8136 Book(s) Related to the thorn that pierce me

I shouldn't be feeling this way. This isn't something I should want. Because having feelings for a man from the family of a mortal adversary of my family was deemed a betrayal by my father.

But I'm not sure why, every time I think of him, I'm reminded of the day I handed everything to a stranger, the son of my father's mortal enemy. Nonetheless, I continue to desire him. I wanted to see and touch.

I was meant to marry the man my father wanted me to marry, even though I refused. I don't have a choice, and I know it's the right thing to do. However, I found out I was pregnant for two months which was two months after I lost my v card to the man.

I'm not sure why, but my body was demanding the man's face, and his photo was not enough. Perhaps because this is what my baby want.

So before the wedding would happen, I did the most insane thing in my life. I run away from our home, disguise myself as a guy, and apply to be a driver for the most notorious and dangerous man I ever met in my life, for the sake of my baby's wish to see his or her father, although knowing that entering Easton Hunter De Russo world would be suicide.

“Teach me, teach me how to turn you on, teach me how to pleasure you, Sister” He ran his hands down her bare chest, taking in a sharp breath.
She shut her eyes, sighing, “Don’t. Don't call me that. Please.”
“Why, I thought you loved it when I do”
“It makes me think of thousand reasons why this is wrong, why me fucking my brother is wrong”

Hope Alejandra Torres never knew how thin the line between love, lust and hate was, until her brother came back after seven years, looking sinfully different.
Only he can push her buttons and make her breath fire, yet only he can touch her in places he shouldn't and make her feel different.
But it's forbidden, or is it? He's her brother after all.

I have once killed a man.
He was my first love. Everything about him was like a dream come true until my blindness was lifted, and I realised he was my greatest mistake.
Eugene would beat me to a stupor, yet I played the role of a happy wife on the outside. I had lost two pregnancies because of him, but I hoped he would change. He promised to. He would buy me tons of gifts to apologise, yet he always returned to being the beast he was the very next night.
I could tell no one about the unexpected turn my relationship with Eugene had taken because no one would believe me.
Even when I escaped and ran to an old lady for help, he made me look like the villain.
I had lost hope. I was seven months into my third pregnancy when he tore my skin with a blade. I struggled and struggled until I stabbed him mercilessly.
That should have been my happy ending.
I gave birth to my child and started a new life in a new place.
Like a new dawn, my life was finally becoming perfect... until I woke up to see my daughter drowning in the bathtub.
Written on the mirror was a message in blood.
'I'm back.'
Now, he haunts my baby every night, and I wake up covered in bruises as though he abuses me in my sleep.
I reported every incident to the police, but even though there were clues, no one could find him.
However, in my lowest moment, only Detective Dorian stood by me. He was the only one who made me feel safe.
And he promised to help me catch the person behind my misfortunes.

“You’re truly going to get married to Silver? When I'm still in love with you?” Liam looked at me with so much sadness which broke my heart the more.

“This is the only way out Liam. Move on with your life and forget about me. Our love was doomed right from the onset,” I answered with a poker face even though I was hurting way more than him.

This was the only way out. I knew I’d regret it but I had to get married to Silver even though I knew my heart would always belong to Liam and would always yearn for him.


Maya Allen, a poor orphan meets Liam Taylor, CEO of the biggest company in their city after breaking up with her ungrateful boyfriend whom she had been taking care of. They eventually fall in love. However, Maya’s life takes a drastic turn after she meets Silver Grey who tries everything possible to win her love even though he knows Liam and Maya are in love. What happens when Maya finds out a shocking truth about the two men, Liam and Taylor who are pining over her?

"Arthur, please! Send someone to Black Forest—Noah's been taken by rogue shifters! They'll kill him!" I hit the marble floor hard, blood trickling from my forehead.

My mate, the most feared enforcer in this territory, couldn't be bothered. He was too busy looking for his lover's precious pet.

"Eve, you're sick—lying about our kid to get attention?" He gestured dismissively. "Throw her in the cells until she stops this bullshit."

He locked me up all night.

Next morning, he let me out, figuring I'd gotten the message.

He didn't know that thirty minutes ago, the gate guards brought a blood-soaked box.

Our son's head was inside.

On our three-year anniversary, my boyfriend took me on an island vacation to see the ocean, only for a tragic accident to plunge us both into the watery depths.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back at our college graduation ceremony two years ago.

