THE LAST EXTRACTION
The Last Extraction is a gritty war-zone adventure about Captain Ethan Cross, a special-ops soldier whose helicopter is shot down during a secret mission in a lawless country called Kandara. Left for dead, Ethan discovers that his mission was never meant to succeed. The scientist he was sent to extract-Asset Orion-holds information about a powerful technology capable of collapsing entire nations without open war.
Hunted by rebel militias and betrayed by his own government, Ethan teams up with Dr. Mara Vale and chooses to protect the truth instead of following corrupt orders. As time runs out and violence closes in, Ethan fights through ambushes and loss to ensure the secret reaches the world.
At its core, the story is about survival, betrayal, and moral courage, one man risking everything to do what's right in a world driven by lies and power.
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Chapter 4
The forest was alive with the echo of gunfire, distant shouts, and the crackle of breaking branches. Ethan crouched low behind a fallen tree, Orion trembling beside him, Mara scanning the darkness with unwavering focus.
"Ethan," Mara whispered, her voice tight. "They're everywhere. We can't outrun them in the open."
Ethan's jaw tightened. He could feel the weight of every second pressing against them. "We don't need to outrun them. We need to outsmart them."
Orion's hands shook as he gripped his bag of essential research. "I-I don't understand. Why am I still alive?"
Ethan's eyes narrowed. "Because someone wants you dead-and someone wants you alive. And whoever wants you alive? They don't want us in the picture."
Mara stepped closer. "He's right. The orders that sent Ethan's team here... they were never meant to succeed. They knew what they were sending you into."
Orion's pale face drained further of color. "What do you mean?"
Ethan exhaled, forcing himself to remain calm. "Your extraction was a cover. They wanted to contain you. And if that failed... well, then we were expendable."
The words hit Orion like a hammer. "Expendable?"
"Yes," Ethan said bluntly. "You're the key to a weapon that can destabilize nations without a single missile. And my government... they'd rather see everyone-including me-burn than let that technology fall into the wrong hands."
Orion swallowed hard, his fingers tightening around the bag. "So... you're saying I've been a pawn this whole time?"
Ethan didn't flinch. "A pawn, a target, and now... a chance. But you have to trust us if you want to survive."
Behind them, the forest rustled, and Ethan froze. Shadows moved with purpose. Not militia this time-something else. Something faster.
"Trap," he muttered.
Before Mara could respond, a volley of bullets ripped through the underbrush. Ethan pushed Orion down, firing instinctively. Two attackers fell, but more emerged, forcing them into a tight circle.
Mara grabbed Orion's arm. "Run with me!" she shouted.
They bolted through a narrow gap in the trees, leaping over roots and fallen logs, bullets whistling past. Ethan covered their rear, every shot precise, calculated, deadly. The attackers were trained, relentless. But so was Ethan Cross.
They emerged onto a small clearing. Ahead, a ravine dropped into darkness, jagged rocks waiting like teeth below. No time to hesitate. Ethan grabbed Orion, tossed him over the edge to safety, and followed, rolling hard against the rocks below. Mara landed beside them, pain and adrenaline mixing in every bone.
Silence fell for a moment. Then distant shouts echoed. Reinforcements were coming.
Orion shook, still trying to catch his breath. "I don't understand... why? Why would they want to kill me?"
Mara knelt beside him. "Because knowledge is power. And some people? They'd rather destroy the world than let the wrong person have it."
Ethan scanned the horizon. Their path forward led toward the abandoned village where they could hide, regroup, and plan the next step. But it wasn't just the terrain that worried him-it was what they would find there. The militia might not be the worst of it. Someone else had been tracking Orion, watching, waiting.
They reached the village as first light broke across the sky. Shadows stretched long and pale over burned-out huts and shattered walls. Every corner, every doorway, seemed to hide unseen eyes.
"Where do we go?" Orion whispered.
Ethan's gaze landed on the tallest, most intact building in the center-a crumbling schoolhouse. "We hide there. Then we plan."
Mara shot him a glance. "You mean we fight from there. We can't just hide."
Ethan exhaled. "Not hide. Observe. Choose our moment. We only get one shot to reach Orion's lab safely, and we're running out of time."
They slipped inside the schoolhouse, the floorboards groaning beneath their weight. Dust hung thick in the air. Ethan set Orion against a wall, checking his injuries while Mara barricaded the windows as best she could.
Minutes passed. Silence returned. Then a faint click echoed in the distance.
"Someone's here," Mara whispered, tense.
