Plight Before Christmas Novels & Stories

I thought Christmas had already broken me. Betrayal, loss, and a miscarriage that shattered everything I’d built. So I did the only reckless thing a heart in ruins could do: closed my eyes, jabbed a finger at a map, and bought a ticket to wherever it landed. No plan. No hope. Just a wounded heart running from the wreckage. I wanted quiet. Snow. A place to breathe and heal. I found him instead. A man who feels too wild for this world, all heat and muscle and dark, hungry eyes. He kisses like he’s claiming something. Touches like he’s learning every secret my body holds. His strength borders on impossible. His presence, addictive. He calls me his naughty little Christmas gift. And every time he drags his mouth down my throat, I forget every reason I had to stay guarded. But the deeper I fall, the stranger things become. The room around him feels alive. The night listens when he speaks. His eyes flash with an animal glow that shouldn’t exist, and the sound he makes when he’s holding back, low, guttural, trembling the air between us doesn’t belong to any man. I should run. Ask questions. Save myself. But I’m far too gone. Even willing to be ruined by whatever he is. So I ignore the question whether I’m losing my mind, or whether the fear curling beneath the heat is real. And let him keep unwrapping me like the gift he thinks I am. Because whatever lives inside him…it’s the first thing that’s made me feel alive again.

While we're having our dinner on Christmas Eve, my mom suddenly asks me loudly, "Do you have your chastity?" I look confused. "What?" My mom just smiles very smugly. "I knew you were the adventurous type! You must have lost it because of someone else!" After that, she shoots my husband, Louis Hartson, a knowing look. "You don't know about this yet, right? Before Yvonne married you, she was an absolute player in the dating pool. Her father and I couldn't keep her under control at all!" I widen my eyes in shock. "What are you talking about?" My mom is even happier when she sees how angry I am. "Oh? You have the guts to do it, yet you're too cowardly to admit to it?" I can only clench my fists tightly under the table after hearing my mom's slanderous accusations. Since she likes spreading baseless rumors about me this much, I'm not going to keep her secret for her anymore.

We agreed we were going to spend Christmas together as a family of three. I briefly stepped out to grab my daughter’s Christmas gift, but quickly realized that I had forgotten my keys. However, when I came back, I was locked outside the villa. I rang the doorbell countless times, but no one came to let me in. Through the glass window, I saw my daughter happily smiling in the arms of my wife’s childhood friend who had returned from overseas. “Uncle Jones, you smell so nice. Not like my dad. He’s always sweaty and smells so gross. I don’t even want to spend Christmas with him!” My wife, Lily Quinn, looked at them indulgently and agreed. “Your dad hasn’t seen much of the world. He really doesn’t know how to celebrate holidays properly.” I froze in place as my fingers turned cold. Yara turned and saw me outside the window. Her face was filled with disgust. “What are you staring at? Why are you standing outside like some monster? You almost scared me to death! You’re not like Uncle Jones at all. He’s so elegant and well-mannered!” However, ten years ago, I was a top sales director at a well-known multinational company. Back then, I had the chance to be transferred to New York. Yet Lily unexpectedly got pregnant and suffered severe reactions. She was at constant risk of miscarriage. I voluntarily gave up that opportunity to take care of her and our daughter. Now, that sacrifice had somehow become undeniable proof of my uselessness. I took a deep breath and threw the Christmas gift I had bought for my daughter into the trash. Then I messaged someone saved in my contacts as “Apprentice”: [Is that overseas position you mentioned a few days ago still available?] The reply came almost instantly: [Of course! Mr. Lane, as long as you’re willing to come back, you’ll always have a place waiting for you!]

I'm afflicted with a severe phobia related to socializing. Christmas is the one holiday that I fear the most. In order to escape from my relatives' incessant questions, I've spent one year digging up dirty laundry related to every single person in my family. Before going home for the holidays, I've made a secret vow that as long as my relatives don't disturb me, I will definitely keep those skeletons of theirs sealed tightly in their closets. But at the Christmas Eve dinner, these relatives insist on making me their personal doormat. My oldest uncle, Adam Burton, is the first one to start a topic in a passive-aggressive manner. "Hannah, you're not getting any younger, you know. It's one thing to not be able to nail down a job, but what's with your inability to find yourself a boyfriend, hmm? "Look at Quinn. The moment she'd graduated from college, she'd already married a rich scion." I can only smile bashfully before I lower my head and start eating from my plate in an attempt to skip the topic. But my second aunt, Zoe Brown, refuses to let it slide. She begins putting on airs as a senior member of this family while lecturing me. "Stop being so stubborn, Hannah. Adam is doing this for your own good. We're a family at the end of the day; we will never hurt you. You have to listen to our advice. Otherwise, you'll become an old and lonely woman that no one wants as a partner when the time comes." Pfft! "We're a family", she says! I think these relatives of mine just don't want me to live a nice, comfortable life as a single woman! Unable to endure it anymore, I put down my fork and lift my head. Then, I flash everyone an awkward smile. "In that case, Aunt Zoe, why don't you tell me who's more impressive in bed? Was it Uncle Caleb… or Uncle Adam? "Since we're a family, we should be honest with each other, right?"

