Stumble Upon Alternatives Novels & Stories

Seven years into our marriage, my husband, Lucas Thorne, is hailed as a legendary astronomer in the field of astronomy. It is no secret that he absolutely adores me, his wife. He always keeps a polite, distant demeanor with those around him. Even when his new assistant, Serena Cox, asks for his number, he coldly turns her down. In the year he proposed to me, he named a star "LAW", which was an acronym for "Lucas Adores Wilma". Since then, every asteroid he discovers is named with initials that hold a special significance only the two of us know. To others, they might just be scientific achievements. But to me, they are unspoken love letters. This goes on until this morning, when I stumble upon an unfamiliar phone. I unlock it easily with my middle name, thinking it's yet another quiet gesture of his love. But to my horror, I find a string of explicit messages between him and another woman. The person who was at the receiving end of those messages was none other than… Serena, his assistant.

Two years ago, I was one of the Disease Control Agency's best researchers. But while I was investigating a batch of virus samples with unsequenced genetic codes, my husband's true love burned me to death. She poured rubbing alcohol over the virus samples she accidentally dropped and rendered me unconscious with diethyl ether. Then, she set the lab on fire and burned everything to a crisp. When the agency's other employees led the firefighters to the scene, she cried and claimed I'd stolen the virus samples after colluding with an unknown organization. A month later, an odd and aggressive virus spread throughout the city, leading to countless deaths. My husband, Ethan Carter, denounced and severed ties with me before getting together with his true love. The whole city turned on me, crying for my blood. Everyone said I was a spy from an external power. That changes when three daring high school students accidentally stumble upon the cordoned-off lab. They discover my charred body inside.

Ever since my parents told me I'm not related to my family by blood, my Alpha older brother, Zachary Baker, treats me very coldly. Needless to say, I'm saddened by his behavior. When I'm about to leave the pack, I accidentally stumble upon Zachary's notebook. "Shit! Her scent changed. She smells like a mature she-wolf now, as sweet as honey. I can't control this damned restlessness anymore." "I really want to tear her clothes off right there on the training grounds." "She did some deep squats today. I really wanted to ram into her from behind at that moment." "If he dares to call me 'Zachy' again, I swear, I'm going to breed her and make her carry my pup right in front of the entire pack!" I put the notebook back in its original spot. Then, I slip into one of Zachary's shirts before climbing into his bed. "Take me, Zachy."

In the tenth year of my pursuit of Henry Stone—the profoundly devoted deuteragonist in the novel—he arranges a lavish, extravagant wedding on my behalf. I still feel uneasy even though Henry continues to love me deeply after we get married. This is because the mission progress bar displayed by the system has never moved past zero. On our wedding anniversary, I happen to stumble upon a hidden diary in Henry's desk drawer, which reveals a very shocking truth—Henry has been reborn. He possesses full knowledge that this world is a novel and that I am the antagonist who poses a threat to the protagonist, Renee Schmidt. He puts on a careful act of profound love toward me, strictly for the purpose of shielding Renee, the person he truly cares for. I have just gotten the gist of the whole situation when the system's warning goes off. "You have failed your romance mission. Your existence will be terminated within 48 hours."

Three years of contract marriage, and Silas has been the picture of icy restraint — buttoning his shirts all the way to the top. Knowing he doesn't love me, I decide to stop lying to myself. But just as I'm about to flee with the divorce papers, I stumble upon a forum called Mischief & Mayhem. The pinned post screams in red letters: "URGENT! I'm actually an incubus. I've spent three years pretending to be cold and celibate so I won't scare my wife. But she just asked for a divorce and I can't hide it anymore... HELP: How do I win her back in 30 days without revealing what I am?" In the attached photo, a black heart-tipped tail is shamefully coiled around a suit trouser leg, its tip hooked around a tie. That tie — I bolt upright in bed. That's the limited-edition tie I gave Silas. My iceberg husband is secretly a lovesick male incubus?

