Winter Garden

"Stop we can't do this, Levi, it's wrong" I panicked, we were out in the open, and anyone who see us, children of the newlyweds like this would raise an alarm, he towered over me ignoring my protest as he cupped my chin forcing me to look into his alluring green eyes. "You know you want to" His voice was gruff and smoky. He was right. I didn't say anything when he leaned in and claimed my lips, somewhere at the back of my mind I imagined us at the altar just like our parents were earlier. Till death do us part? ~~~~~~ I have always hated how my life was with Mom getting married almost every year, I didn't think this would be any different from the rest. We will be out of here before winter, I would add the Sinclair to the list of families I owe an apology to in the future that's if I don't forget them. Or at least that's what I thought until I met him. Levi Sinclair. He is the one I shouldn't want yet I keep gravitating towards him and the more I tried hating him the more I wanted him. And I wasn't the only one with these feelings. Levi wanted me just as much as I wanted him, even more than I wanted him. But he is my stepbrother and I can't go down that path. Ll// So why can't my body refuse to listen to my brain when I'm alone with him?

In this lifetime, Lyana Coiningan, the widow, laments about how envious she is about my bedroom by telling Alpha Theron Ulrick, "Luna Astra's bedroom is so huge and beautiful! If Dexter could stay here, he'd definitely forget all about the sorrow caused by his father's death…" While Theron is still hesitant about giving my bedroom away, I've already taken the initiative to pack up my things and give it to Lyana. On the coldest day of winter, Lyana's son, Dexter Ulrick, suddenly wails and complains about how cold the weather is. He then demands to have my son, Cayden Ulrick's fur cloak. Cayden doesn't hesitate to take off the cloak and give it to him. Everyone in the Silverfrost pack says, "Luna Astra is the embodiment of the Moon Goddess. She knows when to let others have all the good things. On top of that, she doesn't fight over anything with anyone else. Even her son is as understanding and demure as she is." Theron compliments us on how understanding we've become as well. But what they don't know is that I've already bought flight tickets in preparation to leave the Silverfrost pack. Once I get my hands on the mate bond dissolution potion, I'll be able to take Cayden to a land far, far away from this place. In my previous life, Theron had neglected Cayden and me forever because of Lyana and Dexter. He even passed his assets to them after his death. Now that we get a second chance in the same lifetime, both Cayden and I don't want to have anything to do with Theron anymore.

I died five years ago. Now my husband, the Don of our Mafia family, wants me to take the fall for his sister again—this time for accidentally killing a British noble's heir during an arms deal. He's holding a fake confession letter with my forged signature, storming into my old apartment in the rust district, only to find it empty. Frustrated, he grabs the corner store owner downstairs, demanding to know where I am. The owner pauses, wiping his hands on his apron, calmly tells him: "Serafine? She died five years ago." "Heard it was retaliation from a rival family during the gang war. They ambushed her in an alley... shot her over a dozen times. She died immediately." My husband, Lucien, refuses to believe it. Convinced the owner is on my payroll, hiding me to help me escape his reach. He scoffs, his eyes filled with scorn: "Oh, so what? Because I called her out for messing up that last job, now she's throwing a tantrum?" "You tell her, if she doesn't come back and take the fall in three days, I'll revoke her grandmother's 'special family protection'! Let the old woman rot!" With that, he storms out, his rage still simmering. The owner watches him leave and sighs, shaking his head. "There's no grandmother left to protect... That woman passed away not long after Serafine did... couldn't survive the winter without our family's medical supplies and protection..."

