Stealing Home Sherryl Woods

A girl trying to survive the cruelty of the world and a man looking for peace and purpose. They are bound to meet and fulfill the promise they made from their past life; that they will cross different lifetimes to find each other until their love find its way home. A brave soldier and an extraordinary girl lived a chaotic love story in the middle of a war. An activist and a doctor, a love that rose between the pavements amidst the Martial Law. And a story of a boy and a girl who's trying to look for a reason to survive and hold on to their lives. Three different stories in three different lifetimes of the same people who chose to love and chase it until they're finally home.

My girlfriend, Elsa Smith, always avoided meeting my parents. Yet, she had no trouble turning around and playing the role of her ex-boyfriend Leo Quinn’s fiancée, happily meeting his relatives instead. And the meeting took place in the apartment I had prepared for us to live in after the wedding. What she did not realize was that I happened to be Leo’s distant cousin. She pretended not to know me and clung sweetly to Leo, saying, "This apartment was bought by my hubby, fully paid for." All the relatives were praising them as a loving couple. To keep me from exposing her, Elsa came over to warn me, "I’m just helping a friend deal with marriage pressure. If you mess this up, we’re done." So, I sincerely offered my congratulations. "Since Leo and I seem to have the same taste in houses and women, I’ve got some wedding supplies that I’m sure he’ll like. I’ll gift them to you both." That was when Elsa finally started to panic.

Choosing to live independently in a highly urbanized city is a decision Latisha Thaviya Fallarco made at such a young age. Despite her parents prohibitions, she still managed to convince them by performing well in academics. She wanted to attend parties, get drunk and dance in the club, go shopping, and explore neighboring cities. She wanted to live her life to the fullest in the place she considered the best. Yet, she never saw the coming of an incident that would end that kind of lifestyle. She was forced to leave and be with her family. Latisha thought that living in a province would be hard for her, but she was wrong. In a particular town in Iloilo Province, she found her true home. Ps. This story is written in Filipino and English.

It was a national holiday and we decided to drive back to my husband's hometown to spend the holidays. One day before we left, my husband's childhood crush came crying to him that she had not managed to buy train tickets home. My husband immediately decided to let her have my seat in the car and insisted that I take the train instead. I looked at him in disbelief. There was shock in my eyes. Even my son insisted I take the train. "Mommy, Aunt Rosie is so pretty. How could you make her take the train?" I did not argue. I booked my train ticket right in front of them. However, it was to my own hometown. I no longer wanted a biased husband and a disloyal son.

Evelyn had been the Luna of the Red Stone Pack for the past two years. An arranged marriage of power to protect her father’s pack, she didn’t for one moment expect to develop feelings for the cold Alpha King. But in the two years ruling by his side, she sees a warmth to Reuben that he keeps hidden. After a night of passion that Reuben makes clear to Evelyn was a mistake, she finds out she is pregnant with the longed future for the ruling pack. However Evelyn’s happiness at the news is short lived when the love of Reuben’s life returns only just surviving the murder of her own pack. Evelyn soon realises that Vicky isn’t as innocent as she makes out and doesn’t take long for her to get her claws into Reuben. After confronting his ex, Evelyn is a victim of a deliberate attempt to harm her child. She must make a decision to protect the pack’s future from Vicky and the baby’s own father. But will the cold ruthless Alpha King refuse to let her go so easily? Will he be responsible for the brutal attack on her family pack, leaving Evelyn’s soul broken? Has Evelyn finally seen Reuben for what he is, beyond salvation…

I am Athena the first born child of the Alpha Caden. I have come back to take my rightful position." She paused.  "As Alpha." Gasps and murmurs of wonder disbelief rose in the crowd. It had never been recorded in history that an Alpha werewolf should give birth to a female as a first child. But everyone saw the uncanny resemblance between her and the first queen the heard the Alpha voice of authority in her. But it how was it. She let the noise die down before she continued. "Although I never knew my father, you all knew him, Alpha Caden kind, considerate, passionate and respectful of his people. He entertained complaints from the lowest of ranks. Joined in manual labor and from time to time visited the poor. He was loved by many." She let the whispers of agreement die down. "I am nothing like him."

