The Reborn Duchess's Ruthless Revenge
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.
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Chapter 3
"Get him on the table! Now!"
General Stone's voice was a roar of panic. He had carried Julian into the surgical tent himself, his uniform stained with the dark, toxic blood of the man who had just saved his life.
Dr. Aris, the chief surgeon, took one look at the wound and went pale.
"Clear the room!" Aris shouted at the orderlies. "Get the suction!"
Imogen crashed through the tent flaps. She was covered in dust, her face streaked with tears. A guard tried to stop her, but she fought him off with the ferocity of a wild animal.
"Julian!"
"Hold her back!" Stone ordered, but his voice lacked its usual steel. He was staring at the monitor.
Julian was convulsing. His body arched off the table, his teeth clenched so hard they threatened to crack. The heart rate monitor was screaming-a frantic, staccato rhythm that was too fast to sustain.
Dr. Aris was examining the wound. "It's Viper-X," he whispered. "Look at the necrosis. It's spreading instantly."
"Antidote," Stone barked. "Give him the antidote."
Aris looked up, his eyes hopeless. "The supply depot was hit, General. The refrigeration unit is gone. We have nothing."
The silence that followed was louder than the explosions outside.
"Call the capital," Stone said. "Get a medevac."
"He has minutes, General," Aris said, his voice trembling. "Not hours. Minutes. The neurotoxin will paralyze his diaphragm and he will suffocate."
Imogen fell to her knees. The world was ending. Right here, in this dirty tent, under the flickering halogen lights.
Minutes.
Then, a memory flashed in her mind. A small, cold glass vial.
Isolde.
Before they left, Isolde had pressed a small, chilled kit into Imogen's hand. "It's a new broad-spectrum antivenom from the Powers labs," she had said, her eyes intense, almost scary. "Experimental. But if anyone gets hurt... really hurt... use the blue vial. Don't ask questions. Just use it." At the time, Imogen had thought her sister was being paranoid. Now, it felt like prophecy.
Imogen scrambled for her med-kit, which was still strapped to her waist. Her fingers were slippery with sweat and blood. She ripped the zipper open.
There it was. A small, unmarked blue ampoule.
She grabbed a syringe.
"What are you doing?" Dr. Aris yelled as Imogen rushed the table.
"Get away from him!" Imogen shoved the doctor aside. She didn't care about protocol. She didn't care about sterility.
"Imogen, stop!" Stone stepped forward.
"Trust me!" Imogen screamed, turning to face the General. She held the syringe up like a weapon. "Isolde gave this to me. She said it would save him."
Stone froze. Isolde. The woman who had predicted the Levine scandal. The woman who seemed to know things before they happened.
Stone looked at Julian's face. His lips were turning blue. He was dying.
"Let her do it," Stone said.
"General, that's insanity!" Aris protested. "We don't know what's in that!"
"Do it!" Stone roared.
Imogen didn't hesitate. She jammed the needle into Julian's thigh, right through the fabric of his pants, and depressed the plunger.
For ten seconds, nothing happened.
The monitor continued its frantic beeping. Julian's chest heaved in shallow, useless gasps.
Then, he went rigid.
His eyes flew open. They were completely dilated, black pools of terror. He let out a strangled cry, his back arching so violently that his bones popped.
"He's going into cardiac arrest!" Aris yelled, reaching for the paddles.
"No, wait," Imogen whispered. She grabbed Julian's hand. It was ice cold. "Stay with me. Please, Julian. Stay with me."
She squeezed his hand so hard her knuckles turned white.
Suddenly, Julian gasped. It was a massive, sucking intake of air, like a drowning man breaking the surface.
The monitor went silent for a second, then beeped.
Beep.
Beep.
Slower. Stronger.
The black lines spreading from the wound on his side stopped. They didn't recede, but they stopped moving toward his heart.
Dr. Aris stared at the readouts. "Impossible," he muttered. "His vitals... they're stabilizing. The toxin is being neutralized."
Stone slumped against the metal table, the gun slipping from his fingers. He wiped a hand over his face, smearing soot and sweat.
Imogen dropped her forehead onto Julian's chest. She could hear his heart beating. It was erratic, it was weak, but it was there.
"He's alive," she sobbed. "He's alive."
Outside, the gunfire began to fade. The reinforcements had arrived.
Stone straightened up. He looked at the empty blue vial on the tray. He looked at Imogen.
"What was in that, Lady Imogen?" he asked quietly.
Imogen looked at the vial. She had no idea. But she knew one thing.
"A miracle," she said. "My sister gave us a miracle."
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7.4
In a world ruled by dominance and desire, being an Omega is a curse, especially when you're mine.
On his eighteenth birthday, Luca wakes to a nightmare, his wolf has chosen the lowest rank of all. An Omega. The scent of submission, the mark of shame and the kind of wolf others own, use, and discard.
