Puzzle Piece

“My boyfriend is sweet, and he is kind. He's gentle with me and he takes care of me. He loves me correctly and he…’’ “Booo!’’ the rest of the girls exclaimed in unison, as they began to laugh. “That’s a boy, darling!’’ Riley chips in. “We are werewolves. That's not how you're meant to be loved. Have you not had the kind of rogue ripping love that makes your legs shake and you knees weak?’’ “You're talking about sex.’’ Jessica answered with a shrug. “Not really. That kind of gentle love that you talk about will wear you out. And you will get bored.’’ ~~~~ ~~~~~ "Come closer," he said, his voice like a heat that filled the space between them. Terrified, she whispered, "No," avoiding his gaze. His steps dragged on the smooth carpet. In an instant, his fingers gripped her throat, slamming her against the wall with a thud. "You will obey me, Jessica Miller. For I own you!" ******** Jessica Miller, a fierce, young, and innocent girl, sold by someone she never thought could do a thing of such to her, to the merciless Lycan King, Jordan Luther, feels betrayed and a stranger among other wolves, seeing as she had lived all her life among humans. Broken and frustrated, she can't help but feel all hope is lost. And now, will the Lycan King’s cruelty break her completely, or will she remain a high spirited, young wolf and escape the clutches of slavery at the hands of her enslaver…? Read on for this amazing piece of art, full of intrigues and captivating lines to keep you wanting more….

After Dad cheated and divorced Mom, I did not choose Mom, who walked away with nothing. Instead, I chose Dad, who clearly favored his illegitimate son, Oliver Brooks. It was only because after their divorce, Mom's obsession with reconciliation romance novels got me killed twice. In my first life, Mom was so desperate for Dad's respect that she willingly gave up everything in the divorce just to take me with her. In the end, my heart condition flared up, and without money for treatment, I died in agony on that hospital bed. In my second life, I went against Mom's wishes and asked Dad for the surgery money upfront. However, Mom was hell-bent on pushing Dad onto a so-called redemption path, forced me to go bungee jumping the day before my surgery. Dad tried to stop me from jumping, but he was speeding and ended up in a fatal car crash. Mom blamed everything on me. With pure hatred in her eyes, she shoved me off that cliff. "Useless piece of trash! Not only can't you help me win your father back, but you got him killed too. You might as well die with him!" That moment made everything crystal clear: Mom never actually loved me. She just saw me as a tool to get Dad back. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Mom demanded a divorce from Dad, for the third time.

  Reaching out, he runs his finger along my collarbone, my body tensing at his touch.    “Killian, what are you doing?”    "It’s obvious you’re forgetting who you belong to. Who you’ve always belonged to.” His eyes are blazing, the tone of his voice dominant yet calm. That kind of calm terrifies me because I know it only means one thing—I have no chance of escaping.       He pushes my hair behind my shoulder, and leaning forward, he grazes his lips against my neck, inhaling my skin. The walls start to cave, the touch of his lips on my skin breaking them down piece by piece.        “Its high time I reminded you", he murmurs.       His kisses become ravenous.                               *************   After being rejected by her mate the alpha of her pack, losing her baby and almost getting killed all on the same day, Lena vows never to return to the Quarry pack and to make herself stronger. Four years later, Lena is a lawyer and runs a law firm with her best friend Kate and she's engaged to Jeremy the alpha of Crescent moon pack that saved her life. But her happiness ends when she runs into Killian the alpha who rejected her and has vowed to get her back. In the fight to get her back, a sinister plot brews against Killian and his pack. Will Lena finally learn the truth about why Killian rejected her and be able to forgive him for all the pain he caused her or will she choose Jeremy.

