Qed Center Crossword

A bloody resistance against colonial invasion that tears Seme's indigenous leadership apart marks the entry of a strange culture into the clan. Osayo, the priest, seeks to protect the clan's religious system from erosion by the Blue-eyed (colonists). He, however, has to face off with a few loose canons, including his own son who escapes to a mission center far from home and ends up falling in love with a convert. In the meantime, a terrible plague breaks out in the clan, killing animals and people and leaving the land barren. Coupled by a misunderstanding of concepts in the new faith propagated by the Blue-eyed, a longstanding rift and blame game emerge between the converts and the conservatives, and spuns into a cutural marriage. Soon afterward, Osayo dies and his son, Okayo, realizes he has a greater role to play. The supernormal powers of the clan's aboriginal religious tree are stolen by a witch in line with a prophetic myth. And in a painful and tumultous mission to reunite the two conflicting religions of Seme Clan and limit the Blue-eyed's influence, Okayo puts his front foot forward in combating witchcraft so as to have the tree's powers in safe custody, and protect good from being superseded by evil.

A deep bone-melting groan vibrates from his chest. “I want to see you malyshka.Every inch of you.”  I shiver in anticipation as his fingers trail down my back, lowering the zipper of my dress, the fabric pooling at my waist. My tits come into view as cool air kisses my bare skin. His sharp intake of breath makes my stomach flip.  “Damn,” the word is rough, almost reverent as his large hand cups my left tit, squeezing softly. “They look even better than I had imagined.” His grip tightens slightly.   “A perfect fit for my hands.” ☦︎☦︎☦︎☦︎☦︎☦︎☦︎☦︎☦︎☦︎☦︎☦︎☦︎☦︎☦︎☦︎☦︎☦︎ Serafina had only one dream: to take center stage at the New York Opera. But if wishes were horses, even beggars would have a ride. Thrown into an arranged marriage, She is determined to hate him but soon discovers that there’s a thin line between love and hate. Adriko has no use for love. His focus is power, his goal is revenge.But what do you do when your greatest threat is your most sinful desire? A pawn in the game… A Bride for a truce…

Vivian's world is turned upside down when her sweet, fun loving boyfriend, Tommy, is killed and makes his cousin Niko vow to protect her. Niko is a brutal man thrown to the head of the families after the loss of his cousin and uncle. The last thing he wants is to babysit an ungrateful toy his cousin stupidly fell in love with. Preview: The room was dark with red hues and a large bed in the center draped in black silk sheets. Niko's body was over six feet tall and completely bare as he rammed himself violently into a woman he had bent over the edge of the bed. His hand was wrapped in her hair forcing her face into the mattress as she screamed in pleasure. Then he roughly pulled her head back making her screams louder. Niko's eyes met mine and he began fucking her faster, grunting out his release as I stood there and just watched him dominate every part of her body. I was right, he was a fucking beast and I swear I was not finding it fucking hot. What is wrong with me? I quickly ran from that room and headed straight to mine. That did not just happen.

Eidolon Avenue: Where the secretly guilty go to die. One building. Five floors. Five doors per floor. Twenty-five nightmares feeding the hunger lurking between the bricks and waiting beneath the boards. The sequel to Eidolon Avenue: The First Feast (“a great read...powerful and jarring” - Cemetery Dance) returns to the voracious Eidolon as it savors The Second Feast. A narcoleptic man in apartment 2A battles a vengeful past determined to rob him of everything as he runs from the barbaric disaster of a delusional love. A woman in 2B, reinventing herself to please a callous boyfriend, discovers the horrors that wait in the shadows of her self-renovation. The man in 2C, a teacher at the nearby Catholic girl’s school, collapses beneath the brutal consequences of his lecherous desires. An older woman in 2D, after decades dedicated to the church, is cornered at last by the grisly carnage beating at the hollow center of her faith. And a college student in 2E, hungry to escape an ignored life of invisible anonymity, finds herself captured between the pages of a ravenous book. All thrown into their own private hell as every cruel choice, every drop of spilled blood, every silent, complicit moment of cowardice is remembered, resurrected and relived to feed the ancient evil that lives on Eidolon Avenue. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Revenge. Sweeter than a kiss laced with honey. Hotter than the deepest depths of hell. And, it hits harder than a f*cking train… I want all of it. I need it more than the air filtering through my lungs. And the constant, unsteady but racy beat of my heart when I’m around them. Darius. Jace. Hunter. It took them five minutes to destroy my life. Faster than it took the eighteen years of my existence for my father–the alpha of the Black Syndicate–to ruin me. I was neglected. Abandoned. Rejected. Pushed around and outcasted by my pack. Now I have to prove myself so my father’s gang won’t kill me. All because of them and by the hands of my father. Want to know the worst part? They are working together. What they don’t know is, once I get released from the juvenile detention center for werewolves I was sent to because of them–I will tear them to shreds. One by one. I, Elise Cartwright, will get my revenge. NOTE: This is an enemies to lovers dark/mafia/werewolf romance where the girl will end up with multiple love interests. (Reverse Harem)

