4000 Years

I was twelve when Henry Shaw took me home from the orphanage, gave me a new name, put me through school, and gave me a good life. Ten years later, his first love returned from abroad. Her name sounded like mine, and her face looked like a mirror image. I quickly realized I had been a stand-in all along. Crushing the diagnosis in my pocket, I decided that I was going to live the rest of my life for myself, even if I did not have much time left.

After falling head over heels for Joe Smith for three years, I finally got the proposal I had been waiting for. However, on the day of our wedding, he did not show up until the wee hours of the morning. When I found him, Joe was drinking happily with a young girl in his arms. “I’m already tired of her clinginess. She’s a joke. Who else would want her?” Much later, he made me a wedding ring and proposed with my favorite jasmine flowers. But a muscular man opened the door instead. The man had two scratch marks on his neck and smirked at the disheveled Joe. “Isn’t it a bit too shameless of you to propose to a married woman?”

I was locked in a fridge for 40 days while the uncensored photos of me spread like wildfire across the internet. In the face of the salacious rumors about me, my mother reacted by reposting them. Then, she turned to warn my sister, "Look at how disgusting the entertainment industry is. Don't join it, alright? Stay home and inherit your sister's assets instead. My dearest daughter must be innocent and pure, unlike her." She forgot. She forgot I only joined this 'disgusting' industry to pay for her cancer treatment.

When I'm eight months pregnant, my husband, Levi West, becomes a donor to help his ex-girlfriend get pregnant. He even brings her and their illegitimate child home, wanting me to serve them. I refuse, and he calls me inhumane. "Audie's lost her husband—what's so bad about her wanting to have a child? You're a woman, too! How can you be so cruel?" I leave the house in anger, but Levi doesn't care. "Where can a country girl like you go when you're so heavily pregnant? You're going to come back and beg me to take you in again!" I head to the hospital to get an abortion. Then, I return to the countryside and rear pigs with my grandmother. Later, when Levi sees my flat belly and asks to see our child, I throw a handful of ashes in his face. "There you go. It's all there."

I'm having a mental breakdown as I face a clogged drain with my feverish and fussing daughter in my arms. Meanwhile, my husband has reserved a hotel to celebrate another woman's birthday. My mother-in-law spits on the floor. "This is what you deserve. You can't even capture a man's heart!" I clench a fist around the winning lottery ticket in my pocket. I want to get a divorce.

In front of the orphanage gates, Rebecca Schwartz, the impoverished student I had been sponsoring, stood glaring at me with a face full of disdain. "If you don't let Freddie come along, I'm not going to your house either," she declared, her tone sharp and unyielding. In the past, blinded by love and hopelessly infatuated, I would have caved to her demands, humbling myself just to keep the peace. But things were different now—I had been reborn. Staring at this despicable pair, who had once caused my tragic demise, a tidal wave of fury surged within me. Yet, it settled into nothing more than a faint, icy smile on my lips. "Then stay here," I said, my voice cold and steady. "Rot in this place alongside your precious Freddie. After all, trash like you belong in the garbage heap."

The Falcon Ridge Series Book 4 Six months after the Luna Ceremony in Red Rock. Set in Black Rock. A pack of 4000 on the eastern border of Falcon Ridge. Bastian Cole: I'm the Alpha. I'm the man of this Alliance. My life is perfect. That was until a young, beautiful interior decorator entered my life. That's when the weird things start. While I'm trying to further my career with the best Blue Moon Ball in history, this girl is causing me to lose that focus. She may be talented and gorgeous, but there's something really strange about her. Something the Shifter world has never seen. She needs my protection from not only the Alliance, but now the Dragons want her. I'm not sure why, but I will die before I let any of them take my beautiful artist away from me. Samantha Gale: On the surface, I seem like your average girl. But, far from it. My life was never easy. My entire family was killed in a wolf attack when I was 5. My life took an awful turn. It started to get better when the Gales adopted me. For years, I felt normal. That was until I agreed to decorate the Alphas ballroom. He presence did something to me. Not only did it start a flame, but it woke a beast I had locked up for years. I can't let it out. If I do, people will die.

"Shut down for rectification, fined $500,000, plus $300 compensation per customer. That’s the penalty from the Food Safety Bureau. Let’s see if you dare serve us gutter oil again!” Yves Larson, a part-timer at a construction site, sends me a provocative text purposefully, as though he's worried that I don't know what's going on. I just stare at the sign that says "closed for renovation", which is hung on the front door of my eatery. Never would I expect that the budget eatery that I've opened for the sake of the workers will be transformed into a blade that's aimed at me, thanks to the very same workers. That night, I sit in the apartment that my dad has left to me before his death. There, I spend the whole night smoking. Early the next morning, I head over to the bank and withdraw the money left behind by my dad, which is 260 million dollars. Half a month later, my eatery is open for business again. Work resumes at the construction site as well. Yves leads the construction workers to the restaurant at lunch. "I've taught him a good lesson last time. This time, I'm very sure that he won't have the guts to serve us cheap food made of shitty ingredients!" What he doesn't know is that the original eatery is already demolished. In its place stands a luxurious five-star restaurant. I stand in front of the main entrance as I perform a welcoming gesture to the workers. "This is a five-star restaurant that offers a private dining experience to you. The minimum bill for each table is 4000 dollars. You're welcome to dine here."

WARNING: THIS BOOK MAY CONTAIN STEAMY AND SEXUAL CONTENT WHICH IS STRICTLY NOT FOR KIDS UNDER +18 . "Bryce!". I screamed as I feel his huge cap nudge at the entrance of my womanhood. He groaned as he pressed in deeper before he slides into my wet entrance. My walls clenched around him while he stretched my inner muscles as he kept pushing deep inside me. "Please". I cried and placed the tip of my finger down at his waist in an effort to push myself away from him. "Please". I begged but he only retracted his hip and thrusted into me fully, deeper, stretching me wide enough to accommodate his full length. . He is the handsome, sexy and heartless devil. The sinner. She is the purest, innocent and beautiful angel. Two polar opposites, one single attraction. *** Having lived in the convent all her life, Hera Whitson manages to secure a job as a maid in the household of Bryce Donovan. The inhuman sex god that has the entire female population at his feet. He lives for sex, he celebrates and relish the electricity of it with every fibre of his being and sees no better reason for being alive. One look at Hera and Bryce is smitten. She is like an addictive drug, a moth to a flame and he will do anything to get burned by her. Relinquished by her heat. What happens when Hera finds herself battling against her principles and sexual attraction for Bryce? Will she be caught in the web of Bryce's twisted game of lust?

Ellie has two years at The Academy before she can escape to freedom and leave her life amongst werewolves behind. Two years left of Mark's taunting, two years left of the elite's bullying, two years left of staring at Jake wondering if he could ever see her as more than a friend. When a student turns up dead, Ellie finds herself in the midst of a mystery that may just make those two years seem infinitely worse.