Familial Synonym

On the day before New Year's Eve, I didn't shut the window all the way, and my little sister sneezed. My parents kicked me out and ordered me to collect firewood in the dark. Inside, the family crowded around her, laughing as they handed her presents. I didn't cry or make a scene. Instead, I slung the basket onto my back before heading into the mountains through the wind and snow. I didn't find any firewood. I found a man instead. His leg was wedged in a crack between rocks, bloody enough to scare me. When he saw me, he said in a hoarse voice, "Get me out of here, girl. I can give you whatever you want." I looked up at him, my eyes finally focusing. "Really? Then I want you to be my dad."

Every Alpha has a destiny. His is written in the moonlight. Jason never asked to be Alpha. Bound by duty and haunted by loss, he leads the Moon Swept Pack with unwavering strength, but a quiet loneliness stalks his every step. When Aroura, a fierce warrior from the Midnight Pack, arrives unannounced, her presence is both disruptive and magnetic. She’s not just his fated mate; she’s his match. As tensions rise and enemies stir, Jason must fight not only for his pack but for a love he never believed he’d find. In a world of loyalty and betrayal, wolves and war, can love truly conquer all?

When I was seven, my constant vomiting got so bad that my mother took me to court and accused me of being born dangerous. If the charge stuck, I would be stripped of my family ties and sent straight to prison. Everyone said my mother was overreacting. "He's just a kid. Kids get sick. As his mother, you should be more understanding." But the moment the evidence was shown, the room went dead quiet. My mother had drunk herself into a stomach bleed just to land a contract, and the second she got home, I threw up all over it. The deal was voided, and she lost her job on the spot. On my sister, Ophelia Sowle's, birthday, I threw up all over her cake right in front of all her classmates. After that, she was shunned by everyone at school. She spiraled into depression and even slashed her wrists. It didn't matter where I was, at the dinner table or under the covers. I could start vomiting at any moment. My mother and Ophelia had to clean me up more than 30 times a day. It wore them down to the breaking point. What infuriated them the most was that every time I finished throwing up, I would look at them and laugh, as if I was mocking them. The judge brought the gavel down and declared me guilty of being born bad. Ophelia's eyes turned red as she cried, saying she couldn't bear to lose me. I didn't cry or fight it. I accepted the verdict. But I requested that the judge watch my memories first. The judge looked stunned. "Memory extraction means drilling into your brain. The pain is unbearable. Are you sure?" I nodded without hesitation. But Ophelia suddenly panicked. "I don't agree!"

Gilmore Davis, has never had anything to do with his employees or business partners. He didn't even know their names or their faces. He was that employer that barely relates with people. He only paid attention to important happenings in his business, strictly differentiating business from pleasure. He had never been a fan of office romance either. But, things changed and he suddenly had interest in one of his business partners. Vanessa Amelia Jones, was just a girl that wanted to make ends meet, avoiding trouble, and never wanting to be in the spotlight.They both seemed like opposites. But had a past binding them together. What's this past that is binding a nonchalant man like Gilmore, with his business partner, Vanessa?

One lie got her the job. One secret could get her killed. Fresh out of prison, and one misstep away from being dragged back behind bars, Mercedes Connor is desperate. No one wants to hire an ex-con, no matter how qualified she is. But her best friend has a dangerous idea: ditch the Connor name, go by her mother's; Mercedes Alexander, and cheat the system just enough to survive. Re-inventing herself, she was able to get a job as the live-in nanny at the prestigious Ford Estate. But the Ford's are not just your regular wealthy family. They're powerful. And they're hiding something. ***************** Bradley Ford is cold, commanding, and dangerously irresistible. The world sees him as a tech billionaire, but behind closed doors, he's something else entirely: An Alpha werewolf, with a pack in chaos, and enemies everywhere. With threats closing in, the last thing he needs is a human nanny living under his roof. But his children chose her–and they never warm up to strangers. And for reasons he can't explain, so does his wolf. Two lives. One house full of secrets. And a forbidden attraction that could unravel both of their worlds.

I've been kidnapped for ten years. When I finally get to go home, I find out that my parents have adopted a new son. In order to prevent me from bullying the adopted heir, Jake Ewing, my parents decide to enroll me in a popular transformation reality show. Every day, I have to compete with the pigs for food and a spot to sleep. Before I go to bed, an instructor will make me recite a hundred times how good my parents and Jake are. If I ever make a mistake, I'll face harsh public punishment in front of the camera. I also have to apologize repeatedly until the director is satisfied with me. Once the reality show is over, I finally transform into the perfect son and brother my family prefers. But on the day the reality show is set to air, I choose to jump off the TV station's rooftop, killing myself once and for all. That's when my parents lose their minds.

My father hates my mother for ruining his chance with his first love, and his hatred spills onto me, the unwanted child who carries her blood. I'm 18 when I'm kidnapped. The abductor calls Dad, who is a police officer, and threatens him. Dad thinks I staged the whole thing myself and tells the man to slice me apart if he wants to. The abductor tortures me to death. He even cuts my body into pieces and feeds it to the fish. Only then does Dad lose his mind. He tracks down the abductor and hacks him to death.

While I was traveling overseas with my family, a sudden flood hit. My fiancé slung my sister Joan over his back because her legs were weak, and ran for safety. My parents didn't have time for me, but they still remembered to grab the parrot they had just bought for Joan. All of them flew home overnight and even posted in the family group chat about how lucky everyone was to survive. But… They forgot something. I was still trapped in the flood, alone and helpless. When I woke up, I called my mentor without hesitation. "Dr. Jackson, I've decided to go with you and join Doctors Without Borders. I'm never coming back."

My younger brother, Sean, and I were both critically ill and needed kidney transplants. When the hospital finally found two matching donors, my mother didn't hesitate for a second and gave both kidneys to Sean. She said to me, "Ivan, Sean has been frail since he was little. Having two kidneys will make him healthier. He isn't like you. You've gone through dialysis so many times. I'm sure you're used to it." In the end, I didn't receive the kidney transplant. Tormented by illness, I suffered unbearably until I finally closed my eyes forever. Yet, she couldn't accept it. Her eyes turned red from crying.

When I was seven years old, my younger brother went into anaphylactic shock after sneaking a handful of peanuts. Outside the emergency room, my mother slammed my head against the wall over and over, her face twisted with rage. "If you had been watching him like you were supposed to be, this never would have happened! You should be the one with a ruptured stomach, not him!" After that, whenever my brother so much as caught a cold, my mother forced me to eat spoiled leftovers as punishment. I once prepared an elaborate feast. She flipped the entire table and made me crawl on the floor to lick it clean. When I said I wanted to study culinary arts, she poured hot oil over my hands. My father wanted to send me to vocational school to learn a trade, but my mother clutched my brother to her chest and wailed. "She destroyed her brother's health! She owes him a lifetime of service!" When I was fifteen, my brother's gluttony cost my father an important business deal. I took the blame without even being asked, and the furious client forced me to drink more than half a gallon of hard liquor. By the time I was sent home with a bleeding stomach, my father had already scolded my brother. My mother took out her anger on me instead, slapping me so hard my ears rang and my vision went dark at the edges. "You useless thing! You should’ve choked to death at that table! I get sick just looking at you!" I coughed up black blood. From my pocket, I pulled out a piece of sour candy that had gone soft and sticky. It was the only treat my mother had ever given me with a smile, back before my brother's allergic reaction. I put the candy in my mouth and swallowed it down with the taste of stomach acid. The candy was so sour it made my throat burn. Whatever came next, I just hoped I would not have to be my family’s garbage disposal again.