1014 Book(s) Related to does lilly rush die in cold case

“When you think that life cannot get better, Blake Pierce comes up with another masterpiece of thriller and mystery! This book is full of twists and the end brings a surprising revelation. I strongly recommend this book to the permanent library of any reader that enjoys a very well written thriller.”--Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Almost Gone) LEFT TO DIE is book #1 in a new FBI thriller series by USA Today bestselling author Blake Pierce, whose #1 bestseller Once Gone (Book #1) (a free download) has received over 1,000 five star reviews. FBI special agent Adele Sharp is a German-and-French raised American with triple citizenship—and an invaluable asset in bringing criminals to justice as they cross American and European borders.When a serial killer case spanning three U.S. states goes cold, Adele returns to San Francisco and to the man she hopes to marry. But after a shocking twist, a new lead surfaces and Adele is dispatched to Paris, to lead an international manhunt.Adele returns to the Europe of her childhood, where familiar Parisian streets, old friends from the DGSI and her estranged father reignite her dormant obsession with solving her own mother’s murder. All the while she must hunt down the diabolical killer, must enter the dark canals of his psychotic mind to know where he will strike next—and save the next victim before it’s too late.An action-packed mystery series of international intrigue and riveting suspense, LEFT TO DIE will have you turning pages late into the night.Books #2 and #3 in the series – LEFT TO RUN and LEFT TO HIDE – are also available for preorder!

Three years ago, on their way to attend my graduation art exhibition, the cruise ship carrying my fiancé and my family caught fire.

Over the past three years, I downed sleeping pills countless times, desperately wanting to follow them into the afterlife. Every single time, my adopted sister, Serena, saved me, crying hysterically as she shoved her fingers down my throat to make me throw up.

"They are already gone! Harper, you can't keep living in the past. You have to live on for their sake!"

After fainting from yet another high fever and being rushed to the hospital, I was diagnosed with terminal leukemia.

The doctor said I had a month left, at most.

I refused their advice to find a bone marrow match. Clutching my family's belongings, I decided to go back to our old estate in the suburbs for one last look.

While I was walking in a daze, a little boy running wildly crashed hard into my legs.

A male voice that had haunted my dreams for years rang out from behind me. "Alistair, if you keep running off, what will you do if Mommy and Daddy don't want you anymore?"

In an instant, it felt like I had been plunged into freezing water. I froze in place.

What do I do when I run out of options, and I need money fast?
I sell the only thing that I have that is worth any value…

My virginity.

Bidding starts at 1 million...

Scarlett's Treasures, an exclusive auction house for wealthy men and women who buy the pleasures of those willing to give themselves...and they want me.

What’s a girl to do when she’s in her mid-twenties, is still a virgin... and broke AF?

Yep, I made that choice. Now, the only problem is, I don’t have only one buyer to please, but there are three of them and one of them just so happens to be my childhood best friend and crush who broke my heart and left.
Now he's back and he's buying my virginity...which he thinks belongs to him.

Meeting their demands will be a challenge, but it's a choice that I'm going to have to make...

My husband, Marco, in his bid for the position of Don, was forced to marry the young widow of the previous Don, Claudia.
Every night, after returning from Claudia’s place, he would hold me and swear, "You’re the only woman I love, Elena. Claudia has the connections I need. Once I have real power and secure my position, I’ll make you my wife in name and in public."
But as I waited for him to rise to power, what started as a political act turned into nights where he simply never came home.
Then, on Christmas, I was dragged to their engagement party—where I was beaten in front of everyone.
Our six-year-old daughter, Sophia, knelt on the floor, crying and begging him, "Godfather, please, let my mommy go..."
But Marco stayed silent.
"It’s okay," I whispered, picking up my wounded daughter. "Mommy’s going to take you somewhere that truly belongs to us."
What Marco never knew was this: I never cared about being the Donna of this small city.
I am the only heir of the Rossi family—the most powerful Mafia family in all of Sicily.

"Moon Goddess," I prayed. "Please—save my baby. Save us both. I'll do anything."
The knife plunged into my chest. Pain exploded—white-hot, consuming. Blood poured over my skin.
The bond with Kael flared—bright and desperate—reaching for him one last time. But he didn’t come. He was with Clarissa, believing her lies, unaware of the child we created.
The second stab tore into my stomach.
“No,” I gasped. “The baby—please. Not my baby—”
They didn’t stop.
The blade fell again and again, until I felt nothing at all. Until the world faded to gray.
As my blood soaked the snow, my final thought was a curse:
Moon Goddess—if you care for me at all, give me one more chance. I’ll make them pay.
Aria Winters, an abused omega, learns her fated mate is Alpha Kael, bound to Luna Clarissa in a loveless political marriage. One forbidden night leaves Aria pregnant with the Alpha’s true heir.
When Clarissa learns the truth, she sends three assassins to kill Aria and her unborn child. Aria dies alone in the snow.
But the Moon Goddess offers a second chance. Time rewinds—Aria returns with her memories intact, and her wolf fully awakened.
In the love triangle, no longer a broken omega, she rises with power, purpose, and vengeance in her veins.
Rebirth to Be His Luna—not for love, but for vengeance.

