Fading Stars Novels & Stories

For five years, I played the ghost in my own marriage. I pressed Julian Daniel’s pristine suits, matched his cufflinks, and sat by the window like a loyal dog, waiting for the "Ice King" CEO to look at me with something resembling desire. Instead, I received clinical kindness and a box containing a gold watch. Every anniversary, the exact same script. It was his way of checking a box - a tax he paid for a life he felt obligated to support. I sacrificed my career as a prima ballerina, shattering my legs to push him out of the path of a speeding car. He didn't marry a wife; he locked away a debt. The anniversary script burned to ash on our fifth year. Standing outside the bathroom door, I heard the raw, unbridled passion Julian had denied me for half a decade. He wasn't breathing my name into the steam. He was choking out the name of his high school heartbreak: Penelope. The betrayal didn't end in our bedroom. It followed me to a high-end restaurant where Julian hosted a private lunch. Pushing open the heavy wooden doors, I didn't find a husband willing to defend his wife. I found his childhood friend dragging his foot in a cruel, mocking circle, mimicking my limp to a room erupting in roars of laughter. Penelope doubled over in delight. And Julian? He sat at the head of the table, watching my humiliation with a look of pure, unbothered boredom. “I owe her,” his voice cut through the fading laughter, calm and tired. “I am just trying to pay back a debt.”

In the Valenti Family, you're born with a chip. It's fused into the bio-watch on your wrist, its digital face counting down every second you have left to live. Everyone could see the numbers ticking down on my twin sister's watch. And on mine. They all knew she would die on our 18th birthday. So Vivian became the untouchable princess of our brutal world. Every diamond-stitched gown was hers. The rarest jewels were hers. Even our father's last shred of humanity was hers. That single sliver of warmth he showed only after his gun was holstered. I used to pity her. Her time was running out. But God, I envied her. She had everything I never did: our parents' love. Then, the night of her 18th birthday party. My parents worried I'd make a scene. That I'd piss off the Don of an allied Family. So they locked me in the cellar. Damp. Cold. While a deadly fever burned through me. I pounded on the heavy oak door, my voice cracking. "Mamma, please! Let me out! I'm burning up. My head is splitting open…" Outside, my mother's voice was a steel trap. "Enough, Sienna! Today is your sister’s 18th birthday. Her last day alive! Stop the theatrics! Can't you suffer in silence for the Family's honor?" "But I'm really sick..." Her footsteps clicked away, fading into nothing. Then the darkness swallowed me whole. And on my wrist, the bio-watch was flashing a critical alert. CRITICAL ALERT: Vital signs mismatch. Paired chip data incompatible. Please verify user.

Leon, drink up. Finish every drop in this glass." As my wife, Alice Carr, holds a glass of warm milk, she keeps staring at my Adam's apple intensely. Every night, she needs to watch me finish the entire glass of milk. At first, I think this is Alice's way of showing me her love. That is, until something occurred last month. Back then, my neighbor's fire alarm blared extremely loudly due to a fire breaking out. Yet, I had slept like a log the whole time. Only then do I realize that something is wrong with the milk. Last night, I pretended to go on a business trip. When I secretly go home in the middle of the night, I find out that my bedroom door is locked. When I peek through the gap in the door, I feel my hairs rising on their ends. It turns out that Alice isn't asleep at all. She's standing on the balcony while holding my pillow and burying her face into it. Then, she inhales the scent deeply, as though she were a drug addict. Her shoulders keep trembling violently the whole time. It's one thing if Alice is madly addicted to my scent. The thing is, the pillowcase is a part of the bedroom set that my mom has dug up from my childhood home last week. I never have a chance to use that pillow, so there's no way my scent lingers on the pillowcase. Suddenly, Alice halts in her actions and raises her head. She looks up at the moon while licking her lips in an euphoric haze. Then, she mumbles softly, "Your dad's scent… is fading away…"

