Mark Twain Library Long Beach Novels & Stories

Yvonne Jamison wants to get married after being with Jared Ford for seven years. She prepares her own wedding dress, but he doesn't pop the question. On the day they're scheduled for a pre-marriage medical checkup, she waits for him at the hospital from day to night. Yet, he's busy throwing a celebration for his new secretary. The secretary shares a social media update and tags Yvonne in it. The update comes with a photo of a diamond ring from Jared and a suggestive caption. Yvonne doesn't cause a fuss. She likes the update, quits her job, and goes home for a blind date. Jared is unfazed. He's sure she won't actually leave him. "I'll just give her the cold shoulder for a few days to teach her a lesson. She'll be back soon enough." However, the days pass, and Yvonne doesn't return. Jared loses his cool. For the first time ever, he submits to Yvonne. "Have you had enough of this tantrum? Come back if you still want to marry me. This is your last chance!" "Mr. Ford, Ms. Jamison has already met someone else on a blind date." Later, Yvonne shares a photo of her marriage certificate on her social media. Jared, who has always been arrogant and aloof, loses his mind. He kneels outside her house in the rain for three days and nights. "Please come back to me, Yvonne!" The door opens, and a man clad in nothing but a towel around his waist emerges. He says hoarsely, "My wife has fallen asleep from her exhaustion. Please leave, Mr. Ford."

One rule, the golden fucking rule of Apex Crest Academy, don’t get noticed by Knox Cole. The day I broke it, the moment I stood up and defended my best friend. Knox Cole noticed me. I became his target. A possession. Marked by the devil himself. *** Being a scholarship kid didn’t help Finn’s case in a prestigious school like Apex Crest Academy. In a world where money, power and secrets are tools of exchange, Finn finds himself lost, trying to navigate through the tunnels of attention, fame and lust. ​ The plan was simple: get a decree and fight his way into an Ivy League College. But destiny and fate don’t always play by the rules. All it took was a minute of bravery, and Finn was doomed. ​ Knox Cole doesn’t accept escape routes. Hockey captain, an untouchable legacy. Knox doesn’t ask; he takes, controls, and when he is done, he ruins. When Finn stands up to him, challenging his authority, Knox doesn’t destroy. He plots. He watches. ​ The school bends, closing in on Finn, making his world slowly dark. Knox offers a way out, a deal wrapped in danger. ​ How would Finn fight the man who breaks him, yet gives him kisses that make him want to never be saved? When the closet opens, and secrets spill, will Finn stand, or will he run to save the one dream he has always had? ​ Finn must decide: survive the boy that had chosen him, or surrender to something darker, scarier. ​ Because in Knox’s world, love isn’t given. It is taken, controlled.

During the exchange of tokens in the Marking Ceremony, I presented the wolf tooth ring I had carved myself, as a witness to our marking. But my Alpha mate, Frendo, remained completely indifferent, not releasing any marking aura, as though he had entirely forgotten that today was the day of our spiritual bonding ceremony. At that moment, Lily updated her Instagram, saying she would be returning to the Sliver Lake Pack in an hour. The air immediately filled with the restless scent of wolves, and before I could react, my Beta brother, George, stepped onto the ceremony stage and emotionlessly announced, "The Marking Ceremony is canceled." Frendo and George, in perfect synchronization, turned and left the altar together, leaving me standing alone, under the watchful eyes of all the Pack members. They wanted to see how a one-person marking ceremony would proceed. It wasn’t until I held back my inner frustration and awkwardly finished the ceremony with some semblance of dignity that I opened Lily’s Instagram. In her latest photo, George and Frendo were both surrounding her, releasing intimate signals. One was holding a silver moon festival gift box, while the other offered her a moonlight rose, her favorite. I bitterly smiled and wiped away the tears from my eyes before calling the one family that truly mattered, my flesh and blood. "Dad, Mom. I want to go home."

Betrayed, abandoned, and marked by a cruel fate, Xena never imagined that a single night would change her life forever when she is casted out by her family, scorned by her pack for being wolfless, and left with no place to go, she is forced into an arranged marriage with a man she believes to be a nobody. But when she arrives at her new husband's pack, she is horrified to discover that the "nobody" is none other than Kael, the ruthless and cursed Lycan Lord who despises her but little did she know that this cruel fate she found herself in would be her salvation or… her doom. 

