Scientific Cicada Drawing

“I didn't think you'd come,” Mason Remington said. Lisa's breathing slowly increased as she tightly gripped the contract in her hands. It was already rumpled from the many times she'd read it, playing its letters like a movie in her head, over and over. Was she honestly considering it? She had a boyfriend. And even though she had always wanted Mason, craved him for years, he was her brother's best friend, who before today had never thought of her as anything other than a little sister. She knew what he wanted and what she'd be getting into if she went through with this, but all those thoughts seemed to vanish as she made her way into his office. Mason closed the distance between them, drawing her close with his hands to her waist and closing the door forcefully behind her. He now had her in his arms, giving her a small smile before crushing his mouth to hers, shutting her up before she could say anything. His hands moved up her back and crushed her tiny body against his, causing a quiet moan from her. He kissed her as though he was hungry for her. It wasn't just a show of power but desire. And with every brush of his tongue against hers, she knew all too well, that there was no way on earth she could say no to his proposal.

When Tessa Shoreman read Henry Jennings' cancer report, she immediately paid her hard-earned money of sixty thousand to the hospital. She had saved the money from working part-time while she was in university. However, she was worried the money was not enough, so she held back her fear as she sold a kidney to the black market to get more. As she walked to the ward door with a heavy bag filled with cash, she heard shrill laughter coming from inside. "That cheap woman, Tessa Shoreman, got tricked by us again. Haha!" Tessa's hand gave pause right when she was about to push the door open. What did he mean by saying she was tricked? Tessa looked through the glass on the door to see inside the ward. When she left, the man looked extremely weak, but he was now sitting up lazily in bed. Henry had a cigarette in his mouth, and he was blowing smoke rings nonchalantly. He did not look like a cancer patient at all. "It's been two years, and that woman still has no idea." "If she hadn't beaten Serene to first place, Henry would never have left behind his life as a rich heir and planned such an elaborate scheme to become a working-class man living in a cheap rental home. The way that cheap, penniless woman looks at Henry is so amusing." "We agreed that the punishment ends when Henry and Serene get engaged. It looks like time is almost up. We've probably punished her 108 times in the past two years." "The first time was lying to her that Henry didn't have a suit for a job interview. She worked tirelessly for 72 hours straight before she earned enough money for one, but that suit was given to the domestic help to use as a cleaning cloth. The second time was tricking her into believing Henry had a high fever. She forfeited during the finals of a scientific research competition to race home and take care of Henry in the hospital…" "Sigh. Too bad it's coming to an end. I'm going to miss entertaining myself with her."

As the end of the year approaches, my wife, Sylvia Small, who is five months into her pregnancy, accidentally falls into a lake. Our neighbor who is a police officer, Raven Weber, jumps in and rescues her. Unfortunately, she slips into a coma after her heroic feat. As I rush over, I see that a crowd has gathered at the scene. Sylvia is drenched from head to toe, wrapped up tightly in a blanket. Water droplets keep dripping from the tips of her hair. "Are you alright, Sylvia?" I ask, drawing near. The moment Sylvia sees me, she moves toward me and burrows herself into my arms. She clings to me like she is clinging for dear life. "You're finally here, Zach!" she exclaims emotionally. I frown and push her away. "Just say what you have to say. This suit is expensive. Don't dirty it," I said indifferently. My words make Sylvia's eyes go wide with disbelief and shock. But that only lasts for a second before an anxious look replaces it. She holds my arms firmly and says in a choked voice, "Officer Weber is in a coma because of me. Please transfer a sum of money to me so that I can thank her for saving my life." I glance at Sylvia impatiently and reply, "What's that got to do with me? Why should I transfer you my money so that you can give it to her?"

