At Eighteen

She vowed to save herself for him. He vowed to never touch her. One of them is about to break. Amara has loved Alpha Gabriel since she was old enough to understand what the ache in her chest meant. At eighteen, she offered him everything—her heart, her body, her soul. He crushed her with two words: "Childish infatuation." Seven years later, she's no longer that heartbroken girl. She's a woman who knows exactly what she wants, and she wants him. When her father and Gabriel arrange her marriage to Gabriel's younger brother, Amara sees her last chance slipping away. But fate hands her a weapon: a position as Gabriel's personal assistant, working beside him every single day. She'll make him see her. She'll make him want her. She'll make him break every rule he's ever lived by. And she does. Their affair is forbidden, explosive, and absolutely forbidden—stolen moments in his office, secret encounters that leave them both breathless and craving more. But loving an Alpha comes with a price. When Gabriel falls victim to a deadly curse and Amara's identity as the rare Emerald werewolf puts a target on her back, their secret romance becomes the least of their problems. Now, with hunters closing in, a fiancée being forced into Gabriel's life, and an engagement to his brother she never wanted, Amara must fight for the only man she's ever loved—or lose him forever. He taught her that love could break you. She'll teach him that love can save you.

"You know, you always look so much better when I mark you up." He husked out as he palmed my burning cheeks. I buried my face in the soft, silky sheets some more, muffling the stuttered whimper that bubbled past my throat. "If you're going to act like a desperate little brat, I'm going to treat you like one. Got It?” ——— When eighteen year old Mia’s identical twin gets betrothed to an underboss, Mia was silently grateful for being the least favorite twin who was never noticed. Her relief was abruptly shortened when her twin disappeared on her wedding day, which resulted in Mia being forced to take her twin’s spot and marry a man way older than her father. Mia thought her life could never get any worse, but was proved wrong on her wedding night, when her newly wedded husband was killed and she was being kidnapped by a Mafia Lord hellbent on getting revenge on her father through her, showing her just how cruel and heartless, power starved and rage-blinded men could be. And yet, Mia found herself falling. Falling ridiculously fast, for the most dangerous mafia lord to ever walk the earth. Lorenzo Domenico, the one who never dies. All Lorenzo wanted was to get revenge, he was supposed to put a bullet through the petite girl’s pretty face and send her body back to her father as a present. But somehow, here he was– willing to go to any lengths to protect, keep her safe, and all to himself.

Being a nice young lady, Kimberly always desires to be linked to her mate once she reaches Eighteen, but destiny appears not to be on her side even when she gets to the age of 21. Her packmates frequently tell her that finding a mate is the nicest thing that has ever happened to them, and Kimberly continued wanting to experience such a sensation one day. For both their pack, Moonstone, and Night Walker pack to become allies, her dad, Alpha Darwin consented to relinquish the downtown area Moonstone presides over to Alpha Derrick. As well as giving Kimberly to him likewise, as she doesn't have a mate. Which she was extremely thrilled about. However, on the night of their engagement, she was rejected by the merciless Alpha Derrick of the Night Walkers. She felt useless, devastated and betrayed when she realized who Alpha Derrick picked to be his future Luna over her. According to the custom of their pack, any rejected she-wolf by another pack Alpha would become a slave to the Alpha that discarded her. This is surely going to be Kimberly's destiny as well. The sorrow of being rejected and being a slave caught up with her not till she found she is fated to the past Alpha Theo of Lock's heart pack. He is the strongest of all Alphas in the countryside but has gone missing for over five years. Would Kimberly's life have altered for the worst after knowing that Alpha Theo had a mate already? Or would Alpha Derrick be ready to let her go after understanding the truth about her power? Brutal retribution is what Kimberly yearns for once she found out the truth about her actual identity…

