Showing Instead Of Telling

For sixty-six full moons, Alpha Zephyr showered me with lavish courtship rituals, begging me to be his mate. On the sixty-seventh, I finally said yes. On our bonding night, I gave him an enchanted pouch with sixty-six moonlight crystals. We made a deal. Every time he broke my heart, I would crush one. It was the price of my forgiveness. In the six years since we mated, he has broken my heart over and over for his childhood friend, Chloe. Each time, I crushed a crystal. After the sixty-fourth crystal turned to dust, Zephyr finally seemed to notice something was off. I stopped telling him to keep his distance from Chloe. I stopped needing him around. But when he tried to leave me for that Omega one more time, I grabbed his arm. “You’re going to her. Should I crush another crystal for this?” Zephyr froze, his expression weary. “Do what you want. You have plenty left anyway.” I just nodded, watching his back as he disappeared. He still thought the moonlight crystals were endless. He had no idea there were only two left in the pouch.

Bella, she is strong, beautiful a goddess in the flesh but she has a past that she cannot easily forget. Forcing herself into an alcove, she decides to move on to leave the past where it belongs. She tried moving on but trauma still haunts her, following her like a shadow something she cannot easily shake off and having him as a constant reminder does not make life easier. She strived to build her own fortress, a safe haven away from all of the chaos. Leonardo is a man of his time, mysterious, handsome and successful, being an heir to the vast Mendoza Empire, all eyes are on him. He too harbors a dark past of his own, one he wishes to run from. He tries to move on and he thinks he has realization dawns on him telling him he is back at the starting point. All she has ever wanted was true freedom but when she got it, it was painfully taken away. He had the freedom he wanted but it led him astray. After so many years they find each other. She is forced but he does it willingly, an alliance set for them to get married. Will they fall in love along with their walls or with their love get destroyed along with their fortresses?

On Christmas night, I've roasted a whole turkey and paired it with the finest red wine. Then, I quietly wait for my boyfriend, Don Carlo Carlione from the Carlione family, to come home to me. When Carlo steps through the front door, he doesn't even spare me a glance. Instead, he throws his blood-stained coat onto the couch and starts undoing his cufflinks. "Something important is going on at the family HQ tonight, so I can't celebrate Christmas with you tonight." He sounds very casual, as though he's talking about the weather. I don't respond to him at all. Instead, I just slice my turkey quietly. Later on at 1:00 am, Carlo's ex-girlfriend, Lucia Caruso, uploads a social media post right on time. In the photo, she can be seen resting her head against Carlo's shoulder. The background shows a night sky filled with fireworks overcasting a grand bridge. The caption reads, "He told me he can always keep me company as long as I say the word." I don't hurl my phone in a fit of anger, nor do I call Carlo to demand for answers hysterically. Instead, I just leave a like on the post. 30 seconds later, Carlo calls me. For once, his voice is tinged with a hint of alarm. "This is just a misunderstanding! I'll definitely celebrate next Christmas with you!" I just shake my head with a soft sigh. "It's a shame that there's no next Christmas for us ever again."

Rion Elixia Auclair, a sassy girl who owns a publishing company in France, she decided to go home in the Philippines to see her twin but instead of meeting her, she meet a guy named Greyson Sauder a well known multi-billionaire and a tyrant who persist that she is his bride.

Sapphire's trapped in her uncle's pack. He hates her in so many ways. Everyone in the pack does, even her cousin Ivory. So, she gets the jobs no one wants to do while Ivory is the golden child. She's got everything and gets away with everything. While Sapphire must pick up her slack in the packhouse. All the while, suffering the hateful words and actions of the pack. Her emotions are mixed as she reaches adulthood. Sapphire expects being cast from the pack. She plans to leave on her terms. Little does she know Ivory wants to remove her from not just the pack, but the world. Magnus is the Alpha of a pack moving into the area. A pack her uncle doesn't want there, but it's small and can easily be crushed in her uncle's estimation. But Magnus isn't stupid. He's not showing his true numbers. He tried to get a non-aggression pact with Sapphire's uncle. But that fell apart after meeting Ivory and Sapphire. It wasn't repairable after the evidence he saw. What unfolds after that is fated mates, misunderstandings, hateful greed, and a poor unfortunate wolf caught in the middle of some dangerous politics. Read on to see what happens when Magnus kidnaps Sapphire and destiny has its way with them.

