Dread Meaning

"Julia, the money's gone." "What money?" In a sheepish tone, Mom explains, "We used the 68 grand you left with us to help your brother buy a house for his upcoming wedding." At that moment, dread swallows me whole. Just last week, I left my hard-earned savings with my parents to keep it from being discovered by my abusive husband. But now... I choke up, and my voice trembles as I speak. "Mom, that is the only money I have for myself after the divorce!" My father scolds me from the side. "Why are you getting a divorce in the first place?" I shoot back, "You know he has been hitting me. If I don't leave him, he will beat me to death!" Dad slams the table angrily. "All women put up with stuff like that just fine! If your brother can't get married, it will be the end of our lineage. That's the more pressing problem!" I look at them, my blood running cold. "Take that 68 grand as my final payment to you for raising me. We'll cut ties right here and now. In the future, don't ever come to me and ask me to support you when you grow old."

Emily, a young adult trying to find her meaning to life, is put into a dilemma when she's killed in an attempt to save the one she loves . She's given another shot at life at the cost of her beloved friend, becoming the guardian of the gate between the Vampire and the human realm. In her plight to become human again, she must complete the last guardian's mission to close the gates of the underworld and lock all the wandering vampires back in. Will she be able to accomplish her mission when her heart begins to beat for the dethroned King of vampires who plans to stop her from sealing the gates of the realm?

"From now on, whenever you call me ‘Daddy’ in public, only you and I will know the true meaning behind it," said Gabriel Bloodfang. Every time I call him Daddy, only the two of us understand the truth hidden behind that word. To the world, I’m just a human girl saved by Alpha Bloodfang. To the Pack, I’m nothing more than a lucky adopted daughter. But to me, Daddy is everything, he’s my first love and my forbidden desire. One look from him makes my blood tremble. One touch from him ignites a fire that no law could ever extinguish.

Have you ever felt neglected and abadoned all your life? Elaine is termed to be cursed because her mother died while giving birth to her. Her father, the Alpha of the blood moon pack despises her because she came out as a female and with a birthmark, predicted to bring plague and doom to werewolf kind. Rejected and heartbroken, she is pushed to the most despicable lycan king, who also lost his mate. But then, she finds solace in the arms of his Beta, who has other secrets of his own. Isn't that the desecration of a mate bond? What will happen when the Alpha finds out? And what's the real meaning of the birthmark on her neck?

“You belong to me, body and soul. No one dares lay claim to what is mine, Alessia. You’re My Essia and mine alone. Anyone who dares to cross me will learn the true meaning of power and possession." ****** Marco De Luca leads the feared De Luca Mafia Clan in Reggio Calabria. When he meets Alessia Rizzo at the Devil's Den club, their attraction is instant. But after a night together, Marco becomes obsessed with her and locks her away, ignoring her love for freedom. Alessia faces a tough choice: forgive Marco and stay, or find a way to escape his control. Will she ever forgive him and escape?

Ava Thorne never felt she could be Alpha Jackson Wolfe's mate, a merciless man. She was weak and helpless, unable to match the force and domination his pack demanded. Driven by three indisputable reasons—his pack needed a strong Luna, his desire to find an alliance with another strong Alpha through marriage, and a deep-rooted dread of vulnerability—something Ava's presence brought too near to the surface—the rejection was quick and forceful. Ava departed broken and humiliated, but she left with more than just dashed dreams. She carried his secret: twin heirs to the Blood Moon Pack developing inside her. Ava comes back five years later, no more the defenseless girl she once was. She is a mother, strong in her own right but still delicate in ways that trouble Jackson. Jackson understands too late what he threw aside as foes near and treason threaten his pack. But as he finds out about his kids, old scars come back and rivals hiding in the shadows start to stir. Jackson has to choose whether he would fight for the family he unintentionally built or let darkness take over everything considering the possibility of losing everything. Ava's life is thrown back into peril; one mistake might ruin both of them.

My best friend and my husband, Lorenzo Bartoli, fought every time they met. Lorenzo was the Don of the family, while my best friend was his Consigliere. She always fiercely opposed his most ruthless, high-risk decisions. Tempers explode every single time. But there was one rule that they both agreed on without any hesitation. No one was allowed to touch me. Because of them, no one in the city dared to cross me. Until the fifth month of my pregnancy, when I went down to the basement vault to organize Lorenzo's guns for him. I opened the safe to see stacks of letters, hundreds of them, all unsent. I picked one up. The moment I opened the letter, cold dread overwhelmed me. The receiver of the letter wasn't me. [My dearest Sofia…] I quickly scanned downward to the final lines of the letter. [If I don't make it back alive, everything in the Swissie accounts goes to you. As for Vittoria, she's a good woman, but I have never loved her.] With trembling hands, I tore open the rest of the letters like a hysterical woman. Three hundred of them in total. Every single one was addressed to Sofia Finzi. Sofia was not a stranger. She was my best friend.

I was eight months pregnant, at a charity gala with my husband, Don Massimo, when a rival family hit us. The crowd panicked. I was shoved to the floor, hard. Blood everywhere. Massimo lost his mind, screaming for medics, desperate to save my baby. But when I woke up, they were gone. Both of them. No baby, no Massimo. I remembered the gunfire, Massimo shielding me with his body. A cold dread washed over me. I hauled myself into a wheelchair and raced down the hall. That’s when I heard them—Massimo and the doctor. "Boss, I'm sorry. We did everything we could. The baby… he didn't make it." Tears streamed down my face. They killed my baby. The rival family killed my baby. But his next words shattered my world. "There was only one medical team. I had to make a choice. Bianca… she was carrying my child, too." Massimo sighed, then gave the order. "No one tells Arabella. She'll raise Bianca's son as her own. He will be my only heir." I slapped a hand over my mouth, my vision blurred by tears as I turned away. The man I loved was a lie. Fine. If he wants a war, he'll get one.

Aiden Atkinson, a rejected Alpha werewolf, searches for a life of meaning; when he stumbles upon Kayla Lawson. He soon learns to love and trust someone new in his messed up life. Kayla Lawson, a broken young woman, has an identity crisis and discovers she is a mermaid. When the war between werewolves and mermaids is revealed to Kayla by Aiden, she must decide to tell him who she really is and risk their new relationship. As she begins to make amends with the death of her parents, Kayla finds herself drawn to the ocean by a mysterious voice calling her into the depths of the ocean. Perhaps these voices can help Kayla make sense of the world around her.

JOSEPH IS GONE.. Matteo Rossi has nothing left. On that night he lost his only love, the only one person who had given his life meaning, Matteo chose grief over filial duty. Now, with the Rossi empire, waiting on Matteo to fix it from crumbling, Matteo finds himself at the mercy of Rowan Hayes, the cold-blooded killer who caused his pain. Rowan Hayes wanted revenge on the Rossi name, but seeing the heir utterly broken sparks a terrifying, ungodly obsession. He won't kill the heir; he’ll keep him. Ruined and exposed, Matteo is forced into a life with this icy, cold hearted killer while Rowan is determined to own every shattered piece of him.