Off Brand Among Us

Even knowing that wailing at an Eravalen aristocratic funeral was considered disrespectful to the deceased, I let my husband's adopted sister make a scene anyway. In my previous life, my husband, Robert Baker, had a distant relative among the Eravalen aristocracy who passed away. A lawyer informed him that he stood to inherit the estate and invited him to attend the funeral. His adopted sister, Mia Carter, insisted on tagging along to see how the privileged few in another country lived. She wanted to rub shoulders with nobles and make herself look important, even planning to wail dramatically in front of everyone. I rushed to stop her. "Public mourning is taboo among Eravalen nobility. Forget inheriting anything. We'll all be thrown out!" Yet she burst into tears, accusing me of looking down on her and thinking she was not good enough to mingle with aristocrats. She stormed out and was killed by street thugs in a random attack. I thought Robert would fall apart, but he stayed silent through the entire funeral and collected his inheritance without a hitch. Six months later, on our wedding anniversary, he took me to the snowy mountains for a photoshoot. The moment we reached the peak, he shoved me into a sleeping bag and tied it shut. "If you hadn't blown everything out of proportion, Mia never would've run off and gotten herself shot." He buried me alive in the snow. I froze to death, and he used that aristocratic fortune to become the CEO of a publicly traded company. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Mia insisted on wailing at the funeral.

There is a medical dispute at the hospital. A patient's family member comes at us swinging a knife. Without hesitating, I push my husband, Maxwell Conner, out of the way. But then, he grabs my hand and pulls me in front of his beloved junior, Karina Burton. The knife plunges straight into my abdomen, killing the baby I had just conceived. As my horrified colleagues cry and rush me toward the ICU, Maxwell violently pulls me off the gurney. He barks, "Save Karina first! If anything happens to her, I'll fire every last one of you!" The doctors are stunned and furious. "Maxwell, have you lost your mind? Karina only suffered a minor injury. Your wife is the one in critical condition!" Clutching my bleeding abdomen, I nod slowly. "It's fine. Just forget it." Maxwell, I owe you nothing after this.

During a long holiday, my husband booked flights for a family vacation. On the way to the airport, I suddenly saw numbers appearing on everyone’s head. The numbers on my husband’s head indicated sixty years, but my parents and I had only six hours indicated on our heads. While I was puzzled over the meaning of those numbers, I noticed that the driver next to us only had six seconds indicated over his head through the car window. Five… Four… Three… Two… One. When the number turned zero, a massive truck immediately rammed into the car next to us. I saw flickers of fire, flesh and blood exploding before my eyes. People were screaming for help, but I could not hear anything. I trembled as cold sweat drenched my entire body. It was because my flight would be taking off in six hours.

In a whirlwind of deceit and desire, Jasmine's life is turned upside down when her father remarries, setting off a chain of events that includes betrayal by her step-sister Layla and her own boyfriend, Paul. For her mother's treatment, Jasmine becomes a surrogate mother, leading to the birth of twins. Just as she begins to rebuild, billionaire Damon sets his sights on her, igniting a passion neither can deny. Their steamy encounters reveal hidden desires and challenge Jasmine's resolve. Damon's lips brushed against hers, sending shivers down her spine. "Trust me, Jasmine. Let me show you a world of passion and pleasure you've only dreamed of." "Stop it," Jasmine said. Suddenly two sweet buns interrupted their moment, "Mommy, Mommy, Dad is not little child, we are. love us!"

Shifters are off limits. But for this hot single father, I’ll break all the rules… Inside the classroom, I have plenty of rules. Outside the classroom, I only have one—don’t date shifters. That includes the single father of my new kindergarten student. But limiting myself to sideways glances at Bratt’s powerful muscles is proving impossible to do. I, of all people, should know better. Until recently, humans and shifters weren’t even allowed to be together. Not to mention I could lose my job for dating a student’s parent. And if anyone found out that I’ve already been bitten once and how badly that ended, I could be run out of town all over again. My heart is telling me that Bratt’s different. But if I give in to temptation, there are those who want to keep us apart. By any means necessary…

Leonard Burton and I are childhood sweethearts, bound by a family-arranged marriage. After we marry, we live a loving, harmonious life. In a terrible accident, he even gives up his only chance at survival to save me. After Leonard's death, we find a journal among his belongings. In it, he records the three years he was missing after falling off a cliff—years spent with another woman he deeply loved. But his parents had forcibly separated them and arranged our marriage instead. Unbeknownst to anyone, he had continued to protect that woman from afar, silently and faithfully. At the funeral, Leonard's mother, Charlotte Newman, is inconsolable. "Leonard, it's all my fault. Would you still be alive if I'd let you marry Yelena back then?" His father, Samuel Burton, glares at me with hatred. "He fell off that cliff saving you. He died in that crash shielding you. Why do you bring him nothing but harm? Why aren't you the one who's dead?" Yes, why is it not me who's dead? I look at Leonard's familiar, smiling face on his gravestone before running at it and smashing my head on it. When I open my eyes again, I'm taken back to when he just returned from that small fishing village. This time, I choose to let him go and give him what he wants. Finally, I see Leonard again.

