7805 Book(s) Related to the long dark lily's grave marker

On our one-year anniversary, my husband Julian gifted me an antique ring.
Putting it on cost me everything.
I miscarried, grew paralyzed, and rapidly withered into a husk. And Julian? He convinced everyone that the trauma had simply driven a grieving mother insane.
Eventually, even I believed him.
It wasn’t until the moment of my murder that the truth finally clicked.
The ring wasn't a blessing; it was a parasitic siphon.
Then, I opened my eyes—
I was back at the anniversary dinner.

"They said I was just a piece of trash, only fit to be a substitute bride for the lunatic Abyssal Dragon Duke." I smirked, twisting the bone bracelet that sealed my venomous power. My fake sister wept pitifully, "Visenya, at worst, I'll bear the Duke's wrath myself." Oh, sweetheart, you have no idea. When the bloodthirsty Duke finally cornered me, he didn't tear me apart. Instead, he kissed my fingertips and chuckled. "So, my little bride, shall we slaughter the Emperor and take the throne for fun?" "Deal," I smiled. "But if you drag me down, I'll kill you too."

At seven years old, he pulled me from the rapids—and for the eleven years that followed, I loved this man I called "Uncle."

Then Sophia appeared. She accused me of pushing her down the stairs, and Michael didn't spare me so much as a glance before throwing me out into the storm. I knocked until my hands were raw and bleeding. He never opened the door.

Three years later, he showed up at my workplace, demanding I "come home" with him. His pregnant girlfriend flaunted a twelve-week ultrasound, cooing about how the baby already "looked just like him"—then staged yet another fall, told yet another lie, let out yet another shriek, casting me once more as the heartless monster.

But this time, I won't beg.

This time, I know secrets they don't.

Because that miscarriage three years ago? That baby? That ultrasound?

None of it was real.

The question is—how much has Michael already lost, and can he see the truth before the one person who ever truly loved him is gone for good?

That was supposed to be one of the most anticipated days of my life—the wedding of my best friend, Sarah.
But when I put on my bridesmaid dress, she called me a bitch.
"Get out." Sarah looked at me like I was trash.
"I don't want to see you at my wedding."
I stood frozen in place, staring down at the broken Cartier bracelet she had given me, now lying scattered on the floor.

The day after Lucian was titled Duke, he locked down the estate to find the woman who climbed into his bed.
In my first life, I claimed the honor. He grabbed my hand and sneered, "That woman has a scar."
I froze to death in the ice cellar.
In my second life, Martha slashed her own hand and stepped forward. He ripped her collar open. "She has a cross tattoo on her chest. Do you?"
His hounds tore her throat out in the snow.
Now we're in our third life. The Duke just issued a three-day ultimatum, dead certain that the woman is hiding in the Duchess's wing.
Martha and I stared at each other. We're the only two maids serving the Duchess.

My mom ran an exclusive underground fertility clinic. Her dark red serum smelled like rotting blood, yet the rich still lined up with massive checks for her "perfect designer embryos."
I’d watch her lock desperate young surrogates into a soundproof room. A few minutes later, the whole floor would shake.
Strangely, when the girls stumbled back out—looking entirely drained and aged by years—they would weep and kiss my mom’s hands in gratitude.
It never made sense to me.
Until the day I saw a pitch-black mass frantically clawing just beneath a surrogate's flat stomach.
I finally knew what kind of "embryos" my mom was actually planting inside them.

On Halloween night, a sharp stench of chlorine and cheap booze woke me up.
I opened my eyes to a man grinning at the bedroom door.
It was my husband, David, soaking wet and showing off the liquor he’d vanished hours ago to buy.
I cursed him out, called him a liar, and demanded a divorce. He just kept that idiotic smile.
Then my phone rang. It was his best friend, Mark.
"Claire, David drowned drunk in the pool!"

I thought I had finally married for love, that I had become the most cherished woman of a Mafia godfather.
Until I discovered the real reason he chose me in the first place.
For three years, Marcello Giovanni treated me as the most precious woman in the world.
Until the day I stumbled upon a hidden room, filled with hundreds of photographs—and every single woman in those photos looked exactly like me.
Then, I heard his underboss whisper:
"Boss said her eyes look just like Miss Camilla's."
I thought that even without real love, I could still keep living.
But I was wrong.
The moment Camilla came back from the dead, Marcello chose her without a single moment's hesitation.
And I was forced to jump into the ocean...

