Tempest

Cat Rose has lived two lives. In the first, she is Lady Catrine Rose of the Meridian Empire, married to a lord she despises, whose fortune is shrinking. In the second, she is the Widow Rose, who runs a pirate tavern on the Lyrian Sea and answers to no one.

That second life is under threat. The Meridian navy is bearing down on the Lyrian with orders to retake the wealthy colonies and break the pirate republic for good. Ship after ship falls to it. Only one captain keeps slipping past the noose and the blade: Valerian Kane, whose fearsome vessel and odd bond with the sea's song make him the last figure the remaining pirates might gather behind.

Valerian is also the one man Cat has ever loved, someone who has burned through her life and vanished again more than once. The Empire knows it, and it makes her an offer: deliver him or hang. She has no real choice, but she has survived this long by refusing to be cornered.

This is a pirate adventure at sea, told through two timelines, the noble's past and the tavern queen's present. It builds toward a collision between an empire, a legend and a woman caught between them, with her own survival on the line.