Bridges Burned

“Say it,” Kael growled, his hand tightening around her throat—not enough to hurt, just enough to remind her who he was. “I’m yours,” Maya whispered, trembling. His lips hovered near hers, breath hot. “Even after I left you to die?” She swallowed. “Even now.” He kissed her like a curse—hungry, dangerous, and full of things he’d never say aloud. --- Maya never believed in fate—until the night her skin burned with the mark of the most feared Alpha in the realm. Weak, powerless, and exiled for a bond she never asked for, Maya finds herself hunted by the same man fate chose for her: Alpha Kael of Silverclaw. He claims she’s a mistake. A curse. But Maya is more than just a fragile girl. She’s the second chance of a woman long thought dead. Kael once loved Andrea, a powerful and noble wolf who descended into madness under a deadly curse. Her death shattered him. But when Maya bears the same mark and stirs the same soul-deep bond, Kael believes it’s the curse reborn—and rejects her violently to protect them all. Now on the run, Maya is saved by Rowan—Kael’s former Beta and best friend turned outcast. As truths unravel and passions ignite, Maya becomes the center of a dark prophecy that could destroy everything. But fate doesn’t care who you love. And true mates never stay strangers for long.

Then, with deliberate slowness, he reached for a small black bottle. “I thought you would prefer the gentle way,” he murmured. “Guess I was wrong.” The poison burned down my throat—Deadly Nightshade. It was once my favorite. I had used it to end others. Now, he was using it on me. “Sometimes,” he whispered, “the person you once loved is the one who finally kills you.” ~~~~~ Brinda Virginia’s life has always been a battle—against fate, against her own fire, and against a heart that beats too weakly to match the storm inside her. Abandoned as a child and raised by the only woman who ever truly loved her, she’s now facing her biggest loss yet. Her stepmother is dying. And the clock is ticking—seventy-two hours. That’s all the time she has to save her. But then he returns. Francesco Dante. Her past. Her ruin. A man cloaked in shadows, bearing a twisted bargain—submit to him, body and soul, or lose everything. To save the only family she has left, Brinda must surrender. But submitting, in a world ruled by power, lust, and betrayal, is never truly submission. Because this man doesn’t just want to own her—he wants to unmake her, unravel her, and turn her fire to ash. And the most devastating part? She might just let him. And love, in this kind of story, always draws blood.

The boy, George Larson, whom I once saved as a child, when he was struggling with asthma, repaid my kindness by imprisoning me for seven long years. "Luna, you're my everything. I won’t let you out of my sight," he said, his voice filled with obsession. He tied my hands and feet, keeping me bound to the bed like a helpless doll, but I did not love him; I wanted to escape. In his madness, he set fire to my family’s ancestral home. The last traces of the Sachs burned to ashes, disappearing into the wind. He said that since my home was gone, I could just live with him and that it would be my new home. However, because I refused to let him touch me, he found someone else—a girl with a beauty mark under her eye, just like mine. The girl, drunk on his affection, thought I was trying to imitate her by faking the same tear-shaped mark. In a fit of jealousy, she gouged out my eyes. My face was covered with tiny, bleeding holes, blood streaming down my body. When George came home, the girl gleefully stuffed me into a trash bag, proud of her handiwork. “George, look! I caught some trash that broke into the house!” George did not even glance at me. He just loosened his tie, his voice calm and detached. “Just toss it where trash belongs.”

Three days before my marking ceremony, someone set fire to the bridal shop while I was inside trying on my ceremonial dress. Alpha Marcus threw the arsonist into the pack prison, sentencing them to the harshest punishment our laws allowed. I lay in the hospital bed, my body covered in third-degree burns, refusing to wake fully as the reality of my disfigurement sank in. In my semi-conscious state, I heard Marcus speaking with the pack's healing witch. "Alpha, we can still heal her completely with the ancient magic. If we wait any longer, Sarah will bear these scars for life! You just want Miss Rachel to be your Luna at the marking ceremony. This is cruel beyond measure!" "Let her keep the scars. I'll provide for her for the rest of her life, but if she's healed, she'll definitely cause trouble at the marking ceremony." "I promised Rachel that her pup would be welcomed into the pack with full honors. Only when Sarah is completely disfigured will she be grateful enough to raise Rachel's child as her own. The scars are necessary - at least this way, she won't dare mistreat the pup." In the corner of the room, where no one was watching, a tear slid down my burned cheek. So this was the truth. The marking ceremony I'd dreamed of was nothing but a lie. The mate bond I longed for would be my death sentence. If that's how it had to be, I would give him what he wanted.

The company had just taken off when a project my wife, Lenora Peterson, was in charge of ran into trouble. To ease her mind during her pregnancy, I went overseas in her stead, spending ten perilous years abroad before finally returning home, barely alive. Instead of the joyful reunion I had imagined, she greeted me with cold detachment and thinly veiled disgust. "Why are you back?" Lenora asked. "Today is Nathan’s housewarming party," she added. "Let’s head there first—we’ll talk later." We rode in silence the entire way. When we arrived, a ten-year-old girl came dashing over and clung to Lenora affectionately. “Mommy, why did you take so long? Daddy’s been waiting for you forever!” Daddy? My eyes burned with rage—until I saw my old friend Nathan Grant stepping out to greet us with a smile. "Lily, come to Daddy. Mommy’s tired—don’t bother her now." When I met Lenora’s eyes, the guilt I saw there told me everything I needed to know. I turned away and texted my assistant, Morgan Williamson, to begin acquiring the company that, by right, had always belonged to me. He soon reported back. "Mr. Brooke, the acquisition process will be completed in three days."

