The Goose That Laid The Golden Eggs

When Liana Brooks, a quiet scholarship student, steps into the elite halls of Crestwood University, she only has one goal — to graduate without drawing attention. But fate has other plans when she collides — quite literally — with Axel Knight, the campus bad boy with a reputation darker than his leather jacket. He’s arrogant, untouchable, and dangerously charming. She’s focused, stubborn, and immune to his games. Until one reckless rumor forces them into a fake relationship — a deal meant to save her scholarship and clean up his image. But what begins as a pretended connection soon unravels something real. Beneath Axel’s tattoos hides a broken past he’s desperate to forget, and beneath Liana’s calm lies a fire she never knew she had. As secrets surface and emotions ignite, both will learn that love isn’t about taming someone else — it’s about finding the courage to face the rebel within. He was her chaos. She was his calm. Together, they became something dangerously beautiful.

Arian Smith had one rule which was to keep his head down, work well as the president of the book club, and hold tight to the scholarship that gave him a second chance at life. But when he’s falsely accused of stealing funds from the school’s prestigious Book Club, the orphaned student is thrust into a scandal that threatens everything he’s worked for. Kael Palmer has everything including money, power, and a last name that opens doors. What he doesn’t have is the academic award that stands between him and his graduation. The Book Club was supposed to be his ticket out until Arian’s scandal threatened to shut it down. Desperate to graduate, Kael strikes a risky deal with Arian. “Clear Arian's name to get the best member award”. But as both boys dug deeper, they became closer to the forbidden. What will happen to them since they live in a world where love between boys is forbidden?

Before my crazy grandmother died, she gave me three walnuts. According to her last wish, I cracked open the first walnut on my twenty-fifth birthday. Inside the walnut was a slip of paper. 'Go to the skybridge and grovel at the first beggar you meet' was the instruction written on it. When I looked at the note, I could feel my cheeks burning with embarrassment. Still, I did as told. To my surprise, the beggar turned out to be an undercover cop. Only later did I learn that I had long been targeted by human traffickers, and the bow had saved my life. As for the second walnut, my grandmother told me to crack it open before I got married. When I put on my wedding dress, ready to marry the policeman who saved me, I happily opened it. This time, there was a crumpled old photograph inside. In the photo, my fiancé was smiling as he strangled another bride.

Sloane Hartwell is the niece of Roman and Samara Hartwell. She is descended from a long line of pure Alphas who shift into the rare white wolf. At the tender age of eight, Sloane found out that her mother and the man she thought was her father were responsible for the death of her mother’s parents and brother, the Alpha heir. She also discovered that her mother murdered her birth father, thinking that he was not an Alpha. When her Aunt Samara returned, her mother and mate were both killed for their betrayal. Sloane worked hard to be worthy of becoming a white wolf and on her tenth birthday, when she got her wolf, she anxiously raced to see if she’d done enough, only to be disappointed that her wolf was a normal wolf. Benedict Winslow, V is an Alpha heir in a very long line of Alphas. His family is well known in the werewolf community, his bloodline going back so far that he’s practically werewolf royalty. Benedict has been watching Sloane for years, seeing how hard she works, how strong she is, and how she doesn’t take crap from anyone. He appreciates her toughness and her love of family. When he invites Sloane to his eighteenth birthday party, his family is less than pleased. Unwilling to offend her powerful family, they allow her to stay, only to find out that Benedict feels the pull to her as a mate. However, Sloane doesn’t feel worthy of having any mate, much less someone like Benedict. When she pushes him away, he refuses to let her go. Can Benedict convince Sloane that he truly wants her as his mate? Can Sloane let go of the pain of her past and allow herself to find happiness?

"I didn’t even know it was yours! I never agreed to this—none of this was supposed to happen!" "Supposed to happen or not, that child is mine. And I don’t let what’s mine out of my sight." **** Clara had no choice other than selling her eggs to pay for her family's medical bills. But a mix-up lands her carrying the child of a dangerous Mafia lord, Mateo De Luca. Now, two months pregnant and trapped by her uncle’s debts, Clara faces the impossible choice of keeping her baby or losing everything. But Mateo isn’t done with her yet. He’s determined to find the woman carrying his heir—and when Clara realizes who the father is, everything changes.

