I came to the ocean to explore its secrets. The ocean came for me. One dive. That’s all I needed. Seawater samples, algae data, one decent research paper to save a career I’d spent fifteen years building. One dive and I could go home. Sarkivik is a village people don’t talk about. Frozen cliffs, empty fishing nets, locals who won’t look you in the eye when you ask about the water. I brought a research team to study bioluminescent algae growing on the ocean floor, organisms no human had ever seen alive before. The villagers told us to stay on land. My crew laughed it off. I should have listened. On the first dive, the algae pulsed when I touched it. Brightened. Reached for my hand like it knew I was there. Then my gear cracked. One mouthful of seawater and I swallowed what I’d come to study. By the time I surfaced, sunlight blistered my skin and food turned to ash on my tongue. My body wasn’t mine anymore. That’s when he found me. Rynar guards the Abyss, the black deep under the ocean where light doesn’t reach and things older than human memory still move. He has a body that shifts between legs and tail like the ocean refuses to let him stay human. He told me the algae changed what I am. The surface will kill me now. He brings me black pearls and rare shells, laid out the way a predator courts a mate. He watches me work. He calls me his. He touches me like I’m the most valuable thing the ocean ever gave him. I’m a scientist. I should be studying him. Naming him. Surviving him. I stopped wanting the surface weeks ago. And that scares me more than the deep ever could. Drenched is Book 2 of The Primal Sins Collection. Each book can be read as a standalone. MF dark monster romance. HEA. No cliffhanger. Tropes:Possessive merman, captive romance, plus-size FMC over 35, body horror, forced proximity, he falls first. Please check content advisory before purchasing.
