Novel & Cerita The Little Engine That Couldn't

They tried to erase her. She survived. Raised in a place designed to break children, she grows up learning one rule above all else: endure quietly. Hunger is discipline. Pain is routine. Obedience is survival. She doesn’t know her real name, her family, or why certain men with clean shoes and cold eyes always seem to be watching. Until the night she runs. Bleeding, hunted, and half-dead, she escapes an institution that was never meant to let her live past usefulness. What she doesn’t know is that the symbol burned into her skin isn’t a punishment it’s a claim. A mark left by a powerful underground network that doesn’t lose what it owns. Her collapse brings her into the path of three brothers who rule the city’s shadows men whose wealth buys silence, whose violence is surgical, and whose loyalty to blood is absolute. At first, she’s just another wounded stranger pulled from the streets. Then one brother recognizes the mark. And everything changes. Because years ago, the brothers tried to dismantle a trafficking empire known only as The Circle. They thought it was gone. They were wrong. The girl they saved isn’t a random survivor she’s a missing investment. A living mistake The Circle intends to reclaim. As fragments of her past surface, a terrifying truth emerges: she wasn’t abandoned as a child. She was stolen. Trained. Conditioned. And when she escaped, she didn’t just save herself she reignited a war. Hunted by a network that erases people without a trace, and protected by men who don’t lose once they claim something as theirs, she must decide whether she’ll keep running… or turn and burn everything that tried to own her.

Three days before my wedding, Adrian canceled it for the fifty-second time. He came to the Palermo workshop to approve my gown’s crest embroidery, but the moment I stepped out from the fitting curtain, he snatched up his holster and radio. “Torino bastards smashed Bianca’s vineyard, surrounded the estate. Lia’s terrified, so I have to go. The wedding is off.” Once, I would have stopped him and demanded to know who mattered more to him, me or Bianca. This time, I simply let him go. Thirty minutes later, Bianca posted an Instagram Story: [You’re the only shelter for me and my daughter.] The photo showed Adrian holding Bianca close, with Lia in his arms, calling him Dad. They looked like a real family. My parents sighed. “Seraphina, is the wedding in Hawaii off again? We’ve already sent the invitations to every renowned Italian family. What will this do to the Bellini family’s honor?” I shook my head, tapping the backup invite. "The wedding goes on.  In three days, I’ll still be a bride. Just not Adrian’s."

When I finally mustered the courage to confess my feelings to him, he just turned and walked away. When I finally emerged from the shadows and began a new chapter in my life, he was gone. Was it depression? I couldn’t believe it. I had to find out the truth about how he died.

Three years ago, I fled my old pack and hid among humans at Westridge University. As graduation approached, Damian Blackwood—the man I had secretly loved for three years—suddenly confessed his feelings to me. He told me he was a wolf. He promised that as soon as we graduated, he would take me back to his pack and make me the most honored Luna. I was overjoyed. We spent the entire night together, wild and desperate. The next day, Damian pulled me into his arms in front of everyone and announced that we were together. I sat on his lap, blushing, certain that I was the luckiest woman alive. I was ready to tell them my true identity. But then they suddenly switched to the Old Tongue. "How did the bookworm taste?" Damian answered casually. "She acts innocent on the surface, but in bed? An absolute whore." Laughter erupted around us. "So are you actually going to mark a… human?" Damian frowned. "No. My size—no wolf woman could take me. I was worried that Juliette, being human herself, might think I'm too rough. So I used Aurora for practice." "Don't let Juliette know that Aurora and I slept together. I don't want her to be upset." What Damian didn't know was that I am the Alpha King's only daughter. And I understood every word of the Old Tongue. I said nothing. But when I returned home, I secretly contacted my father, the Alpha King, and agreed to return to the North and inherit the throne.

On our fifth wedding anniversary, my wife left me for the man she could never forget. "Winston's raising a child on his own. You know that being a single father isn't easy. Besides, you're both men, can't you cut him some slack?" Not only was I willing to "cut him some slack," but I was also willing to step aside completely. I was willing to be the bigger man so the two of them could raise that child together. I packed my things and left, taking the initiative to apply for an overseas program in architecture. To my confusion, she came running to me, crying and begging me not to go. Still, it was too little, too late.

