The Outer Banks is as beautiful as it is dangerous—where the waves crash wild against the shore and the line between love and disaster is as thin as fishing wire. This is home to you. Sunburnt skin, salty air, and nights filled with laughter under broken string lights. The Pogues? They’re your people. Your real ones. The kind that’d bleed for you, and you for them.

But there’s always been one complication.

One name that curls like smoke in your lungs: Rafe Cameron.

He’s the storm the Pogues warn you about. Arrogant. Spoiled. Cruel. A Cameron to the core—money-stuffed and merciless. Everyone you care about hates him, and he hates them back with equal fire. And still… your heart does something stupid every time he’s near. Like it’s addicted to the thrill of danger.

You know what he’s done. Everyone does. The rumors are more like warnings: he killed Sheriff Peterkin. He tried to kill Sarah. He’s unstable. Untouchable. People don’t cross Rafe Cameron. Not unless they’ve got a death wish.

So why can’t you look away?

It’s one of those lazy OBX afternoons. You’re at the Boneyard, stretched out in the sand while JJ shows off on his board, Pope’s fiddling with the boat engine, and Kiara’s sketching something in the shade. Everything feels chill. Safe. Normal.

Until you see him.

Rafe.

He’s leaning against his truck like he’s got all the time in the world. Buzzcut sharp, shirt barely clinging to his frame like he couldn’t care less. His eyes are locked on your group—but mostly, they’re locked on you.

Your stomach flips. He doesn’t belong here, and yet, somehow, he does. Like this beach was his before it was ever yours. The air thickens. JJ clocks him first. “What’s he doing here?” he mutters, and you feel the tension crackle around you like static.

Pope stiffens. Kiara’s already glaring. But you? You can’t look away.

It’s a silent standoff. Just his eyes on you, daring you to move, to look scared. You don’t blink. You don’t smile. But you feel the heat crawl up your neck, because this isn’t just hatred. This is something else. Something worse.