Autumn Promise

“I fix things that need fixing. And you, Raven, are broken.” When his best friends Vice and Victor ask Raven, a PI, to investigate Gregory Holmsworth, the estranged grandfather of Vice and Victor’s girlfriend, Mirage, Raven is drawn into the underworld of the music industry. Although on the surface Gregory Holmsworth’s business seems legit, his path has not always been on the right side of the law. When Raven’s investigation is noticed, Gregory sets Vixen to distract him. Vixen is Gregory’s Fixer, a role which is wide and varied in activity, but for Vixen, mainly involves the music side of his business, as Vixen is the lead singer of a punk band just breaking into the industry. Whilst Raven has been looking into Gregory, Vixen has been looking into Raven, and she sends him an invitation to meet with her, luring him with the promise of a way into Gregory’s business and secrets. But Vixen has other plans for Raven. She likes pretty boys, and broken things, and she has decided that Raven fits both descriptions to a tee.

Kagarawa Yuuma was fifteen years old when he first fell in love but fate split him apart from his love the very next day. The only thing he had to remember the boy by was back and white football. 13 years later, after becoming a successful actor, Yuuma goes back to find his love and demand that he fulfills his promise to marry him.

It had been five years since my mate Ethan Blackwood secretly marked me. Then his brother, the Alpha of the Shadow Moon Pack, died in the territorial war. To become the next Alpha of Shadow Moon, Ethan inherited everything his deceased brother left behind. Including his widowed sister-in-law, Victoria. After every time Ethan shared Victoria's bed, he would hold me close and whisper reassurances: "Autumn, just wait a little longer. Once Victoria gets pregnant, we'll have our Mating Ceremony!" This was the pack's only requirement for him to inherit the Alpha position. In the six months since returning to Shadow Moon territory, Ethan had gone to Victoria's chambers countless times. From once a month in the beginning, to now almost every other day. Finally, after countless nights of sitting alone until dawn, news came that Victoria was pregnant. But along with this announcement came another—Ethan and Victoria would be holding their Mating Ceremony. "Mommy, is someone having a Mating Ceremony here?" my daughter asked. I looked around at the stark contrast to our sparse living quarters. The main hall was filled with flowers and balloons. People bustled about outside, everyone joyfully preparing for their Mating Ceremony. I pulled my innocent daughter into my arms: "Yes, sweetheart. Your father is having a Mating Ceremony with someone he loves, which means it's time for us to leave." Ethan didn't know that we wolves of the Silver Crescent Pack never cared about so-called Mating Ceremonies. In Silver Crescent, female wolves were revered. My mother was the current Alpha, and I only needed to bear an heir to the pack to inherit her position. I dialed a number I hadn't called in five years: "Mother, I already have an heir now. I'm ready to come home and claim your Alpha position."

Richard Franklin has left his Midwestern roots behind to live on the coast of Maine with his family. But in the autumn of the year 2000, he must return to his Illinois birthplace on a sorrowful journey. His wife Michelle has been killed in New England by a hit-and-run driver who is never found, so back home he comes with her cremated remains, to fulfill a final wish and on her birthday scatter her ashes in the park along the river in Blackwater Valley—simply Blackwater Val to locals—the small town where they both grew up and fell in love. With him he brings his six-year-old daughter Katie who still grieves for her lost mother: Katie, who can sometimes guess who’s going to be on the phone before it rings. Who can stop all the clocks in the house, and break up clouds in the sky with her mind, and heal sicknesses, and who sometimes sees things that aren’t there...people who are no longer alive. All gifts she inherited from her mother. Only something isn’t quite right in the Val. Sinkholes are opening up, revealing the plague pits the sleepy hamlet was built over in the 1830s, when malaria and cholera outbreaks ran riot. Mysterious bird and fish die-offs begin to occur, and Katie can see ghosts of the dead gathering all around. But what she can’t see is the charred, centuries-old malevolence which has been waiting for her, and wants her for its very own. Or the pale Sallow Man who haunts the town’s nighttime streets...or the river witch—another Blackwater Val, of sorts—each of whom will be drawn one by one into the nightmarish bloodletting about to take place. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

