Stray Cat Strut - The Ongoing Contest has come to a close!

Sakimori Kagami plays a VRMMORPG called Arch Earth Online. He is a veteran player with the name and appearance similar to an elderly bearded wizard from a certain book about a ring.

One day he purchases an appearance change item as a last resort to spend expiring currency and gets the idea of choosing what he would want to look like if his character was ever a girl.

Falling asleep should have suspended the game, but Kagami wakes up still online and feels the game has has gotten a bit more realistic. Did Arch Earth Online finally get a long-awaited update?

Athen had always lived a solitary life, as without any family or friends, he struggled to survive in his poor, forgotten hometown. The only escape from this grim reality came in the form of tales of magic told by rare visitors from the distant capital.That was, until one day, Athen discovered that magic wasn't just a dream. It was within him.With his newfound power, Athen completed a desperate heist, stealing a priceless diamond. But his triumph was short-lived when he realized the diamond was a fake.Yet... what seemed like a cruel trick turned out to be a blessing in disguise, for the fake diamond held the key to unlocking Athen’s greatest desire: the chance to truly learn magic.

The tombs of the gods have appeared in the world!

“I, Dominic Cherith, reject you, Inez Sinclair, as my mate. A lying, traitorous tramp like you has no right to become my mate and the Luna of this pack.”As a half shifter, Inez Sinclair had hoped and dreamt of the day when she would meet her mate for the first time. However, the dreamy fantasy turned into her hellish nightmare when her ex-best friend and mate rejected her in front of the pack.To cap it all, he did it with a trash can turned upside down on her head.The reason? She had betrayed him, but Inez had no idea about this unknown betrayal that he spoke of.After years of endless torment, this rejection was the final blow that broke the camel’s back. Inez finally came to face the reality that she had been ignoring for years.Her best friend was gone, and in place of him stood a fiend who looked at her as if she was his worst enemy.But what truly broke her was the last betrayal of her mate.Withholding the last fragments of their mating bond, Dominic slept with another shifter—a shifter she despised and loathed, causing Inez to feel every bit of pleasure he gave the woman. Hear every sigh and moan through their mating bond.The impact broke her and left her wolf half dead.Not wanting to waste any more time with the awful bastard, Inez was prepared to run away from the pack, even if it meant to die as a rogue or live between humans where the fanatics could kill her for being a shifter.Only if she knew that Dominic blamed her for the death of his sister Abertha.And he caught her stealing the Tears of Sirens in the surveillance recording—the magical remedy that could bring the dead back to life!Ironically, Inez was part siren.Something she never relayed to anyone in the pack, not even Dominic for shifters took sirens as their slaves, tormenting them in hope that they would shed Tears of Siren. The endless torment only brought one thing to sirens: Death.She swore to never let anyone find out about the truth—that was until she ran into Killian Sokolov, an Alpha Lycan shifter.A man of sheer masculinity and charm and an unknown anger packed in ice so thick.With his slick lies, he could win the heart of any woman but refuses to leave her alone after finding out that Inez was part siren.But as a part siren, why would Inez steal the Siren’s tears? And if she didn’t steal them, whom did Dominic see in the surveillance recording?As secrets unfolds and boundaries set in stones disappear –Would Inez and Killian give love a second chance, letting go of their past? And to what lengths would Dominic go if he found out the truth?Will Killian be able to heal her broken heart before all is lost?