Ancient Cookies Cookie Run

My boyfriend was a therapist. On the day I got diagnosed with ALS, he was busy celebrating his friend's birthday. He said, "Sophie's got depression. Without me, she could break down, hurt herself, or do worse things." To look after her, he broke up with me and moved into her place. I blocked him on everything, agreeing we'd go our separate ways. Strangely, he lost his nuts when he found out I was dying.

Dean Romero is not your average Tiger Shifter. He is the king or the Neta of the Island Stripe Pride, operating out of Manhattan. Wanting to avoid the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, this Neta elects to spend Christmas at his newly built cabin in a remote section of the Pine Barrens just outside of Maccon City, New Jersey. A town notorious among supernaturals for its Shifter ties. Violet Martinez is a nail technician stuck working on the holidays. Asked to make a house call she has no choice but to drive to an important client’s house on Christmas Eve. She’d much rather be at home curled up with her favorite mug full of steaming spiked hot chocolate and a marathon of old black and white movies to keep her company. Resigned to her fate, she heads out in the wintry weather which has made the drive nearly impossible. Halfway there, Violet’s car spins out on a lonely stretch of road and she slams into a tree, hitting her head on the dashboard. Passing out in the cold with a head injury was not on Violet’s Christmas list, but good thing there’s a Tiger king who just happens to be out for a run nearby. When Dean gets a whiff of Violet’s sugar cookie scent all bets are off. This Neta wants her for his own, but will the dark-haired beauty accept him and agree to be his bride this Christmas?

Imagine being born into a wealthy family that thinks you don't deserve a place at the table because you're different. Imagine being told you'll never be loved for who you are. Imagine believing this is true until you meet that one person who doesn't care what the world thinks of you. At 26, Dana Travis had resigned to a life of art and listening to her voice on her small recorder. But when she meets the unusually handsome Alex Logan, a billionaire CEO, who asks her to sign a contract marriage for two years with him, Dana says, “why not?” Imagine your hands stuck in the cookie jar, imagine owning the cookie jar. Like all agreements with an expiry date, Dana and Alex's contract of a delicious marriage ends . . . but not Dana’s feelings. But Alex is a billionaire, while she's . . . nothing, just a pretty girl with a big imagination. Or is she just that? Could Dana somehow get Alex to believe her feelings are true, or is she in this alone? “It was just a contract,” Dana tells herself. “Nothing more.” But it is clear there is more. Dana caught feelings, hard. What woman wouldn't after being deliriously loved by Alex Logan. It was supposed to be a contract, no strings attached. But now there's a whole pregnancy attached, and a heart that beats only for Alex. But Alex seems to have moved on with a new catch, the undefeated beauty, Jodie . . .

The very moment Leila Mercado met her neighbor, Hunter Black, she knew that the man was totally enigmatic and, well, attractive. Not until he almost throws away her baked cookies! The nerve of the man! He is a snob and coldhearted – but due to her nosiness, she discovers more about Hunter. And no matter how much she tried to stop her foolish heart from falling for the man, she just couldn’t. Not especially when fate would always bring them together. Leila knew that her heart was in danger. But she is willing to take a risk. She knew that Hunter was all worth it. But is it? What if she discovers more about Hunter? What if she discovers that her neighbor is a werewolf? Would she still love and accept him?

That feeling when I spent years of my life stuck and floundering between the walls of an outdated dungeon in an ancient exile among the bowels of the forest, without any creature knowing that I was alive! You narrowed me down. It's about to change. I finally decided to run away. "Where the world does not need more copies, try to dine differently."

Lacy’s small cookie cutter world is smashed to pieces when alpha Rafael who she had been having a secret affair with banishes her from her pack. Suddenly she is without rudder and flailing aimlessly in a world she knows nothing about with three children to take care of. In comes Blaine – the cursed alpha king and he saves her. Years later, once more she is caught up in the middle of a prophesy that she wants nothing to do with and her life and those of her children is plunged into danger. Love as well as more betrayal and sorrow linger around the corner. Would she get back with alpha Rafael? Would alpha Blaine allow it or would her entire world crumble as everyone fights for their own interests?

At my engagement dinner with Greg Willis, the Rossi mafia family’s underboss, his assistant, Sydney Carlson, casually tossed a half-eaten cookie on his plate in front of everyone. Greg didn’t react. In full view of the guests, he calmly picked it up and ate it. That night, after we returned, I told him I wanted to call off the engagement. He rubbed his brow with his fingertips, his voice steady in that familiar, composed way of his, yet there was distance beneath it. “All this,” he said, “over a cookie?” “She already took a bite,” I corrected him. He fell silent for a moment before replying in a low voice, “Zoe, you’ve always been sensible. Why get hung up on something so small?” “I’m not hung up,” I said evenly. “I just don’t want to settle.” When he saw that I wouldn’t back down, something complicated flickered in his eyes. Then, his tone hardened, almost like a warning. “Think it through carefully. Don’t you regret it.” He was certain I couldn’t leave him. After all, he was a mafia underboss. There were countless people eager to take the position of Mrs. Willis, and I was nothing more than a minor employee at his company. What he didn’t know was that I had never coveted the title of his wife. All I ever had for him was love. But now, that love was gone, and once I turned away, I would never look back again.

Reed had always been a tough cookie, with his powerful charisma and billionaire status, he always got away from any trouble. Nobody dared to question him, Reed did what Reed wanted. His love for power and control manifested in his fighting career. He was a renowned MMA fighter, a notorious heartbreaker and a careless prince. His love life stayed in the shadows, always in the dark of night, never crossing the sunlight. Until one day, his mortal wound brought him to Han Yeri, whose personality mirrored him and challenged the status quo. For the first time in his life, Reed's life turned upside down - all because of a woman, an unexpected one at that... one that crossed the sunlight.

He ran to protect his family from the unknown. She ran to protect herself from the unknown. Neither of them knew the storm that was coming, all they knew was that they had run. Alexander, a hunter, lived a quiet life with his four brothers and loving parents, until a hunt in the woods changes everything. Bitten by a dying wolf-man whose last words warned, “Protect her, yourself, and everyone around you, because they’ll come,” Alexander begins to change. Terrified of what he's becoming, and of who might be coming for him, he vanishes, hoping to keep his family safe and find the 'her' that needed to protect. Across town, Nyx returns home to find her world drenched in blood. Her mother lies dying, whispering impossible things: “They found us. I’m sorry, Karl. I couldn’t protect our daughter the way I promised…” A name she’s never heard. A promise she doesn't understand. With an ancient diary and her mother’s final breath, Nyx is told to run, and never look back. Two strangers, on the run with no idea who they truly are, or what they’re destined to become. Bound by a hidden past and an ancient war, Alexander and Nyx will soon discover that fate doesn't care if you’re ready. Because once the blood wakes... there’s no turning back.

I ordered an incubus online, but when the package arrived, there were two of them. One was gentle and obedient, the other was hot-tempered and unpredictable. I immediately messaged customer service to ask if they'd sent the wrong one—I had only ordered the gentle kind. The reply came cheerfully. "Congratulations, you've unlocked the hidden variant! This model is a bit special—buy one, get one free!" Wait… what? I remembered hearing people say that raising an incubus is like raising a puppy, only better—they keep you warm at night and don't shed. Well, if that's true, whether I had one or two made no difference. So I ended up paying the price of one and getting two—what a steal! Or so I thought… until I went to feed them. That's when I realized I was the cookie in the middle of a sandwich. Apparently, "keeping me warm at night" was a strenuous activity.