Ransom Center Austin Novels & Stories

"The Love Game" is an enthralling tale of love, betrayal, and unexpected alliances that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Casper Sullivan, a billionaire who built his pharmaceutical empire from scratch, finds himself at the center of a twisted game orchestrated by his ex-fiancée, Kendall White. When Kendall leaves him for his twin brother, Ryan, who recently inherited their family's company, Casper is shocked. Anika Hart is a PR professional working for Stoll Communications. Anika has been tasked with securing Casper as a client, but she quickly becomes entangled in his complicated life. Drawn to each other, Casper and Anika forge a connection. As Casper navigates the aftermath of Kendall's betrayal, he realizes that there is more to her betrayal. Twisted by her own greed and desire for power, Kendall becomes the true villain of the story, orchestrating a series of manipulations to destroy Casper's company and reputation. The plot thickens when Casper discovers shocking evidence that points to his own twin brother, Ryan, as a co-conspirator in Kendall's malicious plan. The revelation sets in motion a thrilling sequence of events as the truth uncovers, exposing the real culprits behind the elaborate scheme. In a mind-blowing climax, Casper confronts Ryan in a battle of wits and emotions, culminating in a shocking twist that shatters their bond as brothers. "The Love Game" takes readers on a rollercoaster ride of emotions, exploring themes of love, loyalty, and the lengths people will go to protect their own interests. As Casper and Anika navigate the treacherous game of love, they discover that true strength lies in their ability to forge an unbreakable connection and rise above the darkest of betrayals.

"You don't belong here." The people I believed I could trust threw those comments at me, and they rang in my ears for years. My foes, my packmates, and my tormentors are Cassian and Kade. They turned every action I took into something improper and out of character, making my life a living misery. And perhaps I did believe them for a while. But when I turn 19, everything is different. My abilities come to life, more potent and terrifying than I could have ever dreamed. All of a sudden, they are pulled to me as my destined partners rather than as adversaries. The icy Alpha-in-waiting Cassian is troubled by the thought of his future. The vicious Beta Kade is constantly engaged in a game of control and domination. Then there is Alaric, the enigmatic outsider with a secret that has the potential to ruin us all. Destiny created our unshakable bond, but I never wanted to be a pawn in someone else's game. I'm becoming more and more aware that nothing is as it seems. I am at the center of several mysteries that are deeply ingrained in the history of our pack. It's this bond that I wish to resist. I want to despise everyone. However, there is no denying the draw between us. I feel like my heart and soul are breaking apart piece by piece with every touch and look. As the full moon rises, I find myself standing on the edge of all my fears. Then I hear it—the one fact for which I could have been unprepared. "Tonight, one of you will pass away." Who will it be? Is it possible for me to halt it before it is too late?

After working abroad for several years, I returned home, only to have my parents arrange a blind date for me. He was tall and strikingly handsome, honest in character, steady in demeanor, and came from an excellent family background. In short, the perfect candidate for a husband. I told myself that sooner or later, marriage was inevitable, so I settled on him. The day before the wedding, I went to the church—only to be stunned by the sight before me. The entire place had been transformed into something sinister and grotesque. The walls were plastered with terrifying photos of corpses, the floor littered with wax figures of severed arms and legs, and even the flowers had been dyed black, dripping with blood-red stains. But the most infuriating part was the image hanging right at the center of the church—an AI-generated picture of me, pinned beneath my fiancé, as he whipped me. My whole body trembled with fury. I stormed at the staff still working on the decorations, ordering them to stop immediately. Just then, his best friend, Nina Cullen, walked in. "Don't stop. Yves prefers this wedding style." I froze, staring at her in disbelief. "How is that possible? Who in their right mind would decorate something as joyous as a wedding with gore? This is insane!" Nina only gave a cold, arrogant laugh. "That's the theme. If you want to marry him, you'll have to accept it." Speechless, I immediately called Yves. "Yves, I'm not interested in getting married in a haunted house. You'd better restore the church to normal; otherwise, this wedding is off."

