Old Fashioned Last Names

Vesper Miles an enigmatic girl embarks on a journey to seek refuge in Citadel, the biggest werewolf organization in the world. This is to secretly aid with the investigation of the gruesome deaths of the Omegas. With the help of magic, she thought pretending to be someone and something else was easy, but it soon changed when she met Alpha Qillalon, the son of the man who promised to protect her against their common enemies but ended up abandoning her in the middle of nowhere to fend for herself. She vows to seek revenge and use the Alpha in her retribution, but will her mind change when she arrives at the Citadel manor and fate seems to bring her close to the Alpha?

"Mommy, you have to be the first person to come pick me up, okay?" These are my daughter Dorothy Grant's final words to me when she walked me out of the house this morning. But when I stand at the kindergarten's entrance with a box of Dorothy's favorite strawberry shortcake in my hands, the security guard just stares at me as though I lost my mind. "Ma'am, this place might be where Sunflower Kindergarten is located, but it has already closed its doors for three years. This place is now a retirement home." I rush into the "kindergarten" instantly. The spot where the slide used to be is now replaced by a row of flowerbeds. The room that used to be the classroom now hosts a bunch of elderly people, who bask in the sunlight. With trembling hands, I call my husband, Chester Grant, on the phone. He sounds very exasperated and exhausted over the phone. "Honey, we've been married for five years, and we choose to be childless. You've never given birth before."

เมื่อแฟนเก่าของฉันมาขอให้ฉันมีอุ้มบุญให็เนื่องจากแฟนสาวซึ่งเป็นภรรยาหมาดๆของเขานั้นมีลูกยากและมีความเสี่ยงสูงที่จะแท้งแฟนเก่าของฉันที่รู้จักฉันดีกว่าใครเขารู้ว่าฉันรักเด็กมากจึ่งมาขอความช่วยเหลือเนื่องจากไม่กล้าท่ี่จะไปจ้างคนอื่นให้ช่วยเพราะกลัวว่าจะเป็นเหมือนในข่าวที่ว่าแม่อุ้มบุญไม่ยอมยกลูกให้เลยมาขอให้ฉันช่วย และด้วยความทีี่เราสองคนเลิกกันด้วยดีเพราะเราเป็นเพื่อนที่เรียนด้วยกันมาตั้งแต่เด็กๆและบ้านใกล้กันทำให้เรามีความสนิทกันมากสาเหตุที่เลิกกันเพราะระยะหว่างระหหว่างที่เราเรียนมหาลัยหรืออาจเพราะเราไม่ได้รักกันในแบบคนรักตั้งแต่ทีแรกก็ได้เพราะเราอยู่ด้วยกันมาก เลยทำให้เราคิดว่าเรารักกัน ซึ่งความจริงนั้นอาจจะเป็นความรักของเพื่อนแค่นั้นเอง ฉันที่ไม่ได้ติดอะไรมากและด้วยความที่เป็นคนรักเด็กเป็นทุนเดิมอยู่แล้วก็ตอบตกลงแต่ก็มีข้อยกเว้นหนึ่งข้อคือฉันจะอุ้มให้หลังจากที่ฉันคลอดลูกของตัวเองเท่านั้น ซึี่งในตอนนี้ก็คือฉันยังโสด และก็ไม่รู้ว่าจะมีแนตอนไหนด้วย ที่ฉันยื่นเงื่อนไขนี้ให้เขาเพราะว่าเรื่องอะไรที่ฉันจะเสียสละทุกอย่างเพื่อคนอื่นขนาดนั้น ฉังยังโสดยังซิงถ้าคลอดลูกไปฉันต้องถูกสามีในอนาคตมองว่าไม่บริสุทธิ์แน่ๆ

As panic sweeps through the city and everyday streets collapse into chaos, Ciprian is driven by one unshakable instinct: protect Adam at all costs. When an unexplained catastrophe turns the urban landscape into a pressure cooker of fear and survival, nothing matters more than keeping his best friend alive. In this fast-paced short story, a sudden crisis forces two friends to confront more than danger. As tension rises and the city descends into disorder, buried emotions, unspoken attraction, and complicated feelings come to the surface. What begins as survival quickly becomes something deeper, binding their fates together in ways neither of them expected. Set against a backdrop of urban collapse, panic, and uncertainty, this emotional short fiction explores friendship, loyalty, and love under pressure. Perfect for readers who enjoy character-driven stories, disaster scenarios, slow-burn emotion, LGBTQ+ themes, and intimate moments set during world-altering events. A gripping short story about connection, courage, and the fragile line between friendship and something more—meant to be read in one sitting, but felt long after.

