Empty Smiles

Celeste Winters once had a name that echoed across territories, the daughter of the WinterMoon Alpha—fierce, loyal, and born of a legacy older than the crown that now rules the city. But all of that shattered the moment the man she trusted with her soul chose another without a word of goodbye. Cast aside without explanation, stripped of identity and purpose, Celeste ran. She abandoned her title, her pack, even her wolf… burying it all beneath perfume and silence. Now, in the heart of a city that doesn’t know her, she works late-night shifts at a diner and hides her scars behind forced smiles and lingering shadows. Every day she survives, but she does not live. Until the night everything begins to unravel. A rogue attack. A moment of instinct. A power she shouldn’t still have. And a single word whispered by the Alpha King himself as their eyes lock across the chaos: Mate. Celeste never wanted to love again. Never wanted to be claimed, or seen, or remembered. But he remembers her—her scent, her laugh, the steel behind her soft-spoken words. And worse, his wolf wants her. Craves her. But Celeste’s past isn’t just filled with heartbreak. It’s filled with secrets—deadly ones. The rogues aren’t just after her for revenge; they’re looking to return her to a father who will burn down every pack to get her back. A father who once ruled all, and never forgave betrayal. As the line between predator and protector begins to blur, Celeste must face the truth she’s tried to forget: she was never meant to disappear. And the more she lets herself feel again, the more dangerous her world becomes. The past is waking. The wolves are circling. And fate has never played fair.

Adrian Royce, once a commanding force in the business world, now hides in the shadows of his fears and a wheelchair. Cynical and broken, he’s forced into a marriage with Serena Cooper, a fiery young woman whose dreams are as big as the struggles she’s endured. A healer at heart, with her grandmother’s ancient remedies and an indomitable spirit, Serena has known heartbreak and betrayal—but never defeat. From their first meeting, sparks fly—not of passion, but of sharp words and clashing wills. “You think I want your money?” Serena snaps when Adrian accuses her of being a gold digger. “No, Mr. Royce. I want a college seat.” Reluctantly, Adrian lets her into his life, and Serena’s presence becomes more than just physical healing. Her selflessness and quiet resilience begin to chip away at his icy walls. Despite himself, Adrian starts waiting for her each evening, sharing meals he once ate in solitude, his heart unknowingly opening to her warmth. As their contract of necessity shifts into something deeper, Serena finds herself captivated by Adrian’s rare smiles and the vulnerability he hides behind his sharp tongue. Serena, who vowed never to trust again, feels her walls crumble under the weight of Adrian’s gaze. His touch sends shivers down her spine, his presence a constant reminder that she isn’t alone. And yet, she fears the same pain that has haunted her past. But as emotions rise, so do the challenges—old flames, family betrayals, and scars from their pasts. Can Serena overcome her fear of losing someone she loves again? Will Adrian be brave enough to fight for her? The Cure Is You, is a heart-stirring tale of resilience, betrayal, and the healing power of love that will leave you breathless until the very last page.

I shoot without any kind of fear, with violence, I advance in the lair of the Romans that I hate so much, while I protect my belly. The confrontation is complicated, because we have the same level and weapons, but, if I have come here, it is because I want to end right now with the hatred that has prevented us from advancing. My babies in my belly move and I transform into a wolf to advance quickly through the place, until I collide with a big wolf that makes me angry. The man transforms into a human and smiles at me. “I didn't think you would be so vindictive. It was just a little rejection, Rain, you should let me go.” Lake says, the man that in the past, I loved with my soul. The desire to transform into a human and shoot him flashes through my mind, but I can't give myself away. So, I jump to bite his neck, but, he grabs me in his arms and throws me to the other end of the room, where one of my men grabs me and I, out of shock, transform into a human. “Are you all right?” my bodyguard asks worriedly and I nod in fear. “Are you pregnant?” Lake asks in a daze, looking at my bulging belly. 'Oh, no. Now he knows. Darn.' I mentally tell myself with worry. “'That baby... “If you came to talk, you can talk in hell.” I say shooting at him and he doesn't dodge my bullet, but, instead, rushes towards me. “It's my son, isn't it?” Lake asks. “I don't have to answer anything you ask me; our connection was broken when you rejected me as your moon.” I say coldly.

