Things We Left Behind Novels & Stories

When Valentina met Matteo in 2019, they both felt as if they’d known each other before. Everybody knows Matteo Giudice is the first son of a billionaire who is probably, but not surely, the head of the Sicilian mafia. Everything he does seems to be for his own pleasure even though there’s a certain darkness to him that seems to follow him everywhere he goes. Burnt-out from a young age due to his generational wealth, being bored is his biggest problem in life. Valentina is the daughter of a successful Russian businessman and has always flown under the radar at school but now seems to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. There’s something a bout her, as if she has something nobody else possesses, that stirs up Matteo’s interest in the first place. Somewhere along the way of trying to figure each other out they unintentionally fall in love. When buried secrets come out, their lives turn into a deadly game of power, in which love and war have no choice but to co-exist. A slow-burn coming of age mafia romance novel, in which the only thing the protagonists know for sure is that fate doesn't care if you're ready for the love of your life. Part 1 of the Games We Play works.

Choices, life if full of them and each one offers several paths to walk down. Mary knows all about choices. It was because of a string of them she went from living a happy life with her parents to end up an orphan working in the castle kitchen. Mary is now working hard while praying she wouldn't be kicked out on the street. The man she loves, her best friend, doesn't see her but is courting another woman who does her best to make Mary feel worthless. To top everything off, the sickness is back in the city which means Mary's only refuge is gone. She is trapped and she feels like a trapped animal. That is when Lady Tariana comes back into Mary's life. She was the one that saved Mary when she was a child. Now she is back and she offers Mary new choices, travel back with Lady Tariana to her home. It's just one choice, but with each of the choices comes a myriad of new choices and consequences. Can she leave her love behind? Would she managed to survive in a new world? And what about magic? Does it really exist? Time is running out and she needs to make her decision or the world will make it for her.

Scarlets has always been different. Born an omega but shielded from the cruelty that usually came with it, her life under Alpha Jackson’s care has been peaceful — almost charmed. She’s found love with Cole, the Alpha’s golden son: the boy who once saved her, the boy she’s always trusted. The only scar on her past is the shadowy memory of a cruel boy who wore the same face as her beloved — a figure from her childhood who left bruises deeper than skin. After six long years, Lloyd — Cole’s estranged twin brother — returns to the pack. His presence brings back buried fears and half-remembered nightmares. But something doesn’t add up. The man who once haunted her steps with surprising gentleness now. He watches her with sadness, not cruelty. As Scarlet struggles to make sense of the past and the confusing present, she finds herself torn between two brothers. In a world where loyalty is everything and betrayal is a death sentence, Scarlet must choose who to trust before it's too late.

'"Tell me what you want, Amara,” Zane said, voice like silk over fire. His lips were a whisper from mine. I could feel the tension in his body. The restraint. The raw, maddening awareness. He dragged a finger down my cheek. “To be touched? Or to be remembered?” I stared at him. “Neither. I just want you gone.” “You don’t mean that,” he said, leaning in just a fraction closer. “I do,” I lied. His breath fanned my lips. His nose grazed mine. I felt every inch of my body coil, traitorous and trembling. I wanted him to kiss me. But it would be wrong. He was engaged to someone else.' *** He is the bridegroom. She is the wedding planner. He doesn’t seem to remember her. Or so he says. Five years ago, wedding planner Amara Ibe was madly in love with her fiancé, Zane Blackwood. Until she exposed a massive corruption scandal that was tied to Zane’s father’s company, to which Zane was the primary heir. Her whistleblower tip destroyed Zane’s career, or so she thought. Now Zane is back, bigger and better than ever, and about to marry someone else in the wedding of the century. The catch? Amara has been hired to plan the wedding. And Zane doesn’t seem to remember her. Behind the luxury wedding, perfect vows and Zane’s strangely elusive fiancée, nothing is what it seems. Everyone has secrets, and Amara gradually realizes that everything the couple sells out to the public is a lie. And loving this man could destroy her… again.

An accident that killed her father made Valerie always overshadowed by fear and terror. She managed to get through the traumatic period with the help of a psychiatrist and got on with her life well. She wants to live as normal as women in general; experience romantic love stories like in books and so on. That hope began to come true with George in her life. However, it was not as beautiful as she dreamed. Nine blue candles. This scared her very much. Someone suddenly became close to her and she trusted him because he helped her. Someone else looked suspicious to her. But what does Valerie have to do with all this? Who are they… who is he?

Jadeshola Badmus is not your regular female lead. She's Outspoken, Brilliant, Sassy, beautiful, intelligent and is the president of the Literary and debate team. What's more, she comes from a very wealthy family and is the head girl of her school, Lakeview High, one of the most prestigious schools in the country. The only bad luck for her comes in the form of the golden star boy of the school, Uthman Gbadamosi, her arch rival in debating, the school's head boy, football team captain and the crush of many girls in school except Jade of course. The two are thrown together after a brief encounter and they found themselves developing feelings for each other admist family breakdown, friend's betrayal, failed tests and missed opportunities. This book basically follows the lives of the finalists at Lakeview High as they maneuver their way to become better adults in the seemingly ugly world.

