9458 Book(s) Related to to be a power in the shadows

After sleeping for a thousand years, I returned to the ancestral castle that was supposed to be mine.
Only to find my throne torn down and turned into an auction block for the black market, my territory carved up clean by traitors.
And my only pureblood descendant in this world was actually being auctioned off like livestock—covered in blood, chained up with a cheap dog collar around his neck.
The entire room of nobles and elites mistook me for the lowest kind of half-blood trash, mocking me as a rat too stupid to know when he was dead.
The usurper, eager to curry favor with the Abyss, shouted that he would drain me dry and offer my blood as a tribute to the three pureblood princes deep within the Abyss.
Then the void split open, and those three supreme princes—the untouchable monsters the world worshiped—truly descended.
Under the horrified gaze of more than a thousand nobles and elites, those three ancient monsters threw themselves at my feet, scrambling and crawling, wailing in terror without even daring to raise their heads:
"Your unworthy descendants... welcome the Ancestor's return!!!"

1

They left me to freeze to death in our basement freezer.

The night before prom, my foster sister Leila came crying that I'd burned her Ivy League recommendation letter. My birth parents didn't even listen to one word of explanation—they threw me into that frozen hell in forty-five below.

I beat on that door until my fingers were shredded, screamed until my throat tore apart, but all I could hear from upstairs was their laughter celebrating Leila. Even Justin—the boy I'd loved since we were kids—texted calling me a fucking psycho.

As I drew my last breath, I heard Leila's soft voice outside the door: "Rest in peace, sister."

Now I'm a ghost, watching them lose their minds when the truth comes out.

"I am so tired of pretending, where is my happy ending "

Jessa's mother was jilted by her father before the twins were born, leaving only the house where they once lived. It was a tough and unpredictable roller coaster that was sure to leave one scared for life.

Well that's until a cause was proclaimed on the family that stole her twins from her on the day of their birth.
Will the causes be fulfilled at the appointed time?

Will the twins eventually locate their mother?

Will she be sane enough to look after her twins?

Will everything returns to normal?

What happens when the twins' father returns? With questions like this left unanswered you know you don't want to be Left hanging, find out on A twin with a difference.

Amaya didn't expect her life to drastically change, she had moved to the US to work and support her family. She thought she was coming to work as a house maid not knowing she is going to be surrogate for a billionaire who has decided not to marry but want to be a father.

Jonas Whitepaw has always felt a little different, and he has accepted people commenting on his size and teasingly calling him a pretty boy. For despite being a future Alpha, he isn’t big or burly. Luckily for him, his handsome face and charms more than makeup for his lack of size, at least with the ladies.

Without really being prepared, he is thrown into the job as Alpha when his father is killed by the feared rogue king Typhon Bloodclaw, also known as Cerberus. Pushed by the pack and especially the Beta, Jonas decides to go and negotiate alone with the rogues when they abduct 4 Young girls, one of them Jonas' baby sister.

To his surprise, the rogue King is willing to let the girls go on one condition: Jonas takes their place. What does the rogue King want with Jonas? Will he abuse him like the young Alpha fears? And what is the weird feeling Jonas gets when he is near Typhon? He can’t be attracted to a man, or can he?

Eighteen-year-old Princess Eleanor Anderson has always believed her future was already written·A loving family. A handsome fiancé. A peaceful life within the safety of Namalia—the last human kingdom surrounded by monsters.

But everything changes when the dreaded Bridal Selection returns.

For centuries, the humans of Namalia have survived under a fragile alliance with the Vampire Realm. Every twenty years, a human bride must be offered to the Vampire King in exchange for the kingdom's protection.

This time, the chosen bride comes from Eleanor's family.

And the sacrifice is her twin sister, Maria.

Determined to save Maria from a fate worse than death, Eleanor vows to fight the decision, even if it means standing against her kingdom, its traditions, and the terrifying Vampire King himself.

But before she could save her sister, Maria escaped from the kingdom, leaving Eleanor as her only Substitute.

Now Eleanor is being forced to become the kings fated bride.