All Bethany Blakes wanted was to graduate from college and marry her childhood sweetheart, Clement, running an art gallery while living a happy married life but things went haywire when she realized she was nothing but a bet to her beloved sweetheart.  In an attempt to get rid of a urinary tract infection, she got inseminated with the sperm of a cold and ruthless billionaire, Falcon Gray who has wealth, power, a dark past and was desperately in need of an heir to secure his inheritance.  Unable to let his only chance at securing all he had toiled for slip off his fingers, he struck a deal with the final-year student to keep the baby and spend the Christmas holiday with him at his family's annual get-together but as their bond grew stronger, his dark past and undying love for his supposed fiancée Leonie Winters threatened to tear them apart. 

To save Hugh, I took the hit—literally. The kidnappers beat me so bad I ended up with a brain hemorrhage. My mind? Stuck at thirteen. Hugh, all guilt and promises, said, "Wenna, I'll protect you forever." And he did. He watched over me. When the house caught fire, he threw himself over me, took the burns, didn't flinch. Then came his oh-so-perfect foster sister. "Mia's not into... slow people. Maybe you should live next door," he said. And my son? The one I nearly died bringing into the world? "Stupid woman! You embarrass me and Dad. You're nothing like Aunt Mia—she's smart and pretty. If it weren't for you, she could've been my mom. You should just die!" To play hero for Mia, my son shoved me into the street. A truck did the rest. When I opened my eyes, I was back on the day Hugh proposed. This time? I wasn't here for his pity. And I sure as hell wasn't marrying him.

I let a stranger destroy me in a hotel room. Two days later, I walked into my internship and found him sitting behind the CEO's desk. Now I fetch coffee for the man who made me moan, and he acts like I’m the one who crossed a line. *** It started with a dare. It ended with the one man she should never want. June Alexander didn’t plan to sleep with a stranger. But on the night she celebrates landing her dream internship, a wild dare leads her into the arms of a mysterious man. He’s intense, quiet, and unforgettable. She thought she’d never see him again. Until she walks into her first day at work— And finds out he’s her new boss. The CEO. Now June has to work under the man she shared one reckless night with. Hermes Grande is powerful, cold, and completely off-limits. But the tension between them won’t go away. The closer they get, the harder it becomes to keep her heart and their secrets safe.

Molly absolutely loves Christmas. Candy canes, egg nog, mistletoe, the works. She can't get enough of it. And so it's only natural that she works at the local Christmas store, Christmas Wishes. But when the Scrooge-like Nicholas comes to town, looking to sell his father's business out from under him, it looks like Molly's dream job is disappearing. Worse yet, she's starting to fall for Nicholas, despite everything telling her not to. With one last chance to save the store, Molly appeals to the power of Christmas itself, attempting to convert Nicholas to seeing the beauty of the holiday. Can Christmas magic really make Christmas Wishes come true? Fans of Hallmark Christmas movies will be swept away by Christmas Wishes, a small-town standalone holiday romance with mistletoe and magic. Grab a glass of eggnog, sit by a warm fire, and enjoy!

Nothing can bring two people together like an adorable little pooch! Brady Rogers took the job as the new city planner for Holiday Hills expecting a town rich with Christmas spirit. What he finds is anything but. Due to budget cuts, many of the Christmas activities have been cancelled. When a cute little dog steals his scarf, he's led to a couple of people who want to help Holiday Hills regain the towns reputation for being the place to celebrate. Could it be that little dog has also led him to love? Noelle Snow loves her job running the animal shelter, but she needs more money to keep the no-kill shelter a float. When she meets Brady, thanks to a sweet pup named Pooch, she might just be able to save the shelter, help the town find their Christmas spirit, and fall in love. But when the town's mayor has different ideas about how the budget should be spent, Brady and Noelle's plans might just fall apart and tear a riff between them. Will Pooch be enough to bring them back together?

“I want you again, Aurora… naked, begging, and this time as my mate.” In Last Christmas, after a painful betrayal, Aurora Wright made a mistake she never forgot. She spent one night with a stranger whose touch left her breathless, and that night ended in a pregnancy she faced alone. Two months after giving birth, Aurora is hired as the lead photographer for Averne’s Christmas festival. When she arrives in the winter city beyond Paris, she discovers that the man from that night is Leon Valmont, the cold and dangerously handsome CEO of the entire project. Leon is not just a CEO. He is the Alpha prince of Averne, a hidden werewolf kingdom. And the moment he sees Aurora holding a child with familiar eyes, he knows the truth. “You disappeared after that night,” Leon growls, stepping close enough to claim her breath. “But you are not leaving again. Not you… and not my child.”Caught between a possessive Alpha prince, a truth she tried to hide, and a bond that never faded, Aurora must face the man she never meant to see again. This Christmas, her baby daddy does not just want answers. He wants his mate. And he wants his family back.