As Good As Dead

On the night she was meant to be crowned Luna of the Crystal Blood Pack, Tanya lost everything. Her mate. Her crown. Her family’s loyalty. Catching her Alpha-to-be in bed with her pregnant half-sister would have been devastating enough—but the butterfly mate mark on Theresa’s wrist sealed Tanya’s fate. Leon has already chosen another Luna, and the pack chooses politics over her broken heart. Cast aside for her dormant wolf and branded “unfit,” Tanya does the unthinkable—she walks away. Exile should have killed her. Instead, it rebirths her. Saved from death by a dangerous stranger who feels wrong in all the right ways, Tanya gives in to one night of passion—only to wake to a chilling truth: The man who touched her soul is King Kael: the most feared half-lycan ruler alive… and her pack’s sworn enemy. As ancient magic awakens and a forbidden prophecy stirs, Tanya learns a truth the Moon Goddess buried long ago—when a mate bond is corrupted by betrayal, fate may grant a second chance… but only to a Luna destined to rule through fire and blood. Now reborn, awakened, and no longer powerless, Tanya stands at an impossible crossroads: She can return to the pack that betrayed her — as the broken Luna they expect her to be Or rule beside the enemy sworn to destroy them and rise as a queen feared by all. But this time, things are different. Tanya chooses power. She carves her destiny with her hands. But what happens when the man meant to be her sworn enemy turns out to be her true second-chance mate?

After being bullied to death at school, I was reborn as a newborn baby. And then I realized my mother was the same person who had tormented me. Now she was whispering to me sweetly, “Oh, my precious baby.” Precious baby? I immediately started thrashing in her arms, trying to jab my tiny fingers into her eyes. From this day forward, this ‘precious baby’ would be out for revenge!

ZELIA is a proud woman. She's one of the most popular business women out there who lead for success. But behind those smiles and prim gestures, she's actually a brat. She sees herself as a princess—no, not just a princess but a Queen. She's the type of a woman who would pay tenfolds with someone who would mess with her. However, she died in a tragic way and her death led her to be reincarnated. Ironically, she was reincarnated as the Emperor's servant, which was the word she hated to be called with. Could a proud, independent woman like her survive this reincarnated life as the Emperor's servant?

We had been married for three years, yet my husband, Richard Thornton, who suffered from touch deprivation syndrome, still refused to consummate our marriage. Every time his condition flared up, he would only press his forehead tightly against the curve of my neck. I assumed he was saving himself for his first love, the woman who had left years ago. Then, I overheard him talking to his friends. "Stop teasing her next time. It makes her tense up every time." "Got it, Richard. But if you care about Valeria so much, why won't you touch her? It's been three years. Aren't you worried she'll leave you for someone else?" Richard shook his head. "You don't understand. The longer we're together, the harder it is to control myself around her. She's so delicate. I'm terrified I'll hurt her. As long as she's mine, I wouldn't care even if she slept with someone else first." His friends burst out laughing. "Richard, you're all talk. If you could really handle her being with another man, you wouldn't keep running to the hospital. You think we don't know what you're up to?" The next day, I found Richard's medical records. Visit after visit, he kept asking the same question, "How can I be gentler in bed? I don't want to hurt the woman I love."

Elena Brown discovered that her husband of five years was cheating with her half-sister. When she confronted him, he not only murdered her but also framed her for cheating on him. That fateful night, not only did Elena lose her life, but also the life of her unborn child. But fate had other plans for Elena. Miraculously, she was given a second chance when she was reborn five years before she married her husband. Determined to seek revenge on her husband and step-sister, Elena boldly decided to become the pretend bride of the hottest billionaire in the country. With his support, she was determined to make them pay for their actions.

Indiana Sage wakes up inside her own werewolf novel—not as the loved main character but as the hated villain. Now reborn as Lady Lucindabella Pendragon, she’s doomed to die painfully. She’s already ruined lives, forced an engagement, and tried to destroy the kingdom’s greatest love story. Worse, she’s engaged to Alpha Romanov “Rome” Windsor, the cold, dangerously powerful wolf prince who despises her and has every reason to. Determined to survive, Indy breaks the engagement and steps off the villain’s path. She helps Rome fall in love with Clara, the woman he’s meant to choose. But the more she stays out of the spotlight, the more attention she draws. The kingdom starts watching. Other men start wanting her. And Rome can’t stop watching the woman who now refuses to fight for him. As desire tangles with regret, Indy realizes the story is no longer following the script she wrote. She was supposed to fade into the background. Instead, she becomes the one everyone wants.

