She was meant to become a wife.
He was never meant to become a legend.

Margaret Thorne knows exactly where her father's ship is taking her: to Saint Orlan, Lord Edmund Vale, and a marriage negotiated like a business contract.

Dressed in ivory silk and obedience, she is prepared to endure the life chosen for her?until pirates attack and Captain Kieran offers her something no respectable man ever has.

A choice.

Kieran is dangerous, brilliant, and impossible to read. He commands the feared ship The Retaliator with a steady hand, a sharp tongue, and secrets guarded more fiercely than treasure. He has survived by keeping his past buried, his name his own, and his heart beyond reach.

But Margaret is not the helpless prize men keep mistaking her for.

As she uncovers the truth behind Vale's fortune, her father's power, and the women hidden behind locked doors and legal lies, Margaret becomes more than a runaway bride. She becomes a witness. A weapon. A woman no longer willing to be moved quietly from one man's possession to another.

And Kieran, who has spent his life fearing what it means to be truly known, may finally have met the one person who sees him without trying to own him.

With enemies closing in, betrayal rising from old wounds, and the sea itself turning dangerous, Margaret and Kieran must decide what freedom is worth and whether love can survive when every secret is dragged into the light.

The Retaliator is a sweeping LGBTQ+ historical pirate romance featuring a trans male hero, slow-burning desire, high-seas adventure, found family, dangerous secrets, and two people determined to claim lives?and names?of their own.