
Introduction
Chapter 1
My name is Lena. I'm a paranormal investigator—the fourth generation in my family to do this kind of work.
The title sounds impressive, but in reality, my parents run the kind of paranormal agency tucked away at the end of an old street, with a storefront so small most people would miss it—helping people in nearby towns perform exorcisms, clearing out lingering spirits from old houses, and occasionally taking on a few unsolved cases that end up in the local paper.
I grew up surrounded by seance candles and old filing cabinets. I saw my parents rush out on late-night emergencies more times than I can count, throwing on worn trench coats, carrying silver tool cases, and turning back to say, "Lock the door. We'll be back soon."
So while other girls my age were collecting dolls, I had already learned how to tell a malevolent spirit from a lingering ghost, and how to use silver powder and saltwater to draw my first defensive ward.
On my eighteenth birthday, my mother called me into the living room. On the coffee table sat a deep blue velvet box, its corners rubbed pale with age.
"Open it," she said.
I lifted the lid. Inside was a silver pocket watch, three inches across, the case engraved with an intricate ring of vine patterns. The watch had stopped long ago, its second hand resting quietly at twelve. The silver chain was marked with faint scratches, enough to show it had some years on it.
I weighed it in my hand. It was heavy—heavier than it looked.
"This has been passed down through our family for generations. Your great-grandmother gave it to your grandmother, your grandmother gave it to me, and now it's your turn."
"It will protect you." My mother hung the watch around my neck herself, stepped back to look at it, then reached out to straighten the chain. "Your great-grandmother was a very powerful medium. She said this watch would save your life at your most dangerous moment."
"How?" I asked.
My mother thought for a moment, then said, "She didn't say. But your great-grandmother never made claims she wasn't sure about."
I turned the watch over. Inside the cover was an extremely fine scratch, so faint I would have missed it if I hadn't looked closely.
"When did this get scratched?" I asked.
My mother leaned in for a look and said it was probably just age—silver wears down over time. She adjusted the length of the chain for me and told me to wear it every day, not even taking it off to shower.
I said I would, but honestly, I didn't think much of it. An old pocket watch that hadn't worked in years was, at most, just a family heirloom. Wearing it as a charm felt more like psychological comfort than anything else.
Three days later, I almost got killed by a truck.
That afternoon, I came out of the used bookstore in town and stopped at the curb to wait for the light. I pulled the pocket watch out from under my collar and started fiddling with it, my thumb tracing the vine pattern on the case—the engraving was deep enough that I could feel the veins of every leaf.
Then I accidentally dropped it.
The silver chain slipped through my fingers. The watch hit the edge of the sidewalk, bounced once, and rolled into the street. I instinctively ran after it and bent down to grab it—and then I heard the shriek of tires scraping against the road.
A huge force slammed into my left shoulder from behind, shoving me hard toward the sidewalk. My back hit a lamppost, my forehead struck metal, and everything went black.
When I woke up, I was in the hospital.
My mother was sitting by the bed, her eyes red. The moment she saw me open mine, she crushed the tissue in her hand into a tight ball.
The doctor said I was basically fine—just a mild concussion, plus a cut on my forehead that needed a few stitches. A few days in the hospital and I'd be able to go home.
"I think I got hit by a car," I said.
"You just fell crossing the street and passed out from the shock. A passerby pushed you back to the curb." My mother held my hand. Her fingers were a little cold. "Get some rest. Don't overthink it."
But something about it felt wrong. The scream of tires. The huge force that shoved me out of the way. The figure I caught a glimpse of before I fell—it all felt real.
But I was exhausted. My head felt heavy, like something was pressing down on it.
I didn't keep asking.
After I was discharged, my parents told me we were moving—to a more remote northern town. They said the doctor recommended a change of environment so I could recover properly.
I didn't argue. I felt like I needed to leave too—not because I needed rest, but because every time I passed that street, my chest would tighten for no reason, as if something were lodged there, unable to rise or sink.
Our new home was in a place up north called Graystone.
It was a small town: one main street, a few rows of low houses, and a stretch of evergreen forest behind them.
The first night after we moved in, I immediately felt something strange in my room.
Not fear—something gentler than that. It felt like someone was sitting quietly in the corner, watching me without coming closer or making a sound.
I turned over, and the corner of my eye caught something at the foot of the bed. My heart skipped.
There was a blurred, half-transparent figure there.
I lunged for the lamp and switched it on.
There was nothing in the room.
The curtains were swaying faintly, though the window was shut tight.
I sat there for a long time. Then I took the pocket watch off my neck and held it in my palm.
When I looked down at the face, I froze.
The extremely fine scratch inside the cover had become a crack—deeper than a scratch, more irregular, like something had pushed outward from the inside.
I ran my thumb over it. The edges were smooth, not like fresh damage.
But I clearly remembered that crack not being there the last time I opened it.
Over the next few months, I kept helping my parents with the agency while also paying attention to the strange things in my room.
The clothes in my closet kept getting refolded by someone—I always tucked the sleeves in, but every time I opened the closet, the cuffs had been neatly turned out.
