Crowned Crows of Thorne Point: A Dark New Adult Romantic Suspense Read online

  Crowned Crows of Thorne Point

  Crowned Crows Book I

  Veronica Eden

  CROWNED CROWS OF THORNE POINT

  Copyright © 2021 Veronica Eden

  All rights reserved.

  No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the author at this website:

  www.veronicaedenauthor.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, businesses, companies, organizations, locales, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  Cover Photography: Michelle Lancaster | @lanefotograph

  Cover Model: Lochie Carey | @lochie_carey

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  About the Book

  Playlist

  1. Rowan

  2. Rowan

  3. Wren

  4. Wren

  5. Rowan

  6. Wren

  7. Rowan

  8. Wren

  9. Rowan

  10. Wren

  11. Rowan

  12. Wren

  13. Rowan

  14. Wren

  15. Rowan

  16. Wren

  17. Rowan

  18. Wren

  19. Rowan

  20. Wren

  21. Rowan

  22. Rowan

  23. Rowan

  24. Wren

  25. Wren

  26. Rowan

  27. Rowan

  28. Wren

  29. Wren

  30. Rowan

  31. Rowan

  32. Wren

  33. Rowan

  34. Rowan

  35. Wren

  36. Wren

  37. Rowan

  38. Wren

  Thank You + What’s Next?

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Veronica Eden

  Author’s Note

  Crowned Crows of Thorne Point is a dark new adult enemies to lovers college romantic suspense intended for mature readers.

  This is the first book in the Crowned Crows series following a gritty brotherhood of antihero bad boys and the feisty heroines that capture their hearts. Each book in the series should be read in order to understand the continuing plot. If you’re not a fan of morally bankrupt book boyfriends, steer clear.

  This mature new adult romance contains dubious situations, crude language, and intense sexual/violent content that some readers might find triggering or offensive. Content warning for themes and brief mentions of off-page suicide and mentions of predatory grooming. Please proceed with caution.

  Crowned Crows series:

  #1 Crowned Crows of Thorne Point

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  About the Book

  To get an audience, you have to give up something. A secret, a favor…something that hurts. Welcome to Thorne Point, where darkness rules.

  ROWAN

  I enrolled at Thorne Point University to be closer to my brother.

  Now my world is falling apart.

  Ethan is missing.

  Every day I can’t find him it plays on repeat.

  The search for answers turns up nothing and I’m running out of options.

  But there’s a rumor on campus.

  And I’m desperate enough to seek out the Crows as my last resort.

  Wren Thorne’s reputation precedes him, but I won’t take no for an answer.

  WREN

  The night belongs to us.

  We run this town.

  Wear the rumors like crowns.

  But after losing the most important thing to me, my brothers are all I have left.

  Our bond runs deeper than blood.

  When Rowan comes looking for our help, I do one thing I shouldn’t: break all my rules.

  She asked for monsters? I’ll show her one.

  Playlist

  (Spotify)

  Obey—Bring Me The Horizon, YUNGBLUD

  Teardrops—Bring Me The Horizon

  Broken Pieces—Apocalyptica, Lacey

  Unperson—Nothing But Thieves

  How Does It Feel?—Tonight Alive

  Animals—Architects

  Nightmare—UNDREAM, Neoni

  Yes Offense—Unlike Pluto

  Monster—Willyecho

  Closer—Nine Inch Nails

  STFD—TeZATalks

  Cravin’—Stileto, Kendyle Paige

  Legends Never Die—League of Legends, Against The Current

  Dancing With The Devil—Demi Lovato

  la di die—Nessa Barrett, jxdn

  I Hate Everything About You—Three Days Grace

  The Legacy—Black Veil Brides

  Can You Feel My Heart—Bring Me The Horizon

  FEED THE FIRE—coldrain

  Throne—Bring Me The Horizon

  The Violence—Asking Alexandria

  Ready Set Let’s Go—Sam Tinnesz

  Nightmare—Scarlet City, Anxxiety

  Darkside—grandson

  Fallout—UNSECRET, Neoni

  Painkiller—Three Days Grace

  I Am the Fire—Ghost Monroe

  DARKSIDE—Neoni

  Kerosene—Rachel Lorin

  Can’t Stop the Fire—Leslie Powell

  Give ‘Em Hell, Kid—My Chemical Romance

  RISE—League of Legends, The Glitch Mob, Mako

  Snake—Halflives

  Misery Business—Machine Gun Kelly, Travis Barker

  Stay And Decay—Unlike Pluto

  Sound off the Sirens—Sam Tinnesz

  Madness—Ruelle

  Some people fear the darkness of night when they should fear the darkness of the human heart.

