Love That Bites, Pain That Stays

Love That Bites, Pain That Stays begins where a desperate sacrifice meets a king's cold vengeance. To shield her kin from slaughter, a mermaid enters the bed of Alpha King Cyrus, her childhood friend, only to be met with a corrosive elixir instead of a crown. This dark romance explores a pulse of agony as Cyrus demands the location of his missing parents; he extracts her mermaid pearl to heal his mistress, Emily, while forcing his captive to dance barefoot until her skin fractures. He holds her tenderly while feeding her medicine, yet orders her torture in the same breath. She endures the shadow of his hatred, hiding a final truth: in three days, her life on land ends. As she prepares to dissolve into seafoam, the echo of their shared past becomes a liability he cannot yet calculate.