The Gate Guardian

My mom always said, "I've never played favorites. "You and your brother mean exactly the same to me." She said it so often I almost believed it. Growing up, anything my brother had, I had too. If he got a new pair of sneakers, so did I. If he signed up for coding classes, I was enrolled in the same ones. Even this year, when we came home for the holidays, my mom smiled as she handed each of us a neatly-packaged designer shopping bag. "I picked these out for you two at the store. One for each of you, exactly the same. "These outdoor brands are expensive, you know. A single jacket costs thousands. I'd never buy one for myself, but I don't mind splurging on you two." I took the jacket. It was well-cut, structured, and looked high-quality. A small warmth stirred in my chest. However, when I tried it on, the collar felt oddly irritating against my skin. Frowning, I pulled back the lining to check. There was a ring of yellowed sweat stains around the label, and tiny flakes of dandruff were caught in the Velcro. A faint musty smell lingered on the cloth, mixed with the stale odor of cheap tobacco. It was sour and impossible to ignore.

I was a street performer with no name, a ghost hired to wear a dead man’s skin. My mission was simple: Become Alexander Blackwood. Marry his icy fiancée. Sign over the forty-billion-dollar empire. In exchange, my dying sister lives. But the woman waiting at the altar isn't the socialite I was trained to seduce. She’s a wolf in silk—a twin who murdered her own sister to take her place. She doesn't want my money; she wants my soul. She knows I’m a fraud, and I know she’s a killer. In the gilded halls of the Blackwood estate, we are two monsters playing house, waiting for the first one to blink. Every night is a battlefield. Every kiss is a betrayal. She pins me to the silk sheets with the cruelty of a Queen, but when she whispers my real name in the dark, the mask slips. I was supposed to be her puppet, but I’m becoming her obsession. And as the real killers close in, I realize the only thing more dangerous than the lie we're living... is the heat of the truth. He’s a fake heir. She’s a replacement bride. In a world of silver spoons and sharpened knives, love is the deadliest sin of all.

"I, Lopo Foster of the Nightfall Pack, as a result, announce that my fated mate Lupa will join our pack. I hope that everyone will treat both Lupa and Luna Freya with equal respect in the future." My husband Lopo had announced in front of our pack members on our third wedding anniversary that he had found his fated mate. I stared blankly at the two figures cuddled up in the centre of the hall as a wave of numbness washed over me, and I listened to all the pack members congratulating them wholeheartedly. Loop’s so-called Fated Mate, Lupa ,feigning innocence and vulnerability, handed me a glass of wine. But that glass of wine took my life! Yet, the Moon Goddess decided my story wasn't over. She granted me a second chance. This time, I am determined to peel back the mask of that bitch and make Lopo experience a profound regret that will be his living torment!

Hungry and desperate, Luna Reyes crashes a wedding while running from her ex boyfriend—only to end up in a stranger’s veil. Mistaken for the missing bride, she says “I do” to powerful CEO Grayson Vaughn… and steps into a life never meant for her. At first, it’s survival. Then, something unexpected: real feelings. But just as Luna begins to fall for her husband, she uncovers a devastating truth— He’s connected to the tragedy that destroyed her family. What began as a stolen identity spirals into a dark hunt for answers. Because Luna didn’t just marry the wrong man— She married into a past she’s been trying to escape.

He is the most terrifying man in the Empire—Hadrian, the Lord Protector. Cold, ruthless, and dictatorial, he rules the chaotic world with an iron fist, crushing rebellions without mercy. To the world, he is a monster devoid of human emotion; a tyrant who bathes in blood. She is a rose growing in the mire—an ordinary, low-born girl struggling to survive in the slums. She possesses nothing but her pride and a fragile life. Their worlds should never have collided. But in a twist of fate amidst the smoke of revolution, the lofty Dictator set his eyes on the humble commoner. He didn't know how to love, so he used the only method he knew: Conquest. He clipped her wings, trapped her in his gilded cage, and forced her to bloom only for him. "You fear me," Hadrian whispered, his fingers tracing her trembling lips. "Good. Because in this lifetime, you will never escape me." In a game of power and submission, can a tyrant learn to kneel for love? And can a bird in a cage tame the beast?

