Alphas dominated while betas served, and omegas submitted.

Ruthless King by Alison Aimes

Standalone - Ruthless Warlords #1
Release - January 11, 2021
Genre - SciFi Omegaverse Dark Mafia Romance
Dual POV - 3rd person
Heat Level - 4.5 out of 5/frequent
Format/Source - eARC provided by the author
Length - 367 pages

He's the most brutal Alpha crime boss in the galaxy—and she belongs to him now. Payment for a debt owed. Pawn for an act of vengeance. Property to be used, knotted, and bred.

Irresistibly gorgeous mafia king Nikolai Skolov is dominant, hard, possessive—and determined to bend innocent omega Dahlia Lundin to his will. But she is equally determined to resist. The lives of those she loves depends upon it.

Except Dahlia isn't prepared for the insatiable hunger the Alpha's discipline awakens. Or her soul's recognition that her new master is also her fated-mate.

As dangers mount and betrayals loom, all Dahlia knows is turned on its head. Allegiances are tested. Secrets exposed. Until Dahlia is not sure if her ruthless enemy is the monster who will destroy her or the only one left who can save her...

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I have never read from Alison Aimes before, but after reading Ruthless King, I'm definitely adding her to my must-read list!

Here are the reasons why you should read this and why it got five stars...
❤️ fated mates
❤️ organized crime shenanigans
❤️ fierce warrior who was insanely hot
❤️ strong and stubborn omega who tried to give as good as she got
❤️ revenge plot
❤️ brilliant storytelling and incredible world building. I could feel the cold of ice planet Abzal.
❤️ tons of hot sex. TONS!!
❤️ enemies-to-lovers trope that blossomed into something truly beautiful
❤️ redeemable characters and huge hints to what's to come...

Nikolai Skolov is an Alpha - dominant, fearless, gorgeous - and he was the glue that held the Skolovs together. A horror from the past has gone unavenged and unanswered, and now's the time for justice. For truth. And Dahlia Lundin, daughter of his greatest enemy, is the key. Traded to pay her father's debts, she expects abuse, unkindness, and unending punishment. Nikolai wants to use her gift to make her family pay. She is willing to sacrifice anything to keep her family safe. They're at odds until she realizes she's fighting the wrong thing and the wrong person.

Every filthy, arrogant pronouncement only made her wetter.
She fought it as best she could.
"This isn't me. You're triggering my heat. You're using my weakness against me."
"Weakness? It's not some flaw inside you. It's all you are, omega. This is what you were made for. Your body knows exactly what it was designed to do. Give."

While she grew up treated as trash, Nikolai treated her as his treasure. They were supposed to be on opposite sides, enemies, but with his every move, every thought, every touch, Nikolai proved to Dahlia that everything she knew was wrong. And she gave him the most ultimate prize - her heart. With her, he found all that he was missing.

With Dahlia, he was reborn.
Freed.
Unburdened.
He was content.
It was more, in fact, than anyone had ever given him before.

I fell in love with these characters so easily. I loved when they fought, I loved when they bantered, and I loved when they loved. Most of the bad guys got just what they deserved, the good guys kinda won, and I'm looking forward to the next hunt.

Alison Aimes is the award-winning author of the sexy sci-fi romance series the Condemned as well as the sizzling contemporary romance Billionaire Bad Boys collection. A sci-fi fanatic with a PhD in Modern history, she’s an all-over-the-map kind of woman with a love for dramatic stories and great books, no matter the era. Now, she’s creating her own stories full of intrigue and passion, but always with a happy-ever-after ending. She lives in Maryland with her husband, two kids, and dog. When not in front of the computer, she can be found hanging with family and friends, hiking, trying to turn herself into a pretzel through yoga, listening to a fabulous TED talk, or, last but not least, sitting on the couch imagining her characters’ next great adventures.

The moment Tess walked into my life she owned me.
I would never be free again.
I never wanted to be free again.

Quintessentially Q by Pepper Winters

Monsters in the Dark #2
Release - December 11, 2013
Genre - Dark Romance
Dual POV - 1st person
Heat level - 5 out of 5/a few scenes
Format/Source - ebook purchase (I own the signed paperback)
Length - 392 pages

“All my life, I battled with the knowledge I was twisted… screwed up to want something so deliciously dark—wrong on so many levels. But then slave fifty-eight entered my world. Hissing, fighting, with a core of iron, she showed me an existence where two wrongs do make a right."

Tess is Q’s completely. Q is Tess’s irrevocably. But now, they must learn the boundaries of their unconventional relationship, while Tess seeks vengeance on the men who sold her. Q made a blood-oath to deliver their corpses at Tess’s feet, and that’s just what he’ll do.

He may be a monster, but he’s Tess’s monster.

This is a story of eroticism, horror, and sweet tragedy. It contains graphic scenes, but there’s always light in the darkness.


Is there a better man out there than Q? Someone who is willing to do anything, give anything, sacrifice everything for the woman he loves? I'm blown away with the many facets to this man and the ways that the author gave him such depth. While this story featured many characters, it was clear that Q was the star of the show.

