Culp

Waking up with a cold, scaly hand wrapped around my throat wasn't the worst part. The worst part was realizing I'd transmigrated into the body of Terra Mason—the most despised woman in the entire Enclave. She drugged high-level beast-men and forced them into life-binding bio-contracts. She locked an aquatic warrior in a dry basement until his organs failed. She treated the most lethal males in the city like broken toys. Zev, the Level 6 serpent who's currently choking me, would rather blow up his own heart than spend another day as my slave. His affection metric? Negative ninety. His trust? Zero. Then my system activates: the Kore AI. It gives me exactly 500 credits, a medical nano-gel, and a recipe for neutralizing the radioactive poison in mutant meat. Real food. In this world, that's worth more than gold. I save Rhys, the dying aquatic male everyone left for dead. I season a slab of purple mutant steak until Sam, a battle-scarred grizzly shifter, groans at the taste—and his trust points finally tick above zero. When my backstabbing ex-best friend tries to steal my males and destroy me, I don't scream or throw a tantrum like the old Terra. I dismantle her with the truth. But earning their trust means more than grilling meat. A scorpion swarm ambushes us at midnight. Sam throws himself between me and a stinger the size of my arm. As he stands over the corpse, fur receding from his claws, he stares at me and whispers, "You were testing me." Yes. I was. Because in this world, the weak don't survive. And I refuse to be weak again. Four beast-men. Four contracts. One system. And a whole lot of steak. Let this dystopian wasteland know—I'm not the monster they remember. I'm worse. I'm the one who's going to feed them until they'd kill for me.

A suggestive iMessage on the family iPad was the first crack in my perfect life. I thought my teenage son was in trouble, but anonymous Reddit users pointed out the chilling truth. The message wasn't for him. It was for my husband of twenty years, Anthony. The betrayal became a conspiracy when I overheard them talking. They were laughing about his affair with my son's "cool" school counselor. "She's just so... boring, Dad," my son said. "Why don't you just leave Mom and be with her?" My son didn't just know; he was rooting for my replacement. My perfect family was a lie, and I was the punchline. Then, a message from a lawyer on Reddit lit a fire in the wreckage of my heart. "Gather proof. Then burn his entire world to the ground." My fingers were steady as I typed back. "Tell me how."

I was seven months pregnant, happily planning a perfect future with my fiancé, Evan. But my adopted sister, Seraphina, smilingly revealed that the baby in my belly was a bastard. She confessed she had drugged me five years ago, letting a random Alpha violate me, while Evan watched and helped her cover it up. When confronted, Evan didn't even deny it. Instead, he rushed to comfort Seraphina when she faked an injury, coldly blaming me for making a scene. He ended our relationship right there, choosing her. Heartbroken and dazed, I wandered into the street, got hit by a speeding car, and lost my innocent baby. For the next five years, Seraphina stole my life. She became a famous movie star and Evan's fiancée, using her status to ruin my acting career and humiliate me at every turn. I lost my child, my love, and my future all because of their sick jealousy. Why did they get to live perfectly while I suffered in the dirt? I swore I would never let them break me again. Fate took a sudden turn when I accidentally saved a sick, silent little boy during one of Seraphina's cruel pranks. His father turned out to be Barron Valerius, the ruthless billionaire Alpha King of the underworld. Instead of offering me a cash reward, the most powerful man in the city stared at me with intense, predatory eyes. "Marry me. It is the only form of repayment I will accept." With the Alpha King suddenly claiming me as his son's anchor, I finally had the power to make Evan and Seraphina pay.

