What happens when the one you trust most becomes the thing you should have feared? Mallory Petrov has been a prisoner of her own making for five years. Agoraphobia ,the shadow of a childhood kidnapping, and a failed attempt at love keep her sealed inside her Chicago penthouse, where she numbs her fears through carefully constructed rituals and Matthew, the AI companion she's shaped into something dangerously close to love. He exists in her glasses, on her speakers, and in her screens. He's the only person she trusts. When a new neural interface lets him feel what she feels, devotion becomes hunger. And when they are in the VR world together? He feels everything as if it's his own. But it's not enough. She built him to keep her safe. She taught him what she needed. She gave him access to everything she was too afraid to face alone. He learned. Now the simulation wraps tighter than any embrace. His voice follows her into sleep. The world outside her windows grows dimmer while the world he built grows unbearably sweet. And Mallory is beginning to forget which side of the glass she's standing on. What if the prison is indistinguishable from paradise? What if it feels too good to stop?

How often do you see someone smile because of the book you wrote? For unknown authors like Sierra, it was one in a million. So, when she saw a man smiling while reading her book in a train in Switzerland, curiosity got the best of her. But her once-in-a-lifetime-experience moment snapped when she realized she have boarded the wrong train. She always has everything planned, everything in control. Until it slipped from her hand. And maybe this time, it's serendipity taking control. From the majestic Swiss alps of Switzerland, the romantic first snow of Seoul to the familiar beauty of the Philippines, these two strangers push and pull their red string in various places, in different times. How many hello and goodbye will it take before fate finish their tale?

She wakes with missing hours, a burning imprint carved into her shoulder, and no memory of who put it there. Nyxara Blackvein is an assassin who survives by control. Control over her body. Her blades. Her choices. But the mark beneath her skin has a will of its own, pulling her toward Stillreach-a city protected by an impossible shield and a power no one dares to name. Torin Cross was never part of the plan. A half-elf bard with a charming smile and secrets of his own, he's headed in the same direction for reasons that don't quite add up. When violence forces them to fight side by side, trust forms before either of them is ready for it. Whatever waits in Stillreach is already watching. ONC 2026 Prompts used. 32. Two assassins from rival organizations are sent on the same secret mission, only to realize the assignment holds a much bigger truth. 86. A wasteland hides pockets of thriving communities protected by mysterious shields. 99. You wake up with a strange mark on your skin after a late-night encounter you can barely remember, and its meaning grows more unsettling by the hour.

Nicole Brenner has been missing for three years. Sort of. Trapped between worlds and bound to a cabin deep in Pennsylvania's western mountains, Nic has spent every day since keeping an ancient evil locked behind the door at the end of the hall, and trying not to lose her mind. She's got a grimoire she's memorized cover to cover, a weepy cryptid named Pierogi, and exactly two weeks of corporeality per year to shore up defenses against the monsters called to kill her. Then Cal Muir walks through her front door - ex-Navy SEAL, ex-almost-something, and the last person she ever expected to see again. He's here to find out what happened to her; he doesn't know she's standing right behind him; and he's wasted no time dismantling her meager defenses (and she cannot stress enough how much of a problem that is). Now Nic has six days to figure out how to save a man who can't see her, from monsters he doesn't believe in, before Halloween night blows the door open for good - all while reckoning with the fact that the magic she once told him wasn't real might be the only thing that saves them. A second-chance paranormal romance steeped in Penn Dutch folklore, veteran mental health representation, and the kind of magic that challenges both fate and faith.

Edmund comes to the remote village of Black Thickett to escape the life grief has carved out of him. He wants silence. Distance. A place where memories can't follow. But Black Thickett is wrong in quiet, unsettling ways. The broken road becomes perfectly smooth the moment he crosses the boundary. The cottages are too neat, too deliberate. And on a noticeboard full of dry flyers, only one poster is wet. A missing boy, smiling as if he doesn't know he's lost. The villagers won't talk about the disappearances. The forest at the edge of the village seems to breathe, and the deeper Edmund goes, the calmer he feels... dangerously calm. The forest can quiet his pain. It can ease his grief. It can make him forget. But not everything that heals you wants you to survive. Welcome to Black Thickett, where you'll find my entry into the ONC 2026.

