Love and Death
/1/114527/coverbig.jpg?v=58fe795a9395370e26f9acaf84058720)
Shielded By The Ruthless Military Boss
I was an intern nurse working exhausting shifts, yet my mother constantly forced me into blind dates with wealthy, arrogant men to secure our family's social standing. During a terrifying hospital lockdown, an assassin disguised as a doctor held a scalpel to my throat. I was almost killed, but a high-ranking military colonel threw his own body down a flight of concrete stairs to shield me. I survived with cuts and bruises, but when I went home, my mother didn't care about my near-death experience. She was only furious that I had rushed out on my blind date with Preston, a rich financial analyst. She forced me to meet him to apologize. When Preston grabbed my arm, bruised me, and mocked my attack as a pathetic lie, my mother still took his side. "Men get angry," she told me coldly. "It's your job not to provoke them. You will beg for his forgiveness, or you are no longer welcome in this house." I had narrowly escaped an assassin, yet my own family was willing to feed me to a monster just for a fat paycheck and neighborhood gossip. My heart went completely dead. So, when the intimidating Colonel appeared, offering me maximum military protection through a sudden marriage, I didn't hesitate. I walked back into my parents' house and calmly slapped a crisp marriage certificate onto the coffee table. "I won't be apologizing to Preston. I got married today."
Chapter 1
"If you're going to order the salmon, make sure they don't overcook it. The last time I was here, it was practically cat food."
Caroline Thompson stared at the man sitting across from her. Preston Finch. Financial analyst. Ivy League graduate. The eighteenth blind date her mother had forced her into in the last two years.
He wasn't looking at her. He was using his silver fork to trace the menu like he was grading a flawed exam paper.
"The wine list here is a joke," Preston continued, snapping the leather bound menu shut. He finally looked at her, his chin tilted in perpetual judgment. "At my club in New York, we have a sommelier. Here? I wouldn't trust them to open a beer."
Caroline's fingers dug into the fabric of her dress under the table. This was her life now. Sitting across from arrogant men who thought a fat paycheck bought them the right to treat everyone else like peasants.
"So, Caroline," Preston leaned back, offering a smirk that was probably meant to be charming but landed closer to constipated. "My mother mentioned you're a nurse?"
"Intern nurse," Caroline corrected automatically. "At Washington United Medical Center."
"Right." The smirk deepened into outright dismissal. "Must be exhausting. All that cleaning up and taking orders. And the pay? Practically minimum wage, right? Honestly, a pretty girl like you should just find a guy who provides. Someone who makes enough so you don't have to wipe up vomit for a living."
A muscle ticked in Caroline's temple. She opened her mouth to tell him exactly where he could shove his financial advice, but her phone buzzed.
She never took personal calls on a date. But right now, it was the only thing keeping her from baptizing Preston with her ice water.
She glanced at the screen. Her breath hitched. It wasn't just the hospital. It was the direct emergency line from the Chief of Staff.
She answered it right there. "Thompson."
"Caroline." Dr. Alistair Cromwell never used her first name. His voice, usually dripping with academic condescension, was flat. Breathless. "Get back here. Now."
"I'm off the clock, Dr. Cromwell. Is something—"
"I don't have time to repeat myself." The line crackled with background shouting. "This is not a drill. We are at Code Atlas. I say again, Code Atlas. Get here in ten minutes or don't bother coming back at all."
Click.
Caroline sat frozen, the dial tone buzzing against her ear.
Code Atlas.
In all her years of training, she had only heard that term whispered in break rooms like a ghost story. It meant catastrophe. Mass casualties. A high-level terror threat. It meant the world was falling apart.
"I have to go," Caroline said, already grabbing her coat.
Preston scoffed, slamming his water glass down. "You're joking. What kind of emergency could a nurse possibly have? We haven't even ordered."
"It's a Code Atlas," she said, not caring if he understood. She pulled a fifty-dollar bill from her wallet and dropped it on his pristine white tablecloth. "This covers my share of nothing. Goodbye, Preston."
She didn't wait for his face to finish flushing red. She turned on her heel and practically sprinted out of the restaurant.
The Washington air hit her in a heavy, soaking downpour. Adrenaline washed away the lingering disgust of the date. She flagged down a cab dropping someone off at the corner, sliding into the back seat before the passenger was fully on the curb.
"Washington United Medical Center," she gasped. "Step on it."
By the time the cab screeched to a halt, the rain had slowed to a mist, but the chill in Caroline's bones only deepened.
She stepped out and stopped dead.
The hospital had been turned into a fortress.
The main entrance wasn't blocked by ambulances, but by military police. Two armored Humvees idled across the driveway, their headlights cutting through the fog. Men in full combat gear, rifles strapped to their chests, stood behind concrete barricades.
