When Eliza Stone discovers her fiancé Charles in bed with her adopted sister Victoria, she decides to take revenge. Her solution? A one-night stand with a mysterious stranger in an underground garage, to let Charles taste the bitterness of betrayal by a mate. "First time?" her one-night stand asks, his powerful presence sending shivers down her spine. "Does it matter?" she retorts, unaware she's just seduced Ethan Howe—the Alpha King himself and also her ex-fiancé's uncle. When the betrayal becomes public at Charles's engagement ceremony, Eliza finds an unexpected ally with Ethan, who shockingly claims, "I am her mate," silencing the room with his declaration. What starts as a convenient arrangement—she gets the Alpha King‘s protection from creditors threatening to imprison her father for the Stone pack's billion-dollar debt; he gets relief from his grandmother's pressure to find a Luna—soon evolves into something neither expected. Their "Mate Contract" explicitly forbids intimacy, but their wolves have other ideas. "Are you perhaps hoping to repay your debt... with your body, Little Eliza?" Ethan teases, his cold facade cracking to reveal a surprisingly passionate and fiery Alpha.