Long Shadows David Baldacci Novels & Stories

Six years after marrying Rhiannon Westley, she takes a lover. He's like a puppy—timid and clingy. He flinches at the slightest raised voice, so Rhiannon never loses her temper in front of him. But when he acts up in front of me, Rhiannon snaps. She's furious, and she gives him a harsh scolding. The next day, he sends me a photo of his neck covered in red marks. "Zane, Ms. Westley is so fierce..."

When Zephyra learns her mate and only family plan to steal her kidney to save her stepsister, she escapes and while being chased, she ends up drowning in a river instead. It should have ended her life, but it didn’t. She wakes in chains, rescued not by any kindness, but by slave traders. Sold to the feared Lycan kingdom, Zephyra is given to its ruthless leader, Alpha Theron who is known for his ruthlessness and the beast he struggles to control. She is viewed as a cursed slave of pleasure whose priority is to warm the King’s bed. He doesn’t want her because she’s cursed but he can’t let her go since she might be the one he has been looking for. Keeping Zephyra in the palace is just the beginning. If she’s not uncovering secrets about the palace, she’s discovering secrets about herself that complicate her relationship with the king, who will never leave her. Please Note: This book may include some explicit content that could be uncomfortable for certain readers.

Three days after I died, my fiancé got a call to ID the body. He just scoffed. "She's dead, so what? Call me when she's in the ground." The cops, out of options, hit up my backup contact—my childhood friend. He actually laughed. "She's really gone? Not my problem. Burn her or whatever." Then my body hit the internet— And suddenly, both of them looked like ghosts.

Two days before New Year's, my boyfriend, Jeffrey Graham, planned to spend the holiday at the beach with his assistant. I did not argue or complain. Instead, I thoughtfully packed his bags for him. However, he mocked me, saying that I had finally learned to be considerate now that I was pregnant. After he left, I wasted no time and went to get an abortion. Why? In my previous life, I tried to use our child to stop him, but his assistant ended up being brutally murdered at the beach. Jeffrey appeared calm on the surface after that incident, but just when I was about to give birth, he cruelly cut open my abdomen and killed my baby. That was when I realized—he had been holding a deep grudge against me all along. This time, I was determined to make him lose everything.

Lyra returns to find her mate celebrating his fifth anniversary with the woman she once called sister. Her own mother raising his pups. Her family whole, her place erased, her sacrifice forgotten. But when her younger sister frames her for attempting to murder those children, Lyra realizes the betrayal didn't begin with her mate's infidelity, it began the day she was born. Sentenced to exile in the rogue territories by the mentor she trusted, Lyra is meant to disappear. Instead, she discovers the truth: her mother was never her mother but her stepmother, and she has been poisoning her in silence since childhood: she carries an ancient Shadowborn bloodline, a power so dangerous it was supposed to stay buried. They didn't exile her to teach her a lesson. They exiled her because they were afraid of what she'd become. Five years later, she walks back into the pack that condemned her, not broken, but awakened. Her ex-mate rules as Alpha using the strategies she wrote. Her best friend wears the Luna title that should have been hers. And her stepmother is orchestrating one final betrayal to ensure Lyra never claims what's rightfully hers. But Lyra isn't alone. Kael Northwood, a rival Alpha who's been searching for her since the day she vanished, sees the woman everyone else tried to destroy.He's drawn to her strength. And he carries a secret that makes their undeniable mate bond forbidden. Now Lyra must choose: reclaim the life stolen from her, or burn it all down and forge something new with the one person who wants her exactly as she is, untamed, unbroken, and too powerful to control. Some betrayals destroy you. Hers unearthed something they should have left in the SHADOWS.

“Midnight Strokes” captures the secretive, rhythmic, deeply physical acts that happen in darkness, driven by raw desire, power play, and mutual hunger. It’s sensual, slightly dangerous, and beautifully ambiguous, suggesting both literal sexual motion and the lingering “strokes” left on memory and skin long after the night ends.

Look at me, Rory. You are mine." Dominique Blackwood’s voice was a deadly whisper, his grip like iron as he pulled her close. His words cut deep, but the fire between them was undeniable. Aurora "Rory" Thompson never imagined her quiet, artistic life would end in chains. But when her father sells her to the ruthless mafia kingpin Dominique “The Devil” Blackwood to settle a debt, she is thrown into a world where love is a weakness, and power is the only currency. Feared by his enemies and worshipped by his allies, Dominique is a man who controls everything, except her. Rory defies him, challenging his authority and refusing to break under his rule. But the more she resists, the more their dangerous attraction grows. As secrets unravel and enemies close in, Rory must choose: run from the Devil, or risk everything to stand beside him. In San Andreas, where love and power collide, survival comes at a cost, and sometimes, the heart is the most dangerous weapon of all.

Tyler has landed herself a Job that she is so grateful for. She is happy, thriving, and very much the Independent woman that she always wanted to be. She has her dream home and everything she has ever worked for and wants for nothing, but maybe a companion, but that is far fetched for the line of work she does. That is until she finds herself on a call in the middle of the forest. She gets face to face with a massive creature that could turn even the strongest men into a terrified mess, but she can’t help but feel a pull with the beast. To find out what this connection means she leaves everything she has ever known behind, but she finds out more than what she bargained for and her life completely shifts. Literally. She is thrown into a world that she didn’t know existed and is blasted with secrets, lies, and powers that you only read about in fairytales or your moms weird fantasy books. The mysterious and blood thirsty beast leads her into a life she could only dream of and she is not sure if these dreams are of nightmares or something you never want to wake from. Tyler may think she is on top of the world with her new Job, new house, and everything in between, but she is about to find out how on top of the world she really is. Tyler becomes the main obsession of the beast and he is insatiable when it comes to her. The human who was hard to love is now being crushed by emotions and not just from herself, but from the beast who found her in the woods.

Days before Christmas, my girlfriend, Tessa Coleman, decides to take her assistant to the beach for the holiday. I don't argue or make a scene. I even help her pack her bags. But she sneers at me, mocking me for finally learning how to be sensible now that my legs are useless. As soon as she leaves, I reach out to her sworn enemy. In my last life, when I tried to stop her with my crippled legs, her assistant ended up brutally murdered at the beach. Tessa had acted like nothing had happened, but once I recovered, she hacked off my legs and killed me mercilessly. That was when I finally realized that she had hated me all along. This time around, I'll make sure she loses everything.

My son has a high fever, so I call my husband. However, he thinks I'm using our child to get his attention. Then, he takes his true love's son to the hospital when he's only scratched his finger. I look at my son, whose face is pale. I ask, "Do you want another father?" He nods. "Yeah. Dad doesn't like me, so I don't want to like him anymore." Later, I find him another father. That's when my husband objects.