
Introduction
The Skull Artist’s crimes were beyond anything the city had seen: victims were killed, their skulls removed, and crime scenes turned into sickening “exhibits” abstract expressions made of flesh, bone, and blood. Greaves claimed it was all part of “revealing what lies beneath.” Lana caught him, barely, and the case was buried.
But now, just when she’s told her promotion is on the table, another body turns up displayed exactly like Greaves’ original work. Except Greaves is still locked in maximum security.
The case threatens to unravel everything she’s fought for. And as the press explodes and her department hesitates, Lana is told she can have her promotion… if she solves this new case.
Chapter 1
Chapter One
They say you only get one shot at proving yourself. But what they don’t say is—sometimes, that shot is soaked in blood, wrapped in regret, and aimed straight at your head.
I’d been sitting in this damn office for forty-seven minutes. Not that I was counting, but trust me, I was. The clock on the wall ticked like it was mocking me, each second dragging a sigh out of my chest. This was supposed to be the moment. My moment. Promotion board meeting, round three. My coffee was cold, and my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Not from fear. I don’t get scared easily—not anymore. It’s just... anticipation. Rage. Hope, maybe. I don’t know. Maybe all three.
Captain Ronning was late. Again. And it didn’t help that every time I came here, I sat in the same damn seat, staring at the same crooked photo of him shaking hands with the mayor like he’d just solved world hunger. All he did was survive bureaucracy, which, honestly, might be a harder job than what I do.
I shifted in my chair and stared down at my boots. Black. Polished. Military issue. I never served, but my brother did. Before he ended up face down in a ditch because the government forgot to care about the soldiers they break. He always told me, “Keep your boots clean, and the dirt won’t stick.” It stuck anyway.
The door creaked open. Finally. Ronning walked in like he wasn’t fifty goddamn minutes late, dropped a file on his desk, and sighed.
Never a good sign.
I straightened. He didn’t sit down. Another bad sign.
“Cross,” he said, his voice low, gravel in his throat like he chewed cigars for breakfast. “This isn’t the conversation I wanted to have today.”
I almost laughed. Welcome to my entire career, sir.
“Then let’s make it quick,” I replied, deadpan. “Yes or no?”
He looked up, eyes squinting, like my bluntness was a surprise. It shouldn’t be. I don’t sugar-coat. I don’t kiss asses. I solve cases.
“You’re not getting the lieutenant badge,” he said.
Just like that. Knife to the chest. Twist. Pull.
I didn’t flinch.
“Why?” I asked, even though I already knew.
“Politics,” he said, shrugging. “And the board doesn’t like your... attitude.”
“My attitude?”
He waved his hand like it was supposed to dismiss the insult. “You don’t play well with others. You bend rules.”
I leaned forward. “I bend them because the rules are broken. You want me to follow protocol while a girl bleeds out in an alley and we wait six hours for a warrant?”
“Lana—”
“I’ve closed more cases in the last twelve months than half this department combined,” I snapped. “But sure, let’s talk about my tone.”
He sighed. A real one, this time. Almost like he felt sorry for me. Almost.
“There’s another reason,” he said. “And it’s not coming from me.”
He slid the folder across the desk. My name wasn’t on the cover. Just a case number. One I knew better than my own reflection.
SK-087: The Skull Artist.
I froze. That case was supposed to be dead. Buried. Just like the ten victims we never fully identified.
“No,” I said before he could continue. “He’s locked up. Case closed.”
Ronning shook his head. “We got a body this morning. Same signature. Meat art. Blood writing. This time it spelled ‘hello.’”
My stomach twisted. Not fear. Not again. Not now. I thought I was past this.
“You think it’s a copycat,” I said, but my voice cracked on the last word. I hated that.
“We’re not sure,” he said. “But the commissioner thinks if anyone can close this, it’s the person who caught him the first time.”
I stood up, fists clenched. “I didn’t catch him. I just got lucky.”
“You survived him,” he replied. “That’s more than most.”
I turned toward the window, breathing through my nose. Outside, the city looked gray and tired. Just like me.
“This isn’t just a case,” I said. “This is a trap. For me.”
He didn’t argue. That was the worst part. He knew I was right.