David Lee was supposed to be dead. Nineteen years old, terminal cancer, nothing left but hospital beds and webtoons about gang fights, brotherhood, and underdog heroes. But when he opens his eyes again, he’s not David anymore. He’s Seo Joonwoo — fifteen, awkward, quiet, and newly enrolled in the most infamous school in the city: Taeyang Technical High, where fists rule the halls and teachers look the other way. It should’ve been a nightmare. Instead… it’s everything David used to dream of. And when his first fight begins, a strange blue screen appears before his eyes: [Romanticism System Activated.] “The stronger your conviction… the stronger your punch.” Now, armed with a second chance, Joonwoo isn’t just here to survive. He’s here to live the kind of story he once only read about — a story of loyalty, friendship, fights under flickering lights… and maybe even love. This isn’t just delinquency. This is romanticism.

After twenty years of knowing and loving my destined mate, Alpha Martin, we were finally about to get married. On the eve of the wedding, He skillfully picked out the lipstick shade I wanted from my makeup bag. That's when I knew: Alpha Martin had someone else. That girl was wearing the custom evening gown I'd prepared for the wedding banquet, clinking glasses with Alpha Martin in a mate's toast. Our friends surrounded her, respectfully calling her "Luna." I didn't cause a scene. Instead, I called the hospital. "Dr. Fabian, please dispose of the eggs I had frozen." Then I sent a message to that girl. "Yvonne Jimenez, would you like to marry Martin Daniels in my place?"

Eliot Hale had it all: grades, charm, and an enviable future. The whole campus admired his girlfriend. His life was picturesque...Until an anonymous message snatched it all away. One party. One betrayal. One moment that saw the shattering of his glass-laden golden world. Eliot, now the joke of the university, has been stripped of any last semblance of support, in whispers mocking him, asking his name, and wondering in his moment of awe, "Who do I trust when those I loved the most were the first to destroy me?" And just as Eliot spirals into isolated boredom, a stranger people would wish they had in their lives, begins texting him. What starts off as cautious curiosity soon evolves into an intimate, heartfelt bond- the anonymous presence sees into him, all the pain he hides beneath the surface; making him feel something for the very first time in his life. But upon finding out who actually was behind the screen… everything was changed forever. The boy who ruined him might be the only one who really understands him. The one he was raised to hate might be the one to really love him. And that forbidden love? That just might be the one thing that could save them both.

I'm a nationally certified animal trainer running the Lion King, Caesar's final assessment. I've barely stepped into the enclosure corridor when the steel guillotine door slams down behind me. My wife's laughter crackles over the loudspeaker. "Everyone, we're doing the ultimate challenge today! We're locking the so-called number-one animal trainer in the Lion King's enclosure and taking bets on whether he wets himself in ten minutes!" Caesar crouches low and rumbles a warning. I reach for my tranquilizer gun but stop cold. The liquid isn't the right color. In a phony sing-song voice, the veterinarian, Hugh Archer, says, "Lucian, I forgot to mention, I swapped your tranquilizer darts for pepper spray so you won't hurt Caesar by mistake. "You two are so close. Just win him over with love!" I look at Caesar, his eyes bloodshot from the stimulant, and it clicks. Hugh still resents that I stopped him from touching a tiger with his bare hands a few days ago. I tune out the trash blaring over the loudspeaker, pull a remote from my pocket, and hit the button. It's the master switch for the electric fence gates around every predator enclosure in the zoo. If I don't make it out, no one does.

Elena had once believed that silence could mean safety. That a gentle hand and a warm cup of tea placed quietly on her desk every morning could be a form of love. Lucien was never cruel—not in the obvious ways. He remembered how she liked her eggs, noticed when she swapped her perfume, and sent flowers on days he knew she wouldn’t expect them. He raised her like one would raise a pet—softly, without question. And Elena, foolish in the way only the very lonely can be, mistook his quiet affection for devotion. She told herself he was reserved. Mysterious. That love didn’t always wear its heart on its sleeve. But when the old flame returned—the one who spoke his language without needing to try—Elena saw it. The difference. He looked at her like a man who had found his lost religion. And Elena? She had simply been convenient. No tears, no scene. Just papers on the breakfast table, beside the eggs he cooked perfectly. She didn’t accuse or beg. She only asked for freedom. He didn’t sign. He chuckled. A soft, dismissive sound. “A cat raised indoors doesn’t know how to survive on the street, Elena. You’ll come back." But she didn’t. She disappeared, like smoke—except she didn’t vanish, not really. She lived. She wore colour again. Laughed at bad jokes. Let strange men hand her coffee and ask for her number. Lucien? He watched. He watched her become someone without him. And it drove him mad. The night he cornered her outside the gallery, rain in his hair and desperation in his eyes, he looked like a man undone. "Elena," he breathed, "please. Look at me. Just once." She did. Calm as ever, and her love already gone.