Eight Uncles Novels & Stories

I'm the second child of the family. Because of that, I'm also the one everyone neglects by nature. The birthdays of my older brother, Joe Thompson, and my younger sister, Lyra Thompson, are jotted down on the calendar by my parents. But they always fail to remember my own birthday. Joe and Lyra often have new clothes to wear, whereas my parents keep forgetting to buy new clothes for me. Heck, Joe and Lyra often receive holiday gifts! Meanwhile, my parents never bother giving me anything during the holidays. In fact, when we're traveling back to our hometown, my parents end up ditching me at a deserted highway rest stop when the temperature is extremely low…

Eight years ago, I broke the heart of the boy I loved. Now, after eight years overseas, Liam Hayes was finally coming home with his new girlfriend to meet his family. That same day, the hospital gave me its final answer. The cancer had won. There was nothing left to treat. Nothing left to try. They sent me home with only time. When Liam saw my mother helping me into a wheelchair, a cold smile touched his mouth. “Eight years,” he said. “And this is what became of you? You can’t even walk anymore?” Disgust laced every word. I only tugged the sleeve of my down coat lower, hiding the cluster of needle marks across the back of my hand. “It’s nothing,” I said quietly. “I fell and broke a bone. That’s all.” Liam gave a short, bitter laugh. “In that case, I’m getting married soon. Why don’t you come be my fiancée’s bridesmaid?” I smiled as if it did not hurt at all. “No, thank you. I’m about to leave for somewhere very far away.” Then I patted the back of Mom’s hand, silently asking her to take me home.

At the award-giving ceremony of the end-of-the-year gala, my boss, George White, suddenly announces that he will be adding a bonus round on a whim. "This is the annual department evaluation! The department that comes last shall come onto the stage and receive a tiny encouragement from me!" The huge screen lights up at that moment. The sales achievements accumulated by all departments are being shown in a ranking system. The sales department is ranked first. The operations department comes second, and the marketing department gets third place. As for the administrative department, the sales achievements shown on the screen are none. After all, that department has no KPI to achieve at all. George beams at us from the administrative department. "Everyone from the administrative department, come on up and receive your prize!" Two people can be seen carrying a basket of brooms up the stage. Everyone bursts into laughter instantly. "Come now, sweep away your bad luck with the brooms! Try not to come up as the bottom-ranked department again next year!" George personally thrusts the brooms into our hands. Camera flashes go off beneath the stage—people are clearly taking photos of us. The people from the sales department are the ones laughing the hardest. "Finally, the peeps from the administrative department are getting the recognition they deserve!"

Eight years after I married that award-winning actor, he publicly declared he was dating the top starlet, Celine James. He even posted a picture of the two of them celebrating their adopted “baby’s” birthday. I did not call him to interrogate him as usual. Instead, he hurriedly explained, “It’s just a pet we adopted. As its ‘dad’, I have to be there for its birthday.” I said calmly, “Rather than adopting a furbaby, why don’t we get a divorce? Then you can have an actual baby with her.”

Eight months into my pregnancy, my husband finally makes time from his police duties to go to a prenatal checkup with me for the first time. The moment we step into the hospital, his satellite-encrypted phone buzzes urgently. The caller ID flashes briefly, and just like that, the man who's always calm and collected panics. "Honey, it's a red alert. Another international fugitive just crossed the border. I… I'm sorry…" He's clearly anxious, yet his tone is firm, leaving no room for argument. After apologizing, he rushes off. As I watch his SUV speed out of sight, my fist clenches tightly, crumpling the prenatal checkup sheet. I flag down a cab, slide into the car, and swiftly instruct the driver, "Follow that car. Don't lose it." A Red Notice for a fugitive? What a joke. My father, who works at the National Security Agency, barely catches wind of a notice like that. Yet, somehow, a mere police chief who only assists with cases is suddenly tasked with catching a high-priority criminal. Fine, then. I can't wait to meet the superior who's given him such an urgent assignment.

