What if the monster you were sold to wasn't the real danger?

They call him the Monster. Nine wives. Nine graves. No heirs.

I was supposed to be the tenth.

Sold by my family to save a sister who betrayed me, I thought survival meant staying invisible.

 But when I healed Alpha Kael Cinderclaw in the snow, I accidentally bound us together, a mate bond neither of us wanted and neither can sever.

Now I feel his rage like fire beneath my skin.

 He feels my fear like a blade against his throat. And the fortress that buried nine wives is watching us both.

My family wanted me erased.
His enemies want me dead.

And Kael? He looks at me like I'm the one thing he can't afford to want—but can't let go.

They wanted a sacrifice.
They're getting an awakening.
In a world where power is everything, the wolfless girl just became the Alpha's greatest weakness, and his most dangerous obsession.

Chapter 56 – The Weight of Being Alone


By the time the fortress grew quiet again, I understood something I hadn't allowed myself to name before.


None of this had anything to do with jealousy.


Not Isolade. Not Ivy. Not even the way the elders spoke about me like I was something that could be discussed, weighed, and decided on.


I sat on the edge of the bed for a long time, my hands resting loosely in my lap, listening to the distant movement outside my door. The tension hadn't disappeared with nightfall. If anything, it had settled deeper into the walls, into the way people walked, into the way doors opened and closed more carefully than before.


Everything felt measured now and for the first time, I wasn't just caught in it. I was part of what they were calculating around. That realization didn't hurt the way I expected it to. It didn't come with panic or fear. It came with something quieter, something colder.


Chapter 56 - Chapter 56 – The Weight of Being Alone