Gene Drawing

Ever since my mom gave birth to her second child, everything in the household is tied to drawing lots. Everyone has to draw lots in order to decide whose favorite food will be served for each meal. We have to draw lots to see who among us gets a hug from our parents. Every time, I end up drawing the short end of the stick, so everyone automatically assumes that my younger sister, Anabelle Madden, gets the better lot. She easily reaps my parents' love without having to do anything at all. Whenever I feel like crying because of the injustice, Mom will scold me instantly. "I bought the lottery box because I was worried that you might feel upset about this. I'm doing this just to be fair to both of you. "If you want something, you have to be the one deciding who gets what. Your father and I won't interfere with your decision at all. Since you can't draw the better lot, that just means you have bad luck." Hence, I keep practicing my lot-drawing skills every day, hoping that I can eventually draw the better lot in order to obtain my parents' love. But for ten years, I never get to draw the better lot. Not even once. On my birthday, Anabelle wants to go to the amusement park, so Mom tells us to draw lots once again. I secretly glue two short lots together before giving it to Mom in an attempt to get her to stay with me. Instead, she slaps me and berates me for being a disobedient child who cheats in lot-drawing. Then, she leaves the house with Anabelle. When I fall to the floor, I feel the short sticks piercing through my neck.

I am a postgraduate archaeology student whose fieldwork combines GIS technology with excavation, and during one project I become entangled in a concealed emotional relationship with two lecturers. Linus is restrained, intellectually rigorous, and emotionally distant, offering a sense of order and safety rooted in academic discipline, while Theo is charismatic, passionate, and ethically unstable, drawing me into intensity and risk. What begins as professional admiration develops into intimacy shaped by secrecy, hierarchy, and blurred boundaries. As the excavation exposes layered traces of past lives, I am forced to confront my own desire, ambition, and guilt, and the story ultimately centres not on choosing between two men, but on learning how to live with complexity and accept the consequences of crossing lines.

Cassie Jones was the girl who went unnoticed—plus-sized, shy, and silently battling her self-esteem issues. But she had a secret: a gigantic crush on Jeffery Richards, the star athlete, golden boy and basketball hero of their school. What she wasn't aware of was that he too idolized her, secretly drawing her and composing poetry about her silent beauty. That was until the day a cruel bet forced his secret feelings out in the worst way imaginable. Cassie, heartbroken, disappeared from his life. Thirteen years later, fate brings them together again. Cassie is a tough PR executive, prosperous, aggressive, and not interested in revisiting the pain of her past. But Jeffery is resolved to demonstrate to her that he has changed—that his love for her never has. Will she learn to trust him again, or will the past repeat itself?

To encourage overall development, the kindergarten had asked each student to create a hand-drawn poster. My daughter Holly refused my help and insisted on doing it all on her own. Little did I know, most of the other children had their parents do the artwork for them. In comparison, Holly's delicate strokes were quickly dismissed. Not only was her work discarded into the trash, but her teacher also called her out in the parent group, criticizing her for being careless with the assignment. As I racked my brain trying to figure out how to help Holly regain her confidence in drawing, I was surprised to see Holly's artwork among the winning entries in the state-level children's art competition. But the signature wasn't hers—it belonged to another student from her class.

DO NOT READ YET. UNDER THOROUGH EDITING The plan was to run from him. But no one can outrun destiny. "I'm mated to the twin alphas of Bloodmoon. Your moon goddess must be wrong to think I'd want a third mate. Nevertheless, a cursed king." *** Avalyn Drakara became a fugitive taboo the moment she was born. Children born from the combination of two shifters never survive. The struggle of dominance from each gene would never allow that, but she did, fulfilling the prophecy of the flame reborn. Amidst various sacrifices to hide her identity, she finds herself living as a human runt in a cruel hierarchical werewolf pack where she's mated to the twin alphas. Fate is cruel, and decides being a pet to one more alpha is the price she'd pay for the power she was never meant to have. But he isn't just any alpha. He's Alpha Kael Draven, the cursed lycan of the north and a descendant of the royal family. She isn't his first, but she is the key to breaking his curse. But when you've spent years bound to what you know, leaving it becomes difficult. Ava has no idea about who she truly is. Kael doesn't care; all he wants is to break free. Yet with a prophecy that ties both together, a gruesome, inevitable love is bound to happen. It's either them, or their entire world.

They never knew about her… A fairy tale, for Irwen, was something truly extraordinary—a destiny tied by a bond that seemed unbreakably strong and magical. But her mate had betrayed her, treating everything she had done as meaningless nonsense. Fine. Irwen understood—and decided that betrayal deserved a revenge. The Alpha King had exceeded her expectations. He helped her, and even proposed a marriage contract. He began to heal her frozen heart, drawing them into a more complicated relationship. To Irwen, it felt like stepping back into a fairy tale—one that might end in pain again. “I want you to be my Luna.” “I will protect you.” “I will stay by your side.” But will those promises hold true when they’re faced with something that stands in opposition? The healer and her chains…

I leave my boyfriend without a word when he's at his lowest. He later makes a name for himself and forces me to marry him. Our relationship goes viral online and becomes the subject of everyone's envy. They all say he's desperately in love with me, but he later sleeps with other women in our bed. I fall from grace and become the city's biggest laughingstock. I don't cause a scene. Instead, I move into the guest bedroom and leave the master bedroom for them. He's furious as he grips my neck roughly. He bites my lips, drawing blood. "Why aren't you mad?" Because I'm sick. I don't have the time to wait for him to see the error of his ways anymore.

Riya Rolfe thinks that stories about werewolves and Lycans are just old wives tales so she gets a huge and unexpected shocker when she wakes up as a werewolf and finds herself in a world where werewolves like her are the property of Lycans to do with as they wish and she has to compete for the affections of the Lycan Prince. “What are you wearing?” He said, drawing so close that the smell of cedarwood and the sea filled my senses as he fingered the necklace which’s pendant disappeared into the hollow between my breasts while I struggled to pretend like I was not moved by his actions. “It was a gift.” I said straightening up and staring brazenly into his eyes which glowed dangerously and he growled and snapped the necklace off my neck in one fluid move. “You belong to me, only I can adorn you with jewelry and my touch.”

Like a moth is drawn to a flame, she's drawn to him even when she knows the consequences. She has been attracted to him the very first time she saw him, only that she had no idea how hard she is going to fall for him, how deeply she is going to care for him. Nathalie is an only child, the heiress to her billionaire family's fortune. She isn't interested in the family business, instead she finds comfort in drawing, painting and photographing. Lucas has an assignment to carry out and damn right he's going to do it, he mustn't let one amazing girl with a honey brown hair and eyes sway him. But can he? He came into the house hiding under the mask of being a bodyguard but it is much more than that. Both his survival and that of his twin sister depends on it.

Raised from an infant in discipline, Reza Kelson has been trained to be a cold-blooded killer. Nothing has stopped him when he's been ordered to an assignment, and nothing probably will. An agent for a secret branch of government, he kills and incinerates anything with the discipline of a sharp knife. But even though he's the best at what he does, tables turn when the government dumps Reza from bureaucracy, albeit with a place to be hidden away in. Now Reza finds himself struggling to integrate into the sleepy town of Lonewood. Raised without any form of love or compassion, he naturally comes off as rude and abrasive, and therefore drawing attention. And with other dumped agents, with some bent on settling scores, the entire situation could not be more risible and outrageous. Not to mention the strange boy, Dane Rochelle, who seems strangely possessive of him, and with Reza balances the life he never should have had.