As a spare heir and hero of the last war, Wystan would like nothing more than to enjoy retirement while teaching recruits and drinking up his inheritance. After stepping on the wrong toes, he is reinstated early and finds himself on a quest to slay a dragon in the Southern Lands of the Empire. Unwanted and feared, the merry band of the Empire's mercenaries joins him on the journey, for they have been ordered to die with him in not so many words. While the rumors consist of a tale of a feral, man-eating dragon, a captured princess, and a dreary, impenetrable fortress of a tower where both dwell, Wystan learns that stories are just that: stories. The tower is not impenetrable nor dreary. On the contrary, it's quite homey with warm rugs, shiny chandeliers, and the fire roaring in every heart. The dragon ignores humans like a person would an ant. And the princess... Is in fact a prince. The runaway prince of the Zmaya Kingdom enjoys making Wystan's days harder. Smooth-tongued and shrewd, Alexei offers their party a place to stay after hearing about their grim fate. Uncovered coincidences and secrets imply a connection between him and the dragon. If Wystan returns home empty-handed, the Emperor would hang him. But it's not just his life at stake, the mercenaries become comrades in arms. Wystan is forced to entertain Alexei's whims while unraveling the truth behind the man's meddling, the dragon's presence, and the Empire's betrayal.

𝗔𝗠𝗕𝗬𝗦 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗪𝗜𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗥 · 12x FEATURED · A gothpunk sci-fi horror short story with Tokyo Ghoul vibes | In a degenerate future, the city of Nodrog resides in an O'Neill cylinder around a red dwarf star. Mired in vice, this gritty place is inhabited by the vomons--what humans call zombies. In the tallest tower at the heart of Nodrog, Madame Blair awaits the return of her cargo ship, Black Bull. To her daughter, Manda, it's just another day in the city--or that's what she lets on. A block away, in a tottering Pen, a young human female called Frizz makes a daring escape plan to board a ship and journey to the wilds of Earth. This isn't a tale of the apocalypse or zombies-among-us. Vomons are the "people"--they are the status quo. © 2021 Su Vida | Exclusively on Wattpad *** FEATURED: @BeyondSol @Fright @ScienceFiction @YA @Action + 7 more WC: 6,400 Trigger Warnings: Rated M for a pinch of gore and thematic material (because zombies, though these aren't your traditional mindless corpse kind). Recommended age: 16+

Catalaina Kittridge vanishes without a trace from her home in the dead of night, leaving behind a flurry of unanswered questions and shattered illusions. Her fiancé Ben, desperate and convinced of foul play, struggles to make sense of her disappearance as their wedding looms just months away. Catalaina's parents admit to long-held fears, while her friends whisper that her relationship with Ben may not have been as perfect as it seemed. Detective Brett Porter is assigned to the case, determined to unearth the truth behind Catalaina's disappearance. As he meticulously reconstructs her life, he discovers a web of secrets and hidden struggles---the pristine image of Catalaina's existence begins to unravel with every clue. The months leading up to her vanishing hold critical revelations, exposing the pressures, desires, and disappointments she kept hidden from everyone around her. Told in gripping, alternating voices of both Detective Porter and Catalaina herself, LOVES ME NOT dives into the unseen complexities of a woman's world, exploring how the weight of everyday expectations and forgotten dreams can drive even the happiest lives to break.

❛ he had loved her for years, centuries, eons even. he had loved her from the very first touch, from the very first word upon her sweet lips. ❜ all grayson had ever wanted was his chryssie.

Paris Wills is a dreamer. His father always said he got it from his mom, an artist who was unlike any other. Her virtue was painting, and Paris' is poetry. No matter where he is, Paris finds inspiration for his poems. In the summer after his sophomore year of high school, Paris finds his biggest inspiration yet, one to overshadow his mom's untimely death. Paris has met Grayson Pierce, the new boy next door, who is not only friendly but also incredibly cute. With his blond waves and charismatic smile, Grayson has found a new place in Paris' heart. Still, Paris cannot help but wonder if his budding love for Grayson is merely one-sided. For now, Grayson's only friend is Paris. Yet, when school starts again after the summer, will he stick around? In order to ensure that Grayson stays, Paris must make one of the most difficult choices of his life. Should he play it safe and ignore his romantic feelings or take a chance and let himself bathe in color? 💕 Featured on @BACommunity "LGBTQ+" reading list. 💕 Featured on @BullyingPrevention "LGBTQIAP+ Pride" reading list. 💕 Featured on @ComeAndSitWithUs "#LGBTQIAP+ - I am who I am" reading list. 💕 Featured on @cupid "Love Conquers All" reading list. 💕 Featured on @CupidsBookClub "Eros" reading list. 💕 Featured on @CupidsBookClub "Cupid's Arrow (Summer 2020 Edition)". 💕 Featured on @FreeTheLGBT "Coming of Age" reading list. 💕 Featured on @Romance "Young Love" reading list. 💕 Featured on @YA "Love, Actually" reading list. 💕 #1 in poem (out of 151K stories). 💕 #1 in gaycharacters (out of 229 stories). 💕 #3 in teenager (out of 33.1K stories). 💕 #3 in cupid (out of 3.2K stories). ⚠️ Trigger Warning ⚠️ This story depicts loss, grief, drug addiction, depression, and suicide. Read at your discretion. © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

