The Next 365 Days Novels & Stories

My younger twin sister, Emma Lawson, is everyone's favorite because she is sickly. A snowstorm traps us on the mountain and the rescue helicopter arrives with room for only one more. I have terminal cancer and am ready to let Emma take my place. Then she suddenly clutches her head and cries that she feels dizzy. My whole family rushes to her side and together they push her into the cabin. My husband, Leon Ziegler, touches my fractured arm and says, "Sarah, you'll have to wait for the next helicopter." My daughter, Daria Ziegler, even throws a snowball at me. "Aunt Emma is sicker than you. Stop trying to take her spot." Only when the helicopter takes off do I see Emma pressed against the window, smugly sticking her tongue out. She has been lying the whole time. When I am finally rescued, the doctors tell me I have three days left to live. I decide to trade everything I own for a small piece of my family's affection.

“On all fours, baby. Now crawl to Daddy,” His velvety voice filled me with need as I dropped on my knees and crawled to him. "What do you want,gumdrop?" A dark look of lust settled over his face and I tried not to shiver at the sudden chill that ran through me. "I want you to f**k me." I swallowed hard as thrills of pleasure coursed through my body.My eyes flitted up to meet his grey orbs again, they were burning with hunger and a dark fire. "Fast and hard.”A soft whimper escaped my lips as he reached for me. “That's my good girl.” ** ** ** ** Zella Carmichael spent years harboring a secret crush on the ruthless billionaire, Isaiah King—her godfather and her father’s best friend—while pretending it was nothing more than a silly dream. So when his charming son swept her off her feet, it felt like fate offering her a safer version of the man she could never have. But fate had other plans. Just days before her engagement to Isaiah’s son, Isaiah steps in with a truth that wrecks her world: for the next 360 days, she is his. Zella believed her father gave her away to protect her from Isaiah’s threats, however she was far from the truth. Behind Isaiah’s cold steel eyes hides a man who has always been obsessed with her. And behind her father’s words lies secrets so dark, it will wreck her world. Zella is pulled into a world of passion, twisted secrets, power play, sizzling lust and betrayal. Trapped between the boy who once loved her and the man she was never meant to want… who will get her in the end—father or son? When dark shattering secrets come to light, will their love survive?

The night Enzo was made boss of the Moretti family, I gave him my virginity. He was the heir I'd been promised to since before I could speak. We kissed against the floor-to-ceiling windows, tangled in the humid, twilight heat... His rough, urgent hands hurt me, but I didn't pull away. Even the pain felt sacred, a sacrifice I was willing to make for love. Lost in the heat of the moment, he promised me a pair of the most beautiful crystal shoes, so I could dance the opening waltz with him at his coronation ceremony the next day. The first dance is always reserved for the new boss and his future bride. I cried with joy, believing my years of secret pining and patient waiting would finally culminate in a fairytale ending. But I was wrong. So terribly wrong. The next morning, I dragged my aching body out to get his favorite espresso, only to overhear the guys joking as I returned: "So you finally popped the family cherry, huh? How was Vivian on your first night as boss?" Enzo's voice was lazy, mocking. "Face of an angel, body of a devil. She's a hot little viper in bed." The room erupted in sleazy whistles. "So, you really gonna marry her, young boss?" "Are you kidding me?" Enzo scoffed. "Vivian's just a warm-up. Once I get some practice in, I'll go tame the Falcone ice princess. When I get bored, I can always circle back and put a ring on her." I stood frozen in the doorway, my vision blurring, the coffee cup trembling in my hand. Before the world faded to black, I sent a coded message to the Don: "Uncle Romano, for the promotion in three days, get me a transfer. As far away from Enzo as possible."

In order to take care of my father, who got hurt from a fall, I gave up on my chance to get promoted and even took a week's leave. On the day he gets discharged from the hospital, my dad hands me a mysterious envelope with a wide smile on his face. "Thank you for your trouble over the past few days, Luther. This is a little token of appreciation from me. You can buy yourself a nice pack of smokes." I rub my hands together, feeling warmth surging into my heart. But when I open the envelope, all I see is seven dollars. Still, I comfort myself in thinking that the sum isn't important at all. It's the thought that counts, after all. But the next day, I come across a social media post of my younger brother, Felix Grayson, who never showed his face around the hospital during Dad's hospitalization. It features a photo collage of a luxurious villa, with a photo of the purchasing contract smack dab in the middle of collage. The caption writes, "I bought the top-tier riverside villa for seven million dollars! Thank you so much for your support, Dad!"

The day I was supposed to win the biggest award of my career, I walked in on my boyfriend, Ethan, in bed with another woman. He sneered, calling me a face-blind, scent-deaf bore in bed. I planned to expose his ass at the award ceremony. Instead, he and his lover mowed me down with their car. Next thing I knew, I woke up with them in an S-class horror survival game. Mortality rate: over 95%. We had to survive ten days in a haunted manor to be revived. Hit 100 on your Anxiety Level, and your soul is obliterated. Chloe, Ethan's lover, sneered. "Sensory defects? You can't recognize ghosts or smell danger. In a horror game, that’s a death sentence. You might as well just die." The others heard her and scrambled to team up. Me? I walked straight into the lair of the manor's final boss. The most powerful demon in the game wanted to devour my soul. I couldn't really see him. I just thought he was a cosplayer. I lunged forward, poked his abs, and pointed at the glowing crack in his chest. "Wow, you're really committed to the role. This getup must've cost a fortune."

