356 Book(s) Related to tillie cole hades hangmen

I’ve been guarding a door in the Nevada underground for a hundred years. The system marks this place "Abandoned," and the official records claim I don't exist.
When the investigation team arrived, the leader was my old signal corpsman. He pretended not to know me and ordered his guards to drag me out like a piece of dead weight.
They shoved a young lad from the Rex family into the breach as bait, and while everyone screamed in horror, no one dared to move.
So, I jumped down to fish the kid out, using a bottle of beer to force back the tentacles reaching from the dark.
Then, I pulled on that dusty old uniform and pressed my palm against the master console—all thirty-two security protocols verified instantly.
The lead technician collapsed in shock: "This clearance level is restricted to the Chief Architect only."
He was right. I am.
The thing I’ve kept locked behind that door for a century woke up, whispering: "What do you want?"
I said: "Dinner."

I spent three years as a "useless son-in-law," humiliated in public by my wife, all to repay a debt of life-saving gratitude.
That night, she handed me a cup of poisoned wine, smiling as she told me to "disappear from this world."
But she didn't know that the wine served to terminate our contract of protection—and unchained my shackles completely.
When the fighter jets of the Northern Command cast their shadows over the entire estate, she finally knelt in the mud, crying out for "Adrian."
But this time, I will not look back.

In my previous life, my wife was addicted to black market gambling on football, which caused us to lose everything.
To make matters worse, a zombie horde then broke out.
We had no shelter and were quickly torn apart by a horde of frenzied zombies.
After being reborn, she planned to run off with all the money, then dump me and elope with her lover.
What she didn't know was that I had awakened the ability to read minds and knew all her plans.

They call me the "Savior," building altars for me amidst the ruins.
But they don't know that when I climbed out of the abyss, I had no intention of saving this species whatsoever.
I am not here to rebuild civilization; I am simply calculating exactly how many souls I must reclaim to fully awaken my Ark.

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.

Betrayed to death by my own brother, I was reborn before the apocalypse descended.
He rushed to seize the god-tier [Copy] talent first, leaving the trash [Purification] talent for me.
He thought that with this talent, he'd have no worries and reign supreme in the apocalypse.
Meanwhile, I quietly closed the last door of my fortress.
He didn't know that his prized copying ability had a fatal flaw.

Arthur lost everything because of the betrayal committed by his fiancée and half-brother. He was abused, then thrown off a cliff without mercy. Just when he thought he was going to die, Arthur mysteriously gained strength and his body returned to normal as if he had never been abused. He gets a second chance with the help of a powerful system that allows him to seek revenge.

Will Arthur succeed in regaining everything that was taken from him?

Can an injured wolf and a broken witch heal each other . . .Alice Sheffield tore her soul into pieces and hid them to escape a soul-eating demon. Free at last, she longs to rebuild herself as something new and stronger, but she doesn't know how. Then a catalyst for change enters her life. Ewan Shaw was shot with an ensorcelled silver bullet that has tainted his blood and bound his wolf beyond his reach. He retreats to his friend's rural farm to lick his wounds and contemplate his lack of prospects. Renowned for his cold detachment, he is fascinated by broken Alice and the heat she stirs within him. Then fate presents an opportunity. In bringing an old foe to justice, Ewan might find a path for his life and a way for Alice to confront her demons. But to do that, two broken people must heal each other, or shattered pieces will be lost forever.

Every heart holds a secret, but some are harder to reveal than others… England, 1812. Aster Simmons lives a quiet and orderly existence working as a secretary and indulging in her love for puzzles—until her routine is disrupted by the arrival of an impertinent Scotsman who lounges around her office like an overgrown dog. The heated glances he casts her way make her think very non-routine thoughts. Hamish Logan, captain in the Highland Wolves, has been given a mission to protect the man working on a coded list of traitors. If the Wolves are ever to have the same rights as ordinary men, he has to prove to those in power that a wolf can be civilised. The only problem is the fascinating secretary, who makes his wolf rise to the surface and makes him want to do very uncivilised things. When the traitors strike, Aster flees with a wolf in pursuit. But can she determine who is behind the plot against England before she forfeits her heart and her life?

Wolf versus cat... fur will fly...Lady Isabel Grayson is tired with London in general and boorish peers in particular. Known for her sharp tongue and strident nature, after one scandal too many she finds herself banished to the countryside. Her exile is made worse when her father announces he plans to marry her off to a mangy dog.Alick Ferguson is more comfortable in wolf's fur than a man's breeches. He is resigned to going through life alone, until he spots a spitting cat picking off dandies in a ballroom with a fencing foil.Alick's protective nature throws them together, and there is more to both than meets the eye. But can they peel away their armour to trust and find love, or will they doom each other instead?

