Hercules Tenth Labor 소설 & 이야기

On the day of the earthquake, my sister Elena shoved me off the third floor, then burst into tears and said she had only been trying to save me. Everyone believed her. The only person who stood on my side was Nicolo, the youngest mafia boss Sicily had seen in decades. He lifted me out of the rubble, then proposed to me in front of everyone and said that from that day on, anyone who touched me would answer to him. Two months later, I was pregnant. Nicolo bought an entire island and planted it with my favorite irises for our wedding. My father spent a fortune on a one-of-a-kind gown made just for me. Everyone said I was the most envied woman in the family. Then I went into labor, and both of them disappeared. My father said the family had a deal on the line. Nicolo kissed my swollen belly, murmured that he would be back soon, and promised to bring gifts for me and the baby. Right before I was wheeled into the delivery room, an anonymous video landed on my phone. Nicolo was wearing a groom's suit. Elena stood beside him with a hand resting on her pregnant stomach. She was wearing my wedding dress. Her arm was looped through my fiance's as if she had won him fair and square. At the end of the clip, my father asked in a lowered voice, "If you and Valentina stay married only on paper, what happens to the child she gives birth to?" Nicolo was quiet for two seconds before he answered. "Valentina grew up with everything. Elena spent her whole life carrying the stain of being illegitimate. Her child will not grow up the same way." So all that tenderness had never been for me. It had all been for Elena. Fine. They could have each other.

Nada’s life shatters the day her husband, Harvey, walks out on her with his best friend turned mistress. She is in labor with their triplets after four years of a childless marriage, but he leaves her side to donate sperm to his best friend, Alisa. Broken and humiliated, Nada gives birth to her triplets alone. She refuses to be a victim. In court, she takes everything—Harvey’s money, his name, his dignity. The once-proud police officer is left with nothing but shame. Harvey turns to Alisa, but she is no savior. He finds out the new wife he adores is secretly engaged to Matteo Morelli, a ruthless mafia Don. She had been a bait to lure Harvey into Matteo’s secret black-market fertility scheme. Harvey’s aristocratic bloodline makes him valuable, and he is forced into an eight-year contract. His life is no longer his own. As years pass, Harvey begins to regret abandoning Nada. But regret cannot save him. The mafia controls his every move. When Interpol finally crushes Matteo’s empire, Harvey is dragged down too, accused as an accomplice. Prison looms, and he has only one hope—Nada. But Nada is now a billionaire and a feared judge in Brooklyn. Her price for saving Harvey is: he must return to her as her submissive pet, living by her strict, sexual rules in her bedroom. Harvey agrees. But inside Nada’s home, he’s tortured not only as a submissive pet of his ex-wife but by jealousy as well. Lucas, the loyal nanny who raised the triplets, has everything Harvey lost—Nada’s trust, the children’s love, and a quiet place in her heart. Will Nada choose Harvey, the father of her triplets who betrayed her, or Lucas, the man who took his place and watched her kids grow?

“It’s Alpha from now on.” Amelia was an Omega , Alpha Colton's maid daughter, but the moon goddess had other plans and made them fated mates. For three years, they had been trying for an heir that would lead the pack one day. But the very day she held the positive pregnancy test in her hands was the day her world shattered. Victoria, his high-status ex, returned. With one look at her, Colton’s warmth turned to ice. He became cold, distant, and obsessed with the woman who had once abandoned him and even denied ever wanting to have a child with Amelia. Amelia became a ghost, neglected and replaced. Amelia, realizing she no longer had a place in his life, did the only thing she could: she disappeared into the night, keeping her pregnancy a secret from him. After she left, everything changed. Colton starts seeing Victoria's flaws and everything she did only irritated him more and made him hate her. But Colton’s regret came too late. By the time he realized he had chased away the only woman who truly loved him, she was no longer just a runaway. She had been captured by a ruthless rival Alpha who thrives on cruelty. Now, a pregnant Amelia is a slave in the pens of Alpha Silas, Colton’s most sadistic rival. Held in chains and forced into labor, she is a pawn in a deadly game between two powerful men. Colton is ready to burn the world to reclaim his mate and the heirs he never knew he had, but Amelia is no longer the submissive girl he once knew. In the Shadow-Vale, a broken Alpha must pay his debt. But after the betrayal, the chains, and the blood... will Amelia ever let him be "Colton" again?

