The Ex-Convict’s Secret: I Command an Army
William Hartwell · Ongoing · 191.7k Words
Introduction
They didn't know his secret.
Ten years ago, he was framed. But in prison, he became something else. Today, he is the Mercenary King — commander of millions.
He hides his power to protect his wife and daughter. He plays the loser. He takes the insults.
But when his enemies cross the line…
The Mercenary King will stop pretending.
Chapter 1
Valdoria.
Harborview City, Blaze Mountain.
On the ocean, an entire aircraft carrier fleet stood guard.
In the sky, hundreds of fighter jets circled overhead.
One hundred and eighty thousand mercenaries, armed to the teeth, had placed all of Blaze Mountain under complete lockdown.
All because a big shot had arrived in Harborview City!
At the foot of the mountain, countless wealthy and powerful figures had gathered.
Even the oil tycoons who controlled Valdoria's economic lifeline were squeezed into the crowd, just hoping to catch a glimpse of this important person.
On the mountain path, a tall figure walked on foot.
He was dressed simply, yet carried an extraordinary presence.
Behind him followed a man built like a bear, 6 feet 7 inches tall, with a bayonet-shaped scar on his face that gave off a powerful sense of intimidation.
Kane Lockwood frowned, "Bayonet, why all this fuss?"
"Mr. Lockwood, I know you prefer to keep a low profile. This wasn't my doing - those old guys from Harborview City set this up."
Bayonet huffed, "But still, you're the Mercenary King, leading the world's largest mercenary organization, Tempest Mercenaries. You're the idol of millions of mercenaries. This show is way too small!"
"I'm going to kick those old guys' butts later!"
They reached the mountaintop.
The setting sun looked like blood, cold wind howling.
Thirty-eight lonely tombstones stood in the wilderness.
Kane stared at the tombstones, hatred surging through him!
He had once been the business genius of the Lockwood family. At fifteen, he helped lead the Lockwood family to great heights, making them the most powerful family in Harborview City, bar none!
At eighteen, he got into Harvard Business School with outstanding grades.
Everyone believed he was the heir to the Lockwood family.
His stepmother, Ophelia Rivera, treated him well and even threw him a celebration party.
Having lacked a mother's love since childhood, he even thought of her as his real mom.
Once, he threw himself in front of Ophelia to block a bullet, lying in a pool of blood, nearly dying on the operating table.
But Ophelia turned out to be truly evil.
To help her biological son seize the Lockwood family fortune, she secretly drugged Kane with an aphrodisiac at the party and tried to get into his bed.
Luckily, Kane escaped, but by mistake ended up having sex with an innocent girl.
Overnight, the business genius became a scumbag everyone despised!
Kane's father was so angry he coughed up blood and passed out on the spot.
The next day, he was sentenced to ten years in prison for rape and thrown into Harborview City's harshest maximum-security prison.
Ophelia teamed up with three major powers in Harborview City to kill thirty-eight members of Kane's family, divided up the Lockwood Group, and threw herself into Kane's uncle's arms!
This hatred kept him going through the darkest days in prison.
By chance, he found an opportunity to escape and became a mercenary.
In just a few years, he defeated countless opponents and finally claimed the throne of Mercenary King!
He now commanded the world's most powerful mercenary organization, Tempest Mercenaries, with a million mercenaries under his control and unmatched power.
Now, he was back!
The Rivera family - what you owe me, I'll take back bit by bit, with interest!
But what concerned him most was that girl he'd had sex with that night.
To this day, he still didn't know who she was.
Kane asked, "Bayonet, did you find out who that girl was?"
Bayonet spoke respectfully, "Mr. Lockwood, yes, I did!"
"Her name is Isabelle Spencer. She's from a small family in Harborview City."
"Mr. Lockwood, after Ms. Spencer had sex with you, the Spencer family bribed officials to secretly obtain a marriage certificate for her with you to save the family's reputation. Legally speaking, she is now your lawful wife. She later gave birth to a little girl, who is currently being taken in by Ophelia."
Kane's heart leaped with joy.
He was a father?
Isabelle had carried the shame of being "impure" and given birth to a rapist's child - who knows what kind of pressure and scorn she'd endured!
In prison, Isabelle was the only person who ever visited him. She said she didn't blame him.
She was the person Kane owed the most!
Bayonet continued, "Ophelia is throwing a birthday party and wants to invite you."
Kane asked, "When? Where?"
"Tonight at 6 PM, the Lockwood Estate!"
The Lockwood Estate - once Kane's home!
"Tell Ophelia I'll attend the party."
Kane agreed, then smiled coldly, "Also, help me prepare a big gift for her!"
......
At the Lockwood Estate, a grand birthday party was underway.
Outside, luxury cars lined the streets.