I ranked first and snagged the most prestigious job offer in the city. Yet, not a single person congratulated me.
Because for the past twenty years, every top student who received this offer from the medical school "committed suicide" that very night.
Reporters blocked the school gates, grinning as they asked if I planned to jump off a building or swallow a bullet. My roommate grabbed my collar, screaming curses, wishing me dead.
Too bad they all completely miscalculated. I come from a filthy rich family, I’m perfectly sane, and top psychologists have signed off that I have zero suicidal tendencies. I have no reason to die.
So, I looked straight into the live cameras and declared: "If my body is found tomorrow morning, it’s not suicide. It’s murder!"
After all, for that final exam, I turned in a blank paper.

Loiza lost her pack. She lost her home. Now the Moon Goddess is giving her a mate—one she can’t run from, no matter how hard she tries.
Kayden has waited years for his mate. But Loiza isn’t here to fall in love. She’s here to survive. And the wolves? They’re already howling for her.
From the Caribbean sun to the cold of the Blood Moon Pack, a love forged by the moon. A bond tested by treason. A destiny no one can deny.


I am Loiza—Moon Goddess Priestess, last Queen of a fallen pack… and the woman fated to belong to the enemy.

When a blood-forged volcano wipes out my home, I lead my people straight into the territory of Alpha Kayden—my destined mate, and the one man I cannot afford to love.
Because love is weakness. And I have a kingdom to rebuild.

So I block the mate bond.
I silence the fire between us.
And I take his land as shelter… not as his Luna.

But secrets rot kingdoms from the inside.

Behind Kayden’s throne lies a nightmare—slave dungeons, corrupted Alphas, and a High Council willing to slaughter entire packs for power. When I uncover the truth, I don’t run.

I declare war.

Now I’m forging alliances with vampires and mermaids.
Raising twin Alpha heirs in the shadows.
And turning a broken island into the most powerful supernatural empire the world has ever seen.

Kayden wants redemption.
The Council wants my head.
And the bond I tried to destroy… is coming back stronger than ever.

This time, I won’t just survive.

I will rule.

"Tasha..."
She turned. He was right behind her and they stood so close that she could smell him. It was intoxicating. She hadn't realized how much she had loved the smell of him until having gone without it for so long.
"We can't be here for long, people will start to wonder-"
"You have no idea how much I missed you." He stepped even closer to her. "I thought about you every day. You're even more beautiful than I remember." He reached up and ran his hand through the hair that framed her face, her eyes closing involuntarily at his touch.
"Calder, you know we can't."
"I spent five years with nothing to keep me going through the hardest trials of my life but the thought of seeing you again," his hand touched her cheek. "holding you in my arms, kissing you." His thumb trailed across her lips and every fiber of her being felt like it would burst into flame. His eyes, like the ocean, looked into her soul, his body standing over her, so close she could feel the heat of him, and it made her yearn for more.
"Please, it's forbidden." Her voice was barely a whisper.
He looked at her for a moment, his eyes searching over her lips that were slightly open, her eyes that danced with flames of desire. "I don't care."


The young sorceress Astasha only wanted a simple life. Now, however, she finds herself in the service of the King as his Royal Fire Witch, and in love with the one true heir to the throne, his son, Calder. But their love is forbidden and when a demon threatens to destroy everything she holds dear, she must use the fire within to save the man she loves and his kingdom.

Owning a frail wolf, being rejected by my mate, and being humiliated by my brother ......
With all of these, two years ago, I chose to leave.
Two years later, I'm a powerful, attractive she-wolf.
It was at this time, my Alpha mate reappeared. He tried to get me to come back to him, but he didn't even recognize it was me!
I rejected him, but he didn't give up.
And slowly, I realized that he was different from what I remembered.
Just like me, he had the same many secrets in that buried past......
Should I reject him again?

“You think you can use me and walk away?”
His voice was ice, his hand around her throat.
“You signed the contract, sweetheart. That makes you mine.”