When he stood on stage and announced he wanted to thank the most important woman in his life, my eyes welled up.

I waited for him to propose, just like he had in our past life.

Instead, he slipped the diamond ring onto the finger of the wealthy heiress who had relentlessly chased him.

At that moment, it hit me—he had been reborn, too.

I thought he was just sick of the crushing poverty we had endured, desperate to take a shortcut by marrying into a tycoon's family.

Going our separate ways seemed like the best ending I could ask for.

That was, until I stumbled upon him in a hospital corridor, grabbing a doctor by the collar and roaring:

"I didn't turn back time at that island just to let Daphne die again!"

I just got out of prison after three years, and my family wants me to go back in.
"It's only three days," they said. "You survived three years—what's three more days?"
What they don't know: I'm dying. The only thing keeping me alive is my mate bond. Three days away from Everett means death.
For three years in prison, someone sent me food every week. No note, no name. I thought it meant my family still loved me.
I was so grateful.
I didn't know it was my twin sister. I didn't know what was inside.

I'm dead.

Died that rainy night, desperate because I couldn't scrape together five thousand dollars to save my dog.

Liam laughed at me over the phone—my childhood friend told me to quit the sob story. His new girlfriend Sarah said I should get on my knees and beg if I wanted her to toss me some scraps. They had no idea every dollar I owed those loan sharks was to cover up Liam's hit-and-run.

My dog died. So I jumped into Black Lake.

It wasn't until they pulled my body from the water that Liam found the surveillance footage in that tin box and realized what a massive mistake he'd made. Then he snapped, dragging Sarah and everyone else who killed me down into the depths, one by one.

Too bad it was already too late.

Ryan Aldridge had one rule: he showed up for whoever needed him most.

The problem was, it was never me.

Throat swelling shut in the ER? He was unclogging Sloane Harrington's drain. Anniversary dinner? He left between courses because Sloane was "spiraling."

I forgave it every time. I was the cool girl. The understanding fiancée.

Then my studio caught fire, and a beam came down on my chest.

I lay there—bleeding, pinned, choking on smoke—and watched Ryan vault over me to carry out a woman with a sprained ankle.

"Jocelyn, come on. You can handle this. Look at her—she's shaking."

Something in me went still. Not broken. Finished.

I twisted off the ring with blood-slick fingers and let it disappear into the ash.

Then I disappeared too.

They call it an "alpha team," boasting about our million-dollar AI equipment. I thought I just had terrible luck at work—the scanner bruising my arm, the coffee maker intentionally scalding me. Trapped by a $500,000 resignation penalty, I must survive tonight’s overtime. But in the dark copy room, the shredder is... breathing.

Lin once believed true love was her salvation, only to become nothing but a disposable organ reserve for a cruel elite family. Betrayed by her lover, she died brutally alongside her unborn child, her heart stolen to save his privileged stepsister. Reborn, she vows to expose their bloody secrets and burn down their perfect fake world. But the wealthy Ashfords do not fall easily—and they are already hunting her again.

"Why? Why are you choosing me?", I asked him,
"Because every king must have a queen", he replied simply,
"But...", I began still confused as hell,
"Do not question my authority", he growled at me, "You shall be my Luna Queen and that is final", he demanded before stomping away...


Daphne Rosen is an outspoken and crazy twenty two year old. She is in fact a lycan under the Delta family. Alpha King Dwayne Edwards takes a liking towards her and makes her his queen which leaves her wondering... Why her?

●Humans are extinct.
●Children can shift freely once they can walk.
●Women are openly called bitches

Mature content

Three step-brothers all of the same age because of their multimillion dollar father who bedded three women in a year and got all three of them pregnant.

Gabriel O'Connell, the eldest son is the arrogant and serious one of the brothers as he takes everything with perfection.

Alex O'Connell is the brother with the playful attributes and with his megawatt smile can bed any girl he wants.

Kevin O'Connell is the wild one as he gets into fights, goes for crazy parties and owns a boy band with thousands of fans.

These three boys will fall hard for a girl, Tessa Romano who happens to be the daughter of their trusty maid. She falls for all three of them but she knows that she can only select one.

But, who will she choose?

