8028 Book(s) Related to fall of the house of usher graphic novel

Ness is tired of her predictable life—arguing with her family, working a dead-end job, and daydreaming about the kind of grand adventures she reads about in books. So when her best friend Joe suggests a trip to the infamous RoseWood Park, a forest rumored to swallow people whole, she doesn’t hesitate.

Trapped in a nightmare world where time moves differently, they encounter two boys who disappeared decades ago yet never aged.

The forest gives adventures... but at what cost?

The hum gets louder and my whole body responds to the sound of it before he's done anything else. He watches my face change and his mouth curves. "That bad already?" He grins as he pulls it out with a plop. "Shut up." I fired, while swallowing. "Not a chance." He brings it close enough that I can feel the vibration in the air between us before it touches my skin. "Spread your legs princess." "This is the farthest they can go." I cried. "Are you sure?" He doesn't break eye contact as he drags the toy slowly down my stomach, not turning it on against me yet, just letting me feel the buzz of it as it crosses my hip bone and the inside of my thigh and then traces back up. By the time it reaches where I want it I'm shaking and he hasn't even pressed it down. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Rule one of surviving a vampire court: don't fall for the king who owns you. Ryn is breaking it spectacularly. She has a curse in her blood, a countdown on her life, and two impossibly dangerous men circling her like she's the last warm thing in a cold world. The court wants her dead. The throne wants her gone. And the one secret that could save her is the one nobody will say out loud. Six months to live. One contract she can't escape. And a choice that's going to cost her everything she came here to protect.

Some call me their worst nightmare.
Most fear me. Most scream when they see me.

And I smile — because their fear is the one thing I have always trusted.

Until she came along and refused to give me either.

I am Alcander. The most feared Alpha alive. I took Jenna the way I take everything — because she is MINE to want, and wanting has always been justification enough. I did not expect her to stay herself inside a life I built to erase her. I did not expect to care.

I did not expect to lose her.

And so I raised my son in my own image — sealed against softness, armoured against love — certain I was protecting him.

Certain I was not simply passing the wound.

This is a story of cycles. Of hurt, forgiveness, love, and loss. A story that begins with the father —

and must be finished by the son.

I was supposed to hate him. Instead, he stole everything: my freedom, my breath, my heart.

When Yara’s life collides with Rafael’s, it’s not by chance... it’s by force. Powerful, dangerously handsome, and untouchable in his tailored black suit, Rafael is the kind of man whispered about in fear. He’s ruthless. Cold. A man built on secrets and sins. The last person Yara should ever want.

But hatred is fragile when desire cuts deeper. Rafael grips more than just her wrist.. he grips her every thought, every heartbeat, pulling her into a storm she cannot escape. The closer she gets, the more his darkness feels like home… and the more dangerous it becomes to stay.

Every touch is a risk. Every look, a temptation. And when the lies between them shatter, Yara must decide if surrendering to the man she was supposed to hate will destroy her or set her free.

Stolen By the Man I Was Supposed to Hate is a dark romance thriller full of obsession, secrets, and a forbidden love that burns hotter than revenge.

Lucia Romano vanished thirteen years ago. Kidnapped as a child, she disappeared before the marriage contract binding her to Alessandro De Luca could ever become real.

Alessandro De Luca swore he would never obey a marriage contract but fate had already chosen for him.

Now the ruthless heir of a powerful mafia empire, Alessandro has lived by one rule....he will marry only for love, or not at all. The missing girl from his past is nothing more than unfinished business he still intends to close. Then one night he rescues a broken woman from a trafficking ring. She calls herself Lia.

Haunted by trauma and stripped of her past, Lia remembers almost nothing about the life she once had. Alessandro, only meant to protect her… until protecting her becomes something far more dangerous.

Because the powerful mafia boss who refused an arranged marriage is now falling for a woman he believes is a stranger. But fate has its own cruel design. The girl Alessandro has spent thirteen years searching for…is the very woman he’s beginning to love.

"What if I told you I don 't care?" Amelia shot back, her tone sharp and unwavering.
Miguel 's lips curved into a sly smile, his eyes gleaming with challenge. "Then I 'd say you 're lying to yourself, Mia. Because no one fights this hard unless they feel something."
Amelia Hart 's quiet, predictable life is upended when her mother marries the wealthy Emilio Sanchez, bringing Amelia face-to-face with her new stepbrother, Miguel Angel Sanchez.
Wanton, arrogant, and infuriatingly charming, Miguel is everything she detests in a person. But sharing a home—and a school—turns Amelia 's disdain into a fiery rivalry, and their clashes soon spark something neither of them can deny.
Torn between her lifelong crush on the handsome, dependable Christian Grammer and the undeniable pull toward Miguel 's dangerous charm, Amelia 's world becomes even more complicated than she imagined.
As secrets are exposed and the pressures of their families, the media, and their own hearts collide, Amelia and Miguel must decide whether to risk it all for a love that feels as impossible as it does inevitable.
In this passionate enemies-to-lovers story, where love and hate blur at every turn, the greatest risk might just be following their hearts.
The Fine Line Between Us is a story of forbidden romance, self-discovery, and the courage to follow your heart.

