I used to have it all. Football made me popular. Money made me desirable. My name made me a king. Girls tried to tame me, but I valued my freedom too much to be tied down. Until I lost it all.

My name is Harper Apple, and people say I’m rotten to the core. When my shot comes in the form of a scholarship to Willow Heights Prep, you can bet your ass I take it. If getting out of this hellhole town means spending my last two years of high school at an elite academy full of rich, entitled pricks, then bring it on.

My world changed forever the night I attended a party. Not just any party. A party for the rich and powerful elite. That's where I made the worst mistake of my life. I caught the attention of the perfect man. Kaden Raskova is Prince Charming in a finely tailored suit. Mysterious. Sophisticated. Impossibly handsome. He's taken a special interest in me and my musical talent. But there's something off that I cant quite put my finger on. Moments where I sense a monster behind the mask of a man. A predator that's luring his prey to his dungeon of cruel delights. That prey being me.

Mysterious. Dark. Deadly. They say crows are bad omens, but until I met them, a single crow was my only friend. Then, the boys next door come to welcome me to the neighborhood.

In one moment, my freedom is snatched away when my father tells me I have to marry a man I’ve never met. I expect an 80-year-old retired boss who craves my virgin flesh in payment for his service. Bright side—in a few years, he’ll be gone, and I’ll be free again. I’m not prepared for the dangerously gorgeous soldier my father presents. Like anything that looks too good to be true, so is my new husband. He’s cold, cruel, and worst of all, young. Suddenly, marriage is a life sentence. That is, if I don’t show him from day one that no one controls Eliza Pomponio.

I didn't plan to ever attend an event, but I needed the money. I thought it was nothing more than an adult version of hide-and-seek. I had no idea how wrong I was. Nor did I know I’d meet my worst nightmare that night: Andrew “Drew” Marshall, popular-as-hell football star and a Greek god among mere mortals. To anyone else, he would appear to be normal, a good guy. But that night I saw the cruel, dark monster hidden underneath. He was the epitome of evil, the leader of the Disciples, and I was his newest obsession.

They say you can never go back… ‘Course, I never wanted to return. It took me years to age out. Once I made it, I took off and never turned around. Trust me, there were only three reasons I managed to survive there as long as I did and they abandoned me as soon as they were able. I’d like to say I didn’t blame them, but that would be a lie. I had zero desire to return. Yet here I was, on the road to Northland chasing a story cause my editor told me kids were disappearing… again.

Never let them get you to the second location. Even if that location happens to be a lakeside mansion home to four hot-as-sin men. After years of living in survival mode, I'm finally hitting rewind on the story of my life. There's nothing standing in the way of my bright future at Lake Chapel University. Or so I thought.

Every town has a history. Ours is just a little darker than most. For years, I've celebrated Halloween and Hollow Bridge's history with everyone else who lives here. Parades, festivals, and insane Halloween parties have always been a staple for us. Some bad behavior is expected, given what we're celebrating. But murder has never been on the table before. Someone in Hollow Bridge wants to bring the stories to life, and they're not firing any warning shots. When rumors of someone wearing a Halloween mask surface, it isn't long before the first person is killed.

The Legacy boys are Windsor Preparatory Academy’s most privileged. No one crosses the devil spawn of this town’s upper echelon, but I managed. I call one of them out my first day, and no one hears it louder than their blond prince.

This cruel king won’t stop until he breaks me. Dutch Cross, lead singer of The Kings, is a monster. Don’t let his amber eyes, chiseled jaw line, and crooning voice fool you. He prowls the hallways of Redwood Prep like he owns every inch. Brutal. Untouchable. Beast. And when his golden eyes meet mine, I know I’m his next prey. The monster wants me out of Redwood. But the fancy private school is my last chance at a better life for my sister. No one has ever dared to go against Dutch and his equally gorgeous brothers. I’m honored to be the first.

It’ll be easy, my father said. When we move to a small town in the south, we’ll own it, my brothers said. After all, my family is rich as sin and used to getting whatever they want. How hard could it be? Except, when we arrive in Faulkner, someone already owns this town. The Darling family. They are every bit as wealthy as we are, and they’re not happy with our new money moving in.

One evening, two years’ worth of memories lost. Under the pretense of recovery, my father sends me to an elite boarding college, but soon, my memories start rushing back, and it’s obvious I’m not at Lakeside to heal. I’m here to hide. Navigating the scattered past to decipher the threat lurking in the shadows is hard while I’m kept in the dark and even harder when he steals my focus. Crude, arrogant, and threatening, he draws me in, and the closer I get, the less I understand. Waking up without memories is terrifying, but remembering the time I lost is infinitely worse.

A year ago, my best friend received an exclusive invitation to join an elite brotherhood at Kingston University. He went into Hawthorne Hall for his initiation—but never came out. I intend to find out why. The brotherhood would never knowingly invite a female into their ranks. So what if I forged my father's signature on the recommendation? With a name like Elliot Ashford, they'll never see me coming. I'll endure whatever hell these brutal brothers put me through because I have no intention of backing down or bowing out gracefully. It won't be pretty.

She bats her eyelashes and pretends she's innocent, but I know the truth. The blood in her veins is made of mud, and I will purify it. Kaye Pennington is the daughter of the woman who ruined my life. Now, I will ruin hers. It's not fair; nothing in life ever is.

Mysterious. Dark. Deadly. They say crows are bad omens, but until I met them, a single crow was my only friend. Then, the boys next door come to welcome me to the neighborhood.

My name is Harper Apple, and people say I’m rotten to the core. When my shot comes in the form of a scholarship to Willow Heights Prep, you can bet your ass I take it. If getting out of this hellhole town means spending my last two years of high school at an elite academy full of rich, entitled pricks, then bring it on.

I used to have it all. Football made me popular. Money made me desirable. My name made me a king. Girls tried to tame me, but I valued my freedom too much to be tied down. Until I lost it all.

In one moment, my freedom is snatched away when my father tells me I have to marry a man I’ve never met. I expect an 80-year-old retired boss who craves my virgin flesh in payment for his service. Bright side—in a few years, he’ll be gone, and I’ll be free again. I’m not prepared for the dangerously gorgeous soldier my father presents. Like anything that looks too good to be true, so is my new husband. He’s cold, cruel, and worst of all, young. Suddenly, marriage is a life sentence. That is, if I don’t show him from day one that no one controls Eliza Pomponio.

Long revered as one of the realm's most lethal warriors, Ashdon LaGoryen now prefers a solitary life. Far removed from his volatile past, he has no interest in returning to the station of his royal birth. But when an ancient prophecy comes to light at the onset of war, he finds himself reluctantly dragged back into the world of his ancestral bloodline: House of the Dragon.