Phone Beeping Virus

When I lay dreaming of what my life could have been if I was human and not a hybrid, it always ends the same way, stop wishing for something impossible Laya. I am a hybrid, my yellow eyes a dead giveaway, and in the eyes of humans we are the virus that nearly destroyed the world.

To cheer up his pretty assistant, my boyfriend brought her to attend a party. I had to bail him out after he was arrested by the police. The charge? Public indecency after consuming illegal substances. When I arrived at the police station to pick him up, he was still trying to comfort his assistant, paying no heed to the possibility that I might have seen the lipstick marks on his neck. After seeing that I wasn’t saying anything, my boyfriend assumed I was upset and explained impatiently, “Winnie was in a terrible mood that day, and I was just there to keep her company. We didn’t take part in any public indecency! It was the other guests who were messing about!” What a terrible excuse. If it was any other day, I wouldn’t be this calm. This time was different. I will no longer press him for answers like a mad woman. As I walked past the police station entrance, an officer looked at my boyfriend and his assistant, who were still all over each other. With eyes full of sympathy, he asked me, “Your partner?” I glanced at my boyfriend, whose focus was entirely fixated on Winnie, and shook my head. “No, just an acquaintance.” At that moment, Winnie was leaning against him, seeking his comfort. I pulled out my phone and texted my dad silently. “I agree to marry President Lee. I’ll leave the wedding preparation to you guys.” “I’ll be back in five days.”

My brother, Theo Sorento, died in a plane crash on his way back home just to celebrate my birthday. They never found his body—only wreckage. Ever since, my parents forced me to kneel in front of his grave every year on my birthday, demanding that I repent for surviving when he didn’t. Then came my eighteenth birthday. I realized someone was following me. Panicked, I sent a few messages asking for help. Just then, Mom called, not to check on me but to lash out. “I know exactly what you're doing. You’re just making up excuses so you don’t have to kneel in front of your brother’s grave! You’re a liar. Why wasn’t it you who died instead of him? You’re a walking curse!” Before my phone was smashed under a boot, the last thing I heard was the cold click of her hanging up. Then, I was cut up into pieces, and what was left of me was tossed across the city. My father, the lead forensic pathologist on my case, didn’t even recognize me. Later, Theo returned alive with his wife, whom he had eloped with eight years ago. When they found out the pile of rotting flesh was me, they all went insane.

When Peter, my father-in-law, suffered a heart attack and needed an urgent transplant, the hospital miraculously had a compatible heart. Helen, my mother-in-law and I were overjoyed. We thought it was a blessing from above. However, just as we were getting ready for surgery, Nate, my husband, disappeared with the compatible heart. When we finally reached him by phone, it was Camile, his first love. “Nate is busy prepping for my dad’s heart surgery. Stop distracting him!” Helen was trembling with fury. On her way to confront Nate, she got into a car accident and ended up in a critical condition. I begged Nate to come back and operate on her, but he walked into another operating room. In the end, my in-laws died. Their bodies were donated for organ transplant. It was not until later that I found out that their organs had been donated to Camile’s family.

On the day Mateo was crowned as the Alpha King of the Eastern Packs, I learned that my remaining wolf's power was depleted and that the silver curse would eventually take my life. During the coronation ceremony, the Grand Elder asked Mateo who he regretted losing the most. Without hesitation, he dialed my number. I answered, listening to his cold voice through the phone: "When I got hurt, after you left me thinking I wasn't Alpha anymore, did you ever regret it?" Looking at the astronomical bill for another month's supply of moonwort potion, I laughed softly: "Mateo, since you're so powerful now, could you lend me 500,000 for the treatment?" The line went dead instantly. On the live broadcast, I watched as his face turned to ice: "Now I have no regrets." He didn't know that seven years ago, when that cursed silver dagger was killing him, I had secretly channeled my wolf's power to him, taking the curse upon myself.

I've been with Hansen Fullerton for seven years. One day, he tells me he's sick of me and dumps me for a younger, more vivacious woman. I don't kick up a fuss this time. Instead, I throw away my ring and cut up the wedding gown I've just bought. Then, I take a red-eye flight away from Gold City. His friends place bets on how long it'll take for me to return and beg for reconciliation. Hansen sneers. "She'll be back in less than three days, crying and begging me to take her back." However, more than three days pass without any news from me. Hansen loses his cool and calls me for the first time. "You'd better come back once you've had enough of this, Christine." All he hears is a man's low chuckle on the other end of the line. "You shouldn't have taken this long to pacify a woman, Mr. Fullerton. Look at how someone's already taken her away from you." Hansen snarls, "Tell Christine to answer the phone!" Landon Shore lowers his head to kiss me. "She can't—she's still out of it. I have to kiss her awake first."

