

Introduction
After Sam gets pulled into rescuing the hero Thunder, he inherits a strange ability from her: the training system that taught Thunder how to become a top hero. Triple-A apparently holds the secret to leveling up one's power, a feat previously thought to be impossible. Not that it'll be easy to achieve...
A series of challenging missions and the occasional hero lesson from the system’s creator guarantee a lot of cuts and bruises in Sam's immediate future. But at least he finally gets the chance to go from zero to hero. Oh, yeah, there are also ghastly horrors and megalomaniac supervillains to contend with on Sam’s path to becoming the symbol of hope that humanity needs.
Chapter 1
“Excuse me!” Sam Shepard apologized as he slipped his way into the back of the crowd. “Media coming through!”
‘Media’ was a bit of a stretch, but being a twenty-one-year-old beat writer for the city’s number one newspaper had its perks. Namely being able to ignore the dirty looks people gave him as he shoved his way through the crowd of civilian onlookers and first responders.
In the distance, the thunderous booms of explosions going off one after the other rang in his ears, drowning out the police sirens and terrified screams. A horrific shriek shook him to his core, threatening to turn his legs to jelly.
“This isn’t how my first day in the Herald was supposed to go…” he sighed.
Soon enough, Sam managed to push his way into the very front of the crowd which was pressed tight together like a can of sardines right at the edge of the police line. He nearly choked at the sight before him, chilled to the bone from the image of such jaw-dropping destruction.
Ruined buildings on either side of a torn-up street gave one the impression that an earthquake had just struck this unfortunate part of New York City. There were fires everywhere, so many in fact that the night sky glowed with a fierce orange tinge.
Sam gulped. “Holy Zeus…”
Focus, Sam. He reminded himself. You have a job to do.
Blinking away his shock, the young reporter pulled out his smartphone from his pants pocket and started recording the view.
“What in Hades are you doing, Shepard?” came the growl from right in front of him.
Sam sighed right before he pocketed his smartphone and turned to confront the police officer who he imagined had a stick perpetually rammed up his butt.
“Just doing my job, sarge,” Sam replied.
Police Sergeant Andrew Graham glowered at him, his eyes like headlights pinning Sam into place. The glower was the thickset, black man’s most defining feature; one Sam didn’t enjoy being aimed at him.
“You know the rules, dumbass,” Sergeant Graham snarled. “No unauthorized video recordings of extermination zones!”
Sam flashed his press badge at the sergeant. “You know you’re impeding freedom of the press, right?”
Graham spared it the barest glance. He seemed unimpressed.
“I work for the Herald, man!” Sam complained.
This declaration only worsened Graham’s glower.
“I don’t have time for the whining of a little shit stain who was too cowardly to stick to doing the thing that really matters,” Sergeant Graham scoffed. “And as if you couldn’t go low enough, now you’ve joined the yahoos who put up headlines that make our heroes look bad!”
Sam couldn’t blame the sergeant for thinking poorly of him because he had a point. Being a hero was a duty that could never be forsaken and yet Sam had run away from it. Not because it was too tough a job or because he was scared, but because he'd failed at it so badly that his weakness caused the death of others.
“I didn’t do anybody any good on the front lines, Sarge…” Sam knew he deserved the ridicule but he couldn’t help but repeat the lines he’d used to defend his actions for months now. “I was a crappy heal—”
A scream cut through the clamor, shocking most of those watching into silence.
“H-healer!” a woman cried, desperation and pain stuttering her words. “I n-need a healer! P-please, somebody h-help me!”
The first responders standing just on the other side of the police line glanced nervously at each other. It was obvious to Sam that they could hear her too, but none of them jumped at the chance to go out there and help. Well, that wasn't true for at least one officer stepped up to Sergeant Graham looking like he was ready to do his job.
“I think we can get to her, sarge,” a young, brown-haired, gray-eyed police officer told Sergeant Graham. “She might not be too far from the line. The scream sounded close and I—”
“Officer Nolan.” Sergeant Graham turned his scowl on this policeman, cutting him off. “Are you a healer?”
“N-no, sir,” Nolan frowned. “But—”
“So what are you gonna do, Officer Nolan? Drag her through the rubble and fire?”
