Melodramatic Fantasy Short Stories & Novels

I was the most spoiled little princess in the shifter world, because I had four powerful daddies. Darius is the head of the Dragon clan, and the King who rules over the entire shifter world. The other three are the heads of the Lion clan, the Serpent clan, and the Eagle clan. Everyone fears their power. My mother was their childhood sweetheart. When she was killed by rogue wolves, they found me still barely breathing inside her, and saved my life. The four of them spoiled me rotten. Whatever I looked at twice, it would be sitting in front of me by the next morning. Every girl in the shifter world envied me. Until the year I turned sixteen, when Vivian came back. She was the daughter of their first love. From that day on, my four daddies were completely different. Vivian cried to Daddy Darius and said I'd pushed her down the stairs. Without a single question, he threw me in a cell, bound my wrists in silver chains, and made me kneel on broken silver shards for seven straight days. Then she went to Daddy Orion and said I'd stolen the necklace her mother left her. So Daddy Orion melted down the only ring my mother ever left me and had it remade into a necklace for her. The last time, Vivian stabbed herself and cried that I'd tried to kill her. Daddy Rex didn't even ask. He just sentenced me to four years in the silver prison. The silver prison holds the worst criminals in the shifter world. The guards whipped me with silver every day, forced me to wash everyone's clothes, and some weeks I went days without a bite of food. Today, when my door got kicked open again, I was huddled in the corner shaking. I hadn't eaten in two days. Then I heard the Moon Goddess's gentle voice. “Child, do you want to leave here and go back to your mother?”

I am the youngest daughter of the King of the Sea, the most beloved little mermaid princess. The man I married is the world's most brilliant marine biologist. He has a childhood sweetheart who grew up with him, a woman who knows everything about extracting ocean toxins. The two of them, her brewing poisons and him developing antidotes, spent over a decade happily doing research together. Until the day she injected that toxin into my body. I nearly died. When I came to, he was sitting at my bedside writing up a treatment plan. "Don't be mad at Vicky," he said, still writing, his voice impossibly gentle. "She's just immature. She didn't mean to hurt you." "She knows I can save you. She just wanted to get a rise out of me." The moment those words left his mouth, one of Vicky's people came to call for him. After he left, I looked down at the treatment plan. He had left out one key ingredient. He'd been in too much of a hurry. He hadn't even noticed. That was when the sprite, silent for so long, finally stirred. The glowing pearl that had traveled with me for over twenty years drifted out from my collar, floating lazily in a slow circle. "Your Highness, once your human-form energy is depleted on land, your soul will return to the sea, and you'll never be able to come ashore again. This treatment plan is missing deep-sea spirulina extract. Following it will drain your energy even faster. The choice is yours." I stared at that line for a long time. Then I passed the treatment plan to the caretaker and smiled. "Let's go with this."

I was the only female in the Golden Feather Clan born with a complete, pure, and powerful beast core. The priestess prophesied that I would become Queen of All Beastfolk and bear the cub destined to unite the Twelve Clans. From that day on, every eligible male saw me as the perfect mate. But I only ever loved one person: my childhood sweetheart, Ronan. Everyone was certain I would end up with Ronan. I waited three years for him, helped him secure his place in the clan, and claimed victory after victory in battle. Instead, he cast the only bonding ring I'd ever have into the mud and crushed it under his heel. Then he fastened the silver fang necklace, a symbol of lifelong protection, around the neck of Selena, the White Deer healer. Taking her hand, he sneered at me. "You can go ahead and bond with some pus-covered Rotskin Beastmen for all I care. I still wouldn't go back to you." Just like that, I stepped down from the altar. A monster covered in festering sores crouched in the mud, cleaning my bonding ring. He couldn't speak. He didn't even bear a clan mark. Every beastfolk shrank away from him in disgust. That monster was afraid of dirtying what belonged to me. He tore the only clean strip of cloth from the lining of his cloak and carefully wiped the mud away, bit by bit. I cut my finger and let a drop of blood fall at his feet. "My name is Evelyn. "Will you bond with me?" Three years later, we crossed paths again. When Ronan realized I was pregnant, he lost his mind.

