I have kept my collar high and my throat covered since I was presented at court.The title is settled at midnight. I came to the ballroom anyway.Ian does not pretend to be a gentleman about what he is.Three nights ago I lifted my chin and pulled the lace down myself.Take it, I said, and he did, without hurrying, until the room tipped sideways.He held me up through the rest of it and left marks I have been dressing around since.I wore a high collar ...

Simon Holbrook's vine crown pulses with life only when Jane Quinlan remains at his side, the sigil on her collarbone glowing as their arranged union binds her to his power. Her defiance against the fae court clashes with the homesickness she cannot voice, yet each required touch in the archives stirs a hunger that undercuts the alliance they protect.Court protocol keeps them knee to knee in the moonlit gardens, and the crown flares every time his hand covers hers. The private pull ...

I never asked for a claim, not after watching my parents disappear and leave nothing but silence behind. The court demands Robert Jagger bite me before the Solstice or the rival will drag me into his own bond, and the thought of either future leaves my hands trembling.He pulls me from the grand hall into the sealed chambers, and I never refuse. The court watches the doors close behind us and calls it necessary. Every time his mouth lowers toward my pale throat I feel the yielding s...

Camille Ellsworth has fought alone for the stockyard lease, her bold challenges masking the terror that anyone she needs will eventually leave. The fated bond with Lorcan Quarles and his fellow rancher changes everything, their dominant presence turning the required partnership into an inescapable claim she both dreads and craves as their scents begin to claim her skin.At the breeding pens Lorcan takes her by the waist and claims her by scent, and his fellow rancher finishes what h...

I step into the river to bar Rose's path, my hand closing around her wrist while the rival watches from the far bank. Her scent hits like salvation and prey at once, stirring the predator in me that has chased her across these wind-lashed crossings at dawn.She moves with quicksilver reflexes, chin lifted in defiance even as the mate bond pulls us both toward something she refuses to accept. The unpaid blood tribute means the rival can seize the ranch and her if I do not claim what ...

I spent fifteen years making certain I belonged to nobody at all.Now there is one name I answer to, and I did that to myself on purpose.Robert does not argue when I push at him. He pins my wrists above my head and waits until I stop.Last night he set his teeth to the birthmark on my collarbone and held them there.Ask me, he said. I would not.So he put me in the leather instead and had me until the marks came up, and he still did not bite.I lay the...

Vincent Lawson keeps the debt scroll at the base of the Obsidian Spire. The runes along his forearms mark him as the one who will collect. The ancient blood debt binds his fate to Kate's. The ritual it demands will claim her body and power to preserve the coven from ruin.Kate's yielding form belies the sharp defiance in her eyes, a contradiction that threatens the warlock's authority even as it ignites the hunger he refuses to name. Every spell circle multiplies their reflections, ...

I have fought the bond that marks me as fertile for any dragon rider's bloodline for as long as I can remember, yet one low order from Ashton on the dawn ledge makes every refusal feel pointless.He treats the scale-like birthmark at my throat like something he already owns. The possessive need in his silence matches my terror of being claimed and then abandoned after so many years alone.The succession rites demand proof through intimate breeding under rival threat. Crossing...

Una Fleming reads the tribute letter nailed to the ranch gate, the threat of seizure hanging over her omega body if the alphas fail to pay. Robert and his partner stand ready, their fated mate bond pulling her toward the double claiming that could secure her forever. The rival is already smirking.Yet the deadline of the Blood Moon demands they breed and mark her before another can take what is theirs, her quiet fear of abandonment clashing with the submission their dominance demand...

I have needed nobody since I was old enough to say so.Simon and I guard a ward between us. That was the entire arrangement.He has kept two centuries of distance and never let one thing across it.Last month I stopped pretending. I pulled my collar down in front of him and stood there.Take it, I said. He did, unhurried, until my knees gave out.He caught me. Then he put me against the wall and finished what the drinking started.I felt him in my blood...

Queenie Ingram has guarded the Volcanic Dragon Peaks with fierce independence, but the fated bond ignites the moment her skin meets Henry's at the fallen boundary stone. The dominant rider's protective strength promises the safety her outcast past craves, yet the dragon heat stirring beneath her collarbone birthmark threatens the control they both need.Pack law demands their alliance secure the territory against rivals, but every shared breath in the heat-hazed lava tunnels pulls t...

Roderick Sutherland has no use for the vulnerability a true blood bond requires, yet vampire court law leaves him no choice but to bind Thea Jeffords to him as his ward through intimate feedings and unyielding command. Her submission protects the orphaned niece she guards so fiercely from the rival coven, but each time his fangs pierce her skin the connection threatens to crack the emotional armor he has maintained across centuries.In the confined vault the ancient ledgers stay ope...