Five years after I rejected my mate, Shawn, he had become the Lycan King — and most importantly, he now had a beautiful mate. During the Werewolf Alumni Reunion, someone suddenly brought me up. “What’s Kendra been busy with? She hasn’t shown up at a single reunion in years.” Someone sneered. “She’s too busy seducing alphas from other packs — on airplanes.” “On airplanes?” “Yeah. She’s a werewolf flight attendant with FullMoon Airways. They cater to alphas and lunas from all kinds of packs. I’ve seen her on board before. You wouldn’t believe how flattering she acts around those prestigious wolves.” “Really? Kendra’s a werewolf attendant? No surprise — she’s always dreamed of being claimed by some single alpha.” Hearing that, Shawn, sitting at the center of the table, flinched slightly. His fists tightened. “A werewolf attendant?” he murmured. “Yeah, Shawn... but haven’t you gotten over her by now? It’s been years.” He froze for a second, then quickly composed himself and held his mate’s hand beside him. Everyone’s attention turned to the flickering moonstone ring on her finger. “I’ve long forgotten her,” he said flatly. “Come to my bonding ceremony next month. There will be a sacred ritual at the temple.” “Wow...” Applause filled the hall. But only I, whose soul had been drifting in the air all along, slowly lowered my head upon hearing the news.

Accused of stealing recipes from my own sister, Cora, I was ruthlessly cast out from the healing center—by my own fated mate, the Alpha Kellan. So I came home to my grandma's herb farm. Riding my wild horse, Shadow, wherever the hell we want to go. But now the whole pack is scrambling to find me. In my past life, at the Alliance's Grand Potion Competition, my sister always managed to submit the exact same rare potion recipes as me, just a little bit earlier. They all called me a shameless thief, a plagiarist who stole my own sister's work. Even my own parents got on stage to vouch for her. And Kellan... he threw the exile order in my face. His eyes were ice. He stripped me of my title for "dishonoring the pack" and shattered our mate bond right in front of everyone. The agony tore my soul apart. I wanted to die. My family called me a disgrace and cast me out. The betrayal shattered my wolf. I lost my mind. In the end, one of her fanatics shot me dead in the street. A silver bullet laced with wolfsbane. As I died, I still couldn't understand how she could get inside my head and steal my recipes. Then I opened my eyes. I was back. The day before the competition. This time, my mind is filled with nothing but the wild. Let's see what kind of potion my 'genius' sister can come up with now.

I married my vampire husband ten years ago and gave him a half-blood heir, abandoning my career as a painter to become a full-time mother. Fortunately, my son inherited my talent. At just six years old, he held his first solo art exhibition, inspired by the theme "My Mother." But he never let me attend, and he never let me see his paintings. My husband said my presence would make Luke nervous---that I should stay home and do the housework as a good wife and mother, and wait for them to come back. I told myself he was just young and didn't know better, that he was only pushing back against my discipline, not truly rejecting me. Until the day I snuck into the gallery wearing a surgical mask pulled low. In the center of the crowd, my husband held our son's hand while tenderly pulling a woman in a red dress into his arms. He turned to the guests and announced: "This is Luke's mother---my wife." The three of them stood together, beaming with perfect happiness. And I---the one who'd stayed up all night setting up this exhibition---stood before the paintings while not a single person recognized me. That was when I finally understood. My seemingly gentle, caring vampire husband had long ago given our son a replacement mother. And I was nothing more than the human nanny who'd served her purpose by producing an heir.

One maiden, one Luna, one drop-dead gorgeous Alpha from hell. It is all Elizabeth Milkhart can think about when she is summoned to the dreaded Blackwood Castle to be a surrogate mate for the infertile Luna, Cassandra Blackwood. Elizabeth believes it had to have been a misunderstanding, humans in the dreaded castle were unheard of, and yet, there she was, bending over and being probed and dressed by the royal consorts for the mysterious Alpha’s viewing. Her presence in the pack causes tension and it is all Elizabeth can do not to run to the hills screaming as she is thrust deeper and deeper into the web of lies and deceit that shrouded the castle, at the center of which was Ezra Blackwood. She knew he wasn't good for her, and yet, Elizabeth finds that try as she might, she just couldn't get the brooding werewolf King with searing gray eyes out of her head. Wild, Quiet, and blonde. That was how Alpha Ezra Blackwood liked his women. It was what had made him settle for the love-torn marriage with Princess Cassandra. He is content to drink his mornings and sulk his nights away until the ravishing redhead falls right into his lap. Literally. Elizabeth Milkhart is the only human the powerful Alpha can't seem to get out of his mind, even when he knows he is bad for her. In and Out like the other surrogates, that was all she had to do right? Wrong. Ezra finds himself falling for the human before long, a fate he wouldn't admit even to himself, vowing to destroy her utterly before it happens and she him.

