
Before the Storm
NewEraCulture · Completed · 52.0k Words
Introduction
"Well then, I'm sorry to inform you that there's a rampant need for glasses today" he replies.
Lorraine Stuart, your not so normal typical young woman. With having to deal with the disappearance of her twin brother to trying to cope with her hot-tempered father whilst striving to find herself amidst it all. Things have definitely been difficult for her.
But what happens when she is thrown into a fake engagement with Alexander Wayne, a hazel-eyed cocky man whom she detests.
Not to worry, the feelings mutual. At least that's what they thought.
As feelings are emitted, secrets unraveled, mysteries solved, will she be able to hold herself firm?
Will those two begin to fall in love, or would it just be an engagement pact?
And most of all, would they be able to protect themselves just before the storm?
Chapter 1
What kind of trouble have I gotten myself into?
Am I in some kind of danger? Seriously, who did I offend? Were the questions spinning in my head as I stared at my best friend, throwing her my signature grave look.
"Damn Lorrie, you look like a whole pile of shit." Amelia states in her light Spanish accent, her mock worry evident as she ignores my expression.
"Oh, why thank you." I reply in a sarcastic drawl, rolling my eyes.
Amelia and I have been best friends for the longest time. I really can't seem to think of a time when I didn't know her.
I side-eye her heavily, taking in her features.
"'Melia, why the hell did you bring me here at Eight in the morning?" I finally ask, running my fingers through my very rough hair in frustration.
"Oh, for Christ's sake, stop complaining, and calm down!" She grounds out, rolling her eyes at me.
We continue bickering as an all too familiar voice pipes up from behind me, making me startle.
"Oh, wow. I never thought you'd actually bring her. Thought I'd have to put her on a leash."
"Please don't tell me that you guys planned this." I immediately question. Knowing those two, they're capable of doing the craziest of things as long as they're together.
"Aww, have a little more faith in Amelia," he paused to take his seat, "It was all my idea Looney. She was just my handyman." Carter muses, smirking at Amelia.
"Oh, I should've known that it was you, Macbeth. Honestly, I can't expect anything less from you." I curl my lips into a fake smile, causing Carter's grin to falter.
"You need to quit calling me Macbeth. God, I hate it!" he grumbles.
"Then stop calling me Looney, you know how much I despise that name!" I retort. He gave that horrid nickname to me in junior school, and I've hated it ever since.
"You know I really can't, even if I wanted to." He gives me a lopsided grin, and I flipped him off.
"Suit yourself, Macbeth."
"Okay! shut up and Carter, please explain the reason for this meeting and exactly why you couldn't just do it at our apartment." Amelia exclaims, putting an end to our bickering. She sends a sharp glare at Carter.
"Ah! Yes, well Looney-"
"Don't you ever call me that." I snap at him.
"First of all, none of you would have even woken up if I did it at your place." he said, and we reluctantly nod in agreement. Let's just say, we are lazy.
"Well Looney, I did a bit of searching and I think that I helped you score a date with a friend of mine. His name is Wren-"
"Hold up, I never said I was interested in going on a date. No, not after him." I said with displeasure.
"Could you stop interrupting me? Please," Carter stopped me with mock irritation as I roll my eyes at him.
"Look Looney. He, well - we - just want you to move on from what happened with Nate." Melia coos softly, concern filling her eyes.
"I have moved on! I'm just...not ready to start anything with anyone. At least, not yet." I defended weakly, my voice sounding fake to my own ears.
"Please just give it a go. Try it just this once, for us." Carter said while trying to give me a puppy face, miserably failing as he resembled more of a startled catfish.
"No." I stood my ground.
"Come on, please? I'll buy you cookies and cream." Carter says suggestively, moving his eyebrows up and down.
Damn, they've found my weak point! They both know that I can't deny cookies and cream. Sneaky bastards.
I analyze the scenario mentally. I hope I'm not going to make the same mistake as last time, but it's worth a shot.
"Okay, fine." I finally relent.
"Yes!" they chant at the same time, throwing high fives to each other.
"I really do hope I'm not making a mistake by agreeing with you." I clarify because, in all sincerity, I really don't need anyone to add to my problems. I have enough already.
