You opened the Gate, Asher. That makes you the beginning... or the end." Blood pools beneath the moonlight. Asher Vale gasps awake, haunted by dreams that aren't his. Lirael Cauthon watches him from the shadows-torn between desire and dread-because if the prophecy is true, the boy she's falling for is the one destined to resurrect Tenebris... or burn with it. When Asher Vale uncovers a power sealed in blood and fire, he becomes the target of vampire elders, hunters, and ancient forces that remember who he truly is. Guided-and hunted-by Lirael Cauthon, a woman bound to his fate by secrets and scars, Asher must confront the ash-covered truth of a past he never lived... and a love that might be the world's last hope-or its final ruin.
They say the city sleeps. But it dreams of blood.
Rain tapped against the shattered stained glass like a patient knock, soft and persistent. Outside, Velgrave exhaled mist into the night-a city perpetually on the edge of rot and resurrection. Neon signs flickered over crumbling bricks. Alleyways pulsed with shadows that didn't belong to anything living.
Lirael D'Argent stood in the cathedral's broken archway, eyes fixed on the street three stories below. She didn't breathe. She hadn't in years-not because she couldn't, but because she didn't see the point anymore.
The scent of wet asphalt and rust curled up to meet her. She closed her eyes.
Still no blood in the air.
Good.
She turned from the open arch and walked back inside her sanctuary. The place had once been holy-a house of prayer and Latin hymns. Now, it was filled with relics of a different kind: stacks of vinyl records, oil paintings in warped gold frames, books bound in leather and dust. Candles flickered along the stone walls, their light warm but insufficient. Darkness always crept in around the edges here. She preferred it that way.
A record spun lazily on a brass turntable, murmuring something low and orchestral. Dead languages and violin strings. Lirael's fingers hovered above the needle, then let it be. Silence felt heavier lately. Sacred.
She poured herself a glass of thick, crimson liquid from a decanter. Not blood-not anymore. A synthetic substitute. Cold. Tasteless. Like everything else that had tried to replace what she had once been.
Then she felt it.
A shift.
Not a sound. Not a movement. Just... a wrongness. A wrinkle in the air.
She tilted her head toward the cathedral's open nave. Her pupils narrowed to slits. The candles didn't flicker. But something had entered.
I locked the door.
Soft footsteps echoed against marble-too soft for human ears. But not hers.
She stepped barefoot across the stone floor, the hem of her black slip trailing like smoke. Her voice was quiet, razor-edged.
"You're not supposed to be here."
A figure emerged from behind a crumbling pew, hands raised.
"I get that a lot."
He was tall, lean, soaked in rain. His hoodie clung to his frame, and his jaw was cut with sharp angles. He looked young, maybe twenty-two. But something about the way he carried himself felt older. Like he'd been running for a very long time.
His blood called to her.
Not just the scent-familiar and wrong-but the sound of it. She could hear it rushing through his veins, fast, irregular. Hybrid. She took a step forward. He didn't move.
"What are you?" she asked.
His eyes flicked up to meet hers. Grey, storm-dark, rimmed in exhaustion. And defiance.
"Asher Vane," he said. "I'm here because someone wants you dead."
She smiled faintly. "That's hardly new."
Asher reached into his coat slowly and pulled something out-a folded piece of parchment, damp from the rain. He held it toward her. She didn't take it.
"It's written in blood," he said. "Yours."
Now she moved.
In a blink, she was inches from him, her hand at his throat, pinning him to the nearest stone pillar. His breath hitched, but he didn't fight back. He just met her gaze, unflinching.
"Tell me who sent you," she whispered.
He swallowed hard. "I don't know. I found it in a tomb. Old. Sealed with your crest."
She stared at him for a beat longer, then finally released her grip. He collapsed forward, coughing once. She took the parchment and opened it with care.
Her name was scrawled in deep red ink-older than fresh blood, iron-thick. The message was brief.
"They are waking. The Accord is broken. The city will bleed."
Lirael's fingers curled around the page.
The Accord. That word hadn't passed through anyone's lips in centuries. Not in this city. Not in any.
"I need your help," Asher said behind her. "They think your blood can stop it."
"Stop what?"
He hesitated. Then:
"The Hollow Plague."
She froze.
The silence stretched. Even the record had gone still.
"You shouldn't be here," she said again, voice colder now. "Leave. Tonight."
"I can't," he said simply.
"And why not?"
He looked at her, rainwater still trailing down his neck, mixing with a bruise that was too purple, too deep. She hadn't noticed it before. It pulsed faintly.
"Because I'm already marked," he said. "And so are you."
Lirael turned to respond-but something stopped her. A scent on the wind. Wrong. Rotten. Not the boy.
Something else.
She moved before the sound reached her ears. Grabbed Asher by the collar and dragged him behind the stone altar just as glass shattered overhead. Something heavy landed in the cathedral's loft, sending centuries-old dust into the air.
A growl echoed through the chamber. Not animal. Not vampire.
Something in-between.
Lirael narrowed her eyes and stepped out slowly, shielding Asher behind her. The figure above crouched low, elongated limbs glistening in the candlelight. Its eyes glowed like old embers, veins black and twisting across its pale face.
It smiled. Its teeth were all wrong.
Lirael whispered, "You led them to me."
Asher, behind her, whispered back.
"No... I think they were already here."
