Ash Of War: Sacred Blade

Kane Porter was as boring as his name implied. Of all the financial coordinators under me, he was the one least likely to be interesting on an intoxicated evening. Kane was quiet, well-mannered and nobody was friends with him. I was his boss and I got along well with everyone until I came across a problem. The account I’d been skimming from had a good hunk of change missing now. Not good. How could I have it investigated without flagging myself for the ten thousand dollars I’d ‘borrowed’? There was only one thing I could do. Porter was a nice guy. He’d help me out. No one could be safer to ask…

My mother fell critically ill and was rushed to the hospital. Desperate, I knelt before my fiancé—the department's chief surgeon—and begged him to take charge of her operation. But outside the ICU, he was carefully tending to a scraped knee. Lucy Wendell's scraped knee, to be exact. Just as I was drowning in hopelessness, Cameron Mitchell—the hospital director and my childhood friend—pushed open the operating room doors and handed me a marriage proposal. "Marry me, and I'll personally perform your mother's surgery." With trembling hands, I signed my name, clinging to the last shred of hope that she could be saved. But she never made it through that stormy night. Cameron handled all the funeral arrangements himself, and our wedding proceeded as scheduled. Seven years later, in the hushed silence of the hospital archives, I overheard Cameron speaking with the deputy director. "Cameron, why did you transfer your mother-in-law's organ to Lucy's mother during that surgery? Weren't you afraid of getting caught?" "I owed Lucy," he replied. "If I hadn't hesitated back then, Lucy never would've chosen medical aid work in Africa… and her mother wouldn't have fallen ill from the grief."

On my son’s birthday, my husband had asked his first love to pick our son up from our home. While I stubbornly refused to let him go, a huge fire broke out in the hallway during our standoff. I was struck by falling debris, and blood started streaming from my head. However, my son was unharmed as he lay beneath me. My husband, who was a firefighter, came forward to rescue us. But he handed the only gas mask he had to his first love. “Miss Leia has a weaker constitution. Dad, please get her out first. Mom, wait for the other firefighters to save you!” I watched them leave with a faint, bitter smile. It appeared that they had both forgotten my severe asthma and the fact that I would die without a gas mask.

I try seducing my fiance, Vernon Floyd, 999 times. But even when I'm shirtless, his only concern is whether I'm cold. I assume that Vernon is a traditional guy, who wants to do it until we're married. But on the day of our anniversary, I discover that he has secretly booked a hotel famous for couples' getaways in the city. That night, I arrive at the VIP suite full of hope. In the end, all I see is Vernon and his childhood sweetheart passionately kissing each other as the crowd cheers. I wait outside the VIP suite for a long time. Finally, I understand that he doesn't love me. After leaving the hotel, I call my family. "Dad, I don't want to marry Vernon anymore. I want to marry Dylan instead!" Dad spits out his coffee and says, "Avril, Mr. Walker got into a car accident a few years ago. I heard that he's impotent. If you marry him, you won't have any children!" By then, I am already disheartened. "It doesn't matter whether I have children or not."

Drenched in mud, I've just climbed down the scaffolding and started munching on a cold piece of stale bread when a luxury car speeds past me, effectively drenching me in muddy water. The car window on the driver's side is quickly lowered. A sleazy guy hurls a pack of cigarettes in my face the next moment. "Hey, peasant! This is a reward for you! I got really lucky today, after all!" While I pick up the cigarette pack silently, the man happens to be boasting loudly to the woman sitting in the front passenger seat. "My brother-in-law really is an idiot! He seriously thinks that my sister has a terminal disease! He went to the black market last night night just to sell his blood in exchange for 200 thousand dollars' worth of surgical fees! I end up winning double in the casino with that money of his! "My sister told me that once that idiot gets his hands on the work injury compensation, she'll divorce him right away and buy me a new home!" I grip the bread so hard that it crumples in my hand. After all, my wife, Estella Wilson, was just diagnosed with "late-stage stomach cancer" yesterday. Suddenly, I feel my phone buzzing in my pocket. It's a voice message from Estella. "Hubby, it hurts so much going through the chemotherapy! The doctor told me that I'd be eligible for better medication if we could cough up another 200 thousand dollars. Can you please plead to the foreman and borrow some money from him?"

