Sideways

On New Year’s Eve, an old friend called to congratulate me on the birth of my son. “Emrys, you’ve been keeping this a secret pretty well! If I hadn’t seen you and your wife taking care of the baby together, I wouldn’t have known you had a child!” I froze in my tracks. How could I not know I had a child? And that I was taking care of him with her? I immediately called my wife, who was still working late, to confront her about it. She just laughed and said our friend must have been mistaken, which was why this whole mix-up happened. But the very next second, our friend sent a photo. In the photo, she was facing sideways, holding a child in her arms, with a man standing beside her. Only his back was visible, but the silhouette was exactly like mine. Her smile was gentle and radiant. At first glance, she looked utterly blissful. I stared at the meticulously prepared New Year’s Eve dinner spread before me and suddenly flung it to the floor. I immediately dialed my brother. He was a lawyer. “Celene Zeller cheated on me. She even had a child. “I want a divorce. I want to kick her out of my company and make her leave with nothing.”

Seven years into my marriage to Sebastian, we had our first child. On Logan's first birthday party, one of the old friends Sebastian had known since prep school rattled a little velvet cup of dice in Logan's face and laughed. "Come on, Mrs. Forsythe, humor us. Let the birthday boy roll. A game. For old times' sake." Logan giggled and slapped at the cup. "If he rolls a six," the groomsman went on, grinning sideways at Sebastian, "Sebastian goes and picks Serena up from the airport tonight. Deal?" The moment I heard her name, my blood went cold. I turned to Sebastian. He'd been keeping in touch with her behind my back. All this time. He caught my eyes. He covered my shaking fingers with his and frowned slightly. "Don't be jealous over nothing. We're all friends. It's just a ride from the airport." And then, without quite meaning to, he nodded. Permission given. Logan laughed and opened his little fist. The dice clattered across the linen. A six. "That's fate!" someone whooped. "Serena's flight lands in two hours. You'll make it!" The room erupted. Glasses up. Backs slapped. Sebastian surrounded. His face softened and he turned and went for the door. Watching his back disappear through that door, I didn't do what I used to do. This seven-year bet of mine — I had lost it, completely.

"I Alpha Ryker Dante of the crescent  moon park rejects you weak pethatic girl as my mate and Luna of my park. You are hereby not allowed to show your face to me again except you want it red! " Those angry and deceptive words tear Melanie apart. It was her mate who had rejected her at first sight. She has always being rejected and tainted upon but this last rejection gave a painful and scaring tug to her shattered  lost heart. She smiled out the tears and turned back. If that's what he wanted then fine! She was okay with it. She looked sideways  towards her father who had an unfathomable  look on. He looked furious and blaze. "father... " She muttered and his face grew red with anger as the guest looked at him with shock and disbelief. With urge in their eyes to know if he really did fathered the weak and ugly she wolf. No! Even a mere human is more powerful than her. Every one who knew Melanie knew she had no wolf. She looked towards her only brother. The look on his face was just like the others. He dejected her. And her step sisters couldn't  care less. "okay.  I get it....  No one wants me...  No one wants to see me...  It's okay I'll leave. You won't ever see me again!  At least the ugly me! " She snapped. Dried her tears and turned around. Sound on the rough hard sandals could be heard as she shrugged away in the cold. Life was really cruel to her.

The poor lighting made it hard for her to see the face of the person who’d caught her, but when he opened his mouth her body sagged in relief. “You almost made it, human.” Maximus recognized the girl he saved in the woods. “What did you think? You'd sneak into my packhouse undetected and make it all the way up to my quarters without me knowing? Tell me, what did you plan to do up there?” His eyes narrowed and his head tilted sideways at her. “I have a proposition.” Maximus was shocked at the lack of fear in her voice. “You wanted me to catch you.” Star smiled inwardly at his tone. “I needed to talk to you.” She answered simply. “What could a hunter possibly want from a werewolf? I understand you’re new at this, but in case it hasn't occurred to you, your kind murders mine for a living.” He started harshly, his fingers closing around her neck tighter. “I'm not one of them.” *** Star Cullen's whole life is thrown out of balance when her father proclaims that if she wants to go to college she has to attend The Academy for a year- the very place that changed her brothers. Seeing it as a way to appease them all she goes against everything she believes in and goes along with his plan, only to return a year later to find the rest of her family dead. Hunters and Werewolves are notorious enemies, but what happens when a huntress and an Alpha find themselves on the same side of an even greater threat? When sparks fly, someone is bound to get burned, after all, love is a double-edged sword

I was born to shine. But the fate had others plans for me. The moment my feet left the edge, the world fell silent. There was only wind. And peace. For one fragile heartbeat, I was free. Like a bird. Then something slammed into me from behind. Arms. Hard. Unforgiving. The impact hurled me sideways instead of down. Wood splintered. Something inside me cracked. Darkness rushed in and I welcomed it. … “Open. Your. Eyes.” The voice was quiet, slow, deliberate. It forced its way through bone and blood. An Alpha command. Pain detonated through me as air tore back into my lungs. My body convulsed against my will. I tried to sink back into the quiet—to finish what I had started. “You were NEVER given permission to die.” Power wrapped around the words like chains. My eyes snapped open. We were beyond the pack’s borders. The air felt colder. Wilder. Untouched by law or duty. For one second, I had belonged to nothing. And he had dragged me back. He loomed above me, fury carved into every sharp angle of his face. His breathing was controlled, his posture dominant - absolute. If anyone were watching from the cliffs, they would see an Alpha asserting ownership. His jaw tightened, irritated at being forced to deal with something that should have already been resolved. I had complicated his plans. “Drink.” His wrist pressed my mouth. The metallic scent hit first. I tried to clamp my lips shut. But Alpha commands do not ask. They take. My mouth opened against my will and his blood burned down my throat, spreading heat through my chest. A cruel gift. He would not even grant me the mercy of dying on my own terms. And I understood - even my death did not belong to me.

I got a car straight from the Lycan Chairman himself—a ride costs more than tens of millions and can turn every traffic light green. I got it because the Lycan Chairman once fell on the battlefield, his heart torn open. And me? I'm the one bound to him by a blood-sealed contract, the only secret healer who could save his life. To win me golden hour for surgeries, I was awarded with such an honored ride. I treated it like sacred ground, kept it hidden in my mate Yorick's underground garage, polished and guarded, ready for the day the Lycan Chairman might need me again. That day came. The summons burned in my hand, urgent and sharp. I rushed to the garage, ready to drive, and the second I approached the garage, a strange woman slid into the back seat. "Take me to the Nighty Bar," she ordered, flipping her hair. "Yorick had waited for me minutes. If he's mad at me being late, I'll make you regret it." My hands froze on the wheel. "This is my car," I told her, calm but firm. "I have urgent business. You need to get out. Now." She sneered. "What a joke. A chauffeur pretending to be the owner? You must have a death wish." Her soldiers glanced at me sideways, voice dripping with disdain. "Everyone in the pack knows that this car is Alpha's exclusive for picking up Selene! You're just a little healer. Do yourself a favor and listen to her." Their words cut sharper than any blade. The car that carried the highest secret of the werewolf race, the car tied to the Chairman's very heartbeat, in their mouths, it was nothing more than a toy. A plaything my mate used to please another she-wolf. They wanted me to bow. To surrender. To sit there, silent, while they spat on me. But what they didn't know, the Lycan Chairman's soldiers were already on their way.