Vanished Without Trace

At the underground auction house, tonight's grand finale was billed as a 'premium wolf pet'. Inside the cage, a male wolf knelt with a bite-prevention muzzle locked around his neck. He was clearly a prisoner, yet his eyes held no trace of submission when he lifted his head. Instead, he looked like he was judging every single person in the room. His gaze cut through the crowd and locked onto me. My heart stuttered as excitement flooded my system. I finally knew what true attraction felt like. A well-dressed man in the front row raised his paddle. "$100 million." Gasps erupted across the venue. It was an astronomical opening bid. I smiled and slowly raised my paddle too. My voice brought the hall to dead silence. "$500 million."

During a weekly meeting, a new intern suddenly swapped the projection. The screen lit up with my attendance records, and all my colleagues’ eyes turned to me. The girl lifted her chin, a mix of arrogance and ignorance in her gaze, then slammed a stack of photos onto the conference table. “Mr. Anderson, I’d like to report her! She’s been using the company car to shuttle her family around, treating company resources like her personal vehicle. This must be dealt with immediately!” The room fell into an eerie silence. I looked at the eager intern, feeling a trace of sympathy. The “company car” she was complaining about was my luxury car. Three years ago, I had lent it to the company for appearances in business settings. Yet, I never charged a cent.

In the late stages of her pregnancy, my wife slipped away into the mountains with her childhood sweetheart, seeking some reckless thrill under the open sky. Fate, however, had other plans. She suffered a massive hemorrhage, and the two were rushed to the hospital. As a doctor, I took one glance at her condition and instructed the nurse to prepare for the cremation. In my previous life, I had risked everything to save her. On that very operating table, she and the child inside her perished together. Her childhood sweetheart, overcome with grief and fury, rallied others to accuse me of seeking personal revenge. Their rage was relentless, and they broke my hands. "A butcher like you, without medical ethics, deserves nothing less than eternal damnation!" they shouted, their words burning like brands on my soul. Yet I distinctly remembered—the surgery had been a success. Her vital signs had stabilized. Clinging to hope, I begged my in-laws to conduct an autopsy, to uncover the truth buried beneath the accusations. Instead, they called the police, who swiftly charged me with performing surgery under the influence of alcohol. Stripped of my rights, I was thrown into prison, where suffering became my only companion. Years later, upon release, I stumbled across a sight that tore what was left of my heart to shreds—my wife, alive and well, behind the wheel of a luxury car, accompanied by her childhood sweetheart and their child, living off the fortune I had worked tirelessly to build. Their betrayal didn't end there. Coldly and methodically, they lured me into a trap, casting me into a cement mixer to erase every trace of my existence. When I next opened my eyes, time had rewound itself. I was back on that fateful day, the one when her hemorrhage began.

"After hiding from me for three years, I've finally found you," I say to her, my eyes scanning her from head to toe. "I wasn't hiding. I was simply living my life without you," she scoffs at me, crossing her arms. "It doesn't matter anyway, because here you are now. You look beautiful." "Mr Partridge, I'd appreciate it if we kept things between us strictly professional." There she goes again, calling me by my last name, which was once her own. "We're not working right now. Let's just talk." "Mr Partridge, have a good evening." As she walks away, I'm so captivated by her confidence that I only stand in place and watch her the entire time. I see no trace of the vulnerable woman who was once my wife. Not only is she bold and beautiful, but she hates me. ~~~ Three months after her miscarriage, Layla is served divorce papers by her billionaire husband, Nathan. He wants her to leave because he's reconnected with the girl of his dreams. This leaves Layla shattered and no amount of begging can make him change his mind. Though she starts from scratch in a new town, they meet again three years later. He's now her new boss and this time, he's desperate to win her back With only a thirst for revenge in her heart and a new man in her life who's also a billionaire, is there even the slightest possibility of Nathan getting a second chance to make things right with her? Or is he too late and will live the rest of his life wishing he should've cherished her?

Celestine is a feisty daughter of Fernando Oakmont, the tycoon of one of the richest countries in the world who went bankrupt because of gambling. Almost everything they had vanished in a snap of a finger because of her father's addiction. Everything got even worse when her father stole something own by mafias. Celestine lets herself be taken by the mafia boss who introduced himself as Vincent Mogilevich to protect her father. Will her father save her? Or will she leave with no choice but to stay with the mafias for the rest of her life?