My husband, Don Cassian, just survived an assassination attempt. He limped in, bleeding, and ordered me to stitch him up. But when I reached into his blood-soaked suit, my fingers brushed against something soft. Black lace panties. Not mine. My hand flew to my still-flat stomach. For our child. How could he do this to us? Ice flooded my veins. “We’re done, Cassian.” His gaze was heavy, exhausted. He gave a single, sharp nod. “Fine. I’ll have my lawyer draft the papers.” But then, a frantic little voice—one that wasn't mine—screamed from deep within my womb. [Mom, don’t leave him! Dad didn’t cheat! The family isn’t going to fall. It’s a setup!] [Oriana Gallo planned all of this! She wants your place! She put those panties in his pocket herself!] [If you leave, her men will grab you. They’ll take you to an abandoned warehouse and dump your body in Lake Michigan. Then she’ll play the grieving friend, comfort Dad, and become the new Mrs. Marino!] [Mom, I came back to stop this! Please, don’t fall for it again!] I snapped back to the present. Spinning around, I launched myself into Cassian's arms, my body wracked with sobs. “I was just trying to scare you! How could you agree so easily? Are you that tired of me?” I jabbed a finger at his chest, tears streaming down my face.

Gabe Hunter, CEO of one of the biggest Advertisement agents in the US, a family run business. He is , rich and arrogant. The kind of man most women swoon over, but Aubrey Winters isn't most women. She disliked him the moment they met, and she doesn't care that he is the CEO of where she works. He isn't her biggest fan either because she isn't like other women. She is fiesty, confident and independent. Gabe is used to people doing as they tell him, something it isn't so easy when it comes to Aubrey. But what does it matter, right? They don't see each other often, and that is how she likes it, so when Gabe decided to take the lead on a new project, a project that Aubrey has been chosen to work on, she soon finds herself spending more time with him than she would like. Aubrey soon finds herself clashing with the CEO. Will their time together make them dislike each other more, or will the time they have to spend together change things? Is their hatred for each other honest or masking something else, something stronger...

Usually nothing separates the popular from the nobodies like family wealth and status. But what would happen if no one knew who you were? if they judged according to appearance and you became lost in the crowd at will? you felt comfortable with who you are, but because of bullies and schemes you were forced out of your inner shell. On the other hand, what if you were Mr. popular. Quarterback of the school's football team, dating the hot and spicy cheer-captain while both your families were highly respectable members in the business circle. What if you never wanted any of those things? Join the journey of Erika Stevens, the wealthy nobody that was dragged into the light against her will as she unexpectedly "Crashed-Into-Love" with the one trying to escape the scene of fame... Jeremy Adams. The teens that wanted a normal life, a fair chance to live and the freedom to choose their path to love.

Alpha Calhoun of Autumn Pack slept (rape) with a maidservant by mistake. Maggie got pregnant and informed him about it. Alpha Calhoun didn't want to take responsibility for what he has done because it was a shame and disgrace to an Alpha who slept with his maidservant. He also have a Luna and children and couldn't risk the secrets blowing up, he banished her. Maggie was heart broken and swore not to forgive him. She gave birth to her child and that same night of delivery she died. Cassandra who had helped delivered the child took her in and trained her as a daughter. When Sara grew up, all she wanted to do was take revenge for her late mother who was abused by Alpha Calhoun and later died when giving birth to her. The old woman told her stories of how her mother had suffered when she was pregnant and the shame she endured even when she wasn't responsible for her cause of suffering. In the course of taking revenge, Sara meets Aldophus, a wolf from a royal bloodline and their part got entangled together as they seek to achieve one goal, to kill the Alpha of Autumn Pack.

Lauren is a fearless woman who is driven by a burning desire for revenge to take back her father's pack from her power-hungry uncle who attacked her father's pack and killed her parents. She is well known for her physical strength but some pack members don't like her for being wolfless, Unknown to the pack, she is the most powerful wolf alive but her adoptive parents kept it secret to protect her. What will be the fate of Lauren when she discovers she is the mate of the notorious alpha Logan, the cruel and famous alpha of the Snow Moon pack? When sparks ignite between the two powerful wolves, will Lauren push forward with her plan to reclaim her pack and her throne as the Alpha king of the kingdom or will she give in to the mate bond?