These Gifts

Liam has always been the black sheep of the Moreau family. His birth marked the beginning of their financial ruin, and he's spent his life in the shadow of his beautiful, beloved sister, Clara. When Clara secures an engagement to Julian Davenport, the wealthy and enigmatic CEO of Davenport Enterprises, Liam sees an opportunity for revenge. He'll seduce Julian, expose Clara, and finally claim the spotlight for himself. But Julian has a secret: an identical twin brother named Jasper. What starts as a game of seduction and revenge quickly spirals into a complicated entanglement with both brothers. Jasper's playful flirtations and Julian's commanding presence awaken desires Liam never knew he possessed. As the twins shower him with lavish gifts and manipulative games, Liam finds himself caught between his carefully constructed facade and the genuine feelings that begin to surface. Now, Liam must decide: is his relationship with the Davenport twins just a tool for revenge, or could it be a path to something more profound? And can he escape the bitterness of his past to embrace a future he never dared to imagine, even if it means marrying into a family that is twice as complicated as he ever anticipated?

It had been five years since I started dating Ross Jenner. His family invited my mother and me to their family home in Fellaton to discuss our wedding plans and to spend Valentine's Day together. It was past 10:00 PM when my mother and I landed, but Ross wasn't there to pick us up because his college junior, Laurel Elledge, had just arrived in Fellaton. He told me to figure out a way to get a cab to the house myself. In a strange place, unfamiliar with the area, it wasn't long before we found ourselves in danger. Just over ten minutes outside the airport, we were robbed. My mother was injured while trying to protect me, and she collapsed, bleeding heavily. Desperate, I held onto her, frantically trying to call Ross. Each call was abruptly cut off, and when I finally reached him, he sounded irritated. "Jennifer, you're an adult, so stop acting like a child. You couldn't even hail a cab on the street? Laurel just got to Fellaton and isn't feeling well. I need to take care of her." Without waiting for a response, he hung up. I tried calling again, only to find that I had been blocked. In the end, my mother's injuries were too severe, and she bled out before the doctors could save her. As I stared at her lifeless body, tears flowed uncontrollably. When I finally checked my phone again, the first thing I saw was a picture Ross had posted on Twitter. In the photo, he was kissing Laurel and holding a bouquet of roses. [Spending Valentine's Day with the one I love most.] I quietly threw the gifts I had brought from home into the trash. Then, I left a comment, which said, [Wishing you both a lifetime of happiness.]

The seventh time Claire Fisher bailed on our marriage license appointment, I finally cut her out of my life—for good. From then on, if she was at a party, I wasn't. When she was scheduled to perform at our college's anniversary celebration, I made sure to leave early. The moment my company announced a collaboration with hers, I resigned without a second thought. Even on Christmas Eve, when she showed up at my parents' house with gifts, I slipped out with a half-hearted excuse about "visiting a friend." I blocked her number. Deleted her from my contacts. Burned every bridge and salted the earth behind me. No calls. No texts. No social media. I didn't reach out. She couldn't reach me. Simple as that. For the better part of my life, I was hopelessly in love with her—waiting on her, caring for her, putting her first in every way that mattered. I gave her all of me without ever holding back. But after the seventh time she left me sitting alone at the City Hall, something inside me broke. I was done. If that meant spending the rest of my life alone, so be it. Better that than sitting in an empty apartment, listening to the silence, holding on to hope for someone who never planned to show up.

"Is this what you want?" he murmurs, gaze gliding down to where his fingers linger dangerously on my upper thigh. Resting his hand on the surface beside me, he leans down above me. "You just have to say it, and it's yours." *** On her eighteenth birthday, Aven starts to notice strange things. She feels watched, and one day, when facing death, she is saved by a stranger. For years she wonders who he is or who he was. When facing death again, he comes back. Aven doesn't realise how special she is, or how many people will go at great lengths to protect her, and to use her hidden gifts for their own gain. Although no one wants her more than a powerful Immortal. However, his desire for her may prove to be deadly, and as her mate, his vow to protect her will prove to put their entire world at risk.

