The Saltwater Vow

Dorian Blackmyre was born with a death-rite carved into his soul — a sacred vow compelling him to reject his fated mate if they carry the venomous blood of the Night Court vampires. When he tracks a rogue blood-drinker to a crumbling cathedral, he finds not a monster but Valen Vesperis, a vampire archivist with an agonizing truth: their bond was never divine will but a weapon, engineered by a hidden cult of elders on both sides to trigger a continent-wide blood feud at the moment of rejection. Forced into a treacherous alliance, Dorian and Valen descend through crypts and forbidden rituals, discovering the conspiracy stretches from Valen's own sire, Lord Varen, to Dorian's war-hungry uncle Aldric — both puppets to a third architect known as the Concordant, an ancient blood-mage who has fed on the deaths of both species for centuries. As they race to dismantle the prophecy before the first howl of war, the mate-bond ignites against Dorian's will, forcing him to choose between the sacred rejection that could unmake him and the vampire whose touch rewrites every law of his blood — while a darker presence stirs beneath the sea.