The River: A Novel Novels & Stories

The Beast Nation sent our royal family two beast slaves as a token of goodwill after they were defeated. My concubine-born younger sister took the tall and upstanding white tiger with piercing eyes, leaving me and the dying merman to look at each other. In my previous life, I took the merman as my personal bodyguard and trained him out of compassion. I spent a fortune to treat his injuries, and I even bought his slave contract at the price of ten cities and set him free. He also took great care of me, staying by my side day and night. I thought we were both in love, so I turned down dozens of marriages and stood by him with all my heart despite everyone's loud disapproval. However, when the beasts attacked again and threw my sister and me into the surging river, I frantically pleaded with the merman to save me, only to be violently slammed under the water by his massive tail. I watched helplessly as he carried my sister away. I realized at that moment that he had only given himself to me to save his own life. He had remained loyal to me even after regaining his freedom because he wanted to see my younger sister. I struggled in the filthy river, eventually suffocating as my lungs filled with mud and sand. When I reopened my eyes, I was transported back to the day of the beast slave selection. Looking at the dying merman, I covered my nose and taunted, "Where did this dead fish come from? It reeks!"

Ever since her nonbiological Mom died, she loathed and blamed herself for that. Avery Maureen Del Hera escaped home when she thought her father whom she grew up with wanted her to go to States, and even be with her biological parents, without him fighting for her. Hence, that's the bare part of the story. When she escaped home, she found a place . . . with the help of her own fate. A zone-like place, literally, with its wide and grandeur sceneries, isolated from the world. It's the Zone of Yavanna, or how the Zoners called it as Forest Survival. It definitely comes with names. Yet she eventually held one while being in there, a codename- a new identity: Cosimia. Her tale begins right at that moment. A journey of being the real sleeping beauty, for she's never awakened with the truth that she's been lost all along. She may have sought where she belongs, but did she see where it will lead her? In this forest that bargains life, away from the cruelty of death, one will strive for the betterment of herself, to think of what will become of her. Here's the thing, she's never a Del Hera, yes, but did she know, too, she's never Avery Maureen?

"I, Alpha Dean Smith, reject you, Tamara Brown, you pathetic little orphan, as my mate and Luna," Alpha Dean Smith says. He has plans for his pack, and he first wants to eliminate all the pathetic wolves in his pack. Dean can not believe that the Moon Goddess played such a trick on him by giving him the most pathetic she-wolf in his pack as his mate. Tamara and her wolf Winter feel the pain of his rejection where they stand in front of the Alpha. She refuses to beg or cry. For too long did she allow everyone to walk all over her. "I, Tamara Brown, accept your rejection, Alpha Dean Smith. I may be a pathetic orphan in your eyes, but my parents gave their lives for your pack," Tamara says. Dean is furious! How dare she not beg him to make her stay? "Get out! Take the pathetic bunch of wolves with you! I never want to see you again! The Red River pack does not need useless wolves like you!" Dean shouts. Dean has plans for the Red River pack. He plans to make it the biggest and best pack in America, and he has no place for wolves who can not fight! Tamara starts walking away, and the other "pathetic wolves" follow her. "Why are you following me? You also do not like me! Go your own way," Tamara says as she walks towards the border of the Red Wood Pack.

He trailed his hand down her face as it flushed instantly, emotions that seemed uncontrolled blooming out. "I love you. You know that right?", he asked, his eyes looking as convincing as ever, as he stared at the naive and lovesick teenage girl in front of him. " I...," she could not make out her words as her legs turned into jelly, making her lean gently on him. "I love you too," she managed to say, and those were the words he needed. It was the final year for the 12th graders in GGIS High School. While happy at the approaching conclusion of their Highschool lives, there was also the fact that they may never see one another again. Now, more than ever was the perfect time to express all the feelings or bury them. For Rachael, it was the perfect time to get rid of her feelings for Zack, her crush and high school bad boy. For Kevin, it was now or never to tell Rachael how he felt about her. Things got complicated as Rachael's best friend developed a crush on Zack, while Kevin is hopelessly waiting for Rachael to reciprocate the feelings he had for her That wasn't easy to do when surrounded by post-puberty bodies nearly bursting with raging hormones with a liking for unwholesome entertainment in their various lives and secrets of their own. Some more than others. Andrew, their friend, in particular, seems to be hiding a secret. With a rift torn between friends, a locked closet full of skeletons, and choices that could either mend their relationships or rip them apart for the rest of their lives. Will they submit to their urges? Will they come to understand their feelings? And work together to find out what the probable skeletons in the closet are?

