Escaping Into The Dangerous Devil's Arms
My father ordered me to marry into the cursed Vaughn family.
Their heirs were rumored to die young from a mysterious genetic agony. My sister Kayden laughed, saying she wasn't going to waste her youth planning a funeral. So, I became the sacrificial lamb.
When I refused, my father slammed his hand on the table and threatened to throw my dead mother's ashes into the city dump.
"You are a struggling actress with no money and no power. You have no choice," he told me coldly.
To make matters worse, my own agent drugged my drink at a business dinner, trying to sell my body to a sleazy investor just to secure project funding.
I was completely cornered, suffocating under the weight of their cruelty. I couldn't understand how my own flesh and blood could be so vicious, treating me like a worthless pawn to be traded and discarded.
But none of them knew that while escaping the drug-laced dinner, I crashed directly into the terrifying Vaughn heir, Algot.
When his glowing crimson eyes locked onto me during a violent episode of his cursed pain, we discovered an impossible truth: my physical touch was the only cure for his agony.
Looking at the dark bruises he accidentally left on my neck, I chose not to run. Instead, I pulled out the private business card he gave me and dialed his number.
"You need me," I whispered to the dangerous billionaire. "And I am going to use you to destroy them all."
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Chapter 7
Kayden marched up to Gianna, her heels clicking aggressively against the hardwood floor of the restaurant.
"You have no shame," Kayden hissed, her voice loud enough to draw the attention of the nearby tables. "You are just a cheap actress throwing yourself at any man with a nice suit."
Gianna looked at Kayden with absolute disgust. Her stomach tightened, not with fear, but with pure, cold anger.
"At least I am throwing myself at a real man," Gianna said, her voice deadly quiet. "Not someone else's fiancé."
Kayden's face drained of color. Asa stepped forward, his jaw tight.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Kayden shrieked, her voice pitching higher. "Asa loves me!"
Gianna let out a dry, humorless laugh. "Does he? Then why is his mother still setting him up on blind dates at the country club?"
Asa's face flushed red. He grabbed Kayden's arm. "Kayden, lower your voice. People are staring."
Kayden yanked her arm away from Asa. She was shaking with rage. She pointed a manicured finger right in Gianna's face.
"You are a whore," Kayden spat. "Do not think hooking up with some old man is going to save you from marrying the Vaughn freak."
Gianna's eyes went completely dead.
She moved faster than Kayden could blink. Gianna's hand shot out and clamped around Kayden's extended wrist. She twisted it sharply downward and squeezed.
Kayden let out a loud, sharp cry of pain. Her knees buckled slightly as Gianna applied pressure to the exact nerve cluster she had learned to target in her self-defense classes.
"Let go of her!" Asa yelled, stepping forward.
Gianna shot Asa a look so venomous he froze in his tracks.
Gianna leaned in close to Kayden's ear.
"Call me a whore one more time," Gianna whispered, her grip tightening until the bones in Kayden's wrist ground together. "And I will break this arm in three different places right here in front of everyone."
Kayden whimpered, tears springing to her eyes. She shook her head frantically.
Gianna shoved Kayden backward. Kayden stumbled and fell against Asa's chest, cradling her red, throbbing wrist.
"You are nothing but a discarded piece of trash," Kayden sobbed, hiding behind Asa. "Nobody wants you!"
Gianna smoothed the front of her silk blouse. She looked at Kayden with cold pity.
"I know exactly what I am worth," Gianna said clearly. "Unlike you, who has to beg a man for a ring just to feel relevant."
Gianna turned on her heel and walked toward the exit. She did not look back.
As she pushed through the heavy glass doors into the cool night air, a man stepped out of the shadows.
It was Alex Stone.
Gianna stopped, her muscles instantly tensing.
Alex, who had clearly just received a swift instruction from his boss as Algot exited moments prior, quickly adjusted his posture. Alex reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a thick, cream-colored envelope. He held it out to her.
"Mr. Vaughn would like you to have this," Alex said respectfully.
Gianna stared at the envelope. Her heart gave a hard thump against her ribs. She reached out and took it. The paper was heavy and expensive.
Alex gave a brief nod and walked away, disappearing into the night.
Gianna ripped the envelope open. Inside was a single, thick business card. It had a different phone number on it, and a handwritten note on the back.
Stop playing games. Call me.
Gianna stared at the bold, sharp handwriting. A thrill of victory shot through her veins.
She slipped the card into her purse. She pulled out her phone and dialed Brenna's number as she walked down the street.
"Hey," Gianna said when Brenna answered. "I need you to tell me everything you know about Kayden's cousin, Jett Ball."
"Jett?" Brenna asked, sounding confused. "He is a total playboy. Hangs out at The Velvet Room. Why?"
"Because," Gianna said, a cold smile touching her lips. "I am going to use him to blow Kayden's life wide open."
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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.
8.9
Seventeen-year-old Nina Storm has spent her life running from her tragic past, her dormant wolf, and the dreams of a mysterious man she can't escape.
Raised by her protective father after her mother's death, she has never stayed in one place long enough to call it home. But everything changed when they return to their home, the Moonlight Pack.
