

For five years, Gideon—my brother's Beta—and I had a secret.We were supposed to announce our mating at the pack's Winter Solstice festival.Instead, he breathed hot against my ear."Babe, we've been sleeping together for five years. I'm bored with you. Find someone else for the marking ceremony, alright?"I didn't cry. I just gave a calm, simple nod. "Alright."Only because in my last life, I had begged him through tears to complete the bond.After he finally marked me, he grew cold.He never again woke me by rubbing his stubbled chin against my forehead.Even when we made love, he kept his eyes shut, as if he were wit for my life, he left me.He was going to comfort his savior, Aveline. The old wound she suffered saving him had relapsed, sending her into a mental spiral. In that moment, I finally understood.A mark I had to beg for was nothing but a curse, a wound that would never heal.This time, I pulled away with a smile, removing his hand from my waist. "You're right. I'm tired of it, too. We're done."h someone else, just using my body.When I was in agony giving birth to our pup, fighting

Calder Maren, heir to the Sea God, disguised himself as a vagabond and married Mara Ashveil. He left her pregnant before going to war. For eight years, she raised their son in humiliation. When the boy is chosen as a sacrifice, Calder returns as the Sea God, unleashing divine wrath to protect his family.

The apocalypse has come, and humanity enters the Age of Sailing, where everyone awakens a fishing system. Liam Ward becomes known as a useless nobody, even by his girlfriend Quinn Johnson. He spends a month at sea catching fish just to buy her a gift—only to discover she is cheating on him with a wealthy heir, Devin Shaw. Humiliated and heartbroken, he quits the relationship. But during a voyage, he hauls up a thousand-year-old female corpse… who wakes and calls him her honey.