Beauty In The Beast World

"Mr. Woods, what's that thing pressing against me?" I was teaching a freshman girl how to drive at a driving school. I never expected that this innocent-looking but boldly dressed underclassman would actually ask to sit on my lap and have me teach her hands-on. On the way, I held back my urge and forced myself to focus on teaching as I deliberately ignored her brushing against me. But then she released the clutch too quickly, and the car suddenly stalled and shook violently. She fell heavily between my legs, and I could feel myself pressing against her core. She was only wearing a short skirt, with thin underwear underneath.

After I dropped out of school, my parents didn't pressure me to do anything. But Nicole Hicks kept calling nonstop. She was my boyfriend's childhood friend who had established a reputation as a genius. I was too busy helping out in the fields, growing vegetables, and splashing around in the creek, living my best carefree life. Writing code wasn't even on my mind. In my past life, she had turned in a project just one day before I did. Her codes were exactly the same as mine. Everyone called me a fraud and said I had stolen it. I tried to explain, but no one believed me. Later, she even did a livestream, accusing me online of being a school bully. People went wild. They didn't just come for me—they went after my whole family. Some obsessed troll chased my parents in a car, and they died in a crash. I couldn't take it anymore. I jumped off a high-rise, my eyes still wide open, refusing to accept the way it all ended. Even in my last moment, I couldn't figure it out. That code was mine. My hard work. So how did she manage to post it before me? When I opened my eyes again, I was back, right before everything fell apart.

Nephilim exist. Lycans exist. Vampires exist. Witches exist. Now a mixed group of species race to stop two world ending threats while trying to save the only person alive that can stop the evil Goddess hell bent on taking over the world. The catch? This person has been trapped in purgatory for thousands of years and has no idea how to use her powers. Will the love from a man who doesn't love others be enough to save the planet from slavery and destruction?

I lucked out, securing a guaranteed admission spot at Westbridge University—the one the real heiress throws away. Nicole Stewart drops out for love and runs off with the school's bully, shattering what should've been her perfect life. Meanwhile, I'm branded a thief, accused of stealing her place. However, I fight my way up to become a powerhouse in business and even marry her childhood sweetheart, Spencer Lowe. Yet, at the peak of it all, I open my eyes to find myself back to graduation day of senior year, right when I'm filling out my choices of colleges. A live barrage of comments flashes before my eyes. "That fake heiress, Gloria Stewart, is nothing but a thief. She stole Nicole's life!" "In her last life, Nicole actually dropped out of school to start a business with some school bully. She even gave her childhood sweetheart, who was her fiance, to someone else! Ugh, she's so stupid and pathetic." "Good thing Nicole gets a second chance. This time, the real heiress has awakened, so let's just see how miserable that fake heiress who stole her life becomes!" I just smile at the scrolling insults. Sorry, but I carve my own path. Nicole can be reborn a hundred times, and she still can't stop me from rising to the top.

After being sent back in time to relive my life, I stopped standing up for the popular girl who got caught stealing. When she returned to college for classes, I dropped out. When she came to my house looking for me, I moved. I did everything I could to cut off all contact with her. Before I died in my last life, I knew she married me only for my family’s money, yet I still handed her my heart like a fool. The jewelry I gave her was “tacky.” Trying to get close to her was “annoying.” I held on to a cold, empty marriage, thinking that as long as I waited, she would eventually turn back to me. However, for more than twenty years, all I got was her indifference. I didn’t even dare touch the doorknob to her room. Then came the fire, and I risked my life to push her out the window to safety. Right before I died, I saw my wife, completely unharmed, run straight into the arms of our college valedictorian. Crying, she said she was finally free from the marriage that had made her miserable for decades. If life could start over, she said, she hoped to walk hand in hand with the person she truly loved. In that moment, my heart went dead. I let the fire swallow whatever remained of my life. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the bar where the popular girl was working part-time and stealing money from a customer. This time, I chose to call the police.

Studying abroad can be incredibly lonely at times. That night, I was in my room, indulging in a little treat for myself, when my best friend suddenly burst through the door. "Doing it yourself is no fun. Come on. There's a super cool cabaret show going on. Let's go see it together!" On stage, my friend was reclining in a chair behind the curtain, with two strong-looking men on top of her. "Come on. Join us for a group dance..."

"Doctor, have you finished the examination? I can't hold on any longer," I say as I lie on the examination table in the college clinic. A screen completely blocks my view. The examination instrument pokes a few inches deeper into me. I try my best to suppress it, but a whimper escapes me. "No!" The doctor remains silent and merely adjusts the machine so that my legs are lifted higher.

"Mine." I heard as I felt two sharp fangs biting my neck. I didn't know that at that moment, I was CLAIMED by the ALPHA of DARKNESS. --- They called me cursed. They bullied me. Spat on me. Blamed me for every misfortune. Until one night, they killed my family and threw me into the cave that reeked of death. I thought I was alone. I thought I would die in the dark. But something was already there—watching, waiting, hungry. When my blood spilled, he came out of the shadows. His fangs sank deep into my neck, and with a voice that made my soul tremble, he whispered one word. “Mine.” Years later, I tried to escape my past. But at the university, three Alphas appeared. And the King of Alphas—the untouchable Campus King—looked at me with the same hunger. Because he was the monster in the darkness. And I was never meant to be free.

Layla was one of the so-called ‘meat’ to be served at the ‘demon’s table’. When midnight came and the howling of the king resounded in the woods, she knew she would die. With strong determination to fulfill at least one of her lifelong dreams, she ran her mouth and desperately asked her predator a favor in exchange for her complete submission to death. In the eyes of the powerful beast, she was nothing but a talking flesh and so her wish was granted. Little did she know, her life was about to change.Under the moonlight glow, two creatures are fated to meet. It's the fateful encounter that would turn the world filled with traitors of own kind upside down. With hatred and vengeance as the core of the bloody havoc, only those with power can survive.Will the burning love and developed compassion be enough to remedy the pain and anger buried deep in one’s heart? Or would it turn into sharp fangs to destroy those who were against the sheer glow of the light?Perhaps it was Layla’s fate to meet the beast who’d change her life or was it the beast whose life going to be ruined with her fatal schemes.Midnight Feast is now serving…Theoria~

“I love you, mate,” Kael says to me, and I believe him.Even in the midst of the war and the chaos, the trying to escape and the hiding from our enemies, I know, he is the one for me.I feel the ribbon between our hearts tighten, and the only thing I can say in response is, “Take me.”GemmaAll she wanted was adventure. When she snuck off to take the place of her cousin as a breeder for a distant Alpha, she had no idea the danger and turmoil she’d be faced with. But then, she met Kael, a captured Alpha, and everything changed.KaelHe’s been hiding what’s left of his destroyed pack from their enemies for years. But now that he has Gemma, there’s something worth fighting for.Can the two of them overcome their enemies and find piece for the Moonwake pack so that they can finally be together in peace, or will the rival Alpha win the day?Stolen by the Rival Alpha is created by Claire Wilkins, an eGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.