Isabella believes that her boyfriend can change is way again and be the man she fell in love with. But when she get kidnapped because of him, and he is to busy with another lady instead of saving her. She understands she is better off without him. She gets saved by her boyfriend cousin who has loved Isabella for years. Just stayed in the shadows. Will Alexander help her heal from the broken heart his ignorant cousin leaves her with, and then win her heart?

Dema never expected her new job to end with a marriage proposal from her billionaire CEO.
But with the tabloids destroying his family's reputation, Rami needs a wife—fast.
One year, a quiet divorce, four million dollars. That's the deal.
Thrown into a world of luxury, scrutiny, and impossible expectations, Dema struggles to keep up while Rami treats their marriage like another business arrangement. Yet beneath his cold rules and perfect composure, something unspoken flickers between them.
Just when Dema begins to wonder if their pretend marriage is becoming something real, she overhears a late-night phone call that makes her blood run cold.
Because maybe she wasn't chosen.
Maybe she was used.
And maybe the deal was never the real trap.

She made a deal with the devil and called it strategy.

Reyna Brook is new to Blackwell Elite College…Quiet, timid, easy to overlook. At least that's what she needs everyone to believe. Because Reyna Brook isn't real. Detective Reyna Cole is undercover, and she has three months to prove that Aden Voss.. Cold, untouchable captain of the Blackhawks, knows more about her sister's death than anyone wants to admit.

The plan was simple. Get close. Get answers. Get out.

Then he offered her his protection in exchange for something she never planned to give, and she said yes, because access to Aden Voss is worth any price.

But Aden isn't what she built him to be in her head. And the closer she gets, the harder it becomes to remember which one of them is actually being tamed.

"Let me fuck you. Whenever I want.. you're mine for the duration." A pause. "Do that, and no one at Blackwell touches you again.”

I gave up my surgical career to be his wife. He gave our anniversary night to his ex.
Three years of cold shoulders, public humiliations, and a husband who believed every lie Celeste whispered.
I endured it all—until I discovered I was carrying his child. I left just divorce papers and an empty mansion.
Now I'm Dr. Victoria Preston again. The renowned heart surgeon they said I'd never be.
My brother helped me disappear. My best friend made sure the divorce was airtight. And I'm raising my daughter in peace.
But Nathaniel Preston isn't the same man who signed those papers.
He's seen my face on every medical journal.
He's lost sleep staring at the sonogram I left behind.
And when he finally finds me, his eyes are no longer cold, they're burning with obsession.
He says he'll win me back even if it takes the rest of his life.
But Celeste isn't done. She wants my child, my reputation, my life.
And Nathaniel's mother is helping her.
They thought I was the docile wife who would break.
They never met Dr. Victoria Preston.

Lior Lawson knows better than to fall for his boss.
In a world where Omegas are expected to live under the dominance of Alphas, Lior has already broken enough rules simply by working for one of the most powerful men in the nation.
Adrian Valehart is everything Lior should stay away from; a powerful Alpha, a billionaire, a prince from a family that once ruled the nation, and a married man. But one reckless mistake becomes a secret affair, and what was supposed to be nothing more than stolen nights soon becomes something neither of them knows how to walk away from.
Neither of them prepared for what happens when the Valehart family discovers the truth about Lior's true identity. Suddenly he's not simply Adrian's Omega mistress. He's the key to restoring a bloodline that has been broken for generations, and the Valeharts will do whatever it takes to make sure he fulfills his purpose. Even if that means taking away the very freedom Adrian fell in love with him for.
Lior wanted Adrian.
The Valeharts want his heirs.
And Adrian may have to choose between his family and the male Omega he can't live without.

I promised her father I would protect her.

Lizzie Foster was never meant to be mine.
She was the spoiled mafia princess I was ordered to guard… the daughter of my dying best friend… and the young woman already promised to another man.

My duty was simple: keep her safe until her wedding day.

Then her fiancé betrayed her.
And the only way to protect her was to do the unthinkable—

marry her myself.

Now Lizzie is living under my roof, wearing my ring, carrying my name… and testing every last ounce of the control I’ve built my life on.

She wants a real marriage.
Not a cold arrangement. Not a contract signed out of necessity.
She wants affection, devotion, a husband who will look at her like she’s the only woman in the world.

And the more time she spends in my bed, in my house, in my life… the harder it becomes to remember this marriage was never supposed to happen.

She was my best friend’s daughter.
Too young. Too forbidden. Too innocent for a man like me.

But Lizzie is mine now.

And I’m not sure if I’m protecting her from the brutality of our world…
or from the darkness inside me.

Insatiable Desire is the first book in the A Marriage to the Mafia Princess Trilogy, a steamy dark mafia romance series where each book follows a different couple and their own dangerous love story.

“You’re not dating anyone without my permission.”
Josh Evans has always been Eva’s biggest problem.
Not because he’s her brother’s best friend.
Not because he’s one of the most popular hockey players at school.
But because he’s been her crush for years—and the one guy her brother has made completely off-limits.
So when Josh finds out about the guy she’s been dating, he decides no one gets to date Eva without his approval.
For Eva, following the rule should be easy. She’s always known who she truly wants, even if she knows she can never have him.
But Josh has his own problem.
He knows Eva is off-limits. He knows she’s Peter’s little sister. He knows crossing that line could cost him his best friend.
So why does every guy she dates bother him?
Why does seeing her with someone else make him jealous?
And how long can he keep pretending his protectiveness is the only reason he can't stay away from her?

