Naruto Shippuden: Legends: Akatsuki Rising Novels & Stories

Finley James never asked for the spotlight—she just kept ending up in it. All she ever wanted was basketball. Nothing else mattered. She grew up with the best coaches she could’ve imagined: her brother and his best friend. They were her whole world, the ones who taught her everything she knew. But after she turned eighteen, one night of giving in to her feelings changed everything. And she paid the price. Colton Reed was already a rising star by his freshman year, but the attention never interested him. His heart belonged to the game—and to his best friend’s sister. He knew that was a line he couldn’t cross. He wouldn’t risk the friendships that meant everything to him. Until one night, he did. With the biggest regret of his life and the happiest day of his life all at the same time, he left. He didn’t have a choice. He couldn’t look his best friend in the eyes anymore. Years later they find themselves playing for the same league in the same city.

Hatred is blind so is Love.... "Never try to change anything here!" His evil eyes did promise me some danger indeed. Meet Esha Varnav, a twenty five year girl who lives life in her own terms. She never cared about things and always remained in her own world of fantasies. Punctuality was never her thing. She wanted to enjoy her life to the fullest with no regrets. But all her plans and desires change when she crosses path with an arrogant billionaire. Here comes Aadhvik Tiwari, a twenty five year young rising billionaire in the world and a youth tycoon. He is a man of money and power. He is a man who runs the city. He knows how and when to get things done. He always orders people but never takes any and last but not the least, he is the man with many invisible scares and a painful past. What happens when both of them are locked together in the name of marriage? What happens when Esha slowly come to know about his past? What role does Esha play in his life?

Overnight, my best friend became the long-lost principessa of the Toscano family. After returning to her family, she transferred all her villas and luxury cars under my name. Even on her deathbed, she made sure to hand over control of the family's dockside trade operations to me. However, I never once visited her grave. Three years after her death, I took her place as the true heiress of the Toscano family and married her former fiancé, Gaspare Volpe, the young heir to the rising mafia family in Damerelli, the Volpes. Everyone called me a social climber and an ungrateful traitor, but I did not care. I obeyed the womanizing Gaspare without question. When he called me to bring condoms for his hookups, I moved like my life depended on it. I became the laughingstock of Damerelli, someone everyone looked down on. Five years later, on the anniversary of my best friend's death, I slit Gaspare's throat at her grave. "From the very beginning, I came for revenge."

After an extended silence, she gathered the courage to speak. “Mum, what do you mean? I have my life in Paris.” she implored, clutching her mother’s hand. Lois diverted her gaze, the moment slipping away. “Refusing my offer means also returning all the assistance I provided when your business was in trouble,” she said, rising to leave. “You have just 48 hours to agree to my terms, and remember, I dislike waiting.” Dianna has always been in love with Clinton Blackwood before he married her twin sister and since then she has despised him. She maintained her distance from her twin sister, Daphne, and her husband enjoying her peaceful and lonely life. Her life took a turn when her sister died. Dianna's mum, Lois Aaron, proposed a new business contract for the Blackwood's, leaving them in a tight corner. She was made to get married to her sister's husband a year after her sister's dismay.

BLURB: After an extended silence, she gathered the courage to speak. “Mum, what do you mean? I have my life in Paris.” she implored, clutching her mother’s hand. Lois diverted her gaze, the moment slipping away. “Refusing my offer means also returning all the assistance I provided when your business was in trouble,” she said, rising to leave. “You have just 48 hours to agree to my terms, and remember, I dislike waiting.” Freja has always been in love with Clinton Blackwood before he married her twin sister and since then she has despised him. She maintained her distance from her twin sister, Freya, and her husband enjoying her peaceful and lonely life. Her life took a turn when her sister died. Freja's mum, Lois Aaron, proposed a new business contract for the Greenwoods, leaving them in a tight corner. She was made to get married to her sister's husband a year after her sister's dismay.