The world ended the day the shifters revealed themselves. Dragons, wolves and other beasts from legend rose from the ashes of civilization and divided the ruins of the old world into brutal new kingdoms. Humans were spared- but only barely. Stripped of power, pushed into the center territories, and treated as lesser, they became a resource instead of a race. And now they are needed. Seraphina has survived her entire life by being invisible, a shadow, a rumor. Orphaned young, she learned fast that strength meant staying alive -and trust was a luxury she couldn't afford. In a world where humans are bartered and bred to strengthen shifter bloodlines, Seraphina has no intention of becoming anyone's prize. Until the prince of dragons befriends her, dragging her into a world of molten stone, deadly politics and people willing to kill her the knowledge she obtains. To keep her safe, Prince Kaelith takes her to the King's Castle. King Micah, ruler of the Western Skies, is everything that the world fears -merciless, untouchable, and bound by a fate written in fire. Everything that Seraphina has spent her life avoiding. Yet the bond ignites the moment he touches her. Claimed by the most powerful shifter alive, Seraphina's own secret paints an even larger target on her back. As tensions rise between shifter kingdoms and whispers of rebellion spread through the human territories, Seraphina must decide who she is willing to become: a pawn in a broken world, or the queen standing beside the dragon who burn it all down for her. Because fate chose her for a reason. and the world is about to remember what happens when even a dragon falls in love.

A captive of the powerful Alpha King, Dragana, a witch of royal Slavic descent has been tasked to find the ruthless alpha his mate. If she fails, A ruthless Alpha King is not going to stop at anything to secure his succession, his crown and heir, even if that included taking Dragana as his breeder, against her will. Time was running out and despite everything, she has found herself in the center of war, temptation, death and love. ************************************************************************** I dreamt of her lips.. I could not get that from my head, even in the dream.. Rolling over, I could almost sense faint scent of her on my bed.. My cock was hard again, and the only thing to do now was to rub one out.. Large, hard and sticking out, I grabbed it, thinking of her lips.. Sliding my hand up and down I imagined Dragana’s wet pussy, her juices flowing down, her taking me and screaming my name.. I could see her silver eyes ripe with satisfaction, her biting her lip all while I thrust deeper and deeper inside, making her take my full length… I thrust my cock again in my hand imagining being inside her.. She as a virgin, so she must be tight.. no man before me had her.. to that thought, I simply exploded all over again.. I will have her, I said to myself.. I want her and I will have her, heir or not, mate or not..

Aria’s story begins in silence. On the night her child is born beneath a bleeding moon, the world does the unthinkable, the moon answers a power older than mercy and takes her baby from her arms. No prophecy offers comfort. No god explains why. There is only absence, a wound carved so deeply into Aria that something inside her hardens into resolve. She was never meant to be a vessel. In a world ruled by ancient God's, sacred pacts, and power that demands obedience, Aria uncovers a truth far more dangerous than destiny, magic does not always need to be stolen, inherited, or bargained for. Sometimes, it listens. Sometimes, it can be refused. Bound by fate to Kael, a warrior forged for war and sacrifice, Aria is drawn into a conflict far older than the kingdoms trembling in its shadow. Alongside Azrael, Matteo, and Ren, the men shaped by loyalty, loss, and violence, she stands at the center of a prophecy written to break her. The Devourer, an ancient god of control and corruption, seeks to claim Aria as its final vessel and crown her queen. It promises salvation. Restoration. Even the impossible return of what she lost. Aria refuses. At the Hollow Crown, she denies divinity itself, shattering prophecy and forcing a god to retreat. But refusal leaves echoes. Fragments of corrupted power bleed into the world, and greater eyes turn toward her defiance. As stars realign and lost sanctums awaken, forces older than Gods, the Architects, shapers of fate itself, begin to watch. Aria is no ascended queen. She is a reckoning. And the world is no longer prepared for a woman who has already lost everything, and learned how to say no.