Counter Current Publishing

I was seventeen when I abandoned my Beta family's fortune to love a rogue named Ethan. I gave him everything—my virginity, my pack connections, my wolf's loyalty. I helped him claw his way from nothing to Alpha, building his territory stone by bloody stone. For seven years, I stood beside him as his Luna, his mate, his partner. Then he shoved me off a cliff for a prettier Omega. I should have died. Instead, I woke up at seventeen again, back in that filthy shack where our "love story" began. This time, I know the truth: Ethan doesn't want a partner. He wants a stepping stone. So I'll give him exactly what he deserves—nothing. This time, I'm keeping my mark for an Alpha who actually values his Luna. And when Ethan comes crawling back, begging for the woman he threw away, I'll make sure he knows: some mistakes don't get second chances.

My son was no longer with us. His heart, while he still breathed, was cruelly harvested and given to someone of influence—Michele Finnen, the wife of Scott Langley. Just because she had heart disease and was powerful, she sent people to snatch my son away. As an orphan and now a single mother, my son was all the family I had. He would curl up in my arms and whisper, "Mommy, don't be scared. I'll protect you when I grow up!" He was the center of my universe. Consumed by a seething hatred for Michele, I craved vengeance. I was determined to reclaim my son's heart myself, ensuring he would leave this world whole. To do that, I set my sights on Michele's husband, Scott. He was still enamored with his first love. But fate played a cruel joke: suddenly, out of nowhere, that very woman experienced a car accident. And the strangest part? I looked almost just like her.

In a world where power is determined by bloodlines, Lia Soren, a half-wolf outcast, carries the weight of her cursed heritage. Known as a Greykin, she is both feared and hunted by the Empire. When the heart of her people, the legendary Heart of the Greykin, is threatened by the ruthless Silas Valde, Lia’s fate intertwines with the very magic that has plagued her bloodline for centuries. After rescuing Cassian Valde, an exiled noble seeking redemption, from a deadly ambush, Lia is forced to confront not only her past but the overwhelming power that lies dormant within her. As the Blood Moon nears, a dangerous trial awaits, and the truth about the Heart’s true nature is revealed. What begins as a quest to protect her people turns into a fight for her very soul as Lia must decide whether to wield the Heart’s power to defeat Silas or risk losing herself in its dark allure.

I was sent abroad to work. After three years, I finally helped my fiancee secure a highly challenging and significant client. When I returned home, she drove me out of the house. Her eyes gleamed with disdain as she looked at me while carrying a child. “I’ve got a husband and a child. You went abroad and left me all alone for three years. How could you come back to me? You’d better come to your senses and resign from the company tomorrow!” She trampled upon my dignity and love. Then, I realized that our five-year romance had come to an end.

Two months remained until debut evaluation night. Before our unit performance, our main dancer suddenly offered me her center position. I stared at her, confused, "The trainers always praise your stage presence. Why give up your spot?" "You... you deserve center more than I do." Her smile was painfully forced, and she was fidgeting with her practice clothes - obviously not saying what she really felt. Puzzled by her strange behavior, I asked, "Are my moves too big? Am I making it hard for you to perform?" She suddenly started shaking, looking at me with pure fear in her eyes. After what felt like forever, she finally choked out, "Please, just stop. I won't try to compete with you for center anymore!"

Tunnels deconstructs the individual’s Romantic fascination with ‘love’ or the grammaticality of beauty. Ideally, the ‘tunnels’ in the collection are subterranean love poems from the suburban imaginary. These seemingly syntactic tunnels travel through one’s literary imagination or heterotopic dreamscapes, and while αγάπη (Greek for ‘love’) inspires these rhizomic tunnels to navigate the abysmal ‘meta-spectacle’ of gesture, language or moment of poemness, the mind like the many-colored jeepneys of Manila, where driving past roast goose restaurants in Shek Kip Mei or spotting stilt houses in Kampong Kleang, attempt to explore the transgeneric textualities of the everyday, alongside the unstructurality of time and space, the littoral and the liminal.

Noong unang beses na nakita ni Euphie ang lalaki, naisip niya: Love at first sight ba iyon? O isang nakatalagang soul mate? Pag-uwi niya, nakita niya ang isang lumang larawan ng isang matangkad at guwapong lalaki. Naglakbay siya pabalik sa panahon sa larawan, nakilala ang lalaking iyon, at natagpuan ang sagot sa tanong na iyon. Inisip niya ang lahat, ang kanyang kasintahan.