A Place Called Home

Akhir-akhir ini banyak cerita yang beredar tentang sebuah bisikan. “Bawa aku pulang!” Namun hanya beberapa orang tertentu yang dapat mendengarnya, salah satunya Kila, teman baik Azkia. Suara bisikan itu berasal dari pengikut sekte agama yang sudah lama disiksa, bahkan dibunuh dengan sadis. Pemimpin sekte itu memiliki kekuatan yang hebat untuk melawan pengikut yang sulit diatur. Namun bagi pengikut setianya, akan terjamin hidup bahagia setelah meninggal tanpa menerima siksa neraka. Makanya setiap jemaat dari pemimpin sekte itu memiliki aktivitas yang mencurigakan, bahkan sangat tertutup. Bukan pertama kali bagi Azkia bertemu dengan orang-orang yang mencurigakan dan jarang berbaur, karena tujuh puluh persen dari keluarganya termasuk penganut sekte dan aturan yang sama namun beda pimpinan. Azkia sangat muak dengan sikap keluarganya yang berbuat semena-mena pada dirinya, bahkan saudara sepupunya berani melecehkan harga dirinya. Dapatkah Azkia membawa pulang jiwa-jiwa yang tersesat setelah dirinya tercemplung dalam jurang maut?

Anin tidak menyangka perjalanan yang ia lalui semasa ia muda hingga menuju usia 30 tahun, akhirnya berlabuh kembali ke rumah. Tempat di mana ia dilahirkan dan dibesarkan hingga usia belasan. Masa lalu mulai menyeruak kembali, membisikan banyak hal-hal yang dulu ia usahakan untuk lupakan. Apa yang sebenarnya terjadi di rumah? dan mengapa Anin harus kembali setelah banyaknya tahun terlewati?

At my engagement party, a female dog was sitting on my fiancee’s seat. Her guy best friend, Ryan Anderson, was holding the leash. “Bro, don’t take it personally. Your fiancee drank too much the night before at her bachelorette party, that’s why I’m letting her sleep in for a bit longer.” Everyone looked at me mockingly as they laughed. I felt as though someone had slapped me. All the guests had arrived, but Lily Smith showed up late. “It’s our engagement party today. Are you asking me to marry a dog?” I asked as I suppressed my anger. Lily grabbed Ryan’s sleeve and glared at me impatiently. “What are you talking about? Ryan saw that I was too tired, so he let me rest for a bit longer. Are you seriously offended? “As my fiance, you should be more understanding, like him!” It felt ridiculous and wrong to me. My heart sank as I stood up. “Fine, since he treats you so well, you should marry him then!”

The night she comes back from her best friend's apartment after finding out her boyfriend is married, she meets a huge man sleeping on the snow in her backyard. 23-year old Charlie Jordan doesn't know what to do. After so many calls and studying, she finds out the man—Blurin Jameson— is an ex-militant whose address got mixed up on deployment day. It takes Charlie 419 Days to realize how her heart beats faster when ever they're near or when his eyes lights up... Or how she completes his amount of ribs.

The day before New Year's, my younger brother announced he was bringing his girlfriend home for dinner. Excited, I drove my new car to pick them up, taking my daughter along with me. However, as soon as his girlfriend got in the car, her face darkened. "Henry, you didn't tell me your sister was staying at your place—and with a kid!" she snapped. I frowned and was about to explain when my brother quickly interjected, "She's not staying. After dropping us off, she'll be heading to a hotel." Only then did his girlfriend's expression ease. I swallowed my discomfort and asked my brother what he was planning. He leaned in with a conspiratorial grin and said, "Sis, don't cause any trouble for me, okay? My girlfriend is the daughter of the Cromwell Group's CEO!" My eyes widened in shock. Was not the Cromwell Group the same company my ex-husband had just handed over to me as part of our divorce settlement?