“I—”
“Did you just suddenly get super strength or flight? Is that how you were going to save her?”
“No, but—”
“Then we follow protocol!” the Sergeant barked. “And protocol says wait for more heroes! They’ll handle rescue operations!”
At the word hero, Officer Nolan glanced in Sam’s direction. The implication was clear: what are you doing? Sam scratched at the mess of dark brown hair atop his head.
What am I doing, Sam wondered. I can help, but that might finally kill me.
“But that woman needs our help, Sarge,” Nolan began, but his sergeant quickly cut him off.
“You think I enjoy hanging out here doing nothing but preventing idiots like Shepard here,” he pointed a thumb at Sam, “from wandering into an extermination zone and getting themselves killed?”
After a brief pause, Officer Nolan shook his head. “N-no, sarge…”
“That’s right,” Sergeant Graham huffed. “But I do it because I have to. I got a wife at home, you know? So I do what I can to get back to her. Besides, I’m not a gifted like Shepard... not that he’s been any use tonight.”
Sam was just about to reiterate that not being of any use was exactly the reason he quit his old job, but then the horrific screeching started up again. The sound of it was like sharp nails raking across a chalkboard, leaving Sam and everyone around him feeling more unnerved than they were a second ago.
“P-please!” the woman yelled. “S-someone, please! Help me!”
Through the scattered fires and widespread destruction of the extermination zone, Sam thought he could see a pale hand rising mere inches off the ground. It could have just been his imagination but…
“Sarge… I think I see her,” Sam reported. “Officer Nolan’s right. She’s not too far…”
Officer Nolan nodded, but Sergeant Graham ignored him, pointedly turning his back on the reporter.
“Sarge…” Sam’s tone was insistent now. “I really think—”
“I don’t care what you think, Shepard,” Sergeant Graham snapped. “You stand there and wait for the real heroes to come.”
Startled by the agitation in his tone, Sam looked his way.
Graham’s wide-eyed stare was glued to the carnage, sweat dripping down his forehead. Like most of the non-gifted around him, the destruction beyond the police line was too much for them to bear. It was a lot to take even for Sam. And yet, he found himself stepping forward, his legs trembling only slightly.
Shit, he thought. I can’t do this. I can’t risk my life that way again.
Contrary to Graham’s view of him, Sam was no coward. In fact, he was built to do the brave thing. All gifted were as it was one of the requirements for becoming a chosen of the gods. Sam’s problem wasn’t fear. Something graver held him back. But hearing that woman and her desperate plea for help, it awakened something in him that he thought he’d sufficiently suppressed by now — and that was the will to answer the call.
Don’t do it, Sam. You’ve already quit the hero life, you useless punk. He chided himself. You’d only make things worse for her and you!
A shrill cry sounded once more before abruptly cutting off. Throwing logic out the window, Sam ducked under the police line and jumped headlong into the heart of danger.
“Shepard!” Sergeant Graham yelled after Sam. “Get back behind the line, you idiot!”
Sam paused in his tracks, tempted to listen to the gravelly voice urging him to come back. No, he shouldn’t be going to play hero now when he ran away when things got too hard the first time.
But then Sam heard the woman’s voice a third time. It was much weaker. She was running out of time.
Despite the sweat dripping down his brow at the thought of risking his life yet again, Sam kept on running.
“Shepard! Get back here!” Sergeant Graham screamed.
His heart pounding in his ears drowned out the sergeant’s protests. Each beat, growing louder and louder as he grew closer to the center of the extermination zone.
Don’t worry, Sam. It’s just routine delta-level extermination. You’re here for experience! It’ll be just like a light jog. The ‘wise words’ of his editor fell short when faced with the task set before him. Yeah, right…What in Hades is routine about all of this?
He had a point. This wasn’t what usually happened — heroes lying on the ground bleeding from wounds they may never recover from, and a horror set loose on the city that no one seemed able to stop.
A heavy whoosh drew him out of his thoughts. On instinct, Sam dove forward and narrowly avoided decapitation via the wheel of a truck that had been sent flying his way. He scraped his palms on the broken asphalt and he cursed at the pain.
