The Campout (Black Fern Bloodlines #1)

He came to find his missing brother. The vampire waiting in the rain already knew his name.

Seven years ago, Nolan Mercer walked into Black Fern Basin and never walked out.

Now his brother Luca — ER nurse, professional survivor, done being managed by everyone who ever loved him — drives into the same Georgia wilderness through a storm that shouldn’t exist, and finds a stranger standing dry under a tin roof.

Rhys is beautiful. Rhys is careful. Rhys asks Luca’s rules before he touches him, which no one has ever done.

Rhys also left no footprints in the mud. And he knew Luca’s last name before Luca said it.

By morning, campers are vanishing. The fog has opinions.

Twelve tents stand in a ring nobody pitched, and something two hundred years old beneath Site Seven has been waiting for the last of the Mercer blood — waiting, and arranging.

Because the door under Black Fern doesn’t open with force.

It opens with love, freely given. And every monster in the basin knows the fastest way to a Mercer’s heart is to be the first creature who ever asked permission.

To get his brother back, Luca will bargain with the vampire who may have taken him.

To keep Luca alive, Rhys will break two centuries of rules — including his own.

Between them stand a ranger with an inherited secret, a dying best friend receiving promises in the dark, a documentarian who films everything, and a safeword that will have to stop far worse things than a kiss.

The word is Sunrise. Pray it’s enough.

THE CAMPOUT is Book One of Black Fern Bloodlines: a dark MM vampire romance of survival horror, found family, and devastating bargains — where every intimacy is negotiated, every betrayal has a face you love, and the happily-ever-after is earned in blood.

For readers who want their vampires ancient and restrained, their heroes competent and unmanageable, their consent on the page, and their endings whole.

Sensual, emotionally intense romance · full HEA · complete story, no cliffhanger · includes a bonus scene.

Content guidance available; see the note inside the book. 18+.