Anna Rafferty left New York two years ago to find herself. Not because she was running. Not because she was afraid. But because somewhere between the violence, the secrets, and the trauma that changed her life, she'd lost herself. For two years, she built a life on her own terms. She traveled. She healed. She learned to preserve things most people considered beyond repair, restoring rare books and forgotten stories while trying not to think about her own. Because some trauma isn't dealt with. It's buried. Returning to New York was supposed to be simple. Be closer to her family. Purchase the rare bookstore she'd fallen in love with years ago. Continue building the future she'd fought so hard for. The only complication... Julian Mercer. The powerful, devastatingly handsome and infuriating Don of New York, a man she should stay far away from. A man her sister can't stand. A man she hasn't seen since the night she left the city. Unfortunately for her, Julian Mercer has never forgotten a debt or Anna. What starts as a favor quickly becomes stolen moments, lingering glances, and a connection neither of them seem capable of walking away from. The problem? Julian is a man built from secrets and Anna has spent the last two years burying her own. When a string of brutal murders rocks the city-random, violent, and seemingly unconnected-every road somehow leads back to one person. Anna. As detectives begin circling, asking questions she can't answer and digging for secrets she can't share, Anna finds herself caught between the life she's carefully built and a past determined to drag her back. And the closer the danger gets, the harder it becomes to ignore the man she's spent two years trying to forget. Because Julian Mercer has always been dangerous. The difference is that now Anna has something to lose. Not her safety. Not her freedom. But her heart.

Isabella is desperate for her own independence, but her overprotective father stands in the way of her future. When she demands that she attends a University two hundred miles away from her home, her father only has one exception; a bodyguard. Elio is dedicated to his career to honour his late sister, but when he owes a favour to an ex-mafia boss, he takes body-guarding to a completely new level. Isabella is reckless and likes to push her bodyguards limits. Elio has zero patience and a desire to punish his client. When things start to get heated and unexpected feelings get in the way, their forbidden relationship becomes a distraction when Isabella's life is on the line. Elio is desperate to not let down another important woman in his life. But he can't save everyone, including his own bleeding heart. Tropes: - Mafia Romance - Bodyguard - Age-gap (8 years - FMC is 21 and MMC is 29) - Forbidden Love - Brat FMC/Grumpy MMC - Light BDSM (sub/dom vibes) - Size difference (5'4 & 6'6) - University/College Setting - Past Trauma/Healing - ANGST (so much of it)

18+ Content Warning - Read at your own discretion! +++ Werewolves have been extinct for as long as Evoni has been alive. Or at least, she thought they were. A dark and vacant woods has always bordered her town, but she has never dared enter them. Not until she makes the trek alone into the forest to search for a flower said to boost werewolf fertility. Only to encounter a terrifying and surprisingly gorgeous werewolf, who takes her back to his pack, that has remained hidden from humans for centuries. Unable to return home, Evoni faces the reality that her captor is the last Alpha, and he has tasked her with solving a single issue - werewolves failing fertility. The longer she spends in his pack, the stronger her connection to the sexy and forbidden Alpha becomes, and the closer she comes to fulfilling an ancient prophecy that foretells a mate bond between a human and an Alpha that will unite werewolves and humans once and for all.