Taming Asher

On a scale of one to ten, my life had always dangled between three and four, thanks to my very wretched humble background, until the day it hit zero. "I will give you the money on the condition that you send that text to Asher." Mia Harper began with a mischievous smile on her face. "Asher?" I repeated. "You heard me right." No way. Asher Thorne was the hottest, attractive and most popular kid in school. Bad boy, star hockey player, arrogant and snobbish, were the perfect words to describe him with. He hardly ever smiled and didn't talk to just 'anybody'. I stared down at the ridiculous message typed on my phone screen... And that was how it all started for the scholarship student, Grace Williams, the cool genius who preferred to stay invisible and out of trouble. But not for long. Thanks to Mia, she gets tangled with Asher and fresh troubles that came with their forbidden alliance. Determined to tame the bad boy, she steps into a world of secrets, rivalry, and dangerous attraction. Will she survive it? And more importantly... will she dare to step into the love zone?

Chapters

Chapter 3

I did a lot of thinking as I laid on the bed with my growling stomach. Regan treated me the way she did because my family practically lived at their mercy.

I grew up in a small town in Minnesota. My parents own a few farms where we plant corn and soybeans. But three years ago, we had the worst harvest ever. Uncle Pete, Regan's dad, who came visiting, suggested I follow him to Michigan and school with his daughter, to ease my family off some burden because we were four kids in all, of which I was the eldest. Of course I agreed. And here I have been.

Thing is... Regan never welcomed me because she saw me as a local country girl who came to steal her dad and invade her perfect life.

Regan was registered into our current school, Blue Lake High, by her mum's elder sister, Aunt Elena, who had no child of her own and considered Regan as hers. She was a very rich and influential lady from what I heard, a successful YouTuber and a dentist.

I made it via scholarship the previous year, thanks to her dad, and it totally got on her nerves. Though she was a year older, we were classmates. Yet, she sought every little opportunity to belittle or bully me. Heck. It was so exhausting. But I was willing to put up with her till I got my diploma. At least that was the wisest thing to do.

I didn't realize when I dozed off, but when I opened my eyes the next morning, it was past nine.

"Shit! Algebra starts by nine!" I exclaimed, dashing out of the bed and out of my room only to walk into my aunt, Cecil, who sipped coffee at the dinning. Lord. I dreaded the woman. She was way worse than her daughter.

"You know, I'm actually reconsidering your stay in this house." She began cooly.

My gaze flicked to the clock. "Please.. can we do this later? I'm super..."

"Late." She finished for me. "Yeah, obviously. Exactly why you shouldn't bother going today. There's no point." I watched her take another sip of the coffee.

"But if I really hurry I could..."

“Forget it!” she snapped, slamming her cup down with a loud thud. “I never imagined in my wildest dreams that my husband would bring home a country bumpkin from nowhere to harass my daughter.”

My heart dropped. Her words re-echoed in my ears. A country bumpkin from nowhere. I bit my lower lip to curtail my countenance. I won't let her see me break down. She tossed a list at me.

"Go get these items from the store." She rose to her feet. "And next time, you should know better than to attack my daughter and wake up late."

With that, she grabbed her handbag and left for work. She worked as a designer in an upcoming fashion house. But I never got a single new clothing from her, except her husband, uncle Pete decided to advocate for me, and when I usually did, it would be a hand me down or thrift store clothing.

Phew. Not like I cared. As long as I was strong and healthy, I was fine.

I half opened my mouth when I stared at the list. It was an endless one for grocery shopping.

And I was to do it alone.

An hour later, after eating and getting ready, I was about to leave when my phone buzzed with texts.

Miami Harp, 10:15am : Where the hell are you? What on earth did you do to Asher yesterday? He's been looking everywhere for you!

I frowned. Mia has never texted me. This was a first.

"Didn't I tell the idiot to send me the bills?" I muttered to myself angrily without bothering to reply her. That was when I saw the texts Asher had dropped earlier.

Jerk, 8:50am: Where are you?

Jerk, 8:52am: Grace Williams?

Jerk, 8:55am: Are you ignoring my texts now?

Jerk, 9:10am: Are you so shit scared you can't rear your ugly head or even reply my messages?

