

On my eighteenth birthday, Alpha called me up in front of the whole pack and told me to choose—one of his sons as my mate. Whichever I chose? He'd be the next Alpha. I didn't flinch. I picked Cayce, his eldest. The room went dead silent. Everyone knew I used to be stupidly in love with Kain, the younger one. I'd confessed at every pack dance. Took a silver dagger for him once. Cayce? Coldest, meanest wolf we had. Total menace. No one got close. But they didn't know the truth. In my last life, I was bonded to Kain. On the day of our Bonding Ceremony, he slept with Lena, my cousin. My mom lost it. Shipped Lena off to Duskwolf Pack to get bonded to their Beta. Kain? He blamed me. Paraded in she-wolves with Lena's same ice-blue eyes. When he found out I was carrying his pup, he made sure I saw him with every one of them. It was torture. When labor hit, he locked me in the dungeon. Blocked everyone out. My pup got crushed. I died hating him. Maybe the Moon Goddess felt sorry for me—she gave me a second shot. I came back. This time? I let Kain keep Lena. Didn't think he would ever regret it.

Chris Leary inherits a failing corner shop and, desperate to raise money for his girlfriend's treatment, discovers that the store's back door opens into other worlds. His first crossing takes him to a post-apocalyptic wasteland, where he trades food to survivors in exchange for gold and jewels, enough to clear his debts in one run. Pushing further, he stumbles into the immortal realm and negotiates a deal with the goddess Dark Lady: exquisite food in exchange for celestial medicine. But the arrangement carries a dark caveat — the apocalypse world's wealth is bound to the lives of its people. Chris returns with the elixirs, saves an entire survivor base, and locks in a long-term partnership that changes everything. What began as a desperate scramble quietly becomes an empire: one shop, a dozen worlds, and a trader who moves freely between all of them.