1st Quarter Quell Hunger Games

In my dormitory, there was a poor student. With all the good intentions in the world, my roommates and I were eager to help her, not realizing how much our help would cost. She wasn't impressed by the hairdryer we offered, insisting on borrowing a branded one instead. The skincare products we gave her? They were applied to her feet. And, as if that wasn't enough, she specifically demanded luxury face cream. One day, I lent her my tablet to look up some information, and to my surprise, she secretly opened up my gaming app, spent all the diamonds and reward tickets I had saved for half a year, and left me empty-handed. When I asked her to pay me back, she turned the tables and posted a public message online, accusing me. "I'm just a poor student from the countryside, never played games before. Are the materials in the game really worth this much?" Before I knew it, the comment section was flooded with criticisms of me. In a fit of frustration, I fired back with a post of my own, throwing her into the spotlight. "Well, I suppose you've never tasted the bitterness of being cyberbullied, have you?"

Eidolon Avenue: Where the secretly guilty go to die. One building. Five floors. Five doors per floor. Twenty-five nightmares feeding the hunger lurking between the bricks and waiting beneath the boards. The sequel to Eidolon Avenue: The First Feast (“a great read...powerful and jarring” - Cemetery Dance) returns to the voracious Eidolon as it savors The Second Feast. A narcoleptic man in apartment 2A battles a vengeful past determined to rob him of everything as he runs from the barbaric disaster of a delusional love. A woman in 2B, reinventing herself to please a callous boyfriend, discovers the horrors that wait in the shadows of her self-renovation. The man in 2C, a teacher at the nearby Catholic girl’s school, collapses beneath the brutal consequences of his lecherous desires. An older woman in 2D, after decades dedicated to the church, is cornered at last by the grisly carnage beating at the hollow center of her faith. And a college student in 2E, hungry to escape an ignored life of invisible anonymity, finds herself captured between the pages of a ravenous book. All thrown into their own private hell as every cruel choice, every drop of spilled blood, every silent, complicit moment of cowardice is remembered, resurrected and relived to feed the ancient evil that lives on Eidolon Avenue. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

After years of struggling to survive, Akayda Jordan finally lands her dream job — personal assistant/secretary in one of the best companies in the whole of California. To celebrate her new beginning, she decides to give one last “performance” at the elite club she’s about to leave behind. One night. One masked encounter. One forbidden act. But fate twists cruelly. The man she had danced for in the dark turns out to be her new boss — Damian Knight. He’s engaged. She’s desperate to keep her secret buried. But when Damian starts sensing something achingly familiar about his new assistant — the scent of her perfume, the way she looks away when he stares too long — the walls between them begin to crack. But he was sure the girl with the big glasses was not the girl with the mask and firefly tattoo who had woken up a hunger in him. Soon, professionalism turns into tension. Tension turns into temptation. And the closer he gets to the truth, the more dangerous her secret becomes. Because if Damian ever discovers she’s the masked girl he’s been searching for… she might lose not just her job, but her heart.

She was cursed by blood, bound by fear… and loved by the one man her bloodline said she could never have. Aria Hale spent her life hiding from the truth of her lineage until one night of forbidden passion with Alpha Caden of the Darkfang Crest stripped him of his wolf and left her carrying a secret that could be the start of a war. For two years, she stayed in the shadows, raising their son alone, haunted by the night that changed everything. But when her ruthless brother, Victor, the same man responsible for the death of Caden’s parents seeks to destroy the Darkfang Crest, Aria's life becomes more torn apart and complicated. Bound by a six-month contract marriage to Alpha Caden, who doesn’t recognize her as the woman from his past. Aria walks a tightrope of lies, love, and looming danger. On the other hand, Kael, Caden’s second-in-command, harbors a dangerous truth: he knows who Aria really is… As her secret threatens to explode, her brother closes in with his hunger and desperation for power. If the secrets locked within gets exposed would the truth stop Alpha Caden from doing the unthinkable? Or will he raise his blade against his own blood?

Sophia’s world shatters when her cheating boyfriend and backstabbing best friend smear her name across the city with vicious lies. Jobless, homeless, and desperate to vanish, she stumbles across a cryptic online ad: live-in tutor, remote estate, one thousand dollars an hour. She clicks apply before doubt can stop her. The mansion is breathtaking, the little girl heartbreakingly quiet, and the contract… written in blood. One crimson signature later, the gates lock behind her, and the truth claws its way out: wolves in tailored suits, monsters in the shadows, and a ruthless Alpha who orchestrated her arrival. Ethan Blackwell—billionaire, pack leader, and the stranger from her drunken one-night escape—claims her as his fated mate. He doesn’t want the bond; he’s too proud for a fragile human. But he’ll never let her leave. Worse? His two brothers circle closer, eyes glowing with the same primal hunger, ready to challenge tradition and tear the pack apart to possess her. Sophia came to hide. Now she’s the prize in a war of teeth, fate, and forbidden desire. One click. One drop of blood. No way out.