Gregory Wolversen the Alpha of the Black River Pack. He was forced to banish his brother and declare him rogue for challenging his right for the pack. But his brother is mysteriously dead now on the other side of the country. Gregory knows there's a woman claiming to be his brother's bride, but the woman missing and no one has her name. What does she know about his murder? Did she kill him? His money and belongings have been accounted for. So is she a victim too? Aricka Daniels is a widow, a single mother and waitress/librarian who's struggling to survive. It's been seven years and she still looking over her shoulder. Widowed less than seven days after her wedding. She must come to grips with no home or job and a baby on the way that she was never able to tell her husband, Richard about. Her husband had told her to always stay away from his family because they weren't just rich but dangerous. For that reason she fears they might have had a hand in his murder and also fearing they might ruthlessly try to take her son from her. She never told them of him. Recently out of guilt she'd left a cryptic note informing them of his existence. The Black River Pack are the enforcers of the supernatural world in the area. It's their job to deal with the supernatural criminal element. If they don't then they will look weak to the North American Ruling Council and lose the right to their territory. With Gregory's very own parents on the Council they would suffer a lost of power that would rock the supernatural community as a whole. Can he do it all and find his mate and Luna to keep his pack stable?

"You are taking a big risk, sweetheart." He warned, eyes dark and menacing. I looked at the already torn documents on the floor and it sent chills down my spine. *** Having a one-night-stand with someone older than me seems deadly, especially when the said person is my billionaire step-uncle. Even though I was the model everyone yearned for, my virginity was something I wasn't ready to give to any man. But on that fateful night, I lost it to him and I would have never imagined that it could turn into something this big. Despite knowing this, the thirst for a drop from his hot river of sexiness can't be quenched.

Starting with a boy named Daffa Setyawan who is constantly bullied, he unexpectedly gains a system power to eliminate the bullies at his school. However, instead of just targeting the bullies, he inadvertently attracts the attention of all the gangs in the city, making himself the hunted. Will he succeed in conquering both the school and the city, and be able to control the situation?

So how many times you accidentally end up having an annoying roommate? It's a story about Haze and Richard. In life unexpected things are expected, and we do our best to deal with it. How about this two? Can they deal with this unexpected roommate thingy? Let's find out

**She thought she knew the man she loved. She was wrong about everything.** Vanessa Rodriguez's perfect life shatters in a single morning when she overhears her boyfriend Marcus discussing "loose ends" and how to "handle" her. The sweet daycare teacher who thought she was dating a banker suddenly finds herself running from a man she no longer recognizes—and straight into the arms of the most dangerous man in the city. **Alexander De Luca doesn't trust anyone. He can't afford to.** The ruthless mafia don has built an empire on fear and blood, but his six-month-old daughter Aria is his only weakness. When his longtime housekeeper can no longer care for the baby, Alexander needs a nanny he can trust. What he gets is a woman with secrets as dark as his own. **Some lies are worth dying for. Others are worth killing for.** When Marcus is gunned down in what appears to be a random mob hit, Vanessa has nowhere to turn except the penthouse of the man who just hired her. But as she settles into life caring for Aria, Alexander begins to suspect his new nanny isn't the innocent woman she appears to be. **In a world where trust is a luxury and love is a weapon, Vanessa and Alexander must decide what they're willing to sacrifice for the truth.** *Because some secrets are too dangerous to keep... and too deadly to tell.* --- *A dark mafia romance filled with betrayal, passion, and the kind of love that's worth going to war for.*

Richard Franklin has left his Midwestern roots behind to live on the coast of Maine with his family. But in the autumn of the year 2000, he must return to his Illinois birthplace on a sorrowful journey. His wife Michelle has been killed in New England by a hit-and-run driver who is never found, so back home he comes with her cremated remains, to fulfill a final wish and on her birthday scatter her ashes in the park along the river in Blackwater Valley—simply Blackwater Val to locals—the small town where they both grew up and fell in love. With him he brings his six-year-old daughter Katie who still grieves for her lost mother: Katie, who can sometimes guess who’s going to be on the phone before it rings. Who can stop all the clocks in the house, and break up clouds in the sky with her mind, and heal sicknesses, and who sometimes sees things that aren’t there...people who are no longer alive. All gifts she inherited from her mother. Only something isn’t quite right in the Val. Sinkholes are opening up, revealing the plague pits the sleepy hamlet was built over in the 1830s, when malaria and cholera outbreaks ran riot. Mysterious bird and fish die-offs begin to occur, and Katie can see ghosts of the dead gathering all around. But what she can’t see is the charred, centuries-old malevolence which has been waiting for her, and wants her for its very own. Or the pale Sallow Man who haunts the town’s nighttime streets...or the river witch—another Blackwater Val, of sorts—each of whom will be drawn one by one into the nightmarish bloodletting about to take place. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing