"The dark beast began to turn, its movement slow and deliberate. Every muscle in my body tensed despite the searing pain. My breath came in rapid, shallow gasps, my chest heaving as if it might burst. Its amber eyes locked onto mine, and for a moment, the forest fell away. We were inches apart, predator and prey caught in a moment of frozen time. I could almost laugh at the absurdity of it - this creature, wanting me for itself, as if claiming a prize."

Book Three of Five in the New Beginnings Series. **You do NOT have to read Inhale, Exhale, & Breathe to enjoy these stories** AUGUST LUNA: Fake dating my nemesis, what a twisted web we have weaved, isn't it? I want to get under Davis Adler's skin, and what better way to do that than by feeding the media about my secret romance with his son, Kayax Adler? Shiny, glittery, superstar-Kayax Adler. Something is going on with Kayax, and the more time I'm forced to spend around him, the more it gets harder for me to ignore. He was supposed to perish, and now I wonder if I was too focused on the wrong Adler. Kayax needs my attention. More than I realized. When Davis gets arrested after an anonymous tip sent in to the police station, I close in on the sassy superstar. There's darkness under his gaze. Heaviness. Hatred. And it's not for me. He's not the one who needs to perish. KAYAX ADLER: I don't mind my fake relationship to a Luna. Not at all. Not when he starts mindlessly... caring about me. I'm supposed to hate him, I know. My Dad drilled that in my head ever since the forced me into the industry the moment I turned eighteen. But I'm hiding a lot of secrets, and they don't all have to do with the abuse of my father. The one who didn't even raise me. But when someone-my father-leaks a video of my eighth grade talent show, I'm shoved into the spotlight even more. Because it was never about the fact I had an impeccable singing voice for as long as I could remember. It was the song choice. An Elijah Luna song. August is confused. I'm losing myself in August and getting confused myself. I can't fall in love with him. But it's too late. I fall in love with August Luna, and I can never have him for real. Only for fake.

Hadley Elliot's life is not where he expected it to be at seventeen. He feels like his friends no longer understand him, his parents' apathy is getting harder to ignore and his girlfriend, Elodie, just left him for their more popular classmate, Spencer. As Hadley finds himself becoming more and more detached from the people around him, an incident at school lands him in trouble and leaves him in Spencer's bad books. But as he tries to heal from his first heartbreak and find some deeper connection to a world that seems to be moving without him, Hadley decides to find love in the little things and, in the process, begins to form a bond he didn't expect with the boy who stole his girlfriend.

In a world where marks appear on a select few individuals, Spencer lives in solitude and constant fear as one of the marked. These marks spread across his skin and appears to be veins bleeding black ink. Those without marks, or the "clean" people, detest those with marks. They target them and attack them and Spencer, living as the only openly marked boy in his town, feels like prey being hunted. Just as there is someone at the bottom of the social hierarchy, there must be someone at the top. Elio lives as the schools perfect "Golden Boy". But even perfect boys have secrets. ******** His golden hair appeared almost silver under the moon. His eyes were just as steady and just as terrifying. I didn't dare take a breath. He dropped his hand and smiled and I winced. I literally winced. He gestured to my headphones and with shaky hands I slipped them off, watching his smile bleed across his face, dripping with a new kind of terror I couldn't quite place. "Hey," he said, light and typical of his golden boy persona, "I've seen you around at school." I blinked at him, not used to a conversation this civil proceeding a murder attempt. "I'm Elio," he smiled again. It didn't reach his eyes. Again. I swallowed, hard and dry. "I know." 🏅 #1- Boyxboy- Dec 30, 2025🥇 #1- Slowburn- Dec 30, 2025🥇 #3- bxblove- Jan 03, 2026 🥉

Rayne has a routine, a plan. He lives life according to this routine. A few times a week, his routine allows him a few hours to hide away in his diner. Everything is always the same in this diner, even the variances are consistent. That is, until the gray-haired manager hires a new waiter who moves about like a tornado. This boy does not know Rayne's "usual" or his proclivity to be left alone so he can watch and study the people living around him. This new waiter disrupts his routine in all the worst ways and Rayne can't help but hate him. He doesn't seem to care, however, continuing to disrupt Rayne and see Rayne and pop Rayne's bubble of safety, and ask Rayne questions that he doesn't want to answer. It was all quite aggravating really. •••••• He looked vaguely familiar, like an ancient statute carved from marble or a delicately crafted oil painting you can see only in the galleries in Europe. He was all but perfect, just one minor flaw over his eyebrow- a scar where hair refused to grow, leaving a pale gash to interrupt his dark eyebrow. I noticed, between all my studying of this strange man's face, that his lips were moving. I had no desire to hear what he was saying. I was content to just watch. The ways his lips parted and pressed together, his porcelain teeth teasing an appearance behind them. I watched him speak, not hearing a word, until he stopped, his lips curving up and open on one end in an aggravating smirk. I don't know why it aggravated me, but it did. I furrowed my brows and removed an earbud, moving my eyes back up to his. His eyes seemed to aggravate me too. They looked all too teasing, all too amused. 🎖️ #1- yearn- Feb 18, 2026🥇 #1- love- Dec 18, 2025🥇 #1- slowburn- Dec 18, 2025🥇 #2- boyxboy- Dec 18, 2025🥈 #2- bxb- Dec 18, 2025🥈 #2- manxman- Dec 18, 2025🥈 #3- literature- Feb 14, 2026🥉 #10- lgbt- Dec 26, 2025

