Introduction
Share the book to
About Author

Catie Barnett
Chapter 1
Chapter 1: The Awakening
The moon hung low in the sky, casting an ethereal glow over the city's Gothic spires and weathered stone facades. Amelia Matthews pulled her jacket tighter around her slender frame as she hurried down the cobblestone street, her footsteps echoing in the quiet night. Her heart raced with anticipation, a mix of excitement and trepidation coursing through her veins.
At twenty-two, Amelia was in her final year of art history studies at the local university. Her passion for Gothic architecture and, more specifically, gargoyles had been a constant throughout her life. Tonight, she was following a lead that promised to be the culmination of years of research and fascination.
As she rounded a corner, the abandoned cathedral loomed before her, its imposing structure a testament to centuries past. Amelia paused, taking in the sight of the crumbling edifice. Intricate carvings adorned the weathered stone, telling stories of saints and sinners alike. Her gaze traveled upward, settling on the gargoyles perched along the roofline, their grotesque faces frozen in eternal vigilance.
"This is it," Amelia whispered to herself, her breath visible in the cool night air. She approached the heavy wooden doors, their once-ornate surface now marred by time and neglect. With a deep breath, she pushed against them, surprised when they yielded with a low groan.
The interior of the cathedral was bathed in shadows, moonlight filtering through the remnants of stained glass windows. Amelia fumbled in her bag for her flashlight, clicking it on and sweeping the beam across the cavernous space. Dust motes danced in the light, and the air held the musty scent of age and abandonment.
Amelia moved cautiously through the nave, her footsteps muffled by a thick layer of dust on the stone floor. Her flashlight beam revealed fallen debris and remnants of the cathedral's former glory. As she neared the altar, something caught her eye – a faint outline of a door hidden behind a tattered tapestry.
Her heart pounding, Amelia approached the concealed entrance. With trembling hands, she pushed aside the heavy fabric, revealing an ancient wooden door. The intricate carvings on its surface depicted scenes of celestial battles and otherworldly creatures. Amelia ran her fingers over the raised designs, feeling a surge of excitement.
"This has to be it," she murmured, grasping the iron handle. It took all her strength to pull the door open, the hinges protesting with a shrill squeal that echoed through the empty cathedral.
Beyond the threshold lay a narrow staircase descending into darkness. Amelia hesitated for a moment, her common sense warring with her curiosity. Curiosity won out, and she began her descent, one hand trailing along the damp stone wall for balance.
The air grew colder as she descended, and Amelia could hear the faint drip of water echoing from somewhere in the darkness. After what felt like an eternity, the stairs leveled out into a circular chamber. Amelia's breath caught in her throat as her flashlight illuminated the space.
The chamber was filled with statues, each more magnificent than the last. Gargoyles of all shapes and sizes surrounded her, their stone faces eerily lifelike in the harsh beam of her flashlight. Amelia moved among them, her trained eye taking in the exquisite craftsmanship of each piece.
"Incredible," she breathed, reaching out to touch the wing of a particularly fierce-looking creature. "These must be hundreds of years old."
As she explored the chamber, one statue, in particular, drew her attention. It stood apart from the others, positioned on a raised dais in the center of the room. Unlike the others, this gargoyle appeared almost human in form, save for the powerful wings folded against its back and the sharp claws tipping its fingers.
Amelia approached the statue, captivated by its lifelike qualities. The gargoyle's face was noble, with high cheekbones and a strong jaw. Its eyes, though made of stone, seemed to hold a depth of emotion that took her breath away.
"You're beautiful," Amelia whispered, reaching out to touch the statue's face.
The moment her fingers made contact with the cool stone, a jolt of energy surged through her body. She stumbled backward, watching in disbelief as the statue began to glow with an inner light. Cracks appeared on its surface, spreading rapidly across the stone skin.
Amelia's heart hammered in her chest as she watched the impossible unfold before her eyes. Pieces of stone fell away, revealing flesh and fabric beneath. The glow intensified, forcing her to shield her eyes.