My younger sister and I spent ten years fighting over Rowan Vale, the Alpha of Silver Ridge Pack. In my first life, I became his mate. Everyone said he was obsessed with me. Why else would he keep me carrying litters for seven years and give Silver Ridge six heirs? When I went into labor with the seventh, I nearly bled out. Rowan sent the healers away and forced wolfsbane down my throat himself. Only then did he tell me the truth. If it were not for the fact that only a daughter of the Hart bloodline could bear pureblood Alpha heirs, he said, he never would have claimed me at all. I had been useful for one thing only: giving him heirs. Now that he had enough, I had none. I died hating him. In my second life, I handed the bond papers from Silver Ridge Pack to my sister. “Go,” I told her. “You’re the one he wants.” Five years later, she was sent back to me half-starved, shaking, and marked by restraints. Through sobs, she told me Rowan had never loved her either. He had kept her because she was still a Hart daughter, because she could give him heirs, and because her scent could calm him during rut. She died less than two months later. When I opened my eyes again, I was in my third life. The unsigned bond papers from Silver Ridge Pack lay on the table between us, and my sister and I could only stare at each other. Who, exactly, did that Alpha want?

On the night Valen Varesi's dying first love went into labor, his parents stationed armed men outside my suite to make sure I stayed far away from the private maternity floor and the birth of the Varesi family's heir. I never gave them the scene they were expecting. Not when Sabina Orsini was taken into surgery, not when the baby's first cry carried through the corridor, and not when the whole family finally relaxed. His mother sat beside Sabina's bed, clutching her hand with relief. "As long as we're here," she said, "that barren wife of his won't get anywhere near you or the baby." Valen stood at Sabina's side, wiping the sweat from her forehead with a tenderness I had once believed was mine. "Don't worry," he said. "My father has men covering every exit. If Nerina tries anything, she'll be gone before the night is over." Only then did he finally let himself breathe. As far as Valen was concerned, he had done nothing unforgivable. He had granted a dying woman one final wish and secured the bloodline his family had demanded for years. I was the one refusing to be reasonable. He had even decided that if I came later, apologized to Sabina, and stopped fighting him, he might be generous enough to let me raise the boy in name and keep my place as Mrs. Varesi. What never crossed his mind was that I had already made my decision. By the time Valen finally opens the "gift" I left for his heir ceremony, I will already be gone. And the only thing waiting for him inside is a divorce notice, a twin pregnancy report— and the truth that the children carrying his real bloodline will never call him father.

My father is the High God of the Sun, and my mother is the Empress of the Moon. Ever since I was born, they’ve had two suitors lined up for me. First, there’s Sol, the God of Dawn. He rules the Temple of Light and controls everything warm and bright in this world. Then there’s Karnos, the Shadow Sovereign. He rules the Dark Realm with a power so absolute it makes the other gods tremble. On the day of my Millennium Awakening, whichever man I choose as my husband will become the Supreme Ruler of the entire Divine Realm. Without a second thought, I chose Karnos. The crowd went dead silent. Everyone was losing their minds because I’d been head-over-heels for Sol since we were kids. I’d even sworn an oath that I’d never marry anyone but him. But what they don't know is that in my past life, I did marry Sol. And on our very first night as husband and wife, he crawled into bed with my maid, Lilith. When the news broke, Lilith was banished to the mortal world. Sol never forgave me for that. He blamed me for her exile. After I got pregnant, he started bringing a different goddess home every single night, forcing me to watch while they were intimate right in front of me. It got worse. On the day I went into labor, he intentionally sent away every single healing deity. He ignored my screams and pleas for help, leaving me and my unborn child to die in absolute agony. So, now that I’ve been reborn, I’ve decided to let him have his "true love." I’m walking away and choosing Karnos instead. But there’s one thing I didn’t count on... Sol remembered everything, too.

As my due date approached, a massive discrepancy surfaced in the Galante family's arms accounts. The leadership made a swift decision. They sent me, Sophia Vitale, the Don's wife, the woman everyone claimed had nothing better to do, to personally inspect the armory and verify the inventory. I believed it was a routine check. I never imagined my husband's godsister, Monica Leone, would use it as cover to blow up the entire armory. The explosion was deafening. Fire ripped through the sky. Concrete collapsed around me, crushing my body as a searing pain tore through my abdomen. I did not call my husband on his highest-priority private line. Instead, I sent a distress signal to my father. In my previous life, the moment the explosion occurred, I had used that same priority channel to call my husband. The child had survived. Monica had been obliterated in the blast. My husband had claimed he did not blame me. He had said Monica was an outsider and that an heir mattered more. He had spared no expense, hiring elite obstetric specialists to monitor me day and night. He had told me to stay calm and wait for delivery. Then, on the day I went into labor, he personally locked me and the baby inside an abandoned warehouse drenched in gasoline and burned us alive. "If you hadn't deliberately delayed, she wouldn't have died. Do you really think playing the innocent victim could fool me? Dream on," he said. "You like playing with fire so much? Fine. I'll let you experience her despair yourself." When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the armory, at the exact moment of the explosion.