“You really thought you could run from me, wife?”

Marrying Bratva king Asher Volkov was supposed to save my mother, not ruin my life. It was supposed to be a deal. A contract. A fake marriage.

Instead, I fell for the one man I should have feared.

The closer I got to Asher, the harder it became to ignore the dangerous pull between us. Every touch felt forbidden. Every glance felt like a promise I shouldn’t want.

Then I discovered I was pregnant.

When a devastating secret from our past came to light, I disappeared without a trace. But men like Asher Volkov don’t lose what belongs to them.

Now he’s hunting me down, obsessed with bringing me back to his side. The problem is, I’m hiding a truth that could destroy everything we have.

Because if Asher discovers what I’ve been keeping from him, he might never forgive me.

And if he doesn’t…

He’ll never let me go.

It was funny how being betrayed could change a soul.

They were orphans. They grew up together. They survived together. They killed the tyrant Alpha together.

But when the time came for him to propose his love for her and make her his Luna, all she received was a stab to her stomach.

He betrayed her for another. For the late tyrant’s daughter.

He buried her and thought that she had died. But just like how fate had played a trick on her, it also played a trick on him.

She survived, but was stuck in the den of a ruthless Lycan King, after a mate pull, which was stronger than anyone had ever felt, pulled them together by force.

{She is Demira, and welcome to her story}
…
This book is a dark werewolf romance story that is filled with pure chaotic drama and a little bit of tension and suspense.

So, add to your libraries, because you are in for a ride that will be stuck in your mind for a really long time.

"You have terrible manners," I snapped, pressing a hand to my bleeding neck.

The vampire wiped my blood from his jaw and smirked. "I was locked in a chained coffin for eight centuries. My etiquette is understandably rusty."

"Next time, ask before you bite."

His dark eyes locked onto mine. "I never ask for what already belongs to me."

I, Lenora Draxen, was a nobody in the Solaryn Abbey until my nineteenth birthday changed absolutely everything.

During the Luminal Ranking ceremony, the Celestial Orb registered me as a Voidborn and violently turned pitch black. This reaction exposed my hidden Dark Essence to the entire dominion.

Hunted by Light Fae executioners and betrayed by my lifelong mentor, I fled deep into the forbidden woods to survive.

I sought shelter inside a ruined gothic castle and awakened Dmitri Dragunov, an arrogant vampire lord imprisoned by his brother centuries ago.

He needed my unique Warlock blood to shatter the magical chains binding his chest. I needed his terrifying physical strength to protect me from the factions hunting me.

We established a strictly transactional blood pact to ensure our mutual survival.

Keeping our arrangement strictly professional quickly became impossible. Dmitri restored his ancestral home and treated me with an intense respect I had never known.

As I struggled to control the dangerous magic awakening inside me, our hostile banter shifted into a consuming attraction.

Now, a brutal warlord wants to force me into a blood-marriage, and the High Sovereign wants me executed.

I must master my power alongside my vampire mate to destroy the enemies threatening us.

BLURB

Ravenna Damon was banished for existing.

Darius Pike crossed the border anyway.

They built something in the wilderness. A home from nothing, a child on the way, something almost close to peace. The Moon Goddess let them have three months before she took it back.

Now Darius is dead. Her child is gone. And the man responsible for both is apparently her second fated mate.

The bond does not care what Caleb Nightshade did. It does not care that Ravenna has nothing left to lose, or that the war outside the dungeon walls is burning everything she ever loved to the ground. It simply exists, pulling at her like a tide, patient and merciless and completely indifferent to her feelings about it.

She has a choice. Survive Caleb or die rejecting him.

Ravenna Damon has never been good at dying.

Mated to the Enemy is the second book in the Blood and Ice series. It contains mature themes, grief, and emotional intensity.

They called him a "flickering candle" in a world of eternal ice.

Asher was born an anomaly among the vampire aristocracy, a high-born noble with a beating human heart. In a society that worships the cold and the dead, his warmth was a mark of shame. Betrayed by his kin and stripped of his rank, he was cast into the "Blood Pits" to be drained and forgotten.

But the aristocrats made a fatal mistake. They didn't realize that while their ancient blood is stagnant and cold, Asher’s heart is a Living Forge. Every beat of his heart refines his blood into a concentrated, golden energy that hasn't been seen since the age of the First Progenitors.

Asher isn’t just fighting for survival, though. He is driven by the memory of Charlotte, the daughter of the High Sovereign and the most beautiful woman in the Night Realm. To the world, she is a Frozen Goddess, untouchable and cold. To Asher, she is the only person who ever looked at him with something other than disgust.

Now, as Charlotte is used as a pawn in a political marriage to the man who ruined him, Asher’s blood begins to boil. He will tear his way out of the pits, evolve through the ranks of the undead, and burn down the old world to claim his place at her side.

The Failure is coming back for his throne. He will prove that the strongest steel isn't found in the grave, it’s forged in the pulse of the Iron Blood.