He was, and had nothing when I met him. He was a terribly poor dreamer, and all he had was smooth words and endless promises. I gave up everything for him, including my family’s wealth, my privileged life, my identity as an heiress. I hid who I really was just to help him climb the ladder, brick by brick, until his name shone like gold. Our empire was built on my sacrifices. And how did he repay me? By throwing me away like a piece of used, wet tissue. By parading his new fiancée in my face and sneering, “Don’t you think I’m out of your league now?” He thought he could erase me. He thought he could take my love, my labor, my loyalty…and bury me like garbage. But he forgot one thing. I’m not just a girl he used. I’m an heiress. The gold in his pocket? The power in his hands? The empire on his shoulders? All of it came from me. Now I’ve returned to the world I left behind, with bodyguards at my side, a new fiancé chosen by my family, and more power than he could ever dream of. And when he calls me a gold digger? I’ll smile and remind him of the truth… “Gold digger? No. I’m the gold maker. And without me, Mr. Billionaire, you are nothing.”

A year after Easton Carter turns down my 99th proposal, he calls me in the middle of the night, crying like his world's falling apart. He says his grandmother is dying and her last wish is to see him married. He tells me he's finally ready. He's already ordered the dress and booked the venue. But when I show up at the venue in my wedding dress, his friends burst out laughing. "You actually believed that? And you even swapped the cheap dress he ordered for a custom-made one? You're the queen of pathetic!" Then one of them yells, "Look, the groom's side piece showed up to crash the wedding!" "Security, come get this homewrecker!" Guests turn to stare like they're watching a joke unfold. Easton doesn't even look at me. He turns to the woman he loves and says, "I told you I'd ruin this wedding for you. I meant it. If you can't have him, no one will!" She gives him a satisfactory smile. Then, he finally glances at me. "Tina said you did her a favor today. When we get married, you can be the bridesmaid, and you can still spend time with us after that." So, he brought me here just to help his sweetheart ruin her crush's wedding. But when Easton finally looks up at the wedding banner and realizes that I'm the bride, his eyes flare with rage.

For years, the witches and vampires of Shadowbrooke co-existed secretly, without much incident. Until one winter evening in 2002. Luca Delacroix was on a hunting trip when the monthly court hosted by his clan turned disastrous. What began as a normal night for the residents of the sleepy town ended horribly when fledgelings in blood-lust took Shadowbrooke under siege. It took a small coven of witches, a powerful spell, the Chaos Star and a virgin's blood to end the terror. But in the aftermath, Julian Delacroix, Luca's brother, along with several of their clan members, were eternally bound to the manor's cellar, forsaken to wither and perish from thirst. It's 2022, and Luca's returned to Shadowbrooke after two decades. His sudden reappearance threatens to destabilise the peaceful town again. He'll stop at nothing to get his brother out, and the Youngblood Coven will not hesitate to destroy him. While the witches scramble to get the missing piece of the Star of Chaos, the rune they once used against Luca's clan, he has to fight hard to stay one step ahead of them. But, his plans go awry when he meets and falls in love with Cadence Youngblood, the same woman responsible for his brother's infernal prison. Cadence is everything he shouldn't want, but for her, Luca is willing to take the backlash from his clan and risk her coven's wrath. © 2022 Val Sims. All rights reserved. No part of this novel may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author and publishers.

Carmenta Bloom’s life is the epitome of gilded misery, and she is no stranger to controversy. With wealth and glory as her inheritance, she has everything but the freedom to live on her own terms. When a scandal threatens her family’s ironclad reputation, Carmenta is cast into a prison of her own making under the watchful eye of her bodyguard, Perion. Perion is her captor in every sense. He moves mountains and pounds them to ground again. He controls her, isolates her, and refuses to allow any escape—except one she never anticipated: his presence begins to consume her. Perion isn’t who he claims to be. He isn’t just a hired hand—he’s tied to a powerful mafia syndicate, his motives shrouded in secrecy. To him, Carmenta is a key piece in a high-stakes war his syndicate is waging. As Carmenta’s fiery spirit challenges Perion’s icy resolve, the line between duty and love begins to blur. Perion starts to see the woman behind the façade, and Carmenta, despite her mistrust, feels drawn to the man she thinks is her protector. He begins to question everything—his loyalty and the woman who has somehow gotten under his skin. Torn between duty and desire, Perion must face the consequences of his lies, while Carmenta must decide if she’s willing to risk everything—her heart, her life, and her very soul—for the man who was never meant to protect her. As war closes in and trust crumbles, they must confront what they’ve both been running from or be destroyed by it.

