Bloody Knuckles Coin Game

Hope Daniels has spent her life mastering control, on the softball field, in school, and in the quiet spaces where emotions are better left unspoken. With college within reach and her future finally aligning, everything should feel safe, predictable… normal. Then she falls for Kade Mercer, her best friend’s older brother. He’s distant, unreadable, and always watching her like he already knows how their story ends. What begins as stolen glances and unspoken tension slowly pulls them toward something neither of them can stop. On the night everything shifts, Hope wakes in a world that is not her own. The sky is fractured. The air is alive. And creatures born from nightmares hunt anything that breathes. Stranded together for seven relentless days, Hope and Kade must survive a shifting, brutal realm where instinct is the only law and fear takes physical form. Every battle changes them. Every choice binds them closer. And every night reveals they are being watched by something far more dangerous than the monsters chasing them. But survival comes at a cost. Because when they wake back in their world, nothing is as it was. Time has not moved, but they have. The marks they carry begin to glow. The memories refuse to fade. And the line between worlds is beginning to tear again. Some doors are not meant to close. And some connections were never human to begin with. Hope thought she was fighting to survive seven days in another world. She was wrong. She was being chosen.

An Epic Fantasy tale of action, adventure, heroism, horror and sorcery… Beyond Night is a Dark Fantasy Horror novel that pulls back the veil of nearly two thousand years of jaded history. Come tread in the bloody footprints left by monsters, soldiers and wizards and behold what lies hidden Beyond Night itself. It’s Bigfoot War mixed with Lovecraftian horror on the edge of the Roman Empire. How could Rome lose a Legion? What could’ve happened to blot out the existence of over five thousand men not only from history but the Earth itself? As the Legion moves north to engage the forces of Pictdom, a dark horror emerges from the bowels of the Earth. Thought to be random attacks by hulking monsters, Decurion August soon learns a dire truth, that these bloody events are directed by opposing the wizards of the Picts. While one side assembles all tribes in a confederated army to battle the Legion, the other pulls these Greyman beasts from the depths of the Earth. August fights not only these creatures and workers of magicks, but internal passions in the Legion itself. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Azalea had decided to stop running from her past. That didn't mean that she was ready to embrace her future though. As if navigating through learning about her powers and dealing with all the drama surrounding her sudden reappearance wasn't enough, now someone's out to take her out of the picture entirely. Friends, family and a potential mate are all trying to protect her by caging her against her will. With too many secrets still in the dark, she does what she knows best and runs. But will she be able to shine bright enough to banish the dark or will she choose to let it consume her? Should she risk it all on a chance of true happiness or it is really just two sides of the same coin, both trying to gain control of her and her powers for their own purpose?

I took the casino business Angelina, my stepsister, had always wanted. The very next day, the heir of the Corleone family who was Angelina's childhood companion knocked on my door. With that deep, captivating face, he asked, “Principessa Annelise, what’s the point of those bloody businesses? Why don’t I take you to enjoy a life of real pleasure?” So, I agreed without hesitation. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I sealed those lips I had long wanted to taste. After that, I began frequently skipping internal mafia meetings. I let the businesses in my hands fall into decline, little by little. I spent extravagantly. Every day, I only cared about indulging in pleasure with Lorenzo in high-end clubs and private yachts. That was until my father, the don, fell gravely ill. The night before the family leaders gathered to choose the new don, he served me in bed and asked me to hand over control of the family to Angelina at the meeting. I knew that was his true purpose for approaching me. However, this time, I only quietly touched the don’s ring hidden beneath my pillow, the symbol of the family’s highest power. “You’ve given me a great experience this past year. But the power of the don is too tempting. For the next game, I won’t be playing with you.”

