Twelve Thousand

My younger brother had opened a high-end beauty salon, so I took my mother there for a facial. We picked the most expensive package, but the moment the mask was applied, Mom's face began to burn. When we peeled it off, her entire face was covered in rashes. I called for the director, but she looked impatient. "Oh, that's just a normal detox reaction." I was stunned. "Her face is practically ruined! What products are you even using?" "Ruined?" She flared up like someone had stepped on her tail. "Your mom's skin is just too bad to handle premium nutrients! Once our products are opened, they're non-refundable—got it?" I pointed to the brochure. "It says right here—'gentle and non-irritating, full refund if any adverse reaction occurs.' Is this how Stellan Fallow taught you to run a business?" She crossed her arms and lifted her chin high. "I am the boss! You and your mother look broke as hell—clearly here to mooch a free treatment. Now that it didn't work, you're trying to scam us for money? "Let me tell you something—this set costs 38 thousand, and with my emotional damages and lost wages, that's a total of 100 thousand. If you don't pay up today, I'll have the police take you both in!" A hundred thousand for a product that ruined someone's face? It was no wonder Stellan suddenly wanted to open a salon—it turned out he and his girlfriend were running a scam together! I was about to call Stellan, but before I could, she hit the video dial first. "Bubby, get over here—two broke idiots tried to freeload a treatment and now they're trying to shake us down for money!"

After my physical examination, I'm about to leave the pack infirmary located in my cousin's territory when a heavily made-up healer suddenly grabs my arm. She hisses, "Stop right there! You think you can break something in the infirmary and just run away? No way!" I look at her unfamiliar face and blink, feeling utterly confused. "What did I break?" She points to the crystal potion bottles on the shelves and wrinkles her nose exaggeratedly. "You reek, and your stench has contaminated all the potions, making them unusable! Alpha Xander bought these at a high cost, and all of it is worth 500 thousand dollars. There's also compensation for causing me emotional distress—that's another 200 thousand. "Altogether, that's 700 thousand dollars. Will you pay by cash or card?" My scent is a mix of violet and amber. It's noble and cool, like a winter dusk. Of course, not everyone loves this scent, but "contamination"? Please! I can't fathom why the infirmary in Xander's territory is operating like a scam. I laugh out of anger and say, "I'm Alpha Xander's cousin. I don't pay a single cent in his territory. If anyone has a problem with that, have Xander come say it to my face." But the healer only rolls her eyes. "You bitch, trying to use such lowly tricks to get my Alpha's attention? You wish! If you don't pay up today, I'll strip you naked and throw you onto the street so that everyone can smell how foul you are!" She has no idea who she's threatening. I take a deep breath and quickly contact my Beta. "Tell Xander—either banish this healer from the pack, or I'll banish him."

I was the top engineer at the National Deep-Sea Research Center, and the only person in the world with experience in deep-sea rescue. When my sister’s submarine malfunctioned and was stranded ten thousand meters below the surface, I hung up on her distress call. Then I calmly walked into a police station and turned myself in for leaking classified research. A few minutes later, my father called. His voice was frantic and furious. “Your sister is missing. Where the hell are you? I’m ordering you to get to the site immediately and save her, or you won’t see a cent of the family inheritance!” I calmly pulled the blanket over my head and said into the phone, “I don’t have time, and you’re interrupting my sleep.”

After being jilted by her Fated mate, beaten and pursued by her Father, and then hit by a reckless driver, Lyra finds herself two thousand miles away from her former pack In a new body, before she can thank the goddess for new beginnings she is thrust into a world of confusion and heartbreak when she realizes she is nothing but a pawn to be forced into an unwanted marriage. Her only source of hope – she is mated to three handsome men; one hates her guts, one is irritated by her presence, and the last of them is the same bastard who jilted her in her previous life…. “Oh Goddess, is my life a joke?” Follow Lyra as she paves her way through the hate and pain to settle either on love or revenge.

