Skye Templeton is sick of living in a small village in the Scottish Highlands where everyone knows every single little thing about her. She's tired of her dead-end "situationship". She desperately needs to escape . . . So when a chance encounter opens her eyes to the possibility of a different life, she decides it's time to shake things up a bit. Moving to Glasgow on a whim probably isn't her smartest idea, but Skye is determined to make the most of her new life. Unfortunately, life doesn't always work out the way you planned . . . Especially if you didn't really have a plan in the first place! ~~~~~~~~ I initially started this story with the intention of entering it into the Open Novella Contest this year - I've since found out that it wouldn't qualify but I'm still using one of the prompts all the same! The prompt I'm using is: Prompt 45- "Keep your happily ever after; it ain't mine." And, much like Skye, I really don't have a plan for it yet, so let's just see what unfolds! ;-)

"When just being alive makes you a target, you learn to keep your head low." Being a nurse in an ER clinic, Eileen never had much time for romance. Especially, when job and education often came before everything else she's ever known. That is until she met Ursus. Funny and compassionate, he always seems to understand Eileen's feelings more then her own. She knows that she wants to spend the rest of her life with him, but you know what they say about things too good to be true. When a grey eye man that looks too close to Ursus shows up, Eileen learns that her world and the man she loves are way more then what she ever thought possible. With new people and new creatures to meet, Eileen will have to rely on Ursus if she wants to help make his home a better place. But with betrayal and heartache around every corner, Eileen will have to stay aware if both of them are to make it out alive.

When death is everywhere, what will you do to survive? All Hadriana remembers is slavery. Her home burned to the ground, she now works the fields of the estate, keeping a low profile to survive. That is, until she attaches the attention of a famous gladiator. Kind, confident, and wanting her, he whispers promises of a different life, a life free from the Roman's hands. That is until his skeletons, more dangerous and more violent then Rome itself, show their faces wanting revenge. Learning to survive is hard, learning to move on is even harder. However, unless Hadriana wants to find herself buried six feet under, she's needs to learn how to do both before his skeletons drag them both under ground forever. Lovely cover done by @final_girl13

Time heals all wounds. When you have the power to rewind it, you begin to wonder whether it's too much responsibility for one person to hold. ***** Sometimes, walking away is the scariest, yet the bravest thing one can do. Iris Fox would know; after returning to the coastal town of Emelle Bay, Oregon, and finding her life in shambles, it's hard to ignore the voice in the back of her head that beckons her to stay. Days turn into weeks, which turn into months, and Iris finds herself drawn to the heartbreaking reminders of how it all went wrong. Echoes of unfinished business and painful memories wash up, awakening the dormant power to rewind time, and Iris realizes she has a choice to make--she can either use her power to try and fix what has been stolen from her, rewriting her past, present, and future, or she can tuck the past where it belongs. Either way, there's only one conclusion. All actions have consequences. ***** Open Novella Contest -- prompts 24, 33, & 54 [[OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2024 ROUND 1 AMBASSADORS' PICK, LONGLISTER & SHORTLISTER]] © 2024 caterina george // all rights reserved

Attend opera concerts. Run a few errands. Enjoy a luxury apartment, wardrobe, and car, all expenses paid. Sounds like a dream job, right? There's only one catch. After nights of haunting musical messages and retrieving strange, pulsing items for her eccentric employer, Cleo unravels a conspiracy she definitely isn't getting paid enough to be involved in. As time goes on, she glimpses a fantastical realm of individuals that prefer to keep their powers a secret, and will do anything to remain unseen. Once unveiled, there is no going back to blissful ignorance. It all started with a paycheck. But in the end, Cleo may be the one paying - with her life. ~ cover by Laine from @avadel sticker by @SuVida777 *ONC 2024 Honorable Mention and Shortlister *Open Door Awards 2024 New Adult Winner *8CC participant January-February 2024 Completed Word Count: 31,180 Featured: @mystery 100. In a concert hall filled with hundreds of people, only you are hearing different lyrics to what everyone is singing. 27. Sometimes love is what drives you to take your next breath. Other times, it's revenge.

When the towns local Witch goes missing, her two familiars set out to find her. Matias only really likes one person, his witch, Eve. So when she goes missing one day he's determined to find her. Even if that means putting up with the annoying crow of hers. But there's only one problem, Matias has no clue where to start. Logical, the only right thing to do is blame the girl who's always hanging out around their cottage. Selene has been told to be scared of the witch that lives at the edge of town, and she is. Or at least she thinks she is. The witch is the only one who really stirs something in her gut, and it has to be fear, right? When a cat and a crow come to ask her to help them find the witch she's hesitant. How could she possibly be able to find her? But when no one else in town seems to be searching and the cat seems almost desperate she decides to help. How hard can it be to find someone who disappeared without leaving anything behind? *** An ONC 2024 Novella

