Why Does 'Picks And Shovels' Have That Title?

Two princes. One bond. A forbidden love that could shatter the pack. “I, Myron Rudrah, alpha prince of the Silvermist pack—” His jaw flexed, his chest heaving. For a heartbeat, I thought I’d hear the words that would break me. Then his lips pulled back in a feral snarl. “To hell with this.” And before I could even inhale, his mouth crashed onto mine. Nalini is just an ordinary omega, mistreated by her mistress, until she's given a scholarship into Silvermist academy where she's caught between two Alpha brothers Alpha prince Timothy is suspiciously nice to her and she wonders if it's because of their mate bond or if there's another reason. Alpha prince Myron despises her and bullies her but after finding out she's his mate, he refuses to let his brother have her. Bound by one mate, burned by another—Nalini’s choice could ignite a war.”

The day I was awarded the highest service medal, I got a call that my grandfather had died. My superiors approved emergency leave, and I rushed straight back to the family estate without stopping. The moment I reached the hillside cemetery behind the house, what I saw snapped something inside me. Our family burial ground had been completely leveled. My parents' graves had been dug open. Their urns had been turned into flower pot bases, with dark-red roses planted right on top of them. My grandfather's coffin had been split apart. His body was left exposed in the dirt, already starting to rot. And my younger brother, Jerry Horton, who was on the autism spectrum, was being ordered around like a laborer by my husband's assistant, Digby Wolfe, hauling construction materials back and forth. I lost it. I grabbed Digby and slammed him into the ground with a hard shoulder throw. "You touched my family's graves and made my brother do manual labor. Are you trying to get buried here with them?" Digby coughed up blood as he struggled to his feet, sneering at me. "This was Mr. Gray's decision. He said your family plot is in a good location, with plenty of space. It's perfect for building a golf course for the future Mrs. Gray. In Joule, Mr. Gray is the law." His tone was icy. "And who do you think you are?" I swallowed my rage and called Marshall Gray. "I hear you run Joule," I said. "Well, I'm about to change that."

On the day I receive my Distinguished Service Medal, I also receive word that my grandma has passed away. My superior grants me special leave to return to my hometown to mourn her death, so I rush to my ancestral home at once. But when I reach the ancestral graveyard behind the hill, I witness something that makes my blood boil. The graves of my deceased family members have been razed to the ground. Even my parents' graves have been brutally dug up. Their urns are now placed under flower pots filled with blooming red roses. Grandma's coffin has been pried open as well.Her body now lies strewn on the ground and has started to rot. I also see Lucy Stewart, my autistic younger sister. Melissa Abbott, my wife's assistant, orders Lucy around like a maid, forcing her to move heavy construction materials around. Enraged, I grab Melissa by the throat and throw her to the ground. "How dare you destroy my family's ancestral cemetery and make my sister do hard labor! Do you want to end up buried here too?" Melissa coughs up blood before crawling back onto her feet, her expression vicious and scornful. "I'm simply carrying out Ms. Fuller's instructions. She says that your ancestral cemetery is located in a good spot. It's also the perfect size to be turned into a private horse ranch and a garden for her future husband. "Ms. Fuller calls the shots here in Joverton City. Who the hell do you think you are, huh?" Resisting the urge to put an end to her life, I call up Eva Fuller, my wife. "I heard you call the shots here in Joverton City. Well, I shall put that to the test today!"

3:00 a.m. Insomnia gnawed at my nerves like a rusted saw, grinding back and forth mercilessly. On a whim that I couldn't explain, I opened a radio app called "Echoes from Below." The interface was simple and bare. Black background, blue text. No ads, no host introduction. Just a single audio waveform, slowly buffering on the screen. The shape of the waveform felt wrong. It didn't look like soundwaves at all. More like rows of sharp, interlocking teeth. A pop-up window appeared in the center of the screen. [Listening Guidelines] The letters glowed blue, carrying an unsettling eeriness. [This station's signal may extend into dreams. If you hear the broadcast while dreaming, firmly believe that you are awake.]

I've been married to the prince of the underworld for ten years and have endured countless life-or-death situations by his side. My hands, once trained to play the piano, are covered in calluses from holding guns and stained with blood. But at 28, my husband ends up falling for a young woman from the slums. She's as delicate and pure as a chamomile. She's his well-kept little secret—until I run into them at the woman's prenatal appointment one day. I storm up to him, demanding an explanation, only for him to nonchalantly hand me divorce papers. "Sonia is a devout follower of the church and can't have a child before marriage. I must make an honest woman out of her. Sign these, and you'll get 40% of the company's shares." I refuse to do as told, so he corners me. In the end, he has my crippled younger brother tied up and forced under a hydraulic compression machine. "Sign the papers, Maeve, or watch your brother become a human mince pie. The choice is yours." I fall on my knees and beg him to stop. As the machine turns on, my hands fly to my aching lower belly, and I scream as I lose consciousness. When I wake up again, I'm back in the hospital, in the same spot where I ran into my husband and his mistress at her prenatal appointment. This time, I don't confront him. Overnight, I make arrangements with a sanatorium abroad, get divorced, and run away from home. Yet the moment I truly disappear, my husband loses his mind.

A contemporary mash-up retelling of Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet.Ella Sinders is content to toil away as a graphic designer for the company owned by her absent father. She spends all her time in the attic of his large home, taking orders from her stepmother, fear of what lies outside of her own front door keeping her from wondering afar—until an accidental phone call opens her eyes to the lies she’s been told. Now, she’s desperate to reach the man on the other end of the line to see if they can build a life together. However, the discovery that the one she’s falling for is the son of her father’s sworn enemy complicates the situation even more so than her stepmother’s deception.Rome Verona wants nothing more than to make a name for himself amidst the glitter and gold of LA’s elite. His father might be a big name movie producer, but Rome wants to build his own legacy. When an accidental phone call leads him to the daughter of his father’s nemesis, Rome will do whatever it takes to find Ella and set her free, even if it means giving up everything he’s worked so hard for.Can these star-crossed lovers overcome the obstacles and find the happily-ever-after they deserve?If you like high-drama romances with lots of twists and turns and plenty of opportunities to suspend reality, then you’ll love Ashes and Rose Petals.