After eight long years of loving her, Lucas York was finally about to get what he wanted. He was going to marry Fiona Shaw. But at their wedding, in front of everyone, Fiona abandoned him without a second thought and ran straight to the man she always put first. Lucas didn’t cry. He didn’t make a scene. He simply announced in front of all their guests that he and Fiona were done. From that moment on, they had nothing to do with each other. Everyone thought Lucas was just trying to save face. They all assumed that after a while, he would forgive her again. After all, on his birthday, Fiona had stayed on set with that man instead of coming home. And Lucas had forgiven her. On their anniversary, Fiona had gone overseas with that same man. And Lucas had forgiven her. Even at their engagement party, Fiona had missed the entire event because of him. And still, Lucas had forgiven her. But only Lucas knew the truth. The heart that had loved Fiona for eight years was already dead. This time, he would never forgive her again. At first, Fiona thought Lucas was just throwing a tantrum. She figured he would cool off after a few days. Until the day she knocked on his door, and a woman in a bathrobe walked out. She had a graceful figure and a bright, beautiful smile. “Ms. Shaw, why are you here looking for my boyfriend?” That was when Fiona finally panicked.

When I was eight months pregnant, I received an anonymous email. The attachment was a security camera recording. In a dimly lit VIP booth at a bar, my husband — a vampire who had lived for three hundred years — was holding a human woman in his arms, kissing her. At the end of the video, the woman smiled and asked him, "Adrian, do you really love me?" Adrian's voice was low. "Of course." "Even though you're human, I'll make you the happiest vampire bride in the world." He had said those exact words to me ten years ago. In that moment, my hand rested on my belly. The baby kicked once. As if reminding me. It was time to wake up.

My mate’s childhood sweetheart was throwing a tantrum again, so Henry wanted to break our mate bond once more. Though I felt despair, I still looked calmly at him as I said, “This is the eighth time you’ve broken our bond.” His eyes were full of guilt and helplessness as he gently cupped my face, pleading softly. “Nicole, you know I have no choice. Alice threatened to take her own life with a silver dagger again. I grew up with her. She’s like a sister to me. I can’t just leave her alone. “My love, don’t worry. I swear, once I’ve cheered her up, we’ll immediately re-establish our mate bond.” I stayed silent. He’d made this promise to me countless times, so much that we had formed a mate bond and broken it eight times. To the werewolf pack, a mate bond was sacred. But in his eyes, it was nothing. “Please, my love.” As he took out the potion to sever our bond, I quietly clenched my fists. “Okay.” After all, there won’t be a next time.

She trusted him with the end of the world. He left her for dead in it. When the zombie apocalypse hits, Maya Rodriguez already knows who she's going to survive with — and who she's going to survive for. What she doesn't know is that her boyfriend has other plans. Ones that don't include her. Abandoned, alone, and furious in a world that has just ended, Maya finds herself with an unlikely companion: LUS, a rogue AI life coach who is equal parts infuriating and inexplicably useful, and who may know more about how the outbreak started than he's letting on. Surviving the apocalypse turns out to be the easy part. Because the world Maya's navigating isn't just full of the undead. It's full of engineered soldiers — wolves in human skin, built by the same government programme that unleashed the virus. It's full of men who want to protect her, want to use her, want to earn her, and want to be forgiven by her. And it's full of one specific slow burn she has categorically refused to name. She's not the woman she was before the world ended. She's considerably more dangerous. ***A post-apocalyptic romance about survival, betrayal, rogue AI, and the specific problem of falling in love when everything is already on fire.

Demetria finds herself dreaming about a famous actor, Ezra Sommers, who happens to be her brother's best friend. But reality strikes and her extremely conservative mother made all the decisions for her. Having to go out of her way to fall in love, she got into new heights of trouble than what she's prepared for. What happens when he sets his eyes on her?