All the guests were wealthy and powerful figures, and there were even famous singers performing on stage.
Ophelia wore a red evening gown, her long hair flowing over her shoulders, her skin smooth, her figure curvy - proud as a queen!
She was stunning and noble, the center of everyone's attention!
"Mom! Great news!"
Suddenly, a young man in his twenties rushed in, his face full of joy.
Silas Lockwood.
Kane's half-brother from a different mother.
"Silas, what's the great news?"
"I invited the Mercenary King to your party in the family's name, and I just got word - he accepted!"
"Are you serious?"
"That's amazing!"
The usually cold Ophelia trembled with excitement.
"The Mercenary King commands Tempest Mercenaries with a million mercenaries under him. He's powerful beyond measure!"
"I heard the governor mobilized one hundred and eighty thousand soldiers to seal off all of Blaze Mountain for the Mercenary King!"
"Even the oil tycoons who control Valdoria's economy couldn't get a meeting with him!"
"If we can host the Mercenary King, what powerful person in Harborview City won't show you respect?"
Ophelia couldn't help feeling proud.
This news pushed the party's atmosphere to its peak!
But then, a discordant voice suddenly rang out.
A wealthy woman muttered, "What's so great about that? She only got what she has today through dirty, shameless tricks!"
Her husband frantically covered her mouth, "Shut up!"
Hearing this, Ophelia's face instantly darkened, her beautiful eyes shooting out a cold glare.
Just then, a chubby boy with freckles walked out, leading a little girl by the hand.
The fat boy tore off a chicken leg and threw it into a dog bowl on the floor, "Winnie, come here!"
A little girl in ragged clothes, thin and sallow, crawled on the ground like a dog, grabbed the chicken leg, and wolfed it down.
The fat boy exclaimed, "Silas was right - she really is a dog!"
The man from earlier whispered, "I heard that's Kane's daughter."
The wealthy woman looked at Winnie and shuddered hard.
At the same time, she felt angry, "How can she treat a child like a dog? That's evil!"
Suddenly, Silas appeared before the woman like a ghost and grabbed her by the collar, "What did you just say?"
The woman trembled, "Are you afraid of people talking about what you've done?"
"How dare you insult my mom! You're asking for death!"
"But since it's my mom's birthday, I'll spare your life. However, I want one of your hands!"
Silas grinned wickedly.
The next moment, two bodyguards rushed over.
One bodyguard grabbed the woman's wrist tightly.
The other pulled out a sharp machete.
No matter how much the woman and her husband cried and begged, Silas showed no mercy. He licked his lips, his eyes gleaming with savage excitement.
Just then!
Boom!
Suddenly, a pitch-black coffin came flying through the air and slammed into the bodyguard.
The bodyguard screamed, coughed up blood, and flew dozens of feet away.
Bang!
The heavy coffin crashed heavily onto the floor.
The ground cracked, fractures spreading like a spider web.
"Who's there?"
Silas was shocked.
Everyone turned to look at the entrance.
"Me! Kane!"
A tall figure had appeared nearby at some point.
His expression was determined, his whole presence extraordinary!
"It's Kane!"
"Why is he here? Isn't he in prison?"
"Today's the day he gets out!"
"He actually brought a coffin to a birthday party - he's got some nerve!"
People around whispered to each other.
"Dear mother, do you like this gift of mine?"
Kane reached out and grabbed the coffin weighing several hundred pounds, lifting it with one hand. Under everyone's shocked gaze, he walked up to Ophelia.
Ophelia flew into a rage, "You rapist, you murderer, how dare you come to this house! Get out!"
Kane's lips curved into a cold smile, "You want me to leave? Weren't you the ones who invited me here?"
Last Chapters
#159 Chapter 159
Last Updated: 8/19/2026#158 Chapter 158
Last Updated: 8/16/2026#157 Chapter 157
Last Updated: 8/13/2026#156 Chapter 156
Last Updated: 8/10/2026#155 Chapter 155
Last Updated: 8/7/2026#154 Chapter 154
Last Updated: 8/4/2026#153 Chapter 153
Last Updated: 8/1/2026#152 Chapter 152
Last Updated: 7/29/2026#151 Chapter 151
Last Updated: 7/26/2026#150 Chapter 150
Last Updated: 7/23/2026
You Might Like 😍
My Benchwarmer Boyfriend's Secret
As the team's benchwarmer, Marco practices harder than anyone, though few seems to notice. There's something about his quiet determination that draws me in, and I find myself falling for the underdog.
But when Marco's true story starts unraveling—about that first night, about who he really is, about the future he's destined for—I realize I might have gotten in way over my head.
And there's another problem: this was always meant to be temporary. His training program has an end date, and we're both fighting against a reality that seems determined to pull us apart.
