Princess Seraphine Thorne has spent her life inside the marble walls of Everfell, groomed to be a queen and handed off as a bride to whichever lord will best serve her father's throne. She has never once set foot beyond the border wall that separates the kingdom from the Blackwood, the ancient forest where the wolf packs are said to devour any human fool enough to wander in. When a diplomatic procession goes wrong and Sera is thrown from her carriage into the heart of that forbidden forest, she expects to die. Instead she is found by Kade Ironwood, the Alpha of the Blackwood Pack, a man rumored across two kingdoms to be more monster than man. He does not kill her. He does not release her either. What begins as a hostage's bargain slowly unravels into something neither of them can name. Kade is bound by a blood oath older than Everfell's crown, and Sera is bound by a marriage contract that will end everything the moment she returns home. Between them lies a forest full of enemies, a father who would burn the Blackwood to ash to get his daughter back, and a bond that howls louder than either of them can silence. This is the beginning of a much longer story. Seven chapters mark only the first steps into a war between crown and claw, one where the fiercest alpha in the Blackwood may have finally met the one thing he cannot conquer: a princess who refuses to be tamed, and a heart he never meant to lose.