Chicken Soup

My mate Derek, Alpha of the SilverCrest Pack, secretly marked me two years ago. But he still hasn't held our mating ceremony to publicly announce my position. I've been working as his "assistant," helping him manage pack affairs all this time. Every time Derek cheats with his childhood sweetheart, Vivian, he promises to finally hold our mating ceremony. Two years. Ten promised ceremonies. Ten broken promises. The first time, he said Vivian's dog had died. "I can't hold a celebration while she's grieving," he told me, his eyes not quite meeting mine. "It wouldn't be right." The second time, Vivian had a stomach ache. He left the ceremony venue minutes before it was supposed to start, rushing off to cook soup for his precious childhood friend. After that, each scheduled mating ceremony fell through because his childhood sweetheart always had some kind of emergency. I've cried. I've screamed. I've begged. Derek always gives me the same answer: "Viv and I are just friends. You're my true mate. Taking care of pack members is your responsibility too. Don't be so jealous." After the tenth canceled ceremony, I finally gave up. I slid the mate bond dissolution papers across his desk. "The Alpha Council has approved our request to break the mate bond," I said, my voice steadier than I expected. "You and I are no longer connected." That’s when the powerful Alpha went crazy...

The carnivorous ways of the Aswang leave little room for love - much less a forbidden one between a queen and human girl. Little did Aswang Queen Catarina know, soon, her life would be changed by a plucky American biologist. A blue eyed, blonde adventurer, Rose Smith from California, who would make Catarina question all she knew, and want to make a human Her Aswang Woman King. ___ Catarina Rosales Marquez, 26, is the Aswang Queen of the Domminga Mountains, but she abhors eating humans. She has genetically engineered the fruits of her goddess Ikapati to produce human proteins in order to bring peace to Mindanao - but the Aswang do not trust this revolutionary, peaceful Queen - and are wary of the American biologist she has taken under her wing. Rose Smith is a German-American biologist doing her dissertation on the elusive, endangered Phillippines Eagle. Having studied the Tarsier in her undergraduate semester abroad in Manila, she fell in love with chicken adobo, pandesal - and Filipina women. Eager to be the first American biologist to do a longitudinal study of the Phillipines Eagle, she sets out into the Domminga Mountains on a bus with a one-way ticket - not afraid of the local's warnings of the rabid Iktapati Aswang Clan that eats humans, and roving bands of Tikbalang werehorses that stampede trespassers to death. When Catarina and Rose collide, it is oil and flame. Catarina, expected to marry a King, finds herself questioning the very cosmos of relationships - can she take a Queen, and a feisty American grad student at that? And can Rose come to terms with the elusive, seductive courts of the Vampiric Aswang? When the Iktapati clan rebels, the Tikbalang war, and the wind spirits coquette, Rose and Catarina must team up to save the humans of Mindanao - and the Phillipines eagle!

When the Jensens reunite with their long-lost biological daughter, Lyra Jensen, they kick out my girlfriend, Lorraine Jensen, the daughter they'd mistakenly raised in her place. Not wanting to see Lorraine fall into destitution, I go crazy spending all my money on luxury goods for her so that she can still hold her head up high in public. For Lorraine's sake, I openly refuse to marry Lyra. Moved to tears, Lorraine swears she'll love me forever. Yet, when she eventually becomes the top female CEO in Jannington, the first thing she does is bring my family to ruin and destroy my life. She drives my father to jump off a building and gives my mother a heart attack. I beg her to save my mother, but she locks me in a cage and lets her assistant, Evan Scott, torture me as he pleases. When I confront her, she sneers and says to me, "I've had enough of you acting all high and mighty in front of me, Cyrus. Your so-called attempt to support me was just you using your money to humiliate me! "To me, your money is worth less than a bowl of soup Evan makes for me." Even until my last breath, resentment is all I can feel. … My eyes open once more. I've been reborn back in time, during my first attempt to back Lorraine up in public. She throws aside the sapphire necklace I gave her and declares with a cold, haughty gaze, "I don't need your pity, Cyrus. Don't even try to act all superior to my face."

Maya Reyes is twenty-six, quietly resilient, and out of options. When she takes a live-in nanny position for a Manhattan billionaire, she expects a difficult employer and a lonely child. She gets both, but she also gets Ethan Cole. Ethan lost his wife eighteen months ago and has been managing the grief the only way he knows how: by controlling everything around him. His apartment is spotless, his rules are laminated, his daughter Lily is the only crack in the armour he has built around his life, and it is through Lily that Maya begins to see the man underneath. What follows is not a dramatic love story, it is a quiet one. He carries her to her room when she falls asleep on the floor, he heats her soup when she hasn't eaten. He holds her hand in a dark car and lets go like it never happened. She cooks for him, confronts him, tells him truths no one else will, and slowly without either of them naming it, they become the most important person in each other's lives. But grief doesn't move in straight lines. When Ethan's fear gets the better of him, he tries to restore the distance, and nearly loses the one thing that has made him want to come back to life. It will take a four-year-old's unfiltered honesty, a letter Maya writes from the floor of her room, and a man finally choosing to stop running, for both of them to find their way to the other side of it. When Winter Blooms is a story about what love looks like before anyone admits it exists, and what it costs to let it.