Bullied, abused and dumped for a crush. Rejected by the coven for her sexuality. Seph and Dextra have a lot to over come when they arrive in Ireland. Can they survive on their own? Seph is only 18 and Dextra isn’t much help, an errant familiar with a tendency for setting things on fire.

Kayla had never known anything but a supportive loving family no matter what she found out about herself. Her twin Theo would always have her back, just as she had his. It didn’t matter what they were arguing over, they were twins. The one thing they couldn’t do was share anything.

The three of them together face a new challenge when both Kayla and Theo feel a mate bond snap into place. Can they deal with everything that fate has in store for them? Witches, spells, jealously, a prophecy, and a grumpy old man who isn’t really a man?

After Grace Foster married into the Hayes family, everyone eagerly awaited the day she would give birth to an heir for the ailing young master. Grace thought marrying Alexander Hayes meant she was doomed to a lonely life, especially since her husband was in a coma. But to her surprise, he suddenly woke up. Overnight, with nothing more than a divorce agreement, she was cast aside by the wealthy family.
Seven years later, Grace returns with two sons by her side—and a line of men eager to become their stepdad. The thing Alexander regrets most is forcing Grace to sign those divorce papers. Now, the once-proud man will do anything to win her back—showering her with love, even risking everything for her.
But winning her heart again isn’t so easy, especially when his two mischievous sons seem determined to stand in his way. Alexander never expected that the biggest obstacle on his journey to win back his wife would be these two little troublemakers!

In their eyes, my wife Emma—an Ivy League tenured professor in biological sciences—is ruthless, rational, and obsessively clean.
For seven years, even when she washed her hands, she would only ever touch the right-side sink—hers.
Until that night at 3 a.m., when I pulled a strand of sandy-golden short curl—hair that belonged to neither of us—out of my men’s shower loofah.
And around the neck of a pre-med student named Lucas, I saw the antique silver cross my dying father left in my hands.
When I confronted her, my always-icy wife protected the little homewrecker, slapped me across the face, and called me a jealous, controlling chauvinist.
She thought I’d swallow it like a coward.
But she forgot: as a top cardiothoracic chief, the thing I do best is cutting out tumors.

She was betrayed, she rejected him. The reason? She resulted a BARREN women whom Ace can't accept.
After three years of arrange marriage, Ace and Rica had found themselves in a bed—betraying Selene. She was mad but he show no love, however, when she signed up the divorce papers, things had been stumbling across her paths. She was PREGNANT! How come if she's infertile?
Is she going to tell Ace that she's pregnant with his child? Absolutely no! But what if Ace will know that she is? And decided to chase her? Will everything be alright? Do Selene were ready to forgive him? How are they going to make things work out this time?

"What do you mean he's your 3rd fated mate? Answer me Arabella!" Ryker screamed in my face as he stared me down waiting for an answer. Looking at his red face and clenched fists I'm not sure if he is going to kill me or my mates. My brother is ridiculously overprotective. The only reason he is even here is to watch over me. He knows our father is going to be livid if anything happens to me. I thought finally getting accepted to moonlight academy would give me the freedom I desperately needed. It turns out, I'm not as prepared as I thought I was. My power's keep getting stronger, and mate's keep popping up out of nowhere. The lines between right and wrong are blurring, but I'm determined to prove I can do this on my own. I'm not sure if this mark the moon goddess gave to me is a blessing or a curse, but I'm strong enough to figure it out on my own.

It's 1000 years in the future, and humans have learned to travel the galaxy, discovering and colonizing planets as they go. They rely heavily on the development of robots and compete for resources to survive. A coup is enacted that changes the future of the planet Redwood, leaving the sole survivor, Princess Valerissa Gearheart, in hiding after her 14th birthday. After hiding for 7 years, Valerissa, now known only as the Gear Maiden, survived by becoming the leading creator of Chaperone Droids for the rich class of debutantes.
During those 7 years, Val created a very sophisticated AI interface that can learn human emotions and act like a human. She never replicated it for fear of being used for bad things, so there is only one droid with it. Her faithful companion, Ageis. Ageis later falls in love with Val as they work to return her home.
After so long a chance finally shows itself, and Val gets to work on taking back what belongs to her. Making new friends along the way, and learning new things about her family, Val strives to fix this world and bring peace back to Redwood.