A betrayed politician’s wife.
A rebel alpha with nothing to lose.
A town crawling with secrets.
And a war waiting to ignite between blood and fang.
Calla Hart thought the worst thing her husband could do was cheat.
She was wrong.
After catching Senator Blake Hart in bed with a vampire, and learning he’s part of the Crimson Order, a vampire mafia that wants her blood.
Calla runs. Not for love, but for survival.
Because what’s in her veins isn’t normal.
She hides in Ravenridge, a decaying supernatural border town where monsters walk like men and shadows bite back.
A place where the veil between worlds is wearing thin.
There, she crashes -literally-into Axel Cain, the 20-year-old Alpha of the Vanguard Pack, a feral biker gang that patrols Ravenridge like outlaw wolves. Axel doesn’t do politics. Doesn’t do mates.
And definitely doesn’t do soft, wealthy women from the city.
But something in Calla’s scent sets his wolf on fire.
And when he learns who she’s running from-and what she really is-he makes a choice that will cost him everything:
Keep her close. Claim her.
And start a war that could burn the veil between their worlds.
Extra Note for Readers
This is a slow-burn paranormal romance with steamy heat, deep emotions, and an age-gap dynamic.
She’s older, hunted, and secretly powerful.
He’s younger, dominant, and doesn’t play nice.
Together, they might save the town… or destroy it.

They gave him 24 hours to hand over the girl.
He gave them 30 seconds to regret .

Jack Cole was supposed to be nobody—just another quiet college student.
No records. No past. No trace he ever existed.

But when a powerful family tries to take his cousin as part of a dirty deal…
and a billionaire heiress becomes the target of a professional kill team…

Something buried comes back.

The campus?
Just his cover.

The truth?
He’s a weapon trained for war—
the kind governments deny, and enemies never see coming.

Now the richest family in the city wants him dead.
A private army is moving in.
And a global biotech empire is pulling strings from the shadows.

They think they’re hunting him.

They’re wrong.

Jack isn’t running.
He’s choosing who dies first.

This was supposed to be a romantic night celebrating my fifth wedding anniversary with my husband.
Until Reddit pushed the same post to me four times in a row: [Tonight at 11:00 PM, the female CEO of Aetheria Tech will have her throat brutally slit]
I didn’t buy it. With a net worth in the billions, the line of people wanting me dead could stretch all the way down Wall Street.
Until I clicked on the attached photo—it was the exact sofa I was sitting on right now.
I checked the time. Half an hour left.
If I scream right now, will I even make it to eleven?

She traded her freedom for the chance to survive.

He never imagined that the one woman capable of bringing him to his knees would also be his ticket to power. A perilous contract binds them—but what if desire proves to be more dangerous than duty?

In a world dominated by merciless vampire royalty, Scarlett never expected to be tied to the most powerful—and frigid—prince of them all. What begins as a lifeline soon becomes a dangerous game filled with seduction, betrayal, and impossible decisions.

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.

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.”

What if waking up as a Greek princess meant becoming a sacrifice to the most brutal god?

Jill Adelaide, an Oscar-nominated actress, never believed in fate—until she woke up in the body of Portia, the most beautiful princess of Sparta.

Her new life comes with a death sentence: she is betrothed to Ares, the God of War. To the world, he is a bloodthirsty monster. To her, he is infuriatingly handsome, possessive, and impossibly tempting.

But Ares is hiding secrets behind his piercing gaze. A mysterious prophecy binds them, and a hidden rebellion threatens to tear Olympus apart. As Jill navigates a world of demigods, monsters, and divine treachery, she must decide if she's merely a pawn in the gods' games—or the one woman who can tame the heart of the God of War.

He craves her soul. She needs his trust. But in a world where gods never fall in love, falling for Ares might be the deadliest risk of all...

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.

"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.

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.

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?

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?

My fiancée's father called me a stray dog, worse than trash.
My rival forced me to crawl between his legs and trampled me into the mud.
They all thought I was just a piece of trash to be trampled on at will.
But they didn't know that I endured humiliation and hardship for a shocking secret order.