The things we want are so very rarely the things we need. Clifton Heights, a modest Adirondack town, offers many unique attractions. Arcane Delights sells both paperbacks and hard-to-find limited editions. The Skylark Diner serves the best home-cooked meals around, with friendly service and a smile. Every August, Mr. Jingo’s County Fair visits, to the delight of children and adults. In essence, Clifton Heights is the quintessential small American town. Everyone knows everyone else, and everyone is treated like family. It is quiet, simple, and peaceful. But shadows linger here. Flitting in dark corners, from the corner of the eye. If you walk down Main Street after dark, the slight scrape of shoes on asphalt whispers you're not alone, but when you look over your shoulder, no one is there. The moon shines high and bright in the night sky, but instead of throwing light, it only seems to make the shadows lengthen. Children disappear. Teens run away. Hunters get lost in the woods with frightening regularity. Husbands go mad, and wives vanish in the dead of night. And still, when the sun rises in the morning, you are greeted by townspeople with warm waves and friendly smiles, and the shivers pass as everything seems fresh and new... Until night falls once more. Handy's Pawn and Thrift sits several blocks down from Arcane Delights. Like any thrift store, its wares range from the mundane to the bizarre. By daylight, it seems just another slice of small town Americana. But in its window hangs a sign which reads: We Have Things You Need. And when a lonely traveling salesman comes looking for something he desperately wants, after normal visiting hours, after night has fallen, he will face a harsh truth among the shelves of Handy’s Pawn and Thrift: the things we want are rarely the things we need. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

I could not decipher what was suddenly wrong with me the moment my eyes fell on him. Was it the mate pull or was it something I took? His blue eyes like a magnet kept pulling me close, captivating my sea-green ones entirely. I was not in the right frame of mind, I was certain and tried to walk away from him. Only to stumble on my own feet and in seconds, he was holding me up, his hands securely wrapped around my waist and the longing in his eyes evident. My eyes fell on his lips and I couldn't hold it in any longer. I pulled his face closer to myself, kissing his lips passionately whilst moaning in bliss as his hands ran all over my body. He pulled out of our intense make-out and stared deeply into my eyes, "what are you doing to me?" "I don't know, I can't get enough of you. Just please me Sire" My voice was sonorously filled with desire. He grabbed my butt possessively, "In that case, let's take this somewhere else. You are mine anyways, I will make you scream flower" Without waiting for my reply, he hoisted me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist, kissing him back with the same intensity as he walked towards one of the empty rooms in the mansion. ******************* After Elora Dawson gets her wolf and meets her mate, Blitz, she discovers her extraordinary Powers and vows to use her abilities to put the ferocious leader of her pack in his place. But would she be successful in this almost impossible quest? What happens when she discovers the secret behind her birth? What of her Love life with Blitz, given the tribulations surrounding their love? Will they overcome?

3 years after getting married, I am still a virgin. "Lucien, let's get a divorce," I said in a peremptory tone that was long overdue, the most decisive farewell to this absurd marriage. We had been married for exactly three years—three years that, for me, were filled with nothing but endless loneliness and torment. For three years, the husband who should have stood by my side through every storm, Lucien Sullivan, had completely disappeared from my life as if he had never existed. He vanished without a trace, leaving me alone to endure this empty, desolate marriage. Today, I finally received his message: "I'm back. Come pick me up at the airport." When I read his words, my heart leapt with joy, and I raced to the airport, thinking that he finally understood my love and was coming back to me. But his cruelty was far worse than I could have ever imagined—he was accompanied by a pregnant woman, and that woman was Carla, my closest and most trusted friend. In that moment, all of my previous excitement, all my hope, and all of our shared laughter and tears turned into the sharpest of daggers, stabbing into my heart and leaving me gasping for air. He should know that it was his own hand that trampled our love underfoot, that his coldness and betrayal created this irreparable situation. But when he heard those words, he desperately clung to this broken, crumbling marriage, unwilling to let it end—almost as though doing so could rewind time and return everything to how it used to be. "Aurora, come back. I regret everything!" Regret? Those simple words stirred no emotion in me—only endless sadness and fury. My heart let out a frantic, desperate scream: It's too late for any of this!

I'm lina, a young girl of 23 years old. My parent died when I was twelve years old in a plane crash, leaving me empty with nothing. After my parent's death, my anuty. My mum's younger sister took me in as she is the only person in my mum's family alive. She was more than an anuty to me. She was my only family. The day that was supposed to be my happiest day turned into pain as she left me leaving behind my nephew whom she gave birth to. I took it upon myself to take care of my handsome nephew but one thing is the problem. A secret, I'm yet to know. one was to find out who the father of my nephew was, and two were able to avoid them. Since some people seem to be looking for my nephew. Another one was to find out the person responsible for my parent's death but one thing that I promised myself was never to fall in love with any man after the last thing that happened to my anuty, left by her supposed boyfriend after he found out. She was pregnant which I believed was one of the reasons. She couldn't survive. To me, love was a scam but after one nightstand after I drank myself stupor in a club to calm myself. I realized. I had a one-night stand. I looked around the room and sighed in relief and picked up my clothes to leave but was shocked when I heard a magnetic voice behind me just before my hand touched the doorknob. " Where are you going lady?" I froze. What have I gotten myself into? I asked myself Since that day my once peaceful world was turned upside down and some mysteries and dark secrets were revealed.

