Grimgar Of Ashes And Illusions

Richard Franklin has left his Midwestern roots behind to live on the coast of Maine with his family. But in the autumn of the year 2000, he must return to his Illinois birthplace on a sorrowful journey. His wife Michelle has been killed in New England by a hit-and-run driver who is never found, so back home he comes with her cremated remains, to fulfill a final wish and on her birthday scatter her ashes in the park along the river in Blackwater Valley—simply Blackwater Val to locals—the small town where they both grew up and fell in love. With him he brings his six-year-old daughter Katie who still grieves for her lost mother: Katie, who can sometimes guess who’s going to be on the phone before it rings. Who can stop all the clocks in the house, and break up clouds in the sky with her mind, and heal sicknesses, and who sometimes sees things that aren’t there...people who are no longer alive. All gifts she inherited from her mother. Only something isn’t quite right in the Val. Sinkholes are opening up, revealing the plague pits the sleepy hamlet was built over in the 1830s, when malaria and cholera outbreaks ran riot. Mysterious bird and fish die-offs begin to occur, and Katie can see ghosts of the dead gathering all around. But what she can’t see is the charred, centuries-old malevolence which has been waiting for her, and wants her for its very own. Or the pale Sallow Man who haunts the town’s nighttime streets...or the river witch—another Blackwater Val, of sorts—each of whom will be drawn one by one into the nightmarish bloodletting about to take place. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Life can be cruel. One moment you’re on the verge of reaching the peak of your career, your sweetheart of five years finally down on one knee, promising forever. The next, your world burns to ashes—literally. Now, I’m not just a prisoner; I’m the plaything of the most feared man in the country. I told myself I hated him, that I’d never break. But what kind of woman starts to crave the way he owns her body, the way his touch sets her on fire? How do you survive when the man who owns you is as ruthless as he is captivating? How do you escape a man who makes you question everything, even your sanity? ~~ When her father’s PTSD causes a catastrophic accident, Lucia Castellano finds herself at the mercy of Dante Romano, a man whose name strikes fear into the heart of Chicago’s criminal underworld. Taken as a slave to pay for her father’s alleged crime, Lucia is thrown into a world of power, control and dangerous seduction. Dante’s control is absolute, his touch both punishing and addictive. What starts as a fight for survival turns into a dangerous game of submission and trust. But as the lines blur between captor and captive, Lucia begins to unravel a dark truth: Dante is haunted by a past that binds them more deeply than she ever expected. Together, they must uncover a web of lies to uncover the truth behind the fire that changed both their lives forever. Author’s Note: This book contains explicit content, strong language, violence, and other adult themes that may be disturbing to some readers. Reader discretion is advised.

WARNING❗️ MATURED CONTENT❗️❗️❗️ SERIES 11 OF 50! I am the perfect son in the eyes of my dying mother until I’m not. All the things I knew about myself and my mother’s death were all lies. My life in general was built on lies. Now, I only had to focus on one thing—be the best leader the Draco Elites had ever had. Be accepted by the notorious crime group, Foedus; to protect the people that matter to me, Carlene, and my men. That was until I met her. Stiffany. She changed every fucking thing. One look and I was bewitched. Under her spell. She’s refreshing and unique. Until she isn’t. She’s a bombshell liar with a smart mouth and legs for days. She betrayed me and I’ll break her. I’ll make her life a living hell. Until her past and mine come back at us. She was caught in the middle of the chaos and I was shattered. Now, I need to do everything in my power and Foedus to save my woman. I don’t care if I burn down the world to ashes or bathe with my enemy's blood. If my enemies—our enemies don’t kill me first. A buried past. A twisted game of love and betrayal. Three souls. Two women and a man with more enemies than allies. When love is more dangerous than entering the world of Foedus, will you leave or just surrender? “Lorenzo tastes like danger and power. A deadly combination. Totally intoxicating.”- Stiffany Author's Note: Names, places, characters, and incidents are just products of my imagination. Any resemblance to the event in the story is just a coincidence. Pwera na lang sa mga nagpahiram ng pangalan. God bless all.