Camila agreed to marry billionaire Asher Reyes to save her dying mother — one year, no strings attached.
But behind his perfect smile lies the truth about her father’s death.
Now she’s trapped in a marriage built on secrets and vengeance, where every kiss feels like a lie.
When love starts to blur the line between victim and enemy…who will destroy whom first?

"What if I want to escape?"

I looked at the man before me.

He was Alexei Cardis, vampire prince, and the one who would sacrifice me with his own hands at the Eclipse Ritual.

"Then escape," he said, lowering his gaze to meet mine, his tone calm. "Just don't get caught."

—

At seven years old, I was brought into this vampire castle.

From that day on, I had the best teachers, and the most dangerous guardian.

Alexei taught me to read, taught me to calculate, taught me how to survive amid lies and conspiracies.

But he never told me—that the meaning of my existence was to become the offering on the altar.

As the Eclipse Ritual drew closer, I began searching for a way to survive.

Forging evidence, sowing discord among nobles, stealing weapons, planning my escape.

Everyone wanted to use me.

Everyone wanted me dead.

Only Alexei was different.

He stopped others from getting close to me again and again, yet pushed me toward my destined fate with his own hands.

I could no longer understand him.

Until later, when I discovered a secret hidden in a wooden box.

It turned out that behind all these years of what I thought was captivity and exploitation, there was another, more dangerous emotion.

But if he truly cared about me—

Why would he raise me only to personally send me to the altar?

And when the night of sacrifice arrives,

Will I kill him and escape to freedom,

Or will he, for the sake of the entire vampire race, kill me with his own hands?

"Why won't you ask me for help?"

Vincent pinned me against the wall, his gaze dangerous and cold.

"Just say the word, and I can make everyone who's wronged you pay the price."

But I smiled.

"Because I want to destroy them myself."

—

My name is Irene Perot.

After my mother married into wealth, I became an outsider in everyone's eyes.

My stepsister Johanna saw me as a thorn in her side, my fiancé Henry betrayed me, rumors spread like wildfire at school, and everyone was waiting to watch me fall into the mud.

But they didn't know—I was never a helpless little rabbit waiting to be bullied.

They destroyed my reputation, so I tore their lies apart with my own hands.

They wanted to grind me into the dirt, so I climbed over their heads, step by step.

And the only person I couldn't control was Vincent Green.

Henry's uncle.

The true power behind the Green family empire.

Dangerous, domineering, untouchable.

He always appeared when I was at my most vulnerable, shielding me from the storm, yet obsessively trying to make me depend on him.

But I didn't understand.

Why would a man like Vincent—someone who stood above everyone else—fixate on me?

Until later, when I discovered that what I thought were chance encounters might never have been coincidental at all.

And when all the secrets were finally revealed—

What Vincent wanted was never my obedience.

It was me.

"I didn't kill your father."

The man sat behind the desk, the dagger I'd personally driven into his chest still lodged there, blood staining his shirt, yet he didn't even furrow his brow.

"If I were the killer, you'd already be dead."

—

My name is Serena Belmont.

A week ago, I was the family heir. A week later, my father died mysteriously, my stepmother took control of everything, and my fiancé abandoned me without hesitation.

All evidence pointed to Carlo Morandi—the most dangerous man on Valdoro Island, the feared Mafia godfather.

For revenge, I broke into his estate.

But what he gave me was evidence my father had left behind.

Missing eight million euros, a mysterious university professor, secrets my stepmother had hidden for years... As the investigation deepened, I realized I'd never truly understood the truth behind my father's death.

And Carlo always stood behind me, clearing obstacles for me, blocking danger for me, yet never explaining why he did this.

Until later, when I discovered an old photograph taken secretly for six full years.

The person in the photo was me.

In that moment I finally understood—some people approach you to use you, some to destroy you, and some have kept you in their hearts since before you even knew.

But when the truth surfaces, I don't know whether I should fear the conspiracy behind my father's death...

Or the real reason Carlo protects me.

I was just Jade Knight, the daughter of a man branded a traitor, an omega, a girl nobody wanted.
Until the Ashridge triplets, heirs to the Shadow Moon Pack, decided I belonged to them...
Ryder, Ronan, and Renzo. Three names that once meant friendship, now whispered fear, danger, desire, and lust in every heartbeat.
They dominate, they torment, and they watch me with eyes that make my blood run hot and my pulse betray me. I hate them.
I want them.
I should run…. but every instinct in me knows I can’t.

"She took everything from me," I whispered.
Benjamin nodded once. "But she doesn't know you're alive."
" I want revenge," I said, my voice cold. "She doesn't get to win. Not after this."
"I figured you would," Benjamin said.
"Why did you help me?" I asked him. "Why are you helping me?
"Just know that I'm your secret admirer."He said.


