Pen X Pencil

On the night of New Year's Eve, I wake up in a hospital ward with an IV drip connected to the back of my hand. A nurse passes me the hospital bill. "It's 300 dollars in total, including the emergency treatment fee and the cost for a bottle of glucose drips." When I turn on my phone, I feel my heart sinking. I only have 29.01 dollars left in my bank account. The wallpaper of my phone is a countdown of my family contract's app. Today is the date when I have to renew my family contract for the year. In order to accumulate enough money to go home, I've been working as a staff member in concert venues. Earlier, I had collapsed backstage, so I was quickly sent to the hospital. The dial tone keeps beeping for a long time. Finally, my mom answers my call in what seems to be a noisy background. "Mom, I'm at the hospital right now. I need 300 dollars to pay the hospital bill." "You're at the hospital?" Mom's voice turns shrill immediately. "Why did you visit the hospital during the holidays? You really are a jinx!" "I fainted earlier. I was working at a concert venue—" "What? So, you refused to do chores at home during the holidays! Instead, you decide to work at a concert venue?" Mom interrupts immediately. "I don't have 300 dollars on me! You'd better come up with a way to pay that bill of yours!" "Mom…" My hand tightens around my phone. "Today is the last day of my family contract's renewal period. I'll renew the contract once I pay the bill." "Renew the contract, huh?" Mom just sneers at me. "That's a part of your duties! How dare you use it against me! Helena Lambert, if you don't renew the contract today, you can forget about calling me 'Mom'!" After that, she ends the call. I can only grip my phone to the point that my fingers turn white. After that, I tap on a social media app in hopes that I can borrow money from my friends, only to see the latest post on the social media feed. My younger sister, Hannah Lambert, has posted a photo collage there. "I'm here with my parents to watch my favorite singer's concert! Snagging tickets to the first-row seats is definitely worth it!" The background of those photos is the same concert venue where I work part-time at. It's the most expensive venue in town. Apparently, tickets cost 2,900 dollars each.

“How can you tell me you never wanted it when you can’t deny that you loved every second of it, my love? Shyne, no one will ever make you feel the way I do, and I’ll spend every moment proving it. Not even time and death can separate us.” Shyne De Leon runs away from her past and her ex-lover by using her family’s power and influence to start a new life far away from her hometown. The memories and promises that her ex has given her made running away more difficult. A few years have passed, and the guilt of what she left behind started to haunt her. Her ex Rian Batista and their past rendezvous began to appear in her dreams more frequently. The dreams became darker, and Shyne started to have ghostly hallucinations of the man she had left. When the torture of her dreams became too much, her family’s money and influence could no longer save her from her own past and mind. As the untold past starts to unfold, will she kiss the truth and embrace her past? Or will she wallow in regret and enter her ex-lover’s offered damnation?

With the return of his memories, my husband, Trevor Beaumont, recalled that he was the Alpha of a wolf pack. He walked away, leaving me with a ruby necklace as compensation. The jewel shimmered amid my sleep, and a tall, burly man stood before me. The compensation came with a hidden bonus after all. Later, I sent a message to my ex. “Thank you for your necklace. The guy inside comes in handy. “We’re getting married, and since you brought us together, we’d hope you can be the best man.” Trevor drove through the night to our wedding venue, veins popping out of his face as despair swallowed him. “Who the hell put the man inside the ruby?”

Everyone said Kane adored me. That for me, he'd tame the wild rage of an Alpha, soften every growl, and sheath every claw. Ten years. Ten damn years of chasing, spoiling, protecting. I was convinced I’d be his Luna—his mate, his forever. But betrayal doesn’t come with a warning. It cuts sharp and deep. And it never just comes once. The first lie, I forgave. The second, I bled. The third? It broke something in me I’m not sure I’ll ever get back. And then came the words that snapped the last thread holding me together. "Julia, can't you just stop being so difficult? Stop acting like the world revolves around you." That was when I knew. The man who once walked through fire for me…Had turned into the very beast I needed saving from. The love I thought I had—it wasn’t love. It was a gilded cage, pretty from the outside, but still a prison. And if I was ever going to be free, I'd have to be the one to smash it open. Even if it meant setting the wolf on fire with it.

....."most things are best left unknown". The wolf she had just seen transform into a muscular man said..... **** Vanessa just ran away from a marriage she is being forced to go into, with a man she doesn't love. Thinking she was running to start a better life, she didn't know she just ran into a secret. One she is not supposed to discover. What's that secret that turns her whole life around?

