Eighteen Libro

"Ang bodyguard ko pala ay isang Bilyonaryo!" Si Pristine Felize Vera Esperanza ay nag-iisang anak ni Pierre Vera Esperanza, isang bilyonaryo na kilalang-kilala sa larangan ng negosyo. Maraming tao ang nag-aakala na namumuhay siya tulad ng isang prinsesa, na mabait sa kaniya ang lahat at minamahal siya, ngunit ang katotohanan ay kabaligtaran nito. Her grandfather despises her when her parents suffered from car accident. Dahil doon ay matagal ang naging gamutan ng kaniyang ama na nagsanhi ng pagkalugi ng kanilang negosyo. Pristine has suffered from trauma because her mother died in that car accident and she was only five years old back then. Living in sadness, her life takes a turn when her father introduces Elijah Clementine Marasigan, her handsome bodyguard. He gave her a bodyguard because at the age of eighteen, she almost got herself killed. As the only child, and the successor, her father was terrified that something bad might happen to her. Indeed, something did happen, but for Pristine, it wasn't bad at all—she fell in love with Elijah. However, despite their mutual feelings, they cannot be together. Nais kasi ng kanyang lolo na ipakasal siya sa apo ng kaibigan nito. Isang mayamang lalaki at bilyonaryo na katulad ng kanilang pamilya, at hindi lamang isang bodyguard. Ano ang pipiliin ni Pristine? Susundin ba niya ang kagustuhan ng kanyang lolo o tatakas siya upang makasama ang kanyang minamahal?

What is an Alpha without her Luna? Everybody knows that when their Alpha meets his Luna, his strength will become tenfold and everyone in the clan will receive the Alpha's blessing. Once the Alpha turns eighteen, he would release a huge amount of aura to attract his mate if he hasn't met her yet. That was the culture of every wolf and it is the most important year of an Alpha. Marvin Brimon, Alpha of the Phantom clan, has been looking for his Luna even before he turns eighteen. With each year that he fails to find her, other werewolves started judging him and targeting his clan. It was a good thing that James Knight, Alpha of the strongest werewolves in the entire nation which was the Scarlet clan, was his father's friend. After learning that the Scarlet clan are joining force with them, nobody dared to mess with the Phantom clan. Although this only lasted when a Soothsayer appeared and claimed that a half human and half wolf would end Eric's life for good and stop his madness. He went in war to kill every women who was pregnant until he fulfilled his mission. After the war ended, Marvin started showing symptoms of Woreas. A rare disease when a male wolf doesn't have a mate. They grow weaker and weaker everyday until they have no strength left.The only cure for this is if they finally meet their mate but they have until the age of twenty five. So far, only one male had experienced this and he died a crucial death by the hands of other wolves. Will Marvin finds his mate or will he be mateless forever, allowing others to take his position as an Alpha. Read the story to find out. Story written by FeiFei17

On the night of our wedding, my gold-medal lawyer wife, Aurora Sterling, abandoned me and tangled herself with her assistant, Kieran Holt. Kieran barged into our bridal suite carrying his vegetative-state fiancee, Elara Holt, and demanded we swap spouses. I refused without hesitation. Right there on the spot, he drugged me and forcibly locked me in a room with Elara. Meanwhile, he held Aurora in our newlywed bed and used eighteen condoms that night. The next morning, I stormed into the office to confront him. Instead, I saw Aurora kneeling between his legs. When she noticed me, Kieran shuddered and quickly pulled away before standing up. "Rowan, Aurora didn’t get enough last night, so I brought her out for some fun again. Don’t worry. This will be the last time. I won’t disturb you two anymore." He turned to leave. However, Aurora stopped him reluctantly. "Kieran, you're not the one who should leave." Then she turned to me, her face dark with anger. "Elara became a vegetable because she saved my life. I have an obligation to fulfill a wife’s duties for her. "From now on, I’ll accompany Kieran on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The rest of the days I’ll stay with you. I’m even giving you an extra day, so you should be satisfied." As I watched the absurd scene unfold before me, rage finally exploded inside my chest. Just as I was about to erupt, my phone suddenly chimed. Ding. "Hey, handsome, your skills are pretty good. Interested in developing a long-term arrangement?"