When everything is on the line, how far are we willing to go for love?
Twin Prince Alphas Student Mate
As her 18th birthday approaches, her brothers warn her about the powerful pull she might feel toward dominant wolves. But it's not just any wolves they need to worry about—it's her teachers. Cameron and Samuel are more than just older, wiser, and off-limits; they might just be her fated mates.
While navigating complex relationships, academic pressures, and the normal trials of young adult life, an unexpected threat jeopardizes the academy. Explosions rock their world, forcing Lyla and her love interests into a chaotic swirl of heroism, heartbreak, and hard choices.
Will Lyla follow her heart and let destiny lead the way, or will the very rules that bind their world tear them apart? Amidst turmoil and taboo, Lyla must make choices that could forever change the course of her life and the lives of those she holds dear.
Discover a story where love isn't just complicated—it's forbidden, ageless, and defies all rules. In a world of supernatural beings and extraordinary stakes, will Lyla's love life be another casualty, or her saving grace?
The Alpha King's Human Mate
“I have waited nine years for you. That’s nearly a decade since I’ve felt this emptiness inside me. Part of me began to wonder if you didn’t exist or you’d already died. And then I found you, right inside my own home.”
He used one of his hands to stroke my cheek and tingles erupted everywhere.
“I’ve spent enough time without you and I will not let anything else keep us apart. Not other wolves, not my drunken father who’s barely holding himself together the past twenty years, not your family – and not even you.”
Clark Bellevue has spent her entire life as the only human in the wolf pack - literally. Eighteen years ago, Clark was the accidental result of a brief affair between one of the most powerful Alphas in the world and a human woman. Despite living with her father and her werewolf half-siblings, Clark has never felt like she really belonged in the werewolf world. But right as Clark plans to leave the werewolf world behind for good, her life gets flipped upside down by her mate: the next Alpha King, Griffin Bardot. Griffin has been waiting years for the chance to meet his mate, and he's not about to let her go anytime soon. It doesn't matter how far Clark tries to run from her destiny or her mate - Griffin intends to keep her, no matter what he has to do or who stands in his way.
Where I End and She Begins
But when a body lies at Amelia’s feet, and her hands are covered in blood that isn’t hers, one question echoes louder than the rest:
How did it come to this?
As the school year unfolds, cracks begin to show — in friendships, in family, and in Amelia’s own mind. The lines between loyalty and control blur. Between truth and perception. Between who she is… and who she thinks she needs to be.
Because some friendships don’t just shape you.
They consume you.
And when the illusion shatters, there’s always something left behind.
Accidentally Crossing the Tycoon
Four years ago, the Bailey family faced a devastating financial crisis.
Just when bankruptcy seemed inevitable, a mysterious benefactor emerged, offering salvation with one condition: a contract marriage.
Rumors swirled about this enigmatic man—whispers claimed he was hideously ugly and too ashamed to show his face, possibly harboring dark, twisted obsessions.
Without hesitation, the Baileys sacrificed me to protect their precious biological daughter, forcing me to take her place as a pawn in this cold, calculated arrangement.
Luckily, in those four years, the mysterious husband never asked to meet in person.
Now, in the final year of our arrangement, the husband I've never met is demanding we meet face to face.
But disaster struck the night before my return—drunk and disoriented, I stumbled into the wrong hotel room and ended up sleeping with the legendary financial mogul, Caspar Thornton.
What the hell am I supposed to do now?
The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates
"Let me go," I whimper, my body trembling with need. "I don't want you touching me."
I fall forward onto the bed then turn around to stare at him. The dark tattoos of Domonic's chiseled shoulders, quiver and and expand with the heave of his chest. His deep dimpled smile is full of arrogance as he reaches behind himself to lock the door.
Biting his lip, he stalks toward me, his hand going to the seam of his pants and the thickening bulge there.
"Are you sure you don't want me to touch you?" He whispers, untying the knot and slipping a hand inside. "Because I swear to God, that is all I have been wanting to do. Every single day from the moment you stepped in our bar and I smelled your perfect flavor from across the room."
New to the world of shifters, Draven is human on the run. A beautiful girl who no one could protect. Domonic is the cold Alpha of the Red Wolf Pack. A brotherhood of twelve wolves that live by twelve rules. Rules which they vowed could NEVER be broken.
Especially - Rule Number One - No Mates
When Draven meets Domonic, he knows that she is his mate, but Draven has no idea what a mate is, only that she has fallen in love with a shifter. An Alpha that will break her heart to make her leave. Promising herself, she will never forgive him, she disappears.
But she doesn’t know about the child she’s carrying or that the moment she left, Domonic decided rules were made to be broken - and now will he ever find her again? Will she forgive him?
