Constantinople On A Map

A young psychologist, Maria Reyes, fresh out of college, decides to take her first freelance case to build her résumé. Feeling bold and free on her graduation night, she let herself loose after getting charmed by an alluring mysterious man. One drink leads to another and another, and she finds herself drowning in passion in his bed. She reads him like a map and falls for his scars before she even asks for his name. But the morning brings the brutal truth, Darian Wolfe is her father's enemy, a ruthless businessman, an heir to the empire sworn to destroy her father's legacy. She vanishes before he wakes, unable to face what has been done. Weeks later after being able to set up her new office, the past begins to blur until her first patient walks through the door. It's him, Darian Wolfe. Her expression freezes when she sees him. He walks around her office uninvited. He takes a seat without a word. The silence between them is thick with everything unsaid. And then, he looks unblinking in her eyes. "I have a lot to... unpack, Dr Reyes," he says, with a dark smile. "Let's start with a woman I met two weeks ago at a bar," he says, pulling out a red panty from his pocket.

In the coastal quiet of Baler, a studio is born—not of architecture, but of intention.* Founded by Yam, a poet whose words cradle pain gently, and Franc, an artist who paints tenderness into walls, the studio becomes a refuge for those learning to stay—with grief, love, longing, and themselves. As visitors arrive, they leave behind more than footprints: a sigh recorded in bamboo, a poem tucked into the “Found Letters” shelf, a mural painted in crooked lines. Through zines, tea, silence, and sketchbooks, the studio teaches softness as revolution. Ren creates the *Window of Soft Returns*, an installation of anonymous voice recordings—each whisper forming a community of echoes. Drew builds the *Staircase With No Wrong Turns*, inviting people to walk through emotions without shame. Franc offers brushstrokes as brave work, and Yam curates writing circles that map healing in half sentences. Together, they host festivals that feel like hugs, and they begin traveling their archive, letting softness cross oceans. Even those who once left—like Miguel—return, discovering that some doors never truly close. Others, like Tala, capture the studio’s sound and turn it into a podcast of breath and becoming. Over seventy chapters, the studio transforms into something larger than itself: a mural of memory, a sanctuary for second chances, a place where return is sacred and voice is proof of survival. In the final bloom, the studio stands not as a monument—but as a reminder: > *“Staying isn’t easy. > But chosen together, > it becomes home.”*

“Apa!!!” Deva setengah teriak setelah mendengarkan apa yang dikatakan wanita di depannya yang selalu dipanggil Boss oleh orang-orang di kantornya. Wanita yang duduk santai sambil menatap wajah Deva yang pucat pasi setelah mendengarkan apa yang dikatakannya tanpa wajah bersalah yang bernama Adelia Cantara Hermawan, nama itu terpampang jelas di papan nama di meja kerja wanita itu “Apa kau tuli?” tanya wanita itu. Deva terbelalak, sikapnya langsung salah tingkah di depan wanita itu, dia tidak percaya hari ini dia di lamar oleh bosnya sendiri. “Anda bercandakan,” kata Deva mencoba tertawa dan berharap ini hanya prank belaka, tapi wajah dingin bosnya membuat senyum di bibir Deva langsung hilang begitu saja. “Kau sudah berapa lama bekerja denganku, apakah aku tipe orang yang mempunyai waktu untuk bercanda?” jawab Adelia. Deva berdiri lalu berkacak pinggang, “Ini bukanlah hal yang dapat anda putuskan sendiri, bagaimana anda bisa memanggil saya lalu meminta saya untuk menikah dengan anda, bagi saya menikah harus dengan orang yang kita cintai,” kata Deva panjang lebar. Adelia menyenderkan badannya di kursi sambil melipat tangannya, “Kau kira aku benar-benar ingin menikahimu?” kata Adelia lagi sambil membuka laci mejanya dan mengeluarkan sebuah map hijau ke atas mejanya.