Phoenixes were common among the supernatural world until their powers were known to the world. Samantha Parker is a phoenix. How will she navigate her life as she leaves her abusive pack after being rejected by her mate and goes down a path of success, she might even have a second mate.

Anya Voss, a werewolf-witch hybrid, is the pack’s pariah, blamed for a tragic car crash that killed her beta parents and the alpha and luna. Stripped of her status, forced into servitude, and rejected by her fated mate, Alpha Rowan Draven, Anya endures relentless torment orchestrated by her sister, Cassandra, who harbors a deadly secret: she’s the adopted child of the beta and his wife, she even knew about the tampered brakes, framing Anya to steal her inheritance.  After a brutal kidnapping leaving Anya near death, she flees to a rival pack, where the scarred alpha Damien Blackthorn sees her strength—and ignites her powers. As Anya’s heart wavers between Rowan’s haunting mate bond and Damien’s intoxicating love, both alphas become obsessed, their rivalry spiraling into a dangerous tug-of-war. But when Anya’s visions reveals that Damien might know what happened to her parents, she must harness her hybrid gifts to seek revenge and protect Rowan from a curse she placed on him.  With enemies closing in—a treacherous sister, a rogue blackmailer, and a shifter council hunting hybrids—Anya faces betrayal, comas, and sacrifice. In a world of claws and secrets, can she reclaim her truth and choose her heart before obsession consumes them all?

"Let’s go on a proper date, with flowers and candles, his lips twitched in a cocky smile, he leaned in forward, inhaling my scent like a drug he was addicted to. “And then what?” I replied, quivering. His lips were too distracting as they stood dangerously close to mine. "We can pretend to get to know each other if you want. And after that, I can fuck you senseless." Looking up to meet his dark gaze. I swallowed hard, I had only two choices, but whichever I chose, I knew I was screwed. Zach always knew his mate was out there, but at 25, after searching every pack, he had nearly given up hope. Then came Nicole, on the run from a broken past, scarred by betrayal after a humiliating scandal with her crush who sinisterly released a sex tape of her that would haunt her for life. She’s sworn never to trust any man, but destiny had other plans. What happens when the one person you’re meant to love is the last person you think you can trust?

The story you are about to read is inspired by a true story and refers to a time span of three years. During this time, various events take place. Love. Intrigue. Folly. Trips. Hopes. Vicissitudes. A love triangle will put a girl disputed between two important but profoundly different men at the center of attention. A princess. A commander. A sailor. A ship. Between one port to another, from one route to another, in an endless journey between sea and land , in different geographic locations around the world will happen à the unthinkable - in which the main protagonists of the story - it will help in moments of difficulty - but at the same time they will hate each other - struggling to re - establish their bonds and their role. At the seaside, life is different. You don't live by the hour but by the moment. We live by the currents, we adjust to the tides and follow the course of the sun. Cit. (Sandy Gingras) I want the sea to touch me, make me breathe the world and its whys, give me an eternal instant, which I will carry with me as an indelible memory. The sea is the mystery in which I immerse myself to rediscover my life. The sea. Cit. (Stephen Littleword) You can't be unhappy when you have this: the smell of the sea, the sand under your fingers, the air, the wind. Cit. (Irène Némirovsky) When love is true and sincere, it climbs over the mountains, the vastness of the sky and the sea. No human experience is greater than its strength. Cit.(Romano Battaglia)

Katherine Lark is mocked as a "wolfless omega" until her pack exiles her under the full moon. At Dark Blood's border, a mate bond snaps to Alpha Harrison Vale. But she rejects it and the bond explodes. Later, Katherine wakes up with a glowing mark on her chest and dreams that hint her past was sealed on purpose. But when an arranged Luna arrives to take Harrison, rumors turn violent and Katherine's 'weakness' cracks into terrifying power. Because Katherine was never an omega. And when her old memories return, two packs will bow to her or burn to death.