Darril Gibson Security+ 601 Novels & Stories

An arranged bride. An accidental claim. A love worth defying everything for. — When nerdy, bookish Elizabeth “Lizzie” Foster sets her eyes on Reese Blackwood at a wedding, she makes a wildly uncharacteristic decision. He’s going to be her first. Reese is charming, sexy, reckless, and far too attractive for his own good—the notorious son of a billionaire who’s never had to chase anyone in his life. But after one unforgettable moment, Lizzie thanks him politely… and tells him she hopes they never see each other again. For the first time, Reese is the one left wanting more. Fate, however, has other plans. Desperate to escape her controlling mother and finally claim her independence, Lizzie attempts a daring escape—only to be cornered at the airport before she can board her flight. With security closing in and her future slipping away, she does the only thing that comes to mind. She grabs Reese Blackwood after seeing him in the crowd, kisses him senseless, and announces to her mother and the world: “Meet my boyfriend. We’re getting married… and I’m pregnant.” Stunned—but spotting the perfect opportunity to defy his ruthless father and an arranged marriage with an unbearable woman he never wanted—Reese plays along. Now bound by a scandalous lie, a fake relationship, and a very public fake “pregnancy,” Lizzie and Reese are forced into a dangerous game of pretence. He’s hiding secrets that could destroy them both. She’s fighting for freedom she’s never had. And neither of them expected the biggest complication of all— Falling for each other might be the one lie they can’t survive. What could possibly go right?

Three years after Alpha King Damien Caldwell marks me, Drake Whitaker finally remembers I exist. Turns out he really believes I'll "wait for him forever." Twenty black SUVs clog the private road into Ridgefield pack territory, trunks crammed with moonstone jewelry, old talismans, and rare herbs. Drake steps out of the tricked-out Hummer, wearing a smug smile and clutching a stack of parchment contracts. "Aria," he calls up, like some medieval knight, "I told you once the Silvermoon Coalition was official and Kenneth's supply lines were stable, I'd bring you to my pack. "The High Council finalized five packs yesterday. I came first thing this morning to show you I mean it." I sit in the upstairs study, watching a video Damien just sent of him playing with our son, then glance through the blinds at the ridiculous scene unfolding below. Drake lifts his face toward the second floor. "I know you're upset, but Kenneth controls the biggest timber in the Eastvale region. I had to mark Isabella. It was politics. You get that. Feelings don't need a mark anyway. I'll treat you better than a Luna." His words made my skin crawl. I pressed the intercom button on the desk. "Clear the drive. Tell security someone's trespassing." What a day! I've just taken my son to the medical center for his one-month checkup. Damien sends me back to Ridgefield pack for a week to rest. Instead, I get this mess on my doorstep.

I was dying from my fear of heights, but my husband, Don Vincent, was busy with his assistant, savoring the latest coffee flown in from Hawaii that morning. "You're a grown woman, Bella. What's the big deal? You're stuck on a roof, figure it out." Then he hung up on me. I collapsed onto the hot tar of the roof, my body shaking uncontrollably before everything went black. It was two hours before building security found me. When I got home, I asked Vincent for a divorce. He rubbed his temples, his patience worn thin, looking at me as if I were a child throwing a tantrum. "Over a cup of coffee? I told you, the heights are all in your head. You’re perfectly safe now. Stop making a scene alright? What's this nonsense about a divorce? I have more important things to deal with. Calm yourself down." I stared at his back as he left, tears already streaming down my face. Something important? Did he really think I couldn't hear his assistant, Sophia, murmuring in the background? Did he think I didn't know he took her to the last family gathering? I had loved Vincent for three years. Everyone knew he was the center of my world. They all thought an orphan like me could never leave him. But now, all the love I had was eclipsed by a profound, soul-crushing exhaustion. I was done. I picked up my phone and dialed a number I hadn't touched in three long years. "Uncle, book me a flight to Seattle. I'm ready to leave Vincent."