On the day of my wedding, I was stabbed, left to die... and forgotten. While I bled in my wedding dress, my fiancé married my sister.
And my adoptive family, the people who I thought loved me, never even looked for me. They all moved on, like I never existed. I thought my world had ended.
But I refused to stay a victim. Benjamin Grey, CEO of Grey Global found me, saved me, and helped me rise again.
When I thought I would get my revenge, I found out that my biological mother who had been missing for fifteen years was alive, and held captive by my adoptive parents.
The more I try to find peace, the more trouble comes in. And I wished I had died that day. Maybe death would've been easier than living with everything I now know. Maybe I won't have to face all these traumas.
But life had other plans.

Seraphina Cole has spent years trying to forget the night the forest took everything from her. A vanished best friend. A memory carved out of her mind. A story no one fully believed, not even her.

But when her six-year-old daughter begins speaking to someone only she can see, and unnerving signs appear around their home, Sera is forced to confront the possibility she’s spent her adult life outrunning:
whatever happened in those woods didn’t end that night.

Desperate for answers, she turns to the last person she wanted to need, Eli Reyes, the childhood sweetheart she lost, the boy who once knew every piece of her. Eli believes her without hesitation. Protects her without question. But the secrets he carries from that night are darker than she ever imagined, and the bond they share isn't as buried as she pretended.

As Sera and Eli flee with Maya to escape the escalating danger, the past begins to claw back with terrifying precision. Strange footprints follow them. Voices slip through cracks in the walls. Doors open on their own. And Sera’s missing memories return in shards, fragments sharp enough to cut, never quite revealing the face she’s trying to remember.

The deeper they run, the stranger the truth becomes. Every mile pulls Sera closer to a horrifying realization: something in the forest marked her long before she understood the word haunted. Something still wants her.

Caught between a past she can’t escape and a threat she can’t identify, Sera must uncover what really happened that night before the thing following her finally steps out of the dark.

A gripping psychological thriller with a supernatural edge, this is a story about memory, survival, and the shadows that grow from the wounds we hide.

On the day I lost our child, I discovered my husband entwined in an affair with his secretary.

He hurried to my hospital bed, tears brimming in his eyes, vowing that we would have another baby—while his mistress was already sixteen weeks pregnant.

Thus, I granted him his wishes: a lamenting wife's performance, a fabricated death, and a clean escape.

Three months later, he crashed through the door, eyes frenzied, proclaiming he would set the world ablaze to earn my forgiveness.

"Why did you marry me?"

"Because I had no other choice."

The day my grandfather fell critically ill, I was abandoned by my boyfriend of seven years and lost my last pillar of support.

To fulfill my grandfather's dying wish, I married Charles William, a man I had never met.

Cold, arrogant, dangerous—that was my entire impression of this new husband.

It wasn't until after my grandfather's death that I discovered the William family harbored a shocking secret.

They weren't ordinary people at all.

And Charles was actually the future leader of the werewolf clan.

Facing my father's greed for the inheritance, my shattered family, and one crisis after another, I could only fight back step by step on my own.

Yet that man who had despised me from the start always appeared by my side whenever danger struck.

I thought this marriage was merely a transaction.

Until one late night, when Charles trapped me in his arms, his golden beast eyes locked tightly onto me.

"Daisy, you're already my wife."

"Isn't it too late to think about running now?"

Salem pairs with Malik Roane, her partner, to chase leads quietly. But trust starts to crack. Malik knows more about her past than he admits.

The killer escalates victims are murdered in ways tied to specific foster kids. One was drowned in a bathtub. Another buried with dolls stuffed in their mouths.

Salem visits Dr. Ezra Kade, who helped her after a traumatic incident she can’t fully remember. He urges her to access what she’s repressed.

Meanwhile, a viral influencer, Tasha Bloom, starts releasing video clips from an anonymous source. Each one paints Salem as unstable, dangerous… possibly guilty.

Someone is watching Salem. Filming her. They know what happened in that house. And now, the world might know too

The loan sharks who kidnapped us wanted payment for my twin sister's gambling debts—in blood.

When my FBI negotiator father showed up with his tactical team, he found Lily with a paper cut, crying her heart out. I was dying from a gunshot wound in a basement below.

I called him with my dying breath: "Dad, please send help. I'm bleeding out."

"Are you kidding me right now, Emily? Your sister just went through hell, and you're pulling this pathetic stunt for attention? How sick are you?"

He hung up. I died alone, dismissed as a liar.

