American Predator

Pretend to be his fiancée. Save her brother’s life. Don’t fall in love with a man who can’t see the truth. Celeste Harper is a master of voices, but her own life is a tragedy. Drowning in the suffocating medical bills for her comatose younger brother, she’s one missed payment away from losing the only family she has left. Until a cold-blooded offer from the city’s most powerful matriarch changes everything. The Task: Step into the designer heels of Vivian Lancaster—the socialite who abandoned her fiancé, Lucian Aldridge, the moment a brutal accident stole his sight. The Target: Lucian. A billionaire CEO turned into a recluse, a man whose bitterness is as sharp as the shards of glass that blinded him. He’s a wounded predator in a gilded cage, and he hates the woman who left him. The Problem: When Celeste speaks, Lucian doesn't just hear his fiancée—he hears the only reason he has left to live. Now, Celeste is trapped in a dangerous game of sensory deception. Every touch is a risk; every whisper is a lie. As she navigates the dark hallways of his estate and the growing, electric tension between them, the lines start to blur. To the world, she’s a gold-digger seeking redemption. To Lucian, she’s the only light in his darkness. But secrets in the Aldridge empire are never buried deep enough. In a world where he can’t see her face, Celeste must decide: how long can she play the role of a ghost before she disappears entirely? Because when the bandages come off and Lucian finally sees the truth—it won’t just be his heart on the line. It will be her life.

When strifed brotherhood begets bloodshed, a tale of two brothers loving the same woman and fighting for the same title has never been more intense. (Excerpt) Emily cleared her throat. "You should go." Andrew didn't listen. He should, but he couldn’t. His senses swooned. Without meaning to, he moved closer and tucked her hair behind her ear. Her breath hitched at touch of his skin on hers and Emily gulped slowly. "Thank you." He whispered, enjoying the velvety feel of her skin as he brushed the back of his finger down her cheek. "I'm afraid that might not do. You owe me your life." She breathed on borrowed confidence. The look in Andrew's eyes blazed darkly with intensity. He leaned closer. "Yes, I agree, and I intend to pay you back." "When and how?" She asked, losing a step, trying to control her beating heart at their close proximity. He followed her, hovering like a predator over his catch. This time, she was the catch and Emily didn't mind. "Now." He closed the gap between them. "With this." Andrew grabbed her face and crashed his lips down on hers ~~~ Taking up the Bright Moon pack's Alpha title is what he has always dreaded. Andrew Levisay craves a normal life, but he's between a rock and a hard-place after being faced with a choice that would change his life for worse. Saving himself and his lineage of wolves by sacrificing the woman he loves or saving this woman and allowing a tyrant to have his way? What will Andrew decide as the clock is ticking?

Yvette Swan grew up believing she was the cherished daughter of a powerful wolf pack.  Until the true heiress returned.  Overnight, love turned to rejection… then cruelty. Her home became a cage, and she became nothing more than a disposable mistake.  Only one person stood by her. Her brother, Nathan.  Until she woke up beside his corpse.  Framed for his murder, tortured by her own pack, and betrayed by the man she was meant to marry, Yvette is left broken… and abandoned to die.  With her final breath, she makes a vow. If she ever gets another chance… she will destroy them all.  Fate answers. But not with mercy. Rescued by the Alpha of the powerful  Crimson Moon Pack, Yvette awakens to a dangerous opportunity.  Their daughter, Isabelle Quinn, has disappeared.  And Yvette looks exactly like her.  Given a new identity, she steps into Isabelle’s life. A life bound to power, deception… and a fragile alliance with the most feared Lycan bloodline.  Because waiting for her is Cassian Knight.  A Lycan king shaped by war. Cold. Ruthless. Untouchable.  A man who feels nothing…  Until her.  He knows she is hiding something. He can sense it. Smell it.  But instead of exposing her… He keeps her.  Watching. Testing. Hunting. Because if she is a lie, he wants to see how far it goes. And if she is not…  She might be the only thing capable of awakening the monster inside him.  Now trapped in a dangerous bond of secrets and obsession, Yvette must outplay a predator who sees through every weakness…  While hiding the truth that could get her killed.  She wants revenge. He wants to feel.  And in a world ruled by wolves and Lycans…  They may destroy each other first.

