Mark Twain Library Long Beach Novels & Stories

‘Touch her. Claim her. She is ours. Claim her!’ His wolf, Varn, thundered through his mind. Then— “I reject you, Servant number 16, as my mate.” Prince Lucien smirked, “The moon goddess must be indeed out of her mind to mate me with a lowlife like you. I command you to accept this rejection!” “I accept.” As a nameless slave in the Moonrage Pack, Nyssa knew her place—silent and invisible until the night of the prince’s engagement when fate dared to whisper that she was more than a nameless slave but his. Prince Lucien’s mate Instead of claiming her, he rejects her to protect his crown and image. Rejected and ordered to be killed, Nyssa was left to die. Or so they thought. Resurrected by the moon goddess, the nameless slave was given a name and a purpose. A new life with the same face, she wasn’t servant number 16 anymore, she was now Nyssa Wales, the messenger of the moon goddess, sent on a mission back to earth. When Nyssa steps back into his world, she was no longer the nameless slave he once knew. She has come for vengeance. Now she’s the woman who could destroy him… or save him. "You own me, Nyssa. Every part of me belongs to you" "I'm yours. Completely" What happens when the mate you thought you lost forever comes back stronger, angrier, and no longer yours?

Amanda is a biracial Nigerian teenager who's still struggling to come to terms with her new life mother's death years prior after a traumatic accident that almost claimed both their lives. Upon relocation to Port-harcourt she meets Chideziri, another teen who helps her make peace with her life. Chideziri is an unlikely teen from a dysfunctional family and an abusive father. He is constantly on the run from reality, but when he meets Amanda he begins find reasons to pick the fragments even if it means facing off his demons. She belongs to the sky is a brutally honest coming of age story set in contemporary Nigerian society. It trails two teens who in trying to find themselves find each other, and discover that their spark may not be fate's design alone.

Blurb: It all started with a dare. A young billionaire's daughter was cruising in her new Lamborghini with her closest friend, when they made a dare to sleep with Noah Hudson, a rich young CEO of an insurance company. Later, she finds out this CEO, is also a partner in her father's Law firm and a guy who only sees women as a tool for sex and pleasure alone. Her pride fails her as she realizes Noah Hudson is also a billionaire, and her father who's promised to make her a senior partner in his law firm, is more attracted to Noah Hudson, one she'd dared to sleep with. The rollers coaster of her life's brings her to a point where she realizes she had fallen for the CEO and now she must beg for his love, or seduce him into her arms.

I've accidentally worn a dress belonging to my deceased older sister, Gwendolyn Stokes, to a family banquet. Because of that, my husband, Thomas Torres, goes quiet with fury. He then sentences me to a punishment of kneeling in the snow for three long hours. The blizzard chills me to the bone. My son, Robin Torres, makes fun of me while hurling snowballs at me. "No matter how much you dress up, you'll always be a phony! Don't think you can go around replacing my mommy just because you've changed into her dress!" As I stare at Robin's face, which bears some resemblance with mine, I feel my heart breaking. He has no idea that I'm his actual mother. On the year Gwendolyn passed away, Thomas, who drank himself into a stupor, mistook me for her. That night, he kept moaning Gwendolyn's name and whispering sweet nothings to me. That was how I got pregnant with Robin. Thomas has forbidden me from telling anyone the truth. On the other hand, I can't bear to leave my own child alone. So, I beg Thomas repeatedly to let me stay in the Torres residence. During my stay here, Thomas gives me the cold shoulder all the time. Only when he needs to vent his desire does he seek me out. What I didn't expect is that Robin hates my guts as well. Not only does he keep pulling pranks on me from time to time, but he also curses at me. "Shameless women like you have no right to stay in my home! Once I grow up, I'll definitely kick you out!" Now, I can finally respond to him. "Oh, I don't have to wait for you to grow up at all." Tomorrow, I'll pack my things and leave. I no longer want to remain as someone else's replacement and continue living a life of humiliation. This time, I'm going to pursue a life of my own.

