65 Book(s) Related to dbz cooler

The red moon hung in the sky.
Steven found himself with vampire abilities — he could track people by sensing blood!
As a coroner, all he needs is a body, and he’ll uncover every last clue.
You can’t escape, killer!

"Cora!" Kaden, the love of my life calls my name in trembling and fear.

"Execute them." I heard the general beta say while looking at my father who was on his knees with my mum.

"For the practice of dark magic and the help given by your kind to demons, you and all accomplices are ruled out for death by the general Alpha's Command." The Alpha's Beta with blue eyes says as he carries the aura of the general alpha shooting them with the rest rogues and I could see witches poisoned bullets piercing through their skins like they were wild creatures.

I screamed as Lightning strikes through the air creating a powerful air wind and still, this beast of a Beta dared to look at me.

The audacity and wickedness.

"You on the other hand... Will make a good grand witch of the pack." I heard him say.

"Never will I!" I swore as I got knocked out of my entire bizarre vision.



Cora is a eighteen years old witch who lost her parents and the love of her life under the command of the general Alpha, and as destined to serve the pack as a grand witch, Cora swears on the graves of her murdered loved ones that she will do everything in her power as a witch to revenge on their lost souls and ensure that all werewolves are extinct is what little Cora is up for, but she is given a witches magic wish and gets a new life where she finds a guy who looks exactly like her lover and bears the same name as him as well, hence Cora later finds out who she is and the journey to conquer her enemies begin as she plans to bring them all back to life.

Who would believe it? After getting drunk, I ended up having a one-night stand with my boss—the untouchable, iceberg-cold Neville Hale!
When I woke up, all I wanted was to pretend nothing ever happened.
But Melina, the girl I'd treated like my own little sister and protected since childhood, stole my identity and became Neville's fiancée, moving into the Hale family estate.
She mocked me as a washed-up woman no man would ever want. When she found out I was pregnant, she thoughtfully sent over "imported prenatal vitamins." I swallowed them with a smile, never realizing they were actually lethal abortion pills...
Continuously updating, with 1 chapters added daily.

Scarlet's been on the run for seven years, moving from town to town in an attempt to hide from the family she loved - who are still trying to kill her. But when she moves into the town of Kiwina, everything changes. She meets a Pack and her mom's number one rule, don't make friends, is tested. She's finding it hard to deal with the charismatic flirt and son of the Azure Pack's Alpha - unsure if she can really trust him. New information about her old life comes to light and nothing will ever be the same.

She needed the job. She did not need him.

Zara Cole has spent her whole life hiding what she is. A rare elemental with the power to bend energy, light, and fire to her will. In a world where magic is real but ruthlessly controlled by those with enough money to weaponize it, being discovered means being owned. So she keeps her head down, her abilities buried, and her ambitions quietly enormous.

Then she is hired as a senior analyst at Voss Enterprises, the most powerful corporation in the city. Its CEO, Dorian Voss, built his empire on a secret darker than anything Zara has ever run from. Ruthless, magnetic, and dangerously perceptive, he sees through her carefully constructed walls the moment she walks through his door.

He wants her abilities. She wants his resources. What neither of them plans for is wanting each other.

But something ancient and malevolent is moving through the city's elite, consuming powerful beings from the inside out and leaving nothing behind. The trail leads directly to the boardroom of Voss Enterprises and to a villain so deeply embedded in Dorian's world that exposing them could destroy everything he has built.

Zara did not survive this long by trusting powerful men.

Dorian did not build an empire by letting anyone close enough to burn it down.

They are each other's greatest risk.

They might be each other's only way out.

Duke Damon Nigrescent and his younger sister Daria Nigrescent of the Nigrescent famil, the only aristocratic family that had more powers than all the Monarchs. Not much was known about them and I didn’t want to dig any further either but , there was something pulling me towards this castle. The moment I stepped foot inside I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be able to get out of there anymore. The Nigrescent family was known for having blue eye and white hair , a physical appearance like that of a creature out of a fantasy book . Duke Damon was incredibly handsome . All my classmates’ eyes were fixated on him, while mine were on Lion, my secret crush without actually realising that the Duke’s attention was on me. He was an annoying stalker that scared the crap out of me when we first met . When it was time to leave , I couldn’t go. Lion was about to confess to me. The moment I had been waiting so much for had finally arrived but before I could make it there , I accidentally ended in the middle of a ritual and unbenounce to everyone, I became Duke Damon’s bride. From that day everything changed completely as all the secrets that had been buried came to life. My ordinary happy life was part of the past , now , I was faced with all kind of dangers , duties , love , heartbreak and….vampires. At first I loathed the idea of being his bride but with each passing day I find myself longing for him, attracted to his muscled strong body and handsome face that made my heart flutter making me confused about my real feelings. We were united because of his curse, but can I let go of this passion in exchange for the freedom I so desperately desire ?