Amelia has spent her life surviving her stepmother’s cruelty, each day carved out of fear, each breath earned through obedience. When the woman finally grows tired of her, she sells Amelia off like a piece of debt-stained property to a man whispered about in every corner of the kingdom. A man who kills without hesitation. A man whose name alone can silence a room. Heartbroken but unwilling to die under another tyrant, Amelia makes one desperate attempt for freedom. She flees into the choking darkness of the forest, hunted like prey by the very man she was forced to marry. But before he can claim her… something inside her snaps. Under the cold, merciless moon, Amelia’s bones shatter, her skin tears, and the girl who never fought back transforms into a creature she didn’t believe existed. A werewolf, born of a lineage her stepmother buried in lies and blood. And worse still, the mate fate binds her to is the same ruthless predator she tried to escape. Now Amelia must live in a world where power is defined by the strength of her bite and the legacy she never knew she possessed. Her mate despises her with a fire that could burn kingdoms, and the shadows of his past drip with secrets, violence, and betrayal. If she can’t unravel the truth behind his hatred and the truth of her own origins, she will be consumed by the same darkness that forged him. But Amelia is no longer the girl who kneels. Not anymore. And when she discovers the monsters tucked inside her mate’s memories, she must decide: Will she be the weapon that breaks him…? or the woman who survives him?

For three years, I was the unrecognized genius bleeding for Marcus’s empire. On the night he was crowned the city's youngest billionaire tycoon, I stood in the shadows, waiting for the proposal he promised. Instead, I watched him pull my treacherous step-sister onto the stage, sliding a six-carat diamond onto her finger while presenting my life’s work as their joint masterpiece. When I confronted him, his sneer was dripping with disgust: 'You belong hidden in a sterile lab, Elara. She belongs in the spotlight. Know your place.' ​Stripped of my legacy, my reputation, and my dignity, I was discarded in the freezing rain. That was where the bulletproof Maybach found me. ​Alexander Thorne. The ruthless tyrant of the business world. An apex predator who viewed human emotion as a disease—and the only man with the power to crush Marcus overnight. He rolled down the window, his gaze lethal. 'I need a brilliant doctor to keep my sister breathing, and a wife who knows how to submit in public. You need a weapon. Get in.' The contract was absolute: Two years of marriage, total obedience before the cameras, and absolute silence regarding his family. In exchange, he would grant me the unimaginable wealth and power to destroy the parasites who ruined me. ​Marcus thought he had buried a pathetic, obedient lab rat. Alexander thought he had bought a desperate, easily controlled doctor. As I signed the marriage certificate and became the untouchable Mrs. Thorne, they both failed to realize one fatal truth. I didn't just want my research back. I was going to burn their empire to the ground.

Seraphina Ashford was born to kill supernatural creatures. A deadly assassin, she had spent years hunting vampires and werewolves, wiping them out without mercy. But beneath her ruthless exterior lay a woman who had suffered too much, a former wolf now trapped in a human body. By day, she lived as a high school teacher, blending into the human world. By night, she was a relentless predator, taking revenge on the creatures who destroyed her life. She despised them—every last one. But fate was cruel. On a school trip deep in the forest, her world shattered when she met *him*. Damien Alexander Blackwood. Alpha of the Blood Eclipse Pack. A monster feared by all. He was not just a wolf—he was a hybrid, a deadly fusion of vampire and werewolf, making him nearly unstoppable. His pack was infamous for their brutality, treating mates as nothing more than possessions. Damien was the worst of them all, a merciless ruler who crushed anyone who defied him. And now, Seraphina was his mate. She hated him. She wanted him dead. But Damien did not accept rejection. He wanted her—body, mind, and soul—and he would have her. When she defied him, he bared his fangs. When she resisted, he found a way to break her. And when she shut her eyes to avoid his hypnotic gaze, he forced them open. A sharp pain tore through her neck as his fangs sank deep, sealing her fate. Her blood coated his lips, his crimson eyes locking onto hers with a victorious smirk. She had fallen into his trap. And now, she knew—there was no escape. She was his. Forever.