Accidental Pups×Contract Marriage × Multiple Identity × Drama × Vengeance & Betrayal × One-Night Stand × Billionaire/CEO × Brave Heroine × True & Fake Heiress

Warning: This is a slow-burn romance. The love story develops gradually through trust, healing, family, and shared secrets.

“He doesn’t trust anyone.”

“I know.”

“Then why does he trust you?”

I don’t have an answer.

I only know that when I found little Cassian bound and abandoned, I couldn’t walk away. I didn’t know then that he was the son of Alistair Voss—the cold, powerful billionaire who trusted no one.

But Cassian trusted me.

And that changed everything.

When Alistair asks me to stay for his son, I refuse. Until he makes an even more shocking offer: marriage.

What begins as an arranged marriage slowly becomes something neither of us expected. Beneath the same roof, Cassian becomes the family I never knew I needed, while Alistair begins to see the woman behind my guarded heart.

But I didn’t return to Verona simply for a new life.

Five years ago, I lost my memory. My identity was stolen. Someone betrayed me, and someone wanted me gone.

Now the past is catching up with us.

And when it finally does, I may discover that Cassian chose me for a reason no one ever expected.

Some loves take time. Some truths take even longer to uncover.

“Sophie Love's ability to impart magic to her readers is exquisitely wrought in powerfully evocative phrases and descriptions….This is the perfect romance or beach read, with a difference: its enthusiasm and beautiful descriptions offer an unexpected attention to the complexity of not just evolving love, but evolving psyches. It's a delightful recommendation for romance readers looking for a touch more complexity from their romance reads.”--Midwest Book Review (Diane Donovan re For Now and Forever) CHRISTMAS FOREVER is book #8—and the finale—in the #1 bestselling romance series THE INN AT SUNSET HARBOR, which begins with For Now and Forever (book #1)—a free download!Winter is coming in Sunset Harbor, and Emily Mitchell is nearing her third trimester. While they continue to develop their new private island, a new opportunity arises—one Emily had never anticipated, and which could change everything.Roy’s time left to live is running out fast, and as Christmas looms and all are busy preparing, Emily knows that this will be the most meaningful one of her life. It will be a holiday season that changes all of their lives forever.CHRISTMAS FOREVER is book #8 in a dazzling new romance series that will make you laugh, cry, keep you turning pages late into the night—and make you fall in love with romance all over again.Sophie’s new romance series, LOVE LIKE THIS, is now also available!“A very well written novel, describing the struggle of a woman (Emily) to find her true identity. The author did an amazing job with the creation of the characters and her description of the environment. The romance is there, but not overdosed. Kudos to the author for this amazing start of a series that promises to be very entertaining.”--Books and Movies Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re For Now and Forever)

"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.

Three mates. Two warring clans. One forbidden bite that broke every rule.
She’s a werebear.
They’re alpha werewolf brothers.
And the moon has marked all three as fated mates. Jenny Monroe never meant to ignite a war between werebears and wolves. But when the Cagle alpha twins—Brennan and Mark—claim her as their one true mate, she’s forced to choose: obey her hate-filled father, or surrender to a bond hotter than the bonfire that first tangled their fates five years ago.
To stay with the men who own her soul, Jenny will let them sink their fangs into her skin… and rewrite her very nature. But as a shadow corruption poisons their kind and an old enemy rises, their triad bond will be tested by blood, magic, and a prophecy that names her the guardian the supernatural world has waited centuries to meet.
With a heartstone burning against her chest and two alphas at her side, Jenny will embrace her power… or watch everyone she loves burn.

"Do you think you'll be able to do it? You seem far too tight to take me inside you.
"Then break me, use me until my body remembers everything about you. Isn't that what you want?"
Consumed by desire and the scent of pheromones, the omegas of the Ironhowl pack find their fated mates in the most peculiar ways, falling in love with their greatest enemy, their son's best friend, or a wolf hunter.
Discover all the romance stories of each of these alphas and omegas, who will teach you that there is more than one way to love and enjoy, because between fated mates pleasure is infinite.
Join them as they discover their fated mates and their unique ways of loving them.
This is an erotic werewolf book, MxM (Boys Love), with Omegaverse (MPreg) themes, including all kinds of couples and fantasies.
Warning. This is a collection of stories featuring dark romances, forbidden acts, and lots of passion. Discretion is advised regarding the sensitive themes in this story. Suitable only for adults 18+.

The world changed when the Black Tower appeared on every continent.

Inside the tower were floors filled with monsters, gods, curses, relics and hard trials.

People had to climb the tower to survive.

Many groups, called Guilds formed.

Some kingdoms even fell apart.

The strong people became the leaders.

Adrian Chapman was once the best climber humanity had.

Then he became the biggest traitor.

After reaching Floor 97 Adrian got betrayed by his friends.

He and his friends had been climbing together for twenty years.

They even killed him to get the relic called the Heart of Chronos.

Instead of dying

Adrian goes back twenty years into the past.

This was before the Tower even appeared.

This time he does not want to be a hero.

He wants to become the guy that every climber fears.

He will take all the relics for himself.

He will stop heroes from becoming strong.

He will control kingdoms. Conquer the Tower by himself.

He does not care if people call him a monster.

