Burning Candles

When enemies came seeking revenge, my brother was off with his first love, chasing a golden sunrise over the mountains. I didn't beg him to save us. Instead, I dragged my sister-in-law to safety, dodging killers. In my last life, my brother rushed home, but his first love got caught in an avalanche. Before she passed, she texted him, accusing me and my sister-in-law of humiliating her with money and threatening her to leave him. The fateful trip was her final wish. Her death crushed me with guilt, but my brother dismissed it, holding a perfunctory funeral for her before moving on. I thought he had recommitted to his family, but while my sister-in-law recovered from childbirth, he slipped poison into our meal. "How do I have such a vile sister like you?" he spat. "And you... I only married you for family interests. You two killed the love of my life!" He set the house on fire, burning us alive. Even his newborn son wasn't spared. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on that fateful day.

From riches to rags. From perfect to flawed. Avianna has lived the best life everyone dreams of. Her life was perfectly filled with joy and happiness. She had everything and anything she wanted. And finally is married to the love of her life. But everything changed in a blink of an eye. Smiles curved into sadness. Happiness into tears. She lost everything, maybe even a bit of herself. No more riches, the man she loved dearly being a reason for the loss of their unborn child. And the reason why she can never have a child again. After losing everything to him she finally decides it's enough and divorces him. She finds herself drinking in a night club trying forget about everything that happened to her. Under the influence she ends up sleeping with a man she doesn't even know. ***Excerpt*** "What's your name?" he whispers his hot breath burning my ears. His beard tickling my skin. Hearing his voice for the first time I think I melted. Processing the deep, fruity voice in my mind. It took me just as long to answer his question. Scared that I might have already forgotten my own name. It felt hard to find words for it. "Avi-Avianna," my voice faint and brittle. " Beautiful name for a beautiful queen, " he whispers again. Did he just call me a queen? Beautiful queen? I couldn't control the smile that spreads on my face. " What's yours? " I ask. Even though knowing it didn't matter. I didn't care who he was but only what he was about to do to me.

His nose was an inch away from mine. Eyes looked down it with burning intensity. “You are mine, Adelia. And there is nothing in the world that can change that.” He growled, tracing the side of my face with a feather-light touch. I recoiled and swatted his hand away. Wanted to move backward. Out of his proximity but a strong hand settled on my lower back. Pulled me into him. Our eyes met again, letting all of my venom show in them. “You are married, Michael. Married and human! Us being mates doesn't take away from that fact.” I hissed. His blue eyes darkened. Hand flexed on my back. “Then turn me. Make me a wolf and I will be by your side until the world burns.” “Married. That is another obstacle. I won't be a home-wrecker. Never again.” I tried to move away from him. Away from the lurking promise of death and destruction if I gave in to him. Remained in his presence. But his hand twined with my dress. Forced me to stay so deathly close to him. I felt my resolve melt away. “She will understand. How can't she? We were destined to be together by the goddess herself.” He whispered and brushed his lips against my cheek. A shudder ran down my spine. “A goddess that you don't believe in.” Michael pulled away. Smiled cruelly down at me. “The only goddess I believe in is the one right in front of me.” I didn't stop him when his lips crashed into mine. Or when his tongue drifted over my bottom lip. Opened up for him so that he could explore the inside of my mouth. Devoured me whole. Morals be damned, then.

"Do you think I would hurt you? You were hand-selected for me by the Goddess." "I don't know what to think. I have waited the last two years to be claimed by you. I arrive here and I have been essentially ignored!" He stepped into me, his luminous golden eyes razing me with the stoked flames burning in their depth. "Madison, I want to love you. I have never wanted anything more than to love you!" His words were a fervent plea as he snatched my hand. "No, you wanted a Bride. A walking womb. Nothing more, nothing less." Ice settled in my chest. I could never love a monster that only wanted me for my ovaries. "So here I am, Husband. A ripe field to plow." He staggered back, my words cutting him as sharply as any knife. He turned his wounded gaze on me, but I steeled myself. I would not allow myself to believe this could ever be anything more than a business arrangement. I was a means to an end for the Weres. The continuation of their race. A broodmare. Madison Timms had known she would be a Moon-Bride since the year she turned sixteen. Now she has finally been claimed by her Alpha husband. When Alpha Xander Cross meets his goddess-blessed mate, he only wants to love her. Regardless of her humanity. Will his love thaw her icy heart? Or will they be torn apart by the world they are trying to rebuild?

For the ninety-ninth time, Thomas Wells brought a strange woman home. Following his instructions, I was washing Chloe Brooks's feet. Without warning, she kicked the basin violently, sending hot water splashing onto my face. "Thomas, Ms. Harris just pinched my foot! My feet are for ballet—I'm in so much pain. What am I supposed to do for tomorrow's competition?" Thomas flew into a rage. To punish me, he had someone bring a brazier, and I was forced to press my foot into the burning coals. The smell of burning flesh filled the entire living room in an instant. Thomas paid no attention as I collapsed to the floor, curling up and breaking out in a cold sweat. He turned away, carrying Chloe off to the bedroom. Shortly afterward, I called Thomas's sister, Tracy. "Tracy, I'm sorry. I don't intend to be with Thomas anymore." After that, I left and vanished from his life. Later, I heard that Mr. Wells of the Wells family had gone mad.

