Strangely Familiar Uncomfortable Liminal Spaces

I was blind This is my fault, isn't it? The man I loved, and I thought he was going to protect me all my life is the one who sold me off to an unknown man. I spent a night with that man. I wanted to kill myself and end my misery. But the man I spent a night with stopped me. He made me an offer: he would give me my sight back, in return, I had to become his woman. In the moment of despair, I choose survival over everything else. After my sight was restored, I did what I thought was justice- I shot my vile ex-boyfriend. I spared his life, but only so he would live with the consequences of his betrayal. Then I ran. I couldn't be anyone's woman. But even as I escaped, one name lingered in my mind, Zac Bratva. I could never forget him. How could I? He was the father of my son. "It's been five years, huh! You think you can escape me." I was startled, hearing the familiar voice before looking around. "I don't know what you are saying, sir. I don't know you," I stammered, fear tightening around my throat. "Seems like I have to help you to recall!" He said, his voice sharp. But before I could react, he pressed his gun against my head and said, "I am Zac Bratva, the godfather," he growled, "Yet you are brave enough to play with me. Now, Get inside the car, Woman!" "Godfather! What?!" My head erupted.

“Are… are you going to hurt me?” The question left me in a shaky whisper, my throat tight, my voice betraying me. His eyes narrowed, a dark gleam flashing in them. His mouth curved into something cruel. “I’m going to ruin you,” he corrected, each word drawn out with slow, lethal certainty. “I’ll give you every filthy thing you fantasize about, and I’ll claim every inch of you until there’s nothing left to hide behind.” **** He thought I was just a girl obsessed with dark fantasies… he had no idea I'd been planning his downfall for five years. Every step I took led me closer to him. Every choice I made was never a coincidence. And when I finally got the chance, I let him see me. Let him notice me. Let him believe I was just another girl drawn to his darkness. But nothing about this is accidental. Now I’m caught in something deeper than I planned. A game I thought I understood… but don’t. Because the closer I get to him, the harder it is to remember why I started. His touch lingers longer than it should. His presence feels… familiar in ways I can’t explain. And somewhere along the line, this stopped feeling like revenge. So what happens when the lines blur? When the person I’m supposed to destroy starts to feel like the only one who sees me? When truths begin to surface and nothing is as simple as I believed? And when everything I built my life on starts to fall apart? Will I still be the one in control?

TRIGGER WARNING : THIS BOOK EXPLORES HEAVY THEMES SUCH AS EMOTIONAL ABUSE, MANIPULATION, BDSM AND TORTURE, SEXUAL ABUSE, AND TRAUMA – AS WELL AS STRENGTH, RESILIENCE, AND THE WILL TO RECLAiM ONE’S POWER. IF YOU'RE SENSITIVE TO ANY OF THE THEMES MENTIONED, I ENCOURAGE YOU TO READ WITH CARE, TAKE BREAKS WHEN NEEDED, OR SKIP IF THIS BOOK IS NOT RIGHT FOR YOU AT THIS TIME. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. INTENDED FOR MATURE AUDIENCES (18+) ONLY. Blurb She was the price her father paid. He was the monster no one dared defy. Their marriage was never meant to feel like love – only like survival. Seraphina Houston, the strong-willed daughter of an Alpha Houston; a failing werewolf pack, never imagined her fate would be sealed by a contract… or by the cold hands of a Lycan king. When she’s forced to marry the powerful and ruthless billionaire, Leone Night, to clear her father’s debt, she becomes little more than a pawn in a brutal political game. From the moment she enters the Blackthorn Pack’s palace, Seraphina is silenced, ignored, and betrayed, used as nothing more than a vessel to fulfill a cursed bloodline. Her husband shows her no kindness, his twin brother taunts her with a past she barely escaped, and her only comfort lies in the arms of a gentle palace doctor who offers her something the others never could: a choice. But the deeper she sinks into the lycan world, the more secrets unravel. A mistress with a familiar face. A child with forbidden power. And a prophecy that ties her fate to both Lycan brothers… with deadly consequences. When the time comes to choose between survival, love, and freedom…will Seraphina continue to suffer in silence, or become the rebellion the monsters never saw coming?

