The Bear A Novel

The tale of a widow's harrowing journey through grief and peril into the cold remnants of a dead world. Damon Sharpe had in part found victory, he believed, in his battle to unearth a truth obscured by time. By autumn, he was dead, leaving to his wife Anne a house of unfulfilled wishes, remnants, and the key to the enigma of his obsession, the Mourner’s Cradle. A journey through grief and peril delivers Anne Sharpe from her home in St. Charles to the faraway skeletons of a long-dead civilization where she will find the desperate answers she seeks…or die trying. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

The unexpected romance that happened to a commoner leaves her whole life complicated. Falling in love with a toxic billionaire would have never been in the cards for her, but it happened anyway. The life she had with the billionaire was one she had never wished would happen, she saw different signs as to why she should have left him, but she stayed. If she had known, she wouldn't have ignored them.

It's my fiancé's grandmother's birthday banquet. My father's adoptive daughter suddenly snatches the gift I've prepared and says loudly, "My adoptive sister is so rude. "She tried to take the gift I prepared for Mrs. Scott Senior and play it off as her own. I'll have my father teach her a lesson when we get home later." The guests start to whisper among themselves and criticize me. In the past, I would've fled. I would never have dared to retaliate. Unfortunately for her, I've been reborn. I swipe the gift from her and throw it onto the floor. "When has my family turned into something for you to brag about? You mentioned having your father teach me a lesson, right? He's just been released from jail after being there for a decade due to theft. Are you going to bring him here?"

Jairus Ezekiel, the swoon worthy tycoon gets pulled to a bar by his pals. Eager for the ruthless business lord to get laid by the most desired bar beauty of the town. The one name, ginger haired mysterious lady, known for treating men in a peculiar way in bed. Agnes Regina could tackle any man within four walls of the bar, except Jairus Ezekiel. One night of insatiable passion gets her pregnant. But things become weirdly suspicious when she suddenly starts craving blood during her pregnancy. -*-*-*-*- [F-Rated: Fun, Flirt, Fluff and Fuck]

I felt his lips brush against my earlobe, a soft brush that suddenly made my toes curl. His breath lingered on my neck before he finally whispered, "I own you Crystal. The sooner you get to accept that the better for you. I'll make sure you submit yourself to me, be it the hard way or the easy way. And I'll break this ego of yours. I promise you" * * * * * * He was her beast and she was his beauty. He was addicted and she was his favourite drug. He was a sinner and she was his sin. In the blink of an eye, Crystal sees her entire life crumble with the death of her parents and she is forced to take a job that she would never have thought off to make ends meet for her and her sister and pay of her gambling father's debt to a crime boss-- being a stripper. Just a glance on the doe-eyed caramel skin beauty swinging her hips seductively on the pole and Leonardo already knew he had to have her as his. He had to claim her for himself. But he was everything she hated. She despised him and loathed his existence for the pain and anguish he had caused her and her sister. She swore never to succumb to him but what she didn't know was that he was also determined to show her that he would earn a place in her heart and life.

Sometimes love doesn't last... ...for all the wrong reasons. Angelique: The more I work with him, the more I lose my mind. Cassiel: I never thought I'd let her down, but now that I feel like I'm ready to propose, Angelique is slipping away from my fingers. Daniel: I have always gotten what I want in life. Angelique is the last person I want to let go. She can run away all she wants, but I have my mind set on having her. It's not like me to lose. Angelique Myers is a lost twenty-three-year-old trying to find what love and relationships mean in her life. She is committed to the love of her life, her long-term boyfriend, Cassiel Stone. But when work comes between them, and Cassiel starts wooing his clients more often than he woos Angelique, her love starts to crack. Enter charismatic country singer Daniel Miles. Hot and handsome, he catches Angelique off guard, sweeping her off her feet and hiring her to write romantic songs with him. Being with Daniel sparks fireworks, the likes of which Angelique hasn't seen since she first fell for Cassiel. Caught between two men, Angelique falls into a spiral of lies and goodbyes. As her life shatters around her, will Angelique be able to make up her mind about who she wants and gain her fairy tale ending?

Third in series. Jake is Midnight Forest Pack's Beta, incredibly popular and handsome, always surrounded by friends, and is successful in business and as his role in pack as Beta. Yet part of his life feels incomplete. Seeing all of his friends settled down with their mates and now having children, Jake can't help but wonder where he went wrong or think if he will forever be alone. Avoidance seems to be the best tactic, and Jake pushes himself harder into work, where an unexpected encounter at a business meeting gets his heart racing and turns his life upside down. Rose, this seemingly perfect, beautiful fated mate of his, has somewhat of an unusual reaction to meeting her mate. Are you meant to be doing your best to avoid your new mate? Or be keeping secrets from him? Not to mention Rose comes from the other side of the world and plans to head home as soon as she can, with promises of keeping in touch, and working things out with time and space. Jake is just happy to finally have his mate, and willing to do all he can to have her by his side. Would Jake be willing to leave all he knows for fate? Or could it be the moon goddess made a mistake, and Jake is better off alone? Or is there a better match out there for him?

Joshua Thompson, Rain Zimmer’s husband, had a deceased ex he could never get over—Lily Smithson. Rain always hoped that there would come one day where she could replace Lily’s presence in Joshua’s heart. In the eighth year of their marriage, Rain accidentally destroyed a bowl Lily had bought on a whim for Joshua, and Joshua yelled at her, “Get out! I don’t want to see you!” At that moment, Rain finally came to realize that she could never win against Rain’s ex. This time, she quietly drafted the divorce agreement and left, but Joshua panicked.

Mason betrayed Arabella during three years of marriage. Her feelings were in tatters, but there was still something she could do: revenge. To get back at her unfaithful husband, Arabella went to a nightclub and slept with (what she believed to be) a prostitute. But the truth was far from it. The man Arabella approached that night was none other than Damon Banks, the most powerful man in the city. And after a night with the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, Banks became obsessed. He wanted her, and he would have her. Arabella was about to receive a proposal: to be Damon's woman. She just didn't know that he didn't accept being refused. "I'm a married woman. Don't you dare propose that to me!"

Even if he hated me, I couldn’t look away from him. Even if he called me an imposter, a trickster, all I could think of was how alluring his scent was. Even when he was ready to take my sister’s words over mine, I couldn’t help falling for him. I wanted him to take me in his arms and tell me that the last few weeks had been a dream after all. That he loved me, like a true mate would. I wanted him to be my prince charming. To be my salvation. But that was not my fate. Goddess forbid if I had anything easy in life! Sometimes, I truly believed that this mate bond was the curse. Not my being the Stealer. Callista Leander turned eighteen with hopes of finding her happily ever after. But instead, she was left locked in a tower of a castle, doomed to be married off to her true mate’s feral brother to save him from certain death. All because of one curse and a conniving sister. Her life was suddenly filled with betrayals and secrets, and in every corner she looked, danger lurked. Now, with the whole world against her. At the mercy of an angry king, her oblivious one true mate, will she make it out alive on the other side?