Blood Stained Concrete

After two years abroad in seclusion as I recovered, I received a selfie from my daughter, Lila Ashford. She was sitting on a bike, dressed in a work uniform. "Mom, you’ll be home soon, right? I miss you so much." My heart softened as I thought about how my girl had grown up. She understood that she needed to start from the bottom and work her way up. I was about to praise her when I noticed her skin seemed tanner, and her fitted shirt was the same one I’d bought her three years ago. It was frayed and worn thin, yet she still hadn’t thrown it away. As a child of the wealthiest family, Lila shouldn’t have to live like this, not even for "life experience". I zoomed in on the picture again. Her shoes were falling apart, the front gaping wide open. The more I looked, the more uneasy I became. The next second, I stumbled across Serena Ashford, my adopted daughter’s posts on social media. She was showing off male models, luxury cars, and on her wrist, the global limited-edition diamond bracelet I had given Lila. What shocked me most was the car that appeared in nearly every photo, the very one I had gifted Lila for her college graduation. How the hell had it ended up with her instead?!

Branded a failure for never shifting, Arwen Blackthorne has lived her life as a disgrace among werewolves. When her powers finally awaken, they mark her as something far worse and far more dangerous. Sent to Crimson Vale Academy, Arwen becomes the target of its most feared Alpha heir, Draven Hunter. He hates her. He hunts her. And fate binds her to him in a mate bond neither of them wants. As ancient secrets rise and bloodlines long thought extinct awaken, Arwen must choose between breaking under the weight of destiny or embracing the power that could destroy them all. She was never meant to shift. She was meant to burn the world… or rule it.

During a mission overseas, I shielded my younger brother from an explosion—only to wake up months later, my body broken, my mind trapped in the void of a coma. Grateful for my sacrifice, he repaid me by marrying my wife. When I finally clawed my way back to consciousness and rushed home, I found my son kneeling on the ground, sobbing as his college acceptance letter lay shredded in his fists. My nephew loomed over him, slamming a steel pipe into his back. "Lick my shoes clean," he sneered. "Who are you to think you deserve an education?" And there was my wife clapping in delight, dabbing the sweat from my nephew’s brow like a doting servant. "You’re just like your deadbeat father," My wife spat. "Born to be my stepping stone." My eyes bloodshot, I tightened my fists. Every last one of them would pay for this dearly.

Joey Clad was the Moonstone Pack’s Alpha while I was his fated mate, his future Luna. The truth was, he rejected the Moon Goddess’ will and remained obsessed with my stepsister, Anna Bate. Joey made sure to present Anna with a one-of-a-kind gift on every holiday. He was available 24/7 to cater to her every whim. I never expected Joey to seize my mother’s keepsake just to please the birthday she-wolf. Worse still, he turned a blind eye as Anna killed my brother, Jake Bate, all to put a smile on her face. Amid the pouring rain, I held Jake’s lifeless body, slipping Joey’s ring off my finger. I promised myself that they would pay in blood.

Stony black orbs stared into scared hazel eyes, " You ruined me ... Or so you think, you played me for a fool ! ... But I won't let you have the last laugh. I am more powerful and deadlier than you think " With tears in his once beautiful and mesmerizing eyes, he pleaded " please don't hurt me ... I regret all I have done , if I could take it back I will" Liar ! Came the response and with that a flying dagger towards his right shoulder, pinning him to the wall.

The night I found out, I almost fixed it. Almost. My assignment had been changed to Everglades Academy. Two thousand miles south. Swamp territory. Three omegas died there last year. I'd asked Kael to file my school preference. Silver Peak Academy. Together. The way we'd planned since we were twelve, lying in the snow making promises to the stars. Now the screen said Everglades. I called him immediately. He picked up on the second ring, relaxed as always. "Hey." "My assignment," I said. "It says Everglades." "Oh." Not guilt. Recalibration. "Lil came by while I was filing yours. She wanted to play a prank—switched it to Everglades for a laugh." He laughed. Light. Careless. "Deadline's tomorrow night. Just override it yourself. It takes thirty seconds." "If I hadn't checked—" "But you did check." That patience. "Fen. You always check everything. That's why she knew you'd catch it. It was just a joke." Just a joke. So my future was a punchline. My life, someone else's entertainment. I said nothing. I packed my gear. I left for the transport hub on departure day. Kael found me at the platform. His smile was gone. "I told you to override it. You didn't change it back?" "No."

As an ordinary wolf-girl, Scarlett Black is turning 17 the only thing she was worrying about was boys, friends and coming closer to her wolf awakening. Little did she know the next few years would change her life forever.

The adventure story of the apprentice wizard Eden Noldorasga and his friends of different magical races in the city of Asgaphra. One of his friends - werewolf hybrid Garuda - was accused of being the culprit behind a horrible plot to usurp the city and enslave the common people. He and the rest of the group must find a way to prove Garuda's innocent, stop the plot, and find out the real mastermind of these things.

“What I want to know is why you were still a virgin.” Raven stiffened. “Was I not supposed to be?” “I’m surprised by the fact but not disappointed. I am the first and the last lover you’ll ever have.” “No, you were merely the first man I’ve taken to my bed. I doubt you’ll be the last.” “I’ll kill any man that thinks he can take what I now have,” Yuri vowed. “I take care of what’s mine. No other man shall have you.” *** For years, Raven has hidden from her brutal past to protect the boy she calls her brother. But when Nicky steals the wallet of Yuri Anatoly—ruthless leader of the Russian Bratva and her boss—she must sneak into his penthouse to fix her mistake. She thinks she’s in and out unseen. She’s wrong. Yuri has never met anyone as quick, fierce, and untamable as Raven. His obsession ignites instantly. But their explosive desire collides with a deadly secret: Nicky is not her brother. He is the stolen heir of the Bratva’s boss, taken by Raven’s own mother twenty years ago. Now their old tormentor hunts them, and Yuri will burn the city down to keep Raven. But to save the boy she loves, she must choose… surrender to the man who owns her heart, or lose everything. Passion. Secrets. A love worth killing for.

A mountain, once a towering monument to man's ambition, now sobbed rust and decay. Its skeletal skyscrapers clawed at a sky choked with ash, an endless darkness that reflected the desolation below. Here, where survival was a brutal equation of scavenged scraps and desperate violence, whispers clung to the crumbling ruins like the ever-present dust. Whispers of a legend, a shadow lurking in the deepest, forgotten heart of the mountain: a monster. They called him the Blood King, a name hissed with fear and reverence. Not just another vampire, but a predator whose power had once threatened to consume all of man-kind. He is said to be so great that no one was a match to his strength, his wrath so terrible, that the ancients themselves, the very inventors of their shadowed presence, had deemed him too dangerous to roam free. They imprisoned him, not in chains of iron, but in a cage of blood. A cage that could only be unlocked by the one whose essence was his destined key, his chosen one. A cruel contradiction, a punishment designed to bind him for eternity. Unknown to them all that the blood king’s chosen one was a human adventurer, who lived for the thrill and would do anything for a fearful adventure.