She came to Italy for a deal. He arranged the deal to get her.

What she thought was a career-saving business trip to the Calabrian coast turns out to be something far more deliberate — engineered by a man she hasn't met yet, set in motion years before she ever boarded the plane.

Arik Medici has lived for centuries in the shadows of the region his family was cursed to protect. Charming, controlled, and dangerously patient, he has been waiting for Claire since the night he first caught her scent seven years ago.

He let her live her life. He waited. And now she's finally here.

As bodies surface and the truth closes in, Claire begins to understand that the canceled flights, the closed roads, the extended hotel stay — none of it was a coincidence. Neither was falling in love with him.

But Arik is not a man. And love, for something like him, looks a lot like possession.

Author's Note: For Content Warnings/Trigger Warnings (CW/TW), please check the author's website.