From Prison To Power: Rise Of The War Goddess
Scarlett Hayes thought marrying James Whitmore would finally make her family see her as more than a burden.
Instead, it destroyed her life.
Framed for crimes she didn't commit, betrayed by the people she trusted most, and sentenced to prison while pregnant, Scarlett lost everything in a single night.
Then came the cruelest blow of all.
After giving birth in chains, she was told her baby had died.
The people responsible believed she would spend the rest of her life rotting behind bars.
They were wrong.
Five years later, Scarlett returns.
No longer the discarded daughter of the Hayes family. No longer the broken woman they left behind.
Now she is Commander Scarlett Hayes-a decorated war hero, the unseen force behind a global intelligence empire, and a woman powerful enough to make governments tremble.
She comes back for one reason only: revenge.
Her ex-husband, the stepsister who stole her life, and the family who buried her alive are about to learn exactly what happens when a woman with nothing left to lose takes back everything they stole.
But as Scarlett tears through the secrets of her past, one truth threatens to change everything-
the child she mourned for years may not be dead.
And the mysterious man connected to the night that changed her life has been watching from the shadows all along.
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Chapter 3
That single word-
"Mommy..."
It hit Scarlett like a shockwave.
Her heart jolted.
For a split second, she was dragged back four years... back to the tiny life she had lost the moment it entered the world.
If her child were still alive-
He'd be about this age now.
The thought tightened painfully in her chest.
As she looked at the boy, her gaze softened without her realizing it.
A storm of emotions surged through her-
Longing. Grief. Guilt. Tenderness.
Feelings she couldn't quite name... all tangled together.
At that moment, Howard walked over, his eyes flicking between Scarlett and the boy.
"Bo-Boss... is that your kid?" he blurted, stunned. "He looks just like you. Same eyes, same face-it's like a copy-paste."
Good grief.
The leader of Obsidian Unit... the infamous War Goddess...
Had a child?
If word of this got out, it would send shockwaves through the entire underworld.
Scarlett shot him a look.
"I don't know him," she said evenly. "He's probably just scared and mistook me for someone else."
Still, she studied the boy more closely.
There was a resemblance.
But lookalikes weren't exactly rare...
And deep down, she knew-
It wasn't possible.
Her child...
Was gone.
The boy's expression crumpled the moment he heard her answer.
The light in his eyes dimmed, replaced by quiet disappointment.
"Let me check if you're hurt," Scarlett said, her voice softening.
But before she could move-
A harsh shout cut through the air behind them.
"There he is! Grab him!"
The boy's small body stiffened.
His eyes widened in fear as he stared at the group rushing toward them.
"Hey... it's okay," Scarlett said gently, resting a hand on his head. "I've got you. No one's going to hurt you."
The warmth of her touch-
It steadied him almost instantly.
Without thinking, he leaned into her, clinging to that rare sense of safety.
Scarlett rose slowly, her expression turning ice-cold as she faced the group closing in.
"Get over here!" the scar-faced man barked at the boy.
Terrified, the child instinctively wrapped his arms around Scarlett's leg, holding on tightly.
That was when she noticed-
Bruises on his arms.
Fresh wounds along his neck.
Some still bleeding.
Her eyes darkened instantly.
The air around her seemed to drop in temperature.
They did this...
To a child?
Disgusting.
Before she could speak, the scar-faced man sneered.
"Stay out of this if you know what's good for you," he growled. "Or I'll put you in the ground."
Howard almost laughed.
Put her in the ground?
The person capable of that probably hadn't even been born yet.
Cracking his knuckles, he stepped forward-
Only for Scarlett to stop him with a raised arm.
"I'll handle it."
Her expression was cold. Merciless.
Like a judge passing sentence.
Four years ago, her child had died.
Back then, she'd been powerless.
Too weak to protect him.
But now-
She would never let something like that happen again.
Howard glanced at her, half amused.
"Boss, these guys aren't even worth it. Using you on them is like bringing a missile to a street fight."
Scarlett ignored him.
She gently guided the boy toward him.
"Keep him safe."
Then-
She moved.
A blur.
Fast as lightning.
Before anyone could react, she was already in front of them.
Her leg snapped out-
BAM-
The impact was brutal.
The man she struck let out a guttural scream as several ribs cracked on the spot. Blood sprayed from his mouth before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed.
Out cold.
The rest froze.
Fear crept across their faces.
What the hell was she?
Even they weren't this ruthless.
She broke bones without hesitation-
Without even blinking.
Scarlett turned slowly, her face expressionless.
Her voice was calm.
Cold.
Lethal.
"Who hurt him?"
A pause.
"Break your own arms."
