Can I Read The Other Side Of The River Online For Free?

There was a river that ran through our village. According to the legend, a river god dwelled in its depths, and every month on the 15th, the village had to send a young woman to enter the water and serve him. At first, everything seemed normal. After their service to the river god, the women would return to shore, go home, and eventually marry and start families. But this year, the peace was shattered. Every woman who spent the night with the river god turned up dead, their naked bodies floating to the surface. I secretly watched as they retrieved the corpses twice. The evidence of the violation was horrific. This month, I was selected. I had been chosen to marry the river god.

--- River Witch Some bloodlines are bound to water. Some debts are never paid in full. When Evelyn Blake returns to the remote riverside village of Elowen after fifteen years away, she expects grief and silence—but not the whispers that rise from the mist-covered water. As bodies resurface and ghostly lights drift through the fog, Evelyn uncovers a buried legacy: a pact made generations ago between her family and a nameless spirit that haunts the river. With the curse's final reckoning approaching, Evelyn must confront the sins of her bloodline, unravel the truth behind her ancestor’s forbidden ritual, and decide whether to escape the fate written for her—or embrace it. In a village where no one speaks of the drowned, the river never forgets. And it always collects what it’s owed.

Content Warning: This is a collection of dark, steamy age-gap romances centered on marriage, possession, and angst. These are stories where vows are a transaction, love is a battlefield, and the only happy ending is the one they fight for. He is always the other father—the guardian, the protector, the older man forced into a role he never asked for. She is the complication, the temptation, the younger woman who disrupts his carefully controlled world. Their unions are never simple. A marriage contract for protection. A vow sworn in desperation. A wedding to secure a future for a child. But behind every practical arrangement lies a dangerous, simmering tension that vows alone can't contain. This collection delivers standalone stories where passion is a privilege earned only after "I do." Expect charged glances across crowded rooms, kisses that feel like claims, and the slow, angsty burn of a man who believes he doesn't deserve her, fighting the overwhelming need to make her his in every way. For readers who like their romance dark, their heroes possessive, and their happy endings hard-won.

'Since when did so much hate become affection, no, NEED' Callum Reyes has spent his entire life earning his place. A scholarship wide receiver at Crestfield University — one of the most elite football programs in the country — he knows exactly what he is to the people here: a charity case with fast legs and a GPA they didn't expect. He keeps his head down, his grades up, and his heart locked behind something no one has ever bothered to pick. Then there's Jaxon Whitfield. Quarterback. Team captain. Golden boy of Crestfield's football dynasty. Jaxon is everything Callum isn't — legacy money, a famous last name, and a jaw that could cut glass. He's also, by every measurable standard, the most infuriating human being Callum has ever been forced to share oxygen with. From the first day Callum stepped onto that field, Jaxon decided he was a problem. Too fast. Too good. Too'there.' He rides Callum harder than any other player, gets under his skin in ways that shouldn't be possible, and looks at him with those dark green eyes like Callum is something he can't figure out — and hates himself for trying. But when a career-threatening injury, a locker room secret, a rivalry that's starting to feel like something else entirely, and one night neither of them planned for collide — Callum and Jaxon have to reckon with something they were never supposed to feel. 'Offside' is a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers MM sports romance about two young men learning that the person who makes your blood boil might just be the person setting you on fire. It's about class and legacy, found family and loneliness, the weight of expectation, and what happens when the one person you want to hate is the only one who actually'sees' you.

Everyone in Riverton knew Serena Prescott, the heiress of the Prescott family, collected boyfriends for the short term and never kept them for long. In five years of marriage, she had gone through ninety-nine new lovers. People in our circle said I had world-class patience, that I was the perfect husband who could endure anything. Then a swimming coach named Mason Clark appeared at Serena's side. Mason came from an ordinary family, yet he made her break her own rule about never bringing new lovers home. Serena gave me two choices. Either calmly accept him moving in, or take the money and leave, ending our marriage. Everyone was waiting to see me swallow my pride for love and keep playing the useless, obedient husband. This time, I chose divorce. Because in my last life, I chose to endure it, and all I got was Mason pushing further and further. He forbade Serena from sharing a room with me and only allowed her to see me once a month. In the end, the two of them had a son and a daughter and lived in endless glory. I guarded a marriage that existed in name only, then died of illness in a nursing home. Now that I've been given another life, I no longer have any attachment to her. I took half the fortune in exchange for the freedom of the rest of my life.

He was my best friend. My everything. Until he left me broken and humiliated. Now, everyone around me is whispering, “I told you so.” But I won’t let heartbreak define me. So I made a deal. A fake relationship with Adrian—the rich elder brother everyone respects, the one my ex envies up to. What could go wrong? Except, the more we pretend, the more real it feels. And soon, I’m torn between the past that broke me and a future I never saw coming. “The Wrong Brother” is a story of heartbreak, revenge, and the messy, thrilling way love finds you when you least expect it.