Arti Ghost In The Shell Novels & Stories

The day Jasper Carter's terminally ill ex, Natalie Klutz, gave birth, his parents—Josephine and Raymond—hired ten bodyguards to keep me, his actual wife, out of the hospital. But I never showed. Josephine clutched Natalie's hand. "She's not getting near you or the baby." Jasper wiped Natalie's forehead. "Relax. Dad's got men at every door. If Emily shows, we'll toss her." Hours passed. Still no me. Jasper finally let himself breathe. He didn't get what my deal was. He was just granting Natalie's dying wish—to be a mom. The second the nurse handed over the crying baby, he smiled like everything was finally worth it. If I came tomorrow and said sorry, he'd forgive me. Hell, he'd even let me raise the kid. What he didn't know? I had just submitted my paperwork. I'd leave the country, join Doctors Without Borders, and ghost him for good.

At 3:17 a.m., every god in the world went silent. The dead began answering prayers instead. Lu Chen, a Chinese-American architect, returns to China to bury his grandmother and sell the ruined temple she left behind. But on the first night of the apocalypse, something wearing his father’s face calls him from the dark. The only place still protected is a forgotten City God Temple, guarded by one dying lamp and an ancient brass key. When Lu Chen becomes the final Temple Keeper, his divine territory is only thirty meters wide. His first mission is simple: survive until dawn. But the first person he saves is Ava Monroe, an American journalist who does not believe in ghosts, gods, or fate. She carries a mark every dead thing wants, and she knows a secret about Lu Chen’s family. To save the living world, Lu Chen must collect incense, judge wandering souls, summon ghost soldiers, and rebuild the underworld. Yet every prayer has a price, and every god who returns may not be on humanity’s side.

Seven years ago, I turned my back on my powerless fated mate, Soren, and chose a powerful Alpha instead. Now, I’m dying alone in this shitty apartment with seven days to live. The Moon's Glow is fading inside me. Without the Final Rite, my soul will be chained to this earth, a ghost doomed to an eternity of torment. And no Alpha will perform it for me. Coughing up another mouthful of blood, I dialed the one number I swore I’d never touch again. Soren. The mate I rejected. Now, the most powerful Alpha in the North. I begged him for the Final Rite. Moments later, his engine screamed down my street. But the boy I once knew was gone. The man staring back at me now held nothing but pure, undiluted hatred in his eyes. "Well, well. Look what we have here," he sneered, his voice dripping with venom. "The fallen princess. When are you going to finally drop dead? The second your heart stops, I’m dumping your corpse in the Feral Lands for the scavengers."

Warning: 18+ only. This is dark and possessive. Triggers: M/M, werewolf, possessive alpha, power imbalance, forced proximity, dubcon, scent marking, bullying, violence. My name is Theo Ellis. I'm nineteen. I'm the ghost on the university swim team. I time laps. I don't matter. Karl Maddox is twenty-one. Captain. Three records. Alpha heir. For two years he never saw me. I went back to the locker room at 11pm for my inhaler. I found him instead. His hands were in solid steel. His eyes were gold. Blood on his mouth. Three nights before the moon. Pack law is simple. A human who sees a shift belongs to that wolf. So now I'm his. He leaned in, breathed against my throat, and said, "You smell fucking irresistible." Someone laced his water that night. They wanted a witness. They got me. By morning practice, the whole pack will smell him on my skin. And Karl doesn't share.

Seventeen years ago, Klaus and Liam were two halves of a whole, bound by bruised knuckles and a love they didn't know how to name. Then Klaus vanished, trading their friendship for a hockey stick and a billionaire legacy. Now, Klaus Conti is the "Ice King" of the NHL—a cold, untouchable superstar who lives behind a wall of PR-approved silence. Liam Vance is a ghost in his own life, drowning in debt and fighting to keep his ten-year-old brother, Leo, alive. When a locker-room scandal threatens to melt Klaus's reputation, his team offers Liam a contract: pose as Klaus’s "ambiguous" best friend to humanize the star. Liam needs the money for Leo’s treatment; Klaus needs a shield. But as Liam captures the boy behind the superstar through his lens, the professional lines shatter. When a staged betrayal forces Klaus to choose between his hard-won reputation and the man he never stopped loving, his cowardice costs Liam everything. To earn a second chance, the Ice King will have to step out of the shadows and face the world—or lose Liam forever.