"Trust me Looney, all or nothing." Carter assured me with a winning smile, and that was all it took for me to calm my nerves. If I know Carter for one thing, it's that he'll always do his best.
"What I can't even fathom is how you've somehow managed to drag me over here for this."
"Let's have breakfast then." Amelia snorted, already leading the way to a local diner.
After our little breakfast date, Amelia and I headed back to our apartment while Carter promised to join us later. Opening the door, Brooke came into clear sight, roaming around the living room in clear frustration.
Though I haven't really known Brooke for as long as I've known Amelia and Carter, it's safe to say that we are as close as possible.
"Uh...hey there, Brooke. what's with the long face?" I ask, carefully feeling out my words.
Brooke tends to be fierce when she's frustrated, angry or hears a swear word. I'm careful about bringing her wrath down upon me.
"You want to know why? I leave this house for just five days to my parents, and you've both turned this place to Carter's house! This place is so fudging untidy, it looks like a pigsty. That's my problem!" she shouts, buzzing around in agitation.
I snicker at the mention of Carter's house, and her lack of vulgar language when she glared at me, causing me to clear my throat.
"If you're so bothered, you can start by cleaning it yourself." Amelia states, shooting a sly look at me.
I smile sweetly, settling myself on the couch beside her. "You know, the least you could do is tell us how the party went."
Brooke rolls her eyes at us and speaks in Latin.
"Hey, you know not all of us learned Latin in school." I called out.
She glares at us and we immediately understood what she implied as we got up to clean along with her.
Though she's the youngest, she is definitely the most mature one out of all of us.
Three hours later of cleaning the whole apartment and having a long-deserved bath, I flopped onto my bed and sighed.
Turning my head, I look at the photograph by my bedside and let out a deep breath.
"God, your girlfriend is so damn annoying." I chuckle bitterly.
"I know I'm a lot to handle." Brooke stated weakly, sorrow lacing her tone.
I understood the tone in her voice because that's just how I've been living for a long time.
"I miss him." Amelia says, frowning as she sits beside me while Carter leans against the door.
"We all do." Carter says in a subdued tone, looking down.
The fifth musketeer,
The reason for my endless pain,
My twin brother,
Leon.
Last Chapters
#42 Chapter 42
Last Updated: 6/11/2025#41 Chapter 41
Last Updated: 6/11/2025#40 Chapter 40
Last Updated: 6/11/2025#39 Chapter 39
Last Updated: 6/11/2025#38 Chapter 38
Last Updated: 6/11/2025#37 Chapter 37
Last Updated: 6/11/2025#36 Chapter 36
Last Updated: 6/11/2025#35 Chapter 35
Last Updated: 6/11/2025#34 Chapter 34
Last Updated: 6/11/2025#33 Chapter 33
Last Updated: 6/11/2025
You Might Like 😍
The War God Alpha's Arranged Bride
Yet Alexander made his decision clear to the world: “Evelyn is the only woman I will ever marry.”
Invisible To Her Bully
My Possessive Alpha Twins For Mate
My drunk stepfather remained indifferent, his weight suffocating, making it hard to breathe as my heart raced.
Suddenly, the door slammed open, and two figures burst in.
"Get off her!" a deafening roar echoed.
I didn't expect the twin brothers who'd bullied me at school to come charging in like gods to save me.
After my grandmother passed, I had to move in with my mom and stepdad, who treated me like a servant. I prayed every day for my 18th birthday to come, so l could leave and escape this broken home.
However, on my first day at my new school, l encountered the legendary twins everyone feared.
To make matters worse, the Moon Goddess revealed they were both my mates!
After helping me out with my stepdad, my twin mate cornered me, played with my hair, and whispered possessively, "You belong to us, our little mate..."
Rise of the Banished She-Wolf
That roar stole my eighteenth birthday and shattered my world. My first shift should have been glory—blood turned blessing into shame. By dawn they'd branded me "cursed": cast out by my pack, abandoned by family, stripped of my nature. My father didn't defend me—he sent me to a forsaken island where wolfless outcasts were forged into weapons, forced to kill each other until only one could leave.
