From Ruin to Reign
They threw a prince into the river. A warrior climbed out.
Seven-year-old Marcus watched his parents die, betrayed by the uncle he trusted. Cast into beast-filled waters, left for dead, he should have perished. Instead, he survived-and began plotting revenge. For ten years, hiding his royal identity at a remote academy, Marcus trains in secret, driven by one burning purpose: make them all pay.
But when he finally returns to reclaim his throne, he'll uncover a truth more devastating than any betrayal: his parents are alive, and his suffering was their plan all along. Now Marcus must decide. Will he become the monster his enemies created, or the hero his broken kingdom desperately needs?
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Chapter 2
The water was dark and freezing. Marcus sank deeper, his lungs burning. He couldn't tell which way was up. The current spun him like a toy.
*I'm dying,* he thought. *Just like Father. Just like Mother.*
Then something strange happened. Warmth spread from his chest through his body. It felt like fire pushing away the cold.
His eyes opened underwater. Everything should be dark, but he could see clearly. Fish swam past. Plants waved in the current. Strangest of all, light came from his own body.
Golden light surrounded him. It got brighter every second, so bright it hurt to look at.
Dark shapes moved toward him through the water. Marcus's heart jumped. These were river beasts. Monsters that killed grown men. Some were big as horses with teeth like knives.
The closest beast opened its huge jaws and swam straight at him. Marcus wanted to scream but couldn't. Water would fill his lungs.
The beast stopped just feet away. Marcus could see every sharp tooth. But it didn't attack. Instead, it backed away, making scared sounds.
The golden light grew brighter. All the beasts turned and ran. Even the biggest ones fled from a seven-year-old boy.
Marcus didn't understand. But he knew he had to get out before his luck ended.
The current carried him along. His body hit rocks but somehow didn't hurt much. The golden light protected him.
After a long time, the river became calmer. Marcus's head broke the surface and he gasped for air. His arms and legs barely worked.
The riverbank was close. He tried to swim but had almost no strength left. The golden light was fading.
*Just a little more,* he told himself. *Mother said to survive. I must survive.*
His hand touched mud. He grabbed it and pulled himself forward. Finally, he was out of the water. He collapsed on the bank, coughing water and gasping.
The sun was setting, painting the sky orange and red. Marcus lay there, too tired to move. His body hurt everywhere. His clothes were torn. Blood mixed with river water on his skin.
But he was alive.
As darkness fell, Marcus heard voices nearby. He wanted to call for help, but something made him stay quiet. He couldn't trust anyone now.
"Grandfather, can we go home? I've been training all day," a young girl said.
"Just a bit longer, Lydia. If you want to be strong, you must...wait, what's that?"
Footsteps came closer. Marcus tried to sit up but couldn't move.
An old man's face appeared above him. He had kind eyes and a long white beard. "This boy is still alive! His heartbeat is weak, but it's there."
A small girl pushed past the old man. She had her hair in a ponytail and looked about eight. Her face showed curiosity.
The old man placed his hands on Marcus's chest. Warm energy flowed into him, different from the golden light but still good. It pushed away pain and cold.
Marcus coughed hard, spitting water. He opened his eyes fully. The girl's face was very close, staring at him.
"Are you an angel?" Marcus asked weakly. His mind was confused.
Slap!
The girl hit his cheek lightly. "What? Angel? Do you want me to kill you?"
"Lydia! Be gentle. The boy is hurt," the old man said.
Marcus touched his stinging cheek. "Sorry. I thought... I thought I was dead."
The old man smiled. "You're alive, boy. Though I'm amazed you survived. This river kills even strong warriors."
He kept channeling energy. His eyebrows rose in surprise. "Remarkable. Your body is healing itself. I've never seen this in a child."
Marcus felt strength returning slowly. After several minutes, he could sit up. He bowed his head. "Thank you for saving me, sir."
The old man studied him. "How did you end up in this river? Where is your family? Tell me and I'll take you home."
Marcus's face fell. Memories flooded back. His father falling. His mother bleeding. The pain felt like a knife in his heart.
