Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor) - Chapter 505: Axes to Grind

Enemies to lovers? ✔️Villainous and possessive ML?✔️Fiery spirited FL?✔️Dark Romance?✔️Excerpt:“Wife?” Lady Karina repeated, almost shouting as if she'd misheard him.“I would not marry you even if you were the last man in this world,” she remarked with sweet venom, a poison Van Merikh would gladly drink. “You are a murderer and a thief. I do not want you!”“But I want you,” Van Merikh stated firmly, his dual-coloured gaze leaving no room for argument. “And that is where this conversation shall end, Lady.”Van Merikh threw open the door and practically dragged her to the base of the stairs that led to the upper floors. When she refused to mount the steps, he easily lifted her onto the first step and spanked her soundly on the bottom.“Go to your chambers,” he ordered softly.“This is not over,” Lady Karina growled. “I will fight you with the last breath in my body against this…this madness.”“Go, or you shall feel my hand on your backside again.”**************Magic as the world of Ethuaria knew it came from the distinct markings specific to each bloodline and nation that a person may or may have not been born with.It would appear at birth on different parts of the child's body, bringing about unique abilities passed down in their bloodline from mother to child.And for eighteen-year-old Lady Karina Hyacinth Reinhardt, life had always been one of comfort and peace with the secret abilities of her bloodline.As the beloved, yet sheltered, heiress of Moonveil Keep on the borders of the Kingdom of Caelthywn, she spent her days managing her father's lands and overseeing the affairs of their people, never knowing true hardship.War as she knew it was a distant nightmare that would never touch her.That was until Orpheus Van Merikh, the most feared warlord across the lands, invaded her home and seized it for his claims.Known as the devil himself, Van Merikh does not simply claim Moonveil for its riches, but also for the rumoured beasts that the Reinhardt bloodline conceals from the world.He will stop at nothing to have them.Thrown into captivity, Lady Karina expects cruelty, and Van Merikh, being the brute that he is, proves her expectations to be true.As a calculating and disciplined man who kills without hesitation yet protects what he claims, when one of his knights speaks ill of her, Orpheus cuts him down without hesitation.Lady Karina is his prize, but he would not allow others to dishonour her.However, she is not as obedient as one might think. Thus, determined to reclaim her freedom, Lady Karina refuses to cower as she challenges the enemy at every opportunity.Her defiance amuses Van Merikh, who spares her life due to her efficiencies in managing Moonveil Keep.Along the way, as they battle to find common ground, Van Merikh faces a rebellion among his own knights, who reject his growing attachment to her.They would have her dead before she warmed his bed.And oddly enough, Lady Karina finds herself charmed by the other merciful half of Van Merikh, but when her father returns to Moonveil at her request, much changes henceforth.Conspiracies arise and she soon slips out of Van Merikh's hold when he leaves for yet another conquest away from Moonveil.All hell would break loose when the beast from the depths would return upon Moonveil only to find his angel is gone.

Sold by her father, Bella short for Arabella, was forced to live a life as a slave that would entertain the guests of the castle.The job of slaves were merely to be humiliated and to have as feast once they became a boring creature toward the guests. Arabella with her fierce attitude had only caused more trouble than good, although that helped her from being feasted by the vampires until her body dried up, the vampires also enjoy in harming her, toying with her, hoping to see that one day she would break.However she had caught the wrong attention by those crimson gaze, eventually being the toy of the one and only Mad Crown Prince of Versailles. Eventually this interest only cause her to be more tangled by the twisted and thorny battle for the Throne.Will eventually Bella concede and accept the Mad crown prince?Or will she finally succeed in running away from his grasp.Why her?*** excerpt***Arabella felt her wrists stung as the shackle around her wrist jingled from the sudden pull. She then met with the icy red eyes that brood down upon her appearance, drinking into every inch of her figure as if he was studying her, even to how those breaths escaped her lips.“I thought we had bonded over the days we have spent together, Bella,” he sang, his bright scarlet eyes betraying the singing tone he had used as it had grown so dark and filled with anger. “Yet you left so quickly as soon as I opened the castle gate.”Bella gritted her teeth, her eyes glaring at him as she defiantly shook his hand off her face, “I can remind you if you have forgotten it, Your Majesty, I am kept here against my wish.”Cassius' smile faded as he stared at her. The sudden pin-drop silence filled her nerves with tension as she found his smileless face the most terrifying sight. She had always known his fearsome side however, it felt scarier tonight. Bella tried to endure how loud her heart had raced against her chest, gathering her breaths together even though it remained shallow in his presence.“So cold,” he muttered, his tone trying to tease her, but she could see the raw anger crossing his eyes. “You cannot run from me. Not after what we've done. Not after what you promised.”Her heart faltered. She wasn't supposed to stay in this castle; she knew that the royal palace was filled with those vampire monsters who would kill for their desire, simply to have fun. She knew she should never give her heart to any of these monsters, and she had once believed she would never. But that was until Cassius came.She had made that promise because her heart had betrayed her, and she wished that she had never uttered that promise. Promises she had made to him on the call of love. Yet deep within her, a part of her still crave for him.“You're not the first one I have broken my promises with,” she gritted her teeth and looked up at him, “I broke my promise the way you broke yours first, isn't it fair?”“Fair? Then was everything a lie, Arabella?” he murmured, his hands cupping her face, forcing her to meet his eyes. “You were mine the moment you entered my castle. And you will be mine until the very end.”She gulped as his eyes shone underneath the moonlight, his gaze unforgiving over her, exposing his wild hunger.Her breath caught, her pulse quickening. “A human and a vampire should have never stayed together. They were all right.”“I don't care,” he spoke through his clenched jaw. “You're going to remain here by my side forever.”

Renji Kurozawa was just another nobody—until he died and was reincarnated in a world of swords and magic. Summoned alongside other “Chosen Heroes,” he hoped for a second chance at life.But his gift was different. “Death Claim”—the power to steal abilities from those he kills.Betrayed by his allies and left for dead, Renji embraces his dark power. With every enemy he slays, he grows stronger, turning from a forgotten outcast into the most feared force in the kingdom.Now, hunted as a villain and pursued by gods, Renji must carve his own path—one kill at a time.If fate wants a monster, he’ll give them one.

Experiencing a suffocating marriage with the man whom she was arranged to marry made Joanna want to leave him. But it was a failure as she died as the wife of the man who abandoned her and her son before they divorced.On the verge of her death, she made a wish to not encounter him again if there was a next life. She wished for the end of their fate only in this lifetime. She wanted to forget everything about him.However, when she opened her eyes again, she found herself in the room of the mansion of the man she just married. She was awakened by a dream that seemed to be a nightmare of her past life.She didn’t remember completely everything that had occurred in her past life and the dream was fragmented. But deep inside her heart, she only felt one thing. She was adamant about leaving him, to be far away from him.Therefore, she left his mansion just before she met him in person in the present lifetime.However, what she didn’t expect was that the so-called husband pursued her, not allowing her to leave him.Would Joanna be successful in leaving the man in this lifetime? Would fate play the same tragedy as her past life?---As he pulled his finger away from her soft, warm lips, he said, “It is good you stopped winding up, Joanna. Otherwise, I would have used the other method to make you stop blabbering over the same, boring topic endlessly.”When he noticed the stubborn woman was about to prove herself to be stubborn, the man leaned forward in a swift movement, facing the woman’s stupefied face which was an inch away from his.“Continue to blabbering, don’t blame me if I apply my other method right now,” the man murmured above her breath, trailing his gaze from her quivering eyes to her lips before moving it back to her now widened eyes.