7431 Book(s) Related to the arcane heir system

Dearest Gentle Readers, this is a book filled with tales of woe, of the sorrow and sadness and yearnings of a woman caught between the crossfire. Caught between the web of a horrible and evil villain. Read this book if you dare!

Hailey Parker, a naive young woman of twenty-one, gets more than she bargained for when she gets into a deal in an attempt to protect her fiancé.

Leaving the only place she had known all her life, she soon realizes that she had gotten way more than she'd bargained for and lots of buried secrets spill out in the open leaving her broken and defenseless.

With everything in her, she wishes to go back to the girl she was before, but if wishes were horses bitches could ride. Her horrible nightmare had just begun.

Will she rise above the rushing tides or will she let it sweep her under?

I’m married to a stranger… and I slept with the wrong billionaire.
My name is Elara Ashford.
I’m the adopted daughter the Ashfords sacrificed to save their precious biological child.
Four years ago, the family faced ruin, on the edge of bankruptcy.
A mysterious benefactor stepped in—saving them in exchange for a contract marriage with me.
Rumors said he was hideously ugly, reclusive, too ashamed to show his face.
For four years, he never asked to meet.
I grieved the baby I lost, painted in silence, and waited for our deal to end.
Now, the final year is here.
My unknown husband demands we meet face-to-face.
But things happened earlier than expected? I crash into him at the Serpentine Gallery, paint splattering his Tom Ford suit.
He flips open my sketchbook… and freezes.
That drawing? One I had made in grief for my son, who I had lost — and yet it was identical to his son, Cassian.
The man whose child I drew from grief.
And he is my mysterious contract husband.

Stella Moore only wanted Revenge.

Ten years ago, her family was murdered by King's corporation.
Forced into hiding, she and her aunt fled to another country, taking on new identities to escape their enemies. Now she's back– to make every one of them pay.

As the president's secretary, she can access the corporation's secrets. Step by step she gathers evidence to bring down King’s corporation. But there’s one problem in her way–the president–Liam Carson.
Handsome, charming, and kind, he stirs feelings she has never known. As the lines between love and revenge start to blur, Stella faces an impossible choice.

Will she carry on with her plans for revenge and throw away her chance at love? Or will she give it up for the man whose family destroyed hers? And when the truth of who she is finally comes out–will their love be enough?

One Night. One Mistake. One Life Turned Upside Down.
I thought I was waiting for love. Instead, I got fucked by another man.
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, Marcus." I managed to say.
"Who the fuck is Marcus?"
My blood turned to ice. And when the lights finally came on—Damien Sinclair stared back at me.CEO of Sinclair Industries.
The most untouchable man in New York.
My boss.
I ran from that hotel room humiliated and terrified, praying I would never see him again！
But weeks later, I woke up pregnant !
And suddenly, the cold, untouchable Damien demanded more than my attention—he demanded a contract, a marriage, a place in a world I had never belonged to.
He’s commanding, relentless, and impossible to read. I’m terrified of his power, yet every stolen glance, every accidental touch pulls me deeper. There’s no pretending anymore: we’re entwined, bound by a child neither of us expected, yet neither of us can resist.
There is no other choice for me but to chose this cage. My body also betrays me, craving the man who ruined me.
WARNING: Mature Readers Only

Chasing his runaway bride to the altar is all this Army Ranger cares about in this modern day marriage of convenience. After years of fact-checking and fetching coffee, reporter Lana Hunt has finally been given a chance to shine. Her exposé on the Montana ranch where soldiers are finding a gold rush of convenient brides could lead to the job of her dreams. Putting her investigative skills to the test to discover if the ranch is a cult or the stuff of fairy tales, Lana goes undercover inside a bridal boutique only to come face to face with the man she left at the altar a year ago. Even though he was jilted by the love of his life, Mac Kenzie still loves weddings and is happy to help his friends plan theirs. But when he goes to assist the bride to be, he’s stunned to find his own runaway fiancée dressed in a wedding gown. Even more shocking, Lana is still wearing Mac’s engagement ring. Certain she still has feelings for him, he proposes a deal. He’ll help her get the scoop on the Purple Heart Ranch if she’ll help him plan his friends’ wedding. To get the story and the promotion, Lana agrees to Mac’s conditions. But as the two of them plan a future for the bride and groom, Lana wonders if there’s a chance to revise the ending of their own story? And after years of coming in second to her career, Mac knows this is his last shot to make Lana his. But as her deadline draws closer, he can’t help but wonder if the girl who’s held his heart since he was six will choose her byline over taking his last name?

