Grimgar Of Ashes And Illusions

Elena Vance made a fifty-dollar mistake that cost her her freedom. Believing her one-night stand was a high-end escort, she left cash and a mocking note on his pillow, only to walk into a boardroom hours later and realize the man was Adrian Blackwood, the ruthless "Ice King" CEO. Adrian didn't just hold her career in his hands; he held a cocktail napkin marriage license signed in a tequila haze and her father’s $200,000 gambling debt. "You belong to me for six months," he declared, trapping her in a fake marriage to secure a corporate merger. Elena entered the "gilded cage" of Adrian's penthouse expecting a cold, transactional war of wills governed by strict "no-touch" clauses. She remained loyal only to save her father, unaware that he would eventually betray her to their enemies. But the boardroom battles quickly turned lethal. Victor Kane, Adrian’s bitter rival from MIT, obsessed with erasing the Blackwood legacy, sold the company's debt to the Russian Bratva. Suddenly, the fake spouses were forced into a terrifying reality: becoming FBI informants. The "Ice King" melted into a desperate protector, and the graphic designer sharpened into a survivor. Their bond shifted from a business deal to a sacrificial love, forged in the fires of betrayal. But when a mission to plant a bug at a mob wedding ends in a massacre, they realize the FBI is compromised. Stripped of his billions and presumed dead, Adrian stands in the ashes of his empire alongside Elena. A secret brother watches from the shadows, and the Russian mob is closing in. "We have nothing left," Elena whispered, staring into the dark. Adrian gripped her hand, his eyes burning with a new, dangerous resolve. "We have each other. And now, we run."

Nyma, the Privileged Luna, never imagined her life would be dictated by an unbreakable mate bond. Raised in a werewolf pack where loyalty to a single mate was sacred, she struggled to accept her fate with Prince Adrain—the future Lycan King. Six months into their marriage, Nyma has balanced the weight of leading her pack and navigating the treacherous politics of the Lycan royal family. She sacrificed her claim to the throne, choosing freedom over power, earning the scorn of her mate’s family—especially Second Prince Lucian, the brother who still dares to claim her as his second mate. On the night of her baby shower, everything shatters. Secrets unravel, betrayals surface, and Nyma walks in on the ultimate heartbreak—her mate entwined with the one woman from his past he swore meant nothing. Now, with her heart in pieces and her child’s future at stake, Nyma must decide: fight for a bond that has only brought her pain or break free from fate and forge her own destiny? Love may be fated—but trust is earned. And Adrain has just lost hers. She survives. And then she takes everything. Left for dead, Nyma rises from the ashes with a single purpose—to reclaim the legacy that was stolen from her and make the ones who wronged her choke on their own betrayal. The young Luna was never meant to be a pawn in Lycan politics, and she sure as hell won’t be a forgotten footnote in Adrian’s story. She builds her own pack, her own empire. And when the so-called King and his family come crawling, desperate for the very heir they discarded? Oops. Her bastard just took their legacy.

She was abandoned before she could walk. Raised in a cold, forgotten orphanage and later tormented by the family who adopted her, she learned to survive with silence and scars. Love was a fairytale she stopped believing in long ago—until he looked her way. Rex Radford. Reckless, magnetic, and dangerously untouchable. The notorious heartbreaker and scandal-ridden heir of multi-billionaire Alfred Radford. His life was one endless party of fast cars, wild nights, and nameless girls—until her haunted eyes brought everything to a halt. He wanted her. But she disappeared. No one knew she vanished carrying his twins. Far away from the glittering chaos of the Radfords’ empire, she gave birth in silence—alone, terrified, and determined never to look back. Her world became about survival, her children, and burying the past so deep it could never find her. But fate had other plans. Six years later, she returns. Not as the broken girl they once ignored—but as a woman reborn. Fierce. Untouchable. Powerful. And with two children whose faces mirror a man who never knew they existed. Now the world whispers. The tabloids burn. And Rex Radford—cold-hearted, beautiful Rex—wants answers. But she’s not the same girl he once tried to break. And when jealous rivals, buried secrets, and twisted betrayals rise from the shadows, she’ll have to decide: Will she risk everything to let him into her life again—or protect her children from the man who once shattered her world? This is not just a love story. It’s a war between the past and the future, between pain and forgiveness, between a woman who rebuilt herself from ashes—and the man who unknowingly gave her the fire.

Phoenix’s life takes a disastrous turn when she wakes up in a grimy hotel room just two days before her mating ceremony. Her life is ruined, and she didn’t need a soothsayer to tell her because not only is their a lingering smell on the sheet, which indicates that she has been unfaithful, Dylan is in the hotel room yelling profanities at her. By her unexplained actions, she has become disgraced, banished, and may have sparked a war between her pack and Dylan’s. Werewolves mate for a life, and a broken mating arrangement is an unforgivable sin. At 16, Phoenix was promised to Dylan as a way to unify their packs after years of rivalry. An alliance now broken by her infidelity. Although she would have preferred to wait for her chosen mate, she has long accepted that being Dylan’s chosen mate and Luna of his pack is a fate she can endure. Now branded as a disgrace and banished, Phoenix has been replaced by her half sister as Dylan’s mate. Exiled from the home she has always known, Phoenix is left to wander the forests as a rogue. Her central thought is to survive and navigate life alone whilst looking for a pack that will take her in, but she must face all her fears one at a time. Her life in exile takes an unexpected twist when she finds her true mate in the most unexpected way. How does she keep the secret of being the fated golden wolf? How does she stay away from her chosen mate to keep her secret? Will she learn to harness her powers and save her kind from a looming war with the hunters? Like her name, will she rise from the ashes?