On the day I was supposed to get married....
I watched my fiancé, Rafael, kissing another woman on his office.
Not a stranger.
My best friend.
Right then, I knew I’d only ever been the safe option, not the one he really wanted.
I left the dress, the ring, and my family’s reputation to burn in every group chat and gossip thread.
All I took with me was a small suitcase, a silent phone, and one secret I hadn’t fully understood yet: there was a baby growing inside me.
Rafael’s baby.
Six years later, I’d built a new life in Los Angeles. By day, I designed buildings for an architecture firm, drawing sharp lines to hold back the cracks I didn’t show anyone. By night, I painted until color stained my fingers and the floor.
In my calm house by the sea, a little girl with hazel eyes called me “Mom” and sprinted between piles of rolled-up blueprints.
In this new version of my life, there was Luca.
The man who always showed up with coffee, mocked my playlist, and told me, “With me, you don’t have to act tough.”
I thought I’d finally found calm.
Until that gala night.
The voice I used to almost promise forever stopped right behind me. “Long time no see, Maya.”
When Rafael’s eyes landed on my daughter’s matching hazel gaze, the air in the room grew heavy.
He wanted answers.
I wanted the nearest exit.
And before the night was over, one sentence from him tore through everything I’d carefully rebuilt:
“You need to meet my brother. His name’s Luca.”
My lungs forgot how to work.
I stared at the man I’d been calling my boyfriend… and wondered if my life had just fallen apart all over again....

She has lived hundreds of lives and each one ended horribly.
He, once her companion, cannot forget her beyond time.
She, kidnapped into a world unknown to her, tries everything to get back home. But what are these dreams?

[…] Stones are thrown at dirty mutts… Rats are burned… […]

Immerse yourself in the world of Athaerion.

"Bryson," she whispered breathlessly, her voice dripping with need.

I pinned her against the pool wall, water sloshing around us. My hands roamed down her body, gripping her ass before sliding between her thighs. My thick cock strained hard against my shorts, throbbing with the need to bury itself inside her.

Linnet moaned loudly, grinding her slick folds against my palm. She gasped and arched, her nipples hard peaks pressing into my chest through the wet fabric.

"Fuck, Bryson..." she whimpered, her inner walls clenching around my fingers.

Linnet and Bryson were originally people from two different worlds. One was a poor student with an extremely strong sense of self-esteem, while the other was a sports star quarterback who was inwardly self-deprecating and outwardly aloof. When they meet, neither of them can be sure who was the first to fall in love with the other. When the grudges of the previous generation become an inevitable obstacle for them, can they still be brave enough to be together?

"I want this. I want you. I want to give myself to you completely."

He groaned against my mouth and I felt the last of his control start to slip. "Freya—"

"Please," I whispered. "I'm ready. I'm yours."

Freya Granger is an ordinary human girl, but one afternoon she was taken to the magical world by Edward, who came from the magic academy. Edward claimed that she was the savior of the entire magical world, while Freya: What the heck?
As they spent more time together on a daily basis, a fatal attraction developed between them. Can Freya shoulder the responsibility of being the savior while also understanding her own heart?

It's about Avery Williams, who is special as she is not just a wolf/witch, but she got two sides: her wolf- Angelstar, and her Veela-Anglica.
She is a nerd, loser, and whom everyone made fun of, even her friends called her Wallflower.

Usually, when the Moon Goddess finds you your other half, one or two mates the most there will be for you. But Avery is a different werewolf, she does not have one or two mates but four mates.

She fated to the four most dangerous, most popular, and most arrogant boys in school, the four horsemen Alphas: Elijah Woods, Jake Stone, Andrew Bradford, and Matthew Steele.

The four bad boys knew the whole time that she is their mate but doesn't want anyone to know, instead they hide their feelings about Avery. Avery finally finds out her mates are her bullies and torturer, but when she turns 19 on her birthday, that is when it all changes. That is when she finds out she is a Veela.

Will Avery forgive them about they make a bet to see how to get her to fall in love with them? What if someone in her family's past wants her too and they kidnap her right at the dance.?

