Southern Gothic Novels & Stories

I was the legitimate firstborn daughter of the King of the North. After my mother’s death, my aunt married the King of the South and became his Queen Consort. She brought me to her court, raising me beside her own sons. The Southern King adored me—He would seat me upon his knee and gesture toward the princes, laughing lightly: “When Hazel comes of age, whichever prince she chooses as her husband shall inherit this throne of the South.” “Stay here, child. The South could be your home.” In my previous life, I chose the Crown Prince—Ethan. I stood beside him during the War of Succession. I funded his armies with Northern gold. I silenced rival lords. I secured the throne for him. And when he was crowned king—He repaid me with imprisonment in the White Tower. And an order signed in his own hand. The North burned.The court was purged. Before I was forced to take my own life, he came to watch. “If not for you,” he said coldly, “Ava would still be alive.” “She died alone while I could not even mourn her. You will suffer tenfold.” “The Nouth falls because of you. Their blood is your dowry.” Then I died. When I opened my eyes again, I was seated once more in the Great Hall. The King was smiling. “Hazel, today you will choose your husband.” The princes stood before me. This time, I did not look at Ethan. I pointed instead to the Queen’s third son. “I will marry Alexander.” And this time—I would decide who burns.

My father was certain that the mother and daughter my husband brought back from Southern River were the daughter and granddaughter of an impeached official. As such, he locked them up. Afton Springfield, my husband, begged for my father’s mercy for seven days and nights outside the palace. This caused my father to fly into a rage. He wanted to get us divorced and execute Afton. To appease my father, I had begged him to release the mother and daughter as well in the previous timeline, even though I was heavily pregnant. Feeling resigned, my father sent the mother—Melinda—and daughter to the army as soldier servants. He also spared Afton and ordered him to treat me well so that he would not let me down. For ten years, we loved each other and got along cordially. However, ten years later, he poisoned my father and brother. Then, he put a child on the throne so that he could become the regent. Once he was done, he forced me to apologize before Melinda’s tombstone. He also had hooligans humiliate me. As for my son, he threw him into a den of snakes, and my son died in agony. In my despair, I saw his resentful gaze. “You killed Melinda and her daughter. You have no right to continue living! If Melinda didn’t die, she would be my wife, and you would live at the bottom of society. You could never compare to Melinda.” When I opened my eyes again, I found myself pleading for my father’s mercy with Afton. This time, I decided to fulfill Afton’s wish.

Nine-year-old Samara is the youngest of three Alpha children. When her parents and pack are attacked, Samara watches her brother murdered by someone that her family trusted. At her brother’s urgent request she runs, finding refuge in a southern pack and hiding her true identity. When she finds out that her family is gone, she begins planning her revenge. Roman is the Alpha heir to his father’s pack when his best friend, Theodore’s, pack is attacked. He finds Theodore dead, not knowing who murdered him. They search for Samara and not finding her, they assume that she is dead as well. Nine years later, Samara’s new Alpha has a party, inviting several Alphas to attend. Samara’s wolf senses one of the Alphas is her mate, but Samara recognizes him as one of the men who betrayed her brother. She attempts to reject him, but Roman has been waiting eight long years to find his mate. His curiosity is peaked when he realizes that this Alpha female has been hiding as an omega and he wants to know more. Having planned her revenge since her family’s murder, Samara is angry that Roman insists that she accept him, threatening to wage war against the kind Alpha who has raised her. She accepts her fate, agreeing to leave with Roman while still planning to take her revenge. What will happen when Roman realizes that his mate is the long-lost sister of his best friend? Will he be able to convince her that he wasn’t part of her brother’s betrayal? And when she finds out that another person close to her has betrayed her, will Samara turn to the only person who is willing to stand beside her and help her find the truth?

Before our marking ceremony, my fiancé, Adrian Conner, insists on bringing his childhood sweetheart along on our trip—all because Flora Wooledge says she also wants to see the northern lights. He switches my first-class ticket to Flora's name. He says, "I'll fly first class with Flora. You can take connecting flights by land. The doctor said it's not good for a pregnant woman to stay at high altitude for too long." I don't cry or argue. Instead, I calmly push him toward Flora. He snorts. "You've finally learned to behave. You're not as clingy and troublesome as before." After he leaves, I quietly sign the abortion consent form at the hospital. Then, I book a ticket to the southern hemisphere. In my past life, I begged and clung to him, hoping to keep him with our pup. But on that trip, Flora was attacked by rogue wolves and torn apart in the snow. Adrian kept a calm facade. Yet on the night I was about to give birth, he dragged me back home and cut open my belly with his own hands. He stood there and listened as our pup's cries slowly faded away. He poured all his hatred onto me. He believed I caused Flora's death and that I ruined his chance to become the Conner family's heir. To him, I was nothing more than a sacrificial pawn. In this new life, when I step off the private jet, I see Adrian standing there with his eyes bloodshot. He stares at my belly and asks, "Where's the pup?" Before I can answer, his half-brother wraps an arm around my waist. "Adrian, show some respect to your sister-in-law."

