Mysterious - Slow Burn - Friends to Lovers • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • He was entranced by her, wanting to hear her voice in his ear, feel her touch on his skin, smell her scent on his clothes . . . but with secrets like his, it's best for him to just stay away. But what if he can't? Is he willing to suck her into his twisted, unexplainable world? Or is he strong enough to keep his distance? • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Thank you SO MUCH for checking out my story and I hope you give it a chance :)

"Fuck, baby. You can't say things like that to me. I want to, also. Trust me." His hand snakes down my body until he enters two of his fingers into my wet center. I can only moan in response. "However," he kisses my neck possessively, finding the right spot to drive me crazy. "I need to build you up to that." He pushes his fingers in and out of me, hitting deeper and deeper as his strokes become longer and harder and faster. "You feel that? My fingers deep in your pussy that's dripping for me?" He licks the side of my neck as my breaths come out in short pants. "My dick is going to stretch you out so much more. When I finally fuck you, you're going to be sore for days. And you're going to love it." ---------- Thea Brooks, an 18-year-old college student, lives her life by a schedule. She has school, homework, her job at the Coffee shop where she drinks way too much caffeine to be healthy, and the rest of the time she is watching her little sister while her mother is at work. She thinks that everything will remain the same as she starts her college classes, but that all changes when a new friend of hers introduces her to an attractive guy that she can't seem to get out of her head. Grayson Dark, a 22-year-old Alpha of his pack, has been searching for his mate since he turned 16. All hope is lost until one of his pack mates strolls into his home with the most magnificent scent- his mate's scent. After only slightly maiming his pack mate, it is revealed that his mate is close by- and human. Without understanding the supernatural world existing around her, Thea will have to learn to look past Grayson's faults- mainly his possessiveness and anger issues- while staying out of danger from unknown threats and learning her place at Grayson's side. Oh... and keeping her grades up. How hard can that be?

She's a young doctor. He's an Alpha born to lead a hidden community. "I need to explain the mate bond," he said. Her heart stopped. Literally skipped. "Oh," she said faintly. "That." He didn't look away, but he did lean back, giving her space-as if preparing for her to bolt. "You know we imprint," he said quietly. "You know our instincts take over when the bond gets strong. But you don't know what finalizes it." She swallowed. "Okay." "There's..." He hesitated, and that was a first. William didn't fumble words. "There's a bite involved." She stared. Blink. Blink. Wait- A bite? "As in-like-a literal bite?" she asked, voice tight. "Yes." "On my neck?" "Yes." "You bite me." "Yes." Her blood turned to ice. He continued carefully, like each word risked sending her sprinting for the door. "It's not violent. It's not meant to hurt. It's a mark-a bond-seal. It connects us on every level. Emotionally. Physically. Through our wolves." "I don't have a wolf," she snapped. His jaw flexed. "I know."

"The pipes groaned in the bathroom with no door where I'd lost my virginity the night before to a man who'd cooked a gangster in front of me as a birthday present. He calls me Kotik." The story is set in 1990s Russia. Katya Petrovna was raised right. She takes over the care of her mama and little brother when their father passes, and has to navigate a gritty, cold, and economically depressed post-Soviet Russia ruled by political corruption and organized crime. She meets Vitali Konstantinov, a seemingly nice man who woos her with flowers, gifts, and the temptation of a better life. But Vitali isn't as he appears. And if true love tells you how to dress, what to eat, and when to get on your knees-well, such is life. Note: this is a 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ fiction, but it is also a slow burn. I promise you that it pays off. WARNING: This story is dark, although it may not seem so from the start. PLEASE READ TAGS/AUTHORS NOTE and take care of your mental health 💕

What would you risk to survive... when the people you trust could destroy you? FLORENCE BROOKS ~ thought moving to New York meant freedom a chance to escape her father's abuse, chase her history degree, and finally build a life on her own terms. She was wrong. Her cousin Lucas isn't just hiding secrets - he's part of a ruthless mafia that drags Florence into a world of power, violence, and blood oaths. Every choice she makes could be deadly, every word a trap. The streets she thought were her escape become a cage, and the people who should protect her may be the ones to destroy her. Then there's ENZO ROMANO ~ Dangerous, enigmatic, and impossibly magnetic, he's the one person who sees through Florence's walls. Every glance is loaded, every word measured, and every touch sparks a fire she can't ignore. He terrifies her, but also awakens something she never thought she could feel - desire, trust, and maybe even hope. Caught between fear, loyalty, and forbidden attraction, Florence must navigate a life where survival is never guaranteed - and where love might be the most dangerous risk of all. Secrets, power, obsession, and passion collide in a world that will test her courage, her heart, and the very limits of what she's willing to sacrifice. FLORENCE AND I written by may taylor 2025

