Tenderness with Claws

The town called him dangerous. The monster offered him shelter. Only one of them was lying. Ellis Mercer came back to Bellwether Point for answers. His mentor is dead. The town archive is burning. His name is suddenly on every emergency alert. And inside the condemned Blackglass Sanctuary, a fresh claw mark warns him not to trust the shelter records. Everyone says Blackglass is empty. Everyone says the creature inside is a legend.
Everyone is wrong. Varro Blackglass is a Graven Warden-clawed, winged, ancient, and bound to a sanctuary the human world tried to erase. He should turn Ellis away. Sheltering an accused human breaks old law, wakes a dangerous court, and puts Varro's own claws at risk. Instead, he opens the door. Inside Blackglass, danger has rules. Shelter must be chosen. Care cannot become debt. Protection must never become a cage.
But the town wants Ellis silenced. A private foundation wants Varro's power. And the hidden ledger Ellis carries may prove that Bellwether built its safety by selling the very monsters who once protected it. The deeper Ellis digs, the more every lie points back to Blackglass. A stolen boundary. A dead witness. A true name used as a weapon. A monster who bleeds every time he protects the man he should not want.
Ellis came looking for proof. He found a sanctuary with teeth. And the only creature gentle enough to save him may be the one the whole town is ready to destroy. Tenderness with Claws is an MM monster romance with gothic paranormal suspense, forbidden shelter, devoted protection, hurt/comfort, forced proximity, a scary-but-soft monster hero, and a consent-forward slow-burn romance between two adult men who choose each other against human law, monster law, and every door built to keep them apart.