Next Chapter Gifts Novels & Stories

My roommate brought back an old music box, saying she had picked it up at a flea market. I told her not to keep it. It was too old. Who knew where it had come from or how many hands it had passed through. But the moment the music box was opened, and the melody began to play, a chill ran down my spine. The next day, a girl from the dorm next door jumped off the building. A week later, a child from a nearby orphanage died the same way. When the police came to investigate, my roommate quietly hid the music box. It wasn’t until I found myself standing on the rooftop that I realized none of this was an accident. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day she brought the music box home. This time, I was going to make sure she listened to it.

After working five years as Ethan Moore's ghost architect, he once again handed off the position of the project lead to someone else. As usual, he dangled the carrot in my face. “Think about the bigger picture, Arya. Just wait a little longer. Until the firm’s next round of funding, and we get listed on the stock market, I promise I’ll make you the lead architect of the next project…” When I was twenty-one, I was a fool who willingly staked everything in an uncertain future with him. Now, I am twenty-eight. Years of waiting and endless revisions of blueprints had whittled away all the love and courage I once had. I packed up my portfolio and gave up on my lifelong dream of becoming an architect in Manhattan. I gave up on him as well. I’m not waiting anymore, Ethan.

Alpha Archer, King of the Werewolves, needs his mate in order to survive. If he doesn't bond with her before the next full moon, he will die. After days of searching, Archer finally finds her but she is not who he expects her to be.

If it was my sister being bullied, Mom and Dad would have believed her right away and fought for her without a second thought. However, it did not matter anymore. In my next life, I would pick parents who really cared about me.

At a gathering, I discover that the guy my best friend, Rachel Jost, secretly has a crush on has slipped something into her drink. When he brings the glass over to her, I deliberately knock it over, spilling the spiked wine and saving her life. He storms out in anger. The very next day, he announces his engagement to someone else. Rachel comes to me in a rage, convinced that I sabotaged her out of jealousy. "Stella Leigh, if you hadn't interfered, I would've already slept with him! The one he wants to marry would've been me! You just couldn't stand seeing me happy! You ruined my shot at love, so you'll pay for it with your life!" She pushes me off a high building. I fall to my death, my body reduced to a pulp that is beyond recognition. When I open my eyes again, I am back on the day of that gathering. Rachel is sitting next to me, stealing adoring glances at the man across from her. The next moment, she turns to glare at me and warns me not to meddle with vicious eyes. Seems like she is reborn, too. But what she doesn't know is that the man she secretly loves has always despised her for being obsessed with him. What he added to that glass of wine isn't some aphrodisiac—it is something that can kill her.

The night my mate died saving me, his last words were: "If there is a next life, let me be with Odette." So when I woke up, back on the day I begged my father to let me marry him, I chose someone else.

Because I was a cheapskate, I rented a cheap apartment. The catch? Someone had died in it. The soundproofing of the house was bad, and I could hear my neighbor’s wife moaning every night. But my other neighbor told me that there was no one living in the apartment next to mine.

I always had it all. I never expected for everything to change after only one night. One second I'm out having fun and the next I'm knee deep in crap with only a boy I just met to help me see it through.

When I find out that Joe Herring—the man I've loved for ten years—is planning a grand proposal, I'm so thrilled I can't sleep a wink that night. But the next day, everyone in the pack is buzzing about how Alpha Joe just proposed to my stepsister, Nora Safford. He comes to me afterward, trying to explain. "It's not even real, Anna. Nora doesn't have anyone in the pack. I'm just doing her a favor. "Don't worry. I'll break it off before the mate-bonding ceremony next week. Then we'll have our ceremony, just like we planned." But over and over, he keeps asking me to compromise for Nora. And when the mate-bonding ceremony finally arrives, he's still with her. So in the end, I let her have him and walk away without a word.

I had been with the company for eleven years. One day, the boss’ son was abruptly planted as my immediate superior. In order to establish his power, he started to humiliate me. He splashed coffee on my face in front of our client. “Why are you serving our most prestigious client this nasty drink? You’re embarrassing the company!” I was furious. However, I held my anger back for the sake of the company. During our townhall meeting, he threw my proposal to the floor. “We’re not an old folks’ home. We don’t take care of useless pieces of shit like you.” I did not leave the next day. Instead, I asked my personal assistant to publish a notice on the digital display at our office building. [Due to the tenant’s unstable emotions, the lease on the 17th floor of this office building will not be renewed when it expires next month.]