God of Pain

This dark, grumpy-sunshine college romance pairs two heirs whose families share a destructive history. Annika Volkov is a Bratva mafia princess, bright, talkative, and warm, with ballet as her refuge and a habit of seeing good in people, including the one person she should not want. Creighton King is silent, brooding, and emotionally walled off, hiding sadistic instincts and a traumatic past behind a calm exterior. Annika's future is supposedly already mapped out for her, yet she keeps gravitating toward Creighton, and his cold detachment slowly gives way to fierce possessiveness once he decides she is his. As their relationship deepens, danger circles their families, and Annika uncovers the shared history binding the Kings and the Volkovs. Told in dual point of view, the book balances Annika's sunshine energy against Creighton's darkness, with high heat and the interconnected found-family cast that runs through the Legacy of Gods series. It is the second entry in the series and continues the next-generation saga of children from Rina Kent's Royal Elite and mafia worlds.