Synopsis For centuries, the Lycans were the kingdom’s deadliest warriors, second only to the powerful Primordial bloodline.Then a prophecy turned them into enemies of the kingdom.They were hunted, betrayed, and erased from history.Or so everyone believed.Ayla has spent her life believing she is nothing more than an ordinary wolf. She knows nothing about the blood in her veins or the secret her mother died protecting.Then an ancient feud forces her into a marriage with Zarek, the man she has hated for years.Their union is meant to end a generations-old war.Instead, it awakens one.As Ayla begins uncovering secrets about her family and the mysterious fate of the Lycans, Zarek discovers something that changes everything he thought he knew about her.Now he must choose between protecting his wife and obeying the duty his bloodline was born to fulfill.Because Ayla isn't who she thinks she is.And if the kingdom discovers what she truly carries in her blood, the Lycans may not be extinct after all.They may be coming back for revenge.

FALLING FOR THE SCANDALIris Mercer arrives at Atherton University halfway through the semester carrying a reputation she cannot escape.The internet knows her as the disgraced Mercer heiress—the girl accused of falsely framing Malcom Calverley for something that could have destroyed his life. Her former best friend, Flora, was one of the people who stood against her. Now everyone at Atherton knows Iris as a scandal waiting to happen.Iris refuses to explain herself.Then she meets Gideon Calders.Gideon is Atherton's arrogant basketball star, a campus celebrity, and the son of one of the most powerful men in the business world. Their first encounter ends badly, and their relationship only gets worse when Iris publicly challenges his basketball ability.But there is something about Iris that Gideon cannot quite place.He has heard her name before. More than once.There were years when Malcom Calverley was constantly surrounded by people connected to powerful families, including the Calders. Gideon remembers fragments of those years—conversations that stopped whenever he entered a room, his father's unusual interest in the Mercer scandal, and Malcom's name appearing in places Gideon never understood.He never thought any of it would matter to him.Until Iris walks into his life.When Coach Harry discovers that Iris can use mathematics, physics, and data to identify weaknesses in players, he asks her to analyze Gideon and the Atherton basketball team ahead of their biggest games.Gideon hates needing her.Iris hates working with him.So they make each other's lives miserable.They sabotage each other's projects, interfere with training, deliberately push each other's buttons, and constantly search for information they can use against one another. Their rivalry becomes almost as intense as the basketball rivalry between Atherton and the Bay Area team, where Gideon's greatest rival, Milo Miller, plays.But Iris isn't the only person interested in her.Kennedy's fascination with Iris is different.He seems to know things about her that he shouldn't.He recognizes her immediately. He knows details about the scandal before most students even bother looking it up. Sometimes he finishes her sentences or references places and events from her past that she has never mentioned to him.Iris assumes he is simply another person who has read too much about her online.She doesn't realize Kennedy knew who she was long before she ever stepped onto Atherton's campus.For years, he has followed the story of Iris Mercer from a distance. What began as fascination became an obsession long before they met. Her arrival at Atherton isn't the beginning of his interest—it is the moment he finally gets close enough to act on it.His behavior gradually becomes possessive. He inserts himself into Iris's life, watches her closely, and refuses to respect boundaries.Gideon begins noticing.At first, he doesn't understand why Kennedy's interest bothers him so much.Then Kennedy crosses a line.Gideon steps in.For the first time, Iris begins to wonder whether the boy she cannot stand might actually be someone she can trust.Then the bullying escalates.The whispers become harassment. The harassment becomes stalking. Anonymous messages and frightening threats begin following Iris everywhere she goes. She tells no one, terrified that revealing what is happening will somehow make the situation worse.But Gideon notices.And despite their constant fighting, Iris finds an unexpected sense of safety around him. When the pressure becomes too much, his presence becomes one of the few things that can make her feel less alone.The closer they get, however, the more secrets begin surfacing.Milo Miller is not only Gideon's fiercest basketball rival; he is deeply connected to the Calders family's history. Years of rivalry, resentment, and buried betrayal have made the Miller-Calders conflict far more personal than basketball.And Milo's relationship with Cloe Everton, Gideon's childhood friend, makes everything even more complicated.Milo and Cloe secretly care about each other, but neither believes they can have a future together. Cloe knows how dangerous Gideon's father can be and feels indebted to the Calders family. Milo knows exactly what that family has done and cannot forget it.Their impossible relationship becomes another crack in an already fractured rivalry.Meanwhile, Flora is dating Malcom Calverley, Iris's former best friend.At first, Iris believes Flora betrayed her willingly.The truth is much darker.Flora is trapped in an abusive relationship with Malcom. She is terrified of him and cannot bring herself to tell anyone. She watched what happened to Iris and knows what Malcom is capable of making people believe.And there are hints that Malcom's influence reaches further than Iris ever realized.His name occasionally surfaces around people connected to Gideon's family. Gideon remembers his fat