Ella has always known her place; at the very bottom. As an omega, she’s learned to stay invisible, to endure the taunts and cruelty, especially from the notorious Blackthorn twins, Lucian and Kade. Golden, ruthless, and heirs to the Blackthorn pack, the alpha twins have made tormenting Ella their favorite pastime. To them, she’s nothing more than a reminder of weakness. Until fate plays its cruelest trick. When the unmistakable scent of the mate bond connects the three of them, their delicately ordered world shatters. The twins would rather reject fate than claim a weak omega, and Ella refuses to be bound to the monsters who made her life hell.

After seeing the scandal between pop diva Arthemisya with her psychotic boss Tiger Letto, Milky created a dreadful path for herself. When Milky has an accident, Misya's fan, a shaman, performs an awakening ritual and instead places Milky's soul in Misya's body. Will Milky be able to settle the grudge while using a new power of love to manage the boss's obsession?

The book centers on the life of ML, Andre, a young, cunning werewolf who was compelled to become the Alpha of the Crescent Moon Pack after his father was brutally murdered, and FL, Jasmine, a hot-headed werewolf who does things on an impulse. Andre's dad was killed by his beta, Roberto, who happens to be Jasmine's dad. Jasmine, Robert’s daughter, flees after Andre’s execution of her father. Vowing to return when she is stronger, to exceed Andre, a scrupulous pure-blood werewolf schemer, the killer of her dad and her fated mate. Mabel Alonso molds Jasmine into a weapon. After Jasmine left the pack, he searched for her to no avail. When he was about to give up on the search, he found out that she was right in front of him, living in his pack house as Ariana, his most trusted maid. She had infiltrated the pack five years ago after she fled that night. Andre was unaware of her arrival at first, but after some intimate circumstances with her, he knew for sure who she was but wasn't ready to let her go. A forbidden love was bound to happen!.

Luna Freya finds out she was 5 weeks pregnant on the same day her Alpha Husband betrayed her by sleeping with another woman, whom he claimed was his fated mate. A fight between them led to a turn of events and she miscarried his pregnancy unknowingly to him. Months later, she woke up from a coma and was back in her father's pack where she had a filial duty to fulfill. Her marriage has been arranged with the estranged cursed Alpha Dominic who has a deep hidden resentment for her as she jilted him for another years ago. Filled with hatred for her ex-husband, Freya willingly accepted the arranged mating. However, After the mating ceremony, Dominic comes with a separate contract with several rules.

A shadow that never leaves its owner's side, Dawn Clinton has been living with her family as the shadow of their daughter who has been missing for ten years. Six years ago, she was married to the richest man in the city as a replacement for her sister. Although her husband didn't accept her fully, she thought she had a good marriage and a good life. Within six years, they had a three year old boy and she was pregnant for the second time. The day she found out, she was pregnant for second time, she found out her first son was missing. She was in panic and try to reach out to her husband, but she failed. He was unreachable. When she was busy searching for her son, her husband returned home with her sister who has been lying about her missing for ten years. To take the Matter to the worst, her adoptive sister blamed her for her son's death and accused her of killing her son. Dawn realized soon after that her sister and the Nanny killed her son and flamed her. And unsurprisingly, her husband trusted her sister instead of her, accusing her of adultery and killing her son. To add things worse, her sister pushed her to have a miscarriage, leading her to death and a second chance to fix everything. Will she take revenge or escape from her husband who watched her dying to avoid her son's death?

I'd never forget how cold the icy waters of the Sandford River were. In my previous life, I was Dalia Valentino, the future Donna of the Rossi family that they'd already acknowledged. But later on, I got betrayed by my fiance, Marco Rossi, and my cousin, Alice Palermo. They stole my betrothal contract away and took over my family's resources. In the end, they used me as a human shield and got me killed during a crossfire between our families. The moment I felt a bullet penetrating my chest, I saw Marco protecting Alice. As for my childhood friend, Riccardo Corleone, who had always watched me from behind, rushed over to me like a madman. He scooped my cooling corpse into his arms before letting out an anguished roar. That was why after I got reborn, I didn't hesitate to kick Marco to the curb and marry Riccardo, resulting in me becoming the Donna of the Corleone family. I thought Riccardo was my savior. Little did I know that fate was just playing a crueler prank on me. Both men had always been in love with the same woman this whole time. In this case, I decided to quit this game of romance and deceit.