As Jastrelle's golden girl, I draw lots to pick my groom, and fate finally hands me Felix Ledger, the childhood sweetheart I've wanted forever. During the impromptu wedding, a funeral convoy belonging to a scion of a rich family in Jastrelle passes right outside. I hate the omen. Felix laughs, pulls me into his arms, and places the veil over my head himself. "I'll take it as a good omen. With you, I'm covered from first breath to last," he says. His adoptive sister, Winnie Ledger, hears him, bursts into tears, and bolts outside. The funeral convoy runs her down, and she dies. Felix barely reacts. Three years later, Dad is framed, driven into bankruptcy, and falls gravely ill. He dies, and I lose everything. At the funeral, Felix sends everyone off, shoves me into the open grave, and buries me alive. He spits, "You rigged everything to get me. You left Winnie ruined. She bolted outside, and that funeral convoy ran her down. For three years, remorse has eaten me alive. I want you torn apart! "With your last protector gone, I can finally make you suffer a hundredfold the pain Winnie felt and ease my hatred!" When I open my eyes, I'm back at the groom-selection ceremony. Dad smiles as he hands me the lots. I shake my head, look out the window, and point at the funeral convoy passing outside. "I'm not choosing anyone. I'll marry that dead man!"

There are monsters in this world. And they used to be us. Now it's time to euthanize to survive in a hospice where Emily, a woman haunted by her past, only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible. Post-infection Chicago. Christmas. Inside The Hospice, Emily and her fellow nurses do their rounds. Here, men and women live out their final days in comfort, segregated from society, and are then humanely terminated before fate turns them into marrow-craving monsters known as ‘Smilers.’ Outside these imposing walls, rabid protesters swarm with signs, caught up in the heat of their hatred. Emily, a woman haunted by her past, only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible. But in a world where mortality means nothing, where guns are drawn in fear and nobody seems safe anymore – at what cost will this pursuit come? And through it all, the soon to be dead remain silent, ever smiling. Such is their curse. It won't be long before that snow-speckled ground will be salted by blood. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

After I fell while pregnant, my six-year-old son, Nico Bertelli, did not come to help me. When I woke up, the baby in my belly was gone. At my hospital bedside, Nico hid behind my husband, Roberto Bertelli, and mumbled, "Mommy, I thought you fainted on purpose to get my attention. You've pretended to pass out a few times before just to stop me from going out with Ms. Pelosi." Roberto chimed in coldly, "You're always pulling tricks to get attention. Nico doesn't even trust you anymore. You need to take a hard look at yourself and figure out why he prefers being around Martina Pelosi over you." I was completely heartbroken. The day after I was discharged, I went home, packed up everything that belonged to me, and left behind only two documents: a divorce agreement and a letter terminating my parental rights.

The day we were meant to be mated, my Alpha, Ford, was ambushed. Silver bullets shredded his car, sending it plunging off a bridge and into the river below. He was pronounced dead. Drowned. I was left pregnant with his heir, shattered by the raw agony of our severed mate bond. Then Ford's twin, Aiden, returned from abroad with his mate, Kyra. His identical face and a scent so similar to my mate's nearly drove me mad. A desperate part of me swore Ford was still alive. I told myself it was just grief. A widow's delusion. Until I overheard a hushed conversation and the horrifying truth slammed into me: the man pretending to be Aiden was Ford. He had faked his death. He'd let his own brother die in his place, all for Kyra—the other woman carrying his child. The grief that had crippled me instantly morphed into a cold, sharp rage. Ford didn't just break our bond; he shattered it. And I would make him pay. I wiped my tears and sent a single message to my brother, Billy, the Alpha of the Winterstone Pack. "Brother, I need a plane crash. He loves faking his death? Fine. Let him feel what it's like to truly lose a mate." Only when the news of my "death" spread did Ford reclaim his name. He knelt for seven days and nights in the ashes of the home we once shared, consumed by a grief of his own making.