My husband, an Army regimental commander, was killed in action. Before his body was even cold, I didn't hesitate. I filed for his death certificate and notified the Army, the Social Security Administration, and our bank. Then, three days later—on the very day his twin brother married his childhood sweetheart—I moved out, changed the locks, and remarried quietly at the courthouse, taking my son and the full line-of-duty death benefits with me. To everyone else, I was heartless. Cold. I let them curse me. I just looked into my “brother-in-law's” bloodshot eyes and felt a quiet, cruel satisfaction. Only I knew the truth. In my last life, I discovered the body sent home wasn't my husband's at all—it was his identical twin brother's. I ran to confront him, but by chance I overheard him and my mother-in-law whispering. "Mom, Sarah is strong. And we have our son. She'll be okay. The benefits will take care of her. But Amy has waited for my brother all these years. If she finds out he's dead, she might do something drastic." Their words struck me like lightning. I tried to expose them, but my husband knocked me out. He told everyone grief had driven me insane. He locked me in the garage apartment and, with cold detachment, married his sweetheart. And when that woman complained my son was too loud, my husband slipped sleeping pills into our boy's juice—right as my crying child was coming to look for me. My son never woke up. The day they buried him hastily, I ended my life in the garage, utterly broken. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day they delivered my brother-in-law's body to our home.

She was a girl with a debt she couldn't pay. He was a king with a throne he couldn't lose. Talia Jett is 48 hours away from losing everything. After her brother’s "sure-thing" investment turned out to be a scam involving the city’s most dangerous loan sharks, she’s been given an ultimatum: pay back two million dollars or pay with her life. Desperate, she takes a high-stakes catering gig at the Vane Plaza to scout a way out. But a wrong turn leads her into the penthouse of Soren Vane—a man whose heart is as cold as the steel towers he owns. Soren is facing his own execution: a corporate coup. If he doesn’t clean up his "playboy" image before the merger of the century, he’ll be stripped of his empire. When a rival socialite corners him with the paparazzi in tow, Soren sees Talia—hidden in the shadows, trembling and beautiful. He doesn't ask. He claims. With one bone-melting kiss in front of a dozen cameras, he makes her the most famous woman in the world. "Meet my fiancée," he tells the flashing bulbs. The Deal: Soren pays off her debt to the loan sharks and provides her brother with a round-the-clock security detail. The Price: Talia belongs to him for one year. She must live in his house, share his bed for the cameras, and sign a contract that forbids her from ever leaving his side. Talia thought the loan sharks were the most dangerous men she’d ever met. She was wrong. Because while the sharks wanted her money, Soren Vane wants something much more expensive. He wants her soul. And in this marriage of convenience, the fine print might just break her heart.

The Falcon Ridge Series Book 5 Set two months after the Battle of Black Rock. In an old growth forest east of Aurora, the city of Dragons. Wren Miller: You can sum up the story of my life in three words I. Am. Alone. I was raised by the Falcon Ridge Security Unit after they told me everyone I ever knew and loved was dead. I traveled through life pretending I felt like I had a pack, but in truth I longed for my own. I often wished for death. That all changes when I find out some of my pack was alive. Living like Nomads in the wilderness. I'm elated to find them, but my happiness is crushed when the Alpha is not even remotely happy to see me. As much as it pains me, I don't want to see him either after finding out what he has become. Lucius Drake: For 10 years I survived in the wilderness. I built us back up from the ashes that were left of the attack on us. I was happy to live this way. Living off the land. Taking care of my pack. Then she shows up. Seeing her makes my blood boil. Not only did she abandon her pack. She abandoned me. I don't care what the Alliance told her. I never gave up on the hope she was alive. Apparently, she did. I'm jaded and angry. It also doesn't help that I have the Dragons breathing down my neck. We've been relying on them for protection and trade, but now they want more. They want us to join them permanently, which I will only do if I'm dead.

I came home from abroad to save my nephew's company from going bust, and also to attend his wedding with his sweetheart. But just as the banquet was about to start, a barrage of comments suddenly popped up before my eyes: [Thank goodness the sweetheart is clever and came up with the idea of framing the substitute for poisoning! The male lead will definitely be over with the substitute after this!] [Exactly! So what if the substitute has stayed by his side for ten years? The male lead still loves his sweetheart the most!] Elaine Geston, decked out in a luxury wedding gown, strutted up to me with her nose in the air, looking smug. "So you're the woman Nolan has cherished for ten years? I hate to break it to you, but you're just a substitute for me! You should get lost if you know what's good for you!" I glanced down at my phone, checking the stock prices, not in the mood to deal with her. She suddenly looked shocked. She picked up one of the two glasses of wine prepared for the newlyweds, sniffed it, then pointed a finger at me and yelled, "What a vile woman! You actually poisoned the wine! Just because Nolan loves me, you want to kill us both!" Hearing this, the security guards instantly surrounded me, looking hostile. I was totally baffled. I pointed at my nephew, who was chatting with guests outside the venue, and said, "What substitute? Ask your husband if he dares to treat his own aunt as a substitute. Does he want his whole family to beat him up? Does he want his company to go bankrupt?" The comments went wild. [Oh crap, she's not a substitute but his aunt? The sweetheart's messed up big time!]