Lia Wagner’s life ended in betrayal—pregnant, abandoned, and broken. But death wasn’t the end. Reborn with strange powers, she’s ready to take Hollywood by storm.
Her ex shows up, whining: “Baby, take me back!”
Lia just laughs. “In your dreams.”
Enter the mysterious CEO: “She’s mine now. Guards!”
Glitz, revenge, romance—Lia’s rewriting her script. The only question is: when the spotlight hits, will she follow her rage… or her heart?

Top designer Emma Carter catches her boyfriend cheating with her best friend.
In the fallout, she marries the legendary business tycoon Liam Hayes, a man rumoured to avoid women entirely.
As he loosens his tie and walks toward her, her pulse stutters.

Where is his vow of abstinence? *
All I see is a hungry beast that’s just been awakened. *

During a luxury cruise, Lydia is drugged, blacks out, and wakes in the hands of Ethan, a notorious arms dealer, the most feared name in the UK, and a whispered warning across Europe.

He catches her by the ribbon in her hair and turns her escape into a dead end, yet he never takes her life.

While everyone waits for the moment she breaks, Ethan clasps a bracelet around her wrist, a mark she never manages to remove.

"They say you'll redeem me," he murmurs, voice dangerously low as he tilts her chin up. "But I only want to lock you away forever."

He thinks he's playing a game of conquest. Instead, he's the one who surrenders. Until the day he kneels, blood on his hands, a ring held out like a confession.

"Good girl," he breathes. "Call me 'honey.' Stay with me, forever."

Elena had loved Nicola for eight years until she overheard him.
She lay in a supernatural slumber for three years, a pawn in her husband's cold bargain with his family's cruel legacy.
Now, awake and alone in a world that has moved on, Elena makes a desperate deal with fate itself.
Armed with an ancient ritual that could rewrite history, she returns to the past—not to win back Nicola's heart, but to escape it.
She flees to London, reinventing herself as an artist and daring to hope for a life without him.
But some bonds transcend time.
Nicola, the man who sacrificed everything to protect her, will stop at nothing to find her again.
When their paths finally cross under London's rainy skies, they must confront the truth: Was their love destroyed by betrayal or merely tested by it?
This is a haunting tale of second chances and the courage to choose one's own destiny.
This time, what will you choose?

When billionaire heiress Ruth Keen falls for a gorgeous, supposedly broke college student, she hides her identity and plays the role of an ordinary girl to win his heart. Marriage comes fast, life is sweet, and everything seems perfect — until she discovers her impoverished husband is actually Matthew Lynes, a powerful tycoon who’s been outplaying her from the start.

When Jennifer—the top student of Los University—discovers her boyfriend’s betrayal with her best friend Sarah, she doesn’t shed a tear. Instead, she plots a far more delicious revenge—by seducing Sarah’s soon-to-be stepfather, the ruthless business tycoon Michael, 14 years her senior. doesn’t waste a single tear. She’s already planning her revenge—a game no one else dares play. Her target? Michael: Sarah’s soon-to-be stepfather. Ruthless, untouchable, fourteen years her senior, and king of the city’s underworld of power.

She leaves a teasing note in his bed: “Uncle, I want to sleep in your arms!” leaves a note in his bed: “Uncle, I want to sleep in your arms.”
But innocence is just another weapon.

A mix of boldness and innocence, her temptation is relentless. defiance and dangerous innocence, her pursuit is relentless, her every move a dare.

Michael watches her struggle like a god from above—until the day he sees her with another man. That’s when his control shatters. That night, he drags her to a hotel, kneels before her, and begs: “Hold me while I sleep.” thinks he’s in control, an untouchable god.
Until the night he sees her with another man—
—and every last ounce of his restraint snaps.
That night, he drags her to a hotel, pins her beneath him, and for the first time in his life, kneels at her feet.
His voice breaks as he begs:
“Hold me while I sleep.”

