Left 4 Dead 2 2 Novels & Stories

There are monsters in this world. And they used to be us. Now it's time to euthanize to survive in a hospice where Emily, a woman haunted by her past, only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible. Post-infection Chicago. Christmas. Inside The Hospice, Emily and her fellow nurses do their rounds. Here, men and women live out their final days in comfort, segregated from society, and are then humanely terminated before fate turns them into marrow-craving monsters known as ‘Smilers.’ Outside these imposing walls, rabid protesters swarm with signs, caught up in the heat of their hatred. Emily, a woman haunted by her past, only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible. But in a world where mortality means nothing, where guns are drawn in fear and nobody seems safe anymore – at what cost will this pursuit come? And through it all, the soon to be dead remain silent, ever smiling. Such is their curse. It won't be long before that snow-speckled ground will be salted by blood. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Fae’s been in love with Carl Easton for a long time. Orphaned by her mother when she was two and by her father when she was fourteen, she was fostered by the wealthy Eastons until she was eighteen. Fast-forward ten years, Fae attends a wedding and watches Carl marry her snake of a bestfriend. That night, she begs Carl's best buddy Jigo to help her forget. Hands down, he is the most gorgeous, sexiest man she has ever met. He is way out of her league and she will never have the guts to proposition him if she isn't drunk. Stoic and brooding, wealthier and more successful than Carl, he vibes power. She can never guess he was such a molten lava of emotions and the sweetest teddy bear behind closed doors. She spends part of the weekend in his bed then ran from him before she can get addicted to his brand of passion. She needs the distraction but he is more than she can ever dream of. It is foolish to hope for more. But he appears in her doorstep and seduces her to make him her willing rebound for as long as she needs him. No way will he let her go until they are done. And they spiral so fast that Fae can’t tell where distraction ends and falling in love begins…

“Are you going to treat me like the enemy?” Raffaele asked, hovering over me like a predator. “You are the enemy,” I sneered. He smiled. “Careful. You’re hurting my feelings.” “I hope I can hurt much more than that.” His eyes darkened. “You forget—I’m the one who can break you.” I vowed never to give my heart to a man. Never let one bend me. Never let one own me. Then a single night changed everything. When my best friend became a target, I took her place and caught the attention of the most dangerous man in the city. Raffaele, My friend's older brother, wasn’t supposed to see me. We were never meant to meet but the moment his eyes locked on mine, I became his new obsession. I don’t bend and he doesn't let go. Suddenly caught up in a world of blood and power, resisting a man like Raffaele might cost me everything...heart, body, and soul. He wants me, dead or alive.

Jack Spencer used to be someone else. Someone older, someone hardened, someone who made the mistake of trusting the wrong people—and paid for it with his life. Now, he’s in a different body, staring at a future that doesn’t belong to him. He should be grateful for this second chance. He should want to start over. But how do you move forward when every part of you is still trapped in the past? How do you live when you already died once? Jack tells himself he doesn’t need friends. He doesn’t need love. He doesn’t need anything but distance. But the more he pushes people away, the more they insist on seeing the person he refuses to be. And when the remnants of his past begin creeping into his new life, Jack has to decide: Is he doomed to repeat the same mistakes, or can he finally break free from the dead-end path that refuses to let him go? (Trigger Warnings Included)

I was Don Alexander's most skilled assassin and Consigliere, and also his secret wife. But for five years of our secret marriage, he never allowed our son to call him Dad. He always said that the enemy families were constantly watching our family, and that I and our son were his only weakness, so this was to protect us. I believed him, and silently helped him manage all the family affairs, until his first love, Bella, returned with a five-year-old boy. He booked out the entire Disneyland for them to play all day. That day was my son's birthday, and he stubbornly waited for his father to come home, holding a melting cake. I completely lost hope and made a phone call: "Help me cancel my and Leo's identities and erase all our information." But when my son and I truly disappeared, the powerful Don went mad, searching the entire world for traces of us...

