Foolish Escapade

Smile, it's just a joke.

Casper has perfected the art of laughing it off. Black eye? He walked into a door. Bruised ribs? Clumsy at work. Another Alpha who thought "pranks" meant he deserved to be put in his place? Well, that's just what happens when you're too much, too loud, too chaotic for your own good.
He's the life of every party, the bartender everyone loves, the friend who's always got a smile... even when it's not real. He's the embodiment of fake it 'til you make it, the king of deflection, the Omega who turns pain into punchlines, but sometimes those aren't the best coping mechanisms.
When Casper promises his best friend Augustine that he'll get help if things get worse, he doesn't actually think he'll need to. He's handled worse, right? He's survived this long. What's one more Alpha who can't take a joke?
Then the crap hits the fan on April Fools' Day, because of course it does, and Casper finds himself at Saphe Haven, a shelter for battered Omegas, with another black eye and a restraining order he's terrified won't stick.
Mikhail is a mountain of an Alpha who works security at Saphe Haven, has approximately zero tolerance for nonsense, and somehow sees straight through every deflection Casper throws at him. He's patient, observant, and completely unshakeable, which is extremely inconvenient when Casper's entire survival strategy is built on making people laugh before they can see him break.
Casper's a perpetual trickster whose pranks and chaos drove his last Alpha to violence. Mikhail is the immovable object to Casper's unstoppable force. One of them is going to have to bend, but Casper's been bent and broken too many times before.
Can an Alpha who refuses to let him hide behind jokes teach this wounded Omega that healing doesn't mean losing the parts of himself he loves most? Or will Casper's fear that he's "too much" become a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Content Notes: This book deals with recovery from intimate partner violence, features a survivor's journey to healing, and includes discussions of past abuse (not between MCs). Casper's story is about finding safety, learning to trust again, and discovering that the right person will love your chaos, not punish you for it.