Rosemary couldn’t have expected what would happen the moment she walked into her father’s office that cold winter’s day. Standing beside her father was Justin Knight, a man known across the country for his cruelty and rage. And for Rose, a person her father promised she’d marry. Being used as her father’s pawn for greater power was a deal Rose couldn’t accept, so she did the only thing she could, she ran. Taking her chances and bolting from her guards her arranged husband ordered, Rose finds herself surrounded and trapped. Until one man appears. Taking the hand of a stranger, covered in tattoos with the brightest but most dangerous eyes she’d ever seen, Rose thought she was out of the woods, but she didn’t know what she’d just stepped into. Baxter was no hero; he was a predator, the most feared Mafia boss in the country. A man built on fear, blood and not an ounce of mercy, he had not one weakness, until Rose appeared. From that first moment, Baxter decides she was now his, and Baxter never releases the things he claims. Her father wants to sell her, her fiancé wants to own her, and the monster who saved her, wants to keep her forever. Can Rosemary escape the men who wish to control her… or has she already fallen into the hands of the one man who could fully destroy her? Read on to find out.

For years, the witches and vampires of Shadowbrooke co-existed secretly, without much incident. Until one winter evening in 2002. Luca Delacroix was on a hunting trip when the monthly court hosted by his clan turned disastrous. What began as a normal night for the residents of the sleepy town ended horribly when fledgelings in blood-lust took Shadowbrooke under siege. It took a small coven of witches, a powerful spell, the Chaos Star and a virgin's blood to end the terror. But in the aftermath, Julian Delacroix, Luca's brother, along with several of their clan members, were eternally bound to the manor's cellar, forsaken to wither and perish from thirst. It's 2022, and Luca's returned to Shadowbrooke after two decades. His sudden reappearance threatens to destabilise the peaceful town again. He'll stop at nothing to get his brother out, and the Youngblood Coven will not hesitate to destroy him. While the witches scramble to get the missing piece of the Star of Chaos, the rune they once used against Luca's clan, he has to fight hard to stay one step ahead of them. But, his plans go awry when he meets and falls in love with Cadence Youngblood, the same woman responsible for his brother's infernal prison. Cadence is everything he shouldn't want, but for her, Luca is willing to take the backlash from his clan and risk her coven's wrath. © 2022 Val Sims. All rights reserved. No part of this novel may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author and publishers.

On the day I receive my Distinguished Service Medal, I also receive word that my grandma has passed away. My superior grants me special leave to return to my hometown to mourn her death, so I rush to my ancestral home at once. But when I reach the ancestral graveyard behind the hill, I witness something that makes my blood boil. The graves of my deceased family members have been razed to the ground. Even my parents' graves have been brutally dug up. Their urns are now placed under flower pots filled with blooming red roses. Grandma's coffin has been pried open as well.Her body now lies strewn on the ground and has started to rot. I also see Lucy Stewart, my autistic younger sister. Melissa Abbott, my wife's assistant, orders Lucy around like a maid, forcing her to move heavy construction materials around. Enraged, I grab Melissa by the throat and throw her to the ground. "How dare you destroy my family's ancestral cemetery and make my sister do hard labor! Do you want to end up buried here too?" Melissa coughs up blood before crawling back onto her feet, her expression vicious and scornful. "I'm simply carrying out Ms. Fuller's instructions. She says that your ancestral cemetery is located in a good spot. It's also the perfect size to be turned into a private horse ranch and a garden for her future husband. "Ms. Fuller calls the shots here in Joverton City. Who the hell do you think you are, huh?" Resisting the urge to put an end to her life, I call up Eva Fuller, my wife. "I heard you call the shots here in Joverton City. Well, I shall put that to the test today!"

"I, Alpha Dean Smith, reject you, Tamara Brown, you pathetic little orphan, as my mate and Luna," Alpha Dean Smith says. He has plans for his pack, and he first wants to eliminate all the pathetic wolves in his pack. Dean can not believe that the Moon Goddess played such a trick on him by giving him the most pathetic she-wolf in his pack as his mate. Tamara and her wolf Winter feel the pain of his rejection where they stand in front of the Alpha. She refuses to beg or cry. For too long did she allow everyone to walk all over her. "I, Tamara Brown, accept your rejection, Alpha Dean Smith. I may be a pathetic orphan in your eyes, but my parents gave their lives for your pack," Tamara says. Dean is furious! How dare she not beg him to make her stay? "Get out! Take the pathetic bunch of wolves with you! I never want to see you again! The Red River pack does not need useless wolves like you!" Dean shouts. Dean has plans for the Red River pack. He plans to make it the biggest and best pack in America, and he has no place for wolves who can not fight! Tamara starts walking away, and the other "pathetic wolves" follow her. "Why are you following me? You also do not like me! Go your own way," Tamara says as she walks towards the border of the Red Wood Pack.