One kiss at a time, he plans to steal her heart.Ianthe Wynn is weary of life as a courtesan and longs for quiet green pastures to raise horses. Her biggest problem is her distinct lack of cash and a chilling new patron. There's also the matter of the youth lounging in her parlour with his feet on the furniture and the promises in his gaze that she can never accept.Quinn Muir might be the only wolf unable to shift, but he knows his mate when he spies her. He just needs to break through the wall she has constructed around her heart. Winning a bet and moving into her house for a week should do it, one kiss at a time.But demons lurk in the shadows and they are reaching for Ianthe. Quinn must rescue her before her heart and life are lost forever...

Three years ago, Ye Chen was the unrivaled genius of the Azure Cloud Sect—until the woman he loved betrayed him, shattered his dantian, and stole his Spiritual Bone to climb higher. Cast into the Spirit Beast Stables as a cripple, he is beaten, starved, and forgotten.

But when his blood awakens an ancient ring, everything changes.

The Supreme Overlord System binds to his soul, repairing his body and granting him heaven-defying power. In mere breaths, he reclaims lost cultivation. In a single night, he crushes his first enemy.

The sect believes he is trash.

They are about to witness the birth of a god.

And Ye Chen has a debt to collect.

All her life, Caroline used to believe werewolves are fantasy creatures. Not until her 18th birthday was Caroline told that she was adopted and to make her feel worse, she was adopted into a werewolf family. More importantly, she was her stepbrother's Mate and her stepbrother is an Alpha. Just when Caroline was blending into the situation, she was found by a man who told her he is her real cousin.
She was also told her identity as a Lycan- werewolf's most hated enemy and the only way to live is to escape.
What happens after Cara found out that her mate's grandfather is the one that murdered her parents? Although her mate is one of the leaders in the academy, what if other leaders did not accept Lycans? Will Caroline run from the academy or will she fight against them to be with her mate?

"Lily, listen to me. Every IVF cycle you went through was a lie. James was injecting you with experimental fertility drugs—unapproved, illegal. You were a test subject. The baby… it's not even genetically his."
Her world shatters with those words.
After twenty failed IVF treatments and four years of heartbreak, Lily Collins finally has everything she's ever wanted: she's pregnant with the miracle baby she and her husband James fought so hard for. But the man she married is becoming someone she doesn't recognize—controlling, secretive, and increasingly dangerous.
When James strikes her for the first time, Lily tells herself it's the stress. When he isolates her from friends and monitors her every move, she convinces herself it's concern for the baby. But when she discovers he's been lying about their fertility treatments, she realizes the father of her unborn child might be hiding something far more sinister than she ever imagined.
Meanwhile, across the city...Alpha werewolf Ace Winters has spent years searching for his destined mate. When the bond finally calls to him, leading him to a pregnant woman living in fear, his protective instincts roar to life. But his mate is human, fragile, and already running from one dangerous man. One wrong move could send her fleeing forever. One right move could save her life.
Two men. One woman. A baby caught in between.
As Lily fights to uncover the truth about her husband's deceptions, she has no idea that her salvation might come from the mysterious stranger watching over her or that accepting his protection will thrust her into a world where fairy tales are real. Love can be written in the stars.
But first, she has to survive long enough to discover that monsters don't always look like monsters...And heroes don't always look entirely human.

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.

The narration captures the reader at the beginning of the story with a controversial premise: a woman is challenged by her most prohibited wishes when the control, fear, and curiosity are mixed into one intense experience. What starts as reluctance soon turns into fascination as feeling after feeling drags her into a world where fantasy overwhelms the restraint. The interest is created as the night progresses with the intensity and changing emotions. The struggle in the protagonist yields to a new awareness, in which even the touch of the body provokes her limits and redefines her sense of pleasure, surrender and power. The scene is sealed and suffers the anticipation and observation and the charged energy of several presence all intended on her. The passion overcomes when the book does not only touch on physical stimulation, but also psychological release. The change of the woman is at the center: the fear is turned into the desire, the weakness is turned into the strength, and the resistance is turned into the active desire. The story focuses on the way fantasy can take over the head, re-pattern necessity and generate a drunken feeling of being desired indefinitely. when the passion is absolutely discharged, and the fantasy turned into reality, is it the deeds then the real seduction, or the time when one finally has ceased struggling with what he/she desires the most?

"The contract marriage has expired. You're no longer useful to me," Lucas's cold voice pierced my heart. After three years of devotion, I was nothing but a disposable tool.

Then, he brought her home. Amelia, his cherished true love—and the daughter of the mafia family that slaughtered my parents. She sneered at me, flaunting my mother's stolen sapphire necklace, while Lucas ruthlessly kicked me out, calling me a mere "housekeeper."

My heart shattered entirely, but the tears finally stopped. I signed the divorce papers and walked out into the night.

He thought I was a penniless nobody who would crumble without his wealth. He didn't know my real name was Isabella Sorelli.

