Under The Oak Tree 272

I hid behind a thick tree trunk and watched silently as a grizzly bear attacked my husband. In my previous life, I was a guide. I led my husband—an environmental photographer—and his female colleague into a nature reserve to film wildlife. While scouting the route, I discovered a nursing grizzly bear and immediately warned them not to take any photos and to retreat slowly. To my shock, they intentionally bumped into me, causing my right leg to be cut and bleed. The scent of blood enraged the bear, and it charged straight at me, sinking its massive jaws into my abdomen. After the bear left, my husband calmly stripped me of all my equipment. Then, wrapping his arms around his female colleague, he kissed her. He turned to me with a sinister smile creeping across his face. "Kate," he said, "I'll be honest. I never loved you. You're dying. Now, all your assets will be mine." I bled out and died. When I opened my eyes again, it was the morning of the day we entered the mountains.

I quickly rushed ahead and saw her lying near the edge where the huge cut tree had fallen a few days ago. Half of her body was resting in water while the other half was resting on the side of the tree. "No," I whispered as I ran ahead, instantly jumping into the river and grabbing her body, pulling it into my arms. I was sniffling and trying to hold back my tears while I swam back to land. Once she was placed on the ground, I looked at her helplessly, tears running down my cheeks. My body was trembling, and my wolf was whimpering loudly. I felt nauseous, and my head was throbbing badly. "She's fine," I said to myself in a cracked voice as I raised my hand and placed it on her chest. "Alpha!" Harvey called when he reached where I was. I looked at him with blurry vision, then back at my mate. "Why?" I whispered in a cracked voice. "Why can't I feel her heartbeat, Harvey?" I asked with a heavy heart, then moved my hand to my chest as I felt like I was suffocating.

Husniah, berusia menjelang dua puluh tahun saat kunikahi. Gadis itu kurus, dan tidak bisa merawat diri, jauh dari tipeku sebagai pria mapan dan matang. Kami menikah karena permintaan Ibuku. Selama satu tahun aku mengabaikan dirinya dan memilih mengejar wanita yang aku suka. Siapa sangka, istriku tumbuh menjadi wanita yang anggun dan mempesona, namun aku terlambat menyadarinya.

Zora once thought she was just an ordinary human orphan. That is, until her biological mother, Victoria, suddenly appeared on her eighteenth birthday and revealed the shocking truth: she was a princess, a werewolf. Victoria, the Queen of the Werewolves, brought Zora back to the werewolf kingdom and immediately demanded that she choose a fiancé from four men. Zora believed that Victoria didn’t love her because she was wolfless. She had no intention of marrying a stranger, someone she’d never met. In the end, Victoria compromised, promising that if Zora could graduate from Alpha Academy on her own, she wouldn’t have to marry. But on her very first day at Alpha Academy, while hiding her true identity as a princess, Zora immediately clashed with her potential husbands... These sexy, arrogant men were nothing but trouble, and Zora vowed she would never submit to them.

When I visit my girlfriend's house during the Christmas holidays, her cousin, Antonio Esposito, humiliates me in front of everyone because of a scar on the back of my hand. "This scar looks like a remnant of the crossfire with the mafia! Bianca, why did you think that bringing an ex-convict home was a good idea?" The entire Romano family stares at me in a mixture of horror and shock. My girlfriend, Bianco Romano, even shakes my hand off while staring at me in disgust. Not only does Antonio flip the table, but he also calls over a few hooligans in an attempt to take me to the local police station. "We must teach scumbags like him a lesson!" he declares. After that, Antonio and the hooligans strip off my jacket and strap me to the tree in the courtyard. They then attempt to force me to admit that I'm working for the mafia. I can only gnash my teeth together stubbornly, refusing to yield no matter what. What they don't know is that the scar is a medal from my time in a peacekeeping war as a soldier!

"Please reject me as your mate and let me go, Alpha Max! I know you have a lover, Lady Jessica, and live a happy life with her. Please just let me go.” I closed my eyes and begged hoping he'd at least listen but instead, I heard a little thud a few inches away from my face and I opened my eyes to see a file. "Wh- What is this, Alpha?" I stammered my voice barely above a whisper. "Open it!” he cold voice scared me and I took the file lying inches away from me. As I brought it closer and read it, the letters written on the first page sent shivers down my spine. "Contract Marriage? Wh...What is this?"

