Blacktie Breaks

Community Service. Two words I should be thankful for, but I’m not. I resent the hours it’s away from building my business. When they push the little girl into the room, her crazy curls barely held back by the barrette in her hair, and studious glasses on her face, I can tell she’s scared. Something inside of me breaks, and I want this girl to feel wanted again. What I’m unprepared for is meeting her mom. The second our hands touch, there are fireworks, bright lights, and a picture of the future I could one day have. The future I’ve never allowed myself to wish for. Community service becomes more than a chore. In the months that follow, I realize they’re just like me: they’ve been abandoned, left behind by the world, forgotten by those who should love them. Thanks to the one last hope in both our lives - we found the light in the darkness we’d been searching for.Trick is created by Laramie Briscoe, an eGlobal Creative Publishing author.

Riley Jordan thought office romance was safe, until she caught her long-term boyfriend with his pants down. Tangled between her boss’s legs. In the company conference room. One wild night meant to drown her heartbreak ends in a hotel suite, with a cold billionaire whose drink, like hers, had been spiked. She wakes up in his bed. He offers her a blank check for a night she can’t even remember. She tears it up and walks away. But Michael Gray doesn’t take rejection lightly. And when the woman who walked out on him turns out to be the marketing genius his empire desperately needs, he makes sure she’s left with no other option. Suddenly, she’s evicted, jobless, and barely surviving. Riley has no choice but to accept his deal. Only this time, she’s not the woman who breaks for anyone. What begins as control slowly turns into obsession. And when secrets finally explode, Riley must choose between her survival and the man who could ruin her.

When Harlow’s car breaks down outside of Gnaw Bone, New Mexico, she’s not expecting that the incredibly attractive man who comes to her rescue is part of a motorcycle club—let alone that he is a werewolf! Things are especially complicated as Harlow falls for Cyrus, the Beta of the Bone Hills Howlers, while befriending and working for his sworn enemies, the Blood Dogs. But can Harlow and Cyrus bridge the gap between their two rival packs…or will their passion force them to break every rule? ***I pulled away for a second. “I assume this is against the rules?”He responded by pulling me back to him, kissing me harder.Another moan escaped from my mouth as his lips made their way to my neck. When he reached my ear he whispered, “Tell me you’re real.” I laughed slightly. “I’m as real as they come,” I whispered back. I wanted more, and when I looked into his eyes, I could tell he did too. Riding with the Pack is created by Sharp Ink., an eGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.

Brianna didn’t want a new life; she wanted a way out. When her mother, Eloise, marries the tech tycoon Declan Van Doren, Brianna is dragged into a world of cold marble, sharp whispers, and a stepbrother who treats her presence like a stain on his family crest. Dawson Van Doren is the heir to an empire and a man with a heart of jagged glass. To the world, he is the brilliant, untouchable billionaire. To Brianna, he is the monster in the bedroom down the hall—the man who watches her with a mixture of loathing and a dark, suffocating hunger that makes her skin crawl and her heart stutter. But the Van Doren mansion is a house of glass. While Dawson breaks her spirit by day, his father’s closest friend—the man she calls Uncle—watches her with a terrifyingly different kind of heat. Caught between a stepbrother who wants to ruin her and a forbidden protector who wants to own her, Brianna is walking a tightrope over a pit of fire. And Dawson is about to prove that the only thing more dangerous than hating him... is letting him touch her.

Ava and Ryan were married upon a promise and although Ava hoped to spend the rest of her life with Ryan, she had no idea that her very young marriage would come crumbling in the most unimaginable way. A marriage once so loving and sweet with hopes of forever, is destroyed with lies which breaks trust and false evidence to prove them. Ryan sends Ava out of their home on a stormy night, ignoring her pleas and pain but irrespective of how hurt she was, fate had other plans for her and she gets to start life afresh. Finding out she's pregnant with Ryan's child was almost a setback for her, he denies and rejects both of them with claims of Ava cheating. What would she do to protect herself and get daughter from Ryans' hatred? What happens when Ryan finds out he has a child with Ava? What happens when he discovers that their marriage was ruined by his own family member? What if Ava never survives the storm? Would she go back to ruin even after finding love?

