Ruddy Skin

If vampires aren't real, what did she just kill? Cadence Findley never gave much thought to vampires until one night when a dark encounter changed her life forever. When her friend is lured into the woods by a stranger with steel-gray eyes and pale skin, Cadence instinctively knows he is dangerous, so she follows at a distance. Moments later, she finds herself all alone with his decapitated head--and her friend's body at her feet. Except she's not really alone. A mysterious man appears out of nowhere and insists she runs. The monster has friends--the blood sucking kind. And now, they are coming for her. Swept into a world full of creatures she never dreamed existed, Cadence is left with a choice. Can she outrun the clan of vampires who've marked her for death, or should she follow the advice of the sexy man in black who warned her in the woods and now insists she transform into a vampire hunter? Will Cadence escape the bloodsuckers on her tail as she enters the secret world of vampires and guardians, hunters and hybrids? Follow the adventure as Cadence Findley leaves her life as a college student to become an extraordinary vampire hunter.

Seven years of love, shattered by seven months of betrayal. Some promises are easier to break than to keep. Kyros Arnaud Ferrero was supposed to be my forever—the man I gave my heart to at seventeen. But love isn’t always a fairytale. I never imagined that his devotion would come with deception, that the man I trusted most could betray me with the very friend I held dear. He lied. He cheated. And he did it all without remorse. So, I did the one thing he never saw coming. To get back at him, I married the one person he despises most—his brother, the powerful president of his company. *** For five years, I did everything to avoid Maximus Ferrero. A relentless control freak, a man who sent letters that made my skin crawl. The last time I saw him, he leaned in and whispered, “When you eventually decide to leave Kyros, inform me immediately. I’ll arrange our marriage without delay.” I swore he would never be an option. Until he was... *** Trigger Warning: Some chapters in this novel contain dark themes that may be distressing to some readers. Please proceed with discretion

Someone close once told me that our generation's love knows no bond. It's against all odds as the saying goes to say, strengthening the bent one, and right the wrong. As long as they love each other and were willing to bend rules, that is all that matters.As starters, I was gifted with a 6'4 ft height. Fair glowing skin, sinewy, metallic blue eyes, but most of all, I was dubbed as one of the living proof of the most beautiful man ever to exist in history. I love music that's why I chose to spend my time with my acoustic guitar and a band every night.With that one-of-a-kind gift, I have been with a lot of women, young and old, human or wolf. It is also when I learned how to differentiate between love and lust.I was collecting and picking women at the age of twelve, thinking I could find the right one. Not to boast off my confidence, I broke the Guinness Book of Record, breaking with a hundred and sixty girlfriends in three years.However, I never expected that the kind of love I've been searching for offered from the rest of the wolf and human world. And it all started at this very particular event. The Mating Night.

In my last life, I made the dumbest mistake—picked up a Moonlight Ring from the grass. That cursed thing locked me into a mate bond with Silvermoon Pack's Alpha. Too bad his heart already belonged to my sister, Irene. She lived to a hundred, had five pups with her real mate in Ravenshade Pack while I rotted. Every time she got cozy with her mate, Leon tossed me in the basement. "You picked up that ring! I had to watch my true love build a family with someone else!" For eighty years, she lived happily. I barely lived at all. Leon flayed me open, let my skin grow back, then crushed my bones just to watch them heal. Every day felt like dying on repeat. Only when Irene finally kicked the bucket did he let me go. Then boom—I woke up, right back on the day I picked up that damn ring. I wasn't gonna screw it up again. But Irene—always the clean freak—snatched it off the ground before I could stop her.

Buried deep in the Aster estate was the Heartwood—ancient, sacred, mine. Told my husband, Julian Aster—back when he actually listened—that if it ever fell, I'd die with it. At first, he freaked out. Flew in glacier water, hired a whole squad of plant experts to nurture it 24/7. Then one day, just because his childhood friend—Isabella Duvall—got a scratch from the bark, Julian had the Heartwood ripped out. The second it crashed, I choked on glowing blood—ichor. My power? Gone. Barely standing, I grabbed his arm. "You knew. If the Heartwood dies, I—" He laughed. Straight-up mocked me. "Sera, come on. That fairy tale? Only Grandma still believes that crap. Is that mayo on your mouth? Relax—it's a tree. I'll buy you a forest if you want." Overnight, my hair turned gray. Skin cracked. Eyes dulled. Still, I dragged myself to his grandmother, Henrietta. "I kept your family safe for two hundred years. That's why the Asters thrived. But the Heartwood's gone. Debt's paid. One day left. Whatever happens next? Not my problem."

