Cornered

Eidolon Avenue: Where the secretly guilty go to die. One building. Five floors. Five doors per floor. Twenty-five nightmares feeding the hunger lurking between the bricks and waiting beneath the boards. The sequel to Eidolon Avenue: The First Feast (“a great read...powerful and jarring” - Cemetery Dance) returns to the voracious Eidolon as it savors The Second Feast. A narcoleptic man in apartment 2A battles a vengeful past determined to rob him of everything as he runs from the barbaric disaster of a delusional love. A woman in 2B, reinventing herself to please a callous boyfriend, discovers the horrors that wait in the shadows of her self-renovation. The man in 2C, a teacher at the nearby Catholic girl’s school, collapses beneath the brutal consequences of his lecherous desires. An older woman in 2D, after decades dedicated to the church, is cornered at last by the grisly carnage beating at the hollow center of her faith. And a college student in 2E, hungry to escape an ignored life of invisible anonymity, finds herself captured between the pages of a ravenous book. All thrown into their own private hell as every cruel choice, every drop of spilled blood, every silent, complicit moment of cowardice is remembered, resurrected and relived to feed the ancient evil that lives on Eidolon Avenue. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

She was forced to marry Ethan Crawford after a mistaken one-night stand. Her feelings towards him are neutral as she's ready to live peacefully with him. But Ethan felt displeasure towards her because of her stepsister, Nicole. Her attempts to make their forced marriage work were futile because of Ethan's resistance. After finding out about her pregnancy, she was cornered by Nicole and forced to leave the city with her unborn child. Five years later, she returned as the CEO of a fast-rising company and a mother to a genius daughter. Then he suddenly wants her back in his life. Not just her, but her genius daughter as well.

Sebastian Sanchez never wanted her, but that's not what led to their divorce. He cheated on her with her best friend and the pain in her heart was multiplied many times over. But, now Isabella Rossi has managed to escape the shadows of her past, building her own happiness after the bitter divorce from Sebastian. She had no time to dwell on all the things about the past that had hurt her. After all, she now had the center of the world that made her forget everything. However, her life is shaken up again when Sebastian reappears in her life, bringing an offer of much-needed financial help. Sebastian hasn't changed; he is still incredibly wealthy, strong, gorgeous, charming, and intoxicating as sin. With her business on the verge of bankruptcy, debts mounting, and daily needs Isabella is cornered between her immediate needs and her desire not to go back to her ex-husband. Isabella insists on keeping her distance from him, seeking other help and trying not to fall for his advances. The situation becomes more complicated for Isabella when Sebastian finds out the major secret she has been keeping. Stefano Archer Rossi; her son. The little blue-eyed one who bears a striking resemblance to Sebastian Sanchez. Sebastian was the most domineering man she despised. But how can she resist Sebastian's relentless pursuit? Using their child as the focal point, transform a traumatic history into a lovely one? There is a razor's edge between love and hatred, and Isabella sees it when they clash. Isabella risks dying if she gives in to this unusual desire and becomes entangled in a deadly game of love and hate.

When I woke up, I had somehow become trapped in the body of my disobedient daughter. I had sacrificed everything, living frugally to send her to the best school. Yet, she called me almost daily, claiming—like someone trapped in a paranoid delusion—that her teachers and classmates were out to harm her. She was willful and rebellious, picky about food, befriending the wrong crowd, and even dating a troublemaker at a young age. As a sister, she was far from kind, constantly bullying her younger brother. And school? Surely, it couldn’t be harder than working a full-time job. But then, as I lived in her shoes, a group of girls cornered me in the restroom, kicking me mercilessly. Returning home, I was met not with care but with a sorry excuse for a meal. Only then did I begin to understand the pain my daughter had endured...

In a world ruled by power and betrayal, Atticus Escoban, the younger daughter of the influential Escoban family, has always lived away from the dangerous chaos of their criminal empire. For 21 years, she was sheltered, hidden, and protected. But her life changes forever when Alijax Costaloña, the cold and calculating heir of the Costaloña dynasty, violently confronts her father, leaving him gravely wounded. Atticus never expected to be caught in the crossfire of her family’s schemes. Worse, Alijax discovers her existence and shocks everyone by choosing her—over her older sister Anneth—to be his fiancée. The engagement is a sham, a dangerous ploy to secure alliances, but Alijax has plans no one can predict. Determined to protect her family at any cost, Atticus agrees to the engagement, kahit na lumalaban ang puso niya sa ideya. Behind her composed exterior, she plots her way out, refusing to let the Costaloñas dictate her future. But the closer she gets to Alijax, the harder it becomes to distinguish between the man who ruined her family and the one who seems capable of understanding her like no one else. “Do you think you can escape this, Atticus?” he said, his voice dangerously low as he cornered her in the dimly lit study. “You’re mine now. Whether you like it or not.” Her fists clenched, and she met his cold, unreadable gaze with defiance. “You can own the world, Alijax Costaloña, pero ako? Hindi mo ako makukuha.” In a game of power, deception, and forbidden emotions, Atticus must make the ultimate choice. Will she sacrifice her freedom to protect her family, or will she risk it all to claim the life she truly deserves? Love and survival collide in a story where nothing is what it seems, and every decision could be deadly.