Helena burned. She burned with the flames of rage. In the fire her mate set to her body. With the power she possessed. She burned with the need for revenge and when she finds herself reborn a year before her gruesome death, she is going to get that revenge. Helena had once been an ignorant, simple girl, too in love with being loved to notice the monster she had given herself to. Love from anyone, was an oasis in the desert of a world that saw her as a mistake, because she did not have a wolf form and it made her blind. Love corrupted her mind, making her the perfect pawn in Rigel's game, and she was discarded when she had outlived her usefulness. She was back, now, with the taste of ashes on her tongue. And with her magic, that she had once treated like a disease, as her closest companion, she was going to make Rigel pay. Things rarely go according to plans and Helena learns that the hard way as her road to destroying the man who had hurt her, grows longer and more difficult. The appearance of a man who claims to be her mate, destroys the timeline she was coming from, leaving her confused and feeling vulnerable. Orion is a powerful alpha with a mighty and ruthless pack that she needs to attack Rigel before he grows too powerful, so the decision to be with him makes itself for her. The impossible slowly becomes possible with Orion by her side to serve as a voice of reason and Helena learns how to love someone who cares about her and sees her worth. Alliances are made, friendships are created and relationships are strengthened as Helena's quest for revenge slowly becomes one of discovery and love.

Six years ago, Elena Romano was the cherished daughter of one of the most powerful business families in New York. She had wealth, status, and the love of Killian Graves, the man who promised to stand by her forever. But everything changed the night her family was framed for embezzlement and murder, their empire burned to the ground. Betrayed, hunted, and left with nothing, Elena disappeared—presumed dead. Now, she’s back. Not as the naive heiress she once was, but as Raven Black, the mysterious self-made billionaire who built an empire from the ashes of her past. Ruthless, untouchable, and dangerous, she has only one goal: revenge. Her first target? Killian Graves—the man she once loved, and the man she believes destroyed her family. But Killian is not the same man she left behind. Cold, powerful, and feared by all, he rules the corporate world with an iron fist. When Elena crosses his path again, he sees right through her disguise. But instead of exposing her, he makes a shocking offer Forced into a high-stakes game of seduction and power, Elena plays along, waiting for the perfect moment to destroy him. But the closer she gets, the more she realizes—everything she believed was a lie. ⚠️ Killian didn’t betray her—someone else did. ⚠️ The real enemy has been hiding in the shadows all along. ⚠️ And the man she swore to ruin… never stopped loving her. As hidden secrets unravel and deadly enemies close in, Elena finds herself caught between vengeance and passion, lies and truth, love and hate. But when the past comes back to finish what it started, she must decide: Will she destroy Killian once and for all? Or will she risk everything… and let him own her completely?

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

My twin sister, wanting to be with her thug boyfriend, secretly planned to apply for a junior college. When I could not talk her out of it, I told our parents and managed to stop her. However, just a month into the new semester, her thug boyfriend cheated on her. She left a suicide note, blaming it all on the long distance between them. She wrote that if she had gone to that junior college, her boyfriend would never have cheated. Grief‑stricken, my parents turned all their rage on me. "You wretched girl, this is all your fault for meddling! What business was it of yours which school your sister went to? Even if she didn't go to college, we could still support her. We didn't need your big mouth!" "If it weren't for your spiteful tongue, your sister wouldn't be dead!" "We were cursed to have a vicious, unfilial daughter like you!" They locked me in her room, ordering me to repent. Then they took her ashes on a trip, saying they wanted her to see the beautiful mountains and rivers she never got to visit in life. A month later, they returned from their travels to find me long dead, starved to a withered husk in front of my sister's photo. Their eyes held no grief, no guilt, only a faint, scornful curl of the lips. In their eyes, my death was nothing more than justice served. My broken soul saw their icy expressions, and despairing tears burned my eyes. Then my sister's familiar voice rang out again: "What business is it of yours which school I go to? You're just jealous that I have a boyfriend, aren't you?"

Cole Patrick is merely a doorstep spawn who is reluctantly adopted by the Wyatt dynasty. He endures the mistreatment from the family but cannot speak up because the Wyatt's are powerful and influential. Zye Wyatt is an exception. She shows him kindness but is careful not to do it in front of the other members of the family. An innocent touch, a shared laugh, and suddenly, their bond blossoms into a forbidden love, ignited under the stars one lazy evening. However, their ruse comes to an end on prom night when Zane, Zye's brother finds them kissing behind the school library. He reports to their father who ships Zye abroad and kicks Cole out. At 18, homeless and determined to rise above his status, Cole forges a path of his own. Ten years later, Zye, broken and fresh from her divorce, finds herself looking for work in a small town. She is attracted to a bike gang from the town and is interested in joining as a step to her freedom. She realises that the bike gang leader is none other than Cole. Hardened by life but still her first love. However, their reunion does not last longer. A private investigator sent to find Zye's whereabouts reports them to her dad. The fragile peace they've curated shatters as shocking truths emerge: Cole wasn't abandoned; he was stolen from his mother after Mr. Wyatt brutally murdered his father. And his mother? Alive, a prisoner of the Wyatts' dark secrets all these years. Now, Cole stands at a crossroads: choose the woman who once offered him solace, or embrace the roaring vengeance for his shattered past and reclaim his stolen birthright. Can their love, forged in the fires of deception and longing, survive the ashes of Wyatt family lies?

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.