When my sister and I were born, a prophet foretold that my sister would fall into a deep depression because I was more gifted than she was. On the day of the Fire Dragon Clan's Trial, she would throw herself into the frozen lake and never resurface. To protect her, my parents locked me in the freezing chamber on the day of the Trial. I knelt and begged them until my knees bled. My mother shoved me inside and sealed the door from the outside with a barrier. "You know your sister will die because of you, and you still insist on taking the Trial? How is that anything but trying to get her killed?" The chamber had already dropped to a hundred and twelve degrees below zero, yet I was wearing nothing but a short-sleeved shirt. I threw myself against the barrier, desperate to break out. "Mother, it's freezing in here! Please let me out!" "You're a fire dragon. A little cold can't hurt you. Who are you trying to fool?" My mother's voice was edged with impatience. "The barrier blocks your magic, but we didn't even turn on the refrigeration system. Your sister will be safe soon. Can't you think of her for once?" The sound of their wingbeats faded. My scales cracked from the cold, and blood dripped onto the floor. The barrier had sealed away my magic, and the chill quickly sank deep into my bones. I knelt on the floor as my body stiffened, inch by inch.

I am a mermaid from White Tide Bay, born with a tideheart scale hidden beneath my sternum. Mermaids from White Tide Bay can live among humans on two legs for as long as they choose. Only when fully submerged in seawater and willing to drop the glamour do their legs merge back into a tail. But once the tideheart scale is damaged, seawater becomes a necessity for survival. Freshwater, medicine, and ordinary IV drips can only buy time; they can never replace a return to the sea. The tideheart scale is not a mate bond. It cannot control anyone. It only awakens after a mermaid has truly fallen in love. Should the beloved betray that love, the scale turns on its bearer, pulling moisture from the blood and gnawing through flesh and bone after nightfall like countless tiny teeth. Unless the mermaid lets go of her feelings completely, the tidal decay will never stop. On the night of our wedding anniversary, I sat in the most sought-after oceanview restaurant in Greyport, brimming with anticipation, and waited for my husband, Adrian Hayes, for two full hours. He never came. But the tideheart scale on my chest suddenly began to burn. Through the glass water curtain that divided the restaurant, I saw Adrian having dinner with a woman. Cecilia Roland. His first love, the woman he'd dated for five years, the one he once claimed he had long since left behind. Adrian leaned forward and gently wiped a trace of sauce from her lip. He hadn't shown me that kind of patience in a very long time. I endured the growing burn in my chest and called him three times in a row. He declined every one. A moment later, a text came through: "Evelyn, an urgent meeting came up. Don't wait for me. I'll make it up to you next time." Everyone in Greyport knew Adrian Hayes never declined my calls. So he wasn't in a meeting. He simply didn't want me interrupting his dinner with Cecilia. The seawater felt as though it were being drained from my blood drop by drop. The scale on my chest cracked and curled at

I am the Oracle, the High Priestess who connects the divine realm to the mortal world. My daughter, however, was born with only a trace of divine power, leaving her little different from an ordinary human. I brought four orphans back from the beastman world and raised them myself. I gave them only one condition: protect my daughter from harm. For years, her four brothers shielded her, leaving her free to be as willful as she liked. Then, on the day of her coming-of-age rite, her prayer reached me. "Mother, my brothers are going to sacrifice me so Daisy can receive the Goddess's protection." By the time I got there, my daughter was bound to the altar. My four sons were busy preparing the altar. Daisy preened at their side. I was about to begin the chant that would punish them. Christopher, the serpent, pulled Daisy close and wrapped a protective arm around her. Gardner, the polar bear, talked back to me for the first time. "Mother, our little sister hurt Daisy first. "We only meant to frighten her. "The rite only takes away her ability to speak with the Goddess. She is useless anyway. She may as well be ordinary." I looked at the ingrates I had personally raised and scoffed. They had forgotten something. Every skill, every power, every title they held had come from me. I had made them. I could unmake them just as easily.