White Like Me: Reflections On Race From A Privileged Son

Every orphan dreams of one thing—finding a home. When my parents finally found me, I thought I was the luckiest girl alive. But the moment I stepped through their door, I saw her—a girl my age, dressed like a princess, calling them "mom" and "dad." That girl, Cassia, had been living the life that should have been mine. She was their pride and joy, while I was nothing but an outsider. In front of others, she played the perfect sister. Behind closed doors, she made sure I knew my place. I was her shadow, her punching bag. She was my tormentor—my fake sister. I thought my husband could save me from the misery of that home. He was kind, gentle—or so I believed—until he demanded I give up my unborn child, because the only baby he wanted was hers. Betrayed by the two people I trusted most, my world crumbled as I bled alone on an operating table, my life slipping away. But destiny had other plans. I was given another chance—a chance to rewrite my story. This time, I’m ready. I’ll expose Cassia for who she truly is. I’ll protect everything that was stolen from me. I’ll no longer be the weak girl in her shadow. I’ll become my own strength, and Cassia will never have power over me again.

Ashley Tudor was once a talented ballet dancer until an unforeseen injury took her dreams away. Years later, Ashley finds herself bitter, broken, and without a boyfriend. When her junior year begins, she finds herself in the middle of two love interests Zander Hogan, her best friend's twin, and Aiden Buckland, a childhood friend. When ballet enters her life again, Ashley will need to figure out if chasing her dreams is worth breaking her heart.

Eliot Hale had it all: grades, charm, and an enviable future. The whole campus admired his girlfriend. His life was picturesque...Until an anonymous message snatched it all away. One party. One betrayal. One moment that saw the shattering of his glass-laden golden world. Eliot, now the joke of the university, has been stripped of any last semblance of support, in whispers mocking him, asking his name, and wondering in his moment of awe, "Who do I trust when those I loved the most were the first to destroy me?" And just as Eliot spirals into isolated boredom, a stranger people would wish they had in their lives, begins texting him. What starts off as cautious curiosity soon evolves into an intimate, heartfelt bond- the anonymous presence sees into him, all the pain he hides beneath the surface; making him feel something for the very first time in his life. But upon finding out who actually was behind the screen… everything was changed forever. The boy who ruined him might be the only one who really understands him. The one he was raised to hate might be the one to really love him. And that forbidden love? That just might be the one thing that could save them both.

Warning: Contains adult content read at your own risk. A stepfather's forbidden obsession, a love born from abandonment and rejection, a love that can break protocols and desire that can ignite fire, a love to be questioned and tested. All her life she has wanted nothing but love and pure acceptance, but her father abandoned her before birth and her street mother never cares about her. When she finds herself having dangerous thoughts for her crazily attractive stepfather, all she wanted was to be wanted by him and she would go any mile to get his attention especially when she knew he wanted her just as much.

I stumbled upon my neighbor Henry and his girlfriend in the middle of something awkward. My face immediately flushed bright red, now that I had just turned eighteen. With my parents away on a business trip, they had asked Henry to keep an eye on me. But in the dead of night, I discovered him involved in something... something too awkward to mention.

> “Stay still, Little Thorn… I want to taste you slowly.” His voice was velvet and ruin. His mouth, a weapon. And I—fool that I was—leaned closer. Before death wore a suit and called itself a lover, I used to believe in beauty. Before the blood. Before the runes. Before I painted the image that killed my parents—I believed my art could save me. Now I know better. I was just weeks from graduating when the painting came to me like a fever. I didn’t choose it. I didn’t plan it. My hands moved, possessed, dragging symbols I’d never seen and a face I’d never forgotten—his. Eyes red as wine. A crown pierced with thorns. And a girl in the center… me. Offering herself. I signed it with a mark I didn’t recognize. I sold it to a stranger. And days later, my parents were dead—no wounds, no reason, just... gone. The police said stress. I say fate. Now I’m being hunted by a world I didn’t know existed. Vampires with ancient courts and older grudges. Symbols that whisper in my blood. And Lucien D’Aragon—the vampire who says I summoned him with my brushstroke. That I belong to him. He says I’m his prophecy. His ruin. His Little Thorn. But I’m not just prey. Something is waking in me. Something hungry. Something I was never meant to survive. If I give in, I lose everything. If I fight, I might finally learn the truth. About my art. About my bloodline. About what really happened that night. And why he keeps whispering that I was painted for ruin... but made for him.