PRE-ORDER — Expected to ship mid-October 2026. The door is locked, the pier is gone, and the logic is about to get dirty. Creole King Skul expected a routine medical assessment in the deepest, most secluded stretch of the southern swamps. Instead, his boat is smashed, his sanity is on a wire, and he is trapped with Hope LaFleur—a barefoot, homeschooled genius who has been clinically cataloging her father Remi's fluctuating cognitive decline. Skul is still plagued with hostile symptoms from the bat-bite experiment with the Marsh Kings, leaving him in a terrifying "deviant condition". His gift of observation has been magnified to a near-forensic clarity, turning every single glance at Hope into an all-consuming war. Hope discovers his condition and attempts to diagnose him, but her logic-lusty gifts only fuel the flames. To her, he isn't sick, he's a highly optimized human male operating exactly as designed. In this high-heat, high-intellect Bayou Bishops Nouvelle, the big brooding Creole King must survive the ultimate trial: a barefoot scientist determined to dissect his raw, possessive animal instincts, one intimate challenge at a time. Pre-orders ship mid-October 2026 in the order received. No cancellations after purchase.