When The Moon Chose Me
One night.
One howl.
One kiss that changed everything.
Seventeen-year-old Ethan Cross wakes up with blood on his hands and a wolf in his soul. Marked by an ancient pack and hunted by shadowy enemies, he's thrust into a war he doesn't understand-where every full moon threatens to steal his humanity.
Maya Reed is the only person who can calm the beast inside him.
She's also hiding the truth about who she really is.
As danger closes in and the moon tightens its grip, Ethan must choose between running from the monster he's becoming-or embracing it to protect the girl who makes his heart remember how to be human.
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Chapter 4
The howl lingered in the air long after it faded, like a bruise you couldn't stop touching.
I was still gripping my arm, my pulse roaring in my ears. Whatever mark the Black Hollow Pack had left burned beneath my skin-alive, aware. It felt like something had reached inside me and wrapped its fingers around my bones.
My uncle finally let go.
"Pack your things," he said to me. "We're leaving. Now."
"Leaving where?" I asked.
"Somewhere they can't track easily."
Maya laughed softly, but there was no humor in it. "You really think it's that simple?"
My uncle's jaw tightened. "It has to be."
He moved toward the door, already making plans in his head. That left Maya and me standing alone in the small room, the air between us charged and dangerously thin.
She was shaking.
I noticed because I could *feel* it-every tremor, every uneven breath. Her heartbeat was loud to me now, impossible to ignore. Fast. Too fast.
"Maya," I said quietly. "You're scared."
Her eyes snapped up to mine. "Of course I am."
"That's not what I meant."
She swallowed. I smelled salt-fear and something sweeter beneath it. Want. The realization hit me like a punch.
"I can hear your heart," I admitted. "I don't think I'm supposed to be able to do that."
For a split second, something dark and knowing flickered across her face.
"That's because you're changing," she said. "And because you're standing too close."
I took a step back immediately, pressing myself against the wall. The growl that rose in my chest shocked us both.
Maya's breath hitched.
"Don't," she whispered. "Don't shut me out."
"I could hurt you," I said. "You saw what I did."
"You didn't hurt *me*," she replied, stepping closer despite my warning. "And that matters."
She reached for my arm-the one that still burned-and I flinched. Her fingers brushed my skin anyway, light and careful, like she was touching something fragile instead of dangerous.
The pain eased instantly.
I stared at her. "What did you just do?"
"I..." She hesitated. "I don't know. It just felt like you needed someone to hold you there. To keep you grounded."
Her hand was still on my arm. My entire body leaned toward her without my permission. The world narrowed until there was only her warmth, her scent, her pulse.
This was bad. So bad.
"Maya," I said hoarsely. "If I lose control-"
"You won't," she said firmly. "Not with me."
The certainty in her voice terrified me more than doubt ever could.
Before I could respond, the windows rattled violently.
We both jumped as a heavy thud shook the house, followed by another howl-closer this time. Too close.
My uncle burst back into the room. "They've found us."
"How?" I demanded.
His eyes flicked to Maya, then away. "The mark makes him a beacon. And fear doesn't help."
Maya's hand dropped from my arm, guilt flashing across her face.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
I didn't understand then-but I would.
"Ethan," my uncle said sharply. "Listen to me. You cannot transform here. Not with humans nearby."
As if summoned by his words, another wave of pain surged through me. My vision blurred, gold bleeding into the edges. My teeth ached. My spine tightened.
Maya grabbed my face, forcing me to look at her.
"Stay with me," she said urgently. "Look at me. Breathe when I breathe."
Her forehead pressed against mine again. I felt her breath, counted it, clung to it like a lifeline.
In.
Out.
In.
My pulse slowed. The growl faded.
Outside, something slammed against the house.
The front door shattered.
My uncle swore. "They're inside."
"Take him," Maya said suddenly. "I'll distract them."
"No," I snapped. "You're not staying here."
Her eyes softened in a way that hurt. "This is what I was trained for."
"Trained for *what*?" I demanded.
She didn't answer.
Instead, she leaned up and kissed me.
It wasn't gentle. It wasn't careful. It was desperate and electric, like she was trying to pour courage into me through her lips. My entire body lit up, power roaring awake-and for one terrifying second, the wolf surged forward, claiming her as *mine*.
She pulled back just in time.
"Remember this," she whispered. "Remember that you're loved. That's how you fight it."
Then she turned and ran toward the noise.
"Maya!" I shouted, lunging after her-but my uncle caught me.
"Not yet," he said fiercely. "If you go now, you'll kill everyone in this house."
I watched helplessly as shadows moved down the hall, as voices shouted, as Maya disappeared into the chaos.
My hands curled into fists, claws threatening to break free.
I swore then-under my breath, under my skin, under the mark burning into my soul-
No pack.
No hunter.
No moon.
Was going to take her from me.
And somewhere in the house, something screamed.
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8.0
"IS IT TRUE?" Grayson's voice thundered through the room.
"Yes!" Tessa said softly. "Yes it is!"
"So you've been cheating on me, haven't you?" He spat.
Her hands trembled. "No, I swear, it's not like that."
He grabbed her arm, his grip bruising her wrist as she squealed in pain.
"Then whose baby are you carrying, huh?" His voice was ice cold.
Tessa shivered, tears blurring her vision.
"I don't know."
**********
Pregnant with the powerful Roman Blackwood's child, while engaged to his unstable stepbrother - Tessa Quinn becomes the key to a ruthless inheritance war where love has no place.
