When struggling college student Aria Everly stumbles into the woods one night, she uncovers a secret she was never meant to witness—the future Alpha of a hidden werewolf pack. Lucian Mercer should silence her. Instead, he publicly claims her as his chosen mate. To everyone else, it's a shocking romance. To Aria, it's a lie designed to keep her alive. Hunted by a ruthless organization that knows she's more than human, Aria is forced into a dangerous bargain with the cold, untouchable Alpha. The rules are simple: pretend to belong to him, trust no one, and never ask about the secrets buried beneath the pack's perfect control. But Aria has a secret of her own. She can feel emotions no one else can. Every lie Lucian tells. Every nightmare he hides. Every heartbeat he fights to silence. The closer they become, the more their fake relationship awakens an ancient bond the werewolf world outlawed centuries ago—a bond powerful enough to rewrite pack law, destroy kingdoms, and make them both enemies of the High Conclave. Now the wolves want to control her. The Wardens want to capture her. Lucian's own father wants her gone. And the greatest danger isn't falling in love with the Alpha sworn to protect her. It's discovering that the secret hidden inside her could bring an entire supernatural world to its knees... or burn it to ashes. Some bonds are forbidden. Others were buried for a reason.

The night my father sold me, he didn't even stay to watch. One minute he was beside me. The next he was walking out the door, leaving me in a room full of strangers with my name already printed on a contract I never agreed to sign. The debt was his. The price was me. Three men bought me together. Marcus Prescott, the eldest, cold and calculated, who looked at me like I was a problem he had already solved. Damian, the middle one, who called me little dove like it was an insult and somehow made it feel like the most complicated thing anyone had ever said to me. And Luca, the youngest, who brought me coffee on the first morning and called me sunshine and made me laugh when I had no business laughing at anything. I told myself I would find a way out. I told myself this was temporary. I told myself not to feel anything. I was wrong about all three. What I did not know when I walked into that penthouse was that one of them had been watching me for three years. That my father did not just steal from their family. That the Prescott patriarch's death was not an accident. That the evidence that could prove everything had been sitting with my mother, who I was told died when I was twelve and who has been alive this whole time. I came here as a debt to be paid. But the deeper I go, the more I find out about what my father really did, and the harder it becomes to leave the three men I was never supposed to want. I did not choose this arrangement. But I am starting to choose them.