An impossible debt. A dangerous offer. A love that could ruin or redeem them. For her entire life, Amara Johnson has lived in a bubble. Sheltered and coddled by her loving but average family, her world is small, safe, and predictable. That all shatters when she follows her brother to Tokyo for a fresh start. But her brother's secret gambling habit plunges them into a nightmare. He didn't just borrow money-he borrowed from Kenzo Sato, the most feared and powerful Oyabun of the Yakuza in Japan. Now, to protect her brother's life, Amara must leave her quiet job at the bank and work off his massive debt in Kenzo's front: an exclusive, members-only cafe in the heart of Shinjuku. She's out of place, naive, and terrified. And she's utterly captivating to him. Kenzo Sato is a vision of controlled chaos-sharp suits over intricate tattoos, a piercing gaze that sees everything, and a billionaire empire built on power and respect. He is everything her sheltered life taught her to fear. To Amara, he's utterly terrifying. To Kenzo, she's an exotic breath of fresh air-a innocence he never knew he craved. He makes her a new offer: become his exclusively. His companion. His obsession. In return, her brother's debt vanishes and she will want for nothing. It's a gilded cage that promises to lift her from poverty and change her life forever. Caught between fear and a fierce, unexpected attraction, Amara must navigate a world of danger, luxury, and dark desire. Can her sheltered heart survive the ruthless world of the Yakuza? Or will the man who owns her debt also claim her heart?

Noelle's quiet life shatters overnight, when she receives a call that her father has died. Once the daughter of a feared crime boss, she's spent the last 5 years trying to outrun her family's shadow, evening changing her name - until the debts her father left behind drag her straight back into the world she swore she'd never return to. To protect her mother from the brutal retaliation of the DeLuna syndicate, Noelle agrees to the unthinkable: marriage to the new Don, Kairo DeLuna, a man as dangerous as he is magnetic. Kairo rules with ice in his veins and secrets in his eyes-known for his lust of sadistic brutality, Noelle is given no choice. Save her mother, or watch the only family she has left face the consequences. Their union is meant to seal a business deal and bury her father's mistakes - yet what begins as an arrangement of power soon becomes a battle of desire, trust, and survival. As Noelle is pulled deeper into Kairo's world of betrayal, bloodlines, and revenge, she must decide whether her heart is her greatest weakness... or the weapon that could change everything.

What happens when two people who exist in the gray spaces of control and chaos, find in each other the permission to feel without restraint? Freya has spent her life as a ghost in her own skin. Brilliant but reserved, introverted in a family that treats her quietness like a defect, she's learned to live small, to want nothing, to expect even less. She's never craved the messiness of deep connection, never understood the appeal of letting someone see the raw, unpolished truth beneath her carefully maintained surface. Enzo is a different kind of controlled intimidating, stern, a man who moves through the world with the kind of presence that makes others step aside. He lives in the gray spaces between right and wrong, and he's made peace with it. When they collide, something breaks open. The walls she's built crumble under his attention. The control he's maintained fractures in her presence. What begins as intellectual intimacy long conversations that peel back layers rather than clothes becomes something neither of them can contain. "I will feel this as deeply and express it as violently as I please." It's the philosophy that drives this entire story the idea that feeling deeply isn't weakness, that expressing it boldly isn't chaos, and that sometimes the most profound act of courage is letting someone witness you unravel. Welcome to their collision.

A prophecy followed Dmitri Volkov like a curse. It claimed he carried the soul of Olkov, the first vampire, a creature so ancient that even legends faltered when speaking his name. Dmitri never cared for prophecies, but the world did. His parents feared what lived in him. His people bowed to him. One wrong look from him could decide who survived the night. Still, there was a truth he never admitted. He wanted the bond his kind had lost. The kind of love that could break an immortal in half and rebuild him. He mocked it when he saw it in others, but he longed for it in silence. He sat hidden in the darkest corner of his Russian club, bourbon sharp on his tongue, bass shaking the floor under his boots. The room pulsed with heat and sin, but none of it touched him. Then it came. A scent. Soft. Warm. Alive. It hit him so hard his chest tightened. His guards tensed as he sat forward, hair falling from his face. The noise faded. The crowd blurred. He followed the scent like it pulled him by the spine. A voice followed it. Gentle. Shy. Tinged with irritation. It slid through the room and wrapped around him like a tether. His eyes found her. Red hair cascading to her waist. Golden skin lit up by the neon glow. A camera at her side. She stood in a world she did not belong to, unaware of the predator watching her from the shadows. He begged her to turn. She did. Their eyes met, and her soft gasp shattered something inside him. For the first time in centuries, Dmitri Volkov felt his dead heart try to wake. * I DO NOT OWN THE PICTURE *

Hated by her clan. Hunted by No-Landers. Desired by Kings. Leyla is a Warrior. Strong. Fast. Unwavering. Yet she looks nothing like a Warrior. Dark haired and green eyed, she stands out in a Kingdom full blonde-haired blue-eyed citizens who all tower over her. Despite their differences, her rank as an officer in the Warrior Army makes her untouchable to most. But things start getting complicated when Leyla attracts the attention of the idol of all, the shoe-in for the next Warrior King: Colonel Alec of the House of Steel. Jealous princesses and angry superiors are not the only problems on the horizon when a messenger appears from the powerful Land of Light with an offer for the Warrior King that will change Leyla's life... Highest Ranks: #1 in Badassgirl #1 in Warrior #1 in Powers #1 Strongfemalelead Book 1 in The Warrior Chronicles