  P.W. Imel

  One

  Rowan

  Foggy smoke curls through the red stage lights filling the decrepit estate ballroom. It creates a haze, highlighting the hedonistic abandon of the bodies grinding on each other to a heavy beat of music. Hands reach into the air above the crowd and drunken laughter mingles with the telltale sounds of some casual public fondling. It’s an odd mix, people partying amidst cracked molding and peeling wallpaper.

  The Crow’s Nest Hotel is the place to be for Thorne Point University students. It’s not where I like to be. This is my first—and last—time in this creepy, run down estate-turned-nightclub. Let the ivy finish swallowing it and return it to the earth.

  I scuff my Vans on the ancient floor and tuck my denim jacket tighter around me as I move through the crowd. A guy from my Media Theories class dances up on a girl in a black leather miniskirt and a sheer mesh top. It shows off her fancy bra, one that’s meant to be seen as Mom would say.

  All around me it’s the same—people decked out like this is a legit nightclub instead of an abandoned turn of the century hotel half reclaimed by nature and time. I feel out of place, but I can’t go back now. Not when I’ve come this far looking for answers.

  If it wasn’t for Ethan, I wouldn’t have applied to
college in Thorne Point, Maine. But I’ve always idolized my brother and chasing in his footsteps is what I’ve been best at for twenty-one years. From the time I could walk, I followed him everywhere. College was no different, same degree focus in journalism and everything. So here I am, on the rocky coast of Maine at the start of my senior year, wading through sweaty drunk people because I have no other choice.

  Thinking of Ethan makes it hard to breathe for a moment, anxiety climbing up my throat to choke me. I can’t picture the worst. It keeps happening anyway. That’s what a true crime Netflix binge will do.

  “Rowan!” The guy from my class waves me over without missing a beat, drink held high while he nearly bends his dance partner over. “Come dance!”

  “I’m good.” I raise my voice to be heard over the music.

  “Come on! Don’t be like that.” Mesh top chick arches against him, looping her arms back around his neck. “Come have fun with us!”

  “You study too much.” The guy from class winks. “Semester’s just getting started. Live a little.”

  They both hold out their hands to me this time, the girl giving me a heated once over. Oh. Oh.

  Well, I’m not really down for a threesome tonight, but thanks for the compliment. When I point to the shadowed area at the back of the ballroom, their expressions shift to seriousness.

  “Not here to party,” I say.

  “Good luck,” the girl in the mesh top replies grimly.

  Yeah. I’m gonna need it.

  Nodding, I move on, weaving through the people writhing to the DJ’s mix. It’s difficult to tell if my heart beats faster because of the pumping music the DJ spins on stage or if it’s nerves. The few things I’ve heard about the guys I’m heading for aren’t pleasant. Discomfort twists my stomach.

  Whatever happens, I have to get them to agree to help me. Finding Ethan depends on it.

  The word is that these guys own this nightclub. Most of the students at Thorne Point University have trust funds. As a grant student, I’m one of the few odd ones out. Dad’s life insurance helped, but without the grants me and my brother never would’ve been able to enroll here.

  I slam down hard on the thought of Dad and the gnawing guilt that always comes with thinking of the accident.

  My lip throbs from how hard I dig my teeth into it. By the time I wrestle the memories of my dead father behind a mental fortress, I’ve nearly bitten through the skin. Sidestepping two drunk dudes carrying bottles of top shelf champagne, I prod at the tender pulse in my lip.

  Ay yo, I’m surrounded by rich people check, I think scornfully in the tone of a trending TikTok sound bite.

  It never bothered Ethan that everyone in this city seems loaded, but as I pass a trio of girls rocking diamonds with their designer dresses I have to wonder what made college students buy this property other than the fact they could.

  The place looks straight up haunted from outside. Its crumbling structure sits on a hill overlooking a jagged cliffside drop to the ocean. In its heyday it was probably beautiful and regal, but now the eerie stone and brick building gives off big gothic mansion aesthetic vibes complete with an old shrubbery maze that’s half dead.

  It took me a solid fifteen minutes of white-knuckling my steering wheel before I coached myself to get out and take the winding stone path to the club’s entrance. The whole time I was trying not to jump out of my skin, wondering why the fuck anyone would voluntarily treat themselves to Thorne Point’s own house of horrors. I would’ve happily avoided this weird excuse for a party spot all the way to graduation, but I have to be here.

  The Crow’s Nest Hotel holds my last resort to find my missing brother. They watch from the shadows at the back of the room.

  Two

  Rowan

  The rumors around campus are what brought me here. People say these guys will do favors. For the right price, they’ll do anything.