When I appeared at a top-tier banquet, flanked by my three wildly protective, billionaire brothers, Lucas's eyes widened in sheer shock. I am the heiress to the city's greatest empire now. You threw me away for a snake, Lucas? Watch me crush her. And when you finally realize what you lost, begging on your knees won't be enough.

On the night of my rebirth, fueled by alcohol and rage, I stumbled into the room of my fiancé’s sworn enemy—and kissed him.

Everyone thinks Atlas is a heartless playboy who toys with women.

Only I know how submissive he can be, and the filthy, dirty things he whispers when he calls me "Baby."

Outside the door, my scumbag ex-fiancé, Knox, was screaming, begging for a second chance.

Inside the door, Atlas’s wandering hands were exploring every inch of my body.

"Be a good girl," he rasped against my ear. "Moan loud enough for him to hear."

The next day, Knox pinned me against the wall, his eyes red with jealousy. "I can do better than him. Choose me, okay?"

I shoved him away coldly. "Too late."

From the moment I was reborn, my goal was to make Knox pay. Why simp for a cheater when I can make him lose his fortune, his reputation, and force him to kneel at my feet?

Atlas smirked, pulling me into his arms. "Choose me. I'll help you destroy him."

My name used to be whispered in fear by dictators. Now, it’s mocked by cheerleaders.

I am—or I was—Phantom. I killed for a living, and I was the best. But my retirement plan was cut short by a sudden darkness I never saw coming.

Fate, it seems, has a twisted sense of humor. I’ve been reincarnated into the body of Raven Martinez, a high school girl with a life so tragic it makes my old job look like a vacation.

Now I have to deal with pop quizzes, teenage hormones, and a hierarchy of bullies who think they run the world.

They pushed the old Raven to her death. But they’re about to learn a very painful lesson: You don't corner a viper unless you're ready to get bitten.

High school is hell. Lucky for me, I'm the devil.

After Alpha King Kaius publicly rejected Elowen, she left his kingdom and never looked back. She had to start over completely - no pack, no family, no one to help her. She built a new life on her own and thought she was safe. But on what should have been a peaceful birthday, she found herself captured by the King's guards and thrown into the castle dungeons. Now they think she's some kind of enemy spy, and she needs to escape before Kaius figures out who she really is and discovers all the secrets she's been hiding. The problem is, she's not the same broken girl who left four years ago, and he's not exactly the same cold bastard who rejected her either. With lives on the line and nowhere left to run, can she get out before everything falls apart?

To save my dying sister, I provoked James Smith, the city's most dangerous Mafia Don.

I thought it was a simple transaction, but he pinned me against the wall, his fingers tracing my lips as he whispered dangerously, "Sweetie, since you call me your sugar daddy, then fulfill your obligations. Remember, your first time was mine, and you’ll never escape me in this lifetime."

I believed he was a heartless monster until, facing death, he shoved his only gun into my hands and placed his ring around my neck. "Ella, run! Hide and wait for me..."

As his black SUV drifted into the gunfire to draw them away, I was left trembling. Would he make it back alive to claim me again?

I came to Warton Academy to find my mother. I stayed for the boy who breathes fire.

He’s the school’s pariah, a Dragon shifter with a temper as hot as his flames. Everyone says he’s evil. Everyone says to stay away. But when a pack of werewolves attacks me in the dorm hallway, it’s George who saves me. It’s George who looks at me like I’m the only thing worth protecting in this cruel world.

Our romance is a secret, a spark in the dark. But someone on campus knows my secret too.

They know I’m not just a witch. They know I’m something rarer.

With George by my side, I’m ready to decode the mystery of my past and prove that even a "nobody" can tame a Dragon Prince.

I thought ten years of childhood sweethearts could weather any storm.

Until that night when Charles rushed out after her call, leaving me alone in bed with his child growing inside me, not knowing how to tell him.

Seraphina Blackwood, tech dynasty heiress, threatened Charles with her father's billion-dollar empire to marry her. And me? Just an orphan girl who seemed to mean nothing in Silicon Valley's power games.

When I watched him remove our wedding ring, when I saw their sweet photos at the hospital, when I lay bleeding on the floor and he chose her... I finally understood that maybe love really can't survive against money.

But what I didn't know was that while I started my new life in Switzerland, there was a man secretly protecting me with his kidney, his heart, his everything...

Until his assistant appeared at my little bakery, desperation in his eyes: "Ms. Thorne, please, you have to save him!"

At the board meeting, he voted to dilute my equity.

"This is business, Elena. Not personal."

Three years of hidden marriage. I thought we were partners. But in that moment, I finally understood—I was just his technical supplier on the road to success.

What Ryan didn't know: that Technology Contribution Agreement he signed three years ago contained one clause. 70% of NexTech's core algorithm IP belongs to me. Personally.

Product launch day. Two hundred investors watching. I took the microphone.

He thought I'd present the tech specs like always.

He was wrong.