Raising his hands to check them, Sam cringed at the dark blood dripping down his sun-kissed forearms. There was too much of it to be his.
“Styx,” he breathed.
He looked down at the ground, aghast to see the pool of blood inching toward him. His eyes drifted to the source: a group of lifeless bodies surrounded by the thick red liquid. There was so much of it that the iron scent caused his nose to wrinkle.
“What in Hades am I doing?” he asked himself.
Sam glimpsed movement in the corner of his eye. His gaze snapped toward it, body tensing as he prepared to leap to his feet. But it was just a body stirring on the ground.
“Nothing to worry about… Don’t get spooked,” he reminded himself. “Wait, what?”
It was a woman. Her short blonde hair framed a bloody, heart-shaped face. Her eyes were a dazzling sky blue, and they were staring right at Sam’s own teal-colored irises.
“Help me,” she whispered, her weak voice barely carrying over the distance.
“Oh, man,” Sam breathed, shuffling over. “I found you…”
When he reached her side, Sam scanned her body, the state of it easily observable through her ruined costume. Her fair skin turned paler by the second, likely an effect of the blood hemorrhaging out of the huge gash on her side. There was a deep cut on her brow too. It leaked blood down the side of her cheek.
“Holy Zeus… You-you’re Thunder…” Sam realized.
Thunder — it was the name of the alpha-level hero who was ranked seventh in the national charts.
But there’s no way. Thunder wouldn’t go down like this, Sam thought.
Thunder was an unstoppable force of nature whose recent and sudden meteoric rise had made her legendary among this year’s crop of new heroes. So how could that woman, the gorgeous and brave hero whose face was on the poster plastered on Sam’s bedroom wall, be reduced to such a state?
“Help,” Thunder mumbled. Tears rolled down her cheeks, streaking through the drying blood that covered her.
The sight of his idol looking so uncommonly vulnerable forced Sam to get a grip.
“I-it’s okay,” he said as reassuringly as he could. “I’ve got you. It’s gonna be okay... I hope.”
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Last Updated: 3/3/2025#191 Chapter 191
Last Updated: 3/3/2025
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HIS REJECTED SECOND CHANCE MATE
"What the f*ck, Zara!" Levi bumped into me and growled behind me.
"Sorry," I mumbled, wide-eyed.
"Is that?" Levi mind-linked, and I nodded my head.
"Zara," my father uttered. "I understand that you are familiar with Alpha Noah."
I slowly nodded my head.
"Great," my father said. "Alpha Noah has also informed me that you are his fated mate."
I gave a nod in response.
"Superb, Alpha Noah has requested your hand."
"Is that so?" I found my voice.
Both my father and Alpha Noah nodded.
"Interesting," I said. "Were you told by Alpha Noah that he rejected me more than a year ago?"
My father's smile wavered as Alpha Noah's face turned to ash.
Did Alpha Noah really believe I would just blindly obey an order from my father without a fight?
Zara is a silver wolf descended from one of the most powerful packs on the continent.
A year after he rejects her, her fated mate comes knocking on her door to tell her he is back to claim her.
Zara turns down his proposal, and he goes behind her back and asks her father for her hand. The old Alpha agrees to the arrangement.
Zara is unhappy and decides to handle things on her own. She informs her father that she has taken a chosen mate, her Beta, and her best friend, Levi—only he has a secret.
What will happen when Zara's second chance mate attends her and Levi's mating ceremony?
Will he stop the proceedings and claim her as his mate?
A story about two broken hearts finding each other and getting sucked into a web of lies and prophecies.
Will Zara find the happiness she so deserves?
Secrets of Us: A Forbidden Love Romance
He’s angry from the conversation last night. I can feel it, I can see it in his dark eyes. It’s only confirmed when he slams into me without preparing me.
I cry out and he soothes me with kisses on my neck and nibbles on my skin. Still he doesn’t slow down. He starts at a quick pace, at a strength that already has my legs trembling.
I grab onto his shoulders, cries leaving my lips every time he slams into me. It turn wet, not from the water, but from how much he makes my pussy happy.
