Seventeen-year-old Zaynarb (Deena) Adam Sodangi never dreamed of wearing a military uniform. All she wanted was freedom-the chance to grieve her parents and live life on her own terms. But after their death, her world falls into the hands of her uncle, a man whose ambition outweighs his compassion. To tighten his grip over her late parents' wealth, he forces her into the Nigerian Defence Academy, a place Deena neither chooses nor desires. Lost, resentful, and unprepared for the harsh drills and endless demands of military life, Deena's disinterest soon draws the attention of one man-Captain Baqeer Mahmoud Dole, famously known as B.M. Dole. Feared for his discipline yet admired for his honor, he sees what others overlook: beneath Deena's reluctance lies a quiet strength waiting to be ignited. When he promises to secure her admission despite her lack of effort, Deena finds herself bound to a destiny she never imagined. Between the academy's brutal trials, her uncle's hidden schemes, and the unexpected bond forming between herself and the captain who refused to let her slip away, Deena must learn that sometimes the battles we don't choose are the ones that define us. A tale of resilience, and unexpected courage-this is the journey of a girl forced into a soldier's path, and the man who saw in her the heart of a warrior. -

A poetry anthology (collection) about love, loss, and words left unsaid, all with a connecting theme of silence. Please enjoy.

✨ Two Souls, One Journey ✨ Description of my story..... "This is more than a story-it is a quiet sanctuary for tired hearts. Woven between fiction and reality are silent prayers, hidden wounds, and the gentle reminder that even in our darkest nights, Allah's mercy writes the brightest dawn."

#wattys2025 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐒. «𝑊𝑒'𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝑆𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛'𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑚 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑦𝑏𝑒 𝑤𝑒'𝑟𝑒 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑡.» ❄️❄️❄️ Josephine is a girl captivated by nature and enchanted by mythical creatures. Ever since she was little, she's believed in dragons - majestic beings with vast wings, able to soar through the skies like living legends. Everyone thought they were just myths... until one day, everything changed: Dragons are no longer an illusion. They've returned to our world - or maybe they never truly left. After setting him free, she saw hope in his eyes. Together, they'll have to face their inner demons and overcome many painful trials. - 𝑆ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑖𝑚. 𝑁𝑜𝑤 ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝 ℎ𝑒𝑟. - Thus begins a journey through emotions, painful memories, and long-buried secrets. An ancient mystery binds humans and dragons, and only Josephine seems to hold the key to unravel it. But as her heart starts beating for someone not entirely human, she'll be forced to confront hidden truths and choose where she truly stands. ・𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑒𝑥, 𝑟𝑎𝑝𝑒, 𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑑𝑟𝑢𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑐𝑜ℎ𝑜𝑙 𝑢𝑠𝑒. ・𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑚𝑎𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟𝑠.

This is not pretty poetry. These are truths I was never taught to speak. Here lie the words I swallowed, the pain I buried, and the questions they told me not to ask. For the unheard. For the unseen. For the ones who feel too much in a world that tells them to feel less. I write for you. I write for me.

**He's all locked doors and sharp edges. She's the kind of sunshine that leaves shadows behind.** Rafay Demir doesn't believe in distractions. As a government cybersecurity architect, he lives in a world of logic, silence, and strict control-until he's assigned to a collaborative tech project that involves sharing office space with the one person who doesn't seem to understand the word boundaries. Aylin Erden is brilliant with color, movement, and people. As a UI/UX designer, she builds the front end of experiences-warm, intuitive, human. The opposite of Rafay. Which makes it all the more annoying that her designs now have to pass through him. When a high-stakes launch ties them together for months, the friction becomes impossible to ignore. So do the stolen glances. The arguments that sound a little too personal. The silence that stretches just a little too long. They're not a love story. Not yet. But some stories are written in tension before they ever reach tenderness. A slow-burn romance about walls built, walls broken, and the quiet power of being seen. For fans of emotional banter, stolen looks, and the kind of love that doesn't ask permission.

Copyright © 2025 Maysa has always lived between worlds - the daughter of an Arab father and a Nigerian mother, raised in a home that looked perfect from the outside but was already breaking behind closed doors. From an early age, she learns what it means to be too much of one thing and never enough of another. After her father's death, the space between those worlds only widens. Rejected where she expects comfort and misunderstood where she seeks belonging, Maysa grows up carrying quiet losses, complicated family ties, and questions she's never been allowed to ask out loud. As she steps into adulthood, she is forced to confront what she's been taught about love, loyalty, faith, and womanhood - and what she actually believes. In a world where tradition speaks loudly and girls are expected to endure silently, she must decide who she is beyond survival. Then she meets Faruk - steady, patient, and unexpectedly gentle with the parts of her she keeps hidden. With him, Maysa begins to question whether love has to be painful, and whether softness can exist without loss. Maysa is a coming-of-age story rooted in culture, family, and faith. It explores identity, belonging, and the slow, fragile process of choosing yourself without losing where you come from. Soft, emotional, and deeply human, this is a story about a girl learning that strength doesn't always look like resistance - sometimes it looks like becoming. This work "Maysa" published under this account is an original story written by me, larh_writes. No part of my book may be copied, reposted, translated, or adapted without my explicit written permission. Support originality. Respect the writer. Copyright © 2025 All rights reserved Story Rankings #2 in Nigeria out of 1000+ stories #4 in identity out of 1000+ stories #2 in mixed out of 1000+ stories #3 in Egypt out of 1000+ stories #2 in Arab out of 1000+ stories #1 in naija out of 877 stories