Dante Ashford is my stepbrother, and the one person I should never have fallen in love with.

When I was ten, my parents died saving his family. The Ashfords took me in. He was good to me back then. Somewhere along the way, I fell for him.

When I was eighteen, he nearly died in an ambush. I donated blood, then a kidney to save him. I was unconscious for three days. When I woke up, Vivian Ross sat by his bed—and he believed she was his savior.

After that, he pushed me away. Vivian became his fiancée.

In my past life, Vivian's crimes brought disaster to our family. Dante got on his knees and begged me to take her punishment. I refused. She died anyway. Then he pretended to love me, planned our wedding—and on that day, his assistant announced to everyone: "This wedding was a lesson to show Miss Elena Hayes what it feels like to be abandoned by the whole world."

I jumped from the church balcony.

When I opened my eyes, I was back at that moment—him on his knees, begging.

This time, I said yes.

Dante, from now on, we're done.

My father died owing the Callahan family a blood debt. His payment? Me and my sister—married off to their sons.

I woke up reborn on the night they buried him.

Standing in that funeral chamber, watching the lawyer crack open the sealed will, I discovered I could suddenly hear thoughts. My sister Vivienne's voice ripped through my head: Not marrying that butcher. No way in hell.

She lunged forward and grabbed Adrian—the refined bastard son who looked like a lawyer instead of a mobster. The same "perfect gentleman" I married in my past life.

Which left me with Dominic Callahan. The scarred heir. The Executioner.

Last time around, Vivienne married Dominic and got beaten down for years. I married Adrian and lived like a queen.

I almost laughed out loud.

Because she has no idea—this time, she's the one who grabbed the monster.

For a whole year, my husband's childhood friend treated my high-end boutique like her personal closet.

Bags that ran a few thousand dollars, couture gowns worth tens of thousands. She took whatever she wanted and walked out, never once saying the word "money."

The store bled cash month after month. When I finally hit my limit and told her to pay up, she slapped me across the face in front of a room full of customers.

"You should be flattered I even shop here. And you've got the nerve to ask me for money?"

Garrett came rushing in with his coffee, and the first thing out of his mouth wasn't whether I was okay. He pulled her behind him and told me to apologize, then said if I didn't, he'd divorce me.

I didn't cry, didn't make a scene. I picked the bill up off the floor, turned around, walked out, and made one phone call.

Three days later, Bianca comes back with five of her socialite friends, bragging that they're going to clean out every expensive piece in the place.

I hold my coffee and smile, tell them to take their time.

What she doesn't know is that three days ago, this store already changed hands.

Everyone in this city knows that the king of the underworld, my husband Vincent, is crazy about me.

Three years ago, when that bullet tore through my abdomen, it took away my chance of ever being a mother. He held my blood-soaked body and swore to God he'd make the shooter's entire family pay. A month later, that family was wiped off the map in this city. No one dares speak their name anymore.

He sat by my hospital bed, holding my hand. "I don't need kids. I only need you."

I believed him.

Until six months ago, when his brother died in an accident, leaving behind his wife Serena. The family pressure came like a tidal wave. An heir. A bloodline. That's all they cared about. And that woman became everyone's golden ticket to keeping the Caruso name alive.

That's when my husband stopped coming home at night. Every night, I hear them through the wall. Sounds that used to be mine.

But today, the doctor told me my body is healing. The chances are slim, but there's hope.

I clutch the medical report and rush home, imagining Vincent's face when he sees the results. Maybe everything can go back to how it was. Maybe he'll realize he doesn't need her.

Until I stand outside our mansion and hear laughter pouring out.

"Serena's pregnant! Can you believe it? The family finally has an heir!"

"Finally. The family's saved."

I thought I'd signed up for an immersive dating show.

Turns out it was a 99.9% death rate, globally livestreamed horror game.

And me? Half-blind without my contacts, desperate to go viral, I somehow talk my way through a death game like it's a romance.

I mistook blood for ketchup, human eyeballs for sashimi, a murderous child ghost for a kid who just needed some love.

Worst part? I fell for the guy running the place, the one who could kill you without blinking, and tried to get his number within the hour.

My teammate hissed at me, shaking. "You wanna die, fine, just don't take us with you!"

I just waved him off. It's a dating show. Relax.

The day I died in a foreign country, my boyfriend was in the spotlight with another woman.

He's the man I built from nothing. Five years ago, I saved a broke orphan fresh out of college from the gutter. He said he wanted to be famous, wanted to make it to the top of the hockey world. In exchange, he became my boyfriend for five years.

I gave him the best coaching staff money could buy. Bought an entire hockey franchise and made him the centerpiece. Called in every favor I had to make him MVP.

But while he enjoyed everything I gave him, he refused to make our relationship public. Said it would "hurt his brand." He could make headlines with reporters and models, but nobody could know I existed.

He even said on national TV: "Those owners who just throw money around are pretty boring. Hockey is about skill, not money."

