in the garden of beasts

**This is the sequel to University of Love. It can be read as a stand alone book. ** Ember has grown up believing she had no wolf, magic or dragon. Her twin, Ash, on the other hand has had it all. Deciding it best to transfer to a human high school, she ends up meeting her mate, a hybrid just like her. Her mate brings out her dormant wolf, causing Ember's life to unravel. She thought she would be happier once she got her wolf, instead her life has only gotten more complicated. Having been decieved before, Ember has a hard time accepting the mate bond. Can she overcome her past to find happiness with her mate? What happens when a siren comes into play? Can she stay the course and accept her mate? *********************** I went to grab the microscope from the center of the table at the same time Toni did. Our hands touched and my head started to ring loudly... a terrible headache brewed. Where his hand touched mine felt like fireworks had gone off. My hairs stood on my arms, goosebumps ran through me.  I grabbed my head from all the ringing. It was so loud and strong. I squeezed at my temples, wincing at the pain.  "Mate." Toni's wolf said so silently, I almost didn't hear it.  I started getting dizzy, my head was spinning, and my vision was tunneling. Can I have a mate? I don't even have a wolf. Shouldn't he be with someone with someone that does?  "Ember?" His voice rang in my ear, but it was too late. I was falling out of my chair, passing out. I felt him catch me before I hit the floor, his touch sent fireworks through me, before the darkness took me.

Since the day he came to the Vonne mansion, Resh had only been mocked and scorned by the family of the grand patriarch who had adopted him. He grew up to be a trustworthy, diligent and brilliant young man, in-charge of the family stables. The grand patriarch, knowing how deceptive and ill-mannered his second wife and her family is, decides to let Resh marry his granddaughter,Patrice, the only child of his son from his deceased first wife. A portion of the old man’s fortune were given to them as well as a few shares in his company just before he died. It angered the second wife and her family and they tried to make every day miserable for the young couple. And that's how the story was going until reality sets in. Payback time came, and The Wheel of Fortune is now changed in favor of the good for nothing son-in-law who was writing the Story of his Life.

She is a to die for beauty, twenty-seven years without a husband or boyfriend, her first love who she never got to make hers is the only man she has ever learned to love and was it. People have been calling her a spinster unknowingly o her. And the first day someone calls it to her face, it was him, the most wanted bachelor in the country. But no one knows him, he is a mysterious man known worldwide but no one knows his real identity. Her rock-hard heart skips when she hears his voice for the first time, “You are mine for tonight, spinster Kira” “Then you will be my boyfriend, I am no spinster.”

My father's adopted daughter was only locked in the cramped storage closet for around fifteen minutes, yet he punished me by tying me up and throwing me inside. He even sealed off the ventilation with towels. "As Wendy's older sister, if you can't take care of her, then you should also experience how scared she was," he declared coldly. He knew I was claustrophobic, but my desperate pleas for mercy, my terror, were met with nothing but heartless reprimands. "Let this be a lesson on how to be a good sister." As the last sliver of light disappeared, swallowed by the oppressive darkness, I struggled helplessly. A week passed before my father finally remembered my existence and decided it was time to end my punishment. "Let's hope this week served as a good lesson for you, Jennifer. If this happens again, you will no longer be allowed in this house." He would never know that I had already taken my last breath in that suffocating room. My body had begun to rot in the darkness.

My brother, Theo Sorento, died in a plane crash on his way back home just to celebrate my birthday. They never found his body—only wreckage. Ever since, my parents forced me to kneel in front of his grave every year on my birthday, demanding that I repent for surviving when he didn’t. Then came my eighteenth birthday. I realized someone was following me. Panicked, I sent a few messages asking for help. Just then, Mom called, not to check on me but to lash out. “I know exactly what you're doing. You’re just making up excuses so you don’t have to kneel in front of your brother’s grave! You’re a liar. Why wasn’t it you who died instead of him? You’re a walking curse!” Before my phone was smashed under a boot, the last thing I heard was the cold click of her hanging up. Then, I was cut up into pieces, and what was left of me was tossed across the city. My father, the lead forensic pathologist on my case, didn’t even recognize me. Later, Theo returned alive with his wife, whom he had eloped with eight years ago. When they found out the pile of rotting flesh was me, they all went insane.