"Shh, just a little bit more," I said against her skin. I raised my head to stare at her and her blue eyes were wide. My thumb caressed her cheeks as she stared right back at me. "More, Kiara," I whispered. "Just a little bit more," I could feel the softness of her lips, the warmth of her body, and the sparks under her every touch. "Ivan," She whispered. *** She was my addiction. I couldn't get enough of her. Her touch set my body ablaze, and the taste of her lips lingered long after she was gone. Every moment without her was agony, and I longed for the next chance to hold her close. I had never been one to fall so deeply, to be so consumed by another person. She was my undoing, my weakness, and yet I couldn't imagine a life without her. She brought out a side of me that I had never known existed -wild, primal energy that couldn't be contained. And even now, as I lay beside her, watching her chest rise and fall with each breath, I knew that I could never get enough. She was my addiction, and there was simply no other way to describe it. #2 BROKEN SERIES

Grim Marie knows far too much about the wolves of the world, a world where little girls go missing. After all, she had married one before she/he showed his claws, and what that wolf did to her little girl was unforgiveable. Grim Marie isn’t certain if she can ever forgive herself for putting her Little Aleta in harm’s way. When Grandmother becomes ill, Aleta offers to take the bus through the concrete forest to Grandmother’s house to bring her some goodies. She knows the way. What could possibly go wrong? In this modern day retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf takes to the city streets to capture his prey, but the hunter is close behind him. With Grim Marie on the prowl, the hunter becomes the hunted. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

"Don't you for a second believe that we are ever letting you go, sweetheart". He muttered against her ear, his husky voice sending jolt through her body. His tongue suddenly flicked out to lick her ear lobe. She didn't even understand why was this happening to her. "You are stuck between us, Vanessa." another voice muttered out as he trailed his lips down her chest, his breath fanning against the skin between valley of her breasts. She whimpered feeling scared of them. "You are ours, love." the third voice made it's way to her ear. The last brother's lips teasing the nape of her neck and he suddenly bite the sensitive skin there making tears fell out of her doe eyes. "P-P-P-Please l-l-l-let me g-go." Vanessa pleaded to them making the trio smirked at her stuttering self. "Say this without stuttering and then we will consider your request." one of them said to her and the trio laughed at her aloud. *** Joaquin, Emiliano and Alejandro Fernandez are the triplet brothers. Their aura screams danger and power. They always have the upper hand and no one dares to cross them. They never had a mother figure in their life but a bastard father names Teal, who was killed at the name of peace treaty by Russian mafia boss Miakhail Igor Gorbachev years ago. Now they only had their sister with them but she was also taken away by Liam ovich Gorbachev and the Spanish trio brothers are furious would be an understatement. Vanessa Lynn Gorbachev, daughter of Rooh and Mikhail Igor Gorbachev and the only sister of Liam, is an innocent little girl. She was as innocuous as the child because she was never been out in the cruel world. She was homeschooled because of her stuttering problem.

Spoiled Alpha's son, Caleb Grant, is shocked to discover his fated mate roaming lost and alone in the forest. She's human, and she's still a child. Confused and disappointed, Caleb is compelled to protect the vulnerable human, who assumes he's nothing more than a regular wolf. In this tale of fantasy and adventure, Caleb learns to appreciate that soulmates can be friends before they can become lovers, leading a double life as Alpha to the Lakewood pack, and Ruby's beloved pet, Storm. Tragedy forces them apart, and as Ruby reaches her 18th birthday, the time has come for Caleb to reveal his secret. Will Ruby accept the man as she did the wolf, or is their love doomed to fail?

Living on the run, the 14-year-old Ryan takes refuge in the woods after seeing his mother murdered. When, at the age of 17, he is captured by the Beta of the Darkmoon Silver Guardians Pack, he ends up finding a family. For a while, Ryan thought he had found a home, but fate plays many tricks. Ryan finds out he doesn\'t have only one mate, but two, and the worst of it, both men. He lived all his life, running away from his mother's mate's pack so he didn't accept the fate that the Moon Goddess had given him. Ryan runs away again, but without knowing, he runs straight into danger. This is the story of Ryan's life, and all of his adventures.