Under The Oak Tree Riftans Pov

When Dylan Sullivan took a new type of hallucinogen, I was forced to give myself to him to curb the effects. Innately fertile, I got pregnant, giving birth to fraternal twins—a boy and a girl—after marrying him. However, Dylan refused to let them call him daddy, drinking away the nights while staring at the picture of his one true love. Then, on our tenth anniversary, he locked us up in the basement and burnt us to death. As it turns out, he remained hung up on that moment when I saved him all this time, stubbornly convinced I intervened when he was vulnerable to satisfy my ambitions. That in turn drove a rift between himself and his one true love, whose heartbreak led to psychosis and the accident that killed her. But I somehow opened my eyes to find myself alive, returning to the day Dylan took the hallucinogen by mistake. This time, I let his one true love have him, while I headed towards the study…

Gemma Stone is an assassin with a mission. She had run away from home when she found out that her mate— Alpha Brook of Willow Tree Pack— was cheating on her with her best friend. He rejected her and almost killed her for uncovering the secret that night. Gemma had nowhere else to go until she was recruited by a dangerous faction of rogues— the Akari League. Now the Akari League have their eyes on one thing alone: the Wolf throne of the Suro Kingdom. However, the lycan ascending the throne was rumored to be a god with extraordinary powers. It would be impossible to bring him down. But they know his weakness and plan to exploit it. To do this, Gemma is put on the mission. The plan was simple— gain the king's trust and slay him at his lowest. However, there was a slight issue: this Alpha king was Gemma's second chance mate.

"Sierraaaaa… oh sieerrrraaa… where are you??? Enough of your hide and seek already. You should come out so we will play my favorite game." I heard that masculine voice again and I froze into my place. I looked at the girl who had saved me. She was shivering with fear. "No, he is here. We need to hide. If he sought us, he would play his games again. We need to hide." She whispered and jumped inside the tree. The log of the tree was very big. And with the big hole, Sierra was able to hide inside its log. I also jumped into the tree and hid myself from that devil. His voice was more scary than the demons. I have not seen his face ever. But I could imagine his demonic face with the scary voice he had. "Don't worry, Sierra. The angels are coming. They will rescue you."

“I’m scared,” I mumbled, standing in front of my mate as we stayed under the tree in the darkness. “You don’t need to be scared, mate; you are mine,” he hissed, grabbing onto my waist. I swallowed hard, my heart beating loudly. I stared into the eyes of my mate; he was angry at our situation.  “But I am his bride.” Valeria is the firstborn daughter of Down South Pack, married off to Alpha Adrain of Midnight Pack. Valeria has never received love in her life, her little sister has always been favoured above her. Married to one of the biggest alphas, Valeria knew her hopes of ever finding her mate were over. Until Alpha Damien came bursting into her life. Claiming another Alpha’s mate was prohibited, especially an Alpha of title stuck in between two Alpha males and enemies, Valeria was confused.  Would her mate go through all the odds of having her? Or would their enemy conquer them?

My father found me too rebellious, so he gave me to Marco, tasking him with making a lady out of me. To the outside world, Macro was the ruthless boss to a Mafia empire, but to me, he was just a man with a perpetually stern face. I tried everything to defy him. I smashed his car. Then I swapped his PPT for the lowbrow stand-up he hated most. And he opened it during a company meeting. Yet, every rebellion ended the same. He cornered me, his massive frame dominating mine on the silk sheets of his king-sized bed, the polished oak of his desk, or the leather confines of the car's backseat. His hot skin against mine, his fingers tracing fire along my curves. He moved with a primal hunger that left me breathless. My body arched in unwilling ecstasy, in a dance of punishing pleasure, until my fight dissolved into moans, my will shattered under his relentless claim. I fell for him hard, convinced this was love, and he was the beacon of my dark world. But the truth shattered me: it was all a calculated game to tame me, to stop my war with my sister Karen. My guiding light went out, or maybe it never existed at all. So I became a good girl. I stopped fighting back. He thought he had me tamed, chained to his will. But in the end, I slipped free, leaving him alone with his shattered heart.

My girlfriend was a police officer. One day, I got kidnapped, and the explosives on my body were ten minutes away from detonating when the kidnappers ordered me to call her. Instead of worry, all I got was relentless scorn and a tongue-lashing. "Caleb, are you seriously doing this right now? How could you be so petty and jealous when a life is on the line?! Lucas' cat is in danger. It has been stuck on a tree for three days, and that cat is as important to him as his own life! "If I don't save them in time, you'll be the one at fault!" Over the line, I heard the voice of a young man that sounded, to my ears, anything but genuine. "Thank you Jamie, you're the best!" That man was my girlfriend's childhood friend, Lucas White. Before the bomb exploded, I sent her a final message. [I hope we never see each other again. Not in this life, and not in the next.]

*Excerpt from a small excerpt: Shophia Marin ran as fast as she could to escape the large mansion. Running a long distance, he probably couldn't catch up, she turned her head to see that the mansion was no longer there, so she took a break under the tree. System, is Ralius still chasing me? [ Host, stop chasing but... ] But what? [But when people ran out of here, it pissed him off... the host made him black... he was right behind the host] Huh!!! "Shophia Marin, I'm too far from the villa to run away to relax." - Ralius lifted Marin's chin and forced her to lean against the tree trunk to support her head with her hands, dark eyes looking at her. The black male villain is terrible, the system saves me. [Sorry host I can't help] "You are becoming more and more intelligent, next time I will monitor you." - Ralius carried Marin on his shoulder and returned to the mansion. "Forgive me, I don't want to be here." - Don't trust this useless system in the first place.

The tree I fell from was rotten. It's leaves were rotten, it's bark was rotten, and it's roots were rotten. Unfortunately, I am an apple that didn't fall far from that rotten tree. I was groomed in the shadow of that rotten tree and sprayed with poison to ensure I would be nothing but it's germinated seed. My earliest memories are dark and painful. My most vibrant memories are coated in crimson red and shame. The small pieces of my soul that I kept hidden and protected are the only parts of myself I can tolerate. The rest of who I am... The despicable trash that haunts my dreams... I hate. Death is the only answer to my life. Not love. I don't deserve love. A tainted apple is never put amongst the ripe juices apples. It is thrown away, discarded... As I should be.

Olivia’s POV The moment Armando left, the dam broke. I sobbed into the silence, my chest heaving with the weight of everything I’d pushed down for so long. I wanted to hold him tight. To kiss him and to tell him how much I loved him and how much I wanted his protection but I just couldn’t because I didn’t trust anyone else and because I never wanted anything to do with love after James. I hated myself for pushing him away. But more than that, I hated that I felt anything for him at all. I sat there, drowning in the storm of my own heart, knowing that love was a battlefield I might never cross again, and yet, for the first time, I wished I had the courage to try. Armando’s POV Back in my study, I poured myself a glass of whiskey, my hand trembling as I lit a cigarette. The tears came slowly at first, hot and unfamiliar against my skin. I hadn’t cried since I was ten years old. But tonight, I wept. For her. For me. For everything we could never be.

As floodwaters rushed into the garage, I called my boyfriend. "Wade, help me... I'm trapped in here! The emergency exit's locked!" He sounded annoyed. "Tia, stop. Mandy's cat is stuck in a tree—we're handling it!" Then he hung up, taking the rescue team with him. My last hope was gone.