"You taste like warm sweet honey and I want more of you!" He growls as he presses his manhood into my hip. "Give yourself to me tesoro." [Treasure] His words are like fuel to my igniting fire. I want him, I crave him and when his lips start to suck on my heated skin I turn into a puddle of water when his hand dips into the top of my dress. He finds my breast and he kneads it, flicking my erect nipple has my panties moisten with arousal --- Vanessa Maddison: She is as gorgeous and flawless on the outside as she is scarred and tormented on the inside. Luca Venturi: Came storming into Vanessa's life like a raging blaze that burns everything it caresses. He's an Italian billionaire doctor who can have any woman he wants, but, he has his sights set on Vanessa. Intertwined by their secrets, they try to defy the odds. They make their own rules and quickly surrender to the exquisite power of possession. What began as a fling evolved into something far greater than either of them could have imagined. What will the Italian billionaire do to save Vanessa when they are thrown into a world they are both unfamiliar with time and time again?

“You dare to think of another man in my presence?” The Alpha growled with a burning desire in his eyes. He glowered at Lavinia whose hands were tied. “What does that man have that I don’t? That filthy vampire, you think he’s going to save you?” His hands ran through her bare skin, sending shivers to her spine. “Please, leave me alone,” Lavinia begged in desperation. Tears welled up in her eyes. “Then be mine, Lavinia.” He leaned closer to her. His breath fanned her face. “I’ll make you the happiest woman alive.” Lavinia shook her head. She pursed her lips while watching the man in front of her. He may be a great man with power but her heart longed for someone else. “No. You’re not him… You’re not Sebastian.” "We had an unspoken deal: He gave me warmth, colors, and lies. In return, he asked for my blood when he's thirsty, my body when he's cold and my heart when he's bored. The funny part is, I still think it's quite a bargain." - Lavinia de Llava

After going bankrupt, I do the unthinkable for my gravely ill younger brother, Ricky Ashford, and climb into the bed of Damien Blackwood, the notorious mafia boss. When his smoldering gaze sweeps over my shirtless body, I stay perfectly still. The reason is that I'm afraid to set off this infamous man in front of me. However, the next instant, his lips are everywhere on my skin, and the night dissolves into a wild, reckless blur. For three years, I endure every torment in his bed. Thoughts of escape and even suicide cross my mind, but the fact that my brother is fighting for his life in the ICU keeps me going. One day, I accidentally overhear him speaking with his childhood friend, Chloe Sterling. "How long do you plan to toy with your enemy's daughter? You're not falling for her, are you?" "Don't be absurd." "And what about her sickly brother?" "He died long ago." The last thread holding me together snaps. Now, there is no reason left to live. As I prepare to end my life by burning charcoal, tears well up in his eyes as he pleads for me not to leave.

In Black Salt, love is a sickness you can’t hide—a slow gnawing beneath the skin that leaves you hollowed, grayed, and eventually gone. No one stays long enough to see it through; they leave before the rot finishes its work. It’s what the town teaches you: when it starts, you run. You look away. You survive by pretending not to feel. But Atlas is tired of pretending. The halls of Black Salt High are full of kids pretending they don’t see each other’s bruised hearts, pretending their bones aren’t already whispering warnings. Still, he can’t forget the weight of a father who stayed—not out of love, but because he never felt it deep enough to decay. That truth lingers in Atlas like a second shadow. And then there’s Nova—the outsider with a storm in her bones. And Wren, all sharpness and fight. Milo, who cracks jokes to keep the silence at bay. Luce, who wears her thorns like jewelry. Together, they don’t know how to stop the rot. But they’re learning how to sit with it, how to name it, how to refuse the small, hollow deaths of pretending not to care. In a town where love is a death sentence, staying might be the bravest thing of all.

“You should’ve stayed gone,” Damon growled, his claws flexing. “Whatever you’ve become, it doesn’t change the fact you were never meant to lead.” Kael smiled, slow and cruel, the glow of runes dancing beneath his skin. “And you were never meant to rule.” _ In the ruthless world of wolves, Kael was born with skin that marked him as different — cursed, whispered some, forgotten by the Moon, said others. Discriminated against and dismissed by his own pack, Kael's only ally was Damon, the wolf he helped rise to Alpha. But power changes wolves. Betrayed, humiliated, and cast out, Kael disappears into the wilds, where death was meant to claim him. Instead, a prophecy found him. With a heritage rooted in ancient magic and bloodlines long thought extinct, Kael is reborn as something new, something dangerous. When he returns, stronger and stranger than any wolf alive, the very pack that rejected him will be forced to kneel… or burn. But fate isn’t done with Kael yet. His greatest enemy still wants him close—and someone new may hold the key to his heart. The only problem? Kael was never meant to belong to anyone.