New Year Surprises
/1/129726/coverbig.jpg?v=d952b45e9b05aae9f5803a8b2c8d4fc6)
The Hockey Prince's Secret Ice Queen
All I wanted was to find a computer genius to process the non-linear dynamic equations for my ecological model. Instead, I found myself cornered by Julian Andrews, the university's hockey prince, trading a public, staged kiss for his academic support. To finalize our "deal," I was dragged to the campus ice rink. The cheerleaders and puck bunnies immediately swarmed him, mocking my plain clothes and treating me like a pathetic joke. Brooke, the head cheerleader, even set up a figure skating competition with a date with Julian as the grand prize. She performed a basic spin, blew him a kiss, and smugly waited for me to fall flat on my face and humiliate myself. His hockey teammates laughed from the sidelines, watching me try to support Julian as he stumbled around the ice like a newborn giraffe. But as I held his warm hand to keep him from falling, I couldn't help but feel something was terribly wrong. Why was a top-tier athlete faking such awful balance? And why did his ice-blue eyes stare at me with such knowing anticipation, as if he already knew about the professional figure skating past I had spent years trying to bury? "Just let go and skate." He whispered, slowly releasing my hand. I took a deep breath, glided to the center of the rink, and landed a flawless double Axel. As the entire rink fell into a dead, shocked silence, I realized I had just exposed not only my own hidden past, but also the biggest secret of the campus god.
Chapter 1 No.1
Sage POV:
"Let me kiss you."
The request was a low, hurried murmur—warm, quiet, and laced with the faintest edge of mortification.
Stunned, I snapped my head up toward the sound.
Julian Andrews filled my vision. He easily towered a head over me, his lean, athletic frame silhouetted against the bright morning glare, casting a long shadow across the cobblestones. Briar University's star forward. Team captain. The athletic department's untouchable golden boy.
Campus rumor had it that Julian was notoriously indifferent, never sparing anyone a second glance.
Behind him, a solid wall of navy-and-gold varsity jackets blocked the brick path. His teammates were whistling, shoving each other, and effectively cutting off my only exit.
The sudden commotion immediately bottlenecked the morning foot traffic. Whispers rippled through the crowd, and within seconds, a dozen students reached into their pockets out of sheer muscle memory, black camera lenses catching the light as they aimed squarely at us.
Julian's sharp eyes tracked the movement, his jaw tightening into a hard, irritated line.
Before I could take a single defensive step back, he closed the distance between us. Leaning down into my space, his broad shoulders shifted in a subtle, fluid maneuver—throwing up an impenetrable physical wall that completely shielded my face from the intrusive glare of the cameras.
His sharp, striking face hovered breathtakingly close. His deep baritone brushed against my ear, lost to the autumn wind, meant for me alone:
"Sorry to drop this on you," he whispered, his pale blue eyes disarmingly earnest, holding a quiet heat that sent a tremor straight down my spine. "The guys backed me into a locker-room dare... but I'm not here to use you as a joke. We can fake it. Angle it so it looks real—whatever you're comfortable with. Just help me get them off my back, and I owe you one."
It was only then that my brain finally rebooted.
What on earth? He's actually trying to kiss me?
A sharp flare of pure absurdity hit me, and my gaze dropped to my reflection in the dark glass door of the adjacent building: an oversized, faded gray hoodie that swallowed my frame whole, soft, thin jeans worn at the knees, bare-faced dark circles carved beneath my eyes from forty-eight hours of non-stop coding, my dark hair hastily twisted into a cheap plastic claw clip, and a pair of oversized, thick black-rimmed glasses sitting heavy on the bridge of my nose, completely hiding my face.
I looked like a refugee from an all-night disaster. How had Briar's golden prince ended up in front of me?
When I looked back up, my breath trapped in my throat anyway. He was too close, his clean scent of winter mint and cedar wrapping around my senses. Having those pale blue eyes staring straight down at me made my chest tighten in a way I really didn't want to acknowledge.
"Clock's ticking, Cap!" Landon howled from the sidelines, hands cupped around his mouth as the rest of the players lost their minds laughing. "Plant one on her, or enjoy the five-AM bag skate!"
A raucous chorus of barks and chest-thumping went up from the team.
A few yards away, two girls heading toward the dining hall froze in their tracks, pointing their phones.
"Wait, who the hell is that?" one of them laughed loudly, zooming her camera in on my face. "She looks like she just crawled out of a dumpster. There's no way Julian's actually kissing her. Post it on Sidechat right now—this is going straight to number one."
The cruel words hit like a splash of ice water, snapping me out of my daze and instantly killing the stupid flutter in my chest.