Alina leaves everything she knows behind after she is in a terrible car accident that tears her family apart. A new home, a new school and a fractured relationship with her mother are only the beginning of the things this change will throw her way. Immediately she catches the attention of three men, and she can’t deny what she feels for them, too. Quickly, and much to her demise, she finds out that their lives are much more intertwined than she would have ever hoped for. She had hoped to discover herself in this new place, but everything only tears her apart. Who will she choose between Zaid, the bad boy, Aiden, her sweet jock, and Jake, and older man who can't seem to keep his hands off of her?
Game of Destiny
When Finlay finds her, she is living among humans. He is smitten by the stubborn wolf that refuse to acknowledge his existence. She may not be his mate, but he wants her to be a part of his pack, latent wolf or not.
Amie cant resist the Alpha that comes into her life and drags her back into pack life. Not only does she find herself happier than she has been in a long time, her wolf finally comes to her. Finlay isn't her mate, but he becomes her best friend. Together with the other top wolves in the pack, they work to create the best and strongest pack.
When it's time for the pack games, the event that decides the packs rank for the coming ten year, Amie needs to face her old pack. When she sees the man that rejected her for the first time in ten years, everything she thought she knew is turned around. Amie and Finlay need to adapt to the new reality and find a way forward for their pack. But will the curve ball split them apart?
The Secret Pregnancy of the Billionaire's Ex-Wife
On the day I received my pregnancy test results, Sean asked for a divorce.
"Let's get a divorce. Christina is back."
“I know you’re pissed,” he murmured. “Let me make it up to you.”
His hands found my waist, warm and unyielding, sliding down the curve of my spine to cup my ass.
I pushed against his chest, half-heartedly, my resolve crumbling as he pressed me back onto the bed.
“You’re an asshole,” I breathed, even as I felt him nudge closer, the tip of him brushing my entrance.
Then the phone rang—sharp, insistent—snapping us out of the haze.
It was Christina.
So I disappeared, carrying a secret I hoped my husband would never discover.
——
Author Note:So excited to share that my second book, Crowned by Fate, is officially out! Hope you all enjoy the read!
Don’t Poke the Luna
Independence is the only thing I’ve ever wanted. But more than one man seems to think he has a say in my future.
My fire has always been my strength... and my curse. I've paid the price for being unyielding. But I won’t stop. Not until I’m free. The real question is—how much more can I take before I break?
Forever His: The Alpha’s Possession
Zvonimir said, “Rishima, you cannot bear my offspring, so you are unworthy to be my wife.”
Zvonimir said, “Rishima, I still desire your body; be my lover.”
Zvonimir said, “Rishima, I don’t want to leave you. Can we remarry?”
Zvonimir said, “Rishima, I love you, I cannot live without you.”
Rishima coldly replied, “Get lost!”
When Zvonimir announced his desire to marry Rishima, people throughout the entire Wolven Empire objected. They believed that an Omega female like Rishima was unworthy to be the wife of a powerful Alpha like Zvonimir. Yet, Zvonimir was determined to marry Rishima, making her believe she was the happiest female in the world. However, after her womb was injured while saving Zvonimir, her illusions about their class-divided marriage shattered.
Zvonimir heartlessly cast Rishima aside to marry a female with a stronger reproductive ability, unaware that she was already carrying his children…
Shattered Girl
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. Was that too much?” I could see the worry in his eyes as I took a deep breath.
“I just didn’t want you to see all my scars,” I whispered, feeling ashamed of my marked body.
Emmy Nichols is used to surviving. She survived her abusive father for years until he beat her so severely, she ended up in the hospital, and her father was finally arrested. Now, Emmy is thrown into a life she never expected. Now she has a mother
who doesn't want her, a politically motivated stepfather with ties to the Irish mob, four older stepbrothers, and their best friend who swear to love and protect her. Then, one night, everything shatters, and Emmy feels her only option is to run.
When her stepbrothers and their best friend finally find her, will they pick up the pieces and convince Emmy that they will keep her safe and their love will hold them together?
I Am His Wolfless Luna
Ethan also kept emitting deep roars in my ear, 'Damn... I'm going to cum... !!!' His impact became more intense and our bodies kept making slapping sounds.