But Luca isn't broken, he's burning and the only one who's ever made him feel safe is Rafe, his best friend, his protector and his temptation.
Then Rafe shifts and becomes an Alpha and their wolves recognize each other, the bond between them is instant, magnetic, and utterly forbidden.
Because an Alpha claiming a Male Omega?
That's forbidden, but this Omega? He's different
Now their connection is more than a secret, It's a sin to their world, a deadly craving, slow, delicious and primal to fall into.
And when one bite can seal a bond or spark a war, how long can they resist it?
He's not supposed to want him.
But gods, he does.
And once an Alpha touches what's his... he never lets go.
8.4
I worked three double shifts at the garage just to buy a velvet-boxed cake for my wealthy girlfriend, Arleen.
But when I pushed open the VIP room door, I saw her lover kissing her bare leg.
She didn't push him away. Instead, she laughed and swirled her martini.
"I only forgot Finn because I knew he would stay. He is a poor boy from Queens who follows me around like a loyal dog."
Later that night, her lover intentionally crashed a Porsche to scare me, sending a piece of jagged metal into my skull.
Lying in a growing pool of my own blood, I watched Arleen crawl out of the wreckage.
She didn't even look at me. She threw herself at her uninjured lover, screaming for a medic.
"He just got scraped by a piece of plastic. He is faking it. Deal with Jaquez first!"
When I woke up, I wasn't free. Arleen had locked me in a private hospital wing with 24-hour security, planning to isolate me and keep me as her broken, captive toy forever.
My blind, pathetic devotion finally froze into absolute disgust.
I looked at the heart monitor next to my bed and grabbed an IV needle.
I severed the sensor wire to trigger a flatline, slipped out the fire stairs while the nurses panicked, and burned my identity to ashes.
This time, I was going to disappear to London, build my own empire, and watch hers burn.
9.3
Born into privilege, Eleanor never imagined her life could shatter in a single night. Then her father disappeared with his mistress, her mother fell from a building and slipped into a coma, and everything she once owned turned to dust.
Determined not to ruin Jonathan's future with her family's disgrace, she ended their relationship and became the bride of a man trapped in a vegetative state.
She believed that was the last time their paths would cross. But two years later, Jonathan pinned her in the dark and whispered, "Long time no see, my sister-in-law."
7.5
Raven Noir, stolen and sold at birth, a lethal assassin scarred by a decade-old rape, infiltrates billionaire Damien Blackwood's elite nightclub empire as stripper, her cover to get close enough to torture and kill the man who unknowingly fathered her daughter. Damien, captivated by her icy control and commanding presence, pulls her deeper with lucrative nights and charged intimacy. But when he encounters her identical twin, the buried memories flood back. Mistaking the twin for his victim, guilt drives him to propose marriage. Devastated, Raven faces an impossible choice: expose the truth, seize her revenge, or let obsession destroy them all in a dark, slow-burn thriller of betrayal and forbidden desire.
8.4
"Are you going to treat me like the enemy?" Raffaele asked, hovering over me like a predator.
"You are the enemy," I sneered.
He smiled. "Careful. You're hurting my feelings."
"I hope I can hurt much more than that."
His eyes darkened. "You forget-I'm the one who can break you."
I vowed never to give my heart to a man. Never let one bend me. Never let one own me.
Then a single night changed everything.
When my best friend became a target, I took her place and caught the attention of the most dangerous man in the city. Raffaele, My friend's older brother, wasn't supposed to see me. We were never meant to meet but the moment his eyes locked on mine, I became his new obsession.
I don't bend and he doesn't let go.
Suddenly caught up in a world of blood and power, resisting a man like Raffaele might cost me everything...heart, body, and soul.
He wants me, dead or alive.
7.1
For ten years, my family kept me locked away, forcing me to play the part of a broken, mentally unstable girl. They controlled me with sedatives and treated me like a ghost in my own home, a prisoner in a gilded cage.
But I had a secret. I was a world-famous anonymous artist with a hidden fortune, and I had an escape plan. On the day of my cousin's wedding, my rebellion was accidentally witnessed by a dangerous stranger who saw the predator beneath my fragile mask.
To silence him, I dragged him into a dark closet. The encounter turned raw and reckless, a violent collision I used as the perfect cover for my escape. I vanished with a new name and a one-way ticket to a new life, leaving him with nothing but a bloodstain and the bitter taste of betrayal.
I thought I was free, that I had successfully buried the girl I was forced to be and the man I was forced to use.
Three months later, on a superyacht in Monaco, he found me. He wasn't just some wealthy guest; he was the ruthless head of a powerful crime syndicate, and I was trapped in his private penthouse. He locked the door, his eyes black with possessive rage.
"The game is over," he whispered. "This time, you're not running."