This is a gamble named love—where desire and vengeance collide.
This is a high-stakes game of obsession and revenge, where every kiss is a threat, every touch a betrayal. Who will be destroyed first—the hunter, or his prey?

I am a whore. My purpose is deception—to betray the devoted husband who cherishes me, to offer myself to strangers. But my life wasn’t always this way.
I once had a respectable career, a loving marriage. We were planning for a child.
Then Alex destroyed it all.
He arranged my gang rape, filmed my humiliation, and used my husband, my family, my reputation to break me completely.
But fate had a cruel twist.
My defiance changed him.
The man who once held all the power now kneels at my feet, weeping, pleading:
“Grace, please… forgive me.”

Dumped by her groom publicly, Luna married his uncle—Theodore, a business tycoon.
Hatred? Revenge? Or his long-planning?

Wedding night, he handed over a contract. “Nice doing business with you, my wife.”
When her down-and-out ex begged for a second chance? Luna smirked, swirling wine. “I'm Luna Carter, your new aunt—and the new owner of the Davis's enterprise.”

The Plan: Travel back in time to high school, identify my insanely intimidating future billionaire boss before he gets rich, and suck up to him so hard I secure a six-figure job for life.
The Execution: Perfect. I brought him coffee, cheered at his games, and basically operated as his unpaid teenage executive assistant. He’s totally buying it.
The Problem: I was trying to network my way into the C-suite. I think I just networked my way into his bed.

Drunk and reckless, Forrest once claimed her in a night of passion.
But after their marriage? He never touched her again.
For fifty years, Ella devoted herself to him—loving, waiting, sacrificing.
Yet when he died, she wasn’t even allowed to attend his funeral.
Then… she woke up.
This time, she seized her stolen future—top of her class, acceptance to Berkeley, a life he could never control.
But the more she ignored him, the more obsessed he became.
"Ella," he begged, desperation clawing at his voice, "Give me one more chance."
She didn’t even glance back.

Money. Power. One night of reckless desire.
Cora Dev has lived with quiet self-discipline for years—until her closest friend betrays her, delivering her into the arms of a stranger.

Julian Watson, the ruthless heir who controls an empire with a single call, needs a bride to quell a scandal and outmaneuver his enemies.
He never expected her.
She never expected to carry the next generation of the Watson legacy.

When night falls, desire becomes destiny.
Their story begins.

A strange traffic jam hurls Chloe twenty-three years into the future.
The world she knew is gone.
Her husband, Nathan, is no longer the young man she left behind—he’s successful, respected, and living with a new family.
But when the woman who disappeared twenty-three years ago suddenly returns…
can love survive the years that were lost?

At 18, Iris Hawthorne’s world shattered the moment a man in military boots kicked down her door. Donovan Sharpe, the ruthless and legendary arms dealer, dragged her into his dark, dangerous realm as if she were a helpless kitten.Wild, feral, and dangerously possessive, he growled his claim:“Iris, you will only ever smell like me. So much as one person lays a finger on you, and they won’t live to see the sunrise.” He burned every bridge behind her, yet lavished her with all his gentleness: “Iris, even if the sky falls, I will put your happiness first.” Then came the day she ran. To save her, Donovan charged alone into a hail of bullets. Amid the rubble, bloody and broken, Iris nuzzled his blood-stained chest and whispered softly: “Donovan… come any later, and I’m done with you.”

She is extraordinary.


The moment she steps into my line of sight, she eclipses the world.


If I met her a hundred times, I would fall a hundred times.


My soul will only ever tremble for her.

Death should have been the end.

Instead, I wake in the past, my boyfriend kneeling with a ring and the memory of my fall still ripping through my head.

This time, I remember the stranger who pushed me.
This time, I know what’s coming.

Fate has rewound the clock.
It won’t tame me.

I’ve already died once in a wedding dress.
If darkness comes for me again, I’ll meet it on my terms.

When billionaire heiress Ruth Keen falls for a gorgeous, supposedly broke college student, she hides her identity and plays the role of an ordinary girl to win his heart. Marriage comes fast, life is sweet, and everything seems perfect — until she discovers her impoverished husband is actually Matthew Lynes, a powerful tycoon who’s been outplaying her from the start.

The first time Tyler laid eyes on Ellie, he thought she was a quiet, shy, introverted girl.

Then she opened her mouth and shattered that illusion.

“Are you trying to sleep with me? Why are you staring at me?”