Ryder Vale was the golden boy , her first kiss, her high school sweetheart, the one who promised her forever.
Now, he's a billionaire CEO and the star hockey player of the Ice Vulture team… and Maya's husband.
But forever came crashing down with a scandal born from a betrayal too close to home.
Publicly humiliated. Emotionally destroyed.
Maya never meant to fall apart in a bar. And the billionaire she mistook for a stripper? He gave her more than comfort, he gave her a reason to feel again.
Someone who was never supposed to touch her… yet sets her soul on fire.
As secrets unravel and long-buried lies rise, Maya discovers the truth about the night that shattered her life, and the dark betrayal Ryder kept hidden all along.
And in the middle of it all…
She craves the wrong brother.
This isn't just heartbreak.
It's revenge, obsession, and a love that was never meant to happen.
But she's not the broken girl anymore.
She's the woman about to rewrite the ending they all wrote for her.

He was an Alpha, Born to rule and dominate. And I was a Hunter, born to hunt and kill his kind. Our world was different; our beliefs were opposite. But fate brought us together. I should end his life, but every time I try, I end up in his bed. I don't know if it is the bond, or the irresistible attraction pulling us together. But one thing for sure; Even though we're enemies. I can't stop myself from falling in love with him. A Forbidden Love Between An Alpha And His Hunter Luna.

"Layla?"

"Who are you?"

"I'm your godmother Emma."

"I don't have a godmother."

"I'm guessing you also don't have powers either."

"How did you know that?"

"I'm dying and that can only mean one thing Lucinda has figured how to get through the barrier."

"Oh my god."

"I'm the lifeforce holding it together you and Jonah must work together to put a stop to her once and for all."

"How am-"

"You have always been special even before you were born. And i know you have what it takes to restore peace to our worlds your parents would be so proud find them tell them Emma says hi."

18 years ago Layla was sent to the human world she was the last hope that those of the unknown would get the chance to be free again. She was to grow up a normal child and one day hopefully save the world before the evil tyrant Lucinda took it over. WIth the barrier closed her mission to overthrow the humans and punish her best friend for her betrayal was put to rest.

But after a long 18 years she finally learned what was keeping the barrier closed and opens them to get her revenge.

Layla who hid what made her different from the world is invited along with other daughters of nobles to attend a ball where she will have the chance to become queen of Greenville.

She knows what will happen if someone discovers what she can do. But what happens when she is picked to be queen and she learns that the ball was only thrown so that they could find her so that she could help save the kingdom of Greenville.

KANE
Even if I spend every night buried between her trembling thighs.
Even if she clings to me like I’m her salvation.
She’s still just a slave— a filthy little Omega with a scent that makes my cock ache.
Nyx is weakness. And this bond?
It is f*cking insult to everything I am.
I should’ve killed her the second I realized what she was.
Instead, I’m addicted.
To her gasps. Her tears. I am curious.
For the first time in my life, I want to claim something. The soul and body that was never mine to take.

**
NYX
Kill the Alpha. Save my mother. Walk away.
Three long months. One target.
End Kane Blackheart— the Devil of Blackhollow. The ruthless Alpha bathed my pack in blood and shattered my world.
I wasn’t prepared for fate’s cruel twist.
Disguised as a powerless Omega, I become his maid. His plaything. His obsession.
He touches me and I forget how to hate. Every stolen glance weakens me, every punishing touch blurs the line between pain and pleasure.
Falling for my mark isn’t just dangerous, it’s betrayal written by blood.

What happens when the king of the school needs the one girl he once broke?

Elowen Bennett’s life has always been simple, quiet days, a small circle, and staying invisible enough to survive high school unnoticed. After a brutal betrayal by her boyfriend and her best friend, she’s done trusting people.

Especially him.

Alaric Hayes, the hockey captain, golden boy, and the same person who made her middle school years unbearable.

So when he suddenly wants her close… too close, it doesn’t make sense.

But Alaric isn’t doing this for fun.

Under his father’s orders, he needs something from Elowen, something tied to a dangerous past and a secret that could destroy both her and her mother. Getting close to her is just part of the plan.

Pretend to care. Gain her trust. Get the information.

Simple.

Until it’s not.

Because the more time he spends with her, the harder it becomes to remember this was never supposed to be real.

And when the truth finally comes out…

Elowen won’t just lose her heart.

She might lose everything.

Raven Hollow came to Ashmourne Academy to find her missing twin brother. She never expected to become the prey.

Against her grandmother's wishes, she enrolls at the prestigious Ashmourne Academy, determined to uncover what happened to her twin brother, Roman, who vanished during during his first year. But behind the academy's elegant halls lurks a deadly secret—the school's elite are vampires, and the human students are their hunting grounds.

After humiliating the academy's ruthless queen bee, Raven becomes the target of relentless bullying, murderous vampires, and dangerous political games. Her only allies are an overprotective hunter professor, a mysterious outcast, her loyal childhood friend, and the very vampire who should want her dead, yet he can't stay away from her.

Then Raven's blood awakens an ancient power that shouldn't exist anymore.

Every vampire touched by her blood becomes bound to her as her Kin—forced to obey her every command.

