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 114 – The Thing Beneath the Fortress


I should have felt relieved after Kael's words.


For weeks, every revelation had driven another wedge between us. Every memory, every voice, every impossible truth had created distance neither of us knew how to cross. Yet somehow, standing beneath the night sky and listening to him tell me he would choose me again, I felt something I hadn't experienced in a long time.


The kind that made people believe survival was possible.


For a few moments, I allowed myself to hold onto it.


The sensation was so subtle that most people wouldn't have noticed it.


A faint vibration traveled through the stone beneath my feet.


Chapter 114 - Chapter 114 – The Thing Beneath the Fortress