Thirteen Keys Novels & Stories

Reylin has survived what most could not. Fierce, free-spirited, and unbreakably strong-willed, she’s one of the last humans still alive and free. She was only thirteen when the Lycans—monsters cloaked in flesh and fangs—descended from the shadows and took everything. Her parents. Her home. Her safety. Now, ten years later, Reylin is a warrior in one of the last hidden human settlements, with only her younger brother left to protect, she’d rather die than become a slave to the beasts who ruined her world. But survival gets harder by the day. The Lycans are not just strong. They’re fast, brutal, and natural-born predators. Since the Great War, they’ve established a merciless new order, one where humans are hunted, enslaved, or wiped out entirely. And Reylin’s time is running out. When her village is raided by Lycan soldiers, she risks everything to protect her brother only to be captured by the infamous Alpha of the North. Alpha Orion. Crowned in blood and forged in war, Orion is one of the ruthless Alpha who led the Lycans to victory. A cold and calculated killer, he sees humans as weak, defiant creatures undeserving of breath. He doesn’t hesitate to crush rebellions, burn settlements, and extinguish hope. Until her. The defiant human girl who won’t bow, who tried to kill him. The one his beast calls mate. Orion is disgusted by the bond, repulsed by the idea of being tied to a human, but his instincts scream to claim her, protect her, destroy anything that touches her. And when secrets from the war begin to surface, loyalty is tested, and bloodlines come into question, one thing becomes terrifyingly clear: He may hate her kind. But he will burn the world before letting her go.

Within the circle, everyone knew I had been Leo’s most devoted, submissive admirer. For thirteen years, I chased him relentlessly, transforming myself from an uneducated, middle-school-dropout, illegitimate child of a wealthy family into an Ivy League economics master’s graduate. Only then did his mother finally acknowledge me, and I became Mrs. Smith. However, after the wedding, I no longer meddled in Leo’s company, cooked, or served him. While he stayed up late planning strategies for his first love, I traveled the world with friends. He would accompany her to Paris fashion shows, and I celebrated my cat’s birthday at home. I understood that a commercial marriage could never produce love. Everything I had poured my heart into was just my own foolish obsession. In my past life, I handled his company’s internal conflicts for him. Yet, he frowned, scolding, “You’re reaching too far.” I cooked soups for his stomach ailments, only to see him hand them off to his overworked first love, brushing it off, “She works harder than I do.” Even on the day I had a car accident, he lit fireworks across the city just to see her smile. I begged him, but he looked down at me from above. “Nicole, what we have is only a transaction.” Then, I opened my eyes and found myself back at our engagement banquet, watching him leave midway to comfort his heartbroken first love. This time, I did not chase after him. Instead, I picked up the microphone and said before all the guests. “Sorry, everyone. My engagement with Leo is canceled.”

Ayla hasn’t spoken since the night her world burned. She was five when she lost everything—her family, her pack, and whatever part of her knew how to be heard. Taken in by a rival Alpha, she grows up in a place that keeps her alive… but never lets her belong. Most of the pack ignores her. The Alpha’s sons don’t. The triplets made sure she understood exactly what she was worth—nothing. Years of silence taught her how to endure them, how to disappear, react. It was easier that way. Until her eighteenth birthday. Her wolf awakens. And with it, the mate bond. Not one. Not two. All of them. The same three wolves who made her life unbearable. Now everything is different. They look at her like she matters. Like she’s something they need to protect, to keep, to make up for. Ayla doesn’t know what to do with that. She doesn’t want their guilt. She doesn’t trust whatever this bond is trying to turn into. And she definitely doesn’t want them close enough to break her all over again. But something else is shifting—something deeper than the bond. There’s a power inside her that shouldn’t exist. Something that was there long before her wolf ever awakened. And she’s not the only one who’s starting to notice. Whatever is coming for her… it isn’t afraid of Alphas. And if Ayla wants any chance of surviving it, she’ll have to face the one thing she’s avoided for thirteen years. She’ll have to use her voice. Even if it means accepting the very people she swore she’d never trust. Because if she doesn’t—this time, she won’t be the only one who loses everything.