My mom is a retired supermodel. She's added a monitor to the weight scales at home so that she can monitor my and my sister, Abigail Teller's perfect body weight. If my data goes up by 0.1%, Mom will ban me from eating for the next three days. But the thing is, Abigail keeps eating fried chicken every day, yet her monitor's light is always green. Mom claims that Abigail's still going through puberty. I defend myself, saying that I've gained weight because of the bloating caused by my period. As Mom points at the red light emitted by my monitor, she exclaims, "The data is never wrong! If you've gained weight, that means you've been snacking far too much!" After getting punished many times, I begin believing that being fat is a sin. On the night of my 20th birthday, the long-term diet I've been placed on has triggered my kidney failure, which causes me to bloat up everywhere. I kneel on the floor and plead to Mom that I'm seriously ill. But that's when the monitor lets out a shrill alarm. When Mom sees the 5% increase in my body fat data, she puts me through a devillish punishment. I can feel the electric currents jolting through my body. "It's bad enough that you've secretly snacked on cake, but to even lie in my face about your illness? I'd like to see how long you can stay stubborn for!" Having said her piece, Mom locks the door and takes Abigail out to celebrate her birthday. I guess Mom is correct. Monitors never lie. I'm the one who's at the wrong for being a glutton. That's why I've transformed into a monster who doesn't deserve any love at all. I'm sorry, Mom. I'll only drink water in my next life.

I knock on the door, heart pounding like it always does when I’m about to see him. “Come in,” Justin’s voice calls—cool, smooth, and frustratingly calm. I take a deep breath and walk in, holding the folder tightly. “Here’s the report you requested, sir.” He doesn’t even glance at me. Just keeps typing, his expression unreadable. “You’re late,” he says without missing a beat. I clench my jaw. “There was a delay at the printer—” “No excuses, Joanna. Just do better next time.” Ouch. Professional and cold. As always. I nod, ignoring the sting in my chest. “Yes, sir.” I turn to leave, gripping the doorknob—just one more second and I’ll be out of this weird tension-filled office— “Wait.” I freeze. I turn around slowly. “Yes?” Justin stands now, walking toward me. In his hand, a familiar brown paper bag. He holds it out. “You didn’t have lunch.” I blink. “I’m fine.” “You skipped breakfast too. Eat.” I hesitate. “What is it?” “Chicken pesto. No onions.” My breath catches. He still remembers? “Why are you doing this?” I ask quietly. He shrugs, not meeting my eyes. “I just… remember things.” My fingers brush his as I take the bag. Warmth. Stupid warmth that shouldn’t still feel this familiar. Then, he looks at me—really looks at me. “You shouldn’t skip meals… wife.” Silence. My chest tightens. “Don’t call me that.” But my voice is too soft to sound convincing. I walk out before I say something I’ll regret. His words echo in my mind like a dangerous lullaby. Cold one second. Kilig the next. God… he’s still him. And that’s exactly the problem.

Le mariage avant l'amour… le héros et l’héroïne à l'esprit purUne grande souffrance à la poursuite de sa femmeL'attrait extrêmeLa force et la violenceLe jour du divorce de Cynthia Lambert, un accord de divorce est soudainement apparu sur l'internet. Larecherche est devenue virale en quelques minutes avec de nombreux commentaires.Parmi eux, la raison du divorce était marquée d’un stylo rouge : L’homme souffrait d’un dysfonctionnement sexuel et était incapable de remplir les obligations fondamentales du couple.La nuit, elle était coincée dans la cage d'escalier.La voix de l'homme était basse : « Je vais prouver que je n’ai pas de dysfonctionnement. »Après son divorce, Cynthia est passée d'une petite employée de bureau à un statut d’experte la plus jeune et la plus talentueuse dans le cercle de la restauration des biens culturels.Elle s'est alors rendu compte que son ex-mari, Michel Perrier, qui avait l'habitude de rester constamment hors de la maison, apparaissait de plus en plus souvent devant elle.Lors d'une soirée, on a demandé à Cynthia ce qu'elle pensait de lui à présent. Elle s'est plainte paresseusement et a dit : « Ennuyeux et méprisable, il n’aime que celle qui ne l'aime pas. »Michel s'est approché et l’a prise dans ses bras : « Peu importe à quel point je suis méprisable, je ne vois pas que tu as un soupçon de pitié. »