Three days later, they found my body. And the truth that came with it burned their perfect world to ash.

"Strip her naked and throw her in a dog cage."
When Vincent Sterling gave the order, Serena clutched her stomach in despair: "I'm carrying your baby!"
Vincent just lit a cigarette, watching coldly as the bodyguard’s boot slammed into her belly. "Get rid of it. I don't want anything filthy."
That night, to avenge his childhood sweetheart, Vincent personally killed his own flesh and blood, trampling his wife—whom he had loved for ten years—into the mud.
Later, the truth came to light.
The so-called "infidelity videos" are AI-generated, and the manipulative woman's pain is self-perpetuated.
Seeing the signed divorce agreement and the blood-stained ring, the arrogant Vincent went completely mad.
He knelt in the pouring rain for three days and nights, begging her to come back.
This time, Serena sat in her wheelchair, gazing down at him with an icy, detached gaze.
"Vincent, I don't hate you, but I hate you for being filthy."

"I, Logan Carter, Alpha of the Crescent Moon Pack, reject you, Emma Parker of the Crescent Moon Pack."

I could feel my heart breaking. Leon was howling inside me, and I could feel his pain.

She was looking right at me, and I could see the pain in her eyes, but she refused to show it. Most wolves fall to their knees from pain. I wanted to fall to my knees and claw at my chest. But she didn’t. She was standing there with her head held high. She took a deep breath and closed her wonderful eyes.
"I, Emma Parker of the Crescent Moon Pack, accept your rejection."

When Emma turns 18, she is surprised that her mate is the Alpha of her pack. But her happiness about finding her mate didn't last long. Her mate rejected her for a stronger she-wolf. That she-wolf hates Emma and wants to get rid of her, but that isn't the only thing Emma has to deal with. Emma finds out that she is not an ordinary wolf and that there are people who want to use her. They are dangerous. They will do everything to get what they want.

What will Emma do? Will her mate regret rejecting her? Will her mate save her from the people around them?

"I, Madeline Clark, rejec…," I started speaking, but Alpha Dimitri stopped me by putting his hand over my mouth.
He pulled me closer to him and growled.
"What the hell are you doing?!" he shouted. "I am not letting you do this, Maddie. I've waited for you for months and I am not going to lose you!"
His eyes held so much pain and his voice was laced with panic.
"You are mine, Maddie," he said as he leaned in and pressed a small kiss on my forehead. "You are mine, and I am not letting you go."

Madeline is a 17-year-old girl who still hasn't shifted into her wolf. Her father abandoned her mother when she was very young. She's been bullied and laughed at all the time. After she lost her mom, the person who loved her the most, Madeline is completely distraught and broken. Her father comes back to take her back to his pack. Madeline is against it, but her financial situation forces her to go with him.

Dimitri is a Lycan wolf, the Alpha of his very successful pack. He is 22 years old, and he still hasn't found his mate. When Madeline comes to his pack, he is very surprised to find out that she is his mate. He is also very frustrated because she is his stepsister who still hasn't shifted. She can't recognize him as her mate.

Madeline struggles in the new pack. She doesn't have the best relationship with her stepmother. She can't wait to turn 18 and leave.

What will happen when Madeline finds out who her mate is? What will Dimitri do after she rejects him? Will he be able to convince her to stay?

Rachael Quincy's life changes when she comes across Ethan Frost. Everything she has known turns out to be false. She isn't the ordinary human she thought she was.... She was much more!

The worst of all, she is forced into a contract marriage she couldn't reject and a love interest that slowly pulls her to her doom.

With her enemies approaching, Rachael must discover herself, fight and make the ultimate decision to protect those she has come to love or watch the world die?

In the year 2333, humanity has fallen and ruled by werewolves. Bellatrix Sinclair, an 18-year-old weapons prodigy that despises werewolves for destroying her family has been secretly planning to join the human rebellion.
However, she is forced into the Mate Selection Process and matched with Lazarus De Loughrey, the ruthless Werewolf King obsessed with claiming her.
He shouldn't want her and she should hate him but they cannot resist each other. It's a twisted connection, entirely physical because all I am is his slave.
My heart should belong to my best friend Emmett, a human. Atleast the guilt of betrayal wouldn't be eating away at my insides.