On the day I vomit blood while eating on a livestream, I rise to the top in the platform streamer rankings. My older brother, Julian Everhart, bursts into my room, kicks over my streaming equipment, and violently shoves me to the floor. My fiance, Dominic Pierce, tells everyone on the livestream that I'm just trying to attract attention and rake up the views by faking my illness. In an instant, I get cyberbullied by everyone. The Internet users keep leaving malicious comments and cursing me to die. All of my photos are crossed out. Someone even dumps silver acid onto my front door. What everyone doesn't know is that I will die in three days because of Wolf Soul Deterioration. On the day I die, I start the livestream for the final time. Tens of millions of viewers rush into my stream instantly and begin cursing me out for my lack of morality. They bash me for faking my illness just to gain popularity and attract attention. But the next thing they know, my heart monitor flatlines right away. Everyone begins panicking instantly. Julian and Dominic shift into their wolf forms instantly and rush toward the hospital desperately begging me not to die.

Selena Collins leads an unremarkable life or so she believes. As an overworked and underpaid secretary at Vermillion Cyberspace, she’s long accepted the monotony of her days and the brooding presence of her enigmatic boss, Theo van Gogh. But everything changes the moment she collapses from exhaustion and hits her head on his desk. Upon waking up in the hospital, she begins seeing things that shouldn’t exist... ghosts, demons, angels, and creatures that seem far too aware of her presence. Then comes the impossible. Theo visits her with a revelation that completely made her brain reboot. Theo isn’t just her boss now. He’s her familiar. And Selena—confused, concussed, and utterly unprepared—is the next chosen successor of a forgotten land god. Theo bows 90 degrees, coldly defiant. "I do not acknowledge you as my master. So if you die in the process of completing your missions, it would bring me joy." Now thrust into a world where mythology bleeds into modernity and ancient contracts awaken from dormancy, Selena must uncover why she was chosen and survive long enough to earn her own name in a realm that remembers everything.

My name's Althea Whitmore— a slave to my stepmom and stepsister. It's well-known how much my father despises me. My late mom was of Zelta bloodline, and my father hailed from a Gamma bloodline. Strangely, I was born an omega and Mom died after giving birth to me. The entire pack has known me as a jinx, and my difficulty manifesting my wolf form is not news. I turned 20 this year, I thought I would never get a mate, that I was bound and fated to suffer in my father's house. Until the Alpha prince returned from abroad for his impending coronation as the next king of the Blood Moon pack. It turned out I was his fated mate. The mate bond was too strong for either of us to resist each other and we made the most of it that night. But just a few days later, he made me stand before the whole pack and rejected me. That was it: that was the last straw. I couldn't stay in the Pack any longer, so I left. But why did the goddess decide to toy with me further by making me pregnant for that undeserving scum?! And then, there's him— the devilishly sexy Alpha Kieran of the rival Pack.

One divorce. One hundred dollars. One hell of a mistake. Katherine West had it all, until her husband, George, dropped a bomb on their five-year anniversary: He’s gay, he’s in love, and she’s evicted. Left with a frozen bank account and a shattered heart, Katherine decides to go out with a bang. She spends her last hundred dollars on the most dangerous-looking man at The Gilded Lily, hoping for one night of friction to erase five years of lies. It worked. It was the best mistake of her life. Until the next morning, when a court order forces Katherine and George to live together for ninety days of marriage counseling. George has lost his fortune and moved them into his mysterious new lover’s penthouse to save face. The door opens, and Katherine meets her new landlord: Killian McLeroy. The man she hired last night. The man her husband calls the love of his life." Now, Katherine is trapped in a house of glass with the man who knows her body, the man who stole her husband, and a secret that could burn all of Manhattan down. Ninety days. Two enemies. One bed. Let the games begin.

I have just secured a massive ten-million-dollar deal during the Black Friday Sales. I have endured several days of hectic work, yet I still find myself unable to turn down my girlfriend, Charlotte Ward. We spend the night in passionate abandon and finally fall into a heavy, restful sleep. The next morning, a loud thud jolts me awake. When I open my eyes, I realize that it's my luggage. Charlotte suddenly says, "This is the end for us, Robert. It's time for you to move out. I've already wired the money for your past services, along with your salary. So get going." I find myself caught in a daze and about to move to question her, but she stops me dead, jabbing her fingers into my chest. "Know your place, Robert. You're nothing but a gigolo to me. I might, maybe, let you keep your job in Ward Group if you beg." I almost reach out to grab her wrist but stop myself. Instead, I smile broadly and say, "You've got it all wrong. Your company wouldn't survive without me, Charlotte."