My name is Amara Harper.

I think I’m seventeen. I can’t be sure anymore - time stopped mattering a long time ago.

After a wolf attack stole my parents, my brother and I became rogues, living in a crumbling house on the edge of the woods. You’d think it might be peaceful, maybe even quiet. But peace doesn’t exist for girls like me.

My brother gambles.

He drinks.

And when he loses - which is often - I’m the one who pays the price.

Bruised. Beaten. Forgotten. I hide behind locked doors and stolen hours, teaching myself online while pretending this isn’t my life. I don’t dream anymore. I just survive.

Until the night everything changes.

My brother owed too much.

He had nothing left to give.

So he gave me.

And the stranger said yes.

I was sold like property...

To a man cloaked in power, mystery, and danger.

A man with eyes that burned like fire.

A man who looked at me like I was his.

Because I am.

His mate.

But I never asked for this bond. I never asked to be claimed.

Now I belong to a stranger who says he’ll protect me - even as he terrifies me.

I don’t know if I’ve just escaped hell... or stepped into a new one.

They thought I was something to be traded.

But I’m more than a price.

And my story is only just beginning.