Rule #1 of the Blackwood Alpha Institute: Only the strongest Alphas survive. Rule #2: No girls allowed. Rule #3: Never cross Valen Thorne. Elora Vance is about to break every single one of them. Born in the shadows of the cursed woods is Elora, the daughter of a banished Alpha framed for the deadliest crime. To clear her father’s name and save her dying village, she must do the impossible. She cuts her hair, binds her breasts, and sneaks into the most brutal, elite, all-boys werewolf academy in the kingdom. Operating under the male alias Lucius, her security relies entirely on a potion that masks her feminine scent, it gives her an Alpha musk that expires every three hours. One missed dose, and the den of hyper-sensitive Alphas will tear her into pieces. She planned to stay invisible, steal the files and flee. But on her first day, a mistake throws her straight into the path of Valen Thorne. Cold, devastatingly beautiful, and dripping with power, Valen rules the Alpha's of the institute with an iron fist. He is a predator who smells a lie from a mile away, and he becomes instantly obsessed with breaking the strange, fragile new "Alpha" who refuses to bow to him. When a forced dorm reassignment traps Elora in a luxury suite right under Valen, her safety net shatters. Valen plays a suffocating game of cat and mouse, testing Elora's limits. Every touch is a gamble, every look from his golden eyes feels like he’s peeling back her clothes to find the girl underneath. Trapped between deadly academy trials, a backstabbing inner circle, and an intoxicating, forbidden pull to the man she came to ruin, Elora is running out of time. She came to steal a secret, but if Valen uncovers the truth, she's dead.

On a perfect, sunny afternoon, Rebecca Adam decided to surprise her husband at work. But the surprise was on her. At the front door she discovered there was a "Mrs Adam " already inside. The one the staff knew. not a rumour, not a mistress. a wife. She bypassed security and overheard a truth that made her blood boil. Adam Saint, the man for whom she had abandoned her social circle and her status as a billionaire’s daughter to play the role of a devoted housewife had never loved her. He was already married to her best friend, Elena, long before their own wedding. Rebecca was only a tool. She had even given him her kidney and almost lost her womb in the process, while they had a daughter that bears her name. They wanted the Greene empire. Angry, Rebecca walked away. She stormed into her father’s study and told him she wanted the company. But soon, tragedy struck. Their most powerful partner, a ruthless widower and Adam’s own uncle, Michael Knox pulled out of the deal, sending her father into a life-threatening collapse. Now, to save her legacy, Rebecca must face the coldest man in the business world. Michael Knox expected a blonde spoilt brat. Instead, he met a woman who would do anything to save her family's legacy. Intrigued and dangerously attracted to his nephew's young wife, Michael tried to keep her away. He instructed his staff to never give her access. Day after day, she waited. Same time, same place. It took a heavy downpour and a moment of raw vulnerability to bring them together, setting off a power struggle that would see Rebecca transform into the most powerful woman in the city. And the only one Michael will burn the world for.

Evangelina had a tough luck growing up with a family that wanted to trade her for security but one day things changed. She met her mate during a ball and sparks flew. They spent the night taking pleasure from each other. It all felt like a dream to Eva and just like a dream, it shattered when the morning came. When the morning light fell on his beautiful face, she realised with a shock that her destined mate is the vicious Zavion Kessler- the infamous alpha of Midnight pack- their swore enemy. Eva does what she thinks is best. She flees, leaving him sleeping not knowing the alpha had already planted his pup inside her. Two months later she finds out that she is pregnant. Her family decides to kill her baby and mate her off to an old chap. Eva runs away for her baby. Fast forward four years, she is a caring mother to a sweet girl and is scraping through life. Then comes a man who stinks of money and offers her millions for pretending to be his mate in front of his family during his big brother's mating ceremony. She agrees, again not knowing that the big brother of her fake mate is her true mate, Zavion. Tricky, isn't it? .................. "What are you doing?" I asked as his large callous hand wrapped itself around my left breast, clutching the lump in a tender yet firm grip. "Your heart remains calm like ocean when with my brother but flaps like a caged bird when I am around. Suspicious, isn't it?" he rasped while drawing circles over my palpitating heart with his thumbpad. I could sense it. He is close to finding out the truth. That I am his mate and that he has a daughter.