On that island I learned the darkest edges of humanity and how to bury terror in bone. Countless times I wanted to surrender—dive into the waves and never surface—but the accusing faces that haunted my dreams pushed me back toward something colder than survival: revenge. I escaped, and for three years I hid among humans, collecting secrets, learning to move like a shadow, sharpening patience into precision—becoming a blade.
Then, under a full moon, I touched a bleeding stranger—and my wolf returned with a violence that made me whole. Who was he? Why could he wake what I'd thought dead?
One thing I know: now is the time.
I have waited three years for this. I will make everyone who destroyed me pay—and take back everything that was stolen from me.
The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates
"Let me go," I whimper, my body trembling with need. "I don't want you touching me."
I fall forward onto the bed then turn around to stare at him. The dark tattoos of Domonic's chiseled shoulders, quiver and and expand with the heave of his chest. His deep dimpled smile is full of arrogance as he reaches behind himself to lock the door.
Biting his lip, he stalks toward me, his hand going to the seam of his pants and the thickening bulge there.
"Are you sure you don't want me to touch you?" He whispers, untying the knot and slipping a hand inside. "Because I swear to God, that is all I have been wanting to do. Every single day from the moment you stepped in our bar and I smelled your perfect flavor from across the room."
New to the world of shifters, Draven is human on the run. A beautiful girl who no one could protect. Domonic is the cold Alpha of the Red Wolf Pack. A brotherhood of twelve wolves that live by twelve rules. Rules which they vowed could NEVER be broken.
Especially - Rule Number One - No Mates
When Draven meets Domonic, he knows that she is his mate, but Draven has no idea what a mate is, only that she has fallen in love with a shifter. An Alpha that will break her heart to make her leave. Promising herself, she will never forgive him, she disappears.
But she doesn’t know about the child she’s carrying or that the moment she left, Domonic decided rules were made to be broken - and now will he ever find her again? Will she forgive him?
The Biker Alpha Who Became My Second Chance Mate
"You're like a sister to me."
Those were the actual words that broke the camel's back.
Not after what just happened. Not after the hot, breathless, soul-shaking night we spent tangled in each other's arms.
I knew from the beginning that Tristan Hayes was a line I shouldn't cross.
He wasn't just anyone, he was my brother's best friend. The man I spent years secretly wanting.
But that night... we were broken. We had just buried our parents. And the grief was too heavy, too real...so I begged him to touch me.
To make me forget. To fill the silence that death left behind.
And he did. He held me like I was something fragile.
Kissed me like I was the only thing he needed to breathe.
Then left me bleeding with six words that burned deeper than rejection ever could.
So, I ran. Away from everything that cost me pain.
Now, five years later, I'm back.
Fresh from rejecting the mate who abused me. Still carrying the scars of a pup I never got to hold.
And the man waiting for me at the airport isn't my brother.
It's Tristan.
And he's not the guy I left behind.
He's a biker.
An Alpha.
And when he looked at me, I knew there was no where else to run to.
Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother
"What is wrong with me?
Why does being near him make my skin feel too tight, like I’m wearing a sweater two sizes too small?
It’s just newness, I tell myself firmly.
He’s my boyfirend’s brother.
This is Tyler’s family.
I’m not going to let one cold stare undo that.
**
As a ballet dancer, My life looks perfect—scholarship, starring role, sweet boyfriend Tyler. Until Tyler shows his true colors and his older brother, Asher, comes home.
Asher is a Navy veteran with battle scars and zero patience. He calls me "princess" like it's an insult. I can't stand him.
When My ankle injury forces her to recover at the family lake house, I‘m stuck with both brothers. What starts as mutual hatred slowly turns into something forbidden.
I'm falling for my boyfriend's brother.
**
I hate girls like her.
Entitled.
Delicate.
And still—
Still.
The image of her standing in the doorway, clutching her cardigan tighter around her narrow shoulders, trying to smile through the awkwardness, won’t leave me.
Neither does the memory of Tyler. Leaving her here without a second thought.
I shouldn’t care.
I don’t care.
It’s not my problem if Tyler’s an idiot.