A ruthless vampire king, a hidden hybrid, and a centuries-old secret ignite a forbidden love amidst a brewing war.

Chained and rejected by my pack, I thought I was just an ordinary werewolf. But the Vampire King's rescue reveals my true nature and a shocking past. Now, as shifters and vampires clash, I must choose between my heritage and my destiny.

Will I surrender to the King's dark desires, or forge my own path? In this world of ancient power struggles, one thing is certain: my blood will decide the fate of all.

In a sleek design world split between polished appearances and buried cruelty, Mara Ellison has spent years trapped behind a voice no one wanted to hear. While her family rewrites her illness and her fiancé speaks over her in the name of love, stolen records, public humiliation, and old betrayals force her to reclaim her life. Quiet but cutting, this is a story of emotional abuse, identity theft, and hard-won selfhood—framed by rain-soaked streets, hospital corridors, cold glass conference rooms, and a woman finally stepping into the light with her own voice.

A horrific car crash left me paralyzed.
The doctors said I'd never walk again. With no family left, my Aunt Martha and Uncle Thomas took me to their isolated farmhouse.
They cared for me, promising their treatments would help me walk again. After everything I'd been through, I thought I'd finally found safety.
Until today, when the feeling in my legs suddenly came back—but something told me not to tell them.

Y

I closed my eyes and announced, "I am not Anna!"
He said calmly, "Well, I knew about it already."
My eyes flared open in shock, "How - How did you know?"
He looked deeply into my eyes and replied, "I met Anna at a ball but didn't feel anything. But when I saw you for the first time in the carriage, I felt the bond between us."
Sweat beads covered my forehead as I tried to process his words. Did it mean…?
The man knew what was going on in my head and replied, "Yes, you are right! You are my mate."
————————————————
Licia’s world collapsed when her father, the previous maniac Alpha King, was killed and then she lost her identity as a prince. Yes, a prince, not a princess! She was born a girl, but her mother sealed her identity and raised her like a boy.

Until the day, her father and mother died...she was not a big person anymore.
She turned into a nobody but finally lived like a girl.

While Licia’s life was not easy, she was forced to be a substitute bride for an Alpha’s daughter and marry Enrique Collins, Alpha of the Ravenwood pack, he is the current king's right-hand man, and he was known to be cool, powerful and ruthless.

But one thing Licia didn’t know is Alpha Enrique loves his wife more than anything.

To save my family from ruin, I signed a contract to become the billionaire CEO's fake wife—but I never expected his possession to feel this real.
Maya Sullivan was trying to save her father. She never imagined he would repay her loyalty by signing her away.
Five hundred million dollars. That was the price of his debt. And Maya was the collateral. Silas Blackwood doesn't want a mistress. He wants an image.
With the public watching Blackwood Holdings and whispers circling his name, Silas needs a distraction—a loyal assistant at his side, a convincing girlfriend, a flawless future wife. And Maya will play every role he assigns.
"I don't marry for love," Silas tells her calmly. "I marry for advantage." Inside the Blackwood mansion, rules are strict, privacy is an illusion, and weakness is never tolerated.
By day, Maya stands beside him in tailored dresses and practiced smiles. By night, she lies awake in a house that never truly feels safe.
It's supposed to be an act. A carefully planned performance. But the longer she lives with Silas, the harder it becomes to tell what's real.
The resentment between them or the way his touch lingers a second too long. Because in the Blackwood world, everything has a price. And falling for Silas might cost Maya far more than her freedom.

"You are mine," he said, crossing tenderly his arm around my body. I was speechless, I tried to feign he had no power over me but my body betrayed me.
Tighten on his chest, I felt relieved and appeased, I just wanted to rest and never get out of the room, until I heard a voice coming from nowhere waking me up from this nightmare.

Yes, It was a nightmare. How could I take pleasure wrapped in this man's arm?
He was the son of the murderer of my parents.
Even if my heart was claiming him, I should remember I had no place for such a feeling.

I would struggle with my being to piss this sentiment aside.
They would pay.
His father for killing my parents, and him for being the son of this swine.
He had to pay for his father's sins.
My mind had to overpower the emotion I felt

They say Caspian Vale has a body count higher than his net worth. I don't care about either.