The world had gone to hell long ago, taken over by the vampire race. In order to keep some sort of peace in our land, the Vampire Lords made a consecutive agreement. The rich and powerful humans could survive just as they had been, untouched by the vampires save for the occasional blood collections, or so they thought In reality, we were all under their control. Castles spread out throughout our land, one landing in each city. Each castle varied in the number of vampires residing there, but all of them carried a Lord. The Lords were the ones in charge in every city, whether we liked it or not. The vampires often roam through the city, making sure that everyone was in order and no one stepped out of line. If you stepped out of line, you died, end of story. Even if the rich were still under their control, their lives were still better than the poor. The poorest lives held a much worse fate. The men were to be put to work as slaves, whether that meant serving a specific vampire, or just building their castles, they were slaves. The women were to be pets. Pets were the lowest rank you could have. They were forced into cages that were too small to stand in with collars around their necks. They spent their lives in pet shops, just waiting for the dreadful day that they'll be bought. They were treated like animals, trained into what their master wanted, and punished if they misbehaved. Those who were lucky enough to live through that, we're to be slaughtered for their blood at age twenty-five in an act to make sure that our population would stay steady. I was born into this world. Born into this world full of blood-sucking monsters. Except, I was one of the lucky ones. Was. It all ended for me when I was 12, when I was taken away from the last bit of hope and family that I had left. Ever since then, I've lived in a cage, just rotting away, waiting, dreading for the day that some monster would make me his. This is my life. I am a pet. ~~~ Cover by: @mshacake

When photography student, Willow Kennedy, gets offered an internship with her college's renowned ice hockey team, The Michigan Wolverines, she anticipates three things: 1) Her twin brother being an unbearable and over-protective nightmare. 2) Her photographs not making any real impact whatsoever. 3) The team completely shutting out the curly-haired girl pointing a camera in their faces. What Willow didn't take into account, however, was the Wolverine's team captain. Rumoured NHL first draft pick, dreamboat and total game changer- Tate Wilder. With his infectious dimpled smile, sparkling green eyes and addictive personality, Tate quickly turns Willow's internship into a life-changing and eye-opening experience- one filled with love, friendship and opportunities. Willow didn't meet the Michigan Wolverines looking for love, and funnily enough neither did Tate, but love soon found them. ********* "Pretty please?" Her lip juts out in an irresistible pout and you'd almost think she was a sweet innocent flower judging by the puppy dog eyes she's flashing me. But that image is little tarnished by the hand she has dipped into my boxers. I can feel my Adams apple bob as I reply. "O-okay. Fine, you win this time." The smile I get in response is absolutely blinding. A full, mega-watt grin with teeth, crinkled eyes and blush on the apples of her cheek. I'll let her win everything if I get that fucking smile in return.

AOTH Sagir Bawa was once a man overflowing with love and tenderness until his first heartbreak shattered his soul in the cruellest way imaginable. That single event transformed him, filling his heart with bitterness and leaving him vowing never to love again. Relationships, marriage, and the thought of being with another woman became a distant, scorned memory. But fate rarely follows the plans we make. When his parents decide to force him into an arranged marriage, despite his vehement protests, Sagir finds himself standing on the precipice of a promise he made long ago. Will he bend to their will, or stay true to his vow to never love again? Then came her........ Hairana Sultan, whose stubbornness and fiery personality masked a life overshadowed by aching sorrow. She believed love was nothing but an illusion-a word spoken but never truly felt. And like Sagir, marriage had been forced upon her, though to Hairana, it seemed like the only way to grasp her freedom. But secrets have their own gravity, and Hairana's mother holds the weightiest one of all-one that could shake Hairana's world to its core. When Sagir and Hairana's paths collide, both tethered by destiny, their unyielding stubbornness threatens to combust. Neither believes in love; neither trusts the idea of happiness shared with another. Yet, can the heart remain untouched when fate is determined to intervene? As challenges arise, and life's trials test the strength of their resolve, will their hearts soften toward each other-or will their aching hearts remain impenetrable, refusing to bow to the whispers of love? ......... ☺️☺️☺️