But he couldn't tell the truth. What if this old man knew Cassian? What if he helped with the attack? Trust could get him killed.
He made his voice sad. "Bandits attacked my village. They killed everyone, including my parents. They burned everything. I jumped in the river to escape. Now I have nowhere."
It wasn't completely a lie. Just different bandits. But the result was the same. His parents were gone and he was alone.
The old man's eyes showed sympathy. Lydia looked sad too.
"I see," the old man said softly. "So you have no home?"
Marcus shook his head.
The old man thought for a moment, then smiled. "Boy, I lead the Iron Sword Academy, not far from here. If you have nowhere else, come with me. I'll give you a home."
Marcus looked up, hope in his chest. An academy meant training. Training meant getting stronger. Getting stronger meant one day he could make them pay.
"I would be honored, sir," Marcus said.
"Good! But don't call me sir. Call me Grandfather Octavius. From today, you're my grandson." He helped Marcus stand. "Now, what's your name?"
Marcus hesitated. He couldn't use his full name. If anyone learned he was Alexander's son, they might kill him.
"My name is Marcus," he said simply.
"Just Marcus? No family name?"
"The bandits destroyed everything. I want to forget my old name. I want to start new."
Grandfather Octavius nodded. "Very well, Marcus. This is my granddaughter, Lydia. She's eight. You two will be like brother and sister now."
Lydia crossed her arms. "He's smaller than me, so he should call me big sister!"
Despite everything, Marcus almost smiled. "Yes, big sister."
"How old are you, Marcus?" Grandfather Octavius asked.
"Seven, Grandfather."
Octavius looked surprised. "Seven? You look older. Well, no matter. Let me catch fish for dinner. You must be hungry."
As the old man walked to the river, Marcus stared at the dark sky. His hands became fists.
*Mother. Father. I will survive. I will grow stronger than anyone. And one day, I will make them all pay.*
A single tear ran down his cheek. But it wasn't sadness. It was determination.
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7.1
Aurora Andrews has never known a life free from pain. Orphaned and left in the care of her cruel uncle and aunt, she endured years of abuse that taught her the safest place was in the shadows.
But even in college, her silence couldn't shield her from the cruelty of her peers. Just as she reaches her breaking point, fate intervenes in the form of Alexander Mark, the powerful and enigmatic CEO of the Vanguard Group company.
Alexander saves her from a nightmare, but one impulsive, accidental night binds their fates together. When the morning light comes, he leaves her with a heartless dismissal, assuming she is just another gold digger looking for a payout. But Aurora carries a secret more precious than anything.
Forced to drop out of school to protect her unborn baby, Aurora fights to survive in a world that wants to break her. But the shadows of her past are closing in; what will happen when her abusive aunt and uncle discover she is pregnant?
And what will become of her when Alexander Mark walks back into her life, unaware of the child growing in her womb?
He left her thinking she was a whore. But the truth is far more dangerous. When their paths inevitably cross again, will he accept the child as his own? Or will he destroy the only chance Aurora has at a happy ending?
"I'm not a whore, I promise you, Sir.
I just wanted to save you... and nothing else."
9.1
"You walked into my room, Astrid. No bra. No panties. What did you expect me to do? Pray?"
"I expect you to look away."
"Look away?" he chuckled in a low, dangerous tone as he trod toward me. "Baby, I've looked away for damn five years."
~
When Astrid returns home for summer, she's expecting chill nights and zero drama.
Except her brother's best friend–Rhett Rivers–is crashing at their house. And he has grown into every bit of the trouble she shouldn't want.
One time at a party leads them to an unforgettable one nightstand
What if Astrid Cole realizes she'd not just had sex with her brother's best friend but also let him touch her in some kind of way she never felt?
8.4
My husband, Brock, wanted to sell me out. Literally.
His plan was to drug me and deliver me to his boss, all for the sake of a promotion.
But what he didn't know was that my boss, Gill Webb, was gay. He was interested in my husband, not me. He looked me in the eye and asked, “Adeline, you don't want to lose your job, do you?”
I sighed, weary to my bones. I really needed this job.