Arrogant.
Unbelievably arrogant.
"Damn it! You've got a death wish!" the scar-faced man spat. "You think you can take us on alone?"
He waved his hand sharply.
"Get her! I don't care how strong she is-she's still just one person! The client's paying a hundred grand each if we bring that kid in!"
That was all it took.
Money lit a fire in their eyes.
"Boss is right! No way we lose to one woman! Get her!"
Fueled by greed, they charged forward, steel pipes raised high.
The boy clenched his small fists, his body tense as he watched Scarlett surrounded.
His eyes filled with worry.
Scarlett, meanwhile, remained perfectly calm.
She rolled her neck.
Cracked her knuckles.
Pop. Pop.
A steel pipe swung straight toward her head-
She raised her hand-
And caught it.
Effortlessly.
The man holding it froze.
He had swung with everything he had.
And she just... stopped it?
But what happened next-
Was worse.
Scarlett tightened her grip.
Creeeak-
The metal started to bend.
Right before their eyes.
Warping. Twisting.
Until-
It folded.
The harsh grinding sound echoed through the sudden silence.
Everyone stopped dead.
No one dared take another step.
Scarlett bent it into a perfect right angle-
Then casually ripped it from his hand and tossed it aside.
Silence.
Heavy.
Suffocating.
Someone swallowed hard.
"Monster... run! RUN!"
Panic broke out instantly.
They scattered in every direction.
Scarlett's gaze darkened.
The boy's injuries flashed through her mind.
And then-
Her own child.
If he had lived...
He'd be about this age.
Her eyes narrowed.
Run?
Not happening.
She crouched, scooped up a handful of small stones-
And flicked her wrist.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-
The stones tore through the air with deadly precision.
"AAAGH-!"
One by one, the fleeing men collapsed, clutching their legs, screaming in pain.
The boy's eyes lit up.
She was incredible.
So strong.
So cool.
She had to be his mom.
He remembered-
He'd dreamed about this before.
A dream where he was in danger, and his mom appeared just in time to save him.
And now-
It was real.
But then-
The scar-faced man, still on the ground, pulled out a gun.
The barrel aimed straight at Scarlett's head.
"Mommy! Watch out!" the boy screamed, his face going pale.
The trigger was pulled.
BANG-
The bullet fired.
***
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8.6
In my past life, the Cerberus strain leaked, turning the world into a blood-soaked hell of rotting flesh and mutated monsters.
I thought my boyfriend Declan and my best friend Hailee would have my back as we fled the quarantine zone.
Instead, when the surging crowd of the infected cornered us, they didn't hesitate.
They shoved me backward into the horde just to buy themselves three seconds to run.
As I fell into the mud, I saw them fleeing without a single backward glance.
"She's dead weight anyway!" Hailee screamed.
"Just keep running, she'll distract them!" Declan yelled back.
I was torn apart, feeling the agonizing tear of rotting teeth sinking into my neck and the hot spray of my own blood.
Before the apocalypse, my greedy uncle had locked away my ten-million-dollar trust fund, leaving me with nothing but a fake boyfriend who only wanted me for my money.
Until my last breath, I couldn't understand how the people I loved most could trade my life for a head start.
Why did I blindly trust them? Why didn't I see through their perfectly choreographed lies?
Opening my eyes again, the stench of decaying flesh vanished, replaced by the sterile smell of my college dorm room.
Hailee and Declan were standing over my bed, faking tears of concern over my meningitis fever.
I was back exactly seven days before the world ended, and my spatial vault ability had come back with me.
This time, I'm extorting my uncle for every cent, hoarding the city's supplies, and leaving them all to rot.
9.1
Cora crash-landed her escape pod on a brutal alien planet, only to be immediately hunted by a massive six-eyed beast.
A colossal black wolf dropped from the canopy and crushed the beast's neck to save her. But before she could even breathe, the wolf transformed into a towering, naked primitive man with glowing gold eyes.
He hauled her back to his savage tribe, where she was instantly treated like garbage. The women sneered at her fragile human body, and the men eyed her like fresh meat.
The tribe leader's jealous daughter even handed her a waterskin laced with a terrifying alien breeding drug, hoping to turn Cora into a mindless spectacle of lust in front of the entire settlement.
"Drink. You look like you're dying," the daughter sneered, waiting for Cora to lose her mind.
Cora was terrified and completely out of her depth. She didn't understand why this lethal Alpha warrior looked at her with such dark, consuming possessiveness, or why he was willing to slaughter his own people just to protect her.
How was a stranded human supposed to survive in a terrifying world where every plant, beast, and local wanted her dead?
