Painted Devils

In the coastal quiet of Baler, a studio is born—not of architecture, but of intention.* Founded by Yam, a poet whose words cradle pain gently, and Franc, an artist who paints tenderness into walls, the studio becomes a refuge for those learning to stay—with grief, love, longing, and themselves. As visitors arrive, they leave behind more than footprints: a sigh recorded in bamboo, a poem tucked into the “Found Letters” shelf, a mural painted in crooked lines. Through zines, tea, silence, and sketchbooks, the studio teaches softness as revolution. Ren creates the *Window of Soft Returns*, an installation of anonymous voice recordings—each whisper forming a community of echoes. Drew builds the *Staircase With No Wrong Turns*, inviting people to walk through emotions without shame. Franc offers brushstrokes as brave work, and Yam curates writing circles that map healing in half sentences. Together, they host festivals that feel like hugs, and they begin traveling their archive, letting softness cross oceans. Even those who once left—like Miguel—return, discovering that some doors never truly close. Others, like Tala, capture the studio’s sound and turn it into a podcast of breath and becoming. Over seventy chapters, the studio transforms into something larger than itself: a mural of memory, a sanctuary for second chances, a place where return is sacred and voice is proof of survival. In the final bloom, the studio stands not as a monument—but as a reminder: > *“Staying isn’t easy. > But chosen together, > it becomes home.”*

My fiancé leaves me jilted on our wedding day and marries my sister. As I stand there, feeling humiliated, William Sterling gets on one knee before me and asks me to marry him. Everyone in my city knows of him—he's an elite bachelor and every woman's dream. Yet now, he slips a wedding band onto my ring finger and confesses his love for me. "I've always loved you, and I thank the heavens for giving me the chance to spend my life with you." We get married, and he treats me well. Everyone knows that he won't fall for anyone other than me. Everything changes when I accidentally enter his studio in the seventh year of our marriage. I see that he's painted thousands of portraits of my sister, Ivy Winslow. Each one is a tender confession of his love for her. The man I love with all my heart earnestly prays to the heavens and utters his wish. He's willing to sacrifice anything for Ivy to be happy, including his life. It turns out what I thought was seven years of love was nothing but a lie. Ivy is the one he's loved all along. If that's the case, I'll back out. I'll leave in three days, and I hope he and Ivy can be happy together.

“I was born incapable of love. My hands know only blood. My heart knows only ice. But for you… I would carve out a new soul, even if it kills me.” Alessio “Alec” Moretti rules his city like a god draped in shadow. Cold, ruthless, and untouched by emotion, he’s a mafia boss born from bloodlines and brutality. Psychopath, they whisper incapable of love, addicted only to control. No one defies him. Until Noa Hartmann spits in his face. Noa is everything Alessio doesn’t understand fiercely ,independent, maddeningly fearless, and completely uninterested in bowing to a monster. He’s just a university student working in a dusty bookstore café, trying to survive the same violence that killed his family. But one moment one public act of defiance and Alessio is obsessed. At first, it’s a game. Alessio wants to break him, tame him, make him kneel. But the closer he gets, the more the lines blur. Why does he want to protect Noa? Why does he feel anything at all? What begins as possession becomes something darker, deeper… and far more dangerous. Because monsters don’t love,they consume. And when the past reemerges in the form of a long-lost brother turned rival mafia boss one who blames Alessio’s family for the massacre of Noa’s everything explodes. Noa is caught between two devils: One who stole his life. One who wants to own his heart. With empires collapsing, secrets unraveling, and love bleeding into obsession, Noa and Alessio are forced to face the truth: Some monsters can love. But they will burn the world for it.

Emmaline Stone is a female Alpha. She’s the Alpha of The Golden Wolves and the only child of Lucas and Michelle Stone. Because of her hardwork, intelligence and morals she is deemed perfect in the eyes of everyone except for the glaring fact that she doesn’t have a mate. Some people thinks she’s cursed because her mates have since found their other halves from eighteen while she’s twenty-three and still mate-less while some other people think she doesn’t have a mate because of her title as Alpha. A short walk outside the pack territory on one fateful evening changes her story. She finds a man at the brink of death and helps him after she realizes that he is her long awaited mate of course she does everything to save him. Emma hides him away from the pack members and stays with him secretly to arouse suspicion from others. She spends all her time with him not knowing that her mate was a spy to a secret organization that wanted something more than her title from her. Caleb finds it hard to do his assignment with each increasing day as he gets to know more about Emmaline Stone, he finds out that she isn’t the picture his superiors painted in his head but he still has a to do which is to strip Emma of her title. In the end he has to choose between his belief and Emma. Who will he choose? His mate or his ?