A princess vanishes. A kingdom can't afford the truth. And the only person who can take her place is the brother who was never supposed to exist in the shadows she left behind. Prince Caelan Vayne is an Alpha with a secret that could shatter him — his strength is suppressed, his designation hidden, his entire identity a carefully maintained performance. When his sister disappears days before her royal wedding, his father makes the impossible ask: put on her dress, cross the border south, and become her. Just long enough to save the alliance. Just long enough to find her. He doesn't expect Crown Prince Damien Solaris. Cold. Commanding. The kind of man who fills a room without trying. Damien is everything a southern crown prince is supposed to be — except for one thing. Beneath the iron composure and the perfect Alpha facade, he's hiding a designation that would cost him his crown, his empire, and everything he's spent his life building. Two people. Two impossible secrets. One contract marriage that was supposed to keep them at arm's length. It doesn't. Because living under the same roof does something to carefully constructed walls. Shared suppressants become shared trust. Midnight investigations become something neither of them can name. And the cold, professional distance of a contract slowly, devastatingly becomes the one place either of them has ever felt safe. But someone arranged the princess's disappearance. Someone inside these very palace walls wants this alliance — and everything it protects — reduced to ash. They'll have to find the truth before it finds them first. The Alpha Wore a Crown and Secrets is a slow-burn ABO royalty romance about two people who agreed to a temporary arrangement — and discovered that the heart doesn't honor expiration dates.

The day the campus queen got caught shoplifting at the convenience store, I was reborn. This time, instead of pulling her into the back room for a private talk, I called the cops without a second thought. The cops locked up my childhood sweetheart, the campus goddess Samantha Creighton, for fifteen days. During those fifteen days, I cut every tie between us. After that, I dodged her completely. Whenever she organized a class gathering, I fell deathly ill. Whenever she traveled to the southern coast, I flew to the far northwest. When she went to a reunion, I got sick. When she went home, I went abroad. When she returned to school, I dropped out. I avoided every situation that might bring me near her. In my past life, I loved her for twenty years. But in all that time, she never once treated me with any real kindness. I finally found out why during a fire at our house. I held her and our daughter outside the window, shielding them until rescue came. They got out without a scratch. But my entire body was burned beyond recognition. Then my own daughter—the one I raised with everything I had—pulled her mother's one true love close and said, "He deserves this. Back then, he tore you and Mom apart. He should die for it." My wife stood beside them and sobbed uncontrollably. "I almost thought I'd never see you again." I died full of hatred. Now that I'd been given a second chance… since she loved her first love that much, I'd make sure they could stay together.

In a world where werewolves rule from the shadows and humans live in carefully crafted ignorance 17 YrAria Blackwood receives an invitation that will shatter everything she believes to be true. Selected for the prestigious Crimson Moon Academy—a place where the "fortunate few" humans are groomed to become mates for powerful werewolf alphas-Aria thinks she's escaping her cursed life as the town outcast. Born with strange silver eyes and raised by a grandmother who speaks in riddles, she's spent years hiding abilities she doesn't understand. But Crimson Moon Academy isn't the paradise promised in the glossy brochures. It's a hunting ground where humans are prey, alphas are predators, and survival means playing a game with rules written in blood. Worse still, Aria catches the attention of the Shadow Princes—four ruthless alpha heirs who rule the academy with iron claws Kaine, the Northern Prince, whose icy demeanor hides a dangerous obsession. Zephyr, the Southern Prince, whose charm is as lethal as his bite. Raven, the Eastern Prince, who sees through every lie and keeps darker secrets. Lysander,the Western Prince, the cruelest of them all, who views humans as toys to break. Each wants to claim her.Each wants to destroy her. And each holds a piece of the puzzle to her true identity—an identity that could either save their world or burn it to ash. As Aria uncovers the academy's bloody secrets and her own forbidden heritage, she realizes she's not just another human lamb led to slaughter. She's something far more dangerous. Something that was never meant to exist. The alphas wanted a prey to hunt.Instead, they awakened a predator But in a game where trusting anyone means death, and her own blood might be the deadliest betrayal of all, Aria must decide: Will she embrace the monster within.