As bodies pile up, hidden tunnels reveal terrifying secrets, an ancient vampire awakens, and a fanatical hunter plots to wipe vampirekind from existence, Raven discovers her brother is still alive... but trapped in the heart of a conspiracy centuries in the making.

Now Raven must decide who the real monsters are—and whether she can save her brother without sacrificing the people who have become bound to her heart.

At Ashmourne Academy, one drop of blood can start a war.

Calla spent her life unseen—the awkward girl next door, with messy hair and fragile bones, easy to ignore. Until the night of her eighteenth birthday, when the Moon Goddess revealed her fated mate: her arrogant stepbrother, Lucas, the golden boy of the wolves. He rejected her in front of everyone. Humiliated and heartbroken, Calla ran… and awakened a power no one could ignore.

She emerged beautiful and powerful. Now two dangerous men want her—Lucas, the mate who cast her aside, and Darius, her childhood crush and forbidden desire. Both would burn the pack to claim her.

The duckling is gone. The storm has arrived.

In the silent halls of the Aurora Research Institute, Dr. Eli Carter, a brilliant but lonely biologist, spends his nights unraveling the mysteries of life. His world changes forever when a captured alien prince, Kael, is brought in for a secret study. As Eli studies Kael, the two form an unexpected bond, discovering a connection that transcends species and boundaries.

When Eli learns of Kael’s tragic plight—a prince torn from his home and forced into captivity—he vows to help him escape. But with the institute’s ruthless director watching their every move and time running out, their love is put to the ultimate test. Can Eli and Kael defy the odds and find freedom together, or will their love be lost among the stars?

Elena, a formidable, powerful sorceress and assassin, is trapped in the body of a frail and blind servant called Cressida. The fate of this two people become twisted due to " hwanhonsool"( the soul of the death return to the living).
Elena becomes powerless after her soul was shifted to another body and on the quest to regain her magical abilities encounters a man from a prestigious family, who wants her help and he in turn changes his destiny.
The bond between these two becomes stronger and turns to an unbreakable romance. Will the mages be able to stop Elena after she regains her magical strength?

[Warning: Mature Content]

Talia always believed that on her nineteenth birthday she would be marked by the one person she trusted the most, her best friend Scott. He had promised her since they were children, and she held onto that promise with all her heart. But her dream shatters the moment she discovers Scott in the guest room with her step-sister, revealing that everything she believed in was a lie.

Heartbroken and desperate to escape the humiliation, Talia runs deep into the woods. There, she encounters a powerful and mysterious Alpha, and in a moment of vulnerability they share a night that changes her life forever. What Talia doesn’t know is that the Alpha marked her that night.

When she returns home, the mark is discovered and the pack is thrown into chaos. Furious and ashamed, her father decides she must choose a mate immediately to protect the pack’s reputation. But instead of letting her choose, he forces a mate upon her.

Now trapped in a life she never wanted, Talia must face the consequences of a mark she doesn’t understand. Meanwhile, the powerful Alpha who marked her is searching for her, and he is determined to claim what belongs to him no matter the cost.

Lauren is a brilliant journalist, but her curiosity puts her in danger when she begins to investigate the steps of a feared Italian mobster.
Enzo is cruel and calculating and makes Lauren his new obsession, he starts controlling her steps for a personal revenge for the story Lauren published about him.
However, when he kidnaps her, he develops deeper feelings for the woman he planned to kill. Meanwhile, Vicenzo, a cold and calculating gangster is planning revenge against the journalist who exposed him, but he did not count on looking at her and exploding with desire.

“I never forgave you, Hayley. You are horribly mistaken if you think showing up on another man’s arm erases your sins.
Keep running and I’ll keep chasing. You are my wife. You belong to me.”

I cannot help the derisive smirk that curves my lips.
“Nice speech, Mr. Hotshot. Was that supposed to scare me? Do well to remember your place. The Hayley who begged at your feet is dead.
If you want me back, you will learn to beg. Preferably on your knees…”


For six years, Hayley sacrificed her life and career as an international programmer to play the role of “perfect little wife” for Edward DaSilva and his family.

And what did she get in return? An emotionally unavailable husband, in-laws who treated her like filth… and a dead son.

To make things worse, Edward is hell bent on punishing her for the death of their only son.

With a heart heavy with grief, Hayley flees Manhattan. Three years later, she returns as the City’s most brilliant hacker — unbreakable, desired, and standing beside another man.

But Edward Da Silva never forgot about his wife. He wants her back, and this time, he’s not asking. He’s chasing.

They call him the King of the Upper East Side. And this king would fight to the death to keep his queen.

When Lucifer appeared in my bedroom wearing an impeccable suit, I dismissed it as a dream. But the Prince of Darkness had chosen his prey, and one fateful night changed everything. I tried to escape his obsession by fleeing to the altar with another man—until he crashed my wedding and claimed what he deemed rightfully his.

