Shortsword Of First Blood

I was the heiress switched at birth by a nanny. It was not until I turned eighteen that my biological parents finally found me, and traded me back for the girl they had raised and loved as their own. However, fate played a cruel joke that very same week. My parents died in a car accident. The family business collapsed. In one night, I lost everything. My older brother survived, but his kidneys failed. I did not hesitate. I gave him mine. However, grief broke something in him. Blaming me for our parents' deaths, he spiraled into madness. "You killed Mom and Dad! Why wasn't it you who died instead?" he screamed. I gave up college and took on three jobs a day just to pay for his treatment. Years passed. One day, while cleaning a mansion as a housekeeper, I saw her, the "sister" I was traded for, gliding through a lavish party, dressed in designer clothes and dripping in jewels. I froze when I heard the voices I had long thought silenced. My parents, alive, speaking to her as gently as ever: "Jasmine, you're so compassionate… agreeing to end Helen's punishment early." My brother, the one who should still be seeing a therapist, frowned and objected. "No. Not even a day less. Just because she suffers a little doesn't mean she deserves to live." I glanced down at the medical report still warm in my hands. For the first time in years, I smiled. "Perfect," I whispered. "Now I can finally die like I wanted to."

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

Just because my wolf mom scratched Ava Shaw's favorite dress, Noah Potter called a butcher. He punished her seriously. I found her dying body and screamed at him. "I told you before—I was raised by wolves. What you did to her is no different from killing my mother!" Noah stayed cold. He covered Ava's eyes and stared at me. "You are just a stray kid my stepmom picked up. Stop trying to fool me." My wolf mom was still bleeding as she dragged herself toward me. I crawled to her and held her tight. "I stayed here to repay Noah's family for helping the wolf pack. You chased me for miles because you could not let me go. I never thought I would end up hurting you instead." That night, I held my wolf mom and knelt in front of Aunt Wendy's memorial. "Aunt Wendy, the Potters' Zoo are everywhere now. They do not need my gift anymore. I should leave."

He's a demon prince, playful and deceiving. A cunning and favorite is to lie. His name is Beelzebub, a demon. While She's a normal woman, a blind and pitiful one. Solo in life, and bullied by everyone. Her name is Rana, a human. Paano kung isang araw ay magkasalubong ang mga landas nila? Paano kung ang isang tao ay mapatino ang prinsipe ng demon realm, may malaking epekto kaya ito sa magka-iba nilang mundo? What if, the woman fell first but the demon fell harder Will love wins when Beelzebub wants Rana to be his Queen, yet the king of demon is against it?

An abandoned princess out for revenge... A powerful king in search of a bride... A hidden enemy lying in wait... An uprising approaching... In every tale of love and war, one must always come out the victor. But, How can you defeat something you can't even see? Elena has gone through so many unfair things in life. As a royal princess, she is treated no different from a commoner in her own home. She endured it all, until the day she found out she was to be paid a tribute to the blood king.... The blood king, a tyrant and a masochist, the person most feared in all the four kingdoms. No one has seen his face, and whoever does do not live to see the next day. Elena would rather die than to be given to him. But she alone can't suffer. As she goes to , she will drag them all with her! Revenge? that's her motto. Death? that's her best friend. No one can stop her! And not even the blood king!

Mikalya Carnell, a woman born into a cursed pack where women are nothing but birthing machines. The first female alpha in the world. But to become the Alpha, she had to commit a crime that haunts her an eternity later. Now she a lone wolf, a rogue that has no place but the one she made on her own and she’s happy being left alone. But an Alpha can’t stay alone forever without forming a pack and inevitably, she begins drawing wolves to her. Abhay Raichand is a photographer who meets this mysterious woman in the deserts of Rajasthan, who looks like a foreigner and is instantly drawn to her. But whenever he is around her, he feel the chill of the mountains and a reoccurring dream of his impending death. However, despite the sense of danger, he cannot help but continue to fall in love with her. Will Mikalya finally settle down and let Abhay into her life? And will Abhay be able to convince her that she was chosen as the Alpha for a reason?