After a night of passion, she woke up and calmly eyed his abs like she was appraising merchandise.

“Here’s your tip. Thank you for your work last night!” she smirked, a dollar bill tucked between her fingers.

Does she think I am a gigolo? Tyler sneered.

Then one day, a message from Ellie lit up his phone:

[I’m getting engaged. Are you going to take me away? Gigolo?]

He scrambled to his feet, rushing to the engagement ceremony.

This time, no one could stop him from taking her.

"Elias, I’ll get married in a week. Will you be my best man?"
Elias was stunned receiving this message. He have been with his girlfriend for eight years. Yet now, she will marry another man.
Broken and exhausted, Elias finally gives in to his family’s demands: an arranged marriage to a woman he barely knows.
Together, they turn her family’s business into a corporate empire, taking it public and achieving success beyond his wildest dreams.
His ex shows up, whining: "Baby, take me back!"
Elias just laughs. "In your dreams."

"Werewolves, close your eyes—"
In the darkness, I heard my wife kiss her first love.
When dawn broke, God smirked at me: "Last night, you died."
I handed her the divorce papers. She signed without reading.
She didn’t know—once this "contract" took effect, I’d vanish from her world forever.
Only when her precious first love sneered, "You were just a backup plan," did she realize—
Only when she searched for the love letters I’d written—and found none—did she understand—
The wedding she’d resented?
My seven years of silent devotion.
She chased me to the airport in a snowstorm, desperate.
I smiled and lifted a hand—
"Nora, I don’t love you anymore."

I was once Leo’s most cherished treasure—until his mother died because of me. Then he sent me to hell.
After escaping, I dragged my broken body through the shadows, saving every penny for a sea burial. But the ocean was too far, and desperation drove me to the only trade that would take me—selling my beauty in a glass tank, flicking my tail for strangers’ amusement.
And then he walked in. With his new lover on his arm, he called me a whore. He threw money at my face and forced me to shift, to bare my true form for the crowd’s cruel delight.
But when I finally slipped beneath the waves—when I let the abyss take me—
He came after me. Mad with grief, he chased my sinking body into the open ocean.
And then… he jumped.

They said we were perfect for each other.
I believed them until I clicked on a video that shattered everything.
My husband and his adopted sister was sleeping on our bed.
Eight years later.
My ex came to me.
He wants to prove he's changed.
I don't need his redemption.
The manuscript between us reveals the truth he tried to bury.
Every lie, every cancellation, and every moment I diminished myself for a man who cheated me.
Now, he must edit the story of how he destroyed me.
I'm going to make him read every word.
This isn't about forgiveness.
It's not about second chances.
It's about a woman who learned that the best revenge isn't making someone regret losing you. It's building a life so full that their absence becomes irrelevant.
“Ex, Know Your Place.”
“My Life Has Long Been Unrelated to You.”

Death should have been the end.

Instead, I wake up choking on warehouse air, a stranger's hand around my throat.

This time, I remember the man who was desperate to kill me.

Victor Sterling.

"Your scream killed my daughter!"
"I'll make you pay double."

In every loop, he finds me and kills me.

Julian pulls the trigger on himself just to turn back time one more time.

This time, I'm not waiting to be saved.

If the world insists on killing me, it had better be prepared.

This time, I'm rewriting the whole damn film.

If darkness comes for me again, I'll meet it on my terms.

"Leave my office, Fremantle," he snapped me out of my dazed state and feeling my cheeks redden due to unshed tears, embarrassment and built up anger, I picked my dress and panties and then turned to go.

"Wear the dress, Fremantle."

"You can't be the only one to enjoy my nude body, Mr. Castile. I'm generous, so I think everyone should get a share." I said and then walked out of his office.

He didn't stop me.

But five steps later, I heard his voice over the house speaker.

"All security exit the third floor immediately."

**
Fremantle had never met anyone like him before. He was the direct opposite of her, the type of men her mother warned her about. But how could she stay away from a man who made her panties wet on the first day? She really should've listened to her mother..

Eron never imagined someone like her existed. He wanted her as his, but he also had a feud to take care of against her family. Which would dominate in the end? Love or Vendetta?

He waited for me for two years. I turned him down twelve times. Every time he told me he liked me, I stayed silent. Every time he asked, "Have you really never felt anything for me?" I would turn my face away. I thought I would have endless chances. I thought he would always be there. Now when I close my eyes, all I can see is the last question he asked me under the moonlight. I thought it was glory. Freedom. The victory I deserved. Not until his body fell beneath the moonlight, not until I had everything, not until I started jolting awake from nightmares on countless full-moon nights, did I realize that the silver sword I drove into his heart had also pierced my own life.