Simón Cáceres was ready to marry the love of his life, Isabella Benavides, but on the wedding day, she didn’t show up. Instead, Simón was forced to marry Natalia, Isabella’s older sister, to secure a key alliance for his business. However, the reception was interrupted by Isabella’s unexpected arrival, who accused Natalia of having locked her away to take her place beside Simón. Enraged, Simón tried to annul the marriage, but the deal had already been sealed. Since then, filled with hatred and resentment, Simón has limited himself to living coldly and distantly with Natalia, waiting for the day he could free himself from her and reunite with Isabella. Although Natalia tried to prove her innocence, Simón never believed her. Two years later, Isabella reappears, and Simón demands a divorce from Natalia, leaving her devastated. Shortly after, Natalia discovers she is pregnant, but Simón, doubting he is the father, brutally rejects her. When Isabella loses the child she was expecting, the tragedy takes a cruel turn: she accuses Natalia of being responsible for her loss, forcing her to flee to protect her son. When Natalia left Simón Cáceres, she was certain he would come back begging. While she moved forward and succeeded in business, Simón discovered the truth about Isabella and realized the terrible mistake he had made. He tried to apologize and proposed marriage for the hundredth time, but Natalia was no longer interested in being his wife. She was completely immersed in enjoying her new life and savoring the freedom she had regained.

I was a descendant of Echidna, while Jonathan was the Capital City's most faithful Crystal Emperor devotee. In my past life, I eloped for love. For love, I threw away my chance to awaken my bloodline, shed my scales, and ascend to godhood. But… On the day of our marriage, Jonathan cut out my heart. He said I was cursed, that I was in the way of his true love's salvation. He wanted to use my Blood of Essence to pave the way for his true love's return to life. In despair, I could only watch as he held the prayer beads in his hand. His words were calm and deadly cruel. "Sinead, you should feel blessed to become Anna's sacrifice." When I opened my eyes again, time had mysteriously wound back. I had returned to one week before my wedding. I prayed in the rundown temple, my hand over my aching heart. The booming voice of my deity suddenly filled my ears, answering my desperate plea. "Descendant of Echidna, will you shed your scales and return to an ordinary life? Or will you give up love and achieve apotheosis?"

The day I win the cheerleading championship, the entire arena erupts with cheers for my team. But from the stands, my brother, Nelson Locke, hurls a water bottle straight at me. "You injured Felicia's leg before the performance just so you could win first place? She has leukemia, Victoria! Her dying wish is to become a champion. Yet you tripped her before the competition, all for a trophy! You're selfish. I don't have a sister like you!" My fiance, who also happens to be the sponsor of the competition, steps onto the stage with a cold expression and announces, "You tested positive for illegal substances. You don't deserve this title. You're disqualified." All the fans turn against me. They boycott me entirely—some even go so far as to create a fake memorial portrait of me, print it, and send it to my doorstep. I quietly keep the photo. I'll probably need it soon anyway. It's been three years since I was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Knowing I don't have much time left, I choose to become the type of person they always wanted me to be—the perfect sister who loves without question, the well-mannered woman who knows when to keep quiet, and the kind of person who never, ever lies.

Blood Demon Vampires are naturally born to be cold-blooded, ruthless, self-centered, and blood-sucking demons every time the sun goes down. Let's bring their kinds to a brand-new story, shall we? What if the vampires were befallen into a cursed system where killing is no longer a formidable solution for their thirst for blood? Instead of merciless killings, they are required to accomplish humanitarian missions in order to survive. One human saved is an hour additional of their lifeline in the human world. The more humans they saved, the longer life they get. Then were measured when this one-of-a-kind woman appeared in their lives. The only woman who awakens their dormant vampire's thirst for blood.

Jenny Walsh thought she had built a safe, ordinary life— a loving husband, a sweet son, and a marriage that had survived the terrible past she never liked to revisit. Until her estranged sister suddenly reappears. Anna returns with tears, tragedy, and a dying child—and somehow, everyone expects Jenny to be the good sister. To forgive. To support. To sacrifice her own body and donate bone marrow. But no one sees through Anna’s perfect mask. She didn’t come back to be saved. She came back to take everything— her husband’s attention, her son’s trust, her place in the family. When Jenny hesitates, she becomes the villain. Cold. Selfish. Heartless. Until one day, the man who once promised her forever looks her in the eye and says— “I want an open marriage with your sister.”