The Ruins Sinopsis Novels & Stories

My sister-in-law, Nicky Preston, is stuck in a deep pit. I'm risking my own life by getting myself lowered into the pit with nothing but a rope around my waist just to save her. As soon as I tie another coil of rope around Nicky's waist, I feel my own rope going loose. When I raise my head, I actually witness my husband, Scott Preston, cutting my rope. His childhood friend, Tricia Connell, grins from ear to ear at me. "Do it!" Scott's bodyguards begin dumping sand into the pit. Apparently, they intend to bury us alive! I contact Scott immediately with my walkie-talkie. "Scott, your sister and I are still inside the pit!" Scott just scoffs at me in return. "Three years ago, you left Tricia's younger brother stuck in the ruins for five whole days in favor of saving other people after that earthquake happened! Now, it's your turn to pay off this life debt!" Tricia squeezes out more tears at that moment. "It's all thanks to you that Jimmy has finally gotten his revenge, Scott!" As the sand begins covering my feet, I scream into the walkie-talkie, "Scott Preston, your actual sister really is stuck in this pit!"

She destroyed me once. Now I own her. Ten years ago, Cassy Beaumont humiliated me in front of everyone, read my love letter aloud, made them laugh at the maid's daughter who dared to dream. Three hours later, my father died from the stress her family caused him. Now Cassy's world has crumbled. Her father's empire exposed as fraud. Her fortune gone. Her sister facing fifteen years in prison. And she's desperate enough to walk into The Gilded Cage, the city's most exclusive auction house, to sell the only thing she has left. I paid four million dollars for one night with her. She thought it was just one night. She didn't read the fine print. For the next year, Cassy Beaumont belongs to me. Body and soul. And I'm going to make sure she understands exactly what she took from me. I'm going to break her. Rebuild her. Make her beg. And when she finally realizes she can't live without me? That's when I'll decide if she deserves forgiveness. Or if some ruins are meant to stay broken.

"Be a good girl and spread your legs for Daddy." I was never supposed to hear those words from him. After my father’s sudden death, my mother married one of the richest, most powerful men in the city. Everyone called it a blessing. He was the only one who saw my need after my ex was paid to cheat on me—the only one who truly saw me. But he didn’t marry my mother for love and I was never supposed to discover why.. Now I’m addicted to sneaking back to my ruthless forty-four-year-old stepfather in the dead of night,what started as one forbidden mistake has become raw, filthy obsession. He claims me hard, owns every inch of my body, and turns me into his dirty little secret whenever the house is quiet. I know it’s wrong. I know I should stop. But his dark commands and the way he ruins me have become everything I crave. He’s hiding secrets far deeper than I imagined… and once a man like him decides you belong to him, escape is no longer an option. Some desires refuse to stay buried. Some truths refuse to remain hidden.

**WARNING** This is not your typical love story—older heroine, younger man. Contains explicit s*xual themes, violence, and a forbidden relationship. Reader discretion is advised. * * * * * * * * * * Madeline Bennet thought she had finally found her happily ever after, only to have it shattered in one night. Betrayed and burning with humiliation, she runs straight into the arms of a stranger who knows exactly how to make her forget everything. Younger. Bolder. Addictive in ways she never saw coming. But when morning comes, the truth is more dangerous than she ever imagined—he’s her husband’s estranged son... and the ruthless mafia lord feared by everyone. Dominic Morvanti doesn’t do feelings. He owns. He claims. He destroys boundaries. Not even his father’s wife can stop him. Torn between the ruins of her past and a temptation that burns like wildfire, can Madeline resist him? Or will she surrender to a desire that could destroy her and everything she’s ever loved? * * * * * * * * * * “I'm your father's wife,” I swallowed hard, “—your stepmother.” He leaned closer, his voice velvet and rough against my skin. “You're not my stepmother. You're my perfect little slut.”

I was born just one minute after Tiara, but the world treated that one minute as if it lasted a lifetime. She was the star. I was the shadow. She was flawless. I was the afterthought. She was loved. I was forgotten. Even by Reagan de Russo, heir to the wealthiest family in the country and the man I had secretly loved for the past ten years. But to him, there was only Tiara. And when he proposed to her, I knew my quiet little dream had finally died. Until that day came. The day Tiara left him at the altar. The day the world stopped turning for just a second. The day the man who had never even glanced my way, turned to me and asked me to take her place. I knew what I was. An escape. A damage control. A backup plan. And I... I was too tired of being strong. So I said yes. We married. Without love. Without a future. Just a one-year contract and a life of make-believe in front of flashing cameras and watching eyes. But the longer I stayed by his side, the harder it became to tell what was real and what was just part of the performance. Because for the first time... Reagan saw me. But can love truly grow from the ruins of lies, old wounds, and the shadow of a woman who’s always been his first choice? Or will I always be… only the second best?

