Social Animal David Brooks

"What is this?!" Avery's voice trembled with rage, her fists clenched as she stared at the people who betrayed her. "You're marrying me off to some old man?" she spat. Her mother flinched. "Avery, please… it’s the only way to clear the debt." Her father’s voice thundered. "You will marry Sergei Kuznetsov. End of story." Avery Wells was never the obedient daughter—not with her leather boots, smart mouth, and fire-for-blood temper. But nothing prepared her for being thrown into the cold world of Russian mafia royalty. Sergei Kuznetsov: seventy, cruel, and untouchable. Her new husband. Kieran Kuznetsov: his youngest son—illegitimate, exiled, and carved from shadows. In a world full of masks, guns, and buried secrets, Avery has only one rule: never fall for the devil’s son. But the more she fights, the closer the darkness pulls. In this house, freedom is a myth. And love… might just be a death sentence.

In my previous life, my parents doted on my frail, sickly younger sister. For her sake, they chose a hawk beastman willing to settle in a human city as her husband. Me? They cast me into the deep sea, marrying me off to a giant shark beastman. When the apocalypse came and torrential rains drowned every human city, my parents and sister were left clinging to a rotting plank, adrift on the endless ocean. I couldn't bear to watch them die. With my giant shark husband, I dragged them down into the deep sea to safety. But resentment festered. Seeing me live comfortably while my shark beastman hunted day after day, my parents grew furious that my sister's life paled in comparison to mine. In their jealousy, they laced the fish we ate with poison and killed me. Now, given another chance at life, they've decided my sister should marry the giant shark beastman instead. My biased parents believe she will finally enjoy the blessings they once denied her. But what they don't know is this: after the cataclysm, fish become scarce. And a giant shark… does not survive on scraps. He needs flesh.

The world was divided into the mortal realm and the divine realm. The Rain Clan belonged to the divine realm. They could hear the prayers from the mortal realm. The Rain Maidens would bring rainfall to the mortal realm through prayers. They could ascend to heavens through cultivation. In the Rain Clan, every rain maiden was born with a dragon who would ascend with her and become her mount. When my sister and I were born, we shared only one spirit beast—a white dragon. The white dragon was the lowest of all dragons, yet I ignored the clan’s objections and insisted on forming a bond with him so that we could ascend. However, on the day I succeeded in calling the rain and married him, he shot an arrow straight through me while I was pregnant and at my weakest from summoning rain. As I lay dying, I saw him rush toward my sister. “Leigh, now I can finally be with you forever.” Only then did I realize the white dragon had chosen me under pretenses to help Leigh ascend. When I opened my eyes again, he and I had both returned to the day of our bond. There, he learned that Leigh was the true heir to the Rain Goddess mantle. He dropped to his knees and loudly confessed that he had always loved Leigh, and that he wished only to be her mount. Everyone knew I had spent half my cultivation to save him when he first hatched. I smiled and pointed at a mottled green snake at the edge of the barrier. The white dragon thought that as long as he bonded with my sister, he would ascend. However, what he never knew was that without me, Leigh could never ascend.

To save the vampire clan, I slept with my crush, Stefan Ferrano. Stefan had always been cold and distant, but that night, his response was fiery. He ignored the fact that I was inexperienced and took me with wild, unrestrained passion. Everything unraveled when my blood servant, Stella Luciado, brought me fresh blood and Stefan found out. Like a man possessed, he tore off all my clothes and dragged me into the sunlight. “So even the vampire queen is afraid of sunlight? Do you know what sort of torture your kind are enduring right now? But no pain compares to what I felt losing my sister because of you and your kind.” For five years, he held my clan’s safety over my head. He locked me in a sunroom and found new ways every day to torment me in bed. The day I gave birth to his child, he married Stella. Stefan called my child a bastard and forced me to watch him and Stella sleep together. When Stella was unhappy, he bled me so she could bathe in my blood. He even painted with my blood and made me dance undressed in the sun. He tortured me but never let me die, using specially made drugs to keep me alive. A vampire who had offered their ancestral blood but didn't turn a human into a vampire within five years would end up dead. I had five days left to live. Finally, I didn't have to keep my secret anymore.

Angela: “I need to. We do not have time. You may not allow me but I am going anyway. It is my destiny. I cannot run away from it. I am not like one of those tea party princesses you expect me to be. I am Angela Bells and I am ready for action.” Miles: “I am not letting you go out there.” Justin: “She used magic to make herself look older and Alex is her son.” Kale: “Pfft. I want pizza!” This is the Prestorian crew and this is their enemy, the underaged Queen of Pintraid... Octavia: “You expect me to forgive you. No no no. Angela, you will wish you were dead.” Angela Bell's lived all her life in the forest of Tyle. She's known no friends but her chickens. The story of her life turns around for her when her meant-to-be parents reveal a death-calling truth. The truth's made her realize she can be what she's always wanted to be, a princess. She teams up with a set of teens she calls, the bandits after meeting them in the worst way possible. They accompany her but... when there's good, there's evil too. Her nemesis is the under-aged Queen of Pintraid, the land that destroyed hers in the very beginning. The Queen wants to finish what her evil father started. Angela might lose everything but it's a price she has to pay. Angela and the bandits are about to go on a crazy mission that will put even the Queen of England on her toes. It's an adventure of a lifetime.