  A thick wad of cash burns a hole in my pocket as I weave through the dancing college students. It’s everything I have saved up. I emptied my bank account, except for the five bucks I put in my gas tank to get up here from the campus in the heart of the city.

  Not sure how I’ll manage rent on the apartment, but that’s a problem for Future Rowan.

  For Ethan, I’ll give up anything. Even the apartment we’ve shared since I started my freshman year. Whatever it takes to find my brother.

  The red DJ lights don’t flicker at the back of the room. A pit forms in my stomach as I force my feet to move.

  Did the temperature just drop? Or is that draft because there’s a broken window, or maybe a missing chunk of wall somewhere nearby? I shudder through the chill and come to a stop in front of a group of guys enjoying the wild show from their seats on a dais.

  The Crowned Crows. Thorne Point’s own version of the mafia according to the rumors.

  There are four of them sprawled like kings in threadbare vintage furniture as their makeshift thrones. A few girls are with them, seated on laps and giggling when two of the guys whisper to them.

  “Colton,” one of the girls squeals as he sets down a cigar, slips his long fingers between her thighs, and teases beneath the hem of her short mini dress.

  My teeth grind. They seem more absorbed in doing body shots with champagne—which is really just spilling champagne down cleavage and licking it up because they can afford to. The girl’s protest from before dies off in a moan as Colton sucks on her throat.

  “What, baby?” His wicked chuckle is contagious amongst his friends. “Can’t waste any.”

  “Hey!” I finally bite out when they act like I’m invisible.

  I have their attention now. The full intensity of it has the base of my spine tingling with the urge to flee from danger, but I won’t back down.

  Their gazes range from bored, to carnal, to indifferent, to angry and cold once they realize I’m here to crash their private party. My nose wrinkles. It stinks of the smoke curling from their cigars.

  The blond with ruthless blue eyes is in the middle in a wingback chair. There’s something about the way he carries himself—not just with confidence, but absolute power—that makes me guess he’s the infamous Wren Thorne.

  The suit he’s wearing looks as if it was made specifically for him. Like his friends, he has a girl seated on his thigh, her manicured nails trailing over his muscular chest through his half undone shirt. The outline of a nipple piercing is visible. He seems bored, head propped against his thumb and forefinger. Bored but brutal looking.

  My heart gives a shocked flutter at the sight of him at the center of the group. The way people whisper about him, I pictured something out of my nightmares. But he’s handsome with a strong jawline and broad shoulders. His blond hair is slicked back, the sides trimmed short.

  Wren’s sharp gaze locks with mine—then I understand. They might be a group, but everything about him declares him the king.

  “I need help.” I inject steel into my voice.

  The corner of Wren’s mouth twitches. He doesn’t answer. Rolling my shoulders back, I climb the steps of the raised platform. One of his friends—Colton—blows cigar smoke in my face. I cough, waving away the acrid smoke.

  “What the fuck, dude?” I snap, glaring.

  Colton would be irresistibly attractive if it wasn’t for that cocky edge to his dimpled grin. He shrugs, flicking disheveled dark brown hair out of his eyes. With the motion, my attention drops to the crow inked into his neck that dips into the open collar of his black shirt.

  The guy next to him is decked out head to toe in tight dark clothes that don’t hide how ripped he is. A lip ring sits at the corner of his mouth. He’s eerily still other than the flick of his wrist when he plays with a switchblade, no girl in his lap. I don’t blame them—dude’s creep factor is dialed up to a hundred.

  Balling my fists, I direct my next attempt at the last guy in their group this time, the one with striking golden brown eyes and bronze skin.

  “I said I need help. Rumor has it you�
�re the guys to come to.”

  He gives me a hungry once over that makes the tip of my ears burn. Those golden eyes draw me in. Instead of responding, he chokes the neck of a champagne bottle and brings it to his lips for a swig.

  Pursing my lips, I swing my attention back to the man at the center of the group.

  The drag of Wren’s blue gaze over me isn’t a seductive caress. It’s the opposite—mercilessly cold and calculating. He’s sizing me up and I get the sense I’ve been found wanting.

  Frustration singes my nerve endings while I search for an angle to work as if this is one of my story snags. I need their help, no matter how much he annoys me.

  With the smallest dismissive gesture, the girl perched on Wren’s knee hurries off demurely, eyes cast down. He barely moved his fingers, not bothering to lift his hand from the armrest of his chair. The others follow after her.

  My eyes narrow. Wren might be hot, but more importantly he seems like an asshole that expects everything to be done at his command.

  Colton releases a lamenting groan before he settles, putting his cigar between his teeth, studying me. “Speak now or forever hold your peace.”