I Think I Am Alone Now

When the Earth slipped into a relentless, record-breaking heat, I exhausted everything I had to develop a constant-temperature shelter. Yet, my fiancée, Janine O’Connor, insisted on wearing a bikini and going out to sunbathe with her personal secretary. In my previous life, I stopped her. I warned her that an apocalyptic heatwave was coming, and that countless people would be burned to death simply by being exposed to the heat. However, her personal secretary looked as though he had suffered a great injustice. “I’m sorry, Will,” he said. “But I can’t bear to see Miss Janine stuck in a shelter for the rest of her life. I’ve done my research. This is a period of natural selection for the Earth. Only by adapting quickly to the environment can people truly survive.” Even so, I threatened my own life and forcibly brought Janine back into the shelter. Relying on the shelter I built, Janine survived the apocalypse and rapidly built a survivor base. However, on the second day after she became the base’s leader, she had me hanged outside the shelter and burned alive. “If you hadn’t forced me to come back, Mark wouldn’t have been devastated and killed himself in the heat! He was about to develop a new type of shelter, yet you stole all the credit! I’ll make you pay with your life!” Even after my death, her hatred didn’t fade. She ordered someone to skin me and turn my hide into a rug, stepping on it every day. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day I tried to stop her from sunbathing with Mark Davis.

She could remember people through their smells, their voices, their accents, their everyday choices of words or through how they feel against her touch. That's exactly the meaning of socializing and making friends for someone like Meredith Kaye Santiago, a person who was suffering with prosopagnosia. To someone who couldn't remember anyone's face, dating was a no-no. She couldn't risk her heart to someone her eyes couldn't remember and her brain couldn't retain. But one night, she found herself caught up under the body of a stranger, and he's taking off her clothes. The stranger’s name was Rupert Santos, the Vulture’s vocalist and a guy with piercing on his bottom lip. She let him go all the way after he said, “Surrender your sensations”. Love hit her hard. That’s when his blurry face became clearer. And finally, she said, “I see you, Rockstar.”

I laid there unmoving, my hands shivered, my legs twitched as if rooted to the floor, tears rolled down my cheeks as I came to a realization. There laying a few metres away from me laid dad, whose eyes were closed as he drowned in his pool of blood, a deep hole in his heart while he laid unwavering. "Dad...wake up dad, dad please wake up." I squealed and then shook dad severally, but he was long gone, there was no coming back for him anymore, I growl and cried in silence, everything happened too fast.

"I have never done this," I muttered, hypnotized by his eyes. "Nobody knows everything." He answered and gave me his hand. "You are so... so... So... beautiful." He was whispering his secret and I had his chiselled jaw wrapped in a small stubble beard in my hands. "You don't have to know anything. Follow me." He pulled me into his arms, he mumbled, I leaned over and kissed him. I cupped his cheeks and pulled him to kiss my lips. I want to savour those lips. He obeyed. He stormed into my life on a rainy day, one day just to shelter me. He was always uninvited into my life but once I tasted him, I realised I am more than I can be. He became My Taste I Like until I learnt his truth.

"Yes, apologize. I'm not the reason you're so tall, you don't even see the people below you, your narcissistic Highness!" I blurted angrily, with a hint of sarcasm. My confidence soon waned drastically and the regret bounced in. My first day in Brownston and here I was, already making trouble. "Mundanes and being problematic," he muttered, turning to leave immediately. That did it. I could have sworn a puff of smoke its way out of my ears accompanied by the overwhelming surge of anger that rose from the depth of my stomach. I hurled at him my saddle bag with all the energy my slim hands could gather and it landed right across his pale face. ** Alexis—a Trueblood who had lived forever in a void of endless time bumps into Dawn, a college student who sought adventure. Was his tedious life about to get more intriguing? What were the hardships that came with the existence of a mundane in his life?

