He Opened His Eyes

The day before the wedding, my fiancé James's childhood sweetheart had a severe depressive episode. Threatening to take her own life, she demanded the destruction of the wedding gown my grandmother had painstakingly made for me before her passing. To calm her down, James locked me in a room and stayed by her side, helping her cut the gown into shreds. Amid the mess, he spoke indifferently. "Be reasonable. It's just a wedding gown. Do you want to see her die?" Later, James's hot uncle approached me, asking me to carry on the family lineage. I nodded in agreement. But James, with reddened eyes, confronted me. "Are you really going to have his child? Have you completely given up on me?" Covering my slightly rounded belly, I replied, "Be reasonable. It's just a child. He’s your uncle. Do you want to see him with no heir to carry on the family name?”

Without Kaelen's knowledge, I had his little plaything sent out of North America. That same night, he cast a blood-vine curse on my parents, banishing them to the wilds—a wasteland prowled by rogues. He was going to trade my parents' lives for the whereabouts of his plaything. Kaelen pushed a communication crystal in front of me. Inside it, my parents were ensnared by blood-red vines, the thorns digging deep into their flesh. Drops of dark crimson blood fell, one by one, onto the barren earth. A countdown timer pulsed in stark red digits on their chests. 23:59:59 23:59:58 He sat across from me, a black suit tailored to perfection molded to his lean, powerful frame. His long fingers tapped a light, steady rhythm on the solid wood table, as if he were waiting for a trivial business deal to close. "Estelle, you have twenty-four hours." His voice was low and calm, laced with a venomous tenderness. "Tell me, where did you send Cassandra?"

When I'm accompanying my daughter, Alina Stone, to the hospital for a chemotherapy session, an employee from the social security center calls me. "Ms. Lewis, an error has occurred with the bank card that's set to receive your parents' pension. Please make sure to change to a new card." I'm left feeling stunned. My parents have been dead for three years. Why would they even receive more pension in the first place? After asking the employee, I find out that my parents' pension has been wired into the bank card as normal throughout the years. My husband, Christian Stone, was the one who had previously updated the bank card details at the social security center. Once I get home, I demand answers from Christian after playing him the recording of the phone call. He falls silent for a very long time before telling me the truth. It turns out that he never registered my parents' death back then. Till now, their corpses have been stored in a freezer in my childhood home. That bank card had received a total of 90 thousand dollars' worth of pension over the past three years. Christian has given all of the money to his ex-wife, Lydia Swanson, in order to support her financially. But the thing is, he never gave me a single cent for Alina's treatment before.

I had personally trained Damiano Vestri and brought him up the ranks to become the mafia’s Don. The family’s inner circle accepted him, and he was loyal only to me. Whenever bullets went flying, he would always shield me and take many of them for me. The night before our wedding, I waited for his return, but what I got was news of his death. A week later, I received an email with a pregnancy report and a photo. The photo showed Damiano caressing another woman’s belly. It turned out he had faked his death so that he could be with his first love. The due date for her pregnancy was approaching. I scoffed and clicked the safety off on my gun. If he wanted to fake his death, I would help him turn it into a real one.

On our wedding day, Lily, the apple of Patrick Luther's eye, tried to kill herself. I grabbed onto his sleeve. "Please don't go." He pried my fingers off, one by one. "Don't make a scene. Lily needs me right now." I watched him walk away, laughing until my eyes turned red. If you don't love me, then I'm done with you. “Patrick, this time I'm the one leaving you."

Ava couldn't be any happier after realizing the due date for her delivery. Excited and all, she comes back home ready to deliver the good news to her husband, Matt, only to stumble upon him buried deep into the lady whom he claimed was his younger cousin sister. The betrayal hit different after learning the whole truth from them, they intend to make her death look like an accident and take away her inheritance afterwards. They both succeeded in making her fall off the terrace which unfortunately made her lose the pregnancy and her life. Few months later.. The appearance of a wealthy heiress who looks exactly like the late Ava causes a storm in the city after Ryan Manchester, Matt's Uncle, introduces her as his wife. Was it really Ava? or was this all a game carefully crafted?