After my husband fell into a drugged stupor, my boss appeared at the bedroom door.
9.4
I was standing in the center of the gallery, holding a glass of expensive champagne, when the screens behind me flickered and my life ended.
It was supposed to be an art unveiling, but the monitors shifted to fake footage of me handing evidence to the FBI.
My fiancé, Ethan, looked at me like I was a sick dog that needed to be put down.
My father slapped me across the face in front of everyone, disowning me to save his own skin.
That was when Luca Vitti, the city’s most dangerous man, stepped in.
He cleared the room and took my hand.
I thought he was saving me.
I didn't realize he was just collecting a new pet.
I was locked in his estate, isolated and terrified.
Then, my healthy mother suddenly "died" of pneumonia in a Vitti clinic.
Days later, I saw Luca’s frail stepsister, Clara, breathing easily for the first time in her life.
She had my mother’s lungs.
I became nothing more than a breeding vessel.
When I fell pregnant, I overheard Luca and Ethan planning my death.
"Once the kid is cut out, she's a loose end," Luca had said.
They were going to kill me and give my son to the woman who stole my mother's breath.
I couldn't let that happen.
So, I staged a tragedy.
I induced labor in secret, hid my living son, and placed a fake corpse in the crib with a note: The Vitti Legacy.
I escaped while they mourned.
Five years later, Luca finally found the doctor’s confession.
He learned that Clara had orchestrated everything.
He opened the velvet box I left behind and realized it was empty.
Now, he knows I didn't kill his son.
I saved him from becoming a monster like his father.
7.5
For seven years, I was known as the "Caged Canary"—the orphan ward of the ruthless Don, Autry Villarreal. I wore his silver star necklace like a dog tag, mistaking his cold control for protection.
Then came the breaking news alert that shattered my world: Autry was marrying Cassie Turner to end a decade-long turf war.
He didn't just break my heart; he let her destroy my home. When Cassie ordered a bulldozer to rip up the rose garden my deceased father had planted, Autry stood on the patio and watched. He chose political strategy over my only living memory of my parents.
"It is necessary," he told me, handing me a briefcase full of cash to disappear. "This saves lives."
I realized then that he wasn't my protector; he was my jailer. I left the money, discarded his necklace, and vanished into the night.
Five years later, I returned to New York not as his ward, but as J.B., a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer with a diamond ring on my finger from a man who actually cherished me.
Autry didn't handle my freedom well. He cornered me in a car, staging a paparazzi photo to look like a passionate embrace, desperate to ruin my engagement.
"I destroyed Cassie for you," he claimed, revealing he had leaked his own ex-fiancée's crimes to clear my name. "I cleaned the slate. I can give you the world now."
He expected gratitude. He expected me to fall back into his arms.
I looked him dead in the eye and posted a selfie with my fiancé instead.
"I don't want your world, Autry. I'm done living in the dark."
8.2
I stood in the Royal Hall, clutching a glass of warm champagne while watching Senator Levine laugh. To the crowd, he was a pillar of the community; to me, he was the parasite who had already destroyed my life once.
In my past life, this gala was the night the monarchy began to bleed. Levine successfully planted his cameras, the Vance empire funded a coup, and the kingdom I loved was sold off to the highest bidder.
I lived through the consequences of my silence. I watched my sister, Seraphina, die in childbirth because the medical supplies were intercepted by traitors. I watched the man I loved, Duke Elliot, stripped of his titles and branded a criminal. I spent my final days in a damp, freezing cell, listening to the executioner sharpen his blade while the people cheered for our demise.
The injustice burned in my throat like lye. I died wondering how I could have been so naive, how I could have let these monsters walk among us while I played the part of a perfect, quiet wife.
Why did the gods let the wicked prosper while my family’s blood watered the palace gardens? What would I have given for just one chance to strike first?
Then, the world shifted. I opened my eyes to find myself back at the gala, the scent of sandalwood and rain surrounding me as Elliot rested a possessive hand on my back. I wasn't just a Duchess anymore; I was a ghost from a future that would never happen, and I was ready to erase every name on my list.