When Jasmine’s fated mate Elliot rejects her for the Lycan Chairman’s daughter, she is left broken, humiliated and alone. To make matters worse, her father gets arrested for embezzlement, and Jasmine needs to raise ten million to release him.

Desperate to save her father from a wrongful conviction, Jasmine takes the only job she can find—tutoring the bratty daughter of a rich werewolf family. 

But she never expected her employer to be the Lycan chairman himself: Gareth Laken. He is ruthless, dominant… and her ex-mate’s future father-in-law. 

Gareth thinks she’s a threat. A bitter ex-girlfriend out for revenge, waiting to harm his own daughter. But the more he watches her, the more he sees a woman refusing to be shattered by the world that betrayed her. A woman he can’t stop wanting, despite the huge age difference.

Now, Jasmine is caught between two powerful men—one who destroyed her, and one who might destroy everything she has left to protect.



Excerpt

“You’re playing a dangerous game,” Gareth said, voice low, his towering frame just inches from mine.

“I didn’t come here to play,” I shot back, even as my heart pounded. “But you should be asking Elliot why he keeps showing up at my door. I’m not the one chasing ghosts.”

His eyes darkened, his gaze dropping to my lips. “He’s not the only one haunted by you.”

I froze.

I should have walked away.

Instead, I whispered, “Then why do you look at me like you want to hate me and kiss me at the same time?”

He didn’t answer.

But his silence spoke louder than any lie.

On the car ride back to my house, Axel and I continued to talk and connect. He held my hand the whole ride there. Even though his touch didn't give me butterflies in my stomach, his hand still felt nice and warm around mine. 


After I said goodbye to his Beta—who hadn't seemed as chatty on the ride home—Axel opened my car door and walked me to my front door. Ever since I scolded him about flirting with our server, he had been the perfect gentleman. It meant a lot to me that he would walk me to my door because when Elliot and I were dating, he would kiss me goodbye in his car, then drive away before I'd even entered my house. 


When Gareth dropped me off at my house, he hadn't even walked me to my doorstep. Although he had given me his jacket when I was cold. My cheeks burned when I thought about how, on nights when I couldn't sleep, I still wrapped his jacket around me and breathed in his comforting scent. 


Chapter 68 - Chapter 68: Hands of an Artist