On my fiftieth birthday, my grandson pouted when he saw the present I had given him and complained, “Grandma Cecil at the Emerald Manor has a cooler present for me. It was a Transformer toy that flies.” I was confused by this remark. Emerald Manor was one of the wedding gifts offered when I got married. My husband was not fond of this place because it was too far away from the city, so I have rarely been here as well, and it has been vacant ever since. As we stood outside the manor, I could hear the cheery voices coming from inside the house. My husband and my adopted son were inside celebrating the birthday of the owner of the manor. The Grandma Cecil my grandson referred to was the childhood sweetheart of my husband, Cecil Houston, who was married off far away a long time ago. She remained as beautiful as she once was and was snuggled in my husband’s arms, surrounded by my children. I have dedicated myself to the Blightwells for two decades. This entire time, Cade has taken my commitment as nothing but a joke. When I was reincarnated, I found myself on the wedding day. I listened to the clamoring noises and lifted the veil to see the commotion. It was time to start over.

Amber and Oscar are the next in line to be the queen and king of the dragon species. They are gifted an angel after their engagement. Oscar had the big rule of not accepting live gifts, while Amber fell down for her blue eyes and innocent smile. Weak angel, babies are being thrown out of heaven, the dragons of the earth couldn't take leaving the babies on their own, instead, they adopted them in, all of them are submissive, some are pets, some are littles, and others are just submissive, but one thing they all have in common is they are costly and rare to get by, before other supernatural or humans get to them. This story is a cgl story, contains mommy, daddy, bottle, and diapers, you've been warned. Apologies for any misspellings and grammar mistakes.

“He will kill us all if he finds me…” I muttered trying to hide the tears that threatened to fall.Kit raised his hand running it over my cheek with a smile, “let him come…I’ll destroy him.”****Seraphine lived a life of pain and fear the moment she was forced to marry the Alpha of the Blood Moon pack. Her dreams of romance and love were thrown out the door as her life turned into a downward spiral of abuse. The only good thing in her life is her daughter that happens to share the same magical gifts she does. After years of enduring the pain she escapes running to the outskirts to try and live a life of freedom. Little did she know that her future awaited there in the form of a rogue wolf with connections to her past. The only way to survive is to fight for her freedom, and pay the costs to keep her daughter safe.The Rogues Forbidden Mate is created by Claire Wilkins, an eGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.

Away from humans, in a forest like no other, werewolves live. A powerful race with magical gifts and the ability to shapeshift into full-blooded wolves. Wyatt is an Alpha and the leader of the most powerful pack in the world, and his life goal has always been to be fair to the members of his pack and live a peaceful life with his mate, his life partner, and the person who will give him a reason to fight for what he wants. However, Olivia took several centuries to come into his life and when the moon goddess finally wanted to unite their souls, the task was complicated for the Alpha since Olivia is not a woman yet and at the moment they meet, she is a girl, but she will grow up and as this happens, Wyatt will be taking care of her, protecting her and waiting for her coming of age when they can finally be together. Disclaimer: This story has no sexual content until the characters are of legal age.

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

Everyone in Sparrowville said that Margaret Chapman was the happiest woman in town. Gavin Hartley showered her with gifts—a sapphire ring, an asteroid after her name—treating her like she was the center of his universe. Margaret had always believed it, too. Until the day she accidentally discovered the woman he had been hiding in his villa. For ten years, he had kept her there—his childhood sweetheart. After she lost herself to schizophrenia, she had said, "Margaret is me." And so, for nearly seven years, Gavin had courted Margaret and cherished her, playing out a love story that had never truly been hers. Margaret's heart crumbled to ash after she found out the truth. She left without looking back, moving to a country thousands of miles away. But she never imagined that Gavin would lose himself to rage, his eyes burning red as he nearly tore Sparrowville apart. "Where the hell is Margaret?!"