My adoptive father forced me to sign a marriage agreement with a comatose billionaire just to keep my grandmother's life support running. The Sinclair family looked down on my humble background, shoving me into a dusty closet while my new husband, Hadley, lay in an opulent medical shrine. I thought I was just a cheap pawn in a wealthy family's superstitious bid to wake their phantom heir. But then my underground contact sent me a message. The Sinclairs were the ones who stole my antique locket—the only clue to my true identity—just to cut off my funds and force me into this trap. Worse, while bathing my "vegetative" husband, I noticed a subtle blue tint on his nail beds and a dangerously slow pulse. He wasn't just in a coma from a car crash. Someone in this sprawling mansion was actively, slowly poisoning him with a neurotoxin. Why did they steal my past to drag me here, only to murder the man I was supposed to save? What dark secret was this powerful family hiding? I didn't know the answers yet, but I was done being their helpless victim. I calmly ground up a homemade antidote from the kitchen herbs. "I'm going to wake you up," I whispered, slipping the paste into his mouth. Little did I know, the comatose man I was trying to save was fully conscious, coldly analyzing my every move. But it didn't matter. I would cure this billionaire, take control of his fortune, and burn everyone who had wronged me to the ground, piece by piece.

I was Z, the world's most lethal hacker. But after I died, I woke up gasping for air in a massive, freezing bathtub. Memories that didn't belong to me slammed into my brain. I was trapped in the body of Zero Vance, a notorious "trashy young master" of a wealthy family, who was actually a girl hiding in plain sight. The original owner of this body was a pathetic, lovesick stalker obsessed with an esports god named Maverick Thorne. She wore ridiculous rainbow hair and cheap makeup, sending him thousands of desperate, unread texts every single day. When he completely ignored her, she became the ultimate laughingstock. Bullies at her elite academy spray-painted "freak" on her locker, shoved her around, and her own family looked at her with exhausted disappointment. Unable to take the endless humiliation and his cold rejection, she swallowed a bottle of pills and slipped into the icy water. Looking at the ruined, tear-stained reflection in the mirror, physiological disgust washed over me. Why would anyone throw their life away for an arrogant, frozen block of ice? I grabbed the grooming scissors and sheared off the neon hair until only a sharp, silver-blonde crop remained. I deleted his contact, blocked his number, and put on a perfectly tailored black suit. When the school's head cheerleader pointed a finger at my nose, warning me to stay away from Maverick, I snapped it backward. "I have zero interest in Maverick Thorne." I am alive. And as the new Zero, I am going to take everything back.

Adela stood outside the private room, holding the obsidian necklace she had spent three months hand-crafting for her boyfriend. But through the cracked door, she heard Juston laughing with his friends, calling her a stupid, obedient pawn and her art "garbage." After she shattered the necklace and walked out into the freezing rain, Juston texted her a far more horrifying truth. Her own family didn't just hate her-they had actively tried to kill her. Two years ago, her brother Kayden intentionally slipped deadly shellfish into her food at a gala, sending her into anaphylactic shock. Worse, her parents had covered up the attempted murder as a simple kitchen mistake, all to protect the family name and elevate her adopted sister, Kara. Adela collapsed on the wet pavement, suffocating under the weight of the ultimate betrayal. She had spent her entire life begging for their love, secretly working as the anonymous designer keeping their failing company afloat, only to realize she was nothing but a disposable tool. She had absolutely no one, and nowhere to go. Just as the storm threatened to swallow her whole, a sleek black Maybach pulled up to the curb. Harmon Holland, the ruthless Wall Street billionaire she was originally arranged to marry, stepped out into the rain. He didn't offer her pity. Instead, he handed her a legal document. "Marry me, Adela. For one year." She took the pen. This time, she wouldn't be an obedient pawn; she would be their executioner.

A car crash erased my husband Apollo's memory. I brought his favorite vintage watch to the club, praying it would remind him of our love. Instead, standing outside the VIP room, I heard him coldly tell his friends that I was just a greedy gold digger. He accused me of slipping drugs into drinks at a party, completely unaware that he was fiercely protecting Brynlee, the woman who actually set me up. He froze every bank account in my name to force me to my knees. When I confronted them and threatened to call the police, he shielded Brynlee. He even grabbed me by the throat, choking me until I slipped and fell backward into a freezing outdoor pool. As blood poured from a deep gash on my forehead, he just looked down at my thrashing body. "Disgusting," he spat, his eyes filled with murderous hatred. The man who used to treat me like his entire world was dead. He didn't just forget our marriage; he forgot my humanity, torturing me to protect a calculated liar. That single word killed the last pathetic shred of hope I had been clinging to. So, when he finally discovered the truth at the hospital and desperately tried to stop the divorce, I didn't shed a single tear. I just handed him the divorce papers claiming zero assets. "I'll see you at the courthouse tomorrow at nine."

