Jia Zhong

I am a lowly "Dragonless" handmaiden in a world ruled by powerful dragon-shifting nobles. For years, I secretly loved Courtland Beaumont, the flawless heir to the fortress. When I finally gathered the courage to approach him at a grand banquet, he publicly humiliated me. Standing next to his high-born lover, he laughed and coldly declared that a worthless Dragonless girl like me would never be his type. My heart shattered. I fled the hall in tears, only to crash into a tall, terrifying stranger in the dark corridor. He grabbed my wrist hard enough to bruise, mocked my crying face, and sneered that a kitchen maid like me didn't belong there. Furious and completely broken, I lost my mind and screamed at him, calling him an arrogant, rude bastard before running away. But when my friend dragged me back to the hall for the main ceremony, my blood ran cold. The stranger I had just cursed out was standing on the high dais. He was Hardin Beaumont, the Dragon Lord's infamous, violent second son who had just returned from exile. And his dark, cruel eyes were locked right on me. I had offended both the heir I loved and the dangerous prince I feared in a single night. I kept my head down, desperately trying to sneak out the back door to escape my doomed fate. But a lazy, chilling voice suddenly echoed through the quiet crowd, stopping me in my tracks. "Leaving so soon? Is it because you look down on me, or the Beaumont family?"

I died in a fire of betrayal. My stepsister smiled as she watched me burn. My fiancé held her waist, whispering sweet nothings while the flames consumed my home. They murdered my father, poisoned my pack warriors, and drained my inheritance-all while I played the perfect, trusting fool. But the Moon Goddess gave me a second chance. I woke up ten years in the past, the scent of smoke still haunting my lungs, the memory of their betrayal seared into my soul. I am no longer the naive Alpha heir they could manipulate and discard. I know every lie they will tell. Every weapon they will use. Every secret they think is buried. This time, I smile while they plot. I nod while they scheme. And when they strike, I'm ready-not to crumble, but to destroy. The moment I walk into that hall and see my stepsister's fake tears and my fiancé's feigned concern, I don't flinch. I don't cower. I look them in the eye and call their carriage accident what it really is: attempted murder. I summon the police. I bring in Alpha Donnie Sinclair-the powerful, dangerous man I rejected in my first life-to witness the truth. I gather witnesses. I produce evidence. I publicly humiliate the Beta who thought he could use me. And when my stepmother's trusted maid finally breaks, when the full conspiracy unravels in front of everyone... She screams that my mother's death wasn't an illness. She screams that my father was involved. The web is so much bigger than I ever imagined. But I've already burned once. And this time? I'm the one holding the flame. They wanted a pawn. They got a queen. And I will not stop until every single one of them pays. "I cannot truly understand why I would give up a man like Donnie for a man like Jarod in my past life. But I cannot let that happen again this time." This time, I choose myself. And I'm coming for everything they stole.

I was about to walk down the grand staircase to marry Dante Vitiello, a feared mafia Don, sealing a powerful blood oath between our Families. But at the bottom of the marble steps, I found his former mistress wearing an exact replica of my three-million-dollar bridal gown, bleeding from a minor scrape and screaming that I pushed her. Dante immediately stormed into the foyer, his dark eyes furious, and crushed my wrist in a violent grip. "Bow your head and apologize to her," he demanded in front of the entire underworld elite. His mother stepped forward and spat at me, calling me a vicious, jealous girl who brought shame to their empire. The surrounding made men and high-society guests whispered in condemnation, entirely taking his side. But the deepest betrayal wasn't his mistress crashing the wedding. I soon discovered Dante had ordered his legal team to draft a predatory annulment contract the night before. It was titled "Major Fault of the Bride," a meticulously planned trap designed to frame me and strip my family's port territories as reparations for this staged disaster. I looked at the man I was supposed to marry, realizing he thought I was just a naive pawn he could humiliate, rob, and discard. He truly believed I would break down in tears and submit to his power. Instead, I pulled out my encrypted phone and summoned the Mafia Commission's Arbitrator. "Cancel the marriage ceremony," I commanded coldly, preparing to shed my heavy bridal gown. "Tonight, there is no wedding."

