Strawberry Shortcake Draw

The day my husband's first love shows up at my house, I catch a faint, cloyingly sweet scent of gardenias in the air. My genetically-linked asthma flares violently at the scent of gardenias. As expected, halfway through the meal, my chest suddenly tightens. I can barely draw a breath before collapsing onto the couch. My younger brother sprints into my bedroom like he's lost his mind, grabs an inhaler, and shoves it straight to my mouth. "Tess!" he roars. "Why the hell is there gardenia perfume?" Everyone panics. My dad grabs a liquor bottle. My mom lunges forward, grabbing the woman by the hair. And my husband positions himself in front of her, protecting his beloved first love as she trembles. Amid the chaos, I muster the last of my strength. I reach into the crack of the couch, grab another inhaler, take a deep breath, and slowly push myself upright. I let out a cold laugh as I fix my gaze on the woman cowering behind my husband. "Finished with your little performance? It's my turn now."

I am the Lycan King's only daughter and the rightful heir to the werewolf crown. When I was seven, my father chose four of the strongest and most striking alpha heirs from the four great packs to be my potential mates. He poured endless resources into raising them, grooming them to one day help me manage the council. It was not long before they became the center of attention of the entire kingdom. Everyone called them ‘The Apex Four’. However, I always knew they were not really interested in me, but in what they could gain from me. Even the one I secretly loved, Thorne, started to drift away from me when he became interested in another woman. After my father was gravely injured, he asked me which of the four I wanted to mate with. I could only give him a bitter smile. Rather than choose, I opted to draw lots and let the Moon Goddess decide my fate. Fate chose the most infamous of them all: Lucian. On the day I announced my mate, the last thing I expected was Thorne to break down and beg me not to leave.

CONTENT WARNING: THIS BOOK IS STRICTLY FOR READERS 18 AND ABOVE!! I’ve spent my whole life pretending to be normal. I’m supposed to keep my head down. That’s what’s expected. Father says I should blend in, be normal. Don’t draw attention. Don’t let anyone see what I am, or what I’m becoming. But there's this human, Derek, who hates me for reasons unknown. Every day, he finds a new way to make my life miserable. Hating him back should come naturally, but somehow... I don't. Wanting a human is forbidden, but he's all I can think about. My body doesn't seem to care about rules when it comes to him. He can shove me, sneer at me, push me as hard as he wants, but it won't change the fact that I still want him. I want his attention. His mouth. His anger. I want to explore this newfound feeling and desire with him, and I'll make it happen no matter what.

Esteria, the queen of the northern human kingdom, was finally getting married to the vampire prince of her dreams. What began as a treaty between their two kingdoms had blossomed into a courtship where she had truly fallen in love. Life was perfect until darkness cast its shadow over her happiness. Her beloved vampire betrayed her, delivering a fatal blow. With her last breath, she made a desperate deal with a Demon God. "You will have to become my mate to gain the power to exact your revenge," he whispered in her ear, sending a shock through her dying body. This Demon God was not only breathtakingly gorgeous and immensely powerful, but he was also dangerously seductive. Now, he was offering her a deal that promised both vengeance and peril. Esteria’s mind was a storm of grief and fury. Could she handle the Demon God’s insatiable desires and the deadly power that came with their pact? Or would she be consumed by the chaotic demands of this new, dark world? "I will kill both of them. I will draw their last breath with my sword and burn their bodies with my fury," she vowed, her determination as fierce as the hellfire she now wielded.

My sister, Anna Hawkins, and I are twins, but I'm slightly heavier than her when we were born. Anna has always been weak and sickly since young, whereas I'm always active and healthy. When Anna was four years old, she was diagnosed with leukemia. Mom blamed me for stealing Anna's nutrients when I got born, so I needed to return the nutrients to her. When I got my blood extracted for the first time, a thick syringe was used on me. I was so scared when I saw it. Mom told me not to be scared. She gave me a magical pen, stating that whatever wish I wrote down with the pen would come true. I wrote, "It won't hurt." When the syringe was plunged into my arm again, Mom bought me a sweet lollipop. The pain never struck me again afterward. When I was five years old, I drew a strawberry cake on the paper while getting 1000cc blood withdrawn from me. That week, Anna could sit up in bed and play on her own. When I turned seven years old, I wrote down my wish that I'd like to go on a vacation. The next day, I was sent into the operating theater for the doctors to collect my hematopoietic cells. For the first time ever, Anna's cheeks became rosy. When I was eight years old, I wrote that I wanted to become the top student of my grade. But a day before my exams, my bone marrow was drawn from me. Anna finally got discharged by the hospital. She got to wear new dresses that I never got to wear. In the year I turn nine years old, my body is heavily depleted. With a trembling hand, I can only write down a line in messy handwriting. "I hope… that I won't become Mom's daughter in my next life."