He's power. She's a secret. And someone's playing them both. When Isabella Reyes takes a job inside the glass towers of Langford Holdings, she expects paperwork, not passion. But Grayson Langford, the brooding billionaire heir with a dangerous past, sees straight through her polished facade. One stolen night turns into obsession, and soon, Isabella is wrapped in a world of luxury, lies, and lust she never imagined. But secrets don't stay buried forever. A masked threat emerges, demanding Isabella's life in exchange for another woman's-Sofia Vega, the name Isabella thought she'd left behind. As the clock ticks, Isabella and Grayson must navigate betrayal, blackmail, and a love that might destroy them both. And just when she thinks the past is dead, a ghost returns: Emilio, the one man who knew the real her. Now, caught between two powerful men and a web of deadly deception, Isabella must choose who to trust, and who to survive. Velvet Chains is a sizzling, high-stakes billionaire romance dripping with sensuality, suspense, and a love triangle that will leave you breathless.
Chandler Su who had cheated by her boyfriend then got drunk at a bar. To take revenge, she grabbed a man randomly and took him to the room. After a crazy night, Chandler found the strange man was a super handsome guy the next morning. Shy and shocked Chandler run away after leaving 150 RMB and scorning the man of his poor bed skills. However, she never thought the story would become so dramatic as the next day, she found out that the new coming president of her company was exactly the man she slept the last night! Worse than that, this new boss seemed very narrow-minded as he asked Chandler to come to his office on the first day.
P-please, I beg you. Come let's go tell Christian I had no hand in whatever happened, p-please." I clutched the lapel of his jacket desperately. "Let's go. You need to tell my husband you were paid." "Young lady, you're harassing me." His tone was cold and his stare granite. But I could care less. "You harassed me first! You had sex with me without my consent, my husband knows and now I'm pregnant with this child he doesn't want. You ruined my marriage! I-I hate you!" ************************************ Caught by her husband with another man on their matrimonial bed the morning after her birthday, Hailey Codza could not defend herself. As though it's not enough, she gets pregnant. Her enraged husband decides to pay her back for her infidelity by having an affair with his ex-girlfriend - Denise Kellers, the family Hailey never knew she had. Losing her family's wealth and company to her husband and his ex (now girlfriend), she is devastated, homeless and penniless as all her credit cards are blocked by her husband. She sees the man who is responsible for her pregnancy. The man she has no idea how he'd found his way to her matrimonial bed - Jared Johnson. Jared is annoyed when this strange woman disrupts his meeting and accuses him of ruining her life, marriage and impregnating her. It affects his business deals and having no choice, he marries her to calm the public whilst engaged to someone else. But he loathes her and allows his family treats her badly. Hailey who has fallen in love with Jared is broken when she can no longer take the humiliation. She signs the divorce papers and leaves, only to arrive six years later to the country as a self-made, secret billionaire and a mother of twins. Now her two ex-husbands are begging to have her back...
⚠️ WARNING!⚠️ This book contains mature contents,vulgar words,violence,toxicity, and age gap differences, which may be triggering to some readers. ---- He added a second finger into her pussy and she let out a muffled moan."You sure you don't want this?Your pretty little pussy seem to be betraying your words", She gripped the edge of the counter and shut her eyes tight,managing through gritted teeth."I hate you,murderer", His jaw hardened and he stopped his movements with his fingers inside her."Say it again", She wanted his fingers to move in her so badly,as pathetic as it may sound.She gritted her teeth again and let out."I said I hate you,murderer!I wish you would just die and-ahh!",She yelped the minute his fingers left her panties and grabbed her to bend her over his knees as he sat on the tall stool there."What are-ahh!",She yelped when his palm made a harsh contact with her bare ass. "Count!",He growled.
"I, Erika Blackwood, stand before you, Alexander Robertson, with a heavy heart. I hereby reject you as my mate. The bond we once shared has grown fragile, and my soul yearns for a different path. May you find solace in the love of another, and may we both find the happiness we seek." Alexander didn't say a word and looked at me. But he refused to accept. *********** Erika Blackwood is the next Alpha in line of the Ironclaw Pack. She hides her identity and gets mated to the Alpha of the Moonforest Pack, Alexander Robertson. Three years passed, but Alexander is still unwilling to let go of his childhood sweetheart. Erika is mistreated and eventually framed by the same childhood sweetheart. Now she leaves with that humiliation, and goes back to her pack, swearing vengeance on those who hurt her. They all waited for her to return and beg, but what happens when they realize that the famous Ironclaw Pack that was going to help in the rogue war, was ruled by a woman named, Erika Blackwood. Now her Ex mates want her back. Other Alphas want this woman.. But will she accept any of them? Or will she stay independent forever?...
Anabel found out she was pregnant and dialed her husband's number to share the good news to him. They have been married for two years without a child. Desmond's mother had been accusing her of being barren and unproductive. When the call was picked, she was flabbergasted and broken. She was hearing a loud moan of feminine voice. "Ohh! Yeah! Don't stop fucking me! Fuck me harder baby!" accompanied with sound of skins slapping against the other. She went home to confront her husband and end up receiving a divorce paper. Desmond divorced him for a lady his mother was rooting. Few months later when he found out that his ex-wife is a billionaire heiress and she is pregnant with twins, he went crazy!
Lyric had spent her life being hated. Bullied for her scarred face and hated by everyone-including her own mate-she was always told she was ugly. Her mate only kept her around to gain territory, and the moment he got what he wanted, he rejected her, leaving her broken and alone. Then, she met him. The first man to call her beautiful. The first man to show her what it felt like to be loved. It was only one night, but it changed everything. For Lyric, he was a saint, a savior. For him, she was the only woman that had ever made him cum in bed-a problem he had been battling for years. Lyric thought her life would finally be different, but like everyone else in her life, he lied. And when she found out who he really was, she realized he wasn't just dangerous-he was the kind of man you don't escape from. Lyric wanted to run. She wanted freedom. But she desired to navigate her way and take back her respect, to rise above the ashes. Eventually, she was forced into a dark world she didn't wish to get involved with.