So why did he lose his mind when he found out I was dead?

One hundred years married to Everett, and I've learned one thing: whenever he wants to push me into a corner, he throws the mate bond dissolution agreement in my face. Whenever my parents want me to cave, they hold the family name over my head.

They've always wanted the same thing — for me to hand over everything I have to my twin sister Rosalie, who's been sick her whole life.

I've fought it. I've grieved over it.

But when the doctor slid the diagnosis across the desk — Blood Depletion Syndrome, late stage, less than two weeks left — something in me just went quiet.

What's the point of fighting when you're already dead?

Father calls me and Chloe into his study, and two documents already sit on the desk. On the left, the Whitfield family succession papers. On the right, the marriage agreement with the Sullivan family.

He lights a cigar, the smoke half hiding his face. "You two need to make a choice today. One of you takes over the Whitfield family. The other marries Derek Sullivan."

In my last life, Chloe took the succession papers.

She sat down in Father's office, put on an expensive suit, called in every department head, and announced she'd make the Whitfield family stronger. But she couldn't even read a warehouse ledger, didn't know which shipping route mattered most, couldn't tell flattery from threats in a family meeting.

Within three years, the south warehouse burned down, the north route slipped out of our hands, and cash kept bleeding out of the books like there was a hole in them.

Father died on a dark street, three bullets in his chest.

Chloe fled with whatever money was left, and I got married off to Derek instead.

After the wedding, he took my passport and locked me in the basement of the Sullivan estate. When I refused to sign the transfer documents, he had them cut off my water for three days straight. In family meetings, one wrong word out of me and he'd slap me in front of everyone. During an ambush, he shoved me right into the line of fire.

Later, Chloe found me. She pointed a gun at my chest, and there wasn't a trace of sisterly feeling left in her eyes. "This is all because you're useless. If you'd helped Derek keep the Sullivan family steady, Whitfield wouldn't have gone under."

I opened my eyes in a pool of blood and woke up back on this day.

The alliance between the Human Empire and the Wolf Empire has stood for centuries. The treaty requires the Human Empire to send a princess to the Wolf Empire every so often, to become the Wolf King's mate and strengthen the bond between our kingdoms. Now, it's time to honor that pact again.

Father is old now, ready to step down. My sister and I have to choose.

In my past life, Adelaide chose the throne. She thought power meant she could do whatever she wanted. Within three years, the Human Empire crumbled in her hands. At home, she bled the people dry, filling her own coffers while they starved. Abroad, her arrogance drove away our allies. The Dwarven Empire, the Serpent Empire, they all cut ties. In the end, the surrounding kingdoms banded together and attacked. The Human Empire fell in the war. Our parents died by enemy blades, and Adelaide had to flee.

And me? I went to the Wolf Empire, just like the treaty said.

On the surface, I was the Wolf Queen, worshipped by every wolf, living in the grand Wolf Court, attending state banquets. In reality, I was his prisoner. Forced to run as prey in the hunting ritual, slapped to the ground in front of the council, shoved forward as a hostage when conflicts arose.

At one banquet, Adelaide appeared in front of me, gripping a dagger, madness burning in her eyes. "This is your fault! If you hadn't been so useless in the Wolf Empire, we wouldn't have lost everything!"

The blade sank into my chest. I collapsed in a pool of blood.

When I open my eyes again, I'm back in the throne room with Father watching us.

Adelaide barely hesitates before speaking up. "I'll go to the Wolf Empire. Let Brynn take the throne."

I smile.

Foolish Adelaide. She has no idea that beneath the Queen's crown lies nothing but chains and blood.

One snide comment from my worst enemy, and I dropped eighty million gold coins on a custom golem built to look exactly like him.

My requirements were simple: same face, same body, and a personality that's submissive, obedient, and takes whatever I dish out without fighting back.

I've had that insufferable face fetching me coffee, rubbing my feet, massaging my shoulders, even wearing a maid outfit.

Watching him bow and scrape for me finally lets out most of the resentment I've been carrying.

Then tonight, the workshop sends a message out of nowhere:

[Due to a shortage of high-purity mithril, your custom golem needs another month to complete. Thank you for your patience.]

I look over at the man kneeling by the couch, rubbing my legs.

So who exactly have I been treating like a dog for the past two months?

My beast companions are in the middle of my medicinal soak when a soft, dramatic little "ow" drifts in from outside.

Vex, my wolfkin companion, drops my leg. Brom, the bearkin, jerks his hand and a fortune's worth of elixir spills into the water.

They crash through the floor-to-ceiling window and bolt outside without a single glance back — all for some ordinary girl.

I'm still staring at the broken glass when a stream of glowing blue text pops up out of nowhere.