Amara Drivas was treated as an outcast by the Crimson moon pack. It's been sixteen years of slavery and humiliation that she endured, thinking it was the right thing to do; to be grateful knowing that she—a half-human and a half-werewolf—was accepted to live with the pack after her human mother died when she gave birth of her. She felt indebted towards the pack to whom her father was loyal, so even though the place turned out to be like hell for her, she obeyed the Alpha and the full bloods. But as she grew older, she found herself questioning the apparent inequality and unjust rules of the higher ranks, including the Alpha. The night before her seventeenth birthday, a tragedy happened before her eyes. Her father Argus Drivas and the love of her life Killan Montreal, who did nothing but obey the Alpha,were killed by the warrior wolves. Amara's wrath was kindled. All her life, she thought that shifting into a wolf would be impossible—as most werewolves in the pack have concluded that she was a cursed child, a punishment by the Moon goddess to her parents—but at that unexpected moment, she transformed into a dangerous wolf. She never felt so powerful until that night she transformed. Rage and vengeance overpowered her that killing became so easy. She killed the warrior wolves in their house and then escaped to a faraway land where werewolves couldn't enter— in Drysdale, the territory of humans. As she lived in that place, she learned new things that Amara, herself, did not even realize during her stay in the Crimson moon pack for so many years. A realization that she wasn't cursed and the power that has given her by the Moon goddess turned out to be a wonderful blessing. What else would she figure out?

Ashlyn Kim Yu was the soon-to-be alpha of Wolf’s Cry pack. But due to being mateless at her 26, her father arranged a potential marriage partner for her. But she hates the idea as she did not want to be manipulated especially when her heart was on the line. She snapped at the meeting and almost killed everyone including her father. Yet, fate had another rule to play when the moment she decided not to be mated and lead the pack alone, her mate suddenly showed up. Things within her suddenly were shaken up when her mate was a nomad vampire and has to stay for a couple of months in their pack. As this particular nomad vampire called Vladimir Milano was the main reason why she moved differently around him or was in her worst state of anger management. Despite being unintentionally irritated all the time, she could not just ignore the fact that they were mates. She didn't want to be with anyone because of the mate bond but rather, something more that goes beyond the mate's pull; love. But can Ashlyn fully accept everything about her mate when she uncovered her mate's hidden past or hidden reason? Or even the thought of her mate being a woman was not a woman at all rather, a man looking exactly like one? *All Rights Reserved*

Is love hard to find? Bobby found his Soulmate at a glimpse of an eye. He attended a once in awhile beach party that led him into falling in love and finding his long awaited lady of his dreams. Who knew love would be this elementary to find. His associates teased him and he denied it but deep down they knew he was concealing his sensitiveness. Their love grew even stronger that it led into marriage and making up a family together. Love comes where you are, we don't look for it. It comes naturally.

Three days after the healer told me I was terminally ill, Keith Bradford—the alpha's heir—finally completed his training and returned to the pack. Rumor had it, he was back for his future mate. The alpha had chosen a perfect match for him—a well-bred, talented girl, two years younger than Keith. Sweet, gentle, never even had a boyfriend. The complete opposite of me, with exes as countless as the stars. It was not until a week after Keith returned that I finally saw him, outside the treatment room. He had not changed much—sharp features, high nose bridge, deep, defined eyes. Just as impossibly handsome as he was the first time we kissed. Almost as if sensing my gaze, Keith looked up, sharp and alert. Our eyes met—and for a second, it felt like the air froze. Everyone thought I would recklessly ruin Keith’s engagement, just like the wild girl I used to be. But what they didn’t realize was… my time was running out. I stepped forward, calm and composed, a faint smile on my lips. "It's been a while… my dear brother." I could not help but whisper in my heart, "These few days will be our final farewell, Keith."