18+ | 2026 WATTYS SHORTLISTER | First Draft | Not edited. |"You gonna sit there all night?" Luka glances at me, smirking. I glare back. "I was enjoying the last few seconds of peace before having to spend an evening pretending to like you." "That's funny," he says, unbuckling his seatbelt. "Why?" I snap. "Because I was thinking the same thing." | The rules? Easy enough. 1. Pretend to be the perfect couple. 2. Keep it professional. 3. And whatever you do, don't. catch. feelings. Simple, right? Sofia Calloway never planned on going viral for throwing a drink in Luka Mikhaylov's face. But one video, one pissed-off hockey star, and one furious university later... she's suddenly stuck in a fake relationship with the guy she can't stand. He needs to clean up his image before the NHL draft. She needs the free tuition that comes with the deal. All they have to do is smile for the cameras, hold hands at the games, and act like they don't want to strangle each other. Then come the late-night arguments that last too long. The stolen glances that feel too dangerous. The moment where "pretend" starts looking way too real. Because when you break the rules, someone's bound to lose. And this time, it might be both of them.

Evanya Neil was killed. By whom? She doesn't know. Death should have been the end, yet when she opened her eyes, she found herself in the body of Evanya Roselle-a noble lady destined to become nothing more than a stepping stone in a romance novel. Or so she thought. A mysterious letter soon arrived, revealing a shocking truth. This wasn't Evanya Roselle's body. It wasn't anyone's body. The body had been created specifically for her soul. The letter urged her to forget the past and enjoy her new life. At first, Evanya believed she had transmigrated into the novel she once read. The problem? Nothing matches the story. The kingdom is different. The people are different. The architecture is different. Even the fate of the supposed side villainess has already changed. As Evanya searches for answers, strange pieces begin falling into place-a mysterious old man who claims she owes him her life, a letter that seems to know everything about her, unexplained deaths that mirror the way her own parents died, and secrets buried deep within the world. One says she owes him. The other tells her to live freely. Both seem connected to her existence. And somewhere among all those secrets lies the truth behind her death, her new life, and the reason she was brought into this world. Now Evanya has only one question: Did she really transmigrate into a novel... or into something far more dangerous?

The Dealer and His Roomie ❦ An enemy to lovers romance. For six months, they're stuck together: a reckless dealer and the girl who never stops talking. He wants her gone. She's not leaving. . . . I scoff. "Wow. You must be a hit at parties." "I am, actually." He tilts his head slightly, studying me. "You, though? I'm guessing you talk so much they don't even need music." . . . Warning- Suggestive Content Drama, Crime, Romance Not a single dull chapter, I swear ;) Ratings- #1 in Roommates (13.04.2025) #1 in Sweet (11.05.2025) #1 in Arrogant (13.05.2025)

"𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐨𝐲." ~ Marriage was never for love-it was for legacy. A strategy. A performance. And for the Lombardis and the Morettis, it was the most calculated, showstopping alliance of the century. Roman Moretti, Don of the La Cosa Nostra, and Angeline Lombardi, only daughter of the French-Italian Mafia Capo, had been betrothed since her birth --matched to unite two empires under one crown. Hidden from the world, Angeline was raised to be the perfect wife. Groomed. Silenced. Controlled. She learned early that one misstep would strip her of everything-including her name. Everyone's first mistake? They underestimated her. Though no one had ever seen her, the world assumed the Lombardi Princess was a polished doll. Quiet. Disposable. Roman saw the marriage as a formality-another calculated step toward total dominance. He had no plans to love her. No plans to live with her. Just a wife on paper, tucked away from him elsewhere, summoned when needed for appearances. But everything changed the moment he saw her walking down the aisle. She was perfection. Untouchable. She would be his ruin, his weakness, his obsession, his motivation. His everything. But what if that had been her plan all along? Not everything buried stays dead. Not every identity is what it seems. In a world where saints become monsters and monsters are worshipped like gods, Angeline must decide what's worth saving: her bloodline, her love, or herself. ~ -HEA -18+ -Romance/mystery/thriller -No Cheating/OWD -DARK ROMANCE "OMYGOSH. This book was immaculate. I could NOT put it down at all. Every chapter was AMAZING, the writing is shakespears work and each chapter made me laugh, smile, cry so much and this whole thing was a rollercoaster of emotions." -@Sunfloweraate8

Whitney Lowe is too comfortable. Nothing has changed from fifteen to twenty-five. Her boyfriend will never propose. The promotion she wants will never come. She doesn't know how she got here. So when her brother breaks his leg and offers her his non-refundable plane ticket and the apartment he already rented in Italy for a month, she blows up her life - only to have Alden Miller, her brother's best friend, blow up her vacation. Alden has always been a little out of reach for Whitney. He's two years older, a huge flirt, and lives life like a nomad. So there really isn't anyone better than him to show her how to find herself again.

