The Mask Heart

I've loved my husband for five years, but he's never reciprocated my feelings. In fact, on the day after my death, he runs straight into his true love's arms. During my absence, he sneers and says, "She's up to her old tricks again." When he receives a call telling him to identify my body, he's excited. He thinks he can see my reaction to having my scheme exposed. He doesn't know that I'm long dead, though.

Miles Landry is trying to put violence behind him when he takes up work as a private detective focused on humdrum adultery cases. But when a Tibetan monk hires him to find a missing person, things get weird fast. Charged with tracking down the reincarnation of a man possessed by a demonic guardian from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Miles is plunged into a world of fortune-tellers, gangsters, and tantric rituals. The year is 1991 and a series of grisly murders has rocked New York City in the run up to a visit from the Dalai Lama. The police attribute the killings to Chinatown gang warfare. Miles–skeptical of the supernatural–is inclined to agree. But what if the monster he's hunting is more than a myth? ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Lyric Greyheart spent years living the life everyone expected of her. She was the perfect Luna, perfect daughter, and perfect mate, but behind closed doors, the truth was nothing but blood and heartbreak. Every night, Lyric was forced to endure the agony of her mate's betrayal. And when Lyric finally snapped and invoked an ancient law to break their sacred bond, she uncovered a truth that put her life in danger: her freedom came at a prize almost too big to pay. Forced into hiding, Lyric leaves her pack and the world she was born into. She settles in a quiet coastal town and opens a small ice cream shop, trying to build a life that is gentle instead of brutal. A life without fear, without duty, without eyes watching her womb as if she were nothing more than an incubator meant to bring the next heir into the world. She has no wolf, no pack, and no intention to ever belong to anyone again. Then Noah Locke walks into her shop. He looks nothing like the tourists who usually wander in for soda floats and sundaes. Sharp suit, dangerous presence, eyes that see far more than they should. Lyric doesn’t know who he is or why he feels so familiar, but Noah is the kind of man who doesn't take no for an answer. And he keeps coming back. Asking questions she doesn’t want to even think about. He watcher her like he's been waiting for her his whole life. Lyric escaped a mate who tried to own her, and she has no idea she just crossed paths with a man even more powerful and far more dangerous than her ex-mate. A man, who will burn the world to the ground to keep her from harm

“Why are you in daze again?” Hillary asked Kath when she caught her staring at the passenger for too long. Kath quickly switched her look elsewhere, like she hadn't done what her buddy had said. "I'm not! I'm not!" she lied, but her companion noticed her holding the square cufflink with a jade stone in it. Katherine Del Valle has been hunting for the owner of the cufflink for 10 years, but while she is looking, she meets a domineering passenger on the plane and tries to entice her. What would happen if she fell in love with him? Can he help her find the owner of the cufflink, or will he be the one to derail her plan?

Marcus Myers is the classic millionaire playboy, handsome and a rebel, the perfect formula to get what he wants, no woman resists him until he meets Daniella Douglas; she will not fall easily to his charms; she is a determined and intelligent woman, and does not intend to be anyone's toy. Both are about to start College, when by chance, they meet, the attraction between them makes desire and passion inevitable. Daniella is reluctant to be one more in his list of conquests, but Marcus will not give up until she is his and no one else. Marcus and Daniella are attracted to each other in every way, but who will be the one to give in to this relationship, who will take the first step when they both fall madly in love. This is book 2, the sequel to "When you leave your heart behind" book 1; however it can be read as a stand-alone story.

During the SAT exam, My sister and I both had an emergency at the same time. Overwhelmed by stress, I suffered a heart attack and was on the brink of death. Yet my mom, who was working as an invigilator that day, rushed to tend to my sister—who only had a stomach ache—without a second thought. I begged her to save me. But she kicked me away fiercely. “Can’t you pick the right time to put on a show for attention? If you ruin your sister’s grades, I’ll beat you to death, you beast!” Later, I failed to respond to resuscitation and died in the hospital. Mom collapsed overnight.

It's Family Day at my daughter, Hannah Neel's, preschool, but my wife, Samantha Miller, says she has to work and tells both Hannah and me not to go. Seeing the disappointment on Hannah's face breaks my heart, so I bring her to school anyway. As soon as we step through the gates, I see Samantha. She's holding her childhood friend—Oscar Barnett's—hand, with a little boy clutching her other. The three of them look like a perfect family, laughing and chatting, as if they belong together. When Samantha sees us, her smile fades, and she lets go of Oscar's hand. "Zach, it's not what you think. Oscar's raising his son alone. Today's his fifth birthday, and he just wanted to give him a little taste of a mother's love," she says quickly. I study her for a moment, then kneel and gently take Hannah's hand in mine. "Sweetheart, say hello to the lady."

He came to steal her heart. She stole his first. Julian Vane is dying. His curse burns through him like molten fire, a biological mistake that destroys his bloodline by age 25. He has five months left to live unless he finds the Aethel Stone, a gem fused with human blood that can save him. The stone is embedded in one girl’s chest. Elara Vance doesn’t know she’s a walking death sentence. All she knows is that her father’s botanical gardens are dying, her family is bankrupt, and a mysterious drifter with dark eyes and calloused hands just showed up offering to save the only thing she loves. She hires him. She trusts him. She doesn’t realize he’s the billionaire who destroyed her father’s business or that extracting the stone from her heart will kill her in the exact way her father died. Then everything changes. When feral werewolves attack her family, Julian is forced to shift revealing what he truly is. In that moment, as his beast form towers over her in the rain, Elara discovers the terrible truth: the man she’s beginning to fall for is a predator. And she’s his prey. But Julian is facing an impossible choice. The stone is keeping Elara alive. Taking it means killing her. Leaving it means watching himself burn out from the inside while she dies anyway. His family demands the stone. His curse demands her death. And his heart that cursed, failing heart demands he save her. In a dying garden where nothing should survive, Julian and Elara are bound by a werewolf contract neither fully understands. As danger closes in from all sides, they discover that the most dangerous thing isn’t the curse.

A joyful princess will always be the definition of her life. But at the back of all those thoughts is her painful goings and sacrifices. She may be treated and called as a ‘princess' because of her wealthiness, Chiana Afria Baliarza could never call herself as one of those. Many guys would chase her all the time but that one guy can’t give some space in her heart. He could be called as one of the ‘kings of wealthiness’ but he will be the reason why she suffered. That gun would always be the sign why she traumatised in front of him and had nowhere to hide. When that bullet blew up in front of her eyes and didn’t know where it could hit her body. The only thing she knew was her heart, is it really the bullet who hurt and pained her so hard? Or is it him? Zyaire Ace Sanz will always be the sign of her pained love.

Earth was butchered, wrecked, and scared long before I was born. According to the legends, humans ruin began when the Viatores came into existence in the human world. Viatores are banished creatures from an alternate universe, weaklings who couldn't save their own world and as welcoming as humans are, we accepted them. Redemption, that was what they seeked here on earth but those backstabbing asswipes had other plans. A tyrant, a bastard, known as Nicholas Sylvester led the war. The Changeling. The human rulers had no chance. We were his little project to enslave. He and his seven Lords claimed all continents. On my eighteenth birthday, I was gifted to the King of all Benders: one whom no human dared look at, trembles at his presence. However, in this game of heart and truth, fate has its plan hidden.