Three months after fleeing my wedding, I unexpectedly ran into my ex-fiancé at a high-society gathering in the capital. Out of the blue, someone asked me, "Teresa, I saw on social media that you're getting married again?" "Ms. Carter, when can we celebrate your big day?" Smiling confidently, I replied, "Next month." In an instant, everyone began congratulating me and Daniel. After all, everyone knew he had been my fiancé. After the party, Daniel cornered me, his tone sharp. "You're the one who ran away from the wedding, and now you're the one rushing to get married? Do you think this is funny?" I found his reaction amusing. Fixing him with an icy stare, I said with a faint smirk: "Who said my new groom is you?"

"What the boss wants, the boss gets.And, from the moment he sets eyes on the little mechanic, he wants her. Despite his dangerous reputation, she denies him at every turn, infuriating and intriguing him until he knows he must own her loyalty, passion and fire. He won't stop until she becomes his.Riley works hard, plays harder and drives fast cars. Life is good until the scariest man in town walks into her garage and seals her fate. Fiery and independent, she’ll do whatever it takes to drive him right back out of her life, until she finds herself cornered with nowhere to run but straight into his arms.But will her games turn deadly before the boss can bring her home and lock her down for good?This book is standalone. Guaranteed HEA, NO cheating, NO cliffhanger. Sizzling dark mafia romance. Read at your own risk!Driven Hearts: Driven by Desire is created by Nikita Slater, an EGlobal Creative Publishing signed author."

Book 2 of Mated to the Rogue Alpha. After her father’s death, Karina was seen as cursed/ a bastard due to her questionable birth. On her own, she was cornered by several of her pack members and physically and sexually assaulted. Unable to take it anymore, she ran away from her pack. She lives alone, carrying the scars of her assault and has a distrust for traditional packs due to their bigotry and values that harmed her mother and her. After she meets Connor, she spends one night with him irregardless of knowing that and left, assuming that he would hate her for her rogue nature. She conceives a child and goes to another city only to cross paths with Leo and Isabella who invite her to their pack. She agrees and lives with them, adjusting to a pack made out of rogues and making friends along the way. She gives birth to her son and calls him Levi. Everything turns on its head when whilst attending to Isabella's visitors, her long lost mate and the father of her child is among them.

The night I got into Cambridge University, we were supposed to celebrate. Instead, I ended up in Gilbert’s bed—my older brother from next door, the man I had secretly loved for years. The mafia kingpin of the Veronatri. We used protection. It didn’t matter. I still got pregnant. In my past life, I relied on our child to marry him as I wished, but I was also forever barred from Cambridge University. Gilbert cornered me on our wedding night, his breath shallow, eyes wild— “You drugged me, didn’t you?” “Admit it. There’s no other reason I would’ve wanted you like that.” “You’re shameless, Julian. You will never touch me again in this lifetime!” From then on, he used every means possible to humiliate me. He even secretly transplanted our daughter’s heart into his first love’s daughter. While he and his first love celebrated the success of the surgery, I clutched my daughter’s ashes and died on the way to the cemetery. When I opened my eyes again, I had been reborn to that night of utter absurdity. This time, I didn’t cry, I didn’t beg— I just walked away to Cambridge, and he went mad trying to find me.

When the young nun Lydia Martinez gets cornered by a thief in an alley, she encounters Damien Raeken who is beautiful, intriguing and intimidating. The unwordly, innocent Lydia is startled to realize she wants this man and despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Lydia's quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, the shapeshifter, Raeken admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms. Shocked yet thrilled by Raeken's dark past , Lydia hesitates. For all the trappings of success—Raeken is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need for revenge. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionate physical affair that denounces all she's ever believed in, she discovers the shapeshifters secret and knows that loving him is one thing, but taming him is another. She explores her own dark desires while slowly being pulled to the dark side.