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

In my last life, my brother Leo—the heir to the Moretti crime family—stripped our estate bare of every last soldier, all for a Vegas jaunt. All because his new flame, Scarlett, had a jones for the high-roller tables. The Volkovs—our rivals, the very ones Leo had just pissed off—saw their opening and stormed our gates. My mother, Sofia, took a bullet meant for me. Died protecting me. I blew up Leo’s phone, my pleas turning to screams. He didn't answer. He waltzed back in after the shooting stopped, bringing our men home, but far too late for it to matter. Then, the news from Vegas. Scarlett was gone. A suicide note left behind. In it, she painted me as the monster. The one who’d leaked our weaknesses to the Volkovs. The one who'd orchestrated a fake kidnapping and torture plot, all to drive her to despair and lure Leo home. A perfect, tragic lie. Leo read the letter calmly. Then he burned the letter and told me, "Forget it. It's handled." Father tore into Leo for abandoning his post, for leaving his family to die. And me? I was named the new Consigliere. But after the celebration, Leo cornered me in the wine cellar. His face was a mask of cold fury as he pressed the barrel of his gun to my forehead. "This is for family traitors," he hissed, his voice pure venom. "The throne is my birthright, not some backstabbing bitch's prize!" When I opened my eyes again, I was back. Right in the middle of the fire and the blood. This time, I shoved my mother behind me, dragging her toward the panic room. And the bastards who were too blind to believe me? They’ll regret it.

I lifted my gaze to meet his unwavering one; his eyes were enigmatic, just like his dominant posture. He had an enviable and captivating physique, with well-defined muscles that accentuated the perfect cut of his suit. His greenish eyes, tan skin, and slightly curly hair, styled professionally, completed his look. He was truly a stunning man. “Finished admiring me, miss?” With a teasing tone, a charming smile appeared on his lips. The CEO was undoubtedly tempting. “Sir...” I cleared my throat, trying to regain my composure and searching for words to escape that uncomfortable situation. “The content is not appropriate to be read aloud; please understand!” “That, I will decide!” He leaned back in his executive chair, watching me calmly as he savored a sip of his favorite whiskey. “I'm waiting.” “I apologize, sir, but I can't do it. You can fire me!” I turned away, ready to leave the office hastily, when his strong hands gripped my wrist, about to pull the door handle. He carefully watched my reaction and then smiled. “Apprentice…” The CEO approached me seductively, causing me to step back a few paces until I was cornered against the wall. He surrounded me with his arms and brought his lips close to my ear, whispering, “There is so much potential in you; I will mold you!” Biting lightly on the tip of my ear, I felt a shiver run through my body. With the tips of his fingers, he traced the outline of my face with his nails before pressing his lips with his thumb, gently parting them. Moving even closer, he pressed his body against mine, making my heart race and my breathing erratic.

My father found me too rebellious, so he gave me to Marco, tasking him with making a lady out of me. To the outside world, Macro was the ruthless boss to a Mafia empire, but to me, he was just a man with a perpetually stern face. I tried everything to defy him. I smashed his car. Then I swapped his PPT for the lowbrow stand-up he hated most. And he opened it during a company meeting. Yet, every rebellion ended the same. He cornered me, his massive frame dominating mine on the silk sheets of his king-sized bed, the polished oak of his desk, or the leather confines of the car's backseat. His hot skin against mine, his fingers tracing fire along my curves. He moved with a primal hunger that left me breathless. My body arched in unwilling ecstasy, in a dance of punishing pleasure, until my fight dissolved into moans, my will shattered under his relentless claim. I fell for him hard, convinced this was love, and he was the beacon of my dark world. But the truth shattered me: it was all a calculated game to tame me, to stop my war with my sister Karen. My guiding light went out, or maybe it never existed at all. So I became a good girl. I stopped fighting back. He thought he had me tamed, chained to his will. But in the end, I slipped free, leaving him alone with his shattered heart.

