Time Trial Mondstadt

The heaviness in the air is the prequel to the Across the desk. However it is told from Max's point of view. He realizes that he is stuck in life and he really wants to move on but he doesn't know how. His first time going out with a person he is accused of the worst thing a man can be accused of. Though the truth came out later he had already lost his place in his family and in the town. He never trusted women again. He knows that it all revolves around one women though. Then one day he is getting ready to go over his files for his job as an detective he sees one that he doesn't know. He opens the file and it is her, the woman who ruined his life. She was now dead. He is assigned the case to find her murderer. This is his chance to redeem himself and finally put the past to bed. He has to revisit everything in this woman's life and with some twists and turns he finally finishes the case with a jaw dropping person accused of the murder. Then he goes through the trial and he makes himself a promise. When the case is finally over he will move on and find the family he wants to have. The day the verdict for the last of the trials comes to an end Deanna Watson walks into his office. This is his chance to finally do something about his slight obsession with the tiny student. This story goes right into the across the desk and answers the questions of how Max is the way he is when it comes to dealing with the Watson family.

After finding her beloved mate in bed with her enemy, Avery is hurt and rejects her mate, but he refuses to accept. Chaos erupts when the beloved Beta dies suddenly, and Avery is left holding all the blame in a pack that has turned against her. Imprisoned and awaiting her trial, Avery is helped by the only one she can trust, her best friend. Weak and exhausted, she runs away until she faints and wakes up to find the playboy Alpha, who is rarely seen and is, in fact, her second chance mate. How will the pack react to this news, and will Avery ever find true happiness in a world without memory of her life before Moonshadow Pack?

Kiera, was destined for nothing. Nameless, unwanted and unheard from an ugly omega with a defect forever in the shadows of a Beta's radiant daughter whom she believes to be her friend. Until fate spun cruel threads, on her 18th birthday, a door is opened for her, and a life she only believed in her dream is given to her on a plattered of tears and betrayal. Mated not to one, but all three of the Alpha's sons, triplets as different as fire, ice and earth but one thing was certain, one thing common they all hated her and would stop at nothing to make sure she knows. Left with her bleeding heart and a trial after her very life Kiera must find a way to find the happiness she desires or escape this hell.

Everybody thinks that Astrid Trinidad doesn't take everything seriously—immature, carefree, and seemingly unbothered by life’s demands. But behind her lighthearted façade lies her little secret. Pierre Lorenzo is everything she’s not: disciplined, enigmatic, and one of the youngest, most sought-after zillionaire in town. He’s the epitome of control, a man every woman desires but no one truly knows. Hindi nila gusto ang isa't isa, ngunit dahil sa isang kasunduan, napilitan silang ma-engage sa loob ng isang buwan. But as sparks fly and walls come down, will this one-month trial progress to something better, and will this hot zillionaire truly fall for Astrid? Could this forced engagement lead them to the love story they never saw coming?

The Velvet Pact In the golden shadow of forbidden salons, Eva, poor and invisible, unwittingly attracts the gaze of two predators. Sasha and Niko Volkov, twins of breathtaking beauty and heirs to a ruthless empire, see in her the perfect prey for a perverse game. Their offer is not a mere transaction, but a corrupted pact sealed in velvet and money: an obscene fortune in exchange for her innocence. But the price is darker than it seems. She must give herself to one of the brothers, body and soul, under the possessive and burning gaze of the other. What begins as a sale becomes a dizzying fall into the depths of desire and jealousy. Trapped in this forbidden triangle, Eva discovers that her body can be a weapon and that submission can hide an unsuspected power. In this labyrinth of pleasure and domination, the true trial will not be to choose her master, but to survive the consuming obsession she ignites in them… and in herself.

Farrah Vale doesn’t believe in curses. She’s a logical person, a medical student who stitches people up, not someone who prays to statues. So when she finds her name scribbled in blood beneath the Weeping Statue of the old campus, she laughs it off… until she dies in a car crash that same night. Except she wakes up on a train with six other passengers... Then, sitting across from her is a man she knows, Shane Calder, the ex who broke her heart a few weeks ago. But before she could process the situation, she heard a voice... [ Welcome, Cursed Ones.You have been chosen to play the Trial of Seven Sins. ] [ Survive all seven worlds, and your curse will be lifted. Fail, and your soul will burn forever. ]

At The Gilded Academy, Ivy St. Claire was a ghost. To her husband, Julian Vane, she was a mistake, a "charity case" scholarship student he was forced to marry. For three years, she endured his coldness and his public affairs, waiting for the day her "trial" would end. On graduation night, Julian hands her divorce papers in front of the entire school to propose to his mistress. He expected her to cry. Instead, she laughed. When the "poor scholarship girl" returns as the CEO of the world’s largest diamond conglomerate, Julian’s world crumbles. He realizes too late that he didn't just divorce a nobody; he divorced the only woman who could save his empire. Now, he’s on his knees, but Ivy isn't looking down. She’s already moved on.

I was the Alpha's lost bloodline, raised far from home. I was thin, pale, and covered in ugly scars no one wanted to look at. Lucia Abbott was the pack's jewel, carefully raised and fiercely protected. She was beautiful, powerful, and loved by everyone. Before she fell from the cliff, her soul scream tore through the entire pack. "Lyla joined the enemy! She tried to kill me!" No one questioned it. After all, who would believe a filthy lone wolf over someone as pure as moonlight? My fiancé chained me to the ritual altar. My father lit the Moonfire Trial fire with his own hands. The flames burned through my wolf spirit, ripping my memories apart and forcing them into the sky for everyone to witness. It was a public execution offered to the entire pack. But the truth was worse than death. It was slow destruction, carved piece by piece.

It had been four years since Shaun Payne started working in a tavern, avoiding detection from the pack he walked into. Working only for food and board, he had gone unnoticed for years, helping the tavern strive. But his life changed once again, when a fight breaks out while he worked one day. On trial for his life, Shaun has accepted his fate when the Alpha of the Nightstar Pack shows him mercy. With the entire pack questioning who he was, Shaun only had two choices; be executed or return to his pack. Would he be able to face his past? Would he be able to remain hidden from the enemies searching for him? When he couldn't trust anyone, he had to prove himself without revealing who he was. With no pack, no friends, and enemies in the shadows, he would have to survive.

The new reporter intern deliberately falsified the situation at the fire scene to secure a full-time position and create a headline. Because of her, firefighters who rushed in to fight the fire and nearly a thousand company employees were killed in an explosion. There were no bodies left to salvage. My husband, who was also my superior, gave false testimony for her sake and claimed I was the one who had made the decision. I lost my job, and everyone cursed me, telling me to die. On the day of the trial, a grieving family member of one of the victims threw a bottle of acid at me. I died in unbearable pain as the acid ate me alive. Meanwhile, my husband was busy comforting the intern. "Don't be afraid. She deserved this." When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day she made that false coverage.