Katherine I thought he loved me. I truly believed no one could love me more than my king, the ruler of witches, Acan. I believed my marriage was full of love, that nothing could tear us apart. But I was wrong. On the night of the festival of elements, he didn’t just break my heart… he burned me alive! He believed he was rid of me, free to continue his affair with the woman he truly wanted. How wrong he was. I’m back, and this time, I’m out for blood. Darius I stayed in the shadows, loving her from afar because who could ever love someone like me? I’m nothing but a bastard, and worse, I’m one of the dark ones, born with powers that bring nothing but pain. And yet… I can’t hurt her. Maybe that’s why she isn’t afraid of me, why she smiles at me in a way that steals my heart. But strange things are happening around her—accidents whenever she looks away. I must protect her, especially after I learned the truth about why it has all happened. So I change our world. I change our reality. But while my dreams come true—Katherine in my arms—she is far from satisfied.

Lisha was only a girl when the world she knew was shattered. Her people, the werewolves, were hunted across the land by King Camus and his brutal Royal Knight Hunters. Fueled by hatred and a dark prophecy that claimed werewolves would one day rule his kingdom, the king led the slaughter himself. On that blood soaked day, Lisha hid beneath a farm shed with a handful of children and a pregnant woman, forced to watch as her parents, were chained in silver and killed before her eyes. Years later, she disguised herself and infiltrated the royal palace, determined to kill the man who destroyed her family and her people. But the palace held more than enemies. There, she met Prince Lucan, the king’s son who is different from the rest, kind hearted and trapped in a world he didn’t choose. As Lisha's hatred burned, so did her heart begin to open. What started as a mission for revenge became a journey of unexpected love and sacrifice. Together they face betrayal, war, and blood. With the help of werewolf warriors and loyal allies, Lisha helped defeat the true enemy, Lucan's cruel brother and changed the fate of the kingdom. In the silence after the storm, Lisha stood by her parents grave, unsure if they’d approve of her love for a human prince. A hidden message from her mother revealed that she was always meant to be queen. Now, with peace restored, Lisha finally embraces the love she never thought possible and the destiny she was born to fulfill.

Seventeen-year-old Elara Ward has spent her life being forgotten and shuffled between foster homes and small towns that never remembered her once she’s gone. But the dying town of Willowmere is different. The air hums with whispers, the lake no longer reflects the moon, and something ancient is stirring beneath the willows. When Elara follows a strange light into the woods one blood-red night, she crosses the veil and a boundary between the human world and the Lumenwild, a realm of living moonlight and haunted shadows. There, she’s marked by an ancient power known as Moonfire, a symbol burned into her skin that pulses with the rhythm of the twin moons above. Saved by four mysterious men who are named Cael, their golden-eyed Alpha; Kian, the lightning-tongued rogue; Auren, the silent watcher; and Nyx, the shadow who walks between worlds and Elara learns that her arrival has reignited a prophecy buried in legend. The Riftborn, creatures of bone and smoke, are returning, and the mark she bears is both a weapon and a curse. In the heart of the Lumenwild’s glowing forest lies the Sanctum, a stronghold where wolves walk in light and the Moon’s will is law. There, Elara begins to uncover the truth, her crossing was no accident. The veil didn’t just let her in but it had called her home. As the moons draw closer and the bond between Elara and the wolves deepens, she must choose whether to embrace the power that could heal a broken world… or unleash the one that could end it. Because the Moon is awake again and she remembers her chosen.

I am Pearl Gem Valley. An omega. From one of the lowest tribes in the Wolf Empire. A world ruled by a cruel system where omegas are spat on and branded as slaves from birth. Five years ago, I saved the life of the Alpha Prince, Kade King Majesty, and he repaid me with a proposal, right in the middle of the omega ghetto. Obsessed at first sight. In love at first glance. I said yes. Little did I know I was just a pawn used to provoke his longtime lover. I was used. Betrayed. Abandoned after my role was served by Kade King Majesty himself while his mother, the ruthless Queen of the Wolf Empire, made my family pay for daring to dream that I could ever be anything more than an omega. All was lost… or so I thought. Until the cruelest revelation came from a doctor. Five years of grief had shrunk my heart, leaving me with only 90 days left to live. Stunned by fate. Abandoned by destiny. I decided to take the law into my own hands. I will make him pay… tenfold. I will make sure using me becomes his last regret. And as if the Moon Goddess herself supported my quest, Kade King Majesty returned but this time, as the King of the Wolf Empire. His eyes softened. Possession burned in them. And then he said those words. “I want you back, Omega. This time, I am claiming you for myself.”

I was ten years old when I lost my hearing saving Adrian Falcone's life. After that, I couldn't survive without my hearing aids. He held my hand afterward, his eyes red-rimmed with guilt, and made me a promise in front of his entire family. "Serena Lombardi, I'll protect you with my life," he said. "I'll marry you." But when I turned eighteen, everything changed. Adrian needed to pass some test set by Daniela Moretti—the daughter of a rival family—and he chose the cruelest way to prove himself. He ripped the hearing aids from my ears in front of everyone and laughed. "You're just a deaf, useless burden," he said, his voice cold and cutting. "I've been sick of you for years. Honestly? I wish you'd died in that explosion when we were ten and saved me the trouble." I gripped the rehabilitation report the doctor had just handed me, and my fingers crushed the paper's edges. The diagnosis was precise—my hearing had fully recovered. That night, I burned my hearing aids and convinced my parents to cut all ties with the Falcone family. Adrian Falcone, we're done. Whatever we had, whatever you owed me—it's over now.