As secrets unravel and danger closes in, Tessa must protect her unborn child while trapped between love, vengeance, and men who want to own her fate.
7.2
Elara Vex had everything-a flawless ice core, the title of prodigy, and a place at the pinnacle of the High Tower. But in one brutal night, it was all ripped away. Her mentor tore the core from her chest. Her fiancé drove a sword through her back. Her own sister smiled as she bled out on the cold marble floor.
When Elara wakes, she's years in the past, mere hours before her core is scheduled to be stolen. This time, she won't be anyone's sacrificial lamb. She shatters her own core with forbidden blood magic and forges something far more terrifying in its place-a bottomless, ravenous Chaos Core that devours magic itself.
Now, branded a worthless cripple and cast into the deadly Abyss, Elara is pulled from the darkness by the outcasts of Elysium Academy-a school for heretics, psychopaths, and everything the Tower despises. Under the tutelage of a reclusive principal who knew her murdered mother, Elara will master her forbidden power and uncover the Tower's darkest secrets.
When the Five Academies Ranking Tournament arrives, Seraphina Vex stands in the arena, draped in white saintess robes, ready to claim ultimate glory. She doesn't know that a ghost from her past has clawed her way back from hell. She doesn't know that Elara is coming-and this time, the prodigal sister isn't asking for mercy. She's bringing chaos.
9.8
After three agonizing months, I finally found my fiancé, Barnett Spencer, at a gala at The Plaza. He had vanished without a trace, and I was on the verge of losing my mind.
But when I saw him on stage, my blood turned to ice. He had a strange woman tucked into his arm, and a lawyer announced that a recent accident had erased the last six years of his memory-our entire relationship.
In front of a sea of reporters, Barnett looked right through me with freezing hostility.
"Miss, you have the wrong person."
He then declared that the woman beside him, Joslyn, was not only the person who saved his life but also his new, legal wife. The news hit me like a physical blow, and the camera flashes swallowed me whole as reporters shoved microphones in my face, asking how it felt to be publicly dumped.
The man I had loved for six years had turned me into a national joke, a delusional stranger trying to cling to his wealth.
That night, as I was drowning my humiliation in a martini, his ruthless younger brother, Dixon, found me. He slid a marriage contract across the bar.
"Marry me," he said, his voice a low rumble. "I want his shares. You want his pain. We both get what we want."
Fueled by alcohol and a burning need for revenge, I grabbed his pen and signed my name. I was no longer the abandoned fiancée. I was about to become my ex's worst nightmare: his new sister-in-law.
8.5
They say the devil is the most dangerous evil alive.
Until he met her.
She didn't run from his darkness.
She walked straight into it - and made it hers.
He's ruthless, feared by all, a man who destroys without remorse.
She's cunning, seductive, and far more dangerous than she appears.
Their deal was supposed to be simple.
Power for loyalty.
Protection for obedience.
But desire was never part of the agreement.
Every glance burns.
Every touch feels like a sin.
Every kiss tastes like betrayal.
They hate each other.
They crave each other.
And neither knows who will ruin who first.
Because when two monsters fall in love,
it isn't sweet - it's war.
And in the end,
the devil may lose his throne...
to the woman who stole his heart and his soul.
8.0
My husband, Aiden, brought his mistress to a gala. She was carrying my clutch bag, a gift from him. He was laughing, daring me to make a scene.
But the ultimate cruelty wasn't the affair. It was when he brought up my kidnapping from ten years ago, using my deepest trauma as a weapon to publicly shame me.
His mistress, Ember, piled on, her voice dripping with false pity.
"Oh, Julia, I just can't imagine what you went through. Aiden told me everything. How you were… so damaged."
I suddenly realized who she was: the daughter of the man who had orchestrated my kidnapping. This wasn't just an affair; it was a long-con revenge plot to destroy the company I had sacrificed everything to save.
Aiden, the man who once swore to protect me, was her willing pawn. His cruelty had already cost me our unborn child years ago.
In that moment, the last bit of love I had for him turned to ice. He thought he was breaking me.
He had no idea he was just handing me the keys to his destruction.
7.4
I was only fifteen when my venomous family orchestrated my doom by forcing me into an arranged marriage with mafia heir Javier Velasquez.
On our wedding night, Javier paraded strippers into our suite to show his absolute contempt, turning me into the ultimate joke of the underworld overnight.
But being a joke was a luxury compared to what came next.
Three years later, Javier needed to be a widower to marry into a heavily armed family and secure their backing for a coup.
He didn't grant me the mercy of a bullet.
Instead, he dragged me to an abandoned underground safehouse, locked me in the damp, rotting dark, and told the world I had been assassinated.
For six months, I starved in that dungeon, surviving only on the desperate hope that my family was safe.
Then, on the day of his lavish new wedding, a cruel maid kicked a plate of spoiled food onto my floor and delivered the final, fatal blow.
"Annabel is dead. Pined away and died of a broken heart two weeks ago."
My gentle mother was dead, all because she actually believed his lie about my tragic murder.
Driven by pure agony and an all-consuming hatred, I shattered crates of smuggled chemical solvents and struck a match, letting the roaring inferno turn their bloody wedding into my funeral pyre.
I thought the fire was the end.
But when I opened my eyes, the suffocating smoke vanished, replaced by the biting chill of a Long Island winter.
I was standing in the snow, back on the exact day my descent into hell began.
This time, the terrified girl was dead, and I would use their own ruthless rules to tear their empire apart.