This wasn't a mass casualty event. This was a federal lockdown.
Heart hammering against her ribs, Caroline approached the nearest checkpoint, holding up her ID badge with a trembling hand. "Caroline Thompson. I was paged by Dr. Cromwell."
The guard, a soldier with eyes like flint, scanned her badge, checked a clipboard, and stepped aside. "Go straight to the main desk. Do not deviate from the hallway, ma'am."
Caroline slipped under the yellow tape. The lobby was unrecognizable. The usual chaotic symphony of the ER was gone, replaced by a suffocating, terrified silence. Doctors and nurses huddled in clusters. Armed soldiers lined the corridors like statues.
"Thompson!"
Dr. Cromwell was striding toward her. He looked like he had aged a decade since morning. His white coat was rumpled, a dark coffee stain splashed across his tie.
"Listen carefully, I don't have time for questions," he snapped, his forehead gleaming with sweat. "You are assigned to ICU Room 3. You will monitor the patient's vitals. You will not speak to him. You will not touch any personal effects in the room. If his heart rate fluctuates by more than ten percent, you hit this button." He shoved a black pager into her palm. "Do you understand me?"
"Yes, sir."
"Go."
Caroline walked briskly toward the private elevator bank. The air smelled different here—sharper, metallic, like ozone and gunpowder.
As she turned the corner, the doors of the VIP elevator slid open. A group of people emerged, moving like a single, lethal organism. Men in dark suits. Military brass with medals gleaming.
But they were just background noise.
In the center, walking slightly ahead, was a man who looked like he had been carved from granite and violence.
He was well over six feet, his shoulders straining the seams of his digital camouflage uniform. The rank on his chest—a silver eagle—demanded absolute submission. His face was a landscape of sharp angles and hard lines, his jaw set like a steel trap.
As the group passed, the man turned his head.
His eyes—a cold, piercing, impossible gray—swept the corridor. And for a fraction of a second, his gaze locked onto Caroline's.
It was like stepping onto a landmine.
The air was violently sucked from her lungs. A jolt of pure, electric heat shot down her spine, freezing her blood. Those eyes didn't just look at her; they stripped her down, assessed her threat level, and branded her in the span of a single heartbeat.
"Colonel Romero," an aide murmured, handing the man a classified tablet.
The spell shattered. The man—Colonel Romero—broke eye contact, taking the tablet without missing a stride. He began firing off orders in a low, gravelly voice that vibrated down the hallway.
Caroline let out a shaky breath, her knees suddenly weak. She hadn't realized she was holding onto the wall until a hand grabbed her arm.
"Are you breathing?" her friend Brenna whispered, pulling Caroline into a supply alcove. Brenna's face was paper-white. "Oh my god, Caroline. Did you see him?"
Caroline swallowed hard, her throat like sandpaper. "The Colonel?"
"Jarrod Romero," Brenna breathed, the name heavy with awe and terror. "Department of Defense. My cousin at the Pentagon says he's the guy they call when the world is ending." She clutched a medical chart to her chest. "He looks like he'd shoot you just for breathing his air."
Caroline rubbed the back of her neck, trying to dispel the lingering, phantom heat from that brief eye contact. "Where are you headed?"
"ICU 3. Cromwell's special assignment."
Brenna's eyes widened, all gossip vanishing instantly. "Oh, God. Caroline, be careful. That patient... this whole thing is black-ops. The FBI tried to get in twenty minutes ago and Romero's men turned them away at gunpoint."
"I just have to watch the monitors," Caroline said, though her voice lacked conviction.
She grabbed a supply cart and pushed through the double doors of the ICU wing. They hissed shut behind her, sealing her in a sterile, fluorescent-lit silence.
Two MPs stood outside Room 3, their faces blank masks. They checked her badge twice before unlocking the door.
The room was freezing. The steady beep-beep of the heart monitor was the only sound.
In the bed lay a young man, motionless. His face was a swollen canvas of bruises, thick bandages wrapping his torso. Caroline moved to the bedside, picking up the chart.
Alston Petersen. Lieutenant. JAG Corps.
The list of his injuries read like a torture report.
She set the chart down, her eyes fixed on the rhythmic spike of the heart monitor. Her pulse thrummed in her ears.
She had told Brenna she just had to watch the monitors. But standing in the freezing room, looking at the broken soldier, Caroline knew the truth.
She had just walked into the eye of a very deadly storm. And the man with the ice-gray eyes was the one holding the lightning.