[The main character Ivy literally fake-tripped in the garden and these two idiots jumped out a window for her!]
[Honestly, the original side character Lillia had it so rough. Backstabbed by her own companions, dies a miserable death, and they end up in Ivy's entourage…]
[And she never even figures out what's happening. Just suffers through the whole thing without a clue.]

I read through all of it, and one thought slowly rises: seriously?

If my companions won't behave, just get new ones. Simple.

I go straight to my mom, and before I've even finished talking, she's already pulling me toward the door.

"Any beast that turns on its master isn't worth keeping. Come on, baby — let's go pick you out some new ones. Mom's paying, so make it the most expensive ones they've got."

Ryan loves me deeply—at least that's what everyone says. Seven years together, we look like the perfect couple to outsiders. But only I know he's betrayed me three times.

The first time was three years ago. His brother died saving him, leaving behind his widow Sophia—Ryan's unforgettable first love. He married her behind my back. When I found out, I completely fell apart. I have dignity. I refuse to be the other woman. I wanted to leave, but he begged on his knees. "This is just to take care of my sister-in-law. Once I find the truth about my brother's death, I'll divorce her. Then we can get married."

I believed him. I forgot that a man never lets go of a lost love he's gotten back.

The second time was at last year's company anniversary. In front of everyone, he introduced Sophia as his wife. I watched them on stage, a knife through my heart. That night he explained, "It's just for show. Once everything's over, we can be together."

I believed him again.

The third time was two weeks ago. Surveillance footage showed Ryan with Sophia entering a hotel room. I rushed to confront him, but heard her voice outside his office. "Ryan, I'm pregnant. It's your baby."

Through the crack in the door, I see him hesitate. In that instant I understand.

He's going to keep her.

He spots me and rushes out in a panic. "It was an accident! Let me explain! After she has the baby, I'll give her money and make her leave. She won't be in our lives anymore!"

In that moment, I finally wake up. There will be no future for us.

Foxes are born to bless their mates, unlocking their bloodline and putting them on the throne of the Beast King.

In my last life, the Golden Lion prince Rein picked me, and my sister Lilith got stuck marrying Austin, the black dragon everyone steered clear of.

Then Austin's bloodline woke up and he took the throne, and Lilith rode his coattails straight into a crown.

I threw everything I had into blessing Rein and it never worked. He blamed me for every failure, dug my core out with his own hands, and tossed me into a cell like trash, leaving me there to rot.

Now I'm back, and at the mating ceremony, Rein walks right past me and takes Lilith's hand instead.

That's when I know. He's been reborn too.

But he has no idea. It was never my fault the blessing failed. He was never going to hold power, no matter who blessed him. That throne was never his to take.

The mafia boss chose me as his decoy—a body double for the woman he loves.

Eight years. Three bullets, one car crash, one explosion. The doctor said ten more minutes and I would've died on that operating table when they took my kidney. I gave him a son. He let me play "the boss's wife" in public.

Until he cleared every obstacle for her and decided to marry her.

Her wedding photos replaced mine in the master bedroom. He has her initials tattooed on his arm. When I questioned him, he had his men slap me at a charity gala, forced me to admit "I'm just a stand-in." When I touched her, he took away my custody, declared she was "the true lady of this house."

The punishments got worse. When he threatened to cancel my mother's insurance, I finally learned to shut up.

He pulls me close, whispers in my ear: "She gave up everything for me. Not like you—you were born to take bullets for me."

"Deal with it. She's not replacing you. This is her house now."

Even my son took her side.

"Stop being dramatic! Natalie actually loves us! You're nothing!"

But their pure, innocent Natalie? She unplugged my mother's ventilator while I was locked in the basement. Let his enemies slip poison into my drink during the last job.

When Grayson found me, all he said was: "She's pregnant and emotional. Go rearrange the flowers at the wedding venue."

I wipe the black blood from my lips. Look at him quietly.

"I'm dying."

Everyone in our circle knows I'm Adrian's caged bird, and the "bad woman" his son Miles hates most.

For Miles, I gave up my fellowship in Zurich and spent seven years playing housewife.

What did I get in return? Adrian took Sophie to gallery openings on our anniversary. Miles smashed cake in my face in front of everyone, calling me a frumpy housewife.

Adrian was certain I couldn't leave him. Certain I couldn't leave our son.

He threw the divorce papers on the table with a cold smile. "Sign this, and you lose everything. Including Miles."

He expected me to beg on my knees.

I didn't.

I picked up the pen and signed without hesitation.

"Fine, Adrian. You keep Miles. And I get to keep myself."

For just a moment, I saw shock flash in his eyes.

I heard later that Adrian searched for me like a madman, and the son he doted on cried and screamed for his mommy.

Too bad. I'd already burned it all down myself.

I've been secretly married to him for five years, but he's never treated me as his wife. Our six-year-old daughter has never called him Dad in public.

One drunken night, I got pregnant. He gave me a marriage contract that came with one condition: secrecy.

