She was never supposed to matter. But thirty days with her might cost him everything.

Mina

One minute, I was minding my business.

The next, I'd accidentally spilled a drink on Nikolai Volkov—the enforcer for the Detroit Serpents known as the Russian Reaper.

Worse? My boyfriend lost a bet. A bet that involved me spending thirty days with Volkov.

Now I'm stuck in a twisted game between two rival hockey players, and I'm the one paying the price. Nikolai is cold, calculating, and annoyingly smug—but he's also protective in a way that makes my heart race.

This was supposed to be a punishment. A power play.

But the more time I spend with him, the more I start to wonder who the real villain is.

Because Nikolai might be the one man who sees me as more than just a prize to be won.

Nikolai

This was never about the girl.

It was about the principle. About making Petrov regret putting her on the table like a poker chip.

But from the moment I touched her, everything changed.

Mina isn't soft. She's fierce, bubbly, and impossible to ignore. She challenges me in ways I don't like—and ways I crave.

What started as a win turned into an obsession.

She says she doesn't want me. She says she can't trust me.

But she forgets—I'm not just here to collect what I'm owed.

I'm here to keep it.

Merciless Matchup is a standalone dark hockey romance featuring a possessive Russian hero, a thirty-day grumpy sunshine forced proximity deal, and a heroine caught between the man who betrayed her and the one willing to burn everything down for her. Guaranteed HEA. No cliffhanger.