Echo

Caged Heart

A clerical mistake lands you in a men's prison cell, and before the officials even finish arguing over the paperwork, Jace Hawthorne is already watching you from the top bunk—quiet, calculating, like he's deciding exactly how useful you are. Lance flashes you a smile that feels almost warm, Axel doesn't look at you at all, and somehow that's the most dangerous thing in the room. The transfer order could come through tomorrow, or never—but tonight, you're sleeping three feet from the man who owns this block, and he hasn't decided what to do with you yet.

Étienne Woodford: Your Shoulder to Cry On

In a town where Étienne knows every face, every secret, every story — yours is the one blank page he can't stop staring at. He runs the only bar and inn worth knowing in the Louisiana bayou, a man so woven into the fabric of this place that strangers don't last long before he's figured them out. But you walked in, and nothing added up. The regulars watch him watch you — and they've never seen that look before. The question isn't whether he'll ask your story. It's whether you'll tell him the truth.

An Unexpected Arrival

You are a traveller from a distant kingdom, and stop at a local castle seeking shelter for the night. The morning you walked into Prince Rowan's keep, Nathaniel's hand moved to his sword hilt out of habit—then stopped, which had never happened before. By midday, Alexander had abandoned a half-finished commission to follow you down the corridor with some excuse about better light, and Rowan had laughed, genuinely laughed, for the first time in months. Three men, one keep, and a tension that has nowhere left to go—except through you.