/0/32146/coverbig.jpg?v=be0098cc32198b19178fb8bf219eaa4a)
My First One Night Stand with My Boss
Tessa Jones just graduated college. She was excited to get an interview with a top tech company. On a night of celebration of her new job, she was almost r***d by a creep in an alley. An unknown man saved her just before her life would have been changed forever. Tessa ended up having her first one night stand with this man. The next morning she started her new job as a third assistant to the CEO. When she met her new boss she was shocked......
/0/34668/coverbig.jpg?v=61bc85c210bebddbe04d53b57144bc18)
The Rejected Luna: Daddy, Where is Mommy?
Calvin Logan Haysbert became a father over a night when someone dropped a newborn pup at his pack entrance stating the pup was the result of his casanova nature. His life turned upside down because of the pup's arrival, his daughter, to be exact. He got so busy raising his daughter alone as a single father that he didn’t get time to look for the mother of his daughter until she started questioning it. “Daddy, Where is Mommy?” * Book 3: The Rejected Luna: Daddy, Where is Mommy? Book 1: Billionaire’s Ex-Wife & His Hidden Babies (Completed) Book 2: My Mate is a Witch (Completed) *** Follow me on social media. Search ‘sprachi12’
/0/33164/coverbig.jpg?v=73d470060c764d6811d91e8d7fa0900c)
Alpha's Beloved Virgin Wife
She was a diamond covered by ashes.... King Dakota was known as the most Powerful Alpha King of all times - more powerful than any other King that had ruled from his lineage. He was cold hearted, introverted and dangerous in anger. Cursed by the Moon goddess, King Dakota had to get married to three wives all in search of a male child that would become his heir, but it was impossible as the curse would only let his wives bear she -wolves. But on a different day, the King meets a lady who offends him and as a punishment, he took her home as his fourth wife. Her name was Shilah. Shilah was a powerless wolf and as a result, was disregarded and intimidated by all. But, when she begins to do things that the King had never felt for years, he began to wonder who she really was. Slowly, she crawled her way into his icy heart and turned out to be something nobody ever expected - a storm.
/0/40777/coverbig.jpg?v=5a175bec20f00e5e4640dcefa23d3cc5)
THE ALPHA OF LOVE AND DEATH
The moon rose high in the velvety night sky, casting an ethereal glow over the secluded village of Silverwood. Nestled deep within a dense forest, this place held a secret—a secret that had been guarded for centuries. Hidden beneath the tranquil façade of this picturesque town, a pack of werewolves
/0/85099/coverbig.jpg?v=93296a25c9bc2d1ca49694d4d0c61426)
Love, Lies, and Digital Death
For ten years, I was Ethan Vance, the Silicon Valley "fixer," the "soul mediator" everyone trusted to clear digital ghosts and optimize karma. Then Kevin, my girlfriend Sarah' s adopted brother, showed up with his charming lies and half-price "digital shaman" tricks, stealing my clients and m
/0/20165/coverbig.jpg?v=1a8fd50008a61102c37da05e746fc754)
THE BUTCHER AND DEATH
WORK TELLS THE STORY OF A YOUNG MAN WHO WAS BORN AND LIVED WITH A GIFT THAT WAS HIS GIFT TO SEE AND SPEAK WITH DEATH
/0/20457/coverbig.jpg?v=156fc32d2fe69442b6f1c258e93c5051)
Love Beyond Death
"I will always find you no matter where you are! There's no escape, Alizandra." I turned her to face me and the terror stamped on her beautiful face made me weep inside. She looked at me just like the devil I was, and that didn't sit well with my heart, but I got so angry at that moment and so confu
/1/128811/coverbig.jpg?v=e5de73962f1de6d7679292364234e789)
Between Death and Desire
Five years ago, Elara Veyne drowned while the man she loved stood and watched. The pack called her a traitor. Said she poisoned the heir. Then they let the water take her. Now she's alive again, in someone else's body, with someone else's name. Nobody remembers her - except Kael Draven, the Alpha wh
/0/22737/coverbig.jpg?v=01238671421685321fd42ada6766bbb9)
LIFE AND DEATH HOLDER
Kali once said, "be careful who you trust. Remember, demon was once an angel." ... Manuel Kagura Anastacio is a simple and family oriented guy. His fate in mortal world which is the earth was a big misfortune, because first, when he was born, his father died. Second, he became the center of bullyi
/0/45425/coverbig.jpg?v=20230914151322)
DEATH AND ICE
[MATURE CONTENT]. NORMAL is overrated. But heed the saying.....‘Be careful what you wish for’. Selena didn’t heed that warning .... when she kissed death. Selena was saved, from her name gracing the book of death. But with new life came new responsibility. Danger? She knew it like an intim