"Please!! Ethan!!"
As the strongest female warrior in my pack, I was betrayed by those I trusted most, my sister and my best friend. I was drugged, raped, and banished from my family and my pack. I lost my wolf, my honor, and became an outcast—carrying a child I never asked for.
Six years of hard-won survival turned me into a professional fighter, fueled by rage and grief. A summons arrives from the formidable Alpha heir, Ethan, asking me to return as a wolfless combat instructor for the very pack that once banished me.
I thought I could ignore their whispers and stares, but when I see Ethan's emerald-green eyes—the same as my son’s—my world tilts.
My Bullies My Lovers
Her best friend, Jax, not even realizing who she was until he saw a distinctive scar on Skylar's stomach showed him who she was and when he took his two new friends to her house, only to see that the kids at school weren't the only ones bullying her.
She was on the verge of committing suicide because of her father's abuse, so she agrees to an alliance with Jax and his friends to destroy her father and everything that he holds dear to him.
What she didn't expect, what the feeling that the three men would inevitably develop for her or the ones that she would develop for all of them.
Strings of Fate
Like all children, I was tested for magic when I was only a few days old. Since my specific bloodline is unknown and my magic is unidentifiable, I was marked with a delicate swirling pattern around my upper right arm.
I do have magic, just as the tests showed, but it has never lined up with any known Magic species.
I can't breathe fire like a dragon Shifter, or hex people who piss me off like Witches. I can't make potions like an Alchemist or seduce people like a Succubus. Now I don't mean to be unappreciative of the power I do have, it's interesting and all, but it just really doesn't pack much of a punch and most of the time it is just pretty much useless. My special magical skill is the ability to see threads of fate.
Most of life is annoying enough for me, and what never occurred to me is that my mate is a rude, pompous nuisance. He's an Alpha and my friend's twin brother.
“What are you doing? This is my home, you can't just let yourself in!” I try and keep my voice firm but when he turns and fixes me with his golden eyes I shrink back. The look he gives me is imperious and I automatically drop my eyes to the floor as is my habit. Then I force myself to look back up again. He doesn't notice me looking up because he's already looked away from me. He's being rude, I refuse to show that he's scaring me, even though he most definitely is. He glances around and after realising that the only place to sit is the little table with its two chairs he points to it.
“Sit.” he orders. I glare at him. Who is he to order me around like this? How can someone this obnoxious possibly be my soul mate? Maybe I'm still asleep. I pinch my arm and my eyes water a little from the sting of pain.
The Alpha's Borrowed Luna
I met his eyes, feeling nothing. "I, Elowen Thorne, accept your rejection."
Elowen Thorne is an omega wolf who has survived years of abuse in a brutal pack. Betrayed by her ex-mate, she's stunned when Kaius Valerian, the most feared Alpha in the territory, offers her a six-month contract to pretend as his mate.
Kaius doesn't just want a mate. He wants total submission. He'll use her body however he pleases, taking her roughly and without mercy, making it clear she's nothing more than a possession.
But Elowen isn't some submissive victim anymore. If Kaius wants her, he'll have to break through her defenses. She'll fight him every step of the way, even as her body betrays her deepest desires.
When a failed assassination attempt reveals shocking connections between her mother's past and Kaius's family, Elowen must figure out whether Kaius is protecting her for his own gain or because he actually cares for her. In a world where silver blades and bloodshed settle arguments, Elowen discovers that being bound to someone by both a written agreement and a mate mark is far more dangerous than she ever imagined.
Chasing My Rejected Luna
Tegan Declan was a shy she-wolf who was born deaf. Starting a new life as a disabled wolf in a new pack. She is the new contracted mate to the Alpha king, Ezra Hendricks.
“Being deaf was a quality I would hate my son to have. As a wolf, you need all your senses to be able to lead, protect, and stay alive. Lacking hearing would not benefit anyone, it could lead to mass destruction and the loss of many lives. It would not be a good quality for a king. This brought me back to my question. What makes her think she is fit to be my Queen? I want to know what she thinks her strengths are. Would they outweigh her weaknesses?”