My partner, Derek Crawford, calls himself a traditional man. On our tenth anniversary, I bought him a pair of his favorite AJ sneakers. Instead, he gifted me a bag of pastries. "Your cake is extremely tiny, and yet it costs you a few dozen dollars! Look at the pastries I got you—not only are they cheap, but they are also huge in quantity! Now this is what I call worth it!" After that, Derek tells me that he'll make it up to me by throwing an engagement party. He has also invited my parents and my relatives to the party. With anticipation brimming in our eyes, we arrive at the restaurant, only to see Derek serving us with store-bought pickles and dinner rolls. "I'm a traditional man, you see. I'm not used to fancy food and foreign cuisines. This, right here, is the basics of a traditional dinner. You don't see patriotic men like me nowadays!" My relatives' expressions change drastically on the spot. Meanwhile, my parents look very mortified. I can only smile awkwardly at them while doing everything I can to stop them from leaving. But as soon as I leave the hotel, I receive a notification from the bank that 200 thousand dollars have been deducted from my account via a supplementary card linked to it. At the same time, Derek's childhood sweetheart, Renee Young, posts a photo of her 12-layered luxurious cake on her social media account. "When I told Derek that I wanted to celebrate my birthday, not only did he buy me the most expensive strawberry cake, but he also reserved a dozen or so tables that are served with the grandest feast! "If your man loves you that much, he won't need any lessons in pampering you! Traditional men definitely know how to love and pamper their queens!" I tighten my grip on my phone. As I look back at Derek, who keeps claiming that he's a traditional man stuck to his traditional ways, I suddenly find it exhausting to continue being in a relationship with him.

I'm Tristan Scott's driver's daughter. Ten years ago, my father died at the hands of Tristan's abductors as he tried to save Tristan. Tristan had held me close and told me, "I'll care for you for the rest of your life on your father's behalf." Later, my mother's cancer relapsed due to her sorrow after losing my father. Before her death, she hoped to see Tristan and me marry. But on the wedding day, Tristan leaves me at the altar. I weep and try to keep him around, but he sneers and says, "You should know where to draw the line—your father gave his life in exchange for the cushy life you now have. That should be enough for you! You're dreaming if you think you can marry me!" In the end, my mother dies without seeing Tristan put a ring on me. That night, his assistant shares an Instagram story. The photo is of her and Tristan's faces plastered to each other as she shows off the ring on her finger. It's captioned, "My answer is yes."

"He's a ruthless Demon, father! no one wants to breathe the same air as him let alone marrying him, I can't!" Kiara's lips trembled terribly as tears streamed down her cheeks. "Funny how you think you have a choice," Alpha Ezra chuckled dryly, ignoring the bitter tears of his daughter as he continued. "No one wants you Kiara, not even your fated mate, that's because you are wolfless and as such, useless, Hyde is your only ticket out of shame, we could only hope that he doesn't reject you too." *** Rejected by her true mate and ridiculed by the entire pack for being wolfless, Kiara was forced into the hands of the ruthless king Hyde in a cold marriage. Hyde Montero is a nightmare, They call him the Demon King because everyone believed he had no soul, he was fright itself. his eyes held coldness that no heat can melt. Everything you'd hear in a mystical horror story. But only one woman held the key that'd draw a gleam of light to his dark soul. Could that woman be Kiara?

Twenty years ago, Thantos Abraxas, The Alpha of the Crescent Shadow werewolf pack went on a powerfueled rampage. Leaving every other pack with just one choice, bow down or die. He ripped through pack after pack, slaughtering it's members and forcing many others into hidding. Even worse, he destroyed every pack's wolfsbane plants, forcing them to lose control of their wolf selves during the full moon. Luckily the packs that hid were able to escape with some, but only enough for their own. Now, the Crimson River pack's wolfsbane is nearing complete depletion and the werewolves wont survive for long without it. The vicious killings of so many humans from nearby towns are beginning to draw hunters to the packs location. But luckily, there is still one hope left. Their Alpha, Grayson Sinclair, sends his nieces Malia and Iselyn to try and reason with Thantos in his old age for some of his wolfsbane. But will the girls be willing to compromise with the monster that put them in this situation to begin with? With the hunters closing in on their family, do they even have time to think about it? Will they even have a home to go back to? One thing's for sure. Grayson will never bow down to another. And neither will they.

Zitrey d' Nightroad is a former assassin known as ‘Crimson Blade of the Dark Moon’. To protect herself from people that want to take her life, she pretends to be a man and live as Benedict's son. Though living peacefully as a normal student at Lumiere Academy and receiving full of care and love from her new family. She still can't forget the burning hatred she has for the man who killed her mother. All this time, she has only one goal in mind to search for her mother’s murderer and to have her vengeance!Unexpectedly, who would have thought that in her journey of seeking revenged, things happened? A person who is cold and feared by everyone could attract into this idiotic and feminine Nathan Colfer? Furthermore, she obtained some trustworthy friends, Nikka Steinmetz? Very well known for being a hot-blooded and violent student?But no one knows what will happen later on as she was the most wanted person in the dark world. ["Let's play a game, you a hunter, and I'm your prey, be sure to draw the arrow correctly 'cause if you'd miss, this rabbit will hunt you instead...”]Warning: All information written here are work of Author's Imagination.