Showing results by author "Heather Long" in All Categories

Our feelings for her were like wild animals finally freed from their cage. But my sparrow, she was the most brutal fighter of us all. She’d had to be. The battles she’s survived, she’s done in silence and alone. Not anymore. Never again.

When did we become the adults? When did we become the ones who had to make the hard calls? One by one, we’ve all left our teenage years behind. College brought new challenges even as Bound Hearts brought us more. Whether we’re making music, love, war, games, or trouble, we’ve found a good balance. We’ve learned that even being apart doesn’t mean we aren’t together. Life has a habit of throwing curveballs. School, careers, new hobbies, friends in need, and family demands are hitting us from every angle. We’re going to need each other more than ever.

Life doesn’t come with a script, but some moments don’t need one. Senior year pushed us all. It dared us to embrace wonder and chase love. It challenged us to find out who we were as people, as partners, as a family. We’re so much better together. Graduation isn’t the end of our story by any stretch. It’s the next chapter.

I was born into this world. Power and wealth are the keys to controlling it, but they aren’t everything. They are a means to an end when it comes to protecting the people I care about. I’ve known my destiny since I was old enough to sit at the table. Everything in my life has been focused on preparing me for the future. Know your enemies, your allies, and the people in the middle you can buy. When he first appeared in my life, I had no idea who he was, but I never forgot his pretty face. While it’s been years and I barely recognize him, I can’t get enough.

From the moment I learned she was coming to our school, I had a gut feeling it would end in disaster. Out of all the schools in the world, why did Kaitlin Crosse have to choose ours? Her presence confused my brothers and created tension between them, but I soon realized my initial assumptions about her were completely wrong.

My name is Frankie Curtis, the four men I love more than anything else in this world want me to marry them. They want forever.

In the course of a year, I have had my heart broken, re-forged, only to be shattered again. The tears won’t come. Not anymore. No more looking back. No more asking what if. Coop wants me to let myself feel it. Jake wants to distract me. Archie wants to put the world at my feet. Ian wants me to not make choices, until I’m ready. I’ve got family ready to catch me, but I refuse to fall. No more waiting. No more holding my breath. The future is now. We have a chance to forge the path we want, and I’m all in.

Autumn in New York promises a turn in the seasons as we kick off the next stage of our lives. Colorful leaves falling, dropping temperatures, and the first days of classes loom even as the lingering summer heat and humidity make the city stifling. Summer was a time to get away, to just be us, and what a magical time it was, but we can only run away from our lives for so long. We have family, careers, friends - new and old - as well as commitments waiting for us.

Bianca Devlin's work is her life. Now, she's finally taking a vacation...and guerillas hit her resort to kidnap a diplomat's son. She does the only thing that makes sense—intervene to save the child's life. Being dragged into the jungle with a scared kid she's determined to protect was definitely not how she saw this trip ending. After she returns to Texas, the last person Bianca expected to see was Sergeant Carlos "Cage" Castillo, the member of Bravo Team WOLF that helped rescue her. But there he is, living across the street. She has to admit, his presence isn't entirely unwanted.

Emersyn Sharpe was nothing like I expected and everything I could have ever dreamed of. She stayed and she changed everything. She put the guys in their place. She had fire and spunk, a ferociousness I wished I possessed. Her darkness called to mine in a way that felt like home. But hiding secrets is hard work, and even the people who think they already know the worst can’t be fully trusted. No matter how desperately you want it.

My name is now Rick Drew. Fresh out of a facility they called a hospital and I called a cage, I wasn’t looking for redemption. I wasn’t looking for anything. Then I found her bleeding in an alley, and everything I thought I wanted burned to ash.

One-hundred-seventy some odd days left in my senior year, and everything has changed. I went from untouchable to dating my best friends to making out to being betrayed. Why can’t they understand humiliating and controlling me doesn’t say I care?

My name is Emersyn Sharpe. Until a few months ago, I was the lead performer for a traveling show finishing up a contract. I had been beaten, but never broken. Then they took me. I didn’t belong in their world. Still, they took me and I didn’t know why. They promised to protect me and to keep me safe, but they had to know I’d run. They had to know.

When the year started, I had one goal - make my AP classes count and keep my grades up. Both my focus and my grades started wobbling. Dating my best friends came with perks like hugs, kisses, and invitations to dances, but it also came with cons in the form of vindictive posts, hate mail, and vandalism of my car. I asked if it could get any worse, and I guess I got my answer.

Do you ever lie to yourself? I do. Making friends has been the cruelest choice I ever inflicted upon myself. I like to say I don’t regret it, and for the most part that’s true. I resent it. I despise him because he left me behind, following another battle in this war we’ve been waging. I thought we were partners, best friends, allies, and that he would always have my back as I’ve fought to have his. I hate her because she’s perfection and everything he’s ever wanted, untouchable, brilliant, and capable. Yet, I want her too. Need her. Still, she gave herself to someone else.

It’s a new year. It’s a new me. Or maybe I should say a new us. We’re out there. We’re not hiding the fact that I’m dating all of them. PDAs are back on the table. The final semester of high school kicks off with a bang. I have to keep my eye on the prize though - make every AP class count, keep my grades up, and find a way to balance life with my guys. My best friends. My boyfriends. My lovers.

Madness runs in my blood or so my family history would suggest. For more than thirteen years, I've been driven by one quest. One desire. One goal. It's about more than just DNA and legacy, it's about a promise. One I swore I would never give up. I never could have planned for her. For Lainey B. For how the girl who kept my secret became a woman who is truly my partner. I've been running alone for so long, I didn't think I could be with someone.

It’s not true. It can’t be. Four DNA tests. Only one positive. The man claiming to be my father is quite literally the worst option imaginable. This isn’t happening to me. For the first time in my life, I know who I am and where I want to be and, in the blink of an eye, everything is spinning so utterly out of control. I thought the fight with Maddy was the worst thing I faced. It’s not. I’ve grown up in a house of lies, and it’s all crashing down on the five of us, and I have no idea how to protect the ones I love best from the fallout.

Kaitlin Crosse wields an extraordinary power over me. She pushes, dares, and drives me to the brink of madness. Ever since our paths intertwined, my obsession with her has been absolute and unyielding. Every aspect of her calls out to me, yet the very thing I yearn for the most might be forever beyond my grasp. She resists my attempts to possess and protect her. She refuses my claims, asserting her fiercely independent nature.

Family legacy dictates everything from type of education to suitability of friends to eligible marriage opportunities to the type of business I’m expected to go pursue. It’s more than just DNA, it’s also about birth order, gender, and unfortunately—the family name. I was born a Reed and the weight that carries isn’t limited to the doors that it opens, but also the ones it bars shut. When I was tapped for the Royals, I saw my first way out—but it only proved to be a deeper trap.