To save the vampire clan, I slept with my crush, Stefan Ferrano. Stefan had always been cold and distant, but that night, his response was fiery. He ignored the fact that I was inexperienced and took me with wild, unrestrained passion. Everything unraveled when my blood servant, Stella Luciado, brought me fresh blood and Stefan found out. Like a man possessed, he tore off all my clothes and dragged me into the sunlight. “So even the vampire queen is afraid of sunlight? Do you know what sort of torture your kind are enduring right now? But no pain compares to what I felt losing my sister because of you and your kind.” For five years, he held my clan’s safety over my head. He locked me in a sunroom and found new ways every day to torment me in bed. The day I gave birth to his child, he married Stella. Stefan called my child a bastard and forced me to watch him and Stella sleep together. When Stella was unhappy, he bled me so she could bathe in my blood. He even painted with my blood and made me dance undressed in the sun. He tortured me but never let me die, using specially made drugs to keep me alive. A vampire who had offered their ancestral blood but didn't turn a human into a vampire within five years would end up dead. I had five days left to live. Finally, I didn't have to keep my secret anymore.

There prevailed to be six kingdoms consisting of humans, werewolves, vampires, fairies, elves, and dragon kingdoms. A hostile war transpired between the dragons and the werewolves. The very war destroyed a lot of lives and the dragons' kingdom. However, the werewolves were getting defeated and the human kingdom agreed on assisting their allies which were the werewolves. But then, amidst the battle, something significant happened. Alpha Jeffrey, the king of the werewolves was at the point of winning against the Almighty king of the dragons. He zipped the arrow at the dragon king. However, his strike jabbed right into the heart of King Dawson, the human king. Anguishly, this brought a great disputable conflict between the humans... A wave of venomous anger and pure hatred against the werewolves. When the war was won, the dragons vanished from the earth. Then, the battle between the humans and the werewolves arose. Queen Isle being the spouse of king Dawson, swore with her life to avenge her husband's death and make Alpha Jeffery... Her slave. ************************** Extracted from the story. ************************** "Strip!" the feminine cold voice, ordered. A thick groan, a scratchy voice responded to her utters. "And what if I don't, woman!" he growls outrageously yet, weakly. "Then, await to withstand the dance of the devils, Alpha!" she chuckled, evilly and viciously. And then, she walked out in her regal strides away from the room. She is the queen, the tyrant ruler of Denmark's kingdom. Her voice is authority, her voice is the law! No one dares to mess up with her, no one dares to weigh a war on her kingdom. She's like a fire, that not even the ocean can quench her whole. Even the moon is extremely envious of the voluminous beauty she carries. She's known as the tyrant Queen Isle.

He has made it crystal clear that I’m not to call him ‘boss’ except on certain occasions, like right now, when his dominating gaze carries a hint of playfulness. I can’t help but smile every time he gets like this, all lovey-dovey, but when he whispers in my ears asking me to go on an adventure with him, it is like an invitation to a forbidden feast and the thought sends a shiver down my spine which unlike you would think, is almost painful. Maybe this is because I have been on an adventure with him for as far as I want to recollect. My memories, if you peeked inside, would be overflowing with every moment with him, each one a brushstroke painted with his boldness and my, well, let’s call it a touch of recklessness. I now wear a souvenir, a mark etched onto my soul. It’s like a silent agreement, a reminder that our fates are tangled, intertwined like climbing vines. He’s the puppet master, my very own Mr. Strings, and every twist and turn of his whims gets woven into the fabric of my being. Maybe you find that hard to believe, like something out of a fairytale. But trust me, my darling, as I unravel the threads of our adventure, one by one, you’ll understand. With each turn and twist, you’ll find yourself hooked, a willing captive in the captivating narrative of our lives, possibly harnessed in the labyrinth of our love, where danger dances with delight, and fate is etched in the footprints of a love like no other. So buckle up, dear reader, for this isn’t a mere tale, it’s a thrill ride, a love song made of equal parts fear and freedom.