Reborn 14 Years later: Fix My Broken Family
At least, that's what everyone believed.
One moment, she was trapped inside a sinking car beneath the icy waters of the Hudson River. The next, she woke up in her own bathtub and somehow fourteen years in the future.
Her husband is no longer the warm, easygoing man she remembers.
Her five-year-old son is now a nineteen-year-old stranger who looks at her with suspicion.
Her twins barely remember the mother they lost—one forever chasing affection, the other keeping the entire world at arm's length.
And the family she left behind has become something broken, distant, and unrecognizable.
Now Isabella faces an impossible challenge: rebuilding a family that never truly recovered from losing her.
Fourteen years have left scars on everyone.
Unfortunately for those causing the damage, Isabella Winston has returned to set things right.
Game of Destiny
When Finlay finds her, she is living among humans. He is smitten by the stubborn wolf that refuse to acknowledge his existence. She may not be his mate, but he wants her to be a part of his pack, latent wolf or not.
Amie cant resist the Alpha that comes into her life and drags her back into pack life. Not only does she find herself happier than she has been in a long time, her wolf finally comes to her. Finlay isn't her mate, but he becomes her best friend. Together with the other top wolves in the pack, they work to create the best and strongest pack.
When it's time for the pack games, the event that decides the packs rank for the coming ten year, Amie needs to face her old pack. When she sees the man that rejected her for the first time in ten years, everything she thought she knew is turned around. Amie and Finlay need to adapt to the new reality and find a way forward for their pack. But will the curve ball split them apart?
The Princess's Revenge
Alpha Logan is an illegitimate son whose mother disappeared when he was 10 years old. He grew up suffering from humiliation and lacking maternal love.
Alpha Logan saves Valencia at Marcus's funeral, which seems to be destined by fate—part of the Moon Goddess's grand plan.
As Valencia accidentally discovers prophecies in Logan's mother's diary that seem to be related to her, the truth gradually surfaces. Valencia appears to be merely a tool in a princess's revenge plot. How will Logan and Valencia navigate their path amid the national war and pack politics?
After One Night with the Alpha
I thought I was waiting for love. Instead, I got fucked by a beast.
My world was supposed to bloom at the Moonshade Bay Full Moon Festival—champagne buzzing in my veins, a hotel room booked for Jason and me to finally cross that line after two years. I’d slipped into lacy lingerie, left the door unlocked, and lay on the bed, heart pounding with nervous excitement.
But the man who climbed into my bed wasn’t Jason.
In the pitch-black room, drowned in a heady, spicy scent that made my head spin, I felt hands—urgent, scorching—searing my skin. His thick, pulsing cock pressed against my dripping cunt, and before I could gasp, he thrust hard, tearing through my innocence with ruthless force. Pain burned, my walls clenching as I clawed at his iron shoulders, stifling sobs. Wet, slick sounds echoed with every brutal stroke, his body unrelenting until he shuddered, spilling hot and deep inside me.
"That was amazing, Jason," I managed to say.
"Who the fuck is Jason?"
My blood turned to ice. Light slashed across his face—Brad Rayne, Alpha of Moonshade Pack, a werewolf, not my boyfriend. Horror choked me as I realized what I’d done.
I ran away for my life!
But weeks later, I woke up pregnant with his heir!
They say my heterochromatic eyes mark me as a rare true mate. But I’m no wolf. I’m just Elle, a nobody from the human district, now trapped in Brad's world.
Brad’s cold gaze pins me: “You carry my blood. You’re mine.”
There is no other choice for me but to chose this cage. My body also betrays me, craving the beast who ruined me.
WARNING: Mature Readers Only
BROKEN TRUST
Neither of them knew she was carrying his child.
Emily’s affair didn’t just end her marriage—it erased the life she thought was guaranteed. Ryan left without looking back, carrying his anger like armor and leaving Emily alone with regret she would never outrun. Three years later, fate drags them back into each other’s world, along with a little girl who has Ryan’s eyes and a truth that shatters everything he thought he knew.
Old wounds reopen, grief masquerades as rage, and love refuses to stay buried. As parenthood binds them together and the past demands accountability, Emily and Ryan must face the question neither of them is ready to answer: is broken trust the end of their story… or the beginning of a love forged through loss, forgiveness, and brutal honesty?
Mated to Her Alpha Instructor
Weeks later, our new Alpha combat instructor walks in. Regis. The guy from the woods. His eyes lock on mine, and I know he recognizes me. Then the secret I've been hiding hits me like a punch: I'm pregnant.
He has an offer that binds us tighter than ever. Protection… or a cage? Whispers turn ugly, darkness closes in. Why am I the one without a wolf? Is he my salvation… or will he drag me to ruin?
