a lesson in thorns

Seven years have passed since Emma last saw the man who once held her heart. Bright Alejandro Anderson—her first love—was a prince, a symbol of everything she once believed in. But the moment he walked away, leaving her broken and betrayed, she swore she’d never let love consume her again. Now, Prince Anderson is back. As a key figure in royal affairs, he forces Emma to confront a past she’d buried deep. With every word he speaks, with every glance he gives, Emma is pulled back into a world she tried to escape. The man who broke her heart is now begging for forgiveness, claiming he would kill for her, that he would never leave again. But can Emma ever trust him again? Can love truly be resurrected from the ashes of betrayal, or will it burn them both alive? #secondchance #getingbacktogether #slowburn #diplomacy #kingdombuilding #enemytolover --- (Setting: 19th Century) Seven years had passed since Emma last saw Bright Alejandro Anderson—her first love. Emma had almost succeeded in living her life normally. She was doing fine. But that man resurfaced in Emma's life as Prince Anderson, who led the royal legal affairs team. He not only appeared in Emma's life but also forced her to look back. To revisit memories she desperately wanted to forget. For Emma, Bright, aka Prince Anderson, was the most bitter lesson in her life. From him, Emma learned never to trust anyone. Not even God. ~~~ Emma's tears flowed, voice cracked and pained, "Even if I were to die," her despair remained, "I'll hate you forever, it's only fair. Don't come to my funeral, don't you dare, set foot at my graveside, expect no embrace, Don't ever anticipate my heart's forgiving grace. I'll spend my days, my bones, in hatred's grip. A love once cherished, now a sinking ship. ~~~ "I've just killed someone with my own hands. Ah, this is how deep my love for you is, Emma. I would kill for you, and you've just witnessed it with your own eyes." ... "I'm here... don't be scared... this time I'm not leaving you, unlike before when I left you." ... "I was stupid. I am sorry. I regret it with every breath I take. I wish there was a way to turn back time to fix the past. But despite everything I can do, I can't. So, I sincerely apologize, even though I know I don't have the right to do so." !!!Explicit adult content above chapter 100 and will be informed at the beginning of the chapter. Please refrain from accessing the chapter if you are underage. Thank you.!!! another works: - Undressed by The Half-beast Prince - Wolfdale: Blood of the Moon - Mafia Princess: Raised by Wolves - Slayer Knight: Survive The Undead

Kurt Rosanna. A 24-year-old assassin with a particular lust for killing 'evil people'. This lust causes him to get excommunicated from his work, leaving him jobless. He thinks, however, that this is a good thing because being an assassin meant always looking over your shoulder and being weary of those around you. Now free to do whatever he wants; he decides to turn his life around and live a much better one. That was the plan... until it wasn't. He began seeing people who weren't actually there. Heart palpitations, throbbing headaches, a bleeding nose, everything he felt about himself was wrong. Whatever was happening to him, his body couldn't take it anymore. And so, he fainted. ........ "Hey! Wake up lad!" SPLASH! He got sprayed with water.... magic??? Join Kurt as he navigates and overcomes a new Earth. A place filled with magic, a lunatic cult and academy students who thinks the world revolves around them. Spoilers: It doesn't. . .. ... "I love you, Rosie. No one else can have you, I'll make sure of that." - Diana Valentine ====== What to expect in terms of romance, No Yuri, No NTR, Yandere, Possessive MC, No Harem