Avery thought she lost all hope of treating her diagnosed mother, who desperately needed money for surgery, until she learned about a Secretive surrogacy arranged by billionaire Landon, his wife was unable to conceive so they needed a surrogate mother.. Desperate for money, Avery signed the contract, believing all she had to do was carry the pregnancy, give birth, take her money, and walk away, but unfortunately.....Life had other plans for her. A critical mistake by the doctor changed everything. He mistakenly identified another woman's disabled child as hers and reported it to landon and his wife. Horrified, they immediately cut ties with her without hearing from her, leaving her to raise children she never planned for. **** Twelve years later, Avery received a shocking notification_ her triplets were wanted by Billionaire Landon Robert, The reason? They had hacked into his account wiped out a fortune amount of money. It was only then that she realized, her children weren't just ordinary , they were genius.

Vice and Victor have a plan. Five years in the spotlight to make their fortune, then move into the background, with their own record label. Fast and smart is their motto. Romance will have to wait, especially since their idea of an ideal romance, involves both of them and one woman. When their manager, Aaron, asks them to collaborate with a chart-topping popstar who wants to gravitate into rock, they are dubious. A frequent flyer in the gossip columns over the last twelve months with a history of drug and alcohol problems, they fear she will be difficult and volatile to work with. After being roofied by her music producer, Mirage has learnt the hard way that it is not an equal world. Without proof, she cannot pursue legal recourse, and she is locked into completing another album with her rapist. Meanwhile, Mr Rich has been feeding the industry lies about her having dependency on alcohol and drugs, and the gossip mags have seized upon the stories, slowly tearing her professional reputation into pieces. But Mirage is not a fragile damsel in distress, she is a pop-rock chick, and she is fighting back.

Being a mute used to be simple before all the craziness started. I just can't talk and that's who I am. Mum has learned to accept that and I guess so have I. Everything was just fine in my high school in Shanghai. I had finally made it to year twelve and even though I was in China, I was actually being treated as a human being despite my disability. Things were definitely not perfect but I would give anything to go back to that, like it was before. I heard my first voice that year, right at the beginning of year 12. I didn’t really have any real friends, but I was used to it and before the voices started, I was fine with that. But it all changed when I first heard them. The voices inside their heads started then and my life was never the same. They weren't just thinking about school or they girls or guys they were into, no they were thinking about doing things, doing horrible things to each other and I was the only one that knew how messed up they really were.

For five consecutive years, I secured eighty million in core contracts for the company. Yet my salary remained six thousand. At the annual company gala, I simply told my boss, “I want a raise.” In response, he slapped me across the face three times right in front of the entire company. “Do you think clients come to you? They recognize the company! “Paying you six thousand is already charity, so don’t push your luck!” Everyone in the office watched, laughing at me. I said nothing, only quietly wiping the blood from my lip. The very next day, I took all the client resources and moved to a rival company. Three days later, my former boss broke down over the phone, screaming, “Why?! Why did they all pull out?!”

What happens when a queen out of time meets the enemy who once destroyed her? And what if that enemy is now standing between her and the man she is falling for? Once a queen betrayed and murdered for a prophecy she didn’t even understand, Hayley awakens a thousand years later in modern-day California—reborn as Luna of the Blood Moon Pack and wife to Alpha King Lorenzo Mendez. While trying to adjust to her new life, Hayley finds herself torn between two powerful men: her ancient enemy, Lucian, who still haunts her past... and Lorenzo, whose dark secret could unravel everything. Caught between vengeance, destiny, and love, Hayley must choose: will she rewrite fate or become a pawn in a war written long before her time?

"There are over a hundred thousand werewolves in existence, but the moon goddess choose to mate me to the one I hate the most, the one behind my misery, the one that killed my father." ****** "Why do you play with me?" I whispered, my voice almost inaudible. "I don't mean to, but I cannot stop myself from wanting you." ***** Natalia's world crumbled when Aaron killed her father and took over the pack as the Alpha. She wanted nothing but to avenge her father's death. But life always had a way of playing tricks on her. She discovered that he was her mate on her eighteenth birthday and he wanted her as his Luna. Was Natalia about to experience a life of terror, or would Aaron turn out to be an Angel in disguise?