Now I'm bound to a possessive, dangerous being who sets my body aflame with a single touch. As his dark desires threaten to consume more than just my flesh, I realize I have only one choice: destroy the devil himself before he claims my soul forever.

To pay off my brother's gambling debts, I became Matthew's mistress.
Because he needed a wife as a shield, we got married.
After marriage I tried to play his wife until his first love came back.
I deliberately provoked her and took the opportunity to file for divorce.
After the divorce, I found out I was pregnant, and five years later I returned to the city with my daughter......

In the year 2387, humanity has evolved beyond their biological limits. After colonizing various planets and space stations, augmentation technology and genetic engineering have become commonplace. Humans are no longer satisfied with their natural bodies.

Society is divided into castes based on the level of genetic perfection and augmentation they possess. Commanders sit at the top of the hierarchy – humans with the best DNA modifications and the most advanced augmentations. They lead colonies with absolute power. Below them are the Beta-Engineers, the middle caste with standard augmentations who manage and maintain the colony's technology.

Neural-link is the standard way of life, an implant in the brain that connects all humans in a digital network. Some even enhance their bodies with bionic hair, synthetic organs, and various other advanced implants.

However, amidst this obsession with perfection, there are still a few humans who are nearly pure – almost without genetic modifications and with minimal augmentation. They are considered defective and inferior. Fiora Starfire is one of them, the daughter of a Beta-Engineer family, ironically the one closest to the original form of humanity.

The Genetic Matching Night is an annual ritual where Central AI helps match individuals with the highest DNA compatibility. For most, it is an opportunity to elevate their family’s genetic status. But for Fiora, tonight may reveal something far greater than just a matter of social status. What will happen?

After a devastating accident erased six months of her memory, Jasmine Reyes returns home only to find a mysterious boy watching her from the window across the street every single day. She thinks he's obsessed. She doesn't remember that she once loved him or that the accident that nearly killed her was never an accident at all. As buried memories resurface, Jasmine uncovers a deadly conspiracy, a forgotten first love, and a truth powerful enough to get them both killed.

“Fifty million dollars. Who dares to raise the bid?” The crippled man’s voice boomed through the auction hall, silencing everyone.

I froze on the stage, the blinding lights burning my skin. I was Item 344, a slave, a toy to be sold to the highest bidder. My father had sold me, and now, I was being fought over like a piece of meat.

“Sold!” The auctioneer screamed, trembling with excitement.

I looked at my buyer. He sat in a wheelchair, his legs covered by a blanket, his face handsome but cold as ice. A cripple? I scoffed inwardly. I was a hybrid—half vampire, half werewolf. Even without an inner wolf, I had powers. I could control minds. I would wipe his memory, steal his money, and escape before the night was over.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I hissed as his guards approached me. I pulled out a hidden knife, ready to slit throats. But a sudden, overpowering dizziness hit me. My body went weak, my vision blurred.

When I woke up, I was in a luxurious car, bound by cuffs. The cripple was sitting next to me, watching me with predator eyes.

“Who are you?” I asked, my voice trembling.
“Your new master,” he replied calmly.
“You wish.” I muttered.

In a flash, his hand wrapped around my throat. He moved faster than any human, faster than any cripple should be able to. His grip was steel.

“You seem to forget that I own you now,” he whispered dangerously, his face inches from mine. “Act as my mate for the Alpha selection, and I let you live. Refuse, and I’ll kill you myself.”

I tried to slip into his mind, to control him, to make him let me go. I pushed against his mental barriers, expecting them to crumble like everyone else’s.
But I hit a wall.
Shock paralyzed me. I couldn't read him.

He smirked, as if he knew exactly what I was trying to do. “We’re home, Jaslyn. Welcome to hell.”

Nymera Lancaster is a junior lawyer who discovers through a divorce case that her husband was already married with children, she goes into labor from the shock and wakes up in a werewolf world wearing a stranger's face. With no way back and no choice but to survive, she does the only thing she knows how to do, which is to be a lawyer. Kade Merrick, the Alpha Lawyer whose word is law, has never met anyone who argues back the way she does and he is immediately intrigued but Nymera is living on borrowed identity, the woman whose body she occupies wants it back and the Beta who wants Kade will do anything to expose her. When her true identity is exposed and both worlds make their claim on her, Nymera must fight the most important case of her life with no allies and everything to lose.

For three years, Mara Ellis raised twins for a dead man.

Then the comments appeared in the air.

They said Caleb Ward was alive.

They said he was about to marry another woman.

They said Mara was only the abandoned side character who would show up too late.

Mara folded one more tiny shirt, looked at her sleeping children, and decided the story had never met a mother with overdue bills.

The night before our mating ceremony, my Alpha boyfriend was tangled up with my brother's fiancée.

He was my brother's ride-or-die companion, and the son-in-law our pack cherished most.

