Nine Minutes

It’s Monday and my first day of my new school. I drive my car around to where everyone else is parked, so I find myself a parking spot. Then I find the front office and go in and get my schedule. My first class is math, so I walk into the room and I’m the first one in there so I walk up to the teacher and hand him my paper to sign that I have to take back to the front office this afternoon. “Hello Miss. Billie Green I’m Mrs. Smart. It’s very nice to meet you.” The math teacher says, then sings the paper. You can go find yourself a set. I would try to find one in the front on the left-hand side. The kids pretty much already have the back full.” She tells me, and really it’s okay. I kinda like the front anyway. I make my way to a seat that looks vacant and sit down. Kids start piling in about five minutes later. And walking to their seats, there’s a tiny little girl that comes and seats down behind me. She introduces herself as Shaylee Apple. “Hello Shaylee Apple I’m Billie Green.” I tell her and hold my hand out to shake hers. I turn back around in my seat about the same time as a tall guy that has dirty blonde hair cut into spikes all over, ash gray eyes, so gray I can see the color all the way in my seat. He’s wearing a tight fitted gray shirt, and blue jeans. He has a very handsome face, but then he looks at me and instantly I see hatred in his eyes. What the heck, he doesn’t even know me. .

The crowd starts a countdown to midnight like New Year’s Eve. I close my eyes and smile, holding Liam’s hand tightly. Everyone yells “ONE!” and cheers. I open my eyes and see the iridescent liquid light of the full moon pouring out of the giant orb flowing down over us. People around us ooh and ahh at the beautiful sight.  When the first rays of moonlight cascade over my skin, I feel a heat inside me turn into a burning fire. I gasp and look up at Liam. He looks at me with wide, surprised eyes. “Mate,” he murmurs and squeezes my hand tighter. It isn’t a comforting feeling. There are no sparks like people describe when they touch their mate. Maybe it takes a few minutes to develop. I smile and try to admire Liam, but I don't want to say it back. Nothing feels different. I still love him, but he’s not the one. Liam is looking at me, but it isn’t a look of true love. It’s lustful and carnal. I feel a pit in my stomach. Liam isn’t my mate. How can this be? And how was he able to call me his mate if he’s not mine? “Zara,” a woman’s voice says in my head, “My name is Lavender. I’m your wolf and you’re in grave danger, my dear. You need to run. You need to run now. Your life depends on it.” “My… wolf?” With everything that happened the past couple of hours, I forgot she was waking up. “L-Lavender, what’s happening? What do you know?” Lavender repeats her order. “Zara, you need to run. I can explain later. I’m so sorry this is happening to you, sweet girl.”

Zara Mensah did not walk into WolfeGroup Holdings looking for love. She walked in looking for a fight. Her contract had been cancelled without warning, her money was on the line, and she had sixteen days to fix everything before her business collapsed around her. She was prepared for corporate stonewalling. She was prepared for lawyers and fine print and men in expensive suits who thought small business owners could be brushed aside without consequence. She was not prepared for Damien Wolfe. Cold. Controlled. Devastatingly attractive in the way that dangerous things always are. He gave her everything she asked for in under ten minutes and then offered her a year-long contract she had no rational reason to refuse. She told herself it was just good business. She told herself the way he looked at her meant nothing. She told herself the strange warmth she felt every time he was near her was just nerves. She was wrong about all of it. Damien has spent six years building walls around himself so high that even his own pack stopped trying to reach him. He lost someone once. He blamed himself. He decided he was done. Then Zara walked through his door and the mate bond he never wanted snapped into place before he could stop it. Now he is caught between what he feels and what he swore he would never feel again. Between a woman who deserves the full truth and a secret that could change everything she thinks she knows. Between the pack demanding he step up and a council meeting that is coming whether he is ready or not. And in the shadows, a man named Victor Graves is watching all of it with a smile that does not reach his eyes, waiting for the perfect time

