Chapter 17 Their Eyes Were Watching God

No girls allowed. No secrets exposed. No mercy given. Elara has broken all three. Disguised as a boy named Riven, Elara slips into Lupinemore Academy. The elite battlefield for the most brutal and brilliant shifters in the realm. Her mission? Survive long enough to learn the skills to protect her pack and take back what had been stolen from her. But when she’s forced to spar the undefeated Kael Ardent and wins, everything starts to change. It turns out winning exposes you faster than losing. Now the Ardent brothers; the dangerously perceptive Cassidan, the soft-spoken but sharp-eyed Damon, and Kael, her violent, obsessive rival are watching her too closely. What happens when uncontrolled emotions spew? What happens when they find out that their new and scrawny roommate was not just a girl but their mate? Would they keep her secret or feed her to the wolves? It was survival of the fittest but Elara had already dropped into dangerous waters the moment she was sent to room with the Ardent brothers. Her family’s natural foe.

In the Bennet family, Rue had long been jealous of her twin sister, Rachel. She concocted a plan to get Rachel drunk and send her into a stranger's bed at their birthday party, hoping that she would be expelled from the Bennet family with her ruined reputation. However, in the playful hands of fate, Rachel bedded Edward Bluemel, the richest man in the world, and became pregnant. Edward fell head over heels for Rachel, and actively searched for the woman with whom he only had the fortune to meet once. With Rue's manipulation, the couple’s reunion was prevented. Nine months later, Rachel gave birth to a pair of twin boys, which fueled Rue's flames of jealousy once more. In order to take over Rachel’s place as Edward’s wife, Rue took one of the twins and pretended to be her. With that, she managed to marry Edward, though she never had his favor since then. Five years passed, the other twin that was raised by Rachel had grown up to be a cute, kind prodigy. By chance, he entered an upper-class kindergarten where he met his twin brother for the first time…

Cory Sullivan, my ten-year-old son, joins a swimming class organized by his school. A bunch of his fellow students end up pinning him to the drain of the swimming pool. I spot the streak of red in the water and completely lose my mind. I immediately dash over to save Cory, but by the time I do, his face has turned swollen and blue from the suction. Blood trickles from his mouth. He's no longer breathing. Andy Webster, the ringleader of the trio who hurt Cory, arrogantly declares that he won't be criminally prosecuted because he's a minor. "So what if I did it? He started getting on my nerves ages ago! Now that he's dead, no one else can compete with me to be the top in our class." Andy's father, Greg Thompson, condescendingly throws me a debit card. "There's 100 thousand dollars in there. That should be enough to make up for your son's worthless life." Outrage, I demand justice, but my wife, Sheryl Lowe, stops me. "Andy's just a kid himself. Are you going to force someone else's kid to lose his freedom just because your own son is dead?" I stop at nothing in the pursuit of justice, but Andy simply gets sent to a juvenile detention center. That's nowhere near enough for me. Eventually, I lose all hope. I lie down at Cory's grave and swallow a bottle of sleeping pills. Suddenly, my eyes open again. I've returned to the day I took Cory to the swimming pool. I immediately drag him off to take him back home before anything happens, but alas, a young boy still ends up losing his life at the pool.

Is it possible to love two people at once? The complicated yet thrilling love story between Aria, Erin, and Alexander. Aria comes from a wealthy family, one of the influential families in town, she is a witch with powers beyond her imagination, she believes her life is about to get better as she turns 18 years and escapes the claws of her overbearing parent, but little did she know that she was about to be thrust to a complicated love cycle. She reaches her mate packs, and discovers that he is Alpha and already mated to another; Erin. Alexander, the alpha of the pack, is confused as he knows that both women are his mate but both women want to be the only Luna. Aria ends up rejecting Alexander and leaving. Alexander is devastated and doesn't seem to be himself anymore. Erin decides to be sacrificial and leave so that Alexander can go after Aria but little did she know she was already pregnant for him. Alexander ends up lonely and devastated and concentrates on being an Alpha Alone. A few years later Alexander and Aria meet again and begin to explore their romantic relationship, but Erin shows up again but not alone, she has a sick child who needs the blood of her father to survive. Alexander begs Erin to stay as he wants to get to know his child, Erin agrees and Aria is displeased as she is so angry that Erin is always in the picture, but she then realizes that she starts having feelings for Erin and tries to fight it. The three explore the complexity of their relationship and try to find a balance.

Everyone envied how my best friend and I mated to the Alpha twins of the Creek Pack. But the pack didn't know that Victoria, their widowed stepmother, was the one the Alpha twins truly loved. My best friend Cathy and I planned to run away, but the night before our escape, she poisoned herself with wolfsbane. I called her mate Damon, but he sneered, "Luna, my brother says, your and Cathy's little tricks are getting really old. Are you going to jump off Silver Cliff tomorrow?"