I only care that my brother's last voicemail spelled his name like a curse.

I didn't apply to Vale Industries for a paycheck. I applied for a funeral.. his.

Then he proposed. Not with a ring but a contract. My mother's hospital wing for my signature on a marriage certificate. I said yes because saying no would've been too easy and dumb.

Here's the thing about monsters okay??
They’re only scary until you see them brush their teeth. Until they hold your hair back. Until they get jealous over a waiter's glance and you realize you like it.

One night and one mistake. Now I'm digging through my brother's past and finding holes I didn't create just because the shooter wasn't Caspian.

The shooter was aiming at me.

But Caspian? He just took the blame like a man who's been waiting to fall.

I came to destroy a king. I didn't expect to find a martyr wearing a crown of thorns and a wedding band I can't take off.

In that case, let the game begin.

Branded an outcast since birth, Avaline Carter has spent her life enduring rejection and humiliation as the illegitimate daughter of an omega. Even her fated mate, Beta Jaxon Whitfield, refuses to acknowledge her, choosing a carefree playboy lifestyle that leaves her heart in pieces.
When a ruthless enemy threatens to destroy their pack, long-buried secrets come to light. To protect the people who never accepted her and the mate who never loved her, Ava makes the ultimate sacrifice and then disappears without a trace.
In the wake of her departure, regret consumed the pack. Realizing too late the true worth of the omega they discarded, Jaxon frantically searches the world for her, but Ava has completely erased her past.
A year later, Ava makes her grand return for her best friend’s Luna Ceremony. She is no longer the fragile girl they left in the ashes; she is a powerful business tycoon commanding a multi-million-dollar bakery empire. Desperate for redemption, Jaxon begs for a second chance, but Ava repays his past cruelty with ice-cold indifference.
With a powerful new man standing by her side, will Jaxon ever earn her forgiveness, or has the rejected omega moved on for good?

He swore to kill his mate.
She was convinced she’d never have one.
For twenty-one years, Ximena Blackthorn has lived as the disgrace of her pack.
Born to an Alpha and Luna without a wolf, she's treated as lower than a servant—beaten, ignored, and reminded every day that she should never have been born. Without a wolf, she believes she is beyond the reach of the mate bond.
Then the impossible happens. The moment the Supreme Alpha touches her, the mate bond awakens.
There is only one problem.
Damon has spent centuries believing that a mate is nothing more than a weakness. He made a promise long before Ximena was born: if fate ever gave him a mate, he would kill her with his own hands.
So instead of claiming her...
He hunts her.
But the more Damon tries to destroy the bond, the more his own wolf rebels against him. And when ancient powers begin awakening inside Ximena—powers that should have remained buried forever—everyone begins hunting the woman the Supreme Alpha swore to kill.
Because Ximena isn't just the Supreme Alpha's mate.
She is the one person who was never meant to return. And when the power sleeping inside her finally awakens...
Damon may discover that fate has given him something far more dangerous than a mate. It has brought back an ancient curse. And some curses don't end with death…
They begin with it.

In high school, my ex only dated me because she needed a dependable errand boy.

I believed it. I tutored her, fixed her grades, rewrote her papers, and cleaned up every mess she made.

Then I overheard her telling her friend, “He’s good at studying. That’s it. Dating him is already me being generous.”

At graduation, she dumped me without hesitation.

Years later, I became the CEO of a public company.

Her company was collapsing—cooked numbers, broken cash flow, investors pulling out—and she needed one deal to survive.

She didn’t know who I was.

She scraped my car in the garage, then warned me not to cling to her, saying the CEO she came to meet was way out of my league.

Then the boardroom door opened. She looked up and saw me in the seat at the head of the table.

She thought I’d use this to get revenge.

I didn’t. I just opened her file and said, “You may begin.”