“I hate you, Duncan." She yelled, her eyes blazing as she took a step back. “Very much” Alpha Duncan chuckled as he shook his head in wonder. “I know, Selena and that's why I want you." When Alpha Duncan the Lycan King came to choose his mate, it was Selena the beta of the walker's pack. Selena hated him, no she detested him so much but Duncan didn't care. She is his and he will make her his with or without her permission.

That winter, our whole family went skiing in Aespen, Amestia. It was a popular spot for werewolf nobles and the wealthy. Then, the avalanche struck. My father's first instinct was to scoop up Summer—his sleeping adopted daughter—and flee. My mother, panicked, still made sure to grab the stray puppy Summer had found. They returned to the Moonshadow Pack that same night, posting a flood of photos online and rejoicing over their miraculous escape. Not one of them remembered me. Their biological daughter was still buried beneath the snow, waiting for rescue. When I was finally rescued, I did not look back. I took my mentor's offer to study abroad and left the pack behind. I moved to Cascade City to study medicine. No more pleading, no more shrinking myself in hopes of earning back my family's love. Yet they only seemed more disgruntled. "Rose, why aren't you competing with Summer for our attention anymore?"

I waited for Alex for over five years. I endured the whispers of the clan, the mocking gazes, the judgment from his family who never thought I was good enough. Still, I waited—because I loved him. I believed in him. I trusted that he would choose me in the end. But the truth shattered me. One evening, I saw his laptop left open. And on the screen—countless photos of Elsa. His childhood sweetheart. His first love. It felt like a knife twisting in my chest. While I was drowning in problems, silently begging for his support, he was smiling by her side. All those years I gave him... all that waiting… I got nothing. So I left. Broken. Exhausted. Done pretending I was okay. I traveled far from our pack, seeking solitude under the excuse of pack relocation. But the truth was, I was trying to stitch myself back together—one breath, one step, one bitter tear at a time.But now… he’s gone mad looking for me. Why, Alex? Why do you search for me now, after crushing me so completely? When I stood by you, you looked past me. Now that I’ve finally let go… Why do you care?

“Shh…it's forbidden to moan your Stepbrother's name.''The corner of his lips curved into a wicked smile. “Siblings are not supposed to f*ck around,you know.”I held the sheets so tightly, trying my best not to moan out loud. ___________________ Amanda was so excited when she learned that she had a Stepbrother. However,she never expected that her Stepbrother would turn out to be her campus ex-boyfriend,Gabriel. Five years ago,Amanda carried a secret with her when their relationship ended in an unexpected way. While they were madly in love five years ago, Gabriel kept a sensitive secret from her. Now that they live under the same roof,they need to face their past and try to overcome it even though it's not that easy… When their eyes lock,they feel that electrifying feeling,the same way they felt when their eyes locked for the very first time. Amanda thought that she had moved on from the past completely until she bumps into Gabriel,who is now her Stepbrother and the past that she has been trying fucking hard forget. Siblings are not supposed to have romantic feelings for each other, right?That's what Amanda tells herself whenever she feels that strong pull towards her Stepbrother. Will Amanda and Gabriel obey the fact that they are siblings and suppress their feelings for each other or will they give in to the desires of their hearts? What happens when the secrets that they have been keeping from each other unveil? Will it bring them closer or tear them apart?

Vie is a whiz at computers and numbers. But, she has a naughty side that she rarely lets show. Worse yet, she's beginning to fantasize about a certain tough Marine that needs her help. Vie tries hard to ignore the growing ache that his presence brings on. Trev, a hard core Marine, is trying to get his life back in order after finding his baby sister after 10 years of searching. Now, he finds himself blindsided by the BDSM lifestyle. Blindsided yet intrigued. Trev can't stop imagining what it would be like to have Vie give herself completely to him. To show him all the forbidden pleasure. Haunted and hesitant, he can't decide which to choose. One path leads him towards a boring but safe vanilla life. The other twist down a bumpy road filled with erotic sinful pleasures and naughty little games for Trev and Vie to play. *Adults ONLY* *Explicit Scenes* *Violence* *BDSM Themes* Because I Want To is created by Leann Lane, an eGlobal Creative Publishing Signed Author.”