When Rocco Morelli, a mafia don, finds me, it's when I'm working as a stripper at an illegal bar, pleasing the men around me with sultry smiles and provocative dances. He throws his jacket over me and grabs me by the jaw, saying, "Come home with me." From that day onward, I fell in love with Rocco. After doting on me for five years, he proposes to me. Yet, in the month leading up to the wedding, he suddenly disappears. I launch a frenzied search for him before eventually seeing him in a jewelry boutique. With his arm wrapped around the dolled-up woman beside him, he picks out a 20-carat wedding ring. That woman is Emilia Leone, who is my father's illegitimate daughter. He stares at her, his eyes filled with affection. "I'll prepare the grandest wedding ceremony for you." "What about Cassandra?" Emilia asks with a coy smile. "You proposed to her, too." Snorting, Rocco replies scornfully, "Can't you tell? That's just my way of toying with her. Her older brother nearly took your life. Now that he's gone missing, it's only right for her to suffer the consequences in his place. "On our wedding day, I'll abandon her at the altar and marry you instead. She'll become the laughingstock in all of Langshore. Only you, the daughter of the Leone family, the largest mafia family, are worthy of me." The wedding day arrives, and I skip out on the ceremony as well. At Rocco and Emilia's wedding ceremony, I broadcast 99 photos of Emilia fooling around with other men. He panics and tearfully begs for me to return to him, but I take the gun my brother hands me and point it at his head, saying, "Actually, I'm the real daughter of the Leone family."

In a world filled with different supernatural beings, the world passed through a chaotic period until a few representatives from each supernatural race came together to establish a peace treaty. This day was known as the Great Reform and all beings, including humans became one. With years of established peace, life goes on normally for a young beta werewolf, Andrew. He belongs to a pack with a highly decisive and cruel Alpha. so cruel that he only acknowledges strength and doesn't hesitate to finish off anything that's a threat to him or annoys him. He ends up killing his own Luna, the woman Andrew once loved, and makes it known to his pack as an indication that no one will defy him. Andrew lives his life without problems and does his missions very well, until he finds his mate. Seeing his mate almost get married makes his blood boil, but what could he do? Diana Norman never knew that after she was sold off for marriage with happy smiles, her life would turn for the worst. She had always been the best daughter, getting almost anything she needed but after her sister was born, everything she thought she had was taken from her like a piece of cake. Thinking that her life would collapse, she came in and rescued her at each moment. She finally knew that in this world, there was still happiness for her. Everything happened so quickly: one moment she was with her younger brothers, the next she finds herself in front of a toxic werewolf, his eyes scanning her like some fresh meat to devour. How can she change her fate when it has already been decided by her parents, whom she thought loved her the most?

Kathalina Ruiz never believed in fairy tales. Her mother's dying wish bound her to enigmatic CEO Thirdie Stone in an arranged marriage she accepted out of duty, not romance. Yet somewhere between quiet nights and fragile smiles, Kathalina fell deeply for her distant husband only to keep her love locked away, too afraid it would never be returned. For three years, their marriage balanced on politeness and silence. Then one stormy afternoon shattered it all. Kathalina walked into Thirdie's office and found another woman-half-naked-sitting on his lap. Without demanding an explanation, she signed the divorce papers he placed before her, his gaze as cold as the ink that sealed their separation. What she never knew was that Thirdie's betrayal was a lie... a desperate act to protect her from the dangerous threats circling his empire. Heartbroken and grieving, Kathalina fled abroad. From the ashes of her pain, she rebuilt herself into a celebrated jewelry designer, admired for her elegance and independence. But fate had other plans. Years later, her mother's lawyer makes a revelation she has inherited a vast fortune and controlling shares in Stone Corporation. The life and the man she tried to escape are waiting for her return. Back in the city where it all began, Kathalina comes face-to-face with Thirdie once more. Old wounds resurface, secrets linger in every shadow, and danger draws closer than ever. Now, she must decide to protect her heart from the man who once broke it or uncover the truth he buried......a truth that could change everything she thought she knew about their past. A story of love, sacrifice, and second chances, The Stones We Keep asks.....is it ever too late to believe in a love that never truly died?