Zao Where Blood And Fire Bring Rest

Ava has always believed three things: vampires must protect their coven, werewolves are sworn enemies, and she is twenty-two years old. But lies run deep in the shadows. When Ava is sent on a mission beyond her coven’s borders, she meets Achi—a quiet, enigmatic human who stirs something ancient in her blood. Drawn to him by a bond she doesn’t understand, Ava struggles to reconcile her feelings with everything she’s been taught. Achi is calm, well-built, and seemingly ordinary… but nothing about him is what it seems. Achi is a hybrid—the forbidden child of both vampire and werewolf bloodlines. Cursed by ancient gods and hidden from the world, hybrids are destined to be locked away on a mountain far from civilization. But Achi has a secret: he escaped. And now, he’s living under a false identity, searching for the one the prophecy named—the vampire girl with silver in her veins and a choice that could save or doom them both. As passion ignites between them, truths unravel. Ava must decide where her loyalty lies—with the coven that raised her in fear or with the man who might shatter everything she thought she knew. And Achi must confront his fate: to love Ava is to break the gods’ law, but to let her go could destroy them all. In a world where bloodlines mean war and love means betrayal, can a forbidden bond rewrite destiny?

Lisa is a teenage girl who fell in love with her stepfather, Laredo. They ended up having an intimate relationship under her mother’s nose. The story unfolds with more intense drama and the consequences of family betrayal.

The scholarship student, Izzy Waite, whom Craig Green had been funding, decided to seek some thrills by engaging in group intimacy in the open sea. They messed around in a way that drew blood and unintentionally attracted a shark. I risked my life to drag her back to shore. Once we made it to land, I warned her the ocean was full of bacteria and that she should get a check-up, just in case. She nodded and pretended to listen. However, the moment I turned my back, she ran to Craig, claiming I’d slandered her reputation. She even threatened to throw herself back into the ocean in some dramatic attempt to end it all. Craig was furious. Without giving me a chance to explain, he shoved me into the mouth of a massive, still-living shark. I beat against the inside of that monster’s stomach, screaming for help. The fishermen on the beach panicked at the sight. “Mr. Craig, please. This’ll kill her!” Craig simply held the weeping Izzy in his arms and sneered. “I heard people can survive inside a shark for a whole month. Doesn’t she love studying marine biology? Now, she can do some real research from inside.” Trapped in utter darkness, I curled up, gently cradling my belly. “Baby, this time, Mommy can’t protect you…” One month later, Craig finally came to gut the shark himself and bring me home. Unfortunately, all he found on the wind-swept shore was a skeleton.

"Book 1: Mikhail: A Royal Dragon RomanceHe’s a dangerous jewel thief… she’s the gem expert standing in his way…Mikhail Barinov knew he F’d up, five hundred years ago. His ‘one job’ as part of a Russian family of imperial dragon shifters? To protect the family hoard of jewels. But a dazzling virgin—who just happened to be the Elizabeth I, the Queen of England—tricked Mikhail and stole the jewels. But now he has a chance at redemption. The jewels have been found five centuries later. The only problem is they’ve been turned over to gemologist, Piper Linwood. She’s sexy, smart, ripe for seduction—but if centuries of exile taught him one thing, it’s never trust a beautiful woman.Piper Linwood can’t wait to get her hands on her latest project. But hot damn she never expected how badly she’d want to get her hands on the dark, brooding man she sees at the museum. Of course she didn’t know he was a jewel thief. Or a dragon shifter. But all that becomes abundantly clear when he takes the jewels and her, then flies (yes, flies) to his ancestral castle. While all the alpha-male stuff is what fairy tales are made of—and frankly sexy-as-hell—the fact Piper disappeared with Mikhail has her labeled as his partner in crime. Now she must choose. Will she betray him to save her career? Or will she stay and become the dragon’s greatest treasure?Brothers of Ash and Fire is created by Lauren Smith, an EGlobal Creative Publishing signed author."

