Paul J Gutman Library Novels & Stories

"Mrs. Sterling, are you sure you're ready to end this marriage of twenty years and give up the custody?" "Yes. File it. I’m done." I said calmly through the phone as I scrubbed at a stubborn grease stain on the granite island. For twenty years, I poured my entire being into this family. I managed the households, handled the children's education , and stood by my husband's side, supporting his rise in the syndicate without complaint. But my husband Alexander brought his young adopted sister Chloe to the interview, saying, "My success today is all thanks to my adopted sister." Even my own children looked down on me, calling me common and crude housewife. They had formed an alliance with his ever-present "auntie," the woman who seemed to think she was the true lady of the house. I signed the divorce papers and walked away, leaving them to become the "perfect family" they clearly wanted. But that when the family panicked…

I was always different from my brothers; always more sensitive and perceptive. I never knew if this was a gift from the Goddess or not, but my brother, Alpha Kai, used my sixth sense to his advantage and that's what helped raise our pack to infamy. But in the end, it would be that sixth sense which led to my demise - dead before I could even face my mate and his betrayal. My soft heart led to my death, and my trusting nature helped the enemy get ahead with their plans. So here I am, sifting through my memories in the Other and watching my family as they continue to live their lives without me. All the while wishing I could be there with them. **** This is a companion novel to the Bratva Wolves Novels and is not a standalone. Do not read this book if you have not read The Bratva Wolves Collection first.

In our pack, every wolf has one chance in their lifetime to use an enhancement elixir to strengthen their wolf abilities, but this elixir is only effective when brewed by oneself. In my previous life, although I was a normal Omega, I worked day and night brewing my wolf enhancement elixir to become the Gamma of our pack. But on the day of the selection, after I shifted into my wolf form, I completely lost control. My wolf immediately prostrated itself at the feet of Victoria, the current Beta's granddaughter. Amid the cheers of the entire pack, Victoria became the new Gamma. Meanwhile, I was beaten and ridiculed. Everyone claimed I had stolen Victoria's enhancement elixir, which was why I couldn't control my wolf. They cut off both my hands and threw me into a silver mine. I died in excruciating pain in that silver pit, my very bones corroded by the silver. Until my dying breath, I couldn't understand—how could the elixir I brewed myself make my wolf submit to Victoria? When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to one week before the Gamma selection of the pack. This time, I gave up my right to compete and entered the forest alone to train for battle. Beta Richard stood at the empty doorway of my house, questioning me through our mind-link about why I was leaving the pack at such a crucial time. Meanwhile, I was removing my protective amulet, shifting into my wolf form alone to fight in the territory of the Rogue wolves.

After my secret crush was discovered, my adoptive uncle Kieran, who always loved me, completely became a different person. He no longer smiled at me, and he began to stay far away from me. I tried everything, even stripped naked and stood before him begging him to mark me. All I got in return was his words of rejection: disgusting. Three months later, he even brought my best friend Scarlett home and claimed her as his fiancée. Looking at the deep wariness in his eyes toward me, I suddenly smiled with relief. I agreed to my Alpha grandfather's tentative proposal for an arranged mating. But when I finally gave up him and mated to another Alpha, why did he beg me to come back?

When I was three years old, my twin brothers, Silas and Julian, nearly died in an explosion while trying to save me. The Vampire King happened to pass by and turned them into high-ranking vampires. He had wanted to turn me too, so our family could stay together forever, but they refused. The King's power was too overwhelming, they said-the transformation would be agonizing. So they promised to turn me themselves when I turned eighteen. They spent every last penny they had on an impossibly rare serum-a blood-calming agent that would ensure I survived the transformation safely. But six months ago, they brought home a fifteen-year-old human orphan named Elena. Silas snatched my serum and handed it to Elena, his voice cold as ice. "You're strong enough to endure the transformation on your own. Elena is far more fragile than you-she needs this more." Julian's face twisted with undisguised contempt. He pointed at the door and snarled, "Get out! Don't come back until you learn to share!" I didn't say a word. I picked up the suitcase I'd already packed and disappeared into the rainy night. They assumed I was just throwing a tantrum. They figured I'd come crawling back in a few days. To celebrate ridding themselves of their "burden," they took the orphan on a vacation to the Caribbean coast-the trip I'd been dreaming about for years. But when they returned to the castle two weeks later, they were stunned to discover that I had undergone the Vampire King's transformation personally. Not only that-I had voluntarily signed a hundred-year agreement to join a classified isolation research project studying resistance to holy silver and crucifixes. A century of solitary confinement. I was never coming back. That day, they completely fell apart.

