Heart of Rime and Regret
By @john1208
I woke up thinking today was the day Jarek would finally claim me. Instead, my ordinary morning shattered when the Skogar Elders declared my family traitors, stripping us of our rank. Jarek didn’t stand by me; to protect his future as Alpha, he rejected our bond and left me to the wolves. Banished to the frozen wastes, my only comfort was a parting gift from Elder Yrsa, the one woman I thought I could trust. I didn't know the trinket was the stolen Rime-Core, nor that she framed my family to seize power. As I lay dying in the snow, the artifact shattered, fusing with my soul. I awoke changed - my weak form replaced by radiant, winter-kissed power. Rescued by Valdemar Rost, the terrifying and undefeated Alpha of the rival Vindur pack, I find an unexpected, bittersweet solace in his silent, protective shadow. Meanwhile, Jarek's Alpha aura is rotting away as punishment for rejecting his true mate. As Jarek desperately searches for the breathtaking silver-haired stranger he glimpsed at the border, what will happen when he realizes the queen standing beside his greatest rival is the very woman he threw away?
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Plotting Her Ruin, Freezing My Knees
By @john1208
Briska Karsev is the prickliest, proudest woman in the frozen city of Glazov. Her life is a meticulously balanced house of cards: hiding her family's absolute destitution, forging her late father's decrees, and fiercely protecting her sickly younger brother. When a bizarrely aggressive delivery of screaming ice-mandrakes destroys her foyer, it brings 'Mischa' into her life - a bumbling, sympathetic scribe who quickly becomes her only confidant. But Mischa is actually Mirek Danilov, the ruthless survivor of a house Briska's father supposedly bankrupted years ago. Mirek's plan? Infiltrate her lonely life, become indispensable, and publicly shatter her at the Winter Gala. His revenge goes off without a hitch. The trap springs, her darkest secrets are bared to the high nobility, and she is ruined. There is just one problem: Mirek immediately realizes his victory tastes like ash. His lavish flat feels empty without her biting insults, and he is agonizingly in love with her. Now, the most feared man in Glazov is freezing his knees off in a snowdrift outside her slum door, begging for forgiveness. But with Briska's trusted cousin pulling strings in the shadows, will Mirek survive his own pathetic groveling phase long enough to save her?
0