Encantado: A Dark Folktale of Drowning and Desire

The settlement demands that she choose a husband. The river has already chosen her.Spanish Florida, 1663.At eighteen, she has already lost the only man who ever protected her. With her father dead, she is sent to live among relatives who resent her and settlers who see an unmarried woman as property waiting to be claimed.Three men want her.The blacksmith's son promises protection. A wealthy merchant offers comfort. A soldier does not bother pretending that her consent matters. The settlement gives her days to choose between them before they make the decision for her.But each morning before dawn, she escapes into the river.There, a scarred dolphin waits beneath the black water. It listens when no human will. It warns her when men follow. And when despair drives her beneath the surface, it refuses to let her die.The Indigenous people know what the Spanish dismiss as superstition: some river dolphins are boto, encantados capable of taking human form. They seduce the lonely, punish the cruel, and transform the women they claim into creatures who belong to neither land nor water.Her protector has been patient.Her hunters have not.As the men close in, the dolphin reveals the power hidden beneath its gentle shape-and offers her the only choice that has ever truly been hers. To remain human is to become a wife, a servant, and a body men believe they own.To follow him is to surrender everything she has been.But the river does not cage its daughters.And it has teeth.Encantado is an explicit dark historical monster romance featuring a protective shapeshifting dolphin, colonial Florida folklore, forced marriage, female vengeance, aquatic transformation, and a monstrous HEA.