Bird Box

She felt like a caged bird. A bird that was meant to fly the high, blue skies, but was trapped like a prized possession for her master to impress others with. Ava is the daughter of a very powerful man in the underworld. Her blood, her family name makes her a tool for others to gain more power. Greedy men want her for her name, not for who she is. Being locked up all her life in her father's house makes her naïve and ignorant of the outside world. Meaning the greedy men have an easy game to play.

My husband's first love had been trapped in a car for an hour. After they pulled her out, his rage shifted onto me. “It’s your fault she got hurt,” he spat, his eyes blazing as he grabbed me. Before I could make sense of what was happening, he forced me into a wooden box, slamming the lid down with a deafening crack. “You’re going to feel every ounce of the pain she went through,” he hissed, nailing it shut. I pounded on the walls, my screams tearing through the air. “Please, I didn’t do anything! Let me out!” My throat burned with the effort, my fists aching, but nothing stopped him. “Stay in there until you’ve figured out how to act like a decent human being,” he said, his voice cold, dripping with contempt. Hours passed. My body twisted unnaturally in the tight space, bones throbbing as blood smeared the wood beneath me. I whispered into the dark, the pain unbearable. "Please… just let me out…" But he didn’t care. A week later, he returned, his laughter echoing with hers as they entered the house, carefree from their trip. He finally opened the box. But by then, I was already gone. The woman he locked away was no longer breathing, no longer pleading. Just a cold, silent corpse.

Aria Bellini was born into bad blood. Her family name carries power, money, and enemies that never forget. Growing up in the Bellini house means secrets whispered behind closed doors, brothers raised to hate, and a life already planned out for her before she could even choose her own clothes. All Aria wants is peace. A small life. Her own space away from the violence and rivalry that has followed her family for years. So when she finally moves into her own apartment, it feels like freedom. Quiet nights. No guards. No family drama. Just her and the city. But freedom does not come alone. It starts small. A feeling of being watched. A shadow that disappears too fast. Flowers left behind that she never asked for. Lilies. Always lilies. Her favorite. Aria tells herself she is imagining things. Until the notes start coming. Until the silence around her apartment feels loud. Until fear starts sleeping beside her at night. Then there is him. The stranger who appears when she is not looking. The one who knows too much. The one who stays in the dark while her life slowly unravels. As family hatred, hidden enemies, and twisted attraction begin to clash, Aria is pulled into a dangerous game where trust is risky and love might be the most deadly thing of all. Because in a world built on revenge and control, someone is watching her. Someone who does not plan to let her go. And when blood is spilled, Aria will learn that some loves are born from hate. And some monsters fall in love too.

A young woman in love decides to follow the call of a mysterious man to be a canary down in The Mines.She heeds his call, and is thrown headlong into an adventure, finding herself falling in love at sound of the music in The Mines.Will she fall in love with the mysterious man who calls to her? Who runs The Mines?Or will she sell herself for someone else's dreams?

For a year, Malakai Thorne's ultra-luxury penthouse had been Aria’s sanctuary—a gilded haven where the ghosts of her past could not reach her. To the world, Kai was a ruthless, unfeeling corporate predator, but to her, he had been a fierce protector. She had blindly trusted him, calling him her everything and giving him the shattered pieces of her heart. She arrived in a shimmering emerald gown, waiting for her fairy tale to begin. But as the spotlight snapped on, the trap snapped shut. Holding the hand of a global heiress, Kai publicly announced his engagement to another woman, reducing Aria to nothing more than a "disposable pet" in front of the city's elite. Broken, humiliated, and desperate to flee, she ran into the rain, only to find his massive security detail blocking her path. The man she loved hadn't brought her to the ball to lift her up; he had brought her there to destroy her dignity. And he had no intention of letting her leave. Locked away in his high-security fortress, the rules of the game have changed. Kai may believe she is a broken bird trapped in his cage, but he forgets who taught her how to survive.

What if you were held captive by your own family? Emma Rawlins has spent the last year a prisoner. The months following her mother's death dragged her father into a paranoid spiral of conspiracy theories and doomsday premonitions. Obsessing him, controlling him, they now whisper the end days are finally at hand. And he doesn’t intend to face them alone. Emma finds herself drugged and dragged to a secluded cabin, the last refuge from a society supposedly due to collapse. Their cabin a snowbound fortress, her every move controlled, but even that isn't enough to weather the end of the world. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing Everything she knows is out of reach, lost beyond a haze of white. There is no choice but to play her father's game while she plans her escape. But there is a force far colder than the freezing drifts. Ancient, ravenous, it knows no mercy. And it's already had a taste...