An Invisible Thread

Valentine Stephens never believed in fairy tales, but during times as dire as these, one takes what he can. With her brother's life hanging by a thread and medical bills she could never, ever afford to pay, she makes an impulsive decision to marry Adrian Sebastian, the ruthless CEO and business tycoon, who needs a wife for only one purpose: to inherit his grandfather's billion-dollar fortune. The arrangement is simple. One year, no feelings or complications. Hard, cold Adrian makes his intentions clear from the start. He doesn't have faith in love, and Val is merely a pawn used in his game. Val's college experience is transformed into a nightmare when her billionaire husband is exposed, and she becomes the target of gossip, jealousy, and scandal. she's betrayed by her best friend, and stalked by an unknown enemy hell-bent on destroying her. His half-brother, Damian, is eager to get his hands on his inheritance and will do whatever it takes to destroy the marriage. And just as Val is beginning to believe she knows Adrian, she finds out a secret that shattered all she knew about him. Adrian hadn't chosen her at random. He had known her the whole time. And the real reason he married her? It is a secret so dangerous it was capable of killing them both. Trapped in a lie, Val is presented with an ultimatum: walk away and forfeit everything, or fight fire with fire against the man who holds her heart and liberty in his hands. But what if the biggest enemy she will have to fight against is the man she is starting to fall in love with? Find out in the book.

"You killed her! Run away! Never come back to the pack. He will kill you. " ***** Eighteen year old Madison Willow had never expected her to be the mate of Alpha Jacob, her childhood bully who had body shamed her in front of the entire pack. But when the heat took over and Alpha Jacob mated with her, she dreamt of a life together with him. Her dreams shattered the next morning when her wolf felt the pain of betrayal and she found out about the engagement ceremony of Alpha Jacob and her step sister, Cassandra. Not knowing about how feral her wolf was, she attacked Cassandra in rage making her hanging on the thin thread for life. With Cassandra being dead and the orders for her execution out, she found her friend helping her to escape and start a new life. When she thought she had put everything behind, she gave birth to twins who one day brought an uninvited guest to their house. Alpha Jacob Guzman, their father and the man who had been hunting down their mother for years. Apparently, he wasn't angry at her, instead he insisted that she should return with him to the pack and be his Luna. But things weren't so simple now. Madison was a known model critique and she hated being deceived again. And, yes... Cassandra wasn't dead either. Will Madison and Jacob defeat their rivals and find out the truth? Will they get together on time before the bad people can hurt their pups?

I could smell his tempting cologne as he walked closer, his presence making my heart skip a beat. He placed his hands on the wall, caging me in with his strong arms. My breath hitched. He leaned in, his honey-colored eyes boring into mine like he was trying to solve a puzzle. Meanwhile, I was melting—like ice cream on a summer sidewalk. "You look familiar," he murmured, biting his lip as if deep in thought. "Have we met before?" Of course, Jack Harrison—the most popular lacrosse player at Wilford High—wouldn’t know who I am. Why would he? I’m the invisible girl. The one who hides behind books and avoids eye contact. The one no one remembers. And yet… I’ve always noticed him. Jack Harrison. The boy every girl wants. The boy I’ve secretly dreamed about since sophomore year. And then—just when I thought I’d spend another year in his shadow—I found out a new family was moving in next door. To my utter disbelief, it turned out to be him. Jack Harrison, the boy I've always wanted.

I gave a stranger my panties on a plane. Not because I'm reckless. Not because I do things like this. But because Damien Cross looked at me like I was something worth destroying himself over, and I wanted to be devoured. Four hours at 30,000 feet. That's all it took for him to unravel every careful thread of the life I'd built. One look. One touch. One whispered promise that I was his. Then he vanished. No calls. No texts. Just a breaking news report showing him married to someone else, while I stood in a hotel bathroom staring at a positive pregnancy test. Six years later, I've rebuilt myself. I'm a mother. A success. I've learned to survive without him. Until he walks into my photoshoot and recognizes the birthmark he once traced with his tongue. He says he never stopped looking for me. That his marriage was a cage he's finally escaped. That the twin boys I've been raising alone are his sons, and he wants his family back. But Damien Cross is a man who deals in empires and enemies. Someone close to him wants me gone. The threats start. The danger escalates. And I realize that loving Damien means walking into a war I never signed up for. He says he'll burn the world down to keep us safe. I'm terrified he means it. Some men are worth the fall but men are the wreckage. But Damien is both.

