Akano The Diner

“I trusted you!” Zachary yelled angrily his hands curled into fists at the revelation that he just got. "Is this is how you repay me?!” “I never told you to trust me." “Do you honestly think that I will let you get away with this?" Zach looked at the woman furiously. “Well, you’ll be disappointed." He took long steps towards her threateningly and held both hands, pushing her towards the wall hardly. “Do you think I'll let you get away from this?” Alex looked at him hardly, their faces close to each other, mouths almost touching. “Because I won’t.” Zach then pressed his mouth on hers in a hard and hungry kiss, giving in to the demands of his body that's been eating him for a while. Zachary Montgomery, 36, is a hard-working FBI agent, who works in counterterrorism, instead with the big law firm that his family had for generations. He is a man with goals and conviction. Alexandra Walters is a 27-year-old diner co-owner with her aunt and her wheelchair-bound younger sister. She turned her back on the thrilling and fast-paced life she once had. When Alexandra met Zachary over an incident that she believes has something to do with the case she abandoned, she forced her way in, despite his resistance and persistence in pushing her away and keeping her away from the case. Covering up their attraction towards each other, Zachary will do anything to keep her away for her safety while Alexandra made a vow to herself that she will get the information she needs to finally close the case that has been haunting her. Even if it means, seducing Zachary Montgomery to her bed.

My name is Mara Park, and I am a twenty-three-year-old fresh graduate taking up business administration from a public school in my province.  I don't know that when you graduate from a public school, especially when your school is unknown to anyone in a big city, even though you have a diploma, it is hard to find a job, most of all when you don't have any work experience. I am an orphan and living alone. No one will provide for my needs if I don't find a job. I know no one in this place. No, I have one. I smiled, Jared. He has been my boyfriend for almost four years now. I didn't tell him I followed him after my graduation. I wanted to surprise him after I found a decent job. The last time I talked to him, he told me he was working at a big company as a finance manager, and I'm so proud of him. So here I am, struggling to find a job. I disregarded my diploma and applied as a waitress in a diner near the Fernandez Corporation building, hoping one day I could snatch a job in that company, even if it was just as a receptionist. It would be a huge achievement for me. I'd been working in the restaurant for a month when I saw an older man pass out near my workplace. He begged me to bring him home because he had forgotten where he lived and his name. I couldn't bear to leave him alone in the middle of the night, so I brought him home, and my life turned upside down after that when I found that he was the grandfather of the owner of Fernandez Corporation. That led me to find out my real identity.

The things we want are so very rarely the things we need. Clifton Heights, a modest Adirondack town, offers many unique attractions. Arcane Delights sells both paperbacks and hard-to-find limited editions. The Skylark Diner serves the best home-cooked meals around, with friendly service and a smile. Every August, Mr. Jingo’s County Fair visits, to the delight of children and adults. In essence, Clifton Heights is the quintessential small American town. Everyone knows everyone else, and everyone is treated like family. It is quiet, simple, and peaceful. But shadows linger here. Flitting in dark corners, from the corner of the eye. If you walk down Main Street after dark, the slight scrape of shoes on asphalt whispers you're not alone, but when you look over your shoulder, no one is there. The moon shines high and bright in the night sky, but instead of throwing light, it only seems to make the shadows lengthen. Children disappear. Teens run away. Hunters get lost in the woods with frightening regularity. Husbands go mad, and wives vanish in the dead of night. And still, when the sun rises in the morning, you are greeted by townspeople with warm waves and friendly smiles, and the shivers pass as everything seems fresh and new... Until night falls once more. Handy's Pawn and Thrift sits several blocks down from Arcane Delights. Like any thrift store, its wares range from the mundane to the bizarre. By daylight, it seems just another slice of small town Americana. But in its window hangs a sign which reads: We Have Things You Need. And when a lonely traveling salesman comes looking for something he desperately wants, after normal visiting hours, after night has fallen, he will face a harsh truth among the shelves of Handy’s Pawn and Thrift: the things we want are rarely the things we need. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

She was broken. He made her whole. But her past won't stay buried. Sera Hartley was rejected on her eighteenth birthday—humiliated in front of her entire pack by the one man fated to love her. Cade Storm, the future Alpha, looked at her wolfless body and declared her too weak to be his Luna. Shattered and desperate, Sera ran. For three years, she built a quiet life among humans, burying the mate bond that still claws at her chest, working in a small-town diner where no one knows her shame. Then he walks in. Conrad Hawthorn. Ancient. Powerful. Dangerous. An Alpha whose presence makes her knees weak and her pulse race. He claims she's his mate—but that's impossible. The Moon Goddess doesn't grant second chances to the wolfless and broken. Conrad doesn't care what's impossible. He pursues her with a hunger that sets her skin on fire, protects her from threats she doesn't see coming, and looks at her like she's the only thing in his world that matters. When his lips finally claim hers, when his hands map every curve of her trembling body, Sera feels something she thought she'd never have Wanted. Desired. Whole. But the past has holes. And when Sera's wolf finally emerges powerful, Alpha-born, magnificent. Her old pack comes crawling back. Cade wants what he threw away. Her real father demands she take her rightful place. And Conrad? He'll burn the world down before he lets anyone take his mate. Two Alphas. One woman. A bond that defies the laws of their kind. But when her wolf awakens, will Sera discover she was never the weak one at all?

Celeste Winters once had a name that echoed across territories, the daughter of the WinterMoon Alpha—fierce, loyal, and born of a legacy older than the crown that now rules the city. But all of that shattered the moment the man she trusted with her soul chose another without a word of goodbye. Cast aside without explanation, stripped of identity and purpose, Celeste ran. She abandoned her title, her pack, even her wolf… burying it all beneath perfume and silence. Now, in the heart of a city that doesn’t know her, she works late-night shifts at a diner and hides her scars behind forced smiles and lingering shadows. Every day she survives, but she does not live. Until the night everything begins to unravel. A rogue attack. A moment of instinct. A power she shouldn’t still have. And a single word whispered by the Alpha King himself as their eyes lock across the chaos: Mate. Celeste never wanted to love again. Never wanted to be claimed, or seen, or remembered. But he remembers her—her scent, her laugh, the steel behind her soft-spoken words. And worse, his wolf wants her. Craves her. But Celeste’s past isn’t just filled with heartbreak. It’s filled with secrets—deadly ones. The rogues aren’t just after her for revenge; they’re looking to return her to a father who will burn down every pack to get her back. A father who once ruled all, and never forgave betrayal. As the line between predator and protector begins to blur, Celeste must face the truth she’s tried to forget: she was never meant to disappear. And the more she lets herself feel again, the more dangerous her world becomes. The past is waking. The wolves are circling. And fate has never played fair.