We had agreed to spend the New Year with our own families, but at the last minute, my husband, Drake Murrell, changed his mind and insisted I go back with him this year. I agreed, planning to take this opportunity to finally tell him the truth about who I really was. When we first got married, my parents told me to keep a low profile so that Drake, who came from a single-parent household, wouldn’t feel pressured. So I hid the fact that I was the daughter of the richest family in the capital, the Thorntons. When we returned to his hometown, I specifically bought my mother-in-law, Diana Murrell, a pair of gold bangles. She accepted them with a beaming smile, praising me again and again for being such a thoughtful daughter-in-law. However, the next day, as I passed by the old oak tree at the edge of Willow Creek, I overheard her talking about me with a group of people. "Oh, you have no idea. My daughter-in-law is absolutely ridiculous!" My hand froze midair, still holding my phone, as I instinctively ducked behind a haystack. I heard her continue loudly, "She bought me a pair of gold bangles this year. The moment I touched them, I knew they were fake! I’m telling you, they’re probably those cheap online knockoffs, like the kind that cost next to nothing and start fading the moment you wear them!" I was stunned with anger. She called pure gold fake? Looks like the million-dollar New Year gift I had prepared for her wasn’t necessary anymore.

Briella Hart has spent her entire life fading into the background. The quiet girl with an alcoholic mother and an absentee father who ditched them years ago without a backwards glance. Gossip and mockery follow her wherever she goes. She learns early on that dreams do not come true for people like her. Especially not the dream that she has secretly carried for years. Ryder Landon is untouchable, powerful, and everything that she can never have. The Alpha heir to the Crescent Moon pack, everyone either wants to be him or be with him. He is known. But beneath the hardened exterior, he’s a guy who feels everything too deeply. The weight of leadership, fear of failure, and constantly needing to balance what his pack needs with what his heart wants. Then one devastating night at the Full Moon Festival changes everything. Humiliated and heartbroken, Briella disappears without a trace, leaving behind only a note echoing Ryder’s cruelest words—and a secret that could destroy them both. For five long years, Ryder searched for Briella, but the trail always turned cold. When their paths cross again, she is different. No longer the timid girl who moved about unnoticed. Quickly, Ryder realizes three things. One, his heart still belongs to her despite the distance. Two, there is a little boy named Liam who has her hair and his eyes. Three, someone wants her dead. Now, with enemies closing in and someone determined to see Briella dead, Ryder realizes he is running out of time. Because losing her once nearly destroyed him. He will not survive losing his family twice.

King Lucien Draven rules the United Packs with cold iron strength. He has crushed every rebellion and refused every mating alliance. Lycan law demands a king produce heirs with a royal female or face challenge to his throne. Male omegas are disposable tributes, never equals. Then Caelan Ashford arrives as tribute from a fading noble pack. The quiet, scarred omega expects death in the royal palace. Instead, his scent ignites the ancient mate bond the instant their eyes meet. The pull is raw, immediate, and utterly forbidden. Lucien fights the bond with ruthless control. He confines Caelan to the lower halls, assigns him to brutal training, and buries desire beneath duty. But every stolen glance and accidental brush erodes his restraint. The bond grows stronger, darker, impossible to ignore. Caelan hides a deadly secret: royal blood from the dynasty Lucien’s ancestors destroyed. His silver collar dulls his true scent, yet it cannot hide him from the king or from Prince Rowan Draven, Lucien’s charismatic and dangerous younger brother. Rowan sees Caelan as both prize and weapon. He offers protection and power in exchange for loyalty, circling like a predator while court intrigue thickens with assassination plots and rising rebellion. Torn between throne and heart, Lucien must decide how much he will risk for his forbidden mate. Caelan, trapped between two lethal alphas, navigates betrayal, awakening power, and a bond that could destroy the kingdom or remake it. In a slow-burning dance of denial and surrender, where every touch courts war and every refusal cuts deeper, one forbidden connection threatens an empire and two wounded souls who were never meant to find each other.

"What would you do if you were given a second chance—not just at life, but at revenge?" When Paula Whitney watched her husband, Orlando Gilbert, introduce another woman as his lover in front of their entire family, her world crumbled. To make matters worse, Jeany Rosalia—the other woman—not only flaunted their affair but also brought along a child she claimed was Orlando’s. Humiliated and crushed under the weight of her family’s scorn, Paula did the only thing she could think of: she ran. But fate wasn’t kind. A tragic accident robbed her of everything—including her own body. Yet destiny had other plans. Paula awoke to find herself in the body of Vanessa Khiel, an up-and-coming singer on the brink of fame. Disoriented and reeling from the shock, she heard one final plea from the dying soul within—Vanessa's voice whispered through her fading strength: "Protect my little brother. And in return, I’ll help you get the revenge you deserve." Now, Paula lives as Vanessa. With Vanessa’s beauty, charisma, and growing influence in the entertainment world, Paula begins to orchestrate her revenge—determined to destroy Jeany and Orlando for the pain they caused. But just as her plan takes shape, Paula uncovers a secret behind Orlando’s betrayal… a truth that shakes the foundation of her hatred. And she begins to wonder: Is revenge ever enough… or does an old love still deserve a second chance? “You remind me of someone,” Orlando murmured, his eyes lingering on Vanessa with a longing that felt almost too familiar. “Who?” Vanessa replied with a faint smile, carefully hiding the irony behind her words. “Paula,” he whispered. “She was my wife.” Or will she drag Orlando down with her… into the depths of ruin?

