Every school has secrets. Ashcombe buried its worst one the night the golden girl vanished — and left the truth in the hands of the one person nobody ever noticed. Now Emrys Thorne is holding evidence someone will kill to bury. The only person willing to help her is the one boy everyone warned her about. Some secrets don't stay buried. They wait for the right person to dig.

He was ordered to destroy me. He claimed me instead. The night my mother remarried, I gained a stepbrother, a new house, and a stranger's last name. What I didn't know: the boy down the hall was raised to hunt me down. Kade Ashford doesn't know my name at school. Behind closed doors, he pins me to the wall, breathes me in like he's starving, and growls the word that changes everything — Mate. He says he doesn't understand the bond. I say he's had months to prepare that lie. Because I'm not just his stepsister. I'm the last blood-heir to a throne his father stole — and someone in that house has been protecting that secret since before I moved in. A wedding date is closing in that isn't mine. Every time Kade pulls me closer, he's choosing me over the family that raised him. Every time he lets me take the blame for his coldness, he's burying a truth that already cost someone their life. His father is hunting the heir he doesn't know is living under his own roof. His son is falling for her anyway. And I'm running out of time to find out if this is love or just the last thing his family destroys. Some bonds aren't found. They're stolen. Listen to find out who survives it.