It’s not my business if some spoiled little princess has to walk home in the dark.
I’m not here to rescue anyone.
Especially not her.
Especially not someone like her.
She’s not my problem.
And I’ll make damn sure she never becomes one.
But when my eyes fell on her lips, I wanted her to be mine.
Mr. Ryan
He came closer with a dark and hungry expression,
so close,
his hands reached for my face, and he pressed his body against mine.
His mouth took mine eagerly, a little rudely.
His tongue left me breathless.
“If you don't go with me, I'll fuck you right here.” He whispered.
Katherine kept her virginity for years even after she turned 18. But one day, she met an extremely sexual man Nathan Ryan in the club. He had the most seductive blue eyes she has ever seen, a well-defined chin, almost golden blonde hair, full lips, perfectly drawn, and the most amazing smile, with perfect teeth and those damn dimples. Incredibly sexy.
She and he had a beautiful and hot one-night stand...
Katherine thought she might not meet the man again.
But fate has another plan
Katherine is about to take on the job of assistant to a billionaire who owns one of the biggest companies in the country and is known to be a conquering, authoritative and completely irresistible man. He is Nathan Ryan!
Will Kate be able to resist the charms of this attractive, powerful and seductive man?
Read to know a relationship torn between anger and the uncontrollable desire for pleasure.
Warning: R18+, Only for mature readers.
Goddess Of The Underworld: The Goddess Legacy (Book One)
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 armor, breakfasts, bedtime, battle plans. Peace lasts exactly one lullaby. This is the story of a border pup who became a goddess by choosing her family; of four imperfect alphas learning how to stay; of cake, iron, and daylight negotiations. 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.
When Contracts Turn to Forbidden Kisses
*
When Amelia Thompson signed that marriage contract, she never knew her husband was an FBI undercover agent.
Ethan Black approached her to investigate Viktor Group—the corrupt corporation where her late mother worked. To him, Amelia was just another lead, possibly the conspirator's daughter he was sworn to destroy.
But three months of marriage changed everything. Her warmth and fierce independence dismantled every defense around his heart—until the day she vanished.
Three years later, she returns with their child, seeking the truth about her mother's death. And he's no longer just an FBI agent, but a man desperate to win her back.
A Marriage Contract. A Life-Changing Inheritance. A Heart-Shattering Betrayal.
This time, can love survive the ultimate deception?
Mated by Contract to the Alpha
William—my devastatingly handsome, wealthy werewolf fiancé destined to become Delta—was supposed to be mine forever. After five years together, I was ready to walk down the aisle and claim my happily ever after.
Instead, I found him with her. And their son.
Betrayed, jobless, and drowning in my father's medical bills, I hit rock bottom harder than I ever imagined possible. Just when I thought I'd lost everything, salvation came in the form of the most dangerous man I'd ever encountered.
Damien Sterling—future Alpha of the Silver Moon Shadow Pack and ruthless CEO of Sterling Group—slid a contract across his desk with predatory grace.
“Sign this, little doe, and I'll give you everything your heart desires. Wealth. Power. Revenge. But understand this—the moment you put pen to paper, you become mine. Body, soul, and everything in between.”
I should have run. Instead, I signed my name and sealed my fate.
Now I belong to the Alpha. And he's about to show me just how wild love can be.
Thornhill Academy
A demon king who would burn realms for her.
A dragon-shifter whose fire worships her skin.
A hellhound bound to her soul.
A professor who is off limits.
And the man who broke for her long before he ever touched her.
Four men. Four obsessions. Four hearts tethered to hers by magic older than the Wall itself.
Hunted, haunted, and newly awakened, Allison is thrust into a rebellion built on blood and hope, the same rebellion her parents died to protect. As enemies close in and desire becomes as sharp as any blade, she must decide what kind of power she will become: A weapon forged by the Council.
Or the storm that destroys them all. When Allison rises, kingdoms kneel, and when she loves, she loves like war.
-Dark Academia
-Reverse Harem
-Dark Romance
-Dark Humour
-Action Packed
-Steamy Scenes
-An Adventure You Cannot Miss