I stood in the ballroom of the Plaza Hotel, clutching a crystal flute of champagne that felt like a lead weight. It was my engagement party, the night I was supposed to be the happiest woman in New York. Then my phone buzzed with a link that shattered everything. I watched a video of my fiancé, Jed, tangled in the arms of my roommate while he laughed about how I was just a "boring, safe little girl" he needed to tolerate until my family's stock transfer went through. When I confronted him and walked out, I thought the nightmare was over, but my own father called me in a rage. He didn't care that I’d been betrayed; he only cared that the merger was the only thing keeping him from bankruptcy. He froze my bank accounts and left me with exactly forty-two dollars to my name. Jed started sending me threats, promising to leak private videos to the press if I didn't come back to him. I was penniless, homeless, and being hunted by a man who wanted to destroy my soul. Desperate, I took the only deal left on the table: a contract marriage to Hardin Hunter, a reclusive billionaire heir with terminal heart failure. The deal was simple: ten million dollars to be a "nurse with a ring" for six months until he passed away. I signed the papers and moved into his gothic manor, expecting to wait for a heart to stop beating. But when Hardin pinned me against a wall, his grip like iron and his pulse thundering with a strength no dying man should possess, I realized the "dying" heir was a lie. "You're not dying," I whispered, feeling the raw power of his heart against my hand. Hardin just looked at me with eyes like molten glass and said, "I might be a monster, Elsie, but I'm the only one who can keep you alive."

My husband, the Outfit’s most feared Consigliere, stood up and buttoned his suit jacket. He had just convinced a jury that Sofia Moretti was innocent. But we both knew the truth: Sofia had poisoned my mother over a spilled martini on her Valentino dress. Instead of comforting me, Dante looked at me with cold, dead eyes. "If you make a scene," he whispered, gripping my arm until it bruised, "I will bury you in a psychiatric ward so deep even God won't find you." To protect the Family alliance, he sacrificed his wife. When I tried to fight back, he drugged me at a gala. He let a private investigator take photos of me, naked and unconscious, just to have leverage to keep me silent. He paraded Sofia around our penthouse, letting her wear my dead mother’s shawl while I was banished to the staff quarters. He thought he had broken me. He thought I was just a nurse’s daughter he could manage. But he made a fatal error. He didn't read the "committal forms" I handed him to sign. They were divorce papers, transferring his assets to me. And the night of the yacht party, while he toasted to his victory with my mother's killer, I left my wedding ring on the deck. I didn't jump to die. I jumped to be reborn. And when I resurfaced, I made sure Dante Russo burned for every sin.

For years, I was the orphan girl hopelessly in love with my guardian, Jordan. He was my protector, my entire world, the man who promised he would always keep me safe. Then he announced his engagement to Gwyneth Duran, a woman who saw me as a rival to be crushed. One night, he stumbled home drunk, mistook me for her, and forced a kiss on me. But when he woke up the next morning, he looked at me with pure disgust. "I know what you're doing," he spat. "Trying to worm your way into my life. Stay away from me." His fiancée slapped me, calling me a slut, and his parents, believing their lies, threw me out with nothing. The man who had been my hero now saw me as something vile. With my heart shattered, I made one last call. "Aunt Diana? I'm coming to Chicago." From now on, he and I are nothing but strangers.

For five years, I tolerated my husband Franklyn' s cheating. My only condition was simple: keep it out of my sight. Then his college crush, Heaven, came back. He didn't just parade her around-he stole the community center I designed in memory of our late son and gave it to her as a gift. When photos of their affair were leaked at her launch event, he shielded her from the cameras and pointed the finger at me. He told the world I was an unstable, grieving wife who was having an affair. He forced me to publicly confess, shattering my reputation. Then he came home and told me Heaven was pregnant and that I needed to move out of our penthouse to give her a "calm environment." "You know how much you care for children, Clara," he said, using my deepest pain against me. That night, I signed the divorce papers. At the airport, as he screamed my name from behind the security gate, I calmly pulled the SIM card from my phone, dropped it in the trash, and boarded the plane.