On our third anniversary, I went to the Pack Registry to submit a design portfolio, hoping to surprise my husband. The clerk looked at me with pity and whispered, "Honey, the system won't let me. Your Mate Bond was severed three years ago." I stared at the screen in horror. Not only had Alpha Bennet quietly rejected me, but he had also registered a "Companion Contract" with Gianna—my former best friend who had maimed my right hand in an "accident." I tracked them to the Sacred Lake. Hidden behind a tree, I heard Bennet laugh. "I love that she's helpless," he told Gianna, pushing her on the swing he built for me. "I love that she can't Shift or draw. It makes me feel like a god." He wasn't protecting me; he was clipping my wings to keep me in a cage. When Gianna later framed me as a Rogue intruder, Bennet didn't recognize me in the dark. He whipped me five times with a silver lash, savoring every scream, unaware he was flaying his own wife. He thought he had broken me. He thought I would die in that basement. Instead, I severed the bond myself and vanished across the ocean. One year later, I returned to Paris as a renowned architect with a mechanical arm and the Lycan King by my side. When Bennet saw me and fell to his knees begging for a second chance, I simply turned my back and revealed the scars he gave me to the cameras. "You didn't love me, Bennet. You only loved my pain."

My husband of five years, Mark, told me he was taking me on a romantic clifftop picnic. He poured me a glass of champagne, his smile as warm as the sun. He said it was to celebrate our life together. But as I admired the view, his hands slammed into my back. The world dissolved into a blur of sky and rock as I plunged toward the ravine below. I woke up broken and bleeding, just in time to hear his voice above. He wasn't alone. It was his mistress, Chloe. "Is she... gone?" she asked. "She fell a long way," Mark's voice was flat, devoid of emotion. "No one could survive that. By the time they find the body, it'll look like a tragic accident. Poor, unstable Clara, wandering too close to the edge." The casual cruelty of his words was worse than the impact. He had already written my obituary, crafting the narrative of my demise while leaving me to die in the storm. A wave of despair washed over me, but then something else ignited: a white-hot, furious anger. Just as my vision started to fade, headlights sliced through the rain. A man stepped out of a luxury car. It wasn't Mark. It was Julian Thorne, my husband's most hated rival, and the one man who might want Mark destroyed as much as I did.

The sharp, shattering pain was familiar. This was the eighth time. The eighth baby. My husband, Ethan, the perfect CEO, held my hand as grief suffocated me in the hospital bed. He looked like the picture of a devastated spouse. But then, I heard voices from the hallway-Ethan' s and the doctor' s. "Mr. Hayes, why insist on… eliminating the one in your wife's belly? It's your own child!" the doctor strained. "Scarlett is particular, and she has needs. This is the safest method," Ethan replied, chillingly calm. Scarlett. His proclaimed "childhood friend." The words didn't make sense until their horrifying truth crashed down: my miscarriages weren't accidents. They were harvests, orchestrated by my loving husband to feed his mistress' s mysterious medical condition. My love for him curdled into black hatred, my grief for our children blazing into a white-hot rage. I was an architect who designed buildings to withstand earthquakes; I wouldn't crumble. I closed my eyes, feigning sorrow, but inside, a new blueprint for revenge was being drawn. Then I heard the doctor's terrified whisper: "And the hysterectomy? Paralysis? Ethan, that's going too far. She's your wife." His voice, devoid of emotion, cut through the haze: "She's too strong-willed. This will keep her safe. And quiet." They were going to gut me, cripple me, take everything. They had no idea what they had just created. Later, I overheard Ethan on the phone again, his voice a low murmur: "She's sedated. You can proceed with the surgery. The hysterectomy first. And make sure the nerve block is permanent. I don't want any surprises." Hysterectomy. Permanent. You bastard, Ethan, I thought as darkness pulled me under. You' re not just taking my children. You' re taking my future. You' re taking my body. But you haven' t taken my mind. And it will be the instrument of your destruction.