I am the chief architect of a quantum computing system valued at hundreds of billions in the real world.
For an AI test subject that I wrote myself, I was willing to conceal my identity as the creator and become her unseen, low-level assistant, even at the cost of taking a fatal blow for her.
Just as she was about to go public and reach the top of the conglomerate pyramid, she unhesitatingly pushed an "Organ Donation Agreement" in front of me, forcing me to remove a kidney to save the newly spawned "old money" NPC new love.
She thought that as long as I died on the operating table, she could kick me aside, this useless stepping stone, without any moral burden, and embrace the perfect capitalist marriage.
But she didn't know—
The entire world she exists in is just a sandbox test server on my desk.

Five years into our relationship, a floating panel appeared just above Julian’s head, visible only to me: the [Life Priority Meter].
For the longest time, my name securely held the number one spot. That is, until recently, when it plummeted to second place.
The person who knocked me down to claim first? Harper—my best friend of over a decade.
Staring at the stack of wedding invitations on the table, bearing both our names, I knew it was time to wake up from this five-year long dream.

SOPHIE HUNTSBERGER found her way to a new life and new family when she ran from the physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her father. She has blossomed and healed in ways she never imagined she would or could be within the safe arms of her adoptive family.
ARRICK CARRERO has been her rock, her best friend, and her protector for years, but even he cannot get to the root of her growing emptiness.
Sophie is lost.
And she's reaching out for anything to fill the void and cure whatever ails her.
When Sophie realizes the answer has been within arms reach all along, she’s unable to prepare herself for Arrick’s spiraling emotions.
What was once innocent now comes into question - and life does not always let the heart prevail.
Characters that will break your heart, as well as each other.
Contains some mature, adult content and language.

Perfect Luna. Devoted wife. Dead woman walking.

Ciara O'Callahan thought she had it all. A divine mate bond with the powerful Alpha Ronan O'Donoghue, a beautiful daughter, and the respect of her pack. Until the night she discovers her husband's dark secret: he shares more than just blood with his twin brother Ewan. Much more.

But uncovering the truth comes at a deadly price. Betrayed and murdered by her own mother-in-law to protect the brothers' twisted bond, Ciara's last desperate wish echoes through the veil between life and death...

And something answers.

Now seventeen again, blessed with a second chance at life, Ciara faces an impossible choice. Submit to the sacred mate bond that would lead her back to Ronan? Or defy the very foundations of wolf society and forge her own destiny?

This time, she refuses to be a pawn in fate’s cruel game. She will not walk blindly into a future paved with deceit. And when she crosses paths with Darragh Byrne, the mysterious and battle-scarred Alpha of the Moonveil Pack, the gods themselves seem to stir.

Darragh is everything Ronan is not. Calculating, unpredictable, and entirely uninterested in a mate bond. Yet when his sharp golden eyes meet hers, something shifts in the air. A force just as powerful as destiny itself.

Some say you can't fight fate, Ciara’s about to prove them wrong.

"What's your body count?" the most ruthless Alpha in the werewolf race growled, his massive hand suddenly gripping my throat so tightly my vision blurred.

We had been driving in complete silence since my father sold me to him as a peace offering. I was supposed to be his mate, but the cold, murderous look in his golden eyes told me I was nothing more than a prisoner.

"One rule you'd have to learn is never ever question me," Detlef hissed, his minty breath fanning my face. "Once I ask, you give an answer. How many men have touched you?"

Fear clawed at my heart. I tugged weakly at his iron grip. "Zero," I choked out, tears spilling over my lashes.

He didn't believe me. His eyes darkened with absolute fury. "Never lie to your Master," he spat, slamming me back against the leather seat.

He didn't know the truth. He didn't know that three years ago, I gave my innocence to a stranger in a hotel room. A stranger who disappeared the next morning.

But what terrified me most wasn't Detlef's wrath. It was the moment we arrived at his heavily guarded territory, and his Beta rushed to the car window, looking pale.

"Alpha," the Beta whispered. "Fernandez is here. The Alpha of the Phoenix Pack. He's crossed the border... and he says he's come to collect his woman."

My blood ran cold. Fernandez. The name of the man from three years ago. The deadliest enemy of the monster currently holding my throat.