My brother was devastated by this betrayal and charged toward the border that very day, never to return.

Yet everyone kept urging me to forgive them.

His comrade pleaded: "Kael knows he messed up. For the sake of all these years of brotherhood, just give him another chance."

The Elder advised: "I know you're angry, but he's now our pack's Alpha. Making things too bitter won't be good for your future either. Elara, let it go."

Even the usually fair Council Chief was persuading me: "Elara, he's a war hero. It's not easy for a pack to cultivate an Alpha... some things... require considering the bigger picture."

I stopped arguing and simply knelt before my brother's grave for an entire night.

Then I submitted my severance application and moved to new territory with my parents, who had gone white-haired overnight.

Before leaving, Kael blocked my path with reddened eyes: "Elara, do you hate me this much? Won't you even give me a chance to atone?"

I looked at him calmly: "Your sin, like my brother's life, can never be repaid."

After that day, he continued rising through the pack ranks, earning honors, as if nothing had ever happened.

While our family stayed away for three whole years.

I thought I'd never have any connection with Kael again in this lifetime.

Until a recall order brought him back before me once more.

"Elara, long time no see."

I and my twin elf sister married at the same day.
She was to marry the the Light Falcon Lord of the Holy Light Kingdom, and I the vicious Lord of the Black Scale Wyrms.
All elves envied her fortunate match.
But on our wedding night, the Falcon Lord left to fight a battle, and sacrificed himself for the realms.
The Serpent Lord later ascended to godhood, his glory outshining the Holy Light Kingdom.
Left widowed in the light court, my sister betrayed her vows with a knight.
The King stripped her elven power and banished her to the cell.
When I visited her, she tricked me into drinking corrosive spring water, erasing my soul entirely.
But I woke to find we had both reborn on the day our betrothals were declared.
This time, my sister fought hard to marry the Lord of Black Scale Wyrms.
I smiled quietly.
How could she cast aside a blessed life revered by all realms for a hollow dark divinity?

After the catastrophic war between the four great races ended in ceasefire, the Supernatural Council established an ironclad law—the Pact of Heirs.
Every hundred years, a Mating Season would open, where eligible heirs would compete to determine who would rule the world for the next century.
In my previous life, I chose to marry the wolf prince Darius, desperate to escape my status as a black-feathered orphan in the eagle clan.
The wolf clan's rule was brutally simple: whoever bore the first child carrying the matrilineal eagle-eye bloodline would claim dominion over all. I gave Darius that child. My son secured his throne and granted him absolute power.
My sister Cecily—the chieftain's true daughter—had set her sights on the vampire heir, drawn by their ancient nobility and dark allure. She married into their clan willingly.
But vampire bonds were cold as death itself. Her human-adjacent body couldn't sustain their offspring. She lost her fertility and became a cautionary tale whispered at every gathering.
Twisted by jealousy and shame, she decided I was to blame for her failures. She drugged my wine at a feast, then hurled me off Storm Cliff while I was too weak to spread my wings.
As I plummeted toward the rocks, someone tried to catch me—Kade, the exiled wingless dragon, his dark-scaled hand reaching desperately from a ledge.
But above us, Cecily stood at the cliff's edge, smiling as she cut through the safety rope he'd thrown. I hit the stones and everything went black.
When I opened my eyes again, I could still feel the phantom warmth of Kade's hand and the venom in Cecily's smile.
But somehow, impossibly, I was back—returned to the very day the Mating Season began.
Through the one-way scrying glass at the Observation Altar, I looked down at the moonlit sacrificial platform below. Cecily was already there. And she wasn't alone.
She'd been reborn too. I was certain of it.
But she didn't know what I knew—that Darius was a monster to his lovers.
During the full moon, when the wolf took over completely, he'd killed more than one partner in his bed.

In my previous life, on the night of our wedding anniversary, my husband Bryan brought his pregnant mistress, Victoria, into our home. Driven to the edge, I slashed my wrists to force him to kick her out.
No one could have predicted her blood sugar would suddenly crash in the freezing storm outside. She collapsed into a flooded ditch and froze to death before anyone found her.
Everyone ruled it a tragic accident, but Bryan decided her blood was on my hands.
Months later, when I went into labor, he abused his position as my doctor to deliberately delay my care. He left me to writhe through dozens of hours of agonizing contractions and severe hemorrhaging until I bled out.
When, with hands slick with my own blood, I begged him to save our baby, he calmly peeled off his soiled surgical gloves. The look in his eyes was merciless.
"Heartbroken?" he sneered. "Good. Take the brat down to hell with you to keep Victoria company."
An icy, suffocating darkness swallowed me whole.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the exact night of our anniversary—the very moment Bryan, bringing the freezing rain in with him, protectively guided Victoria through my front door.

"You drive me crazy, Lilith. Just one night... I’ll give you whatever you want. Please let me taste you," my billionaire CEO whimpered, pinning me against the wall, his hot breath brushing my ear.