°•°•° Aradhya Rajvansh's life shattered the day her own family turned their backs on her, believing lies that landed her in prison. After four years, she walks free-not as the girl she once was, but as a woman forged in pain and silence. With only her younger brother Ansh by her side, she rebuilds her life far away from home, shutting her heart to the world. But destiny has other plans. Her path collides with Rishav Raghuvanshi-a man of quiet strength, protective warmth, and ruthless determination. Thrust into his family through marriage, Aradhya finds herself torn between old wounds and the possibility of a new beginning. While Rishav's unwavering presence starts breaking down her walls, shadows of betrayal and enemies from the past threaten to return. This is a story of heartbreak, resilience, and the slow, tender healing of a warrior's heart.

In the Realm of Divinia, there are two kingdoms- that of the faeries, the Sallow Kingdom, and that of the vampires- the Nightingale Dominion. Faeries and vampires have been at war since the beginning of time, and hostility continues to run rampant between the two nations. When Dorian Nightingale, the vampire crown prince, is accused of killing a member of the Sallow royal family, war is imminent. He's forced to accept the help of his mortal enemy, faerie heiress Ainsley Sallow, to prove his innocence and prevent the total damnation of both their worlds.

You realize one day you don't belong to yourself. How does it feel? Thomas MacMillan, your average straight-A good boy, is serving a sentence for being his parents' perfect son. That is, until a bizarre supernatural college scoops him up. And then? Man-eating monsters. Cosmic glitches. Shady institutional secrets. Hideous heart issues. One time-travelling psycho. And the term has just started. ... Puppeteered by his controlling parents, all Thomas MacMillan thought he wanted to do was get into an elite university. But when a strange email shows up one morning, he never thought that would punch a hole through his reality. Or that all the colleges would cut him off at once. They call it MacMillan College. And Tom belongs to them. As a freshman in MacMillan College, Tom thinks he's found freedom. Life. But he soon realizes that this place is married to chaos. Hey. Wait. His roommate's heart is withering away. Hey. Wait. One of their classmates is a man-eating monster. Hey. Wait. His childhood bestie Mary Herrmann is back and it comes with a flurry of unwanted feelings. But torn between volatile abilities and shady professors, dirty secrets and life-threatening scenarios, those feelings might just be the only thing still holding him together. Welcome to MacMillan College, home to the surreal and the supernatural. Hope you all have a delightful semester. ... CONTENT WARNING: Rated R (18+) for graphic violence, strong language and heavy themes. Copyright © 2026 Night Man. All rights reserved. If you are reading this story on any platform other than Wattpad, you are very likely to be at risk of a malware attack and reading a plagiarized copy of my work. If you wish to read this story in its original, safe form, please go to https://www.wattpad.com/user/Real_nightman

Dead skeevy art collector. Vengeful ex-girlfriend(s). and a suspect on the run. *Book Two can be read as a stand-alone, but does contain spoilers for Book One* Having barely escaped Bay City alive, Kirby is ready for il dolce far niente in a quaint Sicilian town, hidden far away from murderers, the FBI, and her ex-girlfriend's mafia family... with the occasional art heist here and there to keep her busy. But Kirby gets more than what she bargained for when she runs into two of her ex-girlfriends at an art opening. One is seeking Russian intel; the other is out for blood. Caught in a deadly love triangle, Kirby flees from the gallery to the home of her new handler, an art collector who has ties to the Russian Bratva. But by morning, Kirby is waking up beneath an empty wall where a Caravaggio painting had been hanging and next to her in bed is a cold, bloody body. With Interpol hot on her trail, Kirby will have to rely on her vengeful ex-girlfriends to help her find out the truth of what happened that night. But Kirby soon learns, finding a killer takes a killer. And deadly desire will either bring them all together---or tear them apart. Heads will roll in this Skullduggery sequel. #ONC2024 #Wattys2025

An art thief teams up with an unlikely ally in order to track down a bloodthirsty artist before she becomes the killer's next muse. * * * * * After serving time in a foreign prison for art theft, Kirby McKinley returns home only to be tempted by one last heist. And this time, the job is personal. But the simple heist goes awry when she pushes her luck and runs into the museum's gorgeous artist-in-residence, who is reconstructing a forensic facial sketch from a mysterious skull. Before the two can part ways, they stumble upon the rest of the body, posed as the subject in a painting Kirby knows far too well. More bodies begin to show up in twisted tableaus, entangling Kirby in a murder mystery that forces her to confront secrets that were never buried with her dead ex-girlfriend. But the forensic artist also has a few mysteries of her own and they must work together to track down the killer before Kirby becomes the muse in the final composition.