The box arrived on a Tuesday, innocent enough, addressed to me, Ethan Miller, in my college buddy Liam' s messy handwriting. Inside, though, tucked among wood shavings, were human ribs. Unmistakably. My stomach churned, the horror escalating when I found Liam' s note, claiming these macabre remains were from his "weight loss surgery" and I had to make bone broth for "spiritual closure." It was sick, insane, but what do you do when your friend sends you human bones and asks you to make soup? So I did what any horrified person in the 21st century would do: I posted it on a niche online forum, only to receive a chilling private message: "It' s a ritual. Soul Swap. They' re trying to take your body. DON' T DO IT." My blood ran cold, the warning echoing as I stared at the bones. I couldn' t throw them away; I had to dispose of them discreetly. A desperate plan formed: I' d feed the human ribs to the sanctuary bull, fake the soup with beef bones, and send Liam the video. But my girlfriend, Sarah, suddenly developed an unsettling interest in my "bone broth," and a new message from my anonymous guide arrived: "They know you' re thinking of tricking them. The vessel must consume the offering willingly. If you fake it, they will know. The consequences will be worse. Be careful who you trust. Even those closest to you." Watching Sarah hum over the simmering pot, a horrifying truth began to dawn on me: the people closest to me might be the ones I should fear the most.

I was just days from my due date, nesting in our Bay Area home, full of anticipation for the arrival of our child with my beloved husband, Ethan. Without warning, I woke up blindfolded, hands bound, struggling for air in a damp, cold forest, my heavily pregnant body pressed painfully against the earth. Over hidden speakers, I heard Ethan's voice, transformed from loving husband to callous ringmaster, casually discussing a brutal "performance art" with his mistress, Chloe, and acknowledging my water had broken. He then ordered agonizing electric shocks, bet ten million dollars on my death, and unleashed vicious dogs before I was dragged to a makeshift table for a forced C-section, sans anesthesia, all for their twisted amusement. How could the man who once wore a simple silver locket, a symbol of our shared journey from nothing, now orchestrate such monstrous betrayal, turning his pregnant wife and our unborn child into pawns in a deadly, public spectacle? After enduring unimaginable tortures and surviving a coma, I miraculously awakened, not to forgive, but to ensure that the man who stole my child and desecrated my love would face consequences, and I would finally find a fragile peace far from his shadow.

I was a successful Chicago paramedic, seeking peace from city trauma, when I saved Ethan Caldwell, the charming heir to a Northern California empire. He promised a quiet life, true love, and soon, I was pregnant with our son. My future felt perfect. But this gilded cage harbored a sinister core. His icy mother, Eleanor, and his seductive sister-in-law, Veronica, resented me, plotting to erase my happiness. I discovered Ethan and Veronica locked in a scandalous embrace, and that same day, an excruciating pain ripped through me – I lost our child. Instead of comfort, I faced unspeakable cruelty: they callously denied me proper medical care, ushering me to an ill-equipped local clinic, leading to my baby's tragic stillbirth. Then, they forced a drug upon me, designed to steal my fertility forever. They brazenly framed me for poisoning Veronica, publicly shaming me, with Ethan blindly believing their every lie. The ultimate horror struck when Veronica flaunted a chilling jade pendant, casually revealing it was crafted from our son's ashes, a grotesque desecration. My husband, the man who vowed to protect me, saw none of their evil nor my innocence. He watched, complicit, as they conspired to commit me to a remote mental institution, believing their manufactured narrative of my "insanity." How could the man I loved be so utterly blind, so heartlessly callous? But even as they dragged me into the night, a hidden text from my Chicago lawyer ignited a fierce fire within me. This wasn't the end of me; it was the explosive start of my calculated, ruthless reckoning against them all.

Ever since she finished high school, Lola came to live with her aunt, who worked as a maid in a rich family's home. To stop a man from committing suicide, Lola stepped in and provoked James. He, on the other hand, was none other than her young master, a charming but bossy man who had just come back from abroad. Amid all this drama, they started their story. But once the secret was out, what changes would it bring to their fates? When love was already buried deep inside, how could everything be as it was in the beginning?