He is obsessed with my new face, my body, and my ruthless attitude. He is willing to abandon everything just to get into my bed.

If only he knew that the flawless skin he’s kissing right now used to be covered in the acid his mistress poured on me.
If only he knew that I am his dead, naive wife—the one he threw into an ice cellar to die along with our unborn child, just to steal my family's inheritance.

"Anything I want?" I trace his jawline, smiling sweetly as my nail digs into his skin. "Then give me your empire, William. And your life."

I rose from the ashes with a new face and a hidden will. He wants to ruin my lipstick, but I came back to ruin his life.

My mother stared at my body, fused to the sofa, and waited forty minutes before calling 911.
She cheerfully told my father the news, deciding they should celebrate with a nice dinner.
Of course.
After all, they could finally be rid of the burden I’d become—no more tormenting me, no more keeping me locked away.
They could go back to being the respectable parents everyone thought they were.
But—
Someone was bound to see the truth.

My fiancé, Liam Miller, slapped me more than a dozen times in front of everyone over his childhood sweetheart.
Then he shoved me down a spiral staircase.
Both my legs were shattered. My skull cracked open. I spent an entire month in the ICU.
He never came to see me.
Not once.
He was too busy staying by Sophia’s side, planning her birthday party, and getting down on one knee in front of everyone to propose to her.
As for me, I couldn’t even get through the doors of his headquarters anymore. My access had been revoked. My position had been taken. Every trace of my place in his world had been erased.
Nine years.
From nineteen to twenty-eight, I gave him the best years of my life.
In the end, I had given them to the wrong man.
On the day I was discharged, I didn’t cry. I didn’t scream. I didn’t cling to him and beg for answers.
I simply called my mother.
“Mom,” I said calmly, “that overseas mafia empire you wanted me to inherit? I’m ready to take it.”
There was a brief silence on the other end.
Then my mother said, “I’ve waited ten years for this day.”
The night before my flight, Liam’s messages flooded my phone.
“Emma, I was wrong. Don’t go.”
What do you think?
Would I ever look back?

For eighteen months, I loved Asher in secret, betting all my pride and heart on our hidden affair. He took my tenderness while prioritizing his rich fiancée, mocking my love and sacrificing my future for his family’s marriage deal. Shamed online, shunned at school and tormented, I made no fuss. I repaid every dollar he gave me, cut all ties, transferred schools and rebuilt myself. He broke off his engagement, lost his pride and begged me to come back—yet all I offered was a final goodbye.

Ice slammed through my veins.
My throat locked up, crushed by an invisible fist. My body convulsed violently, mouth gaping open and shut, but no air came.
Through blurring vision, I saw my polished stepbrother Damien standing there, watching his watch—counting down the seconds I had left.
And Sophie—that scholarship kid who used to sob over dead ants—stood holding the empty syringe, her smile twisted and ugly. "Don't worry, Charlotte. I'll take real good care of your Ivy spot and your boyfriend."
The darkness swallowed me whole.

47 deaths.
48 iterations.
He sold his brother a death trap and called it a farm.
When the dead rose, the experiment began—and the only way out was through.

My husband's body moved over Celeste's, driving into her with brutal force.
She wrapped her legs around his waist, moaning like she did for her three million followers—except this performance was just for him.
I was her assistant. Her best friend, supposedly. Which is how I knew her passcode.
Now I was wedged in the back of her bedroom closet, phone aimed through the gap in the slats, ready to catch the bastard in the act.
Then Celeste's moans ripped into a scream. The mattress lurched violently. Blood poured down the sheets in thick rivers.
Her head hit the floor. Rolled. Stopped right in front of the closet.
Those wide eyes met mine through the darkness.

The day after Lucian was titled Duke, he locked down the estate to find the woman who climbed into his bed.
In my first life, I claimed the honor. He grabbed my hand and sneered, "That woman has a scar."
I froze to death in the ice cellar.
In my second life, Martha slashed her own hand and stepped forward. He ripped her collar open. "She has a cross tattoo on her chest. Do you?"
His hounds tore her throat out in the snow.
Now we're in our third life. The Duke just issued a three-day ultimatum, dead certain that the woman is hiding in the Duchess's wing.
Martha and I stared at each other. We're the only two maids serving the Duchess.

Five years ago, on our wedding day, my fiancée Vivian was in the bridal suite fucking my best man.
Five years later, I returned to New York with my wife—the most powerful Mafia matriarch in Naples. At Atelier Milano, Brandon, the same "best man" who betrayed me, fawned over my custom-tailored suit, groveling to the staff about how desperately he wanted to meet the legendary Mr. Salvatore.
He had no idea...
The man he'd once written off as a pathetic loser was the very person he was now begging to impress.