Used, insulted, tricked. I've been happily married to HIM for three years. Although his family has always been mistreating me and believes that I don't deserve him, I didn't care. The warmth of HIS LOVE and CARE is enough for me to stay — OR SO I THOUGHT. In our 3rd wedding anniversary, that hope is smashed as my heart have been teared into pieces. The gift that he gave me will forever be engraved in my memory— the sight of him on top of another woman in our own bedroom. And as if that wasn't enough, he even insulted and humiliated me in front of his mistress before throwing the divorce papers on my face. Turns out that he never loved me, not even once. I'm just a temporary replacement, and now that the woman he truly loves is back, he no longer need me thus he discarded me life piece of trash. Enraged and broken, I left with a heavy heart. I was cornered, with no other choice but to go back to the place where I truly belong. After so many years of hiding, running, and pretending, it turns out that I'll still come crawling back to the place that I once ran away from.

Kaleya Asterin's kin was murdered at the dawn of the silver moon. That night, as the Bloodorb pack cornered her, she leaped into the raging waves of the ocean, only to awoke with her mind blank as a canvas. She was a stranger to herself and had no recollection of the past. Devoid of any memories, the events of that day took a turn for the worst when she found out that she would be executed the next thing in the morning, and the alpha who sent her a life sentence was none other than her mate. Being alone and with no one to aid, Kaleya will have to fight the power of the bond, and chambers of her heart, while slowly unwinding the truth etched in her shadowed past. "I do not need a queen or a Luna. I shall not usher one with blood-stained hands into my realm. Hence, your presence holds no place, for my kingdom seeks no affiliation with you.”

Syr was peacefully working on her plates at midnight, but the next thing she knew a group of guys knocked on her door, asking the whereabouts of the evidence that she, herself do not know. Syr who was cornered in a dangerous situation was saved by a stranger and asked her for a deal. The deal includes protecting her in exchange for her help to unveil the hypocrites of their society. What will Syr do?

While attending a class reunion with my wife, we ran into her old flame—Caelum Zeth. After the gathering, Talia Grant cornered Caelum against a wall. When she found out he had fallen on hard times, she kissed him. "How much do you still owe? Be with me. I'll give you 100 thousand a month. Will that be enough?" I stood quietly at the corner of the street and snapped a photo of their heartfelt reunion before sending it to my lawyer. I also forwarded it to Talia, along with a message, "Since you two are so in love, go ahead and marry him."

Camila Wilson is a candy-smelling omega who is forced to sell her virginity to help her ailing mother. Liam is a dangerous pimp who will only seek to lure her into the world of prostitution and offers her an easy way out of her problems. Cornered by debts, she agrees to sell her virginity to an mafia man important and dangerous. The Alpha King of the City. Marcus Vance is imposing and domineering. A man without feelings who will meet Camila, a beautiful omega who will become his obsession.

"Im going to kiss the next person that strolls through those dorrs." ....................... It was only meant to proove a point. A tactic to show her friends that she was not so uptight. But Jacquiline should have known; she should have expected dire consequences that came with kissing the incredible hot handsome stranger that walked into the caffe that morning.   The kiss created such an uproar on the internet that she was now being paraded as the billionaire's mystery girlfriend, the first woman Enzo Harnandez had publicly shown off.  Forced into a contract marriage in a bid to silence the media, Jacquline plans flee as soon as she acquires enough money for a fresh start and her fathers mdical bills.  What Jacqueline doesn't expect however are the feelings that begin to stir up in the process of this fake marriage. What happens when she learns that the devilishly handsome Enzo Hernandez is smarter and even more shrewd than she made him out to be.  .............. "Oh princess, I'm a tad disappointed that you thought you could fool me," I heard him say coldly as he cornered me. "I've known all about your plans from the beginning. Now… strip and touch the bed frame. I'm going to fuck some sense into you."