Nina discovers that her mate is Zane, the pack's Alpha... a bond that defies werewolf laws and the pack's expectations. Their undeniable attraction is dangerous, and their bond threatens to disrupt the fragile balance of power within the pack.
When an attack on the pack shatters her world, Nina loses everything, including her life. But death isn't the end.
Reborn, her dormant wolf awakens giving her a newfound strength and powers, Nina must navigate a world of betrayal, love, and vengeance as she unravels the truth about her family, her mate bond, and the danger threatening to destroy everything she holds dear.
9.2
Clara was drowning in student debt and barely making rent when she downloaded a fantasy mobile game to escape reality.
Inside the game, an exiled prince named Alex was freezing to death. Pitying him, she spent her last few dollars on microtransactions to fix his shelter and cure his poison.
But the game was far too real.
Every time she paid, the prince reacted. When she complained aloud about going broke, the in-game army suddenly halted, as if the prince had heard her voice.
Then, the terrifying real-world consequences hit.
Clara woke up to find her water glass and a box of Kleenex had vanished from her locked bedroom overnight.
She frantically searched the tiny apartment, her heart pounding in her chest.
She thought she was losing her mind. Had she thrown them out in her sleep? Was there a stalker hiding in her home?
How could physical objects just disappear into thin air behind a deadbolted door?
Until she looked at her nightstand.
Sitting exactly where her missing items used to be was a glowing, weightless crystal cup that defied all logic.
And on her laptop screen, the exiled prince was carefully holding her Kleenex box, offering a mountain of real gold on an altar.
She hadn't just downloaded a mobile game; she had opened a cross-dimensional trade route with a desperate future king.
9.5
Alina was the eldest daughter of the prestigious Padilla family, but everyone mocked her as a defective dud who couldn't cast a single spell.
The moment she woke up, her father and younger sister Karina barged into her room, demanding she sign a transfer agreement to the Aethelgard Order-the most brutal faction on the continent.
It wasn't just a transfer; it was a legal disownment. In her past life, Alina didn't realize Karina was also reborn. She had dropped to her knees and begged to stay. Her reward? Her magic was violently drained from her veins by her own family. Her fiancé drove a blade through her chest, and her sister stood over her bleeding body, smiling. She had ruined her hands making potions for them, only to be discarded like trash.
The phantom pain of her chest being ripped open still burned behind her ribs. Looking at the hypocritical family waiting for her tears, she felt nothing but exhausting disgust. Why should she ever be their stepping stone again?
"For the honor of the family, you leave today."
Her father sneered as she calmly bit her thumb and pressed her bloody fingerprint onto the contract. This time, Alina didn't cry. She packed a single bag and walked out the door, heading straight for the deadly Aethelgard Order to show them what a true monster looked like.
9.0
My father was dying in the ICU, and our family company, the Martin Group, was on the verge of total collapse.
While I was desperately trying to sign the consent form for his life-saving surgery, my fiancé, Eston, sent me a text.
"I told you not to be stubborn. The company is mine by Friday. Beg me, and I might pay for the funeral."
He had been secretly looting my family's assets from the inside, waiting for me to break so he could steal everything. He thought I would crawl back to him in absolute despair, surrendering my father's legacy just to survive. The sheer weight of my helplessness crushed my chest as the heart monitor next to my father's bed let out a frantic, high-pitched scream.
The betrayal tore through me, but the despair quickly hardened into a cold, sharp stone.
Why should I let the man who ruined me dance on my family's grave? Why should I let him walk away with everything while I lost the only family I had left?
I wiped away my tears and blocked his number permanently.
Then, I stepped out into the freezing Manhattan rain and went straight to the top floor of the Maxwell building.
I threw my remaining shares onto the desk of Ellwood Maxwell—the apex predator of Wall Street, and Eston's untouchable, ruthless uncle.
"I want you to marry me," Ellwood said, pushing a marriage contract toward me. "That is the only way your company survives."
I picked up the pen. If Eston wanted to destroy my life, I would become his aunt and make him bow.
9.4
I was a New York photographer, but I woke up under the brutal sun of the African savanna.
Worse, I wasn't human. I was trapped in the body of a male cheetah, with two starving cubs clinging to my fur, telepathically calling me "Mom."
But I am a real man!
To keep my adopted sons alive, I had to fight hyenas and dodge rogue lions. But the real nightmare was my bizarre survival mechanism. Under extreme threat, I would uncontrollably shift back into my human form—stark, undeniably naked. I was forced to sprint across the plains with my bare skin exposed, carrying two cubs while escaping furious lionesses. I became a freak, the most confusing and humiliating legend of the animal kingdom.
Covered in bloody scratches and mud, I was pushed to the brink of despair. Why was I thrown into this beast's body? Why did my only defense mechanism involve profound social death?
Just when I barely survived a cliff dive to escape the lions, my path was blocked by two massive, highly intelligent prime male cheetahs.
But the alpha, Bradley, didn't want to kill me for my territory.
His intense gaze raked over my naked, bleeding human body with a dark, possessive hunger.
"You are full of surprises."
He purred smoothly, teaching me to magically summon a fur skirt before demanding I join his coalition.
"Oh, you'll come to me. I guarantee it."
Looking into his predatory eyes, I realized I was no longer just surviving the wild; I was the prey of a completely different kind of beast.