Lillian woke in a werecreature universe as a total loser. Good news was that women ruled here and could take multiple mates, yet she still ended up as the one everyone looked down on. Compared to her talented sister at every turn, she watched her first match get stolen and her next four mates reject her without mercy. The first mate was the King of Succubine himself. On their very first meeting, he warned Lillian that he was only staying long enough to recover from his injuries-and that there could never be anything between them. The second mate was a merman. He took one look at her and said he had no interest in a loser like her, tossing her some cash so she could break off their bond herself. The third mate was the progenitor vampire-over a thousand years old. He admitted to admiring her sister instead and made it clear he had no interest in a layabout like Lillian. Lillian cut every bond and chose her own path instead. But as she rose higher and higher, those same men returned, full of regret and begging her to look at them again. The fourth mate was a werewolf Lillian had rescued from an underground fighting ring. She thought he might actually stay-until he revealed himself as royalty. And of course, he wanted to break their bond for more power.

I knelt on the cold stone of the Dragon God Altar, waiting to marry Lord Harper Carney. It was my only chance to escape the gilded cage of my family. But when Harper finally arrived, he wasn't alone. His arm was wrapped tightly around my cousin, Hettie. Right in front of the entire court, he coldly announced that our marriage was a mistake. Hettie leaned into his embrace, wearing a triumphant smile while playing the innocent victim. The assembled nobles openly jeered at me. They mocked my greatest failing—that I was a worthless "Dragonless" born without the inner fire. My own father was furious, not at them, but at me. He demanded I go to Hettie's estate and beg for her forgiveness. When I refused, he threatened to cut off all my funds and revoke my only job at the Royal Scribes' Office. I was publicly abandoned, stripped of my dignity, and left with absolutely nothing. I didn't cry, and I didn't scream. Why should I be the one to apologize when they were the ones who betrayed me? For years, I had endured their abuse, treated like a pawn to be sacrificed at will. But looking at their smug faces, my despair turned into cold resolve. I took off my betrothal coronet and dropped it at Harper's feet, publicly nullifying the contract myself. I thought I would have to face the ruin alone, until a mysterious, powerful man with burning golden eyes stepped out of the shadows. "Marry me," he said. "I will be your shield, and we will crush them together."

I woke up to the stench of rust and rotting flesh, no longer a master botanist who commanded life itself, but a D-class exile dumped on a wasteland planet. Memories that weren't mine flooded in. I was framed by my stepsister, betrayed by my fiancé, and banished by my own family to the Ashfall Peninsula to die. The original girl actually starved to death in despair. The moment I opened my eyes, a scavenger tried to smash my skull with a rusty pipe just to eat me. After I killed him to survive, I discovered a harsher truth: in this universe, plant seeds are classified as A-level strategic resources, completely monopolized by the Imperium. But the universe had a sick sense of humor. A mandatory background scan suddenly triggered a galactic broadcast: I, the exiled trash, was a perfect genetic match for the Imperium's top war hero, General Alexander Orr. The family that ruthlessly erased my existence instantly saw me as a golden ticket. My cheating ex-fiancé was dispatched to drag me back, furious that his "property" was matched with someone else. They all thought I was still that weak, naive girl they could manipulate. But as I held the pure, glowing Life Source Crystals I had secretly extracted from the scrap heap, a cold smile crept onto my face. "I didn't come here to die. I came here to build an empire." I turned my back on the galactic broadcast and stepped into the deadly wilderness.

