Rebel Obsession

"You may now kiss your bride". They were the last words my mother heard before she collapsed on the church steps, poison ending her pitifully short life. When her new husband dies minutes later, all eyes turn to me. There are whispers. Accusations. The verdict is split. I murdered them both. Or I'm the next to die.

I’m the ruling queen of Saint View Strip. After growing up poor, taking my clothes off and dancing for men is all I know. My thriving club and the people I employ are everything. They’re my ride or die, and I’m theirs.

One minute I’m cleaning toilets for minimum wage. The next, I’m waking up from a drug-induced nap with a monster staring down at me. Kidnapped and seconds from death, I think I’m done for. Until masked men burst in, murder my attacker, and turn my world upside down. They call themselves Murder Squad. A secret brotherhood of broken men who only kill the worst of the worst. And one of them thinks I’m his wife.

The other women watch me with envy, but they know nothing of the beatings and punishments I endure. He hides them with a veil. One I must wear until I give him a son. But when I fail, he threatens the only good things in my life. My sister, Alice, and the daughter he ripped from my arms for another family to raise. I thought running back to Saint View would save us. I thought wrong. Now my sister is dead, left strangled in an alleyway, and my ex-husband isn’t the only suspect.

Nothing prepares you for finding your sister’s lifeless body covered in blood. But when the police arrest her ex, a man I know is innocent, I can’t sit by and do nothing. Not when I’ve been secretly in love with him for years. Heath may not want my help, but I won’t take no for an answer. To catch a killer, I’m forced to take a job at Saint View Prison. Maximum security. The place they send the worst of the worst. But it’s not just Heath who doesn’t want me there. With every lie we uncover, every secret we expose, the danger mounts.

He murdered my uncle, then covered it with fire. A fire that should have killed me, too. Instead, he hauled me from the floor while flames licked the walls, strong arms holding me close. He saved my life. Now I want to know why. I never saw his face. All I know is the letters on his shirt. SVH. Saint View High. The worst school in a hundred miles. Full of drugs and despair. Breeding ground for future criminals. Armed security guards and weapon checks at every door. A far cry from my privileged life of money, private school, and fancy vacations.

To grandmother’s house I go, though I want nothing to do with magic or my former life. Especially not after being kicked out of the Fairy Fine Arts Academy. But when I find a dangerous, heavily scarred wolf shifter in my grandma’s bedroom, the fragile human lifestyle I've built from scratch is suddenly at stake. Magic, chaos, and my past is charging at me like a raging ogre on pixie sticks. My grandma is nowhere to be found, and I’m being hunted.

Seven years ago, Hadleigh Castille fell into my bed and never left my heart. Then she disappeared and my hunger for vengeance was born. My body wasn’t the same after that night. She left for war, but I lived a daily life of blood and violence for the Irish Mob. Now, I’ve risen to power in my own right, but to keep my crown I must align with the enemy. When he presents his sister to me as a bride, my heart takes a tumble. The woman I knew, the siren I never got over isn’t Hadleigh Castille, Navy Lieutenant. She’s the missing Greek Princess, Ava Zervas.

My name is Abby Lee, or BayAreaAbby, according to one million followers on Social Share. There are quite a few perks to having that kind of following, but each month I put together a local community donation event and it’s my favorite thing to do. December’s theme, “Support Your Local Fire Station,” was no different.

I always thought I’d start the apocalypse. Instead I’ve been asked to help end it. How does one stop the end of the world, you might ask? You gotta knock up Lucifer’s vessel before he does. I know, I know. I was surprised too. But let me tell you, if ever there was an incubus made for the job, it’s me. With a name like Sin, you’d think this should have been the easiest task I’d ever been assigned. And you’d be correct. Except said vessel is a beautiful and dangerously powerful succubus in her own right. Oh, and she’s not interested.

My boyfriend was perfect, up until he wasn't. When Mr. Vanilla found out about my deepest, darkest fantasies, he spread them all over campus and shamed me in the worst way possible. I dropped out of college and moved to a small town, where I have just inherited a house from my long-lost grandmother. I'm determined to get my life back on track and leave my old life behind. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be chased by a masked man through a haunted house on my first night in town. Or that he would make good on his promise to bring a friend next time.

In the beginning, there was Savannah Shaw. Teasing me with a mischievous, merciless grin by day. Crawling through my window with tear-stained cheeks by night. I was ordered to avoid her. Lectured on her misdeeds. Forbidden from seeing her. But my need to protect her was innate. So natural I never questioned it. So visceral I couldn’t fight it.

Look, I've had it bad for the girl with all the curves next door forever. She turned me down in high school and since I'm not a total douchecanoe, I lusted after her all by myself in my shower, and we stayed just friends for years. Now she's the adorkable librarian next door, and I'm the star quarterback of the best pro football team in the league. So when she asks me to be her fake date to her all-girls school reunion, I am totally down to show her off to the mean girls who bullied her back then so they can see just how incredible she is.

When I discover my boyfriend is cheating on me, I move out right away taking what I love most–my dog. As I fly out the door, I make sure to swipe the thing my ex loves best–the VIP tickets he won to a hockey game, complete with the chance to spend an evening with the city’s two biggest NHL stars. I can’t wait to snap selfies with my ex’s idols and rub it in his face.

Five years ago, I masterminded the infamous massacre of the Tri-state Timberwolves. The streets outside the Wolves HQ ran red with the blood of the old guard, and not one of those members loyal to my father were spared mercy. Not a single one. I let the media twist and distort the story. My new recruits eagerly proved themselves in spreading false news, in covering our tracks. To the general public, the Tri-State Timberwolves were extinct. But that couldn’t have been further from the truth.