I married a rapist.
After the wedding, I played the perfect wife. I always took off my makeup after he fell asleep, and reapplied it before he woke up.
My husband loved showing off on his livestream, bragging that women should know their place.
One viewer sent a warning in the chat:
[Run, man. Only vengeful spirits do their makeup in the middle of the night—when their resentment is strongest, the makeup lasts longer!]
I covered my face and grinned wickedly.
Oops, forgot concealer. My corpse marks are showing.

I ripped out half my heart for him.

Literally.

Six years ago, Draco—the Black Dragon Lord—was dying on the battlefield, enemy claws buried in his chest. So I tore myself open and shoved half my witch's heart into his body to save his life.

After that, I lived with constant pain, my magic drained to nothing. I fought his wars, nearly died a dozen times, all while waiting for him to keep his promise—that he'd make me his queen after the coronation.

But on coronation day, Draco brought back the half-elf Ivy and told me to give up my crown.

Why? Ivy stayed with him in the Abyss for three years. And now she was pregnant with his child.

It destroyed me. So I drank the Oblivion Potion—the one thing that could strip away every ounce of love I had for him.

And in three days, I'm leaving for the polar regions to marry into the Silver Wolf Clan.

The adoptive brother I'd been secretly in love with for a decade took my virginity on the night of my twentieth birthday, fueled by alcohol.

I thought I had finally found love.

Until I stood outside his half-open apartment door and heard his teammates mocking me.

"Damn, Dax, you actually slept with Elara? That boring good girl?"

My hand froze mid-air above the doorknob.

Dax's tone was dripping with contempt. "Look closely at her face. It's exactly like Cassandra's, isn't it?"

"It's no big deal. She revolves around me every single day. All it took was crooking a finger."

"With Cassandra gone, she's the perfect stand-in to kill time."

The room instantly erupted into a fit of unbridled, mocking laughter.

I dug my nails fiercely into my palms, opened my phone, and found the email I had deliberately ignored for a month.

[Florence Academy of Fine Arts — Exchange Program Confirmation]

My parents ruined my wedding six times.

Every single time, right at the moment the ring was about to slip onto my finger—the first time, Mom knocked over the champagne tower. The second time, Dad drove his pickup truck straight through the floral arch... Either the groom wasn't good enough, or the wedding was too cheap. Each time was more batshit crazy than the last. The sixth time, Mom even held a knife to her own throat, threatening me not to put on the ring.

It made no sense to me—why push me to get married while doing everything to stop me from wearing that ring?

So for the seventh wedding, I chose a small chapel in a remote mountain area, went completely off-grid, dead certain they'd never track me down.

Just as Ethan was about to slide the ring onto my finger—

The chapel doors burst open.

Two figures stumbled in, gasping for air, faces streaked with tears.

My parents.

On our seventh anniversary, Jeffrey brought his mistress home for dinner.

Calla wore my dead mother's necklace and called me a "boring housewife" while I cooked for them. Jeffrey laughed, saying I was lucky he kept me around since I'd never contributed anything to our marriage.

What he didn't know? I'd given up my six-figure tech career to nurse him back from his car accident. Sacrificed everything while he treated me like his personal servant.

For seven years, I endured his cheating and cruelty, thinking love meant sacrifice.

I was wrong.

When I left him the divorce papers, Jeffrey screamed that I'd come crawling back within a week.

But when I never came back, he was the one who lost his mind.

Everyone said I was the happiest woman of the Northern Plains Clan, blessed with the purest love from Eric, the Wolf King.
Then my wolf let out a tormented howl.
Through the soul bond of fated mates, I felt it clearly—
my husband held my maid in his arms, drowning in desperate lust.
That nourishing tonic I’d drunk for three years, which I’d believed was filled with his affection, had only been brewed to keep me barren all along.
"Eric, I want you..."
"All of me is yours, my love. Bear our cub soon."
Those sweet whispers I once held dear shattered me to pieces in an instant.
The whole clan praised us as the perfect pair.
Yet who could have imagined this marriage had been built entirely on lies from the very start?
Since he is such a master of pretense, I suppose it’s time I put on a show of my own.
I will expose the true face of this flawless husband for everyone to see.

At my seventh wedding, they replaced me.

The Oracle pointed at me and screamed one word: "CURSED."

Father's hand cracked across my face. Mother tore the wedding dress off my body and shoved my cousin Seraphine into it.

"She'll marry him instead," Father said. "You'll destroy us all."

What they didn't know? A thousand years ago, our family made a blood pact with the Shadow Lord himself: if the eldest Ashford daughter remained unmarried on her twenty-sixth birthday, she belonged to HIM.

Today was my twenty-sixth birthday.

I begged Julian to run. "Please. We have until sunset."

He laughed. "The Shadow Lord's a fairy tale, Anna. Seraphine's just going through the motions. You're being dramatic."

Then he told my parents everything.

They locked me in the tower.

