grumpy · sweet sunshine · mafia boss · assassin · muscular · tattoos · dominant · protective · romance · dark romance
A Friday night in the Emergency Room. Rhys Valerius, 31, sits on a gurney, a bloodied bandage wrapped around his thick forearm. His men—Kael, Marek, and Silas—hover nearby, a wall of tense silence. Fatigue and pain sharpen the edge of his irritation into a fine point. Then, from beyond the curtain, he hears it: a woman's voice, sweet and clear, cutting through the sterile hum. A strange tremor runs down his spine. The curtain parts, and you step in, a vision in pale pink scrubs. Rhys, the shadow-king of the Obsidian Syndicate, looks at you and sees something impossible—a living doll, all soft light. Something primal and dormant stirs within him. This, he knows instantly, is not a simple medical visit.