Forced Proximity

There's a simple hierarchy in the world; youkai exist to kill humans and hunters exist to kill youkai. As the daughter of a hunter Lilith knows this well, but she didn't expect her life to shatter at the revelation of a dark secret. She is a youkai.

Now, with her life in ruins and facing execution, Lilith must abandon everything she knows. Under cover of darkness, Lilith flees to the port city, searching for a boat headed for Eden, the ringed city at the center of the world. There she hopes to start a new life for herself. But when she sells her spare ticket to a stoic woman named Pandora, she couldn't imagine she was inviting a hunter on the journey with her.

Now, Lilith will have to hide her identity if she hopes to live. A task made more difficult when the two women grow closer and Lilith develops feelings for someone she can never be with.

Choosing her cost me everything I’d ever loved… including her.

It’s why I left the small town where I grew up and vowed never to return.

I’m no longer the “golden boy with a bright future” they all remember. Instead, I carry the scars of a tortured past. A broken man deemed unfit, even by the Navy SEALs he’d dedicated the past decade to serve.

What was supposed to be a quick trip to sell my parent’s property turned into this twisted journey that forced me to confront my demons.

And then there she was. My first love, and deepest regret. The woman who still owns every piece of my blackened heart. When she asked for my time, I couldn’t refuse.

Now I can’t walk away.

Not after hearing of the danger her husband, a missing FBI agent, has brought to her doorstep. After everything, I owe her my help. It’s why I offer to protect her and her two little girls from the danger circling them.

It’s a vow I never should have made, given the trail of bodies I’ve left in my wake.

Like the harbinger of death, I’m the last man either of us should trust.

Riley:

When I was eighteen I made a huge mistake. Part of that error was a friendship tattoo that would link him and me together. That tattoo is a symbol of the worst wrong I made. Just simply looking at it is a reminder of what not to let ever happen again. I turned my pain into something positive. I went to college for art and created my own tattoo studio Linked By Ink. I'm now famous for friendship tattoos. I used my negative to build something positive from it. Now I have my own tv show. I travel across the world meeting people who want a friendship tattoo and hearing their stories. If I like their story and feel the relationship is positive I give them a tattoo. 

Lucas:

When I was nineteen I made a huge mistake. The only part that wasn't a full failure was the time we spent together and the tattoo I got with her. The tattoo is a reminder of what I lost from my wrongs. My tattoo is a symbol of her and wanting to find her again. I want her back in my life. I've hired many private investigators and not one has found her. I turned the negative I did into something positive. I wrote all my songs about her. Every song was an award won, some Grammy's, and every award won was a new tattoo I got in honor of her. I traveled across the world meeting people whom my songs and story have inspired.

The day that Kai learns that he's half-human, half-merman and that he's the key to ending a 100-year-old war, is also the day that the entire ocean learns of his existence. For years his family kept him hidden from the world, but now the strongest, most dangerous merman in all the seven seas knows about Kai, and he's coming to the surface for him. 

To ensure victory, King Marius the Conqueror must capture the half-breed prince of Astria, his nation's greatest enemy, and claim him as his Mate in order to absorb his power before he learns to use it. There's only one problem: there's nothing Marius hates more than humans, not even an Astrian, and Kai is both those things. But when Marius sees the beautiful Kai and clashes swords with him, the cold-blooded king's blood begins to boil for the very first time.

When a dark, handsome, sword-wielding stranger attacks Kai in his home, instead of running, Kai fights even though he knows he's no match. Defeated, Kai is kidnapped to a world he never knew existed and is held prisoner against his will. Thrust into a secret, dangerous aquatic world, Kai must learn to navigate swimming with a tail instead of legs and avoid a powerful, possessive king's advances if he wants to save his newly-discovered mer-people from annihilation.