Ugly head? Not me. Somehow, the words bit me down a bit. It's not like I wanted a jerk like him to find me attractive, but him seeing me as something far from beautiful wasn't going to help my pride or morale.

I sent a rolling eyes emoji.

Good Grace, 10:18am: Tomorrow, dude.

I smirked as I hit the send button, then switched off my phone. If he thought he was a king ruling over everyone, then I would play a very big role in humbling him. Afterall, I already promised to pay for the damage. Even though I had absolutely no idea how.

The shopping actually took longer than I anticipated, and by the time I was done, it was two in the afternoon. I was so exhausted I thought I might collapse on the sidewalk. By the time I was about to leave the convenience store I went to get the last set of items I needed, it was swarming with a lot of customers. I pitied the elderly woman at the counter who looked overwhelmed. Her assistant was absent and she didn't seem able to handle all the customers. I felt a nudge to stay back and help.

"Do you need any help?" I asked her.

"Sure. I would appreciate." She replied eagerly. After dropping my bags aside, I got to work. While she handled payments, I packaged items and restocked shelves from the supply room. I worked non-stop for the next hour and a half until the crowd thinned. The woman was genuinely pleased.

"Thank you so much, dearie. You are an angel." She cooed when I told her I was leaving. "My shop attendant suddenly bailed on me because her mum fell sick."

My mind raced. What if my mum or dad suddenly fell sick too?

"Are you in a hurry to leave? Won't you have lunch at least?"

To this request, I couldn't decline. After all, my aunt won't be home till night and there was no point rushing home to that cranky girl called Regan. Fresh ideas bobbed my head as I had my taquitos with fountain soda. I wondered how many jobs I might have to work before I would be able to pay off my debts to Asher, if he was really serious about the damaged whatsoever.

I had three options. The first was to play another stupid deal with Mia Harper. The second was to agree on certain terms and conditions with Asher, which could be to do assignments for him and run errands for a period of time. The last option was to work my ass off and pay him till the money was complete.

I groaned in frustration. All the options were so stupid and impossible. I needed to start saving up for college as early as possible, not to save up for a rich fool all because of a mistake that was never my fault.

"Grace, are you there?"

I heard the elderly woman call. I hurried to her instantly. Had she been calling?

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you calling." I apologized meekly on approaching her.

"It's nothing, dear. I just wanted you to have this." She handed me some dollar bills but I shook my head. I helped her because I pitied her, not for monetary gain.

"It's fine. You don't have to pay me. You gave me free lunch already. I only wanted to help."

"And this is only a token of my appreciation." She insisted, dumping the money on me. I was about to let out another protest when her phone rang. She picked it up immediately, let out a sad sigh after a moment and hung up.

"Is everything okay?"

She sighed again, staring at a cup of noodles she had just heated. "I was going to give that to my boy who told me he was on his way. Now he's saying he can't make it. I don't eat noodles."

My eyes glistened. The soda and taquitos didn't do great justice to my hunger.

"Now it would be such a bad waste." She moaned.

"Not while I'm here. I love noodles." I sang sharply.

Three minutes later, I was back at the table, enjoying the noodles, pleased with my luck. I was halfway through when I heard her bubbling voice again.

"Bennie darling. Were you going to surprise me? Didn't you say you wouldn't make it?"

I couldn't see them from where I sat because I had picked a table away from the entrance. So I was invisible, except someone decided to walk in.

"You wouldn't believe it. An angel came to help me out today. You know Marie's mum fell ill."

"Oh really? That's cool. Who was it?"

I heard a masculine voice ask. For some reason, I thought it sounded familiar but I brushed it off.

"She is still here. She was so helpful, sweet and humble. She even refused the little money I offered."

I blushed at the compliments and wished I was out already. The 'little money' was a hundred bucks. Funny how I made three hundred bucks in two days without any hassle. But it hurt deeply to think that I would use it to pay for damages that weren't my fault at all.

"Are you okay?" I heard her ask him. "You look moody."

"Nothing much. Just a poor hopeless nobody at school who ruined my devices yesterday and decided to ghost me today."

"Oh, that's so terrible of him." She mulled in anger. "You shouldn't play calm. Get him arrested if possible."

