Left 4 Dead 1 & 2

Deux inconnus dans un ascenseur en panne, entre deux étages d'un hôtel anonyme. Lui, les mains encore marquées par un récent accident. Elle, les lèvres teintées du rouge à lèvres qu'elle vient d'effacer nerveusement. Pas de noms. Pas d'histoires. Seulement l'espace exigu qui rétrécit à chaque expiration. L'électricité statique qui fait crépiter la laine. Un regard accroché à un poignet, une veine qui bat sous la peau fine. La chaleur devient palpable, suffocante. La première parole est un juron étouffé. Le premier contact n'est pas une main, mais un souffle contre une tempe. L'étreinte qui suit est une affaire de survie, une tentative désespérée de prouver qu'ils sont encore vivants face à l'étreinte de fer qui les emprisonne. C'est brutal, urgent, sans fioriture. Le cuir de sa ceinture laisse une marque sur sa hanche. L'agrafe de son collier lui griffe la nuque. Dans l'obscurité intermittente des lampes de secours, ils se dévorent. Chaque baiser est une question sans réponse, chaque morsure une ponctuation. Ils extirpent l'un de l'autre des gémissements qu'ils ne se connaissaient pas, des peurs qu'ils n'avouaient pas. Ils sont à la fois le remède et le poison, l'oxygène et la privation. Quand les lumières se rallument et que l'ascenseur repart avec un grondement sourd, ils se séparent comme on se scarifie. Aucune promesse. Juste l'odeur de l'autre sur la peau, indélébile. Elle sort à son étage, il descend au rez-de-chaussée. Leurs vies respectives les attendent, inchangées en apparence. Mais quelque chose a cédé. Quelque chose a brûlé. Et chacun, dans son silence, porte désormais la mémoire brûlante de cette chute libre partagée, de cet instant parfaitement égoïste et absolu où ils n'ont été que chair, pulsion et vérité crue.

“หยุดดิ้นเดี๋ยวนี้ไอรดา อย่ามาทำเป็นไร้เดียงสา คิดเหรอว่าผมโง่จนดูไม่ออกว่าคุณกำลังเสแสร้งแกล้งทำเป็นไม่ประสา เพราะยังไงผมก็ไม่เชื่อว่าผู้หญิงที่อยากได้สเปิร์มคนอื่นจนตัวสั่นอย่างคุณจะไม่สันทัดเรื่องพวกนี้ บางทีคุณอาจจะช่ำชองกว่าผมก็ได้ใครจะไปรู้ ทำไมไม่แสดงมันออกมาให้ผมดูล่ะ เผื่อว่าถ้าผมติดใจ อาจจะแบ่งสเปิร์มฝากไว้ในตัวคุณบ้างก็ได้” ใบหน้าแดงก่ำนัยน์ตาดุกร้าวของเขาบอกให้รู้ว่าตอนนี้เขากำลังไม่พอใจ ที่เธอพยายามดิ้นรนขัดขืน ทั้งที่ร่างกายของเธอกำลังตอบสนองต่อสัมผัสของเขา และมันยิ่งทำให้เขาขัดใจมากยิ่งขึ้นเมื่อคิดว่าเธอเคยพลีกายให้ชายอื่นครอบครองมาแล้วนับครั้งไม่ถ้วน

She was heartbroken. He was drunk. One rainy night in Baguio, two strangers with shattered hearts found comfort in each other — and made a mistake that would change their lives forever. Seven years later, Elise Ramos walks into an interview, praying to land a job that could save her and her daughter’s future — only to find herself face-to-face with her new boss: Gabriel Navarro. The cold, powerful CEO… The same man who unknowingly left her pregnant that night. He doesn’t remember her. She remembers everything. But secrets like that? They don’t stay buried forever.

จากหญิงสาวที่ยึดมั่นในรักเดียวยินยอมเป็นชายาอ๋องแม้จะได้เปนชายารอง แต่กลับถูกตอบแทนด้วยความตาย บัดนี้สวรรค์เข้าข้างให้มาเกิดใหม่ เสิ่นลู่ถิงตั้งมั่นที่จะขึ้นเป็นสนมของฮ่องเต้เพื่อแก้แค้นทุกคนแทน

The day we were meant to be mated, my Alpha, Ford, was ambushed. Silver bullets shredded his car, sending it plunging off a bridge and into the river below. He was pronounced dead. Drowned. I was left pregnant with his heir, shattered by the raw agony of our severed mate bond. Then Ford's twin, Aiden, returned from abroad with his mate, Kyra. His identical face and a scent so similar to my mate's nearly drove me mad. A desperate part of me swore Ford was still alive. I told myself it was just grief. A widow's delusion. Until I overheard a hushed conversation and the horrifying truth slammed into me: the man pretending to be Aiden was Ford. He had faked his death. He'd let his own brother die in his place, all for Kyra—the other woman carrying his child. The grief that had crippled me instantly morphed into a cold, sharp rage. Ford didn't just break our bond; he shattered it. And I would make him pay. I wiped my tears and sent a single message to my brother, Billy, the Alpha of the Winterstone Pack. "Brother, I need a plane crash. He loves faking his death? Fine. Let him feel what it's like to truly lose a mate." Only when the news of my "death" spread did Ford reclaim his name. He knelt for seven days and nights in the ashes of the home we once shared, consumed by a grief of his own making.

