A Quiet Kind of Survival
By @john1208
I didn't mean to become a fated mate. After witnessing my family's slaughter at the hands of the ruling syndicate, my voice died in my throat. I just wanted a quiet place to hide and do absolutely nothing. But I woke up somewhere impossible: inside a doorless, enchanted cabin deep in the Nyravan Taiga. My roommate? Korvan, a towering, terrifying warden with slashed vocal cords who communicates in heavy stares and protective grunts. Elder Pravil warned me before I fled: never feed the Taiga's beast, never look him in the eye, and never share his space. I thought those rules were meant to keep me alive. But I'm too lazy to maintain the elaborate avoidance rituals Pravil taught me. When I absentmindedly cook a pot of spiced tuber stew just to stop my own stomach from growling, I offer a bowl to the giant. It turns out the stew tastes exactly like his stolen childhood. That single act of lazy convenience triggers an ancient soul-bond, and I realize the horrifying truth. Pravil's 'survival rules' weren't meant to protect me. They were a ritual meant to dismantle the cabin's wards. Now that our bond is repairing the sanctuary, the real monsters are coming. Can two voiceless, broken people defend their home?
5
The Maid's Midnight Lullaby
By @john1208
I only took the extra catering shift at the grand Ferrero engagement gala to afford a meal. Hiding behind a starched apron, I was just Delfina Navarro, a disgraced heiress learning to survive the ashes of my family's ruin. But when I smuggled a shivering stray terrier into the estate's kitchens during the toast, I didn't expect to be caught by the host himself. Bastian Ferrero is a notoriously ruthless, terrifyingly grumpy tycoon who hasn't slept a full night in four years. To my shock, he didn't fire me. Instead, he offered me a permanent position with a staggering reward bonus just to keep making him my grandmother's warm soups and to help me hide the dog. We bonded over whispered midnight conversations and brushing little Churro's fur, Bastian's cold demeanor melting into a fierce, quiet devotion. But that massive bonus is a trap. His board engineered his isolation, planning to frame his newest maid when his heart finally gives out from stress. With his greedy ex-wife returning to circle like a vulture, can my simple warmth save the man I'm falling for before the trap snaps shut on us both?
3
The Trillionaire's Midnight Delivery
By @john1208
Karys Fend, the brilliant but alienated heiress of the Fend Corporation, suffers from severe stress-induced anorexia due to her family’s ruthless expectations. The only food she can keep down is the simple, rustic midnight takeout delivered by Orik, a deadpan courier for a run-down ghost kitchen. To Karys’s elitist family, Orik is nothing but a 'slop-peddler' ripe for cruel mockery whenever he tracks mud into their penthouses. They have no idea that Orik is actually the vanished Sovereign of the Zarris Syndicate - the anonymous tycoon who secretly owns the city’s entire debt and real estate grid. Orik retired to find peace in cooking, but Karys’s fierce defense of him against her own abusive relatives slowly melts his cynical heart. When the Fend patriarch attempts to force Karys into a predatory marriage by hosting a lavish gala to impress the mysterious Zarris Sovereign, they make the fatal mistake of throwing Orik’s delivery moped into the fountain. As Karys stands alone against her family's cruelty, will Orik finally take off his delivery helmet, claim the VIP throne, and instantly foreclose on the very ballroom they are standing in?
1