My bestie Kenna and I were the fated mates of the two most powerful Alpha brothers in the Dark Moon pack. I was mated to the Head Alpha, Cade. Kenna was mated to his brother, Rhys. On our mating anniversary, a bloody package reeking of Rogues arrived. It was from Cade’s childhood friend, Lilah. The feral scent shocked my body into premature labor. Kenna rushed me to the pack’s private medical center. But the labor triggered a fatal condition: “Moon Eclipse Sickness.” My life force was draining away. With my last bit of strength, I used our mind-link to beg my Alpha for help. His furious voice was my only answer. “You’re faking this just because I missed our anniversary? Lilah’s rare silver hound is giving birth, and it’s dangerous. Don’t cause trouble for me now!” In the end, it was Kenna who drained her own wolf’s spirit to save me. I barely survived. But the pup I delivered was rushed to emergency care, too weak from my fading life force. Her eyes bloodshot, Kenna contacted her mate, Rhys. She begged him for "Moonflower Dew"—a serum from his own company that could save our baby. "Lilah's hound is weak after giving birth. I’m busy making a special formula for it. You and Evelyn are two of a kind. Always stirring up trouble. First her drama, now yours." My pup died. And my heart shattered with him. “Kenna, I’m rejecting my mate bond with Cade.” “If you reject him, I reject mine. Traitors don’t deserve mates.” But when we told the Alpha brothers we were rejecting them, they felt a panic they had never known.

I have a deal with Aldric Cromwell, the so-called King of Equinox Street, a billionaire lawyer-turned-CEO. If I confess to him 142 times while wearing a wedding dress, he will cover his limited-edition Koenigsegg in flowers, drive me to the most magical castle, and give me the grandest wedding imaginable on my 143rd try. However, Aldric is nowhere to be seen that day. Instead, he makes headlines by renting out the entire Wondergrove Theme Park just to celebrate his sweet new girlfriend, Bianca Alvarez's birthday. Bathed in the glow of brilliant fireworks, they share a tender kiss, cameras flashing like stars all around them. That moment quickly becomes the top trending story on the internet. Meanwhile, I go viral in my own way for showing up in a wedding dress for the 143rd time outside his company building. Speculations and theories swirl about the mystery man I keep confessing to but never reveal. People also wonder how long it will be before I make the 144th declaration. When Aldric realizes I have faithfully kept our agreement, he promises me, out of pure guilt, that he will finally fulfill the vow he's made to me after the final confession. Dressed to the nines, he arrives at his company, driving that flower-covered, limited edition Koenigsegg, only to receive a final text from me. "There won't be a 144th confession, Aldric. We're over."

"I can't give you the stars, But I promise I can make you see stars." Ava whispered to him boldly. Dominic Blackwood is ruthless, arrogant and dangerously determined. The only thing standing between him and his father’s powerful empire is one brutal condition, marriage. He’ll sacrifice anything to claim what’s his. Ava Laurent isn’t looking for love. She’s hunting revenge. Dominic Blackwood destroyed her family the day her brother died because of him. Now she’s ready to destroy him right back. But revenge requires proximity. And proximity leads to a wedding ring. What starts as a calculated game turns into a marriage neither of them expected. Dominic isn’t gentle. He commands. He dominates and he doesn’t bend. Too bad because ava didn’t have submission in her bones She talks back, she tempts and she provokes. But the deeper she digs into Dominic’s world, the more the lines blur. Because sometimes the villain isn’t who you think he is. And sometimes revenge tastes dangerously close to desire. She thought she was trapping her enemy. She never realized she was falling for him…. If you crave hot, flirty, tension filled dark romance with a dominant hero and a heroine who refuses to be controlled, this book is for you.