Affection: True Love

"I sold my soul to save their smiles. I will burn this Kingdom to hear her screams." For Alaric Vane, survival was never about himself. It was about the Grey Cradle, the only home he ever knew. When the ruthless Kingdom of Oakhaven decrees the destruction of his orphanage, Alaric chooses a fate worse than death. He crawls before the City Governor, Lunate Kenet—a woman whose beauty is as lethal as her cruelty—and signs a four-year contract of absolute enslavement. Within the blood-stained halls of the Kenet Estate, Alaric becomes a "human rug," stripped of his name and dignity. For two agonizing years, he endures Lunate’s heels on his back and her family’s sadistic whims. But in the dead of night, Alaric is no longer a slave. He is a predator in training, performing 15,000 sword swings in the shadows, fueled by a single hope: the day he will return to his family. Then, the world turns upside down. After two years of hell, the Kenet sisters suddenly shift. The kicks turn into embraces; the cold glares turn into a suffocating, twisted obsession. Lunate, the woman who broke him, now wants to possess his heart. But it is too late. Upon the completion of his contract, Alaric discovers the ultimate betrayal: The Grey Cradle was razed to the ground three years ago. The silence he endured for years wasn't protection—it was a void where his world used to be. Believing his family dead and his sacrifice a cruel joke, Alaric’s love for his masters turns into a dormant volcano of rage. He will climb the ranks, gain the King’s favor, and return as a Count to dismantle the House of Kenet from the inside out. He doesn't want their newfound affection. He wants to watch them fall into the same dirt where they once forced him to crawl. A four-year contract. A lifetime of vengeance. In the world of Terris, affection is the deadliest weapon of all.