Ezra lives a quiet life, hiding in plain sight among humans, but his past as a blood bank for a terrifying vampire family, the Voss quadruplets, is a shadow he can't outrun. Raised in a hidden world where humans are mere sustenance, Ezra was never just food; he was a survivor who dared the impossible: escape.

Now, years later, the chilling presence of his former captors looms, threatening to drag him back to a life he fought tooth and nail to leave behind. He might be an Omega, but he refuses to be a victim again, even if it means facing the most feared vampires in existence.

Can Ezra truly break free from the monstrous mates who claim him, or is his destiny forever entwined with the very beings who once fed on his lifeblood?

He was reborn back to the day his wife Lydia was sacrificed to the demon.

The entire demon race was laughing at me, her useless husband who was about to be thrown into the cursed land, while she, dressed in a pure white robe, rose step by step on my bones and blood, becoming the most beloved saintess of the demons.

She thought I would rot in the ashes, but little did she know that I had swallowed a World Tree seed that had been dormant for ten thousand years in my death.

An enslaved old miner, a blind but gentle apothecary, a desperate mermaid leader... I led eighteen "defective products" chewed up by the abyss, riding the wildly growing tide of life, and forcefully smashed through the demon's royal city!

When the immortal demon king was drained dry by the World Tree and knelt on the ground begging for mercy like a wild dog, my noble wife smiled and raised the sharp obsidian.

"What are demons? This throne belongs only to me."

This is a story of extreme betrayal and violent redemption. When life permeates the demon realm, all the high and mighty evils will turn into dust at the bottom of the trees!

Caroline Mercer once believed kindness could be proven by sacrifice. She took in two orphaned children, gave them schools, doctors, tutors, rooms beside her daughter's nursery, and a path into the Mercer name.

Years later, those children returned as witnesses against her. Sloane Vale smiled for the cameras while calling Caroline a monster. Nolan Vale handed federal investigators a beautiful stack of forged evidence. Caroline's husband was broken, her company was seized, and her only daughter, Evelyn, died after being traded into a marriage meant to protect everyone else's reputation.

Then Caroline opened her eyes on the morning the Vale children first arrived at her door.

This time, she would feed them. She would house them. She would educate them. She would keep every receipt, every doctor's report, every legal notice.

But she would never again give strangers the keys to her child's future.

It was the kind of cold that seeped into your bones.
In my past life, I was locked in the abandoned freezer beneath St. Jude Preparatory Academy.
Outside the door stood my biological brother Spencer, along with Landon—my boyfriend of three years. And between them, wearing Landon's oversized football jacket, was my stepsister Lacey.
"Blythe, just admit you bullied me. Post an apology video to the whole school, and Spencer will let you out." Lacey's voice trembled, fake tears glistening at the corners of her eyes.
Spencer's voice cut through the metal door like ice:
"Blythe, you brought this on yourself. You've been terrorizing Lacey at school, pushed her to the edge. Maybe some time in there will teach you what decency looks like."
Landon's voice dripped with disappointment: "Jesus, Blythe. I thought I knew you. This isn't who you are."
I pounded on the iron door until my fists were raw, screaming until my voice gave out.
I told them the truth—that I never touched Lacey. That she was the one forcing girls to their knees in the bathroom. That she stole my exam. That every shred of "evidence" was manufactured.
No one believed me.
I froze to death in that sub-zero hellhole.
As the cold claimed me, staring at my blue-purple fingers, all I felt was pure, burning hate.
Then I opened my eyes again—back to the day it all began.

"I gave Julian Sterling everything: my love, my loyalty, and the child I carried in my womb. In return, he watched my best friend push me down a flight of stairs and did nothing as I lost my baby.

Now, my brother is behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit, and my husband is demanding I sign a lie to protect the woman who shattered my life. He thinks I’m a broken bird with clipped wings. He thinks I have nowhere left to turn.
He’s wrong.

Julian forgot one thing about the woman he married.

I’ve called my father. I’ve set the clock. I have seven days to play the grieving wife before I strip Julian of his fortune, his name, and his freedom.

The countdown to his ruin starts now.