On my fifth birthday with Zachary Murdock, I sit once again in front of a full table of cold food, just like every year before. Zachary had promised, as always, to spend the day with me. And, as always, he breaks that promise. This year, it's because his childhood sweetheart wanted to shoot a set of "artistic photos". She invited him and a few of his close buddies to be part of it. Without hesitation, he ditches me again and runs straight into her arms. At 11:00 pm, his childhood sweetheart posts a photo to her social media and sets it so that only I can see it. In the picture, four men are in nothing but black briefs and Windsor-knotted ties. They kneel around her while she is draped in sheer fabric like a goddess. The caption reads, "Some people beg for crumbs, but I own the entire bakery." I take a screenshot. Then, I send it to the girlfriends of all three of Zachary’s best buddies. If they all look down on me this much, let's hope they don't end up on their knees begging me someday.

“But why do I have to marry him? He was promised to Whitney, not me. I don't even love him”, I said, hoping Mom would understand. “This is not about your feelings Charlotte. It's about saving the family name from shame. You will marry Josh Xavier to save our family from shame. The reputation of this family is more important than your emotions,” Mom said, and Whitney stifled her laughter. Charlotte McCartney is the younger daughter of  Mrs Ashley McCartney. She is also the least favorite daughter of her mother. Her sister Whitney McCartney steals her boyfriend and her mother forces her to marry Josh Xavier, an older man who was betrothed to her sister Whitney McCartney for his money. Josh Xavier is Whitney McCartney’s ex-boyfriend. He is involved in a car accident which leaves him crippled. As a result, his girlfriend Whitney McCartney breaks up with him, and he becomes a bitter man determined to make the life of his new wife miserable.  But how long can he keep this up?

They thought they were enemies. Fate made them mates. Joy Stone isn’t just the brainy, sarcastic queen of pranks—she’s a deadly Alpha hybrid in disguise. At her human university, no one suspects the quiet nerd is also the fiercest warrior of the Diamond Heart Pack. Until he walks in. Lex: infuriatingly gorgeous, maddeningly brilliant, and cocky enough to challenge her at every turn. He’s also the future Alpha of the Water Moon Pack, a notorious playboy whose charm breaks hearts almost as fast as his fists break bones—and now, her new rival for the top spot on campus. Their war starts with stolen notes, savage comebacks, and steamy glares that last too long. But one reckless kiss, one dark secret, and one blood-soaked rescue later… everything changes. They’re not just rivals. They’re mates. Now Joy has to choose: resist the pull—or give in to a bond that could expose everything she’s worked to hide. Enemies in the classroom. Lovers by fate. And in the end, only one will top the pack.

When I'm on my break, I decide to help my neighbor, Yvonne Cook, fix the gas valve, which has been leaking gas. But she instantly lodges a report, saying that I've gone against the rules. She demands compensation for the shock that she's suffered as well. I don't bother defending myself. Instead, I just write a reflection report. After that, my squad leader sentences me to disciplinary confinement. Yvonne wastes no time gloating in the tenants' group chat. "It's time to teach these power-abusers a good lesson, anyway!" Three days later, a fire breaks out in Yvonne's apartment. Thick plumes of dark smoke keep rising from the burning apartment. Yvonne wails as she bangs on my door and pleads with me. "Please crack open the door and put out the fire!" I can only sigh from behind my front door. "I'm under disciplinary suspension right now, so I can't break protocol. You should wait for the fire truck instead."

I was the Luna who gave everything to her Alpha—my heart, my loyalty, my dignity. Ethan repaid me by sleeping with other she-wolves, over and over again, and every night our mate bond slowly poisoned what was left of my soul. On our third wedding anniversary, when he suggested I could "try" sleeping with someone else too, I finally broke. My childhood friend, a young Alpha, called me when he heard the news and proposed to me over the phone. His gentle voice healed every wound Ethan had carved into me, so I said yes. Now I've decided to give Ethan moonbreak herb and sever our bond forever. But Ethan never bothered to ask what I gave him to drink. He was too busy running off to his favorite she-wolf's bed. He has no idea that in thirty days, when the moon breaks, our mate bond will shatter completely, and the "chains" that bound us as fated mates will be gone. This time, I'm really leaving.