Freya, the Luna of the Moonheart Pack, becomes a target of a deadly plot set in motion by her closest friend. However, her demise is just the start of a new chapter. She finds herself reborn in the body of a woman from a rival pack, facing a life filled with even tougher challenges and responsibilities. As Freya adapts to this strange new reality, she encounters tough choices. What will she do when she learns that her deceitful friend is actually the mother of her child? Will she choose to take revenge on those who betrayed her, or will she find a way to forgive? And when her baby's safety is at stake, how far will she go to protect her loved one? To dive deeper into this story, Read Now! 'No Longer The Naive Luna.'

By the tenth engagement party, Samantha Moore stood me up again. I called her to ask what happened. What I didn't realize was that my phone was still connected to the banquet hall speakers. A second later, the entire room went dead silent. Soft, breathless moans spilled through the sound system. Then Samantha's voice came on, shaky and uneven. "Caleb... my department planned a team hike today. We're almost at the top. About the engagement party... let's just do it another time. I have to go." She hung up. For a moment, nobody moved. Then the room erupted into chaos. Gasps, whispers, and a few harsh laughs filled the banquet hall. Some people did not even bother hiding their amusement. Even the servers were glancing at me as if I were nothing more than a pathetic joke. I had proposed to Samantha ninety-nine times before she finally said yes, and yet she had never once shown up to our engagement party—not once. I stood there quietly, took the engagement ring from my pocket, and dropped it into the fish tank beside the stage. After seven years of waiting, forgiving, and making excuses for her, I finally understood the truth. I had mistaken my patience for love, and she had mistaken my love for permission to hurt me. I used to believe that if I loved her enough, she would eventually choose me. Instead, every time I lowered myself for her, she only pushed the line further. This was the tenth time she had humiliated me in front of everyone, and it would be the last. From that day on, she was no longer part of my future.

As the bastard daughter of the Beta, Layla Fabrini has always known her place in the Sanguis Pack. She is used to flying under the radar, but all of that changes when she discovers her fiancé's betrayal with her half-sister. Suddenly, Layla becomes the target of cruel bullying and vicious attacks that almost cost her her life, until the pack’s enigmatic Alpha, Hector, steps in to save her. … My mouth filled with saliva, moistening, and I felt the air around us go taut with a specific type of tension that always found its way into all of our encounters. Not trusting myself to use words, I nodded in answer to his question and a dangerous glimmer lit up his eyes, causing the hairs at the nape of my neck to stand up in warning. “Prove it, then,” he told me, and I blinked. “Excuse me?” “Prove that you mean it when you say you will submit to every command I give you.”

Dani isn't looking for a mate, or even thinking about one. She's too busy surviving and taking care of herself and her mother. But when her mate comes walking through the doors of the restaurant she's working at, her life is suddenly turned upside down. Will she accept him and join him as the Luna of his pack? Or will the past that she worked so hard to overcome will make that impossible?

Jasmine is not your typical high school student. She's smart, observant, and always knows when something's not right. So when she overhears an argument between popular boy Levi and his friends, she knows there's more to it than meets the eye. Little did she know that this would lead her into a world of werewolves. As Jasmine delves deeper into the werewolf world and uncovers the truth behind Levi's argument, she finds herself drawn to him despite the tensions within his pack. But when a traitor is revealed and Jasmine discovers a shocking truth about her own family, everything changes. Jasmine must choose between her loyalty to Levi and his pack or keeping her family safe. And just when it seems like Jasmine and Levi's relationship is beyond repair, they discover they are mates. But with the danger of the traitor still looming and the conflicts within the pack reaching a boiling point, can their love survive? As they work together to uncover the traitor and protect the pack, Jasmine and Levi's relationship is put to the test. Will their bond be enough to keep them together, or will the dangers of the werewolf world tear them apart?

A town with a strange past. A group of teenagers with secrets to hide. A world inside a box and a man who should no longer exist. Will they ever find out where they truly belong?