Contra Costa Library Hours Novels & Stories

Accidentally killing her parents is what turned Neah’s life upside down. As punishment for her crimes, her wolf abilities are bound, and she is forced into a life of slavery by her brother. At the age of twenty-two, she saw no way of getting out and had given up on life, just trying to make it through each day. A contract between packs brings the arrival of the powerful, crimson-eyed Alpha Dane. A wolf that men feared, yet Neah couldn’t help but be fascinated by him. Adding Neah to the contract was never Alpha Dane's plan. Something about her strange scent lured him in, and he knew he couldn’t leave her behind, especially not when he heard the lies coming from her brother's mouth. But meeting Neah was just the beginning. If she isn’t challenging Alpha Dane, then it was her old pack that was trying to make life extremely difficult for him by keeping secrets buried. Please note, this book ends on a cliffhang

"You'll be with me for three years! Section 1, don't fall in love with me!" --- Sophia Jones started off as a waitress at the Smith Hotel Chain, she was an orphan going through a financial crisis and struggling to pay the fees of her dying brother. One day, she gets pulled into the boss's room and wakes up on his bed the next morning. Justin Smith, aloof and cold CEO with a tragic past that makes him grow strong hatred towards females and hate any sort of touch ties Sophia with a marriage contract. Left with no choice, Sophia signs herself off and goes with the twists and turns that life with Justin would bring. They fall in love unknowingly but what about the contract? And the many odds against them? Will they triumph? Or fail?

Desperation forces Lila Hart, a young woman burdened by debt and family responsibility, into signing a surrogacy contract she never imagined for herself. The agreement is clear, clinical, and emotionless: carry the child of billionaire Adrian Blackwood, deliver the heir, and walk away. For Adrian, the contract is nothing more than business. He needs an heir, not complications. Love, attachment, and emotion have no place in his controlled world of wealth and power. But as Lila moves into Adrian’s world under strict medical supervision, the lines between obligation and desire begin to blur. Her warmth challenges his emotional walls, while his quiet protection makes her question the promise she made to leave once the baby is born. External pressures mount—interfering family, legal boundaries, and society’s judgment threaten to pull them apart. As the pregnancy deepens, so does the bond neither of them planned for. When the child is finally born, Adrian must face the truth he’s been running from: some contracts can be signed, but others must be torn apart. To keep the woman who changed his life, he must choose love over control. From Contract to Forever is a story of unexpected love, emotional vulnerability, and the courage it takes to rewrite destiny when the heart refuses to follow the rules.

While it is believed that all wolves have destined mates, not everyone is fortunate enough to find theirs. Mia falls into the unlucky category, as her fated mate passed away mysteriously and other mateless wolves rejected her out of fear of a similar fate. Rejected and dejected, Mia must fend for herself. In her struggle to survive, she unintentionally enters the territory of one of the most dangerous Alphas. Faced with the choice of death, Mia decides to enter a perilous contract that could either save her or lead to her demise. She agrees to become their mate, unsure if she will finally find the acceptance she craves or if she has made a pact with devils.

Bound to a worthless Alpha via a marriage of convenience, Dahlia Hartnett has no other choice but to seek the help of the fearsome Alpha King when she finds out her husband’s mistress is pregnant with his child and they plan to overthrow her to take over her pack. However, the horrifying rumors about the Alpha King make her hesitate, until she stumbles upon a shocking secret. Killian Blackburn has lived with a curse almost all his life, a cruse that no woman in the kingdom has ever been able to break…until Dahlia breaks in through the door and bulldozes into his life. A contract is formed on mutual benefits, but when the heart comes into play…will the fierce Alpha be able to keep his end of the bargain? And why was he cursed in the first place? And why is Dahlia the only person who can break through the haze and arouse his desires like no other? As shadows are unveiled and a terrible truth from the past is revealed, will Dahlia still be able to stand next to her cursed Alpha, despite the trials ahead?

