I am the King of the Academy. He is the dirt under my boots. And we are going to ruin each other.
As the Academy's Rank One, Felix Cento is the Golden Boy. The Strategic Asset. His life is a clinical cycle of "maintenance" and perfection, lived under the unblinking red eye of the Director's surveillance.
Then they bring in the wolf. Leander Regillen is everything Felix is taught to loathe: undisciplined, filthy-mouthed, feral straight from the Sector 9 cages. He didn't come to play soccer. He came to take Felix's crown.
But when the Academy locks them in one dorm room, the hatred turns into hunger. Felix can never let Leander find out what he's already sacrificed to keep him breathing. And Leander has a death sentence in his pocket: wash out of the Academy, and he doesn't go home, he goes to the Front to die in a trench.
The Culling Match is coming. Only one of them can lead the National Team. To survive, Leander has to destroy Felix, or let him consume him completely. Win or die.
Heat: 5/5. Explicit, open door, high heat.
Themes: An authoritarian surveillance state, elite athletes conscripted as government assets, forced proximity, and a possessive, morally gray love interest who has been protecting his rival in secret all along.
Content warnings: Explicit MM sex, including D/s, degradation and praise kink · Dubious consent · Biting, marking and possessive behavior · Voyeurism and surveillance · Sexual harassment · Blackmail, bullying and humiliation · Graphic violence and sports injuries · Authoritarian regime and threats of execution · War and conscription · Panic attacks and nightmares · Off-page death of a sibling · Ableist and classist slurs.
Good to know: Dark MM dystopian sports romance with a possessive, morally gray hero. Guaranteed happily-ever-after, no cliffhanger for this couple.