My Merman Daddy Takes Me Home

Rex, King of Atlantis, is losing control. An ancient curse is devouring him from within, and his court warns that without his fated tide mate he will soon become a mindless beast. He fights the magic with raw power, ordering the forbidden zone sealed off and every creature evacuated. That same night, a dolphin pod defies the prohibition and drags a drowning human woman into the sealed chamber. Cora, a marine biologist searching for the lost city her parents vanished near, sinks into the depths and awakens to find a chained merman before her. When her breath gives out, the merman breathes life back into her lips. She surfaces alive, convinced it was a dream. It wasn't. The encounter suppresses Rex's curse, and he knows the human woman who stumbled into his prison is his tide mate. But the word "human" alone is enough to make him recoil. Humans betrayed his family and destroyed his childhood. He refuses to search for her, and his court turns instead toward finding a noble consort among the seven sea kingdoms.

Five years later, Cora's son Ronan collapses at school. Strange sigils bloom on his skin and fish-like scales spread across his body. Classmates call him a monster. Medical tests come back normal, but genetic screening costs three hundred thousand dollars—money Cora doesn't have. She remembers almost nothing from the night Ronan was conceived. Desperate, she sneaks backstage after a marine biotech lecture to ask the famous Professor Rex about a disease linking land animals to sea creatures. Rex, on land undercover as a biotech mogul hunting for the new sea god, recognizes her instantly. The woman who vanished after one night stands in front of him, not even remembering who he is. Bitter and still bound by the curse only she can fully break, he agrees to meet her privately.

In the hotel suite, Rex sits submerged in a bathtub while Cora describes Ronan's symptoms. Scales. The word hits him like a physical blow—these are signs of a sea god's awakening. When Cora accidentally says the word "son," Rex goes rigid. She backpedals, claiming she means the neighbor's cat. He dismisses the idea that a fragile human could carry his power, but his curse flares uncontrollably whenever she draws near. A phone call pulls Cora away and she leaves her research data and number with Rex's aide. While she is gone, her adoptive mother sells Ronan to a circus. Cora tears through the streets searching, hearing terrified bystanders scream "monster." The boy marked with sea god power is spiraling away from her, and every path ahead leads back to the king who does not yet know he has a son.