“Yes please.” She begs.
“Then fucking let me in.” I growled, this fury exploding with vengeance. I wanted to destroy her pussy.
It was maddening, it was sickening, it was barbaric.
But I never claimed to be saint.
“Here that baby, that’s the sound of your greedy pussy sucking on my cock. Give me more, drench me.”
“Lazarus.” She moans painfully, “Please let me come.”
I’m doused in gasoline and set alight, sweat coats my skin as I pound into her faster and harder. I’m definitely hurting her, “Wanna come?” I rasped, “Not until I say so.”
Pressing my lips onto hers, pushing my tongue into her mouth until I feel the sweetness of hers. The kiss is sloppy and filthy. She cries as I drive my cock into her, the intensity too much to handle, sweet tears sliding onto her cheeks.
“Fuck yes.” I smile sadistically, licking her tears. “Cry for me Ma Cherie.”
“Please, please let me come My King.” She pleads.
“Say it again.” Lightening shooting down my spine as she begged, “My King, please let me come. I’ll be good.”
I chuckled, “Try your luck to kill me Ma Cherie, I dare you.”

"I, Logan Carter, Alpha of the Crescent Moon Pack, reject you, Emma Parker of the Crescent Moon Pack."

I could feel my heart breaking. Leon was howling inside me, and I could feel his pain.

She was looking right at me, and I could see the pain in her eyes, but she refused to show it. Most wolves fall to their knees from pain. I wanted to fall to my knees and claw at my chest. But she didn’t. She was standing there with her head held high. She took a deep breath and closed her wonderful eyes.

"I, Emma Parker of the Crescent Moon Pack, accept your rejection."

When Emma turns 18, she is surprised that her mate is the Alpha of her pack. But her happiness about finding her mate didn't last long. Her mate rejected her for a stronger she-wolf. That she-wolf hates Emma and wants to get rid of her, but that isn't the only thing Emma has to deal with. Emma finds out that she is not an ordinary wolf and that there are people who want to use her. They are dangerous. They will do everything to get what they want.

What will Emma do? Will her mate regret rejecting her? Will her mate save her from the people around them?

In a world ravaged by fear and violence, humanity wages a merciless war against supernatural beings.

Gabriel, a brooding warlock haunted by the loss of his family, embraces a life devoid of love while honing his magical skills and evading the inquisitors. His only companion is his loyal friend, Nick.

Aria, a beautiful witch unaware of her powers, is forced to flee her destroyed village and seeks help in the city. Her path intertwines with Gabriel's, but who are they to each other?

As their kind faces imminent destruction, they must find each other in time to save themselves and preserve their future.

Will they overcome their pasts and unite against the encroaching darkness? Their journey will test their strength and reveal the power of love amidst chaos.

My name is Diana Hammington
A thousand years ago, my siblings and I had a happy life, one that was very short lived compared to the endless agony that came after.
Our father was a pirate and our mother was a witch, both had an insatiable greed for power and in their quest to command more authority, they got the very Hammington name Cursed

My siblings and I were condemned to an eternity of misery, struggling with powers neither of us understood
We roamed the earth for centuries and we became savageries giving in to the very cursed beast within us

We are the monsters children were taught to dread
We are the evil lurking in the shadows
We are broken, bloodthirsty, savage and wild beasts
We are The Hammingtons

In the course of our immortal life, we wandered round the world in search of the one thing that continuously evaded our grasp, happiness
Will we ever find what we seek? Or will we continue being victims to our own monstrosity........

At my bastard father's birthday party, I was drugged by my sister Emily—and worse, she planned to have her boyfriend assault me. As the substance coursed through my veins, desire began overwhelming my rational mind. But in that moment of vulnerability, my contract husband saved me. I found myself burning only for him. What started as his attempt to help me through the drug's effects became a night of raw, passionate intimacy that shattered every boundary we'd carefully constructed. In his arms, I discovered a hunger I never knew existed, and he claimed me with a possessive intensity that left us both breathless...
*
When Amelia Thompson signed that marriage contract, she never knew her husband was an FBI undercover agent.
Ethan Black approached her to investigate Viktor Group—the corrupt corporation where her late mother worked. To him, Amelia was just another lead, possibly the conspirator's daughter he was sworn to destroy.
But three months of marriage changed everything. Her warmth and fierce independence dismantled every defense around his heart—until the day she vanished.
Three years later, she returns with their child, seeking the truth about her mother's death. And he's no longer just an FBI agent, but a man desperate to win her back.
A Marriage Contract. A Life-Changing Inheritance. A Heart-Shattering Betrayal.
This time, can love survive the ultimate deception?

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.

I died the day I caught my fiancé cheating.

I had walked in on my cousin and my fiancé, completely naked in the backseat of a brand-new Porsche. It was a car bought with stolen money—embezzled from the estate of my recently deceased grandmother, Margaret.

Panic had set in the moment I discovered them. To stop me from calling the cops, he slammed his foot on the gas.

