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 71 – The Truth Kael Was Never Told


I had stopped believing in coincidences a long time ago.


In Blackmoor, coincidences were usually planned by someone powerful enough to stay unseen while everyone else paid the price for them later. The older I got, the more I understood that truth. But understanding it and accepting that it applied to my own life were two different things entirely.


The council chamber had emptied nearly an hour ago, yet the tension from it still sat under my skin like something irritating I couldn't scrape out. They had grown bolder lately. Not openly disrespectful, not enough to challenge me directly, but close enough to test boundaries they never would have touched before.


And every single one of those boundaries led back to Liora.


A few blamed me for bringing her here in the first place.


Chapter 71 - Chapter 71 – The Truth Kael Was Never Told