Iced Out Novels & Stories

My boyfriend, Simon Carver, was a man with very strong boundaries. For three years, he never let me go to his place. He said it was his private territory. He never let me touch his phone, not even to check the time. Even at gatherings with friends, he always seated me farthest away from him. I always thought he simply wasn't used to intimacy. Then, on the eve of our wedding, I received his shared location. I thought he had finally decided to let me get closer, so I followed the location and went to his home for the first time. The door wasn't locked. In the living room, a woman was wearing his oversized T-shirt like pajamas, her pale legs resting across his lap as she whined for him to massage her. When he saw me, surprise flashed through Simon's eyes. Then he returned to his usual indifference. "Why are you here? "That location was meant for Ives. I was in a rush and picked the wrong person. "Maren, you need to give me some private space too. Don't see one shared location and come rushing over like a dog that smelled a bone, desperate to check up on me." I found it funny. He was intimate with another woman, yet he turned around and asked his fiancee for private space. I didn't say anything else. I just lowered my head and accepted the out-of-state transfer notice from my boss. Since he thought I was standing too close, I would step farther away. Far enough that his world would never have me in it again.

Six years of marriage. All passion at night, but never tenderness in the daylight. Amelia Sinclair loved Christopher Zephyr deeply, and she swallowed the bitterness as if it were sweet. Her own daughter wasn't allowed to call him father, yet the son of his first love sat on his lap, learning to say the word "dad". The entire family treated that adopted boy as a precious heir, while her own flesh and blood was treated like a shameful stain. It wasn't until Amelia and her daughter paid with their lives—until Christopher signed the cremation papers with his own hand and then took the boy to attend his first love's welcome banquet—that Amelia finally understood. Love couldn't win love. A heartless man had no heart to give. When Amelia was reborn, she swore she would never again cling to that cold and humiliating marriage. In her past life, she had foolishly given up her studies, content to be a housewife and devote herself to her family. In this one, she submitted the divorce papers without hesitation, took her daughter far from the mire, and rebuilt her career until she stood at the top again. In the first week after Amelia left, Christopher dismissed it as one of her tantrums. By the first month, he brushed it off completely. It didn't matter to him what she did, so it was fine to let her go. Later on, he saw her again, standing tall among the industry's elite! Amelia was focused only on her career, and her daughter was focused only on finding herself a new father. And Christopher finally realized that they really didn't want him anymore. The man lost all reason. The one who had always been cold, proud, untouchable, suddenly threw away his dignity. He blocked the mother and daughter pair in full view of everyone, his voice breaking as he pleaded, "Honey, I'll kneel here if I have to. Please... just love me one more time."

All I've done is say something to my first love, whom I haven't met for many years. Since then, my wife, Linda Weber, demands that I report my whereabouts to her constantly. Otherwise, she won't hesitate to stop paying for our daughter, Lily Colt's medical bills. The first time happened when I was buying groceries. Linda told me to record a video of myself and tell the camera that I was her simp. The second time happened when I was accompanying Lily when she was undergoing a dialysis procedure. Linda demanded that I strip myself naked just so she could check if I was fooling around with other women in the same room. The third time happened when Lily finally got a kidney match. Linda demanded that I travel to the other end of the city just to buy the roasted sweet potatoes she had eaten on our first date together. By the time I have the roasted potatoes delivered to her with sweat drenching my form, I witness Linda giving the kidney source to her first love's mother just because I'm one minute later than the designated time. Only then do I realize that Linda has done all those things to me just so she can please James Harmon by pulling pranks on me purposefully.

The third time my fiancé, Jeffrey Lewis, shoves me into a horde of zombies, I stop struggling as I do for the first two times. Alison Sheppard leans against his chest with a pale face. "Jeff, I overused my powers just now. My blood sugar's low, and I'm craving some chocolate. I think the bag we had fell into the zombie horde." Without even looking back, Jeffrey raises a hand and pushes me forward. "Go get it, Juliet. Your protective shield ability keeps the zombies from noticing you anyway. You won't get hurt." My brother, Lucas Cox, looks at me anxiously and urges, "Why are you stalling? Hurry up! Alison is our savior. You should be willing to die for her!" The other survivors all nod in agreement. "How expected of a piece of trash. This is the only thing she's good for. Go pick it up already. Don't keep Ms. Sheppard waiting for her snack." As I listen to their cruel words, I feel my blood run cold. What they don't know is that I'm the one bound to the Savior System. For the past three years, the protective shield around this base has existed only because I exchange the Fondness points I've earned for it. And just moments ago, the system tells me something. [Host's Fondness points have dropped to zero. The protective shield will soon fail. Erasure countdown initiated!]