"The Rossi family doesn't need a Don. We just need a Donna." As the only heiress of the Rossi family, this was the law that I had set when I received the Browning pistol—a pistol that resembles the ultimate authority in the Rossi family—from my Papa when he was on his deathbed. But three years ago, the police relentlessly investigated the money laundering business that my fiance, Lorenzo Moretti, was in charge of. If that business were to get exposed, the Rossi family's hundred-year-old legacy would be ruined. In order to protect my family's legacy and to allow Lorenzo to continue legalizing my family's businesses, I decided to become the scapegoat for all the crimes. On the rainy night of my arrest, I personally handed the pistol over to Lorenzo. "Protect my family for me before my return." This gave Lorenzo legitimate authority to run my family. He used the pistol to purge my subordinates and take over the family business. He even broke my law by announcing to the public that he'd become the next Don soon. An invitation with golden borders is soon leaked from the family's inner circle. Lorenzo's and another woman's names are printed on the cover. During a visit, my private lawyer says mockingly, "If you don't get out of prison now, the Rossi family might take on another man's last name for real." I just sneer in response. After that, I get bailed out of jail in advance and return home to celebrate Lorenzo's "funeral". But no matter how many times I scan my iris at the biometric scanner in the estate, the result always comes out wrong. A young woman, who's toying with the pistol, opens the door at that moment. The contempt and disdain in her eyes are plain to see. "Where the hell did a crazy woman like you come from? You came to the wrong place. This is my private turf, you know."

After 4 years of being in a relationship, Yngrid's boyfriend broke up with her through phone messages. She decided to go back to the Philippines to fix it. But her life turns upside down when she finds out that he only used her to get closer to his estranged father. But one night changes everything when she meets Orion again, her father's favorite assistant. She hated him to death special his arrogant attitude. But after the kisses they're shared, will it make any changes? Will, she let him fix her heart by letting him love her? Or Would she let go of the past and choose new love?

Life has never been good to me. And just when I thought life couldn't get any worse, the Goddess mocked me one more time and gave me a stubborn and difficult Alpha as my fated mate - someone who wanted nothing to do with me. But what did I have to lose? To begin with, I had nothing. So leaving and forgetting all about him should be easy. Well it was, until it wasn't. ¤¤¤¤¤ The book is the second in the Black Shadow Pack Series Spin-off Novels. While the story stands alone, I recommend that you read the series and the spin-off novel Book 1, to gain a better understanding of the characters. BLACK SHADOW PACK SERIES: Book 1 - HE'S MY ALPHA (Completed) Book 2 - THE BETA IS MINE (Completed) Book 3 - LOVING THE GAMMA (Completed) Spin-off Novel Book 1 - IN THE ARMS OF MY ALPHA (Completed) Spin-off Novel Book 2 - THROUGH THE EYES OF MY ALPHA (Completed)

Asher and Malachi Wild, identical twin Vampire Princes, and second in line for the throne, are having some minor business troubles. Mystery crates are being moved using their import-export business, in shipments both into and out of the country. They don't know who, or why, or how it's happening. They get frustrated and go for a drive to clear their heads, and end up at a pub. A mysterious red-headed bartender catches their eye, for more than one reason. She's impressive, in all the right ways. Curves for days, strong, mysterious, and able to kill a nearly seven foot tall man while barely breaking a sweat. Now if they could just get her to talk to them and give them her name... Eliza Wellsong, Head of the Assassin's Guild for England. There are one and a half-thousand people under her command, and she's half-forced to take a night off by her second in command. She goes to the local pub to help out her friend, the owner of the pub, Molly, instead. Then the two princes walk in, and they just can't keep their eyes off her. She's confused, she's fat, and not that pretty, what the fuck is up with them? But then they're kind to her, and honest. It's a nice change of pace, and they're handsome enough, maybe she should let them in?