In the not too distant future civilization has collapsed and the worlds ecosystems have gone haywire. Alongside all this a virus known as the muta-virus has created a new kind of humans the fae with animalistic features, but able to survive the radiation and harsh terrain of this new world. This is the second draft of this book but certainly not the last. I know that there will be grammar errors and continuity errors but hopefully not to many. Please comment and feel free to leave suggestions, corrections or predictions I welcome them as they will help me write a better third draft and hopefully a best final book eventually. All parts of this draft have now been published. From here I will be working on my other book projects and codifying the worldbuilding for this book on World Anvil which I will link when it is ready in preparation for working on the third draft. ~Felinus Quill~ Cover by: Angelinascanvas (Instagram)

At Westbrook High, winning isn't optional. It's legacy. English teacher Clara Bennett has ruled the academic rankings for years. Her class, 11-A, has always been untouchable, despite her long-simmering rivalry with history teacher Evan Cole, all confidence, crooked smiles, and smug remarks. And everyone knew. Then one test flips the scoreboard. 11-C takes the lead. And rivalry turns into a full-war. When the administration announces a district-wide ranking, Clara and Evan stop pretending it's just professional. They push each other harder, sharper, closer. What they don't notice is that their students notice everything first. The arguments that linger, the tension crackling during shared periods, the looks that don't match the insults. The rumors start quietly. Then the shipping begins. Then the whole school is watching. Forced proximity, late nights, and a competition that feels dangerously personal blur the line between hatred and desire. Because winning feels different when the person you're trying to beat is also the one you can't stop thinking about. And some rules are hardest to follow when the classrooms are empty. ------------------------------------------------ Written for Open Novella Contest 2026 ------------------------------------------------ Prompt chosen is: 55. Two teachers at the same school are determined to outdo each other by having the top-scoring class. But when their students start enthusiastically shipping them, the rivalry takes a very unexpected turn. ------------------------------------------------

My journey in reading an writing! How I fell in love with expressing emotions through books and and the dangerous beauty of feeling too much and the fragile pieces of myself I found hidden in every story. Oh, and some tips as well!✨🌸

Mari thought that coming home to a ghost town after her mom's death was bad. It turns out it's worse having to attend her estranged father's wedding and letting her childhood best friend break down the walls she carefully built. ***** Mari Chasey's life is suspended. She returns to her hometown in a cold November day following her mother's death, after years of studying abroad in Europe. Pinewood is sleepy in the bitter cold, the deserted shoreline stretching further than she can reach, but that's okay. Mari is good with temporary things and at not lingering. She's not planning to stay for long, just enough to sort out her mother's affairs without poking at open wounds. Then her father returns. Jack Chasey, former renowned superstar, absent for most of her childhood, is getting married to a woman Mari hardly knows. He gets to begin again, build something new, while Mari grapples with a fractured life and all the scattered pieces of herself. Her mother was supposed to live forever; Jack was mercurial and always at arm's length. But now he's here to stay. Enter Kinney St. James. Once Mari's closest friend, then another person that passed by like a comet, she still knows Mari and all the shards of her. Even the sharper ones. In the stillness of winter, Mari reconnects with the quiet life Jack always wanted for her, the softer parts of her that only Kinney can tap into, and what it truly means to be her mother's daughter. ***** Open Novella Contest -- prompts 24, 29, 46, & 77 [[OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2026 ROUND 1 WINNER]] © 2026 caterina george // all rights reserved

"No-please-don't do this!" Seraphina sobbed, her voice cracking as she clung to her eldest brother's wrist. "I-I'll be good. I'll do whatever you say, just don't-" A sharp crack echoed through the room as his palm struck her cheek, sending her crashing to the marble floor. Pain exploded across her skin, but it was nothing compared to the terror clawing at her chest. From above, his voice was cold. Unmoved. "You will marry him." She shook her head wildly, crawling backward until her spine hit the wall. "He's a monster," she whispered, her breath shuddering. "He's not human. Please, don't make me do this. I'll die." Her second brother crouched in front of her, grabbing her chin roughly, forcing her to look at him. His lips curled, eyes void of warmth. "Then die." Her breath hitched. "But you will die as his wife." The door behind them creaked open. Heavy footsteps. Her father stepped inside, his expression unreadable. "Lock her in this room," he ordered. "She will not step out until her wedding day." Sera thrashed as hands seized her, dragging her toward the massive iron doors. "No! Please-Father, please!" But he didn't even look at her. The last thing she saw before the door slammed shut was her brothers standing side by side, indifferent as she was thrown into a fate worse than death. Then darkness. And the only thing left was the suffocating truth. She was a sacrifice. A bride to the Sinister, a devil himself. #A STANDALONE BOOK

𝑳𝒖𝒄𝒚 𝑽𝒂𝒏 𝑷𝒆𝒍𝒕 and 𝑺𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒆𝒅𝒆𝒓 are the only ones in their group of friends going to the same college. She's been trying to get over her obvious crush on him, but one night everything changes. Their relationship is absolutely adorable.

Mia Cherie X Aaron Valentino I gasp into his mouth, my hands fisting in his soaked shirt, pulling him closer, needing him closer and needing to feel every inch of him against me. His tongue sweeps into my mouth, and I moan, my knees going weak. But he doesn't let me fall. His arms wrap around my waist, holding me up, grounding me, anchoring me to him. The rain pours down around us, but all I feel is heat, his body pressed against mine and his hands in my hair, on my back, everywhere. When he finally pulls back, we're both panting, our foreheads pressed together. "You're mine" he murmurs, his voice rough and possessive. "Say it." "I'm yours" I whisper. "Say it again." "I'm yours, Aaron." Tropes: Badboy x Goodgirl Rich mmc x scholarship student fmc Kill anyone who touches her (literally) 👀 HEA

The sirens scream but we don't move, With nothing left to fear or prove. In the hollow dark of a world undone, Your pulse is the only war I've won. Two young souls finding meaning and life and discovering their relationship admist the burning town and black clouds.

Hailey Aurora had been spiraling for years - fighting, clawing, surviving the rot of an abusive home ever since her mother died. But survival has a cost, and hers came due in the form of a debt she could never repay. The night she almost killed her uncle was the moment everything twisted beyond repair. A single mistake. A single fracture in the fragile line she'd been walking. And then. Him. He said only one word. "Amore." After that, nothing was fine. Nothing would ever be again. Yet something shifts. He doesn't cage her. He watches, yes, but from a distance that lets her breathe. He lets her stumble, lets her fight her own battles, as if he trusts her strength more than she ever has. And sometimes, when he forgets himself, there is a quiet softness in him. A fleeting honesty that feels almost fragile. It unsettles her more than the fear ever did, Because somewhere in that silence, in those small, unguarded moments... She begins to feel again. ONC Prompt #78: "You begin to realize that nothing is quite what it seems." Also inspired by: #80 - "Monsters don't live under our beds. They live in the recesses of our minds." ✨Twilight✨

Editing!!! "You've gone soft, haven't you? Like a rotting peach." As a trained and highly skilled hitman, Eden isn't sure if she still qualifies as human. She remembers next to nothing of her parents, and only a bit more of her sister. All she knows is that she is angry. But when something she thought she had buried long ago resurfaces, she has a choice. Try to salvage what she long ago lost. Or face the consequences by watching everything burn.