Noël approche dans une petite ville enneigée. Élise, photographe solitaire, revient dans la maison familiale pour la première fois depuis la mort de sa mère. Elle n’est pas seule : à ses côtés, Noé, son fils de six ans, curieux et rêveur, dont les yeux semblent souvent chercher quelque chose ou quelqu’un. Tout lui semble figé : les guirlandes, la neige, les rires des autres. Rien ne la réchauffe vraiment. Un soir, au marché de Noël, elle croise Jonas, l’homme qu’elle a aimé autrefois. Celui qu’elle a fui sans un mot. Celui qu’elle a aimé assez fort pour le perdre. Le choc est silencieux, mais profond : un regard suffit. Jonas remarque la ressemblance entre Noé et lui, et un soupçon interdit germe dans son esprit. Le sourire, le regard, certains gestes , tout semble trop familier. Les jours suivants, la neige isole la ville. Jonas vient les voir sous prétexte d’aider, puis reste plus longtemps, trop longtemps. Entre eux, la tension renaît, la pudeur se fissure. Dans la maison glacée, au milieu des jouets et des souvenirs, la passion resurgit, brute et irrésistible , mêlant la tendresse d’hier à la douleur d’aujourd’hui. Chaque baiser, chaque étreinte est un mélange de désir et de culpabilité, car Jonas ne peut ignorer la possibilité que Noé soit son fils. Mais Jonas n’est pas revenu libre : il vit ailleurs, il va se marier. Élise sait qu’elle ne peut ni le retenir, ni lui révéler la vérité. Le silence devient leur complice, tandis que la neige tombe dehors et que Noé dort, ignorant tout. Au matin, Jonas s’en va. Noé se réveille et demande : — Il reviendra, le monsieur aux yeux tristes ? Élise sourit doucement, les yeux pleins d’eau. — Peut-être… quand la neige reviendra.

Alexander Carter, un puissant milliardaire, voit sa vie basculer lorsqu’un tragique accident lui arrache sa femme enceinte, Elena. Brisé, il refuse d’accepter que ce drame soit un simple hasard. Convaincu qu’il s’agit d’un meurtre déguisé, il se lance dans une quête de vengeance implacable. Après des mois d’enquête et de doutes, il finit par identifier une famille qu’il soupçonne d’être responsable de la mort d’Elena. Incapable de frapper directement ceux qu’il accuse, il choisit une cible inattendue : une jeune femme innocente, issue de cette famille. Il la kidnappe, persuadé qu’elle détient des réponses… ou qu’elle peut lui servir d’appât pour attirer les coupables. Mais ce qu’Alexander n’avait pas prévu, c’était qu’au fil des jours passés à la retenir captive, un trouble grandissant s’empare de lui. Derrière sa colère et sa soif de vengeance, une autre émotion commence à émerger… une attirance dangereuse, insidieuse, qu’il refuse d’accepter. Tiraillé entre son désir de justice et les sentiments qu’il commence à éprouver pour cette femme qu’il a faite prisonnière, Alexander se retrouve face à un dilemme. Peut-il se permettre d’aimer à nouveau alors que son cœur est consumé par la haine ? Et si la vérité était bien plus complexe qu’il ne l’imaginait ? Dans une atmosphère de tension psychologique et de passion interdite, Vengeance Mortelle est une histoire où la haine et l’amour s’affrontent, et où le plus grand combat d’Alexander ne sera peut-être pas contre ses ennemis… mais contre lui-même.

L’Héritière de l’Ombre Dans une famille où le pouvoir est un héritage aussi précieux que dangereux, Elena Moreau, capitaine de l’armée et benjamine d’une lignée influente, se retrouve propulsée dans un rôle qu’elle n’a jamais désiré. Lorsque son frère aîné, Sébastien, PDG d’un empire familial, disparaît mystérieusement, leur père exige qu’elle prenne sa place. Grâce à leur ressemblance troublante, Elena se transforme en Sébastien : coupe de cheveux, costumes masculins, bandages serrés pour masquer son corps de femme… Tout est calculé pour maintenir l’illusion. Après tout, elle connaît l’entreprise comme sa poche. Mais diriger un empire financier est une chose, tromper des hommes d’affaires aguerris en est une autre. Si les employés et actionnaires se laissent berner, un homme commence à avoir des doutes. Un associé influent, fin observateur, qui connaissait Sébastien mieux que quiconque. Ses soupçons grandissent à chaque rencontre, et Elena sent la menace se resserrer autour d’elle. Entre les enquêtes discrètes pour retrouver son frère, les rivalités au sein du conseil d’administration et le danger constant d’être démasquée, elle doit jouer une partie d’échecs où le moindre faux pas pourrait tout faire s’effondrer. Et si la disparition de Sébastien n’était pas un simple choix ? Et si l’entreprise cachait des secrets bien plus sombres qu’elle ne l’imaginait ? Dans un monde où les apparences sont une arme, Elena devra prouver qu’elle est bien plus qu’une simple imposture.