I was eighteen when I left Italy for Chicago. My brother Leo handed me over to his most powerful ally for “protection.” Don Damien Volkov. His eyes locked on me the first time we met. They never looked away. By day, I was his private doctor. By night, I was the only thing in his bed. His seduction was a slow, deliberate hunt. The way his body brushed against mine during an exam. A stray kiss that landed behind my ear. The weight of his hand resting on the small of my back. I fell fast and hard for his dark charm. I gave myself to him, letting him claim me, again and again. For four years, our affair was a secret hidden in the shadows. In that time, he sculpted my body, teaching it to crave his touch, molding me into his perfect obsession. Then she came back. Isabella, his exiled ex-fiancée. He sent his private jet for her. I swallowed my pride and crashed his reunion. An hour ago, his hands, still smelling of blood, gripped my chin. He forced his kiss on me. But now, right in front of me, he was stroking another woman's hair. "Elara, you're the one who climbed into my bed four years ago." "You act like a whore, but you expect me to treat you like a Donna?" The way he looked at Isabella was so tender. The way he looked at me was pure scorn. Shame burned through me. Head down, I sent my brother a coded text. Accept the Moretti proposal. I looked up. A smile bloomed on my face. "Fine. Then this is goodbye, Damien."

Maya Reyes is twenty-six, quietly resilient, and out of options. When she takes a live-in nanny position for a Manhattan billionaire, she expects a difficult employer and a lonely child. She gets both, but she also gets Ethan Cole. Ethan lost his wife eighteen months ago and has been managing the grief the only way he knows how: by controlling everything around him. His apartment is spotless, his rules are laminated, his daughter Lily is the only crack in the armour he has built around his life, and it is through Lily that Maya begins to see the man underneath. What follows is not a dramatic love story, it is a quiet one. He carries her to her room when she falls asleep on the floor, he heats her soup when she hasn't eaten. He holds her hand in a dark car and lets go like it never happened. She cooks for him, confronts him, tells him truths no one else will, and slowly without either of them naming it, they become the most important person in each other's lives. But grief doesn't move in straight lines. When Ethan's fear gets the better of him, he tries to restore the distance, and nearly loses the one thing that has made him want to come back to life. It will take a four-year-old's unfiltered honesty, a letter Maya writes from the floor of her room, and a man finally choosing to stop running, for both of them to find their way to the other side of it. When Winter Blooms is a story about what love looks like before anyone admits it exists, and what it costs to let it.

All the relatives knew I had a "backward cousin." For my birthday, she gave me a grocery-store pound cake. When I ran a marathon, she presented me with a pair of worn-out canvas sneakers. At my graduate school acceptance party, she even sent a funeral wreath of white lilies with a sash that read "In Sympathy," wishing me an early departure to the afterlife. In my previous life, I slapped her so hard she tumbled down the porch steps. My brother took her side and plotted revenge, falsely reporting to the university that I had cheated on my SATs. My admission was revoked. "You're so modern. You know how things work," he sneered. "Plenty of people take a gap year. Just apply again." My father also defended her, cutting off all my financial support. "You've had so much schooling. You're so educated," he said coldly. "Support yourself." Alone in a city eighteen hundred miles from home, I fought to survive. I called my brother and my father again and again—only to be blocked. I delivered food while renting a room and studying to reapply. At my lowest, my hands were raw and cracked from frostbite, scrambling for delivery shifts at four in the morning just to earn a small bonus. Worn down by the cold and exhaustion, I suffered cardiac arrest at twenty-three and collapsed in a snowdrift in that unfamiliar city. No one ever came to claim me. This time, I chose to let it go and accepted the wreath with a gracious smile. To fully integrate myself into this family. After all, what is a moment of pride compared to a lifetime's inheritance?

"You know, you always look so much better when I mark you up." He husked out as he palmed my burning cheeks. I buried my face in the soft, silky sheets some more, muffling the stuttered whimper that bubbled past my throat. "If you're going to act like a desperate little brat, I'm going to treat you like one. Got It?” ——— When eighteen year old Mia’s identical twin gets betrothed to an underboss, Mia was silently grateful for being the least favorite twin who was never noticed. Her relief was abruptly shortened when her twin disappeared on her wedding day, which resulted in Mia being forced to take her twin’s spot and marry a man way older than her father. Mia thought her life could never get any worse, but was proved wrong on her wedding night, when her newly wedded husband was killed and she was being kidnapped by a Mafia Lord hellbent on getting revenge on her father through her, showing her just how cruel and heartless, power starved and rage-blinded men could be. And yet, Mia found herself falling. Falling ridiculously fast, for the most dangerous mafia lord to ever walk the earth. Lorenzo Domenico, the one who never dies. All Lorenzo wanted was to get revenge, he was supposed to put a bullet through the petite girl’s pretty face and send her body back to her father as a present. But somehow, here he was– willing to go to any lengths to protect, keep her safe, and all to himself.

