Every Pearl Was a Lie

For three years, Elara risked her life in the freezing coastal waters of Stillwater Territory, harvesting rare pearls to pay for her mate Cain's treatment — only to discover his injury was a lie, and every pearl she found was used to court another woman. Cast aside and left for dead, she survives only through the intervention of Caius Holloway, a sharp-tongued healer whose quiet devotion slowly fills the silence Cain left behind. As Elara rebuilds herself and uncovers the truth of her own forgotten past, she learns that the things worth fighting for were never what she thought.