Two brides. A love to die for. Let corpses litter the cathedral, drained bodies taking the place of roses. For one way or another- Vows will be exchanged. _________ Sapphic vampire-werewolf erotica, loosely based on Bram Stoker's Dracula. This gothic horror is set in an alternate universe in the Regency and Victorian Eras. _________ In 1814, Lady Marienne is left for dead on the streets of London. With her final breath, she makes an oath to the Goddess of Darkness, cursing herself to an eternity as a vampire. Marienne's lover, Lady Elisabeta, believing her to be truly gone, flings herself to her own demise. When Lady Marienne rises from the grave, she finds that the love of her life has ended hers. In her moment of despair, she calls upon the Goddess of Moons to bring back her lost love, inadvertently cursing her to reincarnate as a werewolf. Eighty years later, Marienne tracks down the reincarnated Lady Elisabeta, only to find that she has no memory of her past life and is now engaged to a Mr. Jonathan Harker. Marienne will take back her lost love, even if it means setting the world on fire. Lovers reunite in a dark entwining of souls; a morbid wedding of ghouls and ghosts. _______________ Warning This is an erotic romance and is rated mature (18+) for explicit content (smut, lol), as well as dark themes and potential triggers - blood/gore, and there's some murder (cause it's a vampire book, duh!) Basically, not recommended for younger audiences. _______________ Written for ONC2024 using prompts: "Horror is in the eye of the beholder." "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." "I will become as monstrous as I must"

One is a journalist who writes about movie stars. The other is a movie star who hates journalists. Now their worlds are colliding. Reagan Porter is a small town journalist married, in every sense of the word, to her work. When everything that could go wrong before her Valentine's Day vacation does, she jets off early to the mountains in Asheville, North Carolina for some well-earned peace and quiet. But she'll have to work for it. Violetta "Vi" Dawson is bold, beautiful, and boisterous. At least, that's what the tabloids are calling her. Hoping to get away from the spotlight and her recent break-up with her long time boyfriend, Violetta seeks out The Bearside Hotel which she hopes will allow her some time away to think and reflect. When the two meet after a drunken mishap, Reagan and Violetta immediately butt heads. How else are a journalist and a movie star supposed to get along? On a chance weekend, The Bearside Hotel might just offer each of them a chance at what they've really wanted all along: true love. --- ONC Prompts: 9. After some long months of working harder than ever, you finally get to your well deserved vacation getaway but when you arrive at the hotel, there is this one star that brings all the paparazzi and trouble with them and makes your vacation one to remember. 24. A desperate wish, made from the heart, is always answered. Sooner or later. --- New cover by @-DeeisDead- Copyright © 2024 Han_writer21 All rights reserved. All plot concepts are my own. Characters are of my own imagination. I do not own any real-life locations or inspired locations and they are used for purely fictional purposes. This book should not be copied or reproduced in any way. Exclusive to w a t t p a d.

𝐎𝐍𝐂 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 - When Eventyr spirals into war, three young foxes from its divided kingdoms must discover themselves and their united purpose if they wish to save their home from being destroyed. -❈- A reluctant heir. A living mistake. A misguided ambition. One knows nothing but violence, one knows nothing but deceit, and the last is blissfully ignorant to the war that draws them all together. They all strive to be part of something bigger. And each has their secrets. Colborn is next in line for a role he isn't sure he can take. The burden he bears-and the sacrifice he must make to stoke his father's embers of pride-is all too much to handle. Skadi is scorned and broken. She was never meant to be born, much less, to live. All she wants is to belong, even if it means going against everything she believes in. Trygve just wants to make something of himself, to prove to his family that he isn't just a kit anymore. With passion driven by curiosity and stubborn determination, he's bound to land in the paws of trouble. As pressures rise and the war reaches a breaking point, each fox must face a decision that's bound to weave their threads of fate closer together. Either they accept their role as a force to fuel the conflict-or risk their lives to save another. But there's only one key to stopping the war. They must find the truth before Eventyr is destroyed. -❈- Entry for the Open Novella Contest 2024 Based on prompt 20: Three strangers, two secrets, one key. Final Word-count: ~38,000 Cover by: @avadel

After one of the most awful days in her life, Eva Romney goes for a relaxing run on the trail behind her house. Cursing her failing life and her toxic boss, she fails to notice the clouds gathering above her. That is until she gets struck by lightning. Overcome by her luck to still be alive after the shock, she leaves her toxic thoughts behind, finishes her run, and then returns home, as always. The next morning, she is the calmest she's ever been. Surviving has turned her recent sulkiness into the purest happiness, and everything seems to be going right for once in her life. At least until she finds the windshield of her car covered in blood. Struggling to remember whether she had anything to do with it, she starts down a path in which reality is twisted. Soon after, people begin to disappear, and everyone claims she is to blame. As Eva struggles to find the truth, all clues lead to one conclusion. Everyone could be right. She might be the guilty party. 💀💀💀 Nope, this is definitely not me jumping on the ONC hype train. Come to the OMC side. We have mangoes. No, that is not a typo #ifyouknowyouknow