I never dreamed I'd marry Art William Jr.—a billionaire CEO, tabloid sensation, and New York's most notorious playboy.
He was sullen, domineering, and barely looked at me—except at night, when he couldn't sleep alone and would sneak into my bed and torture me with stolen kisses like a psychopath.
Our marriage was a sham. I was living in hell of luxury, and he was the prince of that hell. I thought it was going to be boring, until things got complicated—I unexpectedly became pregnant with his child.
I decided to run, to escape it all. But when love and betrayal threatened to destroy everything, could I escape unscathed?

For ten years, Blair drew only black stones from the moonbone box. Her pack called it the Moon Goddess’ will. Her parents told her she was simply unlucky, while every whitestone reward went straight to her favoured younger sister Luna. On her twelfth birthday, she died locked behind a bedroom door. Trapped as a ghost, she watched her family carry on without her—until she uncovered the brutal truth: there had never been any white stones inside the box. It was all a lie built to justify their favouritism. This is not a revenge story. It is the slow, crushing aftermath of a family’s belated regret, when remorse comes far too late to bring the forgotten daughter home.

At nine, I sacrificed everything to protect my mother from the fate of my past life. I sent her away and suffered fifteen years of agony in my father’s dungeon. Years later, the powerful Luna Selene reunites with me, bringing only suspicion and insult. Even her offer of her own life cannot atone for the past. Some sins cannot be washed away by death.

My name is Grace Lawson. In everyone’s eyes, I’m a young, beautiful, and widely renowned hypnotist.
I’m also the girlfriend and cooperative partner of Adrian Carter, a rising star in the business world.
Lovers and partners—we raked in money together, winning big and shining bright.
In just three years—one thousand days and nights—I stood by him from nothing to everything, through every storm.
And yet, even with love and profit working well together, he still wouldn’t bring up marriage.
Until I happened to hear him say:
“A woman like Grace Lawson isn’t suited to be a wife.”
“Who knows if the love I feel for her is just one of her schemes?”
Later, I broke my promise and hypnotized him.
That was when he finally got scared—when he understood my hypnosis could make him willingly do anything.
But I only said softly: “Adrian Carter, close your eyes… Forget me. Forget me completely.”

The year the gas swallowed the world, I helped design and build Dome City with my own hands, keeping the last survivors alive.

I thought I was protecting hope.

Then I stumbled onto the Council’s secret: the poison outside is fading—but they chose to hide it. Worse, they plan to manufacture and release more gas, locking everyone inside forever, under their rule.

Before I could expose the truth, the person I trusted most struck me from behind.

My girlfriend—Vera Walker.

She took my evidence, stripped my access, and traded me for a higher rank.

When I woke up, I was outside the Dome in toxic fog—my identity erased, my lungs burning, my vision slipping.

They dumped me like trash, certain I wouldn’t last the night.

They forgot one thing.

Dome City is my blueprint, my welds, my pipes—my work.

And I’m back.

Seven years ago, my wife and son committed perjury in court, conspiring to send me to a high-security prison, all so they could elope with that fraudster.
Seven years later, I was released.
My ex-wife, with her son, arrogantly tossed a business card onto my faded work clothes:
"Go kowtow to my new husband and apologize, and I'll give you a waiter's job."
Little did she know that just hours later, at a top-tier financial summit across America, her seemingly untouchable new husband was kneeling at my feet like a dog.
And her proud multi-billion dollar empire was nothing more than garbage I could crush with a flick of my finger.

I suddenly awakened the ability to read minds. But I heard my fiancé, Joey Jones, mocking me in his mind: He had already arranged for an assassin to “send me off” at our wedding in the church. What was even more disgusting was that he promised I would become the Donna of the Jones family, but in his heart, he was fixated on his stepmother, Rory—his father’s widow, who was only a few years older than him.
With only three days left until the wedding, I no longer cried or begged for love. Instead, I contacted my first love, Nate, who was a police officer: “How about being the male lead at my wedding?”

Six years ago, Rachel Neal was drugged and betrayed by her wicked stepmother and envious half-sister, leaving her pregnant and cast out in disgrace. Now, she has returned to Phoeiro City as a brilliant doctor and a fiercely independent single mother to six extraordinary prodigies—five genius boys and one adorable, mischievous girl. Her only goals are to protect her children, provide for her family, and reclaim the life and stolen work her toxic family took from her.

But fate has a different plan. When Rachel accidentally saves the life of Troy Langley—the most powerful, ruthless, and untouchable billionaire in the city—she unknowingly reunites with the mysterious man from that fateful night six years ago. Captivated by her fierce spirit and beauty, Troy is determined to make Rachel his, unaware that she is the mother of his six hidden heirs.