Bonnie has spent her entire life being broken down and abused by the people closest to her including her very own twin sister. Alongside her best friend Lilly who also lives a life of hell, they plan to run away while attending the biggest ball of the year while it's being hosted by another pack, only things don't quite go to plan leaving both girls feeling lost and unsure bout their futures. Alpha Nicholas is 28, mateless, and has no plans to change that. It's his turn to host the annual Blue Moon Ball this year and the last thing he expects is to find his mate. What he expects even less is for his mate to be 10 years younger than him and how his body reacts to her. While he tries to refuse to acknowledge that he has met his mate his world is turned upside down after guards catch two she-wolves running through his lands. Once they are brought to him he finds himself once again facing his mate and discovers that she's hiding secrets that will make him want to kill more than one person. Can he overcome his feelings towards having a mate and one that is so much younger than him? Will his mate want him after already feeling the sting of his unofficial rejection? Can they both work on letting go of the past and moving forward together or will fate have different plans and keep them apart?

My life was a carefully curated map of invisibility until Jax Ryder decided to burn it all down. After catching him in a compromising secret, the dynamic shifted. I held the power, and my price was simple: make me desirable to his captain.

Nineteen year old Wyoming Wilson was a down-on-her luck actress who had mistakenly thought that she was finally being given a shot to stardom when she received a call slip for an audition in a church wedding scene. She showed up and did the major role of the bride, only to learn later that it was an actual wedding - her wedding! She wanted to run and flee but her groom was fast. He was quick to remind her, "You have been paid already. " Anxiously, Wyoming looked at her groom with pleading eyes, "I- I could return the money." She offered but her heart sank when the groom whispered. "If you can pay me triple the amount I paid you."

One of Ethan Sterling's closest friends got drunk and humiliated me. Called me a nobody orphan who married above her station, said I'd never be accepted by the Sterlings, that I wasn't fit to sit at their table. Ethan smashed a bottle over the man's head. He announced in front of everyone that if anyone ever disrespected me again, he'd make them pay. When I was pregnant and the morning sickness was so brutal I couldn't keep anything down, he went and scheduled a vasectomy. He didn't want me to suffer through another pregnancy. This was a man who loved me like I was his whole world. And yet — when I was lying on the operating table about to give birth, he was standing right in front of me with his arms around Iris, putting on a show for anyone watching. Iris was the daughter of another old-money family and she'd donated bone marrow to save Ethan's mother's life. The night before her own engagement, her fiance betrayed her, and the trauma wiped her memory clean. Now the only thing she knew for certain was that Ethan Sterling was her husband. In her world, I was the homewrecker — the scheming woman using the bastard in her belly to force her husband into a divorce. Ethan promised me it was all an act. Just repaying the debt for his mother's life. Once Iris recovered, he'd walk away from her immediately. But when I picked up the surgical consent form for him to sign, and his first instinct was to pull Iris behind him — to shield her — I knew. His heart had already drifted off course. The fairy tale of a Cinderella marrying into high society was over. Time to wake up.

One mistake from Scarlett leads her to be abandoned and loathed by her family. She starts her new life in a new pack as a warrior trainer. The least she expected was to meet her mate there who didn't give a damn about her existence when he found her. Klaus Nelson is the future Alpha of the Black Moonstone pack and is betrothed to the daughter of the Alpha King. He had accepted his fate and lost the hope to find his mate and get eternal love from his mate but when Scarlett enters his life, his heart starts simmering with extrinsic feelings and questions. The saying goes, "It takes one passionate kiss to fall in love with your mate." That's what they felt when their lips lingered on each other's and their tongues danced in a melodic rhythm as he pulled her closer to deepen the kiss and she circled her arms around his neck. "I'm a lantern, I can't shift, I can't feel any voice in my head," she revealed between the kiss, closing her eyes and preparing herself for bearing the pain of rejection. “You’re the only light of my somber world and I’d never let you go,” he promised before claiming her lips in a dominating kiss. Little did he know that this promise would turn his world upside down and cost him his life.