“You solve this,” he said quietly, “and the badge is yours.”
I laughed. A bitter, hollow sound.
“Right. So, let me risk my mind, my life, and everything I’ve rebuilt... for a promotion.”
He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. The answer was obvious.
I took the folder, walked out, and didn’t look back.
Back at my apartment, I dropped the folder on the kitchen counter and stared at it like it might bite. The apartment was quiet, too quiet. I used to live with someone. A man. Good guy. Couldn’t handle my demons. Left a note on the fridge that said, “I love you, but I can’t love all the parts you keep buried.”
I didn’t blame him.
I opened the folder. First crime scene photo: a young woman, early twenties, posed like she was dancing. Arms lifted, back arched, but her skull—gone. Skin peeled in long, artistic strips, arranged in spirals around the body. Blood used to paint the floor like brush strokes.
Same as before. Exactly.
The Skull Artist had a thing for turning flesh into art. Said he was revealing the truth underneath. That’s why he removed the skulls. To him, the skull was the purest form of human beauty. He called it the “sacred core.”
I’d interviewed him three times during the original case. Each time, I walked out feeling like I needed to bleach my soul.
His real name was Vincent Greaves. Former art professor. Lectured on pain and beauty. Wrote poetry that made no sense unless you were broken inside.
I reached into my desk and pulled out the recorder I hadn’t touched in years. The last tape I made after Greaves was arrested. I’d never played it back. I’d been scared of what I might hear.
I pressed play.
His voice poured out, soft and cold.
“Detective Cross. You think you’ve stopped the story. But stories don’t end with the writer in chains. They end when the message is complete. And mine... is far from over.”
I shut it off.
He wasn’t wrong.
Tomorrow, I’ll go to the prison. I’ll look him in the eyes again.
But tonight, I’m going to pour myself a drink, sit in the dark, and remember what it felt like to be whole—before I ever heard the name Skull Artist.
And maybe, just maybe, I’ll start preparing for war.
Because if this really is the sequel...
I refuse to be the victim this time.
Last Chapters
#55 No as a Weapon
Last Updated: 1/24/2026#54 The Hand and the City
Last Updated: 1/24/2026#53 The Roof and the Ring
Last Updated: 1/24/2026#52 The City Writes in Light
Last Updated: 1/24/2026#51 Fire Teaches the Room
Last Updated: 1/24/2026#50 Gilt and Gravity
Last Updated: 1/24/2026#49 When the Frame Falls
Last Updated: 1/24/2026#48 Frame or Fire
Last Updated: 1/24/2026#47 The Knife
Last Updated: 1/24/2026#46 The Knife Behind the Applause
Last Updated: 1/24/2026
You Might Like 😍
The CEO's Unspoken Love
Before I could answer, he moved closer, suddenly looming over me, his face inches from mine. I felt my breath caught, my lips parting in surprise.
"Then this is the price for speaking ill of me to others," he murmured, nipping my lower lip before claiming my mouth in a real kiss. It began as punishment but quickly transformed into something else entirely as I responded, my initial rigidity melting into compliance, then active participation.
My breathing accelerated, small sounds escaping my throat as he explored my body. His touches were both punishment and pleasure, drawing shudders from me that I thought he felt reverberating through his own body.
My nightgown had ridden up, his hands discovering more of mine with each caress. We were both lost in sensation, rational thought receding with each passing second...
Three years ago, to fulfill the wish of his grandmother, I was forced to marry Derek Wells, the second son of the family that had adopted me for ten years. He didn't love me, but I had secretly loved him all along.
Now, the three-year contractual marriage is about to end, but I feel that some kind of sentiment has developed between Derek and me that neither of us is willing to admit. I'm not sure if my feelings are right, but I know that we can't resist each other physically...
Taste of Fate: The Vampire King's Human Mate
He reached for the back of my head and pulled me up just enough to reach my neck. When his fangs slid into me, the pain was instant, electric. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. My hands found his shoulders, clawing for something to hold. My legs kicked. Tears streamed down my cheeks.
He moaned against my throat as he drank, and the sound was devastating.
