to bleed a crystal bloom

The tale of a widow's harrowing journey through grief and peril into the cold remnants of a dead world. Damon Sharpe had in part found victory, he believed, in his battle to unearth a truth obscured by time. By autumn, he was dead, leaving to his wife Anne a house of unfulfilled wishes, remnants, and the key to the enigma of his obsession, the Mourner’s Cradle. A journey through grief and peril delivers Anne Sharpe from her home in St. Charles to the faraway skeletons of a long-dead civilization where she will find the desperate answers she seeks…or die trying. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

That isn't fair," I said, my voice cracking. "I cannot marry someone I do not love, no matter how convenient it is for you. "I am not going to do it!" I was shivering with wrath. Madam Angelica sighed heavily, her expression intensifying. "You're being selfish, Anna," she said. "It's not just about you; it's about the entire family and the future. I understand you don't want to marry someone you don't love, but I need you to understand the importance of this decision." I was at a breaking point. I'd always been a polite girl, following what I was taught and never challenging my family's judgment. But this time, I was willing to fight for what I wanted. My joy was too precious to sacrifice for the sake of family responsibilities. "I won't do it," I shouted."I won't be part of this arranged marriage" I clutched my bag firmly and dashed off to work in rage. Anna is forced by her mom to marry a billionaire suitor Kevin Beyer in order to save her family from the debt her late father caused them. Her mother reluctantly approves of the marriage without caring about Anna's feelings, Anna was left with no other choice than to marry Kevin. Anna wondered how Johnny, her boyfriend, would feel when he heard about this and how she would cope with the rest of her life as the wife of a man she didn't love. She knew that this arrangement would be difficult, but she had no other choice. Would she ever find true love or happiness in this situation ? What did her lover do on hearing about this marriage?

Layla, once considered a helpless slave and a nobody, gradually rises to be the Emissary between the Living and the dead. Her gifted powers are claimed to be the only thing that would save a dying alpha, the one who has rejected her. Will she succumb to the pain of the rejection and abandon him to death, or will the mate bond prevail over her fury?

The daughter of our housekeeper was pretending to be a rich girl at college, handing out my designer stuff just to keep up the act. When I called her out, she actually had the nerve to say she was "redistributing wealth to help the less fortunate." I called the cops, but then she spread this wild rumor that I made her sleep with me for three years, and that she was using my luxury items to help me "atone for my sin." Then she and her boyfriend teamed up to try and have me killed. Next thing I know, I woke up and it was the exact same day she started her whole rich-girl act.

Lunavia Luminari is someone who has spent the most of her life inside, reading and painting her inner thoughts. What she wants is to read her favorite romance book, bask in the sun and paint. But her peaceful life is destroyed when her family suddenly goes bankrupt and her Fiancee broke up with her and got together with her cousin. With the responsibility to help her family get back to her feet, she had no other option but to set herself up with the most dangerous man in the country who is 10 years older than her. It was at that time her life seems to have a new start, with a child that came suddenly and a husband, Luna has to protect herself, help her family rise to the top again and get rid of this marriage. But without realizing it, she already set herself up for a lifetime contract. Will she successfully get her desires without losing herself in the process? How would she cope with the new life that is placed in front of her? With a child between them, will she finally accept him as part of her life?

Yasmin Putri Claresta, a beautiful twenty year old girl, is a popular student at a campus in Jakarta. In fact, this sweet girl is famous for being a barbarian and having fun is her life motto. But what if one day his father really urges him to get married? Matching her with a man she really hated in her life. Unable to refuse her father's orders, Yasmin ended up in front of the altar with the man. Raga Ravindra Malik, his name. The smart young lecturer is charming and turns out to be a widower. How is their domestic life like? Will Yasmin be able to survive with someone she hates?

I hated him for being so good at playing me. At making my body crave his touch. At making me forget everything else and focus only on him. I hated that even though I was mad at him, I couldn't resist him. But I wanted to prove so badly that he didn't have me wrapped around his little finger so I spat, "Eric, stop!" Eric looked at me briefly and then pulled his hand out of my slit. He unbuckled his belt and let it hang loosely in his belt loops. Still holding my gaze with his, he unzipped his pants and brought out his cock. I shuddered and swallowed. "Say that again," he gruffed. . In an attempt to forget about her cheating boyfriend, Sapphire not only gets wasted in a nightclub but also takes part in a truth or dare game with her friends and she's dared to make out with any random guy present. She goes through with the dare – only that her pick is not just any random guy. Eric is the drop-dead hot grandson of a family of generational billionaires and also the new CEO of the company where Sapphire works at. After a heated argument between him and his mother over his refusal to get married, he goes to a nightclub to drown away his frustration. There he meets Sapphire, the perfect distraction. Their encounter leads to a mind-blowing one-night stand. And Eric is forced to enter into a one-year contract marriage with her afterwards. What starts out as a mere agreement becomes fueled by raw attraction and love for each other. But Sapphire’s new villainous mother-in-law, Eric’s philandering nature, a dark secret of the Donovans and the universe itself will threaten to break the two apart in more ways than one.

Minerva, the biggest architectural design company in the country, once belonged to the Iverson family. Years after it was acquired by the Peyton Group, Henry Iverson decided to retake the company. Henry's friend, Vivi Baby suggests Henry to become close with the CEO, seduce him, and retake the company. Henry changes his name to Henrietta, disguises as a hot blonde, and becomes the secretary of the current CEO——Jamie Lee Peyton. Everything is going smooth with their plan, yet what Henry does not know is, he has always been mistaking the gender of Jamie. Everything starts to slip off their track and goes terribly wrong. Well, let's just hope that Jamie won't find out about Henry's real identity and their horrible plan.

Matured Contents Ahead. Please this book is highly rated 18+ "You will pay for this Amelia, mark my words, you got married to me through deception, you will suffer the consequences. And now you will face your first punishment, you want to be my wife huh, you will face what happens to them on their wedding night." He chuckled, but it was one filled with bitterness. "You're not that beautiful. But that doesn't mean I won't have your body." Amelia Harper, a young lady with virtue, finds herself in a family and vicinity where she isn't acceptable. Her family borrowed money from Dylan Blackwood the billionaire and couldn't pay their debt. Dylan Blackwood decided to take the Harper's most beautiful daughter as a wife in place of debt but she fled with her lover leaving her elder sister, the not so pretty one, Amelia Harper to suffer the consequences.

"Look your too weak I can't accept you as a mate you'll only shame yourself and this pack " my own mate said to me . . . . My mate rejected me on my eighteen birthday and the day after my own parents was backing him, so to telI you the truth I couldn't handle that but as much as I cried over it I knew the reason he did it tho, every pack has a trial or test that the alpha's mates has to take in order to become the Luna of the pack I know it sounds stupid but that's the law that the alpha king declared after the war that took place, most alpha lost there mate because they weren't able to defend them self or the pack so to put it simple if I don't have strength and knowledge I can't be Luna Being the alphas reject mate was not a pretty repetition for me, especially since i know that there's gonna be contest to pick out the most fairest she- wolf of them all while I'll be at home sulking about it, so in that instance I made up my mind and left the pack and everyone behind as well. After that I found myself being Something I never dreamed of 'a hunter' and not just any hunter but 'an assassin hunter' never have I heard of a werewolf being a hunter much less an omega, most would have laughed but now I'm feared. After four years of my disappearance I was sent on mission back to my old pack, somewhere i never dreamed of seeing again but here i was seeing the people i once called family and the place i once called home