The champagne shimmered, my fiancé Daniel was by my side, and my parents, pillars of the tech world, beamed with pride. It was my engagement day, perfect as a movie scene. Then, the screens behind us, meant for happy memories, flared to life with my face, but not my body-a horrifying deepfake, accompanied by a torrent of our company' s most intimate client data, all pinned on my mother. The ballroom erupted. Whispers turned to shouts, Daniel recoiled as if burned, and my mother, the renowned ethicist, was swarmed by reporters, branded a fraud and criminal. My father, director of Miller Security, clutched his chest, watching his wife' s ruin and his daughter' s humiliation before collapsing-dead, on the polished floor. The Vance family patriarch declared our engagement off, leaving me standing alone, my world shattered into a million pieces. In ten minutes, I lost everything: my reputation, my family, my future, and my father's life. Three years later, I was married to Ethan Vance, Daniel' s brother, a man I believed was my savior, gently rebuilding my life in a quiet, gilded cage. Until I overheard a chilling conversation between Ethan and his best friend, Mark. "Shouldn't you take down those awful deepfakes? Now that Tiffany is happily integrated into your family, why keep tormenting Chloe?" Mark' s voice was laced with anger I'd never heard. Ethan's reply, calm and cold, made my blood run cold: "The Miller family's influence was too strong. As long as they were respected, how could Tiffany feel secure?" My parents, his mentors, had been destroyed for Tiffany, Daniel's new wife. Every tender word, every protective gesture from Ethan had been a carefully orchestrated lie. My husband, my rescuer, was the monster who had meticulously planned my family' s ruin and profited from my humiliation. I had been sleeping beside my father' s murderer for three years. The realization hit me like a physical blow, stripping away every illusion. I had to make him pay for everything he had done.

The long shadows of the late afternoon stretch across my perfectly curated living room, a silent testament to the lie my life has become. My husband, Liam, a rising star, values perfection-a facade we' ve painstakingly built. Our marriage is a stable, respectable union on paper, a performance, with me, a talented architect, as his willing partner. Then he died, swiftly, unexpectedly, at forty-five. Buried within his belongings, a locked box in his study, I found it: the truth. Letters, photographs-a hidden life with Chloe, his childhood sweetheart, his true love for decades. My entire marriage, my twenty years, was an elaborate charade for his reputation. The pain was a physical entity, suffocating, extinguishing my will to live. I died too, then woke up. Not in a hospital, not in an afterlife, but here, in this cold house, two years into my marriage, twenty-four again. The ghost of a twenty-year lie lived inside me, but it brought a cold, hard resolve. I would not let it happen again, not waste another two decades as a supporting character. I will live for myself this time. The key in the lock, Liam' s flat voice: "I'm home." This time, I remained seated. His brow furrowed, unused to my stillness. "Is something wrong?" "Just tired," I replied, my voice as level as his. He was a stranger now, every gesture filtered through future knowledge, every polite smile a calculation, every question a check on his investment. He funded Chloe' s art studies abroad, a fortune spent while I pinched pennies. That money, even now, was for her. The rage was cold, sharp. Then, he dropped the bombshell: "Chloe is coming back… she could stay with us for a while." My heart stilled. It was happening again. In my past life, I agreed, eager to please, starting my slow erasure. This time, I looked directly at him, seeing the feigned concern, the carefully constructed lie. "No," I said, the word a slammed door. His eyes, cold and dark, narrowed. "What did you say?" "I said no," I repeated, my voice gaining strength. "She can't stay here." A strange power surged. He was dealing with a different woman now, a woman who knew all his secrets.

