Blood & Grout

"Blackthorn House is probably haunted," Soren tells himself when he inherits a crumbling Victorian estate in rural Shropshire. But haunted is easier to handle than the truth.Exiled from his pack for being too gentle, wolf shifter and restoration expert Soren Vael arrives at Blackthorn House expecting collapsing ceilings, bad wiring, and enough structural disasters to keep his hands busy for years. What he doesn't expect is Idris Mor-the centuries-old, razor-sharp resident hidden beneath the house's foundations, protected by an ironclad covenant and carrying secrets older than the estate itself.As Soren throws himself into restoring Blackthorn's ruined grandeur, he uncovers more than faulty plaster and failed rooflines. The house is a battleground. Predatory forces circle its boundaries, ancient pack politics threaten its fragile protections, and Idris may be the key to preserving everything Soren has inherited... if either of them can survive trusting the other.Between sharp wit, slow-building desire, and rooms full of buried history, Soren and Idris must decide whether Blackthorn House can become more than a refuge for the broken. Can an exiled wolf and an immortal recluse rebuild a home-and a future-out of ruins, or will the past finally tear down what they're only beginning to build?