From the time I was ten until I turned eighteen, my parents made me write 299 IOUs. Every time I needed money, I had to borrow it and pay it back as an adult. Then I got into a car accident. I needed money for surgery but was still short by 3,000. With no other options, I went to my parents for help. But they just gave me cold smiles. “Clara, you’re eighteen now. We have no obligation to give you money anymore. If you need it, write another IOU.” While holding back tears, I wrote my 300th IOU. After my surgery, I saw my adopted sister’s social media post. In the pictures, she was celebrating her 18th birthday on a cruise. She was the center of attention, like a princess. My parents had given her a luxury apartment in the city and a Maserati as birthday gifts. Even my childhood friend was looking at her with love in his eyes. She said they were the ones she loved and thanked them for giving her the best of everything. I looked down at the crumpled IOU in my hand and suddenly laughed. Once I paid off my debt, I would no longer need such a family.

"We all consume each other in our way. I merely take a more literal route. You... Alpha." His lip curled. "You would swallow me whole as a part of your pack, and take me as your slave. It is an act of violence, of control. But I..." He stepped closer, and the Alpha tensed, skittering back. "To consume something, to take it into yourself, is an act of love." • ───────────────── • He is a lycanthrope of the first kin. Blood of the fallen gods flows in his veins. Darkness is his refuge, carnage is his mark. And his appetite is that of wolves. In a world where power is wealth, Alphas and Kings war against each other to claim him as their own: to wield his violent nature and bind him to their thrones as a beast of massacre until his last breath. Orphaned by a war in the past, Avian grew as a street urchin first, then apprentice to a high priest within the kingdom walls. With a mind forged from years of survival and an uncanny, rare ability, her small world had managed to remain in one piece through the years. But that is disrupted when a rogue kingdom begins to encroach with the sole desire of conquering all kingdoms beneath the Vellene empire. And at the center of that kingdom lies a Lycanthrope feared by all.

She was sent to kill. Instead, she might be the one destined to end it all. Lea, a top-tier assassin for the secretive High Table, has never missed a mark—until now. What was supposed to be a routine mission turns into a long-term “quest” in the quiet town of Mystique Gore, assisting a cold, commanding man in a mansion older than memory. Strange? Yes. Dangerous? Definitely. But what’s worse? The mission wasn’t for a target... it was for *her*. Marked by a power she doesn’t understand and haunted by dreams that aren’t hers, Lea finds herself entangled in a world she never believed existed—one ruled by vampires, witches, and werewolves hiding in plain sight. And at the center of it all is Ivan, the enigmatic master of the house who knows more than he says... and watches her like she’s already his. As her assassin instincts clash with ancient prophecies, forbidden truths, and a mark that binds her fate to something much bigger, Lea must uncover why the High Table sent her here—and why the supernatural world is afraid of *her*. They say she’s the beginning. They say she’s the end. They say she must die to keep the peace. But Lea doesn’t take orders. She gives them.

She was never meant to survive their world. Now she’s the only one who can burn it down. Lyra thought she was just a girl with strange dreams and a birthmark that shimmered beneath moonlight. But when a celestial event rips her from Earth and drops her into the brutal halls of the Academy of the Ascendant, she discovers a deadly truth: she’s the lost heir of a realm that erased her bloodline—and she’s carrying the forbidden magic that could unravel it all. The Academy is ruled by power and hierarchy. The weak are crushed. The strong ascend. And the Triad—three elite heirs born of elemental fire, storm, and air—will do anything to break her. Until they realize she’s more powerful than all of them. Mocked. Hunted. Desired. As Lyra unlocks the four elemental affinities no student should possess, she becomes the center of a prophecy that the Council has killed to keep buried. But it’s the fifth element—the forbidden Void—that marks her for something more. Survival means mastering her magic. Love could cost her everything. And rebellion might just start with a kiss. Perfect for fans of Zodiac Academy, Throne of Glass, and The Cruel Prince, Marked by Starlight is the explosive first book in a dark fantasy romance series filled with elemental magic, enemies-to-lovers heat, and a heroine who refuses to bow.

Two shots ring. One dies with confusion, regret, and guilt. The other is left with hatred, pain, unresolved feelings, and shattered trust. When great power clashes with an equally great power, an overwhelming explosion is imminent, and many people are bound to get hurt. Especially those at the very center of the explosion, like Chen Kamman. When he was barely eighteen, he had to deal with the pain of losing two of the most important people in his life, taking over his father's dynasty, and fighting to maintain the Chen family's control in one of the deadliest mafia organizations in the world. Years later, he has made history, becoming the youngest cartel leader to ever dominate the system. After all he has been through, he has grown indifferent to everything: cold-hearted, savage, and impossible to hurt like before. But when Dian Aoki, someone he thought he had killed, appears in his life ten years later, everything he has built suddenly comes tumbling to the ground. All the memories and pain he had buried deep within him come floating to the surface, taking him back to the starting point again. The appearance of this person equally causes a major stir in the entire organization. Their very presence threatens to overturn the entire system and Chen Kamman's world.