Chapter Unlikely Escape Route

Diane always thought to herself that if ever she had the chance to turn things around, will she do it? Or if she ever had the chance to run away from the start, will she run or stay? Truth is... Hindi niya alam. Maybe if she was asked to run away from the moment they had laid their eyes on each other, she would probably grab the chance to run away from him... from that scary, cold and heartless gaze. But why and how will she ever want to escape his cold gaze when she is already trapped in his warm heart?

I was born with a strange condition. I couldn't recognize faces and could only identify people by their clothes. Vincent Lancaster, my boyfriend, never minded. He said it didn't change the way he loved me. That was, until our wedding day. He answered a phone call. His childhood friend, Grace Langley, was in labor, life hanging by a thread, and she demanded he come immediately. My voice shook with despair. "Vincent! If you drive away now, we'll never be husband and wife!" But he left anyway, not looking back. Grace had always loved seeing him in white, so he threw aside the black suit I had sewn for him with my own hands and changed into white. A year later, Vincent returned. By then, my belly was swollen with life, and I was holding onto another man while hosting a baby shower. And the man wore the black suit Vincent had thrown away. Vincent went mad, claiming he was my husband, but no one believed him.

My husband and I have been legally married for five years. This is the tenth time he's canceled our wedding ceremony. This time? His student, Laura, is competing in her first international violin competition—and he 'needs' to be there. I still remember the last cancellation: an awards ceremony he had to attend with her. The time before that? She fell ill, and he stayed at her hospital bedside. The other times? I've lost count of the excuses, but it doesn't matter. The reason is always Laura. Her needs always outweighed my wedding. My marriage. My life. Fine. If he wanted to stand by Laura so badly, he could stay there forever. This hollow, five-year farce of a marriage? It's over.

On the night of our mating ceremony, my mate, Damon, marked another she-wolf right in front of me. He said that if I wanted to be his Luna, I had to accept him having us both. In my past life, I screamed at him, accusing him of defying the Moon Goddess. Pressured by the Elders, he was forced to banish Lyla. She was run down by rogues and fell from a cliff to her death. After that, Damon refused to ever mark me. He even framed me, luring me into the forbidden lands as a pretext to banish me. Then, he hunted me down and killed me himself. I remember my body being picked apart by birds, the agony of it all. But now, I just stared at Damon's cold face, and at the Omega, Lyla, cradled in his arms. Then, I calmly reached up and removed the sacred symbol of our fated bond. "I refuse." And with that, under the shocked gazes of the entire pack, I walked away, heading for the frozen lands of the North. This time, I will make every single wolf who hurt me pay.

La novena ceremonia de unión entre el Rey Alfa, Thorne Ravencrest, y yo, finalmente ha llegado. Sin embargo, una vez más, no logré convertirme en su Reina Luna. No porque él rompiera su promesa, sino porque no estoy lo suficientemente calificada. Los Ancianos dejaron muy claro que, cada Reina Luna reconocida por la Diosa de la Luna, a lo largo de la historia debe cultivar 365 Flores de Luz de Luna, utilizando su propia esencia de sangre. Pero cada año, en la víspera de la ceremonia, sin importar cuánto cuidado tenga, siempre falta una flor. Este año, casi me desangré por completo y apenas logré cultivar el número correcto. Extasiada, voy a buscar a Thorne, queriendo sorprenderlo. A través de la puerta entreabierta de la sala del trono, escucho a su Beta decirle: —Rey Alfa, Sera lo ha estado esperando por ocho años. ¿Alguna vez se unirá a ella? Thorne sacude la cabeza. —Le prometí a Willow que este año tampoco podemos unirnos. Su Beta vacila. —¿Y si Sera realmente logra cultivar suficientes Flores de Luz de Luna? Thorne se queda en silencio por un momento y luego aplaude. Un lobo de las sombras aparece y se funde en la oscuridad. Poco después, el lobo regresa con una Flor de Luz de Luna entre sus mandíbulas. Él desgarra la flor hasta hacerla trizas y deja escapar un suspiro. —Sera tiene sangre de sobra. Olvida un año; ella podría seguir cultivando flores por otros diez años y estar bien. Pero Willow ha sido envenenada con acónito. Soy todo lo que le queda, y ella me quiere a su lado en sus últimos días. No soporto rechazar a Willow, lo que significa que Sera simplemente tendrá que esperar un poco más. Me muerdo el labio con fuerza, apenas capaz de creer lo que escucho. Así que las Flores de Luz de Luna que desaparecían misteriosamente siempre fueron destruidas por él. Convertirme en Reina Luna ha sido mi sueño desde la infancia. Pero si él nunca tuvo la intención de unirse a mí, entonces es hora de que lo deje.

