Ava Reed

Aurora Crestwood has been in love with her best friend Liam for ten years. Ten years of being his shoulder to cry on, his late-night phone call, his emotional support through every breakup. Ten years of watching him chase the same toxic woman who keeps breaking his heart.

When Selena Beaumont announces her engagement to someone else, Aurora thinks she's finally free. But Liam has other plans. He wants to crash the wedding, make one last desperate play for the woman who's never truly wanted him. And he wants Aurora to help him do it.

Against her better judgment, she agrees. What she doesn't expect is to meet Kian Vance.

Liam's estranged brother is everything Liam isn't—dangerous, direct, and completely uninterested in playing games. He's also friends with the groom, which makes him the biggest threat to their sabotage plan. But when Kian looks at Aurora, he doesn't see Liam's reliable best friend. He sees a woman who's been hiding her true self for far too long.

"I'm going to steal her from you," Kian tells his brother with cold certainty.

When Kian proposes a wager—if the wedding falls apart, Aurora belongs to him—she should walk away. She should focus on helping Liam win the woman he's obsessed with. She should stick to being the good girl she's always been.

Instead, she shakes hands with the devil himself.

Now Aurora is caught between two brothers, a wedding that might not happen, and a dangerous man who sees right through her carefully constructed walls. Kian promises to show her what it means to be truly wanted, but his interest comes with a price.

As the wedding weekend spirals toward chaos, Aurora must decide: will she keep playing it safe, or will she finally embrace the fire she's been hiding?


Claimed By The Wrong Brother

The room is painfully silent as the last guest slips out the door. Only three of us remain in what now feels like a battlefield rather than a living room—Kian, me, and Zara, who sits comfortably on the couch as if she belongs here.


Roman had been the last to leave, pulling me aside near the door with concern etched on his face.


"Family dinner next Sunday," he'd whispered. "Bring Kian if you'd like. Your mother should meet him."


I'd nodded mechanically, my mind still reeling from Zara's announcement.


Now, empty champagne glasses and half-eaten cake slices litter the coffee table. Evidence of a celebration turned disaster.


"Well," Zara sighs, crossing her legs. "That was lovely, wasn't it?"


Something snaps inside me. I've spent too many years being the quiet one, the peacekeeper, the girl who stands in shadows while others take what they want.


"What the hell was that?" I demand, stepping toward her. "That speech. That announcement. You had no right."


The Unwanted Guest's Accusation