I hated the attention.
Four years ago, after my family and my former training partner framed me and destroyed my competitive skating career, I swore I would never be public entertainment again. I buried my name, switched majors, and hid behind oversized fleece and thick glasses just to live an invisible life. If I ended up on the campus forums with Julian Andrews, the internet vultures would dox me before noon—and drag up the toxic scandal I had bled to walk away from.
My research was already on the verge of falling apart. I didn't have time for this circus.
I locked my grip around my heavy binders, my knuckles straining white.
"Find someone else for your dare, Andrews," I said coldly, taking a step back to put distance between us, my voice tight with adrenaline. "I'm not interested in being part of your game. Move."
I kept my head down, attempting to brush past him.
"You're Sage Kelley, right?"
The sound of my name brought my boots to an immediate halt.
I blinked up at him, caught completely off guard.
"Professor Beaumont's senior research student," Julian straightened up slightly, his cadence measured and even, carrying an intellectual sharpness that seemed impossible beneath a varsity jacket. "I saw your Havenwood Creek senior capstone proposal sitting on his desk over Sunday dinner."
My heart gave a hard, hollow thud. Professor Beaumont was my academic advisor—and the guardian of the final research endowment my late father had left behind.
Julian leaned in slightly, his voice dropping to a near-whisper against the whistle of the wind. "I spent an hour going over your codebase."
My lips parted. "You... read my proposal?"
"Your simulation keeps crashing because your core fluid algorithm strategy is flawed," Julian murmured, his pale blue eyes deadly sharp. "And Uncle Des mentioned that if you don't deliver a working version by this Friday, the department is pulling your grant—which means you don't clear your senior thesis, and you don't graduate in May."
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
Friday was the deadline. If the funding was pulled, the project died, my senior capstone failed, and I would be forced to stay another semester without my degree. Worse, my father's final ecological legacy would be reduced to scrap paper.
I had been panicking over that exact deadline for two days straight, and Julian had just laid it out like it was nothing.
Worse, I couldn't even brush him off. I had heard the rumors about Beaumont's nephew—the CS prodigy everyone in the department talked about. I just had never realized it was him.
"I know how to fix your algorithm," Julian stated plainly, laying his cards on the table, his gaze locking onto mine with an unshakeable, quiet certainty. "Help me get through this bet. In return, I'll rewrite your boundary calculations tonight. Deal?"
/0/46603/coverbig.jpg?v=108daecd2cce10755005779c05d3ce9e)
Her New Year Mate
Beta Aaron Keizer brings Diwa back to the Packhouse after being away for more than ten years. However, as soon as she arrives, a dangerous presence from her past begins stalking her and her newly found mate. Even worse, Di’s elder brother, who happens to be the Gamma of the pack, openly shows his di
/0/16997/coverbig.jpg?v=7ab215f5ef729807247e78120e2a7bd9)
/0/23967/coverbig.jpg?v=d54bd0f1583e7f955b17ac079632b848)
Senior year
Elizabeth,a senior year of Westfield highschool,meets with the high-schools Playboy and quarterback Jake. Their love story behind with hatred for each other.
/0/21670/coverbig.jpg?v=3e48279a4756ce028abcc348cfc9b3cf)
New Life: New Beginnings
For the last two years, Kane has been dreaming of the day when his mate finally turns 18 and they can finally claim each other. However, his world suddenly comes crashing down and his dream is instantly destroyed when the alpha announces that his son (Kane's mate) has found his mate, who is the dau
/0/22077/coverbig.jpg?v=bdaaca5655782f9360adaa43f37bf1e9)
New Home, New Town, New Life
I'm Penelope Windford. My partners name is Snowflake. I'm just your average girl who lost her mother and was forced to live with her father who was never there. I'm about to find out a lot secrets. Come join me in my new life with my father.
