151 Book(s) Related to gatsu no lion

In my last life, when the apocalypse hit, I forced more than fifty young tenants in the Silver Bay Apartments into a single fighting unit: sealed doors, rationing, rotating watches, quarantine—I bought us thirty days of safety with iron rules.
But when rescue was finally near, they dumped all their hunger and fear on me. My ex, Claire, and the gym rat Mason stirred up the crowd, beat me until I couldn’t stand, and locked me outside the door to the rooftop—leaving the horde to close in.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day before everything began.
This time, I won’t step up. I won’t save anyone. I’ll hide what I need to survive—and watch them destroy the building themselves.

To please his mistress, Callum ordered me—pregnant—to dance barefoot in the black salt ice cellar.

When I stumbled back to the doorway to warm myself, the mistress covered her mouth and retched.

"I'm pregnant. I can't stand this death-stench of winter."

Only because I was a princess of the Winter Realm, born carrying frost in my veins.

Callum flew into a rage and had me locked inside a frost-crystal cage, sunk to the bottom of the ice well. No one was allowed to release me without his command.

"A princess of winter, afraid of the cold? What a joke!"

No matter how I struggled or begged, he couldn't have cared less. He and his mistress treated it as entertainment. And just like that, I froze to death at the bottom of that well.

What he didn't know was that although we winter-born are forged in bitter cold, when we carry a child, every drop of magic goes to protecting the baby. We have no defense left for ourselves. The very ice that shaped us becomes the thing that kills us.

Two days later, he was finally satisfied and ordered them to pull me up.

But I could never come back up again.

Soft hot lips find the shell of my ear and he whispers, "You think I don't want you?" He pushes his hips forward, grinding into the back of my ass and I groan. "Really?" He chuckles.

"Let me go," I whimper, my body trembling with need. "I don't want you touching me."

I fall forward onto the bed then turn around to stare at him. The dark tattoos of Domonic's chiseled shoulders, quiver and and expand with the heave of his chest. His deep dimpled smile is full of arrogance as he reaches behind himself to lock the door.

Biting his lip, he stalks toward me, his hand going to the seam of his pants and the thickening bulge there.

"Are you sure you don't want me to touch you?" He whispers, untying the knot and slipping a hand inside. "Because I swear to God, that is all I have been wanting to do. Every single day from the moment you stepped in our bar and I smelled your perfect flavor from across the room."


New to the world of shifters, Draven is human on the run. A beautiful girl who no one could protect. Domonic is the cold Alpha of the Red Wolf Pack. A brotherhood of twelve wolves that live by twelve rules. Rules which they vowed could NEVER be broken.

Especially - Rule Number One - No Mates

When Draven meets Domonic, he knows that she is his mate, but Draven has no idea what a mate is, only that she has fallen in love with a shifter. An Alpha that will break her heart to make her leave. Promising herself, she will never forgive him, she disappears.

But she doesn’t know about the child she’s carrying or that the moment she left, Domonic decided rules were made to be broken - and now will he ever find her again? Will she forgive him?

“The daughter of Alaric Blackstone. How dare you deceive me?”

Rejected for my bloodline, I faced a harsh truth: the man who once held me tenderly now looked at me with hatred. Marked as the shameful Omega daughter of an Alpha, I thought the mate bond was my salvation—only to find it was my curse.

Forced into marriage by my father as a bargaining chip, I made a decision to escape the torment and leave behind those who betrayed me. Years later, when I finally found peace, my mate returned, begging for forgiveness. However, after enduring all the pain he caused me, can I truly forgive him?

Matthew only ever saw me as his body to use for pleasure. Every time he touched me, he was looking through me, longing for another woman—his one true love.
I was just a stand-in, a shadow for three long years. When he finally announced his engagement, he cast me aside without a second thought. I was kidnapped, framed, and publicly humiliated, yet he watched it all with cold, indifferent eyes.
My heart died completely. I hid my positive pregnancy test and vanished without a trace. Only then did he panic, abandoning his pride to chase after me: “Eve, I’m not getting married. I only want you.”

Life, they say, is not a storybook but life unfolds in chapters; good chapters, bad chapters. What happens when the chapters of Jasmine’s life were not only bad but terrible?