I am the Dragonless Queen, married to the Dragon King for five years, trying to warm his icy heart. But on my twenty-fifth birthday, he canceled our private dinner to spend it with my half-sister, Lyra. Through the cracked door, I watched him smile at Lyra with a warmth he never gave me, praising her sacred dragonfire. "Auntie Lyra is amazing!" my four-year-old daughter squealed. "Mom never knows how to make these!" My husband didn't even look up when I finally entered, coldly telling me not to make an issue out of a quiet family evening. Looking at the three of them framed by the hearth-the formidable king, the holy maiden of flame, and the adoring royal daughter-they formed a picture of unassailable perfection. I was just a cold-blooded intruder in my own home, a decorative fixture tolerated only for political peace. Five years of silent endurance evaporated into a freezing void. Why did I bury my true self, believing devotion could fill the empty spaces? Why did I let them treat me like a shameful defect? I didn't scream or cry. I calmly drafted a formal Declaration of Severance, left it on his desk, and walked out of the palace forever. My husband assumed I was just throwing a domestic tantrum and would come crawling back once my coin ran out. He had no idea that his useless, Dragonless wife was actually the shadowy founder of Aether Forge-the premier military syndicate his entire empire desperately relied on to survive. Keep your throne, Kaelen. I am taking back my life.

My engagement to Kile, the heir of House Golden, was witnessed by the Duke himself. I thought my days as a helpless orphan were over. But right before our wedding, he coldly informed me that my status was being revoked. I was to enter his family as a lesser consort. The title of primary wife was being given to his lover, Journey. She hid behind Kile, wearing a spotless white dress and trembling like a fragile lotus. "Cassie, please don't blame him, I can live without a title," she cried, playing the perfect victim. Kile shielded her, glaring at me with pure disgust, shouting that I was being completely unreasonable. The next day, the entire Elder Council cornered me in their grand hall. They told me that as a "Dragonless" nobody, I should be immensely grateful for any scrap they threw my way. They all stared at me, waiting for me to swallow my pride and accept a lifetime of humiliation. They thought I was entirely broken. They thought I had no backing and no choice but to bow down to their cruelty. Instead, I looked straight at the Chief Elder and smiled. "I refuse to be a lesser consort," I announced clearly, watching Kile's smug expression freeze. "But to preserve our families' dignity, I will fulfill the contract." I looked right into Kile's shocked eyes. "I will marry your dead older brother, Lord Ayden."

On my eighteenth birthday, I expected the Federal Matchmaking Bureau to give me the same answer it always had. No Match Found. For years, I had survived as the Greer family's defective male Omega-an embarrassment with no detectable pheromones, no beast-mark potential, and no chance of producing the powerful Alpha heir my father wanted. A failed test meant freedom. It would unlock my late mother's fortune and let me disappear for good. Then the machine demanded a blood sample. The next second, the entire Bureau went into lockdown. Duncan Cain, the Empire's youngest war general. Hollis Beaumont, the crown prince of our enemy empire. A pirate lord, a king, the Alliance's chief diplomat... Six of the most powerful Alphas in the galaxy. All matched to me at 100%. My father, who had treated me like a worthless stray for eighteen years, suddenly seized my arm with greedy eyes. "Ansel, you're going to make this family untouchable." My stepsister watched in horror as the Bureau declared me a Shared Treasure of Humanity. Armed guards surrounded me. The Empire decided my body, my future, and six Alpha suitors all belonged to them now. They had no idea I was never the weak, obedient Omega they thought I was. I was an ace mech pilot, the secret heir to a fortune large enough to buy my freedom, and I had spent years preparing one perfect escape. So while my father dreamed of selling me to the highest bidder, I opened my terminal and sent a single encrypted message. They thought they had trapped a helpless Omega. Instead, they had just started my contingency plan.

Caryn lay trapped beneath concrete slabs in the apocalyptic ruins, a steel rebar pinning her down, the pressure unbearable. Her fiancé, Ford, knelt in the narrow gap above her, completely unharmed. "Sorry, babe. It's a new world. Survival of the fittest." He sneered, twisting the cap off their last bottle of purified water. He drank it all, wiped his mouth with a clean hand, and told her she would just waste it. He had manipulated her into signing over her uncle's house-her only defensible shelter-just to sell it for cash. Now, as a violent aftershock made the rubble groan and shift, Ford scrambled away without a single backward glance. For five brutal years of starvation and injury, she had clung to him and her grandmother's antique locket, only to meet her end betrayed and full of agonizing regret. Why had she been so foolish to trade her survival for a lie? A gasp of frigid air flooded her lungs, and her eyes flew open to a smooth, white ceiling. She wasn't in the dusty ruins; she was in her pristine silk bed sheets. She grabbed her phone, her hands trembling as she stared at the date on the screen. It was exactly thirty days before the world would crack apart. She looked at the silver locket in her hand, a diamond-hard rage crystallizing in her chest. This time, she would activate its secret, and she would strip Ford and his family of everything before the apocalypse even began.