Because of my negligence, Leo's precious darling Sophia had choked on a mouthful of seawater. He flew into a rage and locked me in the dark water dungeon. "Catherine, whatever Sophia suffered, you'll repay double!" The instinct to survive forced me to shift into wolf form. I slammed my head against the iron cage again and again, begging for his mercy. But Leo bound my limbs with iron chains and ordered his subordinates to keep flooding the chamber. "A jealous wretch like you will only learn obedience through suffering." "Stay in there and repent for what you've done." He sealed the iron door of the water dungeon himself and forbade anyone from coming near. Over and over, I craned my neck to gulp in the thin air, howling in desperation. But the rising ice water swallowed me whole. I kept struggling until I had no strength left. A week later, in his great mercy, he decided to end my punishment. What he didn't know was that the water snakes had already gnawed my body beyond recognition.

When I'm on my break, I decide to help my neighbor, Yvonne Cook, fix the gas valve, which has been leaking gas. But she instantly lodges a report, saying that I've gone against the rules. She demands compensation for the shock that she's suffered as well. I don't bother defending myself. Instead, I just write a reflection report. After that, my squad leader sentences me to disciplinary confinement. Yvonne wastes no time gloating in the tenants' group chat. "It's time to teach these power-abusers a good lesson, anyway!" Three days later, a fire breaks out in Yvonne's apartment. Thick plumes of dark smoke keep rising from the burning apartment. Yvonne wails as she bangs on my door and pleads with me. "Please crack open the door and put out the fire!" I can only sigh from behind my front door. "I'm under disciplinary suspension right now, so I can't break protocol. You should wait for the fire truck instead."

"Say you love me," Gabriel growled, his body slamming into mine with brutal force. I bit my lip hard, tears welling in my eyes. ‘No,’ I managed to whisper, my voice barely audible. He thrust harder, as if trying to consume me. "Just say it. Pretend for once." "Never." I swallowed the moan rising in my throat. In the midst of his frantic thrust, we both reached a climax. It was absurd-- two people who hated each other so deeply, yet perfectly attuned in bed. We'd known each other for ten years, but Gabriel’s hatred for me was palpable. He blamed me for the deaths of his mother and brother, making me the scapegoat for his grief and rage. He made things difficult for me, treating me like his personal plaything. But I loved him, secretly. A love poisoned by pain and humiliation, suffocating me all the time. Then, one day, he pressed a trembling kiss to my lips and pleaded, "Camille, don’t leave me. Never."

When Nayla lost everything she thought mattered — her mate, her future, her place in the pack — she vowed to survive on her own terms. Orphaned, heartbroken, and fighting to rebuild her life, she never expected to cross paths with Dominic Gray — the powerful Alpha who rules the Neutral Zone of the city with a quiet, deadly strength. One accidental meeting ignites something neither of them can deny. Dominic lives by control. By rules. By distance. But Nayla pulls at him in ways he can’t explain — or resist. As Nayla struggles to heal from the betrayal that shattered her trust, Dominic fights a battle he’s never lost before: the one against his own instincts. Their bond crackles between them, raw and magnetic, but secrets from Nayla’s past are rising — including an ex who isn’t willing to let her go. In a world where loyalty is survival and power is everything, love could be the most dangerous weakness of all. Tethered by fate, torn by choices — can two broken souls find a way to heal, or will the past consume them both?

My daughter, Wendy Lawson, was a rising star in the piano world. But on the day of the piano competition grand finals, someone locked her in a restroom. She was so shaken she missed her chance at the championship. I checked the CCTV footage and found out exactly who was behind it. I was ready to file a formal complaint for malicious sabotage. But my husband stepped in and shut me down cold. “It was just a squabble between two kids. If you report Theresa’s sister, I’ll make sure Wendy doesn’t even get second place!” I was so furious my whole body trembled. I never imagined Phillip would go this far to bully his own daughter to protect his secretary’s sister! Just then, Wendy held onto my hand as she fought back tears. “Mom, I don’t want the championship anymore… and I don’t want Dad either.” I tightened my grip around her small hand. “All right. If you do not want him, then I do not want him either!”