BLURB: She gave up her wolf to save him, expecting their bond to last for eternity. But instead, he rejected her. Despite knowing that getting rejected while wolfless would ruin her life and get dragged into the asylum owned by the deranged hybrid king, Azrael Vanderbilt. While in the asylum, she would stumble upon Azrael’s deadliest secret and her frustration would push her to blackmail him with the secret, knowing fully well that he might kill her for it. But Azrael would shock her with his own proposal: “Marry me, Little Dove. Become the Luna Queen of Fangshire. Take that power and destroy those who hurt and betrayed you.” She'd take it, desperate for an opportunity to pay her former mate back in his own coins but what she doesn't know is that Azrael is far deranged than the rumors about him, he's sinister and devilish. And he made her his fake Luna for far more sinister plans than she would ever know.

It was only meant to be a one-time, one-night solution to ONE problem. Okay, that's a lie. There are two problems: #1) I'm broke. Through no fault of my own, other than I fell down a rabbit hole so deep, I'm now buried in my sister's debt—with my name, Nikki St. Claire, stamped across it. #2) I honestly need a reprieve from my overly mundane, personal life. So when I stumble upon a highly exclusive and extremely secretive auction, I'm both intrigued and potentially saved, given I've left no "box" of what I'll do unchecked on the interview questionnaire, which exponentially increases the reserve that's set on me. Only thing is… The man who buys me turns out to be Jameson Richards. A drool-worthy billionaire bachelor. Also… My boss. How we got this tangled up in each other is a story unto itself. What we do once I accept his one-night contract is a tale riddled with lust and love.

In an East London lock up, two film makers, Jimmy and Sam, are duct taped to chairs and forced to watch a snuff film by Ashkan, a loan shark to whom they owe a lot of money. If they don’t pay up, they’ll be starring in the next one. Before the film reaches its end, Ashkan and all his men are slaughtered by unknown assailants. Only Jimmy and Sam survive the massacre, leaving them with the sole copy of the snuff film. The film makers decide to build their next movie around the brutal film. While auditioning actors, they stumble upon Melissa, an enigmatic actress who seems perfect for the leading role, not least because she’s the spitting image of the snuff film’s main victim. Neither the film, nor Melissa, are entirely what they seem however. Jimmy and Sam find themselves pulled into a paranormal mystery that leads them through the shadowy streets of the city beneath the city and sees them re-enacting an ancient Mesopotamian myth cycle. As they play out the roles of long forgotten gods and goddesses, they’re drawn into the subtle web of a deadly heresy that stretches from the beginnings of civilization to the end of the world as we know it. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

My younger sister, Mindy Sampson, has a rare blood condition. She needs regular blood transfusions and a bone marrow transplant. My husband, Ian Huffman, and I are matches. My mother says we should draw lots. Whoever draws the short stick will become Mindy's blood donor. In the next five years, I am always the one who draws the short stick. Because of constant blood draws and bone marrow extractions, my body breaks down. Before I die, I stumble upon Ian holding Mindy and saying, "Cindy is so stupid. There are only short sticks in the container. Every time, we let her draw first. How could she ever get a long one? "She is going to die without ever knowing you are not sick at all. Once she dies and we get the insurance money, we can travel the world." When I open my eyes again, I am back in the fifth year after Mindy is diagnosed. I look at the container of sticks on the table and smile. Then, I look at Ian and say, "This time, you draw first."

Who would have thought that one disastrous night could bind two strangers in a contract neither saw coming? Everlyn Ateya Wangari thought she had it all—a stable job, a loving boyfriend, and a future she had fought hard for. But that illusion shattered the moment she walked in on the man she had sacrificed everything for, tangled in the arms of another woman—her biggest rival at work. Betrayed and heartbroken, she storms out, only to stumble upon a high-stakes deal that has nothing to do with business and everything to do with revenge. Kurtis Otias, Nairobi’s most elusive billionaire bachelor and the newly appointed CEO of her company, is a man who never begs—except now. With a billion-dollar merger hanging by a thread, he needs a wife, and he needs one fast. A chance encounter. A reckless offer. A contract signed in desperation. One seeks power. The other seeks payback. But neither of them anticipated the one thing they couldn’t control—**love and obsession.** When emotions start to blur the lines of their cold arrangement, will they walk away unscathed, or will they destroy each other in a game where the rules were never meant to be fair?