My twin sister, wanting to be with her thug boyfriend, secretly planned to apply for a junior college. When I could not talk her out of it, I told our parents and managed to stop her. However, just a month into the new semester, her thug boyfriend cheated on her. She left a suicide note, blaming it all on the long distance between them. She wrote that if she had gone to that junior college, her boyfriend would never have cheated. Grief‑stricken, my parents turned all their rage on me. "You wretched girl, this is all your fault for meddling! What business was it of yours which school your sister went to? Even if she didn't go to college, we could still support her. We didn't need your big mouth!" "If it weren't for your spiteful tongue, your sister wouldn't be dead!" "We were cursed to have a vicious, unfilial daughter like you!" They locked me in her room, ordering me to repent. Then they took her ashes on a trip, saying they wanted her to see the beautiful mountains and rivers she never got to visit in life. A month later, they returned from their travels to find me long dead, starved to a withered husk in front of my sister's photo. Their eyes held no grief, no guilt, only a faint, scornful curl of the lips. In their eyes, my death was nothing more than justice served. My broken soul saw their icy expressions, and despairing tears burned my eyes. Then my sister's familiar voice rang out again: "What business is it of yours which school I go to? You're just jealous that I have a boyfriend, aren't you?"

WARNING: Mature & Explicit Scenes. Her body is the price—his desire, the currency. Selene Vantorel never expected to be auctioned, but with her father's crushing debts and a stepmother who'd rather see her sold off than cared for, she has no choice. The one thing that still ties her to her late mother is on the line—the family estate. And to keep it, she offers herself to the highest bidder, no matter the cost. Mafia boss Raphael Delano is used to power and control, but when he lays eyes on Selene, his world tilts. There’s something familiar about her—something buried in the haze of his lost memory, triggered by the brush of her fingers against his skin. But beneath his curiosity, his desire for her touch burns like wildfire. She’s his, no matter what it takes. But this isn’t just about paying off the debt. She has a plan. She needs him to help her take everything back—her house, her family’s fortune, her revenge. In the darkness of his world, she knows he has the power to tear down her father’s empire. But she has a price of her own.“I want them to pay,” she whispers in his ear, her breath hot against his skin. “Help me get what’s mine, and you'll have my heart as well.”He leans in, brushing his lips against her neck, his voice thick with authority. "You’re already mine, Selene. But for you... I’ll destroy them all."Her enemies are about to become his, and in this dark, twisted game, the price of their love will be blood.

Mr. Hottie and I (He is a flirt, she is crazy) Genre: Romance, Comedy, Erotic Tags: hatred, love, jealousy, pranks, schemes, contract married, billionaires, highschool, sex, suspense…..etc Location: America Written by - Tema SYNOPSIS Hot, intelligent, successful and heart stoppingly handsome - those are words that Xander Richards is quite familiar with, he is a young billionaire in his final year of high school. Topping all that, is the fact that he is the only successor to his father's business empire. His gleaming ivory skin, rich black, combed over hair, delectable pink lips and perfect masculine figure have most girls fawning over him, in their eyes he is but a Greek god. Despite his cold heart, he loves all the attention he gets yet, considers all girls sluts who want attention and seeks to get it at any cost until he meets Eva Luna. Her headstrong attitude catches his attention and he immediately dislikes her for not falling in love with him like most girls. Eva Luna has more than a handful of screws loose, she is a crazy high school final year student. She was born with affluence at her beck and call but chooses not to flaunt it. She owns chains of companies. She is very beautiful, intelligent and a mean prankster, her golden skin, red hair and blue - hazel eyes are guaranteed to ensnare every heart. She butts heads with Xander from their first encounter and dislikes him immediately because of his sardonic nature and his reputation as a flirt. Alas, the tides of hate can be easily swayed, especially when adventures are thrown. Can there ever be a chemistry between the two?

Raven Statham has one week left to save her grandmother’s crumbling bakery before her mother sells it. Drowning in debts, rejected by investors, and clinging to the only legacy she has left, she turns to the one corporation known for rescuing failing businesses — D’Angelo Enterprises. What she doesn’t know is that the CEO is not just a businessman. He is Kade D’Angelo, the Reaper of the criminal underworld, a man who kills with the same ease he breathes, a man bound by a vow: marry before thirty-three, or lose his throne to his estranged brother, Damon. When Raven accidentally witnesses Kade murder a man in cold blood, she becomes a liability he cannot ignore. And when she tries to flee, she unknowingly signs the wrong contract — not a business partnership, but the marriage contract prepared for a mafia heiress sharing her surname. By the time she discovers the truth, five black cars are outside her bakery, Kade D’Angelo standing among them like the devil she had met by accident twice already. *** Excerpt from the Book: The door opened. A familiar smell drifted inside before the man did and my stomach twisted. Kade walked into my home, filling the small space with his presence. His eyes found mine immediately, cold, unreadable. Kade's lips tilted, just slightly. "I see you're just finding out about the document you signed, Miss Statham," he said. "What do you mean marr—" I started, clutching the file, eyes wide with disbelief. "Good," he interrupted, his voice leaving no room for argument. "Because we're getting married. Tomorrow.”

