. She had stopped expecting anything from this man long ago.
Yet, after enduring a night of violation at the hands of a stranger, and now being cursed by her own father, something inside her shattered. The bitterness she had kept buried began to spill over, coating her every thought.
Without another word, Valerie turned, desperate to escape the suffocating room. But as she reached the door, her way was blocked.
Someone stood in her path.
When Zora was sick during the early days of her pregnancy, Ezrah was with his first love, Piper. When Zora got into an accident and called Ezrah, he said he was busy, when in actual fact, he was buying shoes for Piper. Zora lost her baby because of the accident, and throughout her stay at the hospital, Ezrah never showed up. She already knew that he didn't love her, but that was the last straw for the camel's back, and her fragile heart could not take it anymore. When Ezrah arrived home a few days after Zora was discharged from the hospital, he no longer met the woman who always greeted him with a smile and cared for him. Zora stood at the top of the stairs and yelled with a cold expression, "Good news, Ezrah! Our baby died in a car accident. There is nothing between us anymore, so let's get a divorce." The man who claimed not to have any feelings for Zora, being cold and distant towards her, and having asked her for a divorce twice, instantly panicked.
To the public, she was the CEO's executive secretary. Behind closed doors, she was the wife he never officially acknowledged. Jenessa was elated when she learned that she was pregnant. But that joy was replaced with dread as her husband, Ryan, showered his affections on his first love. With a heavy heart, she chose to set him free and leave. When they met again, Ryan's attention was caught by Jenessa's protruding belly. "Whose child are you carrying?!" he demanded. But she only scoffed. "It's none of your business, my dear ex-husband!"
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.
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?
After hiding her true identity throughout her three-year marriage to Colton, Allison had committed wholeheartedly, only to find herself neglected and pushed toward divorce. Disheartened, she set out to rediscover her true self-a talented perfumer, the mastermind of a famous intelligence agency, and the heir to a secret hacker network. Realizing his mistakes, Colton expressed his regret. "I know I messed up. Please, give me another chance." Yet, Kellan, a once-disabled tycoon, stood up from his wheelchair, took Allison's hand, and scoffed dismissively, "You think she'll take you back? Dream on."
The day Raina gave birth should have been the happiest of her life. Instead, it became her worst nightmare. Moments after delivering their twins, Alexander shattered her heart-divorcing her and forcing her to sign away custody of their son, Liam. With nothing but betrayal and heartbreak to her name, Raina disappeared, raising their daughter, Ava, on her own.Years later, fate comes knocking when Liam falls gravely ill. Desperate to save his son, Alexander is forced to seek out the one person he once cast aside. Alexander finds himself face to face with the woman he underestimated, pleading for a second chance-not just for himself, but for their son. But Raina is no longer the same broken woman who once loved him.No longer the woman he left behind. She has carved out a new life-one built on strength, wealth, and a long-buried legacy she expected to uncover.Raina has spent years learning to live without him.The question is... Will she risk reopening old wounds to save the son she never got to love? or has Alexander lost her forever?