In a world where only the strong gets what they want, and where women are only considered toys, Jasmine, an omega wolf, is thrown into the furnace of life to burn by her mate whom she loved but now loathed.

She was abused day and night, lost countless pregnancies in the hands of her toxic mate, and was used as a mere pleasure toy. Life seemed hopeless, and fate played a quick one when she discovered she was pregnant again.

To protect herself and her baby, she ran away from the pack and ended up in the arms of another Alpha.

What happens when she discovers this Alpha was her second chance mate?

Is she finally going to be happy or has fate tricked her yet again?

In my past life, just one day before the national evaluation camp that would make or break his career, my hockey-prodigy best friend faked an illness. He was ready to throw away his entire future just to go party in Chicago with a cheerleader.

Thinking I was doing him a favor, I stepped in. I tipped off his coach, saved his career.

Years later, he became a multimillion-dollar superstar. His way of thanking me? Framing me with doctored charity records and sending me to federal prison. He even smiled as he delivered the final, crushing blow:

"I planned that crash on the icy road, Kassia. Your parents' lives were just the price you had to pay for sticking your nose where it didn't belong."

Now, my eyes snap open to the deafening cheers of our high school hockey arena.

Sitting right next to me, that same cheerleader is eagerly plotting how to corner him after the game.

“I reject you! I will never accept you as my Luna!”
The force of his rejection struck me like a physical blow, shattering my soul. Just hours ago, these same lips had whispered sweet promises against my skin. These same hands had touched me with reverence. Now, Alpha Finn Foster looked at me as if I were something rotten—something despised. Something he hated with every fiber of his being.
“Alaric Blackstone’s daughter,”he spat the words like venom.

“You deceived me.”

My mate—the man the Moon Goddess had destined for me, the man who had held me in his arms just a night before—now glared at me as if I were a curse upon his existence. All because I was the daughter of his enemy.Rejected for my bloodline, I was forced to confront a harsh truth: the man who once held me tenderly now looked at me with hatred—even though I carried his child. Marked as the shameful Omega daughter of an Alpha, I had thought the mate bond would be my salvation. Instead, it became my curse.
Forced into an arranged marriage by my father as a mere bargaining chip, I made the only choice that could save me: to escape the torment and leave behind those who betrayed me. Years later, when I finally found peace, my mate—the one who rejected me—returned, begging for forgiveness.
But after everything he put me through, can I truly forgive him? Can I give him a second chance?

BLURB

Elaine moves to Herbert Wilbur - a strange name for a boarding school, and an even stranger place to study.

she meets Allan, a boy attached to piano keys and eerie hymns, seems to carry mysteries that no song can hide.

Meanwhile, creatures roam the halls. They share the same bodies as human students, cause havoc in secret, and eventually push the soul out to claim full control.

They are placed in a situation where they have to spend nine nights together, during this nine nights, they begin to rely on each other, share burdens and maybe fall in love.

Herbert Wilbur isn't just a school.
It's a cage of secrets waiting to be unlocked.

I used to be the Blackwells' best killer. For him, I walked away from that life and became his wife. I even gave him a daughter.

I thought it was redemption. Turns out, it was the start of something worse.

Three years ago, during that shootout at the docks, his first love showed up with his bastard son. When the rival family put guns to both kids' heads, he didn't hesitate. He chose to save her son.

My daughter burned in the explosion.

That was the day the man I loved for ten years died. What's left is just my sworn enemy.

I waited five years for a heart transplant.
My mother—the Luna of our Pack, the healer everyone worships—gave it to someone else.
An orphan girl she took in. A girl who now calls her "Mom."
Ivy got my heart. She got a wolf. She got a mate and a wedding so grand the whole Pack attended.
Me? I watched from the corner, still dying, while my mother smiled for the cameras and accepted praise for her "selfless sacrifice."
When I finally snapped at the ceremony, she slapped me. Told me to apologize. Said I was embarrassing the family.
I'm her actual daughter. I'm the one who can't shift, can't feel a mate bond, can't survive another six months.
But sure. I'm the problem.
They wanted me to stay quiet and die gracefully.
I chose to make sure everyone sees who their perfect Luna really is.

