Once a Villain: Revenge Duet, Book 1

About this book

Rory is born into a world of shadows, bound by the treacherous legacy of her father and the suffocating rules of The Sovereign, a secret society of elite assassins. When her father’s greed forces her into a debt she cannot pay, she becomes the property of Axel Hawthorne—a man known only as "The Reaper." Axel is a cold-blooded, unhinged killer with no mercy and even less soul, and he treats Rory as nothing more than a pawn in his brutal game of vengeance. This gripping dark romance follows the intense and volatile dynamic between a captor who demands total submission and a heroine who refuses to break. As Rory is dragged into Axel’s dangerous orbit, she discovers that his brand of protection is as terrifying as it is possessive. Caught in a web of ritualistic power and shifting loyalties, she must navigate a high-stakes environment where every act of defiance could be her last. Featuring the "enemies to lovers" and "forced proximity" tropes, the story is a high-octane, morally black journey that tests the limits of devotion and survival. With its atmospheric world-building and white-knuckle tension, this debut novel delivers an addictive, electrifying start to a dark revenge duet.