Mane Rival in Store

Lark Coleman knows how to make the bad guy irresistible. She sells lipstick in shades called Morally Gray and Revenge Red, fills her SoHo flagship with purple neon and villain mannequins, and has never once apologized for turning up the bass. Then her new neighbor fills her doorway in a bespoke suit with white cotton gloves and eyes like a Scandinavian winter, and every villain she's ever drawn suddenly feels like a rough draft.

Rune Sterling, CEO of Sterling & Mane International and a lion shifter alpha, has built a rare comics empire on one principle: control everything, lose nothing. Cool, precise, and intimidating enough to make a room nervous by standing still, he hasn't wanted anything he couldn't categorize in years. Then Lark walks in with villain lipstick and a mouth made for arguments, calls him Your Majesty like it's a dare — and every wall he's spent twelve years building develops a serious structural problem.

She runs on chaos and color. He runs on silence and control. They have no business wanting each other — but when her past comes back with a bought building and a rent designed to destroy her, Fallon Creed is about to learn what happens when a woman who built an empire on villains falls for a man who actually is one.