Introduction At my mating ceremony with Blake Morrison, the Alpha heir I'd loved for eight years, his childhood sweetheart texted him a pregnancy test photo. He didn't hesitate for a second. He canceled our mating ceremony and rushed off to take care of his childhood sweetheart. After he left the ceremony hall, his childhood sweetheart posted photos on the big screen behind me. Photos of the two of them tangled together in my bedroom. Then Blake sent me a message: "I was drunk that night. Ivy is carrying my child, and I need to be there for her." "She wanted to hide the pregnancy and raise the pup alone, but she's an Omega. It's too hard for an Omega to raise a child by herself, especially when she's competing to be the Pack's Head Healer... I can't ruin her future, and I can't abandon an innocent life." "You're an Alpha wolf. High-ranking wolves don't get pregnant easily, and you've always wanted children quickly, right? After she gives birth, I'll arrange for her to study advanced healing at the Alliance. You can raise the child, and they'll only know you as their mother." When I didn't reply, he added another message: "The official marking and re-scheduling our mating ceremony will have to wait until after Ivy gives birth." I stared at my phone screen, laughing until my eyes burned with tears. I was the only Alpha heiress of the Stormfang Pack, the strongest pack in Southern territories. Did he really think that I had no choice but to pick him as my mate? I dialed the Alpha King Kane Blackwood's number directly: "Are you still willing to be my mate?"

I no longer deliver meals to my husband, Zachary Smith—the man who became the factory manager after receiving a scholarship that brought him to the city—since my rebirth. I even make sure to detour using the gate at the factory's north side whenever he uses the southern gate after he finishes his meetings. In my past life, I was fully aware he took me as his wife—a humble country woman—just for the chance to move to the city. Yet, I insisted on becoming his wife, anyway. After all, I was convinced that a person's true affections could be earned and nurtured. Yet, Zachary maintained a constant, formal distance throughout our marriage. He would simply offer me a book the moment I attempted to bridge the gap, saying, "You should study more so that you don't continually attract people's contempt." I got emboldened by the drink as I threw my arms around him, yet he merely accepted the embrace rigidly, whispering, "It's just what married couples do." It wasn't until decades later, as I lay on my deathbed, that I discovered the heartbreaking words in his autobiography. In it, he stated that our entire marriage was like being trapped in a mire and that he never wanted to be with me again if he were to ever be reborn. I felt a searing pain tearing through my heart as I closed my eyes in devastating anguish. When I open my eyes again, I find myself back at the point in time when the gossip about Zachary and Juliana Ziegler, the factory's technician who studied abroad, first began to spread. In this life, I choose not to fight or cause drama. Instead, I am the one who brings up the divorce.

By the seventh year of my cold war with my father, Don Leonardi Rossi, he finally found a way to win me over. He introduced me to the most powerful Mafia Don in southern Ritalle—Riccardo Colombo. For my happiness, my father was willing to give me half of the family's empire as a gift. I surrendered completely to Riccardo's love. Four months later, I was pregnant. Every prenatal check-up saw Bascily regions' two most influential Dons personally by my side. Everyone envied me for having two men who loved me so fiercely. Yet, on the day of my amniocentesis, they were both absent. "There's a new arms deal in the north," my father said, stroking my head. Riccardo kissed my belly gently. "I'll bring you gifts when I return." I smiled and watched them leave. But as I lay on the examination table, my phone buzzed with an anonymous video. In it, my father wore a groom's suit, standing beside Rosa—the prostitute who had infuriated my mother to death. Their illegitimate daughter, Lina, cradled her swollen belly, proudly wearing the Colombo family crest, and clung to my husband's arm. The announcer cried, "Congratulations to Don Rossi for reclaiming his one true love, and to Don Colombo for marrying his soulmate!" At the video's end, my father laughed and clinked glasses with Riccardo. "The fake crest and fake marriage certificate for Lia—you really outdid yourself. Aren't you worried she'll be heartbroken?" Riccardo snorted. "She never let Rosa into the house, leaving Lina to grow up as a bastard. This was what she owed her." So that was the truth. But when I finally left with my child for the Massimo family, why did they still regret it?