Ember accepted her lot in life. On the run, she only wishes to find out the truth behind her dreams and solve the memory of her past. Keegan has only cared about protecting his pack, but when he sees the beauty dancing on stage and the flicker of flames in her eyes his body screams, Mate! Can Keegan tame the flames of Ember and together solve the mystery of her missing past? Or will they all burn together? Excerpt: “This is the reason I’m always tired,” I think to myself. Twenty-four years of coming here and still not a single clue, but every time I close my eyes, I return to this place. I know my surroundings perfectly. Oddly the place is beautiful to the eyes. The old house sat among flowers growing around all sides. The aroma of honeysuckle and jasmine fill my lungs filling me with a moment's peace. I’m sitting in my usual spot. Gripping the ropes of a swing in the front yard held by a large oak tree. Waiting I begin pushing my legs back and forth sending me in motion. I know something is about to happen. It happens every night. The house moves in front of my eyes. I see the shadows coming, but I don’t stop swinging. They are black as night but I can see smiles within the shadow grinning bright. “What is this place!” I cry, fed up with this nightly repetition, but no sound emerges. A noise can be heard from the back of the house. One of the shadows turns toward it. I jump down to follow only to have the other shadow hold me back. “Don’t go. Not yet. Listen to me!”

[Except] “I’m leaving,” “Do you really think you can run away again and I’ll let you?” Kal asked towering over her, and staring down at her with a dark look on his face with fiery red eyes that held more expressions than he could express. “You’re a vampire and I’m a werewolf. In what world can we be friends,” She yelled at him, pushing lightly against him wanting to leave even faster than before only to feel him press his body even closer to hers as he held her against the tree******** Being the princess of the werewolf kingdom isn’t as easy as it seems especially when you befriend a boy who you later find out is the vampire prince and isn’t as ordinary as he pretends to be. What then do you do when the heir to the throne of the enemy’s kingdom tells you he loves you? Could this be a trap and even if it isn’t are you willing to take that chance and risk the life of all the werewolves in the kingdom of Lunera. Does love truly conquer all including decade-old wars?

The adopted younger sister claimed to be suffering from depression. To make her feel better, my parents hung me on the cliff, as if I were a kite. Servant reminded my parents that the little tree to which I was hung was fragile, leaving me in danger. My mom, Luna of the pack, replied scoffingly: "She makes Laurel sleep panic. She deserves to be treated like this. If she dies, it's her fate." My older brother, Zayn, joked by her side, saying: "It's a good chance to record how long werewolves live when they do not conduct feeding activities. We can contribute a lot to the Werewolf Council with this precious data." Even my mate, Greyson, showed an attitude of stoniness, uttering: "She is a vicious she-wolf. If she were not educated well enough before her transformation ritual, she would cause greater trouble to others." They left me alone on the cliff after saying these words. Three days later, it finally crossed their minds that I was still hanging. When they finally arrived at the cliff, they found nothing but emptiness—because I had already died long before. And when they realized the truth, they howled in agony, begging for me to come back to life. But I was long gone.

When the news of my death on the battlefield, pinned to the pack's watchtower by silver arrows, reached my pack, my Alpha mate, Killian, simply laughed. He thought I was just jealous he was going to claim the Rogue, that I was faking my own death just to get his attention. "I was just trying to bring Valerie into the pack, and this is how she threatens me? With her own death?" "I left her with my most elite warriors. How could she possibly be dead!" "Tell her to get back here. I will claim Valerie, but after that, the title of Luna is still hers." Seven days later, he appeared before my family's home, carrying the ceremonial Luna circlet. He saw me in my white ceremonial dress, resting quietly beneath the white birch tree in the garden, and he breathed a sigh of relief. "I knew it. You were just giving me the silent treatment again." But in the next second, a pack elder's voice thundered: "Prepare the funeral pyre. Let us pay our final respects to our fallen warrior, Sloane!"