Leo Ravencroft was twenty-one years old. Tall, handsome, broad-shouldered, yet utterly ordinary - or so he believed. His life had always carried a faint strangeness, like a shadow at his back that he could never turn and face. Orphaned as a child, abandoned without explanation, he grew up in a state-run orphanage where the caretakers were cold and the children distant. They whispered about him when they thought he wasn't listening. They stared at him with wide, uneasy eyes. Then, as if obeying some unspoken rule, they ignored him completely. He never understood why.
When he turned eighteen, Leo left the orphanage behind and traveled into Tokyo. Neon lights glared down on him, indifferent and harsh, as he took the only job he could find: a fast-food worker. Grease and smoke clung to his clothes, exhaustion carved itself into his bones, and his paycheck barely covered rent for his crumbling apartment. Nights were long, meals were cheap and tasteless, and silence was his only companion. He had no friends, no family, no lover. His existence felt thin, fragile, as if he were little more than a ghost passing through the world.
Yet Leo was different. He always had been. He simply did not know why.
This Earth he lived in was not the one remembered in history books. Long ago, when gods walked openly upon the land, pride and jealousy drove them into war. Their battles split seas, shattered mountains, and drowned civilizations in fire and ash. To halt their endless strife, the gods struck a covenant: they would no longer create humans alone. Instead, each would craft their own children, beings molded in their image, reflections of their power and ambition.
When the divine withdrew, the world that remained no longer belonged to men. The old nations fell, governments crumbled, democracy became myth. In their place rose crowns and thrones, each claimed by races born of gods.
Across the western lands once known as America reigned the Vampire Kingdom, a dominion of crimson nights. King Vladis Nocturne IV ruled from a palace of obsidian spires, his eternal reign draped in shadow. At his side sat Queen Selene Noctara, Mistress of Midnight, her beauty cold and terrible, her whispers sharper than any blade.
In Europe stretched the Wolf Kingdom, where fang and claw governed more fiercely than law. King Ulric Fenrisbane, the Iron Fang, ruled with a voice that shook mountains. Beside him stood Queen Fenra Lycaonia, the Moonfang Queen, golden-eyed and unyielding, her presence as commanding as a storm. Their packs roamed the forests freely, their howls a promise that Europe belonged to beasts, not men.
To the east, the vastness of Asia lay under the sway of the Succubi Kingdom. Incubus King Malphas Veyra, the Dream-Devourer, smiled with lips that concealed hunger without end. His consort, Queen Lilith Veyra, the Eternal Enchantress, ruled with beauty so radiant it enslaved mortals and immortals alike. Their empire thrived on decadence and desire, a realm where love itself was a weapon.
Far to the south, humanity endured under the banner of the Human Kingdom, ruling across South America and Oceania. Empress Aurelia Valemont, the Gilded Empress, wore ambition like a crown of fire. Her words melted hearts, her will bent empires. At her side, King Darius Valemont, the Sun-Crowned, forged dominion with sword and law, his strategies as precise as clockwork. Their rule was the last true beacon for humankind, fragile yet unbroken amid monsters.
Beyond the habitable lands, in the frozen wastes of Antarctica, war raged without end. The Ice Elves, under King Aelthar Frostsong and his queen, Isolde Winterbane, wielded sorcery as cold and merciless as their hearts. Their foes were the Ice Demon Tribes, led by Overlord Khazar the Frozen Maw, a beast clothed in flesh, and Matriarch Veysha of the Shattered Horn, whose cruelty was legend. Their endless conflict turned the white continent into a battlefield eternal, a graveyard of ice and blood.
This was the Earth Leo lived in. A world without presidents or parliaments, without democracy or republics. Only crowns. Only thrones. Only kings and queens who decided who lived and who burned.
And somewhere in this cruel, magnificent world, fate had chosen its spark. A forgotten boy who flipped burgers to survive, a lonely orphan who had nothing and no one. His name was Leo Ravencroft.
And soon, he would become the most desired prize of all.
(NOTE: Even though all Queens have their partner, this novel has no NTR!)