“I now pronounce you as a husband and wife. You may kiss the bride!” The priest announced and I froze. I knew I was cursed the moment this blood oath was taken which bound me to hell, the hell of this Sinner. My eyelids raised to see the ugly creation of god. My husband! Vladimir Sokolov! His rugged face carved with uncountable ugly marks stung my slow beating heart. His hazel green eyes held a satisfied dark shadow as He pulled me close, raised my chin and whispered coldly, “From this very moment, you share the crown of Bratva’s pakhan. Prepare yourself to bear its weight, Babochka. Because I own your existence now!” He slammed his cold lips on my trembling ones, punishing me with a brutal kiss. Tears pricked my eyes with disgust but I tolerated his touch for the sake of my family. My eyes followed the part of the audience, Russians, who burst into cheers while the other party, Italians, looked at me with remorse and pitiful gazes. Oh yes, how could I forget I was the sacrificed lamb thrusted into hell to get scorched for a lifetime. But No. I still had the last hope to save myself from this cursed fate, this cursed marriage. ………….. Born in a sin will definitely be called the Sinner. Without morality and mercy, Vladimir Sokolov the Bratva’s Pakhan ruled the city with an iron fist. Due to the influence of some political parties He had to marry the Daughter from La Camorra. Rose Barbieri! Marry her, have his heir and wear the title of family man, that's what He planned to do but what He didn’t imagine was that his innocent, submissive wife was someone who would burn the flames of his hell into ashes one day.

The Falcon Ridge Series Book 5 Set two months after the Battle of Black Rock. In an old growth forest east of Aurora, the city of Dragons. Wren Miller: You can sum up the story of my life in three words I. Am. Alone. I was raised by the Falcon Ridge Security Unit after they told me everyone I ever knew and loved was dead. I traveled through life pretending I felt like I had a pack, but in truth I longed for my own. I often wished for death. That all changes when I find out some of my pack was alive. Living like Nomads in the wilderness. I'm elated to find them, but my happiness is crushed when the Alpha is not even remotely happy to see me. As much as it pains me, I don't want to see him either after finding out what he has become. Lucius Drake: For 10 years I survived in the wilderness. I built us back up from the ashes that were left of the attack on us. I was happy to live this way. Living off the land. Taking care of my pack. Then she shows up. Seeing her makes my blood boil. Not only did she abandon her pack. She abandoned me. I don't care what the Alliance told her. I never gave up on the hope she was alive. Apparently, she did. I'm jaded and angry. It also doesn't help that I have the Dragons breathing down my neck. We've been relying on them for protection and trade, but now they want more. They want us to join them permanently, which I will only do if I'm dead.

My daughter, Annabelle Turner, was diagnosed with hereditary heart disease. I spent the past five years searching for a compatible heart donor for her. Now, I finally found one. Right before Annabelle is sent into the surgery room, my husband and renowned cardiologist, Gabriel Turner, tearfully makes me a promise. "Don't worry, sweetheart. I'll make sure Annabelle gets a shot at life again." Yet halfway through the surgery, Gabriel suddenly leaves in a hurry without giving any explanation. I stumble into the surgery room and see Annabelle lying on the operating table, covered in blood. Her chest is cut wide open, laid bare for all to see. Tyler Rotwell, Gabriel's assistant, stammers out, "Dr. Turner said… that Anna can still hold on a little longer, but Ms. Byron's son can't. "Dr. Turner took the heart that was meant for Anna and left…" I immediately break down and repeatedly call Gabriel's number, but Gabriel never answers a single call, not even when Anna's blood has completely dried… While settling my daughter's post-mortem affairs, I happen to see a newly posted update on Gabriel's childhood friend, Suzanne Byron's social media. "Turns out it was just a misdiagnosis," was what the caption read. "In that case, let's give this useless little thing to our good boy Oscar as a treat!" The video attached depicts Suzanne's dog Oscar tearing into the heart that was supposed to be donated to Annabelle. As I turn to look at Annabelle's cold body, the last shred of love I have for Gabriel starts crumbling apart. By the time Gabriel finally remembers Annabelle, whom he left on the operating table, only an empty bedroom and an urn containing her ashes would greet him…