What if the guys find her in time but she is married off the Vampire Prince: The Duke Conway...? Will the Quads break everything in their path to get to Avery including the walls she has built around her heart? It all remains to be seen in The Wallflower And The Alphas.

We’ve been married for almost a month, yet my Alpha keeps hiding in the study to avoid me.
He would rather give me a cheap vial of synthetic bonding pheromones than bare his fangs at me.
I thought I was just the unwanted substitute for my runaway sister, that he felt absolutely nothing for me.
I slammed the door and left, heading to the Moon Well to confide. But the moment my blood dripped in, the Alpha's voice echoed:
"I finally married her... but I was born with a curse. How do I mark her without hurting her the moment I bite down..."

My sister ran away the night before her wedding, so I had to take her place and marry Damian Kovac, the city's most feared don.
I figured he'd throw me in the harbor out of pure rage. Instead, the man wouldn't even touch me.
A month in, still sleeping in the guest room.
I wasn't my sister's level of charming, but I wasn't hard to look at either. And this man couldn't spare me a single glance?
The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I grabbed the divorce papers I'd already drawn up and stormed toward his study.
Right as I raised my hand to knock, I caught his childhood friend's voice through the door.
"You moved heaven and earth to get the woman you've been hung up on, and now you're icing her out? Didn't think I'd live to see the day."
My hand froze.
The woman he'd been hung up on?

"Knock on this door over the noise one more time, and you're dead!"
Calling the cops was useless, and I was too broke to move.
Driven practically insane, I recklessly tore open the black box from the dark web—the seller promised that if I just followed the instructions, it would "eliminate the noise at the source."
Less than half an hour later, the deafening rager upstairs completely stopped.
Three mornings later, a homicide detective pounded furiously on my door.
"The father and son upstairs are dead."

It's about Avery Williams, who is special as she is not just a wolf/witch, but she got two sides: her wolf- Angelstar, and her Veela-Anglica.
She is a nerd, loser, and whom everyone made fun of, even her friends called her Wallflower.
Usually, when the Moon Goddess finds you your other half, one or two mates the most there will be for you. But Avery is a different werewolf, she does not have one or two mates but four mates.
She fated to the four most dangerous, most popular, and most arrogant boys in school, the four horsemen Alphas: Elijah Woods, Jake Stone, Andrew Bradford, and Matthew Steele.
The four bad boys knew the whole time that she is their mate but doesn't want anyone to know, instead they hide their feelings about Avery. Avery finally finds out her mates are her bullies and torturer, but when she turns 19 on her birthday, that is when it all changes. That is when she finds out she is a Veela.
Will Avery forgive them about they make a bet to see how to get her to fall in love with them? What if someone in her family's past wants her too and they kidnap her right at the dance.?What if the guys find her in time but she is married off the Vampire Prince: The Duke Conway...? Will the Quads break everything in their path to get to Avery including the walls she has built around her heart? It all remains to be seen in The Wallflower And The Alphas.

Five years after fleeing Manhattan, Evelyn Valentine has survived things that would break most people — and become something that would frighten them. Now her husband is dead, and his funeral has drawn her back to the city she once escaped, back into a life she thought she had sealed shut behind her.

But the past refuses to stay buried.

Adrian Winthrop — her late husband's son, the man whose forbidden devotion once drove her out of the only home she had known — has come back. Every stolen glance between stepmother and stepson is a betrayal. Every moment of proximity crosses a line that could unravel them both. He offers her something she has no right to want: a future built on more than grief and silence.

At the funeral, she encounters Julian Russell — mercenary king and beautiful predator — who sees straight through her widow's composure to everything she has spent years trying to hide. He doesn't want to save her. He wants to own her, and he has never once failed to take what he decides is his.

Torn between the forbidden love she was never supposed to feel and the dangerous obsession closing in around her, Evelyn must choose: grieve the life she lost and disappear, or risk the one thing she never learned to protect — her own heart.

Will she find a way to want something worth living for, or will the past finally collect what it is owed?

My three-year-old daughter hides behind the sofa whenever I try to hold her now.

“Mommy is scary,” she whispers, clutching her stuffed bear like a shield.

I thought it was just a toddler’s overactive imagination.

Until I checked the camera feed in my own bedroom.

I watched a woman who looked exactly like me step out of the shadows of our antique mirror, slip into my husband’s bed, and kiss him.

