Wraithwood Botanist - Chapter 9: The Return

In a world where Lycans and werewolves are sworn enemies, Eve Valmont is a werewolf cursed by a prophecy and framed. Betrayed by her own pack and imprisoned for years, her fate takes a darker twist when she is offered to the Lycan King, Hades Stavros—a ruler feared for his ruthless conquests and deadly prowess. Bound by an ancient prophecy and haunted by the ghosts of her past, Eve is now at the mercy of the one being she should hate and fear the most—The Hand of Death himself.Hades, a king carved from blood and his own soul's decay, determined to avenge his family's slaughter and rid his people of the werewolves. He believes Eve is the key to his victory. To him, she is nothing but weapon foretold by prophecy, a tool he will wield to destroy the opposing forces threatening his pack. Yet, he finds himself craving this powerful yet broken woman. Leaving him questioning if she is truly his weapon or the one destined to unravel his carefully laid plans.***He stalked toward me, a predator closing in on its prey, his eyes dark and unreadable. “So, you laugh?” His voice was low, dangerously soft, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.I swallowed hard, suddenly aware of how difficult it had become to breathe. “Hades, I—”“But you only laugh at other men's jokes,” he interrupted, his gaze piercing, devoid of any humor. “Not your husband's.” The accusation in his tone was sharp, slicing through the air between us.A nervous chuckle escaped me. “You can't be serious... He’s your beta, for Goddess’ sake.”In an instant, he closed the distance between us, so fast it left me breathless. His hands gripped my waist, pulling me flush against his body, the heat of him making my skin tingle. I gasped, but before I could say a word, his lips crashed onto mine, claiming my mouth with a force that sent shockwaves through me. The kiss was punishing, hungry—I couldn't breathe, couldn't think.When he finally pulled back, I was trembling, my chest heaving as I struggled to regain my breath. His eyes, dark and stormy, searched mine with a possessive intensity. “You can’t laugh at my jokes...” he whispered, his voice a dangerous rasp as his fingers trailed lower, sending a shiver down my spine, “but you’ll come with my fingers.”I shivered, heat pooling low in my belly at his words, his touch. The world around us blurred, fading into nothing as his hand slipped lower, drawing a ragged gasp from my lips. The look in his eyes told me he knew exactly what he was doing to me, and there was no denying the primal connection between us in that moment.“I don’t need your laughter,” he murmured against my skin, his breath hot on my neck. “I’ll have every other part of you instead.”

Maria is the only daughter of Jackson, the Alpha of the prestigious Blue Moon Pack in Aberdeen, Scotland. Her mother, the Luna, was revered for her grace and strength. But despite her lineage, Maria's life has been far from perfect.At seventeen, she couldn't shift into her wolf or sense her fated mate, a secret her parents kept hidden out of shame in the pack.By nineteen, still unable to shift, she was forced into an engagement with Bernard, her childhood friend and the future Alpha of their pack, who already had a mate only Maria knows about.Maria and Bernard attended the same college, where their engagement was the talk of the campus, earning Maria both admiration and envy.Yet, behind the smiles, Maria's heart belonged to James Brooklyn, the next Alpha of the Crescent Moon Pack—the sworn rivals of her people.Everything took a darker turn on the night of her engagement to Bernard when her parents were brutally murdered.Will Maria survive the deadly power struggles within her pack, uncover the identity of her true mate, and claim the life she deserves?Or will the curse of the Blue Moon destroy her and everyone she loves after finding out who killed her parents?

“Lin Yunfeng! Stop right there!”Lin Yunfeng gazed back at the speeding figure behind him. Heart racing, he picked up speed and ran through the abandoned corridor.“You better stop Yunfeng!!” Ren Muchen growled loudly. The little brat was much faster than he had expected. “This is how you wish to face me after you fucking slept with me? Fine! Run then! Let’s see how long you can last,”Panting Lin Yunfeng looked back in panic. “I’m so sorry, it was a mistake. think of it as Stepping on shit. Please forgive me!” he placed a hand on his lower stomach and ran even faster.“Watch out!”Yunfeng gazed ahead in surprise. a half-rotten corpse stood in his way. He came to a screeching halt but the slippery floor made it hard for him to come to a complete stop.He fell unceremoniously face down on the ground. “Fuck,”The zombie jumped onto him with its mouth wide open. Its bloody saliva dripped onto his face.Yunfeng held his breath. He had read about this before but this was the first time he had actually seen an undead. It petrified him. ‘Is this how I die?’“Growl,” the beast aimed at his neck precisely,Just as he thought his life was coming to an end, a long axe cut through the decayed neck of the Zombie.The heavy zombie fell right on top of him, oozing blood and puss.A hand grabbed him by his collar and lifted him up. “You are not dying, not today, not anytime soon...” Ren Muchen said with a nasty grin/Yunfeng gulped.Muchen peered into his trembling black eyes coldly. “You know why?” because we are having a baby.”Yunfeng’s hand reflectively went into his tummy. “h-how do you know?”“You knew?! Yet you ran!” Muchen laughed coldly and shook him like a rattle. “Take responsibility you bastard, we created a life that day!“y-yes, I’ll take responsibility!”

Sixty years after the global catastrophe, the Little Freeze Period ended, and the governments of the living regions began to collect land in the anarchic areas to be planned on a large scale, reorganized resources, and entered the recovery stage in an all-round way. These two decades are also called “golden Twenty years”.

This is a bright era in which new regions are rising one after another, politics is set up, capital is acting, careerists are everywhere, heroes are powerful, villains and grassroots are rising together! A young man rises up in troubled times with a full stomach of strategy, hides a tiger in his chest, and measures the world.

- Description from novelbuddy