Annette Marechal at twenty-four, has finally understood the difference between: being loved and being used. Upon meeting Antoine Bourdeu, she believed that her life was finally going to be complete. She married him, two months after meeting him, madly in love with his thoughtful personality and his way of treating and caring for her. She never cared about the ten-year-old difference, nor the comments of Antoine's family towards her. Until he discovered the true root of his interest: his father's company about to fail. Knowing that she was used to reach her father, she confronted Antoine and he assured her that he had loved her, not as she would have liked, but as a means to an end. Full of pain and helplessness, suffering the betrayal of the supposed love of her life, Annette decided to leave never to return, Antoine Bourdeu, eldest son of the Bourdeu family, one of the wealthiest in France, did not believe in love, but in the commitment and stability that being married gave him in business. The beautiful Annette had seduced him, and he had fallen at her feet, driven mad by her emerald green eyes and mischievous gaze. She wanted to know the world and he promised to fulfill it. Until he realized how interested and manipulative his sweet Annette was. She left right after the ceremony, when he wanted to make her his body and soul. He disappeared from the map, taking with him more than his male pride. At least that's what he thought, because now, more cynical and stronger than ever, Antoine would return to take back what was his. No one denied Antoine Bourdeu

Maira, mahasiswi riset berusia dua puluh lima tahun, mengira tugas lapangannya di Abu Dhabi hanya akan berupa wawancara dan observasi budaya. Namun segalanya berubah ketika ia ditempatkan langsung di bawah pengawasan Wisnutama Adnan Bin Malik- seorang diplomat yang dikenal disiplin, nyaris tanpa emosi, dan memiliki reputasi berbahaya yang jarang dibicarakan secara terbuka. Perjumpaan pertama mereka membuat Maira sadar satu hal bahwa pria ini bukan tipe yang bisa ditebak atau dilawan. Terlambat satu menit saja, Wisnutama menatapnya seolah ia sudah melakukan kesalahan fatal. Terlambat satu detik pun, ia mengucapkan kata hukuman tanpa berkedip. Maira tidak tahu apakah ia sedang diuji, atau sedang ditarik masuk ke dunia kerja Wisnutama yang dingin, tajam, dan teratur seperti garis map diplomatik. Namun yang tidak pernah ia duga, semakin lama ia bekerja di dekatnya, semakin jelas bahwa pria itu tidak sesederhana atau sesuci yang terlihat. Dan ketika Maira mulai menyadari bahwa dosennya menghilang tanpa jejak, penempatannya terasa janggal, dan Wisnutama terlalu tahu banyak tentang dirinya. Di antara koridor kantor diplomatik, ruangan kaca gelap lantai delapan belas, dan tatapan yang selalu menguji, Maira harus memutuskan. Melarikan diri atau mengikuti pria itu lebih jauh, meski ia tahu Wisnutama punya cara tersendiri untuk menahan siapa pun yang menarik perhatian.

She was broken. He made her whole. But her past won't stay buried. Sera Hartley was rejected on her eighteenth birthday—humiliated in front of her entire pack by the one man fated to love her. Cade Storm, the future Alpha, looked at her wolfless body and declared her too weak to be his Luna. Shattered and desperate, Sera ran. For three years, she built a quiet life among humans, burying the mate bond that still claws at her chest, working in a small-town diner where no one knows her shame. Then he walks in. Conrad Hawthorn. Ancient. Powerful. Dangerous. An Alpha whose presence makes her knees weak and her pulse race. He claims she's his mate—but that's impossible. The Moon Goddess doesn't grant second chances to the wolfless and broken. Conrad doesn't care what's impossible. He pursues her with a hunger that sets her skin on fire, protects her from threats she doesn't see coming, and looks at her like she's the only thing in his world that matters. When his lips finally claim hers, when his hands map every curve of her trembling body, Sera feels something she thought she'd never have Wanted. Desired. Whole. But the past has holes. And when Sera's wolf finally emerges powerful, Alpha-born, magnificent. Her old pack comes crawling back. Cade wants what he threw away. Her real father demands she take her rightful place. And Conrad? He'll burn the world down before he lets anyone take his mate. Two Alphas. One woman. A bond that defies the laws of their kind. But when her wolf awakens, will Sera discover she was never the weak one at all?

I thought Christmas had already broken me. Betrayal, loss, and a miscarriage that shattered everything I’d built. So I did the only reckless thing a heart in ruins could do: closed my eyes, jabbed a finger at a map, and bought a ticket to wherever it landed. No plan. No hope. Just a wounded heart running from the wreckage. I wanted quiet. Snow. A place to breathe and heal. I found him instead. A man who feels too wild for this world, all heat and muscle and dark, hungry eyes. He kisses like he’s claiming something. Touches like he’s learning every secret my body holds. His strength borders on impossible. His presence, addictive. He calls me his naughty little Christmas gift. And every time he drags his mouth down my throat, I forget every reason I had to stay guarded. But the deeper I fall, the stranger things become. The room around him feels alive. The night listens when he speaks. His eyes flash with an animal glow that shouldn’t exist, and the sound he makes when he’s holding back, low, guttural, trembling the air between us doesn’t belong to any man. I should run. Ask questions. Save myself. But I’m far too gone. Even willing to be ruined by whatever he is. So I ignore the question whether I’m losing my mind, or whether the fear curling beneath the heat is real. And let him keep unwrapping me like the gift he thinks I am. Because whatever lives inside him…it’s the first thing that’s made me feel alive again.