I fucking shouldn't want to beat the ever-living daylights out of her, but I did. Oh, shit how I did.

Tess... little miss nothing... finally had everything she could possibly want... until the day when it was all ripped away. Her stupid mistake led to her second kidnapping and the horrors that awaited her. And I couldn't have been more delighted! The way the author captured the brutalization of Tess and how broken she became... juste fabuleux!

You told me you were strong enough
You told me you were brave
Yet now you lie next to me and all I can do is save
I'm here for you. I'm there for you
I'll help you with every fight
But no matter what I do for you, I see no end in sight

And then I came to hate Tess. I mean, I detested this girl with a fierce and fiery passion. Even here, at the end of this book, I still hate her. She hasn't redeemed herself and I'm hoping the next book gives her a chance at redemption. However, my deep disgust with her character can't take away from the absolute pleasure I experienced reading everything she and Q went through. Even at the lowest point, I found something to smile about. I know that says a lot about me, but I don't even care. Pepper Winters is freaking amazing when it comes to creating the darkest and most tormented reads.

It's simple really. If I can adore the hero, hate the heroine, and feel and enjoy the passion of this story... then this book deserves all the stars. And if you're someone who enjoys revelling in depravity, destruction, pain, blood and love, you need to embark on this dark journey yourself!

Side Notes:
- I'm bilingual (English/French) and some of the translations in this book didn't work for me. I'm not sure if they were taken from someone who spoke some version of French or straight from Google Translate (or an equivalent).
- There was this sentence in the book - The penthouse was five hundred square feet of pure decadence. - Do you know how small 500 sq ft is? There is no way a 'penthouse' would be that tiny. And something that tiny would never be referred to as 'decadent'. I'm going to assume it meant to say 5000 sq ft.

Find it on Amazon ➤ FREE to read with Kindle Unlimited

With nerves lodged in my throat, I pulled out ropes, cuffs, bondage of all types.
Tess watched remotely as I piled my arms full of things and headed back to the bed. Placing them on the towel at the foot of the four poster, I looked at Tess. “Tie me up.”
I never thought I’d ever say those words. But I needed her to bind me. I wouldn’t be able to go through with this if she didn’t. I’d run like a fucking coward, or lash out and hurt her.
She picked up the leather cuffs, the buckles clinking. “Where?”
Trying to curb the terror and anger and so many fucking things, I forced myself to sit on the mattress and lie down.
My heart was a fucking crazy thing going a billion miles an hour; I couldn’t look at Tess. I couldn’t look anywhere but at the large canopy above my head. The four posters were sturdy—half a fucking tree sturdy—once she bound me, I wouldn’t be able to get free.
My stomach rolled and I swore I would be sick. Shit. Oh, shit. What the fuck am I doing?
Tess glided closer to the bed, looking like a malnourished ghost. She eyed the cuff, then my limbs. My fists pressed against my thighs, every muscle locked tight.
I hadn’t undressed. The element of having jeans and a T-shirt on was my only armament; I wanted to keep it that way.
I gritted my teeth, spreading my legs for her.
She swallowed and obediently looped the soft leather around my ankle.
Black spots appeared in my vision as she tightened the buckle around the bedpost. She fastened it and I wriggled.
“You need to do it tighter. I can get free.” I hated every word. I wanted to chop out my tongue for being such a traitor, but I wasn’t doing this for me. I was doing this for Tess. To somehow break the barrier she’d fortified. If it took dynamite in the form of making me shatter, then so be it.
Tess nodded, tightening the buckle until it bit into my skin. Heat travelled up my leg, causing me to shiver with helplessness.
Torturing me with fluttering touches and slowness, Tess secured my other ankle before sighing heavily. She looked at me with a thousand wishes in her eyes and no hope. Moving toward the head of the bed, she chose a length of silk rope.
Our eyes never left each other as she bent and captured my hand with hers. The moment her delicate fingers touched my trembling skin, I bucked. My cock roared to life and all I wanted to do was kiss her, fuck her, never let her fucking go again.
She bit her lip, her eyes darkening just a little.
“Embrasse moi!” Kiss me, I demanded, capturing her hand with mine.
We stared so long, so hard, I wondered if I’d die waiting for her to obey. Finally, she bent in half, lowering herself toward me. My legs might be bound, but my arms and torso weren’t. The moment she was in grabbing distance, I wrapped my arms around her, dragging her hard against me.
Pepper currently has thirty-one books released in nine languages. She’s hit best-seller lists (USA Today, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal) thirty-seven times. She dabbles in multiple genres, ranging from Dark Romance to Coming of Age.

After chasing her dreams to become a full-time writer, Pepper has earned recognition with awards for best Dark Romance, best BDSM Series, and best Hero. She’s an #1 iBooks bestseller, along with #1 in Erotic Romance, Romantic Suspense, Contemporary, and Erotica Thriller. She’s also honoured to wear the IndieReader Badge for being a Top 10 Indie Bestseller.

After releasing two books with Grand Central, Hachette (Ruin & Rule and Sin & Suffer) Pepper is a Hybrid Author of both Traditional and Self-published work.