Mha Slice

The things we want are so very rarely the things we need. Clifton Heights, a modest Adirondack town, offers many unique attractions. Arcane Delights sells both paperbacks and hard-to-find limited editions. The Skylark Diner serves the best home-cooked meals around, with friendly service and a smile. Every August, Mr. Jingo’s County Fair visits, to the delight of children and adults. In essence, Clifton Heights is the quintessential small American town. Everyone knows everyone else, and everyone is treated like family. It is quiet, simple, and peaceful. But shadows linger here. Flitting in dark corners, from the corner of the eye. If you walk down Main Street after dark, the slight scrape of shoes on asphalt whispers you're not alone, but when you look over your shoulder, no one is there. The moon shines high and bright in the night sky, but instead of throwing light, it only seems to make the shadows lengthen. Children disappear. Teens run away. Hunters get lost in the woods with frightening regularity. Husbands go mad, and wives vanish in the dead of night. And still, when the sun rises in the morning, you are greeted by townspeople with warm waves and friendly smiles, and the shivers pass as everything seems fresh and new... Until night falls once more. Handy's Pawn and Thrift sits several blocks down from Arcane Delights. Like any thrift store, its wares range from the mundane to the bizarre. By daylight, it seems just another slice of small town Americana. But in its window hangs a sign which reads: We Have Things You Need. And when a lonely traveling salesman comes looking for something he desperately wants, after normal visiting hours, after night has fallen, he will face a harsh truth among the shelves of Handy’s Pawn and Thrift: the things we want are rarely the things we need. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Iris, according to her friends and people around her, is a fashion icon. She grew up loves watching clueless and gossip girls. She was enjoying her stay at the Catholic University of Arts, her previous school until something terrible happened with the scholarship that made her lose it; that made her switch to another school.

"I'm going to slice you open, take out your guts, and put them in a bowl if you don't release me now!" Briar KingBear yelled at her captors, rattling her chains. "All that fire, and you still deny me what you know is mine? I can help you with that, Love.” Artemis gave her a lustful glance. "Don't even think about it. If you kill your brother, how will you enjoy torturing your brother yourself?" She growled at him. "We keep you because you entertain us. You have been chained to that pole due to your own foolishness. Now you won't be able to escape your duty or your fate.”Artemis, the wonderful son of the Alpha who kidnapped her. What will you do when Rei hears I'm here, and you have gone against his wishes? He is the next Alpha to leads us, not you!” Briar screamed. "If Rei could only see how pathetic you have become in captivity, he'd spit on you as well." Artemis spat at her. "I may not. have known my Wolf long, but she is stronger than you think. Maybe I'm luring you into a false sense of security." Briar snapped back at him. "No matter, he will be too late to save you from my mark.”Artemis leveled his gaze on her, slowly walking in her direction. "What are you doing? If you do this, Rei will die! Your brother will be dead!" Briar yelled through her tears. "Everyone dies some time. Believe me, it's his time.”Artemis laughed a psychotic look in his eyes. Briar knew she was in trouble.

At the banquet hall, I refuse to let my adopted twin pups eat the walnut cake. Ivana Lamont—the childhood sweetheart of my mate, Luther Hardwick—chokes up dramatically. She cries accusingly, "Yara, they may not be yours biologically, but you can't abuse them! Why won't you even let them have a slice of cake?" I'm just about to explain that the twins are allergic to nuts, but they point at me and complain in aggrieved voices. "Mommy often doesn't give us food. We never have enough to eat!" With that, I'm unceremoniously driven out of the banquet hall by the host. When I go to look for my mate to talk about it, I accidentally overhear his conversation with a friend. "Alpha Luther, it's been eight years. Are you still not going to mark Yara?" "There's no rush. I'll wait until the kids are a little older. We love each other very much, so it's fine even if I don't mark her." His friend responds disapprovingly, "You've been hiding from her that the twins are actually your and Ivana's pups. Aren't you afraid she may leave in anger if she finds out?" Luther shakes his head and replies with certainty, "She won't. Yara is an orphan, so she has no family. If she leaves me, where else can she go?" The ugly truth causes me to freeze on the spot. It turns out the pups I've loved for eight years were born to my mate and another she-wolf. What I thought was a happy life is nothing but a cold, heartless deception! I touch my belly, thinking of the pup I just conceived. My tears fall like a relentless downpour. In the shadows, I say inaudibly, "You're wrong, Luther. In fact, I found my birth parents three days ago. I just haven't had the chance to tell you. But it doesn't matter now because you don't need to know about that anymore." I have Luther sign the mate bond dissolution agreement before finalizing my withdrawal from the Sharp Teeth pack. Two days later, I give both my mate and the pups to Ivana. With the pup that Luther has never known or laid his eyes on, I disappear from his world forever.