UNDERTOW

Elara McKay had the kind of beauty that burned-sharp edges, loud eyes, and a smirk that made people second-guess their confidence. She was Outer Banks royalty, a Kook by blood, raised in the glass-and-gold house on the hill where nothing was real but the secrets. Her mother, Elizabeth McKay, smiled too much, talked too softly, and made excuses that never ran out. Her father, Rysh McKay, drunk on both power and poison, kept the lights on and the pain hidden behind thick walls and thicker wallets. Her brother, Callum McKay, ruled the Kook world with the same cold entitlement. Dominant, obscenely rich, and unapologetically snobbish, he was overprotective to the point of possession when it came to Elara. Popular with every Kook girl who knew his name, he moved through the Outer Banks like it already belonged to him-because in his mind, it did.
To the world, Elara had everything. But inside, the chaos was louder than the ocean.

She played the role, stayed on Rafe Cameron's arm, partied with the perfect crowd. But her eyes were always searching-angry, tired, hungry for something real. And then there was JJ Maybank, the storm she wasn't supposed to love. A Pogue, a mistake, a rebellion. He saw past the layers of cruelty she wore like armor. He saw her.

Elara hated him for that.

And yet, something about him made it harder to keep pretending. The Kook queen and the Pogue chaos king -an impossible match, tangled in a world that demanded loyalty over love. But Elara was already breaking, and maybe, just maybe, JJ was the only one who could see what was left beneath the wreckage.