Zarelle Feymere—heiress to the most powerful werewolf dynasty in the world—made one mistake: she fell for an Alpha who saw her as nothing more than a rare blood bag.
For three years, she endured the humiliation of a loveless mating, her veins tapped like a commodity to sustain the woman Calden Ashmoor truly loved, Thessaly. His fated mate, who rejected him to marry his brother.
When a web of lies and betrayal is uncovered, Zarelle does the unthinkable: she walks away.
Now, stripped of her disguise as a docile omega, the true daughter of the Missatian Pack returns to claim her birthright—and her revenge.
Calden always thought he’d married a nobody.
He never expected his discarded mate to come back as a queen.

“This is Virella… my wife.”
Three years.
And that was all Alpha Kaelen gave me.
No welcome.
No touch.
No recognition.
Just another woman at his side—carrying his child.
While I ruled in his absence… I was nothing more than a placeholder.
A Luna he never chose.
So I gave up.
And I left.
One rejection was all it took to break the bond.
When I returned, I wasn’t the Luna he abandoned.
I was untouchable, respected, and feared.
And no longer his to claim.
Now he watches me like a man drowning….
Because the woman he discarded came back as something far beyond his reach.
And this time… I didn’t come alone.
The Alpha of Ebonmoon stands beside me, his presence crushing, and his hand firm on my waist….
“Careful, Kaelen,” his voice drops, dark with warning.
“Rowena isn’t yours anymore.”
His lips brush my temple, possessively.
“She’s mine. If you try to take her…I’ll end you.”

Seven months pregnant, I watched the thugs Vivian hired drag us both into the warehouse.
I didn't fight for that phone. I let Vivian—Sean's ex, the woman he never stopped loving—make the call herself.
Because in my past life, I'd begged desperately for Sean to save me from this carefully orchestrated nightmare.
And he did come. He chose me over her.
Vivian was left behind. Raped. Tortured. Murdered—by the very men she'd paid to stage this.
Afterward, Sean said he didn't blame me. He took care of me through the entire pregnancy. Never missed a single appointment.
Then on the day I went into labor, he handed me over to another pack of monsters.
Everything Vivian endured—the gang rape, the abuse, the humiliation—became mine.
Before burning me alive, he threw our dead baby at my feet, his face twisted with rage:
"You wanted to survive, didn't you? This is the price. I'm going to make you feel everything Vivian felt. Not just you—this bastard that should never have existed."
Those months of tenderness were all an act. Carefully orchestrated torture designed to make my suffering absolute.
When I opened my eyes, I was back in that warehouse—watching Vivian's hired thugs hold up the phone, forcing us to choose who gets saved

During routine rounds, I never gave Linus Crewe a second thought. Nineteen years old, diagnosed with persistent hallucinatory disorder, just another trust fund kid tossed into the psych ward like garbage by his own family.
But that day, he locked eyes with me and claimed that the moment his skin touched someone else's, he could see their deepest, darkest secrets.
I scoffed. As a female doctor who married into money, harbored a thirst for revenge, and kept a secret lover on the side, someone seeing through my facade was my ultimate nightmare.
I thought he was just playing mind games.
Until he recounted, word for word, things even my husband didn't know. He just smiled and said: Then tell me, Dr. Hollister... why is your heart racing when you look at me?

My world began to crumble the day my adopted sister, Opal, forced her way back into my life with a fatherless daughter in her arms.
My eldest son, Finn, was strapped to an operating table and used for live experiments until he was tortured to death. His remains were tossed into Death Valley.
For her, my husband struck me, costing me my second unborn child.
For her, my own brother locked me in a freezing dungeon. And my late father? He had been a slave to her charms long before he died.
While they threw a lavish birthday party for Opal’s daughter in the brightly lit banquet hall, I was pinned down by dungeon guards, my clothes being ripped off, inch by inch...

For fifteen years, Anastasia Stafford lived a life defined by a single, cruel purpose: to serve as a living blood bank for her adopted sister.

She gave everything—her health, her talent, and her dignity—only to be discarded and betrayed by the very family she tried so hard to please.