/1/133381/coverbig.jpg?v=83a066d8ffafc774976750a4cf7e62cc)
THE FIFTY YEAR BARGAIN
THE FIFTY-YEAR BARGAIN They rejected him when he was poor. Now, they'll beg him when the world ends. Michael Blackwood knows what it feels like to be worthless in the eyes of the people he loves. His family treats him like a failure. His friends abandon him. And the woman he loves, Vanessa, betra
/0/80850/coverbig.jpg?v=d4ae71a59bf37866e838c7f4b9e91beb)
The Eighteen-Year Lie
For eighteen years, I’ve been told a lie. My husband, Mark, my doctors, even my own parents, convinced me I suffered from a delusional disorder, that my deep ache for a daughter named Emily was just a symptom. They said I only had one child, my sweet son Ethan. Yet, I always felt a part of me was mi
/0/8756/coverbig.jpg?v=2ace152587c58e82b0110f2e2e7dbae1)
The Chimes / A Goblin Story of Some Bells That Rang an Old Year out and a New Year In
In the 1840s Charles Dickens wrote 5 short stories with strong social and moral messages. The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rand an Old Year Out and a New Year In, is the second of these stories, whose predecessor was the famous A Christmas Carol. The Chimes focuses on Trotty, a poor eld
/0/38249/coverbig.jpg?v=e0b4bccdea15bb25db65b6d3342ad91c)
A Seven-year Vacancy
Sophia Miller and Jim Brown were a loving couple that everyone envies in their high school. At that time, though they had different family backgrounds. They loved each other deeply. They had made a promise to enter the same university and get married after graduation. But things changed so fast. The
/0/74398/coverbig.jpg?v=37f378f8939cec3221737a37b13c906a)
His for a year
She signed a contract. She didn't expect to sign away her heart. Zoe Monroe never wanted to set foot in Jameson Montague's world. A world of ruthless billionaires, backstabbing boardrooms, and cold, calculated marriages. But when life leaves her with no other choice, she agrees to a contract that w
/0/24412/coverbig.jpg?v=9aae71d1b2a3b6ecd9d4511c003ed88d)
It Happened Last Year
After a terrible encounter at a party, one year later, Hailey Fonte is ready to return to her hometown. With everyone against her because of last year's events and horrible rumors, Hailey must overcome many hurdles, which includes coming face to face with her past tormentors more often than she woul
/0/16923/coverbig.jpg?v=0055a4b8cb13108a78b2eee5e3fb879e)
/1/104396/coverbig.jpg?v=804ff1dc2e692426404a54c8b4bd030a)
The Surgeon's Five-Year Lie
For five years, my celebrated surgeon husband was my hero, my devoted caregiver through a brutal battle with cancer. I thought our love was a blessing. Then a different hospital revealed the truth: I was perfectly healthy. I overheard him confess to his assistant, Brianna. My illness, the dozens of
/0/51428/coverbig.jpg?v=beb1d5cc56b3616b07b3110d6fe3b621)
A YEAR WITH A BILLIONAIRE
Isabella needs a huge sum of money for her aged grandmother's surgery. She has nowhere to go for help and she decides to seek help from her Billionaire boss, Jayden. Jayden doesn't believe in marriages and happily ever after but he needs a wife so his mother would stop pestering him when he eventua
/0/82292/coverbig.jpg?v=39321df8d588682840e28bfc8c7004c4)
The Five-Year Contract's End
My five-year contract marriage to Ethan Cole was finally over. Five years of polite estrangement, a polished cage built on a merger of empires. I had signed the divorce papers, ready to escape to Austin, chasing a desperate echo of what I'd lost. My fiancé, Michael, had died five years ago, and n
/0/1105/coverbig.jpg?v=20171122142217)
New Poems
I ASK good things that I detest, With speeches fair; Heed not, I pray Thee, Lord, my breast, But hear my prayer.
/1/111747/coverbig.jpg?v=2c796330ac4be8858e77383f95fbfec2)
One Year with the Billionaire.
Pastry chef Olivia Chen is drowning in debt when billionaire Ashton Blackwell makes her an offer: marry him for one year to secure his inheritance, and he'll pay off everything plus give her a million dollars. No love, just business. But fake vows become real feelings, and when Ashton's vengeful ex
/0/32792/coverbig.jpg?v=a246daae402dc1c40e9fd4aa40609d70)
A YEAR WITH THE BILLIONAIRE
Isabella needs a huge sum of money for her aged grandmother's surgery. She has nowhere to go for help and she decides to seek help from her Billionaire boss, Jayden. Jayden doesn't believe in marriages and happily ever after but he needs a wife so his mother would stop pestering him when he eventua
/0/2038/coverbig.jpg?v=ffc8987b5c5f49ee9c665e749648ce9f)
In the Year of Jubilee
George Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. Gissing also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life. He published his first novel, Workers in the Dawn, in 1880. His best known novels, which are published in modern editions, include The Nether W
/0/61260/coverbig.jpg?v=bbda688df81d36f2cf9f0a36c891e91b)
ONE YEAR LEFT TO LIVE
When 18-year-old Cecilia receives a devastating diagnosis, she's forced to confront her own mortality. But she refuses to let it define her. With a newfound sense of purpose, she sets out to live life on her own terms and create a bucket list of unforgettable experiences. Enter Jackson, a charming