My boyfriend was crippled when he saved me, while his adoptive sister suffered from heart failure after protecting us from misfortune. She had to depend on the expensive imported medicines to sustain life. To pay for their treatment, I sold myself as a lifecasting model on the black market. Not only were my hands and feet coated in the heated silicon, but I also needed to endure strangers touching me without flinching. I needed to pay if the replica was damaged. I begged through my tears, only to receive a few slaps to my face in return. They scolded, "You signed up for this. Don't act innocent now." Humiliated, exhausted, and aching, I still took the money straight to the hospital to buy medicine for his sister. When I passed by the VIP lounge, I heard a familiar laughter. "Chris, this is the 998th test, isn't it? Are you really marrying her once she passes the 999th test?" With a slight frown, Christopher answered, "Yeah. Although testing her is a family tradition, and they're having you to supervise, don't overdo it. I won't have another bride." I froze. Every sacrifice. Every humiliation. Every bit of pain I had endured—it had all been a test. A game to see whether I was worthy of marrying him. Staring at my bruised reflection in the fire-resistant glass, I let out a sudden chuckle. Then, with trembling hands, I turned on the old phone I hadn't touched in two years. I felt tears roll down my cheeks when I told the other person on the line, "Declan, take me home. I regret everything."

"I love fantasies. Impossible, only imaginable fantasies. The ones that would take me beyond and beyond my monotonous life. To other worlds. But this, isn't going to end well," I was saying to myself while lying down with closed eyes and recurring thoughts, starring at the bluest skies and the brightest stars. This city leaves me gawking at its beauty and at the same time allures me to its darkest mysteries. As I was running to find the only thing that could push me out of this fantastical realm, the clustered thoughts in my mind hits me hard everyday, leaving me sleepless and clueless. "You were at that place at that time. It may or may not be desirable. Fate, maybe. But, it's you," the familiar woman's voice kept repeating inside my head. "Begin with what you know and dig the unknown," the man I loved the most said, leaving me chase the knowns inside my scrambled mind. I was going after every single possible hint to take myself away from the life I've always wished to live. "I don't want this. Not for me. Not for my family," I falsely admit to myself, still secretly enjoying every moment of it. She, Idaliah Bristor seems to have a flamboyant life which takes a mysterious turn when she enters the unmapped city of BcHaven. Let's walk and roll with her as she says, "Whatever it may take, I'm giving it a go". Etymology: GEMICIDE - • Gem- The Gem Team • cide - Killing/Sacrificing 'Gemicide', the term I coined means that the Gem Girls without any hesitation is ready to sacrifice themselves or get killed to save their city.

Lucia had never believed in rebirth. She had read about it a few times in books tucked away on her shelf, but she never imagined it could be real. Yet, here she was—reborn. This time, she swore she wouldn’t let kindness be her downfall. She would make them pay. Her so-called best friend and husband had used her, drained her of everything, and left her with nothing. They manipulated her, deceived her, and when they had no more use for her, they poisoned her—leaving her to suffer in agony for over a year. What a vile couple. On the night of her death—her own birthday—they stood before her, laughing as they confessed their betrayal. They had taken everything from her, and now, they wanted her to know the full extent of their cruelty. Her husband and best friend, her supposed confidants, had been lovers all along. Worse, they had killed her true mate. Lucia had wept until there were no more tears left to shed. Too weak to fight, too broken to scream, she watched as they reveled in their wickedness, even making out right in front of her as she lay dying. That night, amidst a raging storm, Lucia took her last breath. But when she opened her eyes again, morning light streamed through the window. "Is this heaven?" she whispered, confused. A familiar voice answered. "Lucia, you’re awake! Let me get the doctor!" Brittany exclaimed before rushing out of the room. In that instant, Lucia knew the truth. She had been reborn. And this time, she would make them pay—for everything they did to her and her family.