` It was a cool, breezy and stormy night. Rain came down in sheets, as a dark figure stood before a house. The house was pretty ordinary, white with blue shutters; it didn't have more than two bedrooms. It looked like a cozy little family home with flowers and shrubs lining the front lawn, and then the smell from the pellet stove smoke invaded his nostrils. He took a deep breath and pulled out an old, rusted compass from his black trench coat. It looked like it could have been from the 14th century, the small, brass disc was dented and the Victorian designs were faded. He studied it as it pointed east, towards the small house. He looked the house over carefully, looking for the best entrance, before proceeding towards the side to gaze into the window. Inside you can see the small kitchen; the brand new, all black appliances off set the linoleum floor. Cabinets filled almost every wall of the small space that made it look more crowded than it should have been. The kitchen opened to a larger room which seemed to be used as a living room and a dining room all at once. The whole house looked crowded, with the furniture in the living room all touching except for a small gap to walk through and the dining room was so close to the sofa, it could have been sitting on it. He stepped back into the shadows as he watched a young couple enter the kitchen. The wife was tall and slender, had strawberry blond hair formed around her face accenting her jaw-line and her deep blue eyes stopped your heart as you got lost in them. Her fair complexion was silky and complimented her soft face.

“I thought you wanted to sleep, my Queen,” Lorcan whispered. “I changed my mind,” Niamh kissed Lorcan again, deeply, hungrily. “Besides, you owe me a wedding night.” “I stand reminded,” Lorcan bowed his head. Looking up, he grasped Niamh around the waist and turned to lay her beneath him, kissing her passionately. *** Niamh had dutifully fulfilled her obligation to marry King Lorcan of the Elven Realms, only to watch her new husband ride off to battle the very next day. But he was lost in battle, and she was left to face her new role as Queen among haters, admirers, and potential suitors… and a traitor. Despite the challenges she formed new alliances, treaties, and friends, and, once the King was found, they built an unshakable love while facing turmoil. Once free to leave, what choice will she make? Will the love they formed be strong enough to endure more than time? Rising Storm in the Elven Realms is created by Heather Dilts-Baiano, an eGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.

Made men are trained to conceal their emotions if they have one, while those who have no empathy or emotions left in them after years of training are blessed. But what could be the downfall of a Made man? Perhaps, could it be the feeling of humanity? *********** Vincenzo Salvatore De Luca, the eldest son of the Bratva, a Made man, feared by all, except his arranged bride, Ava Morales. Ava, the daughter of a businessman, whose father borrowed money from the Bratva and was unable to pay it back. In exchange for the debt he owed, he gave his daughter out for marriage to the Bratva. Among all three sons of the Bratva, Vincenzo accepted to marry Ava, not because of love, but because she intrigued him and he wanted to see how much he could break her. But what happens when he begins to feel some stir in his chest at the sight of his wife? What happens then, when he sees his wife flirting with other men and his vision is clouded red and filled with the need to chop off the fingers of the man flirting with his wife?

[A Reverse Harem Story] In a world where supernatural creatures are separated from humans, there is harmony. Tales of the wolves existence is told as stories to the children; how large and ruthless the killing machines are with canines long as forearms; how dangerous their rulers are— Three Alpha beasts bonded through violence, blood, and death, bound to their kingdom by oaths of chastity for as long as they lived. Born in a small village among the peasants, Ariadne had always been restless and dissatisfied with her life, yearning and believing that a greater purpose awaited her beyond the village walls and daily predictability. With her eighteenth birthday approaching, she knows she must take the first step to freedom lest she is sold into slavery or married off like the rest of the girls. Desperate, she disguises herself as a boy and goes in search of the Wolf kingdom. But what begins as an adventure and thirst for purpose turns into a deadly battle once her disguise is revealed and she finds herself at the center of a dark prophesy a war, and three Alpha Kings wanting her in ways more than one. A tale of boundless magic, absolute power, and the limitless desire for purpose.