I thought time would change everything. I stood by him through the company's darkest days. When I was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer, he didn't come. When our daughter was born, he was in a meeting. Every moment that mattered, he wasn't there.

Then that clumsy intern showed up.

From that point on, he gave her all his attention and patience. He broke his own rules for her again and again. That's when I finally understood: when someone doesn't love you, they just don't.

So I took my daughter and disappeared from his world completely.

But why did that calm, controlled man lose his mind?

My brother's first day on the job, and the new intern, Ashley Pratt, accuses him of trying something with her in the break room.

In my last life, I panicked under all those judging stares and my father screaming at me over the phone. I grabbed my brother by the shoulder and forced him to bow and apologize to her, tried to pay her off to make it go away.

She turned around and leaked the wire transfer online instead, twisted it into a story about rich people paying to buy back their good name. The backlash spiraled out of control. My brother couldn't take the flood of hate anymore and jumped from the roof. He hit the ground and there was nothing left of him to recognize.

My father used my failure to handle it as an excuse to push me off the board. I ended up watching the woman responsible climb over my brother's grave and take the CEO seat at Merritt Industries.

Fate is giving me a second shot.

My brother reaches for me, eyes rimmed red. "Camille, I swear I didn't do anything."

I pull him behind me and look down at the woman crying on the floor.

"She's saying you assaulted her? Fine. Let's call the cops."

I helped him claw his way up from nothing—from the family's bastard to king of the underworld.

I saved him when he got jumped in the streets. Took bullets for him when his father beat him half dead. We fought our way up from nothing, survived assassination attempts, built an empire that made people fear our name.

I thought we'd always stand together.

Until the day I nearly died giving birth, and all I found in the bassinet was a stack of cash.

I asked him where our baby was. He couldn't look me in the eye. His stepmother walked out holding my son. Smiled and said she deserved this, a child of her own, since she couldn't have one herself. He'd given my baby to another woman.

Turns out he'd been sleeping with her the whole time.

I threw the money in his face. I spent the next six years trying to get my son back.

Last week, when some small-time gang grabbed him, I went in alone with a gun. Bullets flew past my ears, kicked up concrete dust. I fought my way to the back and pulled him out. At the hospital, he pushed me away, crying, "Why'd you have to come?! We could've been a real family by now! Just leave! Leave me alone!"

I stared at his small face for a long time.

Finally, I said, "Call me mom one last time. Then I'll let you go."

I'm the top account director at my firm, always on the road, running myself ragged on golf courses and client dinners. Some months I barely make it back to the office at all.

Right after I land a $300 million contract for the company, my boss decides to hand the whole thing over to a new intern.

My manager says I'm wasting company resources, that my attitude's a problem. My boss tells me to give the new hire a chance. The intern thinks she can just take over my job without breaking a sweat.

None of them get it. Without me, this project never gets off the ground.

I don't bother telling them that.

Once the handoff is done, I walk straight into our biggest rival.

And watch them beg me to come back.

A hundred years ago, old Duke Rowland saved me with a bowl of hot soup when I was dying. To repay him, I swore myself, as the Silver Wolf Goddess, to a hundred-year covenant protecting House Rowland.

I taught Garrett how to hold a sword. I turned Caleb into a prodigy at the Mages' Guild. I saved Preston's family from ruin.

But Lillian took a potion to fake being sick, and all it took was her claiming only my heart could save her to turn three men's knives on me.

In my last life, I begged them to listen, told them that cutting out my heart would tear down the foundation of House Rowland itself. They finally backed off.

Then Lillian, trying to keep the lie going, secretly upped her dose and poisoned herself to death in her own bed.

The three of them lost their minds and blamed me for her death.

"A beast doesn't get to call itself the guardian of House Rowland. Die."

They cut my heart out. I died on that altar.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day they took my heart.

This time, I didn't waste my breath. I handed it over myself and let them have what they wanted.

The goddess's heart fell. The covenant ended.

They just didn't know yet how badly House Rowland would fall apart without me.

First day back after the long weekend. I get a few artisan gift baskets shipped in from my family's farm: maple syrup, raw honey, smoked beef jerky, handmade jams. Top-shelf stuff, every single one. Shipping alone runs me a few hundred dollars.

After the morning meeting, I hand them out one by one. The team crowds around me, all smiles, falling over themselves saying things like "You're literally the best, Ms. Bennett" and "Oh my god, you're such an amazing boss."

They're barely out the door when I notice the conference room projector is still mirroring someone's phone. Up on the screen: a private group chat. Fifteen members.

Everyone on the team is in it.

Everyone except me.

A new message pops up: [Farm junk? Really? Preston Vance's team got $200 gift cards AND black truffle. Sloane's such a cheap ass lol]

Replies flood in. Someone photoshops a picture of me. Someone else hopes I drop dead at my desk.

To them, I'm just another boss squeezing her people dry.