Five years ago, Juliette Rowe stood alone at the altar, her dreams shattered as Damon Thorne, the ruthless billionaire she loved, vanished without a trace. Left heartbroken and pregnant, Juliette rebuilt her life in the shadows, raising their son with no word from the man who abandoned them. But fate has a cruel sense of timing. When a news report reveals that Damon has survived a near-fatal car crash and lost all memory of his past Juliette is thrust back into a world she swore to leave behind. To make matters worse, Damon is now engaged to a woman he doesn’t truly love and surrounded by a family determined to erase Juliette from his life forever. Haunted by dreams he can’t explain, Damon is drawn to Juliette — a woman his heart remembers even if his mind does not. But as old secrets surface and a dangerous truth behind his accident is uncovered, Juliette must make an impossible choice: Expose the past and risk everything… or protect her son from a lies-filled future. Love may be lost in memory, but never in the heart. Some memories fade but not true.

Elliot scanned his eyes round Lexa's curvy body, making her nervous. “Wow. Such beauty,” he said, with the most glorious smile. “A-are you him?” Alexa had never felt so weak. “What was I thinking? I forgot I can’t kill royals so easily. I definitely won’t want to kill you.” He bowed before her. “I’m sorry your majesty. I forgot you were royalty.” Alexa gulped. He moved like flash, appearing here and there within the twinkle of an eye. He sped to her back and held her waist. She whimpered. “I know everything about you and I know what you want,” he whispered in her ear. “I know you want me.” She pulled away from him. He smiled… a deadly smile. Alexa wanted to be strong, she was a Queen after all. “If you know what I want then you must tell me what you want in return.” "Everyone knows that the devil wants," Elliot said, smiling with great lust. *** Will the love between the devil and a prized angel ever succeed? Will a prophecy overrule a witch's curse? Will Elliot be given an second chance into holiness? Will their love prevail and will their forbidden love be accepted by the realms?

Judul : Perempuan Bermahar Lima Miliar Penulis : David Khanz Genre : Drama Religi Nama-nama tokoh : Arumi Nasha Lazeta, Hamizan Rabbani, Bellanca Aurora, Basil Basyiruddin, KH. Bashori, Umi Afifah, Azizah, Ustaz Muzakir, KH. Anam Al Fathoni. Kisah ini mengetengahkan tentang drama percintaan antara Arumi dan Hamizan. Keduanya jatuh cinta. Namun hubungan tersebut ditentang oleh KH. Bashori, karena Hamizan bukanlah berasal dari kalangan tokoh agama/alim ulama. Khawatir hubungan Arumi dan Hamizan berlanjut, KH. Bashori pun menjodohkan anak perempuan keduanya tersebut dengan salah satu anak dari teman lamanya bernama KH. Anam Al Fathoni, yakni Basil Basyiruddin. Rupanya perihal perjodohan tersebut, diam-diam, ditentang pula oleh kakak Arumi, yaitu Azizah. Sang Kakak mendukung adiknya untuk memilih Hamizan sebagai calon suami dari Azizah. Arumi nekat kabur dan menemui Hamizan di Jakarta, seorang diri. Tentu saja hal tersebut sangat mengejutkan kekasihnya tersebut. Maka untuk mencegah terjadinya hal-hal yang tidak diinginkan, Hamizan pun mengantar kembali Arumi pada kedua orangtuanya, sekaligus melamar saat itu juga dengan mahar fantastis, yakni harta kekayaan lelaki tersebut bernilai hampir lima milyar rupiah. Walaupun Arumi dan Hamizan pun menikah, tapi KH. Bashori tidak memperkenankan mereka tinggal di lingkungan pondok pesantren. Keduanya kembali ke Jakarta, hidup dari awal dan mengontrak sebuah rumah. Arumi merasa bahagia dan sangat berbakti pada suaminya dengan penuh kecintaan. Bahkan hal-hal yang tidak mungkin dilakukan pun, ikhlas dipersembahkan oleh perempuan tersebut. Di tengah kondisi hidup yang penuh kesederhanaan serta belum dikaruniai keturunan, pasangan Arumi dan Hamizan mendapat ujian lain. Seorang perempuan lain bernama Bellanca Aurora hadir menawarkan sejuta bantuan.

In my last life, my sister, Raven Webster, and I rescued two eggs. Her egg hatched into Snowviper, while mine became Blazewing. But Raven stole Blazewing from me. None of us could have imagined the world would end in a brutal heatwave apocalypse. Raven died from heat stroke in that inferno. And before she died, she tricked my husband, Snowviper, into strangling me with his own tail. Somehow, we were both reborn on the very day those eggs hatched. This time, Raven snatched up Snowviper. She thought having him would keep her safe through the heatwave apocalypse. What she didn't know was that Snowviper's powers could only be fueled by drinking fresh human blood every single day.

I was a mermaid from the deep sea. Out of curiosity and playfulness, I was caught by a fisherman and endured unbearable torment. Just when I was on the brink of death, Trevon Chapman happened to pass by and saved me. So, I gave up my identity as a mermaid princess, left the ocean behind, and followed him into the human world. For five years after our marriage, Trevon granted my every wish and showered me with affection. I truly believed I had found a safe harbor I could depend on for the rest of my life—until fate struck with its cruelest blow. Trevon's childhood sweetheart had fallen gravely ill, and only a mermaid’s tail could save her. I begged him desperately, but he responded with chilling indifference. "You're only losing your legs. Corinne is losing her life. Are you really that heartless? You're just going to watch her die?" "Besides, you can’t return to the sea anymore. That tail means nothing to you now. From now on, I’ll be your legs." After the surgery, I sat in a wheelchair, running my hand over the empty fabric where my legs should have been, and calmly demanded a divorce. Trevon pulled Corinne into his arms, sneering. "You're neither human nor fish now—a monster. Without me, the only road left for you is death." Yet in the end, when I transformed back into a mermaid and leapt into the sea, his cries and desperate sobs echoed across the waves.