For twins Ethel and Elise, the line between dream and nightmare was always thin—and on Paron Island, it has been completely erased. Their idyllic gap year, a sun-soaked mosaic of beach bonfires and reckless abandon, is shattered in an instant. A "project," as the panicked news reports cryptically call it, has gone horrifically wrong, releasing a pathogen that reanimates the dead with a singular, gruesome purpose: to feed. The sisters' bond, once defined by shared secrets and sibling rivalry, is now their only anchor in a world drowning in blood. Driven by a raw, primal instinct to protect each other, they join forces with a few other fortunate—or unfortunate—souls who survived the initial onslaught. Together, this makeshift family must navigate the ruins of their former paradise, where every shadow hides a potential threat and every human sound could be a lure. Ethel, the more cautious sister, finds a hidden strength in strategy, while Elise's impulsive nature becomes both a weapon and a liability. But their fight against the decaying hordes is only the surface of the terror. Whispers of a coordinated presence, of supplies that go missing too conveniently, and of strangers who seem to know too much, point to a more insidious truth: the island's collapse was not a random tragedy. They are being hunted by something that thinks, that plans, that wears a human face. As their hope for rescue dwindles, Ethel and Elise are forced to confront the ultimate horror—that in the midst of an apocalypse, the most monstrous creatures of all are still human.

Eudora Dawson has always lived in the shadow of her sister, Camellia, unseen, misunderstood, and never truly accepted in her own home. When Camellia is left paralyzed after a sudden car accident, Eudora becomes the one everyone blames. No one listened to her. Not her family. Not even Desmond Nelson, the man her sister is engaged to and the boy she once saved as a child. After Camellia’s sudden disappearance, Desmond forces Eudora into a marriage that is not built on love, but punishment. To him, she is the reason everything fell apart. To her family, she is a burden they are willing to sacrifice. And in a house where she has never truly belonged, Eudora learned to survive by enduring in silence. But silence cannot protect her forever. On the anniversary of Camellia’s disappearance, one night changes everything between Eudora and Desmond but when Camellia suddenly returns alive, Eudora is pushed out of Desmond’s life without hesitation, handed divorce papers, and forced to leave the only place she has ever known. Pregnant, alone, and with nowhere to turn, she disappears without a trace. Five years later, Eudora returns as someone unrecognisable. No longer the girl they once blamed, she is now a high profile painter with a life built far away from the ruins of her past. But the past is not finished with her. Because Desmond is searching for her. And the truth about that accident is beginning to surface.

My life was left behind in that church fire. When the flames broke out, Cersei lied to me and said Jaeren was still inside. I didn't hesitate. I rushed into the fire without a second thought, only to save my fiancé, Jaeren. Then Cersei shoved me into the flames. By the time Jaeren found us, he picked Cersei up and turned away. He never looked back at me. I was swallowed little by little by the smoke and fire. Later, I stumbled out of the fire alone, covered in soot from head to toe. Jaeren frowned, his face full of impatience. “I didn't take you out first, sure. But couldn't you just call yourself a cab?” “Be glad Cersei is unharmed. Even your death in that fire wouldn’t clear your fault.” He didn't know that I had already suffocated to death in the flames. The one who walked out of the ruins was nothing more than a body still breathing. I made a deal with the vampire in the church basement, trading away my love for Jaeren and every tear I had ever shed for him. In seven days, on the night of the full moon, I will open my eyes again in the dark as one of her kind. From then on, I will no longer be trapped by love. And I will never shed another tear for Jaeren.

I dropped off lunch for my husband at the Conglomerate HQ, only to bump into my ex from two years ago. The man who'd ditched me at our marking ceremony to go "take care of his sister." I'd changed my hair, my makeup, everything. But he spotted me in the crowd as if it were nothing. "Elena, I'm back to finish what we started. Happy now?" I felt that familiar knot of doubt in my gut. "Sorry, who are you again...?" He let out a shaky laugh. "Babe, come on. Don't be mad. I didn't mean to leave you hanging. The ceremony back then? Ivy's wolf spirit was too weak. I had to find the Wolf God ruins to pray for her. She's my only sister; I couldn't just watch her fade." "Yeah, the healing took a while. So, I got myself an assignment overseas." "Anyway, I just got her wolf spirit stabilized, and I rushed back to bring you home to the packhouse!" That's when it hit me. This scruffy guy, with the stubble and all… this was my ex-fiancé. No. Did nobody tell him? The night he walked out on me? I married his uncle. Alpha Damian. The Wolf King.

Seven years ago, I signed a mate contract as Luna. For my mother’s dying wish and for the Pack’s stability, I personally pushed a man with nothing to his name onto the Alpha throne. I held the Pack together for him, expanded our businesses, and handled the filthy negotiations and the deals no one wanted to see in the light. Everyone said— I was calm, I was formidable, I was qualified. Just… not much like a “gentle mate.” Until that day. I stood in the bedroom and watched my Alpha husband lay his hand over my paralyzed stepsister’s slightly rounded belly. They told me it was for the greater good of the Pack. That child would be registered under my name. He would call me Mother. I didn’t cry. I didn’t scream. I just waited for the seven-year term to hit its end and activated the trust clause my mother left behind. Accounts frozen. Capital withdrawn. The wolf empire I built with my own hands collapsed overnight. By the time he knelt in the ruins and finally understood what he’d lost— I had already taken back my mother’s last name, dissolved the mate bond, and stepped onto a new territory.