Beat Around The Bush

My mom always said, "I've never played favorites. "You and your brother mean exactly the same to me." She said it so often I almost believed it. Growing up, anything my brother had, I had too. If he got a new pair of sneakers, so did I. If he signed up for coding classes, I was enrolled in the same ones. Even this year, when we came home for the holidays, my mom smiled as she handed each of us a neatly-packaged designer shopping bag. "I picked these out for you two at the store. One for each of you, exactly the same. "These outdoor brands are expensive, you know. A single jacket costs thousands. I'd never buy one for myself, but I don't mind splurging on you two." I took the jacket. It was well-cut, structured, and looked high-quality. A small warmth stirred in my chest. However, when I tried it on, the collar felt oddly irritating against my skin. Frowning, I pulled back the lining to check. There was a ring of yellowed sweat stains around the label, and tiny flakes of dandruff were caught in the Velcro. A faint musty smell lingered on the cloth, mixed with the stale odor of cheap tobacco. It was sour and impossible to ignore.

Two souls, forged in suffering, would collide in a dance of darkness and desire, testing the limits of love and redemption. Their paths meet when Asher's sister becomes the target of a predator, and Kaidën sees an opportunity for justice. As they navigate their dark worlds, they must confront the demons that haunt them. Will Asher's desire for protection and Kaidën's quest for vengeance spark a twisted romance, or will their shattered reflections destroy them? *** “You killed my mother.” Asher's voice trembled with fury. Kaidën's smile was cold, almost mirthful. “Who gave your sister to her husband who sold her to pay off his debts.” “I watched you murder her in cold blood!” Asher’s fists clenched around the gun he held pointed at the killer, memories of that night flooding back. Kaidën leaned closer, a sinister smile creeping onto his face. "I remember begging you to look away. But you didn’t. Did you enjoy it, Asher? Watching the woman who shattered your world writhe in agony? Or would you prefer to keep that little secret buried deep? Ah, but don’t answer that. Come, help me gather the pieces of your father's remains. It’s time to tidy up this little mess." Asher’s eyes widened in horror, realization crashing over him like a wave. All this time, he had been unaware that he was not only a witness to his father’s murder, but had watched it unfold until the very end, just like he had done that night when he watched his mother’s murder. Nodding, he picked up the severed hand of his father—the same hand that had beaten and broken him until his skin grew numb to pain. ‘Oh, sweet Emily, if only you could see our father now. How the mighty have fallen.’

The story you are about to read is inspired by a true story and refers to a time span of three years. During this time, various events take place. Love. Intrigue. Folly. Trips. Hopes. Vicissitudes. A love triangle will put a girl disputed between two important but profoundly different men at the center of attention. A princess. A commander. A sailor. A ship. Between one port to another, from one route to another, in an endless journey between sea and land , in different geographic locations around the world will happen à the unthinkable - in which the main protagonists of the story - it will help in moments of difficulty - but at the same time they will hate each other - struggling to re - establish their bonds and their role. At the seaside, life is different. You don't live by the hour but by the moment. We live by the currents, we adjust to the tides and follow the course of the sun. Cit. (Sandy Gingras) I want the sea to touch me, make me breathe the world and its whys, give me an eternal instant, which I will carry with me as an indelible memory. The sea is the mystery in which I immerse myself to rediscover my life. The sea. Cit. (Stephen Littleword) You can't be unhappy when you have this: the smell of the sea, the sand under your fingers, the air, the wind. Cit. (Irène Némirovsky) When love is true and sincere, it climbs over the mountains, the vastness of the sky and the sea. No human experience is greater than its strength. Cit.(Romano Battaglia)

Ruby Weston caught her mate having an affair with her sister. They twisted the facts and accused her of being a traitor. Ruby will not be silent. She has to get back at them. "Marry me!" She begs Henry, the younger brother of the Alpha who betrayed her. This is where the revenge begins.

