Home Fires

I’ll teach ya how to be the most vicious version of yourself you’ll ever know. I can make ya the strongest you’ve ever been. Mind an’ body. An upgrade to evolution, as it were. Most importantly, when you’re ready, you’ll go home to the ones who love ya the most. The ones needin’ ya the most, and you’ll be able to take care of them. I can give you what you need to be at the top of the food chain. Do ya agree to stay and learn from me, Riley Coyle? Agree to train to be an apex predator?” “Tare care of the ones who love me the most. You mean Ainsley?” “I mean Ainsley.” He nods. I search his eyes for a lie. There are none. He’s serious, or at least he believes his own bullshit and I’ll have to settle for that. In my mind, there’s not even another option. If staying here somehow gets me back to Ainsley, then I’ll do what it takes. “Yeah. I agree to stay and do whatever I need to do to go home alive.”

The year I was at my lowest, a wealthy family came for me, claiming I was their real son. The school beauty I had secretly admired was officially my fiancée. While I was still stunned by the surprise, suddenly, comments started scrolling across my view. [This is the turning point. The male lead’s parents take the supporting male home, forcing him to drop out. His fiancée gets him sick, and in the end, they see him as bad luck and brutally kill him.] My hand froze around the paternity test report. My father’s eyes glistened with tears as he took the report from me. “My child, you’ve suffered so much all these years. Don’t worry, come home with us and rest. You’re our son, and the family company is enough to support you for life. You don’t even need to take the SATs.” The school beauty lowered her head, her voice soft and teasing in my ear. “Levi, be good. Studying is too hard. From now on, I’ll take care of you.”

On the day I get released from prison, Joshua Caldwell's adoptive sister, Madeline Caldwell, hosts a live stream to welcome me home. She makes sure to shove the phone right in my face. "This is my older sister, Victoria. Even though she has gotten violated by 13 people, she still has the courage to continue living in this world." The comment section explodes instantly. Joshua frowns slightly, but Madeline merely sticks her tongue out at him with a cute smile on her face. Instead of going hysterical like I did three years ago, I just smile at everyone. "A woman's body is never her weakness. The offenders are the ones who deserve to die, not me." After returning home, I don't stop Joshua from letting Madeline visit our parents' graves on their death anniversary on my behalf. I don't mind Joshua giving my room away to Madeline and telling me to stay in the storeroom. Even when Madeline pushes me into the water once again, Joshua chooses to save her despite her knowing how to swim. After I get rescued by a passerby, I just go home on my own silently. Mixed feelings swirl in Joshua's eyes as he looks at me. "That three-year sentence has changed you for good, Vicky." I just smile softly in response. All I've done is finally see reality for what it is and not harbor any hopes for him at all. Moreover, the system, which I've lost contact with, has finally returned three days ago. It told me that it could take me home in seven days. But why is it that Joshua loses his mind after I've left this world for real?

Skylar Henderson was the daughter of a soldier, he was deemed missing in action as they never found his body after an extraction mission, a building collapsed on top of him during an explosion, when he was saving a woman. He wasn't even in the same country as is children when he died. Skylar is now moving into a new home with her abusive step-father and siblings, will she find a way out.

After being away from her childhood home for ten years, Alina returns to find the answers to her darkest questions. But what she finds there might be more than she can handle. With fear in eyes of stone, her past and something else, comes out to play. Who can you trust when your feelings know something your mind can't remember?

Growing up being abused and unloved, Nicole left home when she was old enough. Her best friend Allie is her roommate and both are nurses at the local hospital. Living a relatively simple life and being each other's confidant until one night when everything changes. Decisions will have to be made, hearts will be broken and lives will be taken. What path will Nicole choose?

Mayson has come back to her home town to help take care of her dad, who is ill. She left the town of Chance years ago and hadn’t planned on coming back. The first person who had her heart and also broke it lives in Chance. She will do everything in her power to avoid him but will fate step in and give them a second chance.

Reagan is the youngest in this generation of Guardians. Because she is much younger than the others, she was never as close to the Guardians as her siblings. Thankfully, when her older brother found his mate, she had a younger sister, Meadow, who was Reagan’s age. The two have become best friends and they have the same close friendship that her siblings share with the other Guardians. Kieran is an Alpha who lives in the western part of the country. He has been waiting a long time to find his mate. He’s refused to take a chosen mate, but at twenty-six, he’s becoming feral, and time is running out. He must either find his fated mate, take a chosen mate, or be put down by his pack. Because she is the last of the Guardians, Reagan’s eighteenth birthday has been opened to all eligible males throughout the country. Her birthday is considered the event of the century, with Alpha werewolves, royal elves, royal vampires, and even warlocks attending. As Kieran's last chance, he attends. The moment he smells his mate, his wolf pushes forward, marking her without consent. Amid the fury of the Guardians and others in attendance, Reagan decides to give Kieran a chance to prove himself before marking him and completing their bond. She leaves the only home she’s ever known to travel across the country, with Meadow insisting that she come. When they arrive at Kieran's home, Reagan finds a pack in chaos. Bullying, manipulation, and subterfuge have been used to run the pack while Kieran has been fighting his demons. Can Reagan, with Meadow’s help, turn the pack around, or will she decide that Kieran isn’t worth the effort, rejecting him and returning home, leaving him to go feral?

I was humiliated and rejected by everyone: my parents, my pack, and even my mate. And to get away from all the bad things done to me, I decided to leave. What I couldn't wait for was that, in addition to an adventure away from home, I would find my real family. I wasn't a wolfless, worthless girl. I was an alpha's daughter.

I was touching myself in front of the teddy bear on my bed, because I knew a man was watching behind its eyes. He had sneaked into my home, lay on the bed where I slept, and left traces of himself on my clothes. When I noticed, he watched as I hid in a corner, trembling… not knowing that I had been waiting for him for a long time.