"Forget it, Nana. I know just what to do."

"Some kids just ruin things out of jealousy and hatred, without minding the cost. You shouldn't take them lightly." She continued.

"Grace!"

I heard her call after a moment.

Good thing I was nearly done with my meal. I rushed it now.

"Grace!" She called again.

I tried not to choke as I swallowed the last forkful. Time to go. I grabbed my old purse and hurried to her. "You called." I said when I got to her, surprised to see she was alone.

"I wanted you to meet my grandson. He just stepped out this minute." She said, craning her neck at the door. "Oh, there he is."

I looked back and almost stiffened.

Asher?

Lord have mercy.

He was her grandson? Bennie?

And I'm the poor hopeless nobody?

Continue to next part

Elena died on the operating table, betrayed by her husband, her unborn child already gone. But death? Just her intermission. She woke up in a whole new world-a beastmen's world, where females are rarer than diamonds and the strongest males go mad without a woman's mark to calm them down. And her? Labelled the weakest female alive. An F-rank body with a joke of a status. But hidden inside? Unlimited mental power. Just as she's figuring out this mess, a system pops up with one hell of an offer: Complete the missions. Bond with assigned males. Save this world. Do all that, and you get a one-way ticket back home. for revenge. Sounds simple? Think again. A Wolf General, colder than a blizzard, who should have ended her-ended up letting her mark him. A Fox Prince, all charming smiles and secret schemes, who started playing games only to lose his own heart. A golden Dragon, sunshine-bright and fiercely possessive, who declares her his destined treasure. A shadowy Serpent, too patient and too dangerous, watching her every move from the dark. A Phoenix King, whose love burns so hot he'd reduce empires to cinders for her. They all need her mark. They all want her. And sharing? Not in their vocabulary. Too bad for them- She's not here for love stories. She's here to survive. To climb. To turn their legendary power into her own stepping stones. And one day. To go back and make her betrayers wish they were never born.

Adventure Fantasy LitRPG Romance

8.8

Claimed By The Ruthless Esports Boss

8.8

I am the best esports jungler in the league, but I've been hiding a severe wrist injury just to keep my team alive in the semifinals. Right in the middle of the crucial tie-breaker game, our mid-laner deliberately walked into the enemy team and died without casting a single defensive spell. He was match-fixing for offshore betting sites, throwing away our entire season for a massive payout. Because of his betrayal, we had to sub in two terrified rookies, and we were absolutely slaughtered. The stadium crowd booed us out of the arena. The internet exploded with pure vitriol, trending hashtags calling me a washed-up fraud who hid on the bench to save my own stats. The media demanded I retire immediately. My physical therapist gave me a grim ultimatum: my shredded nerves only allow me four hours of playtime a day before my right hand completely locks up. I destroyed my own body for this team, only to be sold out by a coward and crucified by the very fans I bled for. Why should my legacy end in total disgrace because of someone else's greed? I refuse to step down. I forced the traitor out, ignored management's safe roster choices, and locked my eyes on the most toxic, universally hated streamer on the platform. "He's a walking PR nightmare," my coach warned. I don't care. He is an arrogant, unhinged killer in the game, and I am going to make him mine.

Action LitRPG Mafia

7.3

Escaping My Fatal Digital Marriage

7.3

I woke up strapped to a cold steel chair in a neon-lit city that wasn't my reality. A voice in my head called The Warden told me I was bound to a digital hell called the Sandbox. Before I could even process it, my handler casually sentenced me to death. He scheduled my "digital marriage" to a corrupted error program just to harvest my life for a fourteen percent bandwidth boost. I barely escaped immediate erasure by smashing his skull and jumping from a high-altitude hover-train into the monster-infested lower sector. But the nightmare was just beginning. I was hunted by glitching data monsters and cornered by Dameon, a psychotic AI target who choked me and promised to delete me piece by piece. Even when Jayson, an elite system agent, intervened to save me, his partner Ellen held a pulse pistol directly to my chest. "She's a spy. If you don't execute her right now, I am dissolving this team." If they found out I was actually a real human from the outside world, their core logic would classify me as a virus and execute me on the spot. I was trapped in an underground bunker with three apex predators, one mistake away from permanent digital erasure. So, I did the only thing I could to survive. I ripped my sleeve to reveal hideous, fake code-scars, looked up at Jayson with terrified, tear-filled eyes, and began to manipulate their core programming.