Her first life ended in tragedy, falling from a building with nothing but regret.

But fate has granted her a second chance.

Waking up on her twenty-third birthday, Anastasia decides she is done being the silent victim.

She steps away from the toxic Stafford Family and turns to the one thing they could never take from her: her extraordinary talent for design.

She catches the eye of Richard Roosevelt , a powerful CEO who offers her a partnership rather than pity.

Anastasia is no longer just surviving;

she is systematically dismantling the family that ruined her ，and hunting for the truth behind her mother’s death.

He was the most dazzling yet tragic golden-tier bodyguard of Apex Sentinel Group. Six years ago, betrayed by Robert, he was shot multiple times and thrown into the sea. On the brink of death, he was saved by the chemist Michael. Now, six years later, he has become the feared "Mr. M," master of Apex Global Enterprises. To repay the debt of his life, he returns to his old grounds, only to find his savior missing and his twin daughters in grave danger. As old enemies, greedy elites, and dark capital intertwine once more, the dormant warrior bares his fangs. This time, with absolute power, he will crush every conspiracy, protect those he holds dear, and make the world remember the terror of being dominated

"Are you out of your mind?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I had just been given a second chance.

In her past life, Vivian Grant was seen as a powerless beauty trapped by the cold and ruthless Alexander Brooks. Even he believed she never loved him. But when enemies closed in, it was Vivian who sacrificed everything, including her own family, to avenge him.

Now reborn, Vivian refuses to hide her strength. She's revealing her true identity, claiming her power, and rewriting her fate. No more submission, no more misunderstandings—this time, she'll take control of her life and her love.

As regretful brothers beg for forgiveness and powerful enemies fall at her feet, Vivian has one goal: to rise without mercy and make the man she once loved fall for her all over again—on her terms.

“My world is a mess; you want nothing to do with this"
“You don't have the right to decide that for me." Her chest was heaving, harsh breaths scraping the walls of her nose. “I am your wife, and I am choosing to be in your mess."
He grabbed the back of her head and pulled her closer. “This is your last chance. Once you step in, I can never let go."
"I'm not planning on it."

Jade Saint, who was switched at birth, is coerced into an arranged marriage after returning to the Sterling home. That is, until Roman Volkov – the richest and most dangerous man in the city – claims her as his bride.
Desperate to save her dying adoptive mother, she willingly enters into a contract marriage with the devil himself.
But marriage to Roman is not what she thinks it is – not the enemies lurking in the shadows. Not the dangerous world he refuses to explain, and certainly not the way his cold touch begins to feel like a promise instead of a warning.
Because the more she tries to understand him, the more she realises he didn’t choose her by accident.
And the truth behind it all may destroy her.

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.

Noah, usually inseparable from his father, had spent the entire week insisting that only I take him camping. His declared mission: mastering "real survival skills"—a not-so-subtle jab at his dad's preference for cushy glamping.
Liam played along, hamming it up as he swung our son goodbye. But beneath the teasing jealousy, something felt off. He packed the trunk too fast. Checked the gas without being asked. Almost assembly-line efficiency.
And that line about a last-minute client flying in from Chicago? Didn't sound like bad luck. Sounded like an excuse.
All week, he never pushed back. Just quietly, almost eagerly, waited for us to leave.
I figured he wanted the house to himself: scotch, cigars, silence.
Then the call came—and I got it.
He hadn’t cleared the house for peace and quiet.
He’d cleared it for her.

"Sign it. Save her, and I'll give you anything."
For four years, I was Damian Wright's "invisible wife".
While I played the pauper, he poured his soul into his dying first love. Desperate, he blindly signed a stack of papers to buy the "Gifted Doctor's" time.
He didn't read the fine print. Buried inside was our Divorce Decree.
"Congratulations, Damian," I said, stripping off my surgical mask to reveal the wife he never truly knew. "You're free."
The submissive Amelia is dead.
The legendary "Ghost Surgeon"? That's me.
The blindfolded racing queen "Raven"? Also me.
The shadow behind the global intelligence network? Still me.
I was ready to vanish, but Lucas Sullivan—the titan who makes the Wrights look like peasants—blocked my path.
When Damian tried to reclaim me, Lucas didn't just stop him; he brought an empire to its knees.
"They don't deserve to look at you," Lucas whispered, his touch a lethal mix of protection and obsession. "But if you crave the world, Amelia, I'll burn it down just to hear you say my name."

