Abby Avery has always been secretly in love with Chase Mathews, her best friend's older brother, but he never cared for her. Chase just saw her as his little sister's nerdy best friend who's always in the background. Despite the years that have passed, Abby's heart still races every time she sees him, but she knows nothing would ever happen between them, or so Abby thought.

I tried touching him, but he stiffened from my touch. I stepped away from him and now my back was facing him. "Why?," I questioned. "I have my reasons," he retorted. "Why won't you let me touch you?," I insisted turning around to face him. "It's just the way things are. You just can't," he stated stubbornly. He stared back at me with those cold, harsh eyes that I couldn't bare any longer. I could feel the tears starting to form and I didn't want to let them fall. I was not going to let him see how weak I was. "Do you even love me?," I countered. "Ashanti, I told you I can't love. I'm incapable of loving you or anyone else," he says staring me in my eyes. "I'm going to get my clothes and go," I said numbly. Before I could move an inch, my back was crushed against the cold, hard surface of a wall. I looked up into Lamonte's eyes as he whispered, "You're mine. You're not leaving you can't leave." "You can't love me. Why would I stay?," I breathed. A love story that is beyond different. What was it about about Lamonte King that keeps her with him? She is breaking him and what will happen when he finally cracks? She will become his ruin. As he will become hers. PLEASE BE ADVISED: Some topics covered in this story may be triggering for many different reasons. This will be the only warning given moving forward. Read at your own risk!

Henley agrees to pretend to date millionaire Bennett Calloway for a fee, falling in love as she wonders - how is he involved in her brother's false conviction? ****** Henley Linden's brother is in jail for a crime he didn't commit, and she'll take any job to raise the money needed to free him. Soon, she's agreed to pretend to date millionaire Bennett Calloway for ten thousand dollars, so his mother will ease up the pressure on him to find a wife. But once Henley is enmeshed in Bennett's world, he falls for her, and she starts to have feelings for him as well. Despite her romance with Bennett, as she grows closer to the Calloways, Henley realizes they are somehow involved in her brother's conviction. Journeying deeper into a world of wealth and conspiracies, Henley is forced to rely on Bennett, though doing so could cost her everything. [[word count: 200,000-250,000 words]]

Geoff and Naomi are dead, and they're depressed, but when Geoff's cat Bernie dies as well, they embark on a wild journey to find it in the underworld. ***** When Geoff dies, alongside his girlfriend Naomi, they end up sharing an apartment in the Underworld as skeletons. But after a few years, Geoff starts suffering a mid-death crisis. What's the purpose of going through the motions as a skeleton if you can't really live? Then he gets word that his cat, Bernie, just died and he can collect him and bring him home! Geoff and Naomi hurry to get Bernie only to discover that, due to a clerical error, their cat has been lost. With the hunt for Bernie giving new purpose to Geoff's un-life, he and Naomi begin a quest to get back their cat. Battling skeleton pirates, climbing the sky ladder and facing off against the villain who took Bernie, Geoff is determined to find his purpose - or die a second time trying! [[2018 Wattys Winner - The Originals]] [[word count: 30,000-40,000 words]]