Ethan moved to the door, peering through a crack. A figure emerged from the mist-uniformed, moving deliberately. Not militia, not Kandaran. Too precise. Too disciplined.
Orion froze. "Who... who is that?"
Ethan's hand went to his rifle. "I don't know. But whatever they want... it's not friendly."
The figure stopped, scanning the village. Then, unexpectedly, it raised a hand. A single signal. Seconds later, more figures appeared, emerging silently from shadows and ruins. Trained. Armed. Dangerous.
Ethan turned to Mara. "We've been lied to our entire lives. And now? We're trapped."
Orion swallowed, fear etched into every line of his face. "So... what do we do?"
Ethan's eyes hardened. "We survive. We fight. And we make sure the truth gets out-no matter the cost."
From outside, the sound of footsteps grew louder. Shadows moved toward the schoolhouse like predators. The first shots rang out.
Ethan crouched behind the barricade, his heart steady, his mind razor-sharp. Mara readied her weapon. Orion gripped the bag with the weapon plans, trembling-but determined.
They were outnumbered. Outgunned. And completely exposed.
But there was one thing their pursuers hadn't counted on: desperation.
And desperation, Ethan thought, made men unstoppable.
The night stretched on, thick with tension, each second a razor's edge. Every movement, every breath, could be their last.
Above, the first sun rays pierced the smoke-filled sky. Kandara waited, merciless, and somewhere in the ruins of the village, the war for Orion's secret truly began.
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9.7
Eighteen months ago, the man I loved shattered my heart, claiming everything between us was a mistake. Now, he's back, a ghost of his former self, a rookie tryout in my pro esports team. And I will make him regret crawling back.
Clifton, captain of a legendary esports team, was secretly battling a severe wrist injury that threatened his career, every match a fight against his own body. He pushed through the pain, ignoring doctors' warnings, desperate to maintain his god-like status.
His world was already on the edge, but nothing prepared him for seeing Justice Terry again in the team basement. Justice, pale and trembling, his eyes wide with naked terror, was now a rookie tryout.
Clifton had spent a year and a half trying to forget that rainy Chicago alley, the raw revulsion in Justice's eyes, the whispered "it wasn't real" that had left him heartbroken. Justice had vanished, and Clifton had erased every trace. Now, the boy who once looked at him like he was the sun was back, flinching at his touch, displaying a deep, primal fear. Amidst sponsor pressure and whispers of being "washed," Clifton saw Justice's return as a chance for vengeance. He publicly humiliated Justice on a live stream, forcing him into a suicide mission, then coldly benched him.
Yet, the satisfaction never came. Instead, a hollow emptiness and a torrent of questions: What had truly happened in the past? Why was Justice here, and what trauma had carved such fear into his bones?
Clifton, unwilling to be fooled again, swore to uncover every secret and every lie. He would force Justice to explain why he had returned, even if it meant tearing down everything they both had left.
8.7
Aria Blackwood grew up as the Alpha's daughter. Everyone expected her to lead. She was taught to stand tall, never bow.
Then came her eighteenth birthday. In front of the whole pack, her mate rejected her.
Rafe Daniels didn't just break her heart-he shattered the bond and turned it into a battlefield.
Five years later, Silver Crest has fallen. Aria's father is gone. Her pack has surrendered. And Aria? He keeps her alive for one thing: to serve in the house of the man who wrecked her world.
Rafe calls it mercy, this humiliation. He thinks she's beaten.
Let him think it.
She drops her gaze, but she catches every whisper. She carries out orders, but she's always plotting. And that mate bond-they both feel it burning, whether they want it or not. Aria just turns that fire into something sharper.
Revenge.
She was never supposed to kneel. She was born to rule. And she's going to take her throne back-even if she has to destroy the man fate chose for her.
9.7
Giana woke up drugged and burning with fever in a luxurious hotel suite. Standing before her was Cornel Stark, the most ruthless billionaire in New York.
Memories of her past life stabbed into her brain. In that life, her adoptive family and her fiancé Gary had stolen her inheritance and left her to die a brutal, agonizing death.
She also remembered how fighting Cornel only made him more violent. So this time, she didn't scream.
She endured his brutal punishment, escaped the moment he let his guard down, and swallowed a Plan B pill on the freezing streets.
Returning to her adoptive family's mansion, she faced the people who had destroyed her. Her fiancé and her stepsister put on masks of fake concern, secretly mocking her.
Instead of throwing a useless tantrum like before, Giana deliberately threw herself down the steep wooden stairs.
