The Return of the Iron-blood Sword Hound - Chapter 56

[TRIGGER WARNING: Mature Content + Dark Themes]EXCERPT:“Axel, no. We… can’t do this!” I jolted back when he pulled up my skirt.As if to retaliate, he grabbed my wrist and yanked my body to his. “We can do whatever I say we can do, María José.”“I’m your brother’s reject. Do you even hear yourself right now? He didn’t want me, Axel. What does that make me to you?”“I don’t care about Álvaro’s foolishness. It's his loss for losing a woman like you.”“Okay, I must confess. I'm not worried about him either. It's Rosa… you're getting engaged to my sister in a month!”“Let me remind you, María José—I don’t give a fuck about that, either.”No matter how hard I jerked, he wasn’t letting me go. And part of me—so, so foolishly—didn’t want him to.______Having spent her life avoiding the spotlight, María Jośe never imagined she’d be the one to bring shame to her esteemed De la Vega family. With beauty as captivating as a field of lilies, she is the prized daughter of an ambitious father who cares more for his reputation than his children’s happiness.When Álvaro Montenegro, the arrogant heir to the Alpha title, sets his sights on her as his chosen Luna, María Jośe is desperate for a way out.But everything changes when the Moon Goddess answers her prayer in the most unexpected way: María Jośe discovers she is an Omega—wolfless and the lowest rank in the pack. Once held in awe, she is now shunned; a source of shame to her father and a target for ridicule in the pack.As her life turns upside down , María Jośe's hatred for the pack grows. The only solace she finds is in her growing, forbidden bond with Axel Montenegro—Álvaro’s older brother, who has turned his back on the pack to live as Beta.These two developed a love-hate friendship born from their shared disdain for the pack’s cruelty, which slowly evolves into a passionate, secret romance.But when Álvaro discovers Axel’s interest in María Jośe, jealousy ignites within him and he suddenly wants María Jośe as his own.Love, vengeance, and betrayal all brewed into a whirlwind of drama, desires, and deadly comebacks. Will María Jośe rise from the ashes of her former life, or will she be consumed by the power struggles of the pack she despises? Will she give in to the oldest brother who is scared of commitment or the younger one who fiercely seeks redemption?

Asking help from the enemy was the last thing Samantha ever planned on doing, but who knew she would find her fate irrevocably sealed in the hands of a notorious Vampire Lord?In a world where Humans and Vampires have chosen to co-exist, the sacred orb of GreenHollow in the Northern Empire goes missing on a rainy night, right after the death of their ruler who was murdered in cold blood.It brought upon them an endless drought that can only be reversed when the sacred orb is found, and returned to its rightful place in the Empire.Ivan Chevalier, the heir and most feared son of the murdered Vampire King, has only two motives in life - to find his Father's perpetrator and behead him, his second motive is hunting down the sacred orb and restoring GreenHollow to what it used to be during his Father's reign.But when both motives lead him to the hands of his enemy's daughter, he has to choose between getting rid of her, or using her to his advantage by turning her into his blood slave.Samantha Dufort, a simple girl from EmptyHollow, is on the run with her younger brother after witnessing her Father being brutally murdered by a Vampire Lord.On the way, she gets abducted by slave traders.Forcefully separated from her younger brother, Samantha finds herself in a brothel, where she is trained to become a courtesan till she comes of age to be sold out.Her encounter with a mysterious man in white whom she referred to as her 'angel of death' saves her from a misery that only led Samantha into the cage of a Vampire Lords den.Tricked into becoming his puppet, Samantha tries to find different opportunities to escape the Vampire's den, and the Vampire Lord in person. But will she succeed when no one has ever left the Palace walls?Well, she was going to be the first to escape from these walls and find her missing brother.Twisted and trapped in the webs of Vampire politics interrelating with humans, Samantha discovers the main reason for her existence, a reason that could lead to changing the course of Empty Hollow. What happens when the Vampire Lord isn't the only darkness she has to run away from?

The royal bastard of House Vasquer, Argrave, changed after his stay studying magic at the Tower of the Gray Owl.

The sickly man's awkward posture and cruel behavior have been replaced with a neat dignity and acerbic wit.

Though once listless, he now strives towards his goals with a life-or-death tenacity.

Most come away thinking he seems to know too many details about too much. Few can claim to know his motives or his goals.

Yet behind that confident appearance, the primary contributor for an open-world RPG's wiki battles existential dread and things far beyond his ken as he struggles to adapt to a grim, gothic fantasy world mirroring his favorite game.

The prospect of fighting against a world-ending calamity loses all of its appeal when it transitions from entertainment to reality.

Argrave is spurred towards unwanted heroism to preserve his life as he struggles desperately to keep this sinking ship afloat.

What is a genius? Capable of comprehending any battle skill regardless of the skill itself and sweeping away the bottlenecks while cultivating a new technique; this is a true genius! He Yiming was originally an ordinary youngster in the He family’s estate with not too extraordinary aptitude in learning martial arts.