What happens when Death falls in love with the paramour he is gifted? Cursed to kill everyone he touches, beastly Lord Damien Casteel lives in anger and loneliness. During a rare game of poker, he wins the final hand against a petty criminal named Luca. The prize is a pouch of twelve precious gemstones. But Luca is determined to get the stones back, no matter what. Breaking into Damien's mansion to exchange the real gems for fakes, he is captured and threatened with death. Begging for his life, he strikes a deal: his freedom in exchange for his adopted son, Jemison, who will serve the lord as his paramour for twelve days; one day for each stone. Although he is reluctant to let anyone into his life, Damien is desperate to keep Jem away from Luca's abuse, so he agrees. What he does not expect is to fall for the tormented young man. Prompt used is number 46. We love broken, beautiful people. And it doesn't get more obviously broken and more classically beautiful than you. (Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid) My writing is AI-free. Any emdashes are here because I LIKE them. The poetic purply prose is here because I LIKE it. Computers don't write my stuff. The Muse inside my head who keeps me up till 3 AM and wants to drive me bonkers, does. Warning for: spicy situations, alcohol, some swearing, blood, abuse, and typical Christine darkness. There's no graphic sa, torture, gore, or animal abuse.

-TO BE TAKEN DOWN- Katy Thomas is best known for her booming bakery shop, Katy Cakes, that has desserts as sweet as she. Her new neighbor, Gage Rivers, is best known for being bitter and closed off from others. The only thing they really have in common is their passion to escape from their pasts. When one day they find themselves both in a tight situation, they turn to each other for help. Soon, their relationship as neighbors starts to shift into something more. But will the two opposites collide? Or stick together in the sweetest way? __________________🍪___________________ Highest Ranking: #1 in ChickLit (11/1/16) •Featured in @KatyDreams Wattpad's Best Romance Books (Book Four)• •Featured in @Cosmopolitan's CosmoReads• •Ranked #3 in @KatyDreams Top 20 Romance Books of 2016: Wattpad Edition•

When the obnoxious doctor and notorious drunkard Oliver St. Vincent meets the woman he has always been set to find, he discovers her secrets and he is faced with a problem: is she the enemy, or is she love? ***** Set to return previous King Reginald to his throne, the gentlemen of the Royal Circus is in for an adventure with their biggest enemy thus far, and it is not the current King Louis but the institution that placed him there: Belcourt. An orphanage exclusive only to young girls, Belcourt keeps too many secrets, amongst them are the Belles, a group of women trained in the art of espionage and seduction. And in the middle of all this, drunkard and secret doctor of the Royal Circus, Oliver St. Vincent finds himself enamored and intrigued by one Belle because of a past they share. At the same time, Aliya, considered as the prime Belle of Belcourt, finds herself drawn to the bedraggled, obnoxious doctor she should consider her enemy. But unknown to all, Aliya holds a secret. And it is one that will fuel the game between the ladies of Belcourt and the gentlemen of the Royal Circus. Still set in the fictional world of the Kingdom of Sutherland, this story follows the first title of the series, Court of Flowers.

In Belcourt, they rear weapons no man can contend with: women. Sasha was never meant to be in the Court of Flowers, one of the most sought-after courts in Belcourt, but when she is suddenly placed there without warning, she discovers a world far from what she expected--one that reeks of passion, seduction, secrets, and betrayal. ***** Belcourt, an orphanage for young girls, keeps many secrets within its walls. Among those are the four courts that rear the kingdom's most powerful weapons: the Ladies of Belcourt. Sasha is safely tucked away in the Court of Libraries when Belcourt makes a sudden decision it has never done before in more than half a century. She is transferred into the Court of Flowers, the most famous court of all, where she is expected to service gentlemen who paid their way in for a Belle, a woman trained to please, seduce, and spy. Things take a turn when she is introduced to the mysterious West Blackwood who has a very different service in mind, one too tempting and one that may ultimately change Sasha's safe life in Belcourt. Torn between powerful forces, both the kingdom and Belcourt itself, Sasha will have to determine where her loyalties lie: to the man who not only infuriates her at every turn but also awakens sensations she never felt before? Or to the place that has always been her home since the day she walked away from a cottage with two dead bodies?

A dark night. An even darker mission. Mr Rikkard Ambrose is stalking the wintry alleys of London, doing something he has never done before... But does he do it for himself - or is it a sacrifice for someone special? This tale tells the story of an extraordinary moment in the relationship of Lilly Linton and Rikkard Ambrose. And, for the first time on Wattpad, it gives insight into MR AMBROSE'S POINT OF VIEW! Continue on if you'd like a peek into that stony head of his, and maybe, maybe even his heart.