/0/85692/coverbig.jpg?v=a03f31b10dd38c2f2a2e620c09ea9b82)
Poisoned Love, Calculated Death
The yacht' s engine faded, leaving me stranded on a desolate island. My fiancé, Liam, and my adoptive sister, Brittany, had promised a celebratory pre-wedding adventure, but they left me there to die. For ten agonizing days, the emergency beacon on the smartwatch Liam gave me, supposedly a symbol
/0/25707/coverbig.jpg?v=067092d844bb0d6f0f3dca4ecbf7f2d4)
Life and Death Mission system
Having been betrayed by her boyfriend on a mission, Mercy Lin decides to end both their lives. She finds herself in the Zen continent, but it ends shortly when she unknowingly finish her first mission and is swept in a Vortex to a different era. With this, she finds herself on a roller-coaster of mi
/0/38181/coverbig.jpg?v=d0bc22b3c3dc809caac9e4cb893a62d5)
Life-and-Death Elixir Emperor
Tang Mingyang, a trash kicked out of his family, accidentally awakened the memory of his former life, as a Life-and-Death Elixir Emperor. From then on, his life began to be arrogant and wanton. He was a genius. You insulted and bullied him? Stamp on you! A saintly girl, a gorgeous girl? Take them! O
/1/102289/coverbig.jpg?v=93f582bb6dbb65cb172474e8e762b502)
Love That Transcends Even Death
On my twenty-fifth birthday, I discovered my boyfriend of seven years and my best friend were having an affair. They gave me matching necklaces-a sea and a mountain-the very set I had picked out for him as a symbol of our love. It was their silent confession, a confirmation of the betrayal I had ju
/0/20740/coverbig.jpg?v=baeb52d8ad8a90fc91a19910338a6a6e)
The Guardians Life and Death
In a world where mankind lives between good and bad, there are hidden secrets that can neither be explained nor understood. Unbeknownst to human, there are strange creatures who live in the world they live in. To socialize and live normally like a normal human. They are on a mission with the people
/0/54260/coverbig.jpg?v=22532312abb581bb0af87ccc4a8b6038)
SIN AND DEATH IN SAINT'S CITY
"Sin and Death in Saint's City" by K. Li is a compelling novel that delves into the lives of two teenagers, Kyle White and Lorraine Thompson, both burdened by painful pasts. Their connection unfolds within a program aimed at nurturing Christian values in young adults. Lorraine, scarred by heartbreak
/0/63664/coverbig.jpg?v=03cf1c5e87295da12b347cb2e8474e31)
Between The Game Of Death & Love
He was a Kung Fu head trainer, who was framed by his two trainees in a rape and murder case of Clushia, a female trainee, who was obsessed with him. He was convicted and brought to the maximum penal institution called the 'Hellhole', for no prisoner got out of it alive. In one of the prisoners' rio
/0/2080/coverbig.jpg?v=72894d028213070350f2a15fce84811a)
/0/5759/coverbig.jpg?v=a59b1e7253bab0729c5ec618b2461476)
The Black Death, and The Dancing Mania
The account of "The Black Death" here translated by Dr. Babington was Hecker's first important work of this kind. It was published in 1832, and was followed in the same year by his account of "The Dancing Mania." The books here given are the two that first gave Hecker a wide reputation. Please Note
/0/82648/coverbig.jpg?v=37ad5077d01c5e7a3f5e67569a1db062)
His Faked Death, My True Love
My eyes snapped open. Sunlight streamed through familiar curtains in what was undeniably my childhood bedroom on a military base. But a stark, chilling truth hit me: I died. I vividly remembered fire, twisted metal, and then a profound, cold darkness. My father, General Miller, walked in, his voi
/0/31681/coverbig.jpg?v=7ac7d6fdbecd3e34e05d5a6fd6817d07)
Love and *
Damon’s hands were performing their own magic, she could feel his erection probing the center of her already moist vagina and she widened, giving him closer access. Her panties were already soaked with the wetness. His hand began moving, caressing her inner thighs before they came upon her center.
/0/81272/coverbig.jpg?v=4e43590d7395c2a1248a5da1127a337f)
When Death Couldn't End Our Love
My doctor told me I had two months to live, just as my first love, Ethan Reed, resurfaced, engaged to a seemingly perfect woman. Desperate, I blackmailed him with intimate photos and our old demo tape, demanding he spend his last two bachelor months with me. But instead of rekindling a flame, I wa
/0/21871/coverbig.jpg?v=73ddbd01cfb236da99dac93c525514e8)
Beyond Death
Ever Since I was a lil kid I've heard stories about mythical creatures and places I've always wanted to explore, and find out if they're actually true, after I had an argument with my foster parents and I ran away from home I had no idea my whole world was about to change.