When they threw me overboard, they thought a man with a broken leg couldn't possibly come back alive. When the floodwaters engulfed the world, turning land into a graveyard, I found a forgotten submarine in the deep sea. From underwater, I built my empire step by step . Not by pity, not by luck. By the time the survivors of this sea finally realized what lay beneath the surface, I no longer needed to hide. They called me the Deep Sea Ghost. I didn't care what they called me. I knew only one thing—from this day forward, this sea was mine to rule.

In my last life, the heatwave collapse began with me turning an abandoned warehouse into a safe zone. I stocked it, fortified it, and brought my girlfriend inside. That same night, she slid the bolts open from within and let an armed crew storm the place. They threw me out to die.

I survived the heat, only to learn too late that it was just the warning. The real purge came next, when brutal cold hit overnight and froze me to death in the snow.

Then I opened my eyes and found myself back one month before disaster.

While everyone else rushed to buy water and fans, I was the only one who knew the heat was just the beginning. The deep freeze was what would really wipe people out.

This time, I explained nothing. I poured everything I had into diesel, insulation, winter stoves, generators, and turned that warehouse into a fortress built for the cold.

She came again, just like before. This time, I never let her through the door. So she ran straight to the armed gang and had them surround my warehouse for three full days.

She thought trapping me inside meant she’d already won.

What she didn’t know was that in just a few more days, the freeze would arrive.

And the people outside had no fuel, no winter gear, no way to stay warm.

They weren’t waiting for me to break.

They were waiting for their own deaths.

Three years ago, my twelve brothers died in the desert at night. A traitor stepped over my death notice and took the place that should have been mine. Three years later, I hide in a run-down convenience store, wiping shelves. I endure being spat on, having my beer stolen, and being called trash—I endured it all. Because I'm waiting. Waiting for someone to return, waiting for an answer. Some ask me: Is it worth it, for a bunch of dead men? I don't know if it's worth it. I only know that when they were alive, they called me Captain. Three years in seclusion, all for the day the God of War returns!

In the extreme cold of the apocalypse, I was bound to the Seraphim's Flame, gaining access to the tycoon's bunker.
My good brother Luke was so jealous he went mad and killed me with a single blow.
Reborn, Luke stole the "Seraphic Flame" and, like throwing away trash, kicked another dark, ugly stone to my feet.
He didn't know—Redstone was a blood-sucking evil, while Blackstone was the true god-level talent.
When the deathly gale of minus seventy degrees swept across the world, I activated the [Dimensional Fortress] of infinite space.
Tons of munitions, mountains of supplies, overwhelming heavy firepower…
I will stand on the frozen wasteland and watch that bastard, step by step, become the human battery I need.

After 3 years of bloody battles, the War King returns, only to hear his fiancée Elena “fell to her death”. But he finds she’s alive, pregnant, and imprisoned. He swears to slaughter all enemies and protect his woman and unborn child.

After the apocalypse, I joined my girlfriend and her friends as a makeshift team. I cleared infected, scavenged supplies, and stood guard at night so they could sleep.

I thought we were all each other had.

Then, for a single dose of antibiotics, they handed me to the warlord who slaughtered my entire family.

When she said, “Just endure it—I’ll find a way to bring you back,” I didn’t even have the strength to be angry. She knew exactly what stood between me and that warlord, and what would happen once I was taken.

That’s when it hit me: to them, I was always just a tool.

If she chose to deliver me into my enemy’s hands, I’d settle the three-year-old debt right there.

When we met again, she demanded to speak to the warlord chief—hoping to trade for me once more. Because without me, they couldn’t even find food.

What she didn’t know was that by the third day after she traded me away—

the warlord had a new owner.

In my past life, my twin Phaedra and I were both married off to the Dragon Clan on the same day.
I was given to the eldest son Magnus, while she went to the second son Drakon.
A year later, Phaedra gave birth to a small white dragon with scales like fresh snow. Meanwhile, I delivered nine children—all of them deformed monsters, bearing not a trace of dragon lineage.
Dragon King Typhon, a tyrant obsessed with bloodline purity and beauty, immediately stripped his eldest son of the inheritance rights and decided to pass the throne to his second son, Drakon.
Consumed by rage and humiliation, my husband Magnus descended into madness.
He ordered my nine children dragged into the Shadow Abyss and thrown into boiling blood pools as sacrificial offerings. Then he bound me tightly to the frozen altar pillar.
As the crimson winds howled from the blood pool, he mercilessly cut open my chest and carved out my nine-tailed heart while I was still breathing. I drew my last breath drowning in endless despair and blood.
When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back in the Dragon Clan's towering hall—at the mate selection ceremony that had sealed our fates.
In my daze, Magnus walked straight past me. His eyes brimmed with disgust as he unhesitatingly reached for Phaedra's hand instead. The same woman who had birthed that perfect white dragon in my past life.
But the fool had no idea my children's deformities had nothing to do with me—they came from his own cursed, rotting bloodline.

At Holy Oak High, being the Top Flyer isn't just a crown.
It’s a ticket to the upper class.
Girls would pay any price to stand at the top of that pyramid.
But I didn't understand that the spotlight hid a man-eating abyss until I had to put on that blood-stained uniform.
Listen. Do you hear that scratching sound coming from inside the locker?