Sometimes there would be an extra cup of tea on my nightstand, still warm. The tea bag would be my favorite citrus flavor, steeped for exactly three minutes.
One night before bed, I said into the empty room, "If you're really here, can you at least tell me who you are?"
There was no answer.
But the next morning, the tea was still warm, and under the bottom of the cup was a note torn from an old newspaper. On it was just one handwritten word:
"Okay."
I told my mother about these things.
She was in the kitchen slicing carrots. After listening, she set down the knife and looked at me.
The look was brief. It wasn't confusion. It was something more complicated—like she knew something, but wasn't sure whether she should tell me.
After a moment of silence, she said, "That pocket watch was left behind by your great-grandmother. It really does have some powers we don't fully understand. But it won't hurt you."
A few years later, I had officially become a paranormal investigator.
That day, my father took on a case—three miles north of Graystone, there was a stretch of farmland that had been abandoned for years. Lately, hunters passing by late at night said they'd heard strange noises. Some claimed they'd seen light moving inside an abandoned barn.
My father was going to handle it himself, but two emergency jobs came in at the same time.
I picked up the case file.
"I'll go."
"By yourself?"
"I've got my charm, don't I?" I said, half joking, patting the pocket watch hanging against my chest.
My mother glanced at my father, then helped me pack my tool case, slipping an extra box of seance candles into the bottom.
She said it was just in case.
I told her I wouldn't need any of it—it was only a simple scouting job. Check what was on the farmland, write it down, come back, and report.
When I left, the sky was piled thick with clouds.
I rode my father's old motorcycle north along the gravel road outside town. The pocket watch hung around my neck, swaying lightly in the wind and occasionally tapping against my collarbone.
The farmland lay at the foot of the mountain on the northern edge of Graystone. I parked the bike by the roadside, picked up my tool case, and walked into the overgrown field.
Wind came pouring down from the ridge, flattening the grass.
In the distance, the barn door swayed gently in the wind.
The moon had already broken through a gap in the clouds—bright and round.
I tightened my grip on the handle of the tool case and walked toward the barn.
Last Chapters
You Might Like 😍
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.
A PRINCESS IN DISGUISE; BOUND TO THE ENEMY KING
I fell to my knees, the cold marble digging into my skin. I had studied for years in the flickering candlelight, memorizing every herb and poison to pass the healer's exam. I wanted freedom. I wanted to save my mother from the servant's quarters. I placed second. I thought I had won my life back.
But the King didn't give me a badge of honor. He gave me a death sentence.
"Raven Thorne shall be wed to the King of Grok," he announced, his voice echoing in the silent hall. Princess Ellie, the woman who had tormented me for years, slapped her hands over her mouth to hide her cruel laughter. She was supposed to marry the Beast. Now, I was the lamb being sent to the slaughter in her place.
They say King Liam drinks the blood of his enemies. They say he is more monster than man. And now, I have to walk into his bedroom, wearing the Princess's silk gown, and pray he doesn't tear me apart.
I looked at the King, tears streaming down my face. "I'll do it," I whispered, my voice trembling. "But my mother must be safe."
I sold my body and soul to a monster to save her. But when the carriage door opened and I finally looked into the Beast's golden eyes, I realized the terrifying truth...
He wasn't a stranger. He was the man I met in the woods.
The Alpha & The Vampire Queen
Whips crack against her skin, blood pooling on the cold stone floor, while her mother's pleas fade into silence, abandoning her to the monster's wrath. Xander's protective cries turn to accusations under Penny's dark spells, fracturing their sibling bond into shards of mistrust and isolation.
The Princess's Revenge
Alpha Logan is an illegitimate son whose mother disappeared when he was 10 years old. He grew up suffering from humiliation and lacking maternal love.
Alpha Logan saves Valencia at Marcus's funeral, which seems to be destined by fate—part of the Moon Goddess's grand plan.
As Valencia accidentally discovers prophecies in Logan's mother's diary that seem to be related to her, the truth gradually surfaces. Valencia appears to be merely a tool in a princess's revenge plot. How will Logan and Valencia navigate their path amid the national war and pack politics?
Human Capture (Up North #2)
Raised in a starving settlement choked by a vast, unforgiving forest, Lara learned early that survival has a price. To keep her family alive, she became a master hunter—agile, silent, and deadly with an array of mismatched blades. But the forest has eyes, and one evening, the shadows dragged her away.
Nine months later, Lara breaks free from a concrete dungeon, only to find herself stranded in the lawless, rogue-infested wilds of Avers Land alongside four captured werewolf girls. Seeking refuge in the neighboring territory of Illyen, she expects to find a way back to her human life. Instead, she is brought face-to-face with Alpha Rowan, the terrifying, ruthless ruler of the frozen North.
One look into Lara’s eyes, and the Alpha’s world shatters. His eyes turn an absolute shade of black. The bond is undeniable. She is his fated mate.