When the light finally faded, Amelia lowered her arm, her jaw dropping at the sight before her. Where the statue had stood moments before, a man now stood – if he could be called a man. He was tall and powerfully built, with skin the color of pale marble. Great wings unfurled from his back, stretching to their full impressive span before folding neatly behind him.
The being's eyes opened, revealing irises of a stormy gray. He blinked, focusing on Amelia with an intensity that made her shiver. When he spoke, his voice was deep and resonant, carrying the weight of centuries.
"You have awakened me," he said, his gaze never leaving her face. "I am Gideon, Guardian of the Night. And you, human, have broken a curse centuries in the making."
Amelia stood frozen, her mind struggling to process what she was seeing. "I... I'm Amelia," she managed to stammer. "How is this possible? You were stone just moments ago."
Gideon stepped down from the dais, his movements graceful despite his imposing size. "Magic, little one. A curse laid upon me and my brethren long ago. We were to remain as stone until awakened by one pure of heart."
He reached out, his clawed hand gently tilting Amelia's chin up to meet his gaze. "And it seems you are that one."
Amelia felt a rush of warmth at his touch, a strange connection forming between them. She had so many questions, her academic mind racing to understand the implications of what she was witnessing. But there was also a part of her, one she couldn't quite explain, that felt drawn to this mysterious creature.
"Why me?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "I'm just a student. There's nothing special about me."
Gideon's lips curved into a small smile, revealing pointed canines. "The magic that binds us does not recognize titles or status, Amelia. It sees into the very essence of a person. And in you, it found something worthy."
He stepped back, gesturing to the other statues in the chamber. "My brothers and sisters still slumber. In time, they too may awaken. But for now, we must leave this place. The world above has changed much in my absence, and I must learn of it."
Amelia nodded, still dazed by the turn of events. "I can help you," she offered, surprising herself with her eagerness. "I know it must be overwhelming, but I can show you how things have changed."
Gideon regarded her for a moment, then nodded. "Your assistance would be most welcome, Amelia. But know this – by awakening me, you have become part of a world few humans ever see. There will be dangers, and there are those who would seek to harm us both if they knew of my existence."
The gravity of his words sank in, and Amelia felt a mixture of fear and excitement. Her life had changed irrevocably in the span of a few minutes, but she couldn't bring herself to regret it. There was something about Gideon, something that called to her on a level she couldn't explain.
"I understand," she said, straightening her shoulders. "And I'm ready to face whatever comes. I've spent my whole life studying creatures like you, dreaming of a world beyond what we can see. Now that I know it's real, I can't turn away."
Gideon's expression softened, a look of admiration crossing his features. "Your courage does you credit, Amelia. Come, let us leave this place. The night is young, and there is much to discuss."
As they made their way back up the narrow staircase, Amelia's mind raced with questions and possibilities. She had entered the cathedral as a student in search of history and art. She was leaving it as something else entirely – the keeper of an ancient secret, and the companion to a creature of legend.
When they emerged into the main body of the cathedral, Gideon paused, looking up at the moonlight streaming through the broken windows. "It has been so long since I've seen the night sky," he murmured.
Amelia watched him, struck by the mix of strength and vulnerability he displayed. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" she said softly. "The way the moonlight plays on the stone?"
Gideon turned to her, his gray eyes seeming to peer into her very soul. "Indeed it is, Amelia. But I find I'm more captivated by the one who brought me back to see it."
A blush crept up Amelia's cheeks, and she felt a flutter in her stomach at his words. As they stepped out into the night together, she knew that her life would never be the same. The world of academia and dusty tomes seemed a lifetime away. Before her lay a path of mystery, magic, and perhaps even danger.
But as she looked up at Gideon, his powerful form silhouetted against the night sky, Amelia knew she wouldn't have it any other way. Whatever challenges lay ahead, she would face them – not as a mere student, but as the awakener of an ancient guardian, and perhaps, something more.
The cool night air carried the promise of adventure, and as Amelia and Gideon disappeared into the shadows of the city, a new chapter in both their lives began to unfold.
