The Salt Grows Heavy

Chase Olympus: Her name was Lucy Roshid. Or Salt, as she was popularly known as, at Davenport. The brothel she worked at. She was never meant to matter. Just another transaction. Another body. Until my father touched her and something in me snapped. The Olia cult marked her for death. So I took her instead. Claimed her. Hid her. Now she’s mine. My kitten. I expected obedience. She demanded her freedom. What I got is obsession. She’s a risk I shouldn’t take. A line I shouldn’t cross. But walking away from her means losing more than control. It means losing the only thing that’s ever felt like mine. In my world, that choice starts a war. And I’ve already made mine. I keep Lucy. Or I die trying.

"Mm… Mr. Wood, this feels a little uncomfortable…" I lay still as Ronald Wood, a well-known man from my town, guided me through what he called a 'special training' session. His fingers were strong and precise, pressing along my muscles in a way that made my whole body tense up. It was not exactly pain, but it was not something I was used to either. He leaned closer, one hand steadying my waist. "Does it feel strange? Don't worry. You'll get used to it soon."

Princess Riley of Avarayne watched merchants with ledger, smooth smiles murder her mother at the docks and cast the queen into the harbour's hungry rip. Days later, her grief-numbed father guided by a new wife with colder hands than the sea stripped Riley's birthright and crowned a newborn son in her place. Hounded by courtly poisons and a stepsister who polishes beauty like a blade, Riley binds her chest, hides her hair beneath a bandana, and vanishes into the night as "Rye." Aboard the infamous Gilded Wraith under Captain Kade Thorne, the Wolf of the Azure. Rye learns knots, storms, and the language of survival. A slow, impossible pull grows between captain and "boy," even as she steers the crew through sea monsters, rival pirates, and raids against the royal fleet hunting them. But when a bounty bearing House Morcant's seal surfaces, Riley glimpses the conspiracy that began the night her mother drowned. Captured and unmasked to save Kade's life, Riley is dragged back to a palace that would sell her in marriage to silence the truth. To free the man who became her compass and claim the justice denied her, she must choose: reclaim a crown salted with blood or burn the lies that built it.

I was just a healer, never meant to matter to the Alpha. But one night changed everything. One night of passion, of promises whispered in the dark and then he ran back to her. Now, I carry his child. And she still holds his heart. In a pack torn by loyalty, war, and fate, I must fight not only for my unborn baby, but for my own place in a world that sees me as second best. He says he loves me now. He says he’s changed. But how do you trust a man whose soul is tied to someone else? When a threat rises that could destroy everything, the bond between us will be tested. Because this isn’t just a love triangle. It’s war. And someone’s heart will shatter before it ends.

My fiancé's secretary had my wedding ring remade into a Hello Kitty trinket. When I confronted her, she twisted the truth with shameless arrogance, insisting that my wedding was hers to decide. I turned to my fiancé for support, only to have him dismiss me as petty and unworthy of being his bride. Together, they ridiculed and humiliated me, unaware that their families' power and future all depended on me. When my superior stepped in, their mockery collapsed in the face of truth. My fiancé fell to his knees, begging me to honor our engagement. But I cast him aside without hesitation, breaking off the marriage and leaving him with nothing.

After writing 999 love letters to the cold and aloof campus belle, Maddie Harrison, I finally successfully snag her heart. But on the day before our wedding, I accidentally stumble upon Maddie's conversation with her childhood friend, where she jokes about the mistakes she's seen in the love letters. "An elementary school student must have written these letters, from the looks of it! He might as well use AI, to begin with!" So, I terminate our wedding and withdraw all the funding my family has given to her company. Maddie can only shriek hysterically in return. "It's just a joke between friends! Must you go so far as to cancel our wedding?" I show her a virtual fortune-telling prediction of our marriage that's drafted by an AI. "You like using AI that much, don't you? Then look at this prediction properly! Our marriage is a huge misfortune! There's no way I'm going to marry a walking jinx like you!"