As the domineering CEO relentlessly pursues the elusive doctor, her six little matchmakers begin plotting in the shadows to secure a powerful protector for their mommy. Will Troy discover the truth about his genius sextuplets? And can Rachel finally serve justice to her enemies while opening her guarded heart to a love she never expected?

Elara’s dying grandmother left her three enchanted golden apples and a twisted fate. She waited on a frozen peak for a stranger who turned out to be a lying wolf shifter sent to steal her prophecy blood. Trapped between a deceitful lover and a thousand-year-old vampire king’s blood oath, she must choose: let the supernatural world burn, bow to its rule, or rewrite fate with a third, merciful choice—seal all powers and end the endless war forever.

In Aurora Academy, strength reigns supreme.
I am Athena, a born peak Alpha. I once trusted love and loyalty, only to be betrayed by my fiancé, my best friend, and the weak Omega I sheltered.
They plotted my downfall, stole my glory, and left me to die in the abyss.
Blood tempered my wolf soul. I return colder, sharper, and unchained.
No more tenderness. No more mercy.
I will reclaim what is mine. An Alpha rises alone to the throne.

A transfer notice brings the heir of the Sicilian mafia into an elite high school, hiding her true identity behind an ordinary facade.
She soon gets tangled up in fickle affection, brutal bullying and vicious schemes. The playboy treats everyone as his game pieces, while the arrogant school beauty keeps provoking her, even hiring thugs to destroy her.
Everyone takes her for a vulnerable newcomer, unaware that beneath her calm appearance lies a ruthless and powerful soul. She defeats assailants bare-handed, exposes framed plots and tears off all hypocritical masks with cold determination.
When the luxurious black convoy arrives, her hidden power shocks all. Those once arrogant nobles are forced to bow down.
No one can afford the price of offending a queen. The farce of campus life comes to an end, and her bloody legend is just beginning.

Vivian lived as mafia don Victor Russo’s gilded cage decoy for three years, biding her time behind every kiss and stolen touch. As darkweb legend V, she came to hunt for the truth behind her parents’ brutal murder.
Discovering she was nothing more than a replacement for his beloved Elaina, she drains eightymillion dollars from his accounts and flees to Europe to build her ruthless security empire.
When a deadly conspiracy drags her back to New York, she must face Victor, old wounds, and the dangerous hunger that still burns between them. Revenge is within her reach—but so is a reckless, allconsuming love.

In our third year of surviving the wasteland, my companions and I finally realized it was all a reality show.

The elites and billionaires on the outside had built a massive dome, tossing us into this irradiated hellhole to be tortured. They broadcasted it globally, watching us drink toxic wastewater and eat mutated meat, treating us like monkeys in a zoo.

The mole in our team knelt in the mud, sobbing, begging me to understand that it was all a script—that as long as I played along, I could live.

Without a second thought, I swung my blade. Right in front of ten million VIP viewers, I chopped off his leg.

"Crappy script," I sneered, kicking aside the severed limbs and blood on the floor. Gripping my machete, I walked toward the real world beyond the heavy gates.

To those who used our lives for entertainment: I'm coming for yours.

Dirk wakes up in a magical world with low stats and a bag full of ordinary Earth items. He completes strange quests, gains friends, and uncovers secrets, others begin to realize his hidden power is far beyond anything the realm has ever seen. While Dirk believes he's weak, the truth is—he might be the strongest of them all.

She was forced to accept a marriage proposal from a strange billionaire to pay her huge debt and to take back her inheritance left to him when her mother died.

"I only have two questions," she said. "The first question is this: if I sign it, does it mean that I don't need to pay my debt?"

Mike: "Yes. And your second question...?"

Crystal: "Okay, I haven't reached the legal age for marriage yet, so even if I sign it, it won't take effect. Is that right?"

Nathan quickly raised his hand and said, "If I say that it is effective, no one will dare to say that it isn't. Do you believe that?"

"I suppose so," Crystal admitted. She hesitated for a moment, and then she signed the marriage certificate.

Months later, she asked for a divorce from him. He stared at her in silence, then he uttered, "Have I ever told you how much I love you?"

"What does that have to do with our divorce?" Crystal asked.

"I'm only asking because I care about you," Nathan murmured.

