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betrayed

The Ghost Protocol

[Warning: Mature Content] Karl Vorlender was the Agency’s most lethal operative, a living ghost who followed orders without question. Until his mentor and father figure, the cunning spymaster Nightingale, betrayed him, leaving him for dead in a abandoned warehouse. Resurrected by a doctor whose name he never knew, Karl vanishes, becoming the very phantom he was named after, forever hunted by a past that officially never existed. Years later, a brutal and personal assassination attempt shatters his carefully constructed anonymity. The attacker is Anya Petrova, a breathtakingly skilled killer with a vendetta of her own: she believes Karl murdered her father. Forced into a temporary, explosive alliance to survive the common enemy hunting them both, they uncover a truth more devastating than they imagined: Nightingale’s betrayal was merely the first move in a much larger game. The shadowy financier Alistair Finch is consolidating power, and he’s placed a multi-million-dollar bounty on their heads, turning the entire underworld into his personal hunting dogs. As their partnership ignites into a passionate and dangerous affair, Karl and Anya must wage a desperate war against an army of assassins. But the greatest threat may come from the past itself. The serpentine assassin known as Kestrel is on their trail, and his mission is not just to kill, but to torment. He is the brother of a woman Karl was once ordered to kill, and his vengeance is deeply, terrifyingly personal. More dangers keep lurking around as Karl's past comes to hunt him down. Will he outshadow all that awaits? A blistering blef vengeance, the price of love, and the relentless search for redemption in a world that offers none.
Maureen_Patrick · 2.5k Views

Married to Duke Lucas Rutledge: A Duke's Obsession

[Warning: Matured Content] In the unforgiving Arizona Territory, where fortunes are forged in blood and dust, Emmeline Montague is the currency. To save his crumbling empire from financial ruin, her father makes a devil’s bargain: he trades her in marriage to the most powerful and feared man in the West, Lucas Rutledge, the emotionless Duke of Blackrock. Arriving at his fortress-like estate, Blackrock Keep, Emmeline finds herself a prisoner in a gilded cage, wed to a man whose heart is as cold and impenetrable as the stone walls that surround her. Isolated and despairing, she discovers the haunting legacy of the Duke’s first wife, Isabelle, who died under mysterious circumstances shrouded in local whispers. The opulent, decaying west wing of the Keep stands as a monument to the woman who came before her, and a chilling warning of what might be her own fate. But Emmeline is no fragile ornament. Forged by betrayal and armed with a sharp intellect and resilient spirit, she refuses to succumb to the silence that killed her predecessor. Instead of breaking, she begins a dangerous game of observation and strategy, determined to unravel the secrets of her ruthless husband and the truth behind Isabelle’s tragic end. As a fragile, unexpected tension grows between the cold Duke and his defiant new Duchess, Emmeline must navigate a treacherous path between survival and surrender. She is playing for the highest stakes—her life, her freedom, and the reclamation of her own soul in a world where love is a weakness and power is the only law.
Maureen_Patrick · 1.3k Views

Her Alpha's Rejection, His Luna's Rise

The wind whipped my hair as I stared across the battlefield at the man who had rejected me on the alter thrity seven full moons ago. Defying Draven’s orders, I spurred my horse to the front lines, my bow slung across my back, the mate bond pulsing with Kaelen’s nearness. "Kaelen you coward!" I shouted, my voice cutting through the wind, "Come out here and face me like a man!" No answer. Just as I was about to turn and head back, when I saw his ranks begin to part. "Selene, my love." He said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Am I safe to assume this is your oh so terrible attempt at surrender?" I gave a smile of my own. "Oh, darling. I just wanted you to take one long look at my face. I want to have the chance to look you in the eyes when I say this: this here is the last face you're going to see before you die." With that, I turned my horse around and headed behind my banners.  “Prepare the lines,” I called, ready for the war to start. Blurb: On the night Selene was to be crowned Luna, her fated mate, the Alpha she had loved since childhood, publicly chose another. Before the entire pack, he marked a foreign princess, casting Selene aside as “unworthy.” Betrayed, humiliated and stripped of her son, Selene swore she would never crawl back. When a rival Alpha, Draven of the Shadowfangs, offers her his hand, Selene accepts... not for love, but for revenge. Their union is dangerous, defiant, and forbidden… yet the fire between them is undeniable. Now Selene is no longer the abandoned mate. She is a rising queen, torn between a cursed bond to the man who betrayed her and the intoxicating passion of the enemy who would burn the world for her. But war is coming. The mate bond aches, the Moon Goddess herself schemes against her, and her son is trapped in the hands of her ruthless ex. To survive, Selene must shatter destiny itself… even if it means defying gods, breaking bonds, and destroying the Alpha who once claimed her. This isn’t fate. This is war.
AriaSteele · 1.4k Views