Yana _ Shadow

My fiancé, Prince Damian, cast me aside to marry Clarissa for her family's political backing. At their grand royal wedding, I was expected to smile and quietly accept my humiliation. Instead, I drank a potent herbal concoction I brewed myself and stumbled into the private chambers of his father, Alpha King Aldric. When the Queen and my ex-fiancé finally broke down the heavy oak door, they found me weeping on the floor, my dress torn, holding a silver dagger to my own heart. "My honor... it's ruined," I sobbed. Damian fell to his knees in front of the entire court, begging his father to let him take me as a second mate, completely humiliating his new bride. The King roared in fury at the scandal. To "protect" me from his son's obsession, he decreed I be exiled to Vargan's Reach, the freezing, barbarian-infested North. The Queen smirked, thinking she had finally disposed of me. Damian cried, thinking he had lost his true love forever. The King watched me leave with deep guilt in his eyes, thinking I was a fragile, ruined Omega who almost died from shame. But as my carriage rolled out of the capital, I wiped away my fake tears and smiled. They didn't know the North was my family's loyal stronghold, and I had orchestrated this entire disaster myself. My revenge had just begun.

For four years, I was the invisible, wolfless Mate of Alpha Duke Blake. At his grandmother's deathbed, she demanded we produce an heir. Duke agreed without a hint of emotion, treating me as nothing more than a breeding vessel. Days later at the funeral, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his beautiful Beta, Jossie. He even let a neighboring Alpha offer condolences to Jossie as his "future Luna," while I was completely ignored. I had enough. I signed the formal Mate Rejection papers, left them with the butler, and escaped the pack to start a new life. But a week later, the electronic lock on my new apartment was silently bypassed in the dead of night. Duke stood in the shadows. He ignored my frantic screams, kidnapped me, and dragged me back to his estate. He threw me onto his bed, his eyes burning with a dark, primal fury. "You will perform your duties as my Mate. And you will not leave this room until you are carrying my child." I didn't scream or fight anymore. I just pressed my back against the cold wall and let silent tears of absolute despair fall. For four years he gave me nothing but cold neglect. Why couldn't he just let me go? Why did my freedom have to be crushed by a bond he didn't even want? Seeing my broken state, his hand froze in mid-air. The cold Alpha facade finally cracked as the echo of my agony hit him. He backed away in horror and fled the room, refusing to accept my rejection. But as the door locked behind him, my tears stopped. If a piece of paper couldn't sever this bond, I would have to find a way to tear it apart myself.

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 was the eldest daughter of the Reynolds family, but in a world that worshipped dragon power, I was born completely "Dragonless." After ten years of being engaged to Prince Krishna, the King suddenly decreed that my fiancé would marry my half-sister Deena instead. As for me, my father ruthlessly discarded me. I was ordered to marry Lord Boyce Carlisle, a crippled, dying warlord with a shattered Dragon Core and failing organs. I was being sent to a desolate border fortress just to be a dying man's nursemaid, and then his widow. Deena flaunted her triumphant smile, whispering maliciously in my ear. "This is the fate a 'Dragonless' deserves. You're being sent there to be buried with him." My father didn't even look at me, treating my death sentence as a highly profitable political trade. The suffocating despair and humiliation drove me to tie a silk sash to the ceiling beam and kick the chair away. Why should I be thrown away like trash? Why did my mother and I have to die in obscurity while they celebrated their royal wedding? But as the noose tightened, a violent torrent of memories flooded my mind. I remembered my past life as a top surgeon on Earth who spent thirty years snatching lives back from the jaws of death. I didn't die. I cut myself down, wiped away my tears, and looked at my hands. I would heal this dying warlord, and use him to drag every single one of them to hell.

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.

In the final days before the world collapsed, Ivy Brooks died... betrayed by the very people she trusted most. She had fought, struggled, and sacrificed everything just to survive the apocalypse only to be pushed into death along with her three daughters at the very end by her own husband. With her last breath, Ivy made a vow. If she could turn back time...she would never be weak again and of course protect her daughters. This time, she would stand at the top. When Ivy opened her eyes, she found herself back in time with her still rounded belly of her third baby.... Twenty days before the apocalypse. Armed with memories of the future and a mysterious system in her mind, Ivy moved without hesitation. She hoarded supplies, secured weapons, and took control of every resource she could get her hands on. While others laughed, doubted, and wasted time... Ivy was building her empire along with her daughters. In this life, she would not be prey but will be an hunter. With danger closing in and only twenty days to prepare, Ivy must outplay enemies both old and new, uncover the truth behind the system, and carve out her own kingdom in a collapsing world. Because this time...she wasn't just going to survive the apocalypse. She was going to rule it along with a man, a love interest from the past before her marriage collapse. He provided everything Ivy needed. Money especially in change of a marriage with her and when the apocalypse started too....he ruled it with her as well as her daughters.

