A Shotgun Wedding with the Mafia Don - Chapter 23: Moving, lunch date, and packing for the trip

Childhood, upbringing, family background, social relations, traumatic experiences…

We keep reviewing and seeking out the motives of criminals, exploring the subtlest emotions driving them. It’s not to put ourselves in their shoes and sympathize, or even forgive them; it’s not to find some reasons to exculpate their crimes; it’s not to kneel down before the so-called “complexity of human nature”; nor to introspect social conflicts, much less to alienate ourselves into monsters.

We just want to have a fair trial – for ourselves and for those who still have hope for the world.

A seme thug specialized in dealing with various kinds of disobedience vs. a cowardly and dissolute uke descended from a rich family

- Description from Novelupdates

What life is left for a warrior when there is no more enemy to fight?

…He knelt before her in the posture of a soldier giving honor to their Queen. And she didn’t even know it.

“Harth,” he rasped, “I come empty-handed. I bring no weapon. Because I swear to you, I will never choose to harm you. Never draw your blood—in anger, or in fear. I bring no shield. Because I vow I will never defend myself from your eyes, your hands, your mind. I am yours.”

*****

After a year of peace in Anima, Tarkyn finds himself… lonely. As the Captain of the Queen’s Guard and a lion-shifter, he has met every female in the tribes, but never found his mate. Certain he must have overlooked someone, Tarkyn undertakes a grueling ritual, pleading with the Creator to reveal her. But the ritual presses him to the end of even his formidable strength.

Yet, the Creator heard his cry…

Discovered on the brink of death by his mate, Harth, and nursed back to health, Tarkyn now faces the most difficult battle of his life. Because Harth isn’t just a stranger to the Anima, she is a weapon of the humans who tried to destroy them.

Can the love of a warrior and his enemy bring peace to Anima? Or will they be torn apart forever by war between their peoples?

*****

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STANDALONE STORY: While Tarkyn’s story is a part of the Anima world and fans will be reunited with some of their favorites as side-characters, Tarkyn and Harth are new POV characters and their story is a new plot arc, so their story can be enjoyed without reading the previous books! But please add Falling in Love with the King of Beasts, and Taming the Queen of Beasts to your library to enjoy later!

Aria Monroe married the city's coldest billionaire CEO to save her family, only to be betrayed by both him and them.Pregnant and discarded, she vanished without a trace.Three years later, she returns not as the broken woman they once mocked, but as the CEO of a rising empire.Her greatest secret? The child who carries the bloodline of the man who destroyed her.Now, the ruthless CEO who once rejected her is on his knees, begging for forgiveness. But forgiveness won't come easy. Rivals lurk, family betrays again, and temptation burns hotter than ever.This time, she's no pawn. She's the queen. And she'll decide who wins her heart if anyone at all.But when her son looks up at Damien Blackwood with those same ice-blue eyes and whispers “Daddy,” will the walls she's built around her heart finally crumble or will the ghosts of their past destroy them all?

Born without a mana circle into one of the most powerful family of hunters in the country, Luthra was the ultimate failure. Deemed trash and disowned, he was cast out with nothing but the clothes on his back and a cold, self-hating resolve.For five years, he trained his body to its breaking point, only to discover his weakness was a lie. His power wasn't absent—it was a paradox. A 'Negative' mana circle so volatile it had to be sealed by a god at his birth, lest it annihilate his very soul.Now, the seal is cracking. To prevent catastrophe and seize his own destiny, Luthra is given a key: The Negative Leveling System. In this world, power means leveling up. For Luthra, true strength is found by leveling down.Armed with a simple industrial chain and an unshakable pragmatism, he begins his hunt. Every monster core he absorbs pushes him deeper into negative levels, unlocking twisted skills and an incomprehensible strength the world has never seen.They called him a zero. But in a system where Level -10 is stronger than Level 1, Luthra is about to show them what true power looks like from the bottom.