Good Girl's Appetite.

Elena

I became queen when I was nineteen.

By twenty-three, I had already learned that love was useless, kindness was weakness, and fear was far more effective than affection.

My kingdom obeys me because it has no choice.

I am cruel. Dominant. Unforgiving.

And I wanted a husband.

Someone who would stand beside my throne and serve a purpose greater than himself.

Then I found Vincent.

A merman.

So I married him.

The sea people accepted the alliance. My kingdom gained access to their waters. Everything went exactly as planned.

Except Vincent.

He learned quickly that I was not the woman he thought I was.

I am worse.

He stayed.

And that unsettles me more than anything.

Because Vincent doesn't look at me like I am only cruelty.

He looks at me like I am hiding something.

Like my evil is not the whole truth.

And I hate that he might be right.

⸻

Vincent

I have always believed in love.

Not the loud kind. Not the kind that demands attention. The quiet kind. The kind that chooses you gently, even when the world says you don't belong together.

So when Queen Elena Mathew chose me as her husband, I thought maybe I had finally been chosen too.

I was wrong.

She is terrifying.

Cold. Possessive. Sharp like broken glass hidden beneath silk.

She does not treat me like a husband. She treats me like property she has decided to keep.

Everyone expects me to run.

I don't.

Not yet.

Because when I look at Elena, I see something.

Not just cruelty.

Not just power.

But something fractured beneath it.

Pain that has no name. Fear she refuses to acknowledge. A wound so deep it has become part of her skin.

I don't know what made her this way.

I don't know what she lost, or what she was forced to become.

But I know she is not evil without reason.

And I intend to find a reason.

Even if she destroys me for trying.

I believe Elena is still someone worth saving.