After I fell while pregnant, my six-year-old son, Nico Bertelli, did not come to help me. When I woke up, the baby in my belly was gone. At my hospital bedside, Nico hid behind my husband, Roberto Bertelli, and mumbled, "Mommy, I thought you fainted on purpose to get my attention. You've pretended to pass out a few times before just to stop me from going out with Ms. Pelosi." Roberto chimed in coldly, "You're always pulling tricks to get attention. Nico doesn't even trust you anymore. You need to take a hard look at yourself and figure out why he prefers being around Martina Pelosi over you." I was completely heartbroken. The day after I was discharged, I went home, packed up everything that belonged to me, and left behind only two documents: a divorce agreement and a letter terminating my parental rights.

For the people to feel the Royalty of the blood in their veins doesn’t mean that they are ruling their kingdom, or they have some Kingdom. Their lineage to the ancestors who are former and last rulers is more than enough to get the pride of being a royalty which they were taught from the time they started learning things. Three Princes who are not going to rule someplace, but they have the title because of their bloodline and have education, wealth and skills in many things at the top range. However, to be able to love is a wealth which cannot be achieved by simply thinking about it or by some lineage. They may be the Princes in the matter of their birth and the life they are leading, but they will learn more about the real wealth from three women who are princesses by heart. The things they believe and trust will build a wall stopping the love from these princesses to reach them. Will it be broken to make it possible? If it is, then how and by whom? Or will prove to be too late by the time it breaks? Join the journey of six people who are in different moments in their lives, but destiny always has a way with them…

When Evie Crichton comes to Sirius she has no idea how the placement on the planet will change her life. On her first assignment in her new base she meets Ethan Nacher, the chief of a military team stationed near the base. From the very first moment dark handsome Sirian is a mystery that keeps her awake at night. But his behavior is just confusing-one minute it seems he wants to keep his distance and the next he is everywhere she goes. For Ethan Evie Crichton is like an unattainable dream. He loses his head for her the first minute he sees her. But he is just a Sirian soldier put in charge of protecting the Earthian base and he is convinced a beautiful Earthian girl would not ever care to look at him. Unexpected attack on the base forces Ethan to make on the spot decision. He saves Evie from the bombarded base and takes her on a journey through the jungle to his home city. He promises that when they get there he'll help Evie contact another base and return to her people. But will she want to return? On the journey despite her better judgement Evie falls for the handsome soldier more and more every day. However Ethan seems to treat her just as a burden for his team. Was the chemistry that seemed to have been building between them before just in Evie's head? As they face dangers on their way they will both have to face their feelings as well and decide whether they are stronger than reason.

BLURB They called her daughter “defective.” They called her “human trash.” Garett Blackthorn abandoned her in an ICU while their child died. Then he signed divorce papers and married a crown. Cyhilenia died begging for her daughter’s life. She woke up wearing the face of Summer Varye, an abdicated heiress, Logan Dorne’s contract wife. Logan bought Summer for 20 million and a blood oath. Death doesn’t void it. Now his “wife” has blue eyes, steel-cutting claws, and a dead daughter’s locket around her neck. He thinks he claimed to be a runaway heiress. He doesn’t know he claimed a grieving mother with nothing left to lose. Cyhilenia will play Summer. She’ll wear the crown Garett threw away. And when she’s done, the Supreme Alpha who called her trash will beg on his knees. Because blood doesn’t void. And neither does a mother’s promise. He owns her contract. She owns his downfall.

After the school cafeteria for elementary school kids shut down, I decided to offer meals for all the kids in our building at my home. At the end of the month, when it came time to settle the bill, one of the neighbors wasn’t happy. “The new caterer downstairs only charges $2.50 per meal, but you’re charging us $5! That’s an extra $75 per kid per month. Do you have no shame?” she accused me. I calmly explained that I only used free-range meat and organic vegetables in my meals. But no matter how patiently I tried to reason with them, the parents insisted I refund the difference and demanded I charge no more than $2.50 per meal moving forward. When I lowered my costs to meet their demands, they started accusing me of mistreating their children. They went online to expose me and even reported me to the authorities. The online attacks were relentless. I was fined, and my husband lost his job because of the controversy surrounding me. The stress pushed me into depression, and in the end, I jumped off a building to end it all. When I opened my eyes again, I saw those same parents being swayed by others in the neighborhood to send their kids to the new daycare service that only charged $2.50 a day. What they didn’t know was that the lunch caterer next door did serve meat every day—but it was frozen, diseased pork that had been sitting in storage for two years.