spangee85's Bookshelf
The Cage
Julian's dream is to become one of the most successful criminal lawyers around, so when a client asks him to venture to The Prison From Hell located on a remote island for an assignment, he jumps at the chance in hopes of a promotion. He's well-aware of the prison's infamous reputation, corrupt laws and peculiar hierarchy, so he already expects to find the baddest of the bad and the foulest of the foul within its concrete walls. Instead, he finds and catches the eye of the most beautiful man he's ever laid eyes on.
When Schneider Cross, the new King of the Prison, offers him a one-in-a-lifetime chance to represent him as his attorney, Julian accepts, but just before he leaves, a riot breaks out and the prison descends into chaos. Julian is unwittingly caught in its midst and is made to defend himself from a group of rapists, forcing him to kill in self-defense.
Angered, the inmates conspire to pin a bogus murder charge on Julian and have him thrown into The Prison from Hell with the intention to finish what they started. Dangerously unprepared and still reeling from the injustice, Julian must now seek the protection of the strongest man in all the prison if he is to survive. Only to ensure the King's protection, Julian must agree to become his 'bitch' and 'serve' him in an entirely different way than the first job entailed.
But how can Julian possibly agree to such a thing when he suspects Schneider of conspiring with the other inmates to get him locked up?
Sweet Silence
Sage is a villain. Not by choice. It just sort of turned out that way, but hey, he's not complaining. Being bad is pretty cool, actually. And while by most people's standards his superpower is pretty lame - muting sound, of all things - he's found it pretty useful when robbing the rich.
Most heroes ignore him. Except one. Lich, the necromancer. Sage didn't know how talking to the dead was considered heroic, but whatever. That's not the problem. The problem is that Lich apparently has a homing beacon locked on Sage specifically, and he keeps getting in Sage's way, despite most heroes not bothering to deal with the small-time villain committing petty theft.
It was annoying, but fine. Sage wasn't all that active in the villainy community anymore anyway. He had just turned thirty, and quite frankly, he was done with this shit. But still, he wanted to go out with a bang, so he planned his final heist: robbing the most powerful man in the city, the governor.
Except, when Sage broke into the governor's house all he found was the governor - dead as a doornail. What's worse is that for the first time in Sage's life, he was no longer invisible. He was found standing over the body, murder weapon in hand.
Now, the entire city of Fairview wants Sage dead, and the only person on earth who can clear his name is his very own necromancer nemesis. For how much they fight, Lich is surprisingly on board with helping Sage...
And so, the two embark on a quest to discover the real killer and clear Sage's name, but the trail leads them to discover some of Fairview's most well-kept and dangerous secrets...
The Wintering Flame
For thousands of years, wars and plagues destroyed the continent of Damocles as fae went against fae, all vying for power and dominance of the lands. It was during the last Great War that a Wytch rose up and cursed the world in hopes to stop the fighting; not a single fae would be born until the fighting ended. One fae decided to take it upon himself to search for the maker of the curse and end it; to bring peace and life to the lands he loved so much. When he found the Wytch who cursed the world, he was made to make an offer before such a feat of undoing could be done. She would bless the world with the ability to repopulate but he would forever be tied to her. He would be the first, an Omega she called him, and through his devotion, the world would once more begin to heal.
But with the rise of Alphas and Omegas, a deadly consequence was enacted. The Omega Trade. Hidden in the shadows and known only to those with power and influence, Omegas are sold like possessions to those with money, given lives of slavery. When it was announced that the Prince of the Autumn Kingdom was born an Omega, it didn't take long before the only heir was kidnapped and said to be sold into the Omega Trade. Once more, blame was thrown around, fingers pointed and a war was toeing the line of all Kingdoms.
Phoenix knew this story from the moment he had opened his eyes. Living in the Spring Kingdom his entire life, all the slaves knew the consequences of their gender. He had been born into slavery to a male Omega he hardly remembered. It's his eyes, however, that has people whispering, that has trained him to keep his head down to keep from anyone seeing. It's easy pretending to not exist within the Spring Court, but when an emissary from the Winter Court arrives one afternoon, Phoenix cannot understand the pull to look up at the white haired male. Little did Phoenix know, this was the beginning of the rest of his life.
Unbuttoned
Twenty-eight-year-old Wren has been sheltered his whole life. He was homeschooled, and only allowed to socialize with similarly repressed omegas who at the very least, had watched porn by their age. Wren, not so much. Once he finished school and went on into adulthood, you’d think that Wren would have gone crazy trying to experience all the things he’d been denied as a teenager, right? Far from it. Though Wren had moved to a new city for his job and gained new friends who had certainly dabbled in hedonism, Wren had little inclination to join them.
Wren was content with celibacy. He was content with working nine to five, eating lunch with his coworkers, and then going home at the end of the day to binge watch tv shows and try out the new recipes he found online. His life was a boat on still waters, slowly drifting to an expected destination. Steady. Unchanging.
There’s a storm, though, hanging on the fringes of Wren’s life by the name of Vincent. He’s a complete nuisance, with his ridiculous V-neck shirts that show way too much skin, his captivatingly evil grin, and his scent like a minty forest breeze. Wren doesn’t like him at all, and he’s really annoyed that Vincent is apparently the only taxi driver available in the whole city after seven p.m.
And if the fact that the scent of Vincent’s oncoming rut triggered Wren’s heat meant anything significant, like their compatibility, Wren was going to happily ignore it. And if, right before Wren’s next heat, he stole Vincent’s scarf from the backseat of the taxi, then Wren was going to blame it all on the omega heat-brain instincts.
Except, unbeknownst to Wren, there was apparently a ‘stealing an alpha’s clothes to sex’ pipeline that he wasn’t aware of.
Before long, Wren is sucked up into the whirlpool known as Vincent, desperately trying to claw his way out before he drowns. But as it turns out, the whirlpool is just as desperate to drag him down as Wren is to escape.
The Evil God
Rook is the god of evil, darkness, and death. His existence is a curse, his very presence a poison. His love is toxic, and all who make the mistake of loving him meet unfortunate ends, typically by his own hand.
When someone begins targeting Rook by poisoning the main river of the god realm, Rook is annoyed, but not surprised. The list of people who hate him is long, and any one of them could have a grudge.
Unfortunately, the incident is large enough to catch the attention of the king of the realm. Idris, god of light and creation. Rook isn't particularly fond of Idris, for several reasons, and Idris doesn't hold any affection for him either.
So why, just why, has Idris, ruler of the gods, brought Rook, scum of the earth, to his own personal palace for "protection"?
*Note: this work contains mature themes and content, some of which may be triggering for some readers. Please heed the chapter warnings.