As a pool of warm blood spread beneath my head, I heard him lying to the first responders: "She’s mentally unstable. She threw herself right in front of the car."

I died exactly like that—labeled a hysterical, suicidal woman.

But just when I thought it was all over, my eyes snapped open.

The hot blood that had just blurred my vision, the shattering agony in my bones—it was all gone.

I clutched my pregnancy test results in my hand, standing outside the door of Ethan's office.

I wanted to surprise my husband with this news.

Instead, I overheard a conversation about how to "permanently remove" me from his and our daughter's lives.

When that dealer tortured me, my dad, a narcotics cop, and my mom, the city’s chief medical examiner, were busy celebrating my sister’s win in the volleyball semifinals. To get back at my dad for destroying his drug network three years earlier, that man cut my throat. Right before I died, I called my dad. Before I hung up, he said, “Cut it out. Serena’s game is what mattered most right now.”

I thought my husband was cheating, so I followed him to catch him in the act, only to witness him kill someone on our wedding anniversary.

His hands were still covered in blood when he touched my red hair and asked me what was wrong.

Was he the legendary "Red Hair Reaper"?

When the police came knocking the next day, I told them everything.

But they would never know—even the murder I "witnessed" that night was nothing but a performance staged for them from beginning to end.

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?"

When they shoved me into the flames, I fought through the blinding pain to call my brother, Ethan Bennett. Fire licked at my skin, twisting my vision, but the call finally went through.

"What is it now?" He sounded distracted, like he was checking off a guest list.

"Ethan, please, help—" My voice was shattered, choked by the searing heat.

"Can't you just give it a rest for one single day?" he snapped, cutting me off. "Selina and I are getting married this weekend. If you pull another stunt, I swear I'll—"

The call died right as the flames swallowed me whole.

Agony consumed every nerve before my eyes closed for good, his unfinished threat still echoing in my ears.

But the good news is, Ethan... you don't have to swear anymore. Because I was dead.

My daughter Lily was shot dead while she was performing on her own stage.
I rushed forward to shield her, and a speaker crashed down onto my right shoulder. The bone shattered.
My husband, Vincent, “shot the gunman dead” at once and sealed off the entire opera house.
When I woke up in the hospital room, the pain almost suffocated me. My right shoulder was wrapped in thick bandages, and when I tried to raise my arm, all I felt was a numb.
“…This isn’t what we agreed on.” The doctor’s voice was low and unsteady. “We only needed her blood sample for matching. Why did it have to go this far?”
“Lily’s blood type is a perfect match. This is the best possible outcome,” Vincent said. “I married Elena for this moment. I’ve been waiting for it.”
The doctor was silent for a few seconds. “But she’s your daughter… There’s no need to sacrifice a life, even if she is a Salaceno.”
Vincent cut him off. “You know how long an artificial heart can last. Camila’s daughter won’t hold out for long. I can’t put her through another surgery.”
“Camila’s child is the one I should cherish.”
At that moment, my blood ran cold. In his eyes, my daughter was nothing but an organ container.
He had no idea. All that talk about protecting his precious daughter—she wasn't even his.

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.

After I got pregnant with my second child, our two foster kids turned into monsters.
Ten-year-old Silas started hiding crushed glass in my prenatal meals. His eight-year-old sister, Lyra, would stand outside my door at night, whispering, "Die, Vivienne. It's your time to die."
When Silas violently shoved me toward the stairs, I packed their bags, ready to send them back to the agency.
But my five-year-old daughter, Elodie, clung to them, begging me through tears.
Foolishly, I relented. I let them stay.
Shortly after, I lost my baby.
I closed my eyes in absolute despair—only to open them and find myself back on the exact day I discovered I was pregnant.

I almost died on the operating table trying to give Alexander Volkov a child, unaware he already had a pair of illegitimate twins with his childhood sweetheart.
My heart stopped when I saw the DNA results. Alec, the man who made the New York underworld tremble, the man who flew back on a private jet just to hold my hand, was a flawless liar.
I turned my face away, tears soaking the hospital pillow. My hand drifted to my belly. God had finally decided to give me a break after five years of needles and agony—I was pregnant. But now, it felt like the cruelest joke.
He pulled me into his arms, smelling of expensive cologne and... baby formula.
"Tell me what's wrong, honey. Whoever made you unhappy, I'll make them pay."
I stared into his lying eyes and made my decision.
I would vanish with his unborn child, leaving him to rot in eternal regret.

I once loved Ryan deeply and helped him become the Alpha, only to be rewarded with chains in a dungeon and the mocking laughter of him and his mistress.