The heavy scent of grilled meat and expensive cologne filled the private room at Harris' Steakhouse. My tech CEO husband, Mark, called it a "boys' night out," but I was there, a silent fixture at the dark wood table, habitually ignored. His tech bro friends, Kevin and Josh, flanked him, their laughter growing too loud. Then, in a momentary lull, I calmly stated, "I' m thinking about it too," referring to getting a divorce. The entire table erupted, not in surprise, but in loud, condescending laughter, Mark' s the loudest of all. He wiped a tear from his eye and sneered, "You? Divorce me? What do you have without me, Sarah? You dropped out of Vassar, remember? For me. You think you can survive for a week without my money?" His friend Kevin, already flushed from too much wine, then slurred a public dare, "If you actually divorce Mark, I swear, I' ll live-stream chugging a blended concoction of the grossest things!" They truly believed I was a fragile, dependent ornament, easily controlled. They saw only a trophy wife, utterly incapable of independent thought or action. They didn't see the cold, hard knot of pure resolve tightening inside my gut. They certainly didn't know about the countless hours I'd spent in our Atherton mansion's library, diligently studying California community property law. A tiny, almost imperceptible smile touched my lips as I met their gazes. "No, Mark," I said, standing slowly, my voice cool and even, "I don' t think I will apologize; in fact, I've already had divorce papers drawn up." My lawyer would be in touch with his. Weeks later, when his young intern, Tiffany, smugly tried to announce her fake pregnancy at a family dinner, I exposed Mark's zero sperm count to his horrified mother and everyone present. They had utterly underestimated me, and my meticulously researched plan to reclaim my life had just begun.

My 21st birthday was supposed to be a joyous occasion, a display of family pride and wealth as I chose my future husband. But a horrifying secret simmered beneath the celebratory facade: I was reliving my life, and this very day, my previous choice of fiancé, Ethan Vanderbilt III, had led to my family’s empire crumbling and their agonizing death in a fiery jet crash. The chilling memory of their screams, the inferno, and the realization that Ethan's charm was nothing but a weapon, clawed at my sanity. How could I possibly explain to my loving, unaware parents that their perfect daughter had already lived a nightmare version of this life, where their trust in me—and my choice—had damned us all? Trapped by a past only I remembered, with the venomous name of Ethan Vanderbilt still lurking on my pre-approved marriage list, I made a radical, desperate decision: I would choose a man entirely outside his orbit, defying fate and claiming my second chance to keep my family safe.

The tiny screen showed a pulsing heartbeat, and Doctor Ramirez smiled. I was pregnant, overjoyed, ready to build our perfect family with Michael, my loving husband, and my rock-solid best friend, Chloe. It felt like a dream come true after years of trying. Then Chloe gifted me an antique locket, a seemingly thoughtful "protection charm." But soon after, my baby's heartbeat grew alarmingly erratic. The doctor warned me, while a chilling encounter with an eccentric antique dealer sparked a horrifying thought: Was the locket cursed? Could it be a "vessel of sorrow" meant to "rebalance fates"? His ominous words echoed as Chloe, who’d struggled with IVF, began showing surprising "positive signs." Desperate to protect my child, I tried to banish the locket's influence. That’s when I overheard the insidious truth: Michael’s voice, hushed, conspiring with Chloe. “The locket’s influence is definitely working,” he whispered. “Her inevitable breakdown will make things easier.” “The trust fund... it’ll all be sorted.” Betrayal ripped through me, cold and agonizing. My husband, the man I trusted with my life, and my best friend, were actively orchestrating my ruin. The “curse” wasn’t supernatural; it was a calculated scheme of psychological torture and subtle drugs. It was all designed to induce my miscarriage and drive me mad, all for my family’s trust fund. Every loving glance, every comforting word, a horrifying lie. The terror was instant, quickly followed by a searing, ice-cold fury. They thought I was collapsing, but their vile deception simply ignited a dormant strength within me. They wanted to tear down my world. I wouldn't just survive; I would meticulously expose their every deceit. I would dismantle their entire wicked plot. And I would ensure they faced justice for the monstrous theft of my peace, my future, and my baby.

