Soft Surroundings Blankets Novels & Stories

In the coastal quiet of Baler, a studio is born—not of architecture, but of intention.* Founded by Yam, a poet whose words cradle pain gently, and Franc, an artist who paints tenderness into walls, the studio becomes a refuge for those learning to stay—with grief, love, longing, and themselves. As visitors arrive, they leave behind more than footprints: a sigh recorded in bamboo, a poem tucked into the “Found Letters” shelf, a mural painted in crooked lines. Through zines, tea, silence, and sketchbooks, the studio teaches softness as revolution. Ren creates the *Window of Soft Returns*, an installation of anonymous voice recordings—each whisper forming a community of echoes. Drew builds the *Staircase With No Wrong Turns*, inviting people to walk through emotions without shame. Franc offers brushstrokes as brave work, and Yam curates writing circles that map healing in half sentences. Together, they host festivals that feel like hugs, and they begin traveling their archive, letting softness cross oceans. Even those who once left—like Miguel—return, discovering that some doors never truly close. Others, like Tala, capture the studio’s sound and turn it into a podcast of breath and becoming. Over seventy chapters, the studio transforms into something larger than itself: a mural of memory, a sanctuary for second chances, a place where return is sacred and voice is proof of survival. In the final bloom, the studio stands not as a monument—but as a reminder: > *“Staying isn’t easy. > But chosen together, > it becomes home.”*

When Cole Harrington ran away from our wedding for the seventh time because of his childhood sweetheart, the Harrington family personally came to apologize. "We'll add another five kilos of gold to the bride price. Three buildings in the Southwest. And nine prime-location storefronts in the city center. Consider it the Harrington family's compensation." Before the words had fully settled, a careless laugh from Cole came through the phone. "Grandpa, do you really think she's worth that much? Believe it or not, I could pick up a random rock off the street and still coax her into being completely obedient. "Instead of wasting all those assets on her, why not give them to me so I can invest them in Liv's gallery?" Henry Harrington hurriedly hung up the phone, then looked at me with an awkward expression. Soft snickers rippled through the crowd. Everyone was waiting for me to swallow the humiliation in silence, just as I had before. But this time— I had already received this kind of "compensation" six times. The novelty had long since worn off. The same was true for Cole himself. After a moment of thought, I raised an eyebrow and glanced toward the crowd—at the illegitimate younger brother whom Cole had always despised the most. A smile slowly curved across my lips. "The man that I marry becomes the heir to the Harrington family. That was our deal, right?"

" Do i scare you, Micaela." "Your majesty." I whimper, avoiding his gaze. I couldn't muster the courage to meet him in the eyes, not when his intimidating demeanour blocked every sense of reasoning. " mea bella mate ," the way he uttered those strange words, so soft, so delicate, like a sweet caress. Yet I couldn't bring myself to be swayed by his tactics. He wasn't just the king but a man betrothed to another, and I was merely a maid assigned to serve him. "What would Anastasia think if she walks in on our compromising position?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper. " I couldn’t give two sh*t what she thinks or feels." His tone was so calm yet frightening. " She means absolutely nothing to me." ♧♧♧ Micaela Whitlock was born and raised inside the Palace, having little experience with life beyond its gates. Despite the benefit of working at the palace, her life was anything but enjoyable. It has been 100 years since the beast overran the human world, eradicating the vast majority of people and enslaving the remainder. Unfortunately, her parents had been among the people who had been taken prisoner. She followed instructions to the letter, doing everything in her power to blend in and go unnoticed until an awful event occurred and irrevocably altered her life.

In two steps he was on her, yanking her up straight and turning her around to face the wall. She gasped at the change in dynamic: her teasing and taunting were shoved roughly to one side and now he was in full and total control. Jo trembled as he dropped a slow, sexy kiss on her right shoulder, then lightly nipped her soft skin before moving his mouth to her ear. “Don’t you move, angel,” he murmured. “Keep facing forward.” **** Jolene Angeles is fresh out of a nightmare marriage and parked at a roadside biker bar hunting for one thing: Mr. Right Now. In a few days, she’ll have a new job, a new city, a new life, and a single, forgettable one-night stand feels like the perfect way to burn the past down. Then she meets Zeke. Silver-eyed, dangerous. Exactly the kind of mistake she wants. One night, no names, no aftermath. Zeke “Silver” Bennett doesn’t lose control. Ever. He learned that lesson once, and it nearly destroyed him. So when he spots the dark-eyed woman across the bar, he knows the rules: one night, clean break, no complications. Until fate throws them together again... and secrets start detonating. They didn’t tell each other the truth. Now they’re forced to decide: can trust be built on lies? And if the truth finally comes out – raw, painful, unforgiving – will either of them be brave enough to risk real love?

After ten years studying interior design overseas, I came back to my hometown to do work that mattered to the people who raised me. I offered the full package, from site survey to soft furnishings. The materials were chosen by hand. The price was fair to the bone. The town had just gone through a redevelopment. Everyone was getting new units. With the new family policy, every family wanted a third bedroom too. My business was good. Customers from the next county were driving in. Then a girl just back from a city college kicked open my studio with her phone on a livestream and her neighbors at her shoulder. "This is the dishonest one. Look at her. She has been ripping the village off." "In the city, an eighty-square-meter unit can be done for twenty thousand dollars. She is charging eighty." "That's a sixty-thousand-dollar margin. Sixty thousand. Right out of our pockets." The village fell in line behind her. They demanded the difference back. When I refused, they smashed my studio. They beat me into a coma. The pile-on online killed me. When I opened my eyes again, I knew exactly what I was going to do. I would refund every single one of them. And then I would tear out every single thing I had installed. Let's see what twenty thousand dollars actually buys you.