"I thought I was escaping a monster. I didn’t realize I was walking straight into his lair." After ten years of living in the shadows of her obsessed ex-boyfriend, Elena Vance finally has a chance at a real life. The prestigious role at Vane Enterprises in Las Vegas isn't just a dream job. Her new boss, Julian Vane, is everything the headlines say: cold, calculating, and breathtakingly beautiful. He’s also a ghost from her past,the untouchable "Senior King" from St. Jude’s Academy who shouldn't even know her name. But as the "mask" Elena uses to protect herself begins to slip, the coincidences start. A box of childhood candy on her desk. A necklace she lost a decade ago returned to her hand. Anonymous gifts that feel less like gestures of affection and more like evidence of surveillance. Elena is convinced her ex has found her, and when he finally corners her in the office, Julian is the only one there to save her. By the time Elena moves into Julian’s private penthouse for her "protection," the truth begins to unravel. The room he’s prepared for her is a perfect, brick-by-brick replica of her childhood bedroom. The security cameras aren't just for her safety,they’ve been tracking her every breath since she was thirteen years old. Julian hasn't just cleared her path; he’s dictated every tragedy and lucky break she’s ever had. He has a ring on another woman’s finger and a father determined to see Elena destroyed, but Julian has no intention of ever letting her leave. He didn't just find her. He created her. He’s not just watching her life. He’s owning it.

• • • FOR ADULT READERS ONLY • • •️️️ I shouldn’t have wanted him. Not when he was older. Not when he was untouchable. Not when he was my father’s best friend. Not when he belonged to a world I was never meant to step into. But I did. I was five years old when I decided he was mine. Standing at his wife’s graveside in the rain, I held his face with my little hands and told him I would grow up and be his. He said: Is that right. Not a question. So I kept my word. Adrian Keller. My father's best friend. The man who watched me grow. The man who built an empire on control. The man no one touches. The man I wasn’t supposed to want. For thirteen years, I loved him the only way I was allowed to. In silence. At a distance. Across rooms that belonged to our families — not to what I was carrying. Until the night I turned eighteen. I said it out loud. He shut it down in one word: “Don’t.” So I did. I stopped looking at him. I stopped wanting him. I stopped being the girl who built her entire world around a man who would never choose her. I walked away. That should have been the end. It wasn’t. Because the moment I stopped reaching for him, was the moment Adrian Keller started looking for me. Across rooms. Across tables. At midnight — staring at a name he shouldn’t want. The man who taught me control is starting to lose his. And this time… He’s not asking. And underneath the empire, Underneath the discipline, Underneath fifteen years of unshakable control— Something ruinous is coming loose.

Thirteen years ago, Daniella watched her father drop dead right in front of her, his heart harvested and taken away. She watched his life drain away before her very eyes by the one man the world would never suspect. Since that very moment Daniella Cruz has lived her life for just one purpose—Revenge. At 18 Daniella was ready, she was trained, calculated, manipulative and a heartless being wanting to devour the soul who took the only one who mattered to her on earth. When she finally tracked down the man she believed destroyed her life, a powerful, untouchable billionaire with a dangerous and secretive reputation–she does the unthinkable. She enters home, as a disguised house help . Her plan is simple: get close, gain his trust and destroy him. But nothing goes as planned because the man she grew up to hating all her life is nothing like she imagined. He is cold, yes. Dangerous, maybe. But not cruel. Worse, he sees her, not as a servant, but someone worth protecting. And just something that started off as mere stealing glances, quiet conversation and something inside of her that she can’t explain. Daniella fell hard. She makes the one mistake she swore never to do. She fell in love with the man who killed her FATHER. A crazy turn of events, Daniella realizes that the truth is far more dangerous than the lie she has been living. Because he is not her father’s killer. And when the real monster finally stepped out of the shadows Daniella is forced to face a devastating reality: Revenge built her….. But love might be the one thing that would destroy her one question remains When the truth finally reveals itself will Daniella Cruz be able to pull the trigger?.

Ten years with Don Maximus. I went from the crazy girl who demanded his "undying loyalty" at gunpoint to Chicago's perfect Donna. When Maximus took the casino's hottest stripper to his private room, I didn't lose my mind. Instead, I tossed the woman the keys to a Manhattan penthouse. When Maximus's new flame threw a tantrum at a yacht party, I didn't bat an eye. Instead, after she slapped a waiter in a fit of pique, I made the police problem go away. When Maximus fought with one of his girls, I'd even send her a limited-edition Birkin to smooth things over. And today, Maximus is busy fucking his hot new toy in the study, while another pregnant mistress stands on the estate's rooftop, threatening to jump just to see him. And I'm still the one in my red-bottom heels, calmly going to clean up his mess. The mistress screamed, desperate. "I'm not having this baby! Get Maximus!" I took a sip of my wine, my voice bored. "He's busy today. You have the baby, and I'll make sure seven figures show up in your offshore account." My indifference set her off. She grabbed my wrist, her grip like iron. "You're pathetic, Angelina! There was a time he wouldn't even look at another woman because of you. He slaughtered an entire family for you. When you were shot, he knelt in the pouring rain outside a church, begging God to take his life for yours! But now? You can't even get into his bed. All you can do is stand here and play the gracious Donna!" Her nails left red marks on my skin, but the smile on my face didn't crack. Did she really think a little drama would change anything? I wasn't playing the gracious Donna. I was just done. And I was finally ready to let Maximus go.