My wife had called me in the middle of the night with a hint of drunkenness in her voice. She admitted to having too much to drink and asked me to come get her. I hurried to the private club she mentioned, only to find myself having to change into a bathrobe as soon as I got there. Surrounded by a group of wealthy women in their fifties, they playfully flirted and teased me relentlessly. Suddenly, a few of them pounced, pushing me to the ground and demanding I crawl like a dog. Despite the humiliation, my main concern was still my wife's wellbeing. Hours passed before she finally showed up, disheveled, supported by her male assistant, looking at me with a cold smirk. It was then that the truth hit me. This whole situation was a scheme she had orchestrated to please him. My anger rising, I called and spoke through gritted teeth, "Three days. I want every single business under the Spencers wiped out."

Every decade, Valen Academy opens five seats to human outsiders. Nobody questions why. Nobody asks what happens to the ones who never come home. Zara Voss has spent three years engineering her acceptance into the most secretive werewolf academy in the country. She's not here for the education. She's not here to survive the social hierarchy. She's here because her sister Lena was one of the five ten years ago and never came back. What she doesn't expect is Caius Vane. The Alpha heir is controlled, precise, and carrying a truth so heavy it has bent the shape of him. He notices Zara the way you notice a lit match in a dark room with equal parts fascination and dread. She doesn't perform for him. She doesn't adjust herself around his authority. And she is getting dangerously close to the one secret that could unravel everything his bloodline was built to protect. The closer she gets to the truth, the closer she gets to him. And in Valen Academy, both things will cost her. Some doors are sealed for a reason. Zara Voss was never very good at leaving them closed.

I was supposed to disappear. Slip into a forgettable little town, stitch myself back together, and never trust a man again. I had a plan, a fake name, and a bruised heart too raw to feel anything. Then Colt Mercer looked at me from across the bar, and every single plan I ever made went up in smoke. He is everything I should run from. Tattooed, dangerous, and commanding, Colt is the President of the Iron Vow Motorcycle Club and, by day, one of the most powerful billionaires in the country. He built his empire from nothing and buried anyone who tried to take it. He does not ask. He does not negotiate. He claims. And the moment I walked into his bar, he claimed me. But I am hiding a secret that could destroy us both, and the man who broke me in the first place has sent someone to bring me back dead or alive. Colt says he will burn the world before he lets anyone touch me. The problem is, I am starting to believe him. Because falling for an outlaw king was never supposed to feel this much like coming home.

On Mia Larson’s birthday, her mother, who had been her anchor, passed away. Her husband, Nick Ford, did not celebrate her birthday, nor did he attend her mother’s funeral. Instead, he was at the airport, picking up his one true love.

Two years ago, Ryder “Ghost” Callahan lost everything. His president, his brothers… and the man he loved all because of one betrayal. Luca Torres was once family, a Serpent through and through until the night a deal went wrong. Branded a traitor, hunted by the club he once called home, Luca vanished without a trace playing dead. Now Ghost finds him again, alive under a false name and working quietly in a small town garage not so far away. The rage Ghost buried rises fast and he drags Luca back to the compound, ready to make him pay for every scar and every grave he left behind. But the man chained before him isn’t the enemy Ghost remembers. He doesn’t fight or beg and when the club is attacked, Luca stands his ground to protect the very brothers who wanted him dead. Each revelation questions if Luca truly betrayed them or it was all a misunderstanding. As old lies unravel and new wars ignite, Ghost is forced to face the truth; the real traitor was closer than he ever imagined and it wasn't Luca. Now, to save the club and the man he had fallen in love with, Ghost must choose between vengeance and redemption… Between the patch he swore to protect and the love he thought he buried.

We have a family group chat meant for the core members only. It's named "the Coppola family". The ones in the group are my father, my mother, my oldest brother, Fabio Coppola; my second brother, Luca Coppola, and my little sister, Francesca Coppola. Oh, that's not all. Fabio's bloodhound, Fido; Luca's ragdoll, Neve; and Francesca's fancy rat, Pico, are members of the group chat too. I'm the only one who's not included in that group. There's once when I ask Francesca, "Can you add me into the group?" She's in the middle of feeding Pico at that time. Without bothering to glance at me, she replies, "That group is meant for insiders only. Wouldn't you feel awkward if you were to join the group, Valentina?" I just look at Pico, who keeps screeching in Francesca's arms. It has a special nickname and the right to speak up in the family group. To think that I, the Coppolas' biological daughter, am nothing compared to a fancy rat.