Voice Crack

"Wider, Millie. Yes, that's it." I lay weakly on the examination table, my hands unconsciously gripping the sheets. The voice behind me was low and restrained, but it made my ears burn. This examination position was too embarrassing. My buttocks were forced to arch high like some kind of submissive gesture. "Doctor, I can't open any wider..." I bit my lower lip, my voice trembling deliberately. I could see my reflection in the metal bars of the examination table. My messy hair stuck to my flushed cheeks as my eyes shone with a watery, dreamy glow.

In that moment, our lips were only a breath's distance apart. Antonio's eyes held an unspeakable yearning. His gaze dropped to my lips, his intentions evident. My own desire mirrored his, creating a powerful magnetism. Just as he closed the distance, I placed my free hand on his chest, stopping him in his tracks. "Antonio," I murmured, my voice trembling, "We can't..." He froze in place, his warm breath caressing my lips. His eyes held my reflection in them, fluttered shut for a moment as he absorbed my words. I saw a flicker of pain, quickly masked by a stoic calm. He nodded slightly. "I understand," he replied, quietly. His voice was steady, betraying none of the emotions I knew must have been roiling beneath his suave facade. "You aren't going to ask me why?" I asked him, my voice barely a whisper. Antonio smiled, a sad, understanding smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I'm not," he said slowly, "because I understand that you have a valid reason for your actions." "Antonio," I swallowed hard, my voice unsteady, "I...I am getting married tomorrow, to Alpha Boris." His eyes widened slightly, the shock of my revelation clear. "You are the future Luna…" he murmured, his voice barely a whisper. His fingers clenched into fists at his sides. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Wilhelmina Growler is a force to be reckoned with, a fierce and dominant female werewolf. Her unyielding determination to become the alpha of her pack, the Gravemaw Hounds. However, her aspirations are cut short when shortly after becoming the Beta, Alpha Boris Gravemaw demotes her and forces her as his Luna. The night of the highly anticipated Moon Goddess' Ball, Wilhelmina's world is turned upside down when she discovers that Antonio Lothian, the Lycan Prince, is her destined mate.

"Who is she?" My voice came out weak, foreign to my own ears. I despised the way it sounded--like a scared child-and I hated how he made me feel so small, so powerless. He let his breath out in a noisy sigh-a low, suffering sound, as if he was putting up with something beneath him. "Are we really doing this?" His voice was low now, tined with irritation. "It's not what you think. And even if it was, what are you going to do about it? You blind bat?" I froze, as tears slid down my face. I was just blind to him. A burden.

“What do you mean? What cyst?” Sebastian blinked, staring at the small screen on his phone, feeling his heart beat faster. The emergency information he had just received made him pause in front of his door, but then he ran to the car without thinking. He knew that something serious had happened to his wife. He had to get to the hospital immediately. His voice was hoarse as he spoke to the hospital operator, trying to get a grasp of the situation as quickly as possible. “This is a complication… You need to come to the hospital immediately and sign the consent form for surgery as soon as possible.” The voice was flat but urgent.

At 16 years old, I travel with my sister, Sarah Barnes, to the remote mountains of Nectar Valley to participate in a program. While herding cattle in the mountains, I fall asleep. In my drowsy state, I hear strange panting and gasps. Thick fog has somehow risen throughout the forest by the time I wake up. Suddenly, Sarah's anxious voice calls out from within the fog. I'm about to respond when someone suddenly covers my mouth with their hand. A voice whispers in my ear, "Don't answer. That's not your sister. It's the Temptress!"

“She’s my mate,” Jason said softly, his head a little bowed.The door behind us banged open just then, and I felt the wind rush through into the building.And I felt something else. Something I couldn’t describe.“No, she isn’t,” another voice called out, his voice booming a little, like the timbre that Jason said would be in the voice of the Alpha. “She’s mine.”-I thought my life could not get worse, having an abusive family and a stalker who made my life hell. Only my werewolf boyfriend Jason convinced me to go to his pack lands, where I would be safe.But as soon as we made it there, I discovered that 'safe' was the last word I could use to describe my situation.First, I was the only human there. Second, Jason lied to me and was never my mate. And third, I couldn't go back to the human world, because the Alpha claimed me as his, and now I am a prisoner for life.Alpha’s Forced Mate is created by Caricia Dulse, an eGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.

A week before my bonding ceremony, my younger sister traveled from a distant pack to be my maid of honor. While she was trying on her dress, the phone she had left outside suddenly rang. “Florence, can you answer that for me? I can’t get it right now.” I picked it up, and a male werewolf’s voice came through the line. “Baby, I bought you a gorgeous lingerie set. Tonight is going to be amazing.” I didn’t make a sound. A cold chill sliced straight through me. That voice belonged to none other than my mate-to-be, Dylan Conner.

“This is wrong. You’re supposed to help me fix my marriage” “And yet here you are, squirming under my hands like you're begging me to break it” “You're too close… I can’t think straight when you’re this close” “Then stop thinking. Just feel.” He leans in, his breath brushing against my lips. “Tell me to stop Lillian—and I will. But if you don’t, I’m going to kiss and claim your body like I’ve imagined a thousand times on that chair” *~*~*~*~*~*~*~* When Lillian Calloway walks into marriage counseling, she’s desperate—not just to save her crumbling relationship with her emotionally distant husband, but to hold together the image of a perfect life. Then she meets Dr Ronan Carter. Calm, devastatingly handsome and far too familiar for her comfort. Each session unravels more than just the crack in her marriage—it exposes desires she’s locked away for years. Ronan makes her feel alive. And when the professional lines begin to blur, Lillian finds herself stepping on the edge of something forbidden. He’s her counselor. She’s his client. Falling for each other will cost them everything. But what if the biggest lie was the marriage they were trying to save?

I've been in a coma for six months after a car accident. When I finally wake up, the first thing I hear is something sloppy in my hospital ward. My girlfriend, Quinn Simpson, is in here. She's kissing Chad Scott, her true love. Chad looks uneasy as he glances at me every few seconds. "Quinn, don't do this. I heard coma patients can still hear things. If Mateo hears us—" Quinn scoffs, completely unbothered. "So what? He's a vegetable. Probably won't wake up for the rest of his life. It's better this way, isn't it? Didn't you say you liked living on the edge?" They talk trash about me right in front of my face. I can even feel the contempt in Quinn's eyes. When the two of them finally leave, they don't notice the effort it takes for me to crack my eyes open. But the nurse who walks in next does. She sees it immediately and slams the emergency button. Once I start regaining strength, the first thing I do is send a message to my parents. "Mom, Dad, I'll do the arranged marriage."

Xavier Storm was a man who thrived on control. Ruthless in business and merciless in vengeance, he knew exactly where to strike to bring an enemy to their knees. And Marie Lockwood was the perfect target. A seductress, a spy, a woman who played with fire and never got burned—until now. She had destroyed his best friend, and for that, Xavier would make her suffer. But Marie was not the villain he thought she was. Framed by the very man she served, she had become the fall girl for crimes she didn’t commit. Betrayed, hunted, and trapped in a game she never wanted to play, she vowed that no man would ever see her break. Not even Xavier Storm. He wanted revenge, but she wouldn’t beg. He wanted to break her, but she knew how to endure pain. What neither of them expected was the fire that ignited between them, a dark and all-consuming obsession that blurred the lines between hatred and desire. The deeper Xavier dug, the more Marie’s mask began to crack, and with every secret he uncovered, he realized he had miscalculated. Because in shattering her, he was unraveling himself. And by the time the truth came to light, he would have to face the one thing he never saw coming— that he had fallen for her.