Ava and her twin brother, Aiden, have endured years of cruelty under the care of their bitter Uncle Peter and his jealous wife. But what they don’t know is that they aren’t omegas—Ava and Aiden are the lost children of an Alpha, stolen as infants, and left to be raised by another family after a failed kidnapping. On the night of the Moonlight Festival, Ava is heartbroken when Liam rejects her as his mate and chooses Riley, who’s pregnant with his child. Desperate to escape the pain, Ava spends a passionate night with a stranger she met at a nightclub. But when she returns home, she’s met with tragedy—Aiden is dead, and she’s blamed for his murder. Banished from her pack, Ava’s life is shattered. Just when things couldn’t get worse, Ava was run over by a hit and run driver, only to wake up in the arms of the Alpha King, Edward. After hearing her story, he offers her a deal—a one-year marriage for political reasons, during which he’ll help her uncover the truth about Aiden’s death. As Ava is crowned Luna Queen beside Edward, her uncle and his family, including Liam, her ex mate, is shocked by her unexpected transformation. Meanwhile, Ava learns she’s pregnant, but she doesn’t know whether Liam or Edward is the father. And things only get more complicated as Ava and Edward navigate their strained marriage, each hiding secrets from the other. But when the truth about Aiden’s death comes to light, it’s more devastating than Ava could have imagined. Will Ava get her revenge, find peace, and finally claim the love she deserves, or will her past tear her apart?

To celebrate our third wedding anniversary, I get us a dinner reservation and prepare a gift for her, complete with a handwritten love letter. But my wife, Teresa Sloan, doesn't show up. Meanwhile, while attending the welcome-back party for her first love, Carlton Unger, she walks around on his arm with a radiant smile on her face. Someone asks her who I am. She replies, "No one worth mentioning." From that day onward, I stop waiting around for her. Sometime later, she comes crying to me, saying, "I love you, Silas." I tell her, "It's too late."

Julia thought heartbreak was the worst thing she had to survive. She was wrong. After her boyfriend betrays her, she finds herself at Gabriel's doorstep - her boyfriend's uncle. A man she barely knows. He's cold, controlled, and doesn't make emotional decisions. He deals with logic, contracts and certainty - Not emotionally broken girls that's looking for a place to break down, but to her surprise, he doesn't turn her away. That decision changes everything forever because when Julia suddenly kisses him, Gabriel doesn't pull away, instead, he chooses to ignore that same logic and control, he has sworn never to give up on. Throwing them into unknown territory, that could possibly destroy both their lives as they know it.

Rebecca Stellar is a young orphan who found a happy home with her adoptive parents. However, when her father died, she agreed to an arranged marriage with a stranger in order to take over the family business and fulfill his legacy. Luciano Lombardo, on the other hand, is the heir to a mafia family, with a dark past and secrets that haunt him. The marriage between Rebecca and Luciano is just the beginning of a story full of unexpected twists, love, and betrayal. As they try to find happiness together, each other's secrets threaten to destroy their relationship. The novel explores themes such as family, loyalty, trust, and true love.

“Contract or not, you will always be ours.” They say that all wolves have fated mates, but not everyone is so lucky. Elena is one of the unfortunate ones - her previous fated mates all died mysteriously, and the rest of her potential mates have rejected her out of fear of sharing the same fate. "She is cursed," they whisper behind her back. The words sting, especially when they come from someone she loves, but Elena slowly grows accustomed to the pain of loneliness and betrayal, wrapped up in a cloak of anger. She knows she can never escape it, that it is a cross she must bear for the rest of her life. But when faced with death, Elena realises that there might be a light at the end of the tunnel. And so, she makes a life-changing decision to enter into a contract with the two most feared twin alphas, becoming their mate. Is this the beginning of the life she's always dreamed of, or the start of a living nightmare with the devil? Elena can only hope that this decision will bring her the love and acceptance she's always longed for.