No More Dead Dogs Novels & Stories

Every day, my son and husband finish all the house chores before I even get home. But only because they're bringing my husband's first love, Sally Sullivan, back for Thanksgiving, I pour boiling water on my son's face. I also kick both my son and husband out when it's 104°F outside. Desperate to save our son, my husband sprawls across the front porch, begging me to open the door. "Wanda, open the door! We need to save our son! I only invited Sally over because she saved you once back then. I didn't mean anything else by it!" "Mom, it hurts!" my son cries. "Mom, can't you kiss me? Mom…" Meanwhile, I'm slouching on the couch, snacking away as I watch TV. In the end, my husband can't take it anymore and brings me to the Bad Mom Court for trial. The moment my memories are extracted, the entire court bursts into tears.

Three months after my husband, Josiah Erikson, disappears in a skiing accident, I spot him in a bar. He's laughing freely with an arm slung casually around his "best friend", Monica Jones' shoulders. "Good thing you came up with the idea. I'd almost forgotten what freedom feels like." One after another, his buddies clink glasses with him and ask about when he plans to reappear. He looks down and thinks about it before saying, "In a week. I'll show up once she's gone completely crazy searching for me." Standing in the shadows, I watch him savor his freedom, then call my friend who works at the state vital records office.

My son is dead. He dies in a cramped toilet cubicle after having his skull smashed in. My husband, the school principal, arrives on the scene. The first thing he does is carry his true love's son, the one who killed my son, into an ambulance. They hurriedly leave. Before his death, my son tells me, "Don't cry, Mom. I'm not sad that Dad doesn't believe me. It's enough that you do…" I call Joshua Tucker during my son's funeral. He roars angrily, "Kenny had to get two stitches on his arm because of your son! If you keep pestering me like this, I'll beat him up when I get home!" My son? I look at the gaping hole in my son's head, the one that won't ever bleed anymore. I shut my eyes. Yes, he's my son. My son is dead, Joshua. From now on, there's nothing between us.

It was a dream come true for Briar Prescott, who married Adrian Sterling for love. But he married her for an heir. Briar believed she could win her distant, cold husband's wholehearted love, but she soon discovered the truth. He never saw her as his partner. She was chosen for only one purpose, to produce the heir to the Sterling business empire. Learning this after falling pregnant, Briar felt betrayed. She eventually makes a decision that her mother who did all she could to make the marriage happen would have killed her for. She ran, but unfortunately got into a fatal accident. Five years later, she returned under a different name, successful, vicious, and no longer the woman Adrian once pushed aside. But Adrian couldn’t believe the devastating truth. His wife was alive. And not just that, the little boy she has with her looks like him and calls someone else dad. Now the cold-hearted billionaire who once stomped on love. Must fight for the woman who no longer wants him and a son he never knew existed.

The appointment of Susan Moore as the Broadcasting Channel's executive director has forced out the station's more valued news anchor, sparking heated discussions throughout Hayworth. Susan herself is standing before me right now. She wants to sell her jewelry. As the manager of a luxury boutique store, I'm here to inspect the goods. "These are pieces my partner commissioned for me. I have so many that I'm tired of them." One of them is a diamond-encrusted necklace, featuring a pigeon-blood ruby in the center, worth a few million. There are also several similar gifts on the table, with the crocodile skin bag the least eye-catching one. I smiled. "Your husband must really love you." I set about verifying the purchaser's ID and signature as part of a routine procedure. However, I freeze in place at the sight of the name. "I'm not his wife," she replied, bringing the coffee cup to her lips. "We're just each other's first loves. He said he missed out on 15 years of my life, so he gave me 15 gifts. Isn't that romantic?" It is romantic, indeed. However, it's my father's signature. For 30-plus years, I assumed that my father was a dull man who had never once surprised my mother.

A high-profile rape case rocks Corvessa City. During the autopsy, I examine the deceased's private area as part of the standard procedure. My wife, a police captain, blows up in front of the onlookers. "Don't we have a female medical examiner in our unit? Do you realize you're re-victimizing the deceased? And your wife is standing right here. Are you really that desperate?" The crowd turns on me in a heartbeat. Bowing to public pressure, the department suspends me and tells me to keep reporting in at my own expense. I hand in my resignation on the spot. Without me, nobody in Corvessa City is going to crack this case.

