Some bonds are written in blood. Others in destiny.

I wasn’t looking for a mate. I was preparing for war.

She’s been here before—short visits, nothing more. But this time is different. Her grandmother is dead. And with the old witch gone, the second Sylvie crosses back into town, everything changes.

I felt her before I saw her. The forest shifted. The bond snapped tight. My wolf rose like it had finally found what it was waiting for.

She’s a stranger, but every part of me responds to her like she’s already mine.

She says she doesn’t know what she is. That she’s just here to settle the past. But something in her blood calls to everything wild in me. She’s not fully human. Nor one of us. But she belongs to me. I feel it in my bones.

She could be the key to surviving the storm that’s coming. Or the spark that burns us all to ash.
If she’s lying, I’ll have no choice but to end her.

But if she’s not...

Then I’ll claim her. Risk everything to keep her. And fight like hell to make sure I don’t lose her.