2022 Watty Winner || At the age of ten, Sanford Crow discovers the worst secret of all--his father is a serial killer. It was the year 1969. Sanford's dream was to grow up to be a detective. Putting his intuitions to the test, he conducts an investigation into his father. The discovery he makes brings his whole world crashing down, and to the culmination of one terrible Christmas morning. Twenty five years later, it's 1994. Sanford is a divorced and a recovering alcoholic, with an eight-year-old daughter named Sadie. His dreams of becoming a detective never came to fruition. Instead, he lives vicariously through his job of being a crime scene cleaner. As therapy begins to open up doors to his past that he'd rather keep shut, the same string of murders that his father committed when he was a child are happening again all around him. Sanford starts questioning his grip on reality. The answers he finds brings his past rushing back, and has him doubting everything he thought he knew about himself, his past, and his own sanity.

[Complete. Wattys 2023 Winner] The Redding takes you if it knows your name. That's the rule that's kept Meg alive --- or awake, rather --- since the night the world went to hell. Nobody knows where the red stuff came from, but it acts like water, it's in the water, and it falls as rain every night. The people it captures drop like puppets with their strings cut. They're asleep, not dead, and they can be reawoken. But then they just try to kill you. Meg and the other survivors she's befriended think they've found a stable equilibrium, six weeks after the catastrophe began. In an empty town, there's not much to do except innovate new survival methods. Meg's crush is the one to discover that Morse Code, like writing, is a safe means of communication. That's all fine and good until the nightly rain begins. Raindrops, as it turns out, can make dots and dashes, too. The Redding can talk. And it's telling her to run. ❖❖❖ Complete. Wattys 2023 Winner. Featured on: @Wattpad - Embrace the Fear: Horror Stories @WattpadExplorer - Embrace the Fear: Scary Stories @Creators - Scary Stories to Read in the Dark @Wattpad Explorer - From Our Creators @dystopianapocalypse - Featured D&A Stories @Wattpad Explorer - Why Not Buy Some Flowers @Fright - Featured Stories Comments and critiques are both welcome and appreciated. I write characters from many different backgrounds, with many different experiences. If you share those traits and find that I have misrepresented anything, please let me know! I am feedback-friendly and here to learn :)

Cain, an ex-noble turned thief, gets sent back to the past after stealing a magic scroll. With this second chance, he decides to reboot his villainous identity under a new name and get revenge on the people who ruined him. However things don't go entirely to plan, and soon he finds himself distracted by his old boss who has taken an interest in his criminal career... ------------------------------ #1 in Villain on 6/7/2023 Trigger warning for SA! This is a slow burn relationship between MC and ML. Open Relationships exist.

Aaron has a crush on Caleb. The problem? The guy is a ghost. When he tries to confess to him the spirit vanishes and strange things begin happening, from disappearances to a mysterious entity knocking on the door every night at midnight. Can he figure out what's going on and use this phenomenon to change the past? Or is his roommate doomed to his fate? Rated Mature for violence, language, and sexual scenes. Warning for this rough draft being unedited.

In a world where Vampires rule and humans are considered extinct, Luke must disguise himself as one of the undead to take a break from his abusive Master. One day, the Archduke Nicholas Abbot takes an interest in him after Luke accidentally thwarts an assassination attempt on the guy. Will Luke be able to keep his secret? Or will Nicholas show interest in more than his blood? Story Length: [66,000 Words] Rated Mature for sexual scenes and gore. Highest Ranking: #1 in Secretive 12/9/2020 #1 in Treason 12/9/2020 #1 in Vampires 12/16/2020 #1 in MaleXMale 12/22/2020