Lyra spent twenty-three years pretending to be a man. In a world where women are rare, coveted, and marked by collars, being discovered would mean losing the right to her own body. That is why she learned to hunt, fight, and even hide her own scent. But everything changes when her father returns home on the verge of death. Forced to leave the farm in search of help, Lyra enters the Neutral Lands and sees for the first time what her father had tried to hide from her: women displayed as property, beasts choosing concubines as if they were jewels, and female bodies used for pleasure and reproduction in front of everyone. Then the city is invaded. Captured and mistaken for a human boy far too beautiful to go unnoticed, Lyra is taken as a slave to a fortress commanded by three of the most powerful beasts on the continent. And Kael Varek begins to desire her. He has never needed concubines. He has never lost control over a female. Much less over a human male. And yet, every time that small slave enters his chambers, something inside him awakens. The scent. The mouth. The body hidden beneath loose clothes. The nearly unbearable urge to discover what lies underneath them. When Kael finally discovers that "Lyr" was never a man, desire stops being the most dangerous part. Because Lyra is not merely a woman. She belongs to a bloodline so rare that she could give a beast what kings would kill to possess: an heir. Now, in order to stay alive, she will have to accept the protection of the only man capable of hiding her secret. Even if that means wearing his collar. Even if every night beside Kael makes it harder and harder to remember where survival ends… and where desire begins.