“Come with me,“ he ordered.  “I'm not going anywhere!“ Freya stood her ground, looking up at his blank face.   Something flashed past his dark eyes as he heard her. “You really have some guts, don't you?“   “Well, I don't care what this is. I don't care why I'm in a wedding gown and why I'm being treated like I chose this. You could kill me if you want. But I'm not—”   “Is this about the kiss, my Lady?“ he asked, sounding amused.  Freya wanted the ground to open up and swallow her at that moment. Her face went scarlet red and she almost forgot the other reason why she was angry. “Why should I care about the fact that you didn't kiss me? I barely know you and—”   “Right.“ That was all he said before he gently grabbed her waist and crushed his lips on hers...

Adira had always been cast aside, different, overlooked. It never used to bother her but when she got her wolf things changed. She was labelled a freak, one of few wolves who could full body shift, one who (just maybe) held the secrets to a cure for lycanthropy itself, if only the experiments would work. She wouldn't make it easy for them though and, lucky for her, she knew someone with just enough darkness running through his blood to be able to help her. All she had to do was convince him. 18+ Content Third Person POV

While my sister was protecting me from the vampires hunting us, a blade coated with poison slit her throat. I hid in the bushes and watched the whole thing in silence. I even took the antidote from Sophia. Because of that, the poison had spread through her entire body. With her self-healing ability suppressed, she was going to die in agony. My parents found me and begged me, disregarding their dignity as leaders of the pack. "Anna! Please! Give the antidote back to Sophia!" "She needs the antidote to flush out the poison and live!" Even with my parents begging and swallowing their pride, I just held onto the antidote in my pocket tighter. "I didn't see any antidote."

Selena, a mere salesgirl at a quaint coffee shop in Laketown, leads a life of quiet simplicity. She is the second daughter of the Robinsons—amiable, principled, and respected members of the Redbone Pack. The pack is ruled with an iron fist by Alpha Wilson Smith, an untouchable billionaire known for his arrogance and fierce recalcitrance. The gulf between Selena and Wilson is vast—defined by age, status, and power. A romantic entanglement between them seems not just improbable, but absurd. Yet, fate, with its penchant for irony, has a ludicrous twist in store. The cold war between them rages for years, an unspoken battle of wills. Selena, with her fiery spirit, finds Wilson’s arrogance insufferable, cringing at his every attempt to assert his dominance. Yet, Wilson, instead of being repelled, is intrigued. Her resistance is a puzzle he cannot resist, a challenge that stirs something deep within him. This low-born girl from Laketown, with no claim to fame or fortune, inexplicably fascinates him. As their paths cross repeatedly, the tension between them grows electric, charged with a mix of disdain and undeniable attraction. And then, in the most dramatic of revelations, they discover they are fated to be mated for life. The bond, as undeniable as it is inconvenient, shatters their defenses. Wilson realizes that his obsession with Selena’s defiance is more than a passing interest. But just as they begin to navigate this newfound connection, another secret surfaces—one that threatens to upend their fragile union. Wilson unearths a startling truth: Selena is not who she appears to be. This revelation casts a shadow over their relationship, raising questions that demand answers. What is hidden in Selena’s past? And how will the truth, when finally revealed, shape the destiny of the Alpha and his Luna?

She was the mate of a cruel Alpha —beaten, silenced, and stripped of her dignity. He was the newly crowned Alpha King —powerful, feared, and haunted by his own scars. Nikolai doesn’t believe in love, not after his first love dumped him for his brother. Zara has lost everything: her parents, her pride, and now her freedom. Being forced to serve the very mate who delights in her pain, and a best friend who would do anything to see her downfall. When fate draws the Alpha King to her pack, Nikolai never expects to find his true mate locked away in an abandoned shed, broken and bleeding. He swore he’d never let another woman close, and she swore the goddess had forgotten her, but destiny has other plans. The road ahead is brutal, the bond undeniable, but together, the crowned and the rejected will challenge fate itself.

“I already have a mate. I don’t need another.” That’s what Nikolai told fate when Keira showed up. But fate doesn’t give a damn—and neither does she. Zaqriel can barely look at the girl without tasting betrayal. Keira can barely breathe watching the bond they share. And Nikolai? He’s trying not to want both. Jealousy burns. Anger festers. Desire ruins. And between a hybrid, a prince, and a girl with nothing to lose— someone is bound to break.