Suddenly, tears began to stream down Nathan's face.

"I'll be happy if you say that you care about me," Nathan continued. "Why must you torture me this way? Haven't I done enough to prove my love for you?"

She was stunned hearing his confession and words stuck on her throat.

Nathan carried on with his little speech. He said, "I have died once, and the fear of death has no hold on me. But if you admit that you care for me, then I will live for you! So, please, love me once, and I will be at your disposal!"

I was dying — and he was loving someone else.
I left.
Now he wants me back… but will I let him?

He filled my head with lies.
Then he set my world on fire.

Gavril Vaknin.
Richer than God.
Crueler than the devil.

And if he has his way…
My new fake husband.

A chance meeting turns into a once-in-a-lifetime offer.
The billionaire don needs a blank slate to turn into his perfect politician’s wife.
I’m homeless and desperate—what do I have to lose?

But Gavril is hiding secrets. Cloaked in lies.
Stepping into his world is a one-way ticket to a hell I won’t survive.

Did I do the right thing?
Or did I just sell my soul to a monster?

Beatrice has never been someone to take things lying down. After being kidnapped by two men and thrown in the back of a car, she's already thinking of ways to make them regret their actions. She soon finds out these men are werewolves, tasked with bringing her to their pack because she’s someone’s fated mate.
Her. A human. Fated to be with a werewolf? That couldn’t be right.
As a human, there's no way she can escape from this mate-thing they are adamant she accept. That is… until she decides to trust the vampire in the packhouse dungeon. With his help, surely they can both escape their fates as prisoners of the Bluemoon Pack.

It was a rainy night, and I was running wildly down the road, that man chasing relentlessly behind me, a malicious grin carved into his face. Desperately searching for somewhere—anywhere—safe, the brightly lit bookstore not far ahead became my only glimmer of hope.

Then I tripped.

I struggled to scramble back to my feet, but the rain and slick pavement betrayed me, sending me crashing down once more. A sharp pain tore through my knees as the sound of footsteps behind me grew louder, closer. Panic surged. I clawed at the gravel submerged in muddy water, my fingertips just brushing against a sharp-edged stone when a low sigh breathed against my ear.

“You can’t run away.”

I turned my head.

He was already standing before me, rainwater streaming down his twisted face, his eyes gleaming with a crazed, cruel light. Slowly, he knelt down. One hand clamped around my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. A blood-curdling laugh slipped from his lips.

“I’ve finally got you tonight,” he said. “You’ll be mine forever.”

Will Claire survive? Will she escape her attacker’s assault?

This is a novel of extraordinary imagination—step inside and uncover the thrill… and the answer.

The first thing they took was my baby.

The second was my parents.

The third was my freedom, my eyes, and every reason to live.

My husband gave me to three men on our anniversary. He chained me in a doghouse while his mistress laughed. He fed me my own son’s remains and called it mercy.

He said I was dirty. He said I deserved it.

But the DNA test he trusted was a lie. The video was staged. And the woman he’s about to marry is the one who destroyed us all.

I tried to die. Four times.

Now I’m done trying.

They put a dead woman in the ground. They’re about to find out she brought hell back with her.

Temptation has a way of slipping past every boundary and challenging even the strongest resolve. What appears controlled, familiar, and respectable on the surface often hides emotions that are far more complicated beneath. Hearts are drawn toward connections they know they should resist. Unexpected. Irresistible. Forbidden.
Inside this collection, you will find stories like these:
A lonely wife finding comfort in the one man she was never meant to fall for... her bodyguard.
A woman torn between loyalty and unexpected feelings for her husband's quiet, brooding brother.
A young employee caught in a life-changing connection with her powerful CEO.
A student navigating an undeniable attraction to a professor twice her age.
And many more stories where boundaries are tested and forbidden feelings refuse to fade.
Every story explores love, temptation, and impossible choices.
Emotional. Addictive. Impossible to forget.
Several forbidden romances.
One unforgettable collection.
Will you dare to turn the page?

Lena was punished for a crime she didn’t commit just to save her twin sister. But in return she was betrayed and rejected by her own destined mate, and then, worse, she was exiled from her own pack to the Darmos College.
There, her life changed when she met three hot alpha roommates.
Kai- the hot hockey player; Lucas, the doctor of the college; and Adrian, the biology professor.
“Little mouse, You are not only just our roommate—but our mate,” Lucas whispered in her ears, while rubbing her pink lips. She couldn’t believe and tried to push him away.
Suddenly, she felt another arm around her waist, pulling her closer to his bare chest body. “Whether you believe it or not, You are ours.” Kai, leaned in, his lips brushing her ear as he whispered.