King of the Underworld
However, one fateful day, the King of the Underworld appeared before me and rescued me from the clutches of the most powerful Mafia boss's son. With his deep blue eyes fixed on mine, he spoke softly: "Sephie... short for Persephone... Queen of the Underworld. At last, I have found you." Confused by his words, I stammered out a question, “P..pardon? What does that mean?”
But he simply smiled at me and brushed my hair away from my face with gentle fingers: "You are safe now.”
Sephie, named for the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone, she's quickly finding out how she's destined to fulfill her namesake's role. Adrik is the King of the Underworld, the boss of all bosses in the city he runs.
She was a seemingly normal girl, with a normal job until it all changed one night when he walked through the front door and her life changed abruptly. Now, she finds herself on the wrong side of powerful men, but under the protection of the most powerful among them.
Mated To My Ruin: A Dragon's Debt
But the prince lied. The dragon she touched bound itself to her soul and now she is trapped in the vampire kingdom with a king who has waited centuries for her return. King Caelan remembers everything. The love she destroyed and the great war she started. The lives she burned to ash with the very dragon now living inside her.
She remembers nothing.
He wants her to suffer for crimes she cannot recall. She wants to survive long enough to save her sister. But the bond between them refuses to stay buried and the dragon has its own plans. When she turns twenty and her fae powers awaken, Nyx discovers the truth is far more twisted than centuries of hatred.
The prince who sent her was the one who destroyed her family. The king who hates her saved the only person she loves. And the past life she cannot remember might be the key to stopping another war.
This time she will not run. This time she will burn the world herself if that is what it takes.
Let Them Kneel
Cast out by her pack. Forgotten by the Lycans.
She lived among humans—quiet, invisible, tucked away in a town no one looked at twice.
But when her first heat comes without warning, everything changes.
Her body ignites. Her instincts scream. And something primal stirs beneath her skin—
summoning a big, bad Alpha who knows exactly how to quench her fire.
When he claims her, it’s ecstasy and ruin.
For the first time, she believes she’s been accepted.
Seen.
Chosen.
Until he leaves her the next morning—
like a secret never to be spoken.
But Kaelani is not what they thought.
Not wolfless. Not weak.
There is something ancient inside her. Something powerful. And it’s waking.
And when it does—
they’ll all remember the girl they tried to erase.
Especially him.
She’ll be the dream he keeps chasing… the one thing that ever made him feel alive.
Because secrets never stay buried.
And neither do dreams.
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?
After One Night with the Alpha
I thought I was waiting for love. Instead, I got fucked by a beast.
My world was supposed to bloom at the Moonshade Bay Full Moon Festival—champagne buzzing in my veins, a hotel room booked for Jason and me to finally cross that line after two years. I’d slipped into lacy lingerie, left the door unlocked, and lay on the bed, heart pounding with nervous excitement.
But the man who climbed into my bed wasn’t Jason.
In the pitch-black room, drowned in a heady, spicy scent that made my head spin, I felt hands—urgent, scorching—searing my skin. His thick, pulsing cock pressed against my dripping cunt, and before I could gasp, he thrust hard, tearing through my innocence with ruthless force. Pain burned, my walls clenching as I clawed at his iron shoulders, stifling sobs. Wet, slick sounds echoed with every brutal stroke, his body unrelenting until he shuddered, spilling hot and deep inside me.
"That was amazing, Jason," I managed to say.
"Who the fuck is Jason?"
My blood turned to ice. Light slashed across his face—Brad Rayne, Alpha of Moonshade Pack, a werewolf, not my boyfriend. Horror choked me as I realized what I’d done.
I ran away for my life!
But weeks later, I woke up pregnant with his heir!
They say my heterochromatic eyes mark me as a rare true mate. But I’m no wolf. I’m just Elle, a nobody from the human district, now trapped in Brad's world.
Brad’s cold gaze pins me: “You carry my blood. You’re mine.”
There is no other choice for me but to chose this cage. My body also betrays me, craving the beast who ruined me.
WARNING: Mature Readers Only
Confined To The Alluring CEO
As she tries to pick up the broken pieces of her heart and move on she is forced to make a life-changing decision in order to save her grandpa's life from the clutches of her wicked stepmother.