My husband, Michael, stumbled home one day, not with a briefcase, but a bundle. A baby, he claimed, "found" at a gas station. His too-loud voice, his darting eyes, the wads of cash he pressed into my hand—I saw through the charade immediately. My suspicions, honed by years of his subtle lies and secret Vegas trips, solidified. He wanted me to raise this child, a "blessing" he called it, while he preened as a selfless savior. For eighteen years, I endured Michael's arrogance, his mother’s thinly veiled disdain for my childlessness, and his endless stream of deceit. He believed me a naive, devoted wife, blissfully unaware of his true connections to the baby's birth mother, a woman named Jessica. He bragged about Ethan, "his" son, never knowing I was painstakingly uncovering every detail of his betrayal—the secret payments, the fabricated narratives, the hidden identity of Ethan’s real father, a man with dangerous ties. The injustice of his blatant lies, how he’d used me to build his perfect family facade, fueled a cold, quiet rage within me. I smiled, I nodded, I played the part of the perfect mother to Ethan, the brilliant son I adored. But beneath that placid surface, I was a strategist, meticulously gathering my evidence, waiting for the opportune moment. When Ethan was accepted into Yale, Michael decided it was time for his grand reveal: divorcing me to "reunite" with Jessica and "his" long-lost son at a lavish party. He thought he was orchestrating his ultimate triumph. He had no idea he was stepping into a meticulously crafted trap, two decades in the making, set by the wife he completely underestimated.

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.

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?

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.

Elena died on the operating table, betrayed by her husband, her unborn child already gone. But death? Just her intermission. She woke up in a whole new world-a beastmen's world, where females are rarer than diamonds and the strongest males go mad without a woman's mark to calm them down. And her? Labelled the weakest female alive. An F-rank body with a joke of a status. But hidden inside? Unlimited mental power. Just as she's figuring out this mess, a system pops up with one hell of an offer: Complete the missions. Bond with assigned males. Save this world. Do all that, and you get a one-way ticket back home. for revenge. Sounds simple? Think again. A Wolf General, colder than a blizzard, who should have ended her-ended up letting her mark him. A Fox Prince, all charming smiles and secret schemes, who started playing games only to lose his own heart. A golden Dragon, sunshine-bright and fiercely possessive, who declares her his destined treasure. A shadowy Serpent, too patient and too dangerous, watching her every move from the dark. A Phoenix King, whose love burns so hot he'd reduce empires to cinders for her. They all need her mark. They all want her. And sharing? Not in their vocabulary. Too bad for them- She's not here for love stories. She's here to survive. To climb. To turn their legendary power into her own stepping stones. And one day. To go back and make her betrayers wish they were never born.

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?"

The sensation of falling wasn't like flying; it was heavy, violent, and smelled of burning flesh. Above us, on the crumbling balcony of the Sears manor, Duke Cato Sears turned his back, shielding his cousin Bianca from the smoke as he walked away, leaving my sister Blossom and me to drop into the abyss. As the darkness slammed shut like an iron door, I realized my entire life had been a cruel script written by the people I called family. In my first life, I was the sacrificial lamb of the Dawson manor, sold to a man who eventually watched me die without blinking. My sister Blossom had pushed me into Cato's arms to avoid his rumors, only to laugh when the fire finally consumed us both. My father had measured my value like a piece of livestock, and my step-grandmother didn't even acknowledge my existence while I was being led to the slaughter. I died in that fire, feeling the heat scorch my skin and the weight of a hatred so potent it tasted like bile. I spent twenty years being the weak, manipulated shadow of a girl, only to end up as nothing more than a phantom scorch mark on a "hero's" estate. I couldn't understand why my own blood treated my life like a game they could discard. The injustice of it all burned hotter than the flames that took my last breath. Then, I sat up, sucking in air that tasted of lavender and air conditioning, not smoke. I was back in my bedroom, three days before the engagement ball that ruined my life. Blossom stood at the door, her "sweet" mask slipping as she tried to manipulate me into the Duke's path again. She thought she was the only one who had come back, but she didn't realize that this time, I was going to let her have exactly what she wanted: the Duke, the bankruptcy, and the living hell that awaited her in that house.