"I was naive and grateful. Happy that I had a place I could call home, but I was wrong. He was surrounded by evil and too blind to see it. I had to pay the ultimate price for his blindness..." Willow.*************** Willow Brooks learned a hard lesson that she wasn't meant to recover from. Framed for murder and executed for it. She was given a second chance to rectify her mistakes, save lives and change the outcome of events. The catch was she had only one year to fail or succeed; if she failed, both she and her wolf would be damned forever, never to be reborn. The other problem that loomed in her mind was if she succeeds, will she live beyond the year?

“I am a wolf in heat. It means, I want to take a woman sexually right now. Any woman at all. I can do just the same that creepy omega could do to you. Are you still not afraid of me?” He asked and she chuckled. “I don't mind.” He lifted her in his arms bridal style, and took her to the bed. He laid her on the bed and kissed her again. Evelyn reached for his pants and unbuttoned them. ******* Dated a man who didn't know the line between family and sexual relationships Evelyn's boyfriend, Alex had sex with her stepmother after her father fell into a coma. She was drugged by her stepmother to cover up for what she had done, thus Evelyn ended up in the bed of a stranger who happens to be Alpha Kian, the most powerful Alpha in the world and the elder brother to Alex. An unplanned Sex with Kian, a powerful Alpha who kept his identity away from Evelyn opens a door to joining them together, but Kian married her for just one reason, revengee. When lies are uncovered, darkness lurks, and secrets are spits, will she push him away and seek a better life outside the pack? Or will their blossoming love continue while she stays in the Arms of her Alpha?

Upon waking up in the bed of her sister's husband, Christie gazed at the bruises and the hickeys on her body before eyeing the handsome man responsible for them, "Did you bring me here to violate me, bastard?" "Why would I do that?" questioned the man, grabbing my jaw. "Don't you remember that you texted me to meet you here?" "What? I could never do that to my sister! I must be drunk!" lamented Christie with wet eyes. "But, why did you take my virginity last night? "What else? I did it for revenge. Wouldn't it be interesting to bear the child of your ex-boyfriend, whom you cheated on?" whispered the shameless man into my ear, while simultaneously threatening me with severe consequences upon considering abortion. "No! You're my brother-in-law!"

Lily Montgomery had always believed her life was marked by goodbyes. Her father, a mystery buried beneath lies. Her ex-fiancé, Matteo, who disappeared without explanation, shattering her heart and dreams. And now, her mother, taken by a cruel illness, leaving her completely alone. Returning to New York for the funeral, Lily—a failed writer struggling to rebuild her career—only hoped to close this painful chapter. But fate had other plans. Her father wasn’t dead as she had always believed—he was Luigi Romano, one of the most powerful mafia leaders in the city. And Matteo? The man who walked away without a trace belonged to that dark world… and now he was her future husband. Forced into marriage for her own safety, Lily finds herself trapped between betrayals, secrets, and a love that never truly died. As she fights to escape the mafia’s grasp and uncover the truth about her origins, a new dilemma arises: Did Matteo really betray her, or did he leave to protect her? And worse… will he do whatever it takes to win her back? In a game between past and present, between duty and desire, Lily must decide if she can still trust the man she once loved… or if he is just another lie in her life.

The Hidden Piece is a creative fictional story about the life of a young girl with a promising future. Faced with many life challenges that she didn't handle well, she had regrets and wished she behaved differently. Each phase of her life contended to activate her inward strength when confronted with these challenges, but she easily gave up which almost affected her dreams and aspirations. The only required tool to push through her difficult moments was using the power of her mind, which was also the strong force opposing her progress. This story is highly recommended for young adults searching for headway through life storms.