The night Selene turns ten, her world burns.

Her family is slaughtered under the Alpha King’s banner.

Her pack is erased from history.

Her little sister dies screaming in the garden they once played in. And on Selene’s forehead, a mark appears.

The Crimson Crescent.

The symbol of a prophecy powerful enough to terrify kings.

Hunted, orphaned, and forced into hiding, Selene grows up in the shadows with only grief, rage, and a vow carved into her bones. She will survive. She will return. And she will make the man responsible pay in blood.

Eight years later, Selene infiltrates the royal castle as a servant, hiding her identity behind a false name and lowered eyes. Every day she walks the halls of power. Every night she sharpens her hatred. The Alpha King is closer than ever. Close enough to kill.

But the monster she prepared herself to face is not the man she finds.

As secrets unravel and the truth behind the massacre begins to surface, Selene is trapped between vengeance and something far more dangerous. Desire. Loyalty. Choice.

Because the prophecy was never about destruction alone.
It was about a queen rising from ashes. And deciding who deserves to burn.

Eight years Damian had searched for his mate. Eight years of hoping and despairing and wondering if the Moon Goddess had cursed him with a bond that would never complete.


And then she'd walked into his chambers carrying a breakfast tray.


Sera Ashwood. A packless servant. Young and scared and trying so hard to be invisible.


Damian had known the instant their eyes met. The bond had slammed into him with the force of a charging wolf, stealing his breath, making his heart race, flooding his senses with absolute certainty.


There. Right there. The mate he'd been searching for. Close enough to touch.


And completely, impossibly out of reach.


Because she was a servant. Because he was a king. Because the power imbalance made any relationship between them inappropriate at best, coercive at worst.


Chapter 36 - The Mate He Cannot Claim