Liliana Patrick, a twenty three years old timid and clumsy lady who lost everything in a blink of an eye. Suffer was an understatement in her case, she had nothing, no shelter, no friends, no family. But when she steps her leg in to Kings Company, she was introduced to another world she never knew about. Nicholas King, an example of rude and arrogant, cold, dominant, commanding and heartless. The thirty years took over his late father's property after he passed away, he shows no mercy to his workers, he can fire you with just a little mistake. But when his eyes roam her body as she walks into his office, he claimed her as his. I took a seat in front of him. "Good morning Sir-" I greeted but he cuts me off. "Did I ask you to seat?" His voice, so raspy, so deep, so sensual, so husky and so......British? I never knew the Kings were British. But what took my attention were those words he said. "Uhh....." I stood up immediately. "I'm sorry" I apologize but he looks angry or something. "You came sixteen minutes late, left my door opened, sat on the chair like you own the place" he snarled at me..... okay, Mr rude. "I.....I said I was sorry" I look away from him, he shuffle and his cologne filled my nostrils, sandalwood and lavender oil. "You are not to talk back till I ask you to. Sit" he ordered and I did. He grabs what looks like my resumè, he looks at me in an instant. His blue orbs holds no emotions in his eyes as he stares at me, but what was so intriguing was the fact that he's intimidating me really bad.

My in-laws, Melvin Gardner and Sharon Murphy, kept it a secret from us and traveled all the way to Metoville to surprise their daughter, Vivian Gardner. I brought them to the restaurant where Vivian worked as head chef, thinking she would give them a proper welcome and a great meal. However, Vivian called over her favorite pretty-boy apprentice, Tyler Lambert, and had him handle a batch of wild-harvested oysters from the deep sea. These rare specimens were notorious because they may carry Tetrodotoxin if not purged with extreme precision—a high-stakes task that even the seasoned chefs usually avoided. Tyler frowned and whined at her, "Oh come on, Chef, these oysters are so tricky to prepare. I'm not sure I can handle them..." Vivian just laughed it off. "Just give them a quick rinse, and you're done. They're just a couple of old country folks. There's no need to fuss." Melvin and Sharon ate the oysters. Within ten minutes, they were foaming at the mouth and collapsed on the table. When Vivian rushed over, she did not even bother to look at the two elderly people. Instead, she was busy comforting Tyler, who had gone pale and fallen into her arms. She said, "If they got food poisoning, send them to the hospital. But make sure they sign a liability waiver before they leave." She glanced at me casually, her tone suggesting the poisoned elderly couple had nothing to do with her. "Your parents are from the countryside, so they're probably not used to city food. Don't try to pin this on the restaurant or Tyler!" It hit me that she still had not realized the people who had collapsed at the table were her own parents. I looked at her helplessly and confirmed, "Are you sure you want to clear 'Tyler' of all responsibility?"

BOOK #1 MARINOS' MAYHEM SERIES "I said 'act like my boyfriend' for just five minutes, not 'act like my fucking husband' for the rest of your life!" Adrian Price half-yelled, his fingers curled into a tight fist as he glared at the terrifying, yet super gorgeous man in front of him. Giovanni Marino blinked slowly, taking his time to register every detail of Adrian's figure into his memory, not minding that he was disturbing his work at all. "I don't see a big difference between the two." "Oh, for fuck sake! You're a thug, but surely you're not dumb, are you? Do you not know when to stop?" Adrian scoffed, his anger growing thicker. "Sadly, I don't seem to know what 'stop' means. You made the idea of being someone's boyfriend sound so great now I don't think I wanna stop." Adrian Price knew asking a mobster to fake being his boyfriend would get a lot of unnecessary attention from lustful eyes off him, but what he never knew was that the man he had just picked was no different from the unwanted pests that lingered around him, wanting to have a taste of him. Giovanni Marino enjoyed clubbing as much as he enjoyed killing; however, despite this, he was extremely lonely. Now, the big bad man had found a toy he could play with, and he was having the best fun of his life. Would he ever stop and return to his lonely life? That, he wasn't sure he could do that. Not even when he realized Adrian was his enemy's son. He needed Adrian, either to break him or to make him.

Vienna was only nine when her life was stolen from her. She had no memories of her past. Child of the devil. A curse. That was what the pack called her as they sneered, bullied, and beat her. Until one day, a man dragged her into his home and made her a slave. From then on, her days were filled with chains, her nights with torment. But hope flickered when she saw her mate. Alpha Froylan. But the hope was shattered with his cruel words of rejection. Fleeing in despair, Vienna was attacked by vampires but her body erupted in flames, a blaze she never knew she carried, burning the monsters to ash. However, the fire consumed her too, and fell into the abyss. In the mighty Gargantilla Kingdom, the throne of the Royal Lycans, a family mourned the loss of their eldest daughter, stolen from them ten years ago. She was the Crowned Queen Luna, twin to Princess Helena. When the servants found a girl floating in the river, barely alive, the truth came crashing back. Their Luna had returned, scarred, broken, and silenced by suffering. Through the Eye, the royals saw every torment she had endured. They saw the blood, the chains, the rejection. And they gave an order. Vengeance. The task fell upon Princess Helena. Arrogant. Ruthless. A monster in her own right. She would avenge her sister and show the world why she was not a princess to be trifled with. And so Helena began her hunt. With a smile as sharp as her knives, she lured Alpha Froylan into her trap. She made him fall for her, made him believe in love again. When he proposed marriage, she accepted with open arms. But this was not a union. This was the beginning of her revenge.