Blood and Moon is a story between two packs. One master and the other slave. The two packs are forced to live at each other's mercy because of the witch wars that has scorched the world and covered their earth in death and ash, blocking most of the earth from the sun. Isolated on their land, Moons try to survive, living amid the Bloods, their betters. Desire Dawson is a Moon that had just graduated and planned on leaving when her stepfather signed her up to work at the Blood's packhouse without her consent so he could receive her wages. She was sent to work in a place where she was regarded as a lesser wolf. The wages were good, and her life would have been easy there if Adam Kingston, the son of the Blood's Alpha King and only heir, did not take interest in her. This is the first book in the Blood and Moon series. It focuses on the love story between Desire and Adam during the witch wars. *Can be read alone*

One kiss saved his life. Another might destroy them both. Camilla, a talented pastry chef with a troubled past, never imagined that a chance encounter at a costume party would entangle her with Alessandro, the city's most feared mafia boss. As their worlds collide over cupcakes and gunshots, they find themselves drawn into a dangerous dance of secrets and desire. But when Alessandro chooses love over family legacy, the delicate balance of power in the criminal underworld begins to crumble. Now, with enemies closing in from all sides, Camilla must decide: Will she betray the man she's grown to love, or risk everything to save him in a world where trust comes at a deadly price?

Kim has spent most of her life on the edges—quiet, guarded, invisible. At nineteen, she’s only just beginning to learn what it means to be seen, to want, to belong. Erik was never meant to be more than a safe place, a steady presence in a world that once hurt her too deeply. He’s older, scarred by a past he doesn’t talk about, and painfully aware that loving her might mean holding her back. What begins as comfort turns into something dangerous: a love built in stolen mornings, unsaid fears, and promises neither of them knows how to keep. When Luca enters the picture—warm, easy, and part of the life Kim has never lived—everything Erik fears starts to feel inevitable. A single party. One careless moment. One kiss seen by the wrong eyes. Now Kim is torn between the man she comes home to and the future she’s only just daring to imagine, while Erik must decide whether love means fighting for her… or letting her go.

Haunted by her sister Sofia’s murder, marked by the signature black rose of the powerful Moretti crime family, FBI Agent Elena Rossi goes deep undercover as “Lia Moretti.” Her mission: find the killer and burn the organization from within her greatest obstacle: Dante Moretti, the lethally perceptive underboss who sees through her disguise almost immediately. Instead of exposing her, Dante makes her a twisted offer: her secrets become his to control, and in return, he grants her his protection from the rest of the family, for whom discovery means a death sentence. Forced into his trajectory as his personal project, Elena walks on a razor’s edge between her mission and her survival, while Dante’s cold dominance ignites a dangerous, all-consuming passion. As Elena digs for the truth, she finds her sister’s trail leads shockingly close to Dante himself. Her investigation is a minefield of conflicting clues, betraying her badge and her sister’s memory with every moment she spends in his arms. When a black rose appears on her own pillow a direct threat and her FBI handler forces her to betray Dante, her two worlds violently collide. Exposed and hunted by both the mafia and her own agency, Elena and Dante are thrown together as fugitives. In their raw, desperate alliance, they uncover a truth more shattering than either imagined: Sofia’s death was a message in a secret war within the family, and the real killer is the last person Dante ever suspected. To get justice, Elena must help the man she was sent to destroy and wage a brutal war for the soul of his empire.

The morning was cold and I was currency. My father handed me to Dimitri Volkov, Bratva, like I was a contract clause. I said no at the altar. Loud enough for everyone to hear. The priest kept going. Dimitri didn’t even blink. That was fact one: I was married without consent, in Chicago, to a man who accepted silence as agreement. I left him later. Not in rage. In clarity, after I saw another girl get caught in his world with no choice, just like me. Then I went to war. Law school had taught me precision, so I used it. Civil suits. Asset forfeiture. Anonymous tips to the right agencies. I took apart everything legitimate he’d built, piece by piece, until he bled territories and pride. He showed up bruised once, signed over forty percent of his clean empire to my name, brought therapy receipts. That was fact two: I dismantled the man who caged me, on paper, without firing a shot. I still have the necklace. The one he left in my lap that first night. I wore it through the worst, through the year I rebuilt alone, through every hearing. Last month I was pregnant in a courtroom, arguing a case I won. He was in the gallery. The diamonds sat above my collar. No one asked. I never explained. That was fact three: I took something from that night and made it mine. It doesn’t belong to him anymore. It doesn’t belong to what he did. It belongs to me.

This is the second book to the Bloodstone series. It can be a stand alone, but some characters and part are linked the first book, Alpha Erik. *** When you have been prepared your whole life for a future you don’t want. Do you fight it and avoid your destiny at all costs. Do you swallow your pride and follow through with the arrangements. Imelda is destined to marry the king of the underworld. A life she has been trained for since she could speak. Her parents may rule all the realms above ground, but when she is mated to the King of all evil, all bets are off. Will she love the man she is destined to marry or will she fight him until the very end, for her freedom and the dreams of exploring all the world has to offer. Mate or not, the crown is in her hands, more warrior than princess, what will she decide.