Kaiser Volkov is the 27-year-old Alpha of the Viperthorn pack, known for being everything an Alpha shouldn't be—brash, strategic, and a notorious playboy. He's the life of the party, admired by women and envied by men, but no one truly knows the secrets buried beneath his charming exterior. Kaiser has successfully hidden his past from his new pack, until a pregnant woman collapses at the pack's gates, calling his name before passing out. To his shock, the woman is Esmarie Cruz, his childhood best friend and the wife of the very man who drove Kaiser away from his old pack. Esmarie's life spiraled into chaos when Kaiser vanished in the middle of the night when they were eighteen after kissing her. Forced to marry his brother, she has endured relentless suffering at the hands of his family. Now pregnant and fearing for her children's lives, Esmarie escapes, desperate and uncertain, and finds herself at the gates of Kaiser's pack. Though unsure of why she sought him out, he's her only hope to hide from his brother. The Kaiser Esmarie once knew is gone, replaced by a man unprepared to shoulder responsibilities. Burdened by the past, both struggle with the baggage they carry. Yet, amidst their turmoil, old feelings flicker—a testament to the saying that first love never truly fades. When Kaiser's brother resurfaces, threatening Esmarie and her children, Kaiser must decide: run away again or confront his past and family to protect Esmarie and avenge the wrongs done to him years ago. As old flames reignite, Kaiser and Esmarie are forced to confront their shared history and the love that never really went away.

Elara "Ella" has two secrets. The first? She's been secretly dating Damon Silverton, the star hockey player and the most popular guy in school, for nearly a year. He asked her to keep their relationship hidden until he was ready to go public. Ella agreed, even though it hurt to watch other girls, especially head cheerleader Sera Moon, throw themselves at him every day. The second secret? Ella is a werewolf. But her wolf has always been quiet, buried deep beneath years of bullying and rejection. No one knows. Not even Damon. When Damon promises to announce their relationship at the season's biggest hockey awards night, Ella finally lets herself hope. She sits in the front row, heart racing, ready to be seen. Ready to be chosen. But when Damon wins Best Player and Ella stands up, declaring her love for everyone to hear, he looks right through her. And calls Sera's name instead. The laughter still echoes in her ears three days later as she hides in her room. "Fatty." "Loser." "Did she really think he'd pick her?" On her fourth day back at school, broken and humiliated, Ella collides with someone in the hallway. A new student. Tall, intense, with eyes that seem to see straight through her walls. Her wolf, silent for eighteen years, suddenly explodes inside her chest with one undeniable truth: "Mate." But Kael Thorne isn't just any new student. He's a hockey player too. And he has no intention of letting the guy who broke his mate's heart get away with it.

I was seventeen when Rowan Ashcroft promised we’d disappear together. I was eighteen when my father sold me to a man who wanted to own my blood. For twelve years, I was the perfect trophy wife to the ruthless Alpha Julian Cross. To the world, I was untouchable, beautiful, obedient, and carefully medicated to keep my true nature buried. In reality, I was a locked vault, a prisoner hiding a forbidden Silver Omega lineage that the supernatural Council had spent generations trying to erase. But the haze of the pills is fading, and a secret is growing inside me. I am pregnant. And I know exactly what Julian will do when he finds out his "perfect wife" is carrying a child that shouldn't exist. So, I run. I don’t get far before the Council’s executioner finds me. Rowan Ashcroft steps out of the shadows wearing the silver marks of an Enforcer and the same cold eyes I once trusted with my life. He isn't here to save me. He’s here because my bloodline and my unborn child are worth killing for. Instead of ending my life, Rowan offers a lethal contract: Three months. A fake mating bond. Absolute protection from the Council. The bond is supposed to be a lie, a way to cloak my scent and hide me in plain sight. But as Rowan’s mark burns into my skin, it awakens something ancient and primal in my blood. I was never just an Omega meant to be owned. I am the return of a legend they thought they’d killed. Julian wants his property back. The Council wants me dead. But they are about to learn what happens when the woman they tried to erase finally becomes Untouchable.