I was the adopted, "Dragonless" daughter of the Sterling family, bound by a prestigious marriage contract to my fiancé, Julian. But during the annual charity ball, I followed a secret note to a guest suite, only to catch him tangled on the sofa with my cousin, Isabelle. When I calmly called the Dragon Guard to expose their affair, my adoptive parents didn't comfort me. Instead, they furiously blamed me. "It was an emergency! Our kind Isabelle used her scent to save him, and you just tried to destroy him!" They praised her as a hero, officially handed my fiancé over to her, and decided to punish me for tarnishing the family name. Their revenge was a new marriage contract. They were going to sell me off to Lord Valerius, a cruel, elderly man notorious for outliving three wives. I stared at the death sentence in my hands, my blood running cold. I was the one betrayed, yet I was being discarded like useless trash to pave the way for my cousin's happiness. Why should I let them destroy my life just to protect their twisted, perfect image? I didn't cry, and I refused to be their sacrificial lamb. I drafted a cold, calculated business proposal, packed my bags, and walked out of that toxic house forever. I was going to propose to the most ruthless, powerful predator in the kingdom-Gideon Montgomery. If I had to step into a dragon's lair, I would be the one to choose it.

I woke up to the searing agony of shattered ribs and a ruptured heart. I had transmigrated into the body of Alys, the "Dragonless" disgrace of a noble dragon-kin family. The original owner had just been beaten to death by her own brother. Her crime? Refusing to take her beloved sister's place in a marriage to a cursed, notoriously cruel Dragon Lord. As I lay dying in a pool of my own blood, my brother raised his foot to kick me again. "Will you marry him, or not? Don't make me do it again, you family disgrace!" My beautiful sister Henrietta hid behind her fake tears, begging him to stop while her eyes glittered with cruel satisfaction. My parents didn't care about my fatal injuries. They only cared that I was breathing enough to be tossed into a carriage to save the family's honor. To them, my life was just a cheap bargaining chip to protect their precious youngest daughter. They expected me to submit in fear, to quietly accept my fate as a sacrificial lamb for this hypocritical family. They thought I would die silently in that cursed lord's frozen keep without a fight. But I am a top modern surgeon, not the weak girl they abused for twenty years. I looked at my so-called family with cold detachment and agreed to the substitute marriage. But first, I would extort a massive dowry, strip them of their most profitable assets, and force my father to sign a document severing all ties. I will marry the monster, but this time, I am playing by my own rules.

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?"

Maya Cross woke up in a nightmare-trapped in the body of a sadistic villain who'd tortured five powerful beastmen into submission. Good news? She finally had the power to break their bonds and set them free. Bad news? They were stranded on a dying ship surrounded by Zerg swarms, with zero rescue coming. The first was Caleb, a snake beastman whose red eyes burned with pure hatred. Every time he looked at her, she saw the memory of chains and venom extraction. The second was Finn, an aquatic beastman whose scales she'd ripped off one by one. He could barely stand to be in the same room without his hands shaking with rage. The third was Sage, a griffin beastman she'd tormented so badly he barely went a day without fresh wounds. The fourth was Hunter, a lion beastman she'd mocked relentlessly, calling his beast form hideous and grotesque. The fifth was Jasper, a fox beastman whose face she'd scarred so badly he'd lost his consortium inheritance. "Protect me until I find my father," Maya told them, drawing her own blood, "and I'll give you what you need to break our bond." Caleb laughed bitterly. "Since when do you make deals instead of demands?" "Since we're all dead if we don't work together." But when survival depends on trust, can a torturer become a savior-or will her victims choose revenge over rescue?

On my wedding day, I caught my fiancé in my stepsister's arms. She was pregnant with his child. And instead of begging for forgiveness, Damian Harrison laughed in my face. He admitted he had always planned to marry me, dump me in some forgotten country estate, and keep my stepsister as the woman he truly loved. So I burned my wedding veil in front of the entire Harrison family and walked away. That should have been the end of it. Instead, Damian's mother sent armed men after me. Why? Because I was a Dragonless nobody from the borderlands, and in her eyes, humiliating a Harrison was a crime worse than her son's betrayal. I had no dragon blood. No powerful family willing to protect me. Not even my own father would risk offending the Harrisons for my sake. If I wanted to survive, I needed someone they feared more than they hated me. So I returned to the Harrison estate and made an outrageous demand. I would marry Damian's uncle. Gideon Harrison-the legendary Dragon Lord, the kingdom's greatest war hero... and a man everyone believed was dead. Perfect. As his widow, I would outrank the man who betrayed me, become his aunt by marriage, and gain enough power to make every Harrison who humiliated me regret it. I signed the marriage pact without hesitation. Then a knight burst into the ancestral hall with impossible news. Gideon Harrison was alive. My dead husband wasn't dead. He was being brought home.

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.