I was a herbalist, a healer who saved lives, but I was falsely accused of spreading plague and hanged on the gallows, awaiting the flames. Then I heard them—a swarm of rats emerging from the earth, gnawing through the noose and dragging me back to the world of the living. But this was not salvation, but the beginning of a curse. Plague swept across the land, the church peddled counterfeit medicines, and lords squeezed every last grain from the farmers. The rats looked at me and whispered to me — the end has come, and you will become the calamity.

When the zombie apocalypse hit, my elder brother shoved me into a horde of the undead. Now, I've been reborn exactly five days before the end of the world, and he's trying to scam me out of my winning lottery ticket with a beat-up old ring. What he doesn't know is that this ring is a genuine pocket dimension artifact. He thinks he's pulling the ultimate con, completely unaware that I'm going to use this very relic to forge my own post-apocalyptic empire. This time, I'm going to make them pay back every last thing they owe me.

I inherited a family heirloom watch. It heats up when I'm in danger, shoves me out of the way when I'm attacked, and in the middle of the night it folds my clothes and makes me a cup of tea at exactly the right temperature. I know there's a guardian spirit living inside it, but I've never asked who he is, what his name is, or why he's here. I got used to his presence—so used to it that I started taking it for granted. Then I met an antiques dealer. He was gentle, polished, and thoughtful in every way. But the guardian spirit reacted like he'd gone insane. I snapped at it, "You're just a watch. What right do you have to interfere in my life?"

Freya Ashford's biggest regret in life wasn't marrying me, but that she never truly looked at me. We were sleeping in the same bed but dreaming different dreams; she was researching immortality, and I was researching how to win her love—"It is an eternal power, and an eternal pain." This riddle led us down different paths. On the day of the prom, in front of the entire school, she pointed her finger at me and said, "You can't prove your love for me at all." But she didn't know that she would lose miserably.

Five years ago, I woke up after surgery with my mind completely blank. The doctor said I had been in a training accident, and I was lucky just to be alive. Due to my injuries, after being discharged from the military, I was assigned to the mess hall at Fort Kiernan. Every day, I stood behind the same serving window, dishing out the same beef and potato stew to the same group of new recruits. I thought my life would always be like this. Then one day, a female journalist from the detention cell was escorted over by military police to get her meal. She slid her tray toward me and spoke a word I had never heard before. The ladle slipped right out of my left hand. My right arm dropped to my side, and my fingers curled instinctively into the shape of a gun grip. Who on earth am I?

At my boss's mother's funeral, I couldn't hold back my laughter, and as a result, I was treated as a lunatic, stuffed into a garbage cannon, and launched naked into an apocalyptic forest full of zombies. Everyone thought I was doomed, but they didn't know—I had been reborn 1,001 times. Unarmed and surrounded by the zombie horde, about to be torn to shreds, in desperation I clung to the last clue... When I finally uncovered the truth that could overturn everything, I laughed from the bottom of my heart. This time, I would personally end this greatest lie.

Ten years ago, Iron Throne, Mexico's largest drug cartel, slaughtered my entire family. A decade later, I defected voluntarily and stepped into their manor with a token of allegiance. Everyone thought I had fallen into depravity. What they never knew was that I came to Iron Throne neither for wealth nor power. I came because I had memorized five names from the hit list that destroyed my family, and kept them in my heart for ten long years. I chose to lie low, until I rose to become the second-in-command of Iron Throne. On the night the kingpin handed the entire criminal empire over to me, I walked into his study, raised my gun with a smile.

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.

Twenty years ago, he took the blame for my murder, was branded with the Silver Flame mark, and banished to the wilderness. Twenty years later, I escaped from a prison-like marriage and searched the world for him. He wasn't there in the Alaskan blizzards. He wasn't there in the deep mountains of Romania. Under the polar night in the Arctic Circle, I called his name into the darkness. No one answered. Until a hunter told me: deep in the Yukon, someone had seen a lone wolf with the Silver Flame mark.