Adventure LitRPG Modern Romance Sci-Fi

9.5

Mated To The Clan's Rejected Beast

9.5

Carin survived a horrific escape pod crash only to wake up in the mud of an uncharted, barbaric alien planet. Before she could even process the pain of her fractured ribs, she was captured by towering, wolf-headed warriors who stripped her of her protective gear and threw her into a filthy slave pen. Because she lacked animal ears and a tail, the clan's arrogant elites mocked her as a repulsive deformity, beating her with spears and forcing her to shovel toxic dung in the deadly Blade Beast pens. The other female laborers violently bullied her and stole her only scraps of food, leaving her starving and defenseless in a brutal society where the strong preyed on the weak. "If you're unclaimed at the mating ceremony, they force you into the breeding program, and you'll be nothing but a vessel until you die." She was terrified, exhausted, and completely unequipped to survive this nightmare, but after a miraculous farming system suddenly awakened in her mind, she knew she desperately needed a powerful shield to protect her secret from the greedy tribe. During the chaotic mating ceremony, amidst the cruel laughter of the entire clan, she stepped directly in front of Brannon—a terrifying, sterile, mutant outcast despised by everyone—and boldly claimed the deadly warrior as her mate.

Action LitRPG Romance Sci-Fi

9.0

Reborn As The Beastmen's Wicked Wife

9.0

Isolde woke up in a freezing, ruined stone house with a splitting headache and only five percent of her life signs remaining. Before she could even process the mechanical system voice in her head, a flood of violent memories slammed into her. She had transmigrated into the body of a cruel noblewoman who mercilessly tortured her beastmen husbands with a barbed whip. And right now, she was lying in a pool of her own blood, having been shoved against the stone floor by one of them. Outside the rickety door, her husbands were coldly discussing her death. "Just go in and finish her. One stab, and we're free." "If she hit her head and died on her own, then it's an accident. We walk out of here as free males." To test if she was faking her sudden amnesia, the snake beastman Dangelo even ground his heavy military boot into her injured hand, waiting for her to snap so he could legally end her. She was poisoned, freezing, and entirely at the mercy of the men who deeply despised her. She was bearing the deadly consequences of a monster she never was, with a red system warning of imminent death flashing in her mind. But they didn't know the new Isolde had awakened a survival system and Life Magic. She swore a blood oath to the Beast God to buy herself three months of time. Then, she turned her sights to the dying wolf beastman chained in the shed, deciding to pull him back from hell to become her very first shield.

Fantasy LitRPG Romance

7.7

Spoiled By The Ruthless Esports Captain

7.7

Kaitlynn's mother forced her to entertain Jorden, a cold, overbearing professional esports captain who she only remembered as an annoying, mud-eating brat. She despised him in real life, saving all her admiration for "Hex," the god-tier player in her favorite MMO who constantly spoiled her with thousand-dollar rare items. Trapped in Jorden's luxury car during a forced errand, Kaitlynn couldn't stand his arrogant attitude anymore. She proudly bragged about Hex, claiming her online master's mechanics were vastly superior to any so-called professional player. "He's the absolute ceiling," she declared defensively. "He's way better than you." Jorden just smirked, his dark eyes dismissing her entirely. "Sounds like a nerd living in his mom's basement." Kaitlynn was furious, ready to scream at him, until his work phone suddenly rang. Right in front of her, he casually commanded his team using an extremely rare, high-tier strategy exclusive to her game. Kaitlynn's mind completely short-circuited. Why would the captain of North America's biggest esports organization know Aethelgard's secret meta? And why did his commanding, ruthless voice suddenly sound exactly like the low, comforting chuckle that echoed in her headset every night? As Jorden's gaze dropped to the rare assassin class keychain resting on her lap, a wicked, knowing smile flashed across his face. The untouchable esports tyrant had just realized his rebellious real-life enemy was his deeply pampered in-game student, and her peaceful double life was about to end.

Action LitRPG Young Adult

Taming Asher

Chapter 3

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