The Jewelry Box, book 0.5: The Mercer Curse Pepper Winters2024

This 13,000 word prequel is recommended to be read before RUBY TEARS (Book One of The Jewelry Box Series). It's short but it's spicy.
I’ve fought a curse all my life.
A curse inherited by my sick father.
There is no cure.
No antidote for what I am.
For years, I existed alone. Fighting the urges, doing my best to stay good.
Until Esclave 58 entered my life and I didn’t have to fight so hard.
She makes me better, she makes me human, but then he arrives on my doorstep.
He says he’s my half-brother.
He shares my blood. Our father’s blood.
That makes him dangerous.
That makes him like me.
He wants me for his family?
First he has to prove he has control over his darkness.
If he does…fine.
If he doesn’t?
I’ll kill him.