In the year 2028, the government decides to destroy the world sparing only one million people to restart the next generation. Of those one million people is Christopher Woodsen, a 16 year old tasked with upholding the law of the bunker they were forced into.

Cane Lorenzo, a Mafia boss in Francisco City, entered into a contract marriage with Rachael, an enemy's daughter, for a truce. He manipulated Rachael into falling in love and made her easy to access information. When he divorced her, he felt empty and unintentionally grew fond of her. Rachael, determined to find a new heart, refused to accept Cane back into her life. Cane is on a mission to stabilize his mafia business and get his woman back.

I'm finally pregnant after five years of marriage. I initially want Morgan Holt to accompany me to the hospital so I can surprise him, but he stoically tells me that he hates hospitals. I can understand and accommodate that. Then, he surprises me—he accompanies his new junior to the hospital for a medical checkup. At that moment, I know our relationship is over. When I bid him farewell, I say, "She's your true love's younger sister, right? I can understand why you've transferred your love to her. I wish you two well." His eyes redden. "I can't live without you."

By my third month on the job, I discovered that my coworkers had been calling me "the old crow" behind my back. The nickname came from none other than Jace's condescending secretary—because at 32, I was still clutching onto an eight-year relationship that hadn't ended in marriage. I confronted Jace. "Do you know your employees have been calling me the old crow?" He didn't even bother to look up. "That's just Sadie—she speaks her mind and means no harm. You're 32; why get so worked up over what a young girl says?" Then he gave me a faint, mocking smile. "Though honestly, it's a pretty fitting nickname." It felt like a cold hand had wrapped around my heart. So that was it—eight years of my youth, nothing more than a joke to him. I turned and walked away, handed in my resignation, and blocked every way he could reach me. But for the first time, the man who had always seemed so calm and untouchable finally panicked. "Elara," he pleaded, "please come back."

Upon unfolding the truth in the past, the sentiments unraveled. Magi and Dylan were each other’s first love, proving that ‘first love never dies. They were about to start their fairytale-like love story, not until a controversial revelation happened… that Dylan was the ex-boyfriend of her sister, Macy. Her sister’s ex-boyfriend that she is still in love with and obsessed with. Will it matter to Magi the love she has for Dylan? Or rather will she choose to let him go for her sister’s sake? Could she be able to prioritize herself or instead, she chooses to give up the love she has for Dylan in the fear that the relationship she has with Macy could possibly be broken?

Mercedes Underwood is a lost girl. Lost from her world and herself. She grew up with abusive parents and had a really shitty childhood. Sometimes she believed that they were not her parents much less rassemblements between her and them. When she turned 18 years old, her parents attempt to sell her off to some bad people to pay off their debt. That did not come as a surprise that they would do such a thing and there was no love lost there. But what came as a surprise was when she woke up naked the next morning, walls splattered with blood and four people ripped to shreds. Life went from bad to bloody worse for Mercedes. It was like waking up in a horror scene. She was petrified and confused, nothing made sense but what did make sense was for her to pick up what she can and run. Felix Ransom is the Alpha of the White Claw pack. He leads his pack with an iron fist and ensures everyone's safety and makes sure the pack thrives. But something is missing. The gentle touch of a Luna. Felix is already 25 years old and has not found the one the Moon Goddess chose for him. His other half and mate. Each day without the one for him made his hope of ever finding her wither away. At a point, he even thought that she might have died. It never occurred to him that his made would come right to him much less be a human who is a fugitive for murdering 4 people. Or was she a human being after all?