Lila Crescent has spent her entire life being invisible. As an omega in the Shadowpine Pack, she is at the bottom of the hierarchy worthless in everyone's eyes. She runs a small bakery, keeps her head down, and survives by never drawing attention to herself. It is a lonely existence, but it is safe. Then the lunar eclipse changes everything. At midnight, under the blood-red moon, a silver crescent mark burns into her neck. The legendary Midnight's Mark, a bond that has not appeared in over a century. But the mark does not just choose anyone. It chooses mates destined by the Moon Goddess herself. Her mate? Beta Darius Nightshade. The pack's second in command. A powerful, broken warrior who locked his heart away ten years ago after losing his first love. When he sees the mark connecting him to a lowly omega, his first reaction is rejection. Darius does not want a mate. Especially not her. But the bond does not care what they want. If they do not accept it before the next full moon, they will both go feral and lose their humanity forever. Forced together by fate, Lila and Darius must navigate their impossible connection while enemies plot against them and rogue attacks threaten the pack. As Lila discovers she is not the weak omega everyone believed, she must prove her worth not just to Darius, but to herself. Because the Moon Goddess does not make mistakes. And maybe being chosen means she was always strong enough. She just needed to believe it.

“He is watching us, Eleanor. Your husband, the one who believes you’re dead, is watching you like this… beneath another man, breathless, trembling, losing yourself across these sheets.” His hand tightened at my waist, drawing a sharp breath from my lips as his mouth brushed my ear. “Good,” I whispered, a slow, wicked smile curving across my lips as my gaze drifted toward the shadow behind the half-open door. I tilted my head back, letting the moment linger—letting him watch. “Then let’s give him a show he will never forget.” ** Once, I had belonged to someone else. A husband who chose my sister over me. A family who buried my screams beneath their lies. A man who did not hesitate when asked which of us should die. He chose me. So now, I chose revenge. A new face. A new name. I would make him crave me… ache for me… ruin himself trying to keep me. And when my sister watches him unravel, piece by piece, she would feel every ounce of pain I did. But to destroy a man, you must first understand his hunger. And the one teaching me? Alexander Blackthorn. My husband’s older brother. A ruthless rogue who believed revenge was never meant to be quick but savored slowly.

Wildlife biologist Marisol Vega's life implodes in a single day. Her fiancé confesses he's been cheating with her best friend, and her doctor delivers devastating news: severe endometriosis has left her nearly infertile. Heartbroken but determined, Marisol enrolls in an experimental fertility program, choosing to build her family alone using donor genetic material. What she doesn't know is that her donor, Kael Blackwood, is the last heir to a powerful werewolf pack. His donation was meant to preserve his endangered bloodline, but a catastrophic lab error places his sample with Marisol instead. The mistake carries consequences beyond medical negligence in werewolf lore, conception creates spiritual bonds that transcend biology. When Marisol begins experiencing vivid dreams, heightened senses, and an inexplicable pull toward a dangerous stranger, Kael appears with an impossible claim: the child is his, and ancient pack law grants him paternal rights. Marisol refuses to surrender the control she's fought so hard to reclaim, but she can't deny the primal connection drawing them together. As Marisol manifests wolf traits and enemies threaten her unborn child, she and Kael must navigate pack politics, prophecies, and their growing attraction. When a vengeful witch reveals she orchestrated everything cursing Marisol's fertility years ago and manipulating the clinic to create a hybrid child of unprecedented power—Marisol faces an impossible choice: maintain her hard-won independence or trust the alpha who's awakened both her desire and her dormant supernatural legacy.

"I said, what if I want to spend unnecessarily on you and your daughter?" Sebastian whispered, placing his hand on the small of my back and drawing me closer to himself. My breath hitched, my blood catching fire the moment my body hit his and my toes curled. His eyes pierced into mine as if they were searching my soul, wanting to see past all my guards and defences. "What if I want to spoil you? What if I want to give you everything you want? What if I want to make sure you don't lack anything you ever desired? What if I want to place the world at your feet? Will you let me, Aurora?" ~~~~~ Divorced and disowned on the same day, I simply decided to end my life.   But I didn't think I'd save a man from doing the same, nor did I expect him to give me a reason to live.   Five years later, my life hasn't gotten better. I'm drowning in debt and trying so hard to give my daughter a healthy life, but it's not enough.   Everything appears to be grim until the enigmatic billionaire Sebastian Warners unexpectedly enters my life and offers me everything I want on a silver platter for nearly nothing.   Why?   Why is a stranger so insistent on helping me? And what will I do when the past I had frantically tried to bury reappears?   Can true love, in which I had lost all hope, save the day, or will my entire life go up in flames again?  