SYNOPSIS After Maryanne catches her boyfriend and her sister riding each other and talking bad about her in a hotel room, she decides to take her revenge by giving her virginity to a complete stranger. The virginity she was meant to give to him on the night of her 18th birthday, which was that night. [His hands slid down to my side, my waist, then my ass and I felt him grab them close to my thighs, which just somehow caused my pussy side to slide over the other. I released a soft moan to his mouth. He clearly knew how to grab a woman's butt. I wondered what else he could do. “Come on, let's go to my room.” He sang into my ears. He had already booked a room for the night. I wondered if he did so he could lure someone in, just like he was doing, me. It didn't matter however. With his charm, I would gladly be lured. He grabbed my hands softly and I followed him. ] Just like that, she gave her virginity to this unknown man, only to realise the next day that he was Prince Austin, the Lycan Prince and heir to the Royal line throne. More than that, he is appointed the new VC of her school and what she thought would be a one night stand became a full fleshed drama with lots of twists, threats, sorrow and deaths.

''After a few seconds of them staring at one another, Dante finally spoke. But his voice had changed; it was breathless and soft, echoing with a sweetness that Nate could have never imagined existed within him. With the knife left on his palm for Nate to grab, he cooed sheepishly, "Can you...tease me...with this?" Nate Kennedy was devastated when his parents announced their moving overseas. As for him, he was forced to move to a new city, get an apartment near his aunt and enroll in a brand new school. It all started going left when he encountered an assassin named Dante Hercules known not only in their city, but across the entire territory. But Nate didn't know he was an assassin when NAte threatened to kill him after Dante had laid a hand on his aunt. Neither did he know that Dante was into submissive sexual pleasure, relished being dominated violently and carelessly. He had been looking for someone for years and years, until now; he found Nate Kennedy. That is the deal; Nate must keep Dante sexually satisfied. If he fails, he dies, without any remorse. But that was what he thought in the beginning; what happens when emotions start to get involved? When one falls in love with the other? When the dangerous lifestyle of Dante puts Nate's life in jeopardy, which he never thought he would care for?

Mirabella spent her entire life in her sister's shadow, serving as the family fixer who cleans up every disaster left behind by her golden sister, the perfect sister and the one who got the guy she had always crushed on. When her sister absconds on her wedding day to avoid an arranged marriage with Theodore Hartley, a calculated logistics billionaire with a soft spot to her and her family, the family’s survival depends on one final sacrifice. Mirabella is convinced by her parents to step into the veil, expecting a furious groom who will demand an annulment only to discover that Theo has been waiting for her all along. The wedding is a trap, meticulously orchestrated by a man who didn't just buy a wife, but claimed the woman he has obsessed over from the sidelines for years. As Mirabella is swept into the opulent, suffocating world of Theo’s museum-like estate, she realizes her life is no longer her own. Every gesture of his affection is a calculated move to bind her closer, and every secret she uncovers about his business threatens the fragile peace she’s trying to maintain. Trapped between a debt she cannot pay and an undeniable, terrifying attraction to the man who stole her identity, Mirabella must decide if she will continue to be the fixer for everyone else’s mistakes or finally break the chains of the man who owns her heart and her future, take back her life and love her the right way

My husband was the leader of the rescue team. As I was trapped in a cave and surrounded by a pack of wolves, I desperately called him over and over. Yet, he hung up on me every single time. When the fire nearly burnt out and the wolves got closer, he finally called me and angrily accused me, "Can you stop wasting public resources? I'm the rescue team leader first, and then your husband." In the background, I heard a soft, feminine voice saying, "Howard, my arm has a cut. Can you take me to the hospital?" I was familiar with that voice. It was my husband's first love. Ever since her husband died, she clung to him. And my husband... He didn't just tolerate it; rather, he seemed to enjoy it. A wave of despair washed over me as I ended the call. My hands were trembling, and I tried to call the police, but before I could, the leader of the wolves pounced on me. I fell hard to the ground, and the rest of the pack, sensing the signal, ran toward me at an extraordinary speed. I didn't stand a chance to fight back, and in mere moments, I was ripped into pieces. Before my consciousness slipped away, I struggled to glance down at my lower abdomen one last time, and my lips quivered. "My baby, I'm sorry I failed you…"

Everyone thought I was just an Omega clinging to Alpha Pheisar— gentle, silent, unworthy of love. In his eyes, I was nothing more than a burden the Moon Goddess tossed his way. But the moment he held Selene’s hand and vowed a mate-bond at the Moonlit Altar, I finally understood — I had never mattered. He never kept a promise, never cared about the wolf-soul I burned to keep him alive. So I rejected him. He thought I was being dramatic—until I bonded with the “comatose Alpha” everyone believed would never wake. When he knelt at my ceremony and roared “I only want you,” I simply replied: “Too late.” What they never knew was this— I was never a vine to be pulled or broken. I can stitch a wedding gown with devotion, and cut off a rotting love just as cleanly. I can be soft— and I can be resolute. The day I married Alpha Zander, no one expected him to wake—much less fall for me. But the first time I whispered “Mate” in his arms, the ice around him melted into pure devotion. And in the quiet dark, his hand firm on my waist, he murmured: “Pheisar is downstairs begging again…I’m feeling jealous. You’ll have to make it up to me.” This time— Pheisar will learn what kind of treasure he threw away. And Zander will know the partner in his hands is worth a lifetime of love.