Before my wedding, I went to find my fiancé with a pregnancy test in hand, intending to surprise him. Instead, I overheard a heated argument between two men on the terrace. "My dear brother, didn't you personally send her to my bed just to get revenge for Elena?" The man, identical to my fiancé, twirled a USB drive in his hand, a wicked smirk playing on his lips. I had been with my fiancé for seven years, yet I had no idea he had a twin brother. What was worse, I never realized that during those passionate nights when I thought my fiancé was finally showing me affection, the man lying beside me was actually his twin. And all of this happened simply because their "savior" despised me. To repay his debt to her, my fiancé tacitly allowed this humiliation. It turned out that the love I had cherished for seven years was nothing more than a twisted game of revenge the brothers had orchestrated together, all to please another woman.

Barbara always gets what she wants except for one thing, freedom. She must not leave the house alone without being accompanied by at least one of her parents.Like a child.On the other hand, everything changed after she met Saga who claimed to be a vampire.Barbara is a wolvire, a crossbreed between wolf-shifters and vampires. However, that is not what makes it bad.She has holy blood targeted by some who are oriented towards evil. One of them is the Cursed.Will Barbara manage to escape or even hide from him? Will she manage to keep herself from being controlled by the devil to summon darkness?One day in a city in Indonesia, chaos struck. Darkness hung in the sky and seemed to be fog in the air. What is wrong? Is it related to Barbara?__________________________A gift is a gift.What makes it a curse is the apparent human desire for dark power. Fight, or all will be destroyed._____________________________Chapter "A" for first-person narrative (I)Chapter "B" for third-person narrative (he/she)Chapter "AB" for narrative in two points of view at once (I, he/she)

On the Northwind Trail, just before sunrise, my flashlight cut across the inside of the SUV and landed on five lifeless bodies. My hands shook as I dialed 911. "Hello? I'm on Route 296, the Northwind Trail. Everyone in my car… is dead." The operator's voice was calm but quick. "Please confirm your location. Officers are on their way." My words dropped heavy and flat, like stones hitting the ground. "I'm on Route 296, about three miles east of the mountain pass. The plate number is NA318X. Five people inside the car are dead… and I'm the only one alive."

I was the Holy Maiden of the Beast World, foretold by the High Priest. I was also the future Beast Lady. Three of the best males were carefully selected to become my mates. However, I knew that they disliked me, even planning to kill me on our wedding night and hand my Holy Maiden position to my half-sister, whom they truly loved. Thus, when my father asked me to choose one of them to be my chief mate, I knelt on the sacred ground and drew lots, hoping the heavens could help me. Unexpectedly, I drew the clan's High Priest.

“I own you now.” He showed the agreement paper with her father’s signature. “Your father used you as collateral to pay his debt.” This statement left her stunned. *** David Cruz is a mafia lord, and he was searching for someone he could marry right away so he could have a son to inherit all his assets and follow in his footsteps. In the most unlikely places, he finds his perfect match. Mariane Ramos was working part-time in the bar when David Cruz noticed her. To force her hand, David approaches her father and offers to pay his debts in exchange for Mariane. Will she be able to get away from this situation? Or will she be forced to marry the mafia lord?