He vanished the night our child was born. A year later, he came back to take her from me. I never planned to be a mother. I only wanted to help Anthony Powell, a grieving widower desperate to hold onto a piece of his late wife. I agreed to carry his child with no strings. But when I went into labor, he never showed. Not a call. Not a word. Forty-eight hours passed. The hospital couldn’t reach him. And I was forced to make a choice that would change everything—I took that baby home and raised her as my own. For one perfect year, Nori was mine. Then he returned... Soaked in rain and regret, Anthony stood at my door with a story about a car crash and a coma. He said he never abandoned us. And then he demanded custody of the daughter I’d loved every day since her first breath. I lost everything when the courts sided with him and demanded I hand my baby over. But then...his lawyer came to me with an unthinkable offer: move into his home... and become Nori’s nanny. I said yes, but on my terms. If this “arrangement” fell apart, I wanted joint custody written in stone. Now I’m living under his roof, seeing glimpses of the man he used to be—the kind, broken soul who once only wanted a chance at fatherhood. But I can’t forget his cruelty and what he took from me. And the worst part? I think I’m falling for him all over again.

They shattered her. Now she’s the storm coming to destroy them. For five years, Mona Smith was the perfect wife, silent, loyal, and invisible. Trapped in a golden cage, she clung to love while the Caldwell family tore her down piece by piece. They laughed at her. Belittled her. Treated her like dirt beneath their designer heels. Until the night it all fell apart. “Get out,” Emily Caldwell sneered, wine staining Mona’s dress like blood. “You were never one of us.” Framed. Humiliated. Abandoned by the man she gave everything to. The Caldwells thought they could toss her out and move on. But they made one fatal mistake. They let her live. Enter Alexander Kane, dangerous, untouchable, and worth more than empires. He offers Mona a deal: marry him, and he’ll give her the power to crush the people who destroyed her. Mona says yes. Not for love. For vengeance. But revenge has a cost, and Alexander has secrets darker than she ever imagined. As Mona claws her way into the ruthless world of power and privilege, she must decide: Will she burn them all to the ground? Or will she become the very monster she was trying to destroy? Because the most dangerous woman in the world… is the one they tried to break. --- "You wanted me broken?" Mona whispers, slipping on a diamond ring worth more than their entire legacy. "Congratulations. I’m broken. And now, I’m unstoppable." They wanted her silent. Now she’s their worst nightmare

For seventeen years, I believed I was nothing, Iris Delta, the unwanted orphan tolerated by a pack that saw me as a burden. The Maxwell quad Alpha heirs made sure I knew my place, tormenting me with cruel words and vicious pranks. I was weak, worthless, invisible. I was wrong about everything. On my eighteenth birthday, Alpha Maxwell reveals the truth that changes everything: I'm Seraphina Blackthorne, the last heir of a bloodline thought extinct. My parents didn't abandon me—they were murdered by the Northern Alliance, who believed they'd eliminated every trace of Blackthorne power. They were wrong, too. The moment my wolf Diamond awakens, the mate bond snaps into place with the four men who made my life hell. Fin, Brent, Kane, and Liam—my tormentors are my fated mates, four pieces of one soul that can only be completed by me. Their cruelty wasn't hatred; it was a fractured soul recognising its missing piece and lashing out in fear. But the Northern Alliance isn't finished. They've come to eliminate the last Blackthorne before I can claim my birthright. What they don't realise is that I'm not just the last heir, I'm the strongest Blackthorne born in three centuries. When divine justice flows through my veins and ghostly wolf spirits answer my call, they'll learn what happens when you try to destroy something the goddess herself has chosen to protect. The Blackthorne line has returned. And this time, we're not going down without a fight.