This isn't a love story, but almost a love story. Irina and Eric share a world through dreams and time travel. They have a strong mutual understanding about the feelings they have for each other, at the same time understanding that they cannot be together. Eric: I open my eyes and find myself standing alone in an empty room. The ceilings and the walls are neatly painted white. And the floor is composed of polished light brown wood. And there is a dark brown framed window at one corner where the light comes from. A bright yellow and pale red orange light tells me the sun is setting and soon it will be dark. Eric is a ghost who always appears in Irina's dream. Irina: I open the door to the bedroom. There is a dark brown framed window at one corner where the light is coming from. The yellow orange light passes through the open window. I see Eric standing right there on the spot captured by the yellow light. ‘You came back.’ I said. He stood there looking me in the eye. I almost died. Irina is a time traveler who may or may not change his fate. They alternatively tell a bitter sweet story. Love doesn't always mean together, sometimes it is deeper apart. Eric: I stand alone in the rain looking at the dark sky where all I can see is water, for it is both the rain and my tears flowing to my face. Irina: And suddenly it is no longer my reflection I see inside the mirror. What I see now is a figure of a man. I draw closer to see him clearly. But the closer I walk towards him, the farther I become from him. I couldn't get close.

"Devils don't love, baby. They ruin." He rasps beside my ear, trailing his long fingers between my bare cleavage. Something like fire flickered in his emerald green eyes but it disappeared as it came. "Luckily, we're on the same page, Volkov. I'll ruin you and vanish your empire from this universe." I challenge, tangling his fingers with mine and dropping them from the forbidden area. His cold eyes darkened but his soft pink lips twisted with a small smirk. "I would love to see you try." ❥❥❥❥ The disappearance of Lilah Daniels' brother Robert Daniels was nothing but a mystery to everyone. She was a fifteen-year-old girl when it all happened. The only thing she knew, her brother was involved in some kind of illegal business. Robert was the only person who was there for her when their addict parents used to come back home drunk and beat the shit out of her. Even they forced Robert to be involved in such kind of bad business, only for money. Lilah promised herself to find out her beloved brother as she started collecting information. It took five years for her to reach the person only who knew where her brother was. But he was no ordinary gang leader or don. He was hundreds of boss' boss, the greatest Russian mafia king Ivan Volkov, known as the devil to the underworld. Nobody has seen him except for a few mafia bosses. He was a pure evil soul with a creativity of manipulating and killing his enemies in one blink. But she didn't care. She did her best to reach the devil and finally succeeded. But what happened when two dangerous souls met? How would they avoid the dark forbidden desires ignited inside them? (THIS IS A DARK ROMANCE BOOK! )

Six years ago, Kaye Muani lost everything when fire consumed her pack and painted her father as a monster. Now she is a ghost, running from a world that wants her dead for crimes she did not commit. She has survived by staying invisible, never shifting, never connecting, never hoping for anything more than another day of freedom. Until Blackwater enforcers drag her across state lines and throw her at the feet of Ethan Rivers, the Alpha who has spent six years building an empire on rage and revenge. He should kill her. She is the daughter of the man he believes murdered his family. But when the mate bond snaps into place between them, everything changes. Ethan refuses to claim her and refuses to let her go. Instead, he makes her a prisoner in his packhouse, a servant watched by wolves who hate her, a constant reminder of everything he lost. The bond grows stronger every day, pulling them together even as betrayal and secrets threaten to tear them apart. But the fires that destroyed their packs six years ago were not what anyone believed. The truth is darker, more twisted, and hiding inside the very walls of the Blackwater Pack. Wolves are disappearing. Bodies are turning up with liquefied organs. And someone Ethan trusts is working for a monster who has been experimenting on wolves for decades, turning them into weapons. When the memorial ceremony becomes a bloodbath and every lie is exposed, Kaye and Ethan must choose between the hatred that has defined them or the bond that could save them. But the enemy is always three steps ahead, and the cost of survival might be more than either of them can pay.