[WARNING: MATURE CONTENT] Every piece of her armour will fall under the young General's scrutinizing gaze. *Daily updates / Revised&Resub.* *********************************** Where are you to hide when war comes to find you, but in plain sight, among the fighting armies? Come read the Tale of Tales, Where Flowers shed their petals To unveil deadly blades... *********************************** Soo-Ah, the girl with the heart of a flower had to disguise herself as a boy. It was the only way she could call the battlefield home. But all guises fall under The Generals' scrutinizing gaze. Can she put her trust in Sung-Ho, but most importantly can she trust herself? Time will tell, and a long-lost friend. Follow Soo-Ah as she grows up, unaware of the disaster coming her way, fighting to keep her identity and her life, and thrust into the care of a man who was born to beguile her reason. But now that she got reunited with Jung-In, her beloved childhood friend, she finally has an ally. Unless he has his own plans for her. ************************************* This novel has a historical setting, in old Korea, when the great Silla people unified the lands of the Three Kingdoms. It is a slice-of-life story seasoned with some spice on the side, that will carry you from the rural setting of old villages through the tents of a military camp and all the way to Seorabeol, the capital city. 18+ rating - explicit scenes of sexual nature, mild violence, death on the page. The story is divided into a 3 books series(projected chapter count: 200) [Cover design by author_aruel]

“The one you don’t have feelings for will be the one you fall for. But the one you think you adored once will be the one you will hate with your soul. Beware of the sweet honey that will blind your judgment, but follow the scent of flowers. They will be the answer to your hunch. And remember, you are nothing but a pawn to these up high, so keep your eyes open and your mouth shut.” When Akila, a normal young girl, is kidnapped to have an offspring in order to provide an heir for her king, she is thrust into the middle of a power struggle between the gods and the mortal realm. After being captivated by her emerald green eyes, Ramses IV decided to make her his queen. Who could have predicted that a chance encounter would eventually result in the end of his reign? In the midst of the anarchy, the sorcery, and the magical beings, how far would Akila go to save her child? Would Ramses choose to make his new family his priority? His Sister? Or his kingdom? Disclaimer... This book might be built on some real facts and accurate events but the story and its characters are all made up and doesn't represent how the Egyptian history was or its reality. This entirely is a work of fiction and shouldn't be taken as reference to anything related to this civilization and its history.

Moao was a feared Necromancer who plunged the nations into chaos on her quest to rid herself of the curse by the God of Reincarnation. After her death as the feared Necromancer, she expects to find herself in a new world as a newborn baby. However, she wakes up in the same world as Mo Zao, a completely different person. Soon after, she reunites with her greatest enemy: Raylon, the Prince of the Phoenix nation who suffered as a result of her dark desires. Raylon's righteous and fair personality was completely transformed. He now killed on a whim, was quick to anger, and had a violent nature. What was the point of her returning to the world she ruined? Was she meant to fix her wrongs? Was she meant to be punished for her sins? And what will happen if the Phoenix Prince discovers her identity? Updates daily (~1500 words per ch)

In a remote village shadowed by an ancient, cursed castle, Belle Laurent has always been the girl who reads forbidden things. Restless, sharp-minded, and haunted by desires she barely understands, she offers herself in her father’s place when the Beast of the castle comes to collect a long-overdue debt. The bargain is simple and absolute: her freedom for his. The creature who accepts her is Ravyn — once a high fae lord, now a monstrous, horned exile bound by a centuries-old curse. The magic that holds him is tied to an enchanted rose; when the last petal falls, he will either be freed or lost forever. Belle is meant to be a temporary distraction, a mortal diversion while the petals continue their slow descent. Instead, she becomes the one thing the curse never accounted for. What begins as captivity deepens into a dangerous, mutual obsession. Inside the living castle — with its shifting corridors, semi-sentient servants, and gardens of luminous white roses — Belle and Ravyn are drawn into a slow-burn claim marked by psychological warfare, power exchange, and escalating intimacy. Dreams bleed into waking life. A blood bond forms. Belle’s latent Sight awakens. And when she discovers the true conditions of the curse, she chooses not to run from them. On the night the final petal falls, Belle takes Ravyn completely and speaks his true name in the moment of mutual climax. The curse breaks. Ravyn is transformed — still powerful, still marked by horns and golden eyes, but no longer only a beast. The castle itself begins to heal. For a brief time, it seems they might simply be allowed to exist. They are not. The breaking of an ancient high-fae curse by a mortal woman through mutual claim sends shockwaves through the hidden political world of the fae. The Blood Court takes notice. A conservative faction led by the patient and ruthless Lord-Inferior Caelthas decides that the precedent is too dangerous to leave standing. What follows is not a simple siege, but a long, sophisticated campaign to reframe the bond as unstable, illegitimate, and in need of external correction. Belle and Ravyn are forced to defend not only their territory, but the right of their claim to exist without supervision. They endure narrative warfare, procedural traps, the arrival of a Court observer, and finally a specialist-grade magical assault designed to force a catastrophic feedback event through their true-name bond — an attack engineered to look like the claim itself collapsing under its own nature. They refuse to break. In the aftermath of the failed strike, the political ground shifts decisively. The Blood Court issues a formal determination: the resonance assault is condemned as external aggression, the bond is reaffirmed, and the pair are left under a status of Observed Autonomy — contained, recognized, and no longer an open question of legitimacy. Caelthas’s campaign collapses. The long war over the right of the claim to exist comes to an end. What remains is quieter, harder, and more alive than victory. In the recovered gardens of white roses, Belle and Ravyn begin the work of living after the fight for their legitimacy is over. The castle settles into a new kind of peace. The bond, tested by desire, blood, true name, and every external instrument raised against it, endures. And in time, the next generation moves between the luminous blooms — proof that the claim was never only a wartime necessity, but a living thing that outlasted the war fought over it.

