Long Shadows David Baldacci

Everyone always talks about how amazing it would be to find your mate. For me, that's the last thing I want. I mean when you're held prisoner by some sick bastard, there's not a lot you can offer your mate. No matter who it is, they can't save me from this. All that finding my mate would do is crush my heart and make my life that much more harder. Yet when I saw him at that gas station, I couldn't get him out of my head. I need to stay away, but I don't know that I can. I keep finding myself traveling to him even when I don't mean to. This doesn't bode well for me. *** "I have to go." I told him. "No, wait." He grabbed my hand, causing a strong spark to course through my body. It made me inhale deeply, intoxicating me with his scent. I pulled my hand away quickly, as if he'd burned me. His eyes widened as he stared at me. He had felt the spark too. He furrowed his brows at me, but I let the shadows start to swallow me, disappearing before him. "Please, come see me again." Were his last words to me. ***** Zerena has had one rule all her life, never find her mate. The life she leads is dangerous and not her own. Held captive by a scientist, forced to do his bidding alongside 4 others. Zerena has always known that if she found her mate it would cause her more trouble than anything else. As a shadow weaver, she knows nothing but darkness & cruel fates. She's used to danger, but how will she handle love?

Prince Ryder son of Alpha Than the tyrant king whom was known for his desperate need for having a male heir. His mistresses and Luna's were all unable to bore him a male cub and as a result were all beheaded for disappointing him. What happens when Prince Ryder the air apparent have a secret that could consume him wholly. Summoned to service by Alpha Ethan, the Lycan King whom is also a sorcerer rumoured to be going feral. He is entangled in a confusing mated game of chess. Would his true identity be revealed or would he pass off as what he was trained to be, the perfect prince.

On the night of her birthday, Clara receives a crescent pendant and overhears a secret that splits her life in two. Hours later her mother is taken, Ronan—the rogue who collects the broken—calls from the trees, and Jasper drags her behind the walls of the Holdfast. Inside, Clara survives the Trial of Teeth and tastes the edge of the wolf living under her skin—becoming the problem the pack cannot agree on. Vivian sees a survivor; Jason sees a threat; the forest keeps blinking ash eyes while human cameras bloom among the pines. As a fated pull to Jasper presses closer and Vivian’s missing sister hints at what Ronan does to the taken, Clara must decide what to be: weapon, heir, or something the old laws have no word for. When betrayal leaks through the ranks and the border turns into a stage, mercy may prove sharper than fang—and the story others try to name for her is the one she’ll have to rewrite in blood and moonlight. A dark, romantic werewolf fantasy about power that refuses to be inherited, love that asks for consent, and a girl choosing the kind of Alpha she will become.

[Mature Content] Caitlin Rowell, a young, orphaned girl who was adopted by a devious woman, is thrown into a life of difficulties after a traumatic encounter with a handsome, well-off young man who delights in having his way with women, and she becomes pregnant with his child. Her guardian throws her out of the house, leaving her with no choice but to fend for herself. She relocates to a distant city with the help of a wealthy obstetrician who is obliged to support her. In the new city, she gets a cleaning job at a major private corporation after having her child, and the CEO turns out to be her worst nightmare.

Gabriella's life has always been complicated. Her father, the Don of the mafia, kept his business life separate from his family life. But Gabriella knew; the late night meetings, hushed conversations, his rivals ending up dead, and the occasional "business trips" that would leave her mother worried sick. Because of this, Gabriella chose to distance herself from her father's world. She attended college far from home, and even started a different life far from her father's shadows. But there's only so much you can do when you're seen as a weakness. Her worst fears finally become a reality, and her parents are killed in their living room, while she's on the verge of death. Someone's does save Gabriella, and she survives, but loses her sight in the process. Gabriella is grateful for this guardian angel, and years down the line, they get married, start a family, and love in perfect peace. But even the devil itself can disguise himself as an angel….. Gabriella has a shot to get her eyesight back, but that shot opens up a can of secrets that will ruin her perfect reality forever.

Eight years into our bond, I spotted a child at the kindergarten who looked uncannily like Malcolm—my mate. Malcolm had told me he was away on a business trip. However then he was holding that child in his arms, gently coaxing him. "Be good, sweetheart. In a few days, I'll bring you and your mom home. You're my only child. I'll never abandon you." The child smiled, content and trusting. I stood hidden around the corner, unable to breathe from the pain gripping my chest. Eight years ago, I had taken a silver blade to the stomach to save Malcolm. I lost my wolf that day—and with it, the ability to ever carry a pup. Back then, Malcolm had sat beside my hospital bed and made a promise: "You are the only mate I will ever choose. Whether or not we have a pup doesn't change that." However, what I saw now felt like a brutal slap—a reality too sharp to ignore. What value would Luna have if she'd lost her wolf and could no longer bear heirs? How could I possibly compare to someone who could give him a child, and the pack, a future? Choking back the pain swelling in my chest, I picked up the phone and called my father. "Dad… would you still want a daughter who's lost her wolf?" His voice came through, steady and sure. "Of course. No matter what happens, I'll always be here for you."

COMPLETED!!!! The past and present are on a collision course, when the fates of two women, born hundreds of years apart, intertwine in a story of magic and the power of love... In the present, Faye Bennet, haunted by dreams of a woman burning at the stake, returns to the village of her childhood, to seek answers and escape an abusive marriage. Unbeknownst to her, her return will awaken the vengeance of an evil, hundreds of years old and she will have to face the truth buried deep in her soul. 230 years earlier, Mathilda, mother, wife and witch, fights to protect her coven and her young daughter from a demonic entity, parading as a warrior of God and in doing so, puts her own life at risk. How far will she go to protect the ones that she loves? Little does either Faye or Mathilda know, but their stories will entwine through the threads of time, sending both of them hurtling towards danger and perhaps a chance to undo an ancient evil, once and for all.

Silver has lived her life in the dark. No family. No past. Just hunger and shadows. When she crosses paths with Travis, a wandering vampire who sees the raw, broken girl behind her fangs, she tastes love for the first time—and it’s intoxicating. Together, they roam the world, chasing survival, chasing belonging, chasing a place where monsters like them can breathe without fear. But hunters never rest. And love makes her vulnerable. When the shadows close in, Silver must choose between running again or fighting for the only person who ever mattered. The cost will be blood. The price will be heartbreak. Because in her world, love isn’t a salvation—it’s a death sentence.

I live alone. At eleven o'clock on a rainy night, an unexpected call came through. The voice on the other end said my car window was left open and urged me to go downstairs. Cautious as a woman should be, I didn't act rashly. Instead, I called the property security office, only to discover that even the security was fake. It hit me suddenly—I was ensnared in a vast conspiracy. Someone was orchestrating all of this. But for what purpose?

Selene was born an Omega, the lowest-ranking member of the Bloodmoon Pack—powerless, unwanted, a stain on their dominance-driven hierarchy. For years, she endured humiliation, pain, and suffering, tossed aside by the Alphas and Betas who saw her as nothing more than a weakling unfit for their world. They stripped her of dignity, stole every ounce of hope, and left her with nothing but scars and silence. Until one night, something changed. Until the darkness within her awoke. And when Selene escaped, she didn't just survive. She became something greater than them all.