All the relatives knew I had a "backward cousin." For my birthday, she gave me a grocery-store pound cake. When I ran a marathon, she presented me with a pair of worn-out canvas sneakers. At my graduate school acceptance party, she even sent a funeral wreath of white lilies with a sash that read "In Sympathy," wishing me an early departure to the afterlife. In my previous life, I slapped her so hard she tumbled down the porch steps. My brother took her side and plotted revenge, falsely reporting to the university that I had cheated on my SATs. My admission was revoked. "You're so modern. You know how things work," he sneered. "Plenty of people take a gap year. Just apply again." My father also defended her, cutting off all my financial support. "You've had so much schooling. You're so educated," he said coldly. "Support yourself." Alone in a city eighteen hundred miles from home, I fought to survive. I called my brother and my father again and again—only to be blocked. I delivered food while renting a room and studying to reapply. At my lowest, my hands were raw and cracked from frostbite, scrambling for delivery shifts at four in the morning just to earn a small bonus. Worn down by the cold and exhaustion, I suffered cardiac arrest at twenty-three and collapsed in a snowdrift in that unfamiliar city. No one ever came to claim me. This time, I chose to let it go and accepted the wreath with a gracious smile. To fully integrate myself into this family. After all, what is a moment of pride compared to a lifetime's inheritance?

I was eighteen when I left Italy for Chicago. My brother Leo handed me over to his most powerful ally for “protection.” Don Damien Volkov. His eyes locked on me the first time we met. They never looked away. By day, I was his private doctor. By night, I was the only thing in his bed. His seduction was a slow, deliberate hunt. The way his body brushed against mine during an exam. A stray kiss that landed behind my ear. The weight of his hand resting on the small of my back. I fell fast and hard for his dark charm. I gave myself to him, letting him claim me, again and again. For four years, our affair was a secret hidden in the shadows. In that time, he sculpted my body, teaching it to crave his touch, molding me into his perfect obsession. Then she came back. Isabella, his exiled ex-fiancée. He sent his private jet for her. I swallowed my pride and crashed his reunion. An hour ago, his hands, still smelling of blood, gripped my chin. He forced his kiss on me. But now, right in front of me, he was stroking another woman's hair. "Elara, you're the one who climbed into my bed four years ago." "You act like a whore, but you expect me to treat you like a Donna?" The way he looked at Isabella was so tender. The way he looked at me was pure scorn. Shame burned through me. Head down, I sent my brother a coded text. Accept the Moretti proposal. I looked up. A smile bloomed on my face. "Fine. Then this is goodbye, Damien."

Maya Reyes is twenty-six, quietly resilient, and out of options. When she takes a live-in nanny position for a Manhattan billionaire, she expects a difficult employer and a lonely child. She gets both, but she also gets Ethan Cole. Ethan lost his wife eighteen months ago and has been managing the grief the only way he knows how: by controlling everything around him. His apartment is spotless, his rules are laminated, his daughter Lily is the only crack in the armour he has built around his life, and it is through Lily that Maya begins to see the man underneath. What follows is not a dramatic love story, it is a quiet one. He carries her to her room when she falls asleep on the floor, he heats her soup when she hasn't eaten. He holds her hand in a dark car and lets go like it never happened. She cooks for him, confronts him, tells him truths no one else will, and slowly without either of them naming it, they become the most important person in each other's lives. But grief doesn't move in straight lines. When Ethan's fear gets the better of him, he tries to restore the distance, and nearly loses the one thing that has made him want to come back to life. It will take a four-year-old's unfiltered honesty, a letter Maya writes from the floor of her room, and a man finally choosing to stop running, for both of them to find their way to the other side of it. When Winter Blooms is a story about what love looks like before anyone admits it exists, and what it costs to let it.

What is an Alpha without her Luna? Everybody knows that when their Alpha meets his Luna, his strength will become tenfold and everyone in the clan will receive the Alpha's blessing. Once the Alpha turns eighteen, he would release a huge amount of aura to attract his mate if he hasn't met her yet. That was the culture of every wolf and it is the most important year of an Alpha. Marvin Brimon, Alpha of the Phantom clan, has been looking for his Luna even before he turns eighteen. With each year that he fails to find her, other werewolves started judging him and targeting his clan. It was a good thing that James Knight, Alpha of the strongest werewolves in the entire nation which was the Scarlet clan, was his father's friend. After learning that the Scarlet clan are joining force with them, nobody dared to mess with the Phantom clan. Although this only lasted when a Soothsayer appeared and claimed that a half human and half wolf would end Eric's life for good and stop his madness. He went in war to kill every women who was pregnant until he fulfilled his mission. After the war ended, Marvin started showing symptoms of Woreas. A rare disease when a male wolf doesn't have a mate. They grow weaker and weaker everyday until they have no strength left.The only cure for this is if they finally meet their mate but they have until the age of twenty five. So far, only one male had experienced this and he died a crucial death by the hands of other wolves. Will Marvin finds his mate or will he be mateless forever, allowing others to take his position as an Alpha. Read the story to find out. Story written by FeiFei17