In the quiet of the forest, the darkest fears are born. The people of Dunballan, harbour a dark secret. A secret more terrible than the Beast that stalks the dense forests of Dunballan. A secret that holds David McCavendish, last in a long line of Lairds, in its unbreakable grip. It’s down to Sally, David’s lover, to free David from the sinister clutches of the Beast. But, with the whole town against her, she must ally herself with an ancient woodland force and trace Dunballan’s secret back to its bitter origins. Those origins lie within the McCavendish family history, and a blasphemous heresy that stretches back to the beginning of time. Some truths are too terrible to face, and the darkest of these lie waiting for Sally, in the Quiet Places. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

A prophecy forces alliances to form and secrets from the past to be revealed. War is on the horizon. The darkness is spreading, forcing the eldest prince of Pearl, Theodavian Sagedeluna, to return to the Tempest Elysium. His long lost best friend, Calyx, disappeared without a trace fifteen years prior after a night he can't remember with all her secrets. What happens when fate brings them back together and the secrets begin to unravel? Calyx has her secrets that she has sworn to keep. With Theodavian returning as her family legacy forces her to stay put, it is fate that they once again cross paths. The secrets she keeps are robbing her of immortality, but fate forces all secrets to be revealed. What if she can no longer protect Theodavian from the secrets she carries? What if he won't allow her to? * Seraphina is the palace healer of The Great Willow. When she was a child, her parents were murdered beyond recognition. Dante Elderys, supreme councilor of justice of The Great Willow Tree, is Lady Crystobelle's most trusted warrior and ambassador. After rescuing her that fateful night, he has watched her grow up and mature into a lady of integrity and pure heart. He has sworn to protect her always even from himself and his secret desires. Seraphina knows an elf of Dante's high status would never consider her to be someone worthy of forming a matebond with. In fact, she already knows the beautiful elf that has already captured his heart to her broken heart's dismay. With the war coming and Lilies Of Celeste needing to be harvested for Calyx's health tonics, her first adventure away from The Great Willow Tree reveals the truth of her identity and the secrets Seraphina and Dante both keep from one another.

(Daily updates)'A bastard omega'- I had no trace of past except for being found in a dumpster. And I hadn't thought I would have any future until one day, Alpha's son stumbled into the kitchen. Soon everyone thought that I was having a hot, sensual, forbidden affair with Adrian, the alpha's son. And then Adrian concluded that I must be unconditionally, devotedly, obsessively in love with him. None of them believed me when I said it wasn't the truth. Okay, maybe there's a little bit of truth. And I may have a little bit of feelings for his kind nature, stunning shimmering eyes, and delicious physique. But will he return the same affection? Will we be able to choose love over everything else?

"Hey, new girl! Stop hovering like a shadow and grab a seat. You look like you haven’t eaten in days," the head chef called out, her voice sharp but oddly welcoming. I froze. I knew her. She was the type who ignored me—neither cruel nor kind, just indifferent. It was better than the others who thrived on my misery. But this… this unexpected invitation caught me off guard. “Thomas, move over!” she snapped. “The girl looks like she’s been dragged through hell. Let her sit.” I cautiously stepped forward, unsure of this newfound warmth. “She doesn’t talk much, huh? Let me tell you something, sweetheart,” Henry chimed in, his voice dripping with mockery. “There’s no room for shy here. Speak up or get swallowed whole. Now, what’s your name?” “Aurora,” I said smoothly, burying the girl I used to be beneath the lie. --- Amelia was the pack’s favorite target—a punching bag for their frustrations and a scapegoat for their failures. But the cruelest betrayal came on her eighteenth birthday when the Alpha—her mate—rejected her in front of the pack. Mocked, humiliated, and abandoned, Amelia reached her breaking point. She vanished without a trace. Years later, she’s back, but not as the broken girl they remember. She’s Aurora now—sharp, fearless, and burning with a thirst for vengeance. She’s trained, planned, and uncovered the dark truths that fueled their hatred. And now, she’s ready to make them pay.

I had just gotten home when a parent in my son’s class group chat erupted: [Ms. Zinn, what kind of place are you running? Do you let just any random stray off the street become a teacher?] [My daughter came home, grabbed two forks, and tried to jump off the balcony. She said it was Miss Never who told her to!] The homeroom teacher panicked and denied it at once, insisting there was no such person as Miss Never at the kindergarten. She even posted the official teaching schedule in the chat to prove it. On the security footage, there was not a single trace of this so-called Miss Never. However, later, my son whispered to me in secret, “Mom, Miss Never is an old lady with a cat’s face.” “She says only kids can see her.”