"𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥..." Poet was used to being the second choice. Actually, she was used to not being chosen at all. The girl blended into the background easily, it had always been that way. Sometimes, passion wasn't enough to put you in the spotlight and she was okay with that. Riot had always carried the weight of his mother's ways on his shoulders. He was the oldest son. The protector. The rock. He never would have thought these things to push him closer than ever to his soulmate. Not when he wasn't even sure what he wanted his own love story to look like. Their love was never expected to be but maybe it was supposed to happen that way. 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝟏 𝐎𝐅 '𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄' 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒

"Your heart has no concept of time, if it wants to move on, it will. With or without you,"

Kason "Khotic" Brewster never planned on living long. At seventeen, he buried both of his parents in the same week. His mother died instantly in a car crash. His father held on just long enough to make Kason promise one thing before he passed. Take care of your brother and sister. So that's exactly what he did. Twelve years later Khotic is the man the streets call when things get ugly. Feared. Respected. Untouchable. Everything he does is for the two people depending on him to make it out of the life he's stuck in. He's content with that. Until Beauty Cardwell crashes into his world. Bee is nothing like the women Khotic usually deals with. She's a twenty-five-year-old brain surgeon, a child prodigy who finished school before most people finished learning who they were. She's blunt, literal, and socially awkward in ways people don't always understand. Diagnosed with high-functioning autism, Bee doesn't believe in pretending to be something she's not. She says exactly what she means. And for some reason... Khotic likes that. What starts as a chance meeting turns into something neither of them expected. Bee sees the man behind Khotic's reputation. The older brother trying to keep his promise. The boy who never got the chance to grieve. And Khotic sees something in Bee that the world keeps missing. But loving a man like Khotic means stepping into a life Bee was never meant to be part of. Enemies. Loyalty. Violence. The kind of danger that doesn't care how smart you are. And Khotic knows one thing for sure. Good girls like Beauty Cardwell aren't supposed to fall for men like him.

completed 2020. "When her present begins to feel all too stifle, Citrus makes the most drastic decision of her life."

She was never supposed to end up here. Born and raised in Atlanta, she was used to quiet luxury-polished manners, perfect appearances, and a life where everything had its place. Including her. Until it didn't. When her father loses everything, she's forced to leave behind the only world she's ever known and move to Memphis, Tennessee-into a house that feels too small, too loud, and nothing like home. At her new school, nobody cares about who she used to be. Her accent, her attitude, the way she carries herself-it all makes her stand out. And not in the way she's used to. They call her stuck up. She calls them unbearable. But the more she tries to hold on to the girl she used to be, the more everything starts slipping through her fingers. Especially when she meets him. He doesn't care about her past. Doesn't care about her attitude. And definitely doesn't care about her rules. In a place where she doesn't belong, surrounded by people who refuse to let her hide behind perfection... she's forced to face the one thing she's been avoiding. Maybe she's not just out of place. Maybe she's been misplaced all along.

"This is not a sob story, it's a love one." In a world of high societal expectations Malaysia is one of the many fighting to reach the goals expected by her family. After being raised by a single mother for half of her life then transitioning to a world with too many overbearing male figures, she's ready to explode. Seymour is the last person she should be with. From his street affiliation, trauma from abandonment, all the way to his baby momma drama he is the blueprint of what should be avoided by someone who is as perfect as she is. Except Malaysia now understood the reason for true rebellion. Everyone in the world understood the hierarchy of societal grounds and why they would never work, but their connection hit too fast, too deep, and quickly becomes dangerous. She was tired of living up to the expectations of her parents and her brothers. It was time for her to take her life back. There was a long list of reasons why they shouldn't have been involved with each-other, but there was only one reason why they should've. That was enough. STARTED ; JANUARY 5th, 2026 PUBLISHED ; FEBRUARY 11th, 2026 FINISHED; March 19th, 2026

𝙎𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙢𝙚𝙚𝙩 𝙝𝙞𝙢 𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙪𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙙 𝙝𝙞𝙢 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 𝙖 𝙙𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚.

"I'm not bout' to complicate yo life baby, you don't want this." "Elijah, you don't get to choose what I want to do with my life !"

" 𝙾𝚗𝚎 𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚛 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚜𝚎."☆

" i might buy you ice mama,"