They said an Omega didn't belong in their elite military academy. They were right—I didn't belong. I was meant to destroy it.
I was Celia, the scholarship nobody, the punching bag for five ruthless Alpha brothers who ruled the school like gods. The Hale brothers made my life hell just because I dared to be smarter than them. They humiliated me, tormented me, nearly killed me.
Then they murdered the only person who tried to help me.
"You think you can compete with us?" Zaxer's breath was hot against my ear as he held me over the rooftop edge. "You're nothing but a pathetic little Omega."
"Then why are you so threatened by me?" I whispered back, watching his eyes darken.
They let me fall. Krystal, the friend I trusted, kissed my tormentor while I plummeted to my death.
But I didn't die. I got my wolf. And with her came a hunger for vengeance that burned hotter than any mate bond.
Now I'm back, and the game has changed. I know their secrets, their weaknesses, their guilty consciences. They think they can corner me in empty classrooms, threaten me with those piercing stares and brutal words?
"Hit me," I dared Zaxer in front of everyone, my voice steady as steel. "Show them all what kind of Alphas you really are."
He couldn't. Because for the first time, they realized something: the broken Omega they tortured has teeth now.
They ruined me once. Killed for me twice.
But when Kaiden growled those three words—"You're our mate"—everything I thought I knew shattered.
Because how do you destroy the ones fate bound you to?
Revenge never tasted so savage. Love never cut so deep.

**"She's just the woman I threw away."

"Then from today on... she's my Luna."**

Lucia never expected her fated mate to abandon her for his first love.

Everyone waits to watch her become the biggest joke in the werewolf world.

Instead...

The pack's Alpha arrives at her door.

"Come home with me."

He gives her respect.

A family.

A title.

And the mark her ex refused to give for five long years.

But watching his adoptive father cherish the woman he rejected slowly drives Antony insane.

He wants her back.

He'll do anything to reclaim her.

Only to hear Severus say—

"Kneel. She belongs beside me now."

Just as Lucia begins to embrace her new life, a conspiracy capable of destroying every werewolf pack begins to unfold...

Enter a world where love and obsession collide... Where Power combines with seduction... Where Magnates shatters all boundaries.
These stories feature powerful, commanding men who affect women deeply, seducing them into intense, torturous displays of love, passion, power, and control. Dominant mentors who push female characters to their limits. Good guys who inspire a whirlwind of longing. And everything in between-all daring the face of authority and request.
You will encounter hidden draws, intricate family and kinship links,and amour that will try them all. Normal lives are disrupted and uprooted by feelings, the traitor's blow, and the power of a really felt kinship.

Three months before I marry billionaire Adrian Vale, I receive a text from an unknown number.

DON’T MARRY MY HUSBAND.

The sender claims to be Celeste Vale—Adrian’s first wife.

There’s only one problem.

Celeste has been dead for four years.

I assume someone is playing a sick joke until the messages reveal secrets no stranger should know. Details about Adrian’s body. His first marriage. The night Celeste died.

Then one message warns me not to eat a box of chocolates arriving at my office.

The chocolates are poisoned.

Suddenly, Adrian’s protection becomes suffocating. Security follows me everywhere. I’m moved into the sprawling estate where Celeste once lived. Doors are locked. Cameras fail. Someone enters my bedroom while I sleep.

And the dead woman keeps texting me.

But the most terrifying discovery isn’t that someone wants me dead.

It’s an old photograph hidden among Celeste’s belongings.

A photograph of me taken eight years before I ever met Adrian.

Adrian recognizes it.

Because our first meeting wasn’t an accident.

Now I don’t know who to trust—the dead woman warning me away from my fiancé, or the dangerously powerful man who admits he searched for me long before I knew his name.

Adrian swears he didn’t kill Celeste.

I want to believe him.

But the deeper I dig into his family’s past, the more women I find who vanished, died, or were silenced after learning secrets they were never meant to know.

And Celeste may have died trying to make sure I wasn’t next.