She smashed her head against the marble floor, using her own blood to shatter their plans and win back her mother's trust.
She thought she had finally taken control. She was ready to crush the people who had betrayed her and live for herself.
But she didn't understand why the billionaire she had just escaped was suddenly turning her life upside down.
When she woke up in the hospital, her room wasn't filled with her family's fake tears, but an ocean of blood-red roses.
The heavy door swung open, and Cornel Stark walked in, his gray eyes locking onto her with a dark, predatory hunger.
"Remember this feeling, Giana. Every breath you take belongs to me now."
8.3
I took the fall for my sister and endured three years of torment in prison.
My knee was shattered, my body covered in scars, and I almost lost my life in that "accident".
On the day I was released, clinging to the last shred of hope, I ran toward my fiancé Benito’s Maybach—only to hear his cold voice: "Your existence is just a nuisance."
It turned out that the beatings and cigarette burns in prison were all arranged by him, paid for with his money. It turned out that the sister I had protected with all my heart had long been switching my medicine behind my back, hoping I would be completely crippled.
At the family gala, they joined hands to strip me bare in front of the flashing camera lights. My father slapped me hard across the face and roared: "Why didn’t you just die in prison?"
I smiled and tore apart my tattered dress, then dialed the number I had hidden in my heart for three years—the man who only understood blood for blood, his voice hoarse and alluring: "Turn around."
This time, I will no longer be a toy to be manipulated.
I will tear off their masks and burn the Stafford family to the ground.
By the way, I will take back everything that belongs to me—including him, the one hiding in the shadows.
7.8
VANESSA
They say revenge is a dish best served cold. But for me, that's not enough. I want it to hit so hard they beg for their lives.
Five years ago, my own husband left me to die in a fire. I watched him walk away, his eyes full of hate. In my last moments, I thought about how unfair it was, that I was dying while the people who did wrong were free. As if some higher power heard me, I was saved.
Now, I'm back and my only purpose is to give Ethan Croft exactly what he deserves. He took everything from me, and now I will take everything he loves, in the most painful way possible.
I have it all planned out. But there's something or someone else I didn't plan on. Ceron Morrison. He's tall, dark, and dangerously handsome. He's a mystery and a distraction I can't afford. He's a threat to the revenge I have sworn to complete.
But no matter what comes my way, I'll make Ethan pay. I'll burn his entire world to the ground, even if it means I get burned in the flames, too.
CERON
Vanessa Ashford has taken over my mind without even trying.
The first time I saw her, she was putting a thief on the ground at the airport with a single, perfect kick. I was captivated. As the heir to a powerful family, I'm used to getting anything I want. And I want her. I want to know her secrets.
Vanessa has built high walls around herself, but I am not a quitter. As I slowly peel back the layers, I'm discovering a past filled with pain. I can see the fire of vengeance burning in her eyes, a fire so strong it could destroy her.
My family wants me to secure our legacy with a sensible, strategic marriage. But all I can think about is the woman who wears her revenge like a custom-made gown. I know I should walk away. But something in me can't stand the thought of her facing the darkness alone.
The real question is, when she finally plays her last card, will I be the one to save her? Or will I just become another victim caught in the crossfire?
9.0
For years, I exhausted myself trying to be the perfect, obedient heiress of the ultra-wealthy Carlisle family.
But my reward wasn't their love. Instead, I was abruptly branded a fake, thrown out of the estate, and sent to a brutal black-site prison to take the fall for someone else's crimes.
My cold CEO brother, Julian, didn't lift a finger to save me. My carefully selected boyfriend, Connor, sold me out without a second thought.
In that maximum-security cell, I was stripped of my dignity. I ate moldy, insect-infested bread, and my soft hands were covered in thick, ugly scars from fighting off murderers.
I watched inmates get beaten half to death over a single cracker, while my so-called family continued their pristine, luxurious lives on the outside.
"She's just a parasite, let her rot."
I died in that dark cell, completely abandoned. The sheer exhaustion of trying to please them, of trying to be flawless, washed over my final moments like a physical sickness.
I didn't understand why my absolute loyalty was repaid with such ruthless cruelty.
Then, water rushed out of my lungs in a violent, burning surge.
I opened my eyes to the pristine blue pool of the Carlisle estate, my body completely unscarred. I had reverted to being fifteen again.
This time, I was done playing the perfect daughter. If my fate was a prison cell, I was going to spend my remaining freedom tearing their perfect world apart.