On the day the apocalyptic flood swallowed the city, I died on a fractured overpass.

The man who crushed my fingers under his boot was my brother-in-law, the very man I had sacrificed everything to support. And standing safely out of reach, watching coldly as the muddy torrent swallowed me whole, was my supposedly sweet and devoted fiancée. In her arms, she fiercely clutched her "son"—who was hoarding the last of my survival rations.

In the very last second of my life, she nestled into the arms of her ex-boyfriend and left me with a single, contemptuous sneer: "Let's go. Forget about this useless trash."

It turned out that working my fingers to the bone and emptying my life savings had all been a pathetic joke—a long con orchestrated by a pack of bloodsucking parasites.

But when I opened my eyes again, I had returned to exactly one year before the apocalypse began.

My fiancée was standing there, holding a cup of hot coffee and sweetly begging me to invest another million into her brother's business.

I just smiled, gently pushed her hand away, and turned around to liquidate every single asset to my name. With that money, I secretly constructed a state-of-the-art, deep-sea underground fortress.

Later, when the monstrous floodwaters inevitably tore the city apart, they stood on the balcony of their doomed mansion, desperately falling to their knees and begging my icebreaker for salvation.

Sitting inside my perfectly secure command cabin, I took a leisurely sip of hot coffee and softly gave the order:

"Open fire. Don't let this trash dirty my deck."

Six months into the apocalypse, I risked my life to pamper my girlfriend like a princess, only to be betrayed by her and the camp leader .
My legs were broken, and I was thrown over the wall to be eaten by dogs ; hundreds of civilians I had once protected turned on me .
On the verge of death, I unexpectedly rescued a mysterious prodigy, instantly binding myself to an endless space and granting me divine healing abilities . My severed limbs regenerated instantly, and I had access to countless top-tier resources .
Returning to the camp fully healed, I stomped on the leader's knee and kicked my scheming ex-girlfriend into a horde of zombies .
In this damn apocalypse, from this day forward, I am the one and only new king .

After being stood up for the ninety-ninth time while attempting to register for marriage, I sent my fiancé a breakup message. He had allowed me to be let down ninety-nine times, dismissing my asthma as mere pretentiousness and perceiving my sacrifices as acts of greed, all the while lavishing his patience upon another woman. It was only when he had his mistress select a cheap necklace for me and sketched explicit nudes of her that I realized these seven years were not a narrative of profound love, but rather an absurd farce playing out solely in my life. The moment I dispatched the breakup message, I never envisioned that this man, who viewed me as dispensable, would later pursue me with a frenzied obsession.

Four years ago, I left my boyfriend when he had nothing.

Now, he's a billionaire. And he's forcing me to marry him—just for revenge.

Every day it's a different girl. Now there's a pregnant influencer he flaunts in my face, destroying what's left of my dignity.

"Kneel and beg her, and I'll give you money." He holds another woman and smirks at me.

I don't cry. I don't scream. I just swallow the blood rising in my throat.

He doesn't know my brain tumor is terminal. I have thirty days left.

I've already signed the organ donation papers. I just want to die in peace.

I stopped loving him a long time ago.

The best deal I ever made in my life was selling my blood to a vampire.

I was a broke, permanently starving werewolf who needed ten times the food a normal person did just to feel full.

Evan was a vampire heir with a blood allergy, the kind where the smell alone made him sick and dizzy. Somehow his life was worse than mine.

Except my blood didn't trigger it. He never reacted to me.

So he pulled out his card. "I'll keep you fed. You let me feed off you."

This wasn't a vampire. This was a walking meal ticket.

For the next three years, he was the perfect meal buddy. Five meals a day, and he never once complained. Once I finished and let out a satisfied burp, it was his turn, just a small sip, nothing more.

Then, the year we graduated, he got a call from his family. He had to fly back to Europe that same night.

Before he left, I figured I'd thank him for three years of generosity. I pulled my collar aside.

"Go ahead, take more this time. Consider it a going-away present."

He hesitated, then leaned in.

But this time, once his teeth were in, he couldn't stop.

By the time he pulled back, horrified at himself, I already had a hand pressed to my neck, and everything went dark.

The car crash six months ago destroyed my body. I survive the agony only through the painkillers prescribed by my brother, Fletcher.
While shopping for my wedding dress, I simply swallowed a pill on schedule. My mother responded with a slap that made me spit blood. My father stormed in and kicked my ribs in without asking a single question.
I fled crying to my brother, only for him to grab me in disgust: "You are a disgrace to this family."
I called my fiancé. He rushed to the scene, took one look at the pill, and called the cops without hesitation: "The engagement is off. She makes me sick."
In just a few hours, I went from a bride-to-be to a death row inmate.
But as the gavel fell, I saw our family maid calmly swallow the exact same pill from the gallery…
I lunged at the railing, screaming at the judge. He leaned down, a chilling smile spreading across his face: "Linnea, this is all because…"

For six years, I sold my body to underground clinics as a human lab rat to cure my son's heart failure and pay off my husband's debts.

Today, my biological brother kicked away the medicine I bought with half my life.

"Lucas was never sick. We faked the medical records to teach you a lesson for upsetting Virginia."