Kyla Eclipse is the true-born daughter of Beta Albert Eclipse of the Moonveil Pack. At just five years old, tragedy rips her world apart after a bandit attack leaves her mother dead and Kyla lost in the woods for ten years. There, she is taken in by Wynona, a mysterious witch who teaches her forbidden magic and warns her to guard their secret with her life. One day, when Kyla is fifteen years old, she stumbles upon a flyer with her face on it. It also has the name of her pack and a map to find her way home. She says her goodbyes to Wynona and makes her journey back to her father. But the pack she returns to is nothing like the one she remembers. Her father has remarried the cruel Claudia, who has thrust her own daughter, Vivica, into Kyla's place. Vivica thrives as the Beta's "true" heir, while Kyla is tormented, mocked, and scarred by the mysterious fire that nearly kills her the night she comes home. Three years later, Vivica is engaged to Tormund, the Alpha's son and the only man Kyla has ever loved. But just days before the wedding, Vivica takes her own life, leaving behind letters blaming Kyla for her misery. Enraged, Tormund goes into the woods to release his anger, only to suffer a tragic accident that leaves him crippled forever. Desperate and heartbroken, the Alpha and Luna promise anything to the one who can heal their son. Under pressure from her father, Kyla's darkest secret is exposed when he reveals that he knows about her witchcraft. Cornered, betrayed, and desperate to seize control of her fate, Kyla faces the Alpha and Luna with an unflinching demand: "I can heal Tormund... but my only wish is to marry your son."

“We ain't divorced yet, Gabriella and you are already cheating. Is this why you wanted a divorce? Cutting me off from your business? Just to bring in someone and you didn't even do that alone but my uncle? Doing shit with my uncle?” My eyes widened more and more until I understood what was happening. For three years, Gabriella thought she had it all, a loyal husband, a growing interior design business, and a best friend she’d known since college living under their roof “just until she got back on her feet.” When her friend announced a surprise pregnancy, Gabriella celebrated, until she discovered the father was her own husband. The betrayal slices deeper when Gabriella learns the affair began long before the baby, and worse, her husband signed over half of their joint properties to the friend in secret. Now publicly humiliated and privately devastated, Gabriella refuses to be the woman who begs to be chosen. Divorce is not just a choice, it’s survival. Enter Aidan Voss, her newest client: a reclusive billionaire known for designing luxury hotels and for ruthlessly dismantling the competition. He’s charming, calculated, and hiding scars of his own. He offers her a high-stakes design contract that would put her business back on the map, but his interest in her is anything but professional. What she didn't know was that the newest client was her ex-husband's uncle. But Gabriella made a vow: never to lose herself in a man again. Not even one who seems to see past the ruins she hides behind polished smiles. And certainly not one who might just be planning revenge on the man who broke her, because Aidan has his own unfinished business with her ex-husband.

*******He can spank me every single day, I might get addicted to this.  Suddenly he's off from me, and I instantly miss his dominant warmth, so I take a chance to look behind me and I must have died and gone to heaven, because Alessandro Moretti is stripping himself from his pristine suit, unveiling the fine body he hides underneath it.  First his jacket goes, then he angrily takes off his tie, his eyes never leaving mine and I'm completely immobilized as he reveals that chest to me that I would love to map with my finger.  I gulp when his hands go to his belt buckle and he drops his pants, dressed now in only black boxer briefs. He palms his very hard, very big erection through the material brazenly and I'm scared I might really get a heart attack from the way my heart is beating furiously.*****  When the Prince Of The Underground first lay eyes on the beauty that is Farrah Simpson, he is caught hook, line and sinker. At first he thinks he can get her out of his system, but the beauty has more depth than he could've ever imagined. Against her will and better judgement, she too falls in love with the dangerous criminal, changing her life forever. As much as Alessandro loves her, he has to let her go. He has too many enemies who would salivate at capturing her, and he simply cannot take the risk with the woman who owns his whole heart. He tries to stay away from her, but Farrah wouldn't let him. He made her fall in love with him and she cannot see her life without him. Will Alessandro be able to stay away from her? Or will Farrah convince him she's worth fighting for?