But a human cannot survive the brutal political landscape of the North, and Rowan openly rejects the bond, dragging her onto a warship bound for a kingdom that views her as a fragile liability. Trapped between a mate who refuses to love her and a court of monsters waiting for her to break, Lara must use every hunter's instinct she possesses. Because in the realm of wolves, a human must either grow claws of her own—or perish in the snow.
The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)
The saint to my sinner. with her innocent eyes and devilish curves.
A Madonna that was meant to be admired but never touched.
Until someone took that innocence from her.
She left.
The darkness in my heart was finally complete.
I avenged her, I killed for her, but she never came back.
Until I saw her again. An angel dancing around a pole for money.
She didn’t know I owned that club. She didn’t know I was watching.
This time I won’t let her escape.
I will make her back into the girl I knew.
Whether she likes it or not.
2/ Judge and Jury- I can’t stop watching her.
I’m not even sure I want to.
Taylor Lawson, blonde, beautiful, and totally oblivious to how much dangers she’s in.
She’s also the one juror in my upcoming murder trial that hasn’t been bought.
The one who can put me behind bars for a very long time.
I know I should execute her.
After all that’s what I do.
I am the Judge.
I eliminate threats to The Family.
And Taylor is a threat.
But I don’t want to kill her.
Possessing her, making her love me seems like a much better plan for this particular Juror.
3/ Rags and Ritches-
My Benchwarmer Boyfriend's Secret
As the team's benchwarmer, Marco practices harder than anyone, though few seems to notice. There's something about his quiet determination that draws me in, and I find myself falling for the underdog.
But when Marco's true story starts unraveling—about that first night, about who he really is, about the future he's destined for—I realize I might have gotten in way over my head.
And there's another problem: this was always meant to be temporary. His training program has an end date, and we're both fighting against a reality that seems determined to pull us apart.
When everything is on the line, how far are we willing to go for love?
The Dark Witch & The Alpha Book 2
The vampire queen (Ambrosia) and Pythia will become close and discover the true origins of their pasts. They rely on each other when their mates are not around. New family is discovered and it is time they all come together to face one of the toughest moments in the dark witches history.
BROKEN TRUST
Neither of them knew she was carrying his child.
Emily’s affair didn’t just end her marriage—it erased the life she thought was guaranteed. Ryan left without looking back, carrying his anger like armor and leaving Emily alone with regret she would never outrun. Three years later, fate drags them back into each other’s world, along with a little girl who has Ryan’s eyes and a truth that shatters everything he thought he knew.
Old wounds reopen, grief masquerades as rage, and love refuses to stay buried. As parenthood binds them together and the past demands accountability, Emily and Ryan must face the question neither of them is ready to answer: is broken trust the end of their story… or the beginning of a love forged through loss, forgiveness, and brutal honesty?
Where The Ice Gives Way
Blake Atlas scents his mate the moment Charlotte arrives. The bond hits hard and unmistakable, but Charlotte doesn’t recognise it. She doesn’t know why her chest keeps pulling toward the one boy she absolutely cannot afford to want. Blake is Charlie’s new hockey captain. Charlie’s chance at making something good. Charlie makes it clear; his sister is off-limits and Blake tries to do the right thing, but secrets don’t stay buried forever. Rogues prowl the edges of town. The ice cracks. The bond tightens. Then Charlotte’s rare white wolf awakens, the very thing that makes her powerful, also makes her a target.
Shanti needs Shakti. (Peace needs strength.)
Where the Ice Gives Way is a slow-burn YA paranormal romance filled with fated mates, protective alpha energy, fierce sibling loyalty, found family pack bonds, hurt/comfort, and quiet, aching tension. It’s a story about first belonging, learning to be cared for, and what happens when the girl who has always held everyone else up finally falls, and someone catches her.
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.
A Queen Among Darkness (Book 4 in the Gods' Saga)
For centuries, she has been on the run, helping the supernatural community under the cloak of anonymity while she works to clear her name and save the very people after her from destruction.
Enemies are closing in, but an unexpected complication befalls her when she realises she’s been fated to someone who wants her species exterminated. After all, an evil chance seldom comes alone.
A Queen Among Darkness is the 4th book in the Queen Among Series/The Gods' Saga. This is an interconnected series. To see how it ends, I recommend reading the full series.
Books in the series in order:
A Queen Among Alphas - Book 1
Bite-Size Luna - A Queen Among Alphas Prequel (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Snakes - Book 2
A Queen Among Blood - Book 3
A Queen Among Darkness - Book 4
Whole Again - A Queen Among Alpha's spin-off (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Tides - Book 5
Valor, Virtue, and Verve - Tides Prequel Spin-off (will be available under book 5)
A Queen Among Gods - Book 6
Runaway Empress - A Queen Among Snakes Prequel (will be available under book 2)
A Queen Among Tempests - Book 7
Dark Vocation - Darkness spin-off (will be available under book 4)
A Court of Arcane Souls Anthology (side character short stories exclusive to Ream)
Royal Shadow Series (Next Generation Coming Soon)