“Do you know what it cost me to stay away for five years, my Coral?” Clyde’s breaths fan against my cheek as his hand slides under my jaw, tilting my face up until I’m forced to meet his eyes. "W-what are you doing?" I whisper, heart hammering against my ribs. "It's nothing more than a temporary solution, as per the contract-" “To hell with the contract.” His scent of rain fills my senses. He drags his nose along the line of my throat, stubble grazing my skin. “I’m helping you because I’ve spent every night since that garden, imagining you exactly where you are now... breathless, trembling, and finally mine.” *** Coralina Jasper gave five years of her life to the Silver Azure Pack, building an empire for the man she loved. But to Alpha Maximus, she was just a placeholder for his dying "true love", Brielle Montrela. When Maximus shoves a pregnant Coralina into a freezing pool to save Brielle from a minor splash, Coralina loses everything: including her unborn son. While she lies in a hospital bed undergoing induced labor alone, Maximus is busy pampering Brielle and planning her birthday. Empty-handed and broken-hearted, Coralina realizes her marriage was a lie. She asks Maximus to reject her, but he laughs at her. Because Alpha Maximus thinks she’s a weak omega with nowhere to go, whom he can easily starve into submission. He doesn't even know how wrong he is! After Coralina finds herself penniless and hunted by her own pack's laws, she crosses the border into the territory of the "Shadow Alpha". The one man who can dismantle Maximus’s world: Alpha Clyde Everest. Coralina was just looking for a place to hide... But deep in the shadows of enemy territory, she finds herself again.

My dad died in a car crash. On the seventh day after his death, I hear him whisper in my ear, "Amara, save your brother. There are cracks in the old stone bridge at the village entrance... It will collapse... He will die." I immediately call my brother, Asher Langford, and he takes a different route out of the village. But that afternoon, the police report that a murder took place on that road. The victim is Asher. My sister-in-law, Delia Winslow, and I bury him in tears. On the seventh day after my brother's death, I hear my dad's voice again. "Amara, keep an eye on Jasper. Don't go to the back of the hill. The dead trees there attract lightning... There will be a thunderstorm in three days." That night, Delia locks my nephew, Jasper Langford, inside the house. But three days later, Jasper falls from a window on the 12th floor. Delia goes insane after losing her husband and son consecutively in such a short time. Holding back my grief, I leave my own son, Billy Calloway, with my husband, Felix Calloway, and help Delia lay Jasper to rest. On the seventh day after Jasper's death, I see my dad holding Billy's hand and looking back at me with a sorrowful expression. He says, "Amara... There are spirits looking for substitutes in the reed marsh in the village. Take care of Billy. Don't go..."

I can understand Wolfish, but I've never told my Alpha mate, Felix Grayback, about it. In public, he's the mate who dotes on me the most. He even declines a pack trading contract that's worth billions of dollars just to celebrate my birthday with me. As Felix holds me in his arms, he declares in front of his pack, "Bankruptcy is nothing as long as you're happy." I'm so touched that I'm about to burst into tears. So, I embrace Felix's huge, wolf-like body tightly in return. At that moment, I hear him emitting a low growl from his throat. It's a language that only wolves can understand. "This woman is finally plump enough to eat. Tonight, I shall share her flesh with my pack members."

My world shattered when my husband, Caleb, rejected me for my fake sister, Susan. “Please don’t do this to me.”I begged for mercy, pleading for our unborn child's sake, but he don’t listen to me. “Sis, you shouldn’t have returned back.”Susan’s cruelty and Caleb’s indifference led to my brutal downfall. Locked in darkness, I faced death... but fate gave me a second chance. Reborn, I emerged with a fierce determination to reclaim my life and uncover the secrets that destroyed me. As I navigate the treacherous web of lies and deceit that was consumed by my family, I'm forced to confront the ultimate question: can I forgive Caleb and rekindle our lost love, or will the shadows of our past forever tear us apart?