Latest Chapters
#120 Epilogue: A Love Beyond Time
Last Updated: 05/13/2025 08:42#119 Chapter 120: Guardians of Tomorrow
Last Updated: 05/13/2025 08:42#118 Chapter 119: Love Eternal
Last Updated: 05/13/2025 08:42#117 Chapter 118: Dawn of a New Age
Last Updated: 05/13/2025 08:42#116 Chapter 117: Sacrifice of Stone
Last Updated: 05/13/2025 08:42#115 Chapter 116: The Eternal Choice
Last Updated: 05/13/2025 08:42#114 Chapter 115: Worlds Collide
Last Updated: 05/13/2025 08:42#113 Chapter 114: The Hunters' Last Stand
Last Updated: 05/13/2025 08:42#112 Chapter 113: Amelia's Ascension
Last Updated: 05/13/2025 08:42#111 Chapter 112: The Elder's Farewell
Last Updated: 05/13/2025 08:42
Comments
You Might Like 😍
Accardi
“I thought you said you were done chasing me?” Gen mocked.
“I am done chasing you.”
Before she could formulate a witty remark, Matteo threw her down. She landed hard on her back atop his dining room table. She tried to sit up when she noticed what he was doing. His hands were working on his belt. It came free of his pants with a violent yank. She collapsed back on her elbows, her mouth gaping open at the display. His face was a mask of sheer determination, his eyes were a dark gold swimming with heat and desire. His hands wrapped around her thighs and pulled her to the edge of the table. He glided his fingers up her thighs and hooked several around the inside of her panties. His knuckles brushed her dripping sex.
“You’re soaking wet, Genevieve. Tell me, was it me that made you this way or him?” his voice told her to be careful with her answer. His knuckles slid down through her folds and she threw her head back as she moaned. “Weakness?”
“You…” she breathed.
Genevieve loses a bet she can’t afford to pay. In a compromise, she agrees to convince any man her opponent chooses to go home with her that night. What she doesn’t realize when her sister’s friend points out the brooding man sitting alone at the bar, is that man won’t be okay with just one night with her. No, Matteo Accardi, Don of one of the largest gangs in New York City doesn’t do one night stands. Not with her anyway.
From Best Friend To Fiancé
I let out a little gasp. His thumb rubbed across my lower lip.
“I don’t just want to fuck you—I want to keep you. You’re my favorite sin, and I’ll commit it again and again until you understand you’re mine.” His lips twitched a little. “You’ve always been mine, Savannah.”
——-
Her sister is marrying her ex. So she brings her best friend as her fake fiancé. What could possibly go wrong?
Savannah Hart thought she was over Dean Archer—until her sister, Chloe announces she's marrying him. The same man Savannah never stopped loving. The man who left her heartbroken… and now belongs to her sister.
A weeklong wedding in New Hope. One mansion full of guests. And a very bitter maid of honor.
To survive it, Savannah brings a date—her charming, clean-cut best friend, Roman Blackwood. The one man who’s always had her back. He owes her a favor, and pretending to be her fiancé? Easy.
Until fake kisses start to feel real.
Now Savannah’s torn between keeping up the act… or risking everything for the one man she was never supposed to fall for.
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.
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.”
Accidentally Yours
Lola Marlowe’s morning-after is a disaster. She’s got a killer hangover, zero memory of Burning Man, and a half-naked, sculpted stranger tied to her bed with her own lavender silk ropes. To make matters infinitely worse, the furious (and frustratingly handsome) “accidental hostage” is Enzo Marchesi, Vegas’s most notorious mafia Don.
For Enzo, this is the ultimate security breach. But the fiery, unpredictable tattoo artist is the most intriguing thing to happen to him in years. To stop his crew from “neutralizing” the threat, he makes an impulsive claim: she’s his fiancée.
Thrust into a world of high-stakes lies and feral attraction, they must navigate rival families and their own explosive chemistry.
One wrong move sparked it. Now neither of them wants out.
The Prison Project
Can love tame the untouchable? Or will it only fuel the fire and cause chaos amongst the inmates?
Fresh out of high school and suffocating in her dead-end hometown, Margot longs for her escape. Her reckless best friend, Cara, thinks she's found the perfect way out for them both - The Prisoner Project - a controversial program offering a life-changing sum of money in exchange for time spent with maximum-security inmates.
