flower garden background

Vanessa thought her life couldn't get worse-until it did. A hardworking woman from a modest background, her world shatters when her father, Jonas, falls gravely ill and their family is left bankrupt. Her stepmother and stepsister abandon them, and to make matters worse, Jonas owes an unpayable debt to Alaric Moretti-a ruthless Mafia lord who is as feared as he is deadly. Dragged into Alaric's dark world, Vanessa is prepared to fight for her father's survival. But when Alaric's mate bond snaps into place the moment he meets her, everything changes. Vanessa is his fated mate-a rare connection that Alaric, a cold-hearted monster, doesn't want and refuses to accept. To settle her father's debt, Alaric makes a horrifying demand: Vanessa must give her blood and a lung to save his dying girlfriend, Emma. Refusing to be a pawn, Vanessa strikes her own deal-she'll comply only if Alaric marries her, securing her father's treatment and her siblings' futures. It's a business arrangement, nothing more.

My husband, Alex Walter, was the head of the Bodyguard Association. When I was about to be killed by the kidnappers, he was comforting his childhood crush, Susan Miller, who was sobbing in his arms. While the kidnappers stopped for a meal, I called Alex five times calmly. He was angry when he finally answered. "Susan was just rescued from the kidnappers, and she needs me. If you want me to come home, stop using your own kidnapping as some excuse to compete for attention. It is pathetic!" Hearing Susan's sweet and delicate voice in the background, I had no time to argue with him. Instead, I called the Bodyguard Association. The operator informed me that Alex had pulled all the city's bodyguards away thirty minutes earlier to rescue Susan. When the kidnappers returned, they mocked Alex's heroic efforts to save Susan, mobilizing the entire force for her. If I remember correctly, this was Susan's twenty-eighth kidnapping this month. As the kidnappers approached me with guns and tasers, I closed my eyes in despair. Before I died, I used all my strength to send Alex one last text message, [No matter what, I loved you. Move on from me.]

If you started having hyper realistic dreams about a boy you've never met, living in a land you've never visited, your first reaction probably wouldn't be to leave home and everything you know just for the small chance of finding him, right? You would just convince yourself they were just dreams, and you were going crazy. I mean, no rational person would swim through a portal, enter another world, and discover not only is their dream boy very much real, but they have another soul mate anxiously waiting for the day you save their people and lead them in the new age. Right?

เธอ...ผู้เปรียบเสมือนดอกไม้ริมทาง เขา...ผู้หลงใหลดอกไม้ ดอกไม้ที่ถูกเด็ดมาแล้ว เท่ากับว่ามันได้ตายไปแล้ว ไม่มีทางเติบโต แม้จะนำมาใส่แจกันดูแลอย่างดี สุดท้ายมันก็ต้องเหี่ยวเฉา และตายลง...