When war broke out in Irestan, my fiancé, Everett Jones, caused a scene at the airport and refused to let the evacuation flight take off. He was determined to wait for his precious first love, Annie Scott, who had taken advantage of the chaos to loot a cosmetics counter for luxury goods. By then, the insurgent forces were already closing in. The shriek of explosions grew louder, drawing nearer by the second. With an entire plane full of people in mortal danger, I had no choice. I knocked Everett unconscious and dragged him aboard. After we returned home, far from the battlefield, we lived a period of quiet, comfortable happiness. I truly believed he had finally put that woman behind him. I was wrong. On our wedding day, he tied me up, drove me away, and deliberately crashed the car, killing me. As my life slipped away, I heard his twisted laughter. "Daniela, you're the one who killed my Annie. Because of you, she was killed by an insurgent missile. "She was just a young girl who liked to look pretty. What was so wrong with that? "This is what you owe her. I'm going to make you suffer far more than she ever did." When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the boarding gate, at the exact moment he blocked the plane. This time, I chose to grant his wish and let him stay behind with his beloved first love, together, forever.

For five years, Elara Ashford was the perfect billionaire wife—gentle, loyal, and endlessly patient. She loved her husband quietly, standing behind him as he rose to the top of the business world. To Julian Ashford, the ruthless CEO of Ashford Group, his wife was nothing more than a convenient presence—someone who would never leave, never complain, and never matter. Until the night he publicly humiliates her and proves, beyond doubt, that she will always come second. Instead of begging or crying, Elara calmly asks for a divorce. Certain she will regret it, Julian signs without hesitation. But Elara doesn’t come back. She disappears—and when she returns, she is no longer the invisible woman he discarded. She is confident, radiant, and untouchable, drawing admiration from powerful men who now see her worth. That is when Julian’s world begins to unravel. Haunted by regret, consumed by obsession, and driven to desperation, the billionaire who once controlled everything finds himself losing sleep, sanity, and pride—all for the woman he cast aside. As Julian abandons his arrogance to chase the wife he never appreciated, Elara must decide whether a man who broke her so completely deserves a second chance. Especially when the truth finally emerges: She was never weak. She was always the one holding his empire together. Now the man who once looked down on her must face the most painful reality of all— losing her may be the one mistake he can never undo.

Ivy had everything one could wish for-money, rich and caring parents, going to the school of her dreams and even a luxurious lifestyle with a company of her own. Her life was perfect but that was to outsiders, only her knew what a complete mess her life was, nightmares hunting her since she was five, workaholic parents who she rarely saw and a school full of scheming b***hes. Her life was a mess until a ball hit her head… hard. Transferred to another world into a person with the same face as hers, she must discover her purpose in this magical place and everyone seems to have a secret of their own especially her twin brother Ivan. ******************************************************************. 'I kissed him’ ivory said in realization. She looked at his groaning figure. ‘But why is he in so much pain’ ivory asked. ‘he's not supposed to exist in the first place, so he's being punished for disrupting the rule and order of the world, this happens on his birthday every year… in order for him not to feel pain, he must have his soulmate with him on that day, he and his soulmate would must either have a little physical intimate contact or they must mate for the pain to stop’ Anita explained gently. Ivory sighed she stared at him in the eyes then suddenly kissed him. Even though he was tied by a rope, he managed to dominate her. Her body was on fire, their tongues intertwined endlessly. Alfred was not in pain anymore but one look and any one could tell he was not his normal self. The rope snapped drawing ivory out of her reverie.