Nadia Voss has spent her life scrubbing blood off the temple floor. It is the blood of girls the vampire king's curse has already killed. She is a blood-taint, the lowest thing in the house, and tonight her name is on the tithe list. She should be dead by dawn. Instead, when her blood touches the king's cursed hand, the trembling stops. And in a hall full of nobles who would rather see her burn, Adrian Voltaris lies for her, calls her blood spoiled, and keeps her. Because Nadia carries the first blood. The only thing in the world that can break his curse. But there is another secret in this house. The man who signed her mother's death warrant is still here, still smiling, still calling the king uncle. And when he learns what she is, he will not hesitate twice. She came here to die. She is going to make them regret letting her live.

On her eighteenth moon ceremony, Elara Vale is declared wolfless, rejected by Alpha Kael Blackwood, and cast out of the pack. But when the blood moon rises, a silver mark appears on her skin. The Moon Oath has awakened—an ancient power bound to the Moon Goddess, and a wolf that was never supposed to exist. It gives her one command: make the Alpha who rejected her love her, or lose her wolf forever. Kael didn't reject her because he hates her. He rejected her to keep her alive. And the secret he buried is the same one every Alpha has hunted for a century.