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

I was born into a cursed bloodline of witches. My mother told me that every firstborn daughter had to sacrifice the one she loved most to break the chains binding our blood. She said it was the only way to save my child. I lied to myself, and I lied to him, leading him to the altar with my own two hands. But I couldn't survive a single day without him. No curse, no matter how horrific, could ever compare to the sheer ugliness of the human heart. Waking up in that empty house, the truth finally hit me: I had absolutely nothing left.

Everyone in the tribe looked down on me. My father declared someone else the heir to the chieftaincy, my wife tore up our engagement and followed a new master, and I lived in a beast pen at the edge of the hunting grounds, sharing a wall with the hunting dogs. I thought this was my life. Only later did I realize that the entire tribe had spent twenty years of coldness building me a fortress. Those airtight shields would one day need me to prove them myself. On the day I awakened, the tribe's totem pole exploded. The true king was about to return.

I used to be the Federation's top agent, codename Frostblade. Until my fiancée and my partner stabbed me in the back and threw me into Blackrock Fortress—a black site hellhole that doesn't exist on any map. Against all odds, I broke out and made it back home, only to find my family's graves dug up, my mother murdered in the bathtub, and a shell casing stamped with a cartel insignia. My sister is missing, my father has been framed, and six of my informants were butchered—all signs point to the exact same name. Nobody believes a man who was supposed to rot in a cell can flip the board, but I'm back.

In my past life, I was tricked into a trap by my neighbor, my leg broken, and thrown into acid rain to die. Reborn, I returned to nine months before the acid rain apocalypse. Meteorites struck, radiation contaminated, water sources dried up, and civilization collapsed. I still had one last chance to save myself and reverse the future. When I mortgaged my house, borrowed heavily from loan sharks, and finally found the water purification engineer whom everyone considered crazy, I was met with merciless ridicule. Faced with humiliation, I simply smiled faintly—"Do you know when water is more precious than gold?"

Introduction: Monsters have invaded the world, and humanity is in grave danger. I transformed into a demon-sealing war god, guarding the abyss for twenty years. But I was met with betrayal after betrayal; my position as war god was revoked, and the people, believing rumors, sought to punish me. They smashed my wife's tombstone, turned my son into a monster , and drained my blood... Now the monsters have returned, kneeling and weeping, begging me to intervene . This time, I will not intervene!

In my last life, my mother-in-law locked me in the attic, and my wife openly cheated on me with the neighbor. Even when I was dying of terminal cancer, they bled me dry until my very last breath! Now that I've been reborn, the extreme-heat apocalypse is just around the corner. In this life, I'm living for myself. I spend every last cent of my savings stockpiling three years' worth of supplies and building a heat-proof survival villa! Now I can sit back and watch my mother-in-law's family struggle to survive in the deadly heat. Beg on their knees for my forgiveness? No! I will never forgive them!

Twelve years after the geomagnetic reversal, the death ray scorched every inch of the land. Survivors huddled beneath the dome, weaving their last refuge with lies . I was just a scavenger, digging for palladium in the ruins, just to buy my sister a breath of pure oxygen. But I also kept a secret— I could hear the voice of metal. When the Council of Order threatened my sister's life, forcing me into the forbidden zone to carry out a suicide mission, those whispers of steel finally became clear. They called to me, guiding me down another dead end.

Five years ago, they stripped me of my rank and stopped my retirement pay. Now, with the Imperial army at the gates, they kneel at my door, begging for my services. My daughter is wearing last year's shoes, her big toe practically sticking out. My wife is still refilling coffee at a fast-food restaurant at 3 a.m. The neighbors call me "that welfare-dependent guy" behind my back. I pulled my five-year-old dismissal order from under the bill and slipped it under the door. "You've got the wrong person."

My father said an honest man can't run a farm. My brother called me nothing but a burden. My ex-girlfriend dropped her engagement ring into a glass of champagne and handed it back to me. They all thought I was worthless. None of them knew I'd been reborn, and had stockpiled five years' worth of supplies in the cold storage. When the blizzard hit, the walkie-talkie crackled to life. I heard their cries and the unspoken thoughts swirling inside their heads. Really? You're still trying to scheme against me right now?

Ten years of secret service honed my Phantom Legion, a force I built that could make a small nation tremble. On the day I retired and returned to New York, I found a cardboard tent next to a garbage dump in a Bronx back alley. Curled up inside was my daughter, whom I hadn't seen in five years. She was covered in bruises, barefoot, and clutching half a moldy loaf of bread. I picked her up and dialed the phone—"I want everyone who wronged her to suffer a fate worse than death! "