"BEEP! Critical Warning! Liquid contains high concentrations of alien aphrodisiac herbs," her implanted AI assistant suddenly echoed in her skull.
Looking at the hostile tribe and the fiercely protective Alpha shielding her, Cora silently activated her tech interface. She wasn't just going to be a helpless pet in this savage world.
9.2
For four years, I was the Silvercrest Pack's biggest joke—a scentless, wolfless Omega who somehow became the Alpha's Luna.
I thought I was just naturally defective, until our fourth anniversary, when I overheard my husband Adrian talking to his Beta.
"I’ve been having the kitchens slip a silver-based compound into her meals since the day I marked her."
He confessed the poison was meant to suppress my inner wolf and keep my womb permanently barren. He only married me as a power play to make his highborn mistress, Seraphina, jealous. While I wept over my empty cradle and apologized to his family for my broken body, he was using pack funds to buy her custom luxury goods, tossing me the leftover wrapping paper. When I finally confronted him about the silver and tried to leave, he flew into a feral rage. He violently smashed my head against the marble vanity, leaving me bleeding on the floor, and locked the bedroom door behind him.
I lay there in the cold, staring at the pool of my own blood. My entire life, my endless pain, and my unborn pups were nothing but a cruel, calculated joke to the man who was supposed to be my Mate.
But Adrian didn't know I wasn't just a brainless Omega.
I wiped the blood from my face, climbed down the balcony trellis into the freezing rain, and pulled out an encrypted burner phone.
"The cage is broken. Initiate Phase Two."
8.4
On the night before her wedding, Navia Harrison discovers her fiancé in bed with her step-sister-and worse, the two of them are already planning how to get rid of her after the marriage.
Humiliated and consumed by hatred, Navia exposes their affair during the wedding ceremony itself, destroying both families' reputations in a single move.
Then, she meets him.
Leonel Crawford - the cold and dangerously powerful head of the Crawford family. Untouchable. Ruthless. A man no woman has ever been able to keep close.
He's also her ex-fiancé's uncle.
One impulsive proposal changes everything.
"If you need a wife... marry me instead."
"Honestly... we'd make a pretty good match."
9.6
Nelson Smith has been struggling for survival due to kidney failure. Without a transplant, he has less than four months to live.
No one in his family matched after tests were done. Not even his siblings, parents or cousins, except for one person, Janice Capuno, his wife.
Janice used to be the darling of a wealthy Dynasty, until she hid her identity and married the man she loves, Nelson Smith, against her parent's wishes.
Instead of getting love, she was treated like a servant by her mother-in-law, mocked as a gold-digger by her sister in-law, but for her husband, his love towards her remained unshakable. He'd never ceased defending and protecting her from his family, that's why when the doctors confirmed her to be a match, she didn't hesitate to get herself cut open to save Nelson's life.
****
There was barely thirty minutes to the surgery, and Janice was already in her hospital gown, waiting to get cut and her kidney given out to save her husband's life, when the reality of everything she had believed in came changing in her eyes.
"Babe....my phone...switch it off...battery." Nelson pointed to his bag weakly before the sedative took full action on him. Just before she'll put the phone off, a WhatsApp notification suddenly popped up. It was from Tricia, his University ex-girlfriend.
"Baby, has the fool gone into the theatre yet? I can't wait for this to be over. Once you get the kidney, we're done with her." The message read.
9.8
Three women, three brothers, a single, crumpled dollar bill.
Alina's world shatters the moment she's auctioned off-and claimed by the powerful Hawthorne brothers.
Thrown into Adrian Hawthorne's cold, dangerous world, she becomes his to control... his to protect... and, terrifyingly, his to desire. He's ruthless, possessive, and hiding secrets that could destroy them both. But the deeper she falls into his world, the harder it becomes to tell if she's his prisoner-or something far more dangerous.
Because the Hawthorne brothers don't just take.
They keep.
Viviane has spent her life surviving, so when Julian Hawthorne "buys" her freedom, she knows better than to trust it. Men like him don't save people-they collect them. But Julian isn't as simple as he pretends to be, and the deeper she's pulled into his world, the more dangerous it becomes to walk away.
Especially when she realizes she might be the only thing he's ever been willing to fight for.
Lena doesn't belong to anyone-and she intends to keep it that way. Brilliant, guarded, and hiding more than anyone suspects, she enters Lucien Hawthorne's world on her own terms. But Lucien doesn't play fair, and he doesn't let go.
When her past comes crashing back, Lena is forced to face the one thing she's been running from: trusting someone who could destroy her... or save her.
Three women. Three choices.Stay. Fight.
Or burn it all down.
Because being sold was only the beginning.