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.

After transmigrating into a doomed novel villainess in the werecreature universe, who was destined for exile and death, Ella refused to follow the script. Since the real heiress would return in two years, she prepared early-gathering money, allies, and powerful supporters. One by one, she rescued the discarded men of the heroine. There was the abandoned werewolf, half-dead in his cage. She claimed him without a second thought. Then came the broken healer-disfigured, depressed, his mind warped by years of family cruelty. She pulled him from the wreckage. And the poor little thing treated like a wallet by the heroine, a pawn by his own family. She took him in anyway. But things spiraled out of control. The "useless" princess everyone mocked awakened as the empire's only SSS-ranked female-and suddenly, every powerful werecreature wanted to stay by her side forever. When the real heiress finally came back, she was floored. Not one of the men she'd been eyeing could even come close to the mates of that so-called "useless" Ella. Surrounded by the mates she'd collected along the way, Ella let out a long, tired sigh. "I think I've bitten off way more than I can chew!"

Waking up with a cold, scaly hand wrapped around my throat wasn't the worst part. The worst part was realizing I'd transmigrated into the body of Terra Mason—the most despised woman in the entire Enclave. She drugged high-level beast-men and forced them into life-binding bio-contracts. She locked an aquatic warrior in a dry basement until his organs failed. She treated the most lethal males in the city like broken toys. Zev, the Level 6 serpent who's currently choking me, would rather blow up his own heart than spend another day as my slave. His affection metric? Negative ninety. His trust? Zero. Then my system activates: the Kore AI. It gives me exactly 500 credits, a medical nano-gel, and a recipe for neutralizing the radioactive poison in mutant meat. Real food. In this world, that's worth more than gold. I save Rhys, the dying aquatic male everyone left for dead. I season a slab of purple mutant steak until Sam, a battle-scarred grizzly shifter, groans at the taste—and his trust points finally tick above zero. When my backstabbing ex-best friend tries to steal my males and destroy me, I don't scream or throw a tantrum like the old Terra. I dismantle her with the truth. But earning their trust means more than grilling meat. A scorpion swarm ambushes us at midnight. Sam throws himself between me and a stinger the size of my arm. As he stands over the corpse, fur receding from his claws, he stares at me and whispers, "You were testing me." Yes. I was. Because in this world, the weak don't survive. And I refuse to be weak again. Four beast-men. Four contracts. One system. And a whole lot of steak. Let this dystopian wasteland know—I'm not the monster they remember. I'm worse. I'm the one who's going to feed them until they'd kill for me.

In a large shopping mall we went. It was three storeys high, complete with restaurants and fast-food chains. He guided me to the second floor where all of the goods I had specified to him were located. Again, stores after stores were lined up for me choose, but I decided to enter one where its window knickknacks caught my eyes. The store was named, Ann Summers. Weird things. I most certainly hadn't seen objects like these in my entire life. The shapes were weird too; circular, elongated, heart-shaped in bold neon colors. There were even objects that looked like rods and cuffs of different sizes and colorful jelly rings with studs. My brain immediately registered children's toys? However, the moment I stepped inside the store, my brain immediately scratched the word CHILDREN and replaced it with ADULT! My eyes widened as I took in every single detail that welcomed me. Eriol, who trailed behind me earlier, now stood right in my side. He gave a light tap on my shoulder to which I immediately jerked away. Our eyes met and I swear he looked at me with a twinkle of mischief. 'Funny, you seem to have lost your way directly into this place, Milady,' he said and gave me a freaking roguish grin! ~ 0 ~ I am hoping that my vacation in my Aunt's mansion is worth it. Leaving my volunteer work in Nepal abruptly is not what I wanted but there is nothing I can do, my Aunt is just too insistent. I know staying in there would be enjoyable, but I never thought that everyday would become something more... more than unbearable, and it all stems to a certain man - the head butler of the house - specifically too attentive of me. Genre: Supernatural Romance Status: Completed All Rights Reserved 2020 JMFelic Books