By day, Annabel Walter is just another junior concierge at the prestigious Valenrose Suites—smart, quiet, and invisible. To the world, Jake Daniel is the cold, commanding CEO of the luxury hotel empire. Ruthless in the boardroom, unreadable in public, and untouchable to everyone… except her. But behind closed doors, he’s not just her boss—he’s her secret husband. Married in Paris under the stars, their love was supposed to be private, sacred, and temporary. A promise made when they had nothing but time and hope. But two years later, Annabel is still hiding in the shadows, pretending to be a stranger to the man she shares a bed with. In public, he’s terrifying. At home, he’s her clingy baby boy, obsessed with cuddles, jealous of attention, and desperate to be seen—by her, and eventually, by the world. But secrets don’t stay buried forever. As tensions rise at the hotel, scandals brew, and coworkers start to whisper, Annabel is forced to ask: How much longer can love survive in the dark? And what happens when the cold CEO everyone fears decides he’s done hiding his soft side? A romantic, steamy, and emotional tale of hidden love, power games, and the sweetest kind of duality—where the man feared by many is secretly ruled by the woman he calls his home.

When we were only kids, Sam Harris and I made a promise we'd marry each other if we were still single when we turned thirty. Well, my thirtieth birthday has come and gone and I'm still as single as ever. And as far as I know, so is Sam. But it's been ages since we've seen each other, and after what he did to me our senior year of college, I wouldn't put his ring on my finger even if he begged me to marry him. Never mind his devilish good looks. Or the fact that the playboy partier is a doctor now. Nope, I'm sticking to my guns with this, and when I go back to my hometown of Silver Ridge for the first time in years, I won't pay him the slightest bit of attention. Well...until he convinces me to go out for drinks to catch up. I knew it was a bad idea the moment I agreed to it. And then he brings up our childhood promise. It might be fun and games to him, but it's not to me. Because as much a I don't want to admit it, Sam has always been my first choice. And I don't want to be nothing more than his backup plan.

Eidolon Avenue: Where the secretly guilty go to die. One building. Five floors. Five doors per floor. Twenty-five nightmares feeding the hunger lurking between the bricks and waiting beneath the boards. The sequel to Eidolon Avenue: The First Feast (“a great read...powerful and jarring” - Cemetery Dance) returns to the voracious Eidolon as it savors The Second Feast. A narcoleptic man in apartment 2A battles a vengeful past determined to rob him of everything as he runs from the barbaric disaster of a delusional love. A woman in 2B, reinventing herself to please a callous boyfriend, discovers the horrors that wait in the shadows of her self-renovation. The man in 2C, a teacher at the nearby Catholic girl’s school, collapses beneath the brutal consequences of his lecherous desires. An older woman in 2D, after decades dedicated to the church, is cornered at last by the grisly carnage beating at the hollow center of her faith. And a college student in 2E, hungry to escape an ignored life of invisible anonymity, finds herself captured between the pages of a ravenous book. All thrown into their own private hell as every cruel choice, every drop of spilled blood, every silent, complicit moment of cowardice is remembered, resurrected and relived to feed the ancient evil that lives on Eidolon Avenue. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

GENRE: Billionaire Romance. SETTING: The story is set in the modern 21st century in the Beverly Hills. Specific locations include but are not limited to: - The Thorne mansion, where Mariah’s family lives. - Ashton’s house, where Mariah lives with Ashton, her husband. TROPES: Arranged marriage, enemies-to-lovers, secret identities, forbidden love, revenge, hidden pregnancy. THEMES: Love. Betrayal. Revenge. Hatred. Hunger for power. BLURB: When Mariah Thorne’s family falls from grace after a bankruptcy, Mariah is forced into a cold and calculated marriage to the ruthless heir of her family’s rival company, Ashton Langford. Mariah soon starts to plot to destroy the Langford in the marriage when she finds out that they’re behind the downfall of her family and the destruction of their wealth, but the more she stays married to Ashton, the harder it is for her to avoid the fact that beneath the ruthless exterior he has is a soft man who may have saved her family behind his own family’s back. When a past lover of Mariah’s steps in to destroy her marriage, how does Mariah handle this when she finds out that she’s pregnant in the middle of her divorce process?

He was her first everything—first love, first heartbreak, first mistake. Her brother's best friend. Her personal nightmare. The guy who made her life unbearable. He bullied her. Broke her. Took her innocence, then tossed her aside like she was nothing. And when she finally ran, she swore she'd never look back. But fate is cruel. Now she's back, standing in front of the man who ruined her. Only this time, she's not the weak girl he once broke. She's stronger. Untouchable. And keeping a secret that could change everything for him. The moment their eyes lock, the past crashes into the present—hot and unforgiving. Lust. Anger. A hunger neither of them can control. Does he regret what he did? Does he even remember the way he shattered her? She tells herself she won’t fall for him again. She won’t let him back in. But when he grabs her waist, pins her against the wall, and growls that she still belongs to him—she knows she’s in trouble. Because the Alpha always takes what’s his.