Fate gave me a second chance—I woke up reborn on the morning of the mate selection ceremony. There he was, still ordering me around in front of everyone, expecting me to play the obedient servant.

Everyone tried to convince me that Ryan, the man who killed me, is the "right choice."

Yet I chose Connor—the man feared by the entire clan, the one who will bring ruin to the clan for the sake of his one true love.

This time, I refuse to be the stepping stone on Ryan's climb to power.

I'm going to make everyone see who truly holds the reins.

I was the hottest A-list actress in Hollywood, until a few deepfaked videos of me "abusing assistants" and malicious photos of my "rotting face" dragged me straight to hell.
In just one month, I became a monster despised by the entire internet.
Facing tens of thousands of death threats telling me to "die with a rotting face."
They wanted me to die crying. I didn't. Instead, I decided to express my deepest gratitude to the bullies who ruined my life.
And my "thank you" is going to cost a fortune.
But I never imagined the real monster wasn't hiding behind a screen—he was holding the syringe.

"What kind of sick game are you playing?" my husband, Mark, snapped through the phone.
I stared at my heavy plaster cast and said nothing.
In my previous life, distant relatives brought a bag of cash to my clinic, begging me to bump my cousin up the surgery waitlist. I refused.
By morning, the money vanished.
Security footage showed someone in my scrubs, with my exact face, stealing it.
My colleague, Sarah, and my husband accused me of taking the bribe. They destroyed my career. My cousin died waiting.
Driven mad by grief, her parents ran me down with their truck.
Reborn, when I saw the new surveillance footage, I finally understood who she was.

"You have two months to live." The doctor's death sentence was still ringing in my ears when I found the receipt in his pocket.

[Four Seasons Hotel. Romance Suite. Check-in: 3:00 PM.]

3:00 PM. The exact moment I was begging the doctor for painkillers, Alexander was in a hotel bed with another woman.

I looked at him, sleeping soundly beside me. I had loved this man for five years, sold everything to help him succeed. Now, in the final countdown of my life, he gave me the most fatal blow.

"I'm exhausted from meetings," he had lied, smelling of Santal 33 and another woman's sex.

I clenched the receipt until my nails dug into my flesh. I wouldn't tell him about the cancer.

I would use whatever time I had left to make him regret ever being born.

"You sure dispatch called this... natural causes?" I gripped the steering wheel, staring at the perfect suburban house.
"That's what they said," Gates muttered. The victim's father, Arthur, stood at the door in pressed khakis, weeping.
He swore his daughter, Grace, died in her sleep last night after eating vanilla pudding.
But the moment we stepped inside, a suffocating cocktail of cheap lavender spray and rotting meat punched me in the sinuses.
In the living room, SpongeBob SquarePants was blasting at maximum volume. Grace was slumped in a recliner. When Gates gently pinched her wrist to lift her arm, a sickeningly soft, tearing rip echoed in the room.
Her grayish skin completely degloved, fused to the leather armrest. Beneath the liquefied muscle tissue, frantic rows of tiny white maggots wriggled into the exposed bone.
A body that died "last night" doesn't breed maggots.

I was squatting on the floor, wiping up the juice spilled by a customer when I ran into my ex-husband, Tan Yeming.
It was our first meeting in the three years since our divorce.
He was just as cold and arrogant as before.
“You must have suffered enough these three years. If you’ve learned your lesson, come home with me.”
I was alone at the restaurant today, and I was too busy to deal with him.
He stood in front of the counter, looking at me, wanting to say something but hesitating. “Zhengzheng, I’m talking to you…”
I cut him off. “Sir, would you like to order something?”
“If not, please step aside. You’re holding up the other customers.”
He was left speechless and only after a long pause asked, “Zhengzheng, what’s wrong with you?”
I still didn’t answer.
Nothing’s wrong. I just don’t love him anymore.

"Help! Somebody help me! Julian is trying to kill my baby!" I scream at the top of my lungs, bursting into my gender reveal party.

Just minutes ago, Julian was my perfect, doting husband. Then he opens my unborn baby's genetic screening report. The unadulterated ferocity and revulsion simmering in his eyes makes my entire body shake. He grips my arm, demanding I terminate the pregnancy.

I already died once because of that piece of paper. In my past life, they dragged me to a freezing lab, pumped me full of drugs, and murdered my child before locking me in an asylum.

This time, I hide behind the guests. But my parents storm in. After seeing the report, instead of saving me, Dad kicks me squarely in the stomach.

"You shameless little whore," he spits.

They are about to drag me out the back door when two police officers step through the glass doors. The cop hands me the confiscated report.

I look down at the printed words... and finally understand.