No Gain No Pain

I chase my six-year-old daughter out of the house on a cold winter day. I cut her new clothes to pieces and dirty her dainty little face with mud. Then, I give her all my savings. She looks at me tearfully and reaches out for me, wanting me to hold her. However, I harden my heart and push her away, saying, "Leave! Go to Bowen Group and look for their CEO, Logan Bowen. Show him my death certificate and your DNA test—he'll take you in." She sobs while looking at me. "Don't you want me anymore, Mommy? Let's go look for Daddy together." After a brief silence, I say, "I can't go with you. I lied to him back then to have you." Yes, I'm a liar. I orchestrated everything from meeting Logan, dating him, to ultimately leaving him with his child in my womb. Even the death certificate I've given my daughter is fake. From beginning to end, I've lied to him about everything except our daughter.

Following a difficult breakup, Brandy randy seeks solace at a bar where she meets a man working as a model. After a one-night stand, Brandy flees the scene the next morning. Unknown to the man, Brandy becomes pregnant from their night together. She moves abroad and gives birth to quadruplets, raising them away from the social norms of her home country, Three years later, Brandy returns to her home country. She is shocked to find that the "model" from the bar is now Jose, the most powerful man in Elite City. Beyond his immense wealth and power, Brandy discovers that Jose is also her aunt's stepson, adding a layer of complex family ties to their history.Jose is widely rumored to be a cold-blooded and indifferent man who is entirely incapable of love. ‎The secret of the quadruplet begins to unravel when Jose opens his office door to find a young, "pretty little" girl. Noticing her striking resemblance to Brandy, he remarks on the coincidence. ‎The young girl reveals the truth in a playful manner, informing Jose that her three brothers look exactly like him. ‎Despite his fearsome reputation, Jose displays a charming and confident side, famously stating in an interview that he is most proud of his "virility".

While I was on vacation with my parents, we stood on the deck overlooking the sea when my father suddenly asked, "Mother duck says quack, quack, quack, quack. But?" I was about to reply, "Only four little ducks came back," when he kicked me into the water. "What's taking you so long to finish a song? Are you cognitively arrested or what?" he barked. Cold water filled my lungs like lead as I bobbed in the waves. "Help me, Dad! I can't swim!" My mother told the captain to steer the superyacht away instead. "Then stay in the water a little longer. Self-preservation may finally make you learn to swim. That's what you need. Real grit and adversity to unlock your potential." I flailed my arms and fought to stay afloat, but panic took over. My right leg cramped and refused to move. I could only watch the superyacht fade into the horizon. I drifted for a while before I could catch up with my parents' superyacht. I wished I could tell them how many ducks came back, but they would never hear my voice again.

Every year, the village had to choose a girl of age to become the Blossom Bride. The girl who was chosen would be sent into the cave as the village god’s wife. She would spend the entire night with him. If she came out alive, she would be honored for the rest of her life as a village elder. Any child she bore was said to be blessed, destined for a life of effortless fortune. If she died, the village would simply wait for the next year, when another Blossom Bride would be chosen. The blessing of the Blossom Bride was believed to pass on to her parents and elders as well. However, no one wanted to be chosen. To escape the ritual, families quietly left the village, one after another. I was the only one who volunteered. I had a lust problem, and I had always wondered what it would feel like to be with a god.

I'm traveling through my pack when some Rogues ambush me. They chase me without mercy. I scream for Grayson Atwell, my Alpha mate, through the mind-link. But he shuts me out, muttering something about being "busy with pack affairs". I force down my fear and run, but they catch me anyway. Just as the silver knife grazes my throat, Vidar Mallory, the guard captain, bursts in. He drives the Rogues back and takes me to the hospital. Lying in the hospital bed, I overhear Vidar talking to his men by accident. "Freya is carrying a seven-month-old pup. How could Grayson abandon her just to take care of Bella's pup?" "Bella's pup had a fever last night. Grayson stayed at the hospital the whole night." My heart shatters. Even the pup I fought so hard to conceive was lost in the accident. I decided to leave and take on an entry-level healer position at a hospital in another pack. But after I'm gone, Grayson loses his mind searching for me.

This is the second book in the Twisted series. Nathan Hall felt an instant attraction towards Lyra McCoy, the youngest of McCoy siblings, who also happened to be Hall's worst nemesis. But that didn’t hold Nathan from totally being absorbed by the red-haired beauty. Waiting for her outside her workplace, stalking her movement, watching over her from the shadow, taking care of her when she was vulnerable. After a fortuitous circumstance to save Lyra from the judgmental society's eyes, Nathan proudly announced their engagement. Lyra was skeptical of Nathan’s motive from the beginning, knowing the sour war between him and her older brother Brian, but she was fine with the announcement until she found out something unacceptable took place that would shatter everything if the news traveled out. Both McCoy and Hall would have deal with shame, so she sealed her mouth and played along with the game that Nathan started. However, the worst was yet to occur, and when it appeared, would this fake engagement that twisted into something call love would be adequate to sustain the thunderstorm? Only time would reveal, although there wasn't enough left.