“Jaden Skye creates a set of characters that are very well developed, and makes you cheer for our heroine on every page. The environment and the overall description of scenes are superb, making you feel the suspense in the air the whole time.”--Books and Movie Reviews (Roberto Mattos) (re No Place to Die)NO PLACE FOR MARRIAGE is book #4 in a new romantic suspense series by #1 bestselling author Jaden Skye, which begins with Book #1, NO PLACE TO DIE, a free download!When Tyron Barr, a rich, old tycoon confined to a wheelchair, is found dead at the bottom of his staircase, his stunning 32 year old wife is immediately suspect. But she protests her innocence—and calls Olivia and Wayne in to prove it.In a world where nothing is as it seems, a world of incredible wealth and charm, of intense greed and jealousy, loneliness and secrets, Olivia discovers, lurk behind the scenes. Perhaps just enough to murder someone.Is the young wife playing Olivia? Or did someone else want him dead?NO PLACE FOR MARRIAGE is book #4 in an explosive new romantic suspense series filled with love, tragedy, heartbreak, betrayal and suspense, one that will leave you turning pages late into the night. Book #5 will be released soon.Jaden is also author of the #1 Bestselling series MURDER IN THE CARIBBEAN, which begins with DEATH BY HONEYMOON (Book #1), a free download with over 200 five star reviews!

Born in the slums, Wendy was heartlessly dumped by her self made boyfriend.
"You're not good enough for me."
She sneered, smashed his Ferrari, then climbed into a limited edition hypercar and drove away.
What her ex never knew was that the "burden" he abandoned was the one who made him successful.
Then her birth mother, who had abandoned her years ago, suddenly returned and demanded that Wendy go home and marry in place of her disabled sister.
Wendy smiled.
"Fine. If you all want me back so badly, I'll come home. And I'll repay every single one of you."

My brother and my fiancée forged evidence of my crimes. They claimed I was guilty of corruption, bribery, and betraying the family—that I was a traitor to the nation. If not for their "mercy," they said, I would have already been sentenced to death.

But that wasn't enough. Three years later, when Father lay dying, my brother and fiancée threw me into the Gulf of Mexico, all to eliminate any chance I might have of competing for the family inheritance.

When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to three years ago—to the moment they framed me for treason...

My husband Michael's father and my own father shared the same name—Robert. His was Robert Carter; mine, Robert Smith. I once thought it a sweet coincidence, until that 3 AM phone call turned this quirk of fate into a living nightmare.
The nursing home called to say Robert Carter had died, but when Michael returned from his business trip, he assumed it was my father who had passed. "Old Robert's finally gone," he smirked. "Should've moved him to the cheaper nursing home ages ago." Can you believe it? His own father—the man who'd left him an inheritance—and there he was, helping his medical intern mistress cover up malpractice, dismissing the death as "just some useless old man."
He has no idea he's protecting his father's killer. No clue I've seen through his cold-bloodedness all along.
I wonder, when the truth finally hits him, how will this absurd tragedy end?

Lucas was a married billionaire, but the marriage was not as good as the rumors say.
He had been spying on his new secretary for a long time. She has a good face, a hot body, and a neat demeanor.
“Mention your business , lady. Don't think about rolling on my bed. Or I will kick you out.”
Clarie was shocked when she heard the such arrognant words.
But something unspeakable things happened.
Her boss slept her.
"I don't want to have sex with an unconscious person. Now you're awake. Can I fuck you now?"
Clarie has voveted him for a long time...
Can she restrain her desire there?

I grew up training in seclusion, intentionally sealing my royal aura to experience life as a regular werewolf. My family arranged a marriage for me a long time ago, and my fiancé is Derrick, the Alpha of a local pack. Today, I visit a high-end witch boutique to pick out an exclusive dress for my Mating Ball. I immediately spot a one-of-a-kind enchanted moonstone gown. Just as I reach out to take it.

