The Little Engine That Couldn't

After surviving the brutal apocalypse for ten years, hardened survivor Hayley Reid was betrayed by her base and unexpectedly woke up two weeks before the apocalypse began. Back in time, her useless father and stepmother were still pressuring her to give up her house for her brother and his newlywed wife. This time, Hayley didn’t hesitate to sell them the house for dirt cheap. While they celebrate this great deal, Hayley went crazy stockpiling supplies. With the help of the super base system’s overpowered perks, she built an unbeatable shelter. While everyone else was stuck in zombie chaos, Hayley relaxed in her fortress like she was on vacation. While everyone else struggled to find food, her dog enjoyed a full buffet every day. While everyone else risked their lives squeezing into crowded survivor camps, Hayley’s base stood as the strongest steel fortress in the whole world!

For four years I was his secretary, and for four years I warmed his bed. I knew everything, from his family business to the secrets he whispered to me at night. But to him, I was nothing more than a toy he could summon whenever he pleased. The moment his first love, Sofia Costa, flew back into the country, he humiliated me without a second thought. He kissed her in a Sicilian church, abandoned me on a rain-soaked road with a gash ten inches long on my calf, and later dismissed me with a cold, cutting line. He said I was someone unimportant, someone he could simply ignore. She waved the tulip plush he'd given her in front of me. "I'm the only one he loves. You were just a stand-in." While I rebuilt my life in Chicago and finally found some peace, this ruthless Mafia don knelt outside my door, eyes red with emotion. "Elena, come back to me." I kicked his hand away with a smile. "Your so-called devotion disgusts me."

Elysia had loved Orion for ten years, watching from the shadows as he chased after someone else. Their contract marriage was supposed to be temporary—a favor for family, a mask for the public—but a year of shared mornings, quiet dinners, and unspoken tenderness made her believe maybe, just maybe, he had chosen her. Then the woman he never stopped loving came back. And in less than 24 hours, he handed Elysia the divorce papers. No warning. No hesitation. She didn’t beg. She signed and walked out of the home she helped build—quietly carrying the child he never asked for. But secrets don’t stay buried. When Orion finds out she’s pregnant, his world doesn’t crack—it detonates. The woman he thought he could cast aside… is the one now slipping through his fingers. “You erased me like I never existed.” her voice was calm, eyes distant. It broke him. “Because I thought you’d always be there.” She sighed. "I havr someone who looks at me and really sees me now. You can leave." Now, it’s not just about love—it’s about guilt, consequences, and Orion chasing trying to win Elysia back after she finally stopped waiting. Will she forgive him or move on with her new lover?

Xandra Marie Ramirez is a successful independent woman. She grew up living in an orphanage and when she aged out of the system, she manage to find a job to support herself and her studies until she graduated and become a Veterinarian. She worked so hard to achieve a lot and that includes her very own clinic. She's beautiful in and out but she hides a lot of secrets to everyone. Knight Alexander Sarmiento is a hot multi-billionaire businessman who doesn't care about anything else but his business. Not until she met this girl who made him restless each day after their encounter.

Israel is the youngest billionaire and mafia boss. He rules the underworld organization with his title 'The Little Mafia Boss'. After his parents died at a young age, he was forced to replace his father's role as a CEO and a leader as young as 18 year-old. He was a good kid, Israel. But he never thought that by the time he turned 18, feeling miserable and hopeless after his mother's death, his 18-year-old experience was beyond his expectation. At 18, he became an official orphan, he had his first experience of getting wasted by alcohol and drugs, and he even had his first one night stand with a part timer, Amelia. What will happen if five years later, they meet again?

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

Would you bet your life finding about the truth? Xyrica Dela Vega grew up in the arms of her loving grandparents but she knew little to nothing about her parents. How they died, when they died, or why they died. Everything was simple and peaceful but it all changed after her grandmother was on the brink of death when she shed a little truth about Xyrica’s life. That Xyrica is not their biological granddaughter. A man, her grandmother didn’t want to say the name, left her in their care without an explanation. The man promised her grandparents that when the right time comes he will take Xyrica with him. But when is the right time... her grandparents didn’t know. Years after years, the man didn’t came back and the couple decided to take the matters in their own hand.The old couple hired an investigator to find out about Xyrica’s background and that’s when they found out Xyrica is the rightful owner of Gangster Academy. How her biological parents died is still unknown and it’s up to her to find the truth on who is behind of everything. She thinks the answer lies at Gangster Academy so she will do everything just to be accepted. She will risk her life fighting a battle without knowing who the real enemy is... Will she be able to find out about the truth or will she end up dead like her parents?

They say "behind every successful man is a woman", right? Well, in Maxwell Jay Gallagher's opinion, that's total bullshit! His company, M.J Tech, is the most successful tech company in the whole United Kingdom and there isn't even a single female staff member! For reasons best known by him, he hated women with a passion and he knew without any iota of doubt that he wasn't gay. But why was he developing such strange, bizarre feelings towards his new assistant whom he nicknamed 'little man'? Why the electric sparks and undeniable attraction? Unbeknownst to him, his 'little man' is actually Angelina McQueen, a gorgeous young woman under the disguise of a man who was hired as an undercover espionage agent by his rival in order to steal his company's business ideas... What will happen when he eventually discovers that the personal assistant that had always been not just behind him but in front of him, beside him and everywhere around him, was actually a woman?! And that too, an espionage agent!

Warning: 18+, strong mature, and sexual content. Sneak peek: "I don't believe in God, Hailey," he murmured, as his firm hands settled on my hips and lifted me from his lap, placing me onto his desk, "But... if I did, I would have thanked him for making you." A soft gasp escaped my lips as his hands slid under my college skirt, his fingers brushing on my pussy over my panties. "Damien, you are my brother..." I managed to whisper amid overwhelming desires. This felt so wrong. He emitted a husky chuckle, leaning closer to my ear, his lips brushing against my earlobe. "Correction-Stepbrother." "But-" Before I could utter a word, his hand swiftly slipped down inside my panties, his fingers landing on my bare, wet heat and just when a moan could escape my lips, his mouth forcefully met mine swallowing the scream of pain as well pleasure when two of his fingers thrust into my pussy just like I'd felt them in my dreams... *** When I was dragged across the country to Los Angeles to live with my mom's new husband and his son, the last thing I expected was for my stepbrother to be off-limits. Least of all, I never imagined I'd find myself tempted by the forbidden. Damien Black: sinfully attractive, irrefutably irresistible, and seemingly devoid of warmth. Emotions meant nothing to him; girls were mere toys for him to have in bed. And there came my biggest mistake-believing I could be more than just a toy for him...maybe more than just another conquest in his collection. I was his dirty little secret, one that he wouldn't let go of, accept, shatter entirely, or mend. I was his toy; Well....his favorite one.

Her mother's death and her being wolfless made everything in her life change. Having given up on life, Leila tried to commit suicide but was shocked when she realised she had a second chance mate and wolf. Will her second chance mate accept her?