Spilled Mercury

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.

I was the neglected foster daughter of the wealthy Sterling family, treated like dirt while their real daughter was treated like a princess. Suddenly, they ordered me to take her place and marry the Dragon Lord, Gideon Carlisle. He was a fearsome, disfigured ruler confined to a wheelchair, rumored to have torn a handmaiden apart with his bare hands. They didn't want their precious daughter's future ruined by a crippled monster, so they threw me to the wolves. They expected me to cry, beg, and accept my tragic fate. On my wedding day, when I arrived at the Dragon Lord's palace, the steward pointed me to a narrow side entrance-a literal dog door. The guards and servants lined up to watch, snickering as they waited for the terrified country bride to disgrace herself. Did my foster parents really think I was just a pathetic, obedient pawn born to be sacrificed? Did this crippled tyrant think a closed door and some cheap humiliation could break my spirit? I didn't shed a single tear. Instead, after extorting 200,000 gold marks from the Sterlings as my survival fund, I walked right up to the palace. I ripped off my bridal veil, picked up a 500-pound stone gargoyle with my bare hands, and smashed his massive iron gate to pieces. "If he won't open the door for me, I'll open it myself."

On the day she was meant to marry, Madison uncovered her boyfriend's betrayal-five years of love reduced to a mere placeholder for another woman. She walked away without hesitation, determined to start over. But with a looming condition to marry before twenty-five or lose her inheritance completely, she had no choice but to accept a blind date. Fate played a cruel joke when she approached the wrong man, ending up married to her ex's greatest rival, the most formidable figure in town. Madison thought it was just a convenient arrangement. He thought otherwise-because from the start, he never planned to let her go.

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."

"Do you take me for an escort? Or a casual pheromone dispenser?" Quinn Sterling had made the biggest mistake of her life. Climbing into the wrong car was bad enough. Tearing open the bespoke shirt of her ice-cold CEO and triggering his untamed Alpha rut was catastrophic. She thought Winston would demand a non-disclosure agreement. Instead, Manhattan's most terrifying luxury titan handed her a marriage proposal. "Kensington family honor dictates that I do not abandon a mate carrying my scent. I will take full responsibility for you." As an illegitimate daughter battling a betrayal from a two-timing fiancé, Quinn has no desire to play Cinderella in the billionaire's high-society world. She rejects him, draws the line, and dives back into her designs. But Winston Kensington doesn't take 'no' for an answer. When her ex comes crawling back, and corporate rivals circle in the dark, the ruthless CEO steps out of the shadows. "Touch her," Winston growls, his icy aura suffocating the entire room, "and you answer to me."

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 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.

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 spent three years ruining my eyes weaving sea-silk to support my fiancé, Edmund. But when I used a scrying basin to check on him, I saw him pinning my adoptive sister, Genevra, against the seats of his luxury coach. "Genevra, you're my true salvation. That Spirit-less waste Katrina isn't fit to step through my gates." He claimed she was his savior because she rescued him from a collapsed mine. But the truth was, I was the one who sliced my wrist and endured the agonizing burn of poisoned iron to drag him out. Genevra had only stolen my bloodstained cloak. When I reported their illegal rendezvous in a restricted military zone and had them arrested, my own family turned on me. My uncle and mother summoned me, throwing a shattered teacup at my feet. They demanded I hand over my fiancé, my late father's crystal workshop, and my inheritance to Genevra as an apology. Edmund even had the nerve to offer to keep me as a lowly mistress while he married the thief. They thought because I was born without magic and couldn't grow a siren tail, I was just a piece of trash they could crush and discard. I didn't cry, and I didn't beg. I signed the annulment, crossed out the clause giving up my inheritance, and walked away. Then, I went straight to the most terrifying man in the empire, Augustus Mccall, the High Lord of Tides. Since they wanted to push me into the abyss, I would marry the supreme warlord who could make them all bow their heads.

I was the legitimate First Miss of the Browning Clan, but because I tested as "Spiritless," my family treated me like dirt. Just days before my wedding, my father stripped me of my noble marriage contract and handed my powerful fiancé over to my half-sister, Jacalyn. Jacalyn flaunted the stolen noble ring in my face, mocking my dead mother while reeking of the secret herbal incense she used to fake her aura. "A Spiritless waste only deserves to wipe filth for that crippled High Lord in the Low Marches!" My father didn't just agree; he exiled me to the rotting roots of the World Tree to marry Adrien, a dying, coma-bound warlord infected by Abyssal cold iron. He cut off my survival rations and locked me in a freezing stone tomb, fully expecting me to die alongside my new husband before morning. Everyone in the High Court laughed at my misery, waiting for the news of my pathetic death. They thought they had drained my worth to pave the way for Jacalyn's glorious future. But they didn't know my soul had awakened with the primordial Old Blood and seventy years of modern surgical knowledge. I calmly forced my father to sign a severance writ, cutting my ties with the clan forever. Looking at the dying war god on the stone bed, I picked up my surgical scalpel. Once I pulled this Sovereign warlord back from the Abyss, the entire High Court would learn what true despair looked like.

Elyse, a fierce warrior from a post-apocalyptic world, awakened as a wererabbit in an interstellar world where her engagement was canceled and an entire pack wanted her dead. A mysterious system offered one way out: win over a ruthless serpent commander, an arrogant merman warlord, and a cunning werefox leader. She expected protection, not three possessive mates willing to defy the universe for her! Elyse insisted she could never have children, but the commander begged only for her love, while the merman threatened a planet for her sake. Then unexpectedly, her belly began to grow. "System, didn't you say I was infertile?!"

In a world where mutants are hunted and feared, a diverse group of extraordinary individuals band together to survive and protect each other. Fugitives from the ruthless Fanatics agents must navigate a treacherous path of danger, discovery, and destiny. As they uncover the depths of their powers and the meaning of family, they face a choice: embrace their gifts or remain on the run forever.

The prince who is killed and vows to live again and find the man who killed him and carry it with his heart and mind to the woman he married and promised at the same time to leave the search for his wife. Hades vows to love her until his death and give her a ring on their wedding day, without his knowledge the ring that he gave comes from the deities who had a plan what will go in his life. But as he again regain his life he will discover the untold story that he does not know form the moment of his wedding, a secret that his opponent interfere. Hades had the power that the deities had given him and he had to find the woman in the picture he was carrying. His situation was difficult at first because he could not remember where he had come from but he gradually remembered it when he saw her with the help of a ring she was wearing. Every whisper in Lissana's ring made Hades instantly hear and feel it. He entered the life of the Ysares who were already in debt and their company was slowly losing their way. He helped them get up by marrying Lissana's mother Elena. Hades knew all that was going to happen before it happened, so it was easy for him to marry Elena because he knew it would die sooner and Lissana would be left in his care according to his plans. Despite seeing the woman he was looking for, he also saw the man who killed her knowing that it was the man his wife was pregnant with. The man of his opponent and his wife got betrayed him without his knowledge and still, he doesn't know. But he also didn't know that the woman he had found Lissana was not his wife, it was his maid, his trusted maid that has a secret love in him. Even though he is living in immortal life, he had now a limit that he and the deities agreed. As time went on, his time was short and the reaper was following his name. Will he be able to follow what the deity left behind when he needs to get the ring in Lissana's hand before the man who killed him can take it?