Last quarter, I handed every single one of them a three-thousand-dollar cash bonus out of my own pocket. Plus a brand-new phone. Each.

Fine. If they think I'm not giving enough, I'll give them exactly what they're asking for.

Though later, when they come crawling back one by one, I find myself wondering what exactly they think begging is going to get them.

On my birthday, my husband hands me a snow-white hamster with a smile and says keeping it in the house will bring us good luck.

My seven-year-old son names it Snow.

But the second I see its red eyes, my blood runs cold.

Because in my last life, I got the exact same gift on this exact same day.

Back then I treated it like something precious. I fed it the best food, bought it the biggest cage, cleaned out the shavings every single day.

And every night it burrowed into my blankets, bit through the skin at my wrist and my throat, and drank my blood a little at a time until there was almost none left.

I begged my husband to get rid of it. All he said was that I was paranoid, that I was faking being sick to get attention.

My son planted himself in front of the cage and screamed that Snow was better behaved than me.

Then, on our wedding anniversary, I collapsed in the bathroom and never woke up.

My spirit drifted near the ceiling, and only then did I finally see it.

That hamster climbed down off my body and turned into a woman in a white dress, and threw herself into my husband's arms.

His eyes went red and he said now that she'd drained me dry, she could finally take her real shape again.

My son ran to her and sweetly called her "Hamster Mommy."

It turned out the thing was my husband's old love, the one who'd died young. He'd used black magic to hide her inside a pet's body.

And I was nothing but a container. A blood supply.

Now my eyes are open again, and the cut on my finger is still warm.

This time, I won't let a single one of them get away.

Our engagement has gone unfulfilled for ten years.

My parents saved his family in that yacht accident. With their dying breath, they asked his family to look after me. In return, we go to city hall every year, trying to fulfill this obligation.

Ten attempts. Ten failures.

Elevator malfunctions, food poisoning, home invasions, car crashes... Every single time, I get hurt at the worst possible moment while he walks away without a scratch.

This makes ten. A truck slams into the passenger side, my head smashes against the window, and he's already running across the street, pulling that woman into his arms.

On my way to find him after they stitch me up, I hear his assistant's voice in the hospital corridor:

"Mr. Ashford, the truck driver's been taken care of. Money'll hit his account like we agreed... but is this really fair to Miss Bennett? It's been ten years, every single year—"

William's voice comes out low and tired. "I don't have a choice. Her parents saved me, but I'm in love with Emma."

I look down at the diagnosis. ALS. Late stage.

Turns out I've been trying to marry a lie this whole time.

My name is Junie. I'm six years old, a half-werewolf. My mom Juliet is a human witch, the gentlest woman alive.

A month ago, Mom was eight months pregnant. We were walking by the river when Dad's childhood friend Melody shoved her straight into the rushing current. The cold water took my unborn brother. When they pulled Mom out, she was covered in blood, her magic all but gone.

Dad, Maxwell, is the youngest Alpha of the Silver Wolf pack and runs a family conglomerate. That day in the hospital hallway, his eyes went red and he swore through gritted teeth that whoever did this would pay for it, hard, in front of the Tribunal.

Mom believed him.

Then came the trial. The second Dad saw that the woman sitting in the defendant's seat was Melody, he went quiet.

Right there in front of the judge, he took it back. He said Melody never meant to push her, that Mom's magic had gone haywire from the pregnancy and she'd slipped into the river on her own.

Melody walked free. Mom got community service.

The day we left the courthouse, Melody buried her face in Dad's chest and sobbed, but the second no one else could see, she shot Mom a cold little smirk. Dad kissed her forehead like her tears were breaking his heart.

Mom just watched them, one hand over her empty belly. Those eyes that used to be so full of love were calm now.

She let out a slow breath. "Maxwell, let's break the mate bond."

My best friend Bella had a cluster of mushrooms growing on her back, every color you could imagine.

They throbbed like something alive, and the smell coming off them was like nothing I'd ever smelled.

She called it Moonlight Bloom, a gift straight from Viscount Lucas himself.

If she kept that thing on her body for forty days, not one more, not one less, until it bloomed its brightest spores, the viscount would marry her and take her into his estate.

So she refused to shower. Wouldn't let a drop of water touch her.

Everyone in the pack knew me as the one who always looked out for people, and I figured she'd been cursed with dark magic. So one night while she slept, I grabbed a bucket of soapy water and a stiff brush and scrubbed that thing clean off her back.

The next morning, she ran her hand over the raw patch of skin where it used to be, grabbed a silver dagger, and drove it straight through my heart.

"You jealous bitch! You just ruined my whole future!"

Bleeding out on the floor, that's when it hit me. She never cared how disgusting that thing was, or what it was doing to her body. All she cared about was marrying into money and status.

When I opened my eyes again, I'd gone back in time.

This time around, I decided I wasn't going to stick my nose where it didn't belong. I was going to sit back and watch that mushroom grow.