For three years, Laurie Rayne lived as the perfect wife. She was silent, devoted, and invisible in the shadow of the Voss empire. Every bestselling creation credited to the Voss name bore her fingerprints, but none bore her name. And Zane Voss, her cold, distant husband, never once gave her his heart. Now his first love is back, and Laurie is nothing more than a forgotten pawn; discarded, humiliated, and blamed for everything that went wrong. But when her younger brother's life is on the line, Laurie begs Zane for help… only to be spat on and called a leech. Cornered by desperation, Laurie does the unthinkable… She auctions herself off to the highest bidder. Theron Blackmoor: ruthless billionaire, feared businessman, and the man who buys her at a price that shocks the world. He makes her his possession, but promises her power in return. Anything she wants: except her freedom. As Laurie experiences the dark, seductive world of Theron, she uncovers secrets that were never meant to surface. Zane is not done with her. And the past she thought she left behind may be the key to taking everything back. Love was never part of the deal. But is it? Revenge? That was always the plan. ♠

Somewhere between staying silent and screaming for help… she existed. Seventeen-year-old Maren has mastered the art of disappearing in plain sight. Haunted by past trauma, locked in a toxic relationship she can't escape, and drowning under the pressure of school and a world that never cared to understand her, she begins to wonder if life is even worth staying for. No one sees her pain—until he does. The new boy, Kade, has his own shadows. He’s blunt, observant, and completely unafraid to call her out—making him an instant enemy. But when he overhears a moment no one was meant to witness, he realizes the truth: the girl everyone overlooks is barely holding on. As Kade steps deeper into her shattered world, their connection becomes a lifeline. But secrets run deeper than he imagined, and when Maren goes missing, no one believes she’s worth finding—except him. Fighting time, silence, and the lies that built her cage, Kade refuses to give up. Because sometimes, saving someone means proving they were never invisible at all. A heartbreaking, haunting, and ultimately hopeful story about survival, truth, and what it really means to be seen.

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

Megan Clarke has always been invisible until one wild night changes everything.A powerful billionaire.A banned mistake.And a child he must never know about.When suffering waiter Megan crosses paths with Larry Trent, the city’s most cruel real estate tycoon, their worlds should have stayed apart. But a single night of desire shatters that line. Larry walks away, sure she’s a cunning stranger. Megan walks away with a secret she’ll guard at any cost.Two years later, fate throws them together again… and this time, Larry sees a boy with his own dark grey eyes.Now he wants the truth.He wants the child.And he wants Megan under his roof.But in Larry’s glittering, dangerous world, enemies lurk at every corner—jealous exes, power-hungry cousins, and spies who’d do anything to tear them apart. Megan must escape their plans, fight for her son, and face the man who once broke her heart.He’s determined to take them both.She’s determined not to fall for him again.In a city where money buys everything except trust, can love survive betrayal, regret, and the final test of second chances?

"I can smell your arousal, Omega. Now quit being stubborn, spread those legs wide, and welcome me with gratitude." I stared at him quietly. I was dripping wet, but I wasn't letting any other Alpha use me like that. "I am sorry, Alpha, but I would have to reject your offer." He froze and stared blankly at me for a while. He looked stunned more by the fact that he did not believe anyone could reject him. Future Alphas and some selected warriors are taken away from the Titan pack to undergo serious training until the present Alpha dies. They are devoid of all forms of pleasure and denied mates until they return when they are allowed to have sex with any female and release sexual tension until they are blessed with mates. I was one of the slaves dragged away from my pack after a raid. I was there to scrub floors and clean dishes while staying invisible until I bumped into the Alpha who was said to be ruthless, and he asked to ride me. I rejected politely. It baffled him so much. Every female will die to ride him, but I, a slave from the lowest rank of Omegas had the backbone to reject him.

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