BEAUTIFUL IN PAINShe thinks she can hide from me.Natalia Douglas moves through Westfield Prep like a ghost—head down, invisible, untouchable.The scholarship girl who works three jobs and wears thrift store clothes like armor against my world. She's wrong about being untouchable. I'm Greyson Perkins. Hockey captain. King of this concrete kingdom. I've never wanted anything I couldn't have, never met a challenge I couldn't conquer. Until her. The way she flinches when I say her name... moreBEAUTIFUL IN PAINShe thinks she can hide from me.Natalia Douglas moves through Westfield Prep like a ghost—head down, invisible, untouchable.The scholarship girl who works three jobs and wears thrift store clothes like armor against my world. She's wrong about being untouchable. I'm Greyson Perkins. Hockey captain. King of this concrete kingdom. I've never wanted anything I couldn't have, never met a challenge I couldn't conquer. Until her. The way she flinches when I say her name.The terror in her dark eyes when she realizes I'm watching. The desperate lies she tells herself about being safe in her poverty while I map every corner of her fragile existence. She has no idea what's coming. I know where she works. Where she lives. Where she hides when she thinks the world can't find her. I know her mother needs medication she can't afford, that her family survives on hope and stubbornness, that one phone call from me could destroy everything she's fought to protect.She'll resist at first. They always do.But resistance is just another word for foreplay when you understand pressure points. When you know that everyone breaks eventually—it's just a matter of finding what they can't afford to lose. Her mother's heart condition. Her little brother's future. Her own desperate dreams of escape. I hold all of it in my hands now. Soon, she'll understand that fighting me only makes her suffering more exquisite. That surrender isn't defeat—it's salvation. That being owned by someone like me is a privilege she should be grateful for.Soon, Natalia Douglas will learn the most important lesson of her pathetic little I always get what I want. And I want her broken, grateful, and completely mine.Some girls fall in love. Others fall into obsession. Natalia Douglas is about to discover the difference.---This is a dark high school hockey bully romance featuring obsession, psychological manipulation, stalking, financial control, forced proximity, and morally gray characters. Contains themes of emotional abuse, power imbalances, and toxic relationship dynamics. This story depicts unhealthy behaviors that should not be romanticized in real life. Intended for mature readers who enjoy dark romance fiction. This duology promises a hard-earned HEA by the end of Book Two. This is Book One of the King of Ruin series. less
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