A woman standing nearby shoots me a sideways glance and announces loudly to the people around her, "This dress looks pretty good. I'm taking it."

Before she even finishes her sentence, she steps forward and snatches the gown right out of my reach.

My face darkens, and I speak up to stop her. "First come, first served. I saw this dress first. Snatching it like that is way out of line."

She scoffs, looking me up and down with pure disgust. "This enchanted gown costs a fortune. Look at what you're wearing. Do you really think you're worthy of even touching it? I'm Selene, Alpha Derrick's mate. In this territory, Derrick is the law!"

How ironic. Derrick is the exact same fiancé my family arranged for me.

At the Blood Moon Luna coronation rehearsal, I wait alone at the altar for eight agonizing hours. My fated Alpha, Caleb, is nowhere to be seen.

Just as my legs go completely numb, his text finally comes through. "Elara, Lily from the Hollowthorn Clan got attacked by a rogue and is terrified. I have to stay here and calm her down. Let's just run through the coronation rehearsal tomorrow."

Right after that, Lily sends a photo. She is bundled up in Caleb's favorite black jacket. The caption is a deliberate stab to the heart. "Elara, Caleb's scent makes me feel so safe. I feel so bad you have to prep for the coronation all by yourself, but you're so strong. I'm sure you don't mind, right?"

I don't hesitate for a second. I dial the high priest's number. "Prepare the rejection ceremony. At tomorrow's coronation, I am unilaterally severing my mate bond with Caleb."

Ten years together. I bled for him on the battlefield and bore the weight of the entire pack's judgment alone, only to be abandoned at every major milestone so he could coddle an Omega who fakes weakness for sympathy. A cheap, used silver trinket is his idea of an apology. Fake attacks, public framing, malicious bidding wars at auctions. Piece by piece, they trampled all over my pride.

He thinks groveling and offering up territories can fix this. He doesn't realize that the moment he chose to fail me time and time again, I stopped wanting him. I don't give a damn about his leftover affection.

Elara is done being Caleb's backup Luna.

The night before the SAT, Instagram exploded with a viral post:

"Madison, tomorrow I'm going to confess my love to you with my SAT exam! I'll write you love letters in my English essay, bubble 'I LOVE YOU' on my math answer sheet, fill my physics test with your name......"

Below the text was a photo of two hands intertwined.

I tapped to enlarge it. The familiar scar on his right wrist stabbed straight through my heart.

Comments poured in below: "This is insane! What kind of earth-shattering love is worth sacrificing standardized test scores for?"

The blogger immediately responded: "No worries, I already got MIT early admission anyway. Taking the SAT is just a formality."

"But as long as she's happy, what are test scores anyway?"

I took a deep breath and closed my quantum physics notes.

Madison was the transfer student who arrived during senior spring.

And the person posting was my boyfriend Liam, who had just called me an hour ago encouraging me to do well on the test so we could attend the same university.

I exited Instagram and dialed MIT Admissions.

"Sir, regarding the joint-authorship application—I want to withdraw it."

I die a miserable death in the dungeon, drained of three hundred years of pure blood. I owe it all to Elena and my ridiculously biased clan.

In my previous life, I am the Chief Executioner of the Night Abyss clan. During our hunt for the Alpha Wolf, she drops her weapon and throws herself into Lucas's arms, playing the helpless victim.

I take the beast's attack head-on and suffer severe injuries. The other knights just shield her, turning around to accuse me of being petty and jealous.

Prince Marcus blatantly favors his illegitimate daughter, Elena. He snatches my magic core, constantly puts me down, and even rips the core out of my loyal wolf familiar, Fenrir. In the end, he drains my blood dry just to feed her.

Now that I am reborn, I return to the exact night we hunt the high-tier Alpha Wolf.

