Legend of the Empyrean Blacksmith - Chapter 28

Cassidy Calista never begged for love.Not even from Ezekiel Salvador, the cold, enigmatic heir to the world’s largest pharmaceutical empire.Their marriage was built on power, not passion. Four years of shared silence and a single rule: Fall for someone else, and walk away.So when Cassidy caught Zeke with another woman, she didn’t wait for an explanation. She filed for divorce.And vanished.What Zeke didn’t know? She left pregnant.Now, after four long years, she’s back. And she’s not alone.By her side walks a little girl. Bright, curious, with the same defiant spark in her eyes as Cassidy once had.Zeke watches, frozen. His world tilts.Zeke had spent every year trying and failing to forget her. But the moment he sees her again, something inside him snaps. The fire he buried returns…And then he sees him.A man. Tall. Steady. Standing too close. Speaking to Cassidy in a voice only intimacy can shape. The little girl runs to him, laughing, and he catches her like he’s done it a thousand times.She says nothing. Offers no explanations. And suddenly, Zeke is no longer the man with all the power.Because now, he wants answers.Whose child is she?Has Cassidy moved on?Is she married to another man?And the most terrifying question of all, Is he already too late?

One late-night run changed Aila’s life forever after getting caught up in a battle between werewolves and hunters. She is suddenly kidnapped by said hunters and finds out secrets about her past and her future as she embarks on a journey to find out who or what she truly is. Issues arise one after the other when she finally escapes the hunters grasp, only to be taken in by the ferocious Alpha of the Silver Crescent Pack. Unlike most who fear him, Aila challenges his authority every step of the way as she learns more about herself and the dominant, possessive Alpha who tries to claim her. Will heads collide in a battle of will, or can they work together and help keep the hidden world of creatures safe from the hunters? Join Aila on her journey of rediscovery, love, laugh and cry along with her on this action-packed, steamy romance novel. ----- Gold Tier Winner in #161 Writing Prompt Contest - Shapeshifters. ------ *** SNEAK PEAK *** [ MATURE CONTENT ] “Eyes up here, Aila.” He snapped; his harsh voice made her look into his eyes, and she was immediately trapped under his stone-cold gaze. She couldn’t move her eyes away from his as he stepped closer to her, his movements slow as though he was ready to pounce on her, his prey. Without thinking, she stood up from her position, prepared to bolt, but he grabbed her and pinned her hands against the bed. He moved his knee forwards, parting her legs that resisted only for a second before allowing his knee entry. He pushed it slowly into the spot between her thighs, making her gasp from the sudden contact. “Do you like disobeying me, Aila?” He growled; Aila was confused for a moment until she remembered how easily she defied his commands. Was he really still angry from earlier? But when she searched his face for an answer, she soon found it. He was definitely mad from earlier. “To be quite honest, I do. It puts you in your place,” Aila smirked when she met his blazing eyes. He brought his face down closer to hers, the pressure from his knee in between her legs increased, making her bite her bottom lip. “Wrong answer,” He growled before biting her lip apart from her teeth.

Qin Xiaoguo was a successful chef working in the future era. A turn of fate brought her to the past, into a time of famine and uncertainty. Waking up one day, Qin Xiaoguo found herself face to face with a boy who acknowledged her as his mother.

Having transmigrated from the year 3024 to 42 BC, Qin Xiaoguo had traveled across a three-millennium time leap to the past. She was transported to a destitute place, and also became mother to a hungry, skinny boy at the same time.

Her only comfort to her new-found circumstances was a spatial ring that allowed her to transmigrate—giving her free access to food and other belongings from a different era.

After years of raising her son singlehandedly, Qin Xiaoguo had a surprise visitor at her door. It was a man claiming to be her husband, requesting to stay the night. Out of confusion and pity, Qin Xiaoguo let the self-proclaimed father of her child into the house.

The red meteor shower rained across the sky, a black fog engulfed the world.

After waking from a night of torture and agony,

Humans discovered they no longer dominated the world.

—The hunters have become the hunted.

After the apocalypse, I struggled for survival for ten bitter years, but ultimately couldn’t escape death.

But when I opened my eyes again, I had transformed from an ordinary 35-year old woman into a beautiful young man of 18.

A different gender, a world that is both familiar yet not, an apocalypse that has vanished without a trace, and an unexpected return of 17 years of youth.

Looking around, I discovered I had a powerful, protective big brother and a gentle, charming little sister.

Just as things couldn’t possibly look any brighter—

The end of the world came crashing down again.

And this time around, is it fight? Or flight?