Voice Spice

On the third day of my business trip out of state, someone new joined the group chat formed for my son's class. It had been quiet for weeks when she suddenly sent a voice message. I tapped it, and an unfamiliar woman's voice played through my phone. "Hello, everyone. I'm the new language teacher at the school, and I'm also Tony Gardner's mother. Looking forward to getting to know you all!" My whole body went cold. I opened the group member list and checked it over and over. My son's name was Tony Gardner, and she said she was Tony Gardner's mother. Then, who the hell was I? I immediately called my husband. "Did someone get added to the parent group by mistake?" He paused on the other end before he laughed it off like it was nothing. "Oh, probably just a mix-up. The school has so many kids. It's not unusual for kids to have the same names. What's the matter? Did something happen?" I kept my voice light and told him everything was fine. The second I hung up, I booked the next flight home and headed straight to my son's school.

Meet Kendra, a hopeful-turned-hopeless romantic, in her search for a new dream after a devastating turn of events. On the other side of the world, Axe, a voice actor who keeps his face and real identity hidden, in hopes of finding true love.

I never imagined selling myself to a stranger, but desperation changes everything. “My offer is simple,” he said, leaning back in his leather chair, his voice colder than the iced whiskey in his glass. “Help us track down those people you overheard last night and act as bait for a few months” His eyes were steel—sharp, unreadable. I swallowed hard. I was a waitress. He was a billionaire. We lived in different worlds. But my mother was dying, and I needed money fast. “And in return?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper. “You get two million dollars as well as protection from the criminal organization looking for you,” he said flatly. My hands trembled in my lap. This wasn’t a proposal. It was a transaction. And I was the product. But I nodded anyway. “Deal.”

On my way to a meeting at work, I call my daughter, who is at home. Instead, I hear a voice identical to mine over the phone. She claims that she is me three years in the future. "Dezarae, go home to Liv right now. Your daughter is in danger." I am stunned. I argue in disbelief and question who is behind this prank. When I step on the accelerator, she stops me sternly. "Do not drive ahead any further. There will be a traffic accident at the intersection where Peace Street is." In the next second, at the intersection that is less than 30 feet away from me, two cars collide. Cold sweat starts to trickle down my back when the woman with a voice identical to mine says, "Liv will fall off a building and die in three hours. This is your only chance to save her."

As I took my newborn daughter from the nurse, I heard the voice of the baby in the next bed echoing in my head. “Don’t take her, Mommy. I’m your real baby!” The doctor and nurses did not seem to hear a thing. I thought I was hallucinating due to my fatigue, so I continued nursing my baby girl. “How dare you cry, you burdensome wretch? I’ll pinch you if you keep crying!” The baby’s grandmother picked him up and walked outside, but the voice came again, crying, “The mean old lady is taking me away. Mommy, look over here quickly! Look at the birthmark on my left ear!” I froze. My first child, who had died in an accident, had a birthmark on his left ear.

“Run, little flame,” he growled, voice thick with hunger. His voice dropped lower, “But if I find you…” “I'll fuck you till your legs give out. Until you forget who you are. Until all that's left is my scent on your skin and my name on your tongue.” And she ran. ** She was the one wolf he should've killed on sight. Instead, he craved her. Cursed to die if he chooses wrong, Alpha Kael is drawn to Nyra–a hunted temptress born of forbidden blood. But the closer he gets, the harder it is to tell... Is she his fated mate? Or the end written in his prophecy? Yet the moment he smells her, he knows. She's his salvation. His ruin. But when it all burns hot...who the hell wants to survive?

I had cancer. And Carl—my boyfriend of seven years—ditched me at the hospital to play fake boyfriend for his so-called best friend, just so she could dodge her parents' marriage pressure. When the results came in, I broke down. Clutching the report, I sobbed as I called him. "Carl, I... I..." My voice cracked. I didn't even know how to say it. I thought he'd comfort me. Instead, his voice came sharp through the phone. "Can you not? Mia's just a friend. What's so wrong about me helping her?—do you have to be so dramatic? I already promised to marry you this month. What more do you want?"

"Babe, what’s happening here?" I blurted out, my voice shaking as I tried to make sense of the scene before me. Jeffrey turned, his face hardening as if I was a stranger in my own home. "What does this look like to you?"he snapped, rising from the bed with a fierce look in his eyes. He walked toward me, gripping a piece of paper as if it held all the power in the world. "Sign the divorce papers!"he said, shoving the document toward me like it was a blunt instrument. "B... but babe!!" I stammered, my mind racing with disbelief. "Will you shut up and just do it already?" His voice was ice-cold, cutting through my confusion like a knife. Each word stabbed at my heart, making me feel like I was on the verge of falling into an abyss.

When Isla’s family is wiped out overnight, she runs to the first person she thinks of; Lorenzo Russo. He takes her in with promises to keep her safe, but when she overhears him admitting to killing her family, her world is shattered a second time. Will she run from him or stay to take her much needed revenge? Or is her version of the truth flawed? ~•~ “Did you…” I met his gaze. “Did you kill… my family?” “Yes,” his voice echoed in the quiet space. “It was necessary.” His voice was cold, his eyes still locked on mine. He didn’t care that I found out. He didn’t see me as a threat. I reeled back in shock, not expecting him to answer me so honestly. Then I exploded.

"Please tell them it's a lie," I whispered in my quivering voice and looked up into his eyes. They were cold. Emotionless. "This marriage isn't one from my end." He crashed his lips into mine taking them for a dominant, rough kiss. My eyes teared up as the scenes of my tortured future flashed in my mind. "Welcome to hell Rachel. I warned you not to play with me." His bone-chilling voice rang in my ears. What will happen when Vincenzo forces himself into Rachel's life? Where will this forced marriage lead them to? Vincenzo is ruthless and cold. Doesn't care about consequences and certainly doesn't accept denials. Rachel is innocent but not submissive. Her confident attitude makes her appealing to the mafia king who wants to tame her.