We'd been together for eight years when my childhood sweetheart took me to see the ocean.
We were in a terrible car crash.
In my final moments, he used his last strength to hold my hand.
"Thank you. I'm so lucky to have you."
I squeezed back through my tears as he took his final breath, and moments later, I followed.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back in senior year, coding day and night.
All so we could conquer Silicon Valley together, making up for our past life's regrets.
At the graduation party, he walked toward me with roses just like before.
"I want to tell you, I love you—"
My heart soared as I stood up.
"I love you too—"
He walked past me and handed the roses to the trust fund heiress.
In the stunned silence that followed, I finally understood—he wanted to rewrite his story.
When applying for grad school, I chose MIT, three thousand miles away from him.
I'd give him what he wanted, and finally pursue the dream I'd only found at forty-five.

Six years of hauling corpses. Six years of scraping maggots out of floorboards and suffocating in a toxic slurry of putrefying flesh and industrial solvents—all just to buy my husband a little more borrowed time.

I thought the thing I pulled back from the brink of death was a human being.

But the day my joint accounts were frozen... the moment my own son clamped a hand over his nose in disgust at my stench... the second I watched his mistress weeping softly into his chest... I finally realized the truth.

I hadn't saved a man. I had resurrected a pack of monsters, and they weren't going to stop until they ground me into the dirt.

At the Eternal Night Realm admission ceremony, Carly suddenly grabs my hand.

My heart pounds. I think he is going to announce our relationship to the entire continent.

Instead, he says, "Eve, thanks for everything these past five years. But Lym didn't make the cut. She's hurting right now, and I need to go back and be there for her."

He crushes the realm token right in front of thousands of people.

For five years, I hid my pureblood lord identity. I drained my magic until I literally coughed up blood, quietly paving every step of his way.

I thought we loved each other. I thought after this ceremony we would rise to the top together.

But his casual thanks for everything crushes five years of my devotion into dust.

What is even more laughable is that the moment the online backlash hits Lym, he calls me on the comms.

"Eve! You need to put out a statement to clear this up right now! As my friend, you owe me this!"

Friend?

My hand holding the crystal shakes.

Inside the private dining room, my seven-year-old daughter leans against the edge of the table. She waits for three hours, and her birthday cake melts. Dante texts me, claiming he is handling an "emergency arms deal" and telling us not to wait.

But his mistress's Instagram tells a completely different story.

She wears the limited-edition black diamond necklace Dante just bought, cozying up to someone in a top-tier club. The caption is blinding: "A real man always knows who comes first, even when bullets fly."

What is more brutal happens the next day. When stray bullets hit the casino, Dante actually shoves his own daughter away when she begs for help, turning his back to protect his mistress's nephew instead.

Looking at the bloody scratches on my daughter's arm, listening to him announce in public that "that boy is my only blood," my heart completely dies.

He doesn't know that to love him, the heir to the Romano Mafia family willingly suffered in the slums for seven years. And he treats our lives like garbage compared to an outsider.

Now, it is time to make him pay.

At our engagement party, my fiancé's first love confessed her feelings for him in front of everyone.
Without a second thought, he shoved me aside and ran after her, leaving me to be hit by a car.
While I was in the hospital, he brought her into our home and forced me to eat food I was allergic to.
Most absurd of all, he personally sent me to the operating table so I could give her my kidney.
She tortured my cat to death, and all he said was, "It was just a cat."
The day I decided to leave the country, he thought I had died in a plane crash. Then he got into a car accident and lost his memory, remembering only the version of us at eighteen—when we were in love.
Too bad some scars never fade.

When the Grand Duke, my contract master, noticed I hadn't submitted a requisition for magical resources in five days, he assumed I had finally learned to be a proper exclusive priestess. In a rare display of mercy, he ignited the communication crystal:

"I have arranged to resume your brother's treatments in the infirmary. Behave yourself from now on, and stop fabricating excuses to demand high-tier spirit stones."

"I know it isn't easy for someone from your dependent background, but the resources of my estate are not so easily scammed."

But what he didn't know was that five days ago, my brother had already died from a tragic magic riot.

Now that my brother is gone, it is time for me to leave as well.

I was betrayed, cheated on, and ruthlessly schemed against by my own husband. Cornered by him and his mistress, I was forced to leap off a cliff. No one expected that I would survive the fatal fall. I carved out a bloody path for myself in Silicon Valley and rose to become the sharpest, youngest queen across the entire capital circle. Three years later, he knelt before me in utter disarray, weeping brokenly. Meanwhile, draped in a white wedding gown, I was held securely in my bridegroom’s arms. It was in that moment that he finally comprehended—losing me was the harshest retribution he would ever endure for the rest of his life.