My husband coldly chimed in:

"I never went bankrupt either."

Even the son I bled to birth stabbed my arm, screaming, "A bloody monster like you doesn't deserve to be my mom!"

I finally realized my entire life was a meticulously crafted scam.

With my organs rapidly failing and only ten days left to live, I stepped onto the edge of the balcony.

"You're right," I smiled at my husband and brother, watching the color completely drain from their faces. "Six years of my life isn't enough to apologize to her."

"So I'll pay you with my corpse."

"Riccardo, please! I beg you!"
My water broke ten minutes ago. Warm liquid streamed down my legs and slowly froze into ice on the ground beneath me.
He stood on the other side of the bulletproof glass. In his eyes, there was not a trace left of the man I had once loved with all my heart.
In the Bellanona Mafia family, bloodline surpasses everything, and the hierarchy of age is an unyielding iron rule: the firstborn son shall inherit the entire underworld empire.
My sister-in-law Sofia and I were both pregnant, our due dates merely one day apart.
To make sure his elder brother’s child seized the succession right first, my husband coldly chose to sacrifice our own flesh and blood.
"My brother’s child must be born first." Riccardo’s voice came over the intercom, colder and more piercing than bitter winter wind. "This is what you owe them."
He had not only locked me inside this icy cellar. Just moments ago, his men pinned me down ruthlessly and injected a dose of medicine into my vein, solely to forcefully halt my labor.
Writhing in agony, I hugged my heavily pregnant belly tightly with both arms.
I could distinctly feel the little life inside me, once kicking and struggling relentlessly, growing fainter and fainter.
I’m sorry, my baby… Mommy is so sorry for you.

This is a world where humans and fantasy races exist side by side. Werewolves move through city streets between glass towers, and every now and then, a pair of massive wings cuts through the clouds overhead. Twenty years ago, to secure the family's standing, the main house signed a contract with the Dragon Clan.

As the least favored daughter of a branch family, I was chosen to be the Dragon King's mate. The terms were spelled out plainly: if I couldn't get married within five years of coming of age, I'd have to go to Dragon territory and go through with the marriage.

For five years, every wedding I've planned has been blown up by my younger sister, Hannah.

This is year five. I'm finally in a wedding dress, about to marry Derek, the boy I grew up with.

What I didn't expect was that one hour before the ceremony, Hannah collapsed in the dressing room coughing up blood. She grabbed Derek's hand, crying, saying she wouldn't make it through the month.

And my parents are on either side of me, hands pressed down hard on my shoulders.

"Just let Hannah have the wedding. She's dying!"

What they don't know is that if I don't get married today, the Dragon envoys will come for me on the spot.

And I won't be coming back.

My son Emery scored a perfect SAT and got early admission to MIT Physics. Eighteen years old. His future was limitless.

My billionaire husband Reid's assistant—his mistress in everything but name—suggested Emery attend some garbage local business school instead. Inherit the empire. Fall in line.

Emery said no. Reid exploded.

He locked my son in the lumber yard and ordered him to split five tons of oak. "No water until he's done. That'll teach him respect."

The sun was brutal. My son's asthma attacked. I knelt before Reid's mistress and begged for his inhaler while Reid crushed my right hand—my surgeon's hand.

I got the inhaler and ran back as fast as I could.

But I was too late. My son was already dead.

In my last life, my younger brother made a contract with an S-rank ghost, but it turned out to be completely useless, while I contracted a B-rank ghost, the Starving Ghost, which could not only devour monsters but also consume other awakened humans' ghost servants to evolve.
Under my protection, my family went from scavenging for scraps to living in a luxury mansion inside the government safe zone.
But on the eve of a ghost tide attack, I was prepared to stay behind and defend the base while sending my parents, my sister, and my younger brother away first.
Instead, they killed me, all to take my Starving Ghost so they could have an easier time surviving on the road.
After I died, they didn't even have time to tame the Starving Ghost before it devoured every one of them.
When I opened my eyes again, I had somehow returned to the day we formed our ghost contracts, and this time, my younger brother chose the Starving Ghost.

The day the Gryphon army marched home in victory, my sister's husband came back safe. My husband, Tobias, died on the ice.

Everyone pitied me, and I believed them. I mourned him for years, handed over every resource the Elven Realm had to offer to Crown Prince Nathaniel, and helped him lock down his claim to the throne.

It took me years to find out the man who came back wasn't Nathaniel at all. It was my "dead" husband, Tobias.

He killed his own brother, stole his face with forbidden magic, all so he could marry my sister Sabrina and make her his queen, official and out in the open.

"Sabrina and I are the real thing. Pretending to be my brother, that was for the good of the kingdom."

They framed me for treason and threw me into the Pit of Judgment. As I burned, I watched the two of them hold each other while the kingdom cheered.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the army came home.

My sister begged me to stop grieving, tears in her eyes. "Nathaniel" swore he'd give me a life of luxury. The old king stood in front of everyone and promised to grant me anything I wanted.

This time, I didn't cry. I chose to remarry without a second thought.

Tobias thought wearing his brother's face was all it took to sit on that throne. What he didn't know was that without me, he never stood a chance of getting there at all.

The apocalyptic deluge came, and I rescued the entire village onto a cruise ship.