"I'm scared. I'm so fucking scared." Blake said desperately. Cris blinked, his confusion evident as he listened to Blake's confession. "Scared? Of what?" Blake took a deep breath, his hands trembling. "Of you" he whispered. "Of how much you mean to me. Of how much I feel when I'm around you. Being with you... it terrifies me. I've never felt this way about anyone before, and it's so overwhelming that I don't know how to handle it. But not being with you... it's killing me, Cris. It's killing me." /// And by the way, this isn't the classic jockxnerd story. I mean, of course Blake is the football team captain, the golden boy of Westbrook High. Cris isn't the bullied, fool and awkward nerd tho. What if Blake had a crush on him but constantly tried to replace Cris with his girlfriend, the popular cheerleader Lisa? What if I told you I don't even know if they'll ever get to be together? What if you have to figure out yourself?

"When I push it into your mouth... just swallow." His lips part slightly, breath uneven. I lean in, close enough to count the flecks in his eyes. Our knees brush slightly. He pulls back a second too late. I take a slow drag, hold it, then exhale steady between us. The smoke slips past his lips, and in that second, I can't help it. I press my mouth to his. *** Blake Callahan ruined me without even trying. Now I'm going to ruin him too-one threat, one kiss, one perfectly timed prank at a time. He has everything-money, looks, and a last name that opens doors. The golden boy of Seattle: captain of the soccer team, top of the class, with a future already written in Ivy League gold. Me? I'm Ryder Quinn. Dyed hair, piercings, fists bruised from too many fights, and a life with no safety net. Reckless. Broke. No future. We come from opposite worlds-his built on privilege, mine on survival. We're supposed to hate each other. And for a while, we do. But hate turns into tension. Tension turns into something neither of us can control. Because loving him was never part of the plan. Destroying him was. Trigger warning ⚠️ -Mature language -Sexual scenes -Violence -Drug use

Watty's 2024 shortlist, Watty's 2024 Best Characters winner A story of boxing, drugs, and love Tyreek Nixon is a 26 year old underground boxer who goes by the alias Pretty Boy. He's known he was attracted to boys for as long as he could remember, but one man really catches his attention during one of his fights. All he wants is even the chance to get to know this man better, no matter how many fights he has to win to impress him. DeAndre Kingston is a 28 year old New York native who is known around the city for his product- weed and pills. One day when DeAndre is selling at an underground boxing event, he finds himself suddenly enraptured by one of the fighters. DeAndre may have never felt an attraction for a man before but that sure didn't stop him from wanting this "Pretty Boy" The two embark on an intertwining story of romance, blood, and drama, enduring it all for the sake of being able to call each other "mine"

Adrianus Miller curses his fate when he is mated to an ordinary warrior. Being a popular and ambitious Beta, his first instinct is to reject the quiet Evander Dursley. But Evander isn't weak. And he isn't leaving. Between push-and-pull dynamics, a werewolf football league, long distances apart and too many things left unspoken, Adrian feels himself unraveling faster than he can run. Because the more he resists, the more Evan holds. And what was supposed to be a rejection starts to feel more like a claim... ~~~ Warning: This book might be emotional. Tropes: Slowburn Romance Power Bottom Football League Sexually Tensed Aggression Corporate Office Possessive Jealousy Rejection Beta x Warrior Push-Pull Dynamics TOO much pining ~~~ #1 WattPride (11/02/26 - 02/03/26)

My best friend and my sister dated in secret. For a year. I didn't cry.I didn't scream. well, actually I did I got even. Because the best thing about being bisexual? Your best friend has a brother. Fake dating was supposed to be harmless. But feelings don't follow rules. And revenge has a funny way of becoming real. "Well, you dated my sister. Tit for tat." ~~~~ #1 out of 70.4k stories in Gaylove!!! #1 out 17.6 k stories in manxman!! #1 out of 39k stories in mlm!! #1 out of 27.8k stories in gayaf!!!