"Did you bring one back?" My mom, Siobhan, urged.
I pushed my half-empty mug to the center of the cafe table. The campus buzzed around me, students stressing over minor things like finals.
"I’m still at school, Mom."
"The Summer Solstice is in exactly one month, Maeve." The line crackled.
"If you cross that water empty-handed, Finn is going to the pens. Are you going to let your own brother be taken?"

An hour ago, at the company’s press conference, I had just helped my husband Carlisle quell the ninety-ninth scandal of his affair.
Now, he has my assistant Russell pinned against my office desk, kissing him, his hand slipping under Russell’s miniskirt and groping wildly.
In that moment, I’ve already planned the publicity spin for the hundredth time.
But I’m not sure if my dear husband Carlisle and his lover will make it that far.
Because the revenge banquet I’ve been preparing for three years is about to begin.

Half human, half wolf—my blood can heal anything. To keep the peace, the elders offer me to the pack's War God.
"I'd rather sleep with a rock than a half-blood," Zane spits.
The wind rips away the herbs masking my scent. He freezes mid-sentence.
"Mine," he growls, claiming me on the spot.
He warns me to stay away from the Alpha—he hates half-bloods, and he'll kill me.
But when Zane leaves for war, it's Lucius who collapses at my door, drenched in blood.
"Medicine won't save me. You already know what will."

Holly Leefe has seen it all. Being a medium keeps life interesting. Not that it needed any help. She already had a psychic for a husband and a clairsentient teenage daughter. Data analyst by day, ghost hunter by night. Unless it was football season. She did live in Texas after all.
This fall Holly and her husband Jesse are trying to help a widower and his fiancé discover why suddenly stilettos are being thrown through their TV. Plus a few other nuisance cases. As if helping the dead and raising a teenager wasn’t enough, the ghost of her grandmother won’t rest until the family home is returned to its 1980’s glory.

I’ve seen the living; I’ve seen the dead. I’ve seen angels and I’ve seen demons. No matter how many malevolent or benevolent beings I interacted with, none could terrify me as much as the spirit that walked through the door into the kitchen where I was cooking dinner. Mentally bracing myself, I stirred in chili powder to the ground beef on the stove before I acknowledged the woman that was now looking over my shoulder.
“That’s too much seasoning. It’s going to be too spicy.” I turned to face the food police. “You need to call your mother.” It was an order, not a request. I raised an eyebrow, inviting her to explain. “She won’t listen to reason.”
“Are you two still feuding?” She had been fighting with my mother for the last two and a half years. I’d inherited the “gift” from my mother who had gotten it from my grandmother and so on and so forth. They didn’t need me to pass messages back and forth. She seemed to have forgotten that I had refused to get involved.

Sophia and I fought over who would wear that emerald ring to change our fate.
In my first life, I claimed the emerald ring, thinking I would become a billionaire heiress.
That was until late at night, when I accidentally opened that underground iron door and he strangled me to death with a piano wire: "Your pathetic wailing isn't her at all."
Given a second chance, I backed away and let Sophia take it.
A few days later, she died in the ice cellar with her tongue severed. Right before she died, she let out a blood-curdling whimper: "A true devil is hiding behind that door!"
Waking up for the third time, we trembled in sheer terror as the ring was offered to us once again.
Just who exactly is the daughter he is looking for?

After my miscarriage, my psychiatrist husband offered to erase the painful memories to help me forget them.

During the three months I was dumped in a rehab facility, he took our daughter and his cousin on a European vacation.

Now that they're back, he assumes I’ll go right back to being that meticulous, perfect wife.

But I didn't.

He deliberately provokes me, thinking my coldness is just me playing hard to get.

He has no idea that the brainwashing procedure didn't just wash away my pain—it completely severed my love for him.

There's a heavy iron door at the end of the hall. Anyone who steps inside returns with eyes full of hatred. That’s all it took for the basement to turn my gentle fiancé into a predator and my loyal best friend into an enemy. Now, I'm trapped with a mother who claims the violence is all in my head. I have to open that door.

"I agree." I signed away my life to save the girl who framed me. My mate didn't even look up from her tears to notice I was dying. "Stop pretending. This much blood loss won't kill you," he said, storming out with her in his arms. What he didn't know? That contract wasn't a healing pact—it was an execution order. And I'd just started my 72-hour countdown to burn his entire kingdom down with me.