My child-free husband went back to his hometown for a funeral, and after he returned, he suddenly wanted me to have a baby. He was one of the best obgyns in the state, so he handled my IVF procedure himself. After more than 160 hormone shots, we finally heard the baby’s rhythmic heartbeats for the first time, which made my usually calm husband tear up. Soon, he tightened every part of my routine, from a strict diet to my schedule, and once my belly started showing, he barely let me get out of bed. I thought he was just being overly protective. But then, right by my ear, I heard a nasty little boy’s voice. [Which player starts their mission inside the womb? And she’s not even my mom!] [Just four more months. My dad will make sure she dies on the operating table so he can keep only his son.] [After that, he’ll bring my real mom back, and my mission will be complete!] I canceled my afternoon checkup immediately as soon as I heard this. Did the system forget to tell him that he wasn’t the only player in this world?

"Desmond." My voice cracked. "What are you?" His eyes flashed gold in the darkness. "Something you should've stayed away from.” But I couldn't stay away. Not when every cell in my body screamed that he was mine. Five years ago, my step-brother disappeared from my life without explanation. Now Desmond's back, using a different last name and pretending we're strangers. But the way he watches me says otherwise. The way his hands shake when I get too close. The way his eyes turn gold when he thinks I'm not looking. He warns me to stay away. Says there are things about our past I'm better off not knowing. But I found the photo, the one showing us as kids, completely in love, and I can't remember any of it. Six months of my life, erased. When I push for answers, people start following me. Desmond gets violent and protective. And the boy who broke my heart by leaving is suddenly everywhere, fighting invisible threats I don't understand. He's hiding something that could ruin us both. But I'm done running from a past I can't remember. Even if the truth destroys me.

After I refused for the eighth time to give my daughter a monthly allowance of $80, she went live online to denounce me. During the broadcast, she shared screenshots of our messages, showing how she had repeatedly and desperately asked me for money after the new school term began. "Mom, I just got my period. I do not have money to buy sanitary pads. Could you send me this month's allowance?" I replied calmly, "No." "Mom, I have not eaten in three days. I am really hungry." I responded with sarcasm. "What does that have to do with me?" The screen quickly filled with comments calling me suffocatingly cruel and heartless. Looking straight into the camera, she sobbed uncontrollably. "Mom, I am not asking for much. I only need $80 a month for living expenses. "Do you really have to push me to death before you feel satisfied?" Within a short time, I became the target of widespread online abuse. A well-known education influencer reached out to me. "It is only $80. It is not something you cannot afford. Why are you treating your own daughter so harshly?" I looked at her calmly. "Try livestreaming seven days of life with me and my daughter. "If you can do that, you'll understand."

Married in secret for five years, Yvonne Singer always thought I was just a washed-up nobody from a fallen family. What she didn't know was that I was the sole successor to Guzman Group, the world's largest venture capital firm. She tricked me into attending a cocktail party for the sake of her male best friend, Francis Yorke, and forced me to toast my sworn rival. Furious, I shattered the wineglass in my hand and snapped, "Yvonne, don't push me! Believe it or not, with a single word from me, your company can disappear from the stock market by tomorrow!" Panic flickered in her eyes. The next second, she threw herself into my arms. "Honey, I just needed your help. I didn't mean to hurt you." She then personally fed me a hangover pill and gently escorted me to a private room. When I woke up, I was hanging upside down from a drop tower. Francis slammed the switch. I was sent flying dozens of feet into the air, then plummeting straight down into the water. As my consciousness began to waver, I forced myself to make an emergency call. "Mr. Chance, contact global media outlets. Before nightfall, I want headlines showing them begging on the streets!"

"Let’s get married as soon as possible," said my fiancee, Clementine Knaupper, out of nowhere during dinner. I froze with the spoon in hand. Over the last three years, I proposed to get married seven times, and she turned me down all seven times with all sorts of reasons. Then, she told me with a shifty look in her eyes, "I… I’m two months pregnant. The pregnancy is going to start showing soon." I set aside my spoon and stared intently at her. "You were on a business trip two months ago, weren’t you?" She gulped before stating in a troubled voice, "The baby… is my assistant, Stanley Brickley’s. I had too much to drink that night, and I thought it was you. "The doctor says if I get an abortion, it will be difficult for me to have children again. After we get married, we can announce my pregnancy. We can tell people it’s our baby. "Then, I will send Stanley and the baby away. They won’t come back after that." I looked at the woman I had loved for seven years, and for the first time, I felt like I was looking at a stranger. "Clementine, let’s call off our engagement."