Without hesitation, Cara rushes to sign them up.
Their reward? A one-way ticket into the depths of a prison ruled by gang leaders, mob bosses, and men the guards wouldn't even dare to cross...
At the centre of it all, meets Coban Santorelli - a man colder than ice, darker than midnight, and as deadly as the fire that fuels his inner rage. He knows that the project may very well be his only ticket to freedom - his only ticket to revenge on the one who managed to lock him up and so he must prove that he can learn to love…
Will Margot be the lucky one chosen to help reform him?
Will Coban be capable of bringing something to the table other than just sex?
What starts off as denial may very well grow in to obsession which could then fester in to becoming true love…
A temperamental romance novel.
The Biker's Fate
I squeezed my eyes shut.
"Dani," he pressed. "Do you get me?"
"No, Austin, I don't," I admitted as I pulled my robe closed again and sat up. "You confuse me."
He dragged his hands down his face. "Tell me what's on your mind."
I sighed. "You're everything my parents warned me against. You're secretive, but you're also honest. I feel wholly protected by you, but then you scare me more than anyone I've ever known. You're a bad boy, but when I dated a so-called good one, he turned out to be the devil, so, yeah, I don't get you because you're not what I expected. You drive me crazier than anyone I've ever met, but then you make me feel complete. I'm feeling things I don't quite know how to process and that makes me want to run. I don't want to give up something that might be really, really good, but I also don't want to be stupid and fall for a boy just because he's super pretty and makes me come."
Danielle Harris is the daughter of an overprotective police chief and has led a sheltered life. As a kindergarten teacher, she's as far removed from the world of Harleys and bikers as you could get, but when she's rescued by the sexy and dangerous Austin Carver, her life is changed forever.
Although Austin 'Booker' Carver is enamored by the innocent Dani, he tries to keep the police chief's daughter at arm's length. But when a threat is made from an unexpected source, he finds himself falling hard and fast for the only woman who can tame his wild heart.
Will Booker be able to find the source of the threat before it's too late?
Will Dani finally give her heart to a man who's everything she's been warned about?
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
Invisible To Her Bully
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 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.
From Substitute To Queen
Heartbroken, Sable discovered Darrell having sex with his ex in their bed, while secretly transferring hundreds of thousands to support that woman.
Even worse was overhearing Darrell laugh to his friends: "She's useful—obedient, doesn't cause trouble, handles housework, and I can fuck her whenever I need relief. She's basically a live-in maid with benefits." He made crude thrusting gestures, sending his friends into laughter.
In despair, Sable left, reclaimed her true identity, and married her childhood neighbor—Lycan King Caelan, nine years her senior and her fated mate. Now Darrell desperately tries to win her back. How will her revenge unfold?
From substitute to queen—her revenge has just begun!
Crossing Lines
Noah
I was here to prove myself—
One last shot at football, at freedom, at a future no one ever thought I’d deserve.
And then I met him.
Coach Aiden Mercer.
Cold. Demanding. Built like a legend and twice as ruthless.
From the first command, I wanted to fight him.
From the first Sir, I wanted to kneel.
But this wasn’t just about the game anymore.
He looked at me like he saw through every mask I wore…
And spoke to me in a voice I knew far too well.
The same one that called me baby boy in the darkest corners of the internet.
Now I didn’t know if I wanted to win…
Or just be his.
Aiden
Noah Blake was supposed to be a challenge.
A cocky, reckless quarterback with raw talent and no discipline.
But one message had changed everything.
One night on ObeyNet, a stranger with attitude and submission tangled in his words.
And when I saw Noah in person—his fire, his fear, that ache to be seen—
I knew it was him.
He didn’t know who I was. Not yet.
But I was already testing him. Pushing him.
Breaking him down until he begged for what he swore he didn’t need.
This was not supposed to get personal, but every second he disobeyed made me want to claim him harder.
And if he crossed the line…
I’d make damn sure he never forgot who he belonged to.
About Author

Catie Barnett
Download AnyStories App to discover more Fantasy Stories.