After years of betrayal, torture, and heartbreak, Cleopatra Raison died filled with regret her dreams shattered, her heart in pieces. Until fate granted her the impossible. Reborn on the night before everything fell apart, she awakens with one blazing purpose to rewrite her destiny. This time, she will uncover every lie, expose every crime, and hunt down the people who destroyed her career and poisoned her life. At the end of that twisted path stands the man she loved without ever realizing it, Calvin the cold, calculating CEO still haunted by the ghost of their tragic first love. But vengeance and desire are a treacherous mix. As Cleopatra steps back into a world woven from deception, hidden truths, manipulation, and long-buried sins. She must decide whether to reclaim the love that once consumed her or burn it to ashes forever. The real question isn’t how far she’ll go, it’s whether she’s willing to return to the modeling world that cost her parents their lives; and what pieces of herself she’s prepared to sacrifice along the way.

After my parents were killed in a territory war, I was taken in by Don Moretti, head of New York's most powerful crime family. I was the only civilian in a world of made men. For twenty years, I was raised alongside his twin heirs, Marco and Santino. Their protection and favor made me the envy of every aspiring mob wife in the city. But when I was finally ready to become a real part of the family, they both turned me down. Marco said, "I need to focus on expanding our territory first. I'm not ready for this kind of commitment." Santino said, "An outsider can't be trusted with family secrets." The next night, at my birthday celebration, they both proposed to the daughter of a low-level enforcer. To prove their loyalty to her, they let her force me to drink "The Don's Fire"—a 150-proof grappa laced with ghost peppers that would hospitalize anyone who wasn't raised on it since childhood. Broken in body and spirit, I made a call from my hospital bed. "I accept the proposal from the Luciano Syndicate."

To save the man she truly loved, the princess locked me in our room and cut out my heart's blood. The last time she drew blood from me, I finally reached the end of my strength and died. But without a shred of pity, she drove the knife into my chest again. "Alec, just bear it a little longer. Stephen's illness came on so suddenly. I need you to give one more bit of your heart's blood." She thought I would struggle in pain. Instead, I lay motionless on the bed and let her take what she wanted. She finally froze, then softened her voice and said, "I'm glad you've come to your senses. I'll make it up to you some other day." But she didn't know there would be no other day. Because I was already dead. What lay before her now was nothing more than a ghost without pain or feeling. In seven more days, I would disappear completely.

“Tell me again,” he murmured, his bare chest a hot, dangerous brand against her back. His teeth grazed the shell of her ear, making her shudder. “How you want me to treat you.” She clutched the silk sheets, dragging them up to her chin, hating the tremor in her voice. “I—I want you to be professional.” A low, dark laugh ghosted over her damp skin. “Then stop looking at me like that.” His amused, arctic-blue eyes held hers captive in the bedroom mirror. She squeezed her eyes shut, wondering what in the world she’d gotten herself into. ^ ^ ^ Isabella Rossi’s life shattered when she discovered her boyfriend’s affair with her best friend, Chloe. The happy couple were even expecting a baby, and she was supposed to be happy for them. Hah. Heartbreak was just the beginning. Drunk and deceived, she woke up in the bed of a powerful, enigmatic stranger—Vincent Sinclair. She thought it was a one-time, humiliating mistake. A secret she would bury forever. Until Monday morning, when Vincent Sinclair strolled into her office as the new, ruthless CEO. And she found out he was her ex-best friend Chloe’s half-brother. Flustered but confident, she met his eyes. Men like him didn’t remember girls like her. She was sure of it. He was most likely just an entitled playboy and the faces in his bed probably blurred. But oh, how wrong she was. Vincent Sinclair remembered everything. Finding his "one-night stand" playing the part of a forgettable employee was his new favorite amusement. First, he made her his personal secretary. Then, he made her life a living, tempting hell. Finally, he served her a contract. Not for a raise—for marriage. It was absurd. But with her life in shambles and his offer too lucrative, Isabella signed.

ZACH: I had loved Amber all my life, so when she turned of age, and her wolf didn't surface, I made the biggest decision of my life—I would claim her. It didn't matter to me if I was the first Alpha with a wolfless Luna in this generation. I still wanted her. I could win her in the Claiming, and I could protect her all her life. I was sure of that until reality struck, and a tragedy happened, leaving me crippled, unable to walk with my feet. My wolf was strong—still able to run on his paws—which was the exact opposite of my human. I became useless, just a shell of the man I was once. So tell me, how could I claim her? How could I protect her when I couldn't even stand on my own? AMBER: I had loved Zach all of my life. I was determined to be claimed by him—either as his fated or chosen mate. So even if my wolf didn't surface, I was still on cloud nine because he finally confessed he felt the same way. I was beyond ecstatic waiting for the Claiming when he could finally claim me. Everything was perfect until I woke up in a hospital bed, where I almost died from a car accident. I thought it was the worst thing that happened in my life until I met Zach again, and he wanted nothing to do with me anymore. I survived the fatal crash, but I had no idea how long I could survive until my heart finally gave up from being shattered by the only man I ever wanted.