I’m trapped, trapped in a mate bond I hate. Will I ever escape its hold on me? “I, Than Sable, Alpha of the Amber Desert Pack, reject you Kaia Glace as my Luna.” I remember his cruel cutting words as if they were only yesterday. Our mate bond is non-existent. That’s a lie, it exists but Than doesn’t allow himself to get close to me…to be alone in a room with me. It’s as if I disgust him. He has reduced me to nothing. A shadow of a mate and I hate him for it. I can’t keep living like this, waiting… I am Kaia Glace, the rightful Luna of the Amber Desert pack. Yet my mate, Alpha Than, refuses to let me rule by his side. I feel cheated by the mate bond, unwanted by my own mate. Years I’ve spent trying to get him to love me…to see me…but how can I? When he has another…. I can’t stay, it isn’t safe for me anymore or my unborn child. A child created by force. I have to leave…to runaway and find my Father. He is the only lifeline I have. However, he was last seen at the enemy pack, the Dark Phantom pack. A notorious pack with a cold and scheming Alpha, who doesn’t take kindly to outsiders. It is said, those who enter the pack are never seen again. But I have no choice…into the enemy pack I must go to rid myself of my mate bond. Only, I myself find another. Another that dooms me to the same trickery of the mate bond.

Libby is in hiding. Keen to put as much distance between those that have lied to her, she has made a new life for herself tucked away on a working farm. Ashamed by how she ran out on her family in their moment of need, Libby has managed a new start and made friends that also have their own reasons for being in a remote location. Libby finally feels safe but a friend isn’t as they seem, and was sent by her own brother, the Alpha King, to track her down. One thing that Libby refuses to accept is that she is a human-werewolf hybrid and already has a mate. A mate she struggles to recognise due to her own personal struggles with accepting her true identity. Unaware of the death of her own father, her family aren’t the only ones now looking for her and it is now a race against time to find her first. She may be living life as a rogue in a remote farm, but one thing she also keeps secret is she is an heiress to a multimillion human empire..all she needs to do is find the inner strength to claim it back.

The moon goddess hates Aida, or, so Aida believes. She is punishing her for still being alive. Aida admittedly is lost! Life hasn’t had any meaning since the tragedy of her beloved mother’s death when she was only twelve years of age. With her teenage years becoming rebellious, they resulted in her remaining family and pack, all but a few, rejecting her. After regrettably attacking her Luna, she is punished to enlist in the formidable and intensive training programme at the Royal Lycan Santos pack. Here, she soon realises that family doesn’t mean blood and she carves out a name for herself as a fast acting and determined fighter. But they don’t know her secret. She’s doesn’t care if she lives or dies. To her one thing is very clear, complete the training and then abandon her pack! Adjusting to Lycan life, she soon makes friends that become her world. Including Lance, a head trainer, who challenges yet protects Aida at every hurdle. But Lance has a secret of his own. Having spent so long losing her inner strength, finally Aida has something worth fighting for!

Aida Sagar has known her fair share of challenges. At twelve year’s old she lost her mother in a car crash, that she was also fatally injured in. What she couldn’t understand is how she returned from the potential peaceful realm of the moon goddess and subsequently her family’s and pack’s treatment of her since that life changing moment. Having attacked her brother’s mate, the pack Luna, Aida was sentenced to a punishment worse than prison…training with the notorious Royal Lycan warriors. Starting a new life, she becomes a popular addition to the team but not all appreciate a Pack Princess’s Alpha blood status. After being shot at by silver bullets and undercovering a rebel plot to poison trainees to control lycans through witch craft, Aida makes some very powerful friends but also powerful enemies. The Lycan Prince Lance claims to be her fated mate, but Aida knows for a fact that having died, any mate bond would have been severed in that moment. But perhaps the moon goddess doesn’t hate Aida after all. Perhaps Aida will learn that nature has a balance and a price must be paid to maintain that balance.