“The surgery starts in thirty minutes. Your heart matches Hazel perfectly - don’t be late.” For three agonizing years, Penelope played the quiet, obedient Omega in the Blue-Claw Pack, scrubbing floors like a servant while her billionaire husband, Julian, threw money at her to buy her absolute silence. She took the brutal degradation out of love for her fated mate , hiding a secret: she is actually the hidden Crown Princess of the Lycan King, possessing a latent genetic power capable of forcing ordinary Alphas to their knees. But when Julian demands she surrender her physical heart to save his scheming mistress, the invisible tether breaks. Penelope signs the ancient dissolution scroll , severing the fated bond with silver fire , and walks out into the freezing night - igniting an impending war between her royal lineage and the pack that dared to treat a queen like property. Bound by a cruel fated bond , Penelope became a broken shadow in a household that despised her, trading her royal crown for the soot and heavy labor of a low-ranking maid. She endured the icy, indifferent commands of Julian , the ruthless Alpha heir. While he spent his evenings enveloped in the desperate, manipulative pheromones of another woman , Penelope suppressed her own sovereign Lycan spirit , letting her hands bleed in silence just to ease the burden. Julian treated their marriage like a business contract , unaware that his "helpless Omega" bride was merely a substitute identity designed to escape the suffocating duties of the royal palace. The catch? While the Blue-Claw Pack attempted to freeze her bank accounts and strip her of every coin to force her submission , Penelope had never spent a single credit point of Julian’s wealth - her true financial and sovereign power remained completely locked behind the impenetrable borders of the Rogue King's domain.

On the day I receive my Distinguished Service Medal, I also receive word that my grandma has passed away. My superior grants me special leave to return to my hometown to mourn her death, so I rush to my ancestral home at once. But when I reach the ancestral graveyard behind the hill, I witness something that makes my blood boil. The graves of my deceased family members have been razed to the ground. Even my parents' graves have been brutally dug up. Their urns are now placed under flower pots filled with blooming red roses. Grandma's coffin has been pried open as well.Her body now lies strewn on the ground and has started to rot. I also see Lucy Stewart, my autistic younger sister. Melissa Abbott, my wife's assistant, orders Lucy around like a maid, forcing her to move heavy construction materials around. Enraged, I grab Melissa by the throat and throw her to the ground. "How dare you destroy my family's ancestral cemetery and make my sister do hard labor! Do you want to end up buried here too?" Melissa coughs up blood before crawling back onto her feet, her expression vicious and scornful. "I'm simply carrying out Ms. Fuller's instructions. She says that your ancestral cemetery is located in a good spot. It's also the perfect size to be turned into a private horse ranch and a garden for her future husband. "Ms. Fuller calls the shots here in Joverton City. Who the hell do you think you are, huh?" Resisting the urge to put an end to her life, I call up Eva Fuller, my wife. "I heard you call the shots here in Joverton City. Well, I shall put that to the test today!"

A gorgeous new lawyer named Charlotte Lowell joins our law firm and claims she has been reborn. One day, a publicly listed company offers us a massive ten-million-dollar case. Charlotte warns our boss, Levi Howard, that the company has major issues. If we accept the case, we'll lose in court and be hit with a huge payout. Levi isn't sure if she's bluffing, but in the end, he listens and passes. The next day, that very company collapses. And the rival firm that took the case is hit with a compensation claim worth tens of millions of dollars. To celebrate dodging the bullet, Levi asks me to book a restaurant. But Charlotte immediately tells him not to go to that restaurant because that place is about to have a gas explosion. Hours later, the restaurant blows up just as she mentioned. News of it hits the trending list. After those two incidents, Levi is all-in on believing Charlotte's claim of having been reborn. In order to keep Charlotte, he gives her the executive position that was initially promised to me. When I hand in my resignation, Charlotte urges Levi to stop me. "If Yelena jumps to another firm, she'll use the resources she gained here to crush us. A year from now, we won't even have a firm left." Upon hearing Charlotte's words, my boyfriend and colleague, Finley Smith, steps forward to back her up. "Charlotte's right. I saw a job offer from Vera Legal in Yelena's email. She's really petty. If she joins Vera Legal, we'll surely face her revenge." Levi believes them and rejects my resignation. I file for labor arbitration, but it's no use. In the end, I'm demoted to a janitor at the firm. Driven by resentment, I fall into depression and end up hanging myself at the entrance of the firm. When I open my eyes again, I've gone back to the day Charlotte claims she has been reborn.