The day I win a brand-new BMW, I suddenly receive a call from myself, ten years in the future. "Kieran will ask to borrow your car in a bit. And whatever you do, do not lend it to him. He intends to use it to pay off his gambling debt." Even with such an impossibility happening to me, I do not doubt a thing. When Kieran asks for my keys, I shut him down at once. That very night, he drives his old beater car to visit our parents. Along the way, he loses control of the car and collides with another vehicle. Just like that, he slips into a coma. The guilt hit me so hard that I eventually pass out. Mom and Dad stay by my side day and night until I can stand on my own two feet again. But the future version of me sounds cold when she calls again. "They only want to push you onto an operating table. They want your heart to save him!" Growing suspicious, I check their bags and find a donor report. Rage burns through me. I immediately block them on all platforms and throw them out of my home. When news that Kieran dies from blood loss arrives, I learn that they only ever needed my blood—not my heart. I try to find them to tell them the truth and apologize for my mistake. But the mysterious phone rings again. "They hate you because Kieran died. If you go to them now, they will drag you into a suicide pact." I freeze at the revelation, then tell my future myself that I will wait until they calm down. Later, I learn that a thief breaks into their home and kills them. I try to rush over and see them one last time, but a truck hits me and kills me on the spot. I die without ever understanding why the version of me from ten years in the future wanted me dead. When I open my eyes again, I am back on the day I won the prize.

My name is Clara Kelly. I was born in Brooklyn, into an Irish-American cop’s family. My father spent his whole career walking a beat out of the 84th Precinct. My mother volunteered at the parish. I was the first girl on our block to get into Columbia Law. The year I graduated, I was volunteering at a charity gala. I picked up the wrong glass of wine and ended up dumping it down the front of a man’s Brioni suit. That man was Adrian Francesco Moretti. Fourth-generation Don of the Moretti Family of New York, and one of the five families of Cosa Nostra. He chased me for four years. I said no six times. The seventh time, he stood outside my law firm in the rain until three-fifteen in the morning. I married him. Two decades in, he’d handed me the keys to the entire Moretti Family. In our world they called me “the Irish Donna,” a woman with no Italian blood who somehow held the seat. Childless by choice, the two of us. Famously in love. Until that Wednesday afternoon, when my college roommate of twenty years, my best friend Vivian Sinclair, walked into my living room with a five-year-old boy. She said the boy was Adrian’s son. She said that five years ago, she’d taken a used condom out of the wastebasket in my upstairs master bedroom, kept it frozen for three years, and done IVF. She said she was the real mother of the Moretti heir. She was the real Donna Moretti. “Be smart. Pack your bags and walk out. You might even get to keep your life.” “You’re barren. The Moretti Family doesn’t need you.” I looked at the woman I’d called my best friend for half my adult life. I didn’t say a word. She thought she was holding the winning card. What she didn’t know was that she’d just stepped onto a board Adrian and I had been laying for twenty years. I needed exactly one sentence to shatter every piece of the Donna fantasy she’d spent five years building.

I'm the only son of my parents, who are the richest people in the country. Yet, they decide to raise me while giving me as little money as possible. In order to toughen me up, they decide to only give me five thousand dollars per year. "Two thousand dollars is for college tuition, and the remaining three thousand dollars is for your living costs and accommodation. If you want to stay at home, you'll need to pay rent—500 dollars a day. If you don't have the money, you can write an IOU." But I end up getting robbed that night, leaving me penniless. In order to be able to continue my college studies, I can only ask my parents for money. Of course, they turn me down immediately. "You actually learned how to lie just to swindle more money from us, eh? Since you refuse to learn your lesson, your allowance for next year will be cut in half." My parents refuse to listen to my explanation and insist on kicking me out. So, I can only work three jobs per day, allowing me to save up two thousand dollars. But the moment I save the money in my account, it gets frozen instantly. That's when my parents begin mocking me. "And here you are, claiming that you didn't lie to us! Where did you get the tuition fees from, then? We shall confiscate the money as a form of punishment. You can use the rest of your money for your studies." Amid my despair, I see the live comments streaking before my eyes. "The male lead's parents want him to realize that it isn't easy living out there. When they hired the thugs to rob him blind, their hearts ached so much for him that they cried." "I hope that the male lead can grow up as soon as possible. That way, the misunderstanding will get resolved, and the family of three can continue living happily ever after." But this time, the comments can no longer console me. I place the house keys on the porch quietly before turning on my heel and walking away. I don't want these parents of mine anymore.