The Devil You Called Grimace. Hunger. Love like a curse. They say some doors open only once. She opened hers with three red candles, a drop of blood, and a whisper. Lonely nights, overdue rent, and a heart too heavy to carry — that’s all it took to call him through. Malik. The man made of smoke, shadow, and everything her prayers forgot to protect her from. He came smiling, with promises sweet as sin — protection, money, revenge. Every favor he gave her tasted like salvation until she realized he was feeding on her, one piece at a time. A memory here. A dream there. Her laughter swallowed whole. Now he’s the warmth in her sheets and the whisper in her nightmares. The devil she named, the lover she can’t unmake. Because Malik wasn’t summoned. He was chosen. And love — the kind that burns red under candlelight — always demands a body to keep it alive.

I was an orphan being adopted by a simple family. My dad was a driver of a very powerful businessman. My mom was one of their maids. She was in fact their lady butler. This family with gazillion bank accounts had an only heir, drop dead gorgeous young billionaire, Albert Michaels. He was always the talk of the news both in mainstream and social media along with either a popular pop star diva or a hubristic socialite with voluptuous body and kittenish voice. I, Samantha Reynolds, one of their servants had been stealthily trailing him since the day that I stepped in their grand top of a kind living room. His stone cold aloof aura as he stared at me everytime he caught me gawking at him made him even more attractive and charming than he already was. Till one rainy night, a magical or should I say disaster happened. Arriving at home late and intoxicated while I was busy wiping the glass tea table, he was almost dropping himself on the cold marble floor. Guiding him towards his room, his heaviness was weighing up my petite body. Till we both dropped on his king sized bed with me under him. His glassy eyes tingling my long time desire. His warm rims made me want to wrap them with mine. Till time stood still as the rain continued pouring engulfing the atmosphere with its coldness while him covering me with his burning libido. As we both reached the top, he called a name, ''Madeline!'' D*mn!

The Empire rules on the wings of dragons. Riders are hand-selected for training from childhood, and Anzi is one of the rare few who wait to hatch theirs this year. Until she discovers the terrible truth that the dragon riders are not partners with their dragons: they're slavers. The dragons are bred in captivity and enslaved from within the egg, and they are nothing but mindless shadows of what their once-noble species used to be. After two hundred years, the surviving dragons in the wild are coming back to rescue their brethren. How they survived the Purge, no one knows, but they are angry and they are coming, in fire and in storm. And as she struggles to come to terms with the realization that the nation she loves so much that she would give her life for it may be nothing more than propaganda and illusion, she discovers something else: The dragons who survived the Purge are shifters, able to hide in human form. And Anzi has met one of them already. Her mate.

Siya yung tipo ng babae na exaggerated mag-isip. Sobrang layo ang nararating ng utak niya, sweet at mabait pero may pagkatang* at childish nga lang siya. Yun ba'ng lagi nalang siya nasasabit sa gulo dahil sa pagiging down to the highest level niya'ng mag-isip. She's Amie Hera Madrigal. What if dahil sa katangahan nito ay makikilala niya ang hindi inaasahang tao? A man that might think every girls dream. Isa lang naman ito sa pinakasucessfull businessman. Nah, scartch that. Isang aroganteng tao. A man who hates stupid people the most. That man is King Alexander Jauqez, a boss from hell. He is worst than a control freaking dictator. He is the saboteur of office romance, and no one ever dare to obey him. May pag-asa kaya na magkasundo silang dalawa? Ngayon pa at parehas nilang kailangan ang isa't isa o mauuwi ito sa walang hangganang bangayan? May pag-asa ba na mabuo ang salitang "Love"? Is there really a happy ending in every story? Or not every story has one?

He didn't stop when he reached her but leaned forward and kissed her hard, on the mouth. The air left her lungs. Maybe it was because it was her first kiss or because he had kissed her, she didn't know but her lungs were burning, her lips were on fire. She was one fire. It ended in a second. She stared at him with wide eyes as he stared back. His hand traced her forehead, nose, lips and then chin as it stopped on her throat. She knew, by God she knew he could feel her pulse, the heat on her cheeks. "I'm home." Dean Woodland left two years ago without a word or sound and now he is back to bring his belongings with him.