There are monsters in this world. And they used to be us. Now it's time to euthanize to survive in a hospice where Emily, a woman haunted by her past, only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible. Post-infection Chicago. Christmas. Inside The Hospice, Emily and her fellow nurses do their rounds. Here, men and women live out their final days in comfort, segregated from society, and are then humanely terminated before fate turns them into marrow-craving monsters known as ‘Smilers.’ Outside these imposing walls, rabid protesters swarm with signs, caught up in the heat of their hatred. Emily, a woman haunted by her past, only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible. But in a world where mortality means nothing, where guns are drawn in fear and nobody seems safe anymore – at what cost will this pursuit come? And through it all, the soon to be dead remain silent, ever smiling. Such is their curse. It won't be long before that snow-speckled ground will be salted by blood. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Everyone knew that Alpha Eric loved his human Luna above all else. Every full moon, his wolf went into a frenzy. He needed to having sex with mate to relieve the agony. But as a human, I couldn't withstand his Alpha power. So, every month, he sent me to a cabin at the foot of the mountain. He would always say tenderly, "I'm afraid I'll lose control and hurt you. I don't want you to see me like a monster." Every she-wolf in the Pack envied me for having such a devoted Alpha. I used to think so, too. Until I traded ten years of my life with the Witch for Moonlight Herb—a rare herb capable of soothing an Alpha's full moon frenzy. I stood outside the bedroom door, only to hear him having sex with Victoria, the Beta's daughter. "Alpha... aren't I better than that fragile human?" Victoria cooed. "Can she even handle you?" "Shut up! Don't talk about her!" Eric growled from inside. "Finish and get out. Don't be here when she gets back." I froze. It turned out that for the past two years, he had found a better antidote for every full moon. After that night, Victoria fell pregnant with pureblood Alpha twin heirs. He explained to me, guiltily and cautiously, "My mother used IVF to get Victoria pregnant. As soon as the babies are born, I'll send her away. We can raise them together, okay?" I smiled and nodded. Then, I turned around, threw the Moonlight Herb into the trash can, and made a call. "Pick me up in two days." But the moment I left, the powerful Alpha went mad.

June died the night her husband betrayed her. She came home pregnant to find him in bed with her stepbrother. Hours later, a bullet tore through her in a random shooting. She felt her baby slip away. She should have died. Instead, she woke up in someone else’s body. The face in the mirror wasn’t hers. Everyone called her Chloe. And the man who shot her? Nikolai, who was cold and ruthless. Their marriage was a business transaction. He used her body without tenderness, spoke to her with cruelty, and made it clear she meant nothing. He was still mourning his dead fiancée. He had no idea his wife wasn’t Chloe at all. Trapped in a stranger’s life, June had to survive in a world of wealth and secrets. She had to find her real body. She had to pretend. But things got complicated. Because secrets don’t stay buried, allies become lovers, and the man who destroyed her life is about to discover exactly who’s been sleeping in his bed.

During the pack's wilderness training, my adopted sister, Tessa, shoved me from a cliffside thick with wolfsbane. My Alpha, Fenrir, turned and left with Tessa feigning injury in his arms, leaving me for dead at the bottom of the ravine. I died instantly, but my soul lingered, watching everything with cold detachment. I watched as Tessa's tearful complaints swayed him into blaming me for my own disappearance. "Will Selene ever stop causing me trouble?" "She's weak and always looking for trouble. How could she possibly be fit to be our Luna?" He had no idea I was already dead at the bottom of that cliff choked with wolfsbane. Five whole days. The poison hit my bloodstream like liquid fire, racing through my veins with merciless speed. As my body decayed under the moonlight, my love for him faded with it. The title of Luna, the magnificent coronation I had dreamed of, everything I once cherished was now meaningless. The Selene who loved him was well and truly dead.

On my wedding day, the first love of my boyfriend appeared and declared she wanted my place at the altar. Sobbing theatrically, she pleaded, "Claire, I’m seriously ill. You have your whole life to be with Evan. Just let me have this wedding." And my boyfriend backed her up without hesitation. "Claire, you’re already pregnant with my child, and we’ve signed the marriage papers. You’ve got everything you need. This wedding? It doesn’t matter." The guests gawked, while I stood there as the punchline of their jokes. But instead of causing a scene, I kept my composure. That same day, I booked an abortion and looked his first love straight in the eye with a smile. "Sure, take the wedding, and take him too. He’s all yours."