Life comes hard and fast for Kendra and her family in a dystopian world that is struggling to recover from a nuclear war and is now under the rule of an alien government. Unaware of the impending alien invasion, a group of scientists -which included Kendra's parents- were ordered to create a zombie virus and set it loose on Russia. The intention was to subdue Russia and then release the cure, but the alien attack took them unawares and the scientists and their cure disappeared, leaving the virus to run rampant. Having been inoculated against the virus, Kendra's aunt is one of these scientists who has kept her identity a secret for fear of being made a slave to the alien government. When a village that is connected to the people who moved underground for survival kidnaps Kendra in hopes that they can harvest any memories of her parents discussing the cure while she was a mere infant with the use of an experimental machine, her aunt must decide about coming forth with her identity. In the meantime, along with dealing with the ever-rising population of zombies, the alien regime -which considers humans a delicacy for their dinner table – sets out to correct and purify the human race from those who were mutated in some way by the nuclear explosions. Rex is one of those humans. He is also Kendra’s lover. “Where Zombies Walk” is Book One of Kendra’s Journey in a world that offers steamy romance, nail biting peril, and thrills, and a paradise-like sanctuary within its core. All she has to do is make her way there.

I married Rafe Maretti—the man who owned the Maretti Casino empire. Sophisticated, ruthless, but sinfully charming. By year three of our marriage, I introduced my little sister to his nephew, Adam Moretti—twenty-five, all sharp smiles and sharper ambition. He ran the dirtier side of the family’s business—arms, drugs, the kind of trade that dripped blood and money in equal parts. I married the powerful, irresistible uncle. She married the young, dangerous nephew. It was supposed to be our fairytale. Then one day, I got kidnapped in Rafe’s casino. Snatched by a rival mafia family desperate to force Rafe to sign over one of his biggest, most profitable casinos. Except Rafe didn’t answer the phone or even notice I was gone. The kidnappers grew impatient. First, it was slaps. Then punches. Then they shattered my leg and buried a knife in my stomach. Still no word from my husband. Until finally, after what felt like a hundred unanswered calls, a single message came through. "I’m with Bianca. She’s having a stomach. Stop calling." Once the kidnappers realized I had no value, they dumped me in a rotting warehouse like discarded luggage. It was Isla, my sister, who found me. She got me out. And then the brakes failed. The car spun out. Isla went unconscious beside me. I tried calling Adam. Isla’s husband. But as soon the call went through, all I could hear was. “Leave me along. Isla, I am in the middle of something here.” When I clearly heard a woman’s voice in the back. If not for a passing stranger, Isla and me wouldn’t have made it to the hospital, let along have survived. So when I opened my eyes again, the first thing I thought was: I’m divorcing that sorry bastard. The Maretti can go to hell.

When you're on the brink of death, does humanity still exist? Clementia must learn to trust people again after surviving a blocked elevator into a zombie apocalypse or risk losing everything in this horrific world. Every day for Clementia over the last two years has been a haze. She keeps her head down, hangs out with the folks she despises the most, and only leaves the house to work at her required internship. But everything changes the day the workplace elevator breaks down, trapping her as the screaming begins. When the doors eventually open, revealing a dystopian world ravaged by bleeding fangs and sickness, Clementia is thrust into a horrifying race for her life, stuck between strangers she's not sure she can trust and man-eating creatures hungry for her flesh. With that, she realized that the whole city was filled by those monsters. And she is now forced to flee for her life, and she must learn not only how to live in this new and frightening environment, but also how to fight her own inner demons before they lose her something more valuable than her life. But then she met Justine, the one who would help her live in this chaotic life, and together they will fight in a world where a virus has spread, turning the majority of the people into flesh-eating monsters, as they both connote safety and unity.

At 7am on the dot my alarm rings on my nightstand. After a brief moment of irritation I sprung out of bed to get ready for school. While brushing my long curly ember hair my phone dings incessantly on the bathroom counter. After picking up the phone the dread I already felt in my heart was amplified. It was my best friend Jesse wishing me a happy birthday but I for the life of me couldn’t understand what an 18 year old girl had to be happy about. When a woman turns 18 she is mated for life, she’d be made to quit school, produce children and satisfy their mates every need and urge. That’s all a woman was good for in this town and I’d be damned if I was going to sit down and shut up about it. After ignoring Jesse I finished dressing and strolled down stairs where my mother and father were still having their morning meeting with their subordinates. Alfa John and Luna Kate or not, I’d doubt they’d even notice I was leaving if I hadn’t slammed the door on my way out. I wonder if they were disappointed by my lack of interest of the ways of the pack or if they were just disappointed I didn’t have a penis between my legs. Regardless, I have no intention on going to my mating ball tonight. My parents have invited every male in our pack but there’s no way I was going without a fight! As I lift my fingers from the door handle I come to an abrupt stop eye to eye with my fathers beta Josh. In a low growl all I hear is “You didn’t think you could actually leave did you?”