How To Make Alkaline Water

I've traveled to Southgate to attend a water-splashing festival. A cheeky kid, who's about eight years old, keeps spraying the back of my head and my ears with water ejected from her high-pressure water gun. Half of my body is soon drenched in water. That's when I berate the kid and tell her not to aim her gun at my face. She doesn't bother stopping. On the contrary, she even has the gall to spray more water right in my face. I feel the cold water spritzing into my left eye. The pain is so intense that I can't even open my eyes. To make things worse, that kid is even howling with laughter while raising her gun proudly. "Look, Dad! He's all soggy and wet, like a limp noodle! This is fun!" The kid's father merely watches from the side. Not only does he not offer an apology to me, but he also records the whole thing on his phone. "Hey, my daughter is washing your eyes for you for free! This is an honor that no one else can ever receive, you know! Why are you acting like a complete wuss?" I swipe the liquid off my face before drawing to my feet and yelling at the crowd around me. "There's strong acid contained inside that kid's water gun! Just now, she burned my eye with it!"

My fated mate, Warren, heir to the Alpha of the Moonwatch Pack, was struck by a curse that left his wolf spirit broken. At the price of burning away my own wolf spirit, I earned an ancient pack prophecies. To lift his curse, I had to dance at the edge of the Moonlight Spring on every full moon, until the water of the spring came to a boil. So month after month, I sacrificed up my wolf spirit and danced the Moon Goddess's sacred rite. All I wanted was for the spring to boil, so he could take his place as Alpha and never be looked down on again. But I danced fifty-nine times, until my wolf spirit was nearly in pieces, and the water never so much as simmered. The night before the sixtieth full moon, I caught him drinking a potion Maya had slipped into his hand. Maya was my aunt's daughter. She was also Warren's first love. Right then, she was curled sweetly against his chest. "Warren, you know there's nothing wrong with your wolf spirit. The prophecy Ella bled for was never going to work. But you keep faking it with the dark-magic potion I make for you. Are you doing all this to get even for me?" Warren's voice was flat. "She took your place. She deserves to pay for it." "Once the pack sees how useless your fated mate really is, I can marry you and no one will say a word against it." Five years and fifty-nine dances of sacrifice, and all of it, from beginning to end, had been a lie. The Moonlight Spring of the Moonwatch Pack was never going to boil for me. I was done clinging to him. My mother was gravely ill, and her one regret was that she'd never see me settle down. If his heart already belonged to someone else, then I would just have to find myself a new mate.

Every time my mom, Miranda Turner, comes over to clean my apartment, something goes missing. The first time it happens, a silk scarf I bought goes missing. Not long afterward, my younger sister, Sheryl Colson, gets a promotion and a raise after giving a scarf to her boss as a gift. I think it's just a coincidence. The second time, every premium apple I store in the refrigerator disappears. That very night, Sheryl posts photos on Instagram. She writes, "Thank you, Mom. You're the best. Authentic purple star apple! And eight of them!" I can't help asking about it. Mom hides herself underneath the covers and cries all night, insisting I've wrongfully accused her. Later, several bottles of mineral water labeled "Imported" mysteriously vanish from my apartment. Coincidentally, Sheryl, who's been trying to get pregnant for five years, finally conceives. She proudly tells everyone that even the water she drinks is flown in from overseas. This time, I shudder at the thought of how dire the situation may be. What's missing is imported water from Esithra. It is water from the Gorga River, where there have been corpses floating around. Anyone who drinks it is asking for trouble.

It is the third year of the apocalypse. All water sources have been thoroughly polluted, making even a single bottle of clean water extremely rare. Every base has to send out search teams to find new water sources for all. My husband, Jasper Curran, is a geologist, and so, he is able to locate water sources that are still pure and unpolluted. However, when someone holds a knife to my throat for the last bottle of water—thinking that he will do anything to stop them—he hands the only bottle of clean water to Avery Grayson, the person who claimed she was my parents' real daughter instead of me. "Ave is thirsty. She's been suffering since she was little and she even had her parents taken by you, Arianne Grayson," Jasper says. "Just let her have the water." Jasper's expression is too calm and collected, as if my life is not on the line because of him. "They're just trying to scare you. You've enjoyed so many years of being spoiled with a luxurious lifestyle anyway. So what if you get bullied a little?" The people then kick me to the ground in a fit of rage as I watch Jasper huddle Avery into his arms and disappear into the desert. I get beaten up so hard that my chapped lips crack and start bleeding once again. I look at the menacing faces around me and quickly exclaim, "Wait, wait! I can help you find clean water too!"

Becca Hertford recently shifted to a dorm and started her university, hoping it will help her stay away from her father, only to realize that something more complicated is awaiting her. Meeting the finest vampire Alexander Insworthe was the last thing she expected. Alexander Insworthe wants a potion that will make his brother the king of the vampires. He can do anything for his brother, even if it means sacrificing himself. But the problem is the potion is with Becca, and she is not an easy person. Can Alexander get the potion and make his brother the king before love changes the well-arranged plan?

ALL HAIL THE ALPHA QUEEN — SYNOPSIS (300 WORDS) Alina Bloodburn spends her twenty-second birthday in chains. No family. No pack. No mercy. Condemned for a crime she did not commit, she waits in a cold cell believing she is nothing more than an unwanted orphan in a ruthless werewolf world ruled by bloodlines and beasts. Then a woman called Lady Dame Thunder appears in her cell with eyes like famine and storms—and whispers a truth that shatters Alina’s life forever: She is not weak. She is not unwanted. She is royalty. Dragged from prison into a world of ancient magic, Alina learns she is the lost daughter of **Cercie Bloodburn**, High Witch and Alpha Matriarch of one of the most feared bloodlines in existence. Her awakening is brutal. Bone and flame twist her into something beyond wolf—silver-furred, fire-eyed, crowned by thunder. A **Mega Alpha Queen** is born. But power is never given without price. The Thornbrooks—ruthless killers who destroyed her childhood and slaughtered her family—still rule in shadows. They believe the Bloodburn line was erased. They are wrong. Banished to Europe to train under storm clans and witches who speak dead languages, Alina becomes more than a queen—she becomes a weapon forged in grief and ritual. When she returns two years later, she does not come for mercy. She comes for genocide. Yet beneath the fangs and fire still beats the heart of a girl betrayed by fate, yearning for truth, loyalty, and love in a world that only respects dominance. Power threatens to consume her. And the Alpha Queen must decide… Will she rule the beast within— Or become it?