My name is Elena Valesi Moretti. I'm a Brooklyn mob bride, a pawn in everyone's game. My father Enzo traded me for an alliance. My sister Isabella played the saint while secretly selling our baby sister Sofia to the Bianchi family behind closed doors. And my husband, Dante Moretti—the man with winter in his eyes who whispered “Try to run, I’ll break your legs” on our wedding day—he married me because when I was fifteen years old, I once pointed a gun at him inside a burning building. The only rule in this marriage was simple: stay out of his way. I spent three years breaking it. I sat in on council meetings and memorized every traitor's secret. I stood and watched a man's finger be severed to teach my own brother the price of betrayal. I turned myself into a blade. Then I uncovered the truth—Dante knew everything from the start. He knew my father had planted a mole inside his inner circle. He knew my sister was a trafficker's broker. He knew the woman he married was meant to be disposable from the very beginning. But there's one thing he never accounted for. He didn't marry a lamb. He married a wolf who learned how to draw blood. Now someone is trying to sell my little sister, and I have six weeks to stop it. I'm going to beat this man at every game he ever taught me.

The winter season turns out well for Zoey Smith, a twenty-four-year-old who holds the town's safety in her hands has a dark secret until someone by the name of Alexander Griffin, a rich, sadistic vampire who knows her secret decides to turn her life upside down, these two will now have to live together. Will there be bloodshed or love between these two? Sneak Peek: “I have a proposition for you.", he said as he sat back down and crossed his legs. “And if I don't want to sign it or have anything to do with you? What then?", she snapped back. Zoey was the type to always fight back. She was never the type to take a no for an answer. “Your reputation as a vigilante will be exposed and above all…your father will die at your hands. All because of your stupidity and selfishness of taking up a mask to wear at night yet you don't even think about the consequences” “What is the proposition?", she muttered under her breath gently. “Oh well, you will stay here with me, in this mansion with me.” “Why do you want me to stay here?!", she questioned in confusion. “Do you remember the night before? On the alleyway, you killed my cousin.” She choked on her tea as she heard this and tried to hide her laughter.”Oh….I'm sorry…but on a serious note, he was not a nice person. He kidnapped and murdered children.” He sat next to her and started to talk, "You're right, he deserved it", he chuckled.“Please consider the proposition.”

With flights suspended at airports, Berat tries to escape by car from the harsh Turkish winter and the pain of having lost his wife, traveling with their two children: Ferhat, four years old, and Volkan, two, to Georgia. Unexpectedly, a rock slides across the road, causing it to overturn and leaving Berat and the children trapped by their seat belts. Efé, who was returning from a family wedding, next to his wife and also their six-month-old twin children, did not think twice before parking the vehicle on the side of the road and saving that man and his children. After saving Berat and the boys from death, a strong friendship begins between them, making both sign a Marriage Contract between their children Ferhat and Luna. Twenty-one years pass, Ferhat and Volkan study and graduate in the USA and when they return to Turkey they start working at their father's Automobile Company. Volkan became a famous basketball player, but abandoned his career to be his father's right-hand man in business. His brother Ferhat despite being the eldest son, is nothing more than a seductive bohemian, who will steal the heart of Rabia, the daughter of his father's partner. The beautiful Luna will grow up knowing that one day she will have to marry a man she has never seen, but destiny will cross her paths with Volkan in a charity basketball match, in favor of the homeless of the earthquake, making a beautiful story of love start for them. Never having been touched by a man, Luna will be kissed by Volkan, who will fall madly in love with her. Upon discovering that Luna is his brother's betrothed, Volkan will despair and will do the impossible for the Marriage Contract to be undone and for him to marry in her place.