On campus, he was the most well-behaved student in the entire department. Oversized hoodies, black-rimmed glasses, quiet enough to fade into the background. Even when facing the notoriously strict Professor Elliott, he would only lower his head, clutch his books, and murmur a timid, “Professor.” At night, he became the most intoxicating dancer in the club. He wrapped himself around the pole, bent low, rolled his hips—each movement driving the men below into a frenzy. Bills were stuffed into the strap around his thigh as they shouted his name. To cover his obscene tuition fees, he took a private party offering an equally obscene payout. Inside the VIP room, he straddled the pole, bathed in dim, hazy light, fingers reaching for the final restraint he was meant to undo. Suddenly, the man lounging on the sofa stubbed out his cigar and stood. The light swept across his face— It was Elliott. The very man he feared most by day. He walked onto the stage step by step, then slammed him hard against the pole in full view of everyone. “Can’t even breathe in front of me during the day,” Elliott sneered, “but at night you’re here shaking your ass, begging men to f*k you?” His mentor wrenched his arms behind his back. Hot lips brushed his trembling earlobe, his voice low and dangerous. “Noah,” he murmured, “if you’re that desperate for money… why didn’t you just come to me? How much—per night?” He panicked and tried to struggle, but Elliott forced his legs apart with his knee, pinning him against the cold metal. “Don’t hide,” Elliott said softly. “Now. Take off the rest—right in front of me. And if you perform well…” A pause, deliberate. “I’ll pay you ten times tonight’s fee

I walked in on my husband fucking another woman on my dresser. He didn't even notice me standing there. Four years of marriage, two years without being touched and a thousand small cruelties that I swallowed because I thought being his wife was better than being alone. Turns out, he was already planning to throw me away. He just wanted to do it on his terms, after he'd finished destroying whatever was left of me. Then I met Cameron Tucker. He's patient, kind and looks at me like I'm the only woman in the room. When I finally broke down and asked him to remind me what it felt like to be wanted, he didn't hesitate. Now my husband wants me back. He's following and watching me. He already put Cameron in the hospital once, and he's not done yet. They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. They haven't met a man who has everything to lose.

Elena Reeves was born an omega, raised to serve, and taught never to hope. But hope came anyway—on her eighteenth birthday, when the Alpha’s son became her mate in secret. Three years later, he rejects her publicly, shatters their bond, and chooses her own sister instead. Broken, hunted, and sentenced to death, Elena flees into the human city—straight into the territory of Dante Moretti, a Mafia Alpha who does not save wolves. He owns them. Bound by a dangerous mate pull she doesn’t trust, Elena must decide whether survival is enough—or if she’s willing to become the Luna they should have feared from the start.

Aria Carter died betrayed. Her husband ignored her. Her best friend stabbed her in the back. Her family sold her off like a pawn. When she opened her eyes again three years earlier, on the night of her arranged marriage to the city’s coldest CEO she swore this life would be different. No more weakness. No more blind love. No more kneeling. Damian Cross, the ruthless billionaire everyone fears, expected a docile wife to decorate his mansion. Instead, he got a woman who met his icy stare with fire of her own. Society sneers at her as the “Cold Wife.” Her family calls her a disgrace. Her enemies plot her downfall. But this time, Aria isn’t here to beg for scraps she’s here to flip the board. Every betrayal will be repaid. Every secret will be exposed. And the husband who once ignored her? He’s falling, dangerously, obsessively, in love. Yet beneath the glittering empire lies the truth of her first death… and if Aria isn’t careful, the crown she claims may cost her heart all over again.

Tessa Sterling's life was never Meant to be this complicated. Once the daughter of privilege, she now works double shifts to keep her little sister in school after her stepmother seized control of her late mother's inheritance. When her sister begged her to pick her up from a celebrity concert, Tessa expects nothing but chaos. Instead, she runs into Kingsley Voss–international superstar, billionaire CEO, a global icon and every woman's fantasy. But Kingsley is not what the camera show. Behind his fame hides a secret that could destroy his career–a daughter, whose existence no one must ever know. When fate throws Tessa into his world again, this time as a potential nanny, sparks fly and tempers flare, she loathes his arrogance, his charm, his shameless flirting–but she can't resist the bond she forms with his daughter. Kingsley is torn between protecting his secret and protecting the woman who's turning his world upside down. But the closer Tessa gets to his daughter...the closer she gets to uncovering the secret he's sworn to hide. And when love collides with lies, someone's heart will have to pay the price. Behind every secrets lies a forbidden truth– and behind every man like Kingsley Voss, a woman strong enough to bring him to his knees.

When broke event planner Isabella “Izzy” Hart agrees to fake an engagement with cold, commanding tech billionaire Alexander Blackwood, she thinks it’ll be simple: smile for the cameras, fake a few kisses, collect the money, and walk away. But nothing about Alex is simple. Not the way he looks at her. Not the way he touches her like she belongs to him. And definitely not the way he says: “If this is just business… why does it feel like you’re mine?” It was supposed to be fake. Now neither of them knows what’s real.