Rejected. Humiliated. Broken. On the night she was meant to find love, Aria lost everything. Publicly rejected by her fated mate and cast aside like she was nothing, she fled into the darkness—wounded, alone, and hunted by the shame she couldn’t escape. But the forest didn’t offer safety. It offered him. A man more dangerous than any rejection. A King feared by every pack. A predator who doesn’t ask, doesn’t hesitate… and doesn’t take no for an answer. He didn’t save her. He claimed her. Bound by a force she doesn’t understand, Aria finds herself trapped under the rule of a ruthless Alpha King whose presence ignites both fear and something far more dangerous. He is cold, dominant, and impossibly powerful—and he’s decided she belongs to him. Now, there are rules. Rules she must follow. Rules she must survive. Rules that blur the line between control and desire. But Aria is not as weak as they believe. Beneath her pain lies something rare. Something powerful. Something that could either destroy her… or make her unstoppable. As her past refuses to let her go and her rejected mate begins to regret the biggest mistake of his life, Aria is caught between two worlds—one that broke her… and one that threatens to consume her completely. And the deeper she falls into the King’s dark world, the more dangerous the truth becomes: She is no longer just a rejected wolf. She is something far more powerful. Something worth fighting for. Something worth destroying kingdoms for. And when her true strength awakens… She won’t just survive. She’ll make them all kneel.

King Lucien Draven rules the United Packs with cold iron strength. He has crushed every rebellion and refused every mating alliance. Lycan law demands a king produce heirs with a royal female or face challenge to his throne. Male omegas are disposable tributes, never equals. Then Caelan Ashford arrives as tribute from a fading noble pack. The quiet, scarred omega expects death in the royal palace. Instead, his scent ignites the ancient mate bond the instant their eyes meet. The pull is raw, immediate, and utterly forbidden. Lucien fights the bond with ruthless control. He confines Caelan to the lower halls, assigns him to brutal training, and buries desire beneath duty. But every stolen glance and accidental brush erodes his restraint. The bond grows stronger, darker, impossible to ignore. Caelan hides a deadly secret: royal blood from the dynasty Lucien’s ancestors destroyed. His silver collar dulls his true scent, yet it cannot hide him from the king or from Prince Rowan Draven, Lucien’s charismatic and dangerous younger brother. Rowan sees Caelan as both prize and weapon. He offers protection and power in exchange for loyalty, circling like a predator while court intrigue thickens with assassination plots and rising rebellion. Torn between throne and heart, Lucien must decide how much he will risk for his forbidden mate. Caelan, trapped between two lethal alphas, navigates betrayal, awakening power, and a bond that could destroy the kingdom or remake it. In a slow-burning dance of denial and surrender, where every touch courts war and every refusal cuts deeper, one forbidden connection threatens an empire and two wounded souls who were never meant to find each other.

*Hollis Bogard isn’t known for her commitment. In fact, she’s content leading a single, flirtatious life. That might change after meeting Whitney York, a free spirited artist thirsting for adventure.Having been cursed out, chased, and scorned by every broken hearted woman twenty eight year old heroin addict Hollis Bogard has slept around with, she’s not fazed at all by any of it. Always preferring to look for the next best set of kissable lips. Life as an emotionally unavailable bachelorette has served her well, and after all...everyone was warned before anything happened. Feelings were a big no. Hollis had seen what love did to her parents, and wanted nothing to do with the white picket-fenced lie. So long as her bed was warm when she needed it to be, that’s what mattered.Californian Whitney York is ready for a new start. While spontaneity wasn’t a strong suit of her’s, packing up everything she owned into her little black 2008 Toyota Prius and driving cross country to Auburn, Maine was the best idea she’d had all year. No more nagging mother, to hell with her father always comparing Whitney to her successful sister, Theresa. The one with the prestigious acting career, doting husband, and two all American poster children. She wanted to be free to figure out her own destiny. When elusive Hollis bumps into electrifying Whitney at a local bar on the outskirts of town, sparks fly between the unlikely pair.Disclaimer: Strong sexual content, graphic sex scenes, drug usage. 18+, please. This novel won’t be for you if you’re not comfortable with any of the above topics.2019 All Rights Reserved (you know how it goes) Please don’t attempt to steal any part of my work.

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