My brother chose my enemy, and the man I loved joined forces with her to sell me into a club.
Pregnancy, miscarriage, imprisonment, beatings—every cry for help I made was dismissed as "just an act."
It wasn't until I was truly dead that they lost their minds, dropping to their knees at my grave and sobbing that they were sorry.
But by then, I could no longer hear them.

When my own father pinned me against the reef and ripped my scales off one by one, my sister buried herself in my fiancé's arms and cried. "Don't blame my sister. She was born worthless."
Right there in front of everyone, they decided to offer me to the Sea God as a sacrifice. They couldn't even be bothered to send anyone to see me off.
But when I was dragged, half-dead, into the black prison, what came for me wasn't death.
It was the Sea God himself.
He wiped the blood from my tail and said, "Good. Let them keep piling on their sins. I'll make them drop to their knees and beg for your forgiveness."

I spent three years chasing the most popular guy on campus, only to be humiliated in front of the entire school.
My foster family treats me like a live-in maid. My biological father wants to drag me back into the gutter. And the loan sharks have made it clear that in three days, I'll be the one paying for my father's debt.
Everyone is waiting to see me fall apart.
What no one knows is that I already dreamed of the worst future waiting for me.

I caught my fiancé cheating with his ex in our bedroom—twins on the nightstand proved it had been going on for a year.

The alchemy vial slipped from my trembling fingers, shattering against the stone floor. There they were: Kaelen, the youngest Archmage on the continent, tangled in silk sheets with Lyra Elessar, the high-elf noble he'd supposedly rejected for me.

But it was the glowing parchment on the nightstand that destroyed me completely—a bloodline registry declaring him father to one-year-old twins.

I'd sacrificed my magic core to save his life three years ago, becoming powerless while he used that second chance to build a secret family. Every "council meeting," every "emergency" had been a lie to visit them.

When Lyra saw me, she didn't even flinch. She just smiled and said, "Looks like we're caught."

The humiliation burned hotter than heartbreak. I fled to the black market that very night, seeking the Death Merchant's ultimate service—complete disappearance.

"Seven days to prepare the ritual," he told me.

Seven days until I could vanish forever. Seven days to decide what the naive girl who'd loved him deserved as her final gift to herself.

The scalpel pressed against my chest, and I knew this heart would be carved out tonight as a gift for his white moonlight.

Five years ago, I was a medical genius. He was a dying vampire in the sewers. I gave up my humanity to save him, worked three jobs to fund his doctorate.

"Your heart has excellent quality. Perfect for Seraphina's transplant," he said coldly, slicing through my skin.

"Please... I just miscarried..." I weakly gripped the operating table's edge.

"Defective embryo. Good riddance." He cut my brother's oxygen tube, forcing me to cooperate with the surgery.

Blood pooled everywhere as I signed the organ donation form.

A year later, I stood at the pinnacle of vampire power while he knelt in the snow, begging for a drop of my blood to survive.

I poured it out, fertilizing the earth instead.

A wealthy heir was ordered to seduce me, intending to photograph me in compromising positions to destroy my reputation.
At midnight, his hands trembled as he prepared to send the photos, but I coldly exposed his cowardice and ambition.
That night, he deleted all the evidence before my eyes, his gaze filled with complete fanaticism and submission.
Later, he knelt on one knee with a diamond ring, but I poured myself a drink: "I don't need a partner to share power with—I just need an obedient dog."

On my wedding night, I discovered the man in my bed wasn't my husband.
It was his twin brother—the one the family had exiled.
In my previous life, I exposed them in a rage.
My cheating husband came back, smashed my head open, and threw me into the ocean to be fed to the sharks.
But this time, reborn with a second chance, I cupped the face of the man in front of me—the face identical to my husband's—and slowly untied my wedding dress.
"Since he personally delivered you to my bed, then from now on... you're the husband."
This time, I'm going to raise up the loyal stand-in, and take everything from that bastard.