I buried my brothers.
Burned my name.
And disappeared from a world built on violence.
They once feared me as the Black Reaper — Klein, former mercenary commander.
Now I live quietly in a crumbling villa, renting out rooms just to stay afloat.
Then Carol moves in.
Brilliant. Beautiful.
Hunted by powerful cartels.
She assumes I’m nothing more than a bitter, sloppy landlord —
until armed men break into her room, and I kill them with my bare hands.
Now Carol knows my true power.
Instead of running, she forces her way deeper into my life,
making me her driver, her protector, and her unwilling shield against the hunters chasing her.
But the West family — the ones who murdered my entire team — have finally tracked her down.
To protect Carol, I must become the man I swore I’d never be again.
“They took everything from me once,” I say quietly.
“This time, I won’t leave anyone standing.”

“I’ll give you anything, Elsa—money, a car, a house, jewelry—just agree to the transplant. Ria really needs it.” I couldn’t believe his audacity. Was this really my husband, trying to bargain my body to save his fiancée?
“Sorry, I’m pregnant. I can’t donate a kidney,” I said, my voice shaky but determined. Anger boiled inside me, but I knew he was powerful. The pretend marriage was over, and his true colors were revealed. Afraid of what he might do to me, I didn’t yell or fight him. I just wanted to escape this nightmare, to break free from this cage I was trapped in.
But his reaction was even more chilling. He looked at me with no emotion.
“We’ll have an abortion.” His words hit me like a bomb. I couldn’t believe how coldly he spoke about ending his own child’s life.

The acrid smell of the bullet piercing my skull hadn't even dissipated when I came back to life.

I was reborn back to the third week of the apocalypse. At this time, the tyrant of the fifth checkpoint was stripping me of my right to pass and kicking me into a horde of thousands of zombies.

In my past life, I also died here. But until the moment of my death, these fools didn't know that—within the skulls of those terrifying zombies lay divine crystal cores capable of "freezing time"!

Having been given a second chance at life, I did not run away.

I calmly snapped the neck of the first monster and pried the glowing key out of the rotten flesh.

The instant I forcibly froze the torrential, highly corrosive acid rain in mid-air, I knew that this apocalyptic hunting game... had shifted in power dynamics.

For seven years, I told myself James wasn't cold; he simply loved quietly. Then my car died after midnight, and he told me to call a cab. When I earned the promotion I had chased for two years, he forgot my message. But when his ex said she felt sick, he left work with medicine in one hand and her exact coffee order in the other. That was when I understood: my husband knew how to care. He had simply never chosen to care for me. By our anniversary, I would stop waiting, leave his gift on the table, and move out. Only then would James begin to love me—and by then, it would be too late.

My husband's first love, Celine, lured me to a remote cabin under the guise of an "apology."
 
She then poured gasoline all over the porch and locked the door from the outside.
 
In my past life, the moment the fire began to spread, I desperately called my husband, Julian—a fire captain—for rescue.
 
He smashed the door open and saved me.
 
Ironically, Celine's scheme backfired, and she died of smoke inhalation outside.
 
Yet, Julian pinned her blood debt entirely on me.
 
He kept me at the hospital with his hypocritical comfort, only to tear off his disguise the day I was discharged. He tied me to a pillar in an abandoned warehouse and poured gasoline at my feet.
 
As the flames ignited, my ten-week-old unborn child and I were swallowed by the raging fire.
 
Julian's eyes were bloodshot. Facing my agonizing screams, his gaze held nothing but pure, unadulterated hatred:
 
"If you hadn't gone mad with jealousy and locked the door from the inside, Celine would never have died! Stop playing the victim!"
 
"The pain she suffered before she died... I'm going to make you pay for it ten times, a hundred times over!"
 
In the blazing light, he watched coldly as I was burned alive, turning into a charred corpse.
 
When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the exact moment the fire started to spread.

Our ceremony was ambushed underground. One exit. Corvin was the only one who could move fast enough to carry someone out.
In my last life, he chose me — and left Niamh behind. She didn't make it. He spent five years after that making sure I understood what that meant. Every day I woke up was a day she couldn't. When I finally ran out of ways to leave quietly, I chose a window that faced east and walked into it.
Now I'm back. Same corridor, same chaos, same choice.
This time, I said: "Take Niamh."
The way his shoulders came down — like something he'd been holding for years, finally put down — told me everything five years together never did.
He promised to come back. He was already moving when he said it.
I knew I had to get out myself. But the ferals who'd killed Niamh last time found my corridor before I made it to the stairs.