Bound to the Beast King

Anya Valdros has been sent to die. A treaty demands a bride for the Beast King — the cursed Lycan ruler whose savage shifts have already killed three women sent before her. But Anya is no ordinary sacrifice. She's a witch with a seeking gift, and she arrives at the iron towers of Valdros not to submit, but to find the anchor holding the curse in place and break it. King Theron Valdros has spent twenty years managing what he cannot control — the wolf that takes over without warning, the council that uses his incapacity to rule in his place, and the guilt of deaths he can't be certain aren't his fault. He expects another sacrifice. He gets a woman who reads the room with her eyes half-closed, asks questions no one else asks, and makes tea when the world is falling apart. The curse isn't what they said it was. The previous brides weren't accidents. And the council that's been managing the king for twenty years has very specific reasons for making sure the curse never breaks. She has the gift. He has the bloodline. Between them, they have one week before someone in the castle realizes they're too close to the truth. Some sacrifices weren't meant to stay.