As Gamma of the Creed Pack, I'd held the Northern Border alone for three full years. Every time I called in to ask when I could come home, my mate — the Alpha of Creed — picked up the phone himself. He told me the rogues weren't cleared. He told me the rival packs were still circling. He said, "Nora. One more year. Once we have completely eliminated all our enemies, I will hold the grandest mating ceremony for you. I swear it on the Moon." I believed him. When I dragged myself out of a pile of dead rogues with a silver arrowhead still lodged an inch from my heart, bleeding too fast for a medevac, my warriors had to shift and run me back in wolf form all the way to Creed territory. The moment we crossed the border, I saw fairy lights strung from every streetlamp along the road to the pack house. Pack wolves on the sidewalks were talking loud, smiling at each other. "The Alpha's Mating Ceremony is tonight. He's taking the Elder's daughter as Luna. Three years of peace on the border. It's a good time to be Creed." I coughed dark blood into the fur on the back of my warrior's neck and laughed, short and bitter. He hadn't needed me holding the border. He just hadn't wanted me home.

The Torres family and the Nostra had been enemies for generations. When I was ten, I was betrayed by my own blood and left for dead. Leon Torres was the one who saved me. So I buried my identity as the daughter of a powerful Cosa Nostra family and stayed by his side, helping him from the shadows. For years, I used my father's underground network to eliminate every obstacle in Leon's path, helping the overlooked second son of the Torres Don rise step by step until he claimed the throne for himself. Then he brought home a woman named Anrina. His childhood sweetheart. Anrina claimed she was the one who had helped Leon seize power all these years. And Leon believed her. From that moment on, every ounce of his protection, trust, and affection belonged to her. "Look at yourself. Covered in blood like a filthy stray." "Go clean yourself up. Don't scare my sweetheart." Leon stripped me of my position as Capo and forced me to become Anrina's servant. When pizza fresh from the oven burned her mouth, he made me kneel at her feet and cool every bite before feeding her myself. When a rose thorn pricked her finger, he blamed me for failing to protect her and ordered ten lashes in the punishment room. I endured it all. Because years ago, after saving my life, Leon once said: "You want to repay me? "Then repay me a hundred times." I lowered my gaze to the child growing quietly inside me. "Ninety-nine," I whispered. "Just one more, little one... then Mommy will take you home."

After I was reborn, when Blake's childhood sweetheart Catherine cut a lock of my hair during a party dare — again — I didn't do what I did in my past life. I didn't shear off all her hair in front of everyone and turn her into a bald wolf. I didn't lose control and storm into the Council of Elders when Blake defended her, threatening to sever our mate bond. Instead, I calmly removed the Luna's crown from my head and placed it on Catherine's. "The crown's hers now. Have fun with her." I put on my coat and walked out of the estate without looking back. It wasn't that I wanted to bow to Catherine. But in my past life, after I severed the bond with Blake, things went horribly wrong. He threw me into a cell made of pure silver, like I was some irredeemable criminal, and left me there while the metal scorched my skin day and night. When I finally escaped, I was poisoned by a witch from a rival pack. Dying from the pain, I abandoned every shred of my dignity and crawled to the doors of the Temple of the Moon Goddess, begging him to let the witch give me the antidote. He was kissing Catherine. He didn't even tell his guards to let me in. I died from the poison — one day before my father, the Alpha King, came to find me. I refused to meet that fate again. So I was done with Blake.

The marking ceremony had reached the moment when the Luna crown should be exchanged, but my mate in name only still refused to lower his head. Once Drake Blackwood bit the side of my neck and completed the marking, our 66th ceremony would finally become real. Yet his eyes stayed fixed on his phone, and he did not even look at me. All because his widowed sister-in-law, Scarlett Moore, had posted a claim-release statement an hour earlier. Her late husband had been Drake’s older brother. Under pack law, Drake was obligated to protect her. Attached to her post was a ticket for a private pack flight, showing that she would land in an hour. Drake suddenly rose and announced in a low voice to the elders and pack members that the marking ceremony would be postponed. Then he left me standing there alone, turning me into a joke before the entire pack. I calmly packed away the Luna crown, calmly apologized to the guests, and calmly saw everyone off. After that, I opened Scarlett’s latest post on the MoonNet feed. In the photo, Drake stood beside her, holding out a newly hunted moonstone. I gave a bitter smile and called my birth parents through the private pack link. “Father, Mother, I’m willing to come back now.” “I’ll accept the marriage alliance for the Frostvale Pack.”