WARNING!! MATURED CONTENT!!

The heart craves for whatever it wants, Good or bad—

Tiffany had a long time secret Crush on her uncle, who looked more manly and handsome than all the guys she met.

She vows to make him her man, hook or crook. Opportunity presents itself, as her parents suddenly had an urgent business outside the country, and had to travel, leaving her in her uncle's house, for a month.

Things get intense, as her uncle turns out to enjoy her advances towards him, but can't let things go further, because of their relationship.

Will Tiffany be able to finally conquer him or will their relationship be a barrier??

And other Erotica collections.

"I married you only to destroy you."

That was the only reason FBI agent Sophia Carter accepted a new identity as Evelyn Russo and married Lorenzo Moretti, the most dangerous mafia boss in Italy.

Her mission was to infiltrate, gather evidence, drag Lorenzo to prison, and save the children and women that Lorenzo Moretti had kidnapped for trafficking.

But life as a Don's wife was never as simple as she had imagined. Behind the luxurious mansion, the armed men, and the secrets of the Moretti family, Sophia found herself trapped in a game she did not understand.
The closer she got to Lorenzo, the harder it became to distinguish lies from reality.
But one thing never changed. If her identity as an FBI agent was exposed, then at that very moment, she would die at her own husband's hands.

“They’ll never love you—you’re a mistake since you were born.”
Four-year-old Yanny hears this her whole life. An illegitimate girl whose mom died in an accident, she’s shunned by her rich dad Andrew, three cruel half-brothers, and four distant uncles—until her star-making viral fame cracks their cold hearts. Only orphan Hayes swears to shield her. Now the powerful men beg for her forgiveness, clinging tight as she chases stardom and the boy who promised to meet her at the top.

She called him a shameless con man. She didn't know he was a killer the whole underworld feared.

Elizabeth Williams doesn't trust charming men—especially ones who show up out of nowhere claiming to be her savior. Caesar doesn't care what she thinks. He's not here to charm her. He's here to keep her alive, one way or another.

She sees an arrogant fraud chasing her money.
He sees a woman too stubborn to admit she needs him.

Neither one is ready for what happens when the mask finally comes off.

"Why are you avoiding me, Riley?"

Theo gently touched my face, his voice as warm as ever.

Before I could answer, Eliot caught my wrist.

"Because he's afraid you'll discover who he really belongs to."

Then Julian smiled.

"The only question is… which one of us he'll choose."

—

I'm Riley.

A perfectly ordinary Beta—or so everyone believes.

After returning to Saint Vira Academy, my quiet life falls apart overnight.

The man who raised me watches me with eyes that no father should have.

The vampire ancestor who rejected my feelings suddenly refuses to let me go.

The cold Hunter Association president looks at me like I've always belonged to him.

The more I uncover the truth about my strange pheromones and hidden bloodline, the more dangerous they become.

But the greatest secret isn't who I am.

It's why three of the most powerful Alpha men would risk everything...

Just to keep me.

"I want to go back to London."
"No," he says simply, his voice low and commanding. "You're not going anywhere."
"Why not?"
"Because, unlike that worthless nephew of mine, I actually care about you."
Lyla Rose thought she had it all—love, power, a secure future. But a single medical report changes everything: she's infertile, and her ruthless husband, Vincent Ricci, discards her without hesitation.
He replaces her with another woman and locks Lyla away, believing he's done with her. But Carter Ricci, Vincent's cold and calculating uncle, rescues her. He offers protection, passion, and promises he's nothing like the man who destroyed her.
Yet Carter's care is suffocating. Locked doors, watching eyes, and a hunger that feels more like possession than love. When the truth about her infertility surfaces, Lyla realizes she may have traded one prison for another.
Caught between the husband who shattered her and the man who claimed her, Lyla must decide: can she ever be free when love itself has become a cage?

All nobles mocked me for rejecting the talented common mage and picking a brutal gladiator with no magic as my escort. They called him a filthy hound unworthy of serving an Oberlin lady. But only I remember—this scarred man died twice for me in my past life. Reborn before my family’s ruin, I swear bloody vengeance on Cedric and Liliana, who poisoned my father and stripped my skin. I endure searing magic backlash, fight bloody death matches, and burn all traitors alive. The shadow they sneer at will become the indestructible shield of my reign.