I woke up in a freezing alley, my lungs burning and my body shattered. I wasn't just a dying Appalachian girl; I was an ancient soul trapped in a broken human shell, starving for life force. A bulletproof Maybach idled nearby, and the man inside, Cristofer Barrett, radiated an intoxicating wave of dark energy. Driven by primal survival, I lunged at him and forced a kiss, stealing his cursed power to knit my bones back together. But my nightmare was far from over. I was dragged into the Montoya estate, a den of vipers where my "family" viewed me as a disposable tool for a corporate merger. My sister, Jordin, orchestrated a vicious campaign to humiliate me, even sabotaging my dress to ensure my ruin at the upcoming Hubbard gala. I was treated like a stray dog, beaten, and mocked by those who claimed my blood. They didn't realize that the girl they were torturing had already seen through their lies, their secret assassinations, and their pathetic greed. They thought I was a fragile victim, but they had no idea who they were dealing with. I had the power of a legend, a mind for high-stakes manipulation, and an old score to settle. Tonight, at the gala, I wouldn't just show up—I would tear their perfect world apart.

I gave Kaelen Sterling everything. My fortune. My family's trust. Even the military secrets that should never have left my father's hands. He swore he loved me. Then he used me to destroy my entire family. My father was beheaded for treason. My brothers died on the battlefield. My sick mother coughed up blood until her final breath. And the fortune my mother had saved for me became the stepping stone Kaelen and his precious "savior," Jacqueline Byrd, used to climb into the highest circles of the kingdom. When there was nothing left to steal, Kaelen locked me inside an abandoned manor and set it on fire. Through the flames, I saw him holding Jacqueline in his arms. She was pregnant with his child. And she was wearing silk bought with my mother's dowry. "Burn it all," Kaelen said coldly. "Leave no trace." I died screaming his name. Then I opened my eyes. I was twenty again. Kaelen had just returned from the battlefield after being declared dead for two years—and standing beside him was Jacqueline, looking fragile and innocent as ever. "She saved my life," he told me. "You will accept her." In my last life, I did. This time, I slapped him across the face. Then I burned our marriage contract. They all thought grief had driven me mad. They had no idea I remembered everything. Every betrayal. Every secret. Every scandal that had not happened yet. I knew which noble houses would fall. I knew which princes would rise. I knew the hidden weaknesses of the people who would one day control the Dragon Court. And they had forgotten something else. I was never just a wealthy heiress. I knew herbs. I knew alchemy. I knew how to survive a royal court where one wrong move could cost an entire family its head. Kaelen wanted my fortune. Jacqueline wanted my place. My stepmother wanted my mother's power. And the men above them wanted to use House Croft as another piece on their board. Let them try. I died once as their pawn. This life, I will take back my family, my fortune, and every drop of blood they owe me. And when I am finished, I won't just survive the Dragon Court. I will rule it.

She died in the apocalypse-betrayed, abandoned, and torn apart by the infected. Then she woke up. Two months before the end of the world. Twenty-two years old again. And on her wrist, a wooden bracelet that her mother had left behind. The bracelet came with a system. A system that eats gold. With enough gold, she can unlock infinite storage for food, water, weapons-anything she needs to survive. The super-hurricane, the floods, the insect plagues, the volcanic winter, the scorching heat... she knows exactly what's coming. While the world sleeps, Joanna shops. She drains her aunt's bank account, maxes out every loan she can find, and buys out half the city. The apocalypse is coming. She'll be ready. But when the chaos begins, the wolves come crawling back-relatives who sold her, friends who betrayed her, a father who abandoned her. They want her food. Her water. Her mercy. Joanna has a different plan. "Why don't you decide who dies first?"