Jade Mercer has spent nine years building her marketing firm on precision, discipline, and the deliberate decision to be underestimated. She walks into rooms and lets people assume she is the least dangerous person in them. Then she uses it. It has worked perfectly. It has also cost her everything warm and alive in herself that had nothing to do with ambition. Dominic Crest is the kind of man empires are built around and people are destroyed by. Ruthless, magnetic, and carrying a past he has weaponised into motivation, he has never wanted anything he did not eventually take. When Jade walks into his boardroom and refuses to look at him, he decides he wants her before she has finished her second slide. What begins as a single reckless Tuesday afternoon becomes something neither of them have language for. Jade discovers, one undone night at a time, that she has been starving herself of her own hunger for years, and that Dominic is the first person who has ever looked at her and seen exactly what she was hiding beneath the competence and the careful dresses. But Dominic's world is not clean. His past is populated with dangerous people, buried debts, and a woman from his history who does not accept endings. As Jade falls deeper into his orbit, the line between desire and destruction begins to blur in ways that could cost her everything she built. Sinful Awakening is a story about a woman who stopped apologising for her appetite. About power and who really holds it. About the specific madness of wanting someone who is genuinely bad for your carefully constructed life, and choosing them anyway, with both eyes open and no intention of stopping.

Ayda has been living alone as a rogue since she lost her son during his delivery. She was immediately rejected by her mate, the Alpha, who blamed her for the loss of their son and left her to die. Dimitri is an Alpha in the middle of a pack war. His mate died in childbirth, leaving him a single father, alone, heart-broken, and with an infant son to care for. Now, nine years later, he refuses to allow his son, his only family, to be murdered by an attacking pack. When Dimitri hides his son, Cathal, during an attack, the opposing pack finds him and begins to surround the young Alpha, ready to kill him. Ayda sees what’s happening and jumps in, unwilling to stand by while a child is murdered in front of her. She puts herself between the pup and attacking pack, nearly dying while protecting the young pup. When he returns, Dimitri finds the woman barely alive after protecting his son. Cathal tells him how the woman saved him, and he quickly orders her and Cathal to be taken to the pack hospital while he goes after the pack who attacked his son. The pack members, not knowing what Ayda did, scoff at her, thinking that she is a rogue that their Alpha took pity on. She leaves, sneaking away during the battle to go back to her home in the woods. When Dimitri returns and finds her gone, he is furious and now must hunt for the woman who not only saved his son but has rekindled feelings that he hasn’t had since his mate died. Can these two people, brought together by fate, work through the grief of their loss to find a way to happiness, a second chance for both of them.

Today is the Full Moon Ceremony, all members of the Wigner pack, along with the elders, have come to our mansion to celebrate together. But I wasn’t invited, even as Leon’s Luna. I was in the storage room with a report from the midwife in my hand. I was pregnant with three pups. This was supposed to be a surprise for Leon, until I heard Leon talking with his friend Demon just now. Demon asked, “Are you sure you won’t let your Luna join this party?” “My Luna is just a party bomber, she’ll only ruin tonight’s atmosphere.” “I heard Lisa is back. What do you think she’ll do when she finds out you married her twin sister? But I wonder, between the twins, which one do you prefer?” Demon laughed. “Carla is just a substitute for Lisa, you know. She will even die for me. But she’s useless, I’ll leave her soon.” Even the money for his party came out of my pocket. I brought in over $20 million in profits each year with my wolfsbane antidote formula. I was the one kept this company running, and still, I wasn’t even invited to his party. He was thinking about how to get rid of me. I covered my mouth to stop myself from sobbing. I pulled myself together five minutes later and left this party. I could feel that three strong heartbeats in my belly. “My pups, mommy is sorry. I have to leave your father-wolf…” My Luna’s Coronation Ceremony was only 5 days away. By that time, I would have already taken my triplets away and leave him forever.