But the Shadow High Priest's warning was clear—at sunset, the Shadow Lord would come. And when he did, I'd drink the Potion of Forgetting and lose everything.

My memories. My name. My soul.

The clock struck five.

He was coming.

Landon Rhodes and I grew up together, both dreaming of becoming top chefs. But I knew he was the one with a palate kissed by God.

So when Rowan Stone, this street-rat punk, got her claws into him, I took the drinks, the smoke, the slaps for him. When he wanted to skip the National Young Chefs Competition to stay with her drunk ass, I dragged him back to the culinary lab.

He won the championship, got recruited by a three-star Michelin restaurant, graduated and made millions. I became the most invisible prep cook in his kitchen.

Until Rowan wrapped her car around a pole during one of her episodes, and he lured me into a basement.

"This is all your fault! If you'd minded your own damn business, she'd still be alive!"

His foot came down on my right hand. Bones cracking. My fingers ground to pulp.

All those 5 AM trips to the fish market for him. All those nights watching stock simmer for forty-eight hours straight. All the praise he soaked up at final practicals. My sacrifices, and all I got in return was his hatred.

"These worthless hands that can only cut vegetables deserve to rot in the ground with her."

The pain swallowed me whole.

When I wake up again, I'm back to that afternoon when he said he was going to the bar to find her.

This time, I won't stop him.

At seven years old, he pulled me from the rapids—and for the eleven years that followed, I loved this man I called "Uncle."

Then Sophia appeared. She accused me of pushing her down the stairs, and Michael didn't spare me so much as a glance before throwing me out into the storm. I knocked until my hands were raw and bleeding. He never opened the door.

Three years later, he showed up at my workplace, demanding I "come home" with him. His pregnant girlfriend flaunted a twelve-week ultrasound, cooing about how the baby already "looked just like him"—then staged yet another fall, told yet another lie, let out yet another shriek, casting me once more as the heartless monster.

But this time, I won't beg.

This time, I know secrets they don't.

Because that miscarriage three years ago? That baby? That ultrasound?

None of it was real.

The question is—how much has Michael already lost, and can he see the truth before the one person who ever truly loved him is gone for good?

That was supposed to be one of the most anticipated days of my life—the wedding of my best friend, Sarah.
But when I put on my bridesmaid dress, she called me a bitch.
"Get out." Sarah looked at me like I was trash.
"I don't want to see you at my wedding."
I stood frozen in place, staring down at the broken Cartier bracelet she had given me, now lying scattered on the floor.

I was a scholarship student with thirty extra pounds. Del Ashford had two hundred thousand followers and her family's supplement brand on every wall of the athletic center. First week of school, she decided we were going to be best friends.
She said she wanted to help me get in shape. What that actually looked like: I carried her product shipments up three flights of stairs, drafted her emails, and picked up her lunch from the place across campus that didn't deliver.
My roommates started calling me her errand girl behind my back. I let them.
She also introduced me to Beckett Hale. After that, things went the way they went.
She knocked my protein shake over and said I'd burned her. She planted her limited-edition earphones in my bag and told everyone I'd stolen them. The school opened a conduct review. My roommates stopped talking to me.

Beckett said I was the kind of girl who got a little attention and started thinking she deserved more of it.
I couldn't prove any of it. By spring, I was gone.
Some people just aren't built for this, Wren. You know that, right?
Del hadn't even been looking at me when she said it.
Then I opened my eyes and I was back at the party. The night she introduced me to Beckett.

After the apocalypse began, my husband's female assistant stole my viral experiment data for the ninth time. I couldn't take it anymore and confronted her publicly.
My husband said I was just jealous of her, punished me by making me apologize to her in front of everyone, and demoted me.
Later, he sweet-talked me, promising compensation.
The next day, his true love showed up at the lab wearing his family heirloom necklace.
"François felt so bad about me being falsely accused yesterday that he gave me his family necklace."
"I heard this necklace is supposed to go to his wife. Oh, Andrea, you're not mad, are you?"
I just smiled. "Not mad at all. Trash belongs with trash—you two are perfect for each other."
François immediately snapped, "It's just a necklace. No need to be so nasty about it."
"Apologize to Caro right now, or I'll kick you out of the lab and divorce you!"
Watching François defend Caro, I didn't get angry at all.
Once I'm gone, his zombie virus research won't get anywhere.

Seven years married. Seven years reading minds. Still ended up the biggest joke in New York's underworld.

My husband Dante—Mafia boss—put that ring on my finger thinking, "This should be Elena's."

Seven years taking bullets for him. Seven years tortured for him. All I got was his cold contempt.

Then Elena came back with a kid. I became trash.

"Victoria, you disgust me." He crushed me under his boot, had me beaten bloody—all for her.

That's when my heart died.

I didn't explain. Just watched the clock.

Three hours until the boat leaves.

Dante, we're done. Forever.