⚠️ 18+ Dark Romance. Contains explicit content, dub-con/non-con elements, violence, and themes of abuse and psychological trauma. Fiction only. Reader discretion advised. Alessandra Caruso spent her life sheltered from the blood that built her family's empire — until the debt came due, and her father sold her like a line item on a ledger. The price: her hand in marriage to Dante De Luca, the most feared man in New York, a monster with a lion tattooed on his arm and fifteen years of vengeance behind his black eyes. He didn't want a wife. He wanted payment. From the moment she steps into his fortress of an estate, Alessandra understands exactly what she is to him — a possession, a pawn, the final piece in a revenge he's been building since the night he watched his mother die on their kitchen floor. She should hate him. She does hate him. But hatred has never stopped a heartbeat from racing, and survival has taught her things about herself she never wanted to know. Dante doesn't do weakness. He doesn't do mercy. And he definitely doesn't fall in love with the daughter of the man who destroyed his family — except that somewhere between owning her and needing her, the lines start to blur, and the monster starts to wonder if the girl he bought might be the only person alive who could actually see him. But love in this world comes with a body count. A rival wants her as a trophy of his own. A traitor sits closer than anyone suspects. And the debt that brought them together might not survive what it costs to keep them there. She was sold to save her family. She might destroy his to save herself. A dark, addictive mafia romance of possession, power, and the terrifying cost of being truly seen.

Odell, a human clueless about the supernatural world, doesn't do feelings. She does convenient, no strings, out by morning. That was the deal with Caelen too, until the night he showed up uninvited, ruined, practically shaking, insisting he just needed to be near her. That wasn't the deal.Turns out werewolves don't get to choose who they're bound to. Caelen's wolf chose her the first night they met, and he's been lying about it ever since. Now his pack knows something's wrong with their future alpha, his enemies smell blood, and the only thing standing between Odell and a world that wants her gone is a man who's never once asked her to be softer, sweeter, or easier to love.She's not going to change. He's not going to stop wanting her exactly as she is. And when tradition demands she kneel to prove she belongs at his side, he's about to find out exactly how far he'll fall to keep from making her bend.