When my body was being dismembered, my fiance was helping my cousin choose her wedding dress. When he received my distress call, he said with disgust, "I hope you never come back! You can die with the bastard in your womb! Don't ever call me again. The mentioning of your name makes me sick!" After that, he found a body part of me in a water tank on the rooftop of a hotel. He thought it was a prank, so he actually ordered white lilies and candles to be delivered to my doorstep. Only when he found my head buried in the grass under his feet on the day of our wedding did he realize that it wasn't a prank.

"Let me go! Get your hands off me! Let me go!" I yelled, pushing against him furiously, but instead of releasing me, he slobbered kisses all over my face and I felt as if a worm was crawling on my skin. Suddenly, the door flew open, and facing me, looking at us was my mate - his face a cross between murderous rage and crippling shock. I quickly pushed the stranger away from me and rushed towards my mate. Before I could get to him, however, he stepped backward. "So it's true? So this is really who you are?! You've been cheating on me all this while?" "No, George, listen-" "How dare you defile our relationship and the position you have as Luna of this pack?!" "No-" "I should have listened to my family from the beginning. Should have listened when they told me you were nothing but filth, nothing but a gold digger out for what she can get from anyone!" Betrayed and accused of cheating on her mate, the Luna of Shadow Fangs Pack, Wendy Ashton, pleads with her mate, Alpha King George to believe her innocence. But the evidence was clear, everything pointed that she was indeed guilty. Wendy was brutally rejected and cast away like a worthless piece of trash to a point where she lost the little life growing inside her. Yet, her mate would not budge, he demanded divorce. Wendy has had enough, she decides to give him what he wants and sign the divorce documents. But Just when she was about to engrave her signature on the document, a sudden voice rang in her ears. "Do not sign, Wendy! This isn't the way of the Uktenas. Revenge! Revenge! Revenge!" Her wolf which everyone thought had died, suddenly appeared, its eyes burning red.

Two mafia families. One bloody feud. And a love that was never supposed to exist. Valenti Moretti is known as Ghost—a shadow in the underworld, a man feared for his precision and ruthlessness. But beneath the cold exterior lies a burning obsession he can't escape: Lorenzo De Luca, the golden prince of their rival family. Lorenzo's every smile, every calculated move with his perfect fiancée, is a reminder of what Ghost can never have—or forget. Their story began years ago, with a kiss neither of them were supposed to remember. Now, Ghost has a plan to make Lorenzo face the truth they both buried: a staged kidnapping, a forced reunion, and a chance to rewrite their fate. But Ghost goes a step further, paying the kidnappers to make them sleep together. But love born in the dark doesn’t thrive without consequences. As secrets unravel and both families spiral into chaos, Ghost and Lorenzo find themselves drawn together by the very forces tearing them apart. Loyalties will shatter. Blood will spill. And when the truth about their past comes to light, they’ll have to decide whether their connection is worth destroying everything—or if it was doomed from the start. In this deadly game of power, hate, and obsession, how far will you go to claim the one thing you can’t have?

Vampires and humans cohabit in peace in the City of Pinephil. Vampires are divided into two factions: shadow vampires are the ones who put mercy on the bottom of their list and scavengers are those who do not take pleasure in killing and clanking a glass of human blood but to celebrate holidays like an ordinary human being. And oftentimes, Scavenger Hut is a place to be if you want a safe celebration between you and your family. But behind these great cuisines stands a two-star Michelin chef who has spent his life savoring every drop of chances to earn his third star and vanquish La Rosa. But how can he do it when his adversary is a coward who crawls to the Elders' feet and hides behind his puppets? But as he continues to walk through a crooked path of vengeance and burning ideas... a passerby will hook his craving.

My Alpha mate Kieran ordered our eight-year-old son to burn my mother alive because his Omega assistant accused me of killing her pet dog out of spite. Kieran's eyes were filled with impatience and disgust. "You're supposed to be our pack's respected Luna. Why would you target an innocent Omega? Whatever harm her pet suffered, your mother will endure the same. Your mother is paying the price for your jealousy!" I fell to my knees, begging Kieran to spare my mother. But he commanded our seven-year-old son Owen to light the fire himself. My son didn't hesitate for a second as he threw the torch into the pile of wood. "That's what you get for always going against Aunt Sera!" I screamed and cried, desperately begging them to help me put out the flames. "Please, I'm begging you, take my mother to the healing center..." "Enough, Aria. Your mother is still lying in the hospital bed. That's just a training dummy. Stop putting on this pathetic act." After saying that, father and son walked away without looking back. They didn't know that it really was my mother burning in those flames. But when I finally gave up on them and left, why did they both come crawling back, begging me to return?