Charlie The Santa Clause

A companion book to the Trio of Mates series, this book describes how the original pairings of the trios came together: Lovers to Friends: The story of Carl (Brandon's dad) and Richard and Lauren (Devin's parents). Destined for Each Other: The story of Corinda, Casen, and Severn In the Midst of Battle: The story of Bhakti and Liam Right Place, Wrong Time: The story of Gael and Hakeem I Always Knew: The story of Charlie and Zak

My wedding starts at 12:00 pm on the dot. There are 58 tables, each table costing 8888 dollars. 120 bottles of premium liquor have been opened. 300 packs of top-tier cigarettes are unsealed. At 2:30 pm, all the guests have left the scene, leaving nothing but a huge mess behind. That's when a server hands me the bill. "It'll be 510 thousand dollars, miss." I'm left gobsmacked. "I'm a wedding guest, not the organizer." The groom is Charlie Humboldt, my ex-boyfriend. At the moment, he takes his pregnant bride, Sasha Fitch, by the hand while sneering at me. "Since you're here, you might as well foot the bill. Think of it as your way of compensating for my youth." Charlie's mother, Melissa Carlton, moves to block the door. "If you're not paying the bill, then you can forget about leaving. No one wants you anyway, so you might as well stay here and pay off your debt by working as a dishwasher!" As I stare at the shameless family, I dig out my phone quietly. What they don't know is that this five-star hotel is a gift from my dad to me.

This is what we do. We fight, we fuck, and we pretend it's fixed. He rips his shirt over his head, the sound of tearing fabric loud in the silence. And I freeze. My hands, which were reaching for him, stop. There. Coiling over his ribs, wrapping around his side, crawling up toward his heart, is an identical replica of Madilyn’s tattoo. "Charlie," he breathes, but it doesn't sound like his voice. His hands are rough, grabbing my hips. One hand slides, pressing hard against my stomach. No. The baby. My baby.

Eleanor always wanted a fresh start. She was raised in the mafia and was constantly exposed to guns, death, and blood. On the night she is kidnapped by an infamous Don, she manages to escape. But instead of going back to her old life, she decides to start a new one. She runs into the city of Rome and her true passion and love for food are sparked. When she meets Dante Santa Cruz, she no longer believes that anything can return her to the world she fled. But how could she forget that she was the daughter of the mad queen?

Where she’s been for the last two and half years was a mystery, and so was the reason she left in the first place. Now, though, she’s back in their hometown of Santa Monica, California, even if it means facing the boy(Conor) she fell in love with and revealing the reason she left. Conor has questions, and when his broken heart and her guilty one collide. Only one thing is certain: Chloe’s daughter will change everything

As Christmas drew near, my little sister claimed she’d seen Santa Claus in the house. “He had four legs, real long, like dead branches. He crawled on the floor like a dog. His mouth was full of teeth, and I saw him with my own eyes, climbing out of the chimney. His bones were making this clicking, clacking sound.” The Santa she described was nothing like the legends. My parents and I thought it was just her imagination. Until I posted about it online. A user named “NocturneNotes” insisted my sister wasn’t lying, and that the thing was dangerous. Panicked, I asked him what we should do. He gave me three rules: “On Christmas Eve, from 11:30 PM to 2:00 AM, the entire family must ‘sleep’ by the Christmas tree.” “You can’t actually fall asleep, or you’ll die in your sleep.” “No matter what you hear or feel, you absolutely cannot open your eyes or stop pretending to be asleep. Once it hits 2:00 AM, it will leave on its own.”

Zack clears his throat. "We have been dreaming about Brandon Snow." "Ahhh," Lucille says, smiling and nodding her head. "The future Beta. And a white wolf to boot. Your future pups will be quite beautiful with Charlie's chocolate coloring and Zak's reddish hue. The three of you will make wonderful parents." Zak's mouth drops open and Charlie squeaks out, "Our future... pups!" "What do you know of Selene and her mates?" Lucille asks. "Mates? I only know of one mate. Pan," Charlie says. "As the god of the wild and the goddess of the moon, Pan and Selene's children became werewolves. Wild creatures who were controlled by the moon." "Ahhh. Is that what they are teaching the young pups now? That Selene only had one mate? I knew that they didn't want mate trios any longer, but I didn't know that they would attempt to change even Selene's story," Lucille chuckles. "Alpha, Luna, do you truly believe that if there was no humanity in their coupling that we would be human at all?" "Wait. What?" Zak says. "If we were only children of Pan and Selene, we would always be wild creatures. Nymphs, satyrs, centaurs. But we aren't. Of course, we could remain in our wolf form all the time if we wish, but we always have the ability to shift into human form. No, young ones, Selene had two mates. One, the god Pan. The other, a human man named Endymion. We get our wolves from Pan, our pull to the moon from Selene, and our human selves from Endymion," Lucille says. "Why..." Zak licks his lips and starts again. "Why weren't we told this?" "Ahhh," Lucille breathes out, taking a sip of her coffee. "Because not every wolf has two mates, as Selene did. As you two do."

I saved his life… but he loved my sister for it. Charlie Kingsley was my first love… and my greatest mistake. As children, I pulled him back from the edge of death, yet he chose to believe it was my younger sister who saved him. From that moment on, his heart belonged to her… and I became invisible. Then everything shattered. An accident left my sister paralyzed, and somehow, I became the villain in everyone’s story. Even Charlie looked at me with hatred, convinced I had destroyed the woman he loved. When she disappeared without a trace, I thought the nightmare would end. I was wrong. He dragged me into a marriage built on revenge, swearing to make me pay for a crime I didn’t commit. For years, I endured his cruelty in silence… until the day my sister returned… perfectly healed, determined to reclaim him. So I signed the divorce papers and walked away. What he didn’t know? I was carrying his child. Years later, I’m no longer the broken girl he once despised. I’ve built an empire from nothing, and now, I stand as his equal… his rival. But when the truth finally comes out… when he realizes I was the one who saved him all along… will his regret be enough? Or is it already too late to win back the woman he destroyed?

My life shattered before my eyes: my fiancé with my stepsister, my career in ruins. Then, Alexander Lockwood appeared. The reclusive billionaire offered me a way out; a contract to be his wife. It was the perfect deal. He needed a partner to secure his empire. I needed the power and resources to rebuild mine. Our marriage was meant to be a transaction: cold, logical, and mutually beneficial. I just never read the clause about what happens when you fall in love with the man who’s hiding an unforgivable secret.

My husband, James Lincoln, disappeared in an accident, and my in-laws wasted no time filing to have him legally declared deceased. At the funeral, a woman, Xena Xander, suddenly showed up with a young boy, both crying hysterically. The boy, Charlie Lincoln, screamed at the top of his lungs, calling my husband “Daddy.” My ten-year-old daughter, Mia Lincoln, charged at him, shouting, “Shut up! That’s my dad!” Pretending to break it up, my in-laws instead shoved Mia to the ground. She collapsed and passed out on the spot. “If you’re looking for someone to blame, blame yourself for not giving us a grandson! This family can’t die out without an heir!” Xena smirked at me with blatant provocation. Behind her, Charlie spat in my direction and sneered, “You’re just a worthless tramp nobody cares about.” I didn’t lose my temper. Instead, I laughed. “If you want the status and the inheritance so badly, you can have them. But don’t come crying to me when you regret it.” Two weeks later, Xena showed up at my doorstep, covered in blood, banging on the door and screaming. And then, I got a phone call that felt like a nightmare come to life. But I couldn’t have cared less. By then, I was already enjoying a peaceful vacation overseas.