Margaret Pole: The Countess In The Tower

Learning who the countess is may be one thing. But falling in love with her brings so much more. With people begging to be part of the harem, it is only a matter of time before Wyatt discovers what is behind the enchantress known as the Countess, and why people are dying, literally, to be part of her world.

“Pray tell, Emily, what is it you plan to gain from this marriage?” The vehemence of that word—the way it rolled out harshly from his lips—implied she had tricked him, that she had wanted something from him. A belief Emily hadn’t known he held. Her eyes widened in realization, and she sought to correct it at once. Good Lord, was she married to a man who despised her? *** When the earl of Tonfield, Cole Fletcher decided to drop his newly wedded wife at the steps of Blakewood Manor with as much respect as would be given a sack of potatoes, the last thing he expected was for her to move into his ancestral home and do the one thing he rather her not do. As if that wasn't enough, news of his wife's exploits was beginning to circulate around the ton, while Cole wants to keep an eye on his wife and put her firmly in her place. Emily wants her husband to understand she exists. As a wife, as a countess, as a woman! It's a clash of wills!

Ladies, never hike up a mountain on your own! During a holiday, I've received a request for help from an Internet user. Apparently, a young woman has gone missing after she's gone on a mountain hike. A quick session of divination tells me that the woman is already dead. To make things worse, her corpse is stuck at the moment. Having taken on the request made by the woman's parents, I enter the mountain and start looking for her. In the end, I'm able to locate her body in a cave. Not only is her belly swollen with pregnancy, but… but her belly is also moving due to fetal activity. What's scarier is that there's something even more terrifying being hidden beneath her corpse…

I was never supposed to end up here. One moment I was a college student with a normal life. The next, I was standing in a courtroom while a stranger decided my fate with a voice too calm for what he was doing to me. They called it justice. I call it a lie. Now I’m trapped on an island prison surrounded by endless ocean, where no one speaks my language and every mistake costs more than I can afford. In here, survival isn’t about strength. It’s about control. About knowing when to stay silent, when to be seen, and when to let them believe they own you. I learned fast. I learned how to read men who think I’m powerless. I learned how to turn attention into protection. I learned how to trade pieces of myself just to make it through another day. But nothing prepared me for him. The Keeper of the Tower. He watches everything. He knows more than he should. And when his eyes find me, it feels like being chosen and hunted at the same time. He says he wants me. Not as a prisoner. Not as a servant. Something worse. Something I might not survive. I have a plan to escape this place. I’ve mapped every guard, every weakness, every second between freedom and drowning. I just didn’t plan for him. And I definitely didn’t plan for the way my body betrays me when he’s close. If I stay, I lose myself. If I run, I lose the only man who’s ever looked at me like I’m more than something to break. Either way… I don’t leave this island unchanged.

My ex-boyfriend’s first love insisted on dragging me onto the drop tower ride, which caused me to have severe bleeding from the trauma. When it happened, he used her fear of blood as an excuse to cover her eyes and hurry away, abandoning me in a pool of blood. In that critical moment, Steven Landers, the amusement park designer, rushed me to the hospital just in time. After losing the baby, I was completely devastated. Then to my surprise, he got down on one knee at the amusement park and proposed, promising me happiness for the rest of my life. After we got married, I became pregnant again. But I accidentally stumbled across his chat with a ride maintenance worker. "Mr. Landers, your wife already lost a child because of Miss Smith. You mentioned she has difficulty getting pregnant, so why are you pulling the same trick to get her on the drop tower again?" Steven casually touched his wedding ring and replied, "She's the reason Anne can never be a mother, so I absolutely won't let Myla give birth to a child that would upset her." "But that's your child too! How can you do this?" "So what? This is what she owes Anne. The drop tower is the perfect way to make it look like an accident. Tomorrow is Myla's birthday, and I'll personally take her on the ride. If she tries to run, I need all of you to help catch her!" So that was his plan all along—to use the drop tower to cause another "accident" and make me lose my baby!

For three hundreds under vampire rule, the Blood Prince has drawn a new bride from his realms every fifty years. In my previous life, Seraphina was chosen,Lucian’s childhood sweetheart. The night before our bonding ceremony, she burst into our chamber, tears streaming. “Lucian, I’ve been chosen as the Blood Prince’s seventh bride!” she sobbed. “They say he loses control on his wedding night, drains every drop of blood from his bride. None of the first six lived to see dawn. I don’t want to die—please, claim me as your mate!” But Lucian had already claimed me. And by wolf law, an Alpha may bind only one mate at a time. So I step forward, and refused her. The next day, at the altar, Seraphina slit her throat with a silver dagger. Lucian didn’t flinch. He ordered the blood scrubbed from the stones—and proceeded with our ceremony as nothing had happened. However,on our honeymoon, he pushed me into starving wolves. His eyes burned crimson as he snarled, “If you hadn’t tricked me into marking you earlier, Seraphina would be alive. You killed her.” Over a dozen of wolves with gleaming eyes swarmed me in, tore me limb from limb. Then I woke, back on the day the mate-hunger hex seized Lucian. This time, I dragged Seraph-the girl Lucian cherished as most precious jewel,from her house myself, and shoved her into Lucian’s chamber. “Be his cure, and I’ll take your place as the Blood Prince’s bride instead.