FRAGILE HEARTS-BOOK # 1: ROSES & THORNS Isabelle Rose Edward is your charming, beautiful and kind yet clever, witty and confident 23-year-old English girl looking for a way to make a name for herself without her family's influence. An up-and-coming designer, she faces hardships as she struggles to remain steady in this competitive world, but is determined far too much to let any hurdles stop her. Adam Thorne is the same 27-year-old cold, ruthless and arrogant CEO of THORNE, looking for new ways to torture people, as some may say. Men cower at his name and women fall at his feet, both wanting to be admired by the most eligible bachelor and business tycoon in the country. With determination, pride, and lots of money to throw around in common, will sparks fly or will disaster strike as these two cross paths?

In an empire where women rule and men are claimed, a princess learns how intoxicating power can be. Princess Isolde is forced into marriage not once—but many times. Each consort is meant to restrain her, weaken her, shame her. Instead, she turns them into something far more dangerous. A general who resists her touch even as he obeys her command. A priest who calls her temptation and cannot look away. A court darling who chooses her first—and dares anyone to challenge it. A scholar whose restraint hides devastating devotion. A foreign prince who offers his body, his loyalty, and his ruin. Their bonds begin in ink and law. They deepen in whispered strategy, lingering glances, and nights where politics are planned behind locked doors. As rival princesses close in and the throne draws nearer, Isolde discovers that desire is not a weakness—but a weapon. And she intends to wield it.

The person who was locked away inside the thorn-covered tower was not a princess, but a witch who employed the powers of Darkness. A brave young warrior came searching for the tower in order to kill the witch. – Light would force the darkness to recede, and grant her eternal rest. The witch wished. That things would end with, ‘and the hero lived happily ever after killing the witch,’ like in the fairy tales. And so, she had devised everything to happen in accordance to her wishes. But the boy, who had grown up in but no time at all, would make the unfamiliar face of man’s from time to time. “You want me to kill you..? Do you really think I’ll let you go?” Reality was very different from fairy tales. “The people don’t know of the precious treasure locked away in the tower. I won’t let anyone else have this God given treasure, this crown of God surrounded by thorns that no one else could recognize.” The warrior gave the witch a slow and deep kiss. “I am the true victor, and no one else.”

In the shadows of New York, 17-year-old Gianna lives a sheltered life, blissfully unaware of the hidden truths that bind her to a mysterious legacy. As her 18th birthday approaches, whispers of her father's death and long-buried secrets begin to surface, thrusting her into a world of deception and intrigue. As she navigates the complexities of newfound power and betrayal, Gianna must uncover the truth about her past while transforming from a timid girl into a formidable force. In Legacy of Thorns, every revelation could be the key to her survival—or her undoing.