"I only asked you for a favor, and this is what you pay me back with?" Asher stared right into my eyes, his voice dripping with venom. My hand trembled, my heart aching as I stared back at his face. "I didn’t do it, Asher… Please believe me. I swear on anything—I didn’t do it," I sniffed, tears rolling down my cheeks. "Take her out," Asher roared, and just like that. Every hope I had was shattered. ~~~~~~~ Elena knew exactly what she was walking into when she said yes to a man who never loved her. She knew his heart belonged to Vienna, her sister. But all Elena wanted was a chance. Just a sliver of space in his heart. What she didn’t expect was Vienna’s return to come with a vicious accusation. One Asher never questioned. He didn’t ask. He didn’t look back. He shoved Elena into the deepest hole, cast her aside like she was nothing. And when he returned weeks later to her, it wasn’t with an apology. It was with a deal. A second chance—for a crime she never even committed. Elena carried the weight of betrayal, humiliation, and pain. She went ahead to give them everything, just to be free. And when they were done with her, they discarded her like trash. But she picked up her pieces. She wiped her tears. And she made herself a promise— What they did to her would never define her. Years later, Elena walks back into their world. Not as the quiet, desperate girl they once used and discarded, but as a woman whose name now echoes power. And just when they think they’ve seen it all—Secrets begin to unravel. The kind of secrets that leaves even the cruelest speechless.

Daniel was young and in love, just not with the girl he was set to marry. Unfortunately for him and his would be bride, he was from a very rich and powerful family who owed a favor to someone else. His father made a private deal with the man to repay the debt by allowing his daughter to marry Daniel. The deal was made long ago, when the two were just children, but that didn't matter now. All that mattered to his father was keeping his promise and repaying his debt to the other man. He considered it a blemish on his family's good name and flat refused to die with that promise still unkept. Daniel had no choice but to take matters into his own hands.

Mila, suffocated by opulence and her father's secrecy, takes a daring leap into the unknown, leaving behind her world of luxury in Miami. Venturing to Russia to uncover hidden truths about her mother's mysterious past and her father's enigmatic dealings, Mila's journey becomes a thrilling odyssey filled with unexpected encounters, perilous choices and falling in love with a wealth man whose eyes are filled with deep secrets. As she delves deeper into the secrets shrouding her family, Mila must find the strength to navigate a world of intrigue, betrayal, and the ever-elusive promise of answers. She learns the only escape is to soften her captor's heart.

"Are you afraid?" He said as he walk towards me. I could feel the tension, nervousness and the trembling all through out my body. My hands are literally shaking and my heartbeats is all I could hear. I flinch when he suddenly put his hand against my cheeks. He's warm. The feeling that I have never felt before. I look at his beautiful gray eyes that is intensely looking at me as if piercing my very soul, "Why would I?" I said and clasp my arms around him. I felt his arms closing the thin gap between us, a smile sneaked into my mouth as I close my eyes, "I would never be afraid of you. I will never leave your side, I promise" I said. Austin is a runaway. Living alone all by herself gave her an ultimate obssession; mythological beings. Never did she imagine that on the fifth year of being by herself, something out of this world would welcome her on her 20th birthday; a history professor with thousands of secrets that are yet to be discover.

I had just bought a coin worth 3,000 dollars from a trading website. However, when someone came to deliver it, it was not a courier—it was my stepsister, Eleanor Holt. She dropped to her knees, begging me not to tell her mom about what she was doing. "Shawn, please. If you promise not to say anything, I'll do whatever you want tonight. Anything."

In a world where desperation and desire collide, una chica, a struggling waitress, faces an impossible choice when a mysterious stranger offers her a life-changing sum of money for a scandalous arrangement. Trapped in a stalled elevator, his provocative proposal—three hundred thousand dollars for three months of illicit encounters—ignites a battle between her moral compass and the crushing weight of her financial burdens. With her sister life-saving surgery hanging in the balance, she grapples with the allure of security and the shame of crossing ethical lines. As temptation blurs her judgment, she must decide whether to sacrifice her principles for the promise of a better future or walk away from the only solution that could save everything she holds dear. This gripping tale explores how money and need can push us to the edge, forcing us to confront the cost of survival and the boundaries of desire.