"Stay in the apartment," he said, straightening his tie as I fixed his collar. "I'll be back tonight." Then he walked out the door — straight to his wedding. What he didn't know was that my flight was already booked.
For three years I was his canary: locked in a penthouse, the only woman he let close when he bled, forgotten the moment another woman entered the room. I watched him let her wipe the blood from his face. I lost our child alone on a cold floor. I apologized to the woman who destroyed my mother's watch.
I was done waiting.
When the bells of Saint Patrick's rang out across Manhattan, he was welcoming his bride — and I finally flew out of my cage.

I thought my husband was my salvation.
Until I overheard him in the wine cellar, laughing and joking with my "attackers" from that night.
The gang rape that destroyed me was a show he orchestrated himself.

He married me only for inheritance rights.
He humiliated me, branded me, took away my child, and made my life a living hell.
But he forgot one thing—
The ancient blood oath of the Corleone family states clearly:
If a husband betrays his marriage, everything he owns shall belong to his wife.

This time, I'm no longer the rabbit waiting to be slaughtered.
This time, I write the ending.

"Olivia, the Wentworth family has no use for a pathetic excuse-maker like you."
My stepbrother, Dorian, watched with dead eyes as I tumbled down the second-floor stairs.
The agonizing pain of my shattered legs sent cold sweat pouring down my body.
"Dorian... save me..." I reached out to him in complete despair.
He just frowned in disgust, turned his back, and shut the door.
From inside, I could hear Mia's smug giggles.
Three days later, Mia stole my name and triumphantly took my guaranteed admission spot at Juilliard.
As for me, Dorian told the public I had "committed suicide from a mental breakdown after failing the audition."
In excruciating pain and sheer hopelessness, I took my last breath.
When I opened my eyes again, I shot up from the sofa.
I was reborn.
Back to exactly three days before the tragedy struck.

After dreaming of making love with Anthony for the 99th time, I finally decided to confess my feelings to him.
But just as I reached the bodyguards' private lounge, I saw him under the moonlight, reverently kissing a photo of my sister Seraphina.
After he released his desires, a werewolf quietly appeared:
"Alpha Anthony, if Thea knew your true identity as the king of the Thunder Tribe, she’d probably be shocked."
Anthony smirked disdainfully:
"What does it matter? I came here only to get close to Seraphina. As for the others, I don’t care whether they live or die."
His words sent me fleeing in despair. My heart felt as if it were being crushed by a massive wolf’s claw, the pain so intense that tears streamed down my face.
So it was all just my own wishful thinking.
Resigned, I walked into my father’s room and said:
"Father, I am willing to enter a political marriage with Alpha Caleb."
On the Moon Goddess Festival three days later, I would marry the brutal Alpha Caleb.
And as for Anthony—I would personally deliver him to Seraphina.

"Only one life jacket left!" a crewman shouted as the cruise ship sank.
My husband, Captain Harrison, looked torn between me—his pregnant wife—and Emma, his first love.
Last time, he gave me the jacket, intending to die with Emma. But he survived, and she drowned. To avenge her, he smothered our newborn. "You stole her life," he snarled. I killed him for my baby, bleeding out beside him.
Waking to the deafening sirens, I realize I’ve been reborn. This time, who will get that final life jacket?

"Are you out of your mind?"

"The scouts are coming tomorrow, and you want to ditch the regional finals just to take care of her after a botched cosmetic procedure?"

I tipped off the school board to stop him from ruining his life.

Because of me, he won the championship and secured his draft pick. But because he stood her up, his girlfriend dumped him.

Years later, he sat at the top of a billion-dollar sports enterprise, while I was a researcher working for him.

Out of nowhere, he brought a carbon-fiber hockey stick down on my hands, crushing my finger bones to splintered dust

"Maeve, you cold, calculating machine," he spat. "This is your karma."

When I opened my eyes again, the agonizing pain was gone.

I had just been given a second chance.

Every time the clock hits 11:10 PM, I am brutally slaughtered in my apartment. And every time, I gasp awake ten minutes earlier to fight for my life. The deadbolts are secure. The windows are sealed. Outside my door, nothing but silence. Yet, the killer strikes precisely on time. Who is watching me from the dark?