Desire is a powerful thing. It is the ache of wanting something you know you shouldn’t have. A longing that settles beneath your skin and refuses to disappear. Sometimes desire is born from pleasure. Sometimes from something missing inside you. And sometimes it comes from wanting the one person you know you’re forbidden to have—and choosing him anyway. “Tell me something, Red.” His voice is low against my ear, sending another shiver through me. “What do you think your father would say if he knew about us?” My breath catches. I already know the answer. My father would lose his mind. Everything about this is wrong in his eyes. Lennox is his best friend. His Beta. The man he trusts more than almost anyone in the world. And I’m his daughter. But Lennox isn’t just some man I’m sneaking around with. He’s the man I’ve wanted for years. He’s the man I was never supposed to want. And now I know the truth. He’s my mate. My hands tighten against him as my heart pounds wildly inside my chest. “What would he say,” I whisper breathlessly, “if he knew his daughter was secretly seeing his best friend?” Lennox’s eyes lock with mine. For one suspended moment, neither of us moves. We both know what we’re risking. His friendship with my father. My father’s trust. Maybe even Lennox’s place beside the Alpha King. I should be afraid. Maybe part of me is. But desire doesn’t care about consequences. It doesn’t care about rules. And it certainly doesn’t care that the man fate chose for me is the one man my father would never allow me to have. Lennox Bolton is my mate. My father’s best friend. And completely forbidden. That’s the thing about desire. Sometimes you can’t control it— even when you desperately wish you could.

Aurora Monroe thought she was saving her best friend. When ruthless Russian mafia boss Nikolai Volkov gives Aurora an impossible choice, she willingly takes Whitney’s place, believing she is protecting her from something far worse. But Aurora quickly discovers there was never really a choice. Nikolai wanted her all along. Drugged, kidnapped, and hidden inside a remote mountain estate, twenty-two-year-old Aurora awakens chained in an underground cell with no idea where she is or why Nikolai is so determined to keep her untouched. For eight terrifying days, she is starved, isolated, and left wondering whether anyone will ever find her. Then she meets Aleksandr Volkov. Nikolai’s older brother. A tattooed, violent mafia enforcer Aurora privately names the Brute. Aleksandr is everything she should fear. He is dangerous, unpredictable, and loyal to the very family holding her captive. He makes one thing painfully clear: if Aurora escapes, he will find her and bring her back. But Aleksandr is also the first person inside the Volkov estate who remembers she is human. He feeds her. Protects her. Stops when she says no. And when he begins questioning why Nikolai has been watching Aurora for far longer than anyone realized, Aleksandr discovers his brother may have plans for her more horrifying than either of them imagined. Aurora knows she cannot trust her captor. Aleksandr knows caring about her could make him betray his own blood. But as hatred becomes understanding, fear becomes dangerous attraction, and the walls between prisoner and protector begin to crumble, Aurora discovers the greatest threat may not be falling into the hands of the Russian mafia. It may be falling in love with the one man she was supposed to hate. Because Aleksandr Volkov might protect her from every monster in his world- except himself.