Tyrell Achilles is the man whom Penelope has to marry. He is rumoured to be a crippled, hot-tempered, cruel man with a damaged face and the son of the Achilles family which was once the wealthiest family in the country until they went bankrupt.
After the wedding, Penelope realised everything was not what it looked like, but one thing was sure, she was going to use this opportunity to make every single person who betrayed her pay.
She was going to ruin them till the very end but to achieve her goal, she must be able to thread through the traps and conspiracy unscathed.
When she is on the verge of giving up, a hand is stretched out to her, and it is none other than that of her alluring husband Tyrell Achilles and he says these words to her gazing into her eyes. "I never thought this would happen but I'm in love with you, Pennie."
Will she give love a chance or keep fighting the feelings she has for her enigmatic yet alluring husband?
The Ice Between Us.
Then comes Jax Miller.
Jax is a hotheaded rookie with a lightning-fast puck and a reputation for burning bridges. He doesn't follow playbooks, he doesn't respect authority, and he’s determined to melt Julian’s icy composure. When a viral video of their on-ice collision threatens to bankrupt the program, Coach Clain delivers an ultimatum that feels like a death sentence: they must live together in a cramped, two-bed dorm for the duration of the season.
Forced to navigate the high-stakes world of sports fame, "forbidden" locker-room tension, and the mysterious blackmailer who caught their first mistake on camera, Julian and Jax must decide what’s more dangerous: losing their careers, or losing themselves to the person they were supposed to hate.
After the Affair: Falling into a Billionaire's Arms
I’d appreciate all your support, thank you so much!
From first crush to wedding vows, George Capulet and I had been inseparable. But in our seventh year of marriage, he began an affair with his secretary.
On my birthday, he took her on vacation. On our anniversary, he brought her to our home and made love to her in our bed...
Heartbroken, I tricked him into signing divorce papers.
George remained unconcerned, convinced I would never leave him.
His deceptions continued until the day the divorce was finalized. I threw the papers in his face: "George Capulet, from this moment on, get out of my life!"
Only then did panic flood his eyes as he begged me to stay.
When his calls bombarded my phone later that night, it wasn't me who answered, but my new boyfriend Julian.
"Don't you know," Julian chuckled into the receiver, "that a proper ex-boyfriend should be as quiet as the dead?"
George seethed through gritted teeth: "Put her on the phone!"
"I'm afraid that's impossible."
Julian dropped a gentle kiss on my sleeping form nestled against him. "She's exhausted. She just fell asleep."
Bella and Her Beast
.
Locked in her frozen tower, Bella dreamed of warmth, of touch, of freedom and of love. Cursed with the power of ice and snow, she’s spent her life alone. A secret they tried to protect the world from. Her only escape comes in the form of the books she reads. Stories of heat, desire, and the kind of love that could melt even her frostbitten heart.
Damien is the Beast. A dragon King with a temper forged in flame and a soul hollowed by duty. The world fears him. The people call him a monster. But beneath the scales and the rage lies a man who has never been touched by love.
When frost meets fire, the world shatters. She was never meant to leave her tower. He was never meant to find her. But destiny doesn’t bow to kings or care for cages and now the question burns through them both: Can Bella have her Beast? Or will the girl of snow melt in the heat of his desire?
.
"I’m keeping her."
"What?"
Before I can react, he scoops her up. Her small body fits easily in the cradle of his talons. For a split second, she looks startled, but not afraid. Her hand rests against one scaled finger, and she stares up at him with that same curious wonder, as though she’s already forgotten she was ever meant to fear me.
"Put her down," I try to command, panic threading through my thoughts. "You’ll hurt her."
"She’s ours," the beast insists, possessive and fierce. "Our snowflake."
Goddess Of The Underworld
When the veil between the Divine, the Living, and the Dead begins to crack, Envy is thrust beneath with a job she can’t drop: keep the worlds from bleeding together, shepherd the lost, and make ordinary into armour, breakfasts, bedtime, battle plans. Peace lasts exactly one lullaby. This is the story of an orphan pup who became a goddess by choosing her family; of four imperfect alphas learning how to be better. Steamy, fierce, and full of heart, Goddess of the Underworld is a reverse harem, found-family paranormal romance where love writes the rules and keeps three realms from falling apart.