He shattered her heart to avenge a past that wasn’t hers. Now he desires her in his bed—as his wife. Marceline Valino once believed in love. She gave her heart—and her innocence—to Cross Dejava, the boy who whispered promises in the dark, igniting dreams of a forever that felt so real. But by morning, her world was left in ruins. Private photos were leaked, her name dragged through the mud, and at the eye of the storm? Cross, smirking, cold, and ruthless. “You mean nothing to me,” he said, delivering a blow that would leave scars. “You’re just the bastard daughter of my father’s mistress.” His vengeance had never aimed at her heart; it was meant to punish the daughter for her mother’s sins—an ex-lover who had torn his family apart. Pregnant and abandoned, Marceline begged for mercy, but all she received was the echo of his silence. When she lost the child, she lost every last piece of the girl she used to be. Now, five years later, she’s preparing to return—broke, desperate, and willing to do anything to save her ailing mother. Anything… except this. Because the man extending a lifeline isn’t a savior. It’s Cross. And he has no desire for her heartfelt apologies; he craves her complete submission. A contract marriage awaits her. No love. No escape. No mercy. But Marceline isn’t the naive girl he once broke. She’s a woman who has risen from the ashes, ready to play his game. And as the pieces of their lives fall into place, she’s determining when—exactly—she will ignite a fire that could burn it all down. The future promises a reckoning, and she's preparing to seize it.

“Hands on the wall, and stick your perfect ass out for me,” Cole demands. I lean my sweaty palms against the concrete slab and step my feet apart, bracing myself, as I bend my torso until I’m at a ninety-degree angle with my ass and torso parallel to the floor. Cole lightly slaps one of my redden ass cheeks, and a flame of desire mixed with pain bursts through my body. Everyone is gathered around now, watching. “Fuck her hard, Cole!” Someone yells. “Wreck her little pussy!” “Fill the little slut up!” All the taunts and comments are making me blush with embarrassment while my pussy gets wetter. •°• What begins as a sugar baby deal soon becomes a whirlwind of rough spankings, wicked bondage, and pulse-pounding group encounters, threesomes, foursomes, even gangbangs that leave Jacqueline trembling, breathless, and begging for more. As a top physics student, Jacqueline never expected her reply to a sultry ad would drag her into Cole’s orbit, a cocky financier whose magnetic charm was a trap and whose control was absolute. Every lash of his whip, every ruthless thrust, and every scorching gaze pulls her deeper into his dark world—a world where secrets simmer and desire burns hotter than she ever imagined. Now Jacqueline is caught between the thrill of surrender and the fight for her soul. Will she rise from the ashes of her corruption, or will she give in completely to his iron grip? Content Warning: Packed with BDSM, free-use fantasies, edging, humiliation, tantalizing toys, double/triple penetration, and flashes of F/f heat woven into blazing M/f seduction, Punished by Passion is not for the faint of heart. This is danger, desire, and dark romance at its most addictive, enter only if you dare.

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?

Jessa Gencianeo, a woman who married secretly to her long-time boyfriend, because she unexpectedly got pregnant by him. Her life wasn’t indeed a fairytale throughout their marriage, because she suffered hell especially in the hands of her husband’s family. But the hell she was suffering intensified when her OB-Gynecologist told all of them that her son was positive for Down Syndrome. With that, her husband suddenly became cold and distant to her, because she was carrying a baby with Down Syndrome which made her heart shattered, especially that her husband started to cheat on her, and committed an affair behind her back with his childhood bestfriend who eventually got pregnant which made her husband, and his family thrilled. She felt alone and rejected while being pregnant, because they were even really proud of her husband’s infidelity. She couldn’t take it anymore when her mother-in-law wanted to kill her and her child, so she ran away after she signed the annulment papers. She thought after she was freed from her first marriage, she would live at peace, but still being chased by chaos. Her ex-husband’s family wanted to kill her and her baby inside her womb. Out of nowhere, she was being hit and run by a mysterious car which made her life at risk. But before she passed out, she saw who the mastermind behind it was, and it was her mother-in-law with a triumphant smirk. But little did she know that a miracle would change her life, and make her rise from the ashes after she was being saved by a Zillionaire Old Lady who was Doña McKenna Hermosa-Accardi who would help her to avenge, and would also play cupid to be a matchmaker for her to be a Mafia Lord’s Zillionaire Wife.