The villagers were deeply grateful to us.

But somehow a rumor spread—that I had a warehouse full of food and was refusing to feed them properly.

The villagers turned on me, hurling accusations left and right.

Helpless, I opened the warehouse to show them. There was barely anything left. But they still refused to believe me.

"Yu Lei! You must have hidden the food somewhere else!"

"That's right! He never really wanted to save us!"

They beat me with fists and feet, cursing me with every foul word they knew.

Then a gang of thugs stormed the ship.

Under their brutal rule, the entire village was enslaved. Young women became playthings. The children—their fate was even worse.

I tried to rally the villagers to fight back. But someone sold me out to the thugs, trading that information for a single full meal.

In the end, they beat me to death and tossed my body into the sea for the fish.

When I opened my eyes again, time had rewound to three days before the apocalypse. I immediately started packing, ready to get as far away from these ungrateful bastards as possible.

But the villagers were already crowded at my door, demanding I hand over the keys to the cruise ship.

It turned out I wasn't the only one who'd been reborn. The entire village had come back too.

I handed over the keys without a fuss.

After all, the System told me this time it would be a zombie apocalypse. What good was a ship?

On the eve of the apocalypse, magical beasts appeared in our world.
They possessed extraordinary abilities, and humans could master these powers by forming a contract with them.
In my previous life, my adopted brother chose a top-tier Wolf King pup.
But shortly after, the extreme heat apocalypse descended. The low-tier water snake I had contracted possessed the ability to conjure water and lower temperatures, inadvertently making me the envy of everyone.
Meanwhile, my brother’s Wolf King was universally despised for its excruciatingly slow growth and lack of immediate combat power.

Now, I have been reborn to the very day we chose our contracted beasts.
This time, my brother rushed ahead and snatched the water snake.
I know why.
He has been reborn, too.
But this apocalypse is not nearly as simple as he thinks!

Three weeks after my son's death, I found the blood-stained cloth doll meant to "ward off disaster" with his name stitched on it.

Right there, in the hands of my husband's mistress, who was giggling as she idly toyed with it.
 
"The psychic said my life force was too weak to keep the baby, and that I needed a substitute to take the curse."
 
"I only sewed Leo's name into the doll. I never imagined... he would actually get sick and die."
 
"Declan, do you think Leo traded his life for our baby's?"
 
Through the crack in the door, the same man who had sobbed until he passed out at the funeral was gently stroking his lover's belly. "He was just unlucky. As long as our baby is safe, that's all that matters."
 
I turned away, pulled up the invitation for Chief Medical Examiner from the International Criminal Court in The Hague that I had shelved for a month, and hit accept.

My husband's first love was in trouble.
When the news came, I was lying on the operating table.
Dr. Miller put down his scalpel and said to Dr. Johnson, "I'll leave my wife's surgery to you."

"If I don’t go now, I might regret it for the rest of my life."

With that, he turned and walked away.
Watching my husband's retreating figure, I couldn't hold back—tears fell.
The next second, the cold blade of a scalpel touched my skin.

Dr. Johnson spoke calmly, "Why the tears? With me here, you'll be fine."

My husband's foster sister, Delilah, gets poisoned and ends up paralyzed. My husband, Grayson, the Don of this whole crime family, doesn't even bother checking the security cameras. He just throws me, two months pregnant, into the cistern where they punish traitors.

"Tessa, hand over the antidote, or die."

I kneel in the freezing swamp water and beg him. I didn't poison her.

He answers with a kick to the stomach.

For three straight days, I suffer down there. Leeches tear into my skin. My baby turns into a pool of black blood and dissolves into the filthy water. By the end, my vocal cords tear to shreds, my body goes cold, and I stop breathing.

His men get on their knees and beg him to spare me. He just sneers.

"That woman's always been good at playing the victim. No food, no medicine. Let her keep soaking."

Three days later, he finally walks into the cistern, and it's only to give me an ultimatum.

"Crawl out and apologize to Delilah on your knees. Otherwise I'll strip you of your title and sell you off to a trafficking ring. You'll wish you were dead."

No one answers him.

He has no idea. I already am.

The second the avalanche came down, I called my mate. Karl. Captain of the Pack Guard's First Squad.

He dug me out, carried me onto the helicopter, and told the pilot to take off before the second rescue team even got there.

He didn't know Delilah was buried in the same slide. The girl he'd never gotten over.

By the time they reached her, she'd been under the snow for three hours in twenty below.

Karl stood in the morgue all night.

He came back the next day and just gave me a small smile. "It wasn't your fault. You were carrying our pup. Of course you came first."

For a month after that, he was gentler than he'd ever been. He cleared his schedule to take me to every checkup. Cooked for me himself. Put the crib together, the dresser too. Every single thing in the nursery lined up exactly right.

I thought that avalanche had finally buried Delilah. That it had given him back to me.

Until the day I went into labor.

He sent every doctor and nurse out of the delivery room. There was a silver scalpel in his hand.

The moment he cut me open, I saw the red in his eyes.

Our pup was still crying, small and weak, and he never even looked. He threw us both into the incinerator.

"If it weren't for you, Delilah would still be alive. Your life for hers."

Then I opened my eyes, and I was back at the moment the avalanche hit.