Maynard Hansen planned a luxury birthday cruise for Darlene Thompson, but the cruise ship capsized when a violent storm swept in without warning. Without hesitation, Maynard gave the last seat on the lifeboat to Darlene. As I struggled in the water, my son, Waldo Hansen—whom I carried for nine months and gave birth to—cried out, "Don't let Mom up! She'll push Ms. Thompson off." Clutching nothing but a broken plank, I somehow made it to shore. By the time I collapsed on the sand, I was frozen, exhausted, and done. I had never felt so alone. Shortly after, I found myself clutching a diagnosis of severe depression in my hand. I was ready to bring this wretched life to a quiet end. But when my husband and son realized I truly didn't want to live anymore, they collapsed into tears. They wrapped their arms around me as they sobbed, "Please don't leave us. We really can't live without you."

BLURB Jinx. Mute. Freak. Murderer. For Ariella,these words were her identity. A prison she could not escape. Until a brutal attack shattered it all,awakening a terrifying power that proved she was never weak. It also marked her as the mate to two devastatingly powerful men. Ethan, her cold, mysterious professor, whose burning gaze promises a desire his icy actions deny AND Lucien,her stepbrother and future Alpha, whose obsession is so absolute he would reduce the world to ashes to claim her. Both a forbidden bond that leaves her stuck. Caught between a lie that tempts her and a truth that could destroy her, Ariella must master the monstrous power within. But an ancient evil lurks in the shadows, and it doesn’t want to love her. It wants to claim her, and its fatal touch will be the end of everything she is.

After reuniting with my birth family, my wealthy biological father tossed me a black card and laid down one rule: I could spend as much as I wanted, but I was never to call him Dad—that title belonged only to his adoptive daughter. Clutching the black card, I cautiously bought myself a two-dollar-fifty ice cream cone. Just as I was happily licking the sweet ice cream, the adoptive daughter dropped to her knees before me. "Alice, are you mocking me because I can't even afford something that costs two-fifty in the future?" My brother immediately slapped me twice. "You have money now, but you can't split love. Natalie is my one and only sister!" Then my father splashed boiling water onto my face. "No disgraceful wretch deserves to be a Gervais." To punish me, they sent me off to Rimala, forced to work as a child laborer in the mines. Ten years later, I walked into a grand banquet hall with an ice cream in hand and came face-to-face with my brother, Ansel Gervais, dressed in a hand-tailored suit. "All these years and you're still a disgrace," he sneered, but I couldn't be bothered to argue. "Let go. My dad's waiting for me—and if I'm any later, the ice cream's going to melt." He looked down at me with contempt. "Dad? Who gave you permission to call him that? Natalie will forever be the only Gervais girl—no one can take that away from her!" I rolled my eyes. Who said I was talking about that cheap excuse for a father? I was talking about my adoptive father—the oil tycoon with an incurable sweet tooth. I was in a hurry to let him taste some ice cream.

"Do you want to get fu¢ked too?" he continued, his green eyes boring into mine as he bit his lips. "Do you want to swallow my ¢øck like that?"My nipples tightened painfully, and I hated the sweet, strange feeling spreading through my body. What was wrong with me?But then his expression changed, becoming cruel and cold."Your type belongs in the zoo," he said with a disgusted laugh. "With the big mighty elephants, waiting for your fat thighs and fat pussy."I choked on my own saliva, the words hitting me like physical blows. Axel had never talked to me that way before. Why was my body still reacting to him? Sera lived a life of humiliation due to her physical body size in Summer West Academy, she suffered and lived through the trauma just because the society didn't see her as a normal human. She hid her wolf and identity trying to blend in and lay low until the day the moon Goddess decided to pair her with Four dangerous Biker Alphas in the school. What started as hatred and disgust turned into something extremely Feral when she decided to take her revenge on them.

My body has a special nourishing effect. However, both of my marriage engagements were called off. My first fiance was a religious man who broke his celibacy to make love to me. He canceled the engagement because he couldn't forgive himself. My second fiance was my childhood friend. He made love to me every night. Then, he apologized to me and said I couldn't satisfy him. When I was about to take my life, I saw them acting out a pure love story at my friend's bedside. "Sophia, I won't force you if you don't want to do it." "For you, I'm fine with keeping our relationship platonic. I don't mind if we never do it. I can hold myself back!" They treat her gently, as if she will shatter with a single kiss. I put the noose away and call my father. "Dad, I'm not against it anymore. You can send me to the son of the Lowell family to treat his impotence."