"Ang bodyguard ko pala ay isang Bilyonaryo!" Si Pristine Felize Vera Esperanza ay nag-iisang anak ni Pierre Vera Esperanza, isang bilyonaryo na kilalang-kilala sa larangan ng negosyo. Maraming tao ang nag-aakala na namumuhay siya tulad ng isang prinsesa, na mabait sa kaniya ang lahat at minamahal siya, ngunit ang katotohanan ay kabaligtaran nito. Her grandfather despises her when her parents suffered from car accident. Dahil doon ay matagal ang naging gamutan ng kaniyang ama na nagsanhi ng pagkalugi ng kanilang negosyo. Pristine has suffered from trauma because her mother died in that car accident and she was only five years old back then. Living in sadness, her life takes a turn when her father introduces Elijah Clementine Marasigan, her handsome bodyguard. He gave her a bodyguard because at the age of eighteen, she almost got herself killed. As the only child, and the successor, her father was terrified that something bad might happen to her. Indeed, something did happen, but for Pristine, it wasn't bad at all—she fell in love with Elijah. However, despite their mutual feelings, they cannot be together. Nais kasi ng kanyang lolo na ipakasal siya sa apo ng kaibigan nito. Isang mayamang lalaki at bilyonaryo na katulad ng kanilang pamilya, at hindi lamang isang bodyguard. Ano ang pipiliin ni Pristine? Susundin ba niya ang kagustuhan ng kanyang lolo o tatakas siya upang makasama ang kanyang minamahal?

[WARNING; MATURE CONTENT; 18+] ~~~ “N-no—ahh!” and she gasped loudly the moment he tilted her head to one side by grabbing her hair from behind. Harshly. “Then why did you lie to me, hm?” he asks gruffly while his grip is tightening in her hair as he makes her face him. The tears on which she kept a hold till now, shed leisurely because of his grip. She squeezed her eyes shut and whimpered, “Please s-stop it.” “This is not the answer to my question, angel.” She heard him saying more gruffly into her ear. He kisses her earlobe before giving a jerk on his grip on her hair and adding to his words, “Your delay is doing your harm.” And she understood this clearly. “I-I didn’t want y-you to know t-that I’ll t-turn eighteen in the next three months—,” “Why?” “B-because I-I thought you...you will ruin me t-that time,” she managed to answer him as urgently as possible so he just leave her and he did it after getting his answers. ~~~~ Hazel was a prostitute, who maintained unmatched beauty in her brothel. Those who were fascinated by her beauty had become a lover of her beauty but she was not written in anyone's fate, because of her age. A seventeen-year-old girl, remained a victim of men's eyes until Daud came into her life. And he changed her life. Because the moment he laid his eyes on Hazel, he was determined to make her own. Then he didn't mind whichever path he chose.

On the night of our wedding, my gold-medal lawyer wife, Aurora Sterling, abandoned me and tangled herself with her assistant, Kieran Holt. Kieran barged into our bridal suite carrying his vegetative-state fiancee, Elara Holt, and demanded we swap spouses. I refused without hesitation. Right there on the spot, he drugged me and forcibly locked me in a room with Elara. Meanwhile, he held Aurora in our newlywed bed and used eighteen condoms that night. The next morning, I stormed into the office to confront him. Instead, I saw Aurora kneeling between his legs. When she noticed me, Kieran shuddered and quickly pulled away before standing up. "Rowan, Aurora didn’t get enough last night, so I brought her out for some fun again. Don’t worry. This will be the last time. I won’t disturb you two anymore." He turned to leave. However, Aurora stopped him reluctantly. "Kieran, you're not the one who should leave." Then she turned to me, her face dark with anger. "Elara became a vegetable because she saved my life. I have an obligation to fulfill a wife’s duties for her. "From now on, I’ll accompany Kieran on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The rest of